"Jess & Jeremiah Go To Krispy Kreme"

Sounds like a great movie...

And yes, we really did go to Krispy Kreme today. It wasn't planned, it just kinda.... happened.

Okay, well, here's what happened.

So I've been trying to get Jeremy to go to Buy Buy Baby with me so we can pick out a crib for #2. I've got their "Golden Ticket" (a.k.a. the elusive and rare 20% off coupon) that expires on May 12, so of course, I think we're running out of time! The rain made going out yesterday kind of a blah idea, so I was informed that I should "go while I'm at work tomorrow."

So I did.

This morning, Jeremiah woke up around 6! I know why, though... he's a light sleeper, and Jeremy had to get up early. All his rustling around ultimately woke Jeremiah from his gentle slumber, and he played in his crib for an hour or so before falling back asleep. I was also awoken, as Jeremy doesn't like to set his alarm for the time he needs to get up, but has it start going off at least 30 minutes prior. Ergo, every few minutes his alarm would go off, and wouldn't get turned off until I had punched him in the arm enough to wake him (at which point he would jump up in a frenzy thinking he had overslept... and then hit the snooze button for another 5 minutes...) Needless to say, by the time he was actually out of bed getting ready, I was wide awake and having a tough time returning to my previously blissful state.

Eventually, I did fall back asleep, and we (Jeremiah and myself) got up around 9. After a quick bite to eat (yeah right...) we were on our way to Buy Buy Baby! There was almost no one on the road, and with the rain falling, it was a very relaxing trip. Apparently, too relaxing for Jeremiah. By the time we were on the highway, he was fast asleep, even though nap time wasn't for almost two hours! So the decision to be made is do I wake him up once we get there, or try to extend our driving time to give him a longer nap? Well, I chose option 2, and decided that we need to keep moving, since any chance of a formal nap at that point is zilch. So where to go in Rockville? Krispy Kreme!

Well, it worked. Jeremiah and I got got there about 15-20 minutes later (Google was giving me a hard time with directions... said it couldn't understand my "start location" or something...) and as if on cue, he woke up as we pulled in. :) Got a few doughnuts, and headed on back to Buy Buy Baby. And that's house we ended up at Krispy Kreme.

Can't say it was worth it, though. Maybe it's because they went trans free or something else, I don't know, but what I do know is that I remember KK doughnuts being much better. Or maybe it's that I'm used to Shopper's doughnuts now (they're the best!) To me, KK just tasted 'overkooked', and kinda blah... AND the glaze fell off! As soon as ya took a bite, there goes all the glaze.

Yeah...

So I'm sticking with Shoppers for my 'donut kravings'. It's not worth driving 20 miles to KK to get overcooked and overpriced doughnuts. MAYBE if their "HOT" sign is on, but otherwise, I'll stick with my twice the size/twice as good/half the price Shoppers doughnuts.

Oh, and I didn't find a crib. Grr... I did finally get to see the crib I had planned on getting for Jeremiah, but after seeing it in person, I'm not sure if I like it anymore... It just seemed kinda cheaply made. So now I'm looking at a very simple modern looking crib, but it's not very tall, so unlike a normal convertible crib, I'd probably have to put something on the wall above it to fill the space (like her name or something, I guess...) I'm a little wary of that, even though I've put stuff above our bed (and our heads...) It's different when it's your baby... So we'll see. Jeremy promised he'd come with me to look at 'em, so I'm going to hold him to that! Otherwise, i'll just end up coming home with a Oeuf crib they had there... it's only $890 normally. Hey, 20% off, not so bad... ;-)

And there it is...

Canada takes lead in declaring BPA "toxic"

While Jeremiah's almost out of the "danger zone" (the small risk that there is...) we'll still be replacing our bottles and sippy cups with BPA-free versions in time for Jess Jr. Our Breastflow bottles definitely have to go--the risk is highest when the bottles are sterilzed in boiling water (which we did with those) and even higher levels are released when the plastic becomes scratched and cloudy (such as when using a brillo pad to wash them, as the kind maids in Mexico did while we were there.)

Since we never heat his bottles anymore (and haven't in a long time!) the risk for his Avent bottles is probably very small. But we will transistion out of those, as well as his sippy cups, over time. The only annoying thing about having to do so is that no one else makes 11 oz bottles... There are a couple of 10 oz bottles out there, but Jeremiah can polish off 11 oz and still ask for more, no problem (though he is starting to grow out of the 'bottle stage', so it may not be as big of a problem as we think.) Hopefully Avent gets with the program and makes a BPA-free version of their bottles soon, so we won't have to worry about it with Jess Jr.

There's a first (and probably last) time for everything!

Last night, Jeremy came home and mowed the lawn FOR THE FIRST TIME! When we bought the house, it was the end of August, and the summer heat had pretty much killed the grass. Well, not killed it, but there wasn't a lot of rain, so little growing occured. Needless to say, it did not require pruning last year.

This year, however, mother nature has been heaping helping after helping of rain on our lawn, and guess what??? It's grown out of control! Our neighbor's lawn care service were unwilling to negotiate a better rate for having three lawns to do all right in a row, so Jeremy decided he would try cutting it himself to see how bad it is. So we borrowed our neighbor's mower, and he got to work!

Well, he got the front done. :) It didn't take too long, maybe an hour or so, but that was mostly because he had to keep stopping to dump the trimmings. As you can see from the pic, there's quite a bit of grass there... If we stay on it, my guess is we won't be emptying the bag every five minutes or so.

I'm hoping he sticks with it. I wouldn't blame him, though, if he wanted to hire someone else to do it when it's 100 degrees out this summer. For now, it's a good workout for him (and saves us $30/week.)

Only problem is that Jeremiah seems to be quite afraid of the mower... Everytime Jeremy would start it up, Jeremiah would start crying, and wanting his Daddy. Nope, not even Mommy would do, he wanted his Daddy. He seemed very concerned... like he thought the mower was hurting his Daddy or something. I dunno. I hope he gets over that! Today, I turned on the handvac to clean out the groves on his highchair, and he started crying with that, too! He's very sensitive... :)

Of course, he has to pose for the camera, despite his tears...

Woot!

It's going to be in the 80's today and tomorrow! Sweet... Looks like next week will be slightly more normal, with highs in the high 60's, low 70's, but I'll take it all! In another month or so, it'll be in the 80's and 90's with high humidity, so we'll enjoy this while we can.

What's a Mom to do???

As a parent, our number one concern is the well-being of our child(ren). Especially as Moms, we're wired to protect our child at all costs. In this day and age of product advancements, recalls, and safety concerns, it's becoming increasingly difficult to know what's best for your baby. Well, things are about to get even more confusing.

Before I became a Mom, I'd never heard of "BPA", or bisphenol A. This chemical is used the production of many MANY different baby bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers, and even line formula containers. The FDA declared it safe, but new reports are showing that they may be wrong:

The National Toxicology Program went further than previous U.S. government statements on possible health risks from BPA.

It said: "There is some concern for neural and behavioral effects in fetuses, infants and children at current human exposures." The findings expressed concern about exposure in these populations, "based on effects in the prostate gland, mammary gland, and an earlier age for puberty in females."

The National Toxicology Program expressed "negligible concern" that exposure of pregnant women to BPA causes fetal or neonatal death, birth defects or reduced birth weight and growth in babies. It also had "negligible concern" that exposure causes reproductive problems in adults.

So far, the FDA hasn't budged, but an announcement from our neighbors to the north may begin to change that.

In Canada, the Globe and Mail newspaper said the Canadian health ministry was ready to declare BPA a dangerous substance, making it the first regulatory body in the world to reach such a determination. The newspaper said the ministry could announce the decision as soon as Wednesday.

Now, just because Canada says it's dangerous doesn't mean it is... but! They're not the only ones expressing concern. Other industrialized nations have also said that BPA could be harmful, and many companies have already decided to make the switch on their own (after they finish selling out of their current non-BPA Free stock.... like Nuby... we love their sippy cups, but they aren't switching to BPA free until later this year after they've sold through their current supply...)

Other companies have known from the beginning that BPA-Free was the way to go, such as Born Free, Adiri (they make the breast shaped bottles,) Medela, etc. These companies offer safe plastic alternatives, for those parents who don't want to switch to glass (yeah, I'm one of them... those things are tough, but I'm sure Jeremiah would find a way to break one...)

So what's a Mom to do??? I've got, probably, 2 dozen plastic battles that could be unsafe, at least 4 or 5 sippy cups, let alone the plastic plates and cups I've purchased to stave off the constant replacing of broken glasses and plates. I dunno... If Canada does make that announcement, it's gonna be tough to stick with what we've got...

In the mean time, I'm switching all of our registry items that could be "unsafe" to BPA free. Might as well start off right the 2nd time. Obviously, there is some concern there about the safety of these products, and even if problems are a rarity, why take that chance? Jeremy's not going to be happy if we have to replace everything (that'll be at least $100... better swing by Babies R Us and pick up more coupon books...) But, I think this is getting to big to ignore...

What's safe, what's not?
Plastic bottles may be harmful
BPA Free Portal

On a slightly related note, I recently learned that hot tap water isn't the safest thing to drink--lead from the pipes leaches into the water when it's hot. The concentration is not as high in cold water. Short lesson learned: don't use hot water for drinking or preparing food. Even in newer pipes that claim to be "lead free" can cause water to have higher lead levels than safety standards recommend. So for washing dishes, fine. For boiling pasta or having a cup of tea, start it cold.

What's next??

Oh yeah...

We've recently discovered that Jeremiah has several new teeth coming in! I counted 6 that have already broken through, with another one or two on their way. This probably explains why he's been waking up a lot at night, crying, for no good reason (usually falls back asleep on his own, but sometimes we'll pick him up to reassure him before putting him down on his "blankee".) My baby's growing up! :)

Halfway mark!

Well, today, we've reached the midpoint of our pregnancy with #2. And thus begins "the hump". See, first trimester, you don't even know you're pregnant for about 4 weeks, don't see your physician for another 4 weeks or so, then you get to hear the heartbeat at appointment #2, and bam! First trimester is over. Then you start the 2nd trimester, looking forward to "the big ultrasound" and then bam! Nothing. Nope, all ya have to look forward to once you hit 20 weeks is the GD test (gestational diabetes.) Yay... soooo exciting. At least around that time, you enter the third trimester, and it's all downhill from there!

BUT! For the next 8 weeks... nothing exciting going on, pregnancy wise. SO! We need to make our own excitment! This month is pretty quiet, though we had a nice weekend. Sunday we visited with Jeremy's old boss, Kevin, and got to meet their new baby (they live pretty close, which made it easier to get together.) That was nice. Except for when Jeremiah started screaming because their older daughter tripped going down the steps and hit her head on the trim.... Yeah, he's a sympathy crier. But he was fine after that---until he saw their "rocking horse". I don't know why, but ever since he saw the one at my cousins' house, he hasn't been the same... Yeah, so he started screaming then, too... And there was no way we could get him to NOT look at it. We tried hiding him next to Daddy, but nope, he kept pushing himself up so he could see it was still there... Sigh... Needless to say, we moved to a different room, and then he was fine.

We finally purchased our plane tickets for our trip next month. In case ya don't know, we're dropping Jeremiah off at Grandpa's (specifically "Grandpa's" because he's the one taking time off from work to hang out with his "favorite grandson,") and heading to Toronto for a wedding before flying to Vegas for a week of fun! Well, Jeremy's working part of that week, but we'll still have a good time! The pools will be open (at the lovely Pallazo hotel, part of The Venetian... very nice...) so that's probably where I'll spend my days before checking out a few shows at night. Planning on seeing Blue Man Group (for a second time), The Phantom Experience (they built the theater specifically for it!), and some Cirque de Soleil show (haven't decided which yet...) Jeremy wants to see Penn & Teller (not high on my list, but sounds like fun,) maybe Spamalot... We'll see (thank you US Government for that tax rebate!) Heck, it's fun just walking the strip, so I'm really looking forward to it--truly is an "adult Disneyworld".

June holds some good stuff, too. Jeremy's "best man" and former roommate are heading to the beach with his family, and will be stopping by here on their way. Of course, later in the month is my birthday, though we probably won't do anything major for it... It's just something to look forward to.

July will be spent at the pool, in some way, shape, or form. I'll probably head to my parents' house a few times a week, since it'd be private. I may try a public pool if necessary, but I'd rather not. I suppose we'll see!

And that's all the fun we've got planned for now. I'm hoping we can take a family trip sometime either in late June or July, and head to the beach or something, for a few days. I don't want to go anywhere far (and definitely don't want to fly with Jeremiah while 8 months pregnant...) so it'll probably be VA beach area, or somewhere in Maryland, perhaps... I dunno, just someplace where Jeremiah can play in the sand and splash in the water! I think he'd really like it (vs. last time when we stuck his feet in the Pacific and he started crying... of course, that was much colder water... hopefully this time, he'll be a bit more brave. :)

Yup, so 20 weeks down, 20 to go! Hope it goes by quickly! And bring on the nice weather again! We had two 80+ days late last week, and those days should be back again by the end of the week! WOO HOO! Life is good.

Splishy-splashy!

How sweet of him to humor me! :)

The Modern "Manly" Man

He's not afraid to wear pink. :)

(Yeah, his hair is sticking up in the front there... keeps wiping his nose with his fist, and then rubbing it into his hair... But look how sweet he looks!)

(Heading to church.)

Aww... What a cute pair, huh?? (I love this one!)

Booo...

Well, that stinks.

So, Saturday has unofficially become, "TV Day", since Daddy's home, and likes to watch his Fox News and CNN in the mornings. Then he'll take off somewhere, and I'll put it on Sprout! for Jeremiah (the toddler channel). Usually, Jeremiah will watch for a minute or two and then ignore it.

Today, though, was a bit different. Today, around 11:15, he decided he wanted to climb up onto the love seat with Mommy and watch it. So I got him all set up in the corner of the couch, and I sat in front of him with my laptop. He was surprisingly still.

I kept looking over at him, and sure enough, he was still watching the show. The third time I glanced his way, however, I got an unexpected surprise--he was asleep. This is the kid that NEVER falls asleep anywhere but his crib (and usually after several minutes of babbling to himself.) And here he was, fast asleep, on the couch (before nap time, too!)

Of course, I had to go get Jeremy--this is not something we'll probably ever see again! It was SO CUTE! Jeremy thought he'd fool around and put the remote in his hand. Makes the pics I snapped with my phone that much cuter.

And therein lies the "booo...." Unlike our regular camera, my phone doesn't auto-save. I'm 99.9% sure that I did push "SAVE", but when I looked in the folder, the pics were gone. BOOOOOO!! So unfortunately, we don't have proof that such an occasion occurred. You'll just have to take our word for it. :)

He must have been really tired... he didn't wake up when we picked him up, changed him, and then put him in his crib. He's NEVER EVER done that. NEVER! No matter how tired he is, he always wakes up when we move him, especially if we're changing his diaper. Guess those few sips of Jeremy's Americano (4 shots of espresso over ice) backfired and he crashed hard (not that I would have said he ever got all riled up. Just his normal self.)

Weird.

Okay fine...

I've decided that I'll share the news with ya'z after all. But if you haven't guessed in the baby poll yet, please take a moment to do so! I know, it's silly, but it makes me happy to see people guess!

And now.....

We're having a girl! Yay! Needless to say, we're super excited! I 'bout cried when she started typing it on the screen (though I had already guessed it as soon as she started trying to find 'it'. We saw LINES! :)

So yeah, there ya go, now ya know. But if you were guessing "boy" before I said anything, you should still enter that as your guess (if you haven't guessed yet!) Not that these things usually come down to a 40 point difference (that's what the gender is worth.)

Time to buy some dresses!!!
So there ya have it! You're now in the "know". Don't ya feel special??? :)

It's a.....

BABY! :)

We had our ultrasound this morning, and it went well. Baby was much less trouble than Jeremiah was (we had to get up and walk around/grab lunch with him... wouldn't cooperate.) Couldn't get a really good profile shot, but got a cute foot, leg, arm shot or two.

Everything is normal, as far as we can tell. So all is well!

Jeremiah was a bit bored, though... Almost got in trouble with the tech, because Jeremy kept walking over to the "wrong" side of the table... But she was nice about it. Luckily, they weren't in there long before she was done, so he didn't have to behave very long.

We were able to see the sex... but it's a secret. Shhh.... :) Maybe in one-on-one conversations, we can share... We'll see.

Aww he loves his bear...

The bear with a tail on backwards... Yes, what you're picturing is correct-the 'tail' is between his legs. But! Jeremiah doesn't care. He still loves his bear.

Hmm...

I know we have more than 7 readers on our blog (including myself.) Yet, there are only 8 guesses in the baby poll... :( Jeremy said it's because this is our 2nd baby, and people just don't get as excited about #2 as #1. Well, I can see that, but even Jeremy hasn't guessed yet! What does that tell you???? :) I told my Dad he and my Mom must guess this weekend, because I know they're going to want to know if we're having a boy or a girl (if we're able to tell) and the ultrasound is only a few days away... And Jeremy... well, I'll just ask the US tech to write down the gender on a piece of paper, and I'll let him read it after he's submitted his guess, too. :) Ooo... maybe it can just be my little secret! Bwahahahaha....

Man, I really REALLY hope Jess Jr is a girl... There are SOOOO MANY CUTE DRESSES to buy!!! Boy clothes are cute, too, but we already have PLENTY! So I can't really justify buying more. It's bad enough I've already bought a few things (1st Christmas outfit, stocking, a few blankets, etc...)

I've been doing a few different "gender predictors" to see what we could possibly be having. Well, according to the chinese calendar chart, we're having a GIRL!!! But! The one I used just asked for regular age, not lunar age... so I'm not sure if that's accurate.

Another one I used was at babyman.net. I guess he's got a 94% accuracy rate... Well, he said boy, so poo poo on him. :p I'm going to say I'm special and am part of that 6%. :)

On the birth boards, people were talking about cravings, and one person mentioned oranges. Apparently, women who crave oranges and OJ (as I did early on, not so much anymore,) are having a girl! Then another person said that citrus was BOY, and spicy was GIRL. Well, I also want spicy... So what does THAT mean??

It means nothing. lol None of these things really mean anything. Next week, we'll have a slightly better idea of what we're having, but there's still a chance that even that will be wrong. Man, I would really hate to be told 'GIRL!' and then deliver a boy. Don't get me wrong, I'll be thrilled come delivery day either way! It's just hard to imagine having another boy... I'm so used to Jeremiah, I can't picture what another boy would be like. Maybe if I buy a bunch of cute boy clothes, I'll jinx myself... Of course, it's probably too late for that now. His/Her little "bits" are already in place! They're not going to change on account of me, that's for sure! I'll just keep my fingers crossed!

Yeah....

Well, there's nothing new in the blogosphere, so you'll have to listen to my crazy dreams instead.

I know people say that your dreams get more crazy and vibrant when you're pregnant. Well, my dreams are always pretty crazy--just ask Jeremy. He gets to hear about them first hand.

My favorite dreams are when I realize I'm dreaming in the dream itself, and can then control what's going on (to a certain degree... It always takes a while to figure out how to wake oneself up from a dream that goes south... Usually, ya just stand there, telling everyone, "Okay, I'm going to wake up now. I'm waking up..." and then just wait for it to happen... Of course, when you're in a dream that's less than pleasant, that can take a while, or so it seems...) I'll ususally take those opportunities to fly around, or "join the X-Men", though I never have a super-power. I'll usually start out with one, but forget how to use it by the time I need it. Oh well. They're always really nice to me anyways. :)

Last night was just a strange mish-mash of dreams. I think it started out with my family at our old house in RI (dream about that place a lot... it's so thoroughly embedded in my subconscious that whenever I dream about anything family related, it's usually at that house.) My grandfather on my Mom's side decided to come live with "us" (I guess I was living with them at the time... Jeremy was no where to be found, though Jeremiah makes a guest appearance,) and so there was much hullabalou about getting everything ready for that.

I guess I was back to work at Sony, too. Or at least, I was in the video game industry in some way. And for some reason, I was "wanted for questioning". Not by the police... that would make sense! Some third party organization was convinced the video game industry had secrets that were pretty serious... Serious enough that they would capture you and "torture" you to get them out. I guess it was harboring terrorists or something, I dunno... But they were determined to find out what these secrets were, and so you'd better be helpful.... or else.

This is the point where the dream switched main characters. No longer is it necessarily about you, but you shadow the person it is about, and are kinda that person, but you're not that person. Know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, so we switch to this gal who's going to take my place getting captured. :) She's on here way to the airport, and gets grabbed by this really big guy (Big Show size, but not the Big Show.) They proceed to interrogate her about her involvement in "certain things" while at Sony and other companies. She doesn't give anything up. It's mostly some woman doing the talking, and she's got a few guys with her, too (including the Big Show sized guy.)

Eventually, they give up and let her go. She returns to the airport where all her stuff is, and decides she wants to tell someone whatever info it is that these folks were after, but doesn't want to do it over email, because someone could trace it back to her. But she can't do it in person, because that's too dangerous. Doesn't really matter because, of course, she's being watched by these people, and gets captured again. This time, they take her to a cave (which happens to be located right outside of a mall...) and threatens to take her someplace cold and snowy where there's no natural light, and keep her there for weeks until she talks (they must have been playing on my psyche at this point, because I would hate to be in a snowy, cold, dark place for weeks on end... Especially since it's getting so nice out now!) Well, this chick is tough and basically says, "bring it on!"

So they do. The Big Show-sized guy grabs her by the arm, and brings her outside, heading for a transport. "This is my only chance," she thinks, and does some kinda kick/punch action on the B.S.S. guy, but he's freakin' huge, so this does nothing. All it really does is draw the attention of everyone else, and they come running out with their guns... Great. Well, the B.S.S. guy has a couple of guns, too. Somehow, she manages to aim his arm and fire his gun, and takes out all the baddies comin' at her. Eventually, all who's left is the B.S.S. guy. He still has his hand on her. But she grabs his gun, and tries shooting at him. She doesn't kill him, but he does let her go, and she tumbles into the mall. He then goes to a lever marked "4 ton", pulls it, and then walks over to a certain spot (this is inside the mall....) We then see a few hatch doors in the ceiling open up, and piles of snow fall down--one really large pile lands right on the B.S.S. guy (I'm guessing it was 4 tons?) and he dies.

Gee, I hope that top secret info was worth all that!

Then a bunch of stuff happens that I don't remember, and the next time I show up, Jeremiah and I are driving to NYC for some reason. We get there, get our hotel room (again, it's just us, no Jeremy,) and settle down for bed.

And that's about it. Oh no, wait. There was also a musical in it! Yeah, I guess someone made the story of my capture or whatever it was, into a musical. And it was performed on stage at Mclean! Wow! All in one night... pretty crazy.

And that is it. Well, the best I can tell it anyways. It's also so much more interesting in your head, that's for sure. :)

What a good eater!

Jeremiah ate both his eggs all by himself! Mastering hand-eye coordination is no easy task, but he's determined to do it all by himself. With there skills in place, he'll be beating his Daddy in Halo or Guitar Hero in no time!

Guess what??? We're preganant!!!

APRIL FOOLS!!!

......wait a second..... ummm..... APRIL FOOLS, again!!! :)

Now that we've got that out of the way, we can move on to more serious matters. Of course, I'm a bit hesitant to write anything on April Fool's Day, since ya never really know who's kidding and who's not. But I assure you, the rest of this post will be April Fool's free!

Do you know the history of April fools?? Apparently, it started back in the day when the calendar switched over to the Gregorian Calendar, which moved New Years week back from Mar. 25-April 1 to Jan. 1st. News travelled slowly, and some people didn't hear about it for years--and then there were those who just rebelled and refused to switch anyways. These people were "fools". Guess people decided they should play tricks on those people, like inviting them to parties that didn't occur. Nice folks, huh?

There's more about it here. Interesting how it's celebrated around the world. Turns out those Scots like to be the "butt" of the joke, and the "kick me" sign can be traced back to them, too. And in Portugal, people throw flour on each other. Those crazy Europeans!

And that's enough about that.

So we have a sonogram scheduled for April 9th! I'm excited, obviously, but I wish we had just gone with the first time they mentioned, which would have put us there on Thursday, but Jeremy would rather go first thing in the morning--we have to be there at 7:55 a.m.!! Booo... Oh well. Next week will be here soon enough.

We had a nice weekend. Saturday, we "got up early" (took quite a bit of prodding to get Jeremy out of bed...) and went to Ikea before it got too busy. We didn't actually get there until 11 or so, but it was still "dead", at least for Ikea (well, not really, but it would have been twice as busy by the afternoon.) We picked up some blinds for the family room and kitchen, and some dressers/chests for our bedroom (yay! Matching furniture!) And AMAZINGLY, we actually got in and out without buying anything extra--just what we went there for! Unfortunately, the boxes for the furniture is still in the van, which makes getting the stroller in and out a pain, but they're so heavy, I don't want Jeremy to move them by himself, and I don't think I should help (these are easily over 100 lbs each... lifting Jeremiah is the most I'm supposed to do, and even that is pushing it, since he's such a big boy.) Maybe we can get a neighbor to help so I can have my van back!

The only downside to going to Ikea was that it messed up Jeremiah's nap. We got in the car at 12:45, and he normally crashes at 12. Needless to say, he fell asleep in the van. With an hour drive home, he was able to get a decent nap in, but it definitely wasn't long enough.

That evening, we went to my Uncle's house for a "congratulatory dinner" for my other Uncle and future Aunt who recently got engaged. I think we caused them to push their dates back a few weeks, since I emailed him as soon as we found out to let him know that, "hopefully you weren't planning on early September, since that's when we're due! We'd hate to miss it!" But I think beginning of October was easier for them to book, anyways--lot of weddings take place around here, and I know things can fill up pretty quickly. So we'll be attending with, most likely, a one month old, but that's all good. They're having it at a venue that only has one event at a time, so it's not like we'll be disturbing anyone if we have to find a quiet place to feed/change diapers. We're looking forward to it!

Sunday was a chill day. Yeah, we skipped church. If we can't go Saturday night, it's tough to go on Sunday, but that's alright. I'm pretty sure God can forgive us. :) I'm hoping the weather clears up soon--it's been pretty rainy and cloudy since Sunday, and even though it's in the mid-60's right now, it's so rainy and blah out. :( Doesn't make Jeremiah happy--he wants to go out and play! Maybe it'll dry off by the time his nap is over... At very least, we'll go out to the grocery store and get the essentials--milk, turkey, etc.

Yesterday was nice! Even though it was rainy, Jeremiah took a great nap (3 hours!! One positive side affect from the rainy days...) which made the afternoon nice. We headed to the mall to get some gifts for friends who just had babies. Afterwards, Jeremiah played in the play area there (he loves it! His favorite thing to do is going down the 'slide'. It's not a real slide, but enough of a ramp where he can slide down just fine.

Then we had to go meet Daddy at Konami! It's my favorite sushi place... The food is okay, but they have this one roll, called the Konami roll, and it's soooooooooooo goooooooooood! It's got crab, asparagus, cream cheese, avocado, and some mystery fish (not sure what it is), topped with a spicy sauce--it's sooooooo gooood! Not the easiest thing to eat--it's about the size of a... hmm... well, we'll just say that you can barely fit each piece completely in your mouth (and it's not something you can really bite in half to help yourself out, either... completely falls apart when you do that!) Did I mention it's sooooo goood! And they have "Happy Hour" from 5-7, so you can get beer or sake pretty inexpensively, along with a few appetizers and certain rolls. Good stuff! It's something even non-sushi lovers would probably like, because I don't think there's any raw fish in it (pretty sure the "mystery fish" is cooked... but who knows...) We usually get a spicy salmon roll to make up for that, but last night, we just wanted the Konami roll. I'll get a spicy salmon roll from the store today when we go. Their's is pretty good.

This year seems to be the year of the girls.... I know three people who had girls this year, so far--4 if you include the week before New Year's! I kinda know one person who had a boy, but since we don't really keep in touch with them anymore, I'm not counting them. :) Two friends of our's each just had their 2nd daughters! So I had to get them matching dresses, and Old Navy had the cutest on sale!

Man, I really hope Jess Jr. is a girl--I want to buy some dresses! Not necessarily all pink--I can only handle so much, but there are so many cute little girl dresses out there! I told a friend I need to stock up on BabyLegs, so she can be in dresses year round! :) Then she'll be just like her Mommy--I refused to wear pants when I was growing up. I would FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT everytime my Mom tried to put me in pants until I was in 3rd grade, I think. Now, don't forget I grew up in Rhode Island. New England winters aren't exactly dress friendly. And it seemed like I never had tights that fit, either... I outgrew them so quickly, and a new pair would be way too long. So a few times, I had to concede and wear......... courderoys! Duhn-duhn-duhnnnnnnnnn.... I hated courderoys... but that's all we had! We went to a private school 'til the middle of 3rd grade for me, and while we didn't have a uniform until that year, you couldn't wear jeans to school. Not that I had jeans to wear... didn't get those 'til middle school/high school. But still...

Obviously, I've grown out of that. I rarely get to wear dresses now, but I do have a nice maternity one for the weddings we have to attend in the next few months. With my luck, we'll end up with 5 boys, and I won't have anyone to lavish dresses upon. Hmm.... 6th time's a charm??? :)

Jeremiah is growing into such a big boy now! He's really picked up feeding himself with a fork or spoon. I'm not allowed to feed him anymore--he'll let me give him two bites, and then he starts grabbing for the untensil I'm using. So I'll put the bowl on his tray, give him a spoon or fork, and let him have at it. Usually, I'll have a second spoon or fork that I'll use to feed him while he attempts to feed himself, but lately, I haven't needed it--he's been doing so well on his own! Yestreday, he ate almost all his eggs by himself (two scrambled eggs). I only had to intervene a couple of times, and usually, it was to help him "stab" the eggs with his fork. What a big boy!

Next milestone we have to tackle is potty trainning. Since we plan to use our cloth diapers for Jess Jr. as well, we need to get Jeremiah out of them before she gets here. At least during the day--we're already using an overnight disposable at night, since he used to wet through his cloth everytime. At least if he's diaper free during the day, I'll only have to wash newborn diapers, which are much less work than toddler diapers (newborn poop washes out much more easily--no dumping or rinsing required until they start on solids. TMI??? Sorry. :) I think I'll start when he turns 15 months, which is next week. I've just been too lazy to do it. First trimester, I was exhausted, so I definitely didn't want to start getting up with him to put him on the potty. I think now, as long as we get to bed before midnight (I'm looking at you, Jeremy... no more, "We'll just watch the first part," and then watching the whole movie... Not doing that up all night business with a newborn again--we used to go to bed at 2 or 3 in the morning! Of course, I dreaded nighttime in those early weeks... I'm hoping for a better experience this time around...)

Finally, I think it's time to get Jeremiah's hair cut for real. Like, short. It's already getting to long again. It's very cute, but it drives me crazy... And it does all sorts of weird things when it dries--stands up in different directions. Makes him look like a bum, and he's not a bum--he's my big boy! So yeah, that's my vote. If Jeremy can cut his hair super short, I don't see why we can't cut Jeremiah's... Whether or not Jeremiah will actually put up with that is another story. I'm guessing he won't deal well, but if it's done quickly, we might have a chance.

That's all!

Jeremiah's new thongs.

The quest for the perfect pair of sandals continues...

The Placenta Brain Monologues

(Thanks, Laurence, for coining the phrase, "placenta brain"--it really does capture the essence of what being pregnant does to a woman, and their intelligence. :)

Well, this whole "placenta brain" thing is really getting annoying now. I should start a website where women can submit stories of how stupid they get when pregnant... I'm sure there would be volumes to fill!

So what's the latest blunder that I blame on the ever-present placenta?? Soft-boiled eggs. While they may be a delicacy to some, around here, we prefer our eggs HARD boiled, not soft boiled.

For Easter, as I mentioned before, Jeremy and I decorated some eggs for Jeremiah to "find." I piled up my dozen and a half eggs in a pot, covered with cold water, cranked the stove up to high, and went off to gather my boys who were hanging out at the neighbors. We had decided to run to the grocery store before Jeremiah's naptime, so as to avoid the crowds (it did work, btw... and they were just putting out the fresh baked bread which is a MILLION times better when it's right out of the oven... what a difference a few hours make... sooooooooo goooooooood!)

Of course, a watched pot never boils, and I got impatient. I wanted to leave so Jeremiah could take his nap as close to normal time as possible. Once some bubbles started popping up (more like a good simmer, than a boil) I killed the heat, popped a lid on it, and went on our way. They'd be done by the time we got back, no problem.

Well, today, I went to make some egg salad only to discover these eggs were not quite cooked... Nope, they were about the consistency of pudding... pudding eggs doesn't make good egg salad. In fact, pudding eggs don't make good anything... except trash.

Oh well. At least they're pretty trash...

I guess I can't really blame all that on a placenta... It was more my impatience that caused it than me bein' stupid. But here's the next part....

While making said Easter eggs, I decided I would pull a "Savannah" (old friend from church who seems to have photo-documentaries for EVERYTHING! I just don't like my camera that much,) and take all sorts of photos along the way. Had a moment this morning, thought I would try to upload them. "Hey," I thought, "why don't I try using the card reader on my laptop instead of trying to dig out the cord for the camera!" Yeah, great idea...

So I pop out the memory card (SD Pro DUO), pop out the fake plastic card from the slot, and pop in my card. Hmm... it kinda gets swallowed up in the slot... That's because it doesn't take Pro DUO cards, just SD Pro (Pro is a longer version of the pro duo, basically... It's about 2 inches whereas the DUO is only an inch or so... fits in small places better.) "Wait, I've got an idea. They're basically the same card, so I'll just use the fake one to push it in."

Yeah.....

Now, I should know better than to try this... But I did it anyways. And now? Well, we'll just say, don't believe the cheap plastic fake card accurately depicts the correct way to insert your memory sticks into the slot... Yeah, it's stuck. Guess I shouldn't have shoved it in there.... Not that I had to shove hard... But yeah, it's stuck, and all my recent pics of Jeremiah (and eggs) are on there... Grr...

I'm pretty confident I'll be able to get it out. I just need to find a pair of tweezers.... Hopefully that's all I'll need... *gulp*

And that's about it. I guess I should go eat the leftover fish from Easter... maybe that'll boost my brain functions to "semi-stupid." Things could be worse, though, right? I could have done something even more stupid.... Don't worry, I'm sure I'll get there long before Jess Jr. arrives. :)

Speaking of Jess Jr., we've scheduled our ultrasound for April 9th. We could have had it next week, but Jeremy didn't want to do it during the lunch hour. Instead, we get to wake up EARLY (for us) and be there by 7:55 a.m. Jeremiah's usually not even up by then. Maybe we'll put him to bed a little early the night before.

My biggest concern about having it so early is that you're not supposed to "empty your bladder" for an hour beforehand... Umm... who doesn't have to pee when they first wake up??? So I'll probably set my alarm for 6 or something, and try to pee early to avoid any problems during the appointment. Hopefully little miss thang feels like cooperating and showing off (and is a little miss thang, as opposed to a little mr thang...) We'll see!

Jeremiah's attempt at eating a PB&J.

Bagels aren't the easiest thing to eat with just your front teeth.

It's back!

We're 17 weeks! Woot!

Today, we have a midwife appointment. Probably nothing new will happen, just the standard checking weight, belly, heartbeat, bp, and q&a time. Pretty routine stuff.

However, they'll probably tell us that we can go ahead and schedule our ultrasound, if we decide to have one. (It's optional, though I don't know many women, if any, who would chose not to have one--except those who don't have insurance to pay for it, which I'm sure is at least a small part of Birthcare's clientele. After all, they're your cheapest alternative to a hospital birth, unless you go private practice midwives. The woman I rented the aqua doula from last time also provides midwifery services, but the insurance won't cover it. It's so funny, because we're saving our insurance thousands of dollars by delivering with Birthcare, yet our out-of-pocket is so much higher [hiring a birth assistant is the biggest expense, at $600... Insurance gives us a portion of that back. We get the rest from our flexspend account, which is really helpful--not like we're using that money for daycare, so might as well use it for something!])

For a while, we considered not having one (well, I considered it... Jeremy "has to see" his "child." lol) and then we decided to do it, and not find out the sex. But now, we'll probably have one AND try to find out the sex. The only reason: so we know which bedroom to move Jeremiah into. lol See, we want to move him before the baby comes, so he can get used to his new room without feeling like the baby took his old one. Not that the baby will be in the nursery right away, though I may start putting her (fingers crossed!) in there for naps earlier than I did with Jeremiah (heck, we didn't even have a crib 'til he was almost 2 months old.) Plus, I'd rather get Jeremiah's room all cool and boy-like while I've still got some energy (still waiting for the big boost, but at least I can get up before 10 without feeling exhausted all day.) Jeremy's taking some time off from work before our trip to Vegas, so that'd be the perfect time to complete his room, if it's not done before then (and maybe our's, since we have yet to do anything with it.)

Anyways, the whole reason for all that other info (sorry if I've already mentioned some of it in previous posts... it's easy to forget what I've already written about,) is--I've set up a new baby poll! Figured we'd start earlier this time around. So cast your vote! You may win a prize!

I've changed the points for gender (only 50 now) so it's a bit more fair. Usually, there's vast difference between 1st and 2nd place for these things, so even if I had left it, there probably wouldn't be a tie. You'll still get the most points for guessing the correct date and time.

Here's the link: http://www.expectnet.com/games/JessJrORJeremiah2
Hopefully, it will work without a hitch (last time, we kept having link problems.) If you do run into a problem, though, there's a box on the right here that you can always click on.

We probably will not announce the sex on the blog, should we find out with 'great certainty'. But if you've guessed by then, we'll let ya know what we know, one on one. So guess early!

We'll do some kind of prize again. Our last winner, James (my brother who was lazy so he just guessed our due date and won!) got a couple of CD's, but we'll come up with something good if we don't feel you're "cd-people". This is the iTunes generation, after all. :)

Uhhh... "Do as I say, not as I do."

Well, after that whole big long hullaballou about remembering Mr. Rogers by wearing a sweater on "Sweater Day", I completely forgot to do so. I was so caught up in the fact that the first day of Spring fell on the same day, forgot all about wearing a sweater in Mr. Rogers' honor. Whoops. I remembered earlier this week that I needed to check which day to wear it on, and then forgot to follow up. I'll chalk it up as a pregnancy related lapse in memory. What's your excuse?? :) My bad, should have reminded ya.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. On Maundy Thursday, we had planned on going to church for the communion service, but ended up staying home since I wasn't feeling so well that afternoon. Really screwed up our night, too, because I had changed up Jeremiah's nap schedule so he'd be okay staying up an extra hour or so. Usually he's in bed between 7 and 7:30, but the service didn't start until 7:30. I tried putting him down around 6 as if it were bedtime.... He didn't fall for it. He just played in his crib the whole time, and waited for us to come get him, which we finally did about 30 min later. By then, he was wide awake. When Jeremy tried to put him back down for bed, he wouldn't sleep, and didn't do so until almost 9. So much for that.

We did get to watch the service online, though, which was really nice. I'd rather have been there in person, but I guess there's always next year.

Tonight, we went to the "Easter Saturday" service, instead of showing up on Sunday when there's like a MILLION people. Sunday mornings at Mclean are pretty crazy already--10:45 service nursery always fills up before the service starts, so we definitely were wanting to avoid that. Plus, we like going to church on Saturday nights, as it's not quite as crazy, and it's a good time for Jeremiah, even though he ends up staying up a little later.

This service, though, was PACKED. We've never seen so many people there on Saturday night. I guess a lot of folks listened when Lon (lead minister) asked everyone who normally comes Sunday mornings to come Saturday night, as many folks who are just visiting are more likely to show up Sunday morning, especially to the 10:45 service. But it wasn't just other Mclean-ers. There were lots of visitors, too, from what I could tell. Luckily for us, Jeremiah's age group doesn't close out as quickly as the younger ones, and he was able to spend the service playing in the "ball pit". Usually he'll pull the balls out, drop 'em on the floor and kick him around--it's always the first place he goes to when we drop him off. What a cutie pie!

The service was excellant, of course. I've come to realize why people like listening to Lon so much. I always thought he was good, but compared to the other preachers they have on staff, he's definitely the "meat and potatoes" kind of preacher. Other preachers have good sermons, and get their point across just fine, but it's kind of like eating soup--it's just the first course, and there's always room for more. Some preachers out there, not at Mclean, but in other mega churches, aren't even soup, but more of an "amuse bouche" (it's basically what comes before the meal, before the hors d'ouvres, and is at most, two bites of food... Yeah, if you weren't hungry before, you definitely are now.) These preachers preach to their churches, and people leave may leave "satisfied" with themselves, but spiritually starved. Yet at the same time, much like those starving children in the commercials, they will become so used to being hungry, they no longer feel hunger pains. They just... exist. Ya definitely won't leave Mclean that way, at least not for a while. By then the hunger is usually not for more preaching, but more intimacy with God--that can only be filled by your own time with Him in the Bible and in prayer. This is the point that I'm at now, where I know I need to spend more time with God, and learning more about Him, where I leave Mclean hungry for more because one sermon once a week no longer satiates. I just haven't sat down to make the time yet. Maybe I should make a "God Blog" and do it that way. :) I make time for blogging, that's for sure!

As I said before, the service was excellant, and I encourage everyone to listen to it, if you can. Best line from the whole thing was when Lon was explaining a conversation he was having with a Jewish woman who was trying to encourage him to return to Judaism (he's Jewish.) When she asked how he could say with complete certainty that he would be spending his eternity in Heaven with God (just as Jeremy & I know we will,) one of his last lines was, "Follow a dead savior and you'll end up just like him." If you can, listen to it, it's at the bottom of the page on the right under "recen sermons". Just find today's date (or it may be tomorrow's... 3/2-something!)

Happy Easter, everyone! Hope you have a wonderful time celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on this day! We're doing an Easter Egg hunt for Jeremiah despite the fact, but we don't forget the true meaning of this day: He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed! :) Have a blessed day!

LOST Epi. 7 - Meet Kevin Johnson

And that's all, folks! See you in April!

Booo... boo for breaks... boo for cliffhangers. The producers were right--last weeks episode would have been a much better ending point before the break. Stupid ABC and their, "Oh we want all of our shows to come back together. So, and it still needs to end during May Sweeps, otherwise we can't charge advertisers as much money as we'd like." STUPID ABC!!!

While this episode answered many questions, especially about Michael and where he's been all this time (Mr. Friendly returns! And guess what--he really IS gay! Wasn't just bein' sweet when he told Kate she wasn't his type last season.) But of course, we're left with a bunch more questions (aren't we always...)

First question is "WHY, SAYID?! WHY DID YOU TURN MICHAEL OVER?!" If only you knew what your future looked like. I half expected the captain to say, "I know." when Sayid spilled the beans. Maybe he still will. Or maybe he doesn't believe Sayid, like, maybe someone "confessed" to doing all that sabotage work after going coo-coo... It's possible. Or maybe the captain's just not surprised. Or something. I'm sure we'll find out after the break.

Second question would be "Who was shooting at Danielle, Alex, and Karl?" At first I thought it was Ben's people, his way of getting rid of those Alex might chose over himself. But I don't think that's the case. I think it's Mr. Frank Lapidus, or at least those he brought to the island for a "quick errand." I don't think that Frank himself, or Daniel for that matter, would actually kill anyone. But Omar was looking pretty gun happy "shooting stuff" in Michael's flashback...

Third question has to do with Naomi and her group for her mission--Daniel, Frank, Charlotte, and possibly Regina. In her flashback, she was dealing with Abbadon, not Widmore, not the captain. And she was told those three would be her team. I believe that while Abbadon has ties to Widmore, maybe even works for him, I think he answers to someone even higher in the food chain. Perhaps he's linked to the Dharma initiative, though if he were, he'd probably know what's going on a bit better (and would know where to find the island.) So there could be 4(5) different factions at work: Widmore, Abbadon/Dharma, Ben & Others, Losties, and the Island itself. I know, that's five, but I don't think the Losties care that much about the island, and can be lumped in with the Others if we're talking about survival . While Widmore is probably motivated by greed, I believe everyone else has a more "spiritual" desire to see the island unscathed. That's my take right now.

I guess we know why Jack didn't jump now--the island wouldn't let him die. No matter how many pills he takes, or drinks he drinks, he can't die, just like Michael couldn't. And based on the short glimpses from the previews, Claire may not be giving Aaron up willingly, so much as Hurley holding him when the decision came to leave the Island. The 6 end up on the chopper, Hurley holding little Aaron, and looks around and says, "uhh.... I'm no father... who wants him?" Will we know what happens to the other Losties after the 6 leave? Or even before? Or will we only see the 6 leave because they were the ones hanging around when the chopper took off? Don't know! Guess we have to wait 'til April to find out.

BOOOOO!

On a side note, did anyone else cringe and yell, "ewwwww!" when Mr. Friendly was getting "friendly" with his "friend"?? Yeah, could have done without that.

Oh, and can I just say that if I were Jack, I'd take up drinking and painkillers, too, based on what we've seen of the freighter folk so far. Especially if they're holding the Losties prisoner, or something, or possible being executed, one by one... Should have listened to Ben.... then again, Ben kinda screwed himself by not being forthright about what was going on. He did it the "Ben way" which just pisses Jack off. Yup, should have listened to Ben.

And I still think it's Michael in the coffin. Supposedly, we find out this season. But we'll have to wait and see for sure.

What a week so far--and it's only Wednesday!

It's been a busy week, and doesn't look like it's going to slow down anytime soon. It feels like it should be Friday tomorrow, but nope, it's only Thursday. Don't know why my days are mixed up like that--Jeremy was off Monday, but that means I should feel like today is Tuesday, not Thursday. Whatever.

Yesterday, I met my new Dental Hygenist. She was sweet, but very chatty. Not that I mind talking about babies all day, but she kept stopping what she was doing so I could respond to her questions. I got there around 2 and didn't leave until 3:30--not just because of her, but the dentist wanted to go over my x-rays from our old dentist. And then she called her husband in, who's also a part of the practice, to give me options for a gap I've got from having a tooth pulled years ago.

Kids, let this be a lesson to you: I don't care what you're parents say, or what you want to do--go to the dentist at least a few times while you're young! Otherwise, you end up in your twenties, maxing out insurance 3-4 years in a row trying to play catch up (and losing some teeth as a result...) I'm looking at YOU, Stephin & James! You talk tough now, but I guarantee you, in a few years, you'll regret having done nothing up 'til then.... Sheesh.

I'm a bit frustrated with the dentists, though... They're looking at my x-rays as if they were just taken (they weren't,) and creating a treatment plan based on old information. Today, I went in to have a couple cavities dealt with, and she tried to schedule me next time for teeth I've already had done (and I told her I've had them done--she even looked at one and couldn't figure out why my old dentist did a root canal on one, based on these x-rays that are almost three years old. Now, I don't doubt that my old dentist was a money-hungry whack job [yeah, I didn't like him much...] but I think he had a more accurate idea of what needed to be done based on the then current condition of my tooth instead of 3 year old x-rays.)

Anyways, I'm taking the next few weeks off from the dentist. At least everyone in the office is really nice.

After all that, and some drama caused by the VA Dept. of Taxation (apparently, if you don't file you're taxes in the state of VA, they assume you paid nothing, and try to take that from you. Luckily, resolution is only a fax number away...) I'm ready for a relaxing rest of the week.

Well, Jeremiah's not on the same page, apparently. He decided today would be a good day to come down with a fever. I knew something was wrong when I put him down for a nap, and he seemed unable to get comfortable, and fall asleep. I kept checking on him, but his eyes were closed, and he was laying down, just constantly tossing and turning. So I whipped out our new fancy schmancy temperal thermometer (only $30 at Costco!) did the forehead swipe, and said he must just be in a mood, since the reading was normal (actually, it was wayyy below normal the first few times, but I knew better than to think he had a temp of 74 or 81. I assumed it was the room, and that's why his head was so warm.)

We went to Harris "Tweeter" (as my Mom likes to call it), got some lunch stuff (<>deli lady was rude... I asked for the Dietz & Watson Turkey, motioning towards the sample they had out, and she said, "That's not D&W, that's HT brand. I should know, I put it out." Well, that's not what the sign said... eventually she came around, and mumbled something about still being on special from last week... Uh huh. Yeah, and thanks for only giving me half a pound of turkey, when I asked for a full pound. Oh well. Next time she asks if I need help, I'll say no and wait for someone else. < /rant>) After we came home, he was pretty whiney and fussy, so I gave him some Tylenol, figuring he had a headache or something (clearly SOMETHING was bothering him, I just couldn't figure out what.)

Jeremy came home, more whining from Jeremiah. We gave him his bath (and let him run around wet and naked afterwards, like he loves to do,) took his temp again, still normal. THEN I realized there's a cover on the temperal probe...... (Seriously, they need to spell things like this out for us preggers.... We don't always notice the obvious.) So we took it again, and bingo! 102.7 Yikes! Checked it again, 103.1. Double yikes! Checked a few more times (not easy to do with a squirmy 14 month old) and it was constantly above 101.3. Called the dr (I'm sure they love being paged at home,) and he told us just to give him Motrin instead of Tylenol, and keep him comfy. So we'll see what happens. Hopefully he'll wake up happy, healthy, and cool, and we can enjoy the FIRST DAY OF SPRING!!!

Yay! I'm so happy tomorrow is the first day of Spring! It's about time! Seems like winter lasts FOREVER when you've got a toddler begging to go out everyday. E-V-E-R-Y-D-A-Y. He doesn't understand that it's too cold, or too wet. If he can see the outside, which is impossible not to do from the family room, he wants to be out there, exploring. ESPECIALLY if the other kids in the neighborhood are out--ESPECIALLY Sean, the 5 year old that lives two doors down. He follows him around like a loyal pal already--he thinks he's just the coolest. We think he's got anger managment issues, and don't really want Jeremiah to grow up being like him, but I think that'll wean as he gets to know Nolan, who lives next door, and is less than a year older than him. Or the 3 year old down the street (can't remember his name at the moment,) who just got a new baby sister (on Jeremiah's birthday!) We'll see!

Finally, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GOOMBA----errr...., Stephin-bunny! He's 15! Yikes! It's all good, though. Jeremiah adores him, and he's a good kid--just a little bit addicted to video games, but hey, better that than pot or prescription drugs. "At least he's not dead." inside joke. :) Happy Birthday, Uncle Steph! You're Jeremiah's favorite Uncle Stephin--and enjoy your new gun (airsoft rifle.) Don't shoot the cat... unless it's Big Fella (impossible to make him more retarded, that's for sure. I'm kidding.... don't shoot the cat--then he'll just demand even more attention...)

PARTY! PIZZA PARTY!

Yesterday, we went to CiCi's for lunch, and all Jeremiah wanted to do was eat the toppings off his pizza. Silly boy!

Another beautiful day...

I sure am liking this nicer weather we've been having. It regularly gets up to the high 50's, low 60's now, and I couldn't be happier (neither could Jeremiah! He loves going outside!)

We've had a pretty casual week/weekend. Jeremy was sick most of last week, so that really put a blah on things, but I think he's feeling better now. He was off Friday and also today, so we've been able to get a few things done around the house that we've been "meaning to get to" for a while now. Maybe today we can go to Ikea.....? hint hint... :)

Jeremiah continues to try to talk, making the cutest little babbles that are just adorable to listen to. This morning, he was making some "creepy sounds". He was saying, "Ma ma ma ma..." over and over again, but in a raspy kind of voice. I thought there might have been something wrong at first, but then he switched back to his normal voice, and I went back to sleep.

We're 16 weeks today! Woot woot! Baby's been moving a little bit, though nothing too exciting. I'm sure that'll change in the coming weeks. Jeremiah wasn't a big kicker... He was pretty nice to me most of the time, except for a couple of weeks where I had this weird pain in my right rib. So it'll be interesting to see how much of a kicker "Jess Jr" turns out to be.

I can't believe Sunday is Easter already. Ca-razy. I just found out yesterday that it's up to me to make dinner for the family, if that's what we want to do. Hmmm... How much do I really feel like doing? I guess what it will all boil down to is how much Jeremy can clear off our dining room table, which apparently doubles as a desk for all of our paperwork.... We'll see!

And finally, this week brings us the last week of LOST until the end of April. Booo.... Also, the construction continues outside--at least it did not wake us up this morning. Maybe all the "loud" parts are done. Or something.

That's 'bout it. Oh, one more thing--Happy Birthday, Lilly! Today is her 1st Birthday! Hard to believe, even though Jeremiah is only 10 weeks older than her. Seems like he's been one FOREVER now. So happy birthday, Lilly, and happy St. Patty's day! Your birth was quite an adventurous 24 hours--your Mom and I were just trying to have some girl time, and you decided you wanted in on it, too. I don't blame ya. :) Hope we get some pictures of "face in cake" action. :) Always fun.

LOST Epi. 7 - "Ji Yeon"

While this week's installment of LOST provided more answers than last week's "The Other Woman", it was also incredibly frustrating to watch.

Some things that were promised to us before it aired:

~The identity of the Oceanic 6 would be revealed entirely.

~Someone dies (an original 815-er.)

~Michael returns.

Of those three, only the third one really held true to its statement. And even that is up for debate, depending on who you talk to (which, I have a feeling, will be quaffed next week.) Some fans are theorizing that Michael could be playing a grown up Walt. I personally think that's kinda stupid, though it would be an interesting twist. I'm pretty sure they could find another black actor to play a grown up Walt. And I think that whole idea is a bit of a stretch--It's not like the whole time thing is that off, after all.

As for the first two statements, we really didn't get any answers. Confirmed Oceanic 6-ers include Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, and now Sun. A lot of folks think Aaron is the 6th, and after this episode, that seems right.... but it's not 'confirmed', just as it wasn't confirmed that Kate was one of them until "Eggtown". In the season finale last year, only Jack was mentioned. So I think it's still up in the air.

There have been numerous stories posted on spoiler sites that quote reputable sources as saying that Jin is the last of the Oceanic 6. Small problem with that--the date on his tombstone at the end of "Ji Yeon" shows his date of death as September 22, 2004---the date Oceanic 815 crashed. We know he's not dead, so what's up with that???

Few theories:

1) Jin is dead. He died before the Oceanic 6 make it back to the real world, but the date is wrong on his tombstone. Not that that would be difficult to explain away. You think the Losties are going to tell the authorities (whoever they might be) "Oh, he got killed by the smoke monster." or "shot by an Other. They're really scary people...." Then they'd have to explain everyone else's death! "Nikki and Paulo?? Uhhh, we don't really know how they died, we just found them dead, so we buried them. Paralyzing spiders??? We didn't know about those..... whooops...." Yeah... saying he and everyone else (except those mysterious "two" that didn't survive after the crash,) was dead when the plane went down is much easier.

2) Jin is alive and on the island. Some people theorize that everyone on that supposedly perrished on the plane received a tombstone (after all, their families were told they were dead... time to mourn.) But if that's the case, why isn't Sun's information filled in? (That's the '1980' '3' '20' on the left hand side.) So maybe part of the deal for Sun getting off the island was to swear to everyone that those not part of the Oceanic 6 were dead, including her husband, and that they would never be able to return to the Island--NEVER. That would explain her calling out for him while in labor, and also her tears of grief at the gravesite. Some folks say, "Oh, if she knew he were alive, she would never give up hope, and wouldn't be talking like he was dead." I'm not so sure about that... But it could be.....

3) ....Jin is alive and SUN DOESN'T KNOW! We'll find out later this season how the Oceanic 6 are chosen and what deal they make with the devil to get off. So it's possbile that those included in the Oceanic 6 were, maybe, the first chopper ride off the island, and then BOOM, someone bombs it... or something. I dunno how it happens, but we know Hurley feels really guilty about what happened on the island, and needs to "help them". So it's possible that Sun really does believe Jin is dead and just goes along with the tombstone because that's part of the deal.

The whole Jin Flashbacks mixed with Sun's flashforwards thing really bugged me. I knew that's what they were doing (I was reading a chat about the episode while waiting to watch it with Jeremy, so I kinda knew what was going on,) but that doesn't change the fact that it was annoying. And kinda pointless. I guess it was just to remind us what kind of jerk Jin was before the island, so when he forgave Sun for the affair, it would be fresh in our minds that he kinda had it coming.

But I hope they never do that again.

Also, what's up with the way Hurley said, "Gooooood." *wink wink* when he asked Sun if anyone else was coming, and she said no. For a second there, I thought, "Omigosh! It's Sun & Hurley's baby!??! What the heck!??!" Thankfully, I don't think that was the case. Maybe he just didn't want to see the other Oceanic 4, or... something... I really have no idea why he said it that way.

Oh, and where the heck were Sun's parents??? Weren't they the least bit interested that their grandchild was being born?? Or is her father so pissed off about Jin losing the watch that he won't even acknowledge that he has a grandchild?? Just a thought.

Finally, some people have questioned why no one questioned the whole pregnancy thing with Sun. If Jin died the day the plane crashed, than Sun should be further along than she is. I think this argument is kind of a waste of space. She got pregnant shortly after coming to the island. It's not unusual for babies to be born 3 weeks before or 2 weeks after a due date. That's a 5 week window to be wrong. If she conceived, say, the night before their flight, then her due date would only be off a couple of weeks. Not a stretch. Also, she probably went into labor early. It didn't seem like she was packing her bag for the hospital, but for a weekend trip or something. So she probably wasn't expecting to go into labor when she did--it was just a coincidence. That's what I think, at least.

The questions that remain are:

~Is Jin dead or alive? If dead, how? If alive, is he still on the island?

~What was with Hurley's "gooooood"???

~Who's the last of the Oceanic 6???

~What's up with Michael being on the freighter? Is he Ben's mole???

~And finally, how do they make that dharma food last so long??? There's a lot of people on the beach, yet their pantry still seems well stocked...

I'll leave ya with this thought: There's a plane wreck at the bottom of the ocean, with 324 dead bodies in it. If that's not the wreckage from Oceanic 815, who put it there and WHY??? Well, this is an interesting theory from a LOST commentator about exactly why it may not be a staged plane after all...

Okay, theory time. So I don’t believe Ben staged the plane crash, but then again, I don’t think Widmore did it either. And I’m pretty sure Oceanic Airlines can get no good press out of gruesome footage of a body-filled wreckage. So just who DID stage the crash of flight 815?

Answer: No one. The plane really did crash.

This is hard to grasp at first, but the more LOST plays out the more sense it seems to make. I think most of us agree the plane was brought to the island for its own purposes - whatever they might be. On the island virtually anything goes, which is why so many necessary people survived the crash. This is the magic of LOST.

But back in the real world, if we believe in the path of fate, the plane was supposed to crash. The people on board were supposed to die. That event played out, as a matter of the universe course-correcting itself, with the plane even sinking to the bottom of the ocean in the same three parts it broke into when it was torn apart in the air. In that one split second the plane existed in both universes: both the LOST universe, and the normal one.

On island, everyone is given a tabula rasa, or clean slate. See you in another life – and it truly is another life. The island and its inhabitants have their playlists and go through their motions, with the ‘surviving’ members of flight 815 looking on incredulously and playing their parts. Meanwhile, off-island, certain things that were supposed to happen cannot now happen… because the elements necessary to course correction are no longer in that universe. Let’s take Ms. Hawking’s man with the red shoe, for example. If you pushed him out of the way of his construction death, the universe would find a way to kill him tomorrow as a matter of course correction. But if he were suddenly gone from the universe tomorrow – the way flight 815 vanished – the universe would be screwed out of doing that.

I’m not going to beat the Donnie Darko horse again, but I will give it a quick kick. In that movie the universe got all messed up because a plane’s engine fell through a wormhole and existed in two different timelines simultaneously. I propose that flight 815 has done just that. The wreckage exists in the normal world, but it also exists scattered across the beach on LOST island. There’s no way I believe that anyone - Widmore, Ben, Bill Gates, The Wizard of Oz, or Bob the Builder with a giant Australia-sized crane actually went through the trouble of painstakingly recreating that crash site. That IS the crash site, because the plane actually crashed. And I’ll bet one day we’ll hear the black box recording to prove it.

On a final note, I’ll predict that when Frank Lapidus is looking at the decaying body of the ring-less pilot on the news, he’s really looking at a universally-course corrected version of himself in the cockpit of that plane. Because according to fate, he was supposed to be piloting flight 815. According to fate, he’s already dead. Ohhhh……

The TURDS have RETURNED!

If that was TMI for you, sorry. :) But I think the parents will understand--it makes ya feel good when after what seemed like FOREVER, your baby's poop is normal again. And boy, Jeremiah has been eating/drinking up a storm ever since! Nearly every bit of food you put in front of him gets devoured (or thrown on the floor--floor's never had it so good! If we had a dog, he'd be in heaven.) And he just kept asking for more and more bottles! Oh don't worry, I've been carrying his sippy cup with ICE water in it all day (he will not drink it if it's warm, at least, not if Mommy is drinking ice water... He's a big boy, after all. :) There were times, though, when he just wanted Mommy to pick him up and give him a bottle. So I won't say he's back to 100%, but the sickness part is definitely gone (whatever it was... definitely longer than a "24 hour bug." I had one of those the first week we were pregnant [though we didn't know it then] and it really did last just 24 hours. This was more like the "120-hour bug." It's gone though, so WHO CARES! Guess I need to throw out those bottles of pedilyte now. Nasty stuff. Hope we never need it again.)

Because of his belly issues, we didn't go to church--didn't want a volunteer to have to change "one of those," if you know what I mean... (Heck, not like I ever wanted to change 'one of those.') So the past few weeks, we've been going every other week, since he had that runny nose a while back, and then this. But we did manage to have a decent weekend regardless. Jeremy was able to put up Jeremiah's swing in the backyard (so now it's not 5 feet in the air...) and, of course, now Jeremiah could care less about being in it (I guess it was more fun high in the air...)

Right now, I'm listening to him "sing" in his crib. Jeremy's run off to Lowes to buy something for the dryer (looks like whoever installed it did a shotty job...) so it's just Jeremiah, me and the laptop. Yay.

Speaking of Jeremiah's "singing," he's getting quite good at trying to talk. While he's not repeated our favorite phrase yet ("Hi, da-da!") he likes to say his favorite phrase over and over again---"OH YEAH!" It was so funny when over the weekend, I went in his room to get him up after his nap, and the first thing he said was, "Oh yeah!" lol Sometimes we can get him to say it if we say it over and over, but usually ya just have to be in the right place at the right time.

He also says "Daddy" a lot, which comes out usually as, "Da-dee" rather than, "Dad-ee" but he'll get there. And while he can't say "light" yet (or doesn't want to...) he has named it something in his own language.... It's not "spellable" but he uses the same sounds every time when he's trying to talk about it (we know this because he'll point to a light and say it, to which we reply, "liiiiight?" and he'll reply with his word. lol)

There's been lots of other words that he's been able to mimick us saying, but has never repeated. The funniest thing, though, are his "cell phone conversations." He'll usually use my or Jeremy's phone, and walk around babbling on to someone about something. I haven't yet been able to catch it on film (got a few seconds today, but that's it,) but it's really funny... He'll go on for several minutes, pausing every now and then for a response. :) Some of the things he 'says', though... I dunno, sounds like he's been listening in on too many of Daddy's phone conversations... :) I'm kidding, none of it's bad. If he does pick up any naughty words (besides "ash" and "btch" as those may have slipped out once or twice accidently [usually while gaming, where Jeremiah usually is not,] it would have been from our neighbor, who has no reservations, whatsoever, about using profanity in front of a toddler (he apologizes the first time, and then just keeps on going. But he's a nice guy.)

Yup, that's all I've got. LOST is supposed to be AMAZING this week, so I'll probably have something to say about that Thursday night. Otherwise, have a great week!

It's been a quiet week...

Hence, the lack of new posts.

Really, it's just been kinda boring and sick.

It started off really nicely--70's and sunny on Monday! I've been waiting for that kind of weather! Jeremiah and I played on the deck in the morning (I was still in my PJ's, so that's as far as I was willing to venture,) and then outside with the neighbor's kids in the afternoon. It was really nice. The nice weather has a certain effect on a person--for me, it motivated me to get some stuff done!

We bought Jeremiah a swing to hang off the trees in the backyard. After finding a suitably sturdy branch, we strung it up, only to discover that the rope it came with wasn't long enough. Yeah, the bottom of the swing is as high as my head... But, we didn't want to disappoint Jeremiah, so we put him (not the easiest thing to do when you're lifting him above your head...) and he had such a great time in it! I don't think he wanted to get down. Needless to say, the height issue needs to be rectified. That helped spurn my trip to Lowes on Monday inbetween playing outside with Jeremiah. We got some more rope, some pebbles/rocks for the driveway (it narrows at the mouth, so when someone pulls in along side the van, it creates a muddy ditch that's really unsightly... so I filled it in with rocks. Hopefully, that'll do until we get around to tearing up the flowerbed planted on either sides, and adding some walking stones.)

I can't really remember what happened Tuesday... I think it was also on the nice side, but we just kinda layed low. Sometime between Tuesday and Wednesday, though, Jeremiah started not feeling so well, belly wise. I've never had to deal with "projectile vomit" until this week. This kid rarely spit up, let alone throw up! And he seemed much more content just sitting with Mommy and watching cartoons, than running around playing (when he's feeling well, he will completely ignore the TV... but when he's not, it's all about cuddle time!) By Thursday, whatever it was that he had was in full swing--icky diapers galore to prove it, too.

We were getting really concerned by nighttime when I went to check on him before going to bed, only to discover another nasty diaper. Of course, he wailed through the diaper change (nasty diapers tend to bring nasty diaper rash--ALL OVER! My poor baby...) After he was in new PJ's, and Daddy was trying to calm him in the glider, I asked him if he noticed any tears when he was crying. He hadn't. So even though Mommy had been super diligent about giving him lots to drink, the "Doodie Monster" managed to zap him dry. After that, I decided to wake up every couple of hours to make sure he was dry and planned to call the doctor in the morning.

Well, morning came, and I only had to get up once (on my own--he was fine.) Already, Jeremiah seemed to be doing much better. Jeremy got him some nasty Pedialyte (have you tasted it... it's gross... Jeremiah was a trooper and drank as much as he could, but he'd rather have water,) and that seemed to help, and he himself seemed to be in much better spirits. We were able to keep our plans for the day (having lunch at Sweetwater with Liz and Rachel! Though I will say, I like the Merrifield location better... The service is better. Not that it was bad, but they were semi-absent when we needed them, and overly-helpful [as in 'annoying'] when we didn't.) It was pretty rainy, though. Jeremiah really enjoyed it--I had to practically drag him in the house when we got home. He wanted to splash in the puddles (by falling in them, which he did manage to do a couple of times,) and run around rather than go inside. So cute!

And it's raining again today. I like rainy days, though--if I don't have to go out lots in them. I find them very relaxing. At least it's RAINING-RAINING, as opposed to MISTING-RAINING. The in-between rains are the worst--you don't get the full benefit of the "rainyness," but it's still rainy enough you don't want to go out. But today is not that day. Today is, as my Dad would say, "A good day for ducks." :) Yeah, he's kooky.

Pregnancy wise, everything is good. We're officially in the 2nd Trimester, which is exciting! I thought I would be less excited about being preggers with #2 when ya already have a #1, but nope, #2 is still exciting. I think Jeremiah's going to be a great big brother! Of course, lots could change between now and September, but so far, he's really good to the baby doll, and wants to give her a bottle every morning (it makes a 'sucking' sound... at least, I'm assuming it's a 'sucking' sound.) And he just loves other babies! They just make him grin ear to ear. I'm sure it'll be a little different with one that never leaves, and takes Mommy & Daddy away from you, but I think he'll be fine.

I think I've "popped", though it's tougher to tell on me since there was a bit of belly to begin with, but hey, if Jeremy can tell a difference, than I believe him. Plus, none of my pre-preggers pants are comfortable anymore, despite the fact that I weigh less now than when I bought them, so ya know something's going on. It'll probably be a few more weeks before the general public can tell (and for the really stupid, a few more months--one chic that I saw on a bi-weekly basis when I worked for Sony didn't know I was pregnant with Jeremiah until right before Christmas. I WAS 8 MONTHS! Sheesh.)

We'll probably get an ultrasound sometime in April (it's optional, but Jeremy wants "to see" his "child.") It's hard to believe that that's next month! And then we've got our trip to Vegas in May, June-August will be spent in various pools, I'm sure, and then, here comes baby! :) Yay! And now, Jeremiah is napping, so I'm gonna go get ready for the day. That was this week in a nutshell--see? Not very exciting. Maybe next week will be more fun.

LOST Epi. 6 - "The Other Woman"

Well, as many of you have probably noticed, this episode was not as awesome as last weeks, but still quite solid. This felt like a "traditional" LOST epi to me--some interesting flashbacks that reveal more about the characters we love/hate, something 'bad' on the horizon, and our Losties must go stop it. More questions answered/asked... The only thing missing was a witty nickname or two from Sawyer, and Ben avoided getting punched for yet another episode! Oh well, can't have it all.

One thing that bugged me about this episode was the inconsistency of Ben's character. Ben has always been pretty even keeled. You expect him to be smoothe, and sinister at the same time. But in Juliet's flashbacks, he was a very different Ben. For the first time, well, if you don't count his flashbacks to his childhood and his daddy issues, we see a side of Ben that makes him "human"--he's vulnerable to another's feelings for him, which doesn't happen AT ALL the rest of the time. The whole 'puppy dog love' he displays is wayyyyy out of character for him.

Maybe there's more behind it than we were given, like, Jacob told him that he was giving Juliet to him or something. That would make the whole "you're mine" thing a little more convincing, instead of just sounding like a spoiled child (which he still would be, regardless, based on his behavior.) I guess he likened it to being told you were going to get your biggest wish for Christmas, but you couldn't have it until your birthday.... or something.

Now, I'm kinda jumping around a bit, but the comment from Harper--"you look like her," was never answered. However, we know that Ben had a little best friend from childhood that is no longer around (as far as we can tell.) Emily? Was that her name? I don't remember, but she gave Ben the two wooden dolls for his birthday, and it was the only gift he ever got. Sometime before the "surge" (supposedly when Ben used that gas against everyone on the Island, as Charlotte mentioned later in the episode,) Emily must have either left the island, or died. I'm guessing she left, because we've never had clues from Ben that there was a sacred place on the island (other than Jacob's cabin) that he had to visit (assuming he loved her as much as the clues allude, he'd probably visit at least once every now and then.) And, Harper spoke of her in the present tense, though it would be more awkward to say, "you look like she did," or something. It's widely assumed that they grow up to be "lovers", maybe even married at some point, but then she disappear. Hopefully they'll go back to that at some point, and close that chapter in Ben's life, once and for all. [I looked it up... her name was Annie.]

On second thought... Looking back at the screencaps, maybe she's referring to Ben's mother (whose name is Emily, so Ben's friend has another name that currently escapes me.) If that is, indeed, the "she" Harper was referring to, that's pretty sick.

Anyways, on to the rest of the episode. I find it curious that Charlotte and Daniel had such a detailed map of the island to use to find "The Tempest." We now know that Charles Whitmore is the "bad guy" trying to find/exploit the island. If he's still in the "finding" stages, how would he have that map already. We know he has the journal from Hanso, but I doubt there'd be a map in there WITH the Dharma stations (I don't doubt the possibility of a map, just a map with stations on it.) Then again, if Whitmore was the Dharma sponsor (an organization we still know zilch about,) then it would make sense that he'd have a map. But then why abandon the Island for all that time? Why not go back sooner? We know Dharma was in place long before he had that journal... Things that make ya go hmmmm.....

Is anyone still clueless as to who Ben's guy on the freighter is??? I love how ABC makes such a big deal about it, when the whole world actually has a pretty good idea already (and has since the Harold Perrineau confirmed being back this season, and we learn that he has his own episode called, "Meet Kevin Johnson." Gee.... I wonder what all those clues could mean?!

And if you haven't yet, watch the LOST mobisodes on ABC's Lost page--they're short epi clips that were made for Verizon V-Cast users. They have some info that helps fill in a few blanks in the series (blanks from previous season--some as early as season one and as recent as last season. Very interesting stuff.)

That's all I've got for this episode for now. There's a lot more, but it'll have to wait til next time--Jeremiah wants to eat! :)

It's 74 degrees out!

Jeremiah loves hanging out outside.

Where, oh where, have my girl scout cookies gone....

IT'S COOKIE SEASON!

Yeah, man, the Girl Scouts have taken their orders, and now the boxes should be coming in, which means I SHOULD BE IN COOKIE HEAVEN SOON!

I love me some Girl Scout Cookies! Our neighbor's daughter was selling them a few weeks ago, so I ordered a bunch. Or at least, I thought I ordered a bunch. Thinking of it now, 10 boxes really isn't that much. I mean, these things only come around once a year. So how long will 10 boxes last here in the Wilcox household?? Pre-pregnancy.... probably a couple of weeks. Preggers, though.... well, we'll just say I'm sending Jeremy out now to go hunt down some sellers so we can pick up a few extra boxes (like.... maybe another 10.)

Okay, yeah, I'm not happy to be spending $70 on cookies, but they only come by once a year! And maybe once I have my fill, I'll be able to spread them out over the rest of the year (and maybe pocket a few bucks on eBay once the season is officially dead? Nah, they won't last THAT long.)

Maybe part of my desire to buy so many cookies stems from the fact that we actually have Girl Scouts to buy from this year. Part of the joy of living in "the burbs". Seriously, this baby needs to be a girl, so I can have the in-home advantage... And by then, my neighbor's kid won't be a girl scout anymore, so it should all work out perfectly.

And man, my parents NEVER ordered GS cookies growing up.... Even though we'd get multiple girls asking, we just didn't have the money to justify, at most, one or two boxes of them (which were always delivered after school while my parents were working, so they never actually got any, I don't think.) I guess this is my way of showing I'm not my parents. :) Or something.

Okay, time to kick Jeremy outta here before the GS's run outta Tagalongs and Thin Mints....

(Can ya tell I was a bit obsessed when I wrote this??? I've calmed down now. :)

I'm not crazy, right??? Nevermind, don't answer that.... :)