Tuesday, December 14, 2010

You all are bad finger-crossers.

Next time I'm not having you all cross your fingers for us. Obviously you didn't cross them hard enough or long enough. ;)

Another cycle gone. We're taking a month off. I don't want to have to think about this over the holidays. We'll try again in January. That will be cycle 6 and we're thinking about doing a two insemination cycle (so instead of going in the day after the OPK turns positive, which is what we've always done, we'll go in the day the OPK turns positive and the day after). Hopefully that'll do the trick.

If that one doesn't stick, then we'll see.

Nate's being even more of a monkey lately. His pronunciation of things sometimes cracks us up. And sometimes it's so cute. His "yessssh" is adorable and I don't know where he got "uh-uh" from but a two-year old saying "uh-uh" is pretty funny. He also likes to blame Ella for things. And the other night we went to see Christmas lights and kept saying "Oooooo, lights." Two-year olds are fun.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Fingers crossed!

I'm impatient. Ready for this one to take. :)

Cross your fingers, say a prayer, do a little dance, whatever it takes.

Nate kissed my tummy so a baby would grow. He says yes when we ask if he wants a baby in the house.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Unc Duh!

Nate loves his Uncle Doug. When Doug was here, he wanted nothing to do with poor Grandma as long as Uncle Doug was around. It doesn't hurt that Uncle Doug gave him a Thomas the Tank Engine wooden train set.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving with my mom and Doug staying with us for about 4-5 days and spending Thanksgiving day at Jen's parents' house. We always have a good time all together.

Nate has been fighting his nap lately and didn't take one on Thanksgiving (though of course, we were going over for dinner when he normally would have napped anyway). He did very well at Nana and Papa's house and waited until we were back at home for his major tired meltdown. :) I enjoyed waking up with Nate and Jen for 5 mornings in a row (Nate comes into our room when he wakes up). Jen and I don't have any days off together normally, so if I'm not going off to work, she is in the morning. It's always nice to wake up together without an alarm clock.

Nate seems to be back into taking his naps lately, which is good. He needs them. He's done three in a row now. :)

Here's a monkey on Thanksgiving.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

It's cocktail time!

And if it's cocktail time, you know that means the latest cycle has come and gone without a baby. But that's okay. :) We're still within the 3-6 average cycles (that was our 4th cycle). We decided not to change donors and after a chat with the AI coordinator who has dealt with 100s (1000s?) of Lesbian couples or singles trying to get pregnant, I am confident that we are doing everything right and that we just need to be patient. I'm usually so good at that ...

Things have been very busy for us lately. Nate's 2nd birthday was on October 10 and we had a bunch of family over to enjoy the cutest Thomas cake ever.

Then the following weekend we went to Chicago for 3 days. Uncle Doug was able to come in from L.A. while we were there and he and Nate bonded over trains and cars.

Yes, Doug is growing a beard. I know. Don't worry, we told him.

We also decided not to enroll Nate in Early Intervention at the moment for 2 main reasons. The first is that he suddenly started talking more. He was repeating more things and finally was answering "What's your name" and "how are you?" His pronunciation isn't great, but he's speaking more and more words and finally referring to himself doing things. The second is that he technically wasn't eligible for EI anyway. The teachers who came said he passed but they could tell he would benefit from some help so they fudged the test so that he would be eligible. So he passed the test. That's what really did it for me. I probably would have still done it if it were truly free or low-cost the way it's supposed to be. However, they just raised the "fee" a ton. So a family in the top income bracket who used to pay $250/year for the services (and the guy who came to talk about the services said they didn't even always bother about collecting the fee) now has to pay $1500. Seriously? That's a lot of money, people.

Doug and Grandma are coming for Thanksgiving and we're looking forward to their visit. Yay! :)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

A real Christmas baby?

Just a quick update. Jen and I are thinking about switching donors. Some people swear that switching to a new donor can do the trick to get pregnant, and in fact, we happened to do that the last time we were trying to get pregnant quite by accident. We had done 3 IUI cycles and then the donor we'd used was out! So we chose a new one and lo and behold, got pregnant on the first try. That was Jonathan (our miscarriage) but even the 2nd time around, it was the 2nd IUI cycle when we got pregnant with Nate (with that same donor, who unfortunately really is all out).

So, we've done 3 IUI cycles and are thinking about a new dude. Haven't made the decision yet. We may end up skipping this cycle since we need to wait for some more funds before we can purchase some more spermies, but that's fine. We'll try at the end of October/beginning of November or we'll try at the end of November. I looked ahead and I think if we're still trying in December, we'll probably have to skip that month because I think I'll be ovulating on Christmas Day. And as convenient as it would be to be able to drive right into the city and park right by the doctor, I'm not sure that's something I want to do on Christmas Day with my mom and brother in town. :)

On the other hand, I get so superstitious about these IUIs that maybe it would be good luck to do it on Christmas! Hehehe. As it stands, if we skip this month, I'm pretty sure the next time I ovulate would be the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so maybe my mom will get a chance to come to an IUI after all. (Weekend IUIs require a "buddy" because the office is not open for regular appointments).

Where's Nate?
There he is!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Another one bites the dust.

Still not pregnant. I guess getting inseminated the same day the cat got spayed wasn't good luck after all.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Sorry, Penny.

Tomorrow I'm going in for an IUI, and Penny the kitten is getting spayed. Hmm.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

The recipe that made Nate say "cookie".

So, Nate's a little slow to be a chatterbox. We're doing an early intervention evaluation with him but I don't think he's going to be speaking at 7 months below his age (the requirement to be eligible for the early intervention therapy). He's been saying many new words lately and today he said cookie because he wanted his fourth one after dinner.

I made a really tasty oatmeal cookie. I didn't have enough raisins, but I had currants, so I used those and I had some chopped pecans, so I used those. I don't have a picture because I'm too lazy at the moment to go get one, but they are very yummy. :) I used McCann's quick cooking Irish oatmeal but it looked like a regular quick cooking oatmeal, so probably any instant or quick cooking oatmeal would work fine.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups softened butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups quick cooking Irish oatmeal
3/4 cups currants (or raisins)
1/2 cups chopped pecans (or walnuts)

Preparation
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
  2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla extract.
  3. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add to butter mixture. Mix well.
  4. Stir in oatmeal, currants and pecans.
  5. Drop rounded teaspoons of batter on an ungreased (or parchment-lined) cookie sheet.
  6. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool for 1 minute before removing to wine cooling rack.
Makes approximately 36 cookies.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

It's a little too soon for that!

I'm sitting next to Nate on the couch. He is watching an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine on our iPad. It is pretty funny that for months (basically since we got it), Nate has known how to open and turn on the iPad and to select the Apps that he wants to play with (mostly the "This is the sound a ---- makes"-type apps). I didn't even have a cell phone until I was 23.

Nate also sits next to me when I'm on my computer and makes me look up pictures on Google Image Search. He likes trains best, though it started with butterflies because I have a butterfly theme on my instance of Chrome. He's used to playing with my touchscreen phone and the iPad though and tries to touch the monitor to get the pictures to become larger. Doesn't quite work the way he expects. :)

We got a package of clothes in the mail today from my mom. They are hand-me-downs from her neighbor. Mostly they were perfect 2T or 24-month size which fit him right now. There were a lot of pairs of sweatpants and some plaid pajama bottoms. There was also a pair of slippers which he is wearing tonight and he seems to like them. And there was a long-sleeved t-shirt that said "Big Brother." Well, that one can go into his closet for a little while still.

We did take this month off from inseminations. It's been very nice not obsessing over whether I'm pregnant or not. I'm tempted to take another month off. It's also been nice to remember what the normal PMS symptoms that I have are ... I just reached over to help Nate with the iPad and he had managed to get to the CBS sports website ... already obsessed with his sports scores?

So, I'm tempted to take another month off, but we'll see. :)

Here's Nate next to me right now.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

I jinxed it!

No, I didn't really jinx anything. :) There was nothing I could have done today to make myself pregnant or not; that would have happened weeks ago.

Not pregnant!

I think we'll take a month off from trying.

This is the hardest part

Today is the day I am supposed to get my period. It hasn't come yet. I feel all jumbled. I don't want to get too excited because I could still not be pregnant, but I don't want to get disappointed yet because I could still be pregnant. I keep thinking it's coming, but then it's not here. I've gone to the bathroom 20 times this morning (well, that's an exaggeration ... maybe just 15). I don't feel crampy but I don't always feel crampy before it comes, just after. I also don't want to jinx anything. I'm not even sure I should post this! I'm afraid that the second I click "publish post" I'll go to the bathroom and have my period.

I did have a dream that I was pregnant last night.

I love this picture. He looks a lot like my brother but with lighter hair.



Friday, August 20, 2010

Oh so I'm supposed to update more than once a month?

I know I owe you all a post. There's not a lot to share, however. This whole process, as you know if you've tried to get pregnant before, is a waiting game.

I wasn't sure if we'd even try this cycle because I had a business trip to New York right around the time that I was supposed to be ovulating. I'm using an Ovulation Prediction Kit (OPK) to determine when I'm ovulating and when it turns positive, it is telling you that you'll ovulate within the next 24-48 hours (or something like that). So if the OPK is positive, we go in to inseminate the next day. I was only staying one night (a Monday) in NYC, so when the OPK was negative on Sunday, I knew I wasn't ovulating on Monday, so I brought the OPK with me to the hotel and sure enough, it turned positive on Tuesday morning so it all worked out fine.

Now we're just waiting again. This is the hardest part of the whole thing. You start analyzing every little twinge or bubble to be a pregnancy sign. Of course, the early signs of pregnancy are the same as PMS symptoms. I feel the exact same way I did last month (when I had convinced myself I was pregnant) so I don't know if that's bad because that means I'll get my period or if it's just inconclusive because it could go either way. If you asked me if I thought I am pregnant now, one minute I will say yes and the next I will say no.

I should know in about a week. Just in time for grandma to come visit Nate from Chicago!

I'm so excited for my mom's visit. Nate is so much bigger and chatty than he was when she was last here in March. Chatty in his own way.

Is there a Kids That Look Like Hitler site? (see Cats That Look Like Hitler)


Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Just 2 words

Not pregnant. :) Oh well. I was hoping it would work the first time but it takes an average of 3-6 tries to get pregnant (for anyone, not just using AI).

Of course I was sure I was pregnant. Of course my period was later than expected. Of course I bought a pregnancy test and took it this morning and saw the "Not Pregnant" before I realized I had just gotten my period.

Next time will work.

In other news, vacation was great. We'll have some pics up in the Picasa album soon. Or if we're Facebook friends, you've already seen them. :)

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

And now .... we wait.

Insemination day! Yay! Now we wait ...

I'm glad we're going on vacation next week so that I can't get too crazy trying to analyze every feeling I have to try to figure out if it means I'm pregnant or not. However, as much as I tell myself that I am not going to obsess over it and that I'm not going to do a pregnancy test until two weeks from today, I am sure I'll have myself convinced by the end of the trip. That's exactly what happened the first try when we tried the second time. We went to Chicago for thanksgiving about the same amount of time afterwards and by the end I was convinced I was pregnant. :) But I wasn't. Hopefully if I am convinced I'm pregnant by the end of the trip I will actually be pregnant.

So don't expect much before two weeks is up. :)

In case you didn't already see it on Facebook, our own possible submission to Shit My Kids Ruined.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Who knew the 4th of July deserved 2 days off?

For some reason Google has given us both Monday and Tuesday off for the Independence Day holiday. I am definitely not complaining, just think it's funny. I keep thinking today that I have to go back to work tomorrow, but I don't!

I left work a bit early on Friday, too, so I feel like I've been home forever. And tomorrow I get to just hang out at home with Jen and Nate, then Jen has a job interview and then we're probably going out for dinner.

We went to the beach for the first time with Nate today, and though he was a little confused and didn't really know exactly what to do he ended up enjoying the sand and digging and even enjoyed being carried into the ocean (but he wouldn't let us put him down). He pointed at seagulls and other kids and boats and ate plenty of the Munchkins we had picked up at Dunkin Donuts on the way to the beach. He's been napping now for 2 hours with no signs of stirring. Once he gets up we're going to run an errand at Target and then maybe go get ice cream!!

Sometime at the end of this week or the beginning of next we'll be heading to the doc for our first IUI cycle. Probably Monday, but I could be wrong. I called up the sperm bank with a list of our top 6 donors and they had plenty of vials of the first guy available, so we went with him. We ordered some up and they'll be ready and waiting for us whenever we go in. It would be pretty funny if it works this time because my period was on the 30th (of June) and when we got pregnant with Jonathan my last period was on the 30th (of April) and when we got pregnant with Nathaniel my last period was on the 30th (of December). So it seems a propitious cycle to try. :)

A sandy munchkin at the beach. And a sandy donut hole, too. :)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

And we're back!

Yeah, it's been a little while.

But we finally had our re-enrollment appointment. We didn't really learn too much new; a couple minor things have changed and we no longer have to find a donor that is CMV negative (see previous post for why that was an issue) but otherwise we're all cleared and ready to go. We have our list of donors and we basically just have to decide how many vials of sperm to buy at a time (we have previously done 3 at a time) and call them up and order.

Super exciting new news is that my health insurance now will cover the IUI appointments (that's $250!). Google had a chat with all the health insurance providers and Cigna HMO will now cover IUIs for women in same sex relationships. So that is $250 less per attempt out of our pockets.

So, probably we'll go for try numero uno in July unless we're on vacation when I ovulate. We decided not to try and rush things. Especially since I'm likely ovulating like tomorrow and the re-enrollment appointments were yesterday.

It was amusing looking through all the donors' long profiles. Essentially they're all the same. Mostly in their early 20s when they donated (23 seemed to be the popular age) and grad students in the Boston area. There was one guy born in '57 and one who was 19 (I think he may have been the triplet). Mostly it came down to family health history and feelings. Both of us said, "I just don't like him" once or twice. We have a list of our top 6 so hopefully of those 6 one will have some IUI vials available. I guess I'll have to give the sperm bank a call soon. :)

That is a piece of macaroni in his hair.


Friday, May 7, 2010

CRASH!

I got into a car accident this evening. Not so much fun. Don't recommend it.

It wasn't my fault -- it was one of those times where you see something coming and know you can't do anything to avoid it. I slammed on the brakes and closed my eyes.

I was heading north in the right-turn lane passing by an entrance to a parking lot. I suddenly saw a car that had been on the southbound side (I'm getting my insurance terminology down) turn left into the parking lot RIGHT in front of me. I didn't have enough time to do anything but, as I said, slam on my brakes and close my eyes.

Yes, Nate was in the car with me. He is fine (all people involved are fine). The only thing I remember thinking was whether my airbags were going to go off. They did not. Neither did the other woman's. So I guess the accident wasn't that bad.

My front is a little squished. I hit her passenger side and her driver side rear tire blew. Both cars were technically drivable (except for the blown tire). And everyone seems fine. I'm a little sore, so I took some Ibuprofen. We'll keep an eye on both me and Nate to make sure we don't have whiplash, but we hit pretty much head-on, the other woman is the one that got hit sideways. It's more the hassle of getting the car fixed at this point. Luckily I walk to the train each day.

Shook me up though. Literally I was shaking afterwards as I tried to dial 9-1-1. And then after we had gone grocery shopping (yeah, I continued on to the grocery store -- I got things to do, people!) and gotten home and Nate was in bed and fast asleep, I suddenly freaked out and rushed upstairs to make sure he was okay. He was fine, of course. Just a minor little bit of anxiety.

Part of me is kind of hoping that the car is declared "totaled." Wouldn't mind a new car. :)

Here's your bit of cuteness. This is what happens when you start introducing a non-sippy cup at meals.

Friday, April 30, 2010

La dee da

I know I promised more frequent blog posts due to this whole transparency thing, but our re-enrollment appointment isn't until June 15th so I have no news to share!

Which is fine since I was hoping to have the next kid be 2 1/2-3 years younger than Nate. Only thing is that we'll probably have to rush a little with the first one since I'll ovulate the week right after our appointment. Not bad rushing, necessarily, we'll just have to order the spermies quickly and get them to the clinic right away. Then if that insemination doesn't stick, we won't be able to try until after our vacation to Maine in July since the week we're up there is the week I'll ovulate (yes, I know when I'll ovulate! I'm REALLY regular).

I've gone way anticipatory and already plugged potential conception days into the pregnancy calculator to see what possible due dates might be, haha. If we got pregnant in June the due date would be around March 16th. If we were able to inseminate in July (which we won't because we'll be on vacation) the due date would be April 12 (which is my brother's birthday, so maybe it's best) and if we were to get pregnant in August the due date would be around May 8.

Yes, I know. I'm getting WAAAAYYY ahead of myself. That's what I do. And now you all get to share it with me instead of just Jen. Lucky you!

Also, we've started our own bit of superstition. See, the first time we got pregnant, we happened to buy a new car the day we inseminated (which was our fourth attempt after a month off following 3 attempts in a row). The second time we got pregnant, we happened to inseminate the same day we got our dog, Ella (our second attempt after a month off following the first attempt). So what large purchase/addition to the family are we going to do this time? We already bought a new house; totally not getting another new house by June or August. I suppose we could replace one of the cars, but we're not really thinking about doing that in the near future (maybe another couple years -- or sooner if my friend Shell wants to buy Jen's car). We're already getting a kitten in the next 4 or 5 weeks. I suppose we could get yet another (we were thinking about two kittens anyway). :D Or we won't do anything and we'll get pregnant anyway...

Also both times we got pregnant was after taking a month off between inseminations. So now I'm setting us up to not get pregnant until August (because we'll have that month off), and on the same day we buy something big and/or new. We're like baseball players who have to wear the same socks and do an elaborate ritual of spitting, tapping shoes and tugging on their hat rim before they go up to bat.

But I hope instead we'll get pregnant right away.

And I think I want it to be a boy. Or a girl. :) Though I still think I want another boy. Then I guess we'll have to have a third kid to have the girl. And her older brothers can beat up any boys that look at her so that she won't get pregnant. Because girls get pregnant when boys look at them.

Legos upstairs are a bad idea.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Just waitin...

So, usually the clinic that we go through is really good about getting back to me but for some reason it has taken them almost a week to get back to me with our re-enrollment appointments. I have all the bloodwork and other tests done so we're really just waiting on those appointments (and then for the right time -- when I'm ovulating) to get started.

And oh yeah, we'll have to choose a new donor. As I mentioned in the comments on my other post, Nate was literally from the last vial of sperm from his donor. The donor's donations were in 2004 (at least the vials we saw were from then) and since then he has unenrolled from the sperm bank's program so they won't contact him. Which is fine. I was an egg donor twice and at this point I wouldn't want to be contacted to be a donor again, I'm busy having my own babies. :)

But that does mean that we have to choose a new one. And while it's sort of as simple as choosing a donor who has the characteristics that we want, there are a bunch of things to keep in mind. We like to choose someone who has a similar ethnicity to Jen but we focus first on Italian. So the first donor we tried was Italian and Irish, but after 3 tries with him, he was out for the time being so we tried a new one (Italian and Polish) and we got pregnant with Jonathan right away and then on the 2nd try with Nathaniel. We also can only choose donors who have IUI vials ready.

There are IUI vials and ICI vials. IUI is what we do because we do it at the doctors office so they use sterile equipment and can do intra-uterine inseminations. If we were doing home inseminations, we could choose someon with ICI (intra cervical insemination) vials because we would be inserting the sperm before the cervix. (Go ahead and Google those terms if I'm not being graphic enough; I know people from work sometimes read my blog so I'm trying to be sensitive to that).

Also, we have to pick a donor who is CMV negative because I am CMV negative. CMV is one of those things that doesn't matter if you get it when you're healthy and you probably wouldn't even notice, but if you get it when you're pregnant, it's a big deal. And if I'm negative and use a donor who is positive, there is a possibility that I could contract CMV from the spermies and that wouldn't be a good thing.

And finally, we chose a donor who was not a release of identity donor for Nathaniel so we want to choose another non-release of identity donor for any subsequent children.

So, until we hear back from the clinic (hopefully tomorrow) we can browse the donor catalog at the sperm bank and figure out which donors we may go with for our next tries.

Nate learned how to slurp spaghetti this weekend:

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Full transparency this time around

So, first time we got pregnant we did what you're "supposed" to do and waited until the first 12 weeks were past and then told everyone we were pregnant. And then at 17 1/2 weeks we miscarried. One of the reasons you wait until the 12 weeks are past is that then you have a lower chance of miscarrying ... but having gone through it once, I don't think I would have waited longer because I tell everyone that I had one (when it's appropriate in the conversation ... I don't just offer it up "Hi nice to meet you I had a miscarriage once"). :) So second time around we still waited until 12 weeks but a lot more people knew beforehand because it's such an exciting thing that I couldn't wait to tell people. Also, coincidentally my 4th month was starting right around April 1st and I thought it would be funny to tell everyone at work that I was pregnant on April Fool's Day. And it was.

Now, before you go and get all excited, I'm not pregnant. Jen is! No, just kidding. That would be funny. Neither of us is pregnant.

The other thing we kept more of a secret from people was the fact that we were trying. We weren't offering the info up. Especially since it's so precise to use IUI to get pregnant. Heterosexual couples don't go around saying "hey we had sex last night, so we could be pregnant," so we didn't really go around saying, "hey Lauren got inseminated yesterday so we could be pregnant!" Sure family knew that we were trying, but especially with the first pregnancy and our first tries we were trying to keep it more of a surprise.

But you know what? Why? This time around, I thought about trying to keep it secret from the families even so that it could be more of a surprise, like it was with my sister-in-law. It wasn't a secret that they weren't "not trying" to get pregnant, but again, they didn't go around saying, "hey, last night we had sex so we might be pregnant!" But why am I trying to emulate a heterosexual couple when we're not? We do have to do it differently, people are interested an curious and sometimes feel embarrassed asking these questions so why not just offer it up from the very beginning. Plus we'll likely need someone to watch Nate when we go in for inseminations so it would be tough to keep that a secret. :)

Also it'll give me something to blog about.

Besides, the big reason for not telling people that you're pregnant before 12 weeks are past are so that if you miscarry, the whole world doesn't know. But you know what? If we miscarry, I'll probably tell the whole world anyway.

So. We are getting ready to start trying again. We do the inseminations through a clinic in Boston that has been doing them for Lesbians and single women (because it used to be VERY difficult to get sperm banks to give sperm to unmarried women) forever and they also know that health insurance does not usually cover IUI treatments unless there is a diagnosis of infertility (which you can get after 6 unsuccessful IUI attempts) so they keep the costs as low as possible and try to keep it as unclinical as possible.

Because we haven't been in their program within the last 6 months we have to go for re-enrollment visits to find out what (if anything) has changed and to get re-enrolled with the sperm bank. I had to get a slew of blood and other tests done from my doc to be passed along to the sperm bank. I'm happy to share that I do not have gonorrhea. :P

So once we have those appointments we'll be able to order up some spermies and get started! Yay!

And now, some cuteness:

Nate's first bubble bath. "Mommy, take away this white stuff!"




Monday, March 29, 2010

In my dreams I blog every day.

It always seems like I write brilliant blog entries in my head when I'm falling asleep. And then I promptly forget them in the morning.

I had a great idea for one and it was all nicely written in my head about a week ago and I have NO clue what it was I was going to write about.

Well, Nate has his first allergist appointment on Friday, poor kid. Hopefully they won't poke him too much. We think he may have had reactions to hummus (so chick peas or sesame) and sunflower seads maybe ... or else now any little red spot seems like a reaction but could just be some sensative skin. The allergist we're going to see literally wrote the book on peanut allergies, so I guess he'll be good. He was recommended to me both by Nate's pediatrician and also by a friend of mine at church who is a nurse. I'll trust what he tells us.

I'm having two friends and their babies over for a play date and brunch in a couple of weeks. One is a friend from my old job who has a 9-10 month old. The other is a friend from my current job who has a 3 month old. :) Our kids will likely not really play together at all. But it'll be fun. I'm hoping for nice weather so that we can hang out outside a bit. Plus I get to show off our new house, which is looking great! For our first "big" project (besides sucking up water in the basement like everyone else in the Boston area right now), we're picking a paint color for the dining room. We even got samples and painted some squares of paint in there to choose from. The big change will be changing the stained-wood trim to white.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Really? I'm THAT person?

When I was in college and I heard someone say "I wish I was back in high school" or something like that, I thought they were nuts. High school was nuts. So emotional! Everything was a huge deal and likely to be the end of the world. My Freshman and Sophomore years were fine and relatively uneventful. First kisses, first boyfriends, etc. Junior year stunk for me. Lots of pressure, some seasonal affective disorder (AKA depression), some drama with boyfriends and friends. Senior year was great.

So I got to college and never thought I would ever think "man I wish I could go back to high school."

Lately, however, I find myself wishing I could go back to some parts of it. Being an adult is hard sometimes! Selling houses, buying houses, finances, jobs, spouses, kids. They're all great but sometimes they're so complicated! Don't get me wrong, I love my new house, our finances are fine, I love my job, I love my wife and my son but that doesn't mean that sometimes life isn't hard. In high school the things that seemed so intense and serious were really not. I don't want to go back to high school with that high school brain. It might be fun to go back to the innocence of high school but with my adult mentality.

So I guess I've turned into the person saying "I wish I could go back to high school" with caveats. And it took 13 years.


I hope Nate's high school experience isn't quite as dramatic. I was having some blood drawn last week and the women drawing my blood were chuckling because one of their daughters (16 years old) had just broken up with a boyfriend and was crying and wouldn't eat and had to be picked up by her mom early from school because she couldn't be around him. Sounded familiar. But if Nate's high school years are as dramatic, I will do my best not to say stupid things like "but these are the best days of your life" and to be understanding and to remind him that everyone goes through high school and makes it out in the end.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Who needs sleep anyway?

Funny how my intentions in the morning when I wake up and I'm feeling exausted to go to bed early at night turn into sitting on the couch with my laptop watching DVRed shows and futzing on facebook and doing work and folding laundry and unpacking boxes and rearranging the house .... the moment Nate was born ended the "catch up on weekends" time. I'll sleep when he goes to college.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

If it's hot, blow on it.

Whenever Nate's food is hot, I tell him that it's too hot and I have to blow on it. Then he watches me blow and stir his food and then he usually "blows" (AKA blows raspberries) on it as well.

Today while he was eating, I pushed a chair up against the cabinets to get at something high up. After I took him out of his high chair, he copied me and pushed a chair up against the cabinet and climbed on it. He was a little close to the stove (which was off) so I told him "be careful, it's hot!"

What did he do? Blew on it, of course.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

And we're in!

Well, we're in the new house.

The move went really well. And we have cable (internet, tv and phone). The kitchen is half unpacked (we even have the kitchen table up and cooked in there for the first time tonight).

Nate's room is the most finished at the moment (only 3 boxes in there that need to be unpacked). The rest of the rooms are mostly undone. The family room (with most of Nate's toys) is also doing very well.

We have no pictures yet. When the house is unpacked, we'll share pictures.

That's it. Just wanted to check in. :D

Friday, February 19, 2010

Ready ... set ... go!

Nate's running now. I noticed today that he was running around the house. He's gone from falling every two steps to running in 3 months. And climbing on the kitchen table.

We're moving on Monday, so our belongings are mostly packed except for the things we needed. There are some parts of the house we would have had to baby-proof that Nate started to get into -- like the knife drawer -- but we're moving. So we just moved the knives on the counter top instead.

We've been living in such a state of limbo since we put the house on the market in August. We could never fully baby-proof and just put things away because we were trying to make the house look nice for showings. So the pictures and candles and little knick-knacks in Nate's reach were just put up out of his reach until showings when we would rush around the house "un-baby-proofing." I wonder how many showings we had where we had forgotten to set some things out properly.

The woman who ended up buying our house saw it on the day after Christmas when there were giant boxes outside from Nate's new slide-castle-thing, I hadn't had a chance to clean the kitchen floor, and the house just wasn't as "showing ready" as it normally was. Didn't seem to matter. :)

It will be nice to move into a house and get it set up and Nate-safe from the beginning. He will still be able to find ways to get into trouble (two staircases, two brick fireplaces/chimneys to fall into, a basement ...) but at least there are regular knobs on the doors outside, not lever-style ones that he can open so -- at least until he learns to open the new ones -- we won't find him in the backyard when we forget to lock the door.

I'm very much looking forward to the new house. I don't really feel any sadness about leaving this one. It was awesome while we were here, but now it's time for something new and more suited to our family. Yay! I am very much looking forward to decorating and filling the house in with the things that we need. :) SO MUCH FUN! Woo hoo!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

No PB&J for you!

So, Nate has a peanut allergy.

I was pretty bummed and actually a little angry at first (not sure what I was angry at ...). After digesting the info for a bit, I was fine. So many people are used to peanut and nut allergies these days. It's the egg, dairy or wheat allergies today that are the unknown ones that fewer people understand. So not too much is changing about how we eat or what Nate eats. I'm just checking packages for "May contain traces of peanuts" or "Processed on shared equipment with peanuts." Also, Nate won't get to eat Chinese take-out because it's generally all cooked in peanut oil. A lot of Asian foods are. We will learn. And we have an epi-pen for him now.

Nate really did like the few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches he ate before he started having the skin reactions (to where to PB touched his skin). Instead of making Nate eat almond butter, which has a very different taste and texture, I have found that sunflower seed butter has a very similar taste and texture to PB. I'm excited to bake some tasty treats with it too! So, peanut allergy, no big deal. And hey, maybe he'll outgrow it.

I'll leave you with a photo of Nate that we'll be sure to show to all of his girl- or boyfriends when he's in high school.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

It's good to be serious

Nate is such a serious little boy. When he's in new situations, that is. At home he runs around and laughs and squeals and gives us dimply grins.
Every Friday evening (pretty much), he and I go to Whole Foods to buy a few groceries. It happens to be during their Friday night free sample time and so we see the same people doing demos every week. He sees the same people every week. And every time we go he is very serious and rarely gives smiles unless I start making faces at him.

On Wednesday he had his 15-month check-up. He was very good, as he always is, throughout the check-up. Very serious. Let the doctor do her thing and check his ears and tummy etcetera. He got 4 shots (his second dose of H1N1 and regular flu, chicken pox and MMR). He made it through the first shot without a peep but gave some big round tears after the 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Then we had to go across the street to the lab to get some blood drawn (we suspect a peanut allergy but maybe not, who knew there was a blood test for peanut allergies?) We weren't exactly looking forward to that. They take the blood from his arm just like they would with an adult.

He was his serious self even though we were the only people there so the two nurses were making faces at him and trying to get him to crack a smile. Nope. Serious face. But then we went to the chair and Jen held him in a nice bear hug and I held his hand and the nurse gave him a sticker (before getting the blood) and rolled up his sleeve and did the tourniquet thing and stuck the needle in and he just watched it while I said, "look how cool" and we laughed and he still didn't crack a smile but he didn't even flinch. Maybe being serious is a good thing.

From Thanksgiving 2009

Monday, January 4, 2010

4 days into the New Year

So all my mommy blogger friends have posted about 55 blog posts since the new year and I haven't posted anything since December 2nd. In my defense, the others are mostly stay-at-home moms ... but that's not a good excuse when I was not working for nearly 2 weeks. Oh well.

Really, it has nothing to do with the time, I just haven't had anything in particular to talk about. I have a blog started about eating disorders and my experiences with food but I'm struggling with that one so it may or may not see the light of day (the glow of the computer screen?).

Instead I think I'll just share some of Nate's silly pictures.

Mmmmm, baby for dinner.


Walking is much more fun when you have a bucket on your head.

Peek-a-boo!

FINISH HER! Or just put your hand in mom's mouth because it's funny.

So, New Year's resolutions? Eh, I didn't do any. We're still trying to sell the house, hoping to have another baby ... that's about it. :)