Express Yourself!

A Day in the Life

I already blogged this on our Weed Patch blog, but I thought it would be worth repeating here, as I haven't been blogging too much lately.  Just been busy working!  Today has been another typical work day.  Here was yesterday, up to now:

9:00 am Parents get up for the day, get dressed, have a nice quiet discussion regarding store stuff.

10:05am Parent goes upstairs to dress and ready child for the day, as child is heard running and playing, and therefore is indeed awake.  Parent finds child not in closed bedroom as usual, but instead in the closed bathroom.

10:10am Parent installs sock on child's bedroom door to help control child-door-opening activities.

10:13am Parent reinstalls sock on child's bedroom door, securing with rubber band.

2:05 pm Child plays quietly in room, and goes to sleep for a nap.  Parental bliss ensues.  Quiet working, uninterrupted lunch, etc.

6:15 pm Parent gets child up from nap, in closed bedroom.

7:45 pm Child goes into kitchen.  Child is quiet.

7:47 pm Parent enters kitchen to find child inside refrigerator, in the process of pulling the door closed.

7:48 pm Parent begin going-night-night actives with child.

8:35 pm Child bites nipple off before-bedtime-bottle of milk, and pours milk over couch, couch contents, and surrounding couch area.

8:45 pm Child is given crash course (long over due) in going to bed without bottle.

9:34 pm Parent repeats cuddling, talking, song singing, tucking in process.

10:18 pm See above.

10:35 pm Quiet upstairs.

4:00 am Parent spends 1 hour with perfectly dry, sound, healthy, whole, yet utterly inconsolably screaming child.

9:38 am Sleepy parent gets out of bed, thankful to have slept in a bit.  All is quiet from child's room.

11:00 am Evidence of quiet happy playing heard from upstairs.

11:48 am Parent greets child's for the morning to sweet happy "hi mama" and "up! up!"

11:49 am Parent notices child has a black eye.  Child does not notice or care.  Parent wonders what's she's doing wrong in her role as a parent.

3:15 pm Child goes down for nap.

3:19 pm Parent sits on couch and stares off into space for 14 minutes.  Wonders...what's next?!

Sigh....

Outside

I see many sunburns in my near future (well, hopefully they'll eventually just be suntans).  I finally figured out a way to successfully play outside with Ben in our yard.  For those of you who haven't been to our house, half our lawn is level, and the other half is steep hill.  It is also unfenced, and on the corner of our street, with a decent amount of traffic.  Playing outside with Ben for me usually amounted a lot of running, catching, "no no's," and bouts of very vocal confused and frustrated opinions (from Ben - mine was all inside my head).  My mom jokingly said I just needed a tether for Ben, so he can play relatively unhindered, without rolling down the hill onto the street under someone's moving car.

Well, actually, I found one, and it worked.  We played outside successfully for two hours yesterday.  With Ben's new favorite toy.  The hose.

He only went out so far as the hose, with its slow trickle of water, reached in the yard.  I brought out all kinds of toys to play with, but the hose was it.  For two hours, he watered the bushes, the fountain, the lawn, the flowers, the rocks, his bucket, and himself.  This time I'll remember to put sunscreen on myself and not just him, and I'll bring myself out a chair and a magazine.  Watering things with the hose captured my interest for only so long...

The new shoes of summer.  Is it just me, or did we totally skip Spring??

Two Today

(At about 2 weeks)

Two years ago today, I remember trying for twenty-six hours to bring my son into the world, only to have a stranger come in and do it in under 30 minutes.  I turned my head, and the first view I had of Ben was him lifting himself up on all fours on the table as the nurse did those things nurses do when babies are born.

(at about 3 months)

 I remember expecting him, as a newborn, to be tinier and more fragile than he actually was.  At almost 9 1/2 pounds, he was just barely under my approved weight limit for what I could safely lift and carry for the next 6 weeks. 

 
(presiding over The Weed Patch)

Driving down to Colorado with my new son, my husband, and my in-laws was one of the most challenging experiences of my life, but one that has given me some of the best memories.  In two years, I have learned about multi-tasking, sensory overload, self-sacrifice, what real messes are, how to clean in record time, and the importance of personal devotional time and coffee. 

And family.  I don't know how single moms do it.  I wouldn't have made it this far without our parents, sisters, brothers, aunties & uncles, best friends, new friends, grandparents, and of course, my husband.

(First pool experience)

Benjamin is two today.  He knows the entire alphabet by sight, and can name over half the letters.  He loves ducks and books, and of all his toys, he plays the most with his ball and Mr. Potato Head. 

(The discovery of Toilet Paper)

Music is by far his most favorite thing in the world, second only to going outside.  His favorites are Loreena McKennitt and the fiddler from the group Celtic Woman.  Shortly after walking (at about a year), he began running, then jumping, and spinning. 

(First Sprinkler)

He has danced to music ever since he was able to bounce on his tummy.  He is strong, stubborn, intelligent, and has his own mind about things. 

(With Daddy)

He gives me a bad headache just about every day, which I get over during his long stretches of (thank you Jesus) sleep.

(First Lawn Mowing)

And I love him more than anything else in the world.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

No, It Isn't Chocolate Cake

We had a lovely few days down at my mom's house in the Hood Canal area.  One of those fun little towns that has a post office, general store, and zip code, and that's IT, literally.  It isn't too far from where I grew up, but feels totally different.  The trees, the birds, the bugs, even the dirt is all just a bit different.  So I don't get this nostalgic feeling of remembering my childhood when I go there, but I do feel like I'm building new wonderful fun memories.  I have mixed feelings about this one.

I stopped mid-sentence while talking with my mom when I realized my son had been way too quiet for way too long.

This isn't chocolate cake crumbs.  It looks like it, but isn't.  Unfortunately.

What's worse is that he didn't even make a face, like it was completely gross that he was eating dirt.  He didn't even spit it out, I had to scoop it out with my finger.

He sure was awfully cute, though.

E is for Entertaining

Christmas tends to be party time, doesn't it?  Christmas and summer, both big on parties.  I suspect that the Christmas party idea extended at least back to pioneer days, when neighbors got together for one last hurrah before the winter weather had them all penned in at home. 

I can't imagine Christmastime without the people I love the most.  I love to entertain, although entertaining need not be fancy.  A mug of hot chocolate and storebought cookies with a friend can be just as wonderful as a full meal with appetizer and dessert with the full extended family.

I like to try at least one new recipe each year, as something special for my friends and/or family to try.  So far so good!  We haven't had a dud yet.  Last year we made these little savory thumbprint cookies that were almost like little egg and cheese souffles.  They were SO good - I got the recipe out of a Martha Stewart magazine, I sure wish I could remember which one.

My most important "entertaining" of Christmastime is a special dinner just for Chris and I.  It's pretty simple, and usually enjoyed for Christmas eve.  In my house, we called it "bits and pieces."  We go to some fancy grocery store we don't normally shop at, like Central Market, and wander the isles picking out "fancy" finger foods to enjoy.  Usually this consists of a couple cheeses, fresh bread, flavored olive oil, a selection of choices from the olive bar, dried figs and dates, nuts, a pomegranate, salami, turkey breast, and I don't even know what else.  All I can say is yum. 

Some of our best moments together are spent over food.  Did you ever notice that?  We're intoxicated by the yummy flavors, tantilizing smells, the pretty table set before us, and we're all seated, facing each other, giving our full attention to one another, rather than TV or radio.  We just get along better.  Shortly after I started college, I got really into formal entertaining, specifically tea parties.  Throughout the years I've learned more and more about the balance between making the event extra special for my guests so that they feel pampered, and spending less time in the kitchen and more time at the table.  I enjoy cooking so much, and I also enjoy expressing to my loved ones how important they are to me, but I also want to actually spend the evening with them too.

I'm not sure what we'll do this year, now that we have Ben.  I imagine a lot of entertaining will be involved, whether it be at our home, or at someone else's.  As this is a time of celebration to us, we find it best to spend with others.  We want Ben to be able to spend time with people that love him, and for those people to get to hold him and love on him.

Its been a while since we posted a photo.  Here is one of him last night.  Daddy put a toy on his head. 

Silly daddy.

B is for Ball, Birthday, and Benjamin

This has been a pleasant week so far - a good mix of productivity at home and at the store, one-on-one time with Ben, some visits with friends, and some artsy stuff done too. I always forget day to day what I've done, and thus can't recall what progress I've made on my to do list, so consequently I've started keeping a weekly to do list - each weekend I write up a list of things to complete during the following week. Sometimes in the morning each day I'll highlight what I'd like to get done that day, to help keep me focused, but I mostly like to keep things open because with the store, a baby, and the nature of life in general, you never know what kind of a schedule you'll have.

I love lists. I love to cross things off a list, even if it is "take a shower." The list for this week had a little bit of everything, like take a walk, vacuum, enter products onto The Weed Patch's website, crochet some flowers, play with Ben, cook dinner, etc. B is for Ball, because I crocheted Ben a ball to play with (see photo above). It is just plain Red Heart verigated rainbow yarn I have leftover with something else, but it crocheted up into a really nice big ball. It has a bell inside to give a little jingle, and I didn't fill it too full, so then he can grasp it. Earlier this week I had picked up the unfinished project to move it out of my way, when I noticed his eyes following it. He really stared at it! So, I finished it right then and there and gave it to him to play with. He grabbed it and put it in his mouth (well, not the WHOLE thing, as it is the size of a pummelo).

B is also for Benjamin, of course. I couldn't possibly do a B entry without including him. What kind of mom would I be?

This is Ben having a bath in our kitchen sink, about a week ago or so. I think these are all a week or two old.

This is him chillin' with Grandma at the family reunion two weeks ago. He does that a lot. Just chillin'.

He attended his first birthday party this last Saturday. Our goddaughter Elise turned two this last Friday, and there was a big fat party for her - with a Curious George Theme. Andy describes the party rather accurately and amusingly, so I'll let him tell the tale.

It occurred to me at the party that within a few years, if things go on as currently planned, our casual get-togethers with our two best friends are going to be just like that - a dozen children running around to keep track of. As there were about that many children at this party, and all under kindergarden age, it gave me a little taste of reality. I liked it, fortunately, but whew! Am I going to be tired. And BUFF.

But happy. :)

Baby Craft Inspiration

Baby Craft Inspiration
Originally uploaded by rusteddragonfly

I browsed around Flickr this morning and found some inspiring photos of baby crafts that I thought I'd share. Don't you just want to sew now? I do.

Back again

We are back from the family reunion. It was an extremely pleasant time, as usual, and thankfully not too hot this year. It seems that people tend to dread their family reunions (at least that is what I hear most often from folks), but we look forward to our annual get-together with great anticipation. Although my family is rather large (extended family in the 3 digits somewhere), there weren't as many people in attendance this year. Sadly, this is due to a number of health issues. I hadn't realized just how many of my family are down for one reason or another. An aunt is likely soon to pass away due to complications from failed kidneys, a young cousin is fighting a brain tumor for I think the third time, and another cousin currently occupying a nursing home bed for 6 weeks awaiting a second hip replacement. Last year one of my sweet uncles, the first of his generation, passed away from Alzheimer's (and now an aunt is showing signs of it also), and the year before that a cousin lost her battle with lung cancer. Another aunt is currently dealing with a body that won't process any nutrients from the food she eats and is thus very very weak and frail.

I always thought of us as such healthy folk, with little to no complaints or major stresses in our lives. Now, as I tally them up, it hits me that we are going through a lot right now. Family is so important to me - I can't imagine not having all my aunts and uncles and cousins. I often lament the fact that I was born the last of my generation, and thus came in to things with everyone already advanced in age. I won't get to enjoy them as long, and my children may or may not remember most of them. And they have so much to teach us.

I have been asked on many occasions, since I had Ben, how many children we plan on having. A rather person question, but I haven't minded answering. We always said we'd start with one and see how that went, then go from there. We've never been parents before, we had no idea what it was like, so how would we know how many kids we'd want to have? Now that we have Ben, Chris' answer to that question has lately been 12. Of course I have no intention of bearing that many children, but I most definitely want more than one. I love the idea of being surrounded with family - I'd like my kids to experience what its been like for me to enjoy such a large extended family. So, God willing, if we are able to (physically, financially, and of course mentally!), we'd like several. Although, I've never had to care for more than one child at a time, so I guess we'll move on to two, and again go from there. :)

So, not that anyone is really interested in that much detail about how many kids I want to have, but that's just part of what I got to thinking about when musing over my weekend. I really just intended to pop in for a quick hello before heading off to bed. My brother and sister-in-law are watching Ben for the day tomorrow, so I'll have several hours to myself to get our house back in order, and hopefully get a few more things in my shop.

Nighty night for now...

Happy at Home

My time at home on maternity leave has whizzed by so far. Today Benjamin is 10 weeks old, so I'm halfway through my leave time. It is interesting how different I am at home than I am at work (at least, how different I feel). I've been puzzled by this for the five years since I first noticed it. It occurred to me the other day when I was taking a walk outside how good I feel when I'm not indoors. Everything about me inside brightens up, my brain is more awake, and I think and see things more, and...I'm just...happier! Maybe that is what is effecting me at work? Until I got my job at the hospital, I had spent every day of my life with a significant portion of my time spent outside. In every school I've been to, I had to go outside to walk from class to class - elementery school, high school, and college. We lived about 12 miles outside of town on 10 acres in the country, so there was always stuff we had or wanted to do outside.

Once I started working at the hospital seven years, I spent every day all day indoors. Being inside all day long, especially when I can't even see through a window, makes me feel like I'm very slowly dying - kind of like a flower wilting due to insufficient water and sunshine intake. Whenever I feel down, I always feel significantly better almost immediately upon walking out the door, no matter the weather. It just feels right.

I must admit that the thought of going back to work really does not thrill me. It's not the work, or the people - I do enjoy it, for what it is - but the whole corporate life, being inside all day, looking at numbers and figures, just does not appeal to me. It is not my passion. It makes me feel like I am missing life instead of living it. It is interesting to me how much women have shunned, some quite emphatically, the stay-at-home lifestyle. Our mothers worked so hard to make it into the "man's" corportate world, to be considered as equals in all ways including the workplace, to be seen as more than "just" a housewife and mother. This subject comes back relatively often in my conversations with my great friend Holly. We love being mothers, wives, and homemakers. I love to spend time with my family, care for my son, be helpmate to my husband, clean the house, cook delicious meals (or try), create beautiful things for the home or as gifts for loved ones, and everything that goes along with all this. I even enjoy laundering and folding my son's little outfits. We eat healthy homecooked meals, spend more time with our family and friends, get more exercise and fresh air, and are more involved in each other's lives. I love this. It makes me feel alive. Now, why haven't I felt this way for the last 7 years in my job? Do I have a bad attitude about my job? Do I need to make better use of my time, be more organized, work harder, or make better choices day-to-day? Or was this job really only meant to be temporary?

All people are made deliciously different. Which is wonderful. It is the spice of life. Some people want to work full-time in a job and setting like mine. But right now, I just can't imagine wanting to do that. And I guess that makes me feel guilty sometimes, like "not everyone gets the priviledge of staying at home to work as a wife and mom, somebody has to work at these places so they can run properly and provide the services the community needs, so I should just work and be grateful about it." But then I think that perhaps some people do not find what I do all day very appealing either. Let's see, today I have done several loads of laundry, washed our dishes, fed and changed my son multiple times, cooked dinner, picked up the house, wrote thank you notes, fed the cat, said hello to a neighbor, taken Ben for a walk outside, and a number of other related tasks. I was on my feet for probably 11 out of the 12 hours of the day. My own meals, personal hygene, and other needs went on hold, as my son's came first. Many folks might find this to be a completely dull life. But I absolutely love it. It makes me happy. It makes me feel at home, that I'm doing what I was made to do. Home, God, family, and creating are my passion. So why do I feel so guilty about it? Its like if I'm happy, then I must be not be doing what I should be doing, because toiling to earn a living shouldn't be fun - treating myself, playing, is fun. Not being productive. Work and fun are mutually exclusive, right?

My heart knows this is emphatically untrue, but my head is having a hard time with it. I seem to be one of those people that is only happy when they are miserable, because I tend to make things so darn difficult. Silly me! I see this is something I'll have to think and write on more over time.

Enter the strawberry. Don't ask me why in the world a jar shaped like a strawberry the size of a soccer ball appeals to me, but when I saw it, I knew it belonged in my kitchen. I don't collect strawberries, and didn't particulally need a cookie jar. But the thing just makes me happy. Every time I see it in my kitchen, it makes me smile. Happily, the price was within my budget, so I purchaed it. And now it is in my kitchen and makes me smile every day. That's all. And I'll just leave it at that!

Except of course for the usual photo of Ben.

Sigh. I am happy.

Labels: baby, Home Sweet Home, ponderings about life

Rainy Day

Ahhhh...it is raining. We here at the Tindall home love the rain - especially after all this hot, humid, muggy weather. I never used to love rain until I met Chris, who REALLY loves it. There's just something about it. All my senses seem to be heighted during and after a rainfall - all the smells seem more fragrant, all the colors seem brighter, that sort of thing. Its like the rain washes all the dust off everything and leaves it glistening. And since no one likes to be out in the rain, it is always so still, with the just the pleasant white noise of the drops saying "pitter patter, pitter patter" (except a lot faster than that). We like to get in our car and take a drive with Loreena McKennitt playing, and talk about our dreams and the things we love.

I'm sitting here at the computer with Ben on my lap and the cat at my feet. One thing I'm discovering about being a wife and a mom is how much demand is placed on my attention. In the last year I've gone from one person (husband), to three people (husband, baby, psycho-cat) needing me to pay attention to them. Someone always needs or wants something. Now I am not complaining at all, as I love the fact that I have three different personalities that love me and want to be around me and need things from me - some people don't have anyone. I just find it interesting how different my life is - how I think, what I do, my priorities, even how I talk have all changed, and are all geared around the juggling of priorities: baby, husband, cat, self. I'm starting to believe that to be a wife and mom you need a degree in office coordination, time management, housekeeping, counseling, event planning, cooking, and multitasking to name a few. Not to mention a boat load of patience! Every day is an adventure. It is challenging at times, but I am taking such joy in my son. It is so important to have an attitude of joy, or you miss out on so much in life. I may be juggling 50 things at once, Ben may be sitting in my lap filling his pants, but when he look up at me and gives me his big toothless grin and a gurgly giggle, everything is perfect.

A Day with Ben

So today was my first day home alone with Ben, just the two of us all morning and afternoon. A successful day, I think - I managed to get dressed and washed before he woke up. Unfortunately, I only got so far as thinking about my breakfast when he was ready for his, but oh well. An hour of feeding, dressing, changing, playing, changing, and feeding later, he was down for a nap. The photo is of His Cuteness sometime between a feeding and changing. I tried to get a shot of his smile, but each time I gave up and snapped a photo, he'd smile, only to stop when I tried to take another shot. Take my word for it, he smiles and is adorable.

It was an interesting day. See, I'm not quite sure how much around the house one can get done during the day when caring for an infant, especially one pretty much too young to entertain itself. It's amazing all the different ways you can multitask, like pumping breastmilk while mixing up a cake, that sort of thing. All Ben has done today is eat! I don't know if it's the heat or he's hitting a growth spurt, but it has been "food - food NOW" all day long.

However, I still managed to get a bunch of this pig sty cleaned up. I have a half finished project started in every room of the house, but hey, at least they're started! I also was able to cook a whole meal for dinner - I made a chicken pita sandwich from this month's issue of Cooking Light, which was very good but you might find a little dry if you are used to mayo on your sandwiches (Chris doesn't bother to eat a sandwich without a inch or two of miracle whip, but he loved this sandwich, so I guess it isn't missing anything). Made the roasted corn relish off the cover of the June magazine too, although I didn't have a grill at the time so I just pan fried the corn, roasted the Anaheim chile on the broiler, then added the tomato, lime juice, cilantro, etc. Very yummy, but Chris thought was a little too spicy for him. We topped it off with fresh peaches and raspberry, and a good 'ol Betty Crocker yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I think I could have made leather sandwiches and cardboard cake and it would have tasted good to us, as we're so desperate for home cooking after being on the road for 4 weeks.

Labels: baby, cooking

He's arrived!

Pictures are up! www.thetindallfamily.com

A friend just shared this quote with me. Normally I think such quotes and sayings are sweet, but a little too sugary for my tastes. However, now that I have a child of my own, I see that these aren't romantic exaggerations made to help us feel all warm and squishy inside, but exact representations of the experience of new parenthood.

"I loved him intimately, sight unseen. Yet when he lay on my chest for the first time, part of me felt as if someone had given me a Martian baby to raise, or a Martian puppy. And I had no owner's manual, no energy, no clue as to what I was supposed to do.

The other part of me felt as though I were holding my own soul.

Now, all these years later, this pretty much says it."

--Ann Lamott

Labels: baby

Welcome Benjamin Michael Tindall

Chris is writing this, as Janene is so tired she can't function, and Benjamin is sleeping on her at the moment....OH - We have a baby boy!

Benjamin Michael Tindall was born at 4:51 am on Sunday, May 20th.
He weighed in at 9lbs 5oz, and was 20" long.

Janene went into labor at 3am on Saturday morning. We were admitted to the hospital around 3pm. Janene's total labor was 23 hours - plus 3 hours of solid pushing every 2-3 minutes. At the end of this ordeal the Drs decided that this guy just wasn't going to come out without a c-section. So off to the OR it was, and a C-Section was performed. Really amazingly quick.

Since then, we've been at the hospital; Janene developed a fever (it hit 102.8 at one point) that got her onto antibiotics. Benjamin has a touch of jaundice, but is doing fine otherwise.

Today (22nd) was a very tough day - he was in a lot of pain, as all of his systems are still coming online (wow - I'm a nerd...). He's had some stomach cramps that kept him from being comfortable most of the day.

Anyway, we'll be posting photos on www.thetindallfamily.com as soon as we can - I was going to do that tonight, but the hospital limits what I can do through their wireless connection, and I can't get in to any of my admin stuff. So tomorrow night it will hopefully be.

Speaking of tomorrow, we'll probably be headed home tomorrow at some point. Please don't just drop in on us, at least until we give the ok for that - we would LOVE to see everyone, but we need to pre-approve it via phone to make sure timing is ok. So call Chris' cell and we'll set a time to hang out! :)

On a side note, since Janene has had a C-Section, we will not be that mobile for a while, as she needs to heal. Chris will be sticking pretty much right at home for at least 2 weeks, as Janene can't do much (she can do some, but overdoing it would be...BAD.)

Keep your eyes on www.thetindallfamily.com, and we'll keep you updated! :)

Chris, Janene, Benjamin

No Baby Yet

Well, three days overdue, and still no baby. We had an ultrasound yesterday to check to see that the amount of amniotic fluid is still OK (and it is), as well as a non-stress test. They hook you up to a monitor that checks the baby's heart beat, and he has to move a couple times in about 20-30 minutes, and they check to make sure the heart beat rises and falls as it should - that test came out beautifully as well. So, he's doing just fine, and those tests are "good" for about three days.

I myself have been doing pretty OK, up until recently. I still have not felt much in the way of contractions, but on top of the swelling problem I've been having, unfortunately my hip has now made it impossible for me to do much to try to help things along. For those of you that don't know, last week I woke up one morning with severe hip pain. Sitting is fine for the most part, but any pressure I put on my left hip is very painful - bad enough that I can barely dress myself, let alone walk. Its just a result of everything loosening up and moving around in my pelvis, on top of already having a hip problem, so there isn't much to do about it except take some tylenol and give birth. :) We did purchase a yoga ball that I should be able to do some squatting and bouncing on, as that has been said to help things along a bit, so that's nice. Chris has been stellar support, and has pretty much been doing literally everything, down to washing my feet in the shower for me. :)

Otherwise, I still haven't progressed much at all, so if I don't go into labor by Thursday morning (when we have another non-stress test), they'll check me in to the hospital sometime on thursday or friday night, depending on bed availability. At that point they'll administer hormones several times throughout the night to start dialation. The doctor says that has often been enough to bring on labor naturally (that would be nice). But if that doesn't work, then they'll induce with Petocin (which brings on faster, longer, and harder contractions, so at that point I'll probably look in to getting a light epidural). This has a somewhat higher risk of stress to the baby, so they'll watch him very closely. The doctor also mentioned that I am at a slightly higher risk for C-section due to several factors, among them including the fact that I'm overdue, I haven't progressed at all, and the baby is getting pretty big.

So, that's a complete update. Obviously there are some possibilities in there that I'm really not too keen on, but we knew going into this that anything could happen and you just can't predict it. (Although, so far this is following my sister's labors to a T - she had the Petocin, and STILL didn't progress, hence her 30 and 18 hour labors). It is kind of stressful, but I think most of it is just normal emotional ups and downs from hormones and the big Unknown. Besides, if it is just now starting to get truly challenging and difficult to deal with day to day, at 9 months pregnant, then I'm not too bad off!

We'll keep updating as we can - thank you for being patient with me as I disappear for months on end (blog-wise). I hope to blog a bit more regularly soon - I know, I keep saying that, but I really enjoy it and mean to build more of a habit, as soon as we have a bit more routine to our lives again. :)

Spring news

Has it really been so long since I've written a blog? A really decent one? Truly? Alas, despite my sincere good intentions to keep updated with my blog, I have failed miserably, when you consider my goal was to update at the very least once a week. So much has happened in the last six months, I hardly know where to begin. The most important bit of news has yet to be officially aired in this blog (and will explain a lot!), which is we are expecting a baby! As of this Saturday I will be 26 weeks pregnant with a little boy we plan to welcome into the world on or around Mother's Day (May 13th). We didn't actually plan that at all, it just worked out nicely that way - we didn't even put two and two together that our due date was Mother's Day until a few months ago. Or at least I didn't, maybe Chris was faster on that than I was. Which wouldn't be at all surprising, because I have completely lost my mind. It feels like it at least! For the first 13 weeks, I was very sick, all day/night, every day, so pretty much every minute of every day was spent at work working, at home trying to eat and sleeping, all the while trying not to throw up (for all you more squeamish readers, I apologize - I'm not very squeamish usually, so I just tend to say what is in my head, which unfortunately doesn't always come out all that "proper."). Thankfully indeed that disappeared not long after the first trimester, so we've been able to enjoy the rest of the pregnancy so far. As of this week, though, I'm starting to really feel big, even though I don't show all that much. I'll have to take a photo and post it - unfortunately, we've taken very few photos of me. I'm pretty sad about that, as those would be really fun to look back on, plus I tend to forget most everything that isn't immortalized in a photo or journal as a reminder. Better late than never, though, so we'll start taking some pictures soon, I hope, now that the weather is nicer and we're out and about more. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yes…losing my mind (see?!)... This baby has sapped my brain of it normal ability to process details, analyze information, or remember…anything. Which really sucks when you analyze for a living. Sheesh! I've never written so many sticky notes in my life. Does anyone know what causes Pregnancy Brain, besides the obvious answer (the baby)? I mean, what is it REALLY that makes you lose your mind, and is there a cure for it? Does it come back? We're in real trouble if it doesn't. I do appreciate and understand my own mother a little better now, though. She was pregnant three times.

Anyway, so we are very happy. We're just entering into that anxious phase though, as everything is starting to sink in now that we only have 14 weeks left to go, and my ever-growing belly is a constant reminder of the changes to come. I'm so happy the weather is nice, though - freezing, but beautiful. I don't know how I ever thought I'd want to have a baby in the dead of winter, as we had originally been thinking. I never would have survived the dark dreariness, which in my mind I always enjoy, but in body and spirit it just depresses me. I never know how much until the first sunny days start to appear and I start feeling 1000 times better, and never realized how NOT myself I was being. Lots more energy these days, even though I’m really tired too. If that makes sense.