This is My Forties

Here's more cool shots of our new baby. Baby tried really hard to ruin the surprise, but I resisted the temptation and the tech was great about not slipping up. So, we're still in the dark about the gender. The birth will be so exciting (as if it weren't going to be exciting enough already)! Right when we looked in on the baby it stared at the machine and let out a huge yawn, which we have a pic of (first one). I can see so much of this child's personality already! I know for a fact this baby will not handle it's arms being tied down or wrapped up. His/her arms are very important to it's comforting technique already. He was laying on them, putting them on his ears, rubbing his eyes. It was a fun sonogram :) I wish you could have been there, babe. I love you! We'll be together again soon. See you at naptime!:D

We almost ended up with a puppy today. An adorable baby Jack Russell Terrier mix wandered into our yard. He was very sweet, laid back, flea-ridden, dirty, cute, a little broken, good temperament, un-fixed, and very very good with Noah and Emma. I asked the neighbors about him and they showed me where the owner lived. She took him inside and told me how he's driving her crazy because he chews through collars and gets out of the yard (which is because he's a puppy and not an outside breed). She mentioned possibly getting rid of him. Lo and behold he wandered back into our yard not too long after that... interesting. I wanted to adopt him because he was unwanted, but shouldn't have been. He was a very sweet dog. I would have called him Jackie I think :) This brings me to a rant. I know I've posted about the way people around here treat their pets. This is a perfect example. This lady didn't want the puppy anymore so she simply let it go. No collar, no tags...

These are, in fact, Happy Days. I will even concede that these happy days are both yours and mine. I've been in a great mood all day. I mowed my entire half acre lawn... OK I didn't mow the front yet. Don't worry it took me twice as long as last time because I made sure I took plenty of breaks, drank tons of water, and monitored my pulse and general feeling. I am sore and it feels great. I love exercise. I especially love exercise when it accomplishes something other than making me sore. My lawn is beautimous now. I don't want to lose the tone in my arms or legs that I've somehow managed to hold on to after getting out of the Army. Granted it's not the same tone, but I still have some muscle to me and I'm glad. Makes labor a lot easier! When Josh gets back I will be an exercising fool. I will go to college too! I tried filling up Noah's pool to distract him from the mower, but that surely didn't work even for a second. He followed me th...

Our first day of potty training was... educational. Noah peed in his underwear 5 times before I finally went ahead and put a pull-up on him. This is not going to happen. He just doesn't care and doesn't even realize it's him peeing that's causing the puddle at his feet. He just doesn't get it at ALL! He would sit in a dirty diaper until his skin was rotting off and not care. He's going to be difficult to potty train.

The video got up to 100 views and someone subscribed to my videos that I've never met nor heard of... no message or anything included. I checked what groups he belonged to and there were "pregnant belly lovers" and whatnot. They claim to be clean, but I mean... seriously who sits around all day and just innocently watches videos of pregnant strangers. Needless to say, he's been blocked. It freaked me out so it's friends and family only now. I think I might change some security settings for my blog too. I'll let you all know. ::shudders:: To Josh: I'm sorry babe! At least I caught them and blocked them in pretty decent time. :/

I usually upload my videos and make them public so I can add them onto here and people can watch them with ease. I uploaded one yesterday and I was going to post it today. The freakin' thing already has been viewed 86 times!! DANG! I think maybe I just uploaded it at a busy and boring time. I bet most of those views were like 3 seconds and then they left. I don't know how I feel about that yet, but here's Noah and I making cookies :) It's really nothing special! He was being really cute and counting and I wanted to capture it on video, but then he saw the camera and lost his concentration. Little ham. In a semi-related story. I checked my Flickr today and noticed someone I didn't know had marked the picture of me pregnant in the green striped shirt as a favorite. I was curious so I clicked on this person and discovered he/she had several collections of pregnancy photos, one of which was titled "Pregnancy Porn" (which of course I did NOT click). ...

I realized today that I am just being lazy about potty training. Noah is such an independent little guy already so being on his case every 15 or 20 minutes to initiate the actual potty training is much more taxing than I thought it would be. I get on the computer and read blogs, update blogs, check email... just let him play because I enjoy the alone time. I think I have to just boycott the computer for a week or two and MAKE MYSELF not even get online unless Noah is asleep. It will be difficult but it's better for both of us anyway. He's getting sorta ignored. In my defense I have also been doing Spanish refreshers so I'm being at least mildly constructive. I'm bored with everything here. I'm bored with my life. We need something new. Maybe once Noah's gotten at least the pooping part of potty training down I will take him to Corpus Cristi to play in the ocean as a reward. Last time we went he was afraid of the waves and just wanted to chase seagulls...

So I stupidly drank coffee at around 6pm. I know I will regret this when 2am rolls around and I am still wide awake but, I couldn't help it! In a weak moment I buckled under my sweet tooth and bought some strawberry cheesecake danish (drool). It is my favorite dessert. And one cannot eat danish without coffee! Plus I had been craving coffee all day. JUST LOOK ... how can anyone resist this?! I can see the sparks emulating from peoples' drool-ridden keyboards now. I've been pretty good this pregnancy. I've been denying myself many odd cravings (mostly for fast food). But, I said out loud to Noah in the grocery store "mommy's getting some danish... know why? because she's pregnant and she wants some and she can eat whatever she wants, whenever she wants". This may not be the truest of true statements, but I think it's pretty accurate. The caffeine and sugar are surging through my veins and I am full of nothing but happiness. Here's a...

I fell asleep on the couch while I was supposed to be waiting for signs that Noah had to "go" so I could rush him to the potty. I wanted to wait until he went to go to the store. Well, I obviously missed all the signs because I fell asleep and Dora came on followed by Diego (her older and equally annoying brother). My dreams consisted of Noah talking like Dora and me being annoyed and begging him to stop... then my niece Alex started to do it... then Ben caught on to doing it. By the end it was the those 3, Michelle, and my mom walking around in this Sam's Club like pet store as the Dora imitators mused about cedar chips and hamsters. I believe I fell asleep at the end of the Wonder Pets so that explains the animals. There was even a point when Alex and Ben were begging me to "JUMP! COME ON JUMP, ARRIBA ARRIBA!!" to help them get something off of a shelf... "LOUDER COME ON ARRRRIIIIIIBA!". This method of course didn't work since inanimate ob...

I just wanted to see what other peoples' opinions are on these somewhat controversial parenting issues. It's anonymous but, I wouldn't judge someone for having a different opinion than me on any of these issues anyway. Click the title to take it :) Thanks!

People who publish literary works or make merchandise that they actually sell to people should learn proper grammar. Who would buy a tee shirt that says "Life happens while your making other plans"... probably lots of people because apparently Americans are retarded when it comes to the difference between "your" and "you're", among other things. I also hate little sports memorabilia that say "win some, loose some"... oh really? LOSE is to not win. LOOSE is when something isn't tight. Oh and another one. CALVARY and CAVALRY are also very very different. One is where Jesus was crucified, the other is military guys on horses. BIG DIFFERENCE! And would someone please correct George W. Bush on how to pronounce nuclear?! He sounds like a stinkin' idiot, although I doubt fixing that one mistake would help him at this point. That poor man lost his speaking ability somewhere on the road to the Presidency. I don't care if my frie...

I finally set up the camera on a timer so I have a sorta full shot of myself haha. Here's me in one of my new "non-maternity" shirts :) I'm 18 weeks now.

I am sick of being afraid that everything I take or eat or drink is going to harm my baby's development. It seems like the more studies they do, the more foods are eliminated from my diet. I've been craving fish. One of my favorites is orange roughy... apparently it has a higher mercury content (.554 parts per million... wow how high) and that could damage a developing nervous system if eaten more than once a month. At least salmon is still ok. Coffee is bad, now it's good and can even prevent memory loss. Butter is bad, now it's better than margarine because of trans fats. Beef was bad, beef was good, bad again, good again. Eggs are the devil, eggs are a miracle. I am tired of the stinkin' FDA! Know what I think? I think everyone is so paranoid about having healthy babies that they've forgotten that coke-heads even have healthy babies. There is a lot involved that has nothing to do with you. Women think they cause miscarriages, but I believe it take...

Our visit to Ohio was stressful and sad, but nice. I love to see family and EVERYONE was there. Even my nephew was able to get emergency leave to come home between Marine Corp. training requirements. The funeral was amazing... it was exactly how I would want mine. We were randomly spouting off great memories of Grandma from our seats, laughing and crying together. Grandma's favorite color was purple (mostly lavendar) so we all wore something purple. I learned a lot about my Grandmother that I never knew. She hadn't been the person everyone described for nearly 10 years. She was already "old" when we last 3 kids were born. I never got to debate politics or religion with her, but it's OK... I don't have any regrets. I was sad knowing that this next baby would never get to sit in Great Grandma's lap and cheer her up. My Grandma LOVED babies. Babies and little kids would make her light up like crazy and all the adults would disappear. Babies make...

She's gone. I almost thought I would be able to make it there before she went. She was surrounded by family and she was comfortable. She went very peacefully and I am grateful for that. I have to be up in 4 hours for my flight... don't think I'll be sleeping tonight. I wish I was home.

My Grandma, who is my only surviving grandparent, has taken a turn for the worse and they don't believe she will make it through the day. Noah, my sister Vita, and I are flying out to Ohio tomorrow to be with the family. We might be back by Wednesday... no one can really say. I'm very glad that during my last trip to Ohio I went a few times to see her and even got pictures of her with Noah. She LOVES babies, especially boys. She didn't remember me, but my son sure brightened her day. He was too shy to sit with her, but he wasn't too shy to eat her pretzels! She also did a bit of a magic trick for him and showed him how she could make her teeth disappear. Noah was fascinated and she sure cracked up me and my dad with that stunt. I'm sad that I can't be there to say goodbye to her, but I sent some flowers with my goodbye on the card. Maybe when someone reads the name on the card she'll remember who I am and know that I love her. I would also like to ...

Noah and Jellybean (our ferret) My blogger friend Pam posted a comment on my page about how cool it is to be able to document so much of Noah's life via internet. I agree! I thought I would share with you my future idea. Someday soon (hopefully) I will use this site to have my blog printed out into an actual bound book. How cool is THAT!? Talk about a baby book!! Noah will always be able to look back and get a glimpse of what he was like as a child with a lot more clarity than generations before him did. And he won't have to read it on a screen for hours because it will be in a convenient (though probably ginormous) book for him :) I already used Qoop to print out all my Germany pictures from flickr into one book, including all the captions. It turned out great; it was excellent quality at a reasonable price. I remember looking through my mom's scrapbook from her HS days. Most of the pages were empty thanks to the deterioration of the tape she used. The writ...

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! We had our big ham dinner yesterday since Josh had to leave today. Still haven't colored any Easter eggs! We just didn't get around to it. It's been extremely cold and rainy here all of a sudden. Yesterday was an inside all day kind of day. Josh did homework while I cleaned the house. Noah watched movies and played with toys. The day flew by. The whole week did, in fact... like always. But, it was a great week :) BABY UPDATE Right before my sonogram I was feeling a few flutters now and again, but lately he's been kicking hard enough to see. Josh was able to feel him move while he was here, which makes me a happy camper. Everything is going really well. All my tests came back negative and my iron levels are fine (not bad for not being on prenatals). I am a little over 16 weeks now and I go for my 2nd sonogram on April 30th. I can't believe I am almost halfway there already! This pregnancy is just flying by. As of right now we st...

It seems that everyone thinks we saw something in the sonogram pictures that lead us to believe it was a boy. This is not the case. We don't have a picture of what we saw and it was much smaller than anything in those pictures. We're pretty savvy and wouldn't be crazy enough to think that his foot or hand or umbilical chord was... you know. In the only picture I can imagine everyone thinks I am talking about, we think that's his other leg because you can see the foot by his butt. What we saw was live at the doctor when bebe had his butt pushed up against my stomach to give us a closer look. But, like I said... still too early to really know, but I think it's a boy. We'll not know for sure until bebe's born. Josh can't be here for the next sonogram so we're not finding out. I just don't want to, not without him. So... that's that. We had a great weekend and I am getting off the computer to enjoy more of our short time together. Jus...