HWGA*

Doctor's appointment and ultrasound went very well today.

The baby was very cooperative, unlike her sister (Emily slept through her ultrasound and could not be persuaded to wake up), and obligingly moved around so we could see all the parts. Mike stole the CD with the electronic copies of the pictures to take to work, so pictures are forthcoming. Probably will be posted tomorrow, since I have a meeting for work tonight.

I have gained 4 pounds and one head cold. The nurse was a little concerned about my blood pressure, because it was so low, only 80/60. She took it twice to be sure. Same result. I normally have low blood pressure (frequently under 100 for both numbers) and I think the cold just made it worse.

I had been noticing some strange tightening of my uterus the past several days. It wasn't quite as bad as period cramps, but definitely uncomfortable. Yeah, those? They're Braxton-Hicks contractions. Goody. Apparently I'm just aware of them more this time around. The doctor wasn't concerned.

I go back in another 4 weeks for another checkup and the glucose tolerance test.

****************************************

Were you waiting for me to tell you what kind of baby we're having? I did tell you, in the stuff up there.... :)

Do I need to come out and say it?

Oh, ok.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (this color is more purple than pink, but it shows up better than the pink did). Mike is already planning for try #3. I keep telling him I'm pretty sure I don't want to do this again, and he keeps telling me to talk to him in 2 years. So, we'll see.

Sorry for the annoying build up stuff, above. I kept trying to come up with some creative way to tell you and I just am not feeling that creative.

*HWGA=Here We Go Again. A non-spoiler way of saying we're having a baby girl. We think. The ultrasound lady said 99% certainty. Good enough for me!

What's in a name?

There are some messed-up names out there.

The baby book we were given lists 60,000 names, all of which, the author claims, have been given to at least one child.

Some notable entries:

Bacon
Arm
Brain
Zero
Flag
Delete
Excell
Michelin (listed as a girl's name)
Snake
Sound
Car
Toy

Please don't take this as a condemnation of unique or ethnic names for babies. This is a condemnation of people who name their children after an everyday item in the guise of creative naming. The child being named has to live with this name well past the cute infant stage. They need to use this name to introduce themselves at job interviews and to dates. And that's after they live through the teasing and butchering of their name that is school. Kids are bullied so much already, do we really need to give the bullies more ammunition?

Banner Day

Today was a big day in our house.

Emily used the potty. Twice.

She has been telling us that she has a dirty diaper for a couple of weeks, and I mentioned this to the doctor when we were there last week. She said that I should buy a potty and, keeping it low-key, put her on it.

I brought her into the bathroom this morning with me and put her on the potty. She jumped right up, of course and while I was taking care of my own potty needs, she peed on the floor. I caught her mid-tinkle and put her booty on the potty. And voila! We peed on the potty.

Then, tonight, while Mike was getting her ready for bed, he stripped her down and put her on the potty while he got her bath set up. And she peed!

So, cool.

Now I'm trying to work out just how much potty training I want to be doing right now. Do I continue with the 1 or 2 potty attempts per day thing? Or do I ramp up the schedule and start working with her on potty use? I don't know. Mike is all, let's go for it! And I'm all, well... I wasn't really intending to start potty training for a while, I really don't mind changing diapers and I'm not really sure I have the memory to remember that the child should be attempting to use the potty instead of the diaper...

So, we'll see how it goes. So far the plan is that I will bring her into the bathroom with me when I go (which is frequently between the baby and the quantity of iced tea I drink) and set her up on the potty. I'll keep you posted.

If you potty training veterans have any advice, it would be welcomed!!

Birthday

Today is Mike's birthday. He's 32.

We had a party for him yesterday at our house and had cake and ice cream and lime bars. My mom took Emily for the night and we went out to dinner at a fancy restaurant.

This morning, we slept until 9.

Mike gets his birthday off from work, so we're going to go see a movie at the local cheap theatre (tickets are $1.75! woo-hoo!) and then pick up the girl at my parent's house.

Mike's sister brought us a replacement baby name book (she lent it to someone else after she was done with it and says the person who borrowed it isn't returning it) yesterday, so we're working on coming up with boy baby names. We're pretty sure we know what our girl baby name is, at least the first name (Lucy), but we're still working on a middle name for a girl.

Happy Birthday, sweetheart. I love you!

Broken

I might be the only one who does this, but I have a favorite spatula that I prefer to use when cooking. It is one of the silicone spatulas, but in a small size that works really well for me.

While I was making Mike's birthday cake this afternoon (German chocolate, from scratch), as I scraped the batter into the pans, I noticed that something was odd about my spatula.

Half of it was missing.

There was only two places the rest of it could be. In one of the pans or in the bowl.

Mike kindly volunteered to search for it. He found it (thank goodness!) and then we threw my favorite spatula away.

**************************

This afternoon, Mike went outside to work on clearing the snow from the end of the driveway so that he can see oncoming traffic. He came inside about 15 minutes after he went out and announced that his snow blower broke.

He was holding pieces of the engine in his hand when he said it. He said that the engine made a loud clunk and then spit these pieces at him from a hole in the side of the engine. There is a trail of oil the length of the driveway from the hole in the side of the engine.

Not good. We need a snowblower to clear the driveway and don't really have the funds to replace it.

Next Stop Crazyville

When I was pregnant with Emily, I was a hormonal basket case. I would flip out (usually at Mike) with the least provocation.

I don't remember much of what would make me upset, but I remember Mike trying hard to calm me down while struggling valiantly not to laugh.

As soon as Emily was born, I was back to normal. (I think - was I, Mike?) My moods stabilized, I didn't cry all the time, and my hair-trigger temper became a little less touchy.

Last night, Mike called me to tell me he was on his way home at 10 after 5 (or so). He came in the door at 6:20. He drives a fair distance to work, but it usually only takes him about 35 minutes to get home. Twice that is a bad, bad commute.

And I yelled at him. I was FURIOUS that he took so long to get home. Absolutely livid. Yes, I yelled at my husband because he drove carefully in bad weather conditions and took longer than normal to get home. Really good use of logic, that. And honestly, I'm still a little miffed about it. Even though I know it's not logical.

If you had asked me yesterday morning what kind of baby I thought I am carrying, I would have told you I wasn't sure, but maybe a boy.

Now? All girl.

PS: Lainey, You asked a while ago if we had any thoughts on baby names. We're working on it, but we lent our baby name book to Mike's sister (her son turned 1 in January) and we still (STILL!) haven't gotten it back. Hopefully we'll get it back this weekend and we can really start to work on figuring out what to name this child.

A first!

I checked my Yahoo! mail account this evening and found a message from someone named Frank Songo.

Who?

My curiosity got the better of me, so I opened it.

And this is what I found:

From Frank Songo
Abidjan,Cote d'Ivoire
West Africa,

Greetings in the name of God.

My name is Frank Songo from Sierra Leone. My father and I escaped from our country at the heat of the civil war ,As a result of the political instability in my country even after the war,
My father established his cocoa and coffee export business in Abidjan,Ivory Coast.He was in Buake, a northern city to negotiate for the purchase of a cocoaplantation when he was shot and killed by the rebel troupes fighting to takeover the government of the country on the 22nd September, 2002. The death of my father has now made me an orphan and there by exposing me to danger.Before the unfortunate death, My late father had in his personal account with a bank here the sum of $2.5m. As a result of the present in security of lives and property in this country,
I wish request that you assist me use your account in your country to transfer the balance of my father's account. Again to assist me with a letter of invitation that will make me get a visa to your country for residence inorder for me to continue our education and to invest the fund in a viable business venture.
I and the rest of my family have decieded to give you 10% of the total sum for your kind assistance,while 5% has been marked for any expenses like phone calls,the world is full of bad people please i am not saying you are bad person but consider that this is money and how the money was gotten,it is inheritace and last hope,If this is acceptable to you,Then reply me as soon as you get this message,so that we can discuss further on this matter.

Thanks and GOD bless us.
Frank Songo.

I had to chuckle. I don't think I have ever received one of the "help me get my inheritance" emails before.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, we certainly got some snow. I have no idea how much, but probably in the range of 12 inches.

Mike has spent something like 7 hours outside today clearing snow. He plowed our driveway and the driveway of our neighbors. And then he went over to his parent's house and helped them clear their 1/8 mile long driveway. And when he got home from that, he had just enough time to eat some dinner before he went back out to redo our driveway. The wind has picked up and we have (had) a sizeable drift.

When I went out to get the mail and the garbage cans about half an hour ago, it was still snowing and VERY cold.

Winter rocks.

I was able to get to the pediatrician's office this afternoon without any trouble, really. I gave myself a bunch of extra time to get there and then wound up being 20 minutes early for the appointment.

Emily is 33 1/2 inches long and weighs 24 pounds 9 ounces. That puts her squarely in the 90th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight. Again. She's nothing if not consistent.

She got 3 vaccinations in her sweet little arms (which? I think having to have the shots in her arms upset me more than her getting her first shots when she was a teeny baby). She wasn't very happy about the shots, but calmed down when I reminded her that there was a dixie cup of animal crackers with her name on it in the lobby. She's running a little fever now and one of the injection sites is a little red, which the doctor warned me might happen, but I think she's gonna be ok.

Emily's appointment was at 1pm, which totally conflicted with her nap. I wound up keeping her up until after the appointment and then she crashed when we got home. You should have seen me trying to handle some slightly hairy driving while trying to chat the girl up enough that she wouldn't fall asleep in the car. (If she falls asleep in the car, she will wake up when I get her out and then she won't nap. Which is very bad.)

Mike got me a box of assorted chocolates for Valentine's Day. He said he was very embarrassed to be buying them because they are such a cliche, but it really was what I wanted. We are going to go out for dinner at some point soon, so he said that I didn't have to get him anything. Emily got him a bag of Dove Dark Chocolate candies and a bag of those (nasty! disgusting! shudder!) conversation hearts. I bought a steak for dinner tonight and baked a cherry pie (frozen) for dessert.

In all, it was a very ordinary, but nice, day. It was nice to have Mike home (Emily was entranced by Mike this morning. He was sitting on the couch, doing some work stuff on his laptop and she would. not. leave him alone. She kept bringing books over to him and wanting to get up in his lap and looking over his shoulder to see what he was doing. She pretty much ignored me because she's used to me sitting around working on my computer. Very funny) but I think it was a little stressful for Mike. He was trying to do work stuff like check emails and be on conference calls as well as husband/house stuff like plowing the driveway and the balance between the two kept getting thrown off.

I think I have bored you all enough for one night. I'm going to go cut into that pie. TTFN!

Snow Business

I've had a couple of requests for updates on the snow situation here. I'm sure lots of people have heard that upstate New York is getting hammered with lots of snow.

And they are.

I guess, when I say that I live in Upstate New York, I should mention that covers a considerable area (mainly the area of New York State that isn't New York City). The part of upstate NY that is getting all the snow is a couple of hours to the east of me. I live between Syracuse and Buffalo.

Our snowfall has been fairly normal. We've got about 12 inches on the ground right now, which fell over the course of several days. The worst thing we've had to deal with is snow blowing from the empty field across the street into our driveway.

All that is supposedly about to change.

The meteorologists are predicting a major winter storm beginning this afternoon going into tomrrow night. The most recent forecast I heard called for 6-12 inches from this afternoon through late tonight and then another 6-12 inches during the day tomorrow. They have been making a big point of saying that this is a snow storm instead of lake effect snow (Lake Ontario is the source of all of the snow that Oswego County has been getting).

We'll see how that pans out. I will be sure to take pictures if we get a lot of snow and put them up here.

Pestilence & Plague

My family has managed to acquire some virulent form of disease that causes rampant vomiting and diarrhea.

Emily started with it earlier this week, and has thrown up nearly every day this week.

Because that wasn't nearly fun enough, I joined her on Friday, throwing up every time I dared to sit up for more than 5 minutes.

My mother, bless her heart, came down and picked Emily up on Friday (and helped me take care of the fire!) and was repaid for her kindness with vomiting early this morning.

I am finally starting to feel better and actually ate 2 meals today, neither of which consisted of oyster crackers or ginger ale. Here's hoping that Mike doesn't get sick (his birthday is coming up and a stomach virus wasn't on his wish list) and that Emily can go puke-free for more than 24 hours.

Speech! Speech!

Mike and I are living in the middle of an explosion of sorts.

Emily's verbal skills are just exploding. She is learning new words nearly every day.

Her words right now are:

ga-ka: cookie
ga-ga-ga-ga: quack quack quack quack (what a duck says) also the animal that says "quack"
wuff wuff: barking dog. also dog.
moo: what a cow says
nay: what a horse says
baa: what a sheep says
ee ee: what a bird says, also what a pig says (the difference lies in what octave she hits when she says it)
bah bah bah: what mommy says "blah, blah, blah"
grrr: what daddy says, also yes
muh: milk
ma ma: me or music (if she's standing by the stereo and dancing, she's saying music)
dah!: yes!
da da: Mike, Domino (difference is in the intonation), thank you, Elmo, amen (said after we ask the blessing at dinner, usually without prompting)
da da DA: dirty diaper (said while grabbing at her diaper to tell us that she's made a deposit)
nigh-nigh: night-night
ah-da: Oscar
uh-oh: a frequent utterance in our house (yesterday when she got sick in her crib (I don't want to talk about it) she looked at me and said "uh-oh". Uh-oh, indeed.)
woo-hoo: another frequently used phrase around here
na-na: nana (Mike's mom)
nah: nap
da-pa: Grandpa
bu-gah: chocolate (I'm not quite sure how she says this one, this is pretty close, though)
ah-dah: either all done or all gone, depending on context. said with her hands next to her face.

She also can shake and nod her head at the appropriate times, which has made life much easier. She also likes to give kisses and hugs. Sometimes, if we're lucky, we'll get back pats or back rubs with our hug.

She's a busy, busy girl. And I am loving (most of) it.

Uh-oh

Remember when I said that Emily doesn't watch much TV? Remember when I said that she just didn't seem to be all that interested in it?

Um, yeah.






I took these pictures this morning. Elmo was on the Today show to celebrate his birthday. They had a full-screen close up of Elmo (which of course, I didn't catch with the camera) and Emily went nuts. She was waving and shouting Hi to Elmo. Then she stood there and watched the whole segment.

I am planning on going to the den of evil tonight, so I'll stop in the video department and see if I can find a DVD of some kind that might tickle her fancy.

Ob check-up

Everything is progressing nicely. The baby kept swimming away when the doctor was trying to listen to its heartbeat. She was finally able to sneak up on it and get a good listen.

The heartbeat was in the 140s. The visit was remarkable only because it was so unremarkable. I have regained 2 of the 3 pounds I lost during my first trimester.

My ultrasound is scheduled for Feb 26.

I can't think of anything else to tell you about it.