Earthquakes and hurricanes and outtages, oh my!

It's been an interesting two weeks, to say the least! Last week I experienced my first earthquake. A little tiny nothing one, but we don't get those in these parts so it was a pretty big deal. I was sitting at my desk at work and thought I was having a dizzy spell when I saw one of my co-workers looking at me funny and I realized the whole building was shaking, not just my head.

This past weekend we braced ourselves for hurricane Irene, who was making her way up the east coast. Thankfully, by the time she got to us on Sunday she had weakened to a tropical storm but that didn't stop the power from going out. For four days. Now that we're way out here in the boonies we have well water. Well this little lady who grew up on public water systems did not realize that when the power goes out the water goes out too. Yeah, no electricity means no pump, which means no flushing toilets or running water.

Nana, Brendan and I roughed it for a day before B and I threw in the towel and headed to Mima and Papa's house. There's only so many times you can do a Spiderman puzzle by candlelight before you begin to lose your mind. Nana had power at her apartment so she headed home. Kenny had gotten called into work very early Sunday morning and ended up working pretty much non-stop for three days.

We are very lucky that we had a place to go, I can't imagine what a beast I'd be right now if we had to stick out here at the house for four days without any power or water. Or what I'd look or smell like for that matter.

Brendan and I shared a room, which I think he enjoyed. He pretty much talked my ear off every night while I tried desperately to get some sleep before work the next morning. I can laugh about it now but when you're pregnant and exhausted and not sleeping in your own bed, it's entirely possible to lose your mind over something that under any other circumstances would be absolutely adorable.

I did cherish our little sleepovers though, that kid is really very cute and loving and completely fascinating. On one of his neverending story sessions he told me about "getting the alligator and wrapping your arms around his teeth and throwing him down and that's how you do it Mommy." This is the kind of weird stuff three-year-olds discuss at 9:00 at night when you're trying to go to sleep.

Throughout all this, my little inside baby was kicking up a storm, as if telling me he/she was all right and everything was going to be OK. And speaking of the little person in there, we [hopefully] get to find out what we're having on Tuesday. Please cooperate little one! Mama has a compulsive need to know everything, not to mention a nursery to decorate.

Ole!

My inside baby has started becoming a lot more mobile, at least to the point where I can feel the movement much more frequently now. Saturday night the little jumping bean was moving so much I could see it from the outside. At my 16-week appointment two weeks ago the nurse said she was having a hard time finding his/her hearbeat because baby was doing flips like crazy in there. I couldn't feel it at that point though. Two more weeks and I'll be at the halfway mark - right on Labor Day. Then the next day we get to find out what we're having. (Please cooperate, little one!!!)

Once we find out I'll get motived to clean out the closet and pick some paint and bedding for the baby's room. Hopefully some loving family members will volunteer to help. :)

My outside baby finally got his big-boy bed, yay! It was getting too hard for me to hoist his 34lb body in and out of his crib with my growing belly. Not to mention, he was outgrowing that thing like nobody's business and the move was long overdue. We picked it up yesterday and B helped Papa and me put it together. Such a big helper! Only thing was the store was out of the tent thing that goes on top, which is the coolest part! They won't have it in stock until tomorrow and of course they don't deliver because the nearest one is an hour away. Lame. He slept in it for the first time last night and did fantastic. Didn't try to get out of bed and slept right through the night.

His other first last night was a gnarly fat lip. We put a baby gate in his bedroom doorway so he can't sneak out at night but it's got a bar at the bottom that's a total trip hazard. Poor guy was running full steam ahead into his room, tripped, and landed right on his face. His top lip was swollen and bleeding; he cried for a good 30 minutes, straight through his bath. A few bedtime stories in his new bed calmed him down though and this morning he was in good spirits even though he said his booboo wasn't better yet. By the time I picked him up from camp the swelling had gone down pretty much completely and has been replaced with a big scab. I'm now on a mission to find a new gate that won't cause any more injuries...

We have some pictures of the new bed and the fat lip but I haven't uploaded them. I also need to have Kenny take some belly pictures so I can compare this pregnancy to the one with Brendan. Someday I'll get around to uploading and posting them.

Hello Again

It's been a little while. Truthfully, writing feels like a job to me lately. And I already have enough work between my full-time job at work and my other full-time jobs as Mom, wife, accountant, maid, event planner, and so on and so forth.

So why am I back?

Here's the thing: I'm pregnant. And I have this massive guilt over the fact that I had a blog when I was pregnant with Brendan and then proceeded to blog pretty regularly for the first two years of his life. And here I am 14.5 weeks into my pregnancy and not a single entry since I found out.

I'm going to write a few sentences that sound like excuses to make me feel better and then I'll get on with updates. When I was pregnant with Brendan, we lived MUCH closer to where I work and I didn't have a toddler to take care of when I came home or on the weekends. If I felt like sitting on the couch all night/weekend then that's exactly what I did. Now, I have an hour commute each way and an absolutely adorable little boy who wants nothing more than to play with his Mommy when she gets home. So sitting my ever-expanding ass on the couch is not really an option.

I'm EXHAUSTED. And because of that I'm cranky and prone to mood swings mostly directed at my poor husband. It's hard to let the excitement of the pregnancy take over like it did the first time when I feel like I have so many things competing for my attention. What I would like is a nice, long vacation by myself where I can just sit on the beach, read a book, and not have to take care of anyone/anything but myself. Where do I sign up?

I realize I sound ungrateful. I am so blessed in so many ways and yet I can't always step back and appreciate what I have. So let me stop complaining and focus on all the wonderful things in my life.

A bit about this pregnancy. I have dealt with some morning (all day) sickness, but NOTHING like I had with Brendan. I've only thrown up three times whereas with him I threw up at least once a day. This time around my body is more sore, I'm dealing with more headaches and I'm just really tired. Some of these could be because I'm thisclose to "advanced maternal age" this time. :/

We are going to find out what we're having but have to wait another 5.5 weeks because my new OB doesn't do them before 20 weeks. Patience is really not my thing but I'm working on it. I'm excited about having a nursery to decorate this time and am also going to make some changes to Brendan's room while we're at it. Just a new paint color and a few new accessories here and there.

We've been living in our house close to a year now and absolutely love it. It's hard to remember living in that cramped apartment with no yard for Brendan to play in. The area is really nice and it's so peacefully quiet.

That's all I've got for now. Be back soon...

I do it!

Pardon my slacking, I've been busy building myself an igloo. The fourth (fifth??) snow storm in the last 3.5 weeks is headed our way tonight, which is really just so awesome. If you're someone who likes that much snow. Which I don't.

Brendan started his new daycare in the beginning of the month. They love him and say he's doing really well, making friends and having fun. Problem is the whole drop-off thing, which as I've complained about already, is the job of yours truly. The first week he actually did really well and I felt a little silly that I had been so anxious and dreading this transition so much.

The second week, on the other hand, didn't go quite so well. He cried and held onto me for dear life. How I would have loved to stay there with him all day and make him feel better, but I have a job and it's now an hour away so I don't have the luxury of time. Not to mention, they don't want me sticking around making things worse and it doesn't help him get adjusted if I baby him. I have to take the opposite approach and peel him off of me and run out the door. So that's what I did. Then I got in my car and cried.

It made me think of that first day I dropped him off at daycare after my maternity leave was over. It was sooooo much harder on me than it was on him. And it's the same now. He puts on a great show when I leave but I know within five minutes he's fine and having a dandy old time. But I feel awful for hours after. I just keep telling myself that he won't remember any of this a few years from now. I also tell myself that when he's testing the limits of my patience and I do something ridiculous like growl at him and make him cry. Yes, I'm a horrible mother.

So yeah, two and half is an interesting age. His vocabulary consists mostly of No! My turn! I do it! and I don't want to! He moves at a glacial pace, inspecting everything in his path, doing things when he's good and ready and not a moment sooner. Which is why we have a delightful morning ritual of him running away from me when I try to get him dressed so we can get out the door at a reasonable time. He doesn't get the sense of urgency and I learned quickly that you can't rush a toddler because it backfires and they resist even more. So either I'm trying to outwit him and trick him into letting me get him dressed, or I'm peeling off his pajamas and shoving his clothes on him all while running after him. Fun stuff.

It's all about Jedi mind games at this age. They're too young to understand "later" or "tomorrow" so there's no reasoning with them. You need to give them choices, but not too many because you overwhelm them. I'd like to start potty training him but he's much more interested in sitting on the potty and using up all the toilet paper while he pretends to wipe himself (he shoves the toilet paper into the potty between his legs). Oh, and he's discovered the joy of picking his nose.

I'm really making B sound like a beast, but this age is truly a lot of fun. He's so much more independent and the things he says are just hysterical. He teeters between being super affectionate and telling me he loves me "toooooo much!" and yelling at me because I had the audacity to sit in "his spock" (spot) or take the hairbrush away because he's brushing the wall. Which has the same effect as scratching nails on chalkboard, by the way.

I've heard that age three is actually harder than the terrible two's. I'll admit it, I'm kinda scurrred...

Snow!




Making a snowman with Daddy


Decapitated snowman












Brendan is 2.5 years old!

Hiiiiiii!

Holy cow, it's been a long time! I'm so busy, blah blah blah. But seriously, we moved, I have a long commute, I'm pooped when I get home. Then it's the weekend and I blink and it's over. There's too much to cover so I'll give you the Cliff's Notes:

We officially moved into our new house on August 21st. We LOVE it. It's roomy and fun and best of all -- it's all ours. The roof that we had to patch, the septic pump we had to replace, the electric panel we had to replace -- all ours! No one ever said owning a home was cheap!

Brendan is getting smarter by the second. He says a lot of ridiculously funny things, like:

Mommy be nice to the song! (whenever I sing)
I love big boobies!
Where's your penis Mommy?
Where'd my (boogie, penis, insert random noun here) go? Oh, there he is!

And he's very complimentary too. He'll tell me great counting, or dancing or whatever I'm doing at the moment. Great job Mommy! Good manners too, lots of pleases and thank yous (or just enthusiastic "thanks!").

There are so many other ones that I just can't remember at the moment. I really have to get better at writing them down.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. Mom stayed over the night before so she could get up nice and early to help me cook. Everything turned out perfectly; no one had food poisoning so that's promising.

We skipped sitting on Santa's lap this year. B is a little suspicious of strangers, especially big ones in funny red suits. Santa may bring him toys under the Christmas tree if he promises to sneak in and out quietly. But in-person visits? No thanks! Mima and Papa hosted and had a nice crowd, including Nana and Uncle Scotch and Aunt Lauren. And of course everyone spoiled him rotten. Doesn't hurt to be the only grandchild!

B is starting a new daycare next week. I have such anxiety over the transition, not to mention saying goodbye to his beloved Chrissy that's watched him since he was a little ball of 12-week-old mush. That's going to be a really hard goodbye. :*( She's been so wonderful to him and he has a very special place in her heart; she's already said how her heart is breaking at seeing him go. Ack, I'm getting upset just writing about it.

The new place will be great, it's a preschool right around the corner from us so it will chop off about 20 minutes from my currently 1.5 hour commute. He'll meet more children his age that live in the area and that he will eventually go to school with. All great things. But he's really awful in new situations. Kenny and I were both super shy growing up and B takes after us big-time in that respect. I have the drop-off so of course I have the hard job of seeing him get upset when I leave him in this new place. Kenny gets to be the hero and pick him up at the end of the day. I just keep reminding myself that I don't remember anything from when I was 2.5. So he'll be just fine. Me? Might take a while to recover.

I'll be back soon... I promise. With pictures!