I got some blood sucked out this morning. On purpose. No really! It’s nothing exciting, I had to go in for some lab tests that you’re supposed to get done when you’re about 8 weeks pregnant. Well, we’re doing things differently this time, so I didn’t get it done until today. However it’s not a big deal, because I’m very brave about needles. No big woop, and the lab had a very comfortable couch in their waiting room. It was probably riddled with germs, but it was REALLY comfortable.

I am at work, and I am discouraged. I can’t go into it more than that, but there you have it. I also have popcorn to eat at my big meeting, which is a perk. I bet you no one else brings snacks. Pregnancy makes me smart! (not.)

I am working on a giant collage of Starbucks coffee stickers. I am not sure how it’s going to turn out, but I’m having fun sticking hundreds of stickers onto canvas and then delightfully mod-podging over them. I’ll post a picture when I am done.

Also, the pregnancy comments have begun. A very nice girl I talk to when I pass her in the halls at IHOP goes “oh wow, you’re starting to show really early.” Which, if you think about it really means “wow, you’re getting fat really fast.”

Sigh. I think I need some mexican food.

I bought a Sunday paper yesterday, and I read the whole thing. What do I remember reading? Not a ton about the health care plan, not a ton about sports. I remember that they are trying to pass a law in California to make it illegal to declaw your cat.

I doubt that’s what the reporters in the front section wanted me to take away with me, but, there you have it.

Yesterday we took Caden to the park for the first time since he learned to walk. The weather was so beautiful, sunny and about 73, just perfect for the park. Caden LOVED it, his happiness was SO cute. He doesn’t really get the concept of the park, but he had a great time anyway. Aaron took him on the slide, and pushed him on the swing, and it did something great for my heart to watch Aaron play with Caden on the swings and slide. He’s such a great man, I feel really lucky…

Mostly Caden ran around and fell down and picked up rocks and ran screaming his “hello” scream at strangers. Then he would halt abruptly, and grin at them. It was just so cute.

Then in the afternoon we went to ANOTHER park with Joanna and Tyler and their dog Bowser and went on the walking trail, then hung out at the toys. Aaron and Joanna took Caden up onto the play ground, and Aaron stood on the drawbridge texting, while Joanna tried to make sure Caden didn’t plunge 4 feet to the ground. Oh, don’t worry, he says he was “watching” Caden. Suuure honey. Still it was so fun to watch him run around chasing the other kids.

He seems to like blonde girls. Caden, not Aaron.

Today it’s work time, courtesy of MamaJo, and then I am taking her out to Panera for lunch to say thank you, then we are going to Costco. Followed hopefully by naps for all at the James casa.

In other news, I need a hair cut desperately. I would also like highlights, though my need for them is not as desperate.

Selah.

I have got a lot of catching up to do for you people. With you people. At you people? One way or another this long hiatus from the internet is KILLING me.

Caden’s birthday was a huge success. We had people over for dinner, which Meghan and mom made, and it was delicious and fun, all at once. Caden received many cool toys that he promptly stuck in his mouth or chucked in the air. I even put aside my sugar paranoia (it makes him barf) and let him eat a brownie with a candle stuck in it! I took the candle out first of course.

Mom and Meghan visiting was more fun than I can describe. There is something so amazing about being about to sit around a house with your family. I miss them every day, and you should never take for granted the ability to sit around in a room with those who’ve known you from birth.

We did a lot of shopping, which was fun for Caden, who has recently learned to walk. Mom equipped him with his first pair of shoes, and he’s been off running ever since. It’s so cute. He likes to run at strangers and then come to a full stop and grin at them, just to see what they do. If they have half a brain they grin back.

I even had time with all the extra hands to start a new piece of artwork. It may suck, but at least I am stretching the creative muscles. I have a few pieces of art in the house I’m tired of looking at, and I need to sell them or give them away to make room for new pieces. I don’t have the storage space!

Meghan and I watched Numb3rs and talked about how life can be hard and fun and we ate Tim Tams and apples and generally had a marvelous ol’ time. I was sad to see them both go, and I miss my dad’s face like WHOAH. That rhymed! How silly.

Pregnancy is trucking right a long, and I’ll be 17 weeks on Sunday. I’ve started the weight gain part, and I’m having to give up pants that I love, until I fit into them again. Little Moon needs growing rooms! And she’s taking them. I choose to believe I won’t get as large as I did last time. There’s always wishful thinking right?

Tylers’ at home with Caden while Aaron works. I have to go to Target because Aaron ate the last of the cheese and good turkey. Silly man should have been able to read my mind and know I wanted that for breakfast! Argh. Seriously haven’t we done this pregnancy thing before?! Luckily though it gives me an excuse to buy more tim tams. Delicious cookies of goodness.

I honestly need internet at the apartment. This is absurd. I NEED TO BLOG MORE! How much does Time Warner charge for internet anyway?

Loves and hopefully there won’t be such a large time gap between posts next time.

Quick everyone, my mom is coming! Everyone, scrub something! If this house doesn’t smell like bleach when her plane lands tomorrow, someone isn’t getting dessert!

No, I’m totally kidding. Mostly.

My mom is arriving tomorrow, and my sister arrives on Saturday! I can’t wait to have all my favorite Chiquita Banana’s in one place at one time. There will be shopping and pizza eating and probably some cookie baking.

But first. The Cleaning.

Let me be fair, my mom has never once criticized my housekeeping skills, or made a negative comment about the state of my house. It’s me. I can’t help it. When I know she’s coming, I go into a frenzy. I suddenly notice the weird crud that’s built up below the fridge. I see the weird dustbunny in the bathroom. The cobweb by the fireplace.

AND, since I’m pregnant, I can’t use the real chemicals that I KNOW blow the crap out of every surface in my house. I have to have Aaron do it. Let him leak a few brain cells in the name of good housekeeping. He will, because he’s a good guy.

Also much laundry scrubbing will ensue. Much.

First, meetings. Then, cleaning, and tomorrow, FAMILY!

I swear to you, up, right down left and center, that this baby is a girl. The one time I felt her move, she smoothly glided from right to left, like a little moon rising and setting, so that’s her nickname. I could be wrong about her being a girl, but I will refer to the unborn fetus as “she” until medical science proves me wrong.

I had a great pre-natal appointment today with my midwives, Anita (the midwife) and Amber (the apprentice midwife). I love these two women like cats love cream. I will also forewarn you, as I tell you about my day, that I am incredibly biased towards midwifery because our experience with a doctor was so awful. Doctors are necessary and save lives, but I want them out of my uterus until something is actually wrong. I am pregnant, not sick. So, I love doctors, we need them around, lots of women couldn’t have or deliver healthy babies without them! But I don’t want them at my healthy normal pregnancy and birth. Disclaimer issued? Good, let’s go!

Instead of seeing the doctor for 5 minutes, I got to spend almost 2 hours talking with Anita and Amber about how I’m feeling, more of my medical history, how Caden was doing, how I’m feeling about birth etc. We did a lot of extra stuff, a normal appointment is an hour. We needed to type Aaron’s blood, to see if I need rhogam, and I don’t! We chatted about how a c-section due to failure to wait on the doctors behalf does NOT make me high risk, which lifted a lot of fear for me. We talked about better things for me to eat, we chatted about breastfeeding a big baby.

We did the normal doctor stuff as well, peeing in a cup to make sure I’m not leaking protein or sugar into my urine (a warning sign for several bad pregnancy conditions), taking my pulse (she used her IPHONE stop watch to time it!), take my blood pressure, weigh me etc. I’ve only gained 1.5 pounds so far, but since this isn’t my first time at this rodeo, I know that in the end I gain 3 or 4 pounds a week, so it’s GOOD I haven’t started porking up yet.

Normally my midwife doesn’t worry about hearing a heartbeat until 18 weeks or so, as she uses a fetascope (a fancy stethoscope) instead of a Doppler (the microphone looking thingee), which she feels effects babies, as they often tend to scoot away from them. Amber asked if I wanted to try with the Doppler anyway even though I’m only 14 weeks, and I said “YES!” Amber trucked around with a goop covered microphone, hunting Little Moon’s heartbeat. We heard my heartbeat really well, (go me!), my placenta (don’t ask how you hear a placenta, I don’t know), and finally the Little Moon! Yay! We heard her move a LOT, and hearing her little heart was just as cool as hearing Caden’s for the first time.

Anita also doesn’t normally order “unnecessary” ultrasounds as she, like most midwives, don’t worry about doing things that aren’t medically necessary. That’s why we love midwives = minimal intervention! I explained that Caden’s 22 week ultrasound was the high point of my pregnancy, and I was really looking forward to having that experience again. She actually listened to my feelings and cared about how I felt, and said we could order one for when I was 22 weeks. That’s the kind of caregiver I want. Someone who cares about me enough to LISTEN. I’ll be scheduling an ultrasound for the middle of December and we’ll get our first real look at the Little Moon!

I’m looking forward to second trimester stuff, like more energy and more appetite.

Even better, mom and Meghan are coming this week! I can’t wait to see them. Now I just have to figure out where we are all going to sleep…

I am so blessed to be creating life, God is good.

It’s one of those days outside: kinda dreary, warmish, dripping rain, soothing wind. It makes me want to create something. It’s been so long since I’ve gotten any of my painting stuff out. Mostly because it’s difficult to paint while a child hangs on your leg. Still, since Aaron has the day off, maybe I’ll try and get a little painting done today, or something.

I’m at work right now, with a few minutes of free time because one of my meetings got cancelled. Which is a beautiful thing, since I haven’t been near enough to a computer to update lately. I am thinking of buying internet for our house, maybe by selling clothes, or some of my hair?

Speaking of hair, I need a haircut. But when?! I am so busy. Mostly with being a mom.

Speaking of MOMS, my mom is coming next week. So is my sister. Hollah! We are going to do many fun things, including watching Numb3rs together, going shopping, etc.

Aaron and I have realized we just plain ol’ need more Jesus in our lives. In the busy-ness we forget to focus on the one thing that is where all our help comes from. It’s not something that should take a back burner, and somehow it has, and we are just not ok with that. So, Lord, COME!

In sad news, I accidentally send one of my favorite movies, Baby Mama, back to netflix instead of the horrible movie we rented: Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer. And, I can’t get Baby Mama back. Netflix did kindly offer to discount our next two months though, so it’s all good. I am very sad to have lost Baby Mama (with Tina Fey) because it’s hilarious. But I bought it at costco for 9.99, so it’s not the worst monetary loss in the world.

I went shopping with friend Joanna yesterday, and found so many cute things I wanted to buy. Boots are so expensive though! Found cute pajamas’, cute shirts, etc. I’ll hold off until Meghan and Mom get here and we and shop together. That will be good times.

Caden will be one year old on the 29th! We’re not doing a big party, since mom and sis are in town and Caden will never remember, I thought we’d just have a small dinner at home. Since I love birthday’s, we’ll be reminding him all day it’s his special day. I’ll let him wear pajamas all day and have fruit at every meal. Fruit is like baby dessert. Trust me.

I have a prenatal appointment on Friday with Amber and Anita, and I am very excited about that. I have many questions for them, such as: Can I have an ultrasound at 20 weeks please? Can I hear the heartbeat today? Can you suggest more proteins for me to eat, because I am direly bored of all my regular food.

Should be an exciting few weeks.

I am filled with joy, joy and amniotic fluid. Lots of amniotic fluid. More than should be there, I feel. Not really though. I’m sure my fluid levels are fine. My joy however, it overflows abundantly.

You’re asking me why. I can hear you. I’ll tell you why! My mom is coming to seeeeee meeeeee!!! That means there will be wonderful mom snuggles and mom-meals and falling asleep knowing when I wake up in the morning I get to seee myyyyy moooooooom…… Oh such is my joy I can not even tell you. It’s just so great I could spit. I won’t though, because spitting would get my gag reflex going, something a woman full of fluid can NOT afford to have happen.

This means I have to do laundry. And vacuum. And put my child in something other than pajamas. Well. At least the first two things.

Yep, the She-Eagle is landing for Caden’s birthday. She’ll arrive the day of, and be here till the 3rd! My dad is very benevolent to do without her for so long. They don’t like being separated, so I appreciate the sacrifice of time and money.

I miss being able to blog more frequently. I’m praying for some more finances, so we can get some internets of our very own.

I bought two knit beret’s last night. I only wear them one at a time though. And, they are very cute.

I have gone outside three days in a row with no coat. Some small part of my brain refuses to admit that it’s below 40 outside. Then I get outside, and my hands ache because I am cold. So much for this in-utero space heater everyone’s been telling me about. So far all she does is make me queasy. She could at least warm me up and earn her keep!

I say “her” because we just KNOW it’s a girl. We fully admit we could be wrong. We’re arguing girl names. We’re eyeballing what infant boy clothes we already own could be passed off as infant girl clothes. I say if I draw bows in all the dinosaurs hair and put streamers on the sports stuff, no one would know the difference. Aaron disagrees.

I’m currently 13 weeks pregnant. I am really looking forward to being MORE pregnant, because in the past more pregnant has meant less sick. I can only hope that trend continues with this pregnancy.

Things to do:
-Schedule Caden’s one year well baby appointment and figure out what vaccines I don’t want the doctor to give him. I’m usually pretty pro-vaccine, but I don’t trust the flu vaccine, especially the H1N1 vaccine, because they can’t possibly have had enough time to test long term effects on infants yet, and I don’t think chicken pox is worth vaccinating for. Especially since he’s not in day care. Aaron keeps eyeing the child care at church on Sunday’s, but I’m not ready to leave him in there yet. I’m just not! That’s my baby!
- Laundry. It’s been a banner week for food spewing (Caden only) this week, and everything he owns that’s warm has strained vegetables on it.
- Not get sick. This is on my schedule everyday. No quease! Note: Quease is a made up word.
- Nap, if at all possible.
- Rejoice, for my mom is arriving soon!

Caden has mastered the word “up.” He says it for all kinds of things: to say hi, to ask for a toy, to ask for Puffs (tiny baby snacks) and, last of all, to ask you to pick him up.

He’s also walking all over the place lately. It’s super cute. He’s pretty unsteady and falls a lot, but it’s still a darn faster way to get around. Aaron grabbed his hand to walk down the hall with him, and Caden, with the extra stability of dads’ hand, booked it down the hall. He was so excited and laughing all the way.

He also says dad pretty consistently, but I don’t think he necessarily attaches the name to Aaron. He just uses it for who ever. I can’t get him to say mom to save my life. Ah well, he knows where the food comes from.

Last night Aaron and I went out on a date as it was the only night our babysitters were free, and I ate food that almost tasted good. We went to On the Border, where I ate a lot of chips and salsa. Then we went to Target and bought our tiny little boy (who is not tiny at all) a bigger forward facing car seat. I’m pretty excited about it. Then I cried, because my baby is getting so tall, and walking, (mostly away from me) and I don’t know how this year went so fast.

We even got to go to Barnes and Noble, then to a movie. We saw The Invention of Lying. It was pretty good. A tad long, but I love Jennifer Garner and Ricky Gervais, and it was a pretty decent flick. I ate a ton of popcorn.

Oh it was so gross though, the people behind me were drinking BEER IN THE THEATRE! It smelled so bad. I wanted to yell at them. Aaron suggested we move, but I was there first and I liked my seat! I just breathed through my sleeve and shoved Buncha Crunch into my face, and it was ok. But, honestly, who brings beer to a movie?

The only downer of the night was I missed going to jujitsu with Jenn Sansom, but I’ll go some other time, and she was very understanding. She’s a kind person. Excuse me, a kind Ninja person.

Today I’m doing some random work, and then going home for many loads of laundry and pie making. I miss my mom so bad that I’m making things that remind me of her, and since it’s fall, apple pie came to mind. Hers is the bestest, and very simple if you have a special apple corer/peeler/slicer machine. Which I do!

I could go for a McDonalds cheeseburger right now. It would make me feel sick afterwards.

I would also like a coke slurpee. It would not make me feel sick afterwards, it would be delicious.

I should go work now.

Honestly, beer at a theatre?!

It finally happened. I was laying on the floor yesterday, desultorily stacking blocks for Caden to knock over when I just knew. I knew it was going to happen. Now it was just a matter of delaying the inevitable. It was a few hours after breakfast when it started, and I knew it wasn’t going to end well.

Then Joanna flew in on her magic carpet of awesomeness, and borrowed Caden for an hour or so. How did I pass the time? Did I make tea and read a nice book, all curled up peacefully in bed? Did I watch a calming movie, wrapped in my favorite plaid blanket that I stole from my college room mate?

No. I spent the hour and a half hunched over in my bathroom, paying homage to my good housekeeping skills and being very thankful that my toilet was scrupulously clean.

Yes that’s right. The woman who would rather suffer with jaw locked for hours then do something about it, threw up. A lot. And that’s all I’ll say about that. It was very unpleasant.

Such is pregnancy. Tonight Tyler wanted to hang out with Caden, so I came to Starbucks to check facebook and work email and do a lil’ blogging. Yes. Blogging.

It’s weird to be out at night. Normally it’s bath time and delicious foods and diaper changing. I ended up giving Caden an early bath today because he was covered in that baby substance that shall not be named. I mean covered. Honestly, sometimes I wonder what we feed this kid. Everybody has stuff shooting out of them lately. And why he gets so upset when I try to change him is completely beyond me. You think he’d be happy about it.

Oh this post is so gross. My dad is disgusted right now. Sorry but this is what my life is lately! Projectiles!

It’s finally fall here in the midwest. Fall here is that season that lasts about two weeks where it still gets up to 75 during the day, but it drops to 45 overnight. Then suddenly you walk out to your car one morning and your toes go blue because it’s 45 outside and you thought it was still ok to wear flip flops. Next thing you know you’re chipping ice off your windshield wondering how many days are left until summer comes again.

But the foliage is pretty.

I think tomorrow, if we’re all feeling non-projectile-ish, Squeaker and I will go Out.

I have a pregnancy confession for you. I just ate some raw fish. Yes. I did. Raw fish. Me. Even now it’s being digested by my stomach acids into particles small enough to have the nutrients absorbed out of them. Or something. I don’t really need to know how stomachs work, as long as mine’s working.

Thanks to Tyler’s willingness to watch football at my house, I am out without the baby. He and the Squeakster are chillin at home, and I am at Starbucks eyeing the super cute barista.

Aaron works at this Starbucks. He is the barista. Don’t worry.

I brought a long all my art stuff. My sketchbook, my pencils, my giant box of prisma colors. I am a little afraid to open it, hence why I’m procrastinating by blogging. I can’t remember the last time I drew or painted anything. What if I forgot how? I get so rusty so easily, then it’s like pulling teeth working myself up from basic exercises to the point where I can freehand the images in my head.

With another commissioned painting looming on the horizon, I need to get my right brain in gear. I don’t know why the artistic side of me has taken such a side seat to the rest of life. Maybe because i feel like I’m neglecting Caden when I focus on my art stuff, since it does take a lot of my focus. What focus I can spare would be spent keeping him from eating my sharpener or sticking my eraser in his mouth.

By the time I put him down for bed, I’m so tired all I want to do is sleep. A part of me is definitely atrophying when I don’t draw though, I can feel it.

So, I’ll leave you with this haiku, then I’m putting the computer away so I can draw.

Try to make believe
The essence of muse trapped here
A silent vision