A Rare English Dialect

For most of the summer Chloe's daycare has been comprised of mostly girls ages 2 to 4.  When Chloe first started she was one of the only girls.  It has been cute to watch her start to do "girly" things at home that she has picked up at daycare.  Her big thing is taking care of babies.  She loves babies.  LOVES babies.  Real ones and fake ones.  At daycare Chloe's favorite baby is this little black baby.  She loves it unconditionally.  She changes the baby's diaper, rocks it, kisses it, and then chucks it on the floor. (Not because the baby is black or anything, geesh.  She does this to ALL of her babies.  She abuses her babies equally.)   She often takes her babies to her reading corner at home and "reads" them books.  Or, she will feed them Cheerios. 

Usually when Chloe is hungry she will try to climb into her highchair.  One day I was staying home with her and she tried to put her baby in her high chair.  I misread her intentions and thought that she was hungry.  I put her in her chair and then she started chucking her food on the floor.  Long story short, I ended up putting her in a time out, which resulted in a waterfall of tears.  Finally, when the whole ordeal was over and I was attempting to make Chloe help me pick up the food from the floor, I watched her carefully prop her baby up on the sofa, retrieve the tiny pieces of food, and gently feed them to her baby.  I couldn't have felt like a bigger asshole.  What a sweet girl!

I got sidetracked.  What I really wanted to write about was how the other morning I dropped Chloe off to daycare.  Makenna was there already and Emma was about to walk in the door.  Makenna and Emma are about the same age and can speak in full sentences.  I would say they are BFF's.  When Emma walked in she said "Makenna, I wanna play on the seesaw."  Then Makenna said "Emma, I wanna play on the seesaw!"  This exact dialogue went on a few more times until the girls were so excited they started jumping.  As soon as the jumping ensued, Chloe, master jumper and leaper extraordinaire, came running into the room.  Chloe looked at both girls and said "yaba oohba gabba mo" which clearly meant "I wanna play on the seesaw, too!"  Unfortunately, Chloe still speaks a rare English dialect.  I'm afraid that her baby talk must have translated to "sometimes my poop has corn in it," because immediately after she said it the girls fell silent and stared at her blankly. 

At first I laughed.  Chloe didn't miss a beat.  She just turned around and ran to play with her baby by herself, but as I climbed in my car my pregnancy hormones took over and I fought back some tears.  My mind flashed forward ten years to the playground where I imagined the same scenario unfolding, and I just felt sad.  I know a certain amount of not fitting in will happen.  Heck, who am I kidding, my life was like a soap opera starting in the 3rd grade when my best friend, Shauna Hemgesberg, decided to be friends with Jessie Platt instead.  It wasn't so terrible looking back on it.  Jessie was nice enough to bully Mary Hughes into being my temporary friend until I found a new one.  And I did find new ones. 

Here I am some twenty years later a happy, married mother of soon-to-be two sweet children.  I have great friends (both old and new), a loving family, a husband who (for some reason) thinks the world of me, the world's best dog, a safe home, and a great job.  Does my heart still have a scar on it from the day Jessie Platt stole my BFF?  Yes.  Capricorns tend to hold grudges.  But guess what?  That little brat ended up being my college roomie, and we had the best year of our then lives.  I was never again friends with Shauna, because what kind of pride would I have if I had went crawling back to my ex?  So, in conclusion, it all worked out I would say.

While it would be so easy to brush off Chloe's anticipated future drama by saying "it will all work out" or "you will find new friends," I hope I can find it in my parenting skill set to put myself back in those shoes and really empathize with her.  I expect it might be tough to fight the urge to storm over to some kid's house and give her a piece of my mind.  I certainly hope that my child isn't the one doing the bullying; however, given Chloe's recent vampire-like tendencies at daycare, I'm left scratching my head about what kind of kid she will turn out to be.  Who knows?  Maybe what Chloe really said is "I vant to suck your blood," and if that is the case, I would have stared at her blankly, too.  Weirdo.

Swimming Lessons

This summer Chloe was acting very afraid of the lake and pools, which is unusual for our little daredevil.  I finally got around to signing her up for swimming lessons.   She had her first lesson last Monday.  We decided that Paul would be best suited for the parent/child class since I freak out just carrying her out on the dock at the lake.  Paul is really laid back about almost everything, including holding Chloe in the water.  It was a good thing that we had him do the lesson, too, since the water was 4'8'' deep, and considering I'm only about six inches taller than that, the lesson would have been a struggle.  Here they are anxiously waiting to get into the pool.  We couldn't put her down, because she apparently forgot she was afraid of the water over the summer, and she was ready to jump right in the pool.

For the record, Chloe does actually smile and laugh.  She just refuses to smile for the camera.  This picture of her hanging on the ledge of the pool was one of the only times during the lesson that she wasn't smiling.  Chloe did so well.  At one point the instructor urged Chloe to swim to her.  Then the instructor turned Chloe to face Paul, flipped her on her belly, and dunked her right under the water as she aided her in swimming back to Paul.  Chloe didn't cry or anything, but after seeing that I was very happy that Paul was the one doing the lesson!  When the lesson was over Chloe told us that she had fun swimming.  I think she is going to enjoy the next seven weeks!

25 Week Photo... Seriously!

Okay, so here it is ladies and gentleman (singular for Jim).  I have finally gotten around to having Paul take a belly shot before managing to pour myself into mismatched pajamas for the night.  As I was looking at these photos I was SHOCKED to see how incredibly huge my belly appears.  It seriously looks like my belly at 30+ weeks with Chloe.  While I think that the sweater is a little bulky and my positioning a bit to the side make for an even larger appearance, I realized that I actually am a lot bigger a lot sooner this time around.  It is funny, because I walk around all day not even noticing my belly until I see my reflection in the mirror or in a window.  I always do a double take.  Who is that pregnant lady?!

Apple Orchard

Last weekend marked Paul's first weekend home in several weeks.  We were happy to have him back!  On Saturday morning we decided to go to the apple orchard.  I was craving some hot apple cider and pumpkin spice donuts.  The orchard we went to had goats, bunnies, and chickens.  Chloe loved the bunny and wanted to give him kisses.

 

We borrowed a wagon, but Chloe preferred to walk and pluck her own apples for eating. 

Of course, I can NEVER get a good picture of Chloe smiling.  She liked this little horse, and was very content eating her apple, though I couldn't seem to capture her feelings on camera. 

After the orchard we headed downtown to see The Calvary, last year's Art Prize winner.  If you haven't seen it yet, this was drawn in all pencil.  It was really amazing!

 Chloe especially loved running around the building and rearranging the seating. 

We also had lunch at BW3 where we watched the Central/Western game while allowing our child to crawl all over the massive booth we insisted on having.  After that we took a walk to see our friends Brian and Hillary down the street.  We hung out with them for the rest of the night.  It was a busy, fun Saturday!

A Few Pics

It has been a while since I have gotten around to posting new pictures of Chloe.  I will make a weak attempt here to update you with her whereabouts. 

Here she is busting her little head through her sand and water table umbrella.  The umbrella had a tiny hole in it that mysteriously tore into a hole big enough to fit Chloe's entire body. 

I bought this little '57 Chevy from a garage sale for $2.00.  About an hour after delivery it looked like Chloe had parked it unattended and unlocked in the ghetto for a few days.  She had ripped off the steering wheel and stripped the car of its seats.  She also took off the trunk at some point, though it appears to be re-attached here in this picture. 

Mom bought Chloe a cute Melissa & Doug puzzle at a garage sale.  Here Chloe has dumped the box of its contents and has decided to use it as a reading chair.  These are really just three examples of about a million destructive things this one does.

Paul attended a golf outing for an entire weekend, so my mom agreed to stay for the weekend to help out this pregnant Mama.  On Saturday we decided to go to the new wild animal park that opened this year.  It   It is different from the zoo in that it is more interactive and has a whole different mix of animals.  Chloe was a little sleepy in the beginning after just waking from her nap.

It only took her about 15 minutes to get up close and personal with the animals.  Here she is pointing and laughing at the goats.

A nice man gave Chloe a piece of ice cream cone to feed the goat.  She liked it so much the man gave her a second piece.  The goat only got a nibble of the second piece before Chloe tried to jam it in her mouth.

Chloe's favorite part of the whole park was this bucket full of baby chicks.  She was afraid to touch them at first, but after about five minutes she reluctantly stuck out her pointer finger to touch one.  She was mesmerized!

 We went to visit the zebras at the end of the tour.  This zebra took special interest in us.

And I do mean SPECIAL.  If you look closely here you can see what I mean.  I'm not sure, but I think he was a pedophile.  My mom decided that it is official, zebras are black with white stripes.

When Dada got home he was greeted with a sticker party!  I love how serious Chloe's face is in this picture.  This was a job for an advanced sticker sticker.

 A kiss for being such a good sport.

  

Pregnancy Update - 22 Weeks

It is only fair that I record some memories of this pregnancy as I did with my first pregnancy.  On April 30, 2011, Chloe and I wandered over to my neighbor's garage sale that she was hosting with her friend, Chelsea.  Chelsea happens to be a wonderful saleswoman and she said "Are you planning to have another child?  I have a bunch of maternity clothes for sale for $0.50 a piece."  She started holding clothes up to my body and telling me they would be cute.  Sure enough, she had some really nice stuff for just one half of a dollar!!  I had a few bucks on me so I figured, what the heck.  I picked up $3.50 worth of maternity clothes that were probably worth over $300.  When I made it home I spread my loot out on the floor to admire my good work.  It got me thinking... How long has it been since I have even had a period?  It has been just one month, right?  Not two?  No, definitely not two.  Hmm I had better take a test just to be sure. 

So Chloe accompanied me in the bathroom, because, of course I needed her help pulling all of the toilet paper out from under the sink.  I peed on the stick while stiff-arming my daughter.  Almost instantly, I got a pregnant reading.  Shit!  It can't be!  How did this happen?!?!? (Don't answer that.)  When Paul got home I instructed him to go to the bathroom to see what he did.  This is funny, because on a rare occasion he will forget to flush the toilet, and I can actually get my husband of nearly four years and partner of nearly twelve years embarrassed.  He saw the test and said "You're kidding?"  This is funny, because a few months before that I took a pregnancy test that read not-pregnant, but Paul replaced it with Chloe's old positive test that was stashed away in a drawer somewhere.  I totally freaked out when I saw it.  He thought himself a pretty funny guy that day.  But back to April 30.  Paul was super excited.  He was much calmer than I was about the prospect of a new baby.  I was just starting to get used to life with just the one! 

The doctors insisted I was three weeks further along than what I thought.  I begged and begged for an ultrasound.  I told the nurse I would probably get fired if I was due on their prospective due date of December 19, 2011.  She didn't care.  She said, "Your boss being mad is not a good enough reason for an ultrasound."  But that stupid nurse couldn't find the heartbeat after trying for over ten minutes.  When the doctor came in she said, "I'm going to look for the heartbeat, but I'm not going to look very hard." Wink, wink.  In the five seconds she looked for the heartbeat she didn't find it and ordered us an ultrasound.  She must have thought she owed us one since she practically slept through the delivery of our daughter while the nurses and resident took care of business.

The next day we had an ultrasound and found that we were only nine weeks along instead of twelve.  Momma was right.  The baby was due January 6, 2012.  I felt this would be a far less scary date to tell my boss, so good job, baby!  We ended up telling our families right away when we were only about six weeks along.  Everyone was very excited for us!  I was still freaking out.

Like my first pregnancy, I never suffered from morning sickness.  My body is great at being pregnant.  That seems like a funny thing to say about myself, but it's true.  After dealing with the backlash of quitting caffeine with Chloe I had sworn off the drippings of the delicious black bean forever, but I fell of the wagon about nine months post-partum.  I decided to quit cold-turkey again.  I suffered from severe headaches for a few days.  Even now if I have a glass of Diet Coke or a half a cup of coffee I will get a severe headache by 4:00 p.m. the next day.  That stuff is really addicting!  I have found that drinking lots of water and eating small meals throughout the day helps with the headaches, as well. 

I have also suffered from some indigestion.  For a while I was so obsessed with hot sauce that I would only view foods as a medium for my hot sauce.  Never in my life have I desired to eat a hot dog with chili slathered on the top, but it was a great hot sauce holder, so I devoured them.  Well it turns out that the hot sauce comes back out just as spicy as it goes in, and I've had to cut back on my cravings as they are really just not worth the pain.  My other craving would be Taco Bell.  Mostly because tacos are a wonderful hot sauce holder.  Probably the best.

The other weird symptom I have had this time around is that for a while there I was an emotional roller coaster.  I went from being a psycho bitch to a sobbing mess.  Usually, I am a secret cryer.  Like, if I need to cry, I will usually wait until Paul falls asleep, and I will quietly whimper in my bed.  But this one day I came home and it was just a waterfall of tears.  Once I started crying I couldn't stop. I was crying about everything, and I did this for at least two hours.  Paul didn't know what to do!  He tried his best to make things better, but every time he had a solution I would start sobbing again.  It was crazy.  Thankfully, that only happened the one time, and I have even been a lot nicer lately.  I swear.

At nine weeks the baby's heart rate was in the 180's, but every time after that the baby's heartbeat was in the 150's.  Chloe was always in the 180's.  According to old wives' tales, this points to a boy.  Our Chinese gender chart also said boy. 

So between the headaches, the indigestion, the emotions, and the lower heart rate readings everyone concluded that we would be having a boy.  While we were hoping for a boy with Chloe, we were hoping for a girl this time around.  In our minds we thought, what could be better than a little girl?  Paul said he could see himself as the Daddy to little girls.  We named our little fetus Lia Rose after my Grandma Reiber, Rosalie.  It was her name just sort of flip-flopped and using the same letters.  We couldn't wait for the ultrasound to confirm our suspicions of our little Lia Rose.

On August 18, 2011 we had our 20 week ultrasound where we found out we were having a little... BOY?  Yes, we are indeed having a little boy.  We are so excited - a little shocked still - but excited.  I hope he is a little mini-Paul.  He'll be so cute!  Baby Boy T looked very healthy and strong from what we could tell on the ultrasound.  After we found out the sex we went to Babies R Us and picked him out some outfits.  We got him the same going home outfit we got for Chloe only in blue.  We brought it home for my Mom to see.  By the end of the weekend we were both just beside ourselves thinking of what our little boy will be like.    

If you are wondering what the baby's name is going to be, we don't have a name for him yet.  We named Chloe within a day or two of learning her sex.  Boy names are so hard!  If you have any good suggestions for us please let me know.  I don't want anything too weird or girly sounding, but I don't want anything too boring, either. 

I know that all people really want to see is a picture of my growing belly.  And it is growing.  I wrote this post two weeks ago thinking I would include my 20 week photo, but that day came and passed.  I'm thinking maybe 23 weeks... or maybe I'll just wait until 25.  I haven't taken a single picture of this baby bump yet.  Paul says it is fine, though, since we are having a boy.  He won't care.  I think it is progressing similarly to my first pregnancy.  So far I have gained about ten pounds, which is right on track with the suggested weight gain. From here on out I am anticipated to gain about one pound per week, which would put me at an overall weight gain of 30 pounds.  Wouldn't that be lovely?  I think with Chloe I was gaining like five pounds a week toward the end compared to the one pound they suggest.  Oopsie.

That should bring us all up to date on pregnancy number two!