No doubt about it...

It's a boy!

my daughter, the comedienne

My child says the strangest things sometimes. For example, some of you know about her creative efforts to distract our attention from her poopie diapers. Well, she came up with a new one yesterday afternoon. I asked her if she had a poopie diaper (i could smell something odd) and she replied, "No, sank you. Just smell it - don' check it. Just smell it." Umm... okay.

This afternoon, she had a very sad nap wake-up. Sometimes that just happens and all that can be done is to sit and snuggle her for a long time, until she's ready to talk. If you try engaging her too soon, she'll just get bent out of shape. Anyway, I had been rocking with her for a long time and she finally perked up and started talking. I asked her if she was hungry and she said, "No, sank you. I just had pretend eggs." Umm... okay.

Oh, this is not a Lila story, but is amusing. I had a dream last night that I had my ultrasound (which is tomorrow, by the way) and found out that I was having triplets! Just before we went to bed, I was discussing my paranoia about having twins and I suppose that carried over into sleep. I'm pretty sure I also dreamed about kitties.

Quick Update

We finished up all our family Christmas events yesterday afternoon and I think I'm finally starting to recover. Will post more when recovery is complete.

busy bodies

I'm feeling highly inspired today to get things done. Usually, when Doug is home, all I want to do is hang out or have all of us go somewhere together. So it's a refreshing change to have both of us puttering around the house (rather than doug doing the puttering and me doing the following and hovering). I'm really itching to get the rest of our Christmas shopping done, but that will have to wait until Monday. Neither of us wants to brave the shopping crowds on a Saturday this close to Christmas! Thankfully, Doug is off all week and we can do mid-week shopping together.

I can't remember if I already said this here, but Lila seems to be settling in to a 5:45 wake-up time. We will probably try a few more things in an effort to get her to sleep later (my current theory is that perhaps she's too hot, so we're adjusting the thermostat and vents). However, if we try all we can think of and she's still waking that early, then we might try ooching her bedtime back out to 8 p.m. That will either lead her to sleep an hour later or she will still wake up at 5:45 with less rest. If it's the former - fantastic! If it's the latter, then we'll just ooch right back up to 7 p.m. and adjust to an early riser.

Boooring

I am terribly bored this afternoon. I decided this at 3:45, when it was too late to really go and do anything. Lila eats dinner at 5 p.m. now and her bedtime routine is inflexible until she starts waking up later than 5:45 a.m. And since it's cold and rainy, we can't even play outside (i'd be all for it if it were only cold or rainy). I suppose I could take Doug's suggestion and do my cleaning routine...

Stuff

It is deliciously cold in Austin today! The high is 48 today, but it's supposed to be back up to nearly 80 tomorrow, so I'm enjoying the chill while it lasts. I hope our weather for Christmas is more like today than tomorrow!

If any of you are interested in seeing the family photos that we had taken this year, you can view them all here. Lila also had some photos taken in her birthday dress and Halloween costume recently (by a different place). Those were supposed to go online as well, but I never got a notification that it happened. I'll put up that link too, if I'm able to get it.

I have an appointment tomorrow to get my teeth cleaned, which I'm very mildly nervous about. Last time I went for a cleaning while pregnant, I nearly passed out. They put you in that chair and lean you so far back, so that they can get at your teeth more easily. I know why they do it, but my pregnant body didn't appreciate having all the blood rush to my head. You can pray with me that I make it through tomorrow's cleaning without any such problems.

Kids

Here's the latest on BP 2.0:

He or she weighs 5 ounces now, which is about the same weight as a turnip. I now understand that these produce comparisons I've been reading are things that have a similar weight, not necessarily similar size. Baby's around 5 inches long and the umbilical cord is getting stronger and thicker. Have you ever seen an umbilical cord in person (or a good photo)? They're really kind of... gross.

We had Grammie (Doug's mom) in town for the weekend, which Lila just loved. The girl has a multitude of grandparents and they all know how to spoil her!

Aww, maaan! She just came running in here, naked, and I grabbed her up for a big hug. Now I'm a sticky mess because she had yogurt for dinner and seems to be wearing as much of it as she ate! She's naked because it's bathtime. I think I might need to take a bath now! We've moved the bathtime earlier in the evening and that seems to be helping her attitude toward the experience. She had gotten intolarably fussy/whiny during baths, but she's been having fun again since we changed the time.

A different kind of Lila story...

I am so angry with my child right now. To start with, she woke up at 4:30 this morning. Which means that we all woke up at 4:30 this morning. Doug got up with her that time and again at 5:00. I, thankfully, got to snooze during that time. When she came ratttling at our door again at 5:30, I got up with her. I took her back to her room where she proceeded to throw a kicking, flailing, screaming fit.

She has done that before, when she's angry because she can't get back to sleep, but not in a long time. I was not prepared and reacted by getting very angry myself. Twice I put her down and walked out of the room to calm down and to let her scream herself out (theoretically). The second time, I was standing outside her door - had to guard it because she kept trying to escape - and Charlie decided that was a good time to start yelling at me too.

With great self control, I walked past him and got the squirt bottle. I gave him a good squirt and then took up my position by the door again. This was where things stood when Doug came to tell me that he couldn't go back to sleep, so I could if I wanted to. I'm sure I must have look funny, guarding Lila's room with a squirt bottle. Or, it would have been funny in other circumstances.

I gratefully gave up my post and went back to bed. However, it took me 45 minutes to get back to sleep. For starters, I was really worked up. Also, Doug gave her a snack and put her back in her bed, then came to take his shower. Five minutes later, Lila showed up again and spent the next 10 minutes opening and closing the bathroom door. The noise and light show did not help my efforts to go back to sleep.

I finally dozed off between 6:45 and 7:00... Then my alarm went off at 7:15. [sigh] The alarm was set because (a) we were supposed to go to BSF this morning, and (b) Doug had to leave the house at promptly 7:45 because he's spending the day in Houston (for work). I hit snooze a couple of times and then finally oozed out of bed. Doug left and things were fairly uneventful for a while.

At 8:15, I figured I'd better call my BSF discussion leader and let her know that we were not coming because there was no way that Lila was going to make it to 11:15 (when bsf ends) with no nap. As I'm dialing the phone, I walk in to find her on the floor with her eyes closed. Looks like I made the right decision! I got her in bed and we both took a brief nap - only 45 minutes.

She was really in a pretty good mood after that and we mostly just played together until 11:00. At this point, I made what I thought was a good decision. It turned out to be a very bad one. Since we hadn't left the house yet and it was lunch time, I thought we could go and have lunch together at Schlotszky's. I figured we'd eat and come home and try another nap.

This is where my daughter turned into an absolute nightmare. When we were ordering, I asked her if she wanted pizza or a sandwich. She said sandwich. Do you want ham on it? No. OK - kids' cheese sandwich. We get our drinks and our food and sit down at the table and she becomes possessed. I don't know exactly what happened first, but something led her to go on a hunger strike.

She was not going to eat her sandwich. Not even one bite. No way. She knows that our family rule is this: You must take one bite of the food you are given - that means keep the food in your mouth, chew it up, and swallow it - and if you don't like it then you don't have to eat any more. She usually complies with this rule, though it has often required at least one timeout lately. Not today.

This time she would not keep the food in her mouth. I forced her to take a bite and she spit it out screamed. I put it back in and she spit it out and screamed. Over and over. I was starting to get very angry again, so I went and got a high chair and put her in it. (i had warned her of this consequence if she did not obey.) She continued screaming and started trying to knock everything she could reach off the table.

I moved everything out of her reach, told her I was not talking to her again until she stopped screaming, and went on with my lunch. She leaned forward and started deliberately snotting on the table. I wiped her nose with a napkin. She was out of snot, so she started trying to spit on the table. I moved her back so that she couldn't reach. She then began spitting/drooling on herself. Have fun!

That wasn't getting my attention, so she went back to screaming. I did my best to ignore her and enjoy my food. At some point, she stopped screaming long enough to cry that she wanted out of the high chair. I told her, very calmly, that she had to eat a bite of her sandwich if she wanted out of the chair. She said, "No!" and went back to screaming. We had that conversation a few times.

I was being THAT parent (the one who lets their child scream in public and doesn't do anything about it), but I was not going to let her run me out of the restaurant just because she was tired and didn't want to be there. I finally finished eating, cleaned up, loaded up and picked Lila up. At some point while I was packing up, she had the audacity to tell me she wanted the cookie that came with her meal. As if!

We came home, with a lot of whining and crying along the way. When we got home, I basically had to carry her into the house because she just wanted to throw herself on the ground and cry. Oh yes, and also snot/spit on the carpet. I really hope that little phase passes soon! I put her down for a nap with minimal drama and she has, thankfully, been asleep for almost half an hour.

If this story makes you feel sorry for Lila, then please don't tell me about it because right now I do not feel sorry for her. Mostly, I needed a place to vent. Did she HAVE to do this on a day when Doug won't be home 'til after she's in bed?!? Ugh. I think I'm going to go spend some time with God. You can pray with me that He'll bless me with an extra dose of patience and love today. :)

... and boy are my arms tired!

It's very difficult to use your computer when there is a panda trying to use it at the same time. Particularly when that panda is a hand puppet that is being controlled by a 2-year-old... And speaking of that 2-year-old, I thought of another cute word she says: mizgik (music).

This girl has been amazingly content and well-behaved this afternoon. She was quite fussy and defiant this morning and I was afraid the whole day would be that way. But she has disappeared to play by herself for so long at a time this afternoon that I almost forgot she was here once. She even let me do a solid half-hour of laundry without interruption! I would not have asked that from her, but she kept playing so I kept folding.

Do you ever wish you could take your eyeballs out and soak them in a cool, gel-like substance? Ooh, and then fill the empty eye sockets with the same substance? Yeah, that's how I feel right now. Just very tired and scratchy in the eyeball regions. But I got a lot of laundry done!

Huff and Puff and Huff and Puff

I was so excited to get back to the gym this morning! Between being ill, being out of town, and having an absurd number of doctor's appointments, I hadn't worked out in about three weeks! I was just itching to get back on that machine and walk walk walk (i'm not a runner, but i love to walk until i sweat). What I didn't take into account is that I am three weeks more pregnant than I was last time I worked out.

It was just pitiful! I only made it five minutes on the machine I normally use before I had to give up and down-grade to a treadmill. Even then, walking at a relatively slow pace and using the rails for support, I only lasted ten more minutes! My endurance was shot from the long break, I have a growing child pushing all my organs around, and I haven't been able to breathe properly since I got sick last week. I never even broke a sweat!

Anyway, enough complaining... Lila has started consistently going pee-pee in the potty before her bath! :)

Stuff

Oogie! I've been sick for days - sore throat, headache, can't breathe, body aches, exhausted - but I'm starting to feel better. Actually, I still don't feel very well, but I refuse to be sick any longer. Three days is my limit. So there.

As of yesterday, I'm 16 weeks pregnant - 161 days to go! More or less. The baby is 4.5 inches long, from head to bottom. It also weighs 3.5 ounces, which puts it at about the size of an avocado. (forgive me, but aren't apples bigger than avocados...?) The baby is supposed to go through a big growth spurt over the next few weeks. It will double in weight and add inches in length.

Poor Lila has a big bruise under her left eye. She was standing on a toy in her room a little while ago and fell off. How many times have I told her not to stand on toys?!? Anyway, when she fell, she hit her face on the edge/corner of a table. Ouch!

Well, as much as I enjoy stalling, I really should be helping Doug straighten up the living room. We have people coming over in an hour or two for a Gateway Leadership party. We're having Rudy's BBQ. Mmm... Yummy!