MommyBlog

Since I have finally gotten over my lingering morning sickness, Casey and Kenny and I ventured out on a whale watch a few days ago with the Pacific Whale Foundation.   The trip was incredible: we saw at least 15 whales, including a juvenile who put on an  unbelievable show, jumping fully out of the water and  tapping his tail against the surf to the beat of a song the staff played for him underwater.   The only catch was that whale watching involves lots of waiting around with the motor off, which thereby involves an unexpected amount of floating in the waves… which all cummulated in one very vomitous two-year-old boy.

Kenny lives his life with gusto, not doing anything half-heartedly, including vomiting, and he took out all three of our t-shirts, and Casey and his shorts as well.   Within a half hour on dry land, though, he was back to normal, inhaling a turkey sandwich, and pointing at the boats in the harbor, saying, “We took that boat today!”  

The seasickness didn’t interfere with his slugging ability, either, and his t-ball skills have gotten quite impressive…

… as have his soccer skills…

His favorite beach activity is “surfing” – he lays on his boogie board and Casey runs him up and down the beach.   That and just generally being a rascal…

Ok, so I’ve been absent for an official 2 weeks… my longest ever blog hiatus.   It turns out that the beach house we stayed in for the first leg of our vacation had no internet access, and with a Hawaiian paradise outside, who could face the dim interior of an internet cafe??   So here we are in part two of our trip –  sharing a  gorgeous condo with both my parents and Casey’s parents.   Casey and I have just put Kenny down for a nap (which he’s taken with gusto everyday of our vacation – hooray for sunshine and exercise!), and we are sitting on the lanai in the cool afternoon shade.  

I toyed with the idea of trying to write some entries to retro-post, but …   how about I just pick up from here on out?

First, a huge apology to the thirty some odd emails I have from readers who have written to me through the “contact” page on this site; whose letters and sweet notes have gone unacknowledged… I promise to get to them all, it just may take a while!     Thanks for your patience, and keep writing in!

Second, though we’ve taken about 200 pictures, none yet have made it from the camera to the laptop, so they will come in good time.   Suffice to say that we have all gotten very tan, Casey learned to surf, and Kenny is the King of the Boogie Board.   Oh, and I finally look authentically pregnant, not just like I’ve been eating too many doughnuts.     That, in spite of the fact that Kenny now believes that “breakfast” is synonymous with “pancakes and bacon” and “dinner” is a code word for “let’s take a walk and get ice cream afterwards.”   Oh, that kid is going to be so disappointed when we get home.

This trip has been a dream vacation.   It’s the first time we’ve been to a beach area when we can actually spend more than an hour at the beach without Kenny melting down.   We’ve been able to play and swim and run for hours, picnic on the beach blanket, then mosey “home” for a nap (Casey and I have each gone through 4 novels), back to the beach for the late afternoon sun, then off to dinner at various restaurants around the island.   We’ve been walking 5 or 6 miles a day (Kenny’s favorite spot is on Casey’s shoulders), and eating at both family-oriented beach joints and  fancy restaurants alike.  

Kenny has actually make it through 3 “fine dining” evenings with flying colors – eating mostly the bread and butter which is never in short supply, but also tasting different kinds of fish and meat and sauces that he’s never had before.   All this, of course, with the recurrent promise of ice cream after dinner if he eats enought to satisfy Mommy that he isn’t going to die of scurvy before the trip is through.    

 

The last week has been a happy blur: a trip to New York (and a Broadway show!), wrapping presents, time with family, opening presents and eating.     Kenny especially enjoyed time in New York with his eight-year-old cousin, Ryan…

 

And Packing!   We leave sweet Dudley tomorrow in a capable house-sitter’s hands and jet off for our annual vacation.   Casey and I have spent the last two nights packing, re-packing and packing again.   It’s just not as easy to escape with a two-year-old in tow!

We bought Kenny his first tricycle for Christmas, and the look on his face when he saw it under the tree, with it’s big red bow, was fantastic.   We even took it over to my parents’ house for the day, so that he and his cousins could play with it, before he leaves it for two weeks.   I think his second favorite present were two t-shirts I bought him:  Cookie Monster and Big Bird… he put them on right away (one on top of the other).  

 

 We only had four presents for him this morning, but the grandparents, aunts and uncles and other assorted gift-givers ensured that he had a mountain of presents to open this Christmas week.   It was such fun to watch him examine each gift, and even more fun to watch him tear into a package, saying, “What is it??”   It makes Christmas such a new joy to see it through the eyes of my own child.

 On another note, one of my “goals” for this vacation, is to really work on my writing.   I was in such a great place for a while, writing everyday (either on this blog or writing articles for other things), yet its slipped so far into the depths of a things-to-do list that my groove is gone.   I miss it, and need to make time for it again.   So stay tuned… I don’t know how often I’ll have internet connections on this trip, but it will post when I can.

Merry Christmas to all, and my God bless this New Year!

In the midst of our uber-busy day today, I took Kenny in for a haircut, as his mop was becoming unruly.   That kid needs a cut every six weeks!

Since we are off to the beach next week for vacation, I asked the stylist to do “one level longer than a buzz.”   He looks ADORABLE!   I have no pictures to prove it, of course, but I will take some over the next few days.

Anyway, since I put him down tonight, it’s been a an hour and a half of him running around his room, dumping out toys and calling down to me to come up and give him another kiss.   This last time I went up, he revealed that he’d pooped in his diaper.   As I changed him, he rubbed his eyes, and sent his left hand up to it’s usual spot – he always twirls this little lock of hair above his left temple when he’s tired.   This time he sat up wide-eyed.   “Mama!   Where’s my hair?!?”   I reminded him of our trip to the barber shop today, and he said, “But where’d it go?   I want it!”

No wonder my little boy can’t fall asleep…

This week I took an impromptu jaunt  with Casey on a quick business trip, as there were folks there I wanted to see.   It was very last minute, and my parents came over to stay with Kenny.   He had a blast; my sister brought her youngest over, and I don’t think Kenny missed us at all!   We were gone only 24 hours including the plane flight.   I don’t know how Casey does it!   He makes trips like that at least every other week, sometimes twice in one week.   My pregnant fatigue was pushed to the limit.

As if that weren’t enough, tomorrow we are driving to Long Island to spend several days with Casey’s family, then we are home only a day and a half (for Christmas!), then we are flying away for two and a half weeks for our annual vacation.   I sit here, raggedly tired, and facing a house to get ready for the Dudley-sitter, a suitcase to pack (and another to contemplate), laundry to finish and a toddler who has no intentions of actually going to bed tonight.   And a husband who decided to escape for a boy’s night out.   Vacation can’t start soon enough.

In Vicky Iovine’s hysterical book The Girlfriends’ Guide to Pregnancy, there is a chapter titled, “Pregnancy is a total body experience.”   When I was pregnant with Kenny, I was horribly nauseous weeks 8 through 10 (with one last day at the end fo week 12), I had wicked indigestion in the third trimester, and I craves potato chips all the time.   Otherwise, it was smooth sailing.   This one is a little different.

I’ve been sick since week 6… in fact, weeks 6 through 9 I was sick from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed.   Week 10 was a reprieve, and now I’ve had bouts of awful nausea through week 11 and closing in on 12.   Dizzy spells, too.   As in, I’m in the middle of a conversation with someone, or in the middle of reading to Kenny, and I have this strange vertigo that almost makes me keel over.

The constant indigestion has been surprising this time, too… I can’t stop burping!   And I won’t mention what else I can’t stop doing.    At least  Kenny thinks it’s funny.

Then there’s the hair.   I can’t quite figure it out.   It didn’t change at all when I was pregnant with Kenny, but now I’ve got a mop I hardly recognize.   I went in to get touch-up highlights last weekend (my roots were desperate!), and not all of the toner took, so I’ve got about 40 shades of blond and brass (and one white streak that looks grey) mixed in with the natural mousy brown.   Not only that, but about half of my head is now quite wavy.   When I was pregnant in March, there was a one inch square patch behind my right ear that started to wave… it never went away, and it was almost a tender reminder of that lost baby.   But now there are lots of locks joining the wave.   If you drew a line across the back of my head from ear to ear, it’s wavy.   The rest is still stick straight.   That’s fun.   So much for a wash-n-go ‘do.

There’s  nothing wash-n-go about my face, either, which resembles me a’la age sixteen.   You can see my pores across the room.

Finally, my poor neglected abdominal muscles are getting their revenge.   I look easily four months pregnant.   And I’m only 12 weeks.   With Kenny, I rounded out before I “popped” so I simply wore pants a size larger.   This time, though, my hips and rear haven’t really changed, there’s just a small cantaloupe poking out from my shirt.   So my low-rider pants still fit perfectly, and I can’t wear a single one of my shirts or sweaters (all extra-smalls).   I bought a few new sweaters in a bigger size, but rather than hide, they accentuate my budding belly.   I guess I’d better get used to it, because it’s only getting bigger!

I’m actually getting  a kick out of it all.   Frankly, I don’t care if my hair turns green and my derriere turns to jelly, as long as I carry a healthy baby to term.   Vanity be gone!   I am so in love with this little bean that’s making me burp and retch and want to sleep all day.   I take it as a loving reminder from the little one that he or she is in there, doing just fine.

Last night Kenny pattered into our bedroom at about 1 AM.   He’s done this a few times before, but it’s not a regular thing, so I lifted him in, he snuggled into my side, and we fell back asleep.

At four in the morning, I noticed that the bed was distinctly wet.   Now in addition to Kenny and me, Casey and Dudley were also curled in the bed (it was a party).   I felt along Kenny’s flannel pjs and they were dry, so I rolled over and fell back asleep.   At 6, Kenny sat up and asked for some milk.   That’s when I noticed that the whole bed was really wet.   And smelling like pee.   But his pjs still felt dry.   Hm… Exactly who wet the bed here??   Casey had left at 4:30 to catch an early flight, so I crossed him off and glared at Dudley.

Ah, but it turns out Dudley was not to blame.   Last night Casey’s parents were in town on their way back up to New York from Florida for the holidays.   They graciously bathed him and dressed him for bed.   And apparently put a swim diaper on him instead of a regular diaper.   So all through the night, as Kenny pee’d (which he does a lot of in his sleep), the flannel somehow kept  the wet in  and the urine instead ran down his legs.   When I got up with him this morning and took off his pajama pants, his little legs were cold, wet and sticky.   My poor little guy!!   No wonder he left his own bed… which smelled horribly of little boy pee pee.   As did my bed – the sheets, comforter and all of our pajamas.   Kenny actually thought it was pretty funny, too, that I had to wash two of his stuffed animals that he had brought into our bed with him as well… Baa and Lamby were pretty stinky.   “They smell like pee pee!” said Kenny.   Lots of laundry insued.

Note to those dressing kids for bed… the diapers with the little fish on them are strictly for water sports.

… to don the girdle!   Ha ha… but really, I did have the not-so-fun opportunity to wear one this weekend.   I was determined not to buy a new dress for Casey’s annual company party, since I have so many.   So  I carefully planned a starch-free day  (to keep down the bloating) and squeezed my 11 week blossoming belly into a girdle of sorts so that I could zip up  the beautiful little black beaded dress I had been planning to wear before my delicate condition became apparent.

All was well until I had my first cocktail (cranberry juice) and a handful of wasabi peas at the pre-party.   My carefully packed in torso suddenly expanded in its confinement.   Then as I ate dinner at the party, it gradually ballooned like there was a little gremlin pumping me with air.   The dress held, but I couldn’t breathe.   I actually went to the ladies’ room a few times to unzip it, let my belly free for a few minutes, then strap it back in.

It’s not that I’m hugely pregnant already or anything, it’s just that I’ve expanded by several inches in the waist, and it seems to continue as the day progresses.   You know how these things go – first thing in the morning there is no belly at all, then my bedtime, even the elastic pajama pants are feeling a little snug.

Anyway, we had a great time, and I don’t think any more of our parties this season are very dressy, so I can relax and let the good times roll.   Or at least let my bump free!

On Friday nights we go to a friend’s house for a small group Bible Study.   The eight couples share a meal and then talk, and all the kids (13 of them) get shuttled downstairs with two brave babysitters for the two hours.   Kenny loves it.   He loves the little crafts they do, the stories they read, and the mass chaos during play time.   Most of all, he loves when someone brings a DVD.

Tonight was a movie night – The Jungle Book – ironically the only full length movie he’s ever seen!   And instead of crackers and cheese, the snack tonight was cookies.   He was in heaven.   That is, heaven until reality set in.

Ok – dark basement + past bedtime  +  animated movie + cookies….   What does that equal?   A kid who dissolves into the biggest tantrum I have ever seen upon arriving home.   It started when Casey carried him from the car to the house – we have a detached garage, and it’s a 75 foot walk, so in the icy conditions, Casey was just trying to help.   Kenny, however, must have really wanted to walk  because he  screamed like he was being tortured.   Once in the house, he stood wedged in a corner, tears streaming, and screamed without ceasing.   I finally managed to get a hold on him and took him upstairs, where the scenario repeated itself in his room.   For twenty minutes.   He finally fell into a snore, curled in the fetal position with his head on my knee in the bed, naked from the waist down and sweaty from the calisthenics.

If only I could have a glass of wine after all that… …