Baby Love: #1 - Pumpkin Girl

It's no secret that I'm a momma. I love my babies to pieces and in the great hush before the storm that having 4 kids will undoubtedly be, I'm feeling nostalgic, and emotional and in love with my babies (well okay, my baby and two Big Girls, they hate it when I call them my babies.)

I find my self spending great amounts of time just being with them, soaking up all of them, the things that make them, them.

My Pumpkin Girl: My 1st Baby.

She is six and a half now. She wants to build a real robot fish, (god only knows how I am going to make that dream come true) She has a hard time when she doesn't have the right answer to a problem right away and she tends to freeze up when someone asks her to try something new.

She is a Daisy Girl Scout, finishing her very first year in the organization. She has earned all of her daisy petals and even remembers some of the names of them. She is proud of her Tunic and the patches and badges on it. She likes to pull it out and talk about the different things we have done to earn them. She loves meetings, and selling cookies, and saying the promise and I'm pretty sure she enjoys the time we get to spend, just her and I doing lots of Girl Scout things together. She gets super excited when it's a meeting day and says, "just you and me, Mommy?" when I say that it's time to go.

She loves playing outside, the freedom to run, and throw balls and swing and slide and climb on things is like a drug for her. She wants badly to be able to roller skate well and ride a bike without training wheels. She even drew a picture of the three steps it takes to learn how to ride a bike with no training wheels. That being said she also knows how to relax like no 6 year old I have ever seen. She will cuddle right up next to you with a blanket and watch TV all day when the mood strikes her.

She is so set in her ways, so resistant to change. We have to prepare her with much talking and sometimes even diagrams when something new is going to happen. Then we discuss, ad nauseum, until she feels confident that she knows what to expect, but you can still see in her face the barest hint of anxiety when the new comes along, not sure if it's going to roll out the way Mommy and Daddy told her it would.

She likes to play along with her favorite TV shows and is happiest when she can pull out toys that match the shows and act out the on screen shenanigans. Her favorites these days are Octonauts and Doc McStuffins. She also really loves playing on the computer, the games and activities at Disney Jr's website are a powerful motivator for her. I can even get her to clean the play room!

She is the sweetest most thoughtful little girl I have ever known. When someone she loves is sick or hurting she wants to hug and kiss all the bad things away. She knows the power of a good hug and never does it halfway. She also is quite the kisser and gives everyone a hug and kiss when leaving, even if she doesn't know you very well.

She is starting to show signs of sarcasm and wears her dry sense of humor on her adorable little face. It's just amazing that she has been a part of my life for over 7 years (pregnancy included) I'm so proud to be her Momma.

What did you Expect?

Not This!

I did not expect to have the mother of all weird nose problems.

Note: when you are pregnant your body retains water, you have extra blood flow and fluids in general squishing around in you. Not surprisingly this sometimes equates to pointless congestion not caused by mucus. This type of congestion is not helped in the slightest by blowing your nose, because that only further agitates your sinus tissues and makes the sinus pressure worse. Can anyone say migraine?

I did not expect to begin producing snot like the damn Nickelodeon Gak factory. I don't understand how one body can create this much snot. Some of this has to be liquefied brain cells. People think, in part due to the look of general malaise but also because of the constant nose blowing, that I must be sick. "KEEP YOUR KIDS AWAY FROM SICKY THE PREGGO!!!" The fact that it is soon going to be spring, and I live in the allergy capital of the known universe means that this problem is only going to get worse.

Not only does my nose run all. freaking. day. long. But also, when I sleep at night, all of that awesome sinus refuse dries up and in the morning I feel like I've got the entire grand canyon inside my nose. When I was a child this was an easy thing to fix, go on a spelunking mission and pull the offending crustaceans out of there. Not such an easy fix as an adult out in the world. Yesterday, my daughter thought she was being cute and pinched my nose, it hurt so bad I almost kicked her in the throat. Seriously, a 6 year old pinched my nose and the dried crap up there cut the inside of my nose and I began bleeding. Bleeding!!! What the French?!?!

Then, I smell dead things. They don't know they are dead. They walk around thinking they are alive, but they smell dead. Oh the humanity! I never realized that a smell could do so much to my well being, but there is something in the vent in front of the loveseat in my den that makes me want to curl up and die every time the furnace runs. It's just that vent, none of the others (even though they are connected) smell bad, and it's only when the furnace is on. Jeeves thinks I've gone off the deep end, he says he can't smell anything. I closed that vent and put a big magnet on top of it because each time it turned on this combination of cat pee, death and old pizza came wafting up from the floor. It was very distracting.

Shut The Front Door!

Thanks, Missouri. 

Now, I know I never communicated the need to dig myself out of over a foot of snow, but you saw that on a Monday morning, nothing would make me happier. I had to use a broom to reach the top of my minivan. I rolled my pant legs up to my knees and still ended up with soggy cold hems. 

They call this type of snow, "Heart attack snow" do you know why? because shoveling out of the heavy wet stuff has been known to KILL PEOPLE. 

Anyway, in other news, I'm exiting the first trimester this week. Soon to be feeling awesome, right...right?

Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it. 

The weekend started out well, with a trip to the circus, lunch at a pizza buffet with the munches and trivia with my friends, but then yesterday it began snowing at like 8-ish in the morning and didn't stop until after 11 last night. Jeeves suggested getting some supplies, even though I thought the snow was much ado about nothing, I stopped at the grocery store and that turned out to have been a good plan. 

I'm just amazed, it's the end of March, Easter is next week and our kids are going to have to wear rain boots to do an Easter egg hunt in the yard. Criminey. 

Photo Friday

It's been awhile since my photos have been up to par and I have received some comments that they are not showing up, so after sucking it up and paying for a flickr account I've been doing some downloading and thought for the next little bit I'll give you a break from my blathering and show some cute on fridays.

It's from awhile ago, but still cute

Doodle in his favorite chair

Dino Face Painting with my Girlie-Que's

OMG Mommy! U So Funny!

Why is this on me?

Crowing, which is the cutest thing ever

Happy Weekend from Ninja Land. 

What Did You Expect?...Not This!, Item 1

 I am almost through the first trimester of Ninja Baby #4. I thought in light of the positive response I received from several of my posts while baking my Doodle Bug Boy, I'd continue sharing this time around.

With that in mind today begins a new series of Mommy to be related posts, called "What Did You Expect?...Not This?" Wherein I will expound on the not so glamorous and often kinda weird as shit things that go along with being an incubator.

Today our topic is: Murderous Rage at only vaguely upsetting things

This morning. I woke up to a severely messy house. I wasn't in the office yesterday so in between working from home I took Doodle to his one year check up, took Sunshine for her pre-kindergarten screening and then took Pumpkin to a girl scout meeting. Needless to say, not much in the way of straightening happened in my life yesterday. Right? My own fault, Messy house, kinda my doing. This morning I woke up unrealistically pissed that no magic fairies had come and cleaned up my house while I was sleeping. I mean, if anybody in the history of the world deserved helpful cleaning elves, it's this bitch. I was so angry that I had to stop myself from waking my daughters up and making them clean the house with threats akin to those made by Colombian drug lords. (I was in their room, ready to yell when I had the realization that this course of action might potentially create mental health damage for my sleeping children.)

Earlier this week some thing happened at work that was out of my control, and had to be dealt with. The problem was that it was not well communicated to me and took me by surprise. I had to leave work for an hour and clenched my teeth so hard that I gave myself a migraine because, "NOBODY FUCKING THOUGHT TO SEND ME AN EMAIL" (not a very appropriate response)

Last week I bought myself some Chinese food for dinner, and I got the big size so I'd have leftovers. Then my leftovers disappeared. I was so angry I threw a glass (which broke) and yelled at my poor husband for 10 minutes  About CHINESE LEFTOVERS. Then I cried like an emotionally disturbed child and curled up on the freshly swept (thanks to broken glass) floor of my kitchen.

Can I just say, being pregnant is a gift (albeit one you cannot exchange) and I appreciate that my body is healthy and strong enough to make babies...however, I'm getting real tired of this shit.

I fail...at some things

I failed at training. My best friend,  partner in crime, and macaroni and cheese buddy asked me to run a half marathon with her, and not realizing how my life was going to unfold I said yes. 

and then I didn't train. 

and then I got pregnant. 

and then I still didn't train 

and then I feel like crap all the time

and then I still didn't train

and then I have a subchorionic hemorrhage in my uterus. 

and I'm not going to do the half marathon. 

so I failed... 

at not being a flake. 

Sorry friend, hope my other attributes are enough to make you not be disappointed with me for long, cause I LURVE YOU, and I'm gonna stand at the finish line holding a sign, and wearing a GO ERIN shirt, and holding pom-poms, and buy you a beer, and drive you home and make you some pre-race pasta (maybe something with cheese and shrimp?) and a huge chocolate cake for when you are done, because I am so proud of how hard you are working to do this. It's amazing, as are you. 

On to things I do not fail at. Twitch is growing and I heard his heartbeat today.  I also do not fail at girl scout cookie sales, and my little Pumpkin girl has sold at least 237 boxes. that's not an abstract or inflated number, that an actual tally. Although to be fair, Erin did sell about 4 cases at work, but Pumpkin made phone calls and a face book video and she worked her little freezing tush off at a booth sale last weekend. There are a ton of fun girl scout things happening over the next few months, including a trip to build a bear, a fire house visit and a bounce house outing, so I'll try to remember to share. 

Happy Birthday Doodle!

So, this is a day late, because well yesterday I was busy, with a work and a dentist appointment and a baby birthday party, I was way too busy to have a migraine (totes did, dammit)

So my Doodle bug turned one yesterday.

OMG, lookit that bebe smile!!!!

We bought a few Camouflage decorations and plates and things because we thought it fit him really well. I may not have mentioned it before but my doodle baby has the funniest crawl. He uses one foot and one arm and scoots his other leg underneath of himself  He looks like a wounded warrior, so we have also taken to calling him Lieutenant Dan (10 bonus points if you get the reference.)

So I made a big pot of pasta and red sauce, some Alfredo as well, a salad and some yummy bread from the bakery at Walmart. (btw, the bakery at Walmart has amazing bread, we had Parmesan cheese bread sticks and everything french bread with our dinner, and it's all gone.) Anyway we all ate until we felt like we would explode and then got down to the party part of the event.

Hmmm, cake you say?

I could like this, yeah, it's okay...

Wait, why is it all over my hands?

Seriously, get this shit off me!

He never really made the mess we expected, but he was getting sleepy, so I gave him a quick sink bath and he got his presents. A train toy from Mommy and Daddy, some clothes and a cup from Pa-pa and grannie Rose, and a car seat from Grannie. All in all a good first birthday party. We tend to do smaller first birthdays in our family, it just makes sense to me.

I can't believe it has been a whole year, it's flown by and been amazing and wonderful. My life is inexplicably sweeter now that this tiny guy is part of it. I find myself feeling calmer and more loving and paying more attention to the moments that run away from me as the time flies by.

He is so funny, and has such a remarkable sense of humor. He knows that things are funny and he does them with the intention of making us laugh and when he gets a laugh he has the hugest grin on his face, like, "Score I'm Funny!" He is into everything and when he hears the word no, he waits to see if it's a real no or a passing one. He'll stand really still and slowly reach back toward whatever it is to see if you are going to get up and come re-direct him. And as soon as he sees you coming eh plops down and takes off in the other direction.

He's also a lovey little man. He gives these great big hugs, with his arms around your neck and everything. He kisses your face with big open mouth slobbery baby kisses and does them European style with one drooly kiss on each cheek. He loves his Momma, and now he'll say Momma when he is crawling through the house looking for me. He plays hide and seek with me and when he finds me he giggles and crawls even faster to come in for a hug.

I'm so glad he is a part of my life.

Doodle Face!

.

Pyscho....somatic

Well before it was probably appropriate for me to have seen it, I became a fan of a movie from 1988 called Bull Durham. I was only 5 when this movie was released and probably 11 the first time I watched it. My family has this remarkable gift for one liners and this movie provided more than most. "from what I hear, you couldn't hit water if you feel out of a fucking boat." Thanks Crash.

I have a soft spot in my heart for comedy, baseball movies and Kevin Costner, so this quickly became one of my all time favorite flicks. It's a baseball movie about a small town team and a veteran catcher trying to help a young dummy find his way into the majors. It's funny and raunchy and just awesome really.
Anyway, another bit of life wisdom  came from this movie which I feel is applicable at this point in this endurance test known as baby baking.

At one point in the movie, two of the main characters, Annie and Crash are having an argument about whether or not it is bad luck to get laid while on a winning streak. Crash says, "if you believe you are winning because you are getting laid, or because you are not getting laid, or because you wear women's under pants, then you are!". Suggesting that the reasons for the streak are as much in your head as having to do with anything else in the world.

I believe this applies to morning sickness.

No really, stick with me for a minute. When I was baking Pumpkin and Sunshine, and I felt ill, I would eat lunch meat  and it would help. (Make sense?: no) While I was pregnant with Doodle all I wanted was Mint Oreo flavored ice cream and I felt awesome, it would settle my stomach like nobodies business. (not the same as before, weird  Now, with this sea monkey I am trying to locate the thing that makes me feel better, but it is eluding me.

I have spoken to lots of mothers to be as well as mothers of multiple kids and found that everyone has a different thing that helped to settle their stomach when they felt sick.
Cheese-it's dipped in peanut butter
Tropicana fruit juice
pretzels
Wendy's Frosty's
pickles
steak
rice and beans

Seriously the list keeps going.

My point is if you think that eating tuna on donuts, or a jolly rancher shoved inside a pickle, or a bacon milkshake helps you get over morning sickness, then it does!

What were your weird things?