Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I apologize in advance for the poor pictures. Andrew will only keep his mask on for 5 seconds, and I can't get the baby to smile in her costume. She feels funny with a huge trunk on her head...go figure.

Both kids LOVED Trick-or-Treating. Andrew made out with a modest stash, and Lily just had fun holding the glow stick and riding in the wagon. She even kept her elephant hood on the whole ride!!!

Enjoy!

Lily's first time in her costume at a MOMS Club party. Not thrilled. Flash wasn't working on my camera.

Lily and Andrew in the 5 second mask time. Flash STILL not working. Why don't we realize these things until cute picture opportunities?




Flash working! Hooray! Kids finished posing. Boooo. Is Lily's head really small, or what?

The Trick-or-Treating crew.

Why I hate being pregnant...

I know I should be grateful. There are so many people out there who cannot get pregnant or cannot stay pregnant. Every time I complain, I do think of those women out there. But I still complain.

I hate being pregnant.

I am starting to feel better, tummy wise. I haven't thrown up in I don't know how many days. I still have almost constant nausea, but if it starts to get too bad, I can ease it with a simple piece of minty gum. Easy peasy. Popping jaw problems are nothing compared to sitting on a cold tile floor in front of a toilet. So the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer.

And just as this misery ends...my back/hip/whatever the hell this pain is starting once again. In an effort to explain how I complain the same with every pregnancy, here is a link to my blog at 16 weeks pregnancy with Lily. After re-reading this entry, I've decided that I don't actually need to blog about this pregnancy...I can just link you to my old blog 18 months ago. (It also makes me realize I've been drastically exaggerating how long I was sick with Lily. Only 18 months and I'm already stretching the story into a tall tale...I'll turn into my grandmother any day now). Anyway, I guess I should just be grateful that my body spaces out these little miseries. I can't imagine if they coincided...I'd be wracked with spasms of pain every time I vomited. Yikes.

Anyhoo, my description of the pain is basically the same as before: that the big nobby part of my femur is coming slightly out of sync with whatever part of my pelvis (the ilium?) it is supposed to nestle inside of. Kind of like popping your elbow out of socket (don't they call that nursemaid's elbow or something). If I sit on the floor or lean forward, when I go to move back into a "normal" sitting/standing position I feel as if my body just doesn't fit together right. How does this feel? Like shooting, agonizing, violent pain. I would rather have natural childbirth...because at least you can feel the contractions building. This catches me totally off guard, which leaves me gasping and screaming in the middle of the night when I turn over. The only solution is to sit in a hard chair until I feel that nobby part of my thigh bone fit back into place deep withing my rear end. Then I can walk and move like nothing ever happened. Until I bend over or sit wrong again. Back to square one. -sigh- Thank God only my left side is affected.

So welcome to my new whine. Stay tuned for the next annoying pregnancy symptom...which one comes next? I can't remember...hemorrhoids or heartburn?

Backfiring...

A few posts ago, I vowed to write in this blog (on the blog?) every day for the month of November. This plan has backfired, only because it is preventing me from writing in October...probably not the point. I'll think of something I want to write...like my perfect design extra for a mini-van, or the debate in finding out the gender of this baby, or my weird pregnancy dreams...but before I can write it, I think..."Hmmm, this would be a really good filler for a day in November. I'll hold off on writing it." As if I'll be able to remember what those items were two days from now, much less NEXT MONTH. Hmmmm...

I haven't had much time to write this past week anyway, though, because Lily has been an absolutely cute ball of MISERY this past week. She came down with a horrendous cold coinciding nicely with her swollen red gums with 4 teeth erupting at the same time. The positives? I've been getting lots and lots of cuddles with my non-cuddler. Negatives? She will only cuddle with me. Mommy is #1. Rough on Mommy.

Andrew is still spewing football nonsense non-stop. If he runs out of actual football garbage, he simply moves on to his imaginary team, The Starliners. So the football talk never ends. It is actually how I've always envisioned hell. No offense to my BIL, but I always thought the worst thing ever was ESPN on 24 hours a day. Now I realize that at least I can leave the room when ESPN is on. This little sports caster follows me wherever I go. Arghhhh. I'm not exaggerating, either. I am having "Mommy Quiet Time" right now...since naps have recently gone bye bye, we now have an hour of MQT where Andrew is basically not allowed to interact with me. He can stay downstairs and do whatever, but he must not make eye contact or speak. And as I type this, he is sitting at his little craft table with crayons and paper...and he is writing out football plays. Seriously. I hear him saying things like, "And the Redskins defense intercepts the Starliner's ball.... Touchdown pass for the Bengals quarterback. Oh, man what a great catch.... He lost by a mile!" -sigh- Another reason to have another girl. Although then the boys could talk about this and leave me out of it....hmmmm....

Okay, well, I suppose I should wait to write any more until November ;)

Teeth

Poor Lily. She is having quite a miserable week. Her body has decided that it must need more than just 2 teeth (she got those in the first week of August). Everyone but Lily knew this was inevitable. No human gets by with just 2 teeth. Unfortunately for Lil', her body has decided to get them all at once. She broke through one of the big top teeth on Saturday...and her swollen and red gums show the tips of 4 other teeth just below the surface. She's a teeny bit feverish (I think...I don't actually take my kids' temps much...just feel the forehead...old school), she has an upset tummy...I assume from the extra drool, and she wants to eat, but looks pained by it. She is clingy and whiny. Which is really hard for Lily because she HATES cuddling...it is like torture for her. But she wants her MOMMA (no one else will do) for comfort from all this yuckiness. So we go through this cycle all day...

Lily follows Mommy around whining, hands out to be picked up. Mommy picks Lily up. Lily hugs Mommy and pat-pats her on the back. Lily squirms to be put down. Once one the ground, Lily realizes that she WANTS HER MOMMY. Lily follows Mommy around whining...etc etc etc.

-sigh- It's been a long day.

Other than this ouchiness, Lily is really bursting with new tricks. And it is so much fun. I appreciate this stage so much more than I did with Andrew. You don't realize how happy and fun a 1 year old is until you've dealt with a 2 year old and then a 3 year old. 1 year olds are not schizophrenic like a 2 year old and don't have an agenda like a 3 year old. They just play for the joy of playing. Love it!

Lily's latest tricks...

-Puts both hands up in the air over her head when you say "Touchdown!" Then she claps for herself when she's done.
-Blows kisses with 2 hands if she really loves you. That's basically how she wins the kissing war.
-Says, "Beek-a-boo" when covering her eyes with her hands. So stinkin' cute.
-If she (or anyone else) drops something, she says, "Uh-ooooo" in this cute little high pitched voice. Love it. I purposefully drop things just to hear her say it.
-Plays with her baby doll. She'll see a picture of a baby or her doll and say, "Ba-bee". Then she will pick up the doll and pat pat it. And then usually throw it. But the patting is so sweet.
-Mimics anything and everything that we do. Not all of it...just random things she decides she can do. Andrew was "washing" the walls of the tub (someone's got to do it, right?). Lily kneels right next to him in the tub and starts "washing" with her washcloth. If only I'd had a camera to capture that adorable picture of two naked butts. Other mimicry...I was playing doctor with Andrew and his doctor kit today. Lily was my nurse (because she loves the doctor kit toys). I was about to do surgery on his stomach, and numbed the area with the syringe. Then I pat pat the area to see if he has any feeling. Lily watched me do this once and then grabbed the syringe and started shooting Andrew up everywhere. Especially in the stomach, but also in the nose, arm, whatever. Then she would pat pat the area and pause to look at him. And then she would repeat. Oh, dear Lord, Andrew and I were cracking up. She was so serious about it. She would take his temperature...and then her own...and then mine. She seriously was just copying everything we did with this doctor kit. So...stinkin'...cute.

We all just enjoy her so much. Andrew included. She is just this little ray of sunshine in our house. She does this great fake laugh if we're all laughing...she wants to be in on the joke! She has a cheese-ball smile that goes with it, that I can't capture on camera no matter how hard I try. She crawls around the house like a mad woman babbling away. It really sounds like she's talking...she's using the correct inflections...just no words. And I love it when Andrew responds to her like we do. Nothing melts my heart like them in the back seat of the car. Lily will be babbling away, and Andrew will say, "Oh, really, Lil'? What a great story."

What can I say...I'm in love. Now I hope she gets better so we can keep enjoying her.

Too much UNO

You know you are playing too much of one game when your child starts incorporating the rules of the game into every day life.

Andrew was finished eating dinner tonight and was about to get up to leave the table. Jeff reminded him of his polite words with a, "What do you say, Andrew?"

Andrew responded quickly, "UNO!"...instead of his usual, "May I be excused."



And another funny Andrew moment from yesterday. He and Jeff went down to the park to "play tennis" (aka Andrew tries to hit a ball, misses, throws himself to the ground, screaming and crying, Jeff coaxes him up, repeat...repeat). I was at home getting Lily ready to go to "Pumpkinfest 2007!!!". I decided to put her hair in pigtails for the first time in a LONG time. Andrew came home hysterically crying due to a skinned knee (throwing yourself to the ground in frustration is dangerous). In the midst of his tears, as I cleaned him up, he kept glancing over at Lily and her new do, and finally choked out, "-sob- sob- Lily...-hic-...looks...-sob-...TERRIBLE...-cry cry-" Once he'd calmed down he informed me that she looked like an animal. Nice. A supportive big brother already.

Be a girl...be a girl...

Just another quick thought/story from the last week.

For most of this pregnancy, I have wanted this baby to be a boy. Mostly so Lily will never be just the middle child...she'll always stay special because she's the only girl. Perhaps I am sensitive to this having been the middle of 3 girls, I don't know. I even posted why I wanted a boy early on...but the feedback was quite negative, and I realized that I sounded more pessimistic than even I was willing to.

So, boy thoughts. That's what I've thought. Lily would be close in age to #3, so gender would not matter...she will feel close to this sibling. But if it is a boy, Andrew too will have a special bond with #3.

But last week, something came to my attention that has made me change my mind. Drastically. 180 degrees. See, I didn't grow up with boys. So my only experience living with boys has been with a) my father...a grown man beaten down by living with 4 women for decades b) Jeff...a grown man with surprisingly considerate bathroom etiquette, and c) Andrew...a cute little boy who until recently depended on me to take care of his waste.

But Andrew is changing. It all started with potty training. And now...peeing standing up. Ugh. There are some disgusting side effects to this whole standing up thing. Who thought of this? Oh, probably a man. Last week he called one of us for "help" in the bathroom. I assumed he needed a wipe check (another of the more glamerous parental jobs noone thinks of when they dream of having children). So I hand the baby to Jeff and go to help. Andrew is standing in front of the toilet with pee....EVERYWHERE. Oh, sorry. Not everywhere. There was ZERO pee in the toilet. It had riccoched off the stool, pooled onto the floor, soaked into the rug...eww, eww, eww. I took one look and exclaimed, "Oh, this is a guy clean-up. I think you should just sit down and pee!" Jeff was called to take over. As Jeff cleaned up the clossal mess, I got to listen to Jeff school Andrew on aiming, wiping the seat for the girls, and other things that kind of melted my heart in a strange, gross way. A father passing on info to his son.

But then...I thought...this isn't going to be fixed with one heart to heart from father to son. There will be more pee on the seat and the floor. There will be B.O. galore when the boy refuses to bathe and/or wear deoderant. There will be globs of toothpaste yuckies and dirty underwear in the corner. I had sudden flashbacks to the stench of Jeff's freshman year dorm floor. Always smelled like urine and wet socks. More flashbacks to Jeff's bathroom through the years that he shared with many other dirty boys...oh...gross. I wouldn't even USE their bathroom.

I can't do this to Lily. She should not have to share a bathroom with TWO boys. Poor thing. TWO gross boys? I had not considered this.

So my mantra has changed to "be a girl...be a girl..."


***Disclaimers
---Giselle does not mean to offend any boys reading this post. I realize not ALL boys are smelly and disgusting and leave pee all over the bathroom. But some do. I know. I've just witnessed it. And I do remember some nasty odors.
---Giselle does not mean to imply that she does not want a boy. I want a healthy child. I have a boy...and adore him. I have a girl...and adore her. I really don't care what I have. Especially now that I've considered how gross it would be for Lily to have 2 brothers. Imagine the amount of farting? belching? When all their friends come over in high school...oh the horror!
---Giselle does not mean to offend any of you out there with brothers that you love. I know Lily will love having two brothers if that's what is meant to be.

Have I forgotten anyone? If you are offended...please don't be. And don't leave a comment ;)

Ta-DA!!!!!

We have a new computer!!! The ups...I now have unlimited Internet access again. The downs...our old hard drive and all that was stored on it is gone forever. So if I read your blog, but you don't comment regularly on mine, please send me your URL so I can begin reading again. I can trace most of you through your comments, but some of you are secretive ;) (Annie).

Because my posting has been so spotty due to technical difficulties, I'm going to try something that Kelsey is doing in November. She has a fancy name for it...if you really care you can read about it here. It basically just means she is going to post every day in November. So I'm going to try that also. Lily is going through a BURST of new things, so it should be relatively easy to think of something every day. Not to mention my precocious little almost-4-year-old. Precocious makes it sound so much cuter...;) And hopefully by November I won't be puking every day, and I'll start feeling this little booger moving, so I'll be in a better mood. No promises.

So here's what happened in the last week:

Me: I had another doctor's appointment. I had to bring Lily because they had no evening appointments that week, and heaven forbid we schedule the appointment a week late. As if it matters at this point. Whatever. So Lily and I waited through her nap time for 45 minutes. She was just peachy by the time I got called into the room, let me tell you. And I was irritated (what? Me? Irritable?) because everyone there knew I was pregnant. In my normal everyday life, no one can tell (it helps to start pregnancy overweight and to be 5'9"...you can hide a pregnancy for a long time). But at the OB's, every nurse had to comment..."How old is your daughter? Oh, my, your kids are going to be close together. Good luck." Gee, thanks. Your comment is unwelcome, because either A) I planned to have them this close together and you are insulting my judgement...or...B) I didn't plan this, and have already been freaking out for 15 weeks and don't need your doomsday predictions to make me more nervous. -sigh- I suppose I should get used to it. Baby #3 is doing well. He/she seems like a stinker already. The nurse was trying to get the heartbeat, and Baby kept moving away from the doppler. She'd hear it and start to count the beats, and then the heartbeat would suddenly disappear. She'd search around and find it all the way across my belly. After 3 times of this, she laughed and said, "you've got quite a wiggly one in there". Oh dear. I also found out that I'm having the BIG ultrasound next month. WHAT??? This pregnancy is moving WAY too quickly. I feel like I"m going to blink and suddenly be carting around 3 kids. YIKES!

Lily: Lily had her 1 year appointment this week. She charmed the doctor and nurses with her blowing kisses. She has jumped from 25th %tile in height and weight to 60th%tile in height and weight. Go Lily! The doctor seemed impressed with her signs (which Lily happily showed off) and her words (which Lily also performed...to my great shock and amazement). Maybe the doc wasn't impressed and her reaction was just colored by my own pride in my daughter. Whatever.

Andrew: Stinker. He has been on an UNO kick this week. My favorite part of playing UNO with him is when he draws a card that he doesn't need. He says under his breath, "Ahhh, man. What a waste of time." Cracks me up every time.

Jeff: Incapacitated with an earache. The house is officially being run by the children. It is times like this that I dream of having family close enough to say, "HELP! We're out of gas!" But we'll make it. As long as we don't get buried in dirty dishes and toys.

Shadow: Oh, who really cares?

Okay, that's it. I've got to post some pictures soon. Lily and Andrew went to a Halloween party Friday night...and dear God, I love babies in costumes. Lily is the cutest elephant EVER. And Andrew is a pretty cute Spiderman. But babies. They don't get to choose what they are dressed up as, so they always have cute, creative ideas. All the babies at the party were dressed to the nines...lions, pea pods, Frankensteins, elephants, etc. The kids that were 3 or older were pretty much princesses or superheros. That's it. Creativity sparks again once they get to about 7. But there were 5 Spiderman costumes. And about 20 princesses. And all of them LOVED their costumes. ;)

Okay, now I'm really going to log off. Really.

Pressure

I've been getting some pressure from my son. The pressure to decorate.

I don't decorate. My house is much like myself. Plain, unadorned, comfortable, a bit shabby. Weeds growing long on the outside (my hair is the weed...join me in this analogy, won't you?). No color brightening up the place. Just simple functionality. I have the same broken shades on the windows...because even though they are broken, they still block out the sun. Functional. I haven't bought curtains because I can't figure out what function they serve. I appreciate beauty for beauty's sake in other people's homes. I just don't care in my own home. Until guests come over. But I can't exactly excuse myself from a dinner party to go and order paint and curtains, can I? Once they leave, my motivation follows them quickly out the door...and I once again no longer care that my house isn't pretty. Such is my life. I don't care that I'm not pretty...until there is a special function that I want to get gussied up for. Then I really wish I had a hair style or the skills to put on makeup or the actual makeup to put on. Once the function is over...yup, you guessed it...I no longer care. It's a never-ending cycle.

The once exception to this is Christmas time. I am a little looney for Christmas decorations. My joy in snowmen and wreaths and apple cinnamon candles is a little silly. I have TONS of Christmas decorations. I guarantee I will buy more this year. I can't help it. This bliss is only slightly dampened by the fact we rarely spend Christmas in our home. I'm sure that SOMEDAY I'll be able to wake up on Christmas morning and be surrounded by my own collection of velvety green trinkets. So I continue buying them year after year.

Halloween has never been my favorite holiday. My sister Kate was the real enthusiast for dressing up, creating Halloween illusions, decorating, etc. I just wanted the candy. If I was to be forced to dress up to get said candy...so be it. At least it's easier than Easter, when I have to go LOOKING for the candy. P-shaw!

So our house is undecorated for Halloween. I am pleased to say that my children have always had a Halloween costume...so I'm not a total slacker. And I always have candy for trick-or-treaters (usually I eat the first bag I buy, but I always dutifully buy more so the greedy children can have some...I relate to them ;) ). But that is the extent of my Halloween "celebration." I have a fall wreath and some fall candles that I put out...because I love fall.

This is getting really freakin' long. Is anyone still reading? Wondering why the heck this entry is called "pressure"? Apparently I miss this little blog and am getting all my rambling out in one long entry. Sorry.

So we went to a playdate last week. House fully decorated. Andrew asked, "Why do Jake and Hailey have Halloween decorations up and we don't?" My lame-o answer, "I don't know." Nice. But he let it go...so I thought.

The next morning, Andrew starts the following philosophical discussion with me:

Andrew--"Everybody is different, right Mom? Like some people like different things or look different. And every house is different, right Mom? Like most houses are decorated for Halloween, but ours isn't, right Mom?"

Me--"FINE! WE WILL GO BUY SOME G.D. HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS!!!"

So we now have a few lame-o decorations for Halloween. And no candy yet. What is this world coming to? Have my standards slipped so?

Three dreams...YOU'RE OUT!

I've had 3 very vivid dreams in the last week that this baby is a boy.

Dream #1: At a park with Lily, Andrew, and unidentified baby boy.

Dream #2: A giving birth dream. Didn't have time for an epidural, and no one was around, so I had to cut the cord myself. But definitely a boy came out.

Dream #3: Jeff brought the 3 kids into our bedroom to drag me out of bed (even though it always happens the other way around). Andrew and Lily jump on me as Jeff holds a very cute little 6 month old little boy on his lap.

Given my past abilities to predict the gender of the child within my womb, these three dreams lead me to conclude with 98% accuracy that we are in fact expecting a....GIRL!

Yea, I have NO motherly instincts. But my inaccuracy has been very accurate. ;)

R.I.P.

I think our computer has died. May it rest in peace. It has not started since last Thursday night. Despite my husband staying up until the wee hours of the morning working patiently with the damn thing. I swear...if it had been me looking at it, it would have been thrown out the window that first night. I am writing this entry from Jeff's work laptop...maybe illegally...maybe not ;)

I just wanted to let you all know that I have not fallen into the toilet and passed on to the bathrooms in the sky. Although I am still worshipping faithfully to the Porcelain God. Quite faithfully. Just having boring old computer problems.

As a side note, it has been interesting living without a computer. Just 9 years ago, I didn't even own a computer. I simply visited the college computer labs once a week or so and borrowed Jeff's when I needed to type up a paper. Of course, one big difference between now and then? I was living with other people my age and socializing almost 24 hours a day with them. Now I am trapped in a house puking and discussing football stats of an imaginary team (the Starliners). My son doesn't just have an imaginary friend anymore...now he has a whole team. The importance of the computer has been ratcheted up a few notches in the last 4 years. ;) But I have read 3 novels since last Thursday. So that's fun.

Okay, enough talk about neglecting my children. I'm going to quickly type a few posts that need to be written for my own little memories. Hopefully I'll be back up and running in a week or so. If not, I'll soon be posting from an insane asylum...I'm sure they have access to the Internet, right?

Lillian is 1!!!

My baby is officially one!!! Everyone keeps asking me if I had a party for her. Ummmm, I still haven't had a proper birthday party for Andrew, so I can't exactly skip him and give her a great party, right? So it was the typical...grandparents travel hundreds of miles, we eat cake, try to do something that the birthday person likes to do and open presents.

That's what we did for Lily! She woke up to Grandma and Grandpa in her house, with Memere and Pepere quickly coming over from the hotel. She was showered with lots of attention and showed off all her latest tricks (pretending to talk on the phone, patting the floor to get the dog to bring her the ball, trying to cover her eyes to play peek-a-boo, saying all her words, crawling like a mad-woman). She even tried out a few new and terribly cute skills. She now comes up to you and opens and closes her fist saying, "gig-le, tri-gle, igle" saying "tickle tickle tickle" in her own words as she tickles you. So stinkin' cute!!! It kind of sounds like the Islamic call to prayer, but whatever. To us it sounds like tickle tickle...who cares if some Pakistani thinks she's praising Allah. She also now knows how to blow a kiss. Oh, melt my heart right now. If you blow her a kiss, she puts her hand up to her mouth and says ,"Mmmmmmm-ah" as she moves it away from her mouth. So sweet.

I digress. She woke up from her morning nap and we packed up a lunch and went to a state park. Lily loves being outdoors and walking around in her backpack. It was in the upper 80s, but nice and breezy...especially under the trees. And it was apparently horse-riding day, so she got lots of excitement over watching the horses stroll by on the trails and of course all the dogs out for a walk. We were right by a creek, and she even got to watch dogs swimming and horses fording the water. I'm telling you, she was in heaven. Andrew was having his own kind of fun catching toads and collecting HUGE leaves. Gotta love fall...even if it was a bit hot.

Came home and watched her mutilate a cupcake. Actually, she didn't know what to do with it, so we asked Andrew to show her. I was expecting him to take a bite to show her how...but instead he tried to put it in her mouth. So cute...it looks like a wedding video. ;) After that one taste, she totally got the idea and was covered from eyebrows to chin in pink icing. After nap, she opened the mountains of presents from her grandparents. After 3 birthdays with Andrew, I've learned to buy virtually nothing...and my children will still receive more than their fair share! Don't worry, I'll have to pay it back when my in-laws move in with us because they've spent all their retirement on baby clothes and toys. ;) Andrew did very well watching Lily open gifts and kept his "helping" to a minimum. This was helped by Memere buying him an Eagles football...he was in heaven. But after watching Lily open her gifts...many of which were fall clothes...he told his grandma, "For my birthday, I want toys, not clothes." Just in case she needed to know ;)

Very nice day. Sweet sweet baby. I can't believe that it's been a year since my most humiliating day ever. She was worth all the puking and back pain and ripping/tearing birthing pain. Such a special girl.