What Does He Mean?

So, Nana called tonite after a busy day a the local amusment park, Blackbeards. She sounds a little weary. But they had a great day and Connor drove go-karts by himself. The purpose of the call was for me to translate what Connor was telling her about his dinner choice. She had asked him what he wanted and his answer was:

PIZZA

Big shock. But, easy to understand, right? Until he added:

BUT NOT FROM ITALIANS

Huh? Must we remind him that he is in NJ--Land of Pizza/Land of Italians? So, to further complicate things he adds:

AND THE KIND I CAN EAT

Huh? What does that mean?

Here is my motherly translation:

The boy wants pizza, but not from a pizzeria. Those pieces are too big and greasy and he struggles to fold them and eat them. He wants small, frozen pizza from a chain restaurant. The kind on a kids menu.

I have a future as a translator at the U.N., I'm sure.

Weird. It's Just Weird.

This week is Spring Break for Loudoun County Schools. Since I'm trying to save all my leave for when the baby comes, I didn't want to take the week of. So...what to do with the boy? NANA CAMP!

Bob and I went to NJ for the weekend and came back yesterday without him. He's there until Friday when we get him back. Bob was all gloom and doom that this would be a disaster...but, so far so good. He was absolutely fine when we left and didn't really get upset. He was a little sad when he saw me drop a few tears, but he seemed more worried about me than sad that we were leaving him.

Yesterday, Nana and Aunt Michelle and Uncle John took him and his cousins to an egg hunt which, by all accounts, was wildly successful. Today they had an unexpected event and had to go sit at Aunt Marilyn's for a few hours with not much to do...and Nana said he was very good. Tonite I called him and he said he had a good day and that his iPod was charging and that they had "eggs and bread" for dinner (which, sadly considering the way my mother eats, sounds strangely correct) and that Nana made cupcakes that they'd be having for dessert. He seems just fine.

As for me, its weird. I barely knew what to do with myself last night. Bob went to work and I was here, left to my own devices for 6 hours. And it was strange to come home and not see him tonite. But, its so good for him to have this time with Nana, I'm okay with it. I loved being at my Grandmother's without my mom's interference---and I'm thinking that he does, too.

Egg Hunt!!

What a great day we had! The weather was beautiful, the location was perfect, the kids were all delighted, and the parents were all in a great mood. It was easy set up, easy cleanup. The only bad part was that it ended too soon. So Bob kept the party going in our driveway right up through dinner. All the leftover beer in a cooler in the open garage drew the neighbors in like flies to a sticky trap. And, we got our first official sunburn of 2010--Connor's face was as pink as could be.

Egg Hunt Prep

We've got a big family egg hunt today at our development's Nature Center. And we're so exicted for it. There are 10 families coming, a spring sandwich bar, brownies, donuts, fruit, and lots of candy. I got the idea to try to pull this together, mainly because I hate community egg hunts. They're always a madhouse. And there's always a limit on eggs---like 5 or 6. Which Connor can get to in about 20 seconds. Every family brought at least a dozen eggs. And I easily put in 60 or 70 more. There will be games, the hunt, and a visit from the Easter Bunny. We're really excited and spent some time yesterday getting ready, during which I got to thinking that we needed music. We've got a great portable Bose iPod system so that makes it easy enough. But what to play? I found a few lame playlists on the Web, but they did give me some ideas to run with...like "candy" and "sweet". Plus, somewhere along the way Bob got a hard drive with THOUSANDS of songs, which made it mostly free. He spent some time picking through that yesterday, too. We had to get a few traditional ones from iTunes, but all together its a really fun bunch of music. Here it is:

Chocolate Easter Bunny-Simply Weasels

Peter Cottontail-Gene Autry

Easter Parade-Bing Crosby

The Kids Don't Stand A Chance-Vampire Weekend

A Tisket, A Tasket-Ella Fitzgerald

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy-Ohio Express

I Want Candy-Bow Wow Wow

Dental Care-Owl City

Sweetest Thing-U2

I Still Havent' Found What I'm Looking For-U2

Peeps On The March-Easter Party Music

Show Me What I'm Looking For-Carolina Liar

Now That We've Found Love-Heavy D and the Boyz

Jump-Van Halen

The Bunny Hop-Easter Party Music

Good Times Roll-The Cars

Just Can't Get Enough-Depeche Mode

Go Your Own Way-Fleetwood Mac

Pour Some Sugar On Me-Def Leppard

Games People Play-Alan Parsons Project

Parents Just Don't Understand-Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff

Sweet Child O Mine-Guns 'N Roses

Candy-Cameo

My Favourite Game-The Cardigans

Crazy-Britney Spears

Lollipop-Aqua

One Sweet Day-Mariah Carey and Boys II Men

Sweet Dreams-La Bouche

Good Vibrations-Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch

Tubthumping-Chumba Wumba

MmmmBob-Hanson

Beating Around The Bush-AC/DC

Eat It-Weird Al Yanckovic

What An Animal!

Connor had to do a project for school today. Research and prepare a presentation on any animal of your choice. Check it out!!! And check out that cool scorpion sculpture in the bottom right corner habitat section. I wonder who did that? You should have seen the kids at the bus stop...okay...the boys at the bus stop. They loved it.

Fluid Check

My fun 4D sonogram last Friday detected a problem. I'm on the low side for amniotic fluid volume. I had never even heard of such a thing.

Amniotic fluid is important. Its what the baby "breathes". It allows them to move around. Not enough of it can endanger them in all sorts of ways---from lack of growth, to low muscle tone and skeletal development, to really scary things like cord compression.

Panic level for amniotic fluid index (AFI) is 5. I was at 7 last Friday. I could tell something was wrong because of the way the sonographer kept taking clinical pics---not just fun ones. Lo and behold, the doctor called on Monday and broke the news.

So, the course of action has been for me to "lay low" for a few days and drink plenty of water--even though they're not really sure that makes a difference. I've been compliant and worked from home since Tuesday and consumed enough water to drown a village. I get a repeat sono this morning and we'll see where we are. I don't know much beyond that.

I do know that he's really busy in there. His movement doesn't seem restricted to me. And if you could see my abdomen, you'd never suspect there was a "low" anything going on. It is massive.

UPDATE 3/19: Went for repeat sono and fluid was up to 9.7. Great news. But the doctor warned me that I'd need to take it easy. So, from now on, I'm only working at the office two days a week. She nicely reminded me of my "advanced maternal age". I'll be good because, first of all, I want to keep this baby cooking for the appropriate amount of time. And second of all, I don't want him to come early and screw up our summer vacation plans!!

The Plush Life

This past Wednesday morning Connor had bout of diarrhea when he first woke up. Though it was pretty profound and he had a stomach cramp or two that made him cry, it seemed to pass quickly. So, we went to school late--first tardy all year.

That same day he had an after school program--cup stacking. It starts at 2:45. At around 2:30 the school attendance lady called to say that he wasn't feeling well. Bob went to pick him up. A short while later, I talked to him on the cell phone and Bob told me that Connor just said that he simply didn't feel well. Bob added that Connor was a bit flushed.

When I came home from work, Connor came bounding across the foyer, screaming and yelling about something and I said to Bob "Gee, he doesn't seem sick to me." and Bob just reiterated that Connor had been a bit flushed when he picked him up. Connor came over to me, hugged my legs and said "Yeah, Mom. I feel okay now, but when dad picked me up, I was PLUSH."

The New One

I honestly can't say much about this beyond.....

Wow.


He wasn't too cooperative. Kept putting his hands up in front of his face like a boxer. Wouldn't you know it....this was the last shot she got.


Wow.

Correct Usage

Every night before bed, Connor and I go over a word list that he's expected to learn at his own pace. When he's ready to test on a list, we tell the teacher, he passes, and we go on to the next list. When we're learning the words, I generally ask him to use the word in a sentence. One of the words on this week's list is BOTH. Here's the sentence I got...without a hesitation and ready to move on to the next word:

BOTH "Both of your boobies are ginormous".

Can't fight facts, folks.

Magic

Per my previous post, I am anemic. By the end of the week, I was feeling the effects of it. I can barely keep my eyes open for more than four hours. Yesterday, I took three naps--if you can call them that. Really, I took three "collapse" periods. Iron supplements only can do so much--you really have to consume food that is high in iron, as well. So, last night I wanted a steak. A good one. But I had no energy to argue, so I let Bob talk me into the steakhouse here in Broadlands...which I've never been impressed with. But, it has new owners so I figured it was worth a shot.

Good gamble. I had a filet mignon that was easily equivalent to Mortons or Ruth's Chris quality. It was awesome. And a delicious, ice cold salad that would be hard to beat anywhere.

On top of that, we were entertained at our table by a magician, Sly, who blew our minds. It was a fun night and all of us got what we wanted: Iron for me, Fun for Connor, and Beer for Bob.

Progress Report

I am now 27 weeks pregnant. I went to the OB today for a checkup and I have have just started the phase where you have to go in every two weeks. Doctor happy today=I lost 5 pounds. She was getting pissed off at my eating so I switched to lettuce at lunch and now she's happier. Doctor NOT happy today=I am anemic (again). This happened when I was pregnant with Connor and it was pretty profound by the time we figured it out and I had to go on prescription iron/vitamin c pills. This time we caught it early which is good. When you get it late its hard to build it back up. So, its on to iron supplements (on top of the iron in the prenatal vitamins) for me. And more spinach and garbanzo beans.

Next Friday I get my 4D sonogram and DVD. Should be fun to see the Pumpkin and I can't wait. And, we've now scheduled my c-section for May 20th. So the boy will share a birthday with Joe Cocker and Cher. I'm on the schedule for 9:30am and Dr. Thompson, who did my first c-section, will do this one as well. I couldn't be happier with this plan. I absolutely loved the controlled, predictable environment of the operating room and had a great, pleasant experience. And recovery from that was better than recovery from my hiatal hernia repair/lapband surgery. The 20th is a Thursday, so I'm thinking we'll come home on Sunday or Monday and he will sleep in this cool new thing I found:

Its called "The Cocoon" and I just love the concept of it. Rock a bye, baby!