31.1.08

I don't talk about much besides my kids, do I?

While Doug was in the shower this morning, Lila woke me up by crawling into bed and trying to stick a pacifier in my mouth. That was a unique experience...

A little while after that, I had her on the bed with me and was "eating her belly". Through her hysterical laughter, she said, "No, I'm not tasty! I'm spicy!" And then, "Put my shirt down. I'm too spicy!" It was hilarious!

The Boy is growing steadily in there. I find it ironic that he weighs about 1.25 lbs, but I have gained more than 20! How is that fair? He's almost a foot long, which is about the length of an ear of corn (before it's peeled and cut, i'm thinking). If we could see him right now, he'd look pretty lean, but he'll start filling out fast over the next few weeks.

We still haven't picked out a name, hence my references to 'The Boy'. Lila is sticking with her opinion that we should just name him Boy... and that may be what happens if Doug and I can't agree on something soon! I could give you a list of the names that one of us has suggested and the other has rejected, but what's the point in that, really?

25.1.08

Aquababy

Today was Lila's first day in her new swim class, Aquababies! It's just her, three other little girls, and the teacher. No mommy in the water! She did a fabulous job - really, I've been gushing since we left the pool. I took nearly 100 photos, so you can expect to be seeing them for a few days. :)

24.1.08

Lots to say for a change

I come armed with four new stories today, so this could be a bit long.

#1: I mentioned before that our friends, Chip and Sara, had a baby last week. On Saturday, we went to bring them a meal and meet little Jace. I held him for a little while and Lila just kept going on and on about how little he was. "He's so little!" "He's tiny!" "He's itty bitty!" My favorite was, "He's got itty bitty toesies!"

Then Lila announced that she wanted to hold Jace. We got her up on the couch and I put him in her lap (with a little support for his head). It was painfully cute because she was being so sweet with him. She rubbed on his little belly and patted him and kept talking about how little he was. Since then she has been talking about how she's going to hold "her" baby like she did Baby Jace.

#2: Every day, Lila and I have what I call 'Bible Time'. I read a little devotional to her from a preschool devotional book I have and then I read a bit from the Bible. Each day's devotion is about a particular subject. A couple of days ago, the topic was 'comfort'. I said to Lila, "Did you know that Jesus is always with you to comfort you when you are hurt?"

She respoded with, "Yeah! [something something] Jesus helped me puke! [something something] And Jesus helped Mommy and Daddy puke!" Okay, yes, it was very funny to hear a 2-year-old saying that Jesus helped her puke, but the understanding behind this answer just blew me away! She understood that Jesus was there to help her when she was sick.

And she was also able to transfer that understanding to knowing that Jesus helped Mommy and Daddy when we were sick too. And in her little mind, the puking might have been Jesus' way of helping her feel better because I'm sure her tummy felt a lot better after she was done! She was also able to answer both of the 'comprehension questions' that I asked her after we read the accompanying story!

#3: I have this habit of kicking people in my sleep. Right after Doug and I got married, I woke us both up a couple of times by kicking him. We are pretty sure that I still do it, but we just sleep through it. Today, Lila and I were both taking a nap (in our own respective beds) and I was having this strange dream that was no doubt reflecting my anxiety over Doug's upcoming two-week trip to Asia.

In the dream, Doug told me that he was leaving later that afternoon to go to Houston on business for a couple of days. I was upset because he had left me no time to find someone to come stay with me. Then I come home and find that he's given our house key to a Chinese coworker who was in town for a few days - without telling me. I was completely ticked off and waiting for him to come home so I could gripe at him.

He finally did come home (we're still in the dream here) and apparently there was another person there, who might have been some representation of one of my brothers. This guy decided it would be funny to put a cold carton of milk against my back. When he did, I turned on him and started trying to strangle him, literally. I was fighting to get my hands around his neck and I think Doug was trying to stop me.

I'm guessing that hew as behind me, trying to pull me away and I was trying to kick him and strangle the other guy at the same time. Anyway, what happened in real life was that I actually did kick my leg out behind me and made contact with my poor, sleeping cat. It woke me up and I felt so bad, but I couldn't help laughing too. Poor Charlie! All he knew was that we were peacefully napping together and then I hauled off and kicked him! It didn't offend him enough to make him leave though.

#4: I was sitting at the computer a while ago and Lila came up next to me. She was holding my hands and looking up at me and I looked back down at her. She just stared at me for a minute and then said, "I really like you." I almost died it was so sweet!

21.1.08

We all need a massage.

Another seven days has passed and now I'm 23 weeks pregnant. For the record, I'm still not sure on some days that I'm ready to have another child. Nonetheless, there is a baby boy in there who is 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound. That is, apparently, as much as a large mango weighs, but I'm pretty sure that he doesn't look like a mango.

They say that The Boy can feel my movements now and encourage dancing around. At the moment, I just feel like taking a nap, but thanks for the suggestion. Apparently, the baby's skin is transparent and reddish. That sounds rather odd to me. As long as he's pink when he comes out, then it's fine. Or he could be a kitty when he comes out. Blood vessels in his lungs are developing to prepare him for breathing, but his lungs won't be fully developed for many more months. So keep cookin', Kid!

Hehehe... Lila just crawled up into our massage chair and is pushing buttons on the remote, trying to turn it on. The funny part is that she doesn't want to lean back and have the massagers touch her. She wants to turn on the heat so that the massagers turn red, and then watch them move around under the fabric. Sometimes Cordy gets up in the chair, which I can only assume means that she wants a massage. However, she always leaves as soon as I turn it on. Odd.

18.1.08

Free at last...

I think it is finally gone. No one has had diarrhea or vomiting for over 24 hours now. I'm tempted to go around and coat the house in Lysol again, just for good measure. Whew! and Praise God! I can't believe that tomorrow is already Saturday again. I mean, wasn't it just Sunday? Oh, no no, that was a couple dozen vomits ago. My mistake. Okay, and I'll try not to use the words diarrhea or vomit, or any of their synonyms, for a long time.

I have fantastic news about Cordelia. She has finally learned a valuable lesson that we've been trying to teach her for roughly five years now. If you want attention, then you should come and get it. Pouting, in another room, in the dark, does not get you what you want. What you see in this photo is Cordy consenting to lay in Doug's lap and get scratches, rather than insisting that he follow her to her favorite spot in the floor. This is a big breakthrough for Cordy and we're quite proud of her.

I bought a cute little onesie for The Boy today. It has teddy bears on it and says, "One of a kind." I used to think that boys clothes were boring, but now that I'm shopping for them I find them to be excessively cute. I guess the beauty grows when you're contemplating what's going to be inside those clothes. And speaking of boys, it seems like everyone I know is having a one! I can think of one friend who just had a son and at least three people, including myself, who are pregnant with them. Obviously it's got something to do with the moon. Or the drugs in our water. Or cow hormones. Or maybe the aliens. (the ones from outer space, not other countries)

17.1.08

Other things

Things around here are still pretty disgusting, but I'm tired of talking about that. What else can I talk about? . . . Oh, our dear friends, Chip and Sara Reed, gave birth to a son this week! Hooray! Jace was born on Monday, January 14 at 8:12 p.m. He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz and 20.5" long. Baby, Mom and Dad are all healthy and doing well. I've seen a few photos and he's definitely cuter than your average newborn! Chubby, too!

Let's see. I don't have a lot of fun stories this week since we've been sick and have hardly left the house since the weekend... Oh, today is my step-dad's birthday. Happy Birthday, Frank!

We are supposed to be having a brief visit from Grammie starting tomorrow, but I just don't know if that will be happening. Since this illness is lingering in Lila, I just don't know if she's still contagious or not. I would really hate to pass this on to anyone else. Especially since Grammie will be heading on to visit the other grandbaby after she leaves here. I don't want to send the bug to them!

Well, obviously I can't get away from the topic of being sick, so I'm giving up. Goodbye.

16.1.08

Warning: This is gross

Wow. It has sucked to be us for the past few days. This is how it all went down. Lila threw up Sunday morning and early Monday morning. On Monday afternoon, Doug came home from work early because he was sick. By the time I went to bed that night, I was sick. He and I each spent approximately 7 hours with stuff coming out both ends (for me, at the same time) every 30 to 45 minutes.

Lila threw up again in the middle of the night Monday/Tuesday. During the day on Tuesday, Doug and I both felt horrible and completely exhausted and Lila mostly just felt like we were boring. Then she had a blowout on Tuesday evening. Apparently she threw up sometime in the night last night and then went back to bed without telling us. This morning she had another blowout and has been at it every couple of hours since then.

I do not ever want to be that sick again and I'm so paranoid about us passing this bug back around that I've been spraying things with Lysol and washing my hands obsessively. I've even been wearing latex gloves when I clean up Lila's poopsplosions. Hopefully, for everyone's sake, this illness will be done with our family soon!

Oh, and the bonus points go to Ellen for guessing the movie. It was The Wizard of Oz.

14.1.08

Much like yesterday

So, this is weird. I mentioned yesterday that Lila puked before church. She was then totally fine for the rest of the day (except for a weak appetite). Well, she did it again sometime early this morning! We don't even know when it happened. She came and woke Doug up around 4 a.m. saying she wanted her water. He went to her room to help her find it and discovered two different places where she'd thrown up. Ew!

And, naturally, she's been completely fine since then. I'm not worried about her or anything, but I do wish this would stop. We couldn't put her in the nursery at church yesterday and I had to skip going to the gym today because childcare rather frowns on being given a child who has recently puked. But anyway, enough about these gross things.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Doug's cell phone is dead. "It's not only merely dead. It's really most sincerely dead!" The battery still works, but the phone itself is no more. I think Doug was perusing EBay this morning, looking for another one. He called Cingular, but our phone warranty does not cover death by washing machine. Oh well.

* Bonus points if you can tell me what movie that quote was adapted from.

13.1.08

Somebody puked, but it wasn't the pregnant lady!

As I mentioned last time, I'm 22 weeks pregnant now. That leaves 126 days go to (119 if you account for the c-section). The Boy now looks like a miniature newborn -- and kicks and squirms like a miniature octopus. He checks in at 10.9 inches, which is the length of a spaghetti squash. He weighs almost one pound... more or less. Just a wrinkly little baby, growing away!

Poor Lila puked this morning, for no apparent reason. She was a little whiny from the time she got up, but that just happens sometimes. Shortly before church, while she and Doug were playing with Play Doh, she announced that her tummy felt funny and then threw up all over Doug. She hardly ate anything all day (until she ate an entire apple around 5 o'clock), but she hasn't thrown up again. Who knows...

The one who really suffered in this situation was Doug's cell phone. It was in the pocket of the jeans that got puked on and all of the dirty clothes got put right in the washer, so... yeah, Doug's cell phone is very clean. We are letting it dry out completely and will check tomorrow to see if it still works. Hee hee.

11.1.08

Nothing, really.

You know, I opened this post to give a baby update, but I just realized that I'll be hitting 22 weeks tomorrow and I'll have new and different information to share. So I'll wait until then (i get a lot of my 'helpful tidbits' from a weekly email i receive). Until then, you can look at this photo of Lila playing Guitar Hero. Shortly after this photo was taken, we spotted her standing up, with the guitar on, swaying to the music. It was so hilarious, but she stopped before we could get the video camera out. Naturally.

10.1.08

What that is?

Well, it's been a week, but Doug's still Doug, I'm still pregnant, and Lila's still nuts. Not that I expected any of those things to change. . . . Wow. I'm sitting here with my hands on the keyboard, but nothing is coming out. Plenty has happened in the past week, but I feel uninspired to describe any of it. Today has been a long one due to an extra dose of insanity from Lila.

Right now I'm hiding and waiting for Doug to get home so that she'll have someone else to follow around and talk to. She's started asking a lot more questions; her favorite one being, "What that is?" The really maddening part is this: if she doesn't like your answer, she'll just keep asking the same question over and over. And, even though she has no concept of time, she's suddenly started asking us what time it is.

She discovered this question on the way home from dinner a couple of nights ago. She started with, "What time is it?" Doug said, "6:41." She said, "What time is it, Mommy?" I said, "6:41." She said, "What time is it?" I said, "It's still 6:41." She said, "What time is it, Daddy?" This went on for a very long time. Actually, it was about one minute, but you'd be amazed at how many times we went through this in that one minute.

We tried explaining to her that it's the same time for everybody (at least everyone who was in the car at the time), but it didn't help. We then started answering with things like, "Time for you to stop asking that question." At some point, Doug resorted to pestering her with questions instead. "Lila, do you have a face?" "Lila, do you have a nose?" "Lila?" "Lila?"

She took the approach of just ignoring us. Funny, that doesn't work when I try it on her...

3.1.08

Back to Work

Yesterday was the first day back at work for Doug and myself and boy was it exhausting! Somewhere during the three weeks that Doug was off work, I forgot why it is so important for me to take a nap when Lila does. By the end of the day yesterday, I had remembered. This pregnant body needs rest to make it through a day without turning into a big bear by evening!

I feel like giving you more baby information, so I will. A greasy white substance called vernix caseosa coats BBP's entire body to protect his skin during its long submersion in amniotic fluid. Kinda gross, huh? There's a reason why babies are not so pretty when they first come out of your body. Actually, there are several reasons. Of course, by the time I got to see Lila, they had already cleaned her up.

I don't have any new Poopie Diaper Dodging techniques to report for Lila today (she has decided to stick with a simple, "Don't check it."), but I do have one for Doug. He left for work yesterday in full knowledge that our child had a big stinkie in her pants and he didn't even tell me. I told him later that there was no way he could convince me that he didn't know (you could smell it from three feet away) and he just laughed!

1.1.08

The Boy

Well, for further information on BP 2.0, henceforth known as Baby Boy Peeler (BBP, for short)... I'm halfway to the end - woohoo! It seems to have gone by very quickly, but that's partly because I had no idea I was pregnant for the first five weeks. Based on yesterday's measurements, the doctors are estimating that the boy weighs about 9 oz. That's a wee bit below average, but following the same trend as Lila when I was pregnant with her.

Based on averages, he is about 10 inches from head to heel (the length of a banana). They didn't tell us that measurement from the ultrasound, but I'm sure it's close enough. In case you are interested, up to this point, the baby's length was always from head to rump because in the first half of pregnancy the babies are too curled up to measure their legs. From here on out, the measurement will be head to heel.

Lila now informs us a few times a day that, "It be a little brudder." Ah, my dear, if only you knew what that really meant... :) My head and neck are hurting, so I'm going to go sit a spell in the new shiatsu massage chair that Doug and I gave ourselves for Christmas. It's a happy toy.