Good times with Mom

My mom is here visiting from Oregon!  This is the 3rd year (out of the 4 we’ve been living in Vermont) she has come out for Thanksgiving.  She took the red eye, leaving Saturday night and getting here around 10 yesterday morning.  After showing her the changes we’ve made to the house the last time she was here (tearing the wall down in the basement, painting the baby’s room) we chatted and decided to eat some lunch. I thought for sure (and so did she!) that a nap would be a necessity for her to get through the day, but we ended up chatting some more at the kitchen table, then after 4 HOURS (!!!!!!) she said, “do you want to move to sit somewhere more comfortable?”  Yes, please!  I wasn’t really uncomfortable, we were just so caught up in conversation!  After 3 more hours of chatting, we were hungry again. So I made dinner and we watched tv.  We made it the whole day without a nap!!  I guess that’s what not seeing each other for almost a year will do to a mother and daughter!  Plus, now there’s baby talk added into the mix!

Grant’s away this WHOLE WEEK (UGH!!!!!!) with the men’s basketball team.  This will be the first we’ve been apart on this holiday since we’ve been married (side note: actually, when we were engaged, we were together on Thanksgiving) so this will be something new for the both of us.  I think we’ve been very fortunate to spend Thanksgiving together through 2 basketball seasons in Arkansas and 3 hockey seasons in Vermont, don’t you?  I promised Grant there would be plenty left over for him when he gets back, so he can still have some homecooked Thanksgiving goodness when he comes home.

 

Catching up

Ok, so it’s been too long since my last post.  Let’s catch up, shall we?

Last Friday, I had an overnight babysitting gig.  Allison surprised her husband Dan with an overnight stay at a swanky hotel in Stowe for his birthday.  So I got to stay with the boys, Ben (10 yrs old?) and Cameron (7? 8?)  We started the night with a healthy dinner of bean and cheese burritos and cereal (Ben also had some left over pasta, which is just what I ate). Ben had a basketball scrimmage that night, so Cameron and I hung out and watched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie–the newer, cartoon version, not the one that came out in the early 90s that I remember seeing.  We made popcorn, ate candy, and I surprisingly stayed awake throughout the whole thing!  I think Cameron was enjoying pointing out which scenes from the movie were also in his video game and explaining which bad guy came from which planet.  Cameron was also checking out my ever-growing belly.  At one point, he said “you’re pregnant, so there’s a baby in there?”  I said, “yup!” Then he looked at my belly a little more, then lightly hit it with the back of his hand.  I said, “you shouldn’t hit.  If you want to feel my belly, you have to be gentle.”  He just went about his business and didn’t bring it up again until later. When Ben got home, we watched a little more tv and once it was time for bed, I asked Ben if he usually showers at night or in the morning.  He said he showers in the morning and he proceeded to go upstairs to brush his teeth.  Cameron helped me clean up a little and by the time he was getting in bed, Ben was already in bed with the lights off (Nice!). Cameron asked me to read him a story, so I got to pick from his superhero collection of books and decided on a story about Batman and how he defeated Mr Freeze.  While turning the lights out, I said, “goodnight, Cameron.”  He said, “goodnight.  And goodnight baby.” 

Awwww!!!!!!!!!!  My heart melted, it was so sweet!  Again the boys surprised me the next morning with making me breakfast in bed!

Check out the menu!  I went with the Eggo waffles and syrup and a medium sized orange juice.  As I was being served, I noticed Ben was still wearing his basketball jearsy and shorts.  “Did you sleep in your clothes, Ben?”  He said, “ya, I was too tired to change last night.”  Great.  Then after everyone was showered and clean, Ben comes downstairs with some pajamas on!  So when Dan and Allison got home, they said, “you’re still in your pajamas?!”  I told them no and explained how he was in bed before I could even see what he had on the night before, assuming the kid would’ve put on some pajamas!  Lol.  It was actually a good gig and I was glad to help out Allison and Dan, and it sounds like the place they stayed was really nice and that they had a good time.  Besides, once our baby comes, we’ll be tapping them for babysitting favors, I’m sure! 

I also went over to Julie’s house to for dinner and to hang out.  She made some guacamole and I brought over some enchiladas.  Jada had a good time with the guac!

Yes, it was THAT good!

 

 

(Inhale…) Ahhhhh!!!!

I can breathe!  Thank you, dear readers, for giving me your ideas on what I can use to clear this (pregnancy-induced) stuffy nose of mine.  I used Vick’s Vapor Rub just on the outside of my nose and right under it.  Even though I hate hate hate the smell of the stuff, it did work for a couple hours of blissful sleep…. But then 2 am would roll around and I’d wake up because I’d be breathing out of my mouth (ugh, I can’t stand that!) and my nose would be stuffy again.  I’d blow my nose as much as I could stand, re-apply the Vick’s, but then it wouldn’t kick in the same way it would when I would first put it on before falling asleep, and I’d be awake for 2 hours, sometimes contemplating whether I should just get up or not. Of course I went with the “not” and would manage another hour or so of sleep.  Arg.

Then yesterday I was at the grocery store and decided to look for the saline nasal spray a few of you suggested.  I found some and used it last night.  RELIEF!!!  2 sprays before bed and soundly I slept!  That is, of course, until Grant got home at 3:30 am from his road trip with the basketball team and he climbed into bed and tossed his leg on top of mine–which was completely welcomed, I should add, because he had been gone since Thursday and I missed him!  But I was able to fall back asleep and this morning, I spritzed two more times before leaving for work and I’ve been pretty clear all day!  Hooray for nose breathing!

Thank you all for your help and suggestions!  This soon-to-be-momma is very happy!

 

Baby Room

On Saturday, Grant had to work–the men’s basketball team had a game, but Sunday was his day off.  In addition to going to church and Grant raking the leaves in the backyard (thanks Grant), we painted Jebediah’s room!  I was pretty tired and hungry afterwards (painting takes a lot out of you!) but it turned out nice.  We picked a color from Lowes, called Leaf Bud, and as far as the rest of the decor goes, I think monkeys or some kind of baby jungle animals would be a good gender-neutral theme to go with (since we don’t know if little Jebediah will be a boy or girl).  What do you think of that theme?  Or, dear readers, what other gender neutral themes are good? 

p.s. That crib is one we got from a co-worker, whose son is now 4.  I still have to check to see if it’s legit/ up to code / safe to put our baby in (sorry, Amber, I didn’t check that before you and Tuesday came to visit. Good thing she wanted to sleep in the pack and play in the room with you instead, no?).  But it does make the room, formerly our office, look more and more like the baby’s room!!!

 

Hungry? Yup!

Being pregnant is great.  I know in a previous post, I talked about pregnancy side effects and how annoying they are.  And they still are–right now I’m dealing with the “I have to pee or I’m going to burst” but then get to the bathroom and hardly anything comes out side effect. But besides that stuff, I love it.  I love feeling little Jebediah move around, rubbing my round belly, and eating (cuz I’m usually always hungry).  Those of you who know me, know I love to eat regardless of being pregnant or not.  This morning, I ate a bagel for breakfast, then had a banana and then a yogurt as snacks ini the hours before lunch. I brought soup, crackers and an apple for lunch, but I am saving those for tomorrow because I got asked to lunch with two co-workers.  One of them, Dennis, has the wonderful position of campus dining services report to him and one of the perks of his job is getting a dining card.  He can go to any place on campus, and some places in the Burlington community to eat on the University’s dime.  So today, I joined him and Sue at one of the dining halls on campus–the buffet dining hall.  It’s always hard for me to go to buffets in the first place because my eyes are bigger than my stomach, so not only do I stuff myself, but I end up with food on my plate that gets wasted because I can’t finish it.  Our dining services is smart, though–No trays.  You can only take what you can carry.  Granted, you can go back as many times as you want, but it helps cut down on the waste that I would  students would create.  About an hour before we left to meet Dennis, Sue looked online to see what was being offered today.  As she was reading the selections out loud, I kept saying, “ooh that sounds good!” And “Yum!” “I think I’ll get that!” Then suddenly Jebediah kicked me!  I guess he/she was hungry too!

We went a little before noon to beat the lunch-time rush and in several trips I ate: a salad to start (loaded with tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, mushrooms, black olives, a little cheese and ranch dressing–mmm…oops, sorry…slobbered on the keyboard…), a cup of corn and cheese soup, half a grilled cheese sandwich (THE BEST grilled cheese I’ve had in I don’t know how long), 2 pickle slices, a small (yes, small) scoop of pasta with marinara sauce, a rice krispy square and a couple of fruit loops on the way out.  I wanted a whole bowl of fruit loops but Jebediah was telling me “no more, mom. you’re done.”  We had such a good time eating, and talking, we’ve decided to make it a once a month date.  Who could say no to a buffet? Not me!  Especially since I’m hungry all the time.  I already can’t wait for next month!

 

Halloween Weekend

This Halloween (by the way, when I spell Halloween, I still to this day, have to sing the song I learned in elementary school so I get it right: H-A-double L-O-W double E-N spells Halloween!  Ok, what was I saying?  Oh ya…) this year was the first year in I can’t remember how long that I haven’t wanted to dress up, decorate the house and be sure to be home to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters.  What’s up with that?  But I DID want to be doing something, and we were fortunate enough to get invited to Allison’s house, where a bunch of the neighbors were coming over to hang out: eat, drink, take the kids trick-or-treating, etc.  So we went over.  The moms took the kids out this year (I guess they alternate every year which parent goes) and I stayed back with the guys, since it was a little chilly out and I wasn’t sure if the rain would start up again.  They were only out for about 45 minutes and they came back with a pretty good stash!

It was funny to see each kid empty out their bucket or pillow case–they each had their own ritual.  One kid dove right in and just started eating, another took up almost the whole floor to group his together by flavor: putting all the snickers together and all the m&ms together, etc. Then there was Ben, Allison’s son.  He emptied his bag and divided his up by company: Hershey’s, Tootsie, Nestle, etc, then when he was done, he was ready to make a spread sheet to organize how many of each he got.  And he’s…11 yrs old?  My method was always kid #1: Dig right in–snickers and Dots.  Yum!  Then at 8:00, the Oregon game came on.  Most of the parents started taking their kids home and calling it a night, but we stayed to watch Oregon pound USC.  It was great! 

Then on Sunday, I got up and went to church while Grant went to work.  As I was sitting there with my head bowed during the opening prayer, I felt little Jebediah move.  Not just a twitch of a movement, which is all I’ve felt up to this point, but a real kick!  I opened my eyes and stared at my belly thinking “do it again!!!  do it again!!!”  But nothing.  I was sooo happy!  I was on cloud 9 until I got to the basketball game Grant was working–I had to sing the national anthem and I was brought back to “reality.”  Yes, I was nervous, but at the same time I didn’t really care because I felt my baby move that day!  The anthem went fine, then I got to concentrate on watching Grant work (oh ya, and watch some basketball).

Besides seeing Grant in action (in his cute sweater vest), I forgot how much I love going to basketball games.  I’ve been to a few since we’ve been here, but since Grant wasn’t working it, it wasn’t one we went to all the time.  Plus, he was working women’s hockey, which is in season at the same time.  But now, I’ll be going to all the home games to see Grant at work in his sweater vest… I mean, I’ll be going to all the games to watch the team play   By the way, we won by 50+ points.  Woo hoo!

 

Pregnancy Side Effects…

I am officially 17 weeks!  I can’t believe how quickly the time is flying by.  I mean, we are just about halfway done and soon we are going to have a kid.  A KID!!!  Some other little human being will be a part of our lives.  I can’t wait to meet this person, but how crazy is that?! 

So far, I have had a fairly easy pregnancy (thank you, Jebediah. Mommy appreciates that!)  My first trimester was just being nausous and tired–no throwing up–and bouts of “eating us out of house and home” (according to Grant) and not being able to eat at all.  Now that I’m in the second trimester, which all the books say is usually the best because your energy is back up, you don’t have any morning sickness, your sex drive goes into overdrive, your appetite goes back to normal, and it’s the time you really get to enjoy your pregnancy before you start feeling and looking huge.  My second trimester so far includes some of the above.  I feel like I shouldn’t complain about my pregnancy, since I’ve been wanting to experience this my whole life, and really, it’s gone so well–I feel very blessed.  BUT there are things about pregnancy you don’t read about or hear about until you’ve experienced them yourself.  This revelation begins my new segment about pregnancy “side effects.”  Being pregnant is your diagnosis and the side effects are all the little things that you experience along the way.  Morning sickness, for example, is a side effect of being pregnant.  Let’s begin, shall we?

A new side effect that started about 3 weeks ago for me and hasn’t stopped: The stuffy/runny nose.  Apparently, this starts around the 4th month because your mucous membranes are on hyper-production for the baby (I think to keep your juices flowing and keep your risk of infections and sickness down).  As beneficial as this sounds, it’s so annoying.  I’m constantly blowing my nose and have been having trouble sleeping because either one nostril is completely plugged, or they are both slightly plugged and when I try to breathe out of my nose, it’s noisy and makes a whistling sound.  Ugh!  Tell me: If you can sleep while breathing through your mouth, please give me tips on how I can accomplish this because I never can.  And yesterday, I noticed my left nostril is now bigger than my right.  What the ?!?!  I already have acne like a teenager (yet another side effect I never heard of) and now I have to have one big nostril?  Jebediah, let’s irradicate these problems, shall we?  Help me out here…we were off to such a nice start….

 

Amber & Tuesday Come to Vermont

Amber and Tuesday made it safely (and on time!) to Vermont last week!  We had such a great time together, but of course, the time flew by way too fast.  I have to admit, I was worried our house was too cold for little Tuesday (and by little, I mean LITTLE…that baby is TINY!!!). Yes, we had the heat on, but still… and it was only in the 40s when they were here. Brrr. Amber found these cute little hats for Tuesday to sleep in to help keep her warm. With it tied under her chin, we both did the “I think it’s ok” test: ie–pulling and yanking on the back to see if it would come off in the middle of the night and possibly strangle the little one.  Passed with flying colors! And she kept it on part of the next morning!

Later that day, we went to lunch and Amber helped me pick out some cute maternity clothes at Old Navy.  I have been hesitant to buy maternity clothes, even though I need a few key items very badly (pants, pants, bra, pants, shirts, pants). I was afraid of not finding anything cute, but Old Navy had a good selection!  And what did I buy? Shirts! And only one pair of pants. Let me tell you, yoga pants = comfy!!! We also went to the Hallmark store to try to find a baby book for Tuesday. Luckily we found one and had just enough time to stop at the food court to scarf down food before the mall closed.  What?! It’s 9:00 already?!  Where did the day go?

The next day we made a trip to Montpelier to check out some of the famous Vermont foliage.  Except, we came across 2 problems: 1) we missed the Montpelier exit by about 10 miles because we were too busy talking.  Oops! “Wait, next exit 13 miles?! I think we’ve gone too far!” 2) We were about a week too late for the foliage; most of the leaves had already fallen off the trees! But we did arrive just in time for their cute little Saturday Market.  We took a quick look around and then got down to business: LUNCH! Side note: since being pregnant, where my next meal is coming from is pretty much always on my mind…

Amber and Tuesday at the yarn stand (of course!)

Later that day, the Lloyd’s came over to watch the Notre Dame/USC football game and Jada and Tuesday had a chance to finally meet!  Actually, I should say, Amber and Julie had a chance to finally meet!  It was fun.

Then on Sunday, we went for a walk on the bike path, which runs along Lake Champlain.  It was chilly out, but the sun was shining so it wasn’t too bad. Amber took a lot of pictures of both Tuesday, me, and the foliage (that was still on the trees!). We made it about 2 miles to the park at North Beach before turning around to go back. 4 miles total? Not bad!

Poor Tuesday was also teething, with her two bottom ones popping through while they were here!  She loved chewing on this part of her stroller. When she wasn’t people watching or sleeping, we could find her easing the pain of her teeth and gums on this (even though she has countless teething toys, I think this is her favorite). 

In between our trips out shopping, going to lunch, walks and everything else, we spent some quality time on the couch watching tv and chatting away, like we used to high school. I love, love, love that when we get together, it’s as if no time has passed since we last hung out, even though we average seeing each other twice a year, I think. Yes, our lives have changed, there are other people a part of us (Grant, Bj, Tuesday, soon Jebediah), but when we’re together, it’s as if time has stopped and we pick up right where we last left off. I think that is my favorite thing about our friendship (Oh, and the fact that if given the chance, we would sit on the couch and watch tv and eat snacks all day!)  Selfishly, I loved that when Amber mentioned my name, Tuesday would look at me, knowing who her mom was talking about.  I loved seeing them both, seeing how fast Tuesday has grown and how beautiful she is, and seeing Amber take on the tough (but rewarding) job of being a mom, and seeing how natural it is for her and I admire how good at it she is.  And of course it was tough saying goodbye on Monday     Let’s just say, everyone else going through security must have known we don’t get to see each other that often. Once Amber started to cry, it was all over for me!  I have a great mental picture of it: me and Amber sobbing like kids, and Tuesday, with the biggest, toothless grin on her face (that little turd!).  Maybe she was trying to give us a reason to smile.  I admit, it worked–it didn’t make us stop crying, but it did make us laugh.  Man, time flies when you’re having fun, especially with a great friend!  See you again soon Amber and Tuesday!!

p.s. I need one of those hats for my baby!!

 

FINALLY!!

Today is the day!  Amber arrives this evening, and I cannot wait to see what the long weekend has in store for us!  I might have to wait until the end of her trip to post anything (stories, pictures, etc) because I’m sure we’ll be too busy catching up, carrying on endless chatter (sorry in advance, Grant), eating, taking walks, sight-seeing, and lounging around in front of the tv.  You know, good, quality Amber-Ceara time.

Woo-hoo!

 

A Wedding & A Friend

Go ahead and call me a tool, but I am very excited for tonight’s episode of The Office–Jim and Pam get married!!  We’ve all been pulling for them since the beginning of the show and it’s finally happening.  Definitely going to hit the “save” button for this episode.

And it’s only 7 days until Amber and Tuesday make their appearance!!!  We both can’t wait to see each other and hang out.  I can tell you right now, it’s going to be a great visit!

Amber and Tuesday can’t wait!!