Labor and Delivery

Induction day!! Currently at 7 cm and rocking the epidural.

89 days to go!

As you can see from my ticker over on the sidebar I am 27 weeks!
I am going back in history today and remembering how much sooner than my due date I had Ben and Juli. I know these things take time and it's very important for the baby to be in the cooker as long as possible. Especially since the tiny lungs are the last thing to fully develop.
But I am soooo restless! I'm on edge with everyone and my poor DH just can't do anything right unless I tell him exactly what to do...and then he's wrong because I had to tell him!
I can't bend over anymore to fix my toes, so I just stare at the beautiful pedicure chipping away!
I have to force all the air from my body to lean forward and help my children put on their pants and shoes!
And I can't pick up the floor so easily unless I crawl on hands and knees; and ironically the whole "nesting" thing never went away and it always prevails, driving me to the floor!
Juli is so worried about all the change that she won't go to her pre-school without a serious panic attack - complete with the whole "no breathing" thing!
And Ben is so fed up with my anal desire for cleanliness that he doesn't play with his toys anymore cause he knows I'll be riding his messy boy butt to PICK UP when he's done!
And I can't help but feel a twinge of sadness as I auction off Ben's baby clothes to complete strangers on EBAY - sad that I only have one baby boy.
Yet oh so excited that I am having another princess to pamper!

Kid's do the darndest things!

I was downloading pictures from my camera onto my computer last night. I clicked "begin download" before I realized the camera had 97 images on it. WTF? I know I didn't take that many pictures? Someone's been messing with my camera. Not unusual since both of kids are at an age where learning to use a camera is loads of fun. The first time Juli was allowed to experiment with freelance photography she took these:



And the lighting on this one is just brilliant!



So, I opened the folder containing 97 pictures and began deleting them. They were random...pictures of the television, of the couch, of my feet, daddy's hair, fingers in the shot and TONS of pictures of the floor (hmmm...I really should mop soon).

And then I find some very interesting body shots. Ben must have had the camera this time...I recognize this belly button! And these thighs and that skinny tushy!



AND OHHHHH MY! I recognize THAT too...LORD HAVE MERCY!!
I guess I should have saved it as a blackmail picture for when he's a teenager! But I deleted it as soon as I felt my eyeballs beginning to loose their sight!

School for two!

I forgot until this morning that it is actually Tuesday and BOTH of my kids go to school until 1:00! I believe you would have enjoyed my rendition of the Hallelujah chorus!
So, we're almost to school and the kids are counting together (yes awwww....) and suddenly Juli screams "It's the cow's house!"
This statement that reeks of insanity didn't even phase Ben. "Where Juli?"
"Over dere!"
We all look...gas station, bank, hey, a Cingular store?
And a Barnhills restaurant! Complete with barn-red paint and chickens in the loft!
It's the cow's house!

And now some pictures of my child prodigy! She will be the first 2.5 year old to wow an aduience playing Twinkle Twinkle Litte Star with her piggy toes!

A MOTHER'S PROPHECY!

So, I saw another mom from Ben's school at Tae Kwan Do class where Ben is a white belt. I told her the school has called every day Ben has missed. Weird? She thought so too. And then she told me that the class started the alphabet!
I do not kid you!
He missed learning the letter A!

(they caught him up to speed but that's not the point)

"It's like rain on your wedding day - A free ride but you've already paid - It's the good advice that you just didn't take! - And who would have thought?
IT FIGURES!"

DOES YOUR SCHOOL CARE?

Ok - today is the 3d day of school Ben has missed due to this nasty cold we just can't shake! It's too much mucas for one nose to handle!
The first day he missed it was a surprise to me because the day before he was in great shape. It hit like a hurricane!
So, it didn't surprise me that his school called. Of course they would want or need to know if he had a sudden case of malaria - or even if he was just throwing up.
But they called the next day and then again this morning!
"Yes - he's still sick."
I promise we still want to come to school and you will get next month's check ASAP!
Maybe they just really like Ben? Or maybe it really matters when you miss 3 days of VPK - Pre-Kindergarten!
Like maybe now his alphabet will only consist of all the letters minus A-B and C!

Unidentified Cravings and the Non-cake



I hate cravings. I get them once in while when I'm not pregnant but when I am it is out of control. I keep hearing that cravings are usually your body's way of telling you that something is missing in your diet. At first I craved Sushi on a daily basis! And I packed myself full of California rolls, Dragon rolls and veggie sushi. Then came the cravings for red meat and leafy greens, probably a signal that my iron intake was low. But recently my cravings have been for soda (which I don't buy so I can't have) and cookies! Now, I don't think there is any way to justify a craving for massive amounts of processed sugar!

Last night I was having the worst case of "I want something so bad and can't figure out what it is!" This unidentified craving was bothering me to the point of controlling my abilities to think and speak clearly!
It came to me as I mindlessly stared into the TV and it's mesmerizing flashing lights...I want cake...thick chocolate cake with the fudge icing that's hard to swallow and the little cocoa sprinkles that give it a bit of crunch!
I told my DH what I was craving simply because I was proud of myself for figuring it out. He jumped up willing and ready to run out at 10:00 at night and find my chocolate cake! I loved the thought but made him promise instead to bring cake home tomorrow.
He disappeared into the kitchen for what I thought was an after dinner snack and before long the smell of chocolate began to fill the house. What he brought me has now been dubbed the "non-cake" and it hit the spot like no cake ever could!
He melted chocolate chips and butter together and mixed in some pecans, coconut, graham cracker crumbs and milk. It was like melted fudge...heaven on a spoon!

And I slept like a baby for the first time in 24 weeks!

It's a very sad day...



My little vampire has had her first bite of flesh.
My flesh...my tender pregnant tummy flesh!
And very much like a vampire, it was bite of rage!
For as much as a super fun mommy as I know I am, I would not let her have a ring pop for breakfast! So tragic...I mean the end of the world! She let me know it! And I am pretty sure her backside got the point I made too!

WHAT WE THINK OF MONDAYS!

-note to troll...and you thought our tooty booties were bad!-




So before you freak out and leave me a nasty comment about what kind of mother I am for teaching my little girl such an ugly gesture, let me reassure you that we just happened to catch her in an "I'm so shy" moment. The finger came up, we snapped the shot and the hand went down! We spent the next five minutes laughing at the millions of ways we can use this picture while Juli stared at us like we were nuts!
Today I am using our candid shot to express my deepest and truest feelings about Mondays.
Tomorrow I may use it to show how I really feel about the 21st week of my pregnancy, and the day after that I will use it to show my disgust of laundry!
See how versatile! Now don't you wish you had a picture like mine?!

NOTE TO SELF:
Next time you loose your shopping basket with your purse in it, try to remember the last aisle you were just browsing on before having a complete panic attack and recruiting 6 Wal-Mart employees to rush around the store looking for a thief!
Also try not to CRY next time! Freaking pregnancy!