Baby? What Baby?

Have I mentioned I'm having a baby in 3.5 weeks?

It's mind boggling, actually. I have no idea where the past 9 months went. With the first two girls, it seems I somehow had the time to massage the idea of having a baby--I read frequently about the do's and don'ts of mothering, shopped for maternity clothes, obsessed over what I needed for the upcoming arrival, took "last-time" getaways with my husband right before the births, found time for pre-natal massages, took pregnancy yoga...you get the idea.

This time around, perhaps I've skimmed the baby name book once or twice (Brian and I are notoriously last-minute namers), I did borrow some great maternity clothes from some girlfriends, have attempted to make a massage appointment and did actually locate a box of 0-3 month clothes last night.

I like to think of the discrepancy as not so much a lack of interest in our 3rd child, but rather an increase in confidence about my parenting. I do know that a nursing newborn requires little more than clean diapers and a bunch of sleepers. Parenting/baby books are useless to me now--I've either already incorporated the advice or messed my older two children up. I know well what a C-section entails--it ain't pretty, but 4 days recovering in a hospital by myself does have its appeal on some days. I have missed the massages, and I giggled way too much through pregnancy yoga (picture large-bellied women all doing the "tree" pose) and even fell completely asleep once during yoga nidra. My friend Leslie had to wake me while the class waited patiently in tadasana, watching me rouse from a really good nap.

The difference is also in my level of business--taking of care of two children and trying to find time to pursue my other interests doesn't leave me with much time left to dwell on my growing fetus. However, the last week or so, this pregnancy, tired of being an afterthought, has demanded some attention. It has made my back ache, my legs swell and my heart burn. It doesn't let me sleep and according to my husband, it makes me snore when I do (I'm still waiting for proof). So...the next few weeks may be a bit of a physical challenge, so the busier the better as far as I'm concerned.

A few recent adventures:

Ella had a day off school, so we headed to Glen Echo Park. We caught a showing of "Go Dog Go" at Adventure Theater, which was mindless and plotless, much like the book. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was...they could have thrown in just a little bit of plot for the sanity of the adults.

The beauty of the park, however, made up for it

and you can't go wrong with an empty stage. My girls most certainly wouldn't let a good stage go to waste. There are always dances to be done and songs to be sung.

And they swung and spun until their little tummies could tolerate no more.

Some good quality ladies time is most definitely a perfect distraction. A Friday night cooking class at L'Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, the ladies and I concocted: Blackened Catfish Fingers with Calypso Sauce, Beer Batter Fried Cod with Tartar Sauce, Sweet Potato Latkes, Honey Poppy Seed Coleslaw and Pumpkin Mousse with Ginger Cookies. Delish!

Jenny, bless her heart, took most of the fish responsibility. My major responsibility was the pumpkin mousse, which is rich and indulgent. I also learned that it is actually possible to create in the kitchen without use of a Kitchen Aid mixer. I remade it for Sunday dessert.

Here's the recipe if you're looking for something festive and sweet:

1 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 cup sugar

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 Tbsp. melted butter

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Method:

Sitr together the pumpkin and sugar until smooth and creamy

Add the cream cheese and stir that until smooth and creamy

Add the vanilla and melted butter. Combine completely

Whip the cream and fold it into the mixture. Chill.

It is best with something like a sugar cookie along with it...I didn't love their recipe, but let me know if you want it and I'll be happy to pass it along.

And of course, we had to partake of our masterpieces.

We were quite the team! And I do think a maternity apron would have been a bit more flattering.

My brother Drew was in town last weekend and we enjoyed hanging out with him. I have to say that my brothers are dynamite uncles. They are so good to my girls. It overlapped with my parents' big raking weekend. It is a massive project, and given that my parents have conflicting ideas of how it should be done, it gets interesting. For some masochistic reason, Russ loves doing it too much to pay someone to do it.

We chipped in, but the girls mainly just wanted to be tossed around by their Uncle Doo-Doo. (The name was coined from Ella's early talking days, where she couldn't say "Drew", but came out with Doo-Doo instead. Needless to say, the name stuck and is the way Samantha has learned to say his name as well.)

One additional reason for the minimaal focus on childbirth is that Christmas has to be done before hand. I am in full swing Christmas shopping and preparations. I've never put up a Christmas tree prior to December 1st, but this might be the year.

Next weekend is the big Christmas chocolate dipping extravaganza. On Friday, sister-in-law Janene flies into town, "the machine" comes out and we dip like crazy for two days. The massive chocolate production won't exactly be helpful for post-baby slimming, but tradition triumphs.

This past weekend, my mom and I made three batches of fondant, 1 recipe of caramels, 1 recipe of toffee and 2 recipes of truffles...we truly think my Grandma is smiling at us from on high. We've never done it without her and they all turned out splendidly. This Christmas will sure feel empty without her. Thank heavens for our third little girl coming just in time to take the edge off the void of not having Grandma here this year. I like to think that Grandma kissed this baby girl on her way out of heaven, and bestowed just a touch of her own spunk and kindness.

Hopefully, a taste for chocolate, too.

October Happened

How is it possible that the first week of November is over and I haven’t done a late-October post? October is my big month! My favorite month! Time continues to escape me.

First of all, it must be noted that I’m now officially well into my 30’s. 32 to be exact. 30 and 31 are sort of dipping your toe into the decade. But 32—I’m swimming in it now. I'm glad I have an older husband to always help me feel young. :) Brian always wipes his brow the day after my birthday, given that he has Ella’s birthday, our anniversary and my birthday all packaged into October.

We had a lovely celebration the day prior, which most importantly involved Brian cooking and not me. My mom provided a delectable chocolate cake with ganache frosting and a heath bar middle. Truly rich and indulgent. In the last couple of years much of her cooking now comes from Bon Appetit, and we often benefit greatly from this little hobby. She brought her masterpiece, along with a bag of candy pumpkins (a traditional accessory on all my birthday cakes) and asked if I REALLY wanted the pumpkins on it. In other words, was I going to insist on corrupting a gourmet cake with those pumpkins?

Absolutely.

I was spoiled with my token jewelry from Ella, a new book, gift certificate for new clothes post-baby and a certificate for a 60-minute pre-natal massage from my Mom—my Exponent friend Jonette is a CMT and has magic hands. I can’t wait. Oh, and the cute fall placemats on the table are from my mother-in-law—she knows I heart fall.

And then dinner out on my actual day with with kids, was a bit painful and did not win any awards for children’s best behavior. But again, another evening without cooking is always welcome.

In other October News…

Samantha has decided that butter knives are the answer to most of life’s problems. She pulls them out of the drawer to attempt to open toy kitchen food, cut real food and pry open drawers. It’s rather amusing.

Ella completed her first ever soccer season. Once we established that the object of the game was to get the ball between the two red flags and not simply to get it out of bounds, she improved tremendously.

We apparently need to work with Samantha on sideline cheerleading techniques.

The medal placed around her neck was as good as gold. She was so proud of herself and is looking forward to spring soccer!

Halloween is always multi-eventful. I’m glad the girls get multiple opportunities to show off their costumes, but I’m always a little partied out by the end of the month.

Festivities included:

The Pumpkin Selection

Pumpkin Carving

Which somehow induces a great deal of silly-ness.

And Samantha, who really will try anything. At least she knows now that raw pumpkin guts are not her thing.

Our ward Halloween party (unfortunately, for the second year in a row held in our church because the farm was rained out). Samantha outright refused to wear her witch costume, but I talked her into a Halloween shirt and headband.

Ella working on the pinata, which proved to be both child and adult-proof.

Elementary School Party and Parade

Costume clarification: after purchasing Ella's fairy costume, I was informed that she was to be a RAINBOW fairy. Brian bought her rainbow wings when they were out shopping one day, but given that I was short on time and creativity, a rainbow sash tied around her middle seemed to fit the bill.)

Trick-or-Treating (post-party at our neighbor’s)

Samantha enjoyed feeding Carri her candy as much as eating it herself. Carri also made me watch the Nicholas Cage movie, "Knowing", which was way freakier than I had bargained for. I now "know" it was beyond my thrill threshold.

And fortunately, Ella has since given up the routine of sorting her candy on a daily basis (the Harry Potter cape somehow makes it more festive).

October has now been documented to the best of my ability. We'll see how November goes...

A Sticky-Coke Can Sort of Day

It’s a term Brian and I have used since our dating days.

It’s meant to describe one of those no-good-very-bad days where you encounter an obstacle at every part of your day. Nothing earth-shattering wrong--just a pile of inconveniences that you could easily absorb one-at-a-time, but they all seem to have fallen on the same day. A day like: you wake up not feeling well, your car has a flat tire when you go to leave in the morning, the grocery store is out of the very one ingredient you went for and someone rams you in the back of your leg with a grocery cart, you stepped in gum and got it on the rug of your car, you forgot your homework assignment that was due in class that day, a cashier gives you the wrong amount of change and you don’t realize it until 30 minutes after you’ve left the store, the dry-cleaner just happens to be closed on the day you absolutely needed that skirt, etc. You get the drift.

Brian minted the term after having one of these days in law school. I don’t remember the specifics of his bad day, but after telling me a long list of woes that he had encountered that day, he caps it off with, “I went to the soda machine to get a Coke—I put my money in and a Coke comes out. I pick it up and realize that the outside of the can is sticky. That Coke can basically sums up my day.” And so the term was adopted.

I do have good things to blog about, like my birthday and such, but today is one of those sticky Coke-can days and I need to vent.

After having a run of the stomach bug in our house the last 10 days, I finally thought Ella was over it and am excited to FINALLY put her back in school today since she made it through all of yesterday and last night without throwing up. I am happily humming a tune while packing her lunch this morning, only to hear her vomiting in the bathroom.

At least Samantha has pre-school this morning, I think. I pull her out of her crib and see snot running out of her nose. I look the other way and pretend it’s not there while I wash her face. I am bound and determined to get her to pre-school. Think bad thoughts about me all you want as the parent who put their snotty-nosed kid in pre-school, but when you’ve been hunkered down with sick kids (and yes, my kids are immunized against the Swine flu), and her pre-school is just one day a week, you just don’t care about being that parent. Plus, she couldn’t miss her Halloween party today, right?

I manage to get clothes on a lethargic, slow-moving, sick Ella and push the girls out of the door. I go to pick up my keys and realize Brian has taken the wrong set with him to work, which has the only available van key. I am able to open the van, and get Sam’s car seat out and put it in the pick-up. The girls and I scrunch in while Ella complains that she’s squished in the middle. This has changed my visiting teaching plans for the morning and I call my teachee on the way to tell her that my kid is sick and can’t make it, but I want to drop off a Halloween treat. I head towards taking Sam to pre-school, but Brian calls to say he is metroing back to swap keys with me, because he really needs his work keys and can I meet him at the Bethesda station in 15 minutes?

Ella relishes in being the only kid at home while Sam is at school. She miraculously springs back to life and instead of reading quietly on the couch as I had pictured, she wants to play board games because “being sick is fun cause I get all the attention. Usually Sam gets all the attention.” With a statement like that how do you turn around and do your normal morning clean-up routine? Board games it was.

Meanwhile, I think my boss is mad at me for being late to a meeting last night because it apparently takes 90 minutes to travel 22 miles to Dupont Circle in the pouring rain during rush hour and I had only allotted myself 60 minutes. At least I can put Ella in front of a movie and work on my report to redeem myself while Sam naps.

Except Sam decided napping wasn’t on her agenda today. She screamed bloody murder, threw her animals and baby doll overboard, making her scream louder. It became very clear that no report was going to get done today. And so, dishes still sit in my sink, laundry has yet to be put away from Monday’s washing, and the refrigerator is still empty so dinner plans are a mystery. And I have another meeting tonight that I better not be late to.

However, my sanity thanks my two children who are currently playing independently, with not a peep of disagreement or injury, so that I can write this post.

Good thing caffeine intake is prohibited these days with maniac girl #3 in utero. Cause my Coke would have definitely turned up sticky today.

Turning 6...

...According to Ella. (Not exactly her words, but could be.)

Let me tell you something about birthdays. Make-it-last-as-long-as-you-can-possibly-get-away-with. Mom and Dad said something about Disney World being part of Samantha's and my birthdays this year--but how can it be for my birthday when I wasn't even there on my birthday? So let me give you some pointers on how to drag this baby out.

On the day of: 1) Open a couple of presents in the morning before school. Grandma and Grandpa Bowcut's package was a prime target--they weren't going to be here to see me open it, so who cares when I do it? I scored some cute new clothes, and Samantha gave me a sewing gift--not like SHE cares when I do it.
2) Wear your favorite party dress for school and have your mom tie a bow in your hair so people will tell you how cute you look all day long. Make sure the powers-that-be at school know it's your birthday so they'll make an announcement over the loud speaker and invite you to go to the office to collect a birthday pencil. My teacher had a present for me, too--a new book. What is it with teachers being so obsessed with books anyway?

3) If handed lemons at any point in your day, be calm and be sure to squeeze out a little lemonade. I unfortunately had both my group and private violin lessons on my birthday (VERY bad planning on the part of my mom), but everyone sang to me while my teacher played.

4) If you go out to eat, choose a restaurant with your favorite dish and make sure the waiter knows its your birthday so you score a dessert. (And make sure you share so you don't seem totally self-absorbed.) Birthday singing and opening presents in public only heightens the attention you receive. It was lots of fun to have Miriam, Grandma and Grandpa Munk with us celebrate.

5) And insist on time to play with your new things even if it's after your bedtime. Can people really expect to give you new things and then not get to play with them? Even better, ask for something new you can WEAR to bed and then you can enjoy one of your presents all night long.

6) One day of celebrating is SO pre-school. Your friends need ample opportunity to adore you. Saturday, we packed as many friends as we could fit into our van and headed over to the indoor swimming pool. We had a blast--and I even taught my friends the easiest way to dunk my Grandma.

We came back to my house for cake and ice cream. I asked specifically for my Mom's favorite type of birthday cake (which we'll have again at the end of the month for my Mom's big day)--chocolate with pumpkins on top. Grandma said she wasn't sure my Mom even knew how to make it given that it's always been made for her. I think Mom did a fantastic job--it was perfect!

So there you go...my birthday in a nutshell. Only 358 days left until my next one.

Nine

It's been said that a successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.

It happens to me every year.


Happy 9th Anniversary, Bri. I love you.