Kimba

One after another

Let's talk about my day yesterday, shall we? I promise it's a good one. 

So let's see, it all started in the parking lot of Target. I was talking on my phone to Caleb, trying to figure out a place to meet him for lunch. Wyatt, who is well versed in whispering while people are on the phone (thanks to a Daddy that's been working from home), cupped his hand over his mouth and whispered, "Mom! How about McDonalds?!" 

It was so funny we conceeded, despite not loving the place. McDonald's it was. Caleb and I chatted while Wyatt interspersed grabbing bites of food with play. After about 20 min Caleb left to go back to work and I told Wyatt we'd be leaving in 5 minutes. (I find it helps him to have a sort of countdown.) When it was time to go I told him to go grab his shoes, and while he was putting them on he told me he had to go to the bathroom. And not the good kind. I told him okay, to put his shoes on and we'd stop in the restroom on the way out. He almost had his second shoe on when he stopped cold and said, "Momma, my poopoos are coming out." 

These are, I'm certain, some of the worst words you can hear. 

It's been since October that he's been potty trained, and he did so well because he was so ready. He only had a few accidents, always pee, and half of them because I forgot to keep asking him in the first few days if he needed to go. We were super proud. 

So I pick him up, grab his other shoe, my purse, and smile serenely (believe that?) at the nice grandmother sitting a foot away who's just heard our entire conversation, and beeline it to the bathroom. 

There is a mess. Thankfully, a fairly easily cleaned mess, and I'm thanking my lucky stars that we had an extra pair of pants that he'd worn to gymnastics that morning in my purse, along with an empty Ziplock bag. Yeah for being prepared! And as I start to extricate the mess, he pees all over the floor. 

For reals. 

So then I have to clean THAT up, and the McDonald's toilet paper is coming off two sheets at a time, SINGLE PLY, making cleanup a total breeeeeeze, lemmetellyawhat. 

Naptime. Fiiiiiinally. I sit down with my Diet Coke and a mini Reese's egg, and start browsing the internet. Remembering Caleb wanted me to try and change our room on the cruise, I called. Not possible this close, but there IS an upgraded room we could switch to, for an extra $500. Had to break the news to Caleb. We would not be moving. Also, I discovered, I'd booked the cruise using our usual debit card instead of the Southwest card we have, thereby missing out on DOUBLE points. Cause I'm an idiot. 

Giving up, I decide to make the pizza dough for dinner. I get all the ingredients out, only to discover I'd left my yeast at my parents house. No pizza for dinner. 

The painter arrives to do some touch ups, and just as he's telling Caleb that oops! He just touched up the baseboard paint with matte ceiling paint instead and would need to re-do it all, I discover that for the second time in two weeks, I've washed a pull up with Wyatt's clothes. 

He's never ONCE in all these months, not even in the beginning, peed during the night, but I'd decided to at least use the rest of the bag I'd bought and opened, and now I had gel bits all over the clothes and washer. A huge clean up, you have to get every single bit out, rinse the bits off the clothes, run a cycle of bleach through, and re-wash the clothes. 

Caleb was not happy with me. 

Before heading out the door to eat dinner with his friend (his monthly "bro-night") he started washing the clothes again. Except, well, look. 

He put in probably 3 times the amount of soap than is needed.  I had to run two extra cycles, and an extra rinse one, just to get rid of all the suds. 

Let's just say I ended the night with a bath and the Smash pilot on the iPad, in bed. And slept like a baby. 

Wyatt: too many months

Lest this blog turn solely into a pregnancy blog, let's talk about my favorite little dude. 

I know, not totally original, but it's been awhile and there's just too much stuff not to. 

So, Wyatt. He's what now, 39 months? I've long since lost track of how many months old he is, he's just now, "turned three in November." 3 and thinking he's 25. He picks up and then repeats the funniest things, just today I was standing outside of his classroom at church waiting for them to finish and was talking with another mom who's daughter is in Wyatt's class. 

"It's the funniest thing, " she said, "a few weeks ago she came home from church saying 'Shake my booty!' and dancing!" 

.......................

Uh...............

"Crap," I said, "that's probably my son's fault." 

He is not my son as far as most of his personality. I was shy, preferred to be out of the spotlight at all times, definitely not the class clown. On Friday it was fairly warm outside (warm these days is 50 piddly degrees...) and Wyatt has been watching a few of the neighbor girls playing outside. We went out to get the mail but didn't stay long since I had to ice a couple dozen cookies for an adult Valentine party that night, but as soon as he was done icing (glopping one huge pile of icing on with more sprinkles than he really cares to eat anyway) he started begging me to let him go outside to continue "dancing for his girls." 

The neighborhood, particularly the cul de sac we're in, is very close and there's a constant stream of kids playing outside, which Wyatt loves. We specifically built our house so that my "office" / laundry room was facing the front so I could work on things and still keep an eye on him, but obviously it takes a little getting used to letting your 3 year old walk out the front door without you. He is already well versed in not leaving the cul de sac on his bike or scooter, and the girls he was referring to are 7 and super sweet to him. I caved. 

The had their little cd player and were dancing around and he was lovin' it. He stayed out there for a good 20 minutes dancing and playing with them. "His girls." Totally Caleb. 

But let's not forget about "his boys", the twin boys next door and another little boy. All he ever wants to do is go outside and play with them or go to their house. It took one time and he came home talking about bad guys and good guys and swords...

He loves to do and be Big. He is never happier than when he is following Caleb around "helping him". Really, he's never happier than when he's with Caleb. If we wanna get honest. The boy worships his father. 

Somehow, somewhere, in the last few weeks he learned how to apologize. Now, for as long as he could speak properly, and even before really with sign language, I've been teaching him to say sorry for things he's done. But this is different. If he does something wrong, drops something, spills something, makes a mess, before I even have a chance to respond he's already apologizing. He's that quick. "I'm sorry Momma, I didn't mean to." It's almost frustrating sometimes, because he's so sincere and so serious, you have no choice but to say "It's okay, Wy." even if you're frustrated yourself at the giant mess before you. Sometimes he'll even tack on, "It's my fault, Momma. I think it's my fault." 

It's sort of crazy adorable and exasperating at the same time. 

And lucky for me, one of his favorite things, something he actually gets excited about, is when he gets to wield the Swiffer vacuum. So most messes he can clean up himself anyway.

He's very excited for this baby. He used to kind of wonder aloud each day, pointing to my stomach saying "Momma, you have a baby in your tummy!" like it was the first time. Now he's moved on, he likes to pretend he has a baby in his tummy, particularly after a large meal, and he'll poke his stomach out and exclaim he has a baby too. The baby's name is Alice, apparently. (From one of his books) He loves to hold babies and I think he's going to make a great big brother, so long as we can get him to understand that crying babies don't need the same things he does.

Like candy. Because this boy loooooves his candy, it's a constant battle to regulate his intake, of anything sweet, really. We don't have a lot in the house, but what we do have he'll try to bargain to get. He is definitely motivated by food. Always thinking about it, trying to get it, and talking about what he'll get to eat later. 

(Enjoying a grape rainbow, a local favorite treat)

He is, for the most part, an even-keeled kid. Not all the time, mind you, the other day for whatever reason he was a total pill, which is a nice way of saying a total pain in the butt, from the second he woke up until the second he went down. Which was early, because by then I was more than done for the day. A strange glitch in his otherwise sunny disposition. 

He's just a totally goofy kid. Loves to laugh and make people laugh and will go to nearly every expense to do so. A few weeks ago Caleb had a work convention and was gone for several days, basically, getting up early and coming home past Wyatt's bedtime. At breakfast one morning I told Wyatt to make a silly face and we'd send a picture of it to Daddy. 

This is what I got. 

I said "No, Wyatt, a FUNNY face!" and he was like Mom, this is funny. And I guess it is. 

Thursday Bump Day: Week 21

Baby this week is 10 1/2 inches long, which is like, big, right?! Nearly an entire foot long, and making herself known by routinely jabbing me in mah bladder. 

I'm sorta worried she's turned the wrong way. Which isn't exactly the way I have planned for this thing to go, she can still flip, right? I'm not doomed to inevitable c-section am I? I mean, all you want is a healthy baby, blah blah blah, but a c-section is like, the absolute last thing I want to do. 

Anyway. Guess I got no choice but to sit here and send her subliminal messages to do some serious wiggling. 

At my doctors appointment this week he asked if I was having any like, I don't know how he phrased it, bad symptoms? Anything to complain about? I just told him that like last time, though much MUCH earlier than last time, my back and hips are killing me. I asked him if it was happening earlier because of how Wyatt was situated, like maybe he permanently tweaked my hips for pregnancy, and he was like, "No, they hurt because your uterus is about the size of a basketball." 

I guess that's one good reason. But seriously, these hips. I'm taking two Tylenol before bed, just so I won't wake up every hour in pain. If I bend over the kitchen counter to write my grocery list (that I will inevitably leave behind anyway) I can't fully stand up afterward for a good 30 seconds, I have to hobble forward hunched over and waddling a bit, 95 year old style. 

Things could be much worse. I'd rather be dealing with this than horrible nausea like my poor cousin (seriously Jenny, you're a rockstar in my book). I just think this doesn't bode well for the next 18 weeks. Or more! Right? Cause due dates are just a shot in the dark anyway. 

I went and did a bit of shopping this week, trying to see if I could find anything for this cruise, for the formal night, and a little gala we're attending in March. Nada. Of course I found a crazy amount of cute things in H&M, none in the maternity section. I went into Motherhood Maternity, and maybe I just hit the store at a bad time, but why is it that so many companies thing pregnancy women want to look like giant Hawaiian tourists? I'm trying to minimize these giant lumps, not showcase them. Might as well be wearing a giant neon sign, "I AM HUGE!"

Most pregnancy sites say I should be feeling "pretty good right now", and besides the hip pain, I am. I can't complain. Also, because I secured a crazy adorable blessing dress already. 

For less than what I paid for Wyatt's outfit. I call that success. 

Thursday Bump Day: Week 20

Halfway folks! 140 days left to go, just long enough to feel like it's eons away and close enough to make me freak out a tiny bit. 

But. Not as much as last time. 

I've found myself very....blase (how do you get those fancy doo-hickeys over the e?) about this pregnancy. I mean, I'm taking my prenatals and I didn't go sledding down the giant hill in a tub at Soldier Hollow last Saturday, and I'm not taking ibuprofen or anything crazy. I just have other things on my mind, you know? Things like getting Wyatt fed (and keeping him from eating EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY HOLY CRAP KID YOU CAN WAIT 10 MINUTES FOR DINNER) and trying to keep the house clean and running errands and making dinner and keeping Wyatt from bouncing off the walls. 

Is it summer yet? Cause I really need summer. I guess that means I'll be a mother of two (!) by then, but right now all I really want is to be able to let Wy burn some steam off outdoors for a while. 

Anyway! I'm much more preoccupied is what I'm saying. Last time around I was working, sure, but it wasn't exactly keeping my attention. If ya know what I mean. This time around, I'm almost startled when I feel her move. 

So yeah, she's moving now and I'm feeling it and Caleb felt it for the first time last night. Milestones! It's not like I completely forget, every time I move I remember I'm pregnant, every time I stand before my clothes I remember I'm pregnant. She's sitting WAY higher than Wyatt was, significantly so. Check this out. It may not look like much, but it's making a huge difference around here. For one, and I feel weird even saying it out loud....I don't wake up to pee at night. People, I woke up to pee before I got pregnant, and now I can go all night! With Wyatt I was up at least twice, probably the whole pregnancy. Clothes fit differently (never mind that I started out this pregnancy a wee bit larger than the last.....sigh....) and well, I'm just bigger this time. I know that's normal, you start showing quicker the second and third time around, but dudes. I feel like at this rate I'm going to explode by June. 

And I have a cruise coming up this month! (You don't have to feel that bad for me, but still. My first cruise and I'm going to be whaleish...)

So let's see, the baby is the length of a banana (they start measuring the baby's entire length now, instead of "crown to rump") and can hear and swallow and is just fattening up the rest of the pregnancy. We went on Wednesday to the big ultrasound, and it was awesome to see. I think right now she's laying sorta...sideways...so she better get her head down there because a C-section is not in my plans. (I can do that right, decide exactly how this labor will go? Yeah?!) She kept squirming out of the way, but we got some good views of her, and the technician went through lots of anatomy with us which I found fascinating. It was one of my favorite classes, and to see that she already has everything in place already is just insane. Kidneys! Iliac crest! Hypothalamus! 4 chambered heart! It really is a miracle.

I was told to drink a lot of water this time, which I found strange because in San Jose I didn't have to and I've talked to several people who didn't have to either. So I didn't drink as much as I was told and the technician didn't say a word or act suspicious at all. I've had to do it before, once when I was like 12 and they were checking my ovaries to see if I had cysts (or if I really did just have wonky periods for the heck of it) and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. Or at least it was up to that point, I remember sitting there in the dark room while the doctor pushed and poked and held the ultrasound wand right over my bladder for ages, and I was pointing my toes and squeezing every muscle I had so I wouldn't pee all over him. I begged my mom in the waiting room to let me just go pee a little bit, just a little! She wouldn't let me of course, because she said I wouldn't be able to stop. She was right, because at the end of the appointment I was near tears and then probably peed for 5 minutes straight. I was embarrassed, thinking my mom and the doctor probably thought I'd died in there. 

Of course I'm older and wiser (cough) but I wasn't looking forward to having to do that again, and I'm here to say you don't have to! Just drink a good 12 or 14 oz or so and you're good. You're welcome. 

I should really be taking these shots with my actual camera so I can cut out my poor, sad looking face. But look at how high! I've been thinking a lot about that actually, and wondering why it is that you can carry your babies so differently from one pregnancy to the next. I mean, your uterus doesn't move, does it? You'd think that your anatomy is kindof set. But there she is, way up high. Even the ultrasound tech commented that she was sitting high. I have a feeling this is going to not bode well for my breathing in a few months...

I rant and rave and finally make my point

You all come here for beauty advice right? 

I thought so. I'm your number one beauty advisor! 

Listen up people, I have dry skin. That's my skin type, dry. It took me about 27 years to figure this out, but there you have it. This would have been helpful information during the junior high years (I've blocked most of those 3 years from my memory) and very helpful for every return trip to Utah, but here I am finally figuring out my skin type. 

It's way worse when I'm pregnant, and when we moved into this house we didn't (and still don't, though working on it!) have a humidifier for our heater. Meaning, by this time I was very used to the dry Utah weather, but suddenly my skin all but shriveled up on me it was so parched. Lips, face, hands, they've all been crazy dry and itching for moisture.

Got it? Dry.

Several months ago I bought some Bio Oil from Costco to try and minimize the giant scars I have from when I removed those moles but truth be told, I've been horrible at remembering to put it on. When I got pregnant however, I started using it like crazy, twice a day, just to combat the constant, kill-me-now itching. I've been crazy itchy this pregnancy, and the itching is not your average itch. Most of the time you can ignore an itch, it goes away. Pregnancy Itch, you cannot ignore. It's a stinging itch, and just gets worse and worse and worse until you think you might die. By this point you're itching it, but it takes a good 20 seconds of itching before it starts to go away. 

Okay, so, Bio Oil. Helps with the itch. But this isn't why I'm telling you about it! I'm telling you about it because one day, sick of my dry face, I put it all over. And then I started putting it on twice a day, night and morning, and here I am three weeks later and you guys, I've seen a HUGE difference.

Huge.

Not only is my skin not dry (my face used to flake just from using the brush for my Bare Essentials) but it's much more even, I'm fully convinced that a bit more time and I could maybe go without makeup! (Besides the every present dark circles...I don't think those are every going to go away, right?)  

Anyway, go try it. You won't be sorry.