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.

Third Time's the Charm...?

Thursday was my first appointment with a new doctor--my third OB in this pregnancy. More on that hassle in another post. When I picked up Megan and Ben afterwards, I discovered that shortly before I got back, Megan had fallen off the couch at Grant's house and was quite upset about it. I watched her for the rest of that day, and while she was favoring her arm a bit, she did get over it and seemed mostly fine all day.

The next morning, though, her arm was rather swollen when she woke up. We were, ahem, rather busy that morning, so it wasn't until after we'd gone to the school for Jane and I'd gone to another appointment that I finally took Megan in to Urgent Care to get it checked out. By the way, she's broken and sprained her arm before, so we just happened to already have a child-sized sling. Convenient.

They did x-rays while I (again) waited out in the hall.

Funny moment--Megan got very frustrated and very determinedly told the doctor, repeatedly, that her name is MEGAN, not Pumpkin or Honey or Sweetheart.

The x-rays were inconclusive, but there was enough other evidence (particularly in the fat sack?) to suggest that her elbow may be broken. Off to the pediatric orthopedist we went.

And... it's broken.

Nothing major. She landed just wrong on the floor with her arm completely extended. Tiny fracture somewhere inside the elbow, visible on an x-ray only from the surrounding swelling. Cast for three weeks, then we're good.

Annoying things about Megan having a cast: she can't get her shirt on or off herself, nor can she buckle her own car seat. Those are only annoying because we're all used to her being able to do it herself. We're also staying out of the bath, which means washing hair in the sink--"just like Grandpa Jeff!!"

This is the third broken bone amongst our kids. Honestly, I thought Ben would be next. But...nope.

The story from Grant's side (he's three) is that they were playing pirates. He was Captain Hook and Megan was walking the plank. If you have to break your arm, at least do it in an entertaining way.

Hooray for Teamwork!

Audrey Jane came home with a note announcing that she had been awarded Student of the Month for February and we were all invited to a ceremony to celebrate. Go Jane!

The theme of the month, for which she demonstrated exceptional skill and therefore earned her spot as student of the month, was teamwork.

Chris went in to school late to be able to come with us.

It was fun to visit Jane at school, and little celebration was cute. (Please excuse blurry cell phone pictures.)

Good job, Audrey Jane!

An "Old" Surprise

One of my favorite unexpecteds is getting a package I didn't know was coming. We got just such a surprise this week from Deborah.

Any guesses? No? That's ok, I would be surprised if anyone managed to guess fossils. Because, you know, how many people get packages full of fossils?

So cool.

These are mastodon tooth fragments. Yes, I now personally own mastodon teeth.

Whale bone.

Coprolite.

Cool looking, right? Turns out that "coprolite" means dinosaur poop. So, I personally also own dinosaur poop.

There were several much smaller fossils in the set, including things like algae, dinosaur bone, and petrified wood. And a shark tooth.

This is my personal favorite, the trilobite. Details, details.

Thanks, Deborah! We've had several family fossils sessions already.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Deborah!!