Here's my littlest son!!

The girl has named our game alter egos Callida and Bellulah. I just love them, they're so close to real princessy names but just aren't. Bellulah. Collide-uh.

Mom you have hair too!! I see it!

(last week I was showing her the tiny hairs on her arms and legs so I assume, but we're in the pool)

In there mom! See? It's black!

My armpit. I guess I need to shave.

So here is where I tell you the saga of the late school bus. Last friday. So I go out to the bus, I'm 3 minutes early. It usually comes at 1:53 by my cellphone, but has been as late as 1:56. We had just bought a new sit n stand stroller so the girl was in that, testing it. Which turned out to be fortuitous.

At 2:08 I call my house, no call from school. That's 15 minutes late. Five minutes later, I call the school. No answer, and I ring through to the main office, no answer. I am freaking.out. at this point. Fortunately, the school bus stops at a house where I know the mom, and she was home. So I bang on her door, ask her to keep watch while I run home to make sure there's no caller id or message from school, or note from teacher letting me know of issue. Of course, there isn't, and as I'm walking back out the door, I see the bus and lovely Sheila greeting my kid. I also wave down the street (maybe 200 feet?) so the bus can see I'm okay with letting him off.

But how UNCOOL is them not answering, not calling, nothing, when he was 30 minutes late? I guess the bus was late getting there, there was horrid traffic somewhere, so he wasn't sitting on the bus, but was playing at school, but I was having a meltdown?!

And of course it was the day before vacation so no one's reachable now. Which might make it a little better for those who have to deal with me.

Oh also, we had plans to meet the husband in Boston, taking the train and having A Grand Adventure, with the new stroller. Which all worked out fine except for the travel to the train/parking/running up the platform with 30 minutes less than planned. I didn't get my camera, comfy shoes, or idle time before the train left the station, but it was fine.

I love having other little boys whose backyards touch ours. So I can send him off all independent to play, but sit here putting dishes away (or, um, planning to) and watching him play with his friend. It doesn't hurt that he loves orange so he has on a bright orange baseball cap which is super easy to follow during whatever they do there in the woods.

What do we think of this vehicle? What do we think of buying an American car for the first time ever for both myself and my husband (unless a toyota counts, which it kind of does, but a Ford?)?





Hubby's car has 100k miles on it, and mine has 55. We've had both the same amount of time, and mine started at 10k, whereas his started at 0. So we're considering having his company lease a new car and then he will drive the bigger one, and I'll drive the scion. It's in great shape and I would *love* to go to a manual transmission. And a smaller car day to day would be lovely. We're planning a pretty big road trip for this summer, and a new car sure would be fun for that. It seats 7, gets better mileage than our current van, and is 4wd. It's weird not having a vehicle that's 4wd, even though both of our fwd cars do well in the snow. The scion will be tight with 3, but I do like having the kids close - right now the girl sits in the 3rd row, just the best way it works out, and she's so darn far away. Not to mention that I only have a back door on one side and the rear windows are manual slides. It's a cool car but less and less practical.

We shall see. We've only ever looked at one from the outside, not been in one, not driven one, nothing. And I have no idea how good the lease terms are right now.

You know what word always looks misspelled? Affidavit. I don't know why, that I looks wrong. But affadavit doesn't quite look right either. Thank god that I'm someone who actually looks it up and doesn't write definately repeatedly. I passed sixth grade, thankyouverymuch.

Easter was lovely. We had it here, but everyone else brought most everything. We'll be eating leftovers for the next 90239023 days. I'm thinking pea soup tonight, but I'm not sure the kids will go for. Maybe one more day of ham sandwiches and potatoes au gratin.


Doesn't he look so big and grown up? Cry.

I think it's really mean that Cartoon Network has been advertising New full length!! Scooby Doo!! Movie!! Scooby Doo and the Samurai Sword!! for like a month, available this past tuesday, and I can't find it anywhere. Scooby Doo is the A#1 show in this household for moms and kids alike. Rrrg.

Completely blindsided by Good Friday being a public school holiday. I'm not sure why, because we always had it off growing up. Also, I thought I was fully prepped for all holidays, being that he went to this school for two years prior, but he never had school on Fridays. And growing up, generally it was the Friday before April Vacation, which sort of made sense. But that's not for another week, so I didn't really even consider.

Thankfully, they just moved pizza day up by a day, so he still gets that. Which to a six year old is a big deal. Now to finagle the music class teacher into allowing a big boy to come visit on Friday. He's been asking to come, and I'm sure it'll be fine, just this once. Right? :|

14wbelly

14wbelly
Originally uploaded by archimom

I took this at the end of last week. Maybe friday? I wear these fitted clothes and maybe I look more pregnant less fat. I still feel mostly fat. It's taking longer to show than it did with the girl, I think by 15 weeks with her I was clearly in maternity clothes. This time they fall off my behind. For good or bad. I'd love to wear something non-yoga pants though.

My daughter likes to write in her diary. Except she pronounces it die-uh-REE, so it sounds like messy bathroom illness missing a syllable. It cracks me up.

I had a checkup today, because 2 weeks ago my blood pressure was up. Today, at 9:30 am when I only had to wait five minutes, it was fine. And the little girl just loved to hear her "girl baby sister" on the doppler.

Okay, firstly, I'm creeped out. There seems to be a guy hovering near kids on the bike trail, saying "follow me" (this to our neighbor boy). Could be the same guy who did similar in the fall to kids getting off the bus across town. Could be the same guy arrested for taking photos of kids getting changed at the town lake last summer, right when we were there many times a week. So yuck. I am on high alert and have branded the photo of the guy from (at least) situation 3 in my head. However, it did prompt us to have the stranger danger talk again. Refresh it yourself if you don't mind.

Also, I realized just now, that my son's favorite movie for the last 3+ years has been Peter Pan. This makes me incredibly happy. It's animated, it's not too grown up (and the violence is, well, Captain Hook and pirates), and it's a blast. I just watch their faces as they watch it, and that's my entertainment. And it's only embarrassed me once - when the boy had to name "bad guys" at karate, he chose "indians". Oops.

We have this fabulous cowboy songs cd. We're particularly fond of Ghost Riders in the Sky, and Jingle-Jangle-Jingle. And maybe I tune out much of the rest of it. So today, in the car, the girl asks to hear "chasing the sun", and I don't even remember that line of a song or what song it may be from. Thankfully, the name of the song is in fact, "chasing the sun", and my ipod tells me so. Phew. Crisis averted.

So I had this mixed salad that got frozeded. And I heard about this red cabbage gender test. If it turns red it's a boy, purple it's a girl. So I yanked out the red cabbage from the icy salad bag, chopped it and made the "tea" from it. I had this lovely pink liquid.

This morning I added my contribution to it. It turned exactly the color you'd expect of mixing yellowish clear with pink - light orangey. What? I think the change is supposed to be more clear if there's a girl, something about more uric acid from a girl, but I'm not running out to buy blue any time soon.

April 30 I will know if this bubs cooperates. Till then, I will follow the wives tales and boil more cabbage or whatever is asked of me. Just not the drano. I'm already smell sensitive enough, I don't need *actual* toxic fumes involved.

I made a mistake recently. I started lurking on a due date club and then started posting. And you see, I've spent some time on the interwebz and I know that I am pretty stuck in my ways. And I also know that these clubs are way more traditional than I. Lots of "of course I'm getting a (sic) epidural" or "if it's a boy he'll be Jayden because it's so original" but still I go there. And as it always does, the topic of circumcision comes up. When your arguments are "I have been with uncirc'ed men and ewww!" you lose all credibility to me. Also, uncircumcised is like saying unamputated arm. You have to remove your arm, else it's just the way you come. Not that I think it compares with amputation, just that it's such a double negative it makes me cringe.

So I (in a definitely self-conscious and definitely deliberately inflammatory way) said "I am not interested in cosmetic surgery for my newborn" and got all "why be judgemental!!" (again, sic, these people need spelling lessonz). But "uncirced is eww" is not judgmental?

So I need a breather and to talk to people who have left the midwest, ever. Oh that was so totally judgmental. Oh well.

This daughter of mine cracks me up. I think three is the apex of "make you die laughing" behavior. She says things like "mom I want you to make me a white dress with a white thing for my head for married". Or wants to play with brother's remote control tarantula but it scares her, so the whole time she's willing it not to walk toward her, because she doesn't really get the controls. Or saying "I'm tired", then leaning her head on a kitchen chair and falling asleep. Standing up. At 6:15 pm. Or wearing a crown, necklace, ring, sparkly cape, and sparkly shoes, 24/7.

I had a checkup yesterday. We were late. Which was good, because we *still* had to wait 45 minutes. The rest of my appointments for the rest of time will be in the morning. I forgot the whole afternoon snowball effect. So then my BP was up. They took it about nineteen times and it was still 140/92 or something crazy. This is me in pregnancy. The rest of the time I'm cool as a cucumber. I don't know. Maybe the 45 minute wait with the boy and his K-9 unit GIJoe, who had to blow up lots of things and the dog barking, added a teeny bit of stress. I don't know.

Things otherwise are fine. We got to hear the heartbeat with the regular doppler which was fun. The boy liked that muchly.

When I was 13, I was skiing with a friend and hit a tree. I had a concussion, broken nose, all sorts of things. I missed several weeks of school that year. I guess it's that combined with pregnancy hormones that has me a weepy mess over Natasha Richardson. That one photo that keeps popping up of her with her sons - that's the one that does me in. How often do you see 13 year old boys smiling with their mom, anyway? And now they lost her. :(

Of course, just as the husband is getting excited about properties all over the region, I am making new friends. Every Monday morning I go to a playgroup, which has always been more "regular" moms than me. I don't know what that means, but I never feel like I quite fit in. But this semester, there are like 6 new moms and it's a blast. I actually look forward to getting out the door Monday mornings and visiting with my pals, and we basically neglect our kids while we chitchat. Yesterday I learned that one new friend is due like a day after me, and she's moving to a house about 11 houses down from me. I don't want to move. Don't wanna!!

Today I feel exactly like I'm hung over. I'm guessing it's a migraine? I think I'm going to climb into bed.