Don't You Want to Come Visit?!

So my MIL called me up the other day all excited because she got her Family Circle magazine (the August issue) and saw this cover story - I've linked to the web version below, or if you happen to have the magazine in print, it begins on page 49. It's the 10 best towns in the entire U.S. to raise a family (based on things like town amenities, schools, nice and affordable housing, family activities, low crime, environment policies, etc.) and check out which town got #2!!!!!!!! :)

.....yes, it would be ORO VALLEY, AZ!!!!!

http://www.parents.com/family-life/work-money-politics/buying-home/best-family-towns/?psrc=fpfc0710p1

10 Best Towns for Families: 2008

By Michael J. Weiss

We searched the country to find perfect places to live and raise kids. This year's winners offer more than affordable homes, great schools, and good neighbors -- they're also making smart moves to save the planet.

The Estrogen Dominance Continues!!! ;)

So my grandmother, my SIL, and Madeleine were right!

Yes, we found out on Thursday, IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!! Steve and Andrew better stick together, because it's going to be even more "pink" than usual around here!

Of course, the most important thing is that she looks perfectly healthy, measured exactly right for my dates, and everything seemed wonderful! And then we very clearly saw her um, female anatomy ;) For those of you who pray, please continue to keep us and our new little girl in your prayers - everything looks great right with the baby now, but there is still a slightly higher risk of problems because of my thyroid issue, even though my levels are perfectly stable at the moment.

I am SOOOOOO excited. Of course I would have been equally excited for a boy, too, for different reasons, but now I just keep picturing another beautiful little girl, pulling out the boxes of adorable little dresses from Teresa and Maddy, going back to my girly-colored diaper bags and slings that I haven't used in years...I can't wait!

I'm thrilled that we found out the baby's gender, but still, knowing makes me even MORE impatient because I feel like I can picture her now and I want to be holding her and snuggling her in a sling and nursing her and basking in those newborn days that I love SO much! And I am still not quite halfway through this pregnancy, so I have 21 weeks to wait until I can do that!

So as for names, which lots of people have asked about, this is the first time we haven't been 100% sure well in advance. Our top two choices right now are Isabelle Marie and Hannah Marie. What do you think? I also like Noelle, but Steve isn't so crazy about it. Maybe if she were going to be born later in December, but he thinks it's strange to have a mid-November baby named Noelle. (And it does look like she'll be arriving one way or another between Nov. 18 and Nov. 25 - the perinatologist out here whom I'm seeing for consults because of my thyroid condition is a lot more conservative in managing pregnancy in women with Graves' Disease than they were back in the Northeast, so he's pushing me to induce between 39 and 40 weeks, for various reasons. I'll be getting a second opinion and doing some research over the next few months before I decide what to do - more on this in another post!)

For now, we're just thanking God for the blessing of another healthy little baby girl!

So who's going to plan a Christmas vacation out here to meet her, hm?! We'll have lovely weather in 60's or so while you all back East are freezing your bottoms off! ;)

Great Contest!

Just wanted to share - check out this great contest where you can win a complete babywearing wardrobe - all different kind of carriers!

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Drew is Two!!!

....as he's been telling everyone, all day, from the guy at the bakery where we picked up his cake, to the woman dispensing the tokens at Chuck E. Cheese :)

I cannot believe my (not so) little boy is 2! It doesn't seem possible. It feels like I just gave birth to him last month. But we had a great day today - which was even more special because, believe it or not, this was the first time Andrew had Daddy here for his birthday! Steve was overseas both the actual day Andrew was born AND the day of his first birthday.

We didn't have a huge party this time (I know, out of character for me!) but just spent the afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese with my friend and her 2-year-old twin sons. Then we went to Red Robin for dinner and came back home to have Andrew's cake - decorated with a baseball and baseball field (his obsession!) of course.

Photos to come - I promise! Yes, I know, I still have to post photos from Maddy's birthday last month. But now I have to get to sleep because we have a busy day again tomorrow. In the morning, Andrew and Teresa both have their annual well-child visits to the doctor (Teresa won't actually be 6 for a little more than a month still, but I'm combining the physicals tomorrow because I need to get Teresa's medical forms back to her new school ASAP.)

And then in the afternoon - the appointment I've been eagerly awaiting - my ultrasound! I am almost 19 weeks, and I'm having a sonogram as well as a high-risk consult (I'm not really high-risk, but because of my thyroid condition I'm going to have a few periodic consults with a maternal-fetal medicine doc just to make sure it's not causing any problems). So of course, I am mainly anxious to make sure everything is OK and the baby is healthy - but I admit, I am also sooooo anxious to know whether the baby is a boy or a girl!

I had been feeling boy - but not for any reason other than a very vivid dream I had in which I gave birth to a boy on Nov. 12 (which in itself would be unlikely since I'm usually late, not 2 weeks early!) My pregnancy this time has been different from ALL the previous ones, so that's no help in analyzing for a guess! My mother thinks it's a boy. My grandmother and sister-in-law Sue have both said girl from the beginning. Madeleine wants another sister; Teresa wants another brother but just today told me she is starting to think it's a girl.

So by this time tomorrow, we should know who was right! :)

The Prima Ballerina, the Tap Superstar, and their Mom's Random Musings :)

In my previous post I told you all about our weekend with Mom and Jeff, and the highlight of it was Teresa and Maddy's dance performance. I wish I had some pictures, or video, of the actual performances, but of course they do not allow any photography or videography whatsoever, so that they can then sucker you into paying outrageous prices for their professional studio portraits and DVDs :) So below are some photos I took while the girls were getting ready, and pre- and post-show. Also, to see the professional ones, which really did come out great, follow this link, click "yes," and then go to page 3 for Maddy's individual and class shots as well as the girls' sibling shots (which I love!), and page 9 for Teresa's individual and class shots.

Not only did they look absolutely beautiful, the girls both did an AMAZING job on their dances! Teresa's was a ballet dance to "Sunshine Angel," and Maddy's was a tap dance to "Mr. Sandman." They really knew their routines well, and they both gave it their all - you could really tell they were putting their hearts into it and having a lot of fun. And it's not just me saying that (yeah, I'm just slightly partial!) A whole bunch of people (and even non-related ones, LOL!) came up and told me that my girls were each the best in their classes. Even the moms of some of the other little girls in Maddy's class told me that she was the best! (OK, does the fact that this *made my year* mean that I'm a horrible, evil, stage-mother-in-the-making?)

Steve has been kidding me that I do have the makings of a stage mom. I swear I would never be like that - I would NEVER force my kids to continue in a hobby they didn't like, or pressure them to do anything beyond putting forth their best effort. But I don't think there's anything wrong with taking a little maternal pride in their accomplishments, or feeling some satisfaction that they not only put forth a big effort, but really did quite well - especially after all the time and money we invested in the classes, the costumes, the photos, the hair and makeup, etc.

I admit I was a little taken aback by the attitudes of some of the other moms. There were, of course, a few little girls who came on stage and had that "deer-in-the-headlights" look, and then just stood there on the stage, completely still, for the duration of the routine, not even attempting to remember the steps to the dance. The other moms were laughing at this and saying how cute and adorable it was. Now, yes, I agree that a sweet little 3- or 4-year-old all dolled up in a costume and stage makeup is cute and adorable no matter what, but still, I'll admit I'd be just a bit embarrassed if that were my kid - I don't think I'd be laughing it up with the other moms if I'd just paid hundreds of dollars and spent hours a week for months and months to see my child stand still on the stage. So, again, does that make me a terrible mom? I hope not. I certainly didn't hold it against any of the other kids - except when one of them stood right in front of Maddy! Then I (and my mother!) did get a bit annoyed. If you're going to stand still, fine, but don't stand still right in front of MY kid, who actually has the routine down pat and is dancing her heart out!

In another number (not either of my kids') there was a little girl who started sobbing hysterically every time she went on stage. She'd cry and run offstage, the teacher in the wings would try to get her to go back on, she'd come back on and start bawling and run off again. I did feel bad for her, of course. But I had to think, wasn't there some sign of this earlier in the year? Didn't her parents know her well enough to know this might happen? Couldn't the teacher have suggested that the mom wait another year or so to enroll her, if the little girl wasn't ready to be on stage yet? I don't know. But I'm sorry, you know who I also felt bad for? The girl on the other end of the stage who knew the routine well and was dancing beautifully. Between the crying girl and the girl who was dancing so well, there was a long line of kids who were happy to be on stage but who had no clue what they were doing. The girl who knew the routine was getting so frustrated, desperately pointing and gesturing at her classmates in an effort to remind them where on stage they were supposed to be and what step they were supposed to be on. They weren't crying, but they were giggling and paying no attention. I'm sure it's hard to be the kid who doesn't know what she's doing, but as I know from experience, it's also sometimes quite hard to be the one who does know what she's doing (I never had any talent for dancing, but I know this from other arenas!)

Maddy said to me a week or so before the dress rehearsal, "Mama, it's hard to do my recital dance when the other girls don't do what they're supposed to." And it's true - if you're in a two-line formation where, at a certain point, the lines are supposed to change places, how do you do your step (going up to the front line) if the girl in the front line is not moving from her spot to come to the back line and change places with you? I want to teach her to be a team player, to be in it for the group, and not to be bossy or obnoxious (yeah, I know that one from experience, too - the kid who is best at whatever it is and tries to "help" the others along is not typically rewarded with gratitude and popularity, but rather the label of "teacher's pet" or "nerd" or "show-off"). But I also don't want her to adopt the attitude that excellence is something to be embarrassed about, or that a little bit of competitive spirit is a negative thing, or that popularity in a peer group is worth squashing your own talents and abilities. (There was just an article about this phenomenon in the latest issue of Mothering magazine.) So I told her that if the girls next to her were not remembering the next step, she could gently guide them in a nice way (for example, putting her hands on the shoulders of the girl next to her to signal her when it's time to turn around and do the "train"). I don't know if this was the right thing to do, but it seemed to work.

This all reminds me of an incident that occurred a few months ago. The dance teacher sent home a note with each of the girls in Maddy's class, explaining that behavior had not been good lately, the girls were not coming to class "with their listening ears on" and were fooling around too much. She said that it was getting harder for her to keep control and teach, and asked that we parents please talk to the girls at home about proper behavior in class, following instructions, etc. I felt very bad about this and Steve and I immediately sat down with Maddy and had a talk about expectations in a class setting, the authority of the teacher, and the like. What shocked me was this - the next week, when I heard the other moms discussing the note from the teacher, I joined in and said something like, "Yeah, I felt bad for the teacher. It provided a good learning opportunity for Maddy, though - my husband and I had a talk with her as the teacher suggested." The other moms looked at me like I was nuts. One of them said, "You felt bad for the teacher?! We all felt bad for our poor little girls who were being attacked by her! My husband and I are thinking of writing a note to the school director complaining about her bad attitude toward the kids! She shouldn't be teaching little kids if she can't understand that this is just how 4-year-olds act!" I was dumbfounded! These moms could not possibly fathom that their perfect little girls might have done something that would need correction, and even if they had, they dismissed it as normal and still blamed the teacher.

I don't deny that there are lousy teachers out there who would be too hard on little kids or who would have age-inappropriate expectations of them. That's one of the many, many reasons we had originally planned to homeschool. And certainly, if I had any inkling that this was that sort of a situation, I would have been the first one discussing it with the teacher (yes, with her first, not jumping over her head to her supervisor right away.) But I've watched this class and spoken with this teacher and witnessed her interactions with the girls, and she is a very sweet and gentle person who has an obvious talent for working with young kids.

I think one of the biggest problems with our society today is what's been called the "cult of mediocrity" - the sort of dumbing-down, lowest-common-denominator approach that often pervades our schools, our workplaces, our government, our culture. Son not getting good grades? Don't help him study more effectively, drug him up with Ritalin. Daughter doesn't like her teacher? Don't help her learn how to get along with other people, just threaten to stop donating to the school if she's not moved to a different class. Steve saw this sort of thing all the time at the expensive private schools where he taught for years. Everything is someone else's problem, and anything difficult isn't worth working at or sacrificing for.

And then we wonder why many of us in Gen X and Gen Y can't hold down jobs, can't keep relationships from dissolving, aren't happy unless everything is going our way. We rush to divorce court at the first sign of discord. We switch from breastfeeding to artificial feeding at the first twinge of discomfort or perceived inconvenience. We leave our place of worship the first time we're challenged by its teachings. We (or our therapists) find someone else on whom to pin the blame for whatever issues arise in our lives.

I realize it might be a stretch to extrapolate from a preschoolers' dance class to a societal diagnosis, but I think it's valid. It just might start when a mom tells her 4-year-old, "It's OK honey, you don't have to do the dance if you don't want to, and don't listen to that mean old teacher either - you just do whatever you want." It's not a choice between that and pressuring the poor kid into a heart attack over the dance routine, where she thinks she's not loved and valued unless she excels at everything. That's a false dichotomy that I hear way too often. There's an appropriate middle ground where you encourage the child to do her best, and to really make an effort to push past her comfortable limits - where you let her know that she is loved no matter what, and you're proud of her regardless, but yet teach her that SHE will be most proud of HERSELF when she tries harder and reaches farther and doesn't take the easy way out.

Well, it sounds good anyway. Ask me again in about 10 years. :)

In the meantime, my little dancers ROCKED. They outdid themselves, and I am REALLY proud of them. So if that makes me a stage mother, so be it. ;)

One Fantastic Weekend!

This past weekend was wonderful for two reasons: first, Teresa and Madeleine performed in their dance recitals (Teresa's third performance and Maddy's very first!) and second, both my mother and my brother flew out to spend Thursday through Sunday with us and be there in the audience!

So, we're still recovering from the exhaustion (you wouldn't believe how much work it is to have two little girls be in a dance recital - with dress rehearsals, pictures, hair appointments, specific stage makeup requirements - you'd think I had two of the Rockettes living with me! And of course, Steve managed to schedule a business trip and be out of town for most everything except the recitals themsevles!) but we're also still coming down from the incredible high - between the performances and the other fun stuff we did with Grandma and Uncle Jeff, those few days were jam-packed with excitement!

With Steve away in Michigan, the kids and I picked up Mom and Jeff at the airport on Thursday afternoon. We were SOOOO happy to see them! We hadn't seen Mom since her first trip out here in early March, and we hadn't seen Jeff since Christmas, before we moved here. The cutest thing was that Andrew was totally obsessed with Uncle Jeff! Maybe he sensed the need for some guy time, especially with Steve away. But he took to him instantly and didn't want to leave his side all weekend! And Jeff, to his credit, has really grown in his ability to relate to the kids (more on that later). When I first had Teresa, he was still pretty young (heck, *I* was pretty young myself!), and he'd really never spent much time around, nor had much experience with, little kids. But now, he's the epitome of the cool, fun uncle, and the kids just adore him!

So, we went to one of our favorite cool local spots for lunch (Sauce, a gourmet pizza and wine bistro-type place) and then Frost, a gelato shop, for dessert. Then we came back home and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the pool (since Jeff's one request was to return to Chicago with a tan). I made dinner, one of my favorite "local color" recipes (Margarita Shrimp) outside on the grill, and then we got the kids to bed so that Mom, Jeff, and I could catch up a bit.

On Friday, I cooked a big breakfast for everyone and we relaxed around the house in the morning (of course Jeff went right out to enjoy the pool again!) Then we drove around a bit on a mini-sightseeing trip so I could point out some of the pretty local points of interest. And we ended up where I'd made reservations for a special surprise for everyone in the afternoon - a traditional high tea service (which my family always loves) at this absolutely adorable tea house, the Chantilly Tea Room. It was fantastic! The Duchess Afternoon Tea (for the adults) included a choice of very unique teas served with tea sandwiches, savories, homemade scones and accompaniments, pastries, cookies, etc. (Good thing I've been working out at Curves almost every morning!) For the kids, they have the Mad Hatter Tea - hot chocolate served in a beautiful teapot, with cute little PB&J tea sandwiches and jellybean scones. The kids TOTALLY loved that, and of course the girls are now begging to go back next month for Chantilly's special Princess Tea (where everyone must come dressed as her favorite Princess).

After tea, we attempted to walk off some of the carbohydrate overload at La Encantada, a gorgeous shopping center full of fabulous stores. Great-grandma had sent a few dollars for each of the kids with Mom, so they spent their money at Mildred & Dildred, an awesome old-fashioned toy shop. I had to visit Mimi Maternity - since of course, this being only my fourth child, I don't have a nearly large enough maternity wardrobe yet ;) I mean, it's not as if I have an entire separate closet full of just maternity and nursing clothes. Uh....OK....so maybe I do, but still....! Come on, it IS 110 degrees here right now, so turtleneck sweaters and wool skirts are not going to do it.

Friday night was Uncle Jeff's treat! He told me he was trying to think of something fun that he could do with his nieces and nephew that they don't do much otherwise, and he came up with the idea of bowling! This was SO perfect - the kids had never been bowling before, ever, and the girls had recently started begging to go sometime. So Uncle Jeff treated us all to sandwiches at Quizno's and then a couple of games at Fiesta Lanes. I had forgotten that my brother had played on a bowling team back in grade school, but he's still really good - in one game, he had something like 7 strikes! He had them put the bumpers down in the kids' lane and taught all three of them how to bowl - it was the cutest thing! Of course Teresa, my Little Miss Competitive, had a fit when she couldn't bowl perfectly on her first try (actually, Maddy won both games in the kids' lane!) but all the kids ended up having a blast - as did I (even though I had bowled in about 8 years and this confirmed that I still STINK at bowling just as badly as I did back then!)

Steve finally got home from his trip late Friday night, so the kids were excited to see him and tell him all about our adventures with Grandma and Uncle Jeff.

I think I'll post about the recitals and those photos separately - but most of the rest of the weekend was taken up with the preparation and then performances. On Saturday night, we took everyone out to a special dinner in Mexico to celebrate the great job the girls did - we went to my absolute favorite place, La Roca, which is just over the border in Nogales, Mexico. It still amazes me that we can go to Mexico so easily! I just love it. I went there last week with a girlfriend and her kids, to do some shopping in the markets (I bought a very gorgeous talavera serving dish, among other things!) It's just so cool to be able to park the car on the U.S. side of border and just walk with our strollers right over in Mexico, do some shopping and grab lunch, and then go home! But La Roca is just fabulous - it's the best food you'll ever taste, the best live Mexican music, and the most unique and beautiful ambience (the reason it's called "La Roca" is that it's actually built into the side of a mountain - right into the rock.) Mom and Jeff really enjoyed it.

But before we knew it, it was time to drop Mom and Jeff at the airport again on Sunday. We were SO sad to see them go! Here are some photos of our time together:

Happy Birthday Madeleine!!!!!!!!

I cannot belive my little "Maddy-Fish" is 4 years old today!!! We had a super-fun birthday party at Build-A-Bear Workshop today, and just got back from dinner at Red Robin this evening. Photos to come very soon!

But To Show You His Other Side....

Since I wrote about Andrew's latest escapades, I should show you his sweet side, too :) Even though he is definitely a total boy, he is also very sweet and nuturing. His nuturing side is really coming out these days as he nears two and is getting very much into pretend play and role playing. He loves to play "Daddy" and push baby dolls around in strollers. Just yesterday, the girls were playing house and pretending they were going out and needed to leave their baby dolls with a babysitter, so they asked Andrew to take care of the babies. He snuggled them, pretended to feed them from a spoon, and then - this cracked us up totally! - sat them in front of the TV in the family room (which pretty much has baseball on it 24/7, since Steve talked me into getting the DirecTV "MLB Season Ticket Package" - which apparently means extra channels, since 900 isn't enough - on which is broadcasted every baseball game on the face of the Earth). He sat the dolls on the couch, pointed the TV out to them, and said, "Baseball. Bat. Ball. Watch!"

His other favorite thing to do is make pretend food in the play kitchen for us. He'll take one of my real oven mitts from the drawer and then go bring over a play pot of whatever he's made me and tell me, "Hot!" He also LOVES to feed people. He won't start eating something until he's given some of it to everyone at the table. Here's a funny video I shot last night (after the toy-melting episode, when we finally got to eat dinner!) of him feeding Teresa - whether she wanted it or not :)

Adventures With Andrew

I was SO not prepared for toddler boyhood.

Teresa and Maddy had, and have, very different personalities, but even as toddlers, both of them were fairly tame. Sure, they were inquisitive, and occasionally got into something they shouldn't have (or more accurately, something *I* shouldn't have left out to tempt them!) but for the most part, they seemed to have some inherent reasonable boundaries. They knew what was and wasn't theirs to play with. They were much more interested in sitting down and playing with actual toys than in climbing or exploring or destroying things. I could leave them alone in the playroom for, say, 45 seconds so I could actually go pee, and trust that they'd be there when I got back. So, basically, I was spoiled.

Then came the holy terror known as Andrew. OK, he's not a terror really - he's an incredibly sweet and snuggly and adorable little guy - when he wants to be. But the rest of the time, he lives to get into trouble, and to try to give me a heart attack multiple times per day. I literally cannot take my eyes off him for a moment (without risking, say, $500 worth of damage to household goods, and/or an ER visit). Here are just a sampling of what he's done lately:


- in the time it took me to answer the door and sign for a UPS package, used a chair to climb up onto the breakfast bar and swipe the pen that I leave next to the phone for taking messages, and then drew squiggles all over the cover of my beloved green laptop

- found, in the corner of the pantry, an old crayon the girls had left out at some point, and ran around the house at lightening speed coloring, in magenta, all over every available surface (he seriously hit just about every wall in the entire downstairs); then guilt-tripped me by staring at me with a forlorn expression as I furiously scrubbed at his artwork with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (thank God for those wonders of modern technology!!), pouting and saying, "No pretty? No pretty, mama?"

- over the past month or so, stole and hid a whole inventory of various and sundry items, including but not limited to: essential pieces from board games, the remote control for the guest room TV (which has still not been found), and one half of each pair of his sisters' shoes. He also stole my keys off the kitchen counter - we were about to walk out the door, and I put my keys down for a second to help Maddy go to the potty. When I came back, they were gone. It took me more than a week to find them. I had an extra car key, but not an extra house key, so for an entire week I had to leave the house unlocked (just the door from the garage into the house, but still!) so that I could get back in. The keys eventually turned up at the bottom of the laundry hamper 8 days later, which is also, I suppose, a sad commentary on how long it takes me to actually reach the bottom of the laundry hamper :-P

- opened the freezer, took out the enormous Costco-size box of popsicles, and laid them all out on the kitchen table to watch them melt

- often hits "reset" on my dishwasher after I've run it and left the kitchen, so that I come back not knowing at what point in the cycle the dishwasher was stopped, and thus having to waste detergent and water to re-run the entire thing

- similarly, likes to sneak into the laundry room after me and change the cycle on my washing machine. Recently, I put an almost-full load of my delicates in the machine and didn't run it, waiting to run upstairs in a bit and grab a few more articles to put in. Well, he decided to run it for me by pressing "start" twice, which repeats the last cycle - which in this case, of course, had been heavy-duty/hot for towels. So, by the time I realized this, my gentle/cold-wash items had been spinning on the harshest cycle in hot water for about 15 minutes

- ran into my bathroom, turned on the water in my soaking tub full-blast, then unloaded all the towels from the linen closet and tossed them into the tub full of water

- caused me to have to call Arizona Poison Control when he grabbed a bottle of cleaning fluid that our cleaning lady had set down on the table for a minute to answer her cell phone. He came to me seconds later, crying, with the cleaning fluid dripping from his face. I had no idea if he had sprayed it into his eyes, nose, or mouth. (Fortunately, they told me this was one of the safest cleaners to ingest, if one had to ingest cleaning solution, as it had mostly just surfactant detergents and not really any toxic chemicals)

- at every opportunity he finds, takes Teresa's digital camera and deletes all of the pictures on it

- takes all the DVDs out of the TV cabinet and switches the discs so that they're all in the wrong cases (and probably all scratched, too)

- grabs my cell phone, or the regular phone, if I turn my back for second (today I came out of the bathroom and found him sitting on the couch with my BlackBerry in the middle of an intense "conversation." He told me excitedly, "I talk Daddy! I talk Daddy!" And lo and behold, he was. I have yet to figure out how he managed to call Steve, who was NOT the last number dialed)

- created our great bathroom-locking dilemma. If I don't lock the child-proof device on the bathroom door, he goes in and either stuffs the toilet full of paper, overflows the sink, squirts soap all over himself, or puts toys into the toilet (oh yes, that has to be my favorite job of motherhood so far - reaching into the toilet water multiple times a day to rescue Dora from drowning). On the other hand, if we do lock the child-proof device, then Andrew can't get in, but neither can Maddy, who tends to wait until the last minute to go to the potty and then pees all over the floor outside the bathroom while waiting for Teresa or I to come open the door for her.


This is just a sampling of the great fun we're having lately, courtesy of Andrew, and it doesn't even include the "normal" toddler stuff like climbing on any available surface, leaping off furniture, and otherwise accumulating an impressive array of bruises all over himself.

But last night we had a new one. I was in the middle of making dinner and Steve had just come home from work. I already had side dishes cooking on the range, and some really yummy tilapia baking in the upper part of my double oven. (Can I just say again here how much I LOVE finally having a double oven!!) I decided to roast veggies in the bottom oven, so I preheated it to 400 degrees and went back to cutting up fruit for dessert. A few minutes later, I started to smell something funny. The fish had been smelling delicious, so I couldn't figure out what was causing this foul odor, which just got worse, and stronger. First I attributed it to pregnancy, which often makes you more sensitive to odors. But gradually, the smell got so bad, and so strong, that I started to worry. I looked around and couldn't figure out what it was - I checked the fish in the upper oven, I checked the range, and I hadn't put the veggies in the lower oven yet. I was distracted by the kids running around and the fact that dinner was already late, so I didn't think any more about it.

A few minutes later, the lower oven beeped that it was preheated, so I opened the oven door to put the veggies in. And this is what I found:



Yes, that is the molten remains of three of the kids' toys. The girls later told me that Andrew had been putting toys into the (cold) oven yesterday morning, and they kept taking them out. But, uh, hm, I guess they missed a few.

So, with all the recent worry about kids simply playing with made-in-China plastic toys, I'm sure what's *really* recommended for safety is melting them at 400 degrees and allowing the fumes emitted to permeate the entire house for 25 minutes.

Steve and I, as we rushed to open all the doors and windows and turn on the fans and try to air out the house of the probably toxic liquid plastic fumes, scraped the multicolored pools off the oven racks and the bottom of the oven and tried to figure out what they were in their past lives. I think they were animals from the Little People Zoo. Steve says no, the one on the far right was definitely some sort of Winnie the Pooh, from the distribution of the colors. He might be right, although he posited this after a couple of beers, so who knows.

And speaking of Steve, of course he blamed me for this! Oops, I must have missed the page in the Manual of Mothering where it instructs you that, while cooking a gourmet-quality four-course dinner and simultaneously caring for three children, you should be mindful to inspect the oven before preheating it, lest a gaggle of miniature zoo animals have taken up residence within.

Yes, We're Still Alive Out Here....

....lest you think we were eaten by scorpions (we've not seen a single one after that first adventure!) or dropped off the face of the earth by some other means ;) - nope, we're still here. Just been busy....uh...gestating, instead of blogging ;) Right around the time of my last post, morning sickness struck. Make that on-and-off-all-day-and-night sickness. Ahh, the joys of pregnancy....

Remind me not to make deals with God, would you please? Because apparently He actually holds you to your end of the bargain when you do so! When I was praying that we would conceive this baby, I told God, "Just please let me get pregnant soon, and I don't care how hard a pregnancy I have as long as the baby is OK - give me lots of morning sickness, whatever, I don't care! I just want another baby!" So...sometimes you DO get what you ask for! :)

I had some nausea with my first pregnancy, but then again I was also spending my mornings not scraping rapidly-cementing oatmeal residue off the kitchen table in my sweats as I do now, but rather riding the Washington, D.C. subway and buses to work stuffed into maternity pantyhose and high heels at the crack of dawn. So I had attributed the nausea to the lack of air in the underground Metro, the less than smooth ride, and the not-so-lovely smells that abound when it's rush hour and your face is practically smashed under some old, fat guy's armpit as the throngs of other commuters try to see how many more people you can possibly cram into the train before folks start passing out from lack of oxygen.

With my second and third pregnancies, I had literally not a single day of morning sickness - I felt fantastic the entire time, from month 1 through month 9. So I naively thought I'd be golden from now on. But I guess I was wrong. This time around, any time I haven't felt sick, I've felt exhausted. So my blogging career has suffered greatly, firstly because I haven't had the energy or inclination to put together a coherent sentence, but also because any time I actually have a few moments of peace when I might put together a coherent sentence, I've chosen instead to either: A) take a nap; or B) raid the frige and pantry in a futile attempt to find *something* that does not taste like sawdust....and then take a nap.

Oh, and somewhere in there I got an awful case of bronchitis that lasted weeks (I virtually never get so much as a cold normally, but for some reason when I'm pregnant I go from super-immune-system to one of those people who catches every germ that comes within a mile of me). And then there's the fact that Steve had, oh, about FIVE business trips in this time period as well. Nothing more fun than morning sickness with three other kids to care for - except for morning sickness with three other kids to care for and NO HUSBAND for several days and nights in a row!

Well, hopefully I've now engendered enough sympathy here that you won't fault me for not posting in a month and a half, and go back to actually reading this periodically :)

I'm in my 12th week now, and finally emerging from the first-trimester fog...I hope! So far, I'm quite happy with the OB/midwife practice I'm going to. I had an early ultrasound to confirm my dates because my chart was somewhat ambiguous (hard to temp effectively when you still have a nursling who wakes in the night) and the baby looked great. Based on that, we moved my due date up a couple of days to November 25. All I have to say about that is, I am SO buying this to wear as Thanksgiving approaches: http://www.evalillian.com/turkey-maternity-t-shirt-prod392.htm

I have other exciting things to tell you about....but I'm going to sleep now, so check back tomorrow :)

I will, however, leave you with some photos of what's been going on since last I posted....several are of Easter, which was wonderful. We very much missed being with family, but in addition to a lovely Mass (the celebration of the Resurrection in Latin is just amazing) we went to a phenomenal Easter Brunch at Westward Look Resort, which is just beautiful. It was so much fun - absolutely amazing food, a spectacular view (we didn't know enough to request it, but lucked out with an outdoor table on the veranda of the ballroom!) but still very family-friendly (complete with little prizes and balloons for the kids, and a visit from the Easter Bunny bearing chocolates!) We hope to make this our annual Easter tradition here. But next year, I'll be enjoying the mimosas instead of giving Steve my share! ;) Oh and yes, those are Star Wars eggs that the kids made - they are going through a Star Wars fanatic phase right now.

There are also a few of the Pima County Fair, which was a blast. I obviously had to miss out on many of the good rides, but Steve and the kids had fun! And true to my New Jersey years, I rocked the carnival games and won prizes for all three kids within a few minutes :)

Then there's Andrew with a lemon he picked from our tree in the backyard....you all know I'm not necessarily always the "back to nature" type, but I have to say, it is pretty darn cool to be able to send your kids out back to pick lemons off the tree and then come in and make fresh lemonade with them!

Teresa's Donation

You're getting some bonus posts tonight because I won't be online much during the Triduum and Easter. :)

I have to say, I am SO INCREDIBLY PROUD of Teresa - she did the most amazing thing this past Wednesday.

She had been asking me for a little while now to let her have her hair cut shorter. She wasn't sure how short, but she has a friend here in Tucson (the daughter of one of my new co-Leaders) whom she idolizes, and she wanted her hair cut kind of like this little girl's 'do. I cautioned her against trying to look like someone else, since I have gone through this myself. My mother still reminds me that I went off to school and decided I *had* to have my haircut like Jamie Greenberg's. Well, Jaime Greenberg was a very petite little thing with a great face for extremely short hair - and I....was neither. Of course, I had all my hair chopped off, looked awful, instantly regretted it, and cried for months while waiting for it to grow back.

Moral of the story: if you're going to make a major change to your appearance, do it because you think it will suit you, not because you want to look like someone else. Or, if you must do it to look like someone else, at least pick a "someone else" who shares at least some vaguely similar characteristics with you.

So Teresa kept asking, and I kept putting it off. I was so torn - I LOVE long hair, I think it's beautiful and feminine and fun to style, and she'd been growing it for years. She looked so pretty with long hair, and always got compliments on it. I was afraid she's regret cutting it, as I had. But I started to realize that Teresa is getting older, and that maybe the time has come for me to allow her to make her own decisions in areas like this.

Well, this whole ongoing hair discussion came to a head when Teresa heard about the charity Locks of Love, with which a local salon participates. For those who don't know, Locks of Love is a national organization that accepts donations of hair from people, mostly other children, and turns it into real-hair wigs for kids who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy. As soon as she heard about it, Teresa said, "Mommy! I want to cut my hair REALLY short and give it all to a sick girl who has no hair from that medicine!" I started crying right there in front of the hair salon. I was SO impressed and proud of her. How could I say no? After all, she not only wanted to do this to look beautiful, she wanted to do it for such a beautiful reason.

So, they measured her hair to make sure it was long enough (they need a minimum of 10 inches of length to make a wig), braided it and banded it on both ends and cut it off in one big piece before the stylist went back and evened it out and shaped it. (I was trying not to look!)

They took Teresa's name and our address and said she'll get a thank-you note in the mail.

Teresa has had extremely long hair for as long as most people who know us can remember - letting her let go of that was like admitting to myself that she's growing up, and admitting that she's really becoming her own separate person.

I couldn't believe it - but my little, or not-so-little, girl looks even more gorgeous than before - not only does her new haircut really frame her face beautifully and show off her eyes, but she looks radiant from the inside, so proud of herself for what she did.

I promised her I'd post this here to tell everyone what she did for another child she'll never know - and also show off how adorable she is with her new look!

CHOCOLATE!!!!

I had to share this video clip - the other night we were having strawberries for dessert, and I had made some melted chocolate to dip them in - Andrew went crazy and was such a mess, but he loved them AND he learned a new word, a very important one for every person's vocabulary, in my opinion! It took a little coaxing (and reminding from his sisters in the background!) to get him to say it, but now I make him repeat it constantly because the way he says it cracks me up every time!

The Best News Ever, for the Fourth Time!

Most of you reading this have probably already heard our news - I delayed posting it because there were so many people I wanted to tell in person - but we have been blessed with another baby!!! We are expecting our fourth child in late November! I am too thrilled and happy and excited and grateful to express it in words! We'd been praying so hard for this for a number of months now. The girls, especially, are going crazy with excitement - it's going to be a long 8 months for them to wait!

Of course, I'm a little nervous, too. My thyroid condition bears a higher risk of loss and of pregnancy complications, so I'm always a little anxious at first. So please, if you are a praying person, pray for our new little one to be a sticky, healthy baby!

I had a feeling this cycle would be "it" - but then again, I have that feeling every month! Still, I couldn't resist - I actually bought the pregnancy test in Target expecting to save it for a couple of days since I thought it was probably too early to test - but of course, impatient as I am, I didn't even make it out of the store! Yes, I took the test right there in the public restroom at Target. I had to go anyway. And hey, at least I paid for it first! But wow, the other people in the neighboring stalls who heard me crying with joy and thanking God must were probably thinking, "WOW, that woman must have been *really* constipated!" ;)

But, the very early positive, at least, saved Steve and my friends from days of obsessing on my part. Still, I'm not bad at all compared to some of the stories at www.peeonastick.com. Now there's a website for some serious obsessing! :) Although, I've always been tempted to try the breastmilk-instead-of-urine-on-the-test technique. There's a theory, and I have no idea if it's true or not, that hcG, the pregnancy hormone that home tests look for, shows up sooner and/or in higher concentrations in breastmilk, so if you're a lactating woman who is trying to get pregnant, you can use breastmilk on a home pregnancy test instead of peeing on it. From a non-scientific but purely logical point of view, this would actually make sense to me, since hcG shows up sooner on a blood test than a urine test, and breastmilk is actually called "white blood" since it has so many similarities, as far as bodily fluids go. Anyway, I still have one test left in the boxes from Target (yes, I did buy several tests so I could use them every couple of days and make sure the line is getting darker - it is) so I might try this just out of weird curiosity :)

According to my chart, my EDD would be Thanksgiving Day - but my chart was actually a little weird this cycle, with two temp spikes, so Fertility Friend says it could be Nov. 25 or Nov. 27 depending on which possible ovulation date we use. And the nurse practicioner I saw the other day for initial labs thought Nov. 29. So anyway, I'm going with Thanksgiving as an average, and regardless of which due date I use, knowing our kids, it'll probably be December before he or she decides to come out anyway!

I'm still not sure where I want to receive my prenatal care and where I want to deliver. I'm so torn on this. Of course, I want the most natural, low-intervention birth possible, but with my thyroid issues and with the scare when Andrew was born and had some time in the NICU, I'm a little nervous about a non-hospital delivery. (I know, I know, I need to rent The Business of Being Born - I think everyone on the planet has seen it already except for me!) Still, take away my crunchy card if you must, but I have to do what makes me comfortable. So I started my care here, at Grace Maternity and Women's Health. It's an all-female, joint OB/CNM practice close to our house and delivering at Northwest Hospital, a very good hospital (from what I hear) which is also close to us. From their website, they sound pretty progesstive - low intervention, specializing in VBACs (not an issue for me, but a good sign of their attitudes toward birth, etc.).

My first visit there, last week, was a bit of a challenge for two reasons. First, the kids were NUTS. I mean, in rare form - totally crazy. The nurse practicioner looked at me like, "...and you're sure you want more?" as we yelled over each other and ducked flying crayons and Bunny Grahams. I was frustrated, she was frustrated, and I was frustrated that she was frustrated. Second, we have a complicated insurance situation right now (we're still waiting to get on Steve's new company's plan, and are covered under our old plan through COBRA, but this has turned into a mess itself). So I was also getting frustrated with the receptionist and the billing staff. Anyway, I left thinking I'd at least give them one more chance. Well, the next morning, the NP whom I had seen called me at home to check on me and make sure I'd "gotten everything I needed from that visit and had all my questions answered." I was very impressed by that. Also, at an LLL meeting today, one of the Group moms told me about her (very positive) experience with that practice. So I think this may work out.

But insurance companies and decisions and constant peeing notwithstanding, it is just SO wonderful to be pregnant again. :) Sometimes I think about all the graces and blessings in my life right now, and I just can't believe it.....but it just gives me something else to contemplate during this Holy Triduum.

Retraction

So, my friend tells me you're not a "real" blogger until you've had to print your first retraction. So here is mine.

In my Feb. 3 post, I made a comment (in jest), poking fun at the dietary flaws in my and Steve's homes growing up. My sister-in-law, who obviously knows much better than I what the diet was like in my mother-in-law's home decades ago, took issue with what I said, so I'm modifying my comment here. :)

I said that my MIL did not eat any fresh fruit the entire time she stayed with us, despite my offering it (this is a statement of fact). However, I also said that Steve's family never saw a whole grain, which my SIL felt implied that they'd had a poor diet. In fact, she tells me, the exact opposite is true. Regardless of Steve's or his mother's current eating habits, my SIL tells me that their mother offered an extremely healthy diet in their home growing up, with lean meat and fish and an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables. Whole-grain products were not widely commercially available back then (a fact I readily admit I neglected to take into account, as Steve and his sister are considerably older than I am - I grew up at a time when whole grains were becoming the "big thing"). Nonetheless, they had a great variety of healthy foods, and ate things that were almost exclusively homemade from scratch (virtually no takeout or fast food).

Lest anyone have thought otherwise as a result of my teasing, I hope this sets the record straight. :)

So, you know your 5-year-old is a contrarian when she has two fairy dolls, one with purple hair and one with blue hair, and she decides to name the purple-maned one "Blue" and the blue-maned one "Purple."

That's all for now. I rushed home today, leaving a GREAT LLL meeting early, in order to pick up some groceries to make lunch for a playdate. So, of course, the other mama's kids got sick and the playdate was canceled. I promised Teresa and Maddy we'd do something else fun instead, secertly hoping that getting the free balloons on the way out of Trader Joe's would count as the "something else fun" - but alas, it did not. Nor did watching the landscapers cut down the enormous bushes which were obscuring our view out the windows (and possibly leading to more scorpions, which we are anxious to avoid!) So apparently, I have to bake chocolate-chip cookies now. How June Cleaver of me! Well, except for the enormous piles of unfolded laundry blocking the cabinet containing the baking supplies.

I love baking cookies, but doing it with one lovely daughter who thinks she knows everything and does not want to take any direction whatsoever, and another lovely daughter who is the biggest klutz ever (except for me, of course) and manages to get 99% of any egg she cracks OUTSIDE the designated receptacle for said egg, sometimes makes me wish I were sipping espresso and eating someone ELSE'S homemade cookies alone at, say, a Parisian café....but nah, I'd miss the kids too much. :)

Around Town with Mom

Stories to come, but photos for now - Mom's first trip to visit us in AZ! We had a blast - hope she comes back soon!