Crabby Mama

places I’ve worked
1-Target
2-Aunt Chilada’s as a hostess
3-Sylvan Learning Center as a tutor
4-O2B Kids (preschool)

movies I can watch over and over
1-Father of the Bride 2
2-Can’t Hardly Wait
3-Dirty Dancing
4-When Harry Met Sally

places I’ve lived
1-San Ramon, CA
2-Franklin, TN
3-New Port Richey, FL
4-Monroe, NC

favorite tv shows
1-Grey’s Anatomy
2-The Office
3-So You Think You Can Dance
4-Supernanny

places I’ve been
1-Bora Bora
2-New York
3-New Orleans
4-Bahamas on a cruise

favorite foods
1-Mexican
2-Italian
3-Southern
4-whatever I am craving at the moment

majors I’ve considered
1-Dance
2-International Finance
3-Education

places I’d rather be
1-visiting my mom
2-in the hospital having this baby

If you are reading this, you are tagged! All of the categories are supposed to have 4 items but some just didn’t apply to me.

Last fall Leah took swim lessons (well the baby kind where you just get them used to the water). She pretty much HATED them. She was happy to play games with me but ANYTHING that required her to get her face wet and/or go under made her scream. After a lesson or two, she would scream whenever we approached the pool. It never got any better.

That’s why I was so surprised today. We went to the water park at the aquatic center and the water was kinda chilly. At first only Christine and Alex were there (Alex is Leah’s age too). Leah would barely dip her toes in then. Alex and his mom were going on the slides but Leah said “No thank you.” (Literally) Then after a bit Ian and Ty show up with their families. When Ian started going into deeper water and bouncing around like a bunny, Leah wanted to do it too. She didn’t even want to hold my hand! She would also lay on her tummy in the shallow area and push up with her arms so that she was floating on her tummy! You have no idea what trying to get her to float was like in swim lessons. Last but not least she wanted me to swing her through the shoots of water so that they would hit her on the back. This is a child who has a conniption if “sprinkles” touch her. So I was VERY proud of my water baby today.

On another note, the sleeping is still not going well. We had one good night and two good naps since I wrote last about it. Yesterday she spent almost 2 hours in her room in bed BEFORE she fell asleep. I put one of those doorknob things on the door so she can’t get out and wander around and it TICKS her off when she tries to get out. Also at night, I think she is having dreams and they wake her up and freak her out. For example last night:

She wakes up screaming Mommy at 4am. When I get to her door she is standing there with blankie saying “I want to sleep in Mommy and Daddy’s room.” I didn’t want to bring her in because usually when I do, no one sleeps anymore that night. But I had to pee so bad (damn prego bladder) that I did anyway. She told us that there were sharks in Leah’s room. We talked about how sharks live in water and I said “Do you have any water in Leah’s room?” and she said “No, only at the movies.” Ahhhh, we had seen Shark Tale on Wednesday as the kids’ movie. I guess I can’t do anything about her dreaming, can I?

Last night was supposed to be so relaxing. Leah did not sleep well the night before due to several coughing spells, but she had a great nap yesterday. She was pretty cranky all day, crying over EVERYTHING. So I decided early bedtime and we would have the evening to ourselves. I have not gotten it together enough to put her to bed early in a LONG time. By 7:20 she was bathed and we were reading stories in her bed. I left at 7:35 completely confident that sleep was imminent. Throughout the next TWO hours, she proceeded to request the following: medicine on her bug bites, more medicine on bites I had missed, a sip of water because she was coughing (also cough medicine), something to put her boogie on (she had picked it out of her nose), and last of all chapstick. This child, at 2 yrs old, has learned the making excuses at bedtime routine. Mike and I were cracking up at each new request, but I was so tired of climbing the stairs every 10 minutes with 50 extra lbs strapped to my front that I was almost crying. This CANNOT happen again tonight. We are going to cover all those bases in advance to see if that works out.

My doctor told me that I am 1 cm today! It is the beginning of the end. No thinning of the cervix though, so he says probably not this week. I predict within a week of my due date. He said we will induce if no baby by August 22nd. So there you have it – one month left no matter what! I have weekly appts now, on the next 2 Mondays. Stay tuned for Baby Watch 2007.

This weekend was BUSY! Friday afternoon we (Leah, Laurie, Ian, Chase, and I) met Bryan and Mike at Carowinds to go to Boomerang Bay, their water park INSIDE the regular park. It was lots of fun. Leah and Mike went on the Platypus Plunge, which is a double tube ride for kids. We all went as a family on Crocodile Run (a lazy river). I laughed so hard at getting myself into a tube. Mike had Leah already in his lap and was heading down the river when a lady took pity on me and held the tube still so I could flop on it on my belly and flip over. Getting out was hilarious too. I floated past the exit and was starting the river again when I finally hauled myself out. Then I had to wade with my tube against the current to get to the exit. A RIOT! After a yummy Cracker Barrel dinner, Leah passed out the second she laid in her bed and slept until 8am (a miracle!).

Saturday morning, I prepared meals to freeze at Dream Dinners. I made yummy things like Maple Glazed Pork Chops with Bountiful Baked Beans and Canadian Bacon Stuffed French Bread. Those will remain in my freezer until I need them when the baby comes.

My new Harry Potter book arrived at 1pm and of course I started reading RIGHT AWAY! I read for an hour until my baby shower. Laurie hosted a CDS (cul-de-sac) party for me at her house complete with a 10-minute massage for everyone. How awesome was that?!? We played silly games and used our favor bags to work on our fingernails (cute collection of supplies). I had a diaper cake and a BIG basket of baby things to go through. Thanks so much Laurie and all my CDS girls! Pictures are on our website for your viewing pleasure. I read that evening from 5-6:15, then again from 8:30 until 2:15am. I finished the book that night and am VERY happy with it. That’s all I can say about that because I have LOTS to friends who are working on it.

Remember if you are reading Harry Potter, be thinking about a discussion question to email me by August 10th.

Leah decided to showcase her new skills today. She has not been going down well for naps lately. Some days she won’t sleep at all, others she talks for an hour or more before falling asleep. It’s really frustrating. So today I cleaned out my van where I couldn’t hear the monitor and closed the garage door when I went back inside. I guess Leah heard the door because I could hear her crying through the monitor on the kitchen table, but from FAR AWAY. I happened to close the upstairs baby gate today because of her new skill of opening doors. Even though Leah CAN open doors she has never left her room when she is supposed to be sleeping. I go up the stairs and she is standing on MY bed.

She had gotten out of her room and climbed onto my bed (I have never seen her climb onto my bed before).

Needless to say, there were no naps to be had today.

I got the chance to relive the good old days when I constantly had poop or spit-up on my clothing. I took Leah to the children’s movie of Charlotte’s Web today. Toward the end, she was getting restless so I put her on my lap, hoping to last the rest of the movie. As I stood up to gather our stuff after it was over, my pants felt wet. Once I got out into the light I looked down saw a wet spot on my pants where she had been sitting. In the bathroom I discovered that she had EXPLODED out of her diaper on both sides and up the back JUST LIKE A NEWBORN! We had to exit the theater with me, poopy pants, and Leah, naked except for a diaper and sandals. Quite the picture. Needless to say I did NOT get to stop by the grocery store on the way home like I was going to.

One more reminder how FUN those days are.

Note to self: pack extra clothes for EVERYONE!

P.S. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but Leah is now on meds for constipation so those kinds of poops are not unusual, just not usually so explosive.

Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Author: J.K. Rowling

Question Due: August 10th

All Questions Listed: August 11th/12th (assuming I am not in the hospital having a baby)

Post Date: August 17th (my due date!)

How the book tour works:

(1) leave a comment or send me an email (angelleg453@yahoo.com) saying that you’re interested in participating.

(2) I will keep adding to this list of participants so people will know who is participating and where to go to read other reviews on “post day” (August 17th). You can add yourself to the list up until August 10th.

(3) read harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by August 10th (about 3 weeks from the book’s release).

(4) create a single question that would kick off a discussion (in other words, any question that leads to more than a “yes” or “no” answer where someone can express their opinion) and email it to me on August 10th (or any time beforehand).

(5) on August 11th/12th, I will post the list of possible questions. Everyone will choose 3 questions off the list and answer them in a blog entry (if we only have 3 participants, we’ll all be answering the same questions. If there are more questions, we’ll have more variation on the blog entries because people will choose to answer different questions).

(6) on August 17th, everyone will post their entry. I will post my answers too and a reminder that it’s post day so people can go around and read the entries and comment (start a discussion back and forth in the comments section).

I just realized that my blogaversary was July 11th! I have officially been writing in this blog for one year. I have actually been doing it more often lately and am really enjoying it. If there is anyone out there who reads my blog that I do not have on my links list, leave me a comment. I’d love to know if I have other readers.

I have to put in a few of Leah’s latest quotes (all today):

L: Mommy, I’m say-rd (scared) She comes to hide next to me and tucks her face away.
Me: Why are you scared, baby?
L: There’s a ghost! Where’s Daddy?
Me: He’s at work, but I am here.
L: I want Daddy come home!

Where is this child learning about ghosts?

I offer Leah a Nilla Wafer before I pack some in a bag to take as a snack.
L: No thanks. Put it in the bag for safekeeping.

Um, safekeeping?

Leah is in bed, supposed to be taking a nap. I hear over the monitor:
Mommy, I have a surprise for you. I have pee pees.
Turns out to be poo poo and that was NOT the surprise. Apparently she has a birthday cake for me. But she put the two topics together to make for a WONDERFUL surprise for me.

Gotta love those little ones.

Oh yeah, I had the ultimate pregnancy brain experience today too. I let Leah climb into her carseat by herself this morning while I tied her balloon on the seat. I then helped the guy load groceries into my trunk. We drove off and I called Mike to tell him some of the cute things she said this morning. I am about 2 blocks from the store and I hear Leah saying “Stop talking for a minute Mommy. I have something to tell you. You forgot to buckle my seatbelt.” I had NOT strapped that child into her seat! Just drove off and forgot about it. Dang, I need a 2 yr old to keep me on track.