Whoops...

Looks like I've let the blog slip away from me again.  I must say, kudos to the gals with more than one kid who can keep up with their blogs---it's not easy!  Here's the latest from us:

Jeremiah ~ Jeremiah is now 4.5, just a few months away from turning 5!  He figured out the whole "potty training" thing back in the early summer, and it seems to have "aged" him quite a bit.  You grow up a lot once you stop peeing in diapers/pull ups!  With potty training came dressing and undressing, and more independence, which he has taken his fill of!  He's my "go-to" helper when I need something, usually letting Jesslyn or Judah in and out of the family room, since he can open the gate and they can't.  Or going down to the basement to bring up a gallon of milk.  Or getting his own drink of water.  He even makes his own sandwiches now!  Sure, it's just two slices of bread and a piece of cheese, but hey, we gotta start somewhere right.  Oh, and he can buckle himself in his car seat, which is a HUGE plus for Mommy!  My little man isn't quite so little anymore.  :(

Jesslyn ~ Jesslyn is now 3, going on 30, and the most "grown up" out of all the kids.  If Jeremiah can do it, she can "definitely" do it (even if she can't....) And if Mommy can do it, she's gonna try!  Last week was her birthday, and it was quite a long celebration---we had a small Chuck E Cheese party for her on the Thursday prior (since her b-day was on Saturday, I wasn't about to make that mistake again...) and that was loads of fun.  NoVA experience a small monsoon (Rainapocolypes!) that day, so roads were flooded, streets closed, and Chuck E Cheese was empty.  I made her a princess cake, complete with an edible chocolate tiara on top (she ate half of it.  :)

Then on her actual birthday, we did a movie night out on the pipestem.  Our neighbor, Sybille, shares her birthday with Jesslyn, so it was a good excuse for all of us to hang out, party, have some cake and watch a movie.  At one point, we had about 50 people there (only about 30 were actually invited.)  I had kids asking me for cake, and I had no idea who they were.  :)  But it was fun---we watched "Gnomeo and Juliet" and "Thor".  Very cool.

She's really into My Little Ponies, dressing up, toy phones, and flashlights right now, so that's what she got for her birthday.  :)  Her and Judah are also "best buds" and very close, though usually Jesslyn is WAY TOO close.  She doesn't always grasp the idea of "personal space" and hasn't figured out that Judah's whining/crying means "back off!"  But I'm sure she'll get it eventually.  Or not.  It's kinda a part of who she is.  :)  But she's very sweet, too, and always up for cuddling, and loves having her back tickled.  She's a big sweetie!

Judah ~ Judah is now 18 months, and quite the character!  He started walking back in June, while we were at the beach (we went to the OBX the first week of June.  He was taking a few steps at a time before that, but really started moving once we got there.  That wet sand is a good learning tool.)  He's a bit of a chatter box, trying to say every word we say.  Not quite as wordy as Jesslyn was at his age, but pretty close!  A short list includes car, truck, plane, train, go, open, bye bye, hi, phone, apple/applesauce, juice, milk, water, drink, oww, Kookie, 'gunco' (for Uncle), bird, cat, dog, puppy, Dora, Boots, and so on, and so forth.  It's awesome.  :)  He's also very sweet, and loves to wrap his arms around your neck, yelling, "Mama!" or "Daddy!!" or just cuddling with "Gunco James" (it's kinda weird... James'll pick him up, and Judah will just put his head on his shoulder and leave it there, for like, 5 minutes.  Just looking around with his head on his shoulder.  Only with James, though.  :)

Let's see, what else with Judah.  Well, he loves Big Fella.  And babies.  So I'm hoping that that carries over, because..... #4 is due in 6 weeks!  But a little more on that in a minute.  He's a bit addicted to his Mommy and Daddy, especially his Mommy, so I am a bit worried about how he'll take the baby taking up so much of Mommy's attention.  The other two were great when their younger sibs showed up, so this is new territory for us.  Of course, maybe we're worried about nothing, and he'll be smitten with his new brother/sister, and all will be well.  Guess we'll see!

Oh yeah,  and Judah's quite the little comedian.  He always has this big smile on his face (with dimples!  Love the dimples!) and does all sorts of silly things to get a laugh!  He's also the hamiest of the bunch, dropping whatever he's doing for a chance to get his pic taken.  It's adorable.  :)

Finally, #4!  Yup, we're expecting the next member of the Wilcox clan sometime around Halloween.  We don't know if it's a boy or a girl (and hopefully won't have the chance to find out 'til they're born!)  We're planning another homebirth, so getting things ready has been fun/exciting, but of course, there's still much to do.  The pregnancy has gone well, thus far.  No complaints.  Just some morning sickness at the beginning.  It wasn't as bad as with Jesslyn, but worse than the boys, so I have no idea what to expect based on that.  But we're very excited, and can't wait to meet this new sweet bundle that God has chosen to bless us with.  :)

Other random news:  The kids and I (Jess) now have CBS (Community Bible Study) every Tuesday, and MOPS every other Friday.  It's a nice break, and a chance to socialize in a positive way with other Moms, and the kids get to hang out with their peers instead of just their siblings.  We did both last year, and it was good, but I have a feeling this year will be even better!  So I'm excited for that.

Jeremy's job is going well, though it has its challenges at times.  But overall, he's very blessed, and his boss is great, which is always a plus, especially with new babies on the way.  Jeremy's getting more handy around the house, having replaced the faucet on our hall bath, patched a hole in the hallway, and did a good bit of painting in the dining room.  So I'm proud of him.  :)  It's the little things.

And with that, it's off to bed.  Hopefully, I'll better about updating from here on out.  We'll see... :)

Interesting Facts

Most of you with whom I keep in contact regularly know that we've adopted a "low carb" lifestyle recently. This is something my family has been talking about for YEARS, but I've never been convinced to the legitimacy of it. Then we saw "Fathead", a sort of follow up documentary to "Super Size Me" and it really started to make sense. I've been perusing their blog in recent weeks, and thought I would share their "No-Bologna Facts" with you. Emphases are mine.

• There’s never been a single study that proves saturated fat causes heart disease.
• As heart-disease rates were skyrocketing in the mid-1900s, consumption of animal fat was going down, not up. Consumption of vegetable oils, however, was going up dramatically.
• Half of all heart-attack victims have normal or low cholesterol. Autopsies performed on heart-attack victims routinely reveal plaque-filled arteries in people whose cholesterol was low (as low as 115 in one case).
• Asian Indians - half of whom are vegetarians - have one of the highest rates of heart disease in the entire world. Yup, that fatty meat will kill you, all right.
• When Morgan Spurlock tells you that a McDonald’s salad supplies almost a day’s allowance of fat, he’s basing that statement on the FDA’s low-fat/high-carbohydrate dietary guidelines, which in turn are based on … absolutely nothing. There’s no science behind those guidelines; they were simply made up by a congressional committee.
• Kids who were diagnosed as suffering from ADD have been successfully treated by re-introducing natural saturated fats into their diets. Your brain is made largely of fat.
• Many epileptics have reduced or eliminated seizures by adopting a diet low in sugar and starch and high in saturated animal fats.
• Despite everything you’ve heard about saturated fat being linked to cancer, that link is statistically weak. However, there is a strong link between sugar and cancer. In Europe, doctors tell patients, “Sugar feeds cancer.”
• Being fat is not, in and of itself, bad for your health. The behaviors that can make you fat - eating excess sugar and starch, not getting any exercise - can also ruin your health, and that’s why being fat is associated with bad health. But it’s entirely possible to be fat and healthy. It’s also possible to be thin while developing Type II diabetes and heart disease.
• Saturated fat and cholesterol help produce testosterone. When men limit their saturated fat, their testosterone level drops. So, regardless of what a famous vegan chef believes, saturated fat does not impair sexual performance.

Hmm.... sounds like a lot of the opposite of what we've been told all of our lives.

Oh, and it gets better. Here's an interesting article about---exercise!

Exercise Bologna--

The USDA came out with their recommendation to do 60-90 minutes of aerobics for fat-loss in 2005. The first ever research study on the efficacy of their advice didn’t come out until late 2007. Do you know what the study said?

Men who did moderate to vigorous (think your target heart rate zone) exercise for over 60 minutes per day, 6 days per week, for an entire year lost only 6.5lbs of body fat! That is a half pound per month, for more than 6 hours of exercise per week. Women barely lost 4lbs! (1)

So, if you’re a woman with 20lbs to lose, all you’d need is 20 hours of aerobic exercise per week and you’d be set in 12 months!

You'll have to read the article to get more details, but the gist is that exercise that doesn't build muscle isn't going to help you lose weight. That's not to say it isn't good for you--but killing yourself at the gym on the elliptical machine isn't going to equal pounds shed. So maybe we could all go back to a more primitive form of exercise for better health--walking, jumping, and PLAYING! That sounds like more fun to me, at least. Though I still kinda wanna take a belly dancing class. :)

On the mend...

For the few of you not on Facebook, I had the awesome luck of having surgery yesterday to remove my gall bladder. Since Jesslyn's been born, I'd been having these weird pains, which I've learned are actually "gallstone attacks". Apparently, gallstone formation is very common after pregnancy, and the attacks can be triggered by fatty foods and dairy. So if you've had a baby recently, and get a really bad stomach ach after eating, you may have gallstones!

Had I actually gone to the doctor the first time it happened, I may have been able to control it with dietary changes (avoiding fatty foods and dairy products,) as I tried to do once the diagnosis came in. However, while waiting to meet with the surgeon in his office on Thursday, I had another attack, despite not eating any junk. This attack was not as severe as the prior attacks had been, but since I had it while meeting with the surgeon, I went ahead and scheduled the surgery for the next day (they were kind enough to "squeeze" me in...)

So yes, I feel better now, I guess. There's some lingering pain, but that's to be expected after any surgical procedure. I've got some pain meds, and have been able to do some stuff around the house, so I'm on the mend. The only downside to recovery is that I can't pick up my kids, which SUCKS! Poor Jesslyn... she kept crawling up to me this afternoon (her and Jeremiah had been at Mee-maw & Poppy's house yesterday and today, so she missed me....) and I couldn't pick her up. :( I probably won't be able to do so until I see my dr. again in a week. But the Lord is good, and He has blessed us with amazing family and friends, so hopefully it won't be an issue.

Oh, I don't know....

For a while now, I've been contemplating what to do about the blog.

As you may have noticed, I divulge quite a bit about our lives here. So much so that one does not have to try very hard to know what is going on in our lives--they just have to come here. This is intentional, since both our families are spread out quite a bit, and the density of traffic around here prevents us from seeing friends very often.

However, sometimes people piss you off/hurt/annoy you so much that you don't feel the need to share with them anymore. They do something so stupid, and so.... vengeful, that there's really no reason to keep them in the loop anymore, related or not. That's part of the reason why we moved the blog.

Now, it has come to my attention that I probably use the blog as a sounding board a little too much. I say things in frustration, and "to vent" and the next thing I know, some folks are reading into what I say WAAAAAAAY too much, and nearly ruins Jeremy's birthday as a result [which was yesterday, btw... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABISH! ;) ] It's amazing how much hurt/anger/annoyance e-mail can cause... [and how even more strained relationships become because of it....]

Anyways, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'd like to keep the blog as is, but now realize that that is unrealistic. So do I open it up only to invited readers? Do I start posting "bare-bones" posts with pictures and captions only? Do I create a different blog to use as my "sounding board"? I don't know yet. There are people who read our blog that probably wouldn't if they had to create a Google account to do so. And I personally don't see the point of just posting pictures and captions--I could use a photo-hosting service for that.

All I know is that this will be the last "personal" post on here until I figure it out. I'm extremely disappointed that I finally have to make this decision, but if it saves us the turmoil of the past week, it'll be so worth it! [i won't TEll you who Deserves the thanks for that... i'm sure they know.]

So don't be surprised if it's quiet here for a while. A break from the blog world might be good for me, anyways. That's a couple of hours a week, at least, I could spend doing other things. We'll see, I guess.

And that is that. NAP TIME! :)

Update

So here's the latest on Jesslyn.

She's fine.  :)

We took her to the Dr's on Thursday to follow up, and while I was under the impression that she definitely had a UTI, apparently this isn't the case.  While some of her test results suggest that, they could also be interpreted as just a viral infection that needed to run its course.

While we're still waiting on the final test results from the hospital, her fever is pretty much gone and she's her happy self once again.  However, the antibiotics the ER Ped was SOOOO anxious to prescribe for her (to treat the supposed UTI) has given her the runs and has, in turn, caused a painful rash on her tiny little bum.  :(  So until we hear back from our Dr. with the final results, we're not giving her anymore antibiotics.  

I have a feeling the results will be negative--the test only takes 24-48 hours, though it could take up to 72.... why?  Because if nothing's grown within 72 hours, nothing will.  Chances are, if there was a bacterial presence, something would have shown up much sooner.  And since we've crossed the 72 hour mark and have heard nay a thing, I'm assuming nothing was there, and she didn't need the antibiotics that gave her a rash NOR those they shot her up with in the hospital (oh, and they had this *bright* idea to stick her with two shots, one in each leg, at the EXACT SAME TIME, because that would be less traumatic than one after another....)

Needless to say, I'm not taking her to the ER anymore unless there's a definite EMERGENCY.  Yes, her fever was a bit high, but it had just started that day, and didn't cross 104 (which is when MOST pediatricians would tell you to head to the ER....)  Had she had that fever for even a second day, I would have been more eager to bring her in... Or if she had had other symptoms to worry about, like a cough or runny nose... she had neither.  All she had was a fever.  

We're also going to take her to a different dr in the practice.  Dr. Atiyeh is fine for Jeremiah, but I think she needs a gal dr, so that's what we're doing.  Plus, I never feel like he listens to my questions.  Like when she had her two month checkup and they wanted to give her vaccinations--I asked what BRANDS they used (some have higher aluminum counts than others... after all she'd been through at the NICU, I wanted to minimize any chance of complications from vaccines, included too much aluminum in one day.)  His response:  "Oh, all of our vaccines are mercury free."  Umm... that's not what I asked.  Anyways, I'm ready to switch practices altogether, but since they both need a check up right now, I don't have time to research a new one yet.  That will definitely be my priority before her 6 month check up.  I'm just tired of driving to Falls Church for a check up....

[ rant ]

One more thing...

Boy, am I SICK and TIRED of EVERYONE in the medical community trying to tell me that something is wrong with Jesslyn because she was a HOME BIRTH!  Seriously, both doctors we saw used that and the fact that she was in the NICU as a ******RED FLAG!!!!!!!!!!!!****** to keep her in the ER for extensive testing.  Oh my gosh, I was so ***FLIPPING*** mad!  Apparently, they only listen to their OBGYN friends who tell them, "Home births are so dangerous!  The only safe place to have a baby is in a hospital."  Never mind the fact that I had, not one, but TWO nurse-midwives (okay, so one was a student, but still a nurse,) whose job is ONLY to deliver babies.  They've delivered more babies vaginally than I'm sure most OBGYN's have delivered.  That's all they do--deliver babies to healthy Mommies.  They're not going to take you on as a client if you're high risk, so the chances of complications are very low.  Yes, Jesslyn had some trouble breathing when she was born.  What our midwife did here was the SAME thing they did in the hospital, with less fancy equipment.  And if Jesslyn hadn't had the breathing issues she had, they would have never bothered checking her heart and finding a [really really tiny] hole there that ended up healing itself for the most part (the fact that it's more common than they'll admit does not escape me... I did the research.)  That would have been the situation whether here at home OR in the hospital.  Only had she been born in the hospital, she would have definitely been a c-section.  How do I know?? Because no doctor (at least that I know of) would let a woman even ATTEMPT to deliver an 11 lb+ baby vaginally.  In their minds, it's "impossible."  Yay, so I get to have major abdominal surgery for NO REASON!  Because my "Dr" is SCARED!!! [i.e. doesn't want to deal with the possibilities of complications...]  Don't get me wrong, there are women out there who need C-Sections, and drs, and OBGYNS, and epidurals, and all that other fun hospital stuff.  But I didn't.  And I did not "endanger" my child by choosing to do so.  Would anyone tell me that Jeremiah is any less healthy, because he was born at home???  Did I "harm" him, somehow, by choosing to use a midwife, and delivering him in the comfort of our home, in our room, the way I wanted to, with just friends and family around us???  Wow, I'm a bad mother, huh?  

I swear, the next person that implies that I endangered my baby, or somehow harmed them by choosing to have a home birth, I will punch them in the face.  No reservations!  I've had to deal with so much CRAP from people, and y'know what--they're OUR kids!  It's OUR right to chose how we want to deliver OUR babies!  You have NO right to push your agenda on us, whether your a doctor or otherwise!  We've done the research.  We've got the best team available in Northern VA, when it comes to delivering healthy babies to healthy mommies.  And we're a 5 minute ambulance ride from the hospital should anything go wrong.  So BACK OFF!   For your own good.  :)

[ /rant ]

Yes, so Jesslyn is fine.  :)  Well, minus that rash on her bum.  Poor thing.  Thanks for your prayers!  She's tough little cookie, that's for sure.  So cute!

Did I mention she was 20 lbs? [!!!]

Back to the daily grind.

Today is Tuesday. But Tuesday after a holiday weekend. Which really means, today is Monday. While it may not really be Monday in the literal sense, it sure does feel like it, huh? Of course, not everyone was given the day off yesterday, which is just a crying shame. I mean, if there's a federal holiday, everyone should get it off! Well, at least those who aren't in a "well being" position (i.e. police, fire dept, hospitals all need to keep going for the "well being" of the city/town/etc in which we live.) And those who have to work should receive holiday pay! Seriously, who wants to work when a good chunk of their friends, neighbors and families have off??? Not that I had to work. Well, not outside the home. :)

Despite having that extra day off, it was hardly relaxing. Just busy busy busy! Sunday was pretty relaxing, though, so we did get one "day off" in that sense. Saturday was spent out in Warrenton, hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. That was the biggest break I've gotten since Jesslyn was born--Grandpa took Jeremiah to the park, Grandma was all over Jesslyn when she was awake, though she slept most of the time. So Mommy and Daddy got to chill and watch Iron Man. I just wanted to take a nap, though... At least we watched a movie I'd been wanting to see, vs Fox News or CNN, which is usually Jeremy's viewing option of choice (so sick of it...)

Yesterday was the busiest day of 'em all. Made a Costco run to get some "stuff" (you know, those two or three things that you go there for, and then end up leaving with a cart-full?? Yeah....) and that took up most of our mid-day. Came home and put Jeremiah down for a late night, fed Jesslyn, had a late lunch, etc, etc... Grandma and Grandpa came by later to pick up Jeremy's parents for dinner. Daddy then played with Jeremiah, while Mommy finished folding and putting all the laundry away and picking up upstairs. So on and so forth. The end result of all my hard work--we have our bedroom back! YAY! The pack and play we had set up for Jesslyn is now downstairs, since Jeremiah insists on patting her, or stroking her hair when she's sleeping in her moses basket. I'm hoping using the pack and play will help! At the very least, it's outta our room, which makes our room feel so much bigger now! I'd forgotten how big it was. :)

Anyways, that brings us to Monday.... err... Tuesday. :) I'm sitting in the family room with Jesslyn sleeping on my chest, and Jeremiah sitting next to me, watching Fireman Sam on Sprout! It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day, though I'm fine with just chillin' at home. We'll go out after Jeremiah's nap this afternoon! :)

Everything else is going well around here. Jesslyn's sleeping better at night. She usually sleeps 5-6 hours at a time, with a 2-3 hour nap after waking up in the morning. The other night was another 7+ hour night, though! YAY! So she's doing really well. My main complaint is the way she eats/sleeps throughout the day. Instead of just eating all at once, she nurses, eats 2-3 oz, stays up to play, and then will randomly want to eat another 1-2 oz before MAYBE falling asleep again (which only lasts a few minutes, usually, and then it's back up for more snacking.) But she does seem to take three naps a day that last for more than 1.5/2 hours, with one usually during Jeremiah's, which gives me a break. YAY!! :) So yeah, things are good!

Well, I just realized she's cutting off the circulation to my hand... pins and needles are not fun. And Jeremiah's got a stinky diaper. yay... So I'm gonna go take care of both those things. How 'bout a couple of cute sibling pics??

Post bath Jeremiah & Photo Op Jesslyn (sounds like a couple of Barbies...)

From this morning. Jeremiah wanted to hold his baby sister. SO SWEET! Though we do worry when he tries to pick her up when she's upset... She's too heavy for him to actually do it, but that doesn't stop him from trying!

(lol, just noticed it looks like Jesslyn's picking her nose...)

Awww... lots of loving for Jesslyn from Jeremiah!

lol

Lately, I've been discussing with several people who go to our church how my least favorite time of the service is the, "take a few minutes and greet someone around you" part. Now, I'm all for being friendly and welcoming, but I just don't see the point. It's not like you have enough time to really get to know anyone, usually you don't even get their first name... And it's unlikely you'd remember that name even if you did get it, by the end of the service. And as a "visitor" at one time or another, I never found this to make me feel more "welcomed" than if it had been omitted.

Obviously, I'm not alone in this thinking. In yesterday's Dear Abby, someone wrote in with that exact same issue. I don't think I'd ever write Dear Abby about it (so, to answer your question, no it wasn't me. :) but I found it amusing that someone else did. We're one of those families who will show up late to avoid having to do it (usually this isn't intentional, as it's tough to get there, put Jeremiah in his class and be seated by 9 am on a Sunday morning.)

Ah well, what're ya gonna do... I suppose if it makes one person feel welcomed, maybe someone who hadn't stepped in a church ever, or at least a while, then it's worth whatever annoyance it may cause on our end. I just hope it never has the opposite affect (someone who thought about coming to church and then changed their mind after having to shake hands with a bunch of strangers who won't remember their name... I know there's no way I'd know if someone next to me was new or not... nothing personal, it's just a big church, and not so easy to keep track of everyone.)

Astroland closes for good.

This is pretty sad...

The Astroland amusement park at Coney Island turned off it's lights for the last time over the weekend.  The rides are for sale, and the land will probably be developed into something else.  

:(

I remember going at least once (may have been twice) when I was a kid.  It was so much fun, despite the fact it was no Six Flags or Kings Dominion park.  I guess it's just hard to accept that a piece of "childhood" will no longer be there. 

The Cyclone roller coaster and ferris wheel will probably remain, as they're owned by the city, but everything else will be gone.  

Oh well.  These things happen, right?  I'm sure it won't be the last childhood landmark to be torn down in my lifetime.  

Hopefully Disney World doesn't get wiped out by Ike next!  Though I'd rather still have Astroland around, personally...  All I remember about Disney was waiting in way-to-long lines, overpriced food/souveniers, and an embarrassing episode involving a box of ice cream snacks and a 45 minute wait at Space Mountain....  yeah.... anyways. 

Switching gears...

Well, today's been a tough day, emotionally/psychologically, for me... I'm really bad at this "waiting" thing. So I thought I would try to force myself to focus on the positives around me instead of the negatives, and see if that helps. So here we go.

~Jeremiah's favorite books are "Daddy Loves Me," "Mommy Loves Me," and "Thank You, God." Usually the Mommy & Daddy books are just for naptimes/bedtimes, and we read "Thank You God" down here in the family room. These are the books that he wants read to him over and over again--I've got 'em memorized! It's just so sweet when he brings it up to you, with a little whine (since he doesn't know how to say "please" yet) and settles into your lap to hear it read to him...

~He still takes his daily nap! This enables Mommy to nap/shower/whatever (though it's usually the first two.) It's a nice break in the middle of the day. I'll be disappointed when he's too big to nap anymore! (Although, our former small group leader, who has three kids between 20 mos and 5 years, still has that afternoon "quiet time" where everyone just stays in their room for two hours in the afternoon. They don't have to nap, but they do have to play quietly if they don't. That'll definitely be something we'll be keeping up with over the years.)

~Since it's summertime, I can get away with wearing gauchos and tank tops everyday, instead of having layers upon layers of maternity clothes. Yeah, I wouldn't mind not sweating so much sometimes, but I'm glad that flip flops will suffice for shoes, and the most dressed I usually ever am is when I'm wearing my PJ's! Makes life more comfy.

~The thrill of the deal. Okay, this one is kinda weird, but as a shopaholic (on a budget...) there's nothing more gratifying than finding something you want/need for 75% off. I found really nice sandals for Jeremiah for next year--only $2.50! These same sandals I couldn't bring myself to spending money on a few months ago, because they were "too expensive" for sandals, IMHO.... I love Target. :)

~I've got a supportive husband, who I know will be so glad when baby's here, so he can stop hearing me whine about it. :) He takes it all in stride, though... And he's been to every one of my appointments thus far (which usually means leaving work early, sitting in traffic, getting home to pick us up, sitting in traffic again, and then entertaining Jeremiah before/during the visit, etc, etc...) When we get to Birthcare, and he's still at the van with Jeremiah, the ladies always ask, "Where's everybody else???" because they're so used to seeing us all together. :) I'd say he knows as much about our pregnancy as I do (well, minus what only Moms can know...) I don't know many hubby's who can honestly say that (I could be wrong, though!)

~We were able to finish our bedroom, and amazingly, it's still fairly clean! Okay, neither Jeremy or I are very neat people. I mean, I can't stand a mess, but I'm also not very likely to do something about it until it really drives me up the wall. Since we recently painted our room and finished the headboard (and new furniture), I've been pretty adament about keeping it neat, and it still is! We're a little behind on laundry, and boy does black furniture reveal the dust, but I could easily take two minutes, make the bed, wipe down the tops, and I would be okay with someone outside our family going in there. Hey, I can't usually say stuff like that... this is pretty huge for us. The bigger surprise??? Our bathroom is in the same condition! Of course, I've been trying to keep it that way for the birth--who wants to deal with a messy bathroom when you've got a newborn??? The little things that make me happy.

~I finished re-tabbing all the diapers! It took several nights, a few hours here and there, but I was able to re-tab all 42 of our cloth diapers! [They use velcro tabs to hold them closed, instead of pins or snaps--they'd gotten a little old from all the use, and were coming undone sometimes.] I certainly don't want to do that again anytime soon. I shouldn't have to either--these should last at least through Jess Jr. By then, we may have to replace a chunk of our collection with new ones, but ya never know...

~Wow, the prince of Nigeria has been exiled and wants me to hold onto his fortune temporarily--he'll let me keep 10% as payment! Sweet....

~And I just won a free XBOX/Laptop/big screen TV--just gotta complete XX offers! Wow, lotta generous people out there today... :)

~My parents still have a "floating" week, and will take Jeremiah once Jess Jr makes her arrival. That'll give us time to "get in a groove" and not have to worry about neglecting Jeremiah while figuring out Jess Jr. Such a blessing! [I just hope that week ends up being next week and not the week after....]

Well, that's all I've got for right now. Oh wait, one more...

~Cupcakes. Oh, and soft serve ice cream with sprinkles/jimmies (whichever you prefer...) Mmmm.... :)

There, I'm done. It helped a little. I'll have to come back here and re-read it when I'm feeling weepy and sorry for myself. That's not my normal existence. I know I'm not the most optimistic person on earth, but I can usually look at things and see the pluses over the minuses. I've used all that up early on, though... Oh well, there's always Ben & Jerry's...

"N to the Izzo!"

Ah, yes... Dan Smith... For those of you who don't know, he was one of the pastors at New Life Christian Church when I went there. He also moonlights as a DJ/white-boy rapper. Some of you may have seen one of his hits floating 'round the 'net, "Baby Got Book" (I was in the original... my .35 seconds of fame!)

Anyways, he's got kids now, and went the kiddie album route for a few songs... A couple, he put up for free on his website (since he doesn't have the "rights" to sell them...) You can find them/download them here!

The first tune, "NOVA" is a parody of Jay-Z's "Izzo" (HOVA) tune--won't be as funny if you're not in the NoVA area, but still creative and funny.

The second is Dan Smith's version of "Green Eggs and Ham". Yeah... Definitely for the kiddies. Fun stuff. :)

Anyways, give it a listen, and share it with your friends! Maybe you'll feel so inclined to pick up one of his other albums--help support his ministry!

Enjoy!

Baby pics!

Well, "pic" I should say. Here is the fruit of Jeremy's labor (literally). The first harvest!

Did you know that tomatoes, while botanically are the "fruit" of the plant, are legally vegetables?? All these years, I've allowed teachers and other folks "trick" me into believing they were "fruit". I always thought it was a weird classification.

Anyways, yup, that's the first harvest from our garden. Although, these aren't really from our garden--they've been growing in a pot on the deck all summer, and have been doing much better than those in the garden itself (fancier soil.) But Jeremy did grow the plant from a seed, and that plant is well over 4 feet tall now! It's pretty impressive, if you ask me. So while the garden has been lagging behind a bit, at least we've got something outta it (and if you're wondering, yes, we meant to pick 'em green--they'll ripen and taste just as yummy on the counter, safe from birds and bugs, rather than leave them on the plant. I didn't know you could do that until recently, so I'm sure there's someone else out there who didn't either. Unless I dumb. Possible... :)

Jeremy took Jeremiah to the grocery store. He wouldn't let me go with 'em. Said I needed some "alone" time. That's sweet, isn't it? Only problem is... I don't know what to do now that there's no one home! There are things I could do, like fold clothes, or put Jeremiah's diapers in the wash. But I can do that stuff when people are home, too. [Oo... I could kill the cat, who's making a huge racket right now, meowing at the top of the steps... no one would be around to see it... hmm... must.... resist.... temptation.... Do they make muzzles for cats???? I'll have to look into that...] So what do I do? I sit online and chat with people.... and post pics of tomatoes on our blog. :) Good times, good times.

Last night, Jeremy and I went to see The Dark Knight again. It was cool a 2nd time, but soooooooo loooooooooong.... I just can't sit anywhere comfortably anymore for 2+ hours... By the end of the movie, I was sitting on the edge of my seat, practically squatting, trying to find some kind of comfy position. But it was good... just long. And it's not like there was anything else to see. All the other movies playing (at least at the theater we went to) were STUPID... Seriously, where'd all the good movies go? Thank God for TDK, otherwise we wouldn't have had much of a "date".

Looks like the nice weather is finally back in VA. This past week was mostly "fall" weather, with highs only in the 70's, and cool nights. It was weird. But the next three days should be nice--sunny and high 80's, for the most part. Sweet. If that humidity stays down like it has been, it'll be a beautiful weekend. Sounds like a nice time to have a baby! Hint hint, Jess Jr! No? Didn't work? Sigh...

Well, I should go bake my cake now. We're going to my parents for a party tomorrow (if Jess Jr doesn't feel like making her grand entrance before then...) so I figured I'd bring a "Jello Cake". It's good--very refreshing for a bar-b-que. Nice, cool alternative to ice cream. So I'd better go make that now. Woot.

Hope to have some real "Baby Pics" up soon! Sorry if I fooled you. :) Not really. Well, okay, yes I am.... no I'm not. :)

'Twas the night before 39 weeks...

...and all through the house,
Jess was constantly stirring.... since it's impossible to get comfortable nowadays.

Well, so much for rhyming. :) I tried.

And life goes on. In case you were wondering, nope, no baby yet (I know there's at least one or two peoples out there who say to themselves, "I wonder if she had the baby yet, and just hasn't had a chance to post?????" I assure you, you'll know when she arrives. Last time, I was blogging during contractions, so yeah, you'll have the heads up. :)

Yup, tomorrow we're 39 weeks. I don't know what I was expecting, really. I mean, Jeremiah didn't come until his due date, and the average subsequent child comes only 4 days earlier. That would put us on Thursday.... which would mean either Jeremy or Liz would probably win the baby poll (unless they're wayyyyy off on weight and height.... haha, they're almost exactly the same guesses, just a few hours apart. Well, guess it'll be a tight race!) If she wants to be like her big brother and show up on her due date, we'd have a three way tie going, with, I'm guessing, Audrey, our birth assistant winning it all (very close times, but varying weights... I think I may have been off with my lower estimate, but we'll see!) And that's as far ahead as I'm going with the baby poll! Personally, I'm pulling for Sunny to win.... because she guessed tomorrow. :) Although, I'd rather wait 'til Tues or Wed, since the midwives on call for tomorrow are not my first choices. I mean, I'll be glad to have any of 'em catch her, if it means she comes sooner, but if I could choose, I'd rather not have a certain midwife, just because she's been the least friendly to me (though I would still take her over my old OB, anyday!) Hey, when you've got 5 to choose from, you can hope for things like that. Worked out well last time!

THANKFULLY, I think the little girl is finally "stuck". I don't remember if I blogged about it before, but late last week and earlier this week, she started flipping sideways every now and then, only to flip back, head down (though sometimes "sunny side up") a few hours later. This freaked me out, obviously, as you can't push a baby out sideways... It caused quite a bit of stress in my life (added to the stress caused by the whole "IV" thing) and made me pretty miserable. But as of our last appointment, she was definitely head down (though not engaged, which is fine... Jeremiah wasn't either until my water broke,) and she hasn't moved since then. So I think she's finally stuck. Or her head is finally too big to move (maybe it'll be as big as Jeremiah's--15 inches... see, it's not the 10 lbs, 11 oz that makes things difficult--it's the fat head. :) Of course, if 12 minutes of pushing is difficult, then bring it on!)

Other than that, life is good. Well, sorta. Jeremiah's got a cold, still (I'm guessing it's a cold...) and has been running a low-grade fever for the past few days. Tried Tylenol, that didn't help, so we're on to Motrin. While that doesn't seem to really bring down the fever, it does seem to improve his mood, so it's helping at least in that regard. My poor baby. Aside from that, though, life is okay. I'm tired of being pregnant, but at least we know, at most, there's only 3 more weeks! Umm... let's change that to 21 days... doesn't sound so bad. :) I'm trying to keep my plate full, so to speak, to help move things along. Next week (first of Sept.) will be the toughest, probably... I don't have anything going on--our small group will be on hiatus (a.k.a. dissolved....) and our chiropractor is on vacation (not that I live my week to go to the chiropractor, but it's something to do...) so all I'll have is my Birthcare appointment (that takes an hour to drive to, in rush hour traffic,) and.... well, that's it. Kids are back in school, so it'll be pretty quiet. Guess I'll have to take Jeremiah to the mall, get a frappuccino, and let him run around the play area or something. There are three malls within 15-20 minutes, so I guess we'll just make the rounds each day. Or something. Maybe we'll have a baby by then and it won't really matter..... (Oh, Lord, please... help a sister out! :)

We're done with all of our projects, now. I'm glad, and also a little disappointed... Disappointed because now after Jeremiah goes to bed for the night, Jeremy and I just sit around and do nothing... there's just nothing to do. Well, we could be cleaning something, sure, but there's only so much cleaning I can stand in one day. So usually I'm bored. Bored bored bored. I can only read the news, check Slickdeals, and Craigslist for so long, and then it's boring. So then I want to go to bed at 10 (early for us, since we're used to Jeremiah not even falling asleep 'til 9:30, despite us putting him down by 8:30.) When we do go to bed early, I wake up early, which makes for a really tiring morning. All in all, it's a lose-lose situation for me either way. C'mon Jess Jr! Time to be born already!

Life's not all bad, though! I hate posting just one negative thing after another, so here's the chipper side of things: our garden is finally growing! lol, It only took 'til the end of August, but we should have some ripening tomatoes soon, and there's at least one decent size cucumber on the vine! Woo hoo! There are a few other "mystery" plants starting to produce stuff, but we're not sure what it'll be... Only time will tell. But that's been exciting.

Got to see my uncle and his fiance over the weekend. They're getting married in October (awww... Jess Jr will be so tiny! Probably only a month old, at the most!) here in VA, so they came to finalize some wedding details. Surprisingly, Jeremiah went right to both of them! We walked in the house, and my uncle went up to him to say hi, and he put his arms up to be picked up! Weird. Cute, but weird. He's usually more apprehensive around "strangers", but hey, progress made. Then, we went down to the pool where my Dad and Fabienne were hanging out. Jeremiah was pretty anxious to get in the water (only so he could climb out and climb back in... it's his favorite thing to do, hang out on the steps...) so Grandpa and Grandma took him in for a few minutes. At one point, though, he slipped and fell right in front of Fabienne, and raised his arms to her to be picked up (despite the fact that Mommy was just a few feet away.) Awww....

Okay, that was pretty gross... We've started letting Big Fella outside again, since he's thoroughly vaccinated now, and well recovered from his little injury a few months back. So he went outside this evening, and showed up a few minutes ago, wanting to come inside. Jeremy opened the door, and we heard this really loud buzzing sound... "What the heck...." Turns out, he'd caught a cicada, and the thing was chirping and buzzing away in his mouth! Ewww! He then proceeded to spit it out a few times, trying to get downstairs (so he could play with it? wash it down with a drink afterwards? I dunno...) Jeremy finally got him, and his "pet/dinner" back outside where Big Fella proceeded to chomp down mercilessly on the helpless bug. Buzz no more, it did!

So gross.

Not as gross as when he ran in the house back in Tysons with, at three different times, a bird, a mouse, and a baby rabbit all dead in his mouth. Don't let his "innocent" face fool ya.... that cat is a full blown carnivore... Maybe he'll take out the ground hog that's been eating our garden, next... One can hope, but I think that may be asking too much--that guy's pretty big, after all.

Alright. That's a good update, I think. So yeah, just keep checking in here for news! You'll be the first to know that way. :) Have a great week, everyone!

Ah well...

Today's been a busy day.

Jeremiah and I headed off to my Mothering Matters small group, first thing this morning. I wasn't quite "all there" though. Didn't sleep well, and one of the first things Jeremiah did was knock over my freshly poured glass of orange juice--all over a white carpet! Thanks, Jeremiah... Needless to say, I was a bit distracted the rest of the group. And tired. You know how your body just hurts when you've slept too long? Just aches and pains all over, when you should feel your best, bright and refreshed? Yeah, that was me this morning, after sleeping for 8.5 hours. And of course, I could have slept longer. So I've given up trying to go to bed early anymore... There's no point. At least when I only sleep 6-7 hours, I feel okay when I wake up. There's always that afternoon nap to finish off what I missed during the night.

After group, we went to lunch with "Miss" Liz and Rachel, where Jeremiah proceeded to throw more things on the floor, including his shoes. The kid has no problem kicking them off when he's in a shopping cart, or high chair, but ask him to remove them upon entering the house, and he'll struggle all afternoon until you come to his rescue. I was definitely ready to go by the time our server brought our check back. In my haste to leave, though, I left his stacking cups on the table (it was a bit chaotic... our server didn't do a very good job clearing stuff away after it was empty... why I still tipped him well, I dunno... guess it's a habit.) They were only a buck, so I guess it's no biggie. Just kinda annoying that I have to get another set when this one was only a few days old. But I digress...

Tried to nap when Jeremiah napped, but didn't have a very successful time at that. Guess it was from all that sleep last night. :) At least Jeremiah got a decent nap in. Lately, he's been sleeping only an hour or so, when he normally sleeps 2-3. So today was nice... I just wish I had done more with that time he was asleep. And if I had found something else to do, I would have wished I'd napped instead. Quite the problem to have, eh? :)

Jeremy came home, we did stuff, blah blah blah. We'll just skip to the end--all this so I can get to the main topic of my post: the spa is only 85 degrees. Yup. That's it. Apparently, it turns off after a certain amount of time... I'm not sure exactly how much time, but this is a fact I was familiar with. I just wish I had remembered, so I could turn it back on before it started getting cold. It heats the water about a degree an hour, so by tomorrow it'll be back up to where it needs to be. But for tonight, no relaxing in the spa for me. BOO!! I was really looking forward to it. Sewed some diapers tonight, and after leaning over a sewing machine (while sitting on the "comfortable for 30 minutes, no more" dining room chair) I was ready to relax in the spa for a few minutes before bed. But alas, it was not meant to be.

The great irony in all of this would come with a surprise appearance tonight by Jess Jr. That would be "perfect", wouldn't it? Go through all this trouble of buying/setting up/maintaining a portable spa, only to have it be of little use for its main purpose--a midwife's "epidural". Actually, tomorrow night would be perfect timing for her to arrive. The spa will be warm again, and Marsha will be on call. Though the midwife on call right now, Regina, is working with the new midwife, Sheila, whom I like very much (based on my few conversations with her, at least.) So that wouldn't be bad. But the spa's not warm yet, and by the time it is, they may be at another birth, which would mean we'd get the backup, of whom I'm not that fond. In the end, though, it probably won't matter which midwife we get. After all, they're here to support me, and criticism doesn't help labor progress (not that they've been critical, really, it's just perceptions and tone from the past that I've been less than thrilled with.)

Anyways, I've kinda given up hope for a birth this week. I think next week is more likely. And that's okay. She's going to come when she's ready to come, even though I'd love for her to come earlier. And I just don't have the energy/drive to try the top two natural labor inducers (I'll let you look 'em up....) So we'll wait, and hope she at least comes by her due date. If she doesn't... well, ask me about it then. I'd rather not go there right now. :) Let's just hope and pray that Grandma's guess is WAYYY off! And while we're at it, Ali/Chris, and Harmony, too. What're you trying to do to me???? :)

Okay... I'm pretty tired now, so off I go! What's the forecast for tomorrow... High of 82?! That's it?! Well, I'm not driving out to Warrenton to go swimming in low 80's temps... Good day to walk to the farm, though! The Farmer's Market will be up and running. We'll see. Could be nice. Doesn't look like very much hot weather from here on out--most highs in the low-mid 80's, one or two days in the high 70's??!! Maybe I typed in "Calgary, AB" instead of "Herndon, VA".... Oh, nope, nevermind, their highs are in the more "seasonal" range the next 10 days (though 59 for a high in August just seems weird... But then again, weather is a strange thing...) I guess fall wants to come a little early this year, since spring decided to start back in March! Geez, I hope this doesn't mean a frigid winter ahead of us... I prefer the more mild types (and no snow after Christmas. Up til then, no problem. But that's it!)

What was I talking about?? Oh yeah, going to bed. G'night!

Yay!

All done!

Finally, after weeks of planning and and working, we have finished our bedroom!

Well, not quite entirely... I still need to put some curtains up, and maybe get some art up as well. But for now, it's done.

Many thanks to my awesome parents, who gave up their Saturday to come help us do the last bit! It partially my Moms fault, anyways, that it took so long. I had a mediocre plan of attack, she had a much for fancy solution. Of course, fancy always takes a little more work, but we were able to pull it off! YAY!

We've also finished the nursery. Not that it was waiting for a lot, but we had to wait for a mattress from my parents (which my Mom and I picked up today while my Dad and Jeremy went to Home Depot for bed stuff.) Once we had that, we could pick out a skirt for the crib, and set it all up! It looks so cute! But, no pics right now, because we also set up the spa in there, and it doesn't look good. Functional, yes, but I'll be glad when the birth is over and we can move it out.

It is nice for right now, though! Jeremy and I have been in it a couple of times, and it's so much nicer than the Aqua Doula we had last time. For one thing, because it's inflatable, it's way more comfortable than sitting on the floor. There's a bottom cushion, and the sides are cushioned, so I can actually hang on to the sides during contractions this time, instead of using a pool noodle. Also, it's heated (the Aqua Doula only maintained heat, it didn't heat it up,) which is very nice, indeed. But yeah, it's ugly. :)

Well, Michael Phelps is about to try for his 8th Gold right now, so I'm gonna go. But before I do, I just wanted to say we had a nice date last night. :) The "Friday Night Date Nights" are on, and last night, we had dinner at Ruth's Chris (thanks to some credit card points that I won't be accumulating anymore of...) We even PAID someone to watch Jeremiah (well, sit here and make sure he slept soundly, at least...) which is a first. But it was a nice time. And boy was it a good meal. YUMMY! We had the mixed grille, which had a 4 oz filet, crab cake and chicken breast (among other stuff, but that was the main stuff.) The filet and crab cake were AWESOME! The chicken breast... eh, meh. Coulda done without. But yes, it was all delicious, and we were both SUPER STUFFED when we left. It was just nice to get out and enjoy a nice meal without Jeremiah. We'll have to come up with something else yummy and fun for next week (if there's no baby...) but it'll be tough to top that!

Okay, time to go. :) Thanks again to my parents for all their help (and all the baby stuff!!) My to-do list just got a lot shorter (just need to finish fixing all my diapers!)

No more free drinks on US Airways

Not that they're my first choice for airlines, but sometimes ya have no choice. Luckily, it sounds like many other full cost airlines will follow suit (as opposed to discount airlines, like Spirit, who apparently have been charging for years.)

Yet another reason to bring a box of chocolates on board with you, for the flight crew. If we regularly get free booze as a result, I'm sure a drink of water here or there would be no problem.

More Here

Game is now LOCKED!

I know I said I would wait 'til 36 weeks, but since we technically only have a month left now (31 days...) and our ticker has moved to the 9 month window, I did it today. Besides, I think that everyone who had planned on guessing would have guessed by now anyways. If for some reason, though, you're one of the few who did not get to guess, and would still like to, email me and I'll make it happen (before Monday.)

Pretty crazy... 10 more days, we'll be full term! No one seems to be expecting this baby early, though--the first guess is August 25th, two full weeks after "full term". So, yeah, I might as well keep on working on my various projects around the house... no rush, it seems. :)

Jeremy and I put together a new chest for our bedroom last night. Don't ya just love Ikea furniture?? It's so great how they can explain exactly how to build one of their pieces with no words at all, just pictures and arrows. That doesn't mean it's not still incredibly frustrating, and takes FOREVER! I think we started around 10:30 last night, and went to bed at 2... Yeah, not fun. One more, though, and that's it! All the new furniture will be complete! Now I just need to make my headboard... Yet another never ending project...

And that's about it. I'm gonna eat some lunch and then go get ready for the day--getting a birthday pedi at 1:45! I don't really feel like going, though... I never do, but am always glad I did afterwards (and my feet will thank me, for sure...) The weekend is turning into a busy one, but it's all good. Helps move things along. :)

Good morning.

So last night, Jeremy said to me, "You haven't posted anything new on the blog in a while..." I guess he hadn't actually checked the blog before he said it, but I found it funny. :) We've got over 500 posts from the past three years (with most of those being from the past 18 months, I'm sure...) so I guess I'm only allowed to go two to three days without posting something. I'm sorry, my loyal readers! I will try to not slack so much in the coming days. :)

Right now, Jeremiah and I are feasting on a bountiful breakfast consisting of nutrigrain waffles, with peanut butter, honey and bananas. Mmmm... They were all out of his favorite oatmeal when I went grocery shopping, so we've had to think outside the box a bit. I think he really likes it, though. Probably got really sick of oatmeal, after all.

And like we do every morning, we're watching his favorite videos while we eat. If things seem a bit "off" in this post, that's why--I'm typing this in a window half the size of my screen, while the video plays in the other half. I don't generally do well with noise in the background, but I'll do my best. :) Oh, nevermind, we've switched to home videos now. He really enjoys watching vids of when he was a baby. Currently playing, "Yum, Yum, Yum!" which was one of the first videos of Jeremiah eating rice cereal. I'm not sure if he's fascinated with it because he knows it's him, or because it's a baby in general and babies = funny.

Oh, we've changed again. Now, it's the "Hoolie hoolies, and the drip!" where he finds Grandma's paintings in our living room hilarious. I don't get it...

So yeah, pretty leisurely day planned. We've been pretty busy around here the past couple of days, since I wanted to get the most use out of Uncle Stephin as I could before he left (which happened last night.) I've still got lots of things on my to-do list, but I don't think I'll be able to get it all done. I dunno, we'll see. I haven't napped at all this week... I may push that one to the top of my list, and bump something else, like "put up the handrail on the stairs" (it's for Jeremiah, so he can support himself when climbing up and down the steps.)

In other news, our garden hasn't been doing too well. It's pretty disappointing... The only plan really thriving is one tomato plant that we left in a pot on the deck--it actually has a couple of baby tomatoes on it! But that's it. One or two of our cucumber plants have itty bitty cukes on 'em (like, maybe an inch long) but the plants are so tiny, we'll be lucky to get a gherkin size cuke outta it. Yeah... but it's all good. Next year, we'll start with seeds IN the garden, really early, too, like April, and hope for the best. At least the hard stuff is done--building the bed, filling it, etc... So next year should be easier. I hope. :)

On a random note, baby girls' clothes are far more confusing than boys. Maybe some Mommys of girls can explain it to me--how do you keep track of all the diaper cover thingies that seem to accompany EVERY outfit?! I kept all the hangers, but most of them weren't on hangers in the first place--they were just attached with those plastic price tag thingies. Anyways, I think I'll be able to figure most of them out, since they do tend to match the dress they're supposed to go with... but how to Dad's do it?? I don't see Jeremy standing there, shuffling through a drawer on Sunday morning, trying to find the "pink bottom with purple and yellow flowers" to match the "pink dress with purple and yellow flowers"... It's kinda like that game that Bert plays on "Play With Me, Sesame!" called "Perfect Pair". "Okay, this sock is green with brown stripes... can you find the other green sock with brown stripes???" Yeah.... Ah well. I guess we'll just figure it out along the way!

Okay, well, I think Jeremiah's done with his breakfast now, so time to move on! Hope this is good enough to appease the "post gods". There's only so much I can talk about on any given day... Then when I see people and I know they read the blog, we have nothing to discuss... See, this whole blog thing is a catch-22 for us. When in doubt, though, we default to "crazy baby tricks" and let Jeremiah do the entertaining. He's more interesting than our weeks anyways. :)

So much for that.

I had planned on writing this big long post, but Jeremiah just woke up from his nap (booo! he should have slept a little longer!) We'll see how much I can get in before he starts kicking the wall with his feet...

Amazingly, Jeremy and I went to a movie the other night! Shocking, I know. We were actually able to go see THE DARK KNIGHT, at the IMAX theater, no less! Stephin has been hanging with us for the past few days, so he was able to "watch" Jeremiah while we went (it was an 11 p.m. show... more like "listen for" than "watch" Jeremiah at that time of night.) It was REALLY good, but definitely NOT for kids--while there was little/no swearing, blood, and gore, there was plenty of violence (no moreso than on an evening TV program, though...) What the MPAA doesn't score on is how the movie makes you feel, and how your imagination interprets what's happening. That's where the "feels like it should have been rated "R"" feeling comes into play. It really did feel a lot scarier and more disturbing than a PG-13 film (especially from a Mom's point of view... some of the things they 'suggested' were just more than I could take... Too many 'near tears' moments for my comfort!) Was it a great flick??? Absolutely! Even if you're not a Batman fan, you'd probably enjoy this movie, just because it was THAT good. But yeah... as much as you leave the theater saying, "That was a great movie!" you leave saying, "That was messed up..." Just a warning. :) Leave the kiddies at home.

And I must say, Heath Ledger's Joker was SPOT ON! Joker has been many things over the years, but at his core, he's always been a killer who does it just because it's "funny" or "amusing" to himself. He's not out to kill Batman, because that would take away his "fun". As they would say on the streets, he's just one messed up "mofo" (or motivator, if you're using the same dubbing tracks as they used for Resident Evil. :) The guy's crazy, but not, at the same time. He's a very complicated character!

Jack Nicholson's Joker was out for revenge... He was out to be on top. He was "the Joker" that many Detective Comics portrayed him to be. And then Batman got a little darker... The Batman of recent years (especially by Frank Miller) was more "Batman" than "Bruce Wayne". This Batman couldn't hang up the cape if he WANTED to--he's stuck, because Batman is who he is--Bruce Wayne, as Rachel Dawe's stated in BATMAN BEGINS, was his mask, not the other way around. The Joker in THIS universe is just messed up. And Ledger played him PERFECTLY! I know there will be an uproar come Oscar time if he doesn't get a nom. You have to remind yourself during the flick, "That's Heath Ledger!" because otherwise, you forget. He's sooooo out there, so far removed from every other role he's played--he disappears.

Not only do you forget that it's him, he makes you hate/sympathize/love the Joker all at once. Maybe some more than others, but at certain points in the movie, the Joker has a very childlike persona, and ya kinda wanna give him a hug. Okay, maybe that's the hormones talking, but anyways, it's a great film, everyone was terrific in it (though the closeups of Bale as Batman were a bit distracting... he does this thing with his lips when he speaks, it doesn't really make sense. But other than that...) Yeah, we enjoyed it, though I'm okay with not seeing it again for a while... again, that whole, "that's messed up" part of it, yeah, too much for a preggers. Maybe when it comes out on DVD we'll try again (though if you can see it at the IMAX theater, DO IT! They shot 30-or so min with IMAX cameras, and it's AWESOME! You'll never get to see it that way again, once it's gone, so do it now!)

And on to other things!

With Stephin being here, we've been able to get a few things done that we've been meaning to do, like move the nursery furniture into the nursery! YAY! Now, I just need a crib mattress for the crib (hint hint, Grandma/Grandpa!) and I can get it all set up nicely! I'm anxious to get it done, even though we won't need it right away. I do plan on moving her in sooner rather than later, though... Jeremiah didn't move into his own crib until we got back from our trip to Mexico when he was 10 weeks old... Yeah, not doing that again. I needed our bedroom to be a relaxing, calming place, and it definitely wasn't with a newborn and nursing problems... I don't plan on allowing breastfeeding to take away from the enjoyment during those early weeks this time around, but I definitely think he overstayed his welcome in our room (we wanted to move him earlier, but since we had been promised a crib by someone, we had to wait on them before we could get it and set it up.) This time, I plan on keeping her around in our room full time, probably for two weeks, and then transitioning to the nursery during naptimes, and hopefully out completely by 1 month. We'll see... :) So yeah, we need to get that room set up completely before she shows up!

What else... well, that's all the exciting stuff for this week, so far. Jeremy's off on Friday, so I get to get a pedicure (birthday present I haven't had the chance to take advantage of yet,) which should be nice. We're having some friends over on Saturday, so we need to get some cleaning done around the house (stuff I've been wanting to do, but it keeps getting pushed to the back burner until now... nothing like a little friendly motivation to get things done!) And that's about all that's going on!

Next week, we're 36 weeks (crazy!), so I get to see the midwives on a weekly basis. I still need to pick up a few things for our birth kit, but for the most part, we're ready! It's hard to believe how quickly time has gone by (though depending on when you ask me, I may say it hasn't gone by fast enough.) I would LIKE to have a couple of names picked out by the time she's born... I'd rather not show up at the pediatricians office with another "Baby W" but we'll see. I can tell ya right now, it's not me holding up this process... ;) Must be someone else who was involved in this whole "baby" thing. Jeremiah's been trying to help, but he can't read or speak yet... he can only do so much! :)

And I think that's enough. Jeremiah's been good, but I think I should go get him now. We've got a couple of things we can still do before Uncle Stephin leaves for the week. I'm sure he'll be back soon (especially since Jeremy's going out of town overnight next week...) Hopefully I'll have nursery pics to post before then! If not, well, soon! :)

That's that.

To all the cloth diapering Mommy's out there...

Should you need to order more diapers (as I'm debating to do), order them from Diapers.com. There's always at $10 off $49 coupon available, with free shipping over $49. They also have plenty of other things you could need, like natural detergents, and other "stuff". I've got 3 BumGenius 3.0's (BLOSSOM, of course!) in my cart right now for $43.85 shipped--that's less than $15/diaper (which is way less than I paid for them from Cottonbabies!)

Yeah, I'm done with Cottonbabies for a while. I don't feel like their customer service dept came through for me. I don't understand how it was my fault that I had an order confirmation for my diapers, and then they "ran out" and wanted to sub. Had I known there was a credit card problem when I placed the order, I could have corrected it then while the diapers were still in stock. But I digress... Cottonbabies, I've given you guys almost $1000 in business--I'll not be giving you a dollar more. You of all websites should know, ya don't piss off a pregnant woman!

So yeah, feel free to find alternate deals for your cloths! Heck, $2 more for a new diaper in perfect shape, than a "second" is worth it to me! But I do think we have enough diapers for now, so I guess I don't even need to order those. It'll be pretty frequent washings until Jeremiah gets potty trained, but we should still have enough to keep us on an every 2-3 day schedule. So it's all good! :)

Grumble grumble grumble...

Stupid Cottonbabies....

Tuesday night, I got an email saying they were having a "BumGenius Seconds Sale!" Basically, you can buy the diapers we use for $6 off per diaper, and considering they NEVER really go on sale, we jumped on it and ordered 8 pink diapers (because we have a TON of white, blue and yellow, but only a few pink that I ordered last month.) They may have cosmetic "flaws" but they're still fine (like the stitching isn't straight--our blue diapers are seconds and they're holding up better than the regular ones!) Got our order confirmation, thought we were good to go!

Wednesday morning, I get an email saying our credit card was declined. That didn't make sense, so I called 'em about it. Turns out, in my hurry to get my order in before they sold out, I entered the wrong year for the expiration date. But they fixed it, charged my card, and said, "Okay, you're all set."

Well, apparently not. I received an email tonight saying that they were sold out of the pink, but had some green, blue and white available if I wanted to substitute. ARGH!!! No, that's okay... my whole reason for ordering was to get some pink.

Needless to say, I'm a bit bummed... I wanted to cry when I got that email. Yes, it's that silly. Oh well. I guess it wasn't meant to be. We didn't really have the extra $100 anyways.

Guess I should go work on the diapers I DO have. Those tabs aren't going to replace themselves.... Hopefully I don't break my sewing machine again....