The Remnants of March

I have taken to documenting some of Ben's more unreasonable tantrums--you know, because so many things a 2-year-old does can be described as reasonable. Ahem. This particularly day, he cried over nearly an hour because he didn't want to get dressed.

Please note that he is, in fact, already dressed.

On other days, he rocks the wardrobe in style.

He especially enjoyed the tractor socks.

Family Home Evening, while not having a perfect track record every single week, is always something fun. This night, Dad taught us about ancestors and we filled out a pedigree chart. It was somewhat harder than we anticipated to remember all our grandparents' middle names...

Activity afterwards was Twister. Ben didn't get it, Megan quit after a few spins, and Audrey lost because Chris tickled her. I manned the spinner--something about pregnant and Twister just didn't fit together in my head that night.

It's lovely having a reader in the house. Not every reading moment has to come from me anymore.

A taste of home at Costco! Although I don't personally recall Utah being overly famous for onions, I'll take it.

We babysat a friend's son while they went to the temple one morning, which happened to be when we were going shopping. So he came with us. It was a bit of a circus the whole time.

On a separate and unrelated shopping trip, I caught Megan and Ben holding hands. Best friends.

Ben fell asleep at the table, but I didn't know it. Took me a while to find him.

Mom sick day = everyone in pajamas watching tv and eating cereal straight from the box.

Jane knew I wouldn't let her take my violin to school for the Letter V show and tell, so she asked me to take a picture of her holding my violin instead.

Megan and Ben helping with laundry.

I spent a good seven hours gone on Saturday night for a Stake Relief Society Women's Conference that ended with the General Women's Meeting Broadcast. While I was gone, Chris and the kids went to dinner at a friends' house with other men whose wives were hanging out with me.

I actually, for real, honest-to-goodness found a car with a DELAWARE license plate. After years of playing the license plate game and accepting that state as a guaranteed absentee, this was definitely picture-worthy.

Chris possibly having more fun than the kids at the playground.

All Done!

Three weeks is already up! On this incredibly rainy day, we ventured out to the orthopedic surgeon's office again to have Megan's cast removed. Ben came along for the ride (or because I didn't bother to find a babysitter).

The saw was loud, which was a bit scary, but Megan said it only tickled.

Pause with me for a moment while we jump back to 2011. In March, Megan broke her arm while I was pregnant.

2014--in March, Megan broke her arm while I was pregnant. I sense a pattern here.

She was excited to have her cast of that time...

...and she was excited this time.

Just for kicks and giggles, I found the picture of our family's first-ever broken bone--Jane's leg in September of 2008.

At least our kids are still cute with broken bones.

IT'S A...week early!

In terms of Georgia OBs, it seems that the third time was, in fact, the charm. I LOVE my new doctor and all of his office staff. I felt much, much more comfortable the entire time I was there, and he even said that if he could cherry-pick his ideal VBAC candidate, it would be me. Score. I plan on seeing the midwives that work in his office, too, to get a good feel for who I actually want to request for my delivery, but either way, I'd be quite comfortable with him. Such a relief.

When I went in for my appointment today, I met the nurse practitioner. She was reviewing my file and noted that my ultrasound is scheduled for next week. I confirmed that fact and then added the comment, "Unless you just want to do it today. That would be ok with me." She said, "Oh, sure."

Wait...what? Seriously? We can do it NOW? Sweet.

During all of my pregnancies, Chris has come to my very first appointment and then the big 20ish-week ultrasound. The rest of the appointments are boring and have never seemed worth pulling him out of whatever class or job to come with me. Which means that for this particular nothing-special appointment, he wasn't there. I called him at school and, much to the amusement of all the nurses and office staff standing around me, asked if I could do the ultrasound without him since they had an open slot RIGHT NOW. (He was at Georgia Tech, which is downtown Atlanta, I was in Alpharetta, which is two towns north of North Atlanta...he was well over an hour away at best. Not reasonable to wait for him to come.)

He graciously agreed, on condition that I don't find out the gender without him.

So, I had the ultrasound and just turned my head away and stared at the wall while the technician did the gender check. She wrote it on a piece of paper, folded it up, and sealed it in an envelope for me to take home and open with Chris.

Then, AGONY.

Do you know how hard it is to hold onto an envelope like that without looking??  It taunted me all afternoon while Chris was still at school. Finally, FINALLY, he came home about half an hour early so we could open it all together.

Hooray! It's a boy! I had a dream a few weeks ago that really stood out. I have multiple long, involved, vivid dreams every night while I'm pregnant. This dream stood out because it was normal and boring. In my dream, I took my baby to church for the first time. It was clear from the clothes and blankets that it was a boy, and I walked around introducing my son to several people. I have been extremely curious to see if this dream would come true, and so far, yes!

I also told everyone his name in that dream, but that part is still up for debate. We'll see if the dream name wins or if we stick with the name we had already chosen...

Jane wasn't so thrilled about the gender in the video, but she acclimated very quickly and is totally fine with having another brother.

Just one amusing note to add. You know how Jane has a well-earned reputation for talking a lot? And how Ben really talks just as much as her? Well, we have this lovely ultrasound video clip in which the baby is...talking. Seriously, his mouth repeatedly opened and closed while we watched. Think this is an indicator of future loquaciousness?

Birthday, Take II

 
Chris's birthday isn't technically until tomorrow, but we mostly celebrated it today. He's off of school all week for spring break, ever so conveniently birthday timed, but he's going to campus tomorrow to demonstrate his research for a visiting Sandia Vice President. Seems worth a trip downtown, really.

Because our friends are so awesome, we got ANOTHER birthday date even though we just had one yesterday. Today was our local favorite, Egg Harbor Cafe. Delicious every time.

Presents! In the most stylish designer Amazon wrapping.

Two more Rubik's cubes and the book, Journey to the Veil by John Pontius, author of Visions of Glory.

Gift from his friend, Chris One, was his very own raspberry pi. I'm sure those two will have hours of entertainment playing with those together.

We made lunch/dinner/linner in the middle of the afternoon. You know, because we could. Chris's choice: twice baked potatoes. We had plenty.

Chris finished out this night with a trip downtown to go out to dinner with the visiting Sandia Vice President. More time to rub elbows, eh? I hear it was quite the dinner.

Birthday, Take I

Happy Birthdays to Us!

Once upon a time, Audrey and Megan decided to throw a party for Dad. I gradually convinced them that it wouldn't be quite as fun for him to invite only young men and high priests (instead of his group of friends that are actually in his generation) and that it would make sense if I was invited, too. They eventually determined that the whole thing would be a lot more fun for them if they invited married people with kids so everyone could have someone to play with.

Well, that's all cool, other than the fact that they arranged all of this about a month ago. Then we all forgot about it.

It was only Saturday night when I determined that I did, in fact, want some sort of birthday party and invited a handful of friends over for dinner and games...and haircuts, as it turned out.

I cut Dan's hair while teaching Allison how, then Allison cut Andrew's hair, all while Chris did a puzzle with Tim, Charisse, Seth and the girls and Jess watched. We're talking high adventure party here, people. I was quite entertained.

On my actual birthday, I had two of my favorite things first thing in the morning: a new St. Patrick's Day shirt and green rice krispie treats. I own several holiday shirts and I'd been wearing them all week up to the day, but had many, many debates out loud with myself about which I would rewear on the day itself. Chris finally caved and gave me my present early--he didn't want me stressing over shirts OR finding a solution to my debate when he had already bought me a brand new shirt.

Jane dressed up, too. Options are slightly limited when the school requires uniforms and green is not an approved clothing color, but I think she and Dad pulled it off well. I didn't know what they did until later because I got to sleep in. Yay!

Festivities included a birthday lunch (thanks, Sarah, for babysitting) and driving around neighborhoods looking at houses and talking about what we want to have someday--our version of a briefcase talk. We got home and checked the mail only to find...

Frozen! I had pre-ordered it from the Disney Movie Club and it arrived a day before it was actually released in stores. Fantastic. Perfect birthday afternoon entertainment.

I was also quite excited (more, really) to receive a package from Amazon. We have been building/re-vamping our 72 hour kits and recently ordered a large amount of items for that. My personal favorite, which is both for the kits and just for me, is a CASE of Natural Ice chapstick. Ah, heaven.

Rounded out the day with my all-time favorite dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread (and milk, of course). Green beans included (we never eat them because everyone hates them except me--Chris's legacy to his children).

In the midst of all the excitement of the day, we kind of forgot about opening my other presents until after the kids were in bed. Whoops. Two gifts, from Lisa and Amy--a scarf and an alabaster shamrock paper weight.

Happy Birthday to me! For two whole days, I am a year older than Chris.