So today we drove to check out a piece of property. The one we all totally fell in love with, sold. In like 3 weeks. Why we could not have that karma selling our own house, I do not know. We would have lived there in a heartbeat, happily, until our dying days. I'm quite certain.

Anyway, so driving up to this other house, which is a really cute house in the one photo, and the price is really, really right, and the last/only store, 6.1 miles away, is super walmart. So as we're driving there, I'm praying there's somewhere else to shop. Or even somewhere a bit further than walmart. But no.

The end result is, the town it's in is cute. The property is that price for a reason. A "no thank you" reason.

Apparently I do too much blog reading. Last night in my dream, I was at the pioneer woman's ranch, making cake balls. I was making a mess. Also, once I really *did* make the cake balls, and they're much too sweet for me and mine, so I wouldn't actually be making them. Maybe if I was at the ranch, I'd do whatever was asked of me.

Also, at the other end of the island, TPW was making dinner, which was chicken and lots and lots of shredded cheese. It's all good.

Inspired by Cheri, here is my life by the numbers.

10. Tulip bulbs planted in our yard last fall. Soon we shall know our success rate.
9. Weeks until I'm halfway through this pregnancy. And will know gender!
8. How many times Mary Poppins has been watched this week. We have to return it soon. And buy our own copy.
7. Number of months until I meet number 3!
6. Approximate number of hours I slept last night.
5. Junk food items bought at ill-timed midday lunch trip.
4. Number of females in the summer house situation, as opposed to my son's 1 male.
3. Pots of tomato seeds on the windowsill. They actually have half grape tomatoes in them. I'm not sure how that will work out.
2. Time at which little girl came into bed last night. Yawn.
1. Still, the number of operational side view mirrors on my car. Not.happy.

I'm really, really motivating to get to the noon spin class today. I have to drink my (decaf of course) coffee early so that it can be out of the system by then. I haven't been in about two months and it shows. I plan to just ease back in and not push too hard, but I really need to exercise.

A little freaked out today because a vbac board I lurk on, a lady went in to the hospital with some strange pains, as well as contractions, and came home having to plan a funeral for her baby. When she said "bad outcome", I was expecting a c-section after all her planning. I don't even know this lady, not even know in an internet way, but it's rocking my world.

The big boy has a pal at school. His Best Friend. This is really the first friend that he's chosen - I don't really know his mom, he doesn't live withing walking distance, they just are pals. And poor boy, his Best Friend is moving. To Austria. Try as I might to make the best of things (pen pal! we will write letters and learn all about Austria!), his buddy is still going to be thousands of miles away, and we're probably NEVER going to see him again. It makes us both rather sad.

Last week I smashed the mirror off my car. I went to the dealer. They needed to order it. So they checked all the numbers, asked me if it was motorized (yes) and ordered. They called and today! I went to have it replaced. $175 for the part, $90 for the labor, was the quoted price.

I wait for 2 hours. And then another half an hour for good measure. And then! Steve from service comes in! And they have the wrong part! But I can order the right one, for $530, and then pay $145 to install it. And for your time and effort and *our* screwup, you get to wait in our room with chatty old ladies and crappy coffee for 2.5 hours. You're welcome!

I came home and did what I should have last week - called the VW mechanic we know. Sigh.

Again with the food. I've realized that although I get hungry (and the resultant psycho) really quickly, I'm craving halfway decent things and am really appreciative. Like right now, my belly full of steak salad wrap and oven fries, I'm just happy with it. I've really been into somewhat junky salads. Last weekend I needed, NEEDED, a buffalo chicken salad. I know it's not the most healthiest salad ever, but greens are still greens, and in the first trimester you can't really complain. I think by this point with the girly, I'd had about 3 dozen bagels and a gallon of cream cheese, and that's it.

9w3d

9w3d
Originally uploaded by archimom

We got to see the bub today! Fast heartrate of 170ish. Both of my kids were under 150 at this point, so I don't buy any of the wives tales. There was a little confusion about when I should pee and where, so I peed at the wrong time in the wrong place, having waited uncomfortably for no reason to. Oh well. Such is life at the ob office.

For five weeks I have been waiting for this date. March 2, it always seemed so far away!! But today, today I will get a peek of the baby and get to talk to the doctor about vbac and life will all be good!!

Did I mention that at 8 pm last night they called and cancelled? And now we have about 9" of snow and it's not stopping any time soon? Ugh.

Because I immortalized Perry Trotman here, I should share that the girl also has one of the best named critters ever. She has a soft little white bear named Flop. Flop is very special. Poor Flop had a booboo today that required six ice packs, a dozen cotton balls, and a hello kitty bandaid. He seems to be on the mend now.

So today at music class, one gal says to her friend "on monday, everyone I talked to was pregnant. like a week pregnant. are you?" and the friend, is not. And she says "seriously, xx told me she was due in late october, and she's just five weeks, and she already announced it on her *facebook*." And I realize, this is how life goes. I haven't yet made any facebook announcements, but it's not far off. Although I wouldn't want the worst to happen and some vague aquaintance who works at the flower shop to be asking questions. So till now, we're just here.

Ultrasound monday morning. I.can't.wait. I don't know how much to expect to sleep this weekend.

The other day, the girl and I were laying down in her bed and I took my coat off. The zipper whipped around and wacked her near her eye. So she got a nice little bruise, which today is a smallish black eye. The best part, she keeps saying "momma wacked me" when people ask what happened. Awesome!

FYI: I am a mall hater. But, my mom bought the boy some wonderful legos for christmas, and as a bonus got a little box to fill at the lego store. So, as it is vacation week, we decided to head to the mall and lego store, fill the little box, have lunch, make an adventure of it.

It was as good and bad as I expected.

The lego store is great! You can fit TONS into that little box, and the girl wanted a little box too, so we bought a marginally larger one for $8 and she filled it with pink and lime green random parts. All cool. Got to see all the legos and it was nice. But I mentioned it's vacation week right? So there were 2309203 kids there.

Then, being 11:45, we were getting peckish. There is a rainforest cafe in this mall, and hey! we're on an adventure! We put our name in and they tell us it'll be 40 minute to sit. Not okay. So we decide to blow some time, checking out the rain and all the junk they want you to buy. Then we decide we're too hungry and head to the food court. We are all cranky. Pizza is helping, and then the girl says "momma! Look at my pink rocks!!" See, they have a big bin of polished rocks at the cafe, that you fill a bag with, and pay like $7 for. So she stole two which, while only about $.34 worth, isn't great. Meh.

Then we go to the play area, to assemble the boy's new lego helicopter, which I"d promised him we'd start on, and the girl is just the right size for the play area. Worked for about 2/3 of the time we needed to build the helicopter. I barely made it to au bon pain for some sweets and water to bribe the kids into the car, and the ride home we all whined and ate cookies. I think we all drank a gallon of water as well.

Now we're having some quality time with various screens and seats. I've earned my good mom award right? Oh, except that I just reserved the zoo pass for tomorrow. When it's supposed to be 36 and rainy. I think that will earn me the Most Excellent Mom Award.

Today we stopped at Friendly's to redeem our valentine free cones. Excellent. Oh and I also realized that kid cones, which are just a single scoop but still *plenty* for kids and adults, are only $1 even when paying. This is the best/worst news I've heard in ages, particularly because Friendly's is just about walking distance. However, I got to only eat about a tablespoon of mine and it got snatched by a certain blondie. Oh well. I probably didn't need it, right?

So I'm a bit obsessed with food lately. In order to save money (ha!), I've been trying to cook at home. And cook things that are yummy and that we all want to eat. Tomorrow, for Valentine's Day, I'll be making steaks and french onion soup and salad and my parents are coming, with some sort of dessert and it doesn't really matter since I'm not making it. I even bought the crazy expensive cheese to go with it. And I know the kids won't eat it, but I'm growing a whole other person and I can eat a couple of bowls of that stuff. But that's why I invited the folks, because even though I can eat, not quite that much.

The other day I made a turkey breast and I've been happily eating turkey sandwiches all week. Same sandwich, different day. I have no issues with leftovers after thanksgiving whatsoever.

However, coffee is on its way out. I'm trying to decide if the joy of smelling it and beginning to drink it is enough to suffer the nausea caused by actually drinking it. I think it might be. Maybe I should go back to caffeinated. At least then I'd get true joy from the two ounces I can stomach.

I just took both kids to the dentist. Prices have gone up by like 200%, but we were getting a super sweet deal before. Anyway, kids are great, which I was worried about, because tooth brushing is pretty low on the girl's list, like below toenail clipping and hair brushing. Ugh.

But I did learn two things. Girly has two teeth that are slightly discolored - the second ones "out" on top, both of them, and I thought it was related to her brushaphobia. But they think it's just that she had a fever while those were forming, since it's so symmetrical and all. Cool to know how the body prioritizes. And since they're baby teeth, no one really cares. Also, we had no idea that the boy's big top two are loose. He's going to look so different without those guys, and especially when the huge ones grow in!

It's funny how your emotions can run the full gamut in a matter of seconds. So last spring/summer/fall, we were exploring our options for kindergarten and applied for a slot at the charter school. I wasn't 100% convinced it was the right fit, but I applied anyway. We were waitlisted at somewhere in the 22 range. Now the boy is happily halfway through his public school kindergarten experience, and that's all good, and we may move anyway, so who knows, we're just enjoying life. And I get a letter return-addressed from the charter school. What do I do? I don't want to switch him midway, but then we'll lose our slot! But if that many people dropped out since September, do I want this? My stomach was in turmoil.

Then I opened the letter. It just informed me that we've moved up to #14, and that they will keep us apprised on how that translates to next fall. Phew. I don't have any decision making to do. Good thing, because I'm bad at that.

Last night on our way into the city I wanted to stop at Kelly's roast beef. But we didn't, and we ended up having a lovely dinner in the city with cloth napkins and everything, which was fine. But I still needed roast beef. So today I went and bought tons of cold cuts and ate myself into roast beef heaven. Although I'm considering another sandwich for a late dinner/snack.

When I was pregnant with the boy, I was all about the beef. Roast beef in paricular. Rare and with salt and pepper on my sandwich. Or salted chicken salad. The salt. And the beef. Now of course, I'm reading all sorts of things into this craving.

Could just be that roast beef is delicious though.

Tonight, we're going to a reception to celebrate the opening of the Shepard Fairey exhibit at the ica boston. Very excited, for many reasons, not the least of which is the babysitting/wine factor. Here's what he's famous for, recently:


Bonus points if you remember him for this:


So then I'm reading up on his work, and the whole nature of "derivative" vs. "plaigarism", and it got me to thinking about what the art is - is it the image, or is it the sticker placed 2093023 times on mailboxes and stop signs all over New England? And that caused a discussion with my husband about this and you know what the best part was? Thinking like a grownup and discussing something that had nothing to do with children *or* work.

If you'd like to read up on the plaigarism issue, here is the first article I read, and here's a good essay with comparative images.

Want to hear a cool story? I go to to a playgroup on monday mornings, there are about 10 families, it's pretty small. At a church. Today I show up and there are two new faces. One looks remarkably like a high school classmate, but I grew up like 40 miles away. But no! It's her! And she's not one of the ones I'd rather *not* ever see again! She has a daughter my daughter's age! And lives nearby! Hurrah!