Lone Star

I've been working with Travis to take over more things with Aiden and I can already tell it's making a big difference in Aiden's willingness to approach him.  Aiden used to come to me for everything and would throw a fit if Travis did it.  Travis' opinion was 'he doesn't want me, he wants you.'  Yessss.  But I need help!  So I forced him.  Travis was annoyed at first, but now that he's reaping the benefits, I know he appreciates it. 

As an extension of Travis taking on more with Aiden, I'm going to try to save grocery shopping for the weekends when Travis is around so I can go without a child.  It's so much easier on me and it gives Travis and Aiden some alone time.  We've done this in the past, but not frequently.  I went to get an oil change and bought groceries on Saturday without Aiden.  When I got home, Aiden was still awake.  Travis was having trouble getting him to fall asleep for nap time.  Finally, he just went in there and laid next to him on the floor.  Then he proceeded to take a nap of his own for an hour.

After nap time, Chris came over and we all headed to the Galveston Lone Star Rally.  Aiden loves motorcycles.  He points at every single one we see on the road.  His daycare is right near where the rally was, so there were lots of motorcycles driving and parked when I picked him up Friday evening.  We stood on the street corner and watched for a while.  He didn't seem to mind the noise, and really enjoyed just standing there watching, so we figured we'd take him to the rally during the day.  I've been at night in the past and it's definitely not for kids.  During the day it's a little less crowded, but it's still loud with all the bikes.

We brought Travis' ear muffs, just in case, but Aiden absolutely refused to wear them.  He was fine with the noise though, so I didn't worry about it too much.

Chris owns a bike so he wanted to peruse the bike parts tents.  I like going over there because they always have the really fancy bikes set up for viewing.  Aiden enjoyed it as well.  After that, we headed back over to the chaos and watched the continuous bike parade.  They set up a path down the Strand where anyone can ride their bike to show off.  There were some interesting people, let's just say that.  Here's a view down the Strand:

Both sides of the street are lined with parked bikes.  I read there were 400,000 bikes on the island this weekend.  I believe it.

Towards the end, we met up with Nadya, Alexey and Kate.  Kate was really nervous with all the loud bikes, but she said she wasn't scared and she didn't want to go home.  It was pretty cute.  She and Aiden caught up:

A common sight: Longhorn helmets.  Only makes sense as it was the Lone Star Rally.



Trick or Treat!

I was looking through some Halloween magazines this year and came across some fun ideas for party snacks.  I found this particular one online and really liked it.  It was cute and easy:

I decided to stop fighting Aiden into his pirate costume and went for something a little easier.  We used his regular cowboy outfit.  Of course he wouldn't wear the leather vest, wool chaps and gun holster.  Typical.  On a side note, I am fairly certain Aiden was the only child on the streets with a toy gun.  Many parents are anti-toy-gun these days, plus there's the off chance that a police officer will think your child is threatening them with a real gun and therefore shoot the child.  I used to play with this very same cap gun when I was little.  Not only do I have NO interest in guns these days, but I do not want to be a criminal.  Oh and I survived not ever being shot by a police officer and have grown into an adult!  Amazing.

Skylar the Birdie and Blair the Dinosaur

Ready to go trick or treating!

Travis gave Aiden a crash course on trick or treating with the Ramby's bowl of candy.

The dads stayed behind to give out candy for the first round of trick or treating.  After we got back, we traded jobs.

Aiden went trick or treating for the very first time last year at this door.  This year it was the first door we knocked on as well.



Aiden got TONS of candy.  We been trying to ration it out here and there to avoid a full-on sugar rush.  We've been lucky so far!  It probably helps that I've been eating the chocolate.  Aiden did really good with Trick or Treating this year.  I think he understood the concept fairly well after a couple houses.  Occasionally he would give his candy to the person who answered the door.  And sometimes he would tell people "You're welcome!" in addition to "Thank you!"  Overall I think he did well though.  It gets more and more fun every year.

The Joys of Pregnancy

The main theme this pregnancy has been nausea.  It started at about a month and a half and has only gotten worse since then.  It started out similar to the nausea I had while pregnant with Aiden: when I got hungry, I felt like I was going to throw up.  The difference is last time I actually threw up.  This time I just WISH I could vomit.  I have the most intense nausea.  I can't really say it's the worst I've ever had because I've been seasick and that was, by far, the worst experience of my life.  This IS pretty bad though.  I get clammy and hot and my hands start to shake.  It's a miserable thing. 

It's bad enough that I asked my doctor for an anti-nausea medication.  She prescribed Zofran and it has been a life altering decision.  There are certain things I can do to lessen the nausea without the medication.  Sometimes it's just because I'm hungry, and if I eat, it goes away.  Sometimes it's just because I need to use the restroom.  And if I go, then I feel better.  But sometimes, I do ALL of that and it just gets worse.  So Zofran it is! 

The only problem with Zofran is whoever developed it did not take into consideration that the pill taker would be nauseous.  Let me explain.  The instructions on the prescription say, "Dissolve tablet on tongue."  It takes like bitter, bitter fruit.  The process of taking the medication is a task in itself.  If I wasn't completely confident that I am unable to vomit at this point, I would be worrying about it more as I wait for that god awful tablet to disappear.  Ugh, it's horrible.  And then the bitter flavor stays on my tongue for a good 20 minutes after.  BUT IT IS TOTALLY WORTH IT.  Within 30 minutes of taking the tablet, I feel 90-100% better.

Now I can work, clean the house, do laundry, do the dishes and make dinner!  Wait a second.  Why did I ask for that medicine again?  Oh ya, before, I still had to do all those things, but I was miserable and cranky the entire time.  I felt bad for Travis and Aiden because when Mommy's not happy, nobody is happy.

So!  A list of a few things that make me feel like crap this time around:

• Car wash - I lose of sense of whether we're moving or if my head just thinks we're moving.
• Tap water - tastes like dirty coins.
• Protein - the majority of the time, the thought of meat or eggs makes me gag.
• Zofran - until it kicks in.
• Hunger OR fullness
• Smells - cologne/perfume, deodorant, most food cooking (meat and onions makes it worse)

My solutions:

• Don't use the car wash.
• Drink bottled water (I am officially enemy of the planet).
• Bring a toothbrush to work so I can get that protein residue off my tongue.
• Bring a toothbrush to work so I can get that bitter medicine residue off my tongue.
• Control my eating.
• I stopped wearing perfume and I'm using fragrance-free deodorant.  I may not be able to control what other people wear, but at least I can control myself!

My doctor did give me a tsk, tsk at my appointment last week.  I had lost four pounds since my visit a month prior.  In my defense, I had been on an eating binge the weekend before my first appointment.  I had spent the entire weekend in Illinois doing nothing but eat and sit.  So I was two pounds over my normal weight at that first visit.  Since then, I have been back to my normal eating habits, PLUS nausea.  So I'm sure I'm not eating as much as I should be.  So now I'm two pounds under my normal weight.

I have also had a big problem with losing my vision and getting vertigo when I sit up from laying down or when I go from squatting to sitting.  I had the squatting to sitting problem before I got pregnant, but now it's worse and I have it when I sit up.  I was wondering if it was low blood pressure, but it was within normal ranges at the doctor's office.  The doctor thinks I might be dehydrated.  She recommended adding one to two 12 oz bottles of water to my current three to four.  Like I don't already LIVE in the bathroom.  I went to the bathroom THREE times before I even left for work.  THREE!  The only reason I get out of bed in the morning is because my bladder is threatening to explode.  Funny how you forget about this stuff after you have the baby.

Tex RenFest 2011

This past weekend we went to the Texas Renaissance Festival north of Houston.  It is always so entertaining seeing all the costumes. The group I went with this year decided to dress up.  A couple of us went as fairies, there was a forest nymph and three Star Trekkers.

This guy's wings opened occasionally.  He was very gargoyly...

Aiden stared at these giant boat swings forever.  Linsey and Zach took Luke over to go on the swing.  We asked Aiden if he wanted to ride the swings and he said yes.  Since I'm fighting some serious "morning" sickness this pregnancy, the last thing I wanted to do was rock back and forth in a giant swing.  So Daddy and Grandma took him for a ride.  He seemed really into it, right up until the point when they climbed on board.

He cried like that the ENTIRE time.  They didn't stay on as long as they could have, but it was probably a good five minutes of swinging fun.  Travis was giving me the stare down the entire time for putting him through that.  HA.

After the swings we saw Hagrid!  Apparently Luke watches Harry Potter with Zach and his favorite character is Hagrid.  Luke spotted him before any of us did and ran up to give his knees a hug before we even knew what was going on.  Luke was quite the hugger that day.  I'm pretty sure he hugged every costumed person there.

A few of the girls from work:

Aiden has never been big on dancing.  All of our friends' kids love to dance, but Aiden has always refused to  dance at all.  A couple months ago we put him in a dance class once a week at his daycare.  He has recently started dancing all on his own and I think it is adorable.  Luke and him started dancing as we passed a Renaissance band.  Aiden sticks his elbows out and pivots at the hips.  It looks something like this:

Michelle the Forest Nymph

I'm pretty bummed that you can't see how detailed her face paint was.  It was impressive!

At one point we stopped to look at the elephants.  Every time one stopped to load people, she would sniff us with her trunk.  When Luke came over, the trunk startled him and he accidentally dropped his pacifier inside the enclosure.  The elephant quickly grabbed it up, tossed it over in her trunk, then ate it.  The whole time I was trying to get someone's attention, but none of the keepers would look over at us.  When one finally did come over, he was pissed thinking we had fed the elephant the pacifier.  Who would do that?  Luke kept saying, "Give it back!  Give it back!"  I have a feeling he might have elephant issues from here on out.

Steampunkers:

The knight and his father

The semi-pirate and his father

Aiden's New T-shirt

If you are friends with me on Facebook, then you already know the big news.  I'm pregnant!  12 weeks today.  I am due May 18th, which means I'll probably have him May 25th.  Wink, wink.  It seems so far away, but then when I think of the financial side of it (hospital bills, daycare costs, etc) it seems way too close.  I had an ultrasound yesterday and found with 80% certainty that we are having another boy!  Holy cow!  Can you imagine?  TWO boys.  Every night before bed, Aiden gets a second wind and he and Travis rough house.  I think it actually helps him work out any remaining energy he might have had.  Last night I asked Travis if he could imagine TWO boys coming at him like that.  HA!  I think I have to write it like that for here on out.  TWO boys.

When the doctor saw the baby's gender-parts, he said he is 80% sure it's a tally whacker.  Snort.  He said he couldn't imagine THAT turning into a clitoris, but he is only allowed to give me 80% assurance at this stage in the pregnancy.

We go back in 7 weeks and he should be able to confirm the gender with 99% certainty.  The doc told us not to go out and buy anything just yet, until we can be sure.  I told him we don't have to buy anything!  We had a baby boy two years ago and we have saved everything.  I know it stresses Travis out to see all the stuff we have in boxes in our garage, but he'll probably appreciate it now.  

This time around, we'll donate everything after we're done with it.  Travis said he doesn't want to have any more kids after this.  The idea of having three boys under one roof really freaks him out.  I'm not giving up hope just yet.  And I'm for sure not going to let Travis snip his goods until we are SURE we don't want another one.  If we do try for another, it will be when this peanut's getting ready to start Kindergarten.  I want a bigger gap between the next one so we don't have a bunch of little guys running around.  Oh and the daycare costs are a good deterrent as well.  My point is, there's no reason to store everything for that long.  We'll just donate.

We've been trying to explain this whole baby thing to Aiden.  I'm not confident he understands.  We need to get some big brother books to help us out.  We keep asking him if he wants a baby.  He says, "Ya.  I want Baby Skylar."  Skylar is Blair's baby sister.  Aiden's other friend Luke has a baby sister as well.  I don't think he understands that babies can be boys.  Eh.  We've got time to explain it.

Tonight at dinner, we asked Aiden what we should name the baby.  He voted for TV.

We're not going to keep the name a secret this time.  It was really hard last go around and it would be nice to hear some opinions this time.  I had the name Aiden picked out since I was in high school, so there was no changing that one.  This time, I don't know what we want.  We will be giving him Curtis for a middle name, after Travis' dad.  Aiden's middle name is Gregory, after my dad.  Here's a few names we've come up with.  None of them are a MUST HAVE, but they appeal to us for one reason or another:

• Everett
• Lachlan
• Foster
• Noah
• Chase

What do you think?

Birthday and Pumpkin Carving

The Sunday after the museum was the birthday/Halloween party at Ariel's house.  

Ariel and mommy-of-two Allison

Ariel's favorite holiday is Halloween.  I think she feels like it's her holiday because it falls so close to her birthday.  On top of that, she is the 'night' portion of our day-and-night duo.  Halloween goes hand in hand with the night.  Every year she spends a good part of her paycheck on adding to her All Hallow's Eve decor.    Check out her entryway.

For her birthday lunch, I made a couple dozen cupcakes in her honor.

They were supposed to have a gummy zombie hand coming out of the grave, but I couldn't find the in the store and didn't have time to order them online.  Bummer.

Last week while Brenda was here, we carved pumpkins for Halloween.  I always carve them too early so they are a rotting nasty mess for the night of trick or treating.  I timed it better this year and the pumpkins were good through the weekend.  Sadly, I never made it around to buying the electric candles, so the pumpkins were not lit for the spooky evening.

Aiden was not as impressed by the pumpkin guts this year.  (Last year he was all for it.)  He pulled some of the seeds out of the guts and then decided he would only use a spoon from then on out.  He enjoyed watching US pull out the goods though.

Aiden took a moment to flip through the pumpkin carving book while Daddy worked on Spiderman and I worked on the owl.

He kept wanting to stir the guts in our pumpkins, so Grandma cut open the third pumpkin and let him have at it.  As you can see in this photo, Aiden went to bed late A LOT while Grandma was here.  There was so much to do!

Aiden was super excited about his Spiderman pumpkin.  I think Daddy was a little annoyed with me for choosing the one I did.  Little does he know, I actually chose the easier of the two I found online.  I think he did a fine job.

Festival and a Museum

Only two weeks behind on photos.  That's not too bad for a working mom who had family in town for seven of those days, right?

I'll start with forever ago.  So long ago that I can't even remember the date.  Somewhere mid-October, Aiden and I went with the Yeager's to Luke's daycare's fall festival.  They had plenty of stuff for children big and small.  Unfortunately, Aiden wasn't up for participating in the majority of the activities.  Luke was right at home at his daycare though.  

The first thing Aiden decided to partake in was the pumpkin decorating.  They had various sticker faces you could choose from and then apply to a pumpkin.  Aiden chose the Frankenstein face.  I gave him the piece and told him what it was, then let him put it where he thought it should go.  Amazingly, it looked like a face at the end.

After the pumpkins, we went over to ride the pony.  Aiden refused the pony ride and opted for the pirate themed playscape that the pony walked a path around.  Luke, however, thoroughly enjoyed the pony ride.

After meandering through several other stations, we decided to cool off with snow cones.  I let Aiden pick which color he wanted and of course he went with blue.  Purple would have been less staining, but what are you gonna do?

Before the festival, when I was getting what I needed from the car, Aiden stared out into the empty field next to the road and said, "Mommy look!  A dinosaur!"  He proceeded to see two more dinosaurs on our walk to the festival.  When we walked back out to the car afterward, he stood at the side of the field asking where the dinosaurs went.  I have NO idea what he saw.  Sometimes I wish I could see things through his eyes.

Move forward to not as forever ago: a couple weekends ago at the Houston Children's Museum for Landry's birthday party.  The birthday girl's favorite spot was the funky magnets!

Big brother Logan went as his new favorite character, Mario!  And Aiden was a partial pirate.

I say partial because he only wore part of his costume.  I drew a mustache and goatee on him while he was sleeping in the car, and put the parrot on his shoulder far enough back that he couldn't really see it.  But he refused to wear his head scarf and rag bracelet.

The biggest hit was the water play.  Landry REALLY wanted the blocks that were in a particularly hard-to-reach spot, but she managed to finagle a few out on her own.

Later on fairy Skylar gave it a try.  Seeing as she is a head shorter than Landry, she was not as successful.  I think she still enjoyed just walking around, as walking is a new experience for her.

After the kids had played for a while, we sat down at the picnic benches to open presents.  When I asked Sara what Landry likes to play with, she said she always plays with Logan's toys.  She remarked that she could probably use some more girl toys and she always has room in her day for puppies.  "But no real puppies."  So we got her a baby doll and a walking plush puppy.  Aiden was enthralled with the baby doll, which was very promising.

Princess Landry on her Gift Receiving Throne (playing with her Aunt Brittany):