The Sick House...Again

I know that I've been seriously lackadaisical in my updating of this journal, and for that, I apologize. This past week has probably been one of the worst for my pregnant self. This week I was almost pleading with my body to go into labor, despite Jeff trying to reason with the baby to wait for a little while. I was tired & achy and generally just not feeling well. Of course, when both Jeff & I woke up on Friday morning with what seemed like a cold, I figured that was why I had been feeling so icky all week. Then I was pleading with my body to wait a couple more weeks so I don't have to try to do breathing exercises through a half-stuffed up nose. It would make it very difficult.
So, this is the 3rd cold I've had since November, yay. So, far it hasn't progressed into bronchitis symptoms like it did in January. Just the usual stuffed/runny nose, a few sneezes, and a couple coughs. I've been able to prop my head up at night using pillows, so I'm able to breathe through my nose during most of the night, which has helped avoid the massively sore throat I've had the previous 2 times. And I don't sound like a frog when I talk, which is almost a good sign. And I've decided I'm taking drugs (with my doctor's ok) this time. I'm not going to sit idly by & be sick like this for 2 weeks. I'm attacking it while I can. Because once I go into labor, there's no turning back, and I do not want to be like this when I have the baby. And hopfully this won't last 2 weeks like the other ones have.
On top of feeling icky, Emma not having preschool or gymnastics at all this last week, having to keep the house spotless for realtors coming over to show it, and the baby pounsing on my lower abdomen like a trampoline, Jeff's illness took a dramatic turn last night. He amazes me with his immune system. He'd been feeling just slighty bad, with only a small runny nose, and then all of a sudden last night around 7pm, he comes in from playing on the computer, wrapped in a blanket, shivering like he's been outside in below freezing weather for 2 hours. He was shaking like a leaf. When he gets sick, it's BAD. It hits him fast & hard, but fortunately, it doesn't last all that long. I took his temp, it was about 101.7. I made him some chicken noodle soup and some orange juice. He then wanted to take a shower to make himself feel better. After his shower, I wrapped him up in about 4 blankets & put him to bed. I took his temp again (this was only about 45 minutes after I'd taken it the first time) and it was up to 102.1. So, I gave him an Advil to try & break his fever. An hour later, his temp was up to 102.7. But, within about 30 more minutes, he said he was no longer cold, instead sweating & threw off all his covers. This morning, his fever's completely gone, but he still has symptoms of a cold. It's crazy how his body works. His immune system must be amazing. What would take a regular person about 24 hours to start getting symptoms of, take medicine for, and get over, his body did in 4 hours. But he's always been like this. He doesn't get sick very often, but when he does, it's bad. He was complaining about why he couldn't just get sick like normal people, instead of having to get this accelerated version of illness that knocks him out. I told him I think most people would rather have what he gets, and just get it over with rather than have it drag out for weeks. And the poor guy not only has to go to work today, but it's his college orientation all day. So he has to be sick, around all these incoming freshman, and deal with paperwork & getting his classes for the summer semesters. But, at least he's feeling a little better about the possibility of the baby coming sooner that my due date. For the past few weeks he's been telling the baby to wait & not come yet. But this morning he gave her the OK to come if she wants now, as long as it's after 5pm today. I found that quite funny. Everything's ok, as long as it's on his schedule. I tried to remind him that baby's don't generally listen to what their parents want, and this starts in the womb. He wonders why Emma doesn't obey all the time (or ever, as it sometimes feels like) and I think we're getting the idea of where that comes from. From the beginning of their lives, everything has been on their timetable, and I guess they figure after they're born, that trend should continue.
So, we think we might have come up with a solution for childcare for Emma should I go into labor during the week. My neighbor across the street has already volunteered to watch Emma overnight, and I thought about the possibility of her going to Morgan's (my neighbor's daughter) daycare during the day. Sue (my neighbor) is going to ask the daycare provider today about that and see if she would be willing to take her in, as a drop in, if need be. Hopefully she'll be up to it. That way, Emma could be around other kids, still see Morgan and also have a place to sleep at night. The best case scenario would be that I go into labor around 4-5pm and have her by the next morning, so Jeff could go & pick her up before she goes to the daycare & bring her to the hospital. But since I don't have a crystal ball, these scenarios aren't worth the brain matter they're thought up in.
I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so I'll know if I'm progressing anymore than I was 2 weeks ago. I have a feeling I am, but I don't have any other labor symptoms to go along with it. I actually don't want to wonder if I'm in labor or not, I want my water to break (very obviously, too) so I'll know when to go to the hospital. That's what happened with Emma & it was very convenient. No guessing, no timing contractions for hours, no being told to wait until the contractions got bad enough to where I couldn't talk through them. Nope, water broke, went directly to hospital. That would be the best way.
Emma has been very helpful the past week. I received 2 boxes full of baby stuff, from my friend Deanna. One was full of used clothes of various sizes, from newborn to 4T, and the other one was from my baby shower. So, Emma & I had fun washing everything & putting everything away. Of course, she still tries to take things that she likes & use them for HER babies, but she's very easily deterred from that, which is a good thing.
Well Emma's acting like she's in desperate need of some attention so I'll end this, but I'll write more once I know more.

Shopping Spree

On Saturday Jeff, Emma & I decided enough time had been wasted & we went to a couple stores to buy some "necessary" stuff for the baby. You know, stuff a mother with a newborn can't live without. Stuff like a bouncer chair & a swing. Because as much as I know I'm going to love Sarah, I'm going to need time to get things done without having to constantly hold her, and things like this were vital when Emma was a baby. We also bought a diaper bag that Jeff says he would be willing to carry around. That was my main goal, to find something that wasn't too froo-froo so he'd carry it around. It's denim with stripes, so hopefully he won't feel too feminine toting it around. And if he does, well he can just stuff it into the basket in the stroller.
The only problem we've found with getting all this new stuff for the baby is that Emma has, again, wanted everything for HER babies. I put together the bouncer & the swing and as soon as she woke up from her nap, she immediately put her baby into it & starting pushing it so it would swing. It's the cool Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders swing, and the seat can switch positions, from a cradle-like side-to-side swing to a more common front-to-back swing. It's really neat. Jeff & I cleaned out the baby's room & put the swing and bouncer in there. Emma had gone to the bathroom or something while we were doing this & just about had a heart attack when she noticed that they were gone from the living room. She didn't believe Jeff when he told her that they were in Sarah's room. She thought someone had come in and taken them. It was too cute.
Now that her room is all cleaned out, it's kinda empty. We've got the changing table, and the bassinette in there (for now, but when she's born that will go into our room for the first couple of months), and the swing & bouncer chair. But when my mom comes out to visit, we're going to paint the crib, so that's not set up. I have my glider chair downstairs in the living room (which might end up in the baby's room, I haven't quite decided), and there's really nothing else. We might get a bookshelf for all the baby's books that Emma has outgrown. And if we bring the glider in there, it would be a nice place for Emma, Sarah & I to sit and read together. Of course, now that I think about it, I'm sure that room will fill up with stuff once she's born. Babies always somehow accumulate more stuff than you can ever imagine. It's amazing what those little people need, or what we THINK they need.
Jeff & I watched another part of our childbirth video on Friday night. It was about the 3 stages of labor, pushing & delivery. It was very comical. Jeff got a kick out of it. The one part Jeff found extremely funny (and I can't imagine why) was the part about how once the pregnant woman hits the second stage of labor, she will turn into a whiny mess. Apparently, that wasn't the funniest part to him. The instructor said, if your wife isn't a whiny person, this change in demeanor might shock you, but if whining is something your wife does all the time, then this will be nothing new. He was laughing at THAT. I turned & looked at him, well glared was more like it. I personally don't think I whine all that much. I'm not a complaining person in that way. If I'm upset at something, I will tell you in another way, not with whining. I'll either tell you straight out, or make you figure it out yourself. The typical things that women do. "I'm mad, but I'm not telling you why, you should be able to read my mind." In fact, this morning was the first time I've actually made any unreasonable requests of my husband this entire pregnancy. I haven't made him go out in the middle of the night for pickles & ice cream (I don't eat or drink at night anyways), and I don't think asking him to rub my feet or my back is unreasonable in any sense of the word. I AM carrying his child, right? So, I don't know where he got this idea that I whine all the time. I think he's got me confused with the other female in this house, who's only way of communicating lately is whining.
Well Jeff has his EKG tomorrow. At his doctor's appointment a couple weeks ago, she recommended he get one done. I've had one before & they're not bad. Since Emma's been around me getting all these medical procedures done, it should be interesting how she reacts to Jeff getting one done on him.

False Alarm

We had a small crisis at our house on Tuesday evening. I thought my water had broken. Freaked both Jeff & I out. It wasn't an obvious gush, which is why we were so freaked out. Jeff insisted I call the doctor and the nurse on-call told me to head on in to the ER to get checked out. Since it was 9pm, the main doctor's office was closed. So, we go in, and are sent up to labor & delivery, where I'm hooked up to monitors & checked out. No, my water hadn't broken, which we were both relieved to hear. But, just as a precaution, they wanted to keep me for an hour just to make sure I wasn't having any sizable contractions. So we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat for about an hour and Emma amused herself watching TV. If the room we're in when we actually go into labor is anything like the one we were in, I think Jeff will be very comfortable. The chair that I guess is designated the "father's chair" was really nice. A leather recliner. He looked pretty happy sitting in it while we were waiting to be discharged. I told him we better bring a pillow & a blanket when we come in case I have an overnight labor like I did with Emma.
Well, this false alarm has made us re-evaluate how much time we actually have before the baby's born. The next day I was in laundry mode, cleaning everything I could get my hands on. I'm making sure our hospital bags are packed by this weekend and I'm confirming the babysitting arrangements for Emma. And Jeff was told that he's able to take a week off to care for a sick relative & he's going to take another week of vacation, giving him 2 weeks home after the baby's born. That will be very nice.
The weather lately has been great, rainy mostly, but I can handle that. The temperatures have been between the low 50's & middle 60's. Emma's been loving it because she doesn't have to wear her big bulky coats anymore. The forecast says it's still supposed to rain a lot over the next couple of weeks, but that's fine with me, as long as it doesn't turn to snow. I think spring might actually be here now.
Emma finally had gymnastics this week, but only this week, due to Regionals or something next week. Plus, she doesn't have school all next week either. Poor kid is going to be so upset. We'll have to find some fun stuff for her to do. I forsee Easter projects & trips to the library and lots & lots of Barbies.

Nesting insomnia

I had my 36 week check-up today. Jeff went with m e because they had to do a "female examination". And do a Group B Strep test. Both of which are invasive & I didn't want Emma to have to sit through that alone. So daddy came along & after he heard the baby's heartbeat, he & Emma went into the waiting room. So, the doctor says I'm about 50% effaced & 1 cm dilated. Not bad for 36 weeks. He says this is normal & does NOT mean I'm going into labor tomorrow. But now Jeff's freaked because he's afraid that we won't have anyone to watch Emma while I'm in labor. Our neighbor across the street (Morgan's mom) said she'd watch Emma overnight if need be, but she works during the day & Morgan goes to preschool & daycare, so we'd have to find someone else to watch her during the day. We may be doing the neighbor "babysitter shuffle", as Emma goes from one person to the next. If things don't happen very quickly, and my mom is here when I go into labor, then I figured we'd just take Emma with us. I'm sure all hospitals have to have some sort of contingency plan for having siblings at the birth if there isn't anyone to watch them. I know we aren't the only people who have had this dilemma. But, then again, this could all just be preliminary stuff & I won't go into labor for another 4 weeks, but we have to be prepared for anything.
Speaking of being prepared, we're slowly starting to get things ready in the baby's room. We put together the changing table/dresser yesterday & I started doing her laundry, getting all her clothes cleaned & folded. Emma's liking this part, especially when she finds something that she thinks HER baby would look cute in, she confiscates it. She's also done this with all the stuffed animals I've set aside for Sarah. Emma doesn't want to share any of them, even though she doesn't play with anymore. Unfortunately, I think this is a side effect of being an only child for so long. She's not used to sharing anything with anyone & doesn't like it when she's in a situation where she has to.
Jeff & I watched another "episode" of our childbirth video. This one covered the 3 real signs of labor & 2 Lamaze breathing techniques. I never took any breathing classes (or any at all) when I was pregnant with Emma, so this was new to me, too. But, they seemed easy enough to utilize. Jeff & I both practiced the breathing because, as the instructor said, most women, when they're in the middle stage of labor, want their coach to breathe with them to help them concentrate. I could see how that would happen. So, that's why I told Jeff he needed to practice the breathing, too. He was a good sport about it. They did this exercise to show how the breathing takes your attention away from the intense pain (albeit not completely, this is breathing, not a miracle) because your brain can only get stimulation from one area at once. And, the idea is, if you're so attuned to the breathing, it's "said" you won't notice the pain as much. So, the instructor had all the men squeeze their wife's leg, kinda like a contraction would go, light at first and then getting more intense, peaking at about 30 seconds & then gently relaxing until a minute had gone by. All the while, the women are doing their breathing. I noticed that he was squeezing my leg, but it didn't bother me too much. She then had the guys squeeze our leg again, with the same amount of pressure they had while we were breathing & all the women jumped. It was amazing how much it hurt the second time & I had thought that he wasn't squeezing me that hard. But, since turn about is fair play, the women were then able to do the same to our husbands. So, we squeezed while they breathed. It turns out I can't squeeze all that good, because it apparently tickled & not hurt him. But he noticed it the second time, when he wasn't breathing. The instructor also said that if the men had any sense that this was the worst a contraction could be, then they were dreaming.
Although I started this particular blog yesterday afternoon, I got side-tracked & didn't finish it. But I woke up early this morning & decided to finish it. Like, 6:30am this morning. I had some serious insomnia today. I woke up to go pee at 6am, and couldn't go back to sleep. For the most part, if this happened in the past, I would just lay there until I fell asleep again, but I could tell that it wasn't going to happen this time. So I rolled out of bed & decided to do something. I balanced my checkbook, unloaded the dishwasher, loaded it back up again, made some blueberry muffins (from a mix, I'm not THAT industrious that early) and generally just cleaned up. Emma woke up around 7:45am & Jeff got up at 8. Now, it's 9:30am and I actually feel like I've already accomplished something today. And I normally don't have this feeling until around 5pm, when I actually get around to doing something productive. Today, I'm ahead of the game. You'd think this would make me even more industrious, wanting to get even more accomplished. You'd be wrong. Since I've pretty much finished all the goals I set out for today, with the exception of the never-ending, always present laundry, I'm going to take this opportunity to lounge. At least until Emma makes a mess of something. Then the cycle starts all over again.

It Could Be Sooner Than We Expect

I had my 36 week check-up today. Jeff went with m e because they had to do a "female examination". And do a Group B Strep test. Both of which are invasive & I didn't want Emma to have to sit through that alone. So daddy came along & after he heard the baby's heartbeat, he & Emma went into the waiting room. So, the doctor says I'm about 50% effaced & 1 cm dilated. Not bad for 36 weeks. He says this is normal & does NOT mean I'm going into labor tomorrow. But now Jeff's freaked because he's afraid that we won't have anyone to watch Emma while I'm in labor. Our neighbor across the street (Morgan's mom) said she'd watch Emma overnight if need be, but she works during the day & Morgan goes to preschool & daycare, so we'd have to find someone else to watch her during the day. We may be doing the neighbor "babysitter shuffle", as Emma goes from one person to the next. If things don't happen very quickly, and my mom is here when I go into labor, then I figured we'd just take Emma with us. I'm sure all hospitals have to have some sort of contingency plan for having siblings at the birth if there isn't anyone to watch them. I know we aren't the only people who have had this dilemma. But, then again, this could all just be preliminary stuff & I won't go into labor for another 4 weeks, but we have to be prepared for anything.
Speaking of being prepared, we're slowly starting to get things ready in the baby's room. We put together the changing table/dresser yesterday & I started doing her laundry, getting all her clothes cleaned & folded. Emma's liking this part, especially when she finds something that she thinks HER baby would look cute in, she confiscates it. She's also done this with all the stuffed animals I've set aside for Sarah. Emma doesn't want to share any of them, even though she doesn't play with anymore. Unfortunately, I think this is a side effect of being an only child for so long. She's not used to sharing anything with anyone & doesn't like it when she's in a situation where she has to.
Jeff & I watched another "episode" of our childbirth video. This one covered the 3 real signs of labor & 2 Lamaze breathing techniques. I never took any breathing classes (or any at all) when I was pregnant with Emma, so this was new to me, too. But, they seemed easy enough to utilize. Jeff & I both practiced the breathing because, as the instructor said, most women, when they're in the middle stage of labor, want their coach to breathe with them to help them concentrate. I could see how that would happen. So, that's why I told Jeff he needed to practice the breathing, too. He was a good sport about it. They did this exercise to show how the breathing takes your attention away from the intense pain (albeit not completely, this is breathing, not a miracle) because your brain can only get stimulation from one area at once. And, the idea is, if you're so attuned to the breathing, it's "said" you won't notice the pain as much. So, the instructor had all the men squeeze their wife's leg, kinda like a contraction would go, light at first and then getting more intense, peaking at about 30 seconds & then gently relaxing until a minute had gone by. All the while, the women are doing their breathing. I noticed that he was squeezing my leg, but it didn't bother me too much. She then had the guys squeeze our leg again, with the same amount of pressure they had while we were breathing & all the women jumped. It was amazing how much it hurt the second time & I had thought that he wasn't squeezing me that hard. But, since turn about is fair play, the women were then able to do the same to our husbands. So, we squeezed while they breathed. It turns out I can't squeeze all that good, because it apparently tickled & not hurt him. But he noticed it the second time, when he wasn't breathing. The instructor also said that if the men had any sense that this was the worst a contraction could be, then they were dreaming.

The lure of online gaming

Ok, I'll admit it, I have a new addiction. I am totally engrossed in Final Fantasy XI. For those of you who don't know, Final Fantasy is a string of games dating back to way before I ever played video games. They're role playing type games that have a plot, albeit a supernatural & sometimes really "out-there" plot. Basically you partner up with computer characters & have to fulfill some sort of quest that takes forever (the average amount of hours that it takes to complete one of these games is roughly 35-45). But this one is a little different. It's played online, and you create the character you want to play. Jeff & I are both doing this. He is a Warrior human & can beat up stuff really well. I am a little Tarutaru, this munchkin looking creature who toddles everywhere instead of actually walking. Jeff thinks it's funny that right now I do the same thing. And when she sits down, she sorts plops, and I'm pretty much doing the same thing at this point, so Jeff gets great humor out of the fact that I'm so similar to my character right now. I'm about 3 feet tall & my main strength is white magic, healing people. I do have this tiny little sword looking thing, but I have to be careful who I pick a fight with, otherwise I get slaughtered. My main job is to build up my magic skills & join a party with other real people and let them fight the bad guys while I sit back & heal them. It's a stressful & fun job, because while most of the time I'm never in harms way (unless the bad guy decides he's tired of fighting the other people & comes after me) I get the same experience they do & the same items that we find on the creatures we fight. But I've seen, watching Jeff play in groups of 6, that a white mage's job can be very stressful, trying to figure out who to heal first & also trying not to draw the attention of the bad guy. So, it's an addicting game. But it sometimes takes an hour or so to do the simplest of things, like find your way back from wherever you were last fighting. And when you're a small squishy white mage (Jeff's nickname for me), that can be devasting if you get attacked by something huge. But it's fun and entertaining. Emma thinks my little character is her friend Cece back in San Diego. Since it doesn't look anything like her, except for the fact that it's small, I'm not exactly sure how she got that idea. Maybe because Jeff's character looks somewhat like him, he's tall & blonde, she tried to figure out who my character looked most like & came up with Cece.
Jeff went to the doctor the other day, kicking & screaming. And I think it's a good thing he did, too. The doctor wants to run all sorts of tests on him, trying to figure out how the Navy screwed him up with all their experimental injections. He gets to have an EKG in a couple weeks & have blood drawn. I'm sure that'll be fun for him, considering how much he hates needles. I guess that can be a good thing, I can be guaranteed that he'll never be an intravenous drug user.
Emma has gotten into talking to the baby lately. She'll come up & start asking the baby questions, and answering for her. Like this morning, she told me that the baby had clothes, pj's & toys in my tummy. I told her, no wonder it feels so crowded in there. And then I have to talk to HER baby in her tummy. I'm glad that she's started to get a little more accepting of the idea of the baby. It's such an abstract concept for small children to understand. There's something in there, but you can't see it. But I think once we're able to put together the baby's room, it might be a little more concrete in her mind, that something's coming & it's going to sleep "here" and these are the clothes that she's going to wear, and all that stuff.
And since we're roughly 4 weeks away from having this baby, I guess now would be the best time to come to the realization that this baby is coming, regardless of whether or not we're "prepared" for it. We're as prepared as we can be. We got the changing table/dresser delivered this week, so Jeff & I (mostly Jeff, who am I kidding) are going to be putting it together this weekend. We also got my glider rocker, which is very comfortable. Emma keeps trying to commandeer it for herself, and she always wants to sit in my lap with a blanket when I'm sitting in it. I think she likes the motion it makes. And I think I'll be doing some baby laundry this weekend as well, to put into the dresser once it's assembled. Cleaning out closets & dusting everything will be next. Yay, what fun. I have the "nesting urge", but no "nesting urge energy". I need that to do the nesting. So, I will be using my husband's energy as a surrogate. I think my nesting instinct showed up a little late in this pregnancy. Isn't it supposed to happen at around 5 months? I don't know, I don't think I had it with Emma. I don't remember. But of course that could just be the "pregnancy brain" rearing it's ugly head again. So many things to blame my ineptitudes on, I'm going to miss that when I'm not pregnant anymore.

Well this weekend certainly was fun & interesting. We got our tax return (yay!) and we went to the mall to get some stuff for the baby. Not a bunch, since my baby shower's this Saturday, and I have no idea what's going to come from that. It should be fun though, considering the shower's in Sacramento, and I'm not. But, it's being held at my mother-in-law's house and she has a webcam, so we're all going to sit around the computer, eat popcorn & watch like it was a movie. Only with audience participation. Hey, it's like Rocky! Aw, Rocky, that brings back memories. None of which I could probably repeat here, but hey, they're in my brain.
Anyways, Emma got a new toy at the store. It's one of those travel MagnaDoodles, where you use a pen with a magnet at the end to draw pictures on a screen. Under the screen are tons of tiny flakes of metal bits that create the picture. Then, you use this magic swiper thingy to wipe it clean. She loves it & takes it everywhere. She's even taking it to preschool today for show-and-tell. She's always asking me to write people's names on it. So, I think it'll be good for her learning letters & numbers and stuff.
Also this weekend, Jeff has started his quest to resume being a beefcake. Not that he'd stopped being one from before, but he hasn't worked out since we moved here & wanted to start up again. So we went to GNC and bought those Met-RX meal supplements, and some more vitamins, and he's started to work-out. Makes me feel even worse, since I can't really work-out with him & I'm going to be in even worse shape once I have the baby. But Jeff has already promised that he'll take care of the kids in the evenings if I want to go work out somewhere. I'm making him keep this one.
It amazes me how much Emma is turning out like me. She has so many quirks & personality traits that I've been told I had when I was younger, and even traits that I see in myself today. Last night, she fell asleep in the car on the way to pick Jeff up from work. We put her on the couch, still asleep, when we got home. She slept for about an hour & a half and when she started to stir, we started talking to her to get her wake up. Instead of waking up happy, she started writhing all over the couch, stretching, whining & grunting, like we were really annoying her. I started laughing & so did Jeff. I said, she looks just like me when I wake up, doesn't she? And he was trying hard to cover up the fact that he had noticed that, too. I've always been told that when I was younger, it was no fun to try to wake me up. I was cranky & whiny and generally not a happy camper. And this has continued on into adulthood. Waking up in the morning, or whenever, is not something I like doing. I like my sleep. I don't know if I did this as well, but Emma can continue her crankiness well after she's actually woken up. She sometimes needs to be cuddled for about 20 minutes afterwards until she's a nice person again.
Well the weather has kinda leveled out a little bit. It's still cold, roughly in the 30's during the day. And we did get some snow over the weekend, but it melted by the next day. But, spring is definitely on it's way, it's just getting sidetracked to other places in the country, like Sacramento, where it's supposed to in the 80's today. Send some of that sun over our way, will ya? There are some cute spring maternity clothes I'd like to get a chance to wear before I have this baby. Next time, depending on where we live, definitely have to make a conscious decision on what time of the year I'll be pregnant. No more winter pregnancies. Unless I'm living in AZ or someplace just as hot all year round.
Since Jeff is starting college in May, he has to fill out all sorts of paperwork. One of which was a medical physical. We thought he had to go see a doctor & get a physical & have the doctor fill out all this medical stuff. So, I made the appointment & Jeff was all set to go. Well, come to find out that he doesn't need it because it's only for students who are using the school's student health insurance. Since we have our own insurance, we don't need it. But I'm still making him go to the doctor's anyways. He hasn't seen one since he got out of the military & it's always good to get a periodic check-up.
Emma has started saying the funniest things. I don't know where she got it, but she's started using the phrase "Oh dear" for everything. It sounds so cute coming from a 4 year old's mouth. Speaking of talking, I finally was able to get Emma an appointment for a speech evaluation. Since she was in speech for over a year in San Diego, I wanted to continue it here. But that was easier said than done, unfortunately. It was too expensive to go through the college, and since she was older than 3 she couldn't go through the hospital. So we had to go through thr public school system & they were backed up for months. The appointment I did get isn't until April, the 19th, actually, which is kinda funny, since that's my due date. We'll see if we're able to make that appointment or not. We may be bringing a newborn, I may be in the hospital or I could still be pregnant. We'll see what happens.

Pretty good week

Congradulations are in order to Jeff, who passed a very critical certification exam yesterday. Now, along with all the other titles that he has following his name, he can now add "Dell Storage Networking Professional" to it. Now, since I have no idea what that title means in respect to jobs, I'll just have to take his word for it that it's a good thing. It required another drive to Lansing to take the test, but that was fine. It was only an hour long & Emma and I were able to occupy ourselves just fine. Emma did really well on the trip so she was rewarded with a toy from Tuesday Morning. A "Cinderella" Barbie type doll that comes with about 15 different pieces of clothing that allows the doll to have about 200 different outfits. But the coolest thing is that there's this button on the doll's back that you push & her underskirt turns about a 1/3 turn & it's like she has a brand new dress on. Very high tech & nifty. Emma's been pushing that button since she got the doll. It goes from white to blue to pink. But, since it's obvious that this doll will not wear any other Barbie type clothes, I'm going to make sure we at least don't lose her shoes by gluing them to her feet. My father-in-law did that with another one of Emma's Barbies. Very good idea. Now, we've lost the dress that originally came with that doll, but not the shoes.
Emma's learning so many new things, and I know I'm not the one teaching her. She must be getting it from somewhere. This week she's been spouting off that her name begins with "E", which I'll admit I've been trying to teach her, along with getting her to write her name (which for the most part is good but her E's have about 5 lines across the one line, rather than just three, but hey, she's 4). But, she's started to recognize the letter "E" in street signs and other places when we're driving. She'll point it out everywhere we go. And she also can type her name by looking at her name on paper & finding the matching letters on the keyboard. She doesn't yet know the names of the other letters in her name, but she's getting there. She also came home from school on Thursday talking about dinosaurs. She had learned about them in class, and had made a very cute dinosaur for her craft. She proceeded to tell me that all the dinosaurs were dead (which she demonstrated by saying they ate (::pretending to eat::) and then died (::falls on the floor::). Very dramatic. She did have some confusion about WHAT the dinosaurs ate. She said all of them ate other dinosaurs, but I tried to explain that some just ate plants, but she wouldn't hear of it. I asked her if there were flying dinosaurs & she said yes, they were called "Tetri's". At first, I thought I hadn't heard that right. I asked again & she said that "Teetri" was a flying dinosaur. At last I remembered. PETRI was a pterodactyl from "The Land Before Time". This child has only seen ANY of those movies (not even the original, which is the best) once. And I was flabbergasted at the fact that she remembered the name of one particular character weeks after only seeing the movie once. It's crazy the things kids remember. This is particularly bad because I've been known, (as I'm sure all parents have been in the past) when your child is begging for something, and all you want to do is just get their mind off whatever it is they're pestering you for, so you offer something else, which isn't right there, hoping that they'll take the bait & by the time you get to wherever that other thing was, you're hoping that they've completely forgotten about it. I know this is bad parenting, but hey, whatever works in the situation. It's not like I do it all the time. But the problem now is, that Emma's memory has progressed so much (or maybe it's always been like this, but she's only now proving it to me) that this doesn't work anymore. She remembers everything. Which makes things doubly worse, because I can't remember squat right now. She'll politely (in preschool politeness) remind me that I forgot to do something, and sometimes I'll seriously argue with her, thinking that she's wrong, I DIDN'T say that, only to suddenly remember that I did, and I'll have to apologize. She's probably thinking I'm going nuts, which wouldn't be far off. If Jeff thought I was scatterbrained before I got pregnant, he's probably thinking that by the time this baby's born, I'll do something like forget to bring her in from the car or something. Which, as I'm sure all mothers will attest to, is a nightmare that you have. For example, last year when Jeff was out to sea, I had horrible thoughts that I would take Emma to the beach, fall asleep & she would wander into the ocean & drown. Crazy stuff like that. It really kept me from doing a lot of things without taking someone with me. Of course, I had those types of nightmares when I was pregnant with Emma, even after she was born. And now, when I go places without Jeff, I'm going to be outnumbered, which is going to make me even more nervous.

Emma's first playdate

Well after weeks of wondering if our schedules were going to coincide, Emma & the little girl across the street (who's also in her gymnastics class), Morgan, were finally able to get together on Sunday afternoon. Her mom, Sue, called in the morning and asked if Emma could come over & play that afternoon. Emma was very excited. She didn't even want to finish her lunch, she just wanted to get ready & go over there. As soon as we get over there, it becomes clear to me that Morgan & Emma are two peas in a pod. Morgan loves Barbies, dolls, dressing up, and horses. Emma just loved being there, she had so much fun. We ended up staying there for 4 hours. Finally, when it became clear that Sue was trying to get their dinner started, I told Emma it was time to go home. She was not happy about that. I knew she was tired when she started throwing a fit and falling in it like you wouldn't believe. She was kicking her feet when I tried to put on her boots, she was grasping onto chairs & walls when I was leading her towards the front door, anything to keep from leaving. I practically had to drag her across the street to go home. We had a nice talk when we got home about acting that way, and she relaxed on the couch where, 10 minutes later, she was fast asleep. She had worn herself out from the playing & the fit. But she had a great time, so I know we'll be doing that again soon.
I think this house is out to get us. At least Emma. First, she had 4 splinters in her fingers in the span of a week, and then Friday night she proceeded to rip her entire pinky nail off her left foot. I have no idea how she did it, but she came up to me on the couch & said she had an owie. She lifted up her foot for me to see & I saw that her nail was hanging on by a tiny piece of skin. She was surprisingly calm, I think she was still in shock & the pain hadn't hit her yet. Jeff was on the phone & I asked for his help. By the time I carried her to the bathroom to take care of it, she had realized she was really hurt & started crying. Talk about a delayed reaction. And it had started bleeding, so that wasn't helping the situation. But now that it's been a few days, she's decided she doesn't need to keep a band-aid on it anymore (and we finally tore off the hanging nail) and it doesn't seem to bother her, unless she accidently hits in on something. Then she'll be reminded, oh yeah, I have a boo-boo.
We also got the stroller & infact seat delivered on Friday. That night, Jeff put everything together & Emma immediately claimed it for her own babies. I knew this would happen. She insisted on having her baby strapped into the car seat & push it around the house in the stroller. Now, since she can't see over the stroller, it ended up being a game of "oops, I hit the wall, back up, oops, I hit it again". When we went to the mall on Saturday, she wanted the baby to go, too. So, we put in the car base & put in the car seat with the baby inside. But I drew the line at actually bringing the baby in the infant seat into the mall. But, I think after that trip that we've realized we desperately need a bigger car. Between Emma's booster seat & the infant seat, it takes up the whole backseat. Whenever anyone comes to visit us, they won't have room to sit, once the baby comes.
Emma's going to have a tough time this month. Not only is her gymnastics class cancelled for 3 out of the 4 Wednesday's this month (spring break & CMU tournaments), but her preschool is also out the last week of this month (public school spring break). So, now that the weather's getting better, I think we need to find some other extracurricular activities. I'm also thinking of signing Emma up for a summer sport, but I'm not sure which one. They have tee-ball & soccer, and I'm leaning towards soccer, only because I don't think tee-ball would hold Emma's attention long enough to be worthwhile. I remember little kids with soccer, they all run around in a herd, up & down the field. Very cute. And that gives them a lot of exercise. No, I have to re-phrase that. It makes them use a lot of energy, which Emma has in abundance, and therefore are more likely to sleep & not run around the house, causing havoc. Yeah, I definitely think soccer is the way to go.

Preschooler speak

It's so funny sometimes how small children can take things you've said & twist them around into a hilarious game of "what did she say?". Even things I didn't realize Emma knew about, like the concept that the baby is growing inside me. The other day Emma was trying to remember the baby's name, and she was pointing to my belly & asking what the baby's name in mommy's tummy was. Jeff asked her, "Baby in mommy's tummy? Did she eat it?" Emma looked at him like he'd just said the funniest thing & goes, "No, mommy didn't eat the baby, she's still making it!" Now this kid hasn't had any sex ed, so just exactly how she deduced that the baby was being "made" and not already finished or just placed in there complete, I'll never know, but it was an insight to her mind I hadn't had before.
Then this afternoon, we go to Jeff's work to have lunch in the dining commons. I had noticed that Emma had some gunk in the corner of her eye & I told her to hold still while I got the "sleep" out of her eye. A few minutes later, she needed to use the bathroom and while we were there she said she wanted to look in the mirror at her eyes, presumably to see this "sleep" that I was talking about. She looked at her reflection, gasped & said,"My eyes are sleepy!" She then proceeded to walk down the hallway with her eyes closed, repeating, my eyes are sleepy. Too funny. Not exactly what I said, but close enough.
So the snow piles has slowly been melting away for the past week. We had another big rain last night & it's continued into today. I am so happy that it'a rain & not snow. Even though we're expecting to get snow scattered snow showers over the next week or so, somehow I don't think it's going to stick around very long, if at all. The temperatures are forcasted to be well above freezing for the most part, mostly in the upper 30's & 40's, so I think we're finally out of the frozon tundra stage of winter. This gives me hope that the weather will be relatively nice by the time the baby's born. I made a promise to Emma that when all the snow on the ground was gone, she could wear her light purple windbreaker, instead of her huge, Stay-Puff marshmallow man snow parka she's been forced to wear since October. But, even though there's still some piles of snow on the ground, the weather has been nice enough to allow her to wear the windbreaker. And since it's been raining, we've broken out the umbrellas, too. It almost makes me wish I were going to be pregnant longer, so I could wear some of the cute spring time maternity clothes I've been seeing.
We got our car seat/stroller system delivered this afternoon. Now we get to wait until Jeff gets home so he can put it together. Emma has already started to want to use the car seat for her own "babies". I can foresee the problems now. But once we actually start putting together the baby's room & putting everything in it's place, maybe she'll realize that she needs to share these things with her little sister. But, I'm not counting on it.

Car woes, Part Deux.

Well, after 2 days of waiting & wondering if my car was going to act up at the dealers so they could see what I was talking about, it didn't happen. It's like the vehicle had stage fright. Very sad. The service people said that if the "Service Engine" light came on, they would be able to figure out what was causing all the electrical problems. But, I can't guarantee that will happen before my warranty runs out, so we're pretty much just having to sit & wait for it to happen. I was hoping it would do it on the way home from the dealer (since it's a 45 mile drive) but no such luck. I guess the only good thing that came out of this was we finally got our alarm fixed. Well, I fixed it, but I had needed the service manual for the alarm system to do that, and we somehow misplaced it. Every Honda dealer we'd been to didn't have one either. But, this one did & boy am I happy. It was a huge headache having to unlock the car door every time I opened it, otherwise the alarm would go off. Big pain in the neck. But we have our car back, with my keys & the garage door opener.
Tonight it gymnastics night for Emma. She's been looking forward to it all week. When we left this morning to go to the car dealer, she thought we were going to gymnastics. Poor kid thinks every time we leave the house, we're either going to school or gymnastics. She really loves being with other kids.
As I'm only about 6 1/2 weeks away from having this little baby, I must say I'm starting to get nervous. Not about the actual delivery, cause I've been there, done that. And since Emma's birth was kinda difficult, I think I could probably handle anything that came up. But poor Jeff hasn't been through this before. And since we aren't able to go to any childbirth classes (it's too difficult to find a sitter for 4 weeks in a row for 3 hours on a school night) we've been forced to consider just buying a video that will refresh my memory & give Jeff a little peek into what he's about to go through. Anyone who knows my husband for longer than a day will find out how much he hates any sort of medical/hospital procedure. He detests having to have blood taken or be examined in any way. I think it runs in the family because his brother's the same way. So, this whole birth process thing is going to be interesting. I can only hope to avoid him having to be revived by a nurse after passing out on the floor. And if he does, he wouldn't be the first husband to do that. Men are so funny when it comes to this kind of stuff. They can go through wars, car accidents, money issues, job issues, or other traumatic experiences, but when it comes to labor & delivery, something happens in their brains & they can't take it. Thus, the preparing. I feel bad having to throw all this womanly stuff at him in such a short period of time, but we're running outta weeks here. Hopefully I can "desensitize" him a little bit so it's not as such a shock as if he was walking in there with no knowledge at all. And I think that's going to be the key, knowledge. The more he knows going into it, the less likely he'll be to freak out. At least I hope so.

Car woes.

Ok, I seriously think today was the most stressful/trying day I've had in a long time. First of all, let me preface this by saying that, once again, I'm sick. This is the 3rd time in 3 1/2 months that I've had a cold/bronchitis. Ok, now to the stressful day. Our car has been having a serious malfunction for about the past 2 months. It all started when I noticed that the "drive" light on the front console (where the odometer, speedometer, and all that other junk is) was flickering in & out. It did it in all the other gears, too. Also, the odometer would all of a sudden decide not to show me how many miles I'd driven, instead just show me a panel full of zeros. And to top it all off, the gas gauge would show me an incorrect gas level. All of this at once, not very fun. But it didn't happen all the time & would eventually go back to normal. But Jeff thought it might be a safety hazard, so I eventually made an appointment at our local dealer. "Local" being a relative term, since the nearest Honda dealer is an hour's drive away. ::Have I mentioned how far out in the boonies we are?:: Anyways, so my appointment was for 10:30am this morning. Monday morning, what was I thinking. Not only did I have to make sure that I dropped Jeff off at work on time & then make the not so fun drive out to Bay City, but I also had to make sure that both Emma & I were decently dressed & presentable for it. I didn't know how long I was going to be there & I didn't relish the idea of being stuck in a dealership service waiting area for hours at a time, knowing I forgot to put deoderant on and Emma's hair hadn't been brushed. To make matters worse, it was raining. Normally this is a good thing, since combined with the warmer temperatures lately, it melted a lot of the snow that had been piled on the ground for months. But, apparently, people in Michigan decide that when the weather's terrible, that's the perfect time to speed & drive erratically. Our drive out there was relatively uneventful, with the one exception of Emma telling me 10 minutes after we'd left that she needed to go pee. She's got a good bladder that can hold a lot for hours after she wakes up, so when it finally sets off the "empty me" warning in her head, you need to listen to it quickly, or we'd be having a yellow river in our backseat.
So, we get there, roughly 30 minutes early, I might add, and we check in. I tell them the problem, give them my keys & prepare to wait until at least noon. Emma's watching a video in the little children's area they have, and I'm reading a magazine. An easy hour goes by & they come to tell me they can't figure out the problem, can't duplicate it & the internal computer has no record of anything like that happening. Uh-huh. Typical. This is the exact same thing that happens whenever the baby's doing cartwheels in my abdomen, and I try to get Jeff's attention, only to have it stop. He's starting to think I'm nuts. And I'm sure that's what the service people thought, too. They had a suggestion, after I'd told them that this mostly happens in the morning, when I go out to warm up the car. They suggested that I leave the car there & they would try in the morning to get the car to do this crazy thing. I was ok with that, but how was I supposed to get home. They said they'd give me a loaner car, for free (with the exception that I pay sales tax, a whopping $1.20) and they'd give me a call in the morning. So, that's what I decided to do. We got what I consider a crappy loaner car. A '98 Honda Accord that smells, part of the driver's side running board has fallen off & is on the back floorboard, the arm rest in between the driver & passenger seats is practically falling off, and it had almost no gas in it. Plus, I realized as I was driving 60 MPH down the highway trying to get home in the now pouring rain, that I think the tires are going bald. Every time I hit a patch of standing water (something you occasionally do when it's raining) I felt like the car was going to slide off the road. Not very comforting. So, we make it back to our street & as I'm about to turn into the driveway, I reach up to click the garage door opener, and realize I forgot it in my car, back at the dealer. Not only that, but I didn't get my house keys off the ring that I gave to the service people. So, I was locked out of the house. I felt like such an idiot. I knew that I was having pregnancy brain, but I think I've outdone myself. So, I drive over to the college, hoping & praying that Jeff has his keys with him. He doesn't. So, I was faced with the prospect of driving the crappy car with the now almost empty gas tank, back to the dealer 45 miles away. But then, my wonderful, intelligent, non-pregnancy brain husband had a brilliant idea. Call the realtor. She has to get into our house to show it when we're not there, she has a key. But first, I had to find a phone. I had left Jeff's office by this time, and I don't have a cell, so I had to find a payphone. Ok, when did the LOCAL charge for a pay phone go up to $1.00? That's ridiculous. Plus, it seemed every payphone I tried to use was malfunctioning. The first one said that I didn't have to dial a "1" before dialing this number. But I didn't dial a "1", you crazy phone. The next one ate my 4 quarters. I was at my wits ends. I finally decide to try my neighbors & see if I could use their phone. The first one I tried wasn't home, the next one I tried wasn't home, the THIRD one I tried wasn't home. Come on, these are retired people, aren't they supposed to be at home?! As I was leaving to go back to the college to use his phone, I saw that one of my neighbors was pulling into her driveway. Ok, perfect, I'll go ask her. She was very nice & let Emma & I come to use the phone. This realtor is one of the most difficult people to get ahold of. I called her cell, no answer, I called her office, she was out. So, I ended up leaving a message on her voicemail at work, telling her to call me at my neighbors house because I needed to be let into my house. My neighbor set Emma up with a movie, a pretzel & some milk and we waited. About 15 minutes late, the realtor calls back & says she'll be right there. So, we were finally able to go home. Only to remember that I needed to take some paperwork to the tax people so we could file our income taxes. Emma was about ready to throw a full blown fit. I felt so bad having to drag her out again. But, it needed to be done. So, after only being home for about an hour, out we went again in our jalopy loaner. While we waited at the tax place for our paperwork to be printed (which we would later have to bring back with Jeff's signatures on it) Emma decided she didn't want to listen, obey or any of those nice things that I so desperately wanted her to do. She had found some toys & incessantly asked me if she could take these two tiny Barbies home. I think the kid has some serious wax buildup in her ears because she apparently didn't hear me say no, or hear the very nice, polite & very precise explanation that I gave her as to why she couldn't take them home. I finally bribed her into submission (in order to preserve some of my sanity). I offered her ice cream if she would give it up with the Barbies. She took it, and happily put the Barbies back. I know I probably broke about 5 parenting rules with that, but I so beyond caring at the point. By this time, it was after 3pm, I'd been on the road or at the dealership or somewhere other than where I wanted to be for 7 hours, and I was at the breaking point. I had needed to call Jeff at work to get his drivers license number at the tax place, and he had said to come pick him up at 4pm. I had 45 minutes to kill & I was in no mood to go back home (a 15 minute drive) only to have to pack Emma back into the car 15 minutes later & drive back to about the same place to pick up Jeff. We went to Wendy's, got some frosty dairy desserts & sat there in the parking lot for 30 minutes. I made a list of stuff I needed to do, Emma got chocolate everywhere and I tried to relax & enjoy the rain that I've been waiting 4 months for. Rain is good, it melts snow. We can almost see our entire front lawn now. And I think the inches of ice have melted off our roof. Yay!
When we finally got home after picking Jeff up, I collapsed. The house was a mess, people were hungry, but I didn't care. They could fend for themselves and there was no way I was cleaning anything tonight. Tonight is all about vegging and watching CSI: Miami. Tomorrow I'll deal with reality. And reality will have to be dealt with because I still need to drive the clunker loaner back to the dealer & get my own piece of junk back, preferably fixed.

Who's afraid of a little fog?

Ok, sometimes I think these Michigan people are the strangest group on the planet. They have weird, horrible weather that apparently everyone just deals with, rather than move away. But, evidently, fog really gets them. We had some fog this morning, nothing terrible, the visibility was still very good. But, it sent the people who determine when the schools get cancelled or delayed into a panic. They have a local television station around here that tells about all the local events, including things happening at the schools. It's just a plain blue background with white letters and cheesy music playing. But, when schools are either delayed or cancelled, the background turns red. I turned it on this morning, and saw that it was red. I couldn't understand why, since we hadn't had any new snow, the temperatures weren't below zero, and as far as I could tell, it was only a little foggy. They had issued a "fog advisory warning" and delayed school for 2 hours. Now, I had been told that if the public schools were delayed 2 hours, not even cancelled, that Emma's preschool would be cancelled. So I was preparing to have be at home all day. But at noon rolled around closer, I decided check the channel again. And it was back to being blue. So I called the school, and sure enough, school was still on. Now I don't mind the fact that they changed their minds in the middle of the day, Emma likes school & I like having 2 hours to myself. But the fact that they had to issue a fog advisory warning is what got me. Now, I grew up in Sacramento, where we get some nasty fog in the winter & spring. There were times when you couldn't see the front enf of your car, let alone anything else in front of you. But, I don't ever recall ever having school delayed or cancelled because of a fog advisory. These people can handle feet of snow, bone chilling temperatures, and blizzard-like conditions, but they can't handle fog. It makes no sense to me.
Anyhow, so Emma went to school & had a great time as always. She's still wanting to be the leader every day, but I think that's just her Type-A personality that she gets from her father. But, she came home with more than just March's calendar of snack duties and some arts & crafts projects. This is it, Emma's first fund raiser. I didn't think it started this young, but apparently I was wrong. It's a Little Caesars Pizza Kit fund raiser. Apparently, Little Caesars puts together these unmade pizza kits to sell to people, so they can assemble the pizza at home and not have to pay a delivery driver. They are also selling cookie dough kits, gourmet spice kits, pizza cutters & serving paddles, and Crazy Bread. For some reason, I thought this pandering didn't start until Girl Scouts. So I guess it's time for Emma to put on her cutest smile & go door to door, selling stuff she won't even eat (the pizza, that is, the cookies are a different story). But, I think this is one of those "benefits" of having a husband who works at a college, where there are people whose main diet consists of pizza & sweets. So, I think Emma will do fairly nicely in this fund raiser.
Emma had gymnastics last night. She did so much better than last week. She listened to her teacher, she didn't cut in line (as much), and she didn't push her classmates around. She still seemed to be the instigator when it came to goofing off when it wasn't her turn to do something, but at least it was mostly harmless. She wasn't having the other girls jumping off the 4 foot high balance beam or anything.
I met one of the other mothers who's daughter is in Emma's gymnastics class, who is a labor & delivery nurse at the hospital where I'm going to have the baby. She only works the weekends, so it's unlikely she'll be there when I deliver, but she was able to give me some information about L & D. They only have 3 labor & delivery rooms. But, she assures me that in her ten years at that hospital, she's only seen once instance, where they had more patients than rooms. It's hard for me to imagine. But, then again, I've never lived in a town as small as this. But, I'm seeing an awful lot of pregnant women around here, so I'm thinking I better go into labor early in the day, to ensure I don't end up delivering in the waiting room.

More snow?

Ok, I thought that Mother Nature had been really nice to us lately. It had been relatively warm, upper 30's, there was no snow on the roads, and it was starting to melt the feet of snow we have on our yard. Then, yesterday, we got hit with about 5-7 inches of snow. At first, it was still really warm, so most of it was melting on contact with the road or cars, but sticking to the snow already on the ground. Then, it started getting heavier & started sticking to everything. By the end of the day, we had good quarter size clumps of snow falling from the sky and we were once again in the midst of a winter wonderland. But the weather took a dramatic change for the better today. It's sunny & again, relatively warm. It's even supposed to get up to around 48 degrees by this coming Sunday. Whoo hoo! We might actually see most of this snow start to melt.
I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. I asked him if he was able to tell how big the baby was (by the information from my ultrasound) & if everything looked fine. He said that at this time, the baby was about 4 1/2 lbs. which is about 10 days farther along than it's gestational age. I asked him if that meant I would go into labor early. He said probably not, since trying to weigh a fetus in the womb is kinda tricky. He said the baby was most likely normal size, and would be born on time.
I think Emma has started to get used to the idea of the baby. Yesterday, when I was getting out of the shower & before she went to bed, she kissed my belly. When she was going to bed, she also patted my belly and said, "Night night, baby." It was too cute. So, it'll be a slow process of getting her used to the idea that a new baby will be with us in a couple months, but I think she'll be ready for it.

Weekend Bliss

Well, here it is, another weekend almost over. They should really make these things a day longer or something. These are the most relaxing days, where we can sleep in (until Emma wakes us up), go out to breakfast, lunch or dinner, play games, watch movies, or, in our case, drop Emma off at the casino child care center so Jeff & I could eat a nice relaxing lunch. Not that she minds. We asked her specifically which she would like to do: go eat with us, or go play at the child care center. She CHOSE not to eat with us. It was her decision. Don't call CPS on us. She was not neglected in any way. She had a great time, and she even left willingly with us this time. Of course, she had just gotten a slushie & some Cheetos for the road, but somehow I know she would have gone with us even without those...I hope. We came home, all happy & in a good mood, only to have poor Emma get a giant splinter in her finger. You should have seen this child, you'd think we were trying to rip off her nail the way she was catterwalling & throwing a fit over this splinter. She didn't want us to touch it in any way, all she wanted was a bandaid, and she thought it would be fine. We tried to explain that it wasn't going to go away on it's own, and Jeff had to hold her still while I gently yanked the thing out. It was a good size splinter, probably about 1/8 inch long. I was surprised this hasn't happened sooner, what with our lower basement-type room being completely covered in wood paneling. And not the smooth paneling, either. This is the rough stuff, the kind you'd use for roof shingles. The whole incident just took too much out of her & she fell asleep in daddy's lap not more than 10 minutes later. She took a good long nap in the bean bag chair. She needed it, and I think maybe we should have taken a clue from her & napped ourselves. It's amazing how much energy it takes to try to calm down a 4 year old. It was hilarious the way she was acting, we couldn't help but laugh. She just kept saying,"I want a ban-bam (bandaid)", "I have a boo-boo" (like it wasn't obvious), and "Don't touch me!" I don't think I've ever seen her react quite like that before. It was too funny.
Well, after a couple of days (and a little shopping trip to JCPenney) I think we've gotten used to the idea that we're having a girl. I had forgotten about all the cute little girl clothes they have out. But, I can already tell, like with Emma, that I'm not much into pink. I like pink, don't get me wrong, but I like clothing my child in the other colors of the rainbow, as well. So, this new little one has plenty of pink, purple, yellow, blue & green. And it was all on sale, so that makes it all look cuter. I think Emma has also gotten the idea that she's going to have a sister and is ok with it. She even helped pick out an outfit for the baby. But, of course, HER baby doll had to try it on first, just to make sure it worked ok.
We've almost decided on a name, but are having a little trouble with the middle name. I went to Babycenter.com & started a poll to help give me an idea of how these 3 choices sound to others. I sent the link to most of you, but if I missed anyone (because I don't have your email address), then here's the link. You'll have to copy & paste it into your browser since I don't think this page supports hyperlinks. It's
http://click.babycenter.com/b/?le=6kQF&cn=emailafriend&en=20040216&ce=0&t=0. Jeff says he doesn't care which one we go with, but I like them all, so I'd like your opinion.

It's a girl!

Well, it's official. We're having another girl. I now know that the whole "mother's intuition" thing is nothing but bologne. I had been feeling this whole time that it was a boy, I was so sure of it. Well, that's what declaring something publicly gets me. A big piece of humble pie. Don't get me wrong, I could not be happier. I love little girls, I know what to do with them, since I HAVE had some previous experience. Not to mention I still have some of Emma's old baby clothes that can now be recycled. And, as my mother-in-law put it, "every girl needs a sister". I know Emma will have tons of fun with a baby sister. I can see it now, them playing dolls & having tea & then getting into cat fights over whose Barbie gets to marry Ken. I know that Emma & I will spend hours picking out clothes for her to wear (and then spit up all over) and doing her hair (according to the ultrasound tech, this one's going to have as much hair as Emma did when she was born). And Jeff will have another "Daddy's girl". I know that although he won't admit it, he loves being the center of his daughter's world, and now he's going to have another little girl to adore him for the rest of her life. I know he has a special bond with Emma and I know he'll have that same special bond with this one.
The whole ultrasound experience was amazing. I had forgotten what it was like to see that tiny little human in there, just hanging out, waiting to join the world. Jeff was in complete awe. He was asking a lot of questions, that he thought were stupid, but this was his first ultrasound, so nothing sounded stupid. Emma was kinda into it, but it took quite awhile to get all the pictures that they were looking for, so her patience had run kinda thin by the time it ended. But, she was a real trooper & didn't cause that much of a ruckus. I got a couple of pictures, including one of her face, and it looks almost identical to the one of Emma that I got at her ultrasound. We also got one that shows the baby's spine & head very clearly. They were looking for specific body parts, to make sure they were developing properly and also to judge how big the baby might be. We saw that the baby is breathing (not air, but amniotic fluid, it's practice for when it's born) and that her bladder was full (and she wasn't the only one) and that she was also swallowing fluid into her stomach. These are ways her body practices to use these organs once she's born. We saw her heart beating, I think it was about 150bpm, and we even saw her little toes. At first, they were worried we wouldn't be able to see the sex of the baby because she had her legs crossed at the ankles. Jeff even commented (before we found out it was a girl) that that was a very lady-like position. The way she's positioned now, her head is down, with her back curving around the left side of my body, and her feet are up by the right side of my ribs. She's in a crescent shape. She also has one of her arms underneath her head, like she's resting on it. Her other hand was palm side up and pushing against the top of my belly. It was really neat to see. We were able to see her for about an hour and a half while the tech tried to locate all the things she needed.
Now comes the big decision: names. Now that the field has been narrowed to only half the baby name book, it's time to buckle down & argue. Jeff felt completely out of the loop when it came to naming Emma (both literally, being out to sea, and figuratively, since I really didn't give him a chance to voice his opinion). Now he'll have every opportunity to tell me which names he likes & which he doesn't. And I might even listen.

Anticipation

Tomorrow's the big day, or should be. I have my ultrasound at 10am tomorrow morning, and hopefully, if everything goes well, Jeff & I (and Emma) should be able to find out the sex of the baby. Since technically this ultrasound hasn't been scheduled for that exact purpose, I may have to coerce the tech to tell me, or I may have to just keep my eyes peeled on the screen & discern for myself. I'm hoping we have a nice tech who'll be willing to spill the beans & guarantee me something. I'm not even putting myself above a little bribery if the need arises. But hopefully it won't come to that.
Even after we find out what we're having, there's the big issue of what to name the baby. Jeff & I have kinda held off on discussing names until we had only one sex to argue over. Jeff's into normal sounding names that may sound boring, and I like some of them, too, but I also like different names, but not ones that are too trendy at the time. "Emma" wasn't very common when I named her that, so maybe we'll start another trend with this next one. It'll be a cool name in a few years, after people start realizing it.
I feel like I need to be in traction in a hospital bed somewhere. I had to go out & get one of those "prenatel cradles". It's basically like a giant elastic band that is supposed to hold up your huge pregnant belly, thus theoretically taking some of the pressure off your lower back. But, this contraption is about the most hideous thing I've ever seen. I definitely can't go out in the public in this. Unless I want to be publicly ridiculed and stared at like a leper. Since I've only had the thing for a few hours, the verdict's still out on whether it helps with the lower back pain.
I got my CD today. My Gavin DeGraw CD. The guy who was one of the opening acts for Barenaked Ladies. I'm happy. The CD is awesome, this guy is so talented. I'm probably going to wear this CD out before too long.
Emma's been a bit of a butt lately. Apparently, all 4 year olds go through this phase where they have to be first in everything they do. She was pushing other little girls out of the way last night at gymnastics, and stepping in front of them and basically just being a pill. We had to pull her aside twice to talk to her & made her apologize to her teacher after class for not listening. And for a few weeks now, every time she goes to preschool, she asks her teacher is she's going to be the leader of the line today. They take turns, but every time without fail, Emma assumes that it's her turn. I stand outside her classroom door, waiting for them to be let go, and I hear the teacher say to Emma, No, it's "so & so's" time to be leader, you need to get back in line. I just have to laugh. She's so persistent. She also thinks that every time she goes to school, it's her show & tell day. I'm going to have to make a calendar marking the days she has show & tell so we don't keep having this arguement every day.
I'm hoping that once Emma sees the baby on the monitor tomorrow, she'll be a little more receptive to it eventually coming out & going home with us. As of right now, it's still a foreign concept to her. But I think with these attitude problems she's been having lately, the queen needs to be knocked down a notch or two. It'll either help her, or it'll make us all go crazy.

Valentine's Day

Well, I hope everyone's Valentine's was wonderful. We had a very nice day, complete with a surprise. Earlier in the week, Emma & I had made some cards to send out to family, including one from each of us for Jeff. Emma was very proud of hers. She had done a really nice job on it. I had made one for Jeff, only because I had been under the impression that we really couldn't afford to do much else for each other. Well Jeff had been scamming me. He got me a CD (the one I'd been begging him for), a box of candy, and had a dozen red roses delivered to our house early on Saturday morning. I was completely shocked & surprised. But, of course, that made my homemade card & plans for a really nice dinner seem very lame. It seemed his plan to make me think we were too broke to do much backfired. But he was very generous about it. Even after our "nice dinner" didn't happen until almost 8pm. I blame it too much preparation needed for what should have been a relatively easy dinner. We had cream of carrot soup, breaded pork chops, green beans amandine, and french bread, with chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert. I thought it was very romantic, but then again, it's kinda hard to be romantic when Emma keeps coming downstairs asking for juice and another quesadilla. Well, you make do with what you have.
I know that probably sounded bad; there we were, having a nice, completely balanced dinner & Emma's eating a quesadilla. It's not as neglectful as you think. I know for a FACT that Emma would not have eaten anything I made, so I was just saving us all the drama that forcing her to sit down & eat with us would have produced. At least for one meal. She's got plenty of drama in her little body to last until she graduates...from college.
I think we've found Emma's new favorite place to be. It's the childcare area at the local Indian casino. We went there yesterday afternoon to watch a friend of Jeff's from work do some DDR. That's the Dance Dance Revolution game, where you try frantically to follow arrows in the screen & step on tiny squares that coincide with the arrows & stay on the beat. It's really hard, even on the easy levels. I should know, because Jeff forced me to do it. I'm sure I was a sight. A 7-months pregnant woman, trying to have rhythm, and not fall flat on her face while jumping around, stepping on squares. In a child's arcade, no less. Yeah I'm sure it was funny for all concerned. Not mention the fact that I was standing next to Cia, the guy from Jeff's work, who is an expert at this. So I'm sure I looked doubly stupid trying to do my lame little level, while he's practically breakdancing on the pad next to me. I think at one time he got an 128 combo, which means he successfully completed 128 steps without screwing up once. But, hey, I got some exercise. Even Emma tried a little bit, but she got kinda shy when people started looking at her & saying how cute she was. Yeah, all that attention can get a little nervewracking.
Afterwards, we were going to take Cia out to lunch. On the way there, we saw that they had a childcare area. So we went in to see what it was like, how much, the hours, etc. Well, as soon as we got in there, Emma was begging for us to leave her there. It's relatively inexpensive (cheaper than most babysitters would charge) and they have tons of stuff for the kids to do. You can even give the kids a spending limit on snacks that they can have while they're there. So, we decided to leave her there, and go have lunch. We figured we'd get Emma something on the way home, since she obviously wasn't interested in eating with us at that time. So, we go & have a nice lunch. We go back to pick Emma up & they call her name on the loud speaker. We see her walking up towards the front of the place, and she gets about 50 feet from us, sees us & we're waving and saying, Come on Emma, it's time to go home! We mistakenly thought she'd be happy to see us. Uh, no. She sees us, has this really upset look on her face and TURNS AROUND! She walked back into the play area, and was obviously not ready to leave yet. Jeff & I just started laughing. It took the staff about 10 minutes to get her to come back out & leave. One staff member said to us, You're going to have to come back because that's the only way I was able to get her to come out. Emma was sulking the whole way home. I suppose it's better that she really liked it, rather than coming out to us running & screaming to take her home. She apparently had a lot of fun. Which is a good thing.
Ok, now some bad news. I have lost all of my contact information that was on the computer. Everyone's e-mail addresses, physical addresses & phone numbers that were on the computer are gone. Long story short, computer basically say "I don't like you, you smell", give us the virtual finger & make big crash. I lost everything. So, if you all would be so kind as to email me at coolmommy99@scalablenetworking.com and send me all of your information, I would greatly appreciate it.
I would like to thank everyone who has put in guesses at my expectnet.com game. All except my "thinks he's funny" husband, who put in a ridiculous guess, and if it comes anywhere close to that, I'm going to blame him. Everyone else's guesses have been great. And hopefully we'll know at least one part of the puzzle by this Friday, whether it's a girl or a boy, when I have my ultrasound. I'm thinking the baby turned yesterday. My belly looked an odd shape & it was very painful, like the baby was using my lower intestines as a foothold to change position dramatically. Not very pleasant. But I guess we'll see this Friday.

Barenaked Ladies

No, this is not a blog that is going to involve some sort of nudity, so parents, you need not send your small children into the next room. The Barednaked Ladies I'm speaking of are the group from Canada. They are, in fact, Jeff's absolute favorite group of all-time (well, aside from the newest additions Dave Matthews, Tenacious D, and an old favorite Toad the Wet Sprocket). Jeff has been a huge fan since he was introduced to the band back in his Freshman year. He introduced me to them after we met & I, too, have become a huge fan. We have amassed all 8 of their CD's, including their original covered debut album, Gordon. All the Gordon's that are out in stores now have a different cover on it. Jeff's very proud that he owns the original. Our friend Deanna was gracious enough to buy us tickets to go see BNL in Lansing. We were, of course, psyched. The only problem was finding a sitter for Emma that wouldn't mind being at our house until after midnight in the middle of the week. Luckily, we were able to find someone at the college. An RHD (Resident Hall Director) named Andrea. She & Emma had met last Halloween when we brought her to the college to go trick-or-treating. Emma was dressed as Barbie of Swan Lake, and Andrea was performing in the ballet, Swan Lake, as the lead Odette, which is who Barbie portrays in the movie. And since Andrea gave her candy, Emma immediately liked her. In fact, everytime we go see Andrea in her office, the first thing out of her mouth is "Candy?" It's like a Pavlovian response. So, when Andrea showed up last night, Emma was esctatic. And of course, she had brought some candy. I guess it really doesn't take much to please a 4 year old.
Before too long, Andrea was being initiated into Emma's 4 year old world, including being shown all her favorite movies, her dolls & Barbies, and all of her dress-up clothes. In fact, we forgot to warn Andrea about Emma's desire to constantly wear her torn up Cinderella costume. If it were up to her, she'd wear it all the time. But she ends up looking a little too risque for a 4 year old, seeing as how the whole back of the skirt is ripped up to the waistband & the halter top never quite stays above her baby cleavage. But Andrea was completely into it, probably having something to do with the fact that she doesn't have kids yet.
So we went off to the concert without worry. We got there in plenty of time, and our seats were great. They were on the second level, but they were in the first row, and we had a completely unobstructed view. Plus, there were only 2 seats in the row, so it was like a private balcony. They had 2 opening acts, a girl named Butterfly Boucher, and a guy (with his band) named Gavin Degraw. They were both really good, especially Gavin Degraw. Very powerful singer & talented musician. He sounded like a blend of rock and R&B, with a singer/songwriter feel mixed in. Very cool. The only bad part was this group of college girls sitting behind us. They were talking the whole time during the 2 opening acts & I doubt that most of them even knew the group they were here to see. Now I'm not claiming that Jeff was the first ever BNL fan, because I know they were popular in Canada before they even came here. But Jeff, along with whomever introduced him to them, has been a fan since very early on. Most of their songs were a little eccentric in nature, especially with titles like "Be My Yoko Ono", "Enid", and "If I Had $1,000,000". It didn't help that, at the time, music was all about grunge & despair or rap & excess. These guys weren't all that attractive & their music was head-bobbingly happy. Nobody wanted to pay attention to 5 guys from Canada. Plus, it may be hard to be taken seriously when one of your band members bears a close resemblance to Carrot Top & plays the upright bass. Jeff & I can distinctly remember when BNL hit it big in the US. It was the release of a remake of their song "Brian Wilson" in 1998. We were living in Illinois, and we heard the song on the radio. We're like, hey, we know that song, but it's a little more "pop"y now. Jeff's immediate reaction was to get all defensive, especially after more people started claiming to be "huge" fans. But, as wary as Jeff was about BNL getting noteriety & "selling out", he was happy that they were getting some attention. And although most of their songs on the album that came out that year, Stunt, seemed to sound too mainstream, their lyrics proved that BNL was still eccentric at heart.
Although Jeff has been a fan for years, it seemed that fate didn't want him to see them in concert. Every time they were in town for a concert, regardless of where we were living, either he was out to sea or we were out of town. I've been wanting Jeff to finally be able to see them in concert for sometime now, and I was so happy to find out that they were going to be in Lansing. And Deanna had said that the next time they were anywhere around us, she'd buy us tickets, knowing how much Jeff loves them. She'd already seen them in concert & raved about it.
Ok, back to the concert. It was awesome. Enough said. These guys are such a kick to watch, the way they interact with each other and the audience is so funny. One of the guys' birthdays was yesterday, and I think the rest of the group (and the whole audience) sang "Happy Birthday" to him about 5 times. They're all very animated onstage & they take a lot of liberties when it comes to their lyrics. Nothing is sacred & they feel comfortable enough to ad-lib in the middle of their songs. Jeff was glad they played some of their older songs, including 2 (one during their encore) from their first CD. I wondered out loud to Jeff, if they busted out with "Grade 9" or "New Kid (on the block)", if most people would know those songs.
They did 2 encores, and I was pretty sure they were going to do a third one, but then all the house lights came on, and we guessed that was our cue to go home.
At this time, it was already 11:30pm. We called Andrea to let her know we were on our way, and she informed us that Emma had been great, and had gone to bed without complaint. You know, sometimes when I think that kid is a holy terror, she surprises us and is a perfect angel. After I got off the cell phone, I pretty much fell asleep. It's an hour-long drive and it was WAY past my bedtime. I seem to be falling asleep on the couch at home around 8:30pm more often than not. I think I need to be taking naps during the day, but it's kinda hard when Emma won't take them with me. Jeff was a trooper & stayed wide awake to drive home. He's my hero. I would have driven off the side of the road into a snow drift & we would have been forced to become cannibals in order to survive the elements. I know how difficult it can be to stay awake driving, late at night, when someone is asleep in the seat next to you. It's like yawning, it's contagious. All of a sudden, you find your eyes bobbing open & shut and you realize you can't remember the last 5 minutes of driving you did. Not a good situation to be in when you're be-bopping along at 70 MPH. I vaguely remember stopping for gas, but the next thing I knew, we were pulling into our driveway.
Of course, that little nap prevented me from being able to fall back asleep right away. Aw, the curse of the power nap. Jeff, on the other hand, practically zonked out before his head hit the pillow. Poor guy. And he had to go to work today, too. Again, he's my hero. I now know why coffee is his best friend.
Of course, Emma was happy to see us when she woke up this morning, but the next thing out of her mouth was "Where's Andrea?" I told her she went back to her house, and Emma reacted as if I'd told her we were leaving her at a train station, never to return. She just wilted, her cute little face just crumpled into an inconsolable sob. She climbed into bed with me, and just wailed about how she missed Andrea. This poor kid needs some more friends.

Baby blues

Ok, I know people are probably tired of my ranting about how all I want is to know what the heck I'm having, but here's another one. You can skip it if you like. I went to my doctor's appointment yesterday, all set to be told that he was going to refer me for my ultrasound. I was 30 weeks & that's when he said he would do it. I've been having my friends & family on pins & needles for 2 weeks waiting for this. So, I go, I see him, and it looks like the appointment is coming to a close, WITHOUT him saying a word about my referral. So, I ask him, and he starts to hem & haw & look at my chart. I immediately think in my head, he's going to say, I'd like to wait another 2 weeks. And that's exactly what happened. He says "I'd like to wait until after your next appointment." I just sat there, with a not so happy look on my face. He looks at me, sees my face, and says something like "Is that going to be ok?" And my first reaction was to say "NO! Of course not! Don't you realize that I'm only 10 weeks maximum from having this child? I might as well wait until I give birth with all the procrastinating you're doing!" But instead I say, "Well I'd really prefer to have it this week." So, he gives me the referral. But, as luck (or divine intervention) would have it, they don't have any open appointments until the 20th. I didn't realize THAT many people needed ultrasounds in this tiny town. But I'm not giving up, I'm going to call them everyday to see if they have any cancellations. And if I still have to wait until the 20th, oh well, at least I have a date right now. That's more than I had yesterday.
A friend of mine told me about this website that basically does what I had proposed yesterday. You go there, put in what you think the baby will be & all the other pertinent information about the birth (date, time, weight, length) and then they calculate the results & see who got the most points based on your guesses. I think that would be more fun & a lot less stressful for me, because they're doing all the work. It's called www.expectnet.com. I'm going to set it up this morning, so if you want to, you can go there & predict what we're going to have and all that fun stuff that goes along with it. So, go to expectnet.com and put in Wilson1 as the game name & it should take you right there. I put in my guesses already. But hey, what do I know? I'm only the one carrying this kid.

I can breathe!

I think both Emma & I are in the home stretch of recovery when it comes to this bronchitis we've had for over a week. For the first time, Emma has not needed her inhaler during the day or before bed, her coughing fits are virtually non-existent. And I can finally sleep through the night without breathing through my mouth & sounding like a freight train. My nose has finally healed from being assaulted by Kleenex 50 times a day and I'm no longer coughing up stuff that should be in a lab experiment. I think all of that made our weekend at home a much more relaxing & enjoyable experience.
I'm beginning to think that even Emma is starting to get tired of the cold & snow. Jeff decided to shovel the driveway on Saturday morning & Emma got all dressed up in her snow gear to go outside with him and play. After only 20 minutes, she comes back into the house, complaining she's cold & doesn't want to go back out there. My little snow bunny, who, every time we get into the car, whines about playing in the snow, tired of it after only 20 minutes? Somebody call Oprah, this is a huge moment. So, instead, we watched daddy shovel outside & knock all the icicles down from the eves. I asked him why he was doing that, I thought they were really pretty. He thought they posed too much of a hazard. What if somebody walked up to our front door, only to be impaled by a falling icicle? He doesn't think renter's insurance would cover that. Good point. But, as I looked outside this morning, I noticed that they're back. We had above average temps this weekend, so the snow on the roof was melting just a bit. Not enough to completely uncover the roof, though. No, somehow I don't think that will happen until at least March. Jeff also took care of the giant icicle that was forming underneath the air vent from the heater. It was at least 3 feet tall. I took some pictures of it & posted one on the website www.msnusers.com/wilso4jm. Not the best quality picture, because again, I can't take pictures even with a wonderful digital camera in the snow. They all turn out too dark. I was noticing that some of the icicles that had formed on the eves of the house weren't all that clear. They had a yellow tinge to them. That kinda grossed me out, thinking about how they got that way. There's really only one way that snow turns yellow & it probably has something to do with all the squirrels that live in the trees in our yard. I hear them on the roof when it's quiet, squeaking away, and something tells me that they just aren't playing happily up there. I think they've decided to use our roof as their personal toilet. Eww. Just another reason to listen to my biology teacher's advice back in high school: Never eat yellow snow. Or in this case, don't eat yellow icicles.
Well today is my doctor's appointment. Hopefully I'll find out this afternoon WHEN I'm going to get my ultrasound. I'm hoping it's going to be by the end of this week, I'm getting really impatient. But, since I've got a little time before we actually find out what we're having, I have a little game I'd like to play. It's called, What do YOU think we're having? Oh it'll be great fun, just send me an email to coolmommy99@scalablenetworking.com & tell me what you think I'm having, a girl or a boy? I'll try to keep the tally updated up until we actually find out & then post the results. Won't this be fun? I already have a few opinions, and just to let you know, the tally so far is 2/girl, 2/boy. I don't expect any scientific reasoning behind what your guess is, because there isn't any behind the opinions I already have. It's just your gut feeling.
This Thursday is the Barenaked Ladies concert. Jeff has been waiting for years to see this band. Everytime they were in San Diego, he was out to sea or we were out of town. They're playing in Lansing & Jeff is very excited. I am, too. It should be a lot of fun. Someone from the college, one of Resident Hall Directors, is going to watch Emma for us. Now the only other band that Jeff & I really want to see is Dave Matthews. But I suppose that one can wait.

I guess diamonds don't last forever

I made a very disturbing discovery this week. One of the little diamonds on my wedding band has fallen out & I can't find it anywhere. I was very upset when I saw this. I don't even know when it happened. It could have fallen out sometime last week & I didn't even notice. I've emailed the company we purchased it through and am waiting for a response. I do remember something they told us about how they would repair the ring, even replace a diamond, as long as we still had the band itself. But since there isn't a store nearby (or for at least 4 or 5 states), I'm not exactly sure what they could do about it. Plus, that was more than 7 years ago, so I don't even know if that guarantee is still effective. I guess I should just chalk it up to having a marriage that lasts longer than the ring itself. That's a good sign, right?
Emma was finally able to go back to preschool yesterday. Although they had school on Tuesday, she had to miss it because we took Jeff to Lansing for his Microsoft conference. She was really excited about seeing everyone again. And the teachers were happy to see her as well. I'm glad Emma is this happy about school. I'm hoping the trend will continue even after she starts school where there's homework involved.
The snow continues. We got about another 3 inches last night. I was just beginning to get used to the roads being clean. Even though the snow has been piled up 5-6 feet on the sides of the road, the roads themselves have been relatively clear because we hadn't gotten any new snow in about a week. And I just had the car washed yesterday, too. Having a clean car in Michigan in the winter isn't about vanity, I'm discovering. It's about keeping your car from getting rusty due to the copious amounts of salt they have to put on the roads. Sometimes I don't even think they plow the road before they pour on the salt. On some streets it seems they just salt the road & plow later, which makes no sense at all. All that does is make the snow slushy, which in turn makes it more difficult to control your car, equaling more accidents. Plus, if it gets really cold, the slush freezes, making inches of ice on the road & then we have the conditions like we did last week where at every stop sign & stop light we're sliding all over the road trying to slow down. Fun.
I think Emma's in serious denial about this baby thing. She has very serious & deliberate thoughts about this whole process. For instance, the baby's a girl, and apparently it's not going to be allowed to come out. When I try to explain that the baby will come out eventually, she gives me this look, like I've just told her that it was raining kittens outside. She doesn't believe me. I've tried to tell her all the fun things that we can do with the baby, like dress it & play with it, but that's not helping. Maybe when we go to the hospital for the sibling tour, she'll start to get the idea.

The next Mary Lou Retton

Well, maybe that's a bold statement, especially after only 2 sessions of gymnastics, but there's no doubt that Emma thoroughly enjoys going. After 2 weeks of not being able to go anywhere or do anything, Emma was thrilled to be able to go to gymnastics last night. Her preschool's been cancelled due to the weather the past 4 times and since she was sick last week, she wasn't able to do gymnastics. She about peed herself when I told her it was time to put on her "suit" (what Emma calls her leotard). She couldn't wait to see her friends & do "jumping & bouncing". We went & picked Jeff up from work & headed over to the Student Activity Center, where the classes are held. The only bad part of having the class there is it seems every other week they have men's basketball games there & we have to park out in the back 40 or else pay the parking fee. So the able bodied people who have a VIP parking pass only have to walk maybe 40 yards to the front door, while the people with small children have to hoof it from the Ozarks in the snow & cold. I didn't think this was a fascist society, but I'm beginning to wonder.
As soon as we get there, though, I'm already thinking that I should have brought her inhaler. She starts coughing before we even get to the class & once she's in there, and starts running around, the coughing continues. But after about 5 minutes she stops & is good for the rest of the class. Jeff took some pictures with our digital camera & I just put them up on the website, so check them out. The lighting wasn't the best in there & with Emma running around, a lot of them turned out fuzzy, but we still got some good shots. And after the warm-ups, where every 2 seconds she was looking at us & giving up a thumbs up, she seemed to forget about us & concentrate on her class & having fun. That allowed Jeff & I to relax a little bit. I was able to to have a good discussion with my neighbor from across the street & Jeff read his computer book. Emma didn't seem to mind that we weren't paying 100% attention to her, but whenever she DID look up to find us, she saw that we were paying attention. It was more like a "just checking up on you" thing for both of us. We were making sure that she wasn't causing trouble & she was making sure we were still there & hadn't ditched her.
Once the class ended though, it was a struggle to get Emma to get her clothes back on to leave. She, again, was having too much fun to be bothered with leaving. But I think she finally realized that we would be coming back, so she relented without much of a fight. Something tells me, however, that gymnastics are going to be something we do every year. She's been bitten by the athletic bug & I don't foresee her slowing down anytime soon.

Happy Birthday to me

Yesterday was my birthday, Groundhog Day. No, I didn't see my shadow & yes, I've heard all the jokes. If only that movie "Groundhog day" were reality. I'd love to repeat my birthday over & over again.
I had a very nice birthday. It actually started a few days before, when I got part of my present early. I had been wanting this "Prenatel exercise kit". It comes with a set of 2 lb. weights, and a set of those stretchy bands that mimic weights. They have 3 different levels, low, medium, & high. It also comes with one of those big yoga balls. I've been wanting one of those for awhile. Since I've been in physical therapy & using them, I've found them to be very comfortable on the lower back. Plus I've seen women use them on all those baby shows during labor. Since I plan on having a very different labor than I did with Emma (where I was forced to lie in bed the whole time), I'm hoping to be able to use it.
So that was the first part of it. Jeff also got me a package to the local salon/day spa. But that's going to have to wait until I'm feeling a little better. What's the point in getting an aromatherapy massage if you can't breathe through your nose?
He then took me out to lunch yesterday, which was very nice. We went to Ruby Tuesdays. We'd never been there before, and it's very good food. He was able to get off work early, and we got take out for dinner, so we could stay at home & be together as a family, instead of at a restaurant. He got a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, that said "Happy Birthday, Mom" on it. Emma helped him pick it out. So we sat at home, having dinner & dessert. Emma & Jeff sang "Happy Birthday" to me. It was a very nice day.
Emma has been having a field day with "Alice in Wonderland". I really think it's her new favorite movie. She's watched it half a dozen times (or more) since we got it in the mail last Friday. It came with a memory type game of all the characters in the movie. This kid has a really good memory. She wants to play the game all the time, and most of the time, she wins. Of course, there is a fair amount of cheating involved, on her part. But that's only during the beginning of the game. Until she remembers where all the cards are & keeps picking pair after pair. But even when she doesn't sneak looks at more than 2 cards during her turn, she still manages to beat Jeff & I.
She's also getting really excited about gymnastics coming up tomorrow night. Barring any other medical emergencies, she should be going as scheduled. And since it snowed a fair amount last night, I doubt she's going to have preschool today, so I'm glad gymnastics can't be called on account of the weather. I'm beginning to doubt whether paying the preschool $50/month regardless of how many days they're actually going is worth it. Especially since the past 2 weeks have been cancelled. Oh well. I guess that's the price you pay when you live where it snows...a lot. So, back to gymnastics. Emma was practicing her somersaults last night. Jeff was helping her remember her form. And she was getting pretty good. Not at all like the first night at class, where she was rubbing her scalp bald on the mats or falling over sideways. After we saw that she had the somersaults down pretty well, I wanted to see if she would want to try a cartwheel, with help of course. She didn't quite get the mechanics of that one down, though. She's still pretty stiff and doesn't want to be positioned into where she needs to be. We worked on her stretching, and trying to keep her legs straight. She did really well with that. So, I think, even though she missed last week, she'll be ok.