Crabby Mama

That’s how big BabyCenter says the baby is (which is just over 2 inches). Baby is pretty much fully formed now and has started to have reflexes like fingers opening and sucking. Crazy!

So I have journals for each of my girls. I wanted to have something to give them when they are grown with all of their milestones and how I felt at each stage of their life. I started Leah’s before she was conceived. Erin’s was started when I was 6 weeks pregnant. I have yet to start this one. I feel bad about that, but I have this blog now. I can always print it out one day and make each of them books with their entries.

Anyway, I was looking at Leah’s and Erin’s journals last night. With Erin’s pregnancy, I was in maternity clothes (kinda) at 8 weeks. This time I am more on par with Leah’s. I just move dinto maternity clothes this week at 12 weeks. BUT I still gained 50 lbs with both of them so I don’t know that it matters. I HAVE been going to the gym consistently and doing my routine 3x a week. That is the thing I hope makes a difference. Because I am totally using pregnancy as an excuse to eat what I want with no guilt. How many more times in my life with I get to do this? Not too many according to Mike.

Erin is able to have full-on conversations with you now. When we got home from Durham (went to Landon’s birthday celebration on Saturday), Erin was hunting all over for the kitties. She told us, “Can (can’t) see um, uh oh, lost em.” Then I took her upstairs to see them sleeping on our bed.

She played for a bit, then told me, “Kitties too rough, dey time out.” She also put herself in time out the other day when I had to speak sharply to her for being too rough with the kitties.

Today in the grocery store, she was asking, “Mama, what lookin for?” I told her whipped cream and she said, “I luff ice keem.” She CRACKS me up!!!

Oh yeah, one more. When we were driving to Durham Leah chose to watch Chicken Little in the car. As I was putting it in the DVD player, Erin started fussing saying, “I wan watch Chicken Nugget.”

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I have a question (actually 2 questions). I was thinking about this this morning. What is one thing you learned about childbirth (pregnancy, labor, delivery, the aftermath) that NO ONE told you before it happened to you? What about one thing about raising a child (at any age) that you were not expecting?

My childbirth one is the night sweats afterward. A few times I woke up completely drenched and had to change my whole outfit. That was something I absolutely did NOT know until it happened to me.

Raising a child is harder (both the question and actually doing it!). I guess I was not expecting how difficult it is not to always give in to what they want. I thought I would have no problem being consistent, coming from an education background. But you are with your kids SO much, it is so much easier just to let them have their way. The schedule helps with that, you can use it as an excuse.

Now let’s hear from you!

I finished reading Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center last night. It is a great read for mommies. It reminded me so much of me (except she has 3 boys). I laughed out loud at some parts and cried at the end. What more can I ask from a book?

I am pregnant. And I have been losing my temper with my kids at an alarming rate. I hate it. “Nuff said.

Today I did this routine on the treadmill. I cut the minutes on the 11-16 row to 11-13.5 and then made 16-21 be 13.5-16. So instead of 10 minutes there I did 5, which cut my overall time to 40 minutes. I also dropped the speed 0.3 at each level. So my slowest was 3.2 and my fastest was 4.3. I did 2.3 miles in the 40 minutes. Not too shabby. And I am giving it another go with the trainer at the gym. This time I requested the lady I talked to originally who seemed to be able to do what I want. Wednesday morning, hopefully I will get a strength routine that will last me a month or two. And I plan to continue this walking treadmill workout.

8 Things I’m Looking Forward To

1. Leah’s birthday party
2. Establishing an exercise routine
3. French bread pizzas for dinner
4. Leah’s ballet recital at the end of May
5. My mom’s visit in May
6. Finding out the gender of Stacy’s baby
7. Finding out the gender of our baby
8. Hive 09

8 Things I did Yesterday

1. Slept in til 9:30
2. Coupon-shopped at two different stores
3. Cleaned/organized some miscellaneous crap
4. Watched Mike do a CRAPload of yard work
5. Read Breaking Dawn again (not the whole thing just parts)
6. Watched Desperate Housewives
7. Ate a cupcake Tiff made
8. Read Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken to Leah at bedtime (really cute book)

8 Things I Wish I Could Do

1. Sleep til 8 daily
2. Travel more
3. See my family more often
4. See my out of town friends more often
5. Have patience (especially right now) with my kids
6. Prevent aging (me too Nikki!)
7. Scrapbook every day
8. Go back to work sooner

8 Shows I Watch

1. How I Met Your Mother
2. Scrubs
3. The Office
4. Grey’s Anatomy
5. Heroes
6. Lost
7. Desperate Housewives
8. Big Bang Theory

Tag, you’re it.

We had so much fun today planting all kinds of stuff. After going to yoga this morning (me) we all headed to Lowe’s to pick stuff out to plant. Then it was back home to begin.

I edged all along the side of the house so my container planters wouldn’t have grass growing into them. Then Leah helped me plant these 2 containers.

Clockwise from upper left corner: cilantro, flat leaf parsley, sweet basil, rosemary

Clockwise from upper left corner: roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers (I am hoping red)

I got two hydrangeas and Mike & I planted them in front of our porch.

Then Leah, Erin, & I planted petunias around our trees. Leah actually planted a few all by herself. I don’t love petunias but they are cheap and last a long time.

I edged the rest of the house and around all the tree planters and the deck and sandbox. Then we took an ice cream break.

The girls and I played in the backyard while Mike cut the grass. We came inside to relax and Mike began cutting the wood for out new TV stand for our bedroom (more on that later). At dinnertime, we picked up a Hot-N-Ready from Little Caesar’s and ate it at the playground. Now we are home taking baths and getting ready for bed.

It was a VERY full day and we are all exhausted. I think Mike and I are gonna rearrange furniture tonight to make room for the new TV stand. Our 36″ is coming from the music room to our room. But we needed it to be high enough to see from the bed. Besides getting an armoire (which would have to be huge because, hello? it’s a 36″ TV), there really wasn’t anything out there that would work. So Mike is building us one and we are putting our old entertainment center in our bedroom around the new TV stand. That will free up space in the music room for the guest bed. At such point, maybe we will know what this baby is and be able to start decorating the baby’s room.

Happy Easter everyone! All yesterday Erin was saying “Eessa bunny comin soon!” Leah asked for DAYS prior how many more days until Easter. Finally last night they were both in bed by 7 and the grownups (Dad, Myrn, Britt, Jimmy, Mike, and I) played Catchphrase for hours. The guys beat us EVERY time until the very last when we changed the rules.

Erin work up at 5:15 this morning. We let her talk until 6 when Leah finally woke up. Leah shouted “Happy Easter!” into Mimi & PawPaw’s room to wake the house up. The first thing each of them found was the chocolate bunny in their baskets. They ate half of it right then and there. Then we hunted eggs and opened them. Easter grass everywhere! Erin had a hard time staying focused on other things and not the treats. All she wanted was “chokat teet” all morning. We managed to get the kids to eat Berry French Toast and bacon before demolishing the rest of the chocolate bunny. Now we are relaxing watching Little Einsteins before the 1st wave of Theriots arrive. Pics will come when we get home, this is Mike’s work computer and I can’t put pics on it.

When I became a member of my playgroup, I volunteered to help plan group holiday celebrations. My first attempt was a group Easter Egg Hunt. We held it at a park that had a great playground for all ages and an adjacent soccer field. I planned it so that there were separate eggs for each age group: crawlers, under 2, and over 2. Then we called each age group to the soccer field one at a time. The field was astroturf so the babies could crawl on it with no mud or mess. The other groups got to stay and play on the playground. I baked (with help) 72 cupcakes and everyone got one after they hunted. It turned out so well! We had almost 50 families attend. Everyone who attended was happy with the outcome. It feels good to have planned and executed something besides keeping the kids from watching TV.