20 weeks

Halfway there!  I still can't believe we're going to have another baby.  I also don't think I've really come to terms with the fact that we are having a girl. I was thinking about how I will need to get new clothes for stuff like Astros games (if we can ever get up there for one again) and birthdays.  After I thought we were having a boy, I looked at those onesies and imagined getting photos of Colin in the same outfits.  Things will be a little different now.  Although I do plan to reuse the Illini gear.  No reason a girl can't wear orange and blue!

Our surprise gift this year: It's a girl!

Travis and I had a mini freak out tonight.  We were putting Aiden to bed and Travis was in the closet, "We have to fit two sets of clothes in here."  The logistics of fitting a second child into a 1300 sq. ft. house is insane.  We want an armoire for the guest bedroom, I'd like to get some corner shelves for the kids' room, and I'd love to get a buffet table for the dining room.

In order to put the crib in Aiden's room, we need to move the futon out of there.  I was hoping to move it into the guest bedroom, but then we need a computer desk somewhere else in the house - a place to do bills and store our computer.  WHERE ARE WE GOING TO PUT THAT?  Travis and I decided we need a bigger house.

Entertainment

Bored at work?  Bored at home?  Trying to kill some time on the pot?  Check out these sites:

The Oatmeal (comic)

Endless Origami (comic)

Thought Catalog (blog posts and funny lists by various authors)

What I Have Learned About Aiden This Week

We've spent a lot of time together in the past week. I feel like I've gotten to know my son a little bit better.

• He says tree instead of three.
• He heard me call my mom 'Mom' so now he calls me Mom instead of Mommy.
• He likes clementines.
• He adores his uncle Alex and Gramma. Very sad they're gone.
• He is building a tolerance to Christmas candy.

It's been a good vacation thus far. Only thing that would make it better is if Travis had the whole thing off with me.

Brave Models

I wonder what I would be...

What Kind of Fish are You?

Perhaps his seat was uncomfortable?

Vacation Time!

I'm not sure how much I'll be posting over the next week.  My family is in town for the holidays and I plan to keep busy with them.  In the meantime, check out this giant waste of aged grapes:

Hope everyone had a grand Christmas!

School Lunch

I can't remember if I have posted about this before.  So if I have, please forgive me.  I have been reading through the archives of a blog titled Fed Up With Lunch.  It's written by a teacher that ate the school-provided lunch at the elementary school she worked at every day for a year.  She chronicles her daily meals, how they made her feel, what students had to say about it, etc.  She also mentions that the kids only have 20 minutes to get to the cafeteria, collect their food, cut it, eat, then get back to class.  Most of the meals look horrible.  That's not what my school lunches looked like.  Ours were cooked in an oven in bulk, then scooped out into each tray.  These meals just look icky. 

I've been getting very interested in school lunches as Aiden is getting closer to attending school.  I've seen some of the food they prepare at his daycare, and it's not too bad.  Definitely doesn't look like the stuff in this blog.  I always enjoyed "hot lunches" when I was in grade school.  It would be nice if Aiden was able to enjoy the same thing, but if the food looks anything like this at the school I may have to make his lunch more often than not.

After Mrs. Q (the blogger's pen name) finishes her year (which was published in book form as well), she begins documenting the food she sends to school with her preschool-aged son.

How did you guys feel about your school lunches?  Or did you bring your own lunch every day?

Seeing Favour in our Future

I am 19 weeks today.  Almost half way there!  I had my second nuchal scan with the doctor yesterday, which is basically an in depth ultrasound.  I love that stuff, seeing all the little parts.  When the technician was doing the initial screening, the baby would NOT move.  It made it easy for measuring a lot of things, but when it was time for her to see certain things (like the heart), the baby was just not in a good position.  I had to roll over a couple times so the tech could get a different view. 

At the end of the ultrasound, the tech says, "Everything looks good with the baby, but" and I start mentally freaking out - is there something wrong with me?  The placenta?  WHAT IS THE BUT??? 0.5 seconds later, "but I think this little boy is a little girl."

Excuse me?

"But we don't have any girl names picked out."

Travis says, "I guess we're going to have to change the Christmas cards." (They have Colin's name on them.)

The doctor came in the room at that point to confirm that he is 99.9% confident the baby is a girl.  "No external plumbing on that one," he said.  Funny guy. 

So!  I immediately start thinking about names.  I couldn't get past the naming.  I couldn't see any farther than that.  I was so excited for Travis, because I know he really wanted a daddy's little girl.  Now, hopefully, he will have that.

When I was driving to work, I talked to Alexa on the phone.  She said she doesn't have the little baby girl clothes anymore, but she would save Skylar's current clothes.  Yes please!  I didn't even think about clothes.  I purposely chose neutral colors for Aiden's room so it would be easy to reuse for a boy or girl.  So we will be able to reuse most everything, but clothes are a biggie.  I'm going to go through Aiden's old stuff and pull out all his neutral things.  I can already see our bank account dwindling to nothing.

Aiden went with us to this ultrasound.  I got him all excited to go see the baby on the TV, but I think it was too abstract for him to see.  He got bored quickly.  Thank goodness for toddler apps on the phone!  Aiden seems to be grasping the concept of being a big brother a little more lately.  He knows there's a baby in Mommy's tummy, but not in Daddy's or his own.  I REALLY need to buy him some big brother books.  I was reading one of Blair's to him the other weekend and started crying while thinking about Aiden as a big brother.  I will be so proud, I know it.

Now that whole I-have-a-feeling-its-a-girl thing makes more sense to me.  I really thought the baby was a girl until they told me she was a he.  Plus, I have this theory that nausea is worse with girls because there is more estrogen in your body due to the second female on board.  With a boy, acne should be worse because there is more testosterone present.  I have had more nausea and less acne this pregnancy.  Now my feelings are founded!

I already think I have come up with The Name.  I need to mull it over a bit, but I'm 99.9% sure we're going with Mila.  It's Russian, ranked #364 in the US and means 'favour or grace'.  I like it's simplicity.

Learning about Christmas

We were at Ariel's for dinner. Aiden was looking at her manger when he points at the baby Jesus, "Baby?"

"Yep, that's a baby."

He points at the Virgin Mary, "Mommy?"

"Yep, that's a mommy."

Then he throws his hands up in the air, "Where's Daddy?!"

Uhhhhhh. That's a little tricky.

Nutshell News

It's raining!  Perhaps we'll put a dent in our deficit?  Or maybe not.  We're about 25 inches under average rainfall for the year.  I just read that Lake Conroe (just north of Houston) is 8 feet below normal levels.

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I got a parking spot at work!  I didn't have one for a while because I figured it was a way to save our family $40 a month and it was the only exercise I got.  I had to walk about 5 blocks from my car to my building.  I am thoroughly ecstatic to have that 20 minutes back to my daily commute (10 minutes each way).  I was starting to feel guilty about never driving when we go out for lunch because my car was too far away.  When you have a 60-minute lunch, 20 minutes seems like a lot.

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I have had almost an entire week constipation free!  Get excited, people.  That's a big deal in Nikki's life.  I think it's a combination of not needing the Zofran for a while (let's hear another hoorah!) and incorporating dried apricots into my diet.  Whoever said prunes are good to keep the bowels moving had nothing on dried apricots.  Maybe a combination of both would be good if you're having serious problems. 

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Travis bought me an iPhone for Christmas and gave it to me a week early!  My cell phone is my alarm clock.  My last cell phone decided it was going to start draining the battery instead of charging it at night, leaving me without an alarm clock in the morning.  Since I don't have a car charger, that meant I only had an hour (tops) to charge my phone in the morning.  It would inevitably die before the end of the work day.  My other complaint with that phone was the touch screen didn't work well.  The iPhone has been SUCH an improvement in that department.  TOTALLY worth the cost.  Other perks:

• Apps like Word Feud, Kindle, Facebook and Pandora.
• Voice to text function (can be funny at times)
• Facetime (with Grandma Brenda and Travis)
• Instant weather and radar
• A camera app that is eating up my time, called TiltShift Generator, that takes photos like this:

That Christmas tree used to belong to our Grandma Rose.
Now it sits in Ariel's living room during the holidays.

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My mom and brother Alex are here!  They got in late Sunday night and went straight to Ariel's house.  They are staying with her until Christmas Eve.  Travis, Aiden and I are going over there for breakfast and spending a portion of the day there.  Then Mom and Alex are coming back with us that afternoon/evening.  Ariel and Robert have to work that night, so they won't be coming with us.  =(  But!  They will be over first thing in the morning to see what Santa brought Aiden.  I LOVE this holiday.

More talk of poo

There is nothing more disorienting than waking up at 2 am to find your toddler vomiting all over his pillow.  I'm talking whole bean regurgitation on his self, Mr. Lion and the bed.  Twice.  We ran out of bedding for him to up chuck in.  My twisted pregnant stomach, after an hour of wiping sour Mexican food from my son's face, decided it need to be fed.  Although, I guess I don't really have a sensitive stomach.  It just seemed like I shouldn't be hungry.  Sadly, I have to deal with a lot of gross stuff at this job and my previous job, take an hour lunch, then get back to it.

I'm not sure what was wrong with Aiden on Sunday.  Saturday we let him take an extra long nap because we made plans to eat dinner in Houston.  Shannon was celebrating her birthday in Houston, so we drove up for the child/prego-friendly part of the plans.  We don't get to see Shannon very often since she moved out of town, so it was great to see her.  I used to work with her at the vet clinic I worked in during college.  Good times. 

Anyway, Aiden fell asleep in the car around 10:30 and we got home at 11:30.  The vomiting commenced not long after that.  Travis laid in the room with him so he could direct as much vomit into the trash can as possible. (THANK YOU, TRAVIS!)  The next day he seemed much better.  I introduced water and food to him slowly to make sure he was fine.  No problems there. 

But around 10:30 that morning the constipation hit.  This was the worst it's ever been.  He bent over and cried for 30 minutes.  We offered him prune juice, but he wouldn't drink it.  After a while, we decided to put him in the tub.  I've heard that can help soften things up a bit.  He was in the water for an hour without much output.  He was crying almost the entire time.  We got him out of the bath tub and put him in front of the TV for some distraction.  He wouldn't sit down, but he calmed down and kneeled on the couch.  He wouldn't sit down for lunch so I put the food and juice on the coffee table for him.  I offered him lots of whole grains and fruit, hoping to get something in there to help move things along.  Thankfully he ate a prune.

I didn't think we would be able to get him down for nap because he was in pain.  But at the same time I wasn't surprised that he passed out the second his head hit the pillow.  While Aiden was asleep, Travis ran to the gas station to grab some apple juice.  Aiden loves that stuff, so we didn't have any trouble getting him to drink a lot of that after his 2-hour nap.

We had planned on going to see the Polar Express in 4D that afternoon, but there was no way I was going to take him anywhere like that.  He would bend over and cry periodically.  We try to comfort him, but most of the time he gets angry and pushes us away.  It's so horrible being that helpless.  Finally around 6 or 7 he pushed out a giant rock.  Travis claims it was the size of his fist, but he has big hands.  I'm not sure that's physically possible.  With as difficult this one was, perhaps he wasn't lying.

I think Aiden is having sympathy pregnancy pains.

Christmas Photos

I forgot to post the photos from when we went to get the Christmas tree.  We also bought Aiden a mini tree to keep in his room.  He pulled it out and carried it around as Dad was lugging the full size version.

Helping secure the tree

He was able to turn one screw in all the way!

Setting up the trees

For our Christmas cards, we went to the neighboring town and took photos along the railroad that lines the main road.  I think due to the drought, a lot of the trees are changing colors at the same time.  Usually they all change at different times, meaning we never have a true fall.  It currently feels like fall in Illinois, even though we're one week from the first day of winter.

I used a tripod to take the photos containing all three (four?) of us.  It was tricky.  I'm pregnant, it was muddy, it was windy, Aiden does NOT smile on cue.  Here are those results - see for yourself!

Creating the Christmas cards helped us think long and hard about what we want to name our impending little one.  We've had a running list for months, but only a couple names remained on the list.  Our final choice?

Colin Curtis

Curtis is after Travis' dad.  (Aiden's middle name is Gregory, after my dad.)  We chose the name because we like it.  But after further inspection we found out the following:

• Colin is short for Nicholas in England.  My name is a female version of Nicholas.  So both our names mean 'victor', as in 'victorious person'.  My grandpa's name is Victor. 
• The name Colin was ranked #111 in America according to a Baby Center in 2010.

I loved the name Aiden and there is no way I would have changed it.  Even if I had known in advance that it would be the Top Boys Name for 6 years in a row, beginning in 2005.

Aiden's Dance Moves

Yesterday I left work for a couple hours to watch Aiden's dance class perform.  It was so cute.  I teared up with happiness/pride the entire time.  Thank goodness I recorded some of it because otherwise my only memory would be of a bunch of blurry kids moving around.

In the beginning they are just stretching.  In a couple videos they actually start dancing.  Well, as organized as a bunch of toddlers can be...

There are a lot of other videos if you'd care to watch more than this one.  I could watch them all day.

Prepare yourself for poop talk

I have no idea why I am embarrassed at the time, but I can tell these stories to the world wide web.  Either way, here it is.

I'm rocking some serious constipation this pregnancy.  I don't have a normal digestive system to start with.  Then during pregnancy it gets worse.  Add Zofran, a known side-effect of which is constipation, and I'm lucky if I go once a week.  And that one time is not an easy moment.  I'm using the term "moment" loosely.

I try to keep track of how often I go.  I take fiber supplements and stool softener on a daily basis.  I do not have doctor permission to take laxatives.  Generally you are supposed to avoid those while pregnant because it can bring on labor.  When it's been more than three days, I bump up the fiber supplements. 

I need to learn to do that on the weekends.

The problem is that after a certain point, being stopped up hurts.  Just sitting there hurts.  I took some Metamucil (sounds innocent enough) with my dinner last night.  I've decided that stuff takes about 12 hours to produce results because when I was walking into work this morning, shit hit the fan.  Not literally, I promise.  Because of further complications related to constipation (hemorrhoids) the doctor recommended going the moment an urge struck.  Waiting would increase the chances of exacerbating that issue.  So I ran to the bathroom and then waited.  Because that's what you do with constipation.  Lots of waiting. 

A few minutes into my wait, the automatic lights in the bathroom turned off.  I didn't want to risk losing the urge if I got up to turn the light back on, so I just sat there in the dark.  Then.  Then someone came in.  I was just waiting, no action, so I was silent.  I suddenly felt ridiculous.  I didn't want this unknown (up to this point) person to know I was sitting in the bathroom in the dark.  Because then they would know I'd been in there long enough for the lights to go out and then they would KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING.

I wasn't okay with that.  So I sat silently.  Waiting.  Waiting.... waiting...  The lady never left!  I watched the second hand tick away on my watch.  Almost 10 minutes went by.  Finally I took matters into my own hands.  I noisily pulled some toilet paper off the roll.  The sound of that paper ripping obviously said, 'GET OUT.'  So she did. 

I did my business and off to work I go!

I'll have to see if I can change up my schedule to using the bathroom for longer than 5 minutes on the weekends.  It's just so inconvenient to deal with at work.

Holiday Parties, Part II

On Sunday we went to a Christmas party for Travis' work.  This is our first at his new job since he started in May.  I was looking forward to finally meeting everyone.  He has showed me a photo of them on their website, but I hadn't met any of them in person (except for one).  It was nice to get a feel for the people Travis works with on a daily basis. 

Kids were not invited, so we left Aiden at Blair's house for the afternoon.  Of course he chooses a day with someone else to sleep three and a half hours!  He didn't wake up until shortly before we got back from the dinner and that was only because Alexa woke him up.  Crazy kid.  I'm pretty sure it's because he was sleeping in Chris and Alexa's bedroom, which is PITCH BLACK.  I've decided that when we can afford it, one of my purchases for the kids' room will be black-out curtains.  They work wonders.

The "dinner" was at a seafood restaurant in a town we don't visit very much.  We'd been there once before with the Ramby's, but I didn't realize until we got there.  I put dinner and quotes back there because we ate at 2:30 in the afternoon.  It worked out well though.  They had an open appetizer buffet when we got there.  Then we were allowed to order whatever we wanted off the menu.  Of course I wasn't feeling that great with the scent of seafood wafting around me.  I had the opportunity to get a $30 fish plate, but opted for a chicken salad.  Travis had Avocado Mahi.  I was thinking about getting it, but was glad I had my fresh greens when they brought out the plates.  Travis loved it.  I just wasn't up for it.

Speaking of nausea, it's gotten A LOT better.  I have found that the only time it hits me hard is after I take my vitamins.  I've been playing around with when I take them, trying to find a safe method.  I'm still working on it though.  It didn't matter if I took them all in the morning, or the evening.  Either way I felt horrible.  So I've tried splitting them up throughout the day.  I don't have it perfected just yet.  But I think I've pinpointed it to the DHA supplement.  Not sure why it's affecting me so hard this time because it wasn't an issue at all last time.

Anyhoo, the dessert was chosen for us - blueberry bread pudding.  I can't stand soggy bread, so I've never liked bread pudding of any kind.  I skipped on dessert. 

We had free drink coupons for the evening.  It was supposed to be 2 per person.  Travis was happy to use mine.  HA.  Plus, his boss bought him a few drinks.  He talked the ENTIRE ride back to the Ramby's and he even sang to Christmas music.  I didn't realize he knew the words to Christmas songs.  Guess it just takes a few Jack and Cokes to bring out his holiday cheer.

Unrelated, but here's a couple photos I never shared...

Aiden helped decorate the Christmas tree.

He hung his 1st Christmas ornament, as our annual tradition.

Aiden likes to rock his Cowboy Woody hat whenever he gets a chance.  It goes nicely with his pirate sword.

Here is the only photo I took of Aiden opening his gifts with Santa.  I love being a parent.

Holiday Parties, Part I

Fabulous weekend.  The end.

No not really the end, silly!  I like to talk!  Or type.  So here's the rest.

We made plans to go to two Christmas parties this weekend.  The one on Saturday was a child-friendly party.  They have an entire room dedicated to toys, so of course the kids took over that room.  We arrived before most of the group did, so here's a photo of the room before chaos struck:



Left to right: Blair, Matthew, Juliet, Aiden and Skylar

I have started to notice that Aiden does really well with kids of all ages.  He seems to adjust his play level to his playmate's needs.  If he's looking at a baby, his voice gets soft and higher pitched and he gets down on their level to check them out.  But if it's an older boy that he has to run to keep up with, he pumps up the volume and the energy.  The one thing he's not good at, all around, is sharing.  He has the toddler mentality.  The rules: everything is his.  Doesn't matter who is taking it from him, he will get upset.  I found myself explaining to Aiden several times that night, babies are too little to know better.  I showed him how to give the little ones a toy to distract them from what he's playing with.  I'm not sure if that's the right way to go about it, but both parties seemed okay with it. 

Here is an example of Aiden learning to share a house with Skylar:

Everyone brought some food.  It was all awesome.  I ate horribly this weekend.  I need to reel that in a little bit because my goal this pregnancy is to NOT gain 41 pounds.  I don't know if that will be possible, but I'm going to give it a try.  Honestly, I didn't have much trouble losing the weight last time.  Well, the last 5-10 pounds didn't come off until after I quit breastfeeding, but I will keep that in the back of my head this time.  I just want to remain as healthy as possible.  I do have to say one of the annoying parts of being gigantic, was my inability to use stairs.  It would be nice if I didn't have an asthma attack every time I need to go up a few stairs.

ANYHOO.  In addition to the food we all brought, we also brought a gift for the kids' gift exchange.  I was so excited about this part.  Chrissy (pictured below) numbered the gifts, then each child drew a number that corresponded to the gift they would receive.  She obveriously has a magic brain because she knew EVERY child's birth date.  She let the kids draw starting with the youngest and going up from there.

Aiden had a rough time understanding that he didn't get to choose which present he got to open.  He wanted one that belonged to another child, so we had a minor breakdown at that moment.  But as soon as I got him back to our spot on the carpet and he got to open the present, he was better.  He got a variety of card games aimed at kids 3 and up.  He's almost to three and I've thought about buying him some card games, so I think it worked out wonderfully.



Plaid



Aiden LOVES puzzles.  There is a card game in the set called Matching.  I haven't read how you are actually supposed to play the game, but I shuffle the deck and hand it to Aiden.  Then he finds the three-card sets and puts them together.  It's a little like a puzzle, only a little more difficult.  He seems to enjoy it.  If anything, he just likes shuffling through the cards and looking at them.  I taught him how to pick up a bunch of cards at once and straighten them, so he really likes doing that now.  He gets a little frustrated when it comes to fitting the cards back in the box, but we're working on that.

After all the kids opened their gifts, they walked around and played with each other's presents.  It was so cute.  There was a really neat underwater puzzle set that required the use of a magnetic fishing pole to take the pieces out of the board.  Might be getting that for our little man...

Happiness Factory

This isn't even Christmas-themed, but there is just something about Coca-Cola commercials this time of year.

Dancing Toilet Santa

I can't recall if I've mentioned it before, but several months ago we put Aiden in a dance class that comes to his daycare once a week.  He has never liked dancing very much and I was hoping this would help him out in that department.  And it did!  Sometimes when a song comes on that Aiden enjoys, he'll start wiggling and say, "Dance Mommy!"

I'm about to do some bragging, please forgive me.  We got a progress report from his instructor last week.  The options were Unsatisfactory, Satisfactory and Superior.  Aiden received Superior marks in everything!  The instructor also left the following note: "Aiden does really great in class and he knows all the dances.  I put him in the front of the class so he can lead the other children."  Ahhhhhh!  I love it!!!  I think that is my first time with serious praise from a teacher.  So. Exciting.

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This last weekend, Aiden got a wild hair up his butt and decided he wanted to use the big potty.  He came running into the kitchen with his pants around his ankles asking me to take off his diaper.  I quickly obliged and we ran to the bathroom.  Well, I ran.  He waddled with his pants around his ankles.  He hopped up on the toilet so quickly that I had to catch him from falling in.  I stood there, coaching him on.  He suddenly stood up on the stool, and turned around to face the toilet.  He wanted to stand up to pee.  CUTEST THING EVER. 

After a moment, he turned around and sat down.  By this point, Travis was in there with us.  This time when Aiden sat down, he fell all the way in - butt in the water, shirt soaked.  I was so worried it would make him afraid of the potty, so we laughed it off.  I think we did okay.  He only got upset when we made him change his shirt. 

Sadly, there was no pee in the toilet. 

I did, however, buy a toilet seat insert so he won't fall in anymore.  It's covered in super heroes, so I'm hoping that makes him want to spend more time in there.

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This weekend we went to a Christmas function for my work.  It was at the director's giant house.  Santa was there and since we were late getting to the party, we had Santa all to ourselves!  Which was great because Aiden was really slow to warm up to the guy.  We had to sit in the living room for five minutes trying to get Aiden over there.  Travis stayed with him and I went over to sit next to Santa on the couch.  Travis finally convinced him to walk over to the couch.  Travis sat on the other side of Santa and Aiden got up on his lap.  And the only reason he did so is because Santa bribed him with a present.

Of course, after opening his gift, he didn't want to leave the couch.  Santa was such a good sport, so patient with him.  Aiden never cried, but we didn't get a good photo of him facing the camera.  I was still very appreciative of Santa's patience.  I suppose he's probably a pro with this sort of thing by now.

After meeting Santa, we went downstairs and decorated some Christmas cookies and Aiden ate the gum drops off the gingerbread house the other kids had built.  Probably a germ factory, but what are you going to do?

In the 90's

One year at Christmas time, we went out hunting for our tree.  Found the perfect one, tied it to the top of our van and made our way home.  When we got home, my dad trimmed the tree outside, then brought it in the living room to put in the tree stand. 

By this point, it was dark.  A few moments later, a bat was flying frantically around the house.  We all ducked, the cats went nuts trying to chase the flying creature and my parents did some quick thinking.  If I remember correctly, they attempted to coax the bat out the door using a broom at first.  When that didn't work, they moved on to a blanket.  They opened it up and held it vertically to push the bat toward the door.  Worked like a charm. 

I have to give my mom props for doing that because I really don't think I would have handled it well.  I have a severe fear of bugs or any flying creature getting stuck in my hair.  Just thinking about it gives me the chills.  After my parents divorced, my mom moved into another home.  There was a red bud tree at her front door that used to get swarmed by Japanese beetles (they look like black shiny June bugs) every summer.  There were so many that they used to land on the front screen door.  For a little while, our garage door keypad stopped working so the only option was to enter the front door. 

Traumatized me for life.

Looks like someone else had a creature problem this year:

Snake found in a Christmas tree

Watching a lot of TV lately

I have been watching a lot of TV lately.  I know I've mentioned it before, but we no longer have good adult channels in the living room.  We downgraded our satellite package to help save money, so now we have a DVR and family channels.  When we got our Internet, it was cheaper to get a package deal with cable.  We had cable forever that we weren't using because we had DirecTV.  But when we got rid of satellite in the bedroom, we started using the cable back there.  It's nice because we still get good channels (MTV, E!, VH1, AMC, FX, etc), but it's rough because we don't have a DVR.  That means I have to know what time shows are on that I like, then I need to allott time to actually sit down and watch them.

That means on Sundays I watch The Walking Dead and Wednesdays I watch American Horror Story.  Lots of gore on my TV lately.  Not sure why these shows appeal to me so much.  I've always liked supernatural stories, I guess.  I also watch Vampire Diaries (guilty pleasure), but that's available on the DVR.  In addition to these shows, we've been trying to catch up on Season 1 of Game of Thrones.  We don't have HBO (although I'd really love to get it someday), so we missed this series when it was live.  I've heard lots of good things about it and wanted to give it a try.  I love it.  Again, it's gory.  My plan is to finish watching this season, then watch it live with friends who have HBO (Michelle and Linsey both watch this show).  We'll have to see how well that works out.

Oh, also on my plate: Baseball Wives.  I don't think I would watch that show if I didn't have the Linsey connection.  But man was it funny knowing that's her cousin.  Bwahahaha!!!  They say right off the bat (no pun intended) that everyone knows of Anna and her reputation.  Ominous start.  She didn't fail to keep up her side.  Did anybody watch it?

16 Weeks

I had my monthly visit to the doctor on Wednesday.  She said I have a large uterus.  Exhibit A:

Doc also explained that the medication I'm taking for nausea (Zofran) can cause serious constipation.  That explains a lot of what I've been dealing with lately.  I'm sure everyone is better for knowing that tidbit about me.  But I feel you need to know that to better understand this next bit of information: I've probably been feeling the baby move.  On 4 or 5 occasions I have felt movement down there, but thought it was related to the lack of general movement down there. But every time I felt it, I thought, "Wow.  That feels like when Aiden was moving.  Oh I can't wait until I can feel this bambino moving around in there!"  

Thing is, I thought it was too early.  I believe I felt Aiden move for the first time when I was around 17 weeks along.  And it was so faint that it just as well could have been gas bubbles.  This is not faint.  I even get shifting of my tummy, like the uterus is more on one side than the other.  

The doctor said that women generally feel the baby moving earlier (14-16 weeks) with the second and subsequent pregnancies.  Top that with my "large uterus" and I should be feeling this kiddo moving, according to her.  So, yay!

Another side effect of Zofran: headaches. They are KILLER.  Tylenol has never helped my headaches and unfortunately that's all I'm allowed to take at the moment.  It does dull the pain, but the only way it disappears completely is after a night of sleep.

I'm now taking some OTC meds to counteract the previously mentioned side effect of Zofran.  Still waiting for them to go into effect.  Any day now...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Saturday, Aiden was horribly cranky. Travis was only supposed to work until noon, so I kept telling myself, 'Travis will be home soon.' Unfortunately, he had to work late. Meaning I didn't get to have my break. I was planning to get my hair cut and go grocery shopping while Travis stayed home with Aiden.  Since we had plans for the Yeager's to come over for dinner I knew I wouldn't have time to do that when Travis said he'd be late.  Instead, he stopped at the grocery store for the two items I needed for dinner that night. 

Travis got a ham from work as his "Thanksgiving bonus".  We cooked it for Thanksgiving and then used the leftovers to make ham and bean soup.  It's a recipe my dad usually does with the Christmas ham.  Every time he makes it, the giant pot is gone in one day.  We all have a bowl or two and then Travis and Alex finish it off.  It's amazing what those guys can put back. 

It takes a minimum of four hours to make the soup because you use dried beans and you make your own ham stock using the ham bone.  Travis picked up a loaf of french bread and I have to say it turned out pretty amazing.  For dessert we had leftover pecan pie and the Yeager's brought a peanut butter-chocolate pie.  I don't know how I don't weigh 200 pounds right now.

Luke and Aiden ran around the house like mad men.  Aiden likes to jump on his bed whenever friends come over and Luke likes to shut doors.  Problem is neither of them can open the door to his bedroom.  So we spent a lot of time opening doors.  Kenley is getting so big.  She can sit up well on her own and started crawling the day after their visit.  In the past, she was afraid of strangers.  The only way I could hold her is if she faced away from me the whole time.  At some point she would figure out that a stranger was holding her and she would cry.  I am SO ECSTATIC that she has either gotten over the stranger fear, or I am no longer a stranger.  She left Travis and I hold her for long periods of time AND we got to interact with her.  When she was sitting on Linsey's lap, she kept laughing at Travis.  I think he's funny looking too, so it makes sense.

Sunday, Travis pulled the Christmas decorations out of the garage.  Aiden and I put everything up around the house.  I have a list of a few things I'd like to buy from the store, if I can find it.  I know this is cheesy, but my dad bought us a string of multi-color, musical lights.  They put me in the Christmas mood every time I go pee.  Aiden really likes them too.  Sadly, last year half the string went out and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with them.  I threw them away assuming I could buy more this year.  But now I can't find them anywhere!  I need to search harder on the Internet.  None of the stores near me carry them.  My dad said he got it from a local store.  I may have him mail me some!

Now all we need is a Christmas tree!  We are planning to get one this weekend.  I can't wait to decorate it with Aiden this year.  He is really into the Christmas spirit this year.  In the past it was fun because we were doing something different.  This year, he actually understands and recognizes more.  He does seem more smitten by Christmas trees than Santa.  Which means putting up the tree this weekend should be a blast. 

Last year my dad bought a frame and an ornament for me to place a silhouette portrait of Aiden and a lock of his first hair cut.  I never got around to doing it so it's been sitting on our desk for a year.  I walked by it the other day and though, "I should really take care of that before this Christmas."  Part of the problem was that I didn't have a good profile shot of Aiden from the time he got his first hair cut.  Instead, I used a current photo.  I plan to put both a current lock and the hair from his first haircut in the photo frame.  I still haven't put that all together, as I need to trim his hair first.  But here's the ornament:

I know someone who knows someone

Funny story.  My friend Linsey has a cousin, who is married to a retired baseball player.  Because of this, she was chosen to star in a reality show called Baseball Wives on VH1.  The first episode airs tonight at 8:00 pm Central time.  I thinking knowing this woman is Linsey's cousin will make the show a little more interesting for me.  Linsey is the most sweet and polite southern belle I have ever met.  I don't think she has much in common with her cousin.  See for yourself:

Anna Benson on Baseball Wives

The day that puts stores in the black

The rest of the weekend was great for me.  Sadly, Travis had to work all day Friday and most of Saturday.  Aiden and I had it off.  At the beginning of the week, I noticed that Aiden was acting really cranky and he had a little cough when he first woke up.  I was checking his temperature every morning.  Monday it was normal, Tuesday it was a degree high, Wednesday it was at 100 degrees.  When Travis was getting him dressed, he pointed to his ear and said it was ouchy.  How amazing is that?  He told us what was bothering him!  That has never happened!  In the past, we knew something was wrong because he wasn't eating, or he was cranky, or he slept a lot.  But we had to go to the doctor to figure out what it was.  Sometimes we never really found out exactly what the problem was.  He's totally growing up. 

I'm sure someone will frown on this.  I took him to daycare that morning.  I gave him ibuprofen before we left the house, but I had so much to do at work that I had to get in.  I was hoping they wouldn't call me before noon to come pick him up.  I got my wish.  I was able to get him after work and take him to Urgent Care.  I called that morning and his regular doctor's office was busy all day.  I'm not surprised, being that it was the day before a holiday.

We waited for about two hours I think.  It seemed like forever.  There was a woman in the waiting room with a little boy, 3 or 4 years old I would guess.  He was sleeping on a chair by the fish tank - Aiden's favorite area.  So of course every time Aiden went back there and would try to talk to me (talk, not yell or scream), the mom would shush him and say, "He's sleeping.  Shhhhh."  Gah.  I understand that sometimes it can seem so important that your child sleep, but geez lady.  He was just saying, "Fish, Mommy?" as he was pointing at the fish tank.  I tried to keep him out of that back waiting area from then on, but I didn't try too hard.

Sure enough, Aiden had an ear infection.  I'm so happy we were able to get medication for that before the 4-day weekend.  Thanksgiving could have been a lot more difficult. 

So!  Friday morning, I got up BEFORE DAWN and tried out a little Black Friday shopping.  It was my first time to go out the day after Thanksgiving.  Honestly I was a little nervous.  You always here about people getting trampled to death for a $10 toaster.  I didn't want that to be me. 

I only went to a few stores and only one of them was right at opening.  Shoe Carnival opened at 5 am and gave out $10 off gift cards to the first 100 people.  My friends and I made it in the first 100!  Plus, they were having great shoe sales.  I've wanted to buy boots since last winter, but could never get over the guilt of such a large purchase.  The cheapest boots I could find were $60 at Target.  If you went to a department store or DSW, forget it.  You'd be spending $100-200.  As much as I want boots, I'd rather have groceries. 

Back to Black Friday - I bought a pair of $60 brown boots (up to my knee) for 50% off, plus my $10 off gift card.  I got a pair of boots for $20!!  Can't beat that.  Totally made my morning exhaustion-caused nausea worth it.  After we all made our purchases, we went to the Sephora next door.  We also stopped at Walmart, but I didn't buy anything else.  I had what I wanted and was just along for the ride at that point. 

I was home, in bed by 6:45.  I had to be home by 7 because that's when Travis leaves for work.  I was sure that Aiden would wake up when I got home and I wouldn't be able to get anymore sleep.  But I was wrong!  I got to sleep in until 8:30.  Then Aiden climbed in bed with me and we watched Transformers.  The rest of the day was pretty lazy.  That evening we went to the Ramby's for dinner.  Alexa made a Thanksgiving casserole using leftovers that was absolutely amazing.  She heated up some gravy that we poured on top of each serving.  If I ever have enough leftovers to make that, I'll totally be doing it in the future.  Mmmmm...

More later.  I don't want to overwhelm you with my play-by-play's.  Cheers!

T-day in Galveston

Thanksgiving was so easy going this year, it was amazing.  We went over to Ariel and Robert's house in the morning to help them clean and cook.  Since it was nice out, Ariel decided to do the seating outdoors. 

Hostess with the mostess

We ate around 4 pm, an hour later than planned.  Not too bad, considering how things have gone in the past.  We invited our friend Scott to dinner since he doesn't have any family nearby.  Ariel's roommate Bettye and their friends Brandon, Blake and Christy came as well. 

Dinner was FANTABULOUS.  I couldn't believe it, but none of my green bean casserole was left at the end.  I don't usually feel like that's a popular item, but apparently everyone liked it the way I made it with fresh green beans.  The canned mushy green beans gross me out.

I also made a new sweet potato casserole this year.  I don't generally like the sweet potato casserole, so I took control of it it this year.  The bottom layer is mashed sweet potatoes, the middle layer is a pecan crumble (basically it's pecan pie) and the top layer is toasted marshmallows.  The toasted part was an accident, but it turned out really great.

Ariel and Robert fried a turkey and roasted a turkey.  The fried turkey was more firm and really hit the spot.  Travis and I heated up the honey baked ham he got from his boss.  It turned out really great as well.  Thankfully we were able to reheat it right before the meal.

Christy and Blake

Aiden LOVES Brandon.  Brandon is so good with kids, so I know that helps.  Aiden sat in this hammock with him for a good 20 minutes and held on while Brandon rocked the "pirate ship". 

After dinner we ate pie: pecan, pumpkin and apple.  I made the pecan pie because I was hell-bent on getting it right.  For some reason I am only capable of making pecan soup.  The stinking thing never firms up.  Of course it was pecan soup again this year.  We still ate a quarter of the pie.  I took the rest of it home and baked it for another 35 minutes.  That did the trick.  FINALLY.

As we were eating dessert, the Luck's stopped by to say hi!  They were in town to visit family for the holiday.  Logan hung out with family while Sara and JR brought Landry over to visit with Aiden.  They colored with crayons and played with a magnet set that was Robert's when he was little.  Too cute.



I hope everyone had a great holiday!  I enjoyed my 4-day weekend and was quite reluctant to come into work this morning.  If only every month had a 4-day weekend...

A bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig

Happy Thanksgiving!!  We're spending the day giving thanks with my family today.  Thank goodness for this holiday.



I honestly had to stop watching when they started eating.  My protein nausea couldn't handle it.

15 Weeks Tomorrow

There are so many things I forgot about while being pregnant.  I've been going through my belly book (week-by-week play book of what was going on with me during the pregnancy) and found several things I forgot.  One of the symptoms I didn't remember is the Braxton-Hicks.  I had them with Aiden starting at 12 weeks.  Braxton-Hicks contractions are minor practice contractions that happen in some pregnancies.  They are not debilitating, just annoying.  I get them whenever I am active, like when I walk across campus or when I'm moving boxes around at work.  I've been having them a lot for the past few days.  Just in time for busy Thanksgiving!

I'm already noticing some of the hindering aspects of having a baby bump.  It's larger than it was last time at this point, but it's not gigantic by any means.  Yet.  But I have had trouble getting out of the car in parking lots a few times.  I can't just suck this puppy in anymore.  I have a feeling things are going to get more difficult when it comes to getting Aiden in his car seat.  It's one thing to slip in through the cramped area.  But to stand in it, life a child and then buckle him in.  I'm going to have to start allotting more time to do things so I can let Aiden do more for himself - like climbing in and out of the car.

I'm finding I have much less patience for pregnancy-related problems this time around.  I don't know if it's because I have to take care of another child or if it's the lack of newness.  Last time it was the first time I was experiencing any of it, and if I wanted to sit all day and take a nap, I did.  Oh the days when I was free!

Someone's always sick for the holidays

I'm worried Aiden is going to be sick for Thanksgiving.  He woke up the past two mornings with a hoarse cough.  No fever yesterday.  Today his temperature was elevated one degree.  That could be due to his full-on temper tantrum he threw ALL MORNING.  I gave him ibuprofen both mornings in case his throat hurts.  I tried to ask him if it did, but he didn't seem to understand me.

We are going to do what we did last year and go over to Ariel and Robert's for Thanksgiving.  I'm going to prepare a few dishes in advance so all I have to do is heat them up when I get over there Thursday.  We'll go over before Aiden's nap and let him sleep there.  That way I can help with the cooking.  They are frying one turkey and roasting the other.  Lots o'turkey.  We're hoping to eat at 3pm.  That almost never happens on time, but I can hope!  The best part about eating the meal early is then you have room for dessert and possibly leftovers in the evening.  Ugh, love that.

I did the bulk of my grocery shopping last night.  I have to run by a different store tonight to pick up a few items I couldn't find at the last store.  I NEED this place to have pie crusts, because I really don't want to have to add making a pie crust to my to-do list tonight.  As it is, I already need to pick up Aiden, run to the store, drop of the recycling at the center in Galveston, go home to make dinner and then make a pecan pie.  All after I get off work at 5 pm. 

Definitely stopping for coffee this afternoon.

New World Problems

We have completed our Christmas shopping for Aiden!  Toys R Us is having a ton of sales through Thanksgiving Day, so we wanted to get him done first.  The trick is to keep all that stuff hidden for a month.  I'm sure that will get more difficult down the road.  Now we can focus on gifts for the rest of the family.  My dad won't be coming for Christmas.  He's going to try to come in January or February, but it depends on his work.  I'm not sure if Brenda will be able to make it - she's still up in the air.  Travis still has to talk to his dad, but he usually can't make it because he has plans with his girlfriend or he has to work.

My mom is planning to come for a month, so she will be here for Christmas.  With her, we always draw names out of a hat for gifts.  None of us are particularly well off.  That coupled with traveling for my mom and buying food for the celebrations for Ariel and I, makes for a very expensive month.  Drawing names out of a hat helps alleviate some of that.  Now that we have Aiden, we get to watch him open lots of gifts on Christmas morning.  That has quickly become my favorite part of the holiday.  I'm sure this year will be even better.  Aiden enjoys so many things now.  He will love everything he gets.

Travis and I usually don't get each other gifts for Christmas anymore.  We generally don't have the funds for it.  This year, we thought we'd be buying a dishwasher, but I think we might be able to postpone that until after the holiday season.  It's holding on at the moment.  Barely.  Com'on kitchen appliance!  Hold on for just a while longer!!

Travis bought an iPhone a week ago, but it's on backorder.  He is supposed to get it by Friday.  Only 50% of his current touch screen works.  We can't afford to get one for each of us at the same time.  I'm hoping to get one soon after Christmas.  It seems like my phone senses that I'm ready for a new one because it is going bezerk more often than it used to.  The number one reason I want an iPhone now is for a decent touch screen.  I CANNOT stand it when my touch screen doesn't work.  My current phone is so bad that it won't even recalibrate.  It frustrates me to no end.  I am thankful I bought a flip phone with an actual keyboard on the inside.  I don't even use the main screen of my phone anymore.  I go straight to the inside. 

Oh the problems in my life.  ; )

Mommy's Nights Out

It's been a busy week.  I feel like I'm running around at work trying to keep up half the time.  Then the other half of the time there is NOTHING to do.  That's typical in a lab though.  Your assays need to incubate for a certain amount of time and there's generally only so many things you can clean or tidy up on during the incubations. 

I think the reason it's getting on my nerves so bad this week is because I have had some headaches from hell.  I talked to my doctor about it.  She said it could be pregnancy, it could be the Zofran, or it could just been from my previous neck problems.  The difficulty is that I'm limited on what medication I can take to treat the headache.  In the past, ibuprofen has always worked will for me.  Sadly, I can only take acetaminophen while pregnant.  It doesn't help.  These headaches just barrel on through my day.  It makes the nausea worse.  So when I turn my head, I feel sick.  Or maybe the nausea is causing the headaches?  Gah, I don't know. 

I've also been pretty busy after work this week.  Monday night I went on an impromptu girl's night out with a friend from work who recently quit to work at another hospital in Houston.  She's been having a rough month and I haven't seen her for a while, so I went out even though I had prior plans for a girl's night out Thursday.  We went to get pedicures, but I forgot my wallet.  So I just sat and chatted while everyone else was pampered.  Then they all went out to dinner and thankfully bought my meal.  I totally owe them!

Last night I went with a few girls to see Breaking Dawn on opening night.  I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway.  Didn't want to miss out on the fun.  One of my friends from work has a movie theater membership card so she was offered tickets to see the 8 pm showing.  We got to the theater an hour early, thinking we might not get awesome seats, but I figured we wouldn't get front row.  I thought wrong. 

Lucky for us, no one was in the front row yet, so we were right in the middle!  It was horrible.  I got dizzy during several scenes.  There was one scene with subtitles - I had to turn my head back and forth in order to read it.  I actually didn't finish reading a few of the sentences because I couldn't turn my head quick enough.  Ridiculous.  I stared at Edward and Bella's pores the whole movie. 

I think I liked it.  I know most of the movies are cheesy to a certain point.  And Bella and Edward can be just plain awkward at times, but that's how the characters are in the books.  The difference between the movies and the books is that you get to read about the internal struggle of the characters.  During the movies, you just have to watch it on their faces.

Our biggest joke last night was that Jasper is the constipated vampire.  He always looks like he needs to take a giant crap.  But the books explain that he constantly struggles with the need to drink Bella.  He's struggling with hunger, not digestion.

Overall, it was good.  I would like to see it again from a better seat.  I do plan to buy this movie eventually.  I need to buy the rest of the Harry Potter movies and I think I still need the last Twilight movie that came out.  I'm a little behind on that.  Later, later, later!

14 Weeks

Good lord would you look at the size of my BELLY???

Seriously, it's gigantic.  Unreal.  PS - That's my tough face.  Feels tougher than it looks.

I was looking at photos from my pregnancy with Aiden and I think the shape of my belly is different.  It's more torpedo-like this time.  I know it's not a direct comparison because one is shirts and one is skins, but here is my photo at 16 weeks (two weeks further along than I am now) with Aiden:

Whenever people see me wearing a fitted shirt at work they say, "WOW.  You are going to be HUGE."  Did you see me last time?  If that wasn't huge, then what was it?  Gah.

I know I've already mentioned it, but the nausea is way worse this time.  It is affecting my diet. Nothing ever sounds good.  The only things that ever sound remotely edible are fresh things, like fruits, vegetables and salads.  Cheese and water crackers usually make the list.  Occasionally pasta is on there as well.  It sounds a LOT like my cravings last time.

Lately, I've only needed the Zofran (anti-nausea) every third day.  It used to be every other day, if not every day.  I have hope that it will disappear completely.  Please.

We tried to get Aiden to take a photo with me and the torpedo-belly, but he refused.  Instead, he hovered in the doorway begging to look at the camera.