spirit baby

There is no hiding it now. I was waiting to make an announcement, which is why I haven't posted in awhile, but there is no keeping it a secret anymore. Yes, I'm pregnant and am due the first week of January which puts me at between six and seven weeks. I could have hidden it with my first pregnancy, but baby number three? Not so much. You know how you can only think about baby and pregnancy and food when you're pregnant? That made it hard to do a blog post about anything else.



To put it into perspective, this is my sister and I at about five months pregnant, me with Gemma.



This is a side view of my sister and me, again at five months pregnant. My sister has a bit of a goofy look on her face but the belly is what is important. I carried soooo low with the girls. I'm carrying much higher this time. My sister had a boy and as you can see she was carrying much higher than me. So maybe this is a boy? I have warnings about heart burn but I'll take that over early contractions.



It's been a bit of a roller coaster emotionally. I'm still working up to excepting congratulations and even congratulating myself. I keep getting stuck with the thought, "who in their right mind has five kids???" Plus, I was done. I had no maternity clothes (thanks, friends!) and gave away most of my baby stuff. So it is pretty big for me to be pregnant again. Spirit baby was pretty persuasive...

Oona turned two today

And she is two, with on her belly temper tantrums, and saying more and more words, and fighting with her sister, and giggling and screaming and running with her sister. Big brother, Patrick, took the video and is asking Oona all the questions.

First, an update about doing low technology during Lent... It's now a couple weeks past Easter and it seems everybody is back in their old habits of movie and TV watching and it seems there are very few moments in the day that somebody is not on the computer. Sigh. It was nice while it lasted. I kind of liked the break. I don't like having the TV on all the time. And I don't like staring at the back of people's heads while they're sucked into the computer screen. Of course, I'm forcing the girls to do that with me right at the moment.

Part of why the blog has been quiet was that the boys didn't feel it was fair for me to be on the blog during Lent. They did seem to have to give up the most so I didn't post anymore. It was nice to see the boys outside and reading and hanging out with friends instead of hanging out with the computer. Lent has been over for a couple of weeks and I've been working up to post, not managing it, though, until this morning.

The subject of what you would do if you weren't doing what you were doing came up with my family recently. One sister said she would drive a metallic purple convertible volkswagon beetle instead of the minivan she uses to taxi her kids around. An aunt thought she'd get a tattoo, dye her hair magenta, and move out of her house in addition to the purple convertible. My fantasy included a Mini-Cooper, getting my hair and nails done and having a shopping trip where I buy frivolities like non-Mom clothes, shoes that aren't sensible, jewelry that you can't wear with toddlers, etc. I would also eat lunch out and get coffee and maybe even stay in a hotel (so that I'm not woken up before 5:30 a.m by wiggly and bouncy girls which has happened two mornings in a row, now). My fantasy then developed into a weekend in San Francisco with lots of yummy food and lots of fun shopping. I told my husband this fantasy and he just gave me that look which made me immediately realize how materialist and frivolous I was being. Ah well. I definitely could not live a life of constant shopping and pampering - that would be so empty feeling. But how freeing to have one weekend where you don't have to be the sensible Mom in sensible shoes with a pony tail because showering and doing your hair on a daily basis gets shunted to the end of the to do list, and where you don't have to be the Mom who cooks whatever was on sale and falls out of the refrigerator. How freeing it would be to be cooked for, to have somebody do my hair, to have somebody else clean my bathroom and make my bed for just one weekend, and to wear clothes without worrying about the next sticky hand print. Just for a weekend.

I think my husband would stay as far away as possible from anything to do with shopping. A biking and camping trip might top his list. That sounds fun in it's own way (as long as I'm the one driving the car or RV with all the extra camping gear like all of my pillows and extra blankets) but, it doesn't match the completely girly satisfaction of finding the perfect outfit and having a good hair day. And eating food cooked over a campfire or on a barbecue while nice and enjoyable, doesn't compare to the anticipation of the delicious food cooked by somebody else when eating out in San Francisco.

a few pics

I thought were too funny. They kind of capture a certain part of each of the girl's personalities.

happy belated birthday and other miscellaneous tidbits

My birthday was Monday this week. I had a lovely celebration with friends the day before. Another friend had her birthday on Sunday so it was a co-celebration. Then by Sunday night my stomach didn't feel well. So I got a stomach bug for my birthday, yay! Except for that, I had a pretty good birthday. I talked on the phone with family and received some well wishes. And I managed to eat a few bites of birthday dinner. I'm thinking of having a secondary birthday celebration on one of my quarter birthdays or on my half birthday. Since we have moved here, my birthday has been during a stressful time of year, especially for my husband, and one or more of us have been sick on my birthday. That's just no fun! June 1 is usually relatively stress free. Hmmmmm... Something to think about.

This morning I was able to eat some breakfast so I think I might be on the mend, fingers crossed and knock on wood.

The technology fast seems to be going well. I have to admit to cheating a tiny bit a few times, but overall I've been good. It's amazing how many times a day I would go on-line and just putz around. The most remarkable difference has been for the kids. The boys are playing outside way more and reading books we gave them for Christmas two years ago. The girls struggle with only one movie a day and I've caved a couple times when one of them or I was feeling sick. Even one movie a day seems like a lot in my head but when Gemma asks for a movie every five minutes, it's a good compromise.

I think the Schwarzbein diet is working and I'm easing out of what she calls the transition. The nice thing is that I don't crave sugar like I used to. I'm also shrinking and fit into jeans I was wearing last fall. I passed up the spiced jelly beans, cadbury cream eggs, and cadbury mini-eggs at the grocery store. While I feel sad about missing out on that holiday yummyness, it is so not worth it in the end. I wonder if alcoholics feel that way about holidays like New Years and stuff. I'll have to find some sugar free holiday traditions that will at least partially fill that hole. It is hard not to want those holiday sweets.

February

February has been a full month. Life has been in full swing with some extras added in, like weekend classes, conferences and other extra engagements as well as fighting colds and sore throats. My class this term, towards my long term goal of being a Certified Nurse Midwife/craniosacral therapist, is New Testament and I'm finding the class challenging especially in regards to being reasonably respectful towards my professor who daily comes out with something that just doesn't add up for me logically. Anyways, this is not the location to vent on that score. I'll just say that hours have been taken up with ranting and raving and thinking and doing assignments which all seem to miss the goal of being worthwhile from a learning perspective.

Today is the first day of Lent. Our family has decided to severely limit technology time for Lent. For me, I'm only allowing myself to go on the computer once a day, which also means that I will most likely be quiet here. My husband will spend less time on news sites, etc, only using the internet for what's necessary for his work. The boys won't be able to spend their evenings watching videos on youtube or playing computer games while simultaneously having a movie playing on the TV. The girls are so young and won't understand the concept of Lent but we're limiting their video watching time to one a day. I think this will be good for us. It's so easy to get sucked into internet land and tv land and forget about the world that is your home. I wonder how it will be 40 days from now when we return to "normal." Will we resume our habits or will we have gained a perspective that keeps us more present in our lives?

Revenge of the little sister

During bath time tonight, Oona exacted her revenge on her big sister Gemma. Now Gemma, despite being admonished by her mother that maybe Oona didn't like it, would dump buckets of water over Oona's head. Most of the time, Oona took it quietly, only whimpering after a couple of buckets - not tonight, though. Oona took that bucket, filled it with water and dumped it over Gemma's head while laughing her little head off. Gemma, on the other hand, did not take it as calmly as her little sister and did not find it at all funny. How dare this little interloper challenge her authority as dictator of the bath tub??? Oh, the screams! Her mother sat there intent on her knitting trying not to laugh. The revenge of the little sister. Watch out!

Seriously, though, it was hilarious which made it really hard to figure out what to do as a good parent.

On another sisterly note, the other day Gemma and Oona went into their room, closed the door, and played together for more than half an hour. My emotions were mixed - relief at not being climbed on, relief and happy that they were getting along and nobody was fighting, but also some sadness of feeling a little shut out and unimportant. Funny how that works. You want them to leave you alone for five minutes already and then you're like, what, you don't love me anymore? You want to go in your room and be by yourselves? Ah, the trials of motherhood... lol.