a couple from Addison

I want to record a few things Addi's said lately, more for myself than for the rest of y'all. Although, y'all are more than welcome to read on and enjoy :)

She said this one morning last week as the girls were picking up the playroom. And, yes, it had gotten so bad that I wasn't even allowing them to play in it all day and then pick it up!

"Mommy, I'm so glad Santa doesn't have to pay for the toys he brings us. Then he can bring us anything we want!"

Oh, if she only knew.

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I've been a little emotional lately.

(It's the hormones mixed with the overwhelming fear of Another One demanding more from me than what I have left to give and the feeling that I am inadequate as I am since I can't accomplish all I feel necessary before the Other One appears and, of course, the unknown of when will You appear, Little One? Although I think I feel better that I've now saved myself how much money in counseling by revealing my insides to the blog? It really is beside the point of this post though.)

What I was trying to say was I've been bursting into tears a little more than the girls are used to lately.

"I've seen you cry, Mommy. And I cry. And I see Libby cry. But, does Daddy ever cry? And, how does he do it?"

No, Baby, Daddy lives in a house full of women who cry so much, he doesn't have to. He probably just cries on his way home each day wondering what emotional breakdown he'll be dealing with that evening.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today during lunch, Libby kept telling me to "sit on your bottom, Mommy!" and I kept saying I was. She finally said, "like me!" I reminded her that she was sitting on her knees. To which, Addi, ever so gently, remarked, "Mommy's knees are too wide to fit on the chair. She can't sit on her knees!"

She'll never know how close I was to proving her wrong!

Wordless Wednesday - Sweet Girl

It turned out to be a landslide

Thanks for all your guesses. It will be fun for me to look back after Baby P is here and see who was close.

After the first few hours, I was sure most people were going to guess "Girl", but the "Boy" voters held out and won it in the end. In fact, it wasn't even close - 13 to 9! (I'm including myself and Karla who'd emailed me about it the day before the post, but it doesn't really matter because our guesses cancel each other out.) Oh, and I shouldn't forget, we had one vote for "Angel". I'm sure that one will be right :)

The Birth Date predictions ran from February 17 all the way to March 7! The most predictions came in for February 29th, which is just a month away. It's hard to believe that I have less than a month to go until my due date. The time of day ranged from early morning to night, but people were kind enough not to make any middle of the night predictions! They must talk to my husband and know what an unpleasant person I can be when awoken from a peaceful slumber.

Baby P's birth weight guesses came in all bigger than either of the girls' birth weights with 7 pounds, 5 ounces being the smallest and 8 pounds even being the greatest. I think I could handle any of those. His/Her length predictions were pretty close, too, ranging from 20 to 21 inches long.

We also got some suggestions for names and we appreciate them all. At this point, I'm praying for a girl because a girl's name is the only thing we've got! I thought we had agreed on a boy's name, but Bryan is having second thoughts today. I think we'll keep the names to us for now because, the way things are going, they're liable to change a few more times! But, you can be sure that either the first or middle name will be after a place in Texas (just like Addison and Reagan).

Thanks again for your guesses. We'll be sure to post asap when we know the answers!

Lemme hear 'em

I think the time has come.

I want your guesses.

Just for fun.

[Wow, if I was more clever like my husband or my dad, I would continue with the rhyme. Maybe next time!]

What is Baby P? A boy? Or a girl?

That's what I'm most interested in hearing, but you can throw in birth date, birth time, weight, length or whatever you wish. Just no guesses having anything to do with my weight, please. In fact, you can throw name guesses, too, since we don't have those picked out! Joking. About the guesses, not that we still haven't nailed down names.

So, here are the facts and then I'll list all that might pertain to any old wives tales I've heard:

• I was officially 35 weeks yesterday. (Last week I thought I was 35 weeks and was so relieved when I realized that I'd gotten a week ahead of myself.)
• My due date is February 25.
• I had Addi at 1 week past my due date and, actually, the day before I was scheduled to be induced.
• That didn't happen with Libby. I was induced at 1 week past my due date.
• I had an appointment today and the baby's heart rate was 160. (Guess this one could also go under the old wives tales list)
• And, of course, y'all know when you have 2 of the same sex your likelihood of having a 3rd of the same sex is somewhere around 75%. Just in case you didn't realize, we have 2 girls.

And, now anything else I can think of that might facter into your guesses:

• Well, the heart rate today - see 5th bullet above.
• I was very sick, actual vomit, with Addi. Didn't gain an ounce until 22 weeks and was still throwing up every day until then.
• I was more nauseous with Libby, only throwing up a few days. That lasted for probably the first 16-18 weeks.
• I was sick with this one again. Vomitting everyday for about the first 15-16 weeks.
• I think I'm carrying the same as with all 3.
• I gained more with Addi than with Libby. I've almost gained my total weight gain I had with Addi with this one - and I have 5 weeks to go.
• This is the first one that I've measured right on throughout the pregnancy and the ultrasounds have shown my due date to be accurate. I was always smaller than I was "supposed" to be with the other two.
• The Chinese Birth Chart says it is a girl. Of course, when I was pregnant with Libby, the one we saw online said boy and then the one in the sonographer's office said girl.
• Not sure what the correct version of this tale is, but when I was pregnant with Addi, I had a man tell me I was having a boy because I didn't look like a cow from behind. (Yes, I'm sure he made a sensitive and loving husband!) A couple weeks ago a lady who cut my hair told me I was having a girl because I wasn't spread out from behind. Either way, I'm feeling pretty spread out from behind, and from the side, and from the front :)
• Bryan and I each have 1 sibling of the opposite sex.
• Oh, and this goes along with my own wives tale, we are pretty sure about a girls first name. We don't have a girls middle name picked out and we don't have a boys first or middle name picked out. Both of our girls' names came to us much more easily than a possible boys name during my pregnancies with them.

I can't think of anything else. Feel free to leave a question in the comments if you have some absolute way of knowing and I haven't already answered it. But, definitely leave your guesses in the next couple days. It will be fun to look back and see who was the closest. Oh, and if you've already told me what you think, guess anyway. I'd like to have a record. Maybe I'll print off the guesses to put in the baby book.

As for me, I'm not good at keeping what's in my head in my head, so I'll go ahead and throw my guesses out to start things off. I debated about this, not wanting to influence any of you. Here goes...

• Girl (I think, although I've been questioning this recently)
• February 29 (both because it would be kind of neat and because I usually go past, but I don't think I'll go an entire week past this time)
• in the afternoon, maybe 2:43 pm (other girls were both born in the afternoon, 1:50 and 3:27)
• 7 pounds, 13 ounces (this is probably wishful thinking - my other two were 7, 4 and rounded up to 7 - so I'm hoping the "extra" weight gain is 'cause the baby is bigger :)
• 20 1/2 inches long (again with the bigger baby theory - Addi was 19 3/4, Libby was 19 1/2)

Just leave your guesses in the comments or you can email them to me, if you'd rather. If you don't have an email address for me you can click on View My Complete Profile under the heading About Me toward the bottom of my left sidebar. Once you do that, you'll see a link that says Email. If you click on the link, you should be able to email me from that. But, really, wouldn't a comment just be easier?!

Maybe a picture of my "spread-out-ness" will help in your guessing.

*Yes, I'm aware that the comments are acting crazy. Mine come and go. Don't know if you can still comment while it says there are comments and then you click and "No Comments" appear. I'll try it the next time that happens to me. If you can, know that I will still get them comments via email and I can go directly to Haloscan to read them. Hopefully this is just some sort of glitch Haloscan or Blogger is having today and it will be fixed soon.

Wonder where she's heard this?

[Addi and Libby cleaning up after I let them play "office" - pull out all our surplus office supplies, throw them on the kitchen table and let their little imaginations go to town]

Addi: Libby you are not helping me clean up!

Libby: YES, I am!

Addi: No, you're not! Do you want me to tell Mommy and get you in the doghouse?!

Dog, anyone?

I just finished mopping my laundry room floor. I'm so angry. Not that it couldn't have used a good mopping, but I was forced to mop it. By our dog. Who urinated all over the place. All. Over. The. Place.

I'll start by letting you know that I dearly love this dog. However, I don't like having a dog in my house. I don't mind them in other people's houses, just not in mine. When we first moved to our last house, we had to have the dog inside because the backyard wasn't fenced. It about drove me crazy!

Zoe turned 9 in November and we noticed she wasn't dealing well with the colder days. She used to love snow and would splash around in frozen ponds. If it gets into the 40s or below, she just shivers and shivers, so I have relented and she has a little dog bed in the breakfast room where she sleeps on colder nights. This morning was overcast and cold, so after breakfast, I let her back in the house. Then it started to rain, so I let her out every hour or so to do her business and then back in. Now, I know she can hold it longer than that since she holds it all night when she sleeps inside.

While the girls where eating lunch, our usually well-behaved dog would not leave them alone. (This may have something to do with Libby loving to share her food with Zoe.) They were squealing and not eating and I was trying to get some laundry done and it all just wasn't working. I finally took Zoe into the laundry room, left the light on, and shut the door. She wasn't in there 5 minutes.

Now, if I thought for one second she did not pee everywhere on purpose, I wouldn't be mad enough to offer her to a kind and loving home. But, she did do it on purpose and then she had the nerve to skip off toward the park like I was going to reward her when I had to take her through the garage to get into the backyard!

Just so you know, I'm turning the comments off. As angry as I am with her, I do realize that if someone actually offered to take her off our hands, I would feel so guilty.

And, so, she's safe.

For now...

Words like these make it all worth it

Libby is a grumpy sick person.

I said yesterday that Addi was grumpy, but she is a sweet-smelling rose compared to her sister.

Libs woke up a little while ago with a stinky diaper and she was very worked up about it. I began to change her diaper and try to comfort her because, after all, she is sick so a little more patience is required.

She looked at me and said, "Where's Addi? Addi make me feel better!"

I thought that was sweet, so I pressed my luck and said something to the effect of, "Addi makes you feel better like Mommy does?!"

Her response: "No! Addi make me feel better. Mommy not make me feel better. Daddy make me feel better. Addi make me feel better. Mommy not make me feel better!"

Okay, kid, I'll remember that at 2 o'clock in the morning when you're crying out my name.

Now bounce me!

These are short videos taken btc (Before The Crud).

Enjoy!

Surviving

I really allowed myself to believe Libby would not get this junk.

On Tuesday, when Bryan and I were at our worst, jumping into bed every 2 hours to fend off the chills, my dear SIL called and offered to take Libby until we were better. At first, we declined. Soon it was clear that the energy of a perfectly well 2 year old was way too much for 2 near-death 30-somethings. Lisa came by that afternoon and Libby was off to spend some time with her cousins. Addi still felt pretty bad, so she didn't complain too much.

Since neither Bryan nor I ran fever yesterday afternoon or night, we figured it was time to get back to our lives. He headed off to work this morning. I loaded Addi up and we went to an appointment for me. Then we drove to Arlington to pick up Little Libby.

Addi was a tiny bit jealous this morning when I told her we'd be picking Libby up at Nana and Poppa's house. She's certainly not used to her younger sister getting to do all the fun stuff :)

Just as I was about to take the exit off the interstate, my SIL called and said that Libby had started running fever. I felt bad for her, but I really felt bad for all of Bryan's family who have now been exposed to this stuff. We may be running out to pick up one of Lisa's kids next week while she and Clay are to weak to parent :)

So, now we stand at probably me feeling the best. I sound horrible and my throat hurts, especially when I have a coughing fit, but that's pretty much the worst of it for me now. Addi is still coughing a lot and she says nothing hurts, but she's pretty grumpy. Bryan had to come home early today he was still feeling so poorly. Libby has run fever all day and asked for food only to eat a bite or two. She's starting to cough. I suspect we'll have a few days of her feeling really badly and we'll do all we can during that time not to continue to pass it on to each other or others.

In my forced seclusion, maybe I'll be able to get some things done like defensive driving, our taxes, picking out a boy's name and a girl's name for Baby P/Mystery Baby, organizing our study, re-installing all our computer programs that are now gone thanks to the crash, setting up our wireless network, and getting a new email address since I can no longer check my old one, also thanks to the crash.

But, all that will have to wait until I disinfect this house. And then, disinfect again after Libby's all better.

Hopefully my nesting will kick in soon to help me get motivated to get it all done in the next month. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

That game just made us sick!

Literally.

3 of the 4 of us are sick. And, according to Libby, because Mommy is sick, the baby is sick and needs to go to the doctor. I think Baby P (aka Mystery Baby by Addi) is fine and is part of the reason I feel even more zapped of energy...you know, they say the baby gets all of your nutrition first and you get the leftovers.

It all started on Thursday when Addison went in for her 5 year well child visit. She had to get her kindergarten shots. I won't even go into that because I may find myself sobbing about the whole ordeal again. (Quick tip: Mommas, if you haven't yet experienced those kindergarten shots, which are given at age 4 in Texas and age 5 in North Carolina, make your husbands take off work while you stay home. They are awful! Really. Awful!)

Addi was fine that night and the next day. She even went to preschool on Friday in her usual good spirits and, being the drama queen she is, couldn't wait to tell her teachers that she wouldn't be able to run around because she got 4 shots the day before.

Saturday morning we all went to the girls' sibling class at the hospital and that went well. Then she didn't eat lunch and ended up laying down in the booth and falling asleep. I tried to blame this behavior on her waking too early. However, by the time she woke up several hours later, her cheeks were bright red.

Fever.

Still, I wanted to believe she wasn't really sick. I blamed it on the shots.

Yesterday, my parents watched her while Bryan and I went to the Cowboy game. She and Libby were supposed to spend the day with Rachel and Ethan, but we knew how difficult it would be to keep the sick quarenteened from the well, so Libby got to enjoy some time with the Starrs on her own. I know she had a great time; she talked incessently the entire way home :)

Poor Addi looked so much worse by the time we picked her up last night. I know she was well taken care of. My parents catered to her every care, even making her pancakes and running out to get her some more toys, movies, and a better tasting Sprite. (Making pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, is a tradition that Addi doesn't let my Mom forget about. Yesterday, though, she told me, "Since I'm sick, Grandpa will have to help Grammy if she wants to make pancakes today.")

Sometime during the game the tickle in my throat turned into a scratch and the coughing began. By the second half, I was close to miserable. Of course, the game wasn't quite going according to plan either. We left with about 2 minutes still on the clock and missed seeing the interception that sealed the deal. By the time we made it to the car, I was past miserable, but felt okay when we pulled up to my parents' house.

By the time we got the car unloaded (and realized we'd left Libby's pillow, blanket, and monkey at the Starr's house), fixed Addi a snack, and put Libby to bed, I had the chills. I crawled into bed with the intention of staying just until I warmed up, then putting Addi to bed, brushing my teeth and getting a few things done. I'm not sure what time I woke up, but all was quiet and dark and I was sweating. Poor Bryan was laying next to me shivering. Thus began our night o' fun. Addi had apparently been up numerous times already unable to breathe. So between that, Libby waking a few times for unknown reasons, my coughing, and Bryan's nausea, we all had a pretty rough night.

The good news is Addi seems to be feeling much better and hasn't run fever all day. She's been very sweet by wanting to take care of us, getting us water, and drawing us pictures with words she knows how to spell but have nothing whatsoever to do with the art work. (I just got one with 2 flowers and the word "ZOO" plastered across the middle!) Libby is fine, so far. It will be nothing short of a miracle if she doesn't catch whatever this is, but stranger things have happened.

I feel a little better than I did last night. I mainly just feel zapped, but not to the point where I have no desire to accomplish things. Bryan is the worst off at the moment. I truly can only remember him taking a couple other sick days since we've been married, so I know he feels really bad.

We'll all be back to normal soon enough. Maybe this will make me finish some things on my to-do list. Then again, I am feeling rather sleepy all of a sudden :)

Preparing for the Arrival

An explanation is in order

I know the last post was so long ago that most of you have either called to asked if I had Baby P early, have left messages through family members that my name is mud until I get another post up, or have long since abandoned checking our blog.

(Which leads me to a somewhat random point (and yet another - Becky, weren't you just commenting on how random Libby can be?? I guess I can't deny where she gets it :) Back to the beginning of my randomness...Bloglines is a wonderful way to check your favorite blogs. Not sure if I've mentioned it before, but you just go the the website and copy/paste the URL addresses of the blogs you'd like to read. Each time you go to the site and click on "Feeds", it will highlight your feeds that have new material since the last time you checked. Then you just click on whichever one you want to read. Some blogs, mine included (I think, it has actually been so long since I looked at mine) have little Bloglines buttons you can click on that will subscribe you to its feed. There are also a few other sites like this, but I use Bloglines and would recommend it.)

Now, for the explanation...

A few days after Christmas the hard drive on our laptop crashed. And, I don't know if I ever posted about this, but our desktop needs a new motherboard or something, so it is actually in a dumpster somewhere now. We were computer-less until a couple days ago. I've just been so overwhelmed at everything there is to blog about that I've avoided the computer all together. Well, that and I'm afraid if I touch it, it will break again :)

To make things easier on myself (and you, Dear Readers, who surely do not wish to read a blog post version of War and Peace), I'm just gonna list 10 Parker family current events.

And, I promise, if you're sticking with me, I'll post fairly regularly as long as I still have a working computer.

1. My grandmother, aka Rea, Momma (or Mom, which do y'all call her?) Ma, Memaw, Mawl came to stay with us after Christmas for a while. The girls and I drove her back to Austin last Wednesday and we got to see 2 of my cousins and my 2 aunts who we'd just seen at Christmas. The girls were able to sufficiently torment my Aunt Dee's cats and sufficiently torment my cousins at 7 am! We ate some delicious food (both home cooked and bought) and got to meet Bob (we'd been hearing about him for a while and enjoyed getting to put a face with the name). The only people missing were my other cousin Lauren and her new husband Will, but, hopefully, we'll be able to see them soon and get the opportunity to meet Will before he's deployed. It was a wonderful thing to see all my Austin relatives twice in a matter of days!
2. Baby P is doing well. I am sick of being pregnant! Be sure you catch that I did not say, I'm ready to have the baby, I'm just ready to not be pregnant! This pregnancy has really made me wonder at the resiliency and patience of women who have 6,7, 8+ kids. I used to think I had a lot of patience and I used to think I was a "good" pregnant person. Of course, adding in a major move and two major holidays might have added some stress :) I have a little less than 6 weeks to go until my due date (although my babies never like to be rushed) and feel like I have about 6 months worth of stuff that must get done before the baby arrives!! A computer falling apart doesn't aid in the completion of said stuff.
3. Speaking of Baby P, the girls will be participating in a sibling class at 1 of the 2 hospitals I could deliver her/him. It is in the morning and, according to my OB, very cute. I'll try to remember my camera.
4. Addi started preschool for the very last time on Wednesday. She attends on Wednesdays and Fridays and has loved it so far. Libby misses her and stares at me like I'm really kidding myself when I tell her that we'll pick up Addi soon, but isn't it fun for it to be just Mommy and Libby sometimes?!
5. Libby's differences when compared with her sister are really shining through. She is determined. Even when utterly frustrated with something, she wants to continue to do it herself. While she's good-natured and enjoys a joke as well as the next toddler, she sometimes has no patience for kidding around. The other night when Bryan put her to bed he tried playing a game Addi used to enjoy at bedtime. Addi would ask him to sing a certain song, he would start singing another song, she would giggle and correct him, he would sing yet another song and the cycle would continue. Libby asked him to sing Jesus Loves Me. He started singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and she furrowed her brow, popped him in the face and said, "No! Daddy! Sing Jesus Loves Me!" I supspect he won't be continuing the Song Game with sweet Libby Lu.
6. Bryan continues to work hard. He's gone before the sun is up and home after the sun goes down. He's also eating well. A few times a week he comes home and tells me that he won't even share with me where he ate lunch. Of course, that only serves to peak my interest. You would think going through a pregnancy for the third time, he would know once he peaked the cravings of a pregnant woman that he may, in fact, have to drive the 40 miles to the Dairy Queen in Hutchins for a steakfinger basket late one night.
7. One day last week the high was below freezing. Today the high was in the mid-60s. I mentioned it being winter in conversation with Addi and she looked at me like I'd lost my mind replying that "Winter is when it snows, Mommy!" Honestly, I don't mind. I'm not crazy about it being in the 80s during January, but a sunny day in the 60s is perfect to me. We aren't stuck inside and I don't have to try and squeeze into my non-maternity coat. While Addi was at preschool today, Libby and I took a walk and found a new playground. I was literally sweating before we got home, but loved the idea of pushing the kids outside after naptime for a snack on their new picnic table and some energy expension on the new trampoline. We have a shoebox sized back yard and big windows along the walls of the breakfast room and living room, so if I love to send them outside while I'm cooking supper. Hearing them giggle and squeal is precious!
8. Don't tell the girls, but we're taking a family "vacation" of sorts before Baby P makes an appearance. A new resort opened in Grapevine and Bryan made reservations for us in a Camp room later this month. I've heard this referred to as a babymoon. Like our honeymoon, our babymoon will consist of lots of time wearing a swim suit. Unlike our honeymoon, this time around, I will not be allowing any photos to be snapped of any part of my pasty-white, very pregnant self in a swim suit. It just wouldn't be pretty.
9. Bryan bought a cookbook for me as a Christmas gift. It was one I'd asked for and I've used it quite a bit. You may have heard of it, Deceptively Delicious? I think I've used it enough to recommend it. There have been a couple recipes that have flopped, but mostly we liked the food. The idea is you get all these vegetables and spend some time steaming them, pureeing them, and putting them in quarter cup servings in freezer bags. Once you get through that, which is time consuming and messy, the rest is pretty easy and quick. You just thaw however many servings of whichever vegetables are called for in the recipes. The author (Jerry Seinfeld's wife) wants you to use brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat tortillas and whole wheat bread. We already ate whole wheat bread, and the tortillas and pasta don't really taste that different to me (or my kids). I just never bought those because I didn't think I would like them and they are more expensive. The brown rice is going to take me some time to get used to, but Bryan and the girls seem to like it. There has only been one meal in which I could detect the taste of the "hidden" vegetable and I think that was because I used Rachael's advice and "just eyeballed it". I've made breakfast, lunch, supper, and dessert. Some of our favorites include the pancakes with sweet potato, the French toast with sweet potato, the Sloppy Joes with red pepper and carrot, and the tortilla cigars (like enchiladas without a sauce on top) with squash and carrot. Everyone except Addi also enjoyed the guacamole spread with their cigars and I really liked the oatmeal with pumpkin. So, if you have anti-vegetable eaters in your house, you might this book a try. Also, she says you can puree meats and sneak them into foods also. (I rememberred this after I talked to you today, Angie).
10. If you're looking for a van, I must recommend the Honda Odyssey. I had a Pilot and loved it. I didn't want a van...ever. But, when Libby was super-little and I was still toting her around in the infant carrier while trying to keep a hand on my 2 year old so she wouldn't dart in front of a car in a parking lot, I always envied the moms who pressed a little button on their door lock remotes so their children could just climb right in to their vans without having to set the infant on the ground while keeping one hand on their 2 year old and opening the door with the other hand. The first thing Bryan said when I told him I was pregnant again was we'd have to buy a van. Let me tell you, I fought it. I had a Pilot I loved and it had a 3rd row. I told him there was plenty of room and Addi could just climb in the back once the baby arrived. It would have worked. It would have, but this works so much better. The dvd screen is bigger than the Pilots, there are built in side window shades, about 300 cup holders, the leather seats are much more plush and comfortable than the Pilots, an 8th seat that comes out completely and can be store under the floor, and it tells me how much oil I have left and when my tires need air on my odometer. Plus, I really love driving it. And, it cost us less than the Pilot did 4 years ago! I couldn't imagine there would be much difference. The Odyssey drives so much like a car. It is so much easier to park and really has some get-up-and-go. I don't even mind driving it when I am kid-less. After all, who am I kidding? I am a thirty year old mother of (almost) 3. The Odyssey was designed with me in mind.
11. One more for Bryan...we are going to the Cowboy game on Sunday with his dad and my brother. I probably shouldn't put this on the internet for the world to see since I was raised in a house not 15 minutes from Texas Stadium, but I'm not really a fan. I'm excited because it can be fun to be in that atmosphere, around all the lunatics who paint their bodies blue and because everyone else I'm going with are fans and so they will be really excited.

So much for brevity. If I can keep up better, I won't have so much to catch y'all up on. Be writing again soon...