Another Brother's Birthday

Today is my youngest brother's birthday. My family has a lot of birthdays in a little cluster.

Happy Birthday Sean!!!

All my brothers live in Portland now. I miss them. Did you know that two of my brothers have names that fit our baby-naming requirements? Interesting.

Random Stuff, Starting off with Gross

So I finally threw up for real. I don't gag nearly as much as I used to, but brushing my teeth can be a bit of a challenge. So, yeah. I was brushing my teeth and gagged three times and the third time I threw up. I always try to keep that third time from happening because I know it will result in actual vomit (and I know this because it has almost happened a couple of times). At least it was just a small amount.

Moving on! This Sunday is Irina's birthday. If you've been paying attention, you'll know she's about to turn four. Which is insane! Did you know that Harper was 4 when Irina was born? It seems like that was just a little while ago. Plus I keep looking at pictures of Saren at around the time Irina was born and just after and she looks so young.

Anyway! I originally was planning on doing another homemade birthday, like we did when she turned two, but I just couldn't get it together for all homemade. As it is, I am still going to make two of her presents. I'm not finished with them, but as they are pretty simple things, I think I'll be okay procrastinating as usual. And I'm going to go out and buy her something or other as well. But I can't think of anything to get her at all. This house is so full of stuff. What can I possibly get for a little girl who already has a ton of her own toys plus a ton that are hand-me-downs from her sisters?

We have a mormon lady who comes by once a month and gives me candy or baked goods or stuff from the dollar store. She asks if we need anything, I smile and say no, and then she says goodbye. She hasn't said one thing about my expanding belly, even though I'm quite sure it didn't look this large before, so she can't be thinking I'm just getting fatter than usual. It's starting to irritate me. I'm not going to say anything if she's not. One day I'll just answer the door with a baby in my arms and up the awkward factor by about 20. Then what will she say??? Huh? What then?

It's official. Irina was born.

Yes, we finally got a birth certificate for Irina. It only took us 3 years, 11 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days to haul our asses down to the health department and get it done. Why, you may ask, did we wait so long? I don't have a really good answer for that. I could say I was feeling resentful of the intrusion of bureaucracy into our lives and irritated that I needed a piece of paper to say that she really exists. I could say that I'm just a horrible procrastinator and knowing that once 4 years had passed, I would have to go through the state capitol and get a delayed birth certificate, was a guarantee that I was going to put it off until the very last minute because that's just my nature.

And that's all true, but I think the main reason I put it off and put it off and put it off? I was nervous and didn't know what to expect. I knew we didn't have everything they wanted us to have (namely doctor's records from before and after the birth) and I guess I was just worried about facing judgment. I know we didn't make a conventional choice and I know it was within their power to simply type up the document or to make a fuss and refuse us just because they don't understand our choices. Well, maybe it never was within their power, but I guess I've heard too many stories where people were stuck in red tape just trying to get what every human being has a right to, regardless of birth choices.

But it was nothing. It was easy. Easy peasy. The woman in charge of home births was very nice and only mildly scolded us for waiting for so long. I guess some of the ease has to do with the state I'm in, and for that I'm grateful. As my friend Tara said, Nevada wants those voters. And knowing how easy it was means I'm not going to sit on my ass for nearly 4 years when this new baby comes along.

I am so ridiculously relieved that this little detail is taken care of and not hanging over my head any longer. I'm kind of irritated with myself at how relieved I am.

25 Weeks

Here, have some upper torso and part of a head with your belly pic.

I will now take this opportunity to complain about some oft-forgotten pregnancy symptoms. Oft-forgotten by me, I mean, when I'm not pregnant.

Firstly, I have horrible circulation in my hands. Every night, I wake up repeatedly to discover that both of my hands have fallen asleep and feel like useless gloves full of meat. Plus, even during non-sleeping times, I occasionally get twinges in my wrists and the tips of my fingers sometimes become numb if I'm, say, writing with a pen or pencil, knitting, or doing something of that sort.

Secondly, my hip bones have moved so far apart that I can entertain myself before I go to sleep by lying on my side and squeezing my knees together just so I can feel my hips bounce back into position as if they are now being held apart by a large spring. Boing, boing, boing! Also due to this, if I don't put a pillow between my knees when I sleep, I end up waking up over and over with an intense aching in both of my hips and the upper part of my legs.

Oh, there's other stuff, but I'm going to shut up about that now.

Moving on though, I have roughly 15 weeks left of this pregnancy, which I simultaneously find to be way too much and not nearly enough time. It's going too fast! It's going too slow! Hurry it up! No, I'm not ready! Sigh.

Spelling Monkey

Irina likes to "spell" things. If she's got a pad of paper and a pencil and is making little squiggles she'll tell me what letters she's making. Or sometimes she just "spells" for no reason. But the letters she says most often, and in this order, are A-P-E-S. I don't know why.

Potty Humor

I totally forgot to add this story to the previous post. On Monday I sent an email to Pat telling him about how Irina had successfully used the potty. Such is the excitement of our lives. I digress. When he got home, he said to Irina, "I heard you used the potty!" To which she said, "I was loud???"

Potty Update

New pres today, but more importantly, it's my brother's birthday. Happy birthday, Chance! Are you really 24 today? I think my math is correct, but that seems so wrong. Can that be right? I suppose it can. Time, she marches on.

In completely different news, I need to make an update on Irina and the potty. Sometime ago, I told you that she was this close to being able to use it full time. I believe it was October, but it could have been even earlier than that. Well, I had said "this close" because she could do most of her business in the potty, but not all of it. Oddly, it was the number ones that were the trouble, which I think is unusual. Shortly after that, she mastered even those, and I thought we were set. She, however, had different ideas and decided that she just didn't want to do it at all. Every time I'd set her on the pot, she'd just whine and say she couldn't do it and she'd hop off. So we went back to diapers, and I told myself to just be patient. I knew she knew how, I just needed to wait until she was totally comfortable.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago. I was feeling more and more frustrated and panicky and needing for her to be out of diapers before this baby comes and irritated to have a child almost 4 years old and still in diapers and and and.... So, I just said, okay when this package of diapers is gone (we've been using sposies instead of cloth), it's back into the underwear, and I'm going to resort to bribes. Anyone who knows Irina knows she loves candy, so she was all over that. It's been two days now. Yesterday we had 3 liquid accidents, no solids accidents. Today we've had no accidents at all. And she's showing a certain pride in being able to do it. So that's good. Really good. I'm hoping we're not going to be taking anymore backwards steps. I'm also hoping I'm not stuck giving m&m's to her every time she uses the potty for the next 14 years.

I have blogged for three days in a row. Give me a cookie.

Letterboxing Once A Year?

Yesterday we went to find a letterbox, which we haven't done for almost a year. This one was at the Big Horn Sheep Park, but it's too cold for the sheep to come down and graze this time of year. The idea to go find a new letterbox came because someone sent me an email telling me that our Hoover Dam letterbox is still there, still going strong, but it has a crack in the lid. So we thought maybe we'd go check on it and possibly replace the box and maybe look for a new one while we were at it. You know that letterbox, the only one we've ever placed, will have been there for 5 years come April? I think that's pretty impressive. But it turned out that once we were faced with it, I realized that I didn't want to both check on the old one and find a new one and go to the library, which was also planned. So we just looked for the new one and played in the park a bit afterward.

The letterbox was really easy to find and the clues were rather uninspired. Oh well. I guess they can't all be gems. Still another stamp to add to our book. I think we will go to check on the Hoover Dam box on its anniversary, and when we see it, we can decide whether we want to let it stay out there (with a new box and a new book), or if we want to retire it.

New Fake Baby Name Poll

Well, it was a tie between Peach and Pepsi. I thought for sure it would be Pepsi, given our well known family soft drink predilections, but apparently SPISH readers have a soft spot in their hearts for that pink-clad oft-kidnapped princess as well.

This next poll has some ridiculous entries, but overall is not ridiculous. It comes to us courtesy of my husband, who thinks that this is a comprehensive list of all the names mentioned in Ben Folds songs. Perhaps one or two have been missed. I don't know. He's usually pretty thorough when it comes to listing stuff. We do like us some Ben Folds, but I'm not sure we would go so far as to name our child after one of his songs. Or a person in one of his songs. Still... Kate fits, Annie fits, even Stan fits.

Have a nice day, and thanks for playing.

Oh hai. I has a belly button.

I didn't realize I had the weirdest looking belly button in the history of the universe, but I think this picture pretty much proves it. This is 22 weeks. I feel very large. How can my belly get any bigger than this without it bursting? I'll let you know if it does.

Fake Baby Name Poll - Food Edition

Hey, I'm sorry. I know it's ridiculous. The next category for my fake baby name poll is food words that happen to fit into our requirements. This came about because we often joke around that we will name the baby Pepsi. One day we were out eating at Rubio's and discovered that there are actually quite a lot of food words that use only the letters from Patrick and Stephanie. So, um. There you go.

The winner of the last round was Lily, though it was tied with Albus Severus for quite some time. So, Lily goes on to the Fake Baby Name Poll SUPER BANG POW BLOWOUT!!! In May. Or thereabouts. Oh, and the last category was.... but I shouldn't say! I might spoil someone.

Have a nice day and thanks for playing.

Baby Needs Checklist

I'm a firm believer that babies don't need much. I've been thinking today about what I will need to acquire before he or she arrives.

Carseat. There's no getting around that one. Even if we had an old one, it wouldn't be good enough because they apparently expire after 6 years. At least we don't need a new car, as we did when Irina came along, even though we squeezed all three of the girls into the backseat of a Toyota Corolla for about a year and a half anyway.

I'm pretty sure I already have plenty of diapers. And I think I'm going to stick with prefolds and covers for the most part. They're simple and durable and they work just fine. I'll probably use elimination communication at the very least part-time, so I may be using less than I would otherwise. We'll have to see how that goes. Is elimination communication the simplest method of all or will it just add more complication to our lives? I may want to knit some soakers to add to the covers I already have. I have done so before, but never ended up with anything I actually liked.

Clothing. Yes, I need baby clothes. The other day I bought the first of the baby's clothes at Target. A three pack of baby gowns. These I bought mostly because they had a monkey theme and Pat really wanted for them to be the first clothing we bought for the babe. And here I want to stick to simple as well. I have always felt like I had way too many clothes for each of my babies. When they're really little, all they need is pajama-type stuff and little t-shirts. So that's all I'm going to get. I also would like to make a few things, some sewn, some knitted. Once we know the sex I may go out and get one or two actual outfits, but again, I want to keep it simple, simple, simple.

Slings. Now here's an area where I am fully covered. I have two ring slings and a mei-tai. Is it crazy that I'm thinking about making another? That I keep looking at wrap slings online and feeling covetous? Where are all my thoughts of simplicity when it comes to slings?

Stroller. I don't think I'll need one. Then again, I said the same thing when I was pregnant with Irina, thinking I'd just carry her everywhere in the sling, but then someone offered me a stroller and I took it. And used it. Mostly when we were walking Saren to school and back, but not only. Still, I'm willing to hold off on that and get a used one later on if I feel a strong need for it.

Crib. Nope. Okay, I have to confess here that I am a little bit worried about how Irina is going to react to being pretty much ousted from her prime spot in the family bed (current residents: myself, Irina, and Pat, unless he snores). She gets upset even when I am facing away from her. I guess we'll see what happens. I am thinking about moving her toddler bed next to our bed, but I have no idea how well that will go over. Regardless, we don't need a crib.

The only other thing I can possibly think of for the baby is a bouncy seat type thing so that I have a safe place to put her/him while I take showers and such. The only problem with those is that they no longer make them as just bouncy seats. The only ones I have ever seen in recent years are battery operated and vibrate or make music or have flashing lights or teach your child latin or whatever. Another undecided, wait-and-see on this item.

Oh yeah. I also will need some blankets. This time I am hoping that I will be smart enough to bypass those crappy little flannel "receiving blankets" which have always proven to be completely useless. But some nice-sized blankies I can use for swaddling will be good and I'll need a couple of thicker blankets for putting on the floor. I am thinking that I'd like to make a few of each kind myself.

Oh! And I also want to get a little dresser for the baby's clothes and diapers, since all the other drawer space in the house is pretty much used up. I'm going to keep my eyes open for a used dresser/changing table, but the dresser part is really the part that's the priority. Babies can be changed anywhere. Well, maybe not in mid-air*.

So, all in all, I think that's a pretty good little list. Definitely not too difficult to handle. I'm going to set aside a portion of our tax refund for baby items. It will be fun to actually start buying, making, and sorting things for the actual person who will be joining our family come May.

This post is way longer than I had planned on it being.

*I take that back. I have changed a baby in mid-air.