Thursday Thirteen

1) We made two pumpkin pies from real pumpkins on Wednesday.
2) Eating pumpkin pie gave me gas that felt like contractions and I let class out early and drove home very upset. It was just gas. Yuck.
3) It has been raining for 14 days in a row. It is wet and cold and rainy. Forecast calls for more rain.
4) We are going to fetch a new (free!) swingset from an unschooler family in rural Iowa on Saturday. Yay! Free swingset AND a visit to a farm. Neat.
5) Lily swam today. No floater suit. 12 feet distance. She grabbed the side of the pool and pushed off and....swam back to me! We spent another hour just doing this and swim to the bottom of the pool exercises. Too cool.
6) We saw the IMAX "The Human Body" this week. Very cool, but scary to an almost three year old.
7) Cats are weird. Cats get even weirder in the middle of the night.
8) I love soup!
9) I'm excited about NaNoWriMo.
10) I had never seen Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame. It is really different from most Disney movies. I loved it but.........Lil'Bug learned to spit at people from watching it. Gah.
11) Farm eggs taste incredibly different from grocery store eggs. I know that grocery store eggs are like 80 days old, but I never knew that the taste was so different. Yum.
12) Sleeping toddlers are bringers of joy. She played hard and now she's giggling in her sleep. Neat.
13)I am totally enamoured with my husband. He has made himself an expert in prenatal nutrition and trouble shooting. When I cam home last night upset, he researched abdominal pain and comforted me. It was nothing, but it hurt. He is truly amazing. As annoyed as I was previously, I am really glad I married such a wonderful man.

Nanowrimo

nanowrimo

National Novel Writing Month. 50,000 words in 30 days. Can I do it? Sure. I wrote my thesis in as long and it's longer. It may take some additional planning, but I can do it. It averages to 1,667 words a day. Easy peasy. Right. I plan to write a little and paint a little each day.

So here's my dilemma: which novel should I work on? Choices are as follows 1) The Bridesmaid's Guide to the Neurotic Bride and Her, um, Interesting Family. 2) finish Gen X'ers Guide to How to Use a Hammer 3) A murder mystery involving a dam break and a drag queen. 4) some other idea. Any idea. Suggest something. 5) an extension of a short story I wrote, a love story in the bayou. Lots of magic, folklore, and food in the mix.

I'll put the character profiles up prior to Nov. 1st so I am ready to go. I am thinking about creating a separate invite only blog and posting a chapter a day. Thoughts? Would anyone be interested in that?

Blogging Pregnancy

Dearest Husband pointed out that I am not really blogging this pregnancy much, as in I am not really writing about being pregnant. At first, I had the excuses: the people I know who do that eventually get really obnoxious and end each sentence with, "because I am pregnant."- but that is not true, it only annoyed me when we were trying and not pregnant, really I think its cute. Then, I said, we have too much going on right now and my students read my blog and NO ONE wants to know what and when I am vomiting.

But really, this blog is not a newspaper column or a business blog, it is a personal record of our family's life and right now the facts of when and what I am vomiting are very much a part of our daily life!

So here are my reflections on this pregnancy so far:
1) I am worried about different things this time. With Lil'Bug I was worried about family, being a new mom, my job, and finishing school. Now, done with school, job is not dependent on daycare, family issues are resolved, and I am a pretty good mom. Now I am worried about medical complications I know could happen, Lil'Bug's adjustment, moving, and pants that fit.

2) Vanilla ice cream with chocolate and caramel chunks (Cow Tracks) is THE BEST ice cream to use in a root beer float. Try it. Especially if you are pregnant. It is crazy delicious and the only dessert I have had in 7 weeks.

3) I am really tired. I wasn't with Lil'Bug but I think she is why I am tired this time. Last time I sat at a desk all day now I am chasing her. Also, I had been more of a caffeinated mom prior and absolutely no caffeine this time is really wreaking havoc on my energy level. Why absolutely? Anything with caffeine, aspartame, or hazelnut makes me vomit. I can smell aspartame from yards away. If I don't eat breakfast, vomiting is a sure thing. 50/50 chance if I eat something. Dearest Husband reminding me that lots of nausea is a good sign is obnoxious.

4) Lil'Bug is pretending she has a baby in her belly too and has started up again feeding her dolls "mommy milk" and carrying them in slings. I plan on ordering from Wallypop matching ring slings, one for her and one for me. I won't do that until the Spring though.

5) Last time I was wiggy about used baby things, now I am marking my calendar for the big baby rummage sales. We just sold 80% of our baby things in June. Gah. We'll need extra car seats and...you know what? I don't know what else. We didn't use 1/2 the stuff we had last time. Before the big sale on Saturday we will have a family talk about what is needed. Last time I had Pottery Barn visions floating through my head and now I am a bit more practical.

6) Last time I was set on using a doula, this time I'm not. I love doulas, I loved my doula, but this time I think that I will be just fine. It's early. I may change my mind. I'm going to try a VBAC but I have the same medical complications as last time and this time we know what that actually can mean in terms of scary medical things. I'm ok with another C-Sec, it is just not my first choice. I will also use a hospital facility (see above reference to scary medical things). I think that home births are awesome, but I hope that the community of women I belong to will support and understand my choice as I support theirs. My medical condition is part scaring from an adolescent abdominal surgery and part genetic abnormality (PCOS).

7) Breastfeeding. It took almost a month for Lil'Bug and I to learn how without aids. Most women I know quit when or if it was that hard for them. Not me. This time I know I can do it and I don't have to worry about pumping 3 hours a day. Goodness that sucked (30 minutes each session x 6). Yay for working at home!

That's it for now. If I don't get back to cleaning right now- my whole week with be thrown into chaos!

Under Budget?

So, Lil'Bug gets the idea one morning after breakfast that she needs to make a grocery list.

Ok. Bananas and cheese-noodles.

I needed to go to the store anyway, so we load up the car. As we were doing this, she gets the great idea to take her toy grocery cart. "Ok," I say, "but that means that you can't ride in the Beepbeep cart." She's all smiles.

We get there and she happily scoots the aisles looking for her bounty. She ponders the bananas, picking the perfect bunch. She contemplates the cheese-noodles before deciding on her old standard. She asks if we can add a bag of vegetable chips and at the last turn grabs purple Gatorade and fits it in the small space below in her plastic red cart. She looks at me and says, "Ok, I'm done. Let's go pay!"

At the check out she unloads everything on to the conveyor. She practically had to lift the Gatorade over her head (she's a tiny two). She asks for the money so she can pay, the lady gives her change and asks, "How was your shopping experience young lady?"

Lil'Bug beams, "Great! I came in under budget!"

......Um?

At this point I was laughing so hard tears flowed. So were all the people in line. That's what I say. I thought she was shopping, but I didn't realize exactly how much and to what great detail she was imitating me.

Also, later, she was upset. She was "sad and angry" that we laughed at her. I explained that we were laughing with her and that she was just so incredibly smart and articulate that everyone was awed. She smirked at me and squinched her nose. I must remember to be more sensitive to her feelings. :)