22.5 weeks

July 29, 2009 at 2:06 pm (fabulous photography, potty training, weekends)

I promised a picture. It’s funny…Lo said this morning that I looked more pregnant last week than I do this week. Some days or evenings, I feel huge, other moments, I feel like not much has changed.

Here I am at 22.5 weeks:

We went to a super fun wedding over the weekend in North Salem, NY. It’s funny that my first job out of law school was at this Ally-McBeal kind of law firm. Everyone got along really well, but it was crazy.

No one really works there anymore (except for P-Fed) but we’ve all remained friends. And almost the whole crew was at our wedding 5 years ago in New Paltz, NY.

Here’s a picture of our old work crew. The bride is shown with our former boss – who had a knack for hiring crazy and fun people.

I did get a quick picture of the two of us. (Lo hates it when I make her pose for a picture). It’s not a terrible one of us, but I’ve looked better. As always, Lo is so damn cute.

Potty Training

As for the potty training questions…..ahhh….the pictures of the Shmoo in underwear probably led my readers to believe that he is riding pottying train. Alas, no such luck.

Shmoo is definitely “getting it” and he’ll go #1 and usually #2 as well when you get him on the potty. He gets all proud of himself, usually gets M&Ms and there’s a lot of high fiving and fist-bumping involved.

We’ve just started giving him “underwear time” at night. If he goes on the potty, he gets to wear big boy underwear of his choice (Thomas or Cars) for an hour or two. During that hour or two, we try to get him on the potty every 20 minutes or so. He’s been pretty excited about the underwear and being a big boy.

However, it’s getting him on the potty that’s the problem.

It’s hard to get him on the potty if he’s not in the mood. If he’s in the middle of playing, he doesn’t like to stop playing to try. Just the other night, he stood right in front of me pooping. I watched him strain and said, “Shmoo, are you poopin’? Let’s do the poop in the potty like a big boy.”

“No poop. No potty.”

Yeah, right.

30 seconds later, he looks up at me and says “I poop!”

Thanks buddy.

We’re working on it. I think if we can be consistent as parents, he’ll start being much better about it.

Plus, we’re gearing up for the big binky drop-off at the horse farm (just like the bottles, he will be giving his binkies to the baby horses). And he’s all of a sudden regressing from his going to sleep on his own thing lately too.

Lo’s New Gig

In other news, Lo started a new job this week. It’s less pay, but very low stress, more fun and better hours. We need to be up by 6 am, which is a small change for us. But she’s done with work by 2 pm and all of those errands, cooking, cleaning and time with the Shmoo is now possible for her.

Plus, she’s working in a kitchen for a local county (in NY). And she’s always wanted to do something involving cooking. The added bonus is that the food that she’s been able to bring home has already made up for the difference in pay!

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photo memories

July 28, 2009 at 4:56 pm (day in the life, fabulous photography)

Visual of a day (or two) in the life of the Shmoo.
Beware…nekkid boy pictures below.

Pretending to be in the “pool” with BFF K-man

Quadin’ nekkid

“I can tow this!”

“Yep, I can definitely tow this!”

Shmoo the car washer

“Underwear Time”

Decorating Mommy’s birthday cake

For my friend K – I am working on a belly shot, I promise. I’ll post one by tomorrow!

5 Comments

21 week pics

July 22, 2009 at 12:09 pm (ultrasound)

I made a feeble attempt at trying to scan some ultrasound photos at work since I can’t get my scanner working right now (all I really need to do is buy some ink to resolve the error message, but I’m too cheap or lazy, or both).

First of all, some of you may remember some ultrasound pictures of the Shmoo – Here’s big brother Shmoo at about 22 weeks in utero – all you can see is his arm and hand giving the peace sign.

It’s amazing how much clearer pics of the Shmoo were. The pictures of his baby brother weren’t clear due to the position of my placenta.

But baby brother was trying to make a statement and copy Shmoo with a little fuzzy peace sign of his own.

Just to make sure we weren’t worried, though, baby boy did give us a “thumbs up” to say everything is a.o.k.

We didn’t really get any good profile pictures this time around. He did look pretty handsome though.

He’s definitely starting to get more active in there and we’re beginning to think that baby bro might not be the mellow child we were hoping for this time around! Oh well, we love spirited children!

9 Comments

day in the life

July 21, 2009 at 5:15 pm (Silly Shmoo)

I really think that Shmoo is hysterical. I’ve had multiple people tell me that I should try to video tape him all of the time. I wish I could. But he’s not much of a performer for the camera anyway.

Shmoo spent the day Monday with his “Ant Lorda” and her dog “Emma”. Lorda is Shmoo’s godmomma and they are kind of like kindred spirits. They crack each other up all day long.

Here’s the email I received from Ant Lorda halfway through the day yesterday:

OMG, he is the funniest kid on the planet…we were in the living room, with the measuring tape (his toy black and decker measuring tape)…measuring everything. my leg, Mack, emma!

Then i asked the silliest question when we were changing out of his swim suit…i asked him it he had to go pee pee…to see if he wanted to try the toilet…and he measured his pee pee. (He measured his penis. When I heard this, I think I laughed for 20 minutes. I thought guys didn’t do that until they were much older.) it was hysterical…then we ate lunch in the camper. then came in and he’s napping now. what a riot.

we spent about an hour in the pool. he loves jumping in. i kept pretending i couldn’t get out and kept falling in…he cracked up each time. he really is a gift and a joy to be around. we watched the garbage trucks this morning too. all in all, i’m having a great day with your boy. he’s really great. when i was gettin him out of his bathing suit, he ran away. naked throughout the house. i kept yelling, “where’s the naked boy”…so he decided to start chanting “where’s the naked boy” and running around in circles in the house. i was hysterical laughing. It took a while to get his clothes on. he liked running amok naked. don’t know if that’s a sign of what’s in store for you guys. but…he was cracking himself up. oh yeah, the other thing…he remembered where the hershey’s kisses were. when i opened up the fridge to get him some watermelon, he pushed me aside, went in behind stuff and found them. you couldn’t see them even if you were looking. CHOKALAT! So i had no choice. I just love this kid.

It is true. He really loves running amok naked.

She also took him to the car wash, which he totally loved. And when he was hanging out in the camper, he was sticking his head out of the screen yelling “Heddo out there” to the empty yard.

Nothing beats a day with the Shmoo.

4 Comments

naming the boy

July 20, 2009 at 3:36 pm (names)

I know. I know. I need to post some pictures. I promise I’m working on it.

My boss is away for 2 weeks and it’s a relief that he’s gone, but it’s definitely not a “relaxing” time for me as everything seems to hit the fan at the same time when he’s out of town.

This week will be no different. It will be an insane week with a little break on Wednesday for a company party in the afternoon – the Shmoo is going to have a blast.

We’ve been busy, as usual. But we’ve finally started talking about names.

It was a lot easier with the Shmoo, for some reason. Now, we are totally on different wavelengths.

I gave Lo a list of names. They included Cole, Chase, Jack, Jake, Luke, Kyle.

Lo said she doesn’t like one syllable names.

Then I tried Logan, Austin, Nathan, Evan, Mason, Brandon and Brady.

She crossed those all off my list.

She came up with Erik, David, Matthew and Mark.

I was not sold on any of them. I thought they were too boring.

Sigh.

She tossed out Derek, Justin, Connor, Brayden and Shawn.

She’s currently stuck on Erik or David (with a middle name of Richard)

I am holding onto Trevor and Dylan (with a middle name of Ryan)

Some of her cousins tried to help me out this weekend by trying to sway her a little bit on Cole and Dylan. I think she is giving in a little on Dylan.

I have a feeling we will walk into the delivery room with 2 or 3 names still in mind and not decide until the little man comes out.

This part is so hard. Every name you come up with has an association to something.

She said “Mark” and I thought of 3 creepy, slimey Marks I knew.

Then, she made the mistake of telling her mother about the name Dylan (who has something negative to say about anything that she didn’t come up with herself – and who also got over-involved with the Shmoo’s name – his last name – the first time around).
“Dylan was the name of the psychopath kid in Columbine,” she immediately says. “I don’t like it.”

Screw my mother-in-law. It’s her fault that our kids are not only going to have a hyphenated last name, but they’ll also have an apostrophe in their last name.

The problem is that everyone will have their 2 cents anyway. (I’m not against my blog friends’ 2 cents but just don’t want my M-I-L’s 2 cents).

We’ll probably end up keeping the final decision (if there is one) to ourselves and away from the in-laws until the cute little baby is born.

14 Comments

21 weeks!

July 17, 2009 at 7:23 pm (Pregnant Holly)

21 weeks! I can’t believe it!

I’ve been a bad blogger and even though work is crazy today, I wanted to provide a quick update.  My scanner is broken, so I don’t have pictures of the little bugger online yet, but I’m working on it.

We had an appointment this morning and everything is looking good! My placenta is anterior so not only are the kicks and movements muffled but the ultrasound is not as clear since the machine has to get through the damn placenta. The pictures weren’t great, but all of the body parts are there and they look good. We did confirm, yet again, that we have boy parts. She didn’t get a good read on his face, so we’re due back for another u/s in 4 weeks.

I did ask when I got weighed in how much weight I had gained so far. According to my chart, I have gained 1 lb. 1 single lb. That’s from Week 8 to Week 21.

Hey, it’s not from lack of trying to gain weight. I’ve been averaging about 3-4 ice creams or milkshakes per week along with a decent amount of friend foods (and plenty of healthy stuff too!).

The good news is that maybe I’m dropping some regular fat and replacing it with baby fat. I mean, jeez, my boobs feel like they put on about 8 lbs.

And, in all fairness, I do think I put on about 10 lbs from Week 2 to Week 8 when all I ate was bread and peanut butter.

Life is good with us. We have a busy weekend lined up, including a family reunion party at Lo’s parents’ house and possible a Sunday of work for me. ugh.

Shmoo is doing well. We’re taking him to yet another carnival tonight. Because we just love throwing money out the window!!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

4 Comments

venus

July 8, 2009 at 6:38 pm (Pregnant Holly)

When I was in college, I made a game out of avoiding certain classes that were supposed to be mandatory.

I went to a Jesuit school and was supposed to take at least 1-2 science classes and 1-2 religion classes. But you could opt out of those if you took 2-4 history, language or political science classes in addition to those classes that were mandatory.

Needless to say, I never took one single science or religion class, but after 4 years (including a few summer classes and winter intersession classes) I had enough credits in certain areas to graduate with a B.A. in Political Science and probably 4-5 minors (including Journalism, Women’s Studies, American History, History and Philosophy).

One of those classes that I took along the way (and didn’t absorb too much in) was called “The History of Western Art” or something like that. I think it was a core class for my freshman year. I don’t remember much about the class other than thinking my professor was actually quite entertaining.

I think the one thing I remember (and I think it was on the final exam), was the “Venus of Willendorf” figurine. The statue is most likely a strong symbol of female fertility.

I never understood the concept behind it. How is that attractive or desirable?

Now, I’m starting to feel a little like the Venus of Willendorf. And I get the symbolism of the fertile female body. A little. It doesn’t mean I’m embracing this.

But, this is what I feel that I will probably look like near the end of my pregnancy.

10 Comments

July 4th slideshow

July 7, 2009 at 5:16 pm (holidays)

We had a wonderful weekend and I wish it never ended. We loaded up the little hybrid, threw the kayaks on the roof and set out to brave the traffic on the drive to my parents’ house on Thursday night in Nian.tic. We made miraculous time (2 hours for a usual 1 hr 45 minute drive) and the rest of the weekend was just perfect.

I’ve decided that I would be 100% content if I was independently wealthy and didn’t have to work every day. I would be happy just hanging out with family and doing what I want to do.

The Shmoo was a very busy boy and when he’s busy, he’s a very good boy. He was great this weekend and my parents loved the visit!

I posted most of the pictures on Face.book but here’s a quick slideshow to show some of our weekend.

Hope everyone had a good one!

7 Comments

maternity clothes

July 1, 2009 at 1:46 pm (Pregnant Holly, holidays)

I’ve decided that I have a love/hate relationship with maternity clothes.

I love how comfy some of the clothes are, but am very picky about the styles.

I’ve found a few cute pairs of pants. 3 pairs total – 1 at a maternity store, 1 pair at Target and 1 pair at Gap (the pair I found at Target – Liz Lange – maybe my favorite pair of pants ever)

But the shirts are not my thing so far. They are all either way too girly, show too much cleavage or skin everywhere else, or are too poofy in the belly area and I don’t need that for another 2-3 months or so.

Plus, I’ve discovered that maternity clothes are made for one particular type of pregnant woman. They are made for that 5’3” cute little skinny-minny pregnant woman with no fat anywhere other than a cute little butterball belly.

I am not that cute little adorable pregnant woman.

I don’t have a cute little ass. In fact, my ass and thighs are growing at an exponential rate. I have a new double chin. I don’t want to wear things that accentuate the fact that my boobs are becoming gi-normous and I do not like clothes that cling to every part of my body to show off the wonderful pregnant belly. Those clingy shirts will just draw more attention to the fact that fat is growing in every other place but my belly.

I’ve resorted to several tunic-style shirts and am abstaining from wearing business suits from now until January/February. If I need to attend a client meeting or town meeting, they are just going to get what they get.

I think my belly grew over the weekend. Surprisingly, I lost weight between my 14 week visit and my 18 week visit. I’m not sure how that happened, it’s not due to my dramatic change in diet for the better. I doubt that vanilla milkshakes and corn muffins have contributed to my weight loss.

To appease my blog friends…here it goes again.

A pregnant Holly at 18.5 weeks.

In other news, the acid reflux is just continuing to get worse. I asked the nurse on Friday what I was doing wrong. I can’t figure out what foods make it worse or what helps (vanilla milkshakes usually help!). She told me that it’s not the food I’m eating. I have no control over it, it’s the baby.

I thought I had discovered that it’s worse the longer I wait between eating, but I was proved wrong last night.

On Thursday night, I did something slightly stupid. It got so bad, I followed a friend’s advice for a remedy. It involved drinking some apple cider vinegar and water. I googled the remedy and found that I could put honey in the mixture to make the taste better. Needless to say, it just made me puke. And I puked so badly, that I scratched up my throat and ended up spitting up blood for about 30 minutes (yes, that was rather alarming, but I could feel where it was coming from so I didn’t panic. Lo panicked a little.)

For now, I’m just trying to stick to some benign foods and my Rolaids. I’ve been starting to sleep slightly upright, but between not being able to lie on my side and trying to be elevated for the reflux, I’m not sleeping well.

I keep thinking to myself, wow – this is going to be a long 5 more months! And if one more person tells me how wonderful their pregnancy was, I might kick them. (Or if my 5’2” size 4 mother tells me one more time how I can do Weight.Watchers while pregnant, I might just kick her too!)

We are hopefully heading up to the shore to my parents’ house on Thursday night with the kayaks on the car!

Hope everyone has a wonderful July 4th weekend!

14 Comments