Mo on Art...and Other Stuff

Overdue 5 days and getting anxious

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:38:00 +0000

Well, I'm on day 5 of being overdue and still no sign of labor. I never really thought much about going overdue or worried about it. I never even discussed with my midwife what her policies/procedures were for going overdue till it occurred to me at my 39 week appt to ask. She will only let me go to 42 weeks and then requires me to go into the hospital for induction.

I kind of felt like I'd go early this time, or at least I was really hoping for it. Obviously I was completely wrong on that. (as I type this Aiden is going nutso in my belly, he's quite the kicker and really likes to stretch out...not super comfy.) Now that I'm almost a week past due I'm starting to get anxious. What if the baby doesn't come in the next week? I have so many issues with going into the hospital for an induction. The first is that I would be so so sad to not get my homebirth after months of anticipation and excitement at the prospect of delivering my little man at home. The second is the fact that I'd be in a hospital, not my favorite place. I don't even have a birthplan, plus I'd be being induced, so that right there would introduce some of the medical interventions I was thinking I'd be avoiding with a homebirth. And last, but not least, it'd cost us an additional $2500 to use the back up OB. We simply don't have the money.

Ug. Anyhow, I wasn't anxious about this at all until last night. I figure I have my 41 week appt tomorrow and usually my midwife checking me stirs things up. I'm going to ask her to sweep my membranes, too. She's already done that once, but hopefully this time it's effective. I also read a couple places about using an herbal tincture that is a combination of black and blue cohosh for naturally inducing labor after you are past due. I emailed my midwife about that and we'll see what she says. I really want to just have this baby this weekend and not have to worry about going 2 weeks overdue. Also, I'm starting to worry about other things that are probably not even an issue, like what condition the placenta is in, do I have enough amniotic fluid? What if there is a ton of meconium in the water, will the baby be ok? Ahhhh! Preggo hormones do not help the situation at all.

Anyhow, cross your fingers that this little man evacuates this weekend! I really can't wait to meet him. I was doing so well with not being impatient, I was so proud of myself. Now I'm not so much impatient to meet him as I am anxious about all the stuff that could happen or go wrong should I make it to 42 weeks.

Being sick and pregnant sucks

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:22:00 +0000

So, last Tuesday I came down with the cold that Liam and Chris both had. By Friday I thought it was getting a lot better and hopefully I could have the baby by my due date on Sunday...then Saturday came and I felt a bit worse, much more congested. I had my 40 week midwife appointment. She checked the baby's position and said he's still head down, but not any lower than he was at my 39 week appt. She didn't want to do an internal since I was sick and she didn't want to stir anything up that could put me into labor. It's a good thing she didn't since I was even worse yesterday. I had everything going, congestion in my sinuses, my ears were clogged and hurting, super bad cough, sneezing, headache, etc. I think that it was the worst I've felt from a cold that I can ever remember. Today is much better. I'm still coughing but not nearly as much and my congestion is way down. Phew!

I'm hoping I'll feel even better tomorrow and be ready to go! I'd love for my labor to start tomorrow night and have the baby Wednesday morning. August 19, 2009 would be an excellent birthday for my little man. I can't wait to meet him. I know it'll happen soon, for real now, and I'm so excited. I can't believe that I'm officially overdue!

I hope that I'm able to enjoy Aiden's first few weeks of life more than I was able to with Liam. I think being a 2nd time mom and knowing how to breast feed and such should help a lot. I'm just hoping Liam doesn't have too hard of a time coping with having a new baby in the house. He seems to be warming up to he idea of a "brother" though I don't know if he really understands what a "brother" is. He will soon enough.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying Liam as much as I can. He's so snuggly and soft and really such an amazing little man. I can't get enough of him!

Still pregnant and an update on everything else

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:29:00 +0000

I guess now is a good a time as any to post again. Life's been exhausting recently. I guess I'll do a quick update on each segment of my life.

Liam has grown up so much in the last few months. Part of that has brought on tantrums that have been horrible to deal with. I think it's been a combination of his age as well as somewhat of an understanding that his brother is coming soon.

Liam had been doing pretty well in the sleep department, only waking a couple times a night. Then we took a trip to Seattle (just the bean and me). That messed everything up. I guess that was a month an a half ago and ever since then his sleep has been awful. I decided that I couldn't keep getting up with him during the night and maybe I could change it so that he could come to us. We got him a toddler bed about a week ago and man was that ever a mistake. We've gone beyond backwards. He has always loved his crib and was going down fine in it. He just would wake up a million times a night requiring me to have to get up. Now it's like pulling teeth to even get him to sleep in his bed. It's no fun at all. And he's still waking up tons during the night. It's not helping that right now he (and Chris and I) has a bad cold. Liam being sick always equates to horrible sleeping at night. Last night we couldn't get him to sleep so we finally gave up and had him sleep in our bed. We all went to bed at 8:30...sigh.

Anyhow, other than the sleep issues he's doing really well. His tantruming has gone way down and he is talking soooo much! He's so stinkin adorable. I can't believe how much he has grown up. We were just eating dinner tonight and I was watching him. I have a little "kid". It's crazy!! If he would simply sleep through the night, he'd be pretty much perfect.

Seattle! Liam and I flew by ourselves to Seattle about a month and a half ago. It was so much fun! We stayed with my friends Megan and Paul and their two adorable little squirts. I really really had a great time. I drove around Seattle and went to a couple areas that we are considering moving to. They were so nice. I managed to totally get lost coming home...and my phone was dead. But somehow I managed to find my way back to their house on my own (after wasting maybe an extra 1/2 hour driving around). I sampled many yummy decaf coffees while there and my friends kept me nice and busy. We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island and ate lunch there. We also shopped at Pike Place market, which was really cool. We went swimming and visited parks and played outside. It was so much fun. I loved Seattle and I'm actually quite stoked to move there. I was also really proud of the fact that I survived both flights with Liam by myself!

I wish I'd gotten some pictures, but I've grown a bunch of tomatoes! I keep eating them the second they are ready, so I haven't accumulated any. I can't wait till I have more space and I can grow a ton of tomatoes. They've come out so yummy. I have maybe 10 right now that are still green and growing. My pepper plant completely died and I even managed to kill two rosemary plants.

Like I said in the heading...I'm still pregnant. I've had a few false alarms, but nothing came of them. This Sunday I will officially be 40 weeks pregnant. The baby has been doing well, super active. This pregnancy has been so uneventful, in a very good way. I'm super sore and achy now, but I'm willing to wait this baby out till he is ready. I really wanted to have him on Tuesday, but then Liam and I both came down with colds and it was pretty much out of the question. I really need Liam to get better so I can sleep and then I can get better and have this baby! I really can't wait to meet the little man. I'm so excited!

We FINALLY got my Best Chair! We'd ordered a Best Chair for me to use for nursing when Liam was first born, but the furniture co that we ordered it through screwed it all up and we kept not getting it and finally, months later, we cancelled the order. So, we went to a different furniture co this time and ordered it again. It just came yesterday and it is perfect! It's velvety and chocolate brown. It swivels, reclines and rocks! I can't wait to use it for nursing Aiden!

I guess that's it for now.

Win a super cute sling and muslin blankies!

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:28:00 +0000

Win a Sakura Bloom Ring sling and Aden and Anais Swaddling Blankets from Nature's Child - Wholesome goods for Mothers and Babies

Trying to grow veggies!

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:57:00 +0000

I have never ever had a green thumb. My plants always end up dead, often simply from failing to water them. But I really wanted to start an herb and veggie garden now that we are in our new house and I have the room. For Mother's Day Chris got me several tomato plants, a pepper plant, flowers and a bunch of herb seeds. I'm so proud of myself that for the most part, my plants are still alive! The tomatoes have grown so much bigger than they were when I planted them. They are starting to bloom! I can't wait till I have actually grown a tomato!

Liam helped me out with planting/playing in the dirt the day I took these pictures. He also had fun organizing and reorganizing these rocks in a plant container. It was amazing how long he was occupied with this!!

66 days to go...

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:36:00 +0000

Baby Ticker - The Baby Countdown Pregnancy Tickergreat free widgetsWidgetbox

29 week midwife appointment

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:14:00 +0000

So I had my 29 week midwife appt on Saturday. We did my glucose test and I did the normal peeing on a stick and weighing of myself. *sigh* I gained 7lbs in 3 weeks. I'm only 5lbs away from my end of pregnancy weight with Liam. I can't seem to help myself, I eat like a complete pig. And I don't eat tons of healthy food either. This morning I started off with 3 small pancakes completely slathered in butter and a tiny bit of syrup, and a cup of coffee. Then, a couple hours later I made myself 2 fried eggs and had those over toast. And then (keep in mind that it's only 11am while I'm writing this) I keep eating these tiny little apple pastries (kind of like mini apple turnovers). And I'm holding myself back from chugging the chocolate milk in the fridge. Even after my midwife appt, the first thing I did was go to the drive-thru donut shop on my way home and get two donuts.

Anyhow, I think I'm going to get a lecture on diet at my appt in 2 weeks.

Back to my appt...we listened to the baby's heartbeat and felt for his positioning. He's head down (doesn't mean he'll stay that way) and his butt is on my right side. That's not where I want him to be...I want him on my left side so I don't end up with a back labor, but we still have plenty of time for him to move. His heartbeat was easy to find and is strong, as usual. Liam had fun playing with the doppler and putting it on my belly.

I got my list of supplies for my home birth, it was more than I though it would be. Just lots of little stuff. It's amazing how much more responsible you are for supplies and stuff in a home birth. I realized how much I took for granted at the birthing center last time around.

I was up in the middle of the night thinking about all the stuff I needed to get, figuring out (in my head) what I should use for what, where stuff should go, etc. It'll be good when everything is set up and ready to go and I don't have to worry about it anymore.

My midwife already got my glucose test results back and I passed with flying colors (yay!) but I'm anemic, which I already figured. So I have to get more of the liquid iron supplement I took when I was pregs with Liam.

While I was at my appointment my midwife gave me a bag of loose red raspberry leaves to make tinctures with. It's pretty funny because it totally looks like a bag of pot sitting on my counter. But it smells a lot better. I really really liked drinking the red raspberry leaf tea, but the tincture is a whole other ball of wax. It's like drinking the tea, but 90x's stronger. Very bitter and hard to get down. I drank it cold yesterday, we'll see what it's like if I heat it up today.

Today I'm also working on figuring out how to file claims for all the stuff we are paying for. Hopefully we can get some sort of reimbursment (which we should) from Aetna for all of it. I wish our insurance wasn't so annoying and would just cover everything like they ought to. So frustrating.

Missing my mommy

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:57:00 +0000

Driving home from Liam's swimming lesson a bit ago and a U2 song came on. U2 always reminds me of my mom. They were one of her top favorite bands of all time. For one of her birthdays we surprised her with getting a box at the staples center and a ton of us joined her for an awesome U2 concert. She was also able to see them in Vegas shortly after that. Anyhow, hearing them always makes me think of her and miss her.

It's incredible how a song can trigger so much emotion and leave me practically crying in my car on our drive from the aquatics center. I miss her so much. Being pregnant also reminds me a lot of how I don't have her here. I ache to be able to tell her how I'm having another boy and to show her my US pictures. I want to tell her all about Liam and all the new things he's constantly learning to do. She's missing so much. I also want to call her when I'm upset about something and hug her just for the sake of hugging her. I want to tell her how much I love her and miss her. I want to hear her tell me how beautiful my giant bushy eyebrows are. I want to touch her arm, her skin was always so soft.

I've never been a jealous person, but this is one subject that I can get jealous and resentful over. I really try not to, but I genuinely resent people who are so much older than me who still have their parents around. I just can't help but think how unfair it is.

Anyhow, I really really just miss my mommy and I still harbor the wish that I'll wake up one day only to find that this was all a bad dream.

Camping!

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:57:00 +0000

So we took Liam on his first camping trip this week. It was so much fun. We drove down to San Clemente State Beach on Monday during his nap time (noon) and got there in an hour (woo hoo!).

I had thought about how sandy he would get and what we'd do about that...but I forgot about the inevitable dirt that is at all camp sites. Liam loved it and was completely covered in dirt instantaneously. We had a great first day. He slept on the way there, then we set up camp while he played in the dirt and checked the camp site out. Then we headed down to the beach in the later afternoon. Liam has always loved the beach, so he had a blast playing in the sand and water. So cute!

We came back for dinner and built a big fire. Chris got this thingy for making sparks so he could start fires the old fashioned way...so it took a while because he stubbornly insisted on starting it without matches or a lighter. Then we made some yummy hamburgers and played more in the dirt waiting for the sun to go down. It was almost down and we decided to go shower Liam off and get him ready for bed. I guess we went at the worst possible time because the lights hadn't come on yet but it was too dark to really see. So we took a family shower in the dark to get the bean somewhat washed off. Then it was off to bed for him.

Since this was the first time we'd camped with Liam we didn't realize that really our tent was too small for the three of us. So Liam and I took the tent while Chris took his sleeping bag and pad to sleep under the stars. We went to bed pretty early because we're old, I guess, around 9:45. I was out like a light. UNTIL 10pm or so, when some late arrivers came and decided to very loudly set up camp right across from us. The girl with them had one of those loud piercing voices so that it sounds like she's standing right in front of you when she's really far away. Liam somehow slept through it but Chris and I were ready to kill them. Finally they decided to go to sleep around 2:30 or so and we were able to go to bed...until our camp was attacked by a ton of skunks.

It would have been nice for the camp site people to warn us to not leave any food out anywhere, including the trash...I woke up to what I thought was Chris pacing in circles around in the tent. It woke up Liam too. I ripped the tent door open to ask him what the hell he was doing, only to find a butt ton of skunks all over the place, one hanging out the door and Chris frantically waving at me to not freak them out.

Anyhow, they were still there around 4:30 when I had to navigate around them to go pee. It was lovely.

On Tuesday we had a perfect day. We had pancakes for breakfast and Liam played with his shovel and bucket in the dirt, then we took a drive at his nap time, he fell asleep and we came back to camp and ate lunch while he slept. He woke up and we fed him and headed down to the beach. We spent the whole afternoon till dinner time playing at the beach. And then we came back and had a super yummy dinner of fire roasted corn on the cob, brats and hot dogs. Liam went out and Chris and I chatted in front of the fire till we went to bed. We drifted off to sleep to the sound of some other campers with bongo drums, an excellent singer and guitarist. We all slept like rocks till the morning.

We came back today and I was very happy to shower and get clean! But it was a blast! I can't wait till we can take the bean camping again. Unfortunately it might not be for some time since the baby is due soon and I don't think I'll be wanting to go with the two of them for awhile...

Aren't you proud of me for posting in less than 2 months since my last post!?!

10 years later

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:17:00 +0000

Ok, so I suck at keeping up with posts.

I'm now 28 weeks pregnant! I can't believe how fast it's gone by. I feel pretty good. I have back issues, the same ones I had when I was pregs with Liam, I can't sleep too well and I'm super tired. Those are pretty much my only issues right now. Yay! *knocking on wood*

A lot has changed even since my last post. We had our US to find out what we were having and it was as clear as day, it's a little boy! I was pretty bummed that day because I really had my heart set on a little girl and I really felt like that was what I was having. I was soooo looking forward to all the cute girly clothes and cloth diapers and everything else that comes with having sugar and spice. I gave myself one day to have a little pity party and then I got over it. I can say now that I am super excited to have another little boy. I really have so much fun with Liam and I think he's going to love having a little brother.

The baby is kicking a ton and I already feel like I know him. He feels so different from Liam. I don't know how to describe it, but he just feels like he has a completely different personality. I can't wait for him to be born so I can see what he is like.

The appointment with my OB where we did our US was the last one. We decided to switch to a midwife and have a home birth. Our midwife is great! Her name is Margo Kennedy. I really really liked her when I was pregs with Liam but she was all booked up. I'm so glad I was able to snag her for this baby.

I'm getting excited planning and figuring out what I need for the birth. I went on freecycle and asked for old dingy king sized sheets and old towels and I got a ton. So I'm all set in that department. I'll be set for life with rags after this birth! I've already decided what tub I'm going to rent and we have the tarp we need for it. I was supposed to stop by at the midwife's office yesterday to pick up some red raspberry leaf and the list of birth supplies I need. I completely forgot. Arg. I'll just have to get it next week at my appt.

My next appt is when I do my glucose test. I'm a little worried about it, but at least my midwife does it in such a way that's not pure torture. All I have to do is eat a normal meal and then she'll take my blood two hours later. Not too bad at all! No nasty syrupy drink, no fasting! Woo hoo!

I'm having so much fun with Liam these days. He's growing up so fast. He understands everything we say and responds with his own little words. Some of them come out right, like "car" "truck" "tag" etc. But then there are words, like "ball" that come out weird. His "ball" is "gar" No idea why. He's a little trouble maker and is getting really good at throwing tantrums. But it's amazing how an hour after he throws a horrible tantrum in the middle of the grocery store I find myself telling him how he's been such a good boy all day...duh...because he's been a super sweetie pie for 5 minutes. I just forget about all the other stuff when he's like that. He has the sweetest smile. And he's so snugglie still.

On Thursday we were at the farmer's market getting dinner. I was holding him while we were in line and he had one of those tiny paper cups with a sample of trail mix in it. I guess he decided he was done and he wedged it between my breasts for safe keeping. Oh my goodness, it was hilarious. My cleavage has become one of his favorite places to store his hand in the last few weeks. Even though he's not nursing anymore his fascination with my breasts continues to grow and grow. Probably because they continue to grow and grow. :)

His current favorite thing to say is "mama" which of course melts my heart. Took him long enough to get around to saying it! He used to only say, "dad". Now he sometimes accidentally calls Chris, "mama" hehe.

Liam still doesn't sleep through the night...sigh. But the last week or so it's been a lot better *knocking on wood again!* He's been only waking twice and last night I can only remember him waking once...Could that be right? Maybe it was twice...I can't remember anything these days. Anyhow, he likes us to pat his butt to get him back to sleep and in the last couple days he's taken to patting his crotch to tell me that he wants me to pat his butt. It's so cute!

Chris is off on a white-water rafting trip this weekend so it's just been me and the bean. He comes back tonight and then tomorrow we take Liam on his first camping trip! We are going down to San Clemente beach for 2 nights. I think Liam will love it, but I have a feeling we're going to have a hard time in the sleep department. I guess we'll see! It'll certainly be an adventure.

Anyhow, I guess that's about it...I'll try and post again next week!

And again...it's been a long time

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:46:00 +0000

Ok, so it's kind of sad that I last posted on here in November. A lot has happened in the last few months.

We moved a few weeks ago to a house in Alhambra. Woo hoo! The house is 3 beds, 2 baths. I finally have a fireplace and a yard for the bean to play in. I can't even begin to describe how much I love having a house. The condo was great and all for a couple, but with the bean it was just way to small.

When we moved we had to get rid of our cats. I gave them to my sister's boyfriend, telling him what great cats they were. Well, I didn't realize that my favorite cat (the short haired one) would turn into Cujo for a week. Complete psycho screaming cat, ready to kill anything that moved. This happened when I took him to the vet, but I'd never seen it anywhere else. Anyhow, it took about a week and then one day he was his old self again. That's all fine and dandy except last night I found out that he was killed by a neighborhood cat. ): I was really sad, he was my favorite of the 2.

We rented our condo out, so now I am a landlord! Fancy that! It's been interesting but fortunately I haven't had to do much.

I kind of left out the biggest reason we moved. I'm pregnant! We are due August 16th, but I think that my due date might be off by a few days (I think it should be closer to the 11th). We'll see. We weren't really planning on the pregnancy, but of course pregnancy is fairly easy to prevent and we weren't do a great job of that either...

We have our big ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby on the 30th. I'm so excited. I can't wait. I really really want a girl, but of course I'll take anything that is healthy!

I finally weaned Liam about a month and a half ago. I was really sad about it, but it happened so easily, I guess it was the right time. We thought that weaning him would likely help his nighttime sleep situation, but it hasn't at all. He's now in his own room, but still wakes up several times a night. I sure hope he starts sleeping through the night before the next one comes.

I've become obsessed with cloth diapering. I pulled out all my old stuff that I had barely tried with Liam and I went on a crazy buying spree. I have a ton of diapers now and I'm just getting some of them stripped, some of them prepped and then we will be full time cloth diapering. I'm excited about exclusively cloth diapering baby #2. It'll be a lot easier now that we have our own washer and drier.

What else...my sisters and I threw my SIL, Dynnel and my little sister their baby showers in the last few weeks. They both went so well. I can't wait till they have their babies (which should be any day now!).

Anyhow, that's a quick update on everything for now. I have tons of pictures I need to upload, and when I do I'll post again with some pics!

It's been forever and a half

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:31:00 +0000

Ok, I'm too annoyed with blogger to go through the work of arranging all these pics, but the first 3 are of course of my little monkey on Halloween. And the rest are from his birthday, which I talk about at the bottom of my post. Enjoy!

o

Life as a mom has been crazy these days. I'm having so much fun with it, but definitely having some of those tear your hair out days. Liam is cute as ever, but getting more and more active and opinionated.

Last week I was in the kitchen and I was surprised when I turned around to find the bean ON TOP of the dining room table. Of course that was where we'd been stashing all our breakable stuff we'd been removing from other parts of the house. I quickly took him down and ran around like a mad woman trying to figure out where else to stick the stuff (which was hard as Liam can get practically anywhere). I hadn't even begun to get the stuff off the table and Liam was already back on it. Over and over again I took him off and he got back on, easy as pie. That began my week of hell. Not only did he learn to get onto the dining room table on Monday, but we both became sick. So all week he was climbing up, falling off, giving me heart attacks, not sleeping due to being sick, etc. And to top it off, Chris went out of town for a couple days...and of course the night he was out Liam had me up all night with coughing, puking and the need to be consoled. The poor guy. I never realized how much dealing with him puking all over the bed in the middle of the night was a team activity--till it was just me. You should have seen me trying to figure out what to do first. I was trying to wipe it off the bed so it wouldn't soak into the mattress but at the same time Liam kept barfing. I was losing ground. I finally picked him up, set him on the ground and cleaned up the bed, and then we took a 5am shower to get the puke off the both of us. Ah, life as a mommy. ;p

This week has been much better, thankfully. Liam and I are both getting over being sick, he finally started listening to us about the climbing so he isn't doing it when we say "no". He's been in a much better mood.

Chris is out of town again right now on a kayaking trip. I hope he is having a great time. It's been nice, but a bit of work having Liam all to myself with no breaks. Thursday night was awesome. Liam and I had the whole bed to ourselves. We both slept so much better. Liam only woke up like 4 times!! While that may sound like a lot for a baby who is almost 14 months old, it is practically a record for Liam these days.

I'm bummed I never posted anything about Liam's birthday party, so I'll post it here and I'll have to find the pics and post them soon. We had Liam's party at the old zoo in Griffith park. It was so much fun. Excepting the fact that pretty much everyone got lost getting there (despite maps and signs) it was the perfect location. There were tons of places for the bigger kids to explore and climb, and lots of grass and dirt for the littler ones to play in. Some of the adults were playing football.

I made Chris get there early and we snagged the first habitat that is nice and big and has picnic tables in it. There were little caves that we were able to stash the possibly-not-allowed-grown-up drinks in. Everything was a monkey theme. I had green and brown table cloths and Chris put up green and brown streamers and balloons. I have to put a plug in here for Chris as he basically did all the decorations by himself. So cute!

We had little monkey centerpieces and little monkey tiki hut favor boxes. We also had several bubble machines which the little kids had a blast with. The cake was awesome and I made the exact right amount of food. It all turned out so well.

I guess that's it for now. I need to find those pics and get them posted

Liam's Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:12:00 +0000

I can't believe it's already been an entire year! It has gone so fast. As you can see from my lack of blogs, I've been busy.

I absolutely love motherhood and everything it entails. It's quite worth dealing with the god-awful poopy diapers, sleepless nights, tantrums, etc.

Liam has continued to be the more adorable little turkey I've ever seen. I know he's mine and all, but still, he is insanely cute.

Aside from all the obvious stuff, like crawling, sitting up, eating solids, etc. he can do so many things now. He loves giving us 5's and if Chris says, "If you're a troublemaker put your hands on your head!" he does! One of his favorite toys for a long time has been his ball. He had a mini-basketball, but that became a bathtub/shower toy. Now he has a tennis ball graciously donated by his cousin Layla (translate: Michelle gave Liam a dirty dog slobbered tennis ball and Liam couldn't have been happier). Liam also loves to dance, press buttons on anything that has buttons, and playing with the kitties.

Having the cats, while hairy, has provided us with such a simple way to make Liam happy. He absolutely loves the cats. If he's grumpy or we need to distract him, all we need to do is ask him where the kitties are.

Just recently Liam taught himself how to get off the couch...unfortunately. I now REALLY have to watch him on the bed and couch otherwise he might try to get off and he isn't too good at it yet.

Liam is such a monkey. I remember watching my friend's son, who is quite the climber and thinking how cool/scary it was and wondering if Liam would do the same. Sure enough, he's a climber. It's amazing how much he gets into even though he's still so little. He's not walking or standing on his own yet, but he can easily climb into a box almost as tall as he is. Crazy stuff.

Win 12 Bumgenius Diapers!!

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:34:00 +0000

http://babycheapskate.blogspot.com/2008/07/giveaway-12-bumgenius-30-diapers.html

Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:13:00 +0000

On a daily basis I have several vivid and detailed dreams which I remember the next day. Of course I forget some of them, but I remember a large portion of them and usually can recount them to someone hours later with tons of specifics.

In a lot of my dreams I know it is a dream. I am aware that it isn't real. I have often enjoyed my dreams and compare them to the movies. It's like going to sleep and getting entertained while doing so. The only thing is that I feel like I don't really get as well rested when I so active in my sleep.

The other problem with have extremely vivid dreams is the waking up part. Sometimes, especially with sad dreams, or dreams you have bad arguments in, I wake up so distressed and it's difficult to console myself with the fact that it was just a dream. I remember having a dream many years ago that my nephew was on the beach at twilight and there was this massive storm brewing. I was running to him trying to get him away from the water. A huge wave came and crashed over him and took him away. I totally woke up from that dream sobbing and even months later it made me sad even though he was completely fine in real life and I knew he was. I even talked about it with my church councilor trying to reconcile it with myself so it didn't make me sad.

I hate the ones where I fight with someone in a dream and then woke up and I can't shake the feeling of being pissed off at them, even though they didn't do anything wrong in real life.

I have never talked to anyone who has had dreams the way I do. I don't know why that is. Am I just an anomaly or are there others out there like me?

Last night I had a couple of odd dreams. The first one I only remember part of. I was at a friend's party at their house. The house was a huge beautiful modern mansion. I had gotten pretty toasted and as a result I was, well, interested in engaging in particular activities with my husband. Chris told me he really wasn't in the mood, but maybe his friend (we'll call him "Jack") could take care of me instead (not something that would ever happen in real life). I was shocked and surprised and told him, "hell no!". Later Chris came up to me and told me that I'd hurt "Jack's" feelings by the way I responded and he wondered if I didn't like him or if I thought there was something wrong with him. I told my husband that I was flattered he'd be interested in doing those activities with me, but that actually the problem was that he was just too hot (he is really cute in real life). I was embarrassed by my ugly post-baby body and didn't want him to see me.

Later I decided to take my husband up on his offer, but with a different friend, we'll call him "Joe". So I went to his bedroom. I think at this point it turned out that this was in fact his party and his mansion. So, anyhow, I went to his bedroom, stripped down and got into bed. He was in the middle of painting this massive mural on his ceiling. Instead of getting in bed with me he asked me to paint some of it for him. So I wrapped the sheet around me and got up and started painting. I was painting these big, chunky flowers with oil paints. They were coming out really well.

While I was painting my friend's father came in the room and wanted to talk to him, so he asked me to leave. So I got dressed and I remember being embarrassed when I flashed my naked body at him, thinking again that my post-baby body was so ugly and not what it used to be.

Later I came back into his room and he had finished the mural. My flowers were gone and instead there was this amazing and intricate painting with out of this world cities and planets, etc. It was phenomenal.

The end. That's all I remember about that dream now (it's 4:40 in the afternoon, so that's pretty good, they sometimes fade as the day goes on)...

I then had a completely dis-related dream about being pregnant. Several days went by in my dream and every day I had the cutest maternity outfit on. I was so impressed by my dream maternity outfits and in my dream I wished I had them in real life. I was a hot preggo. One day my sister, my sister-in-law (who was also pregnant in my dream) and my dad decided to go to the mall to get some lotion.

Side note: I know why I had this dream. My brother called me last night to tell me that he and my SIL are expecting their 4th (and unexpected) baby. The poor guy is scheduled for the good ol' snip snip next month-oops. Anyhow, on with the dream.

We went to this one store and my sister brought her stroller for some reason, I'm not sure why as her kids are 16 and 17 years old. We were in the lotion store going over different types of sunscreen and the lady was talking to me like I was a complete idiot. I told her I wasn't even the one buying the sunscreen as I already had it (poof! my baby is now in the dream, too). I showed her my baby and that he's 9.5 months old. Obviously by now I had some sunscreen for him. Anyway, we browsed the store and my SIL finally bought some lotion.

When we left the store the paparazzi was swarming the mall. My sister was bitching about having the stroller saying that she thought she could check it at the first store we stopped at. She was complaining about how things had changed since she had her kids.

It was impossible to maneuver anywhere in the mall as the paps were everywhere (I have no idea why).

That's pretty much all I remember of that one. I remembered more this morning, but I've forgotten now. Oh well.

So, those were the two dreams from last night that I remember parts of. If you catch me first thing in the morning I'll talk your ear off telling you about my dreams from the night before.

I even remember dreams from when I was a little kid. I had a few of nightmares that I still remember clearly. One was when I was 5 or 6 and was about giant bugs, another was from when I was 7 or 8 and my parents died, and another was from around the same time period and was about me being stuck in a house with tons of ghosts outside trying to get me.

I've even noticed that I tend to handle things in a certain way time after time in dreams. Like when I'm being attacked by someone I most often will come up with a knife as my weapon. I will try to stab the person in self-defense and no matter how hard I stab them or how many times the stab wounds are always superficial and they never die. Out of desperation, I usually resort to some disgusting means of defense, generally clawing their eyes out. I've done it several times in various dreams. Also, phones NEVER work in my nightmares. I'll try over and over again to call someone for help and I will not be able to press the buttons properly no matter how much I try, or if I do it'll still come up as being wrong. Ah, it's agonizing.

So, why do I have such vivid dreams? I'm not one for thinking they mean much. I've dreamed I was pregs so many times and I have yet to have that actually coincide with a pregnancy. I've dreamed people have died and the only one that has come true is my mom. But I had the dream when I was 7 or 8. And she only died last year. So...what do they mean?

Okay, so I'm really sucking at posting a picture a day recently...

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:33:00 +0000

Life has been pretty busy recently and I've rarely been on the computer. I've been challenged to post a picture a day till July 15th (I think) but recently I've really been sucking at it. I just haven't been on the computer. Between the thousands of emails I have gotten behind in due to being part of way too many talkative groups, and my blog and the POD's I've pretty much given up.

I've been having so much fun the last couple weeks, though. Liam and I started a Kindermusik class calling Singing and Signing. I've been wanting to sign with him, but I haven't known where to start. I've only been to one class but it's already got me going. We've been swimming a ton and going to lots of play dates. I've been trying to have him around as many other children and babies as possible for obvious reasons.

I am also starting to work part time from home doing finances for my brother's company. I started working on it this Wednesday. I'm excited to be able to do some grown-up work during the day. I love playing and hanging out with Liam, but I need grown-up time, too!

Oh, and as you read about below...this week was our anniversary. So that was another thing I was up to.

Anyhow, here are a butt-load of pictures to catch me up on my POD's. The theme for these are things, people, activities, etc. that I love. Some are recent, some are old.

Mom, Dad and Me at the workshop

Tahiti on our honeymoon

Megs

My bro

Me at the Parker in Palm Springs just after Chris and I were married
Sailing with Claude and Amy

My sister and me

The bug, newborn

Liam, seconds after being born

Me in Tahiti on our honeymoon

Liam, one day old

Chinatown

The Getty

The Getty

Chris and Liam at the Halloween parade

Dodger Game

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:25:00 +0000

Last night we went to Liam's first Dodger game! He did such a good job. The game didn't start till 7:10, which is basically his bedtime. We stayed till about 9:15. He loved all the people and the banners. I was mostly worried about the cheering as he can be sensitive to loud sudden noises, but he was a champ!

We went with my sister and her boyfriend. We drank beer and ate ice cream and peanuts. Liam had part of a pretzel and some ice cream, too (I know, I know, I'm a terrible mommy).

As for how the Dodger game went...I don't really know. I don't generally actually watch the games. I'm a bad baseball fan. And we like the Padres anyhow...hehe. But when we left I think the Marlins were up by 1.

I forgot my camera, as usual, so I took these with my phone. They came out surprisingly well.

My 2nd Anniversary...and POD for Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:01:00 +0000

Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of my marriage. My MIL offered to take the baby home with her for the night as a surprise for my hubby. So I pumped like a crazy lady to make enough bottles for Liam and then I took them to the train station yesterday around 4pm.

My MIL told me that Liam had a blast on the train, that he was fascinated (it was his first train ride) and he was flirting with all the passengers (that's my boy!).

So I made a big meal for Chris and I. I made leg of lamb, mashed potatoes, green beans and sauteed some mushrooms. I also made a salad. And we had some REALLY yummy cab to go with dinner. I was worried I mess the meat up as I've never made leg of lamb before...but it was so good. It turned out to be one of the yummiest meals I've eaten in a long time (fancy restaurants included).
Chris and I then went to the movies and saw Hancock. I'm pretty sure we laughed during many parts that weren't supposed to be funny. Chris was in agony for a large part of the movie. We determined we have missed much in terms of movies in the last 9 months since Liam was born...

We were going to go to a yummy wine bar nearby but it was closed. So instead we headed for a dive bar Chris had always wanted to go to. There we ran into an old friend of mine, Tony, for those of you who know him who are reading this. Talk about a small world. I'd actually been wanting to get in touch with him for a year now so that was pretty cool. We had some beers and then went home.

And the night ended much as you would expect it to...(wink wink)

My Village Green POD for Monday....

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:49:00 +0000

On Monday Liam learned how to pull himself up on things and how to sit up from laying down (on his belly). All in about 20 mins, first thing in the morning. It was so cool! He still has a bit of trouble every now and then pulling himself up on things but he's an expert at sitting up. Here he is after he pulled himself up!

My Village Green POD for Sunday....

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:26:00 +0000

So it was hot as hell on Sunday and all I wanted to do was just in a pool and go swimming...so we went over to my SIL's house. The pool was so nice. Here's the bug all sunscreened up!After the swim...

For Alex-Our Kitties

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:39:00 +0000

Here is the story of my kitties and how they came to be:

Before I moved in with Chris I had a small female black cat. Being the not-quite-as-responsible-as-I-am-now-20 year old I procrastinated on getting her fixed. So she got pregnant relatively quickly (when I was still thinking she was a kitten). She had her kittens. I can't remember how many, like 5 or 6 of them. And then she got really sick. At first we (I was living temporarily with my parents at the time) just thought she was skinny as she'd just had the kittens. But it wasn't so. She was taken to the vet and it turned out that she was really sick and we ended up having to put her down.

The kittens were only a couple weeks old so we were feeding them with little tiny bottles and formula. My mom especially tried to take good care of them. Now that I think of it, I had just moved back out of my parents, so that was why my mom was taking care of them. Anyhow, despite my mom's best efforts the kittens were dying. Each day a new one would go. In the end there was only one little black kitty left and I took him home.

We tried to think of a good name for him...we went through a ton of them, some good, some mean, some funny. None of them ever stuck and he will be forever known as "Kitty". He's always been quite a bit of a menace. He's moody and if you swat him for doing something bad he has no compunction about turning right around on you and attacking you. But he's also very loving. He is sometimes so loving that he's obnoxious. He's a very snuggly cat. He also has moments of insanity...he'll leap into the air like a ghost just pinched his butt when absolutely nothing is going on. Surprisingly, he's also the best with Liam. He lets Liam pull his hair, hit him, etc. and just sits there and takes it like a man. Anyhow, so that is Kitty. He's the short-haired black kitty in the pictures.

I've always told myself I'd NEVER get a long-haired cat as they are just too hairy. It's bad enough with short-haired cat, but dealing with the fur that gets on everything with a long-haired cat is just annoying.

We were over at my SIL's house and my BIL had this little litter of kittens that a feral cat had given birth too in his garage. There was this one little dark grey kitty that was just too cute. I was hooked. Dang kittens are always cuter than the cat they turn out to be. And of course, he was long-haired.

So I brought him home. He used to sleep on me exclusively, he loved me. Then one day he was too good for me and would only sleep on Chris. He refused to let me pet him or snuggle with him. Stinky cat.

At least he has a name. Chris named him Pauly Walnuts after the Sopranos character. He always had these white hairs sticking out of his ears...he looks just like him.

So, these are my kitties...

My Village Green POD's

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:47:00 +0000

Okay, so I know I'm totally copying Marlyn, but I couldn't help myself. It's been quite a while since we've made it to our farmer's market and we finally went today. I'm so excited about my bounty! The last time we were going regularly was in the winter when there wasn't that much exciting produce, but now everything that I like is back in season! Yay! Anyhow, here it all is. Yum yum!

My Village Green POD's-July 4th!

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:03:00 +0000

I meant to bring my camera and tripod to our 4th of July celebrations yesterday and like the dorfus I am I completely forgot the camera. So I didn't get any pictures of the fireworks. ): But I did find this picture I took of Chris who-knows-when and it is conveniently very red, white and blue.

As is tradition, we went over to my SIL's house out in Chino for the 4th. They always have a big BBQ with an outrageous number of people. I'm sure I see most of them every year on the 4th, but I continue to not know who half of them are. We drank beer and ate brats and when the sun finally went down we had a big firework show. It was a ton of fun and Liam wasn't scared! The poor guy was tired though. We didn't make it through the whole show, but he got to see a lot of it. It was a ton of fun!

I hope everyone else had a great 4th!

My Village Green POD's

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:36:00 +0000

I didn't get the pics taken that I wanted to in time for HNT....and now it's Saturday anyhow. So here are my pics of the day for Thursday. I took these when Liam was pretty little. It was incredible how hard it was to take these by myself. The little bugger kept moving!

My Village Green POD's

noreply@blogger.com (mo) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:19:00 +0000

Okay, so I didn't have any new pics uploaded...but here are my after-the-appendectomy pics. In June of last year, when I was about 6 months pregs I contracted appendicitis.

I remember I had decided to eat healthier. I think I must've gone to my 6 months appt or something that Thursday and I felt like I was gaining wieght too fast. So I on Friday I packed myself a ton of veggies for my lunch along with some carbs that I just can't do without. That night I started having a stomachache. I thought that it must've been because I was suddenly eating so many veggies.

On Saturday I felt better and I even went to a concert that night with my sisters. Sunday morning came and I had the worst case of "indigestion". My stomachache from Friday night had returned. I made Chris go out and get me all sorts of tums and other stuff and I chewed a ton of them up...but they were no help.

Chris wanted to walk to the book store (about a mile away) and I figured I'd walk with him...walking is supposed to help indigestion, right? I got about a block and a half and the pain was literally making the tears run. But instead of turning back, like a normal person would've, I pressed on. When we got to Borders I got giant pretzel, which I found I could hardly eat because now I was nauseous, too. Chris offered to go back and get the car, but I just wanted to go home. I didn't want to wait at Borders. So I painfully walked the mile back.

We called the OB and she told us that it was probably just indigestion and said I should take some pepto and if it didn't go away and we were really concerned we could always go to the ER (but she pretty much just brushed it off as indigestion). We called my mother-in-law and she suggested I lay down and prop up my feet. I was finally able to sleep a bit this way and it felt like my stomach was feeling better-if I didn't move at all. I found that it was incredibly tender on my right side.

I, of course, googled my symptoms and came up with the conclusion that I probably had appendicitis. So as I was still in pain and it was the late afternoon I decided to go to the ER. The whole time I was there I felt like such a dork. I was sure it was just something silly and it felt dumb to be going to the ER. They did an ultrasound on me and lo and behold there was my appendix, ginormous and easily seen on the ultrasound, even by me. So they wheeled me into surgery and cut out my appendix.

Here are the shots of the aftermath. After my appendectomy I always got shots of the pretty side of my tummy and the ugly side...so I have two shots for every stage. I also included some shots of when I was more pregs and healed up some....For my HNT I'll post what my ugly tummy looks like now...