Life with the Kids

Right now that baby in the widget...my virtual baby...is spinning in the womb like it's on a merry-go-round. I'm not sure how realistic that is. I'm thinking that if my non-virtaul baby could do that at this point, I would know it! She's taking up a lot of space in there now...and seems to be elbowing for some extra space! :)

I've felt lousy the last couple of days. The weather was gorgeous M-W and I think that might be part of the problem. On Monday I met up with my friend Mockingbird at a park after Oskar got out of school. Then we came home and my kids got together and played with the neighbor kids. We even went over to their house after supper and I hung out with my neighbor while the kids all played. (Annika said, "You come too Mommy and play with *your* friend.") So that was all fine. Nothing too crazy. Tuesday I woke up feeling fine.

That afternoon I took them back outside several times. While they were playing, I started re-arranging the furniture on the screen porch. Keep in mind that we have a stone table for 6 and a stone coffee table...amongst other things. Why do I do this completely unnecessary task at 8 months pregnant? Who knows?

Wednesday I woke up feeling a little light-headed and as the day progressed, nauseous too. But of course it's another beautiful day so I took the car to the car wash and then when I get home I washed all the windows. I finished with that and then hauled around some more furniture (because I had sort of asked Dwight to do it but he never got around to it). Meanwhile I'm also toting bikes and other toys here and there...not to mention children. Then I was tidying up the house too and making supper. By the time Dwight got home (which was a little later than usual) I was pooped and sore. I crashed on the couch. Dwight put all the kids to bed by himself so that was a treat! Then he hung out with me and we watched my beloved Mavericks take it to the Pistons. :) That was nice too. (Finally, the Mavericks were looking really good!)

Today I'm feeling lightheaded again...and still a little nauseous. So I know I ought to take it easy today. Sitting at the computer blogging is taking it easy! Of course I've also done a fair bit of tidying, have some laundry going and gave the kids a bath. :) We also tried to make the gingerbread house that Uncle Jonny and Aunt Laura sent but I guess we were a little too impatient and didn't give the roof enough time to really cement...so the roof slid off...and now it's too heavy to stick it back on there. I suppose I could go plop myself in front of the tv and try to hold it together for a while so it could dry...I don't know if that would work. ?? The kids would be happy though.

Yesterday while I was outside with the kids, I heard a child crying...for like half an hour. No joke. It might have been longer. I eventually heard the child saying, "I want to go home" and "Daddy" and other similar phrases. So finally I decided to go check things out. I kept remembering Danny with his broken arms crawling to our house and neighbors hearing him calling out but thinking it was just a kid at play. So I went poking around in the "woods" behind our house until I could see two kids in the lot behind us on a trampoline. The one (a girl) appeared to be hunched up in the corner while the other one (a boy) jumped away gleefully. So I asked the boy why he didn't help the girl...and so on and so forth. Eventually they seemed to come to some sort of resolution so I mosied on back to my kids. A few minutes later, I heard the boy shouting to the person "in the woods...in the red shirt". I started thinking about it and the possible traumatic effect on a child of having someone speak to you from the woods so I got my kids together and directed them to the gate in our fence to head to the little bit of common area between the two neighborhoods "for a walk". There's a worn down area back there that you could generously call a path. My kids were delighted to be exploring something new...and I had been thinking we ought to inspect the back of our property anyway. As I approached the house with the trampoline, the little girl was now jumping alone and I saw that the boy was in the door with what appearned to be a somewhat elderly adult. The two of them were shouting for the little girl to come in. Perhaps I read too much into things but I thought that maybe the little boy had made a report about a stranger in the woods (in which case, good for him) . After I went by with my troop of three little ones, the trampoline suddenly filled up with kids so perhaps they decided I wasn't a threat after all. Anyway, I'd just like to know where on earth that adult was when the little girl was crying nonstop for half an hour?! What's up with that?

But back to my productive days, I must be going through some sort of nesting thing because I'm just itching to paint various rooms. I keep mulling over the idea of just going for it and painting the main level bathroom one day while Dwight's at work. Plus I'd really love to paint the new baby's bedroom. I'm stalled on that room though. Right now it's our guest bedroom and it makes sense to leave it as a guest bedroom until after my mom comes to help out when I'm scheduled for my induction. We're planning to move that bed down to Dwight's room in the basement, but if Mom's going to be helping out with the kids, it absolutely makes sense for her to be upstairs where the kids are! I suppose she could sleep in our room and Dwight could sleep in the basement...but it's probably just as well that I wait until I'm no longer pregnant to tackle that room. We'll keep the baby in our room for the first couple of weeks anyway. But it does drive me a little crazy to have that task lingering over me. :)

Back 'ard

Oskar and Annika are eating some cereal for breakfast right now and Oskar was observing that there's frost on the ground outside (although he thought it was snow). He said, "Look, there's snow in the back 'ard but I'm sad it's not snowing." So Annika pipes up, "It's not back 'ard it's back yard."

Oh my! (That's my two-year-old correcting my four-year-old!)

Anyway, I was going to tell you about my appointment on the 26th. I went to the new doctor. I know I had a consultation with her during the spring about something or other - before I was preggers - but I don't really know her too well, obviously. For starters I almost missed the appointment. I got to bed late because Danny and Amy were over until like midnight and then I had a grueling night with a very awake - and still sick - Kiersten. So when the kids woke me up at 8 am, I was just busy thinking about more sleep, not my 8:45 am appointment. Luckily at 8:30 I remembered. So I flew up the stairs, woke up Dwight, then grabbed my stuff and rushed out the door. I was like 3 minutes late so not too bad. Anyway, I did the usual - stepped on the scale, presented my arm for a blood pressure reading and peed in a cup. Then I headed off into an exam room to wait. The doctor walks in, introduces herself and then says, "So, what, did you eat a lot over the holidays or something?" Nice to meet you too. *hehe* Dad said I should have responded, "Oh, maybe you didn't notice, I'm pregnant." Although it's a fair statement because I do gain a lot of weight. The other doctors don't really give me a hard time anymore. I guess we've all gotten used to my weight gain situation. *sigh*

But back to the kids. One of their favorite games is to play "parents". Oskar is Dwight and Annika is Heather. Kiersten's name when they play parents is "Letter". (Don't ask me? I don't have a clue either!) Dwight and I become Oskar and Annika, of course. They LOVE it when I play along. Their other favorite pretend game of the moment is to be Super Sleuths (from Our Friends Tigger and Pooh). Oskar's Tigger of course. Annika is Darby. Kiersten is Buster (Darby's pet dog). And I'm Rabbit. Yesterday Oskar informed me that Dwight is Eeyore. Anyone familiar with the show can appreciate this, Annika has claimed one of my baseball caps and she'll announce, "I have to slap my cap" (yes, I record Tigger & Pooh for them on the DVR so she's seen a few episodes...).

Hmm...I guess I'm doing an "every-other-paragraph" thing because now I'm going back to the weight gain. I was just going to say that, having brought it up, it reminded me that I ought to update my spreadsheet. Remember my charts from previous pregnancies? I'll have to see if I can find one to post a link to it. *hehe* Aha, here we go. Anyway, off to plug in data for this pregnancy. (Poor baby #4...this time I don't get around to it until I'm 30 weeks pregnant.)