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!

A fitting follow-up...

Lila and I were just sitting at the kitchen table, eating our dinner - scrambled eggs, in case you were wondering. Doug is gone to small group this evening. Cordy is feeling neglected because Doug is not here and started doing mad runs through the house (her normal way of expressing this particular emotion). Cordy ran through the kitchen and into the dining room with Charlie chasing after her and growling.

Lila said, and I quote:
"Woah! Dey were running! . . . Come hewe guys! I want to talk to you..."

She then started lecturing the cats. As hard as I tried, I couldn't remember everything she said, but it had something to do with little bitty kitties and asking, "Why were you being mean?"

Ah, yes, and now Charlie is in the living room, monologuing, and Lila is behind me, mocking him.

I'd also like to point out that Lila was making her eggs quack at me at one point. It's like living in a nut house sometimes... :)

Some of the Funny Things that Lila Says

* Kunkle Keith
* Kwipets (crickets)
* You are cwazy!
* Elegator (elevator)
* Up please Mommy please!
* Somebody woofing! (when she hears a dog barking)
* Mommy's belly get weally bigger! (talking about me having a baby in there)
* Actually, it's... (when she's correcting you)
* She calls all women that we meet Lady
* Oh! I found a little bitty baby!

Not an eloquent post

We three kids had a lovely Thanksgiving in Houston. There was an absurd amount of eating that went on, of course, and lots of action with nine people in the house (six adults and three kids). This photo is of Lila and her cousin Olivia taking a bath together. They did that every night (i think) and played together remarkably well. It was really cute to watch.

I had my latest appointment with the OB yesterday and she said, "Yep, you're still pregnant. What do you want me to do about it?" Okay, maybe that's not quite how it went, but some of these pregnancy visits feel about that helpful. (yes, yes - i know full well why prenatal care is vital, but yesterday was a looong day.) My next appointment is in five weeks and that's when we'll have THE ultrasound. (don't call me, i'll call you.)

BP 2.0 measures about 4 inches now, from head to tushie. It only weighs roughly 2.5 ounces, but it's the size of an apple (not those gigantic ones they've had at the grocery store lately). It has started "breathing" amniotic fluid, which helps the lungs develop. The legs are longer than the arms and all those extremities are on the move (though i can still barely feel it).

Me is so tiiired!

I love this photo of Lila. She looks like she's being frisked, for starters. Then there's the GAP bootie. And, to top it all off, there's a small Snoopy sticking out of the back of her shirt. How all this came to be is a long story. (In case you're wondering, that hairy leg in the foreground belongs to my dad.)

Forgive me for not writing more today, but my brain is operating at a very low level right now. It doesn't take much to wear this pregnant lady out!

it's been forever again, i know

Lila spent all of last week sick. It was another one of her mystery fevers and once again they could find no cause. She has an appointment with a specialist on Monday to see if they can figure out why she keeps getting sick. The fevers just seem to be getting higher each time and this one lasted longer than any of the others. I would love for her to just stop getting sick, but I'll settle for a diagnosis.

Baby Peeler 2.0 is doing fine. (Can I shorten that to BP 2.0?) S/he has fingerprints now! and veins! Can you imagine how tiny they must be?!? His/her body is kind of see-through and is catching up with the giant head. Aren't you glad that your head doesn't make up 1/3 of your body size? Further craziness: If it's a girl, then she already has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries! Growing a baby is nuts...

I am exceedingly happy to announce that my hair is no longer frightening. That lovely orange color that it used to be had faded out to a bleached strawberry blond that was not flattering. On top of that, my roots had gotten about three inches long because I was trying to grow the color out. (See photos below.) But, on Thursday, I went and had it high-lighted/low-lighted and chopped off and now it's cute again! Oh, Sweet Day!

A Milestone

This is my 1000th post! Wow! I feel that it should be really memorable or something. I did change the look of things, as I like to do occasionally. You're lucky I don't have more time on my hands or I might change it weekly! I seriously need to take the time to back-up all these old posts. This is better than any baby book and I would be in big trouble if Blogger ever crashed (or something) and ate my archives.

Physically, I am doing much better than I was a few weeks ago. The nausea is minimal and manageable and my allergies haven't been as bad lately either. I think I'm supposed to have more energy now, but I'm still pretty tired. Mentally and emotionally, there's a lot going on inside this wacky old head of mine! Moving to a new house and getting pregnant a month later is a pretty powerful combination!

Baby Peeler 2.0 is doing fine, so far as I know. It should be just over 1.5 inches long, which is roughly the size of a fig. That comparison means nothing to me, however, as I don't think I've ever met a fig. Apparently the baby is almost fully formed and moving now too. He/she even has tooth buds under the gums and the bones are beginning to harden! Crazy, man, crazy...

Doug is feeling the stress of things too. He has been very gracious since we found out that my getting up at all early contributed to feeling ill. He has been allowing me to sleep until 8:30, so he's not getting into work until 9 or 9:30. There have been nights when he had to work more after Lila went to bed because he is behind. I'll be getting up earlier again next week - pray that it goes well!

Lila is as cute and crazy as ever. She has made the transition to sleeping in a Big Girl Bed and it happened more quickly and smoothly than I ever would have hoped! Of course, the past couple of nights, she's been insisting on sleeping in the floor... that's where the 'crazy' part comes in. And she is completely obsessed with the Peanuts Halloween special. She's been talking about it endlessly for days!

Our families are as well as ever, except for Grandad Dorsey. He has begun chemotherapy treatments for lung cancer and somehow managed to get shingles at the same time! He's having a hard time kicking the pain of the shingles, which is making it harder for his system to handle the chemo as well. All around, not a good situation. My mom and aunt are taking it in turns to stay with him.

I haven't seen much of my friends lately. I have been so tired, physically and mentally, that I've been neglecting... pretty much everyone. I will be taking a trip to Fredericksburg this Saturday with a few of my good friends (and some of their sisters/mothers/etc.). That should be fun and, hopefully, refreshing. Meanwhile, everyone we know seems to be cranking out babies!

I recently realized that I've been trying to avoid God (emotionally, if nothing else), roughly since we moved. I'm working on identifying and processing the reasons for that, but just realizing it has made a huge difference. How often I forget that God is the source of my strength! the source of my rest! the source of my joy! the source of my life! I'm so thankful that He never leaves me, even when I run from Him.

Hurley is doing well, now that we've adjusted the a/c-heat settings. Since the nights have gotten cooler, we've discovered that our bedroom is the coolest one in the house. If the heater is set at 72, then our bedroom temperature will be 68. Hurley was really not appreciating the cold and had become rather sluggish. We bumped the thermostat up to 74 a couple of nights ago, which is more to his liking.

The kitties... [sigh] ... where to begin? They are quite well - don't get me wrong. They are just such cats! Charlie is not happy unless I am laying in one place, preferably petting him. Cordy is not happy unless Doug is giving her all of his attention and scratching her belly. Pesky little dictators. It's a good thing we're so crazy about them!

There you go - a long post with lots of photos. That seems memorable enough to celebrate 1000! :)

Okay, sorry for the long silence. I have no excuse except that I don't feel well much of the time and have gotten out of the habit. I will now buy you off with a Halloween photo. :)

Afternoon in the Park

Lila and I had a fun time hanging out with our friends this afternoon. We went to Central Market, which is one of my favorite places to play. The girls played on the playground while us mommies sat on a bench and talked. The playground there is shaded by huge trees so that it's nearly always cool and comfortable. After that, we walked down to the water to feed the ducks.

Unfortunately, there were no ducks to be seen today, so we ended up feeding the little fish and the turtles. And then, just as we were getting up to leave, a couple of ducks showed up. By that time, however, we were out of bread and VERY hot (there's no shade by the water) so we left the ducks to pick up scraps left by the fish and turtles. Maybe next time...

Then we did our other favorite thing there - we actually went into the grocery store. They have a huge selection of bulk items, such as trail mix and animal crackers and all sorts of goodies. We usually get a little bucket of some sort of treat and that is Lila's 'special treat' for the day. It was an all around fun time and we were both happy and tired by the time we got home.

Funny story: We were at Double Dave's for dinner this evening and they had the music blaring, as usual. It was oldies today, which is my preference (over the hard rock or sports they have blaring at other times). The song 'Barbra-Ann' came on - "A Bar bar bar bar Barbar Ann..." Lila decided to sing along and her interpretation was "Blah blah blah!" I was laughing over that one for five minutes!

Prego (not the pasta sauce)

I'm 8 weeks pregnant now - 222 days to go! (Well, actually, it's more like 215 days because they will schedule my c-section for one week before my due date, but let's not worry about things like math.) The baby is now about 5/8 of an inch long, which is roughly the size of a kidney bean. Last week they said it was the size of a blueberry, which honestly sounds bigger than a kidney bean to me...

Smells of all kinds continue to disgust me. I tried emptying out some old leftovers from their tupperware last night (just a little old - they weren't growing anything) and I was so disgusted that I had to stop and ask Doug to finish because I was gagging! I'm not sure if I ever made it clear, but I did have an ultrasound at my first appointment and we saw a tiny blob with a tiny flicker of a heartbeat. I have a picture, but there's really no point in scanning it because it doesn't look like anything but a little blob.

I'm kind of disturbed by the fact that my clothes are already starting to get a bit snug. I was so ill during my first trimester with Lila that I actually lost weight, so to be gaining weight so early this time seems odd. What does not seem odd is that I could sleep about 18 hours a day if I wanted to. I've considered going to bed at 8 or 9 o'clock so that I can sleep more during the night, but I enjoy those two hours of evening child-free time too much to give them up!