This is for you Lori-

hope you get a minute to read it!

Lori is a friend of mine that I met in my former, pre babies, life when I was working. After years of claiming she and her husband beyond a shadow of doubt, would never, ever have children, they are joyfully expecting their first baby a couple of days after Shu Shu is due! In response to an email I sent her wishing her well and letting her know how excited I was that a wind of change had blown her way, she replied that I was such a GREAT mom, and should offer workshops, and blahba-dee, blah, blah, blah. I have not replied to that email, because quite frankly I am overwhelmed by the praise and find it quite misplaced. So Lori, just in case my greatness is casting to big of a shadow in your general Floridian direction, here goes. . .

I had cheeze-its, brownie bite cookies, and a coke for breakfast. I yelled at my dog and banished him to his crate for scooting his behind across the floor thereby leaving a trail- someone needs to invent doggie toilet paper. Wilson is watching Toy Story 2 for the second time today- it's only 10:15. I cried this morning because thinking up something to wear was just too overwhelming (I decided on a t-shirt and sweat pants- an outfit worthy of a melt down). So, this my dear friend, is how I respond to the marathon of all parenting challenges- spending the entire night in your child's bed while he cries out in his sleep every half hour for you (who is RIGHT THERE) due to a high fever.

Here's how Wilson has greeted his day- no fever, down from 104 less than 12 hours ago. Watching a movie, eating his breakfast, running to me, thrilled to pieces that he "finally" found the picture of the the Radiator Springs sign in his Cars book. It has sound buttons to match certain pictures placed in the story line. He can now push the sign button. I had no idea that he had been on the hunt for this wily Where's Waldo of illustrations, but he's in there "reading" right now (which means pushing each button as he comes to it on the page) and he came running in here and in an astonished voice said, "Mamma, I FINALLY found that sign, I found that picture of the sign!". I, having no idea what he was talking about, of course had to follow him into the den to relish in the discovery with him.

All of this just makes me want to look at him and say, "Were you THERE last night!? How in the name of WHATEVER do you have the clarity to make new discoveries and the energy to RUN to tell anyone about them. How can you be WELL! We were in the same twin sized bed, right? That was you feverishly crying, whining, chattering, and flailing around ALL NIGHT LONG like a crazy person, right?"

Maybe not. Maybe I'm the crazy one. We all know our own mom's are a little nuts, maybe I've just finally turned the corner.

So, Lori, I'm calling off the workshop today and your homework won't be due until next week- I've got hot dogs and cheez-wiz to cook up for lunch. And if I'm not in class on Monday, call Whitfield, I'll be in the pretty padded cell singing Woody's Round-Up (Wilson's new favorite song, that we play on repeat).

What's new?

What a peaceful little sleeper- on mom's side of the bed, head on her favorite pillow! Wilson came and got in our bed one morning last week and fell back to sleep. He looked so cuddly and sweet I really couldn't do anything other than take his picture, even though I would have given anything to be in his exact spot!

Too bad that peaceful sleeping doesn't happen all night every night. Like last night when his high fever kept him up so he slept on a pallet on our floor. He had a low-grade fever on Monday, but it did not affect him at all. Then Tuesday he woke up asking to go to school. I told him we'd have to take his temperature, but if he still had fever he couldn't go. To which he replied, "P-leeease let me goooo to my BIIIIG school!". 97.7. He went to school. Then I spent the better part of yesterday fussing at him to quit whining so much, only to discover at 7:00pm that he had 102 fever. Mom of the year, right here!

I think the official diagnosis is the crud. Thankfully, though, not strep. I have to say he braved the swabbing of the throat much better than I expected. Of course, it was the first time- I'm sure from now on he'll be much more wary of 10" Q-tips.

As we were leaving the office one of the nurses gave me a "bless your heart" look as she asked when I was due. When I told her January 16th her jaw about hit the floor. Then, I guess just to double check, she asked how far along I was. When I said 20 weeks she just about passed out. I guess it's safe to say that Shu Shu (no, we still don't have a name yet- does anyone know the Chinese meaning of Shu Shu, we may just stick with that!) is going to be a big baby. I'll round up and say I've gained about 2 pounds and at our last appointment she was measuring at 63%. Maybe she'll take after her great grandmother. My grandmother has a note from a relative congratulating her on a childhood achievement and being a "large girl". Shu Shu has made her first visible flip- apparently she likes Hello Kitty candy. I was taking a bath last night and had some cherry sours. I looked down to see her making some very big gestures of approval.

Well- those slice and bakes aren't going to put themselves in the oven. I better go . . .

First Day of Preschool

"My new BIG School"

The new smile

A little better- is he going to preschool or 1st grade!?

Jack wanted to join in the fun

Today was Wilson's first day in Mrs. Erika's ("E-ika's") room at Trinity Preschool. I think it went quite well from his description (new songs, not old ones, he got to play in the gym and tried to catch the green ball, they read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and had cheese crackers for snack). He didn't cry when I dropped him off, which is a HUGE milestone, but when I asked if some of his friends cried he said they did. Then I asked if he cried and he said he did, so maybe the day got more emotional as it went on! Their art project for the day was paint prints of their hands on a piece of paper labeled "My First Day at Trinity". Wilson's is blank. He didn't want to get his hands dirty.

When Grannas Give Wilsons Stickers To Take Home

Yet Another Good Report

Yesterday I had my regularly scheduled appointment with my doctor. It was the third ring of the circus that this pregnancy has become! About 40 minutes after I'd gotten there, someone called my name to come back. I turned around and it was the sonogram tech. I walked over and asked, "Am I seeing you today!?" She replied yes, if that's okay. I let her know that I had just been to see Dr. Perry about 2 days before so she said, well come on in and let me go check and see if they still want the sono. She came back and said, never mind- they don't need one today, go back to the waiting room, they'll call you back later. About another 45 minutes goes by and my name is called again. I turn around to see, who else, the same sonogram tech. She said never mind, the doc changed her mind, the report hasn't come down from Dr. Perry yet, we're going to do it. So we go back and do the second sonogram for this baby in less than a week. After that I went back to the waiting room. The nurse came and got me a few minutes later and took me back to have my bp taken and to talk to my doctor in her office. During the conversation we talked about how often I needed to be eating and it came up that I hadn't eaten since about 1:00- it was now 4:00. She said, "Yeah, it's probably about time for you to eat again" in a tsk, tsk kind of tone. Well you know what, if y'all would decide what you need me here for, when I actually need to have what done, or at least install some vending machines, I might could stick to your eat every two hours schedule!



Here are the latest pictures of our Shu Shu- the most photographed fetus this side of the MS (we're up to 5 sonograms in only 18 weeks!) She was a pretty big wiggle worm this time, so the pictures are all sort of blurry- here's the best 2 out of 5.

Hand on forehead- "I can't believe you didn't bring the video tape or dad or my brother this time!"

Full profile- she has legs!

For the Loyal Jack Fans

I've caught a little grief for not keeping up with Jack's blog as some of you think I should. For you few, I'll direct you to look back in this blog's archives where I wrote extensively on the topic of "I'm no Good at Daily Journaling, Therefore Don't Expect Very Regular Posts". Then I'll add that I don't really remember how to log into his account to update. So, I'll fill you in on him on our regular, family blog. Last weekend we rented a Rug Doctor from the grocery store to clean the carpet in our bedroom. Jack was less than thrilled with our weekend guest. Here's a video of him bravely defending us from it. The video would be longer, but our memory card won't hold a solid weekend's worth of his "bravery" (And it did last all weekend, except for when I scared the pee-willy out of him by opening the laundry door which is behind it in the picture. Apparently he takes after me, gets a little focused on the task at hand and any sudden movement in the periphery can give him a heart attack. He also ran for the hills anytime it was on, but other than that, a true stoic.)

Shu Shu is a She She!

Well, I know I said that we'd be finding out what flavor this new baby is next week, but I had an unexpected appointment today and we found out that we're having a girl! Quite honestly, it's quite an adjustment to think about pink shoes, hair bows, and baby dolls, but the grandmammas and Wilson are thrilled enough for all of us until the news becomes more real. She was quite the little wiggle worm and that was with me having had no breakfast- I think we have a fire ball on our hands!


Most importantly, she looked perfectly healthy and we had a very in depth look at her. Like I said, this was an unexpected appointment. A nurse from my doctor's office called yesterday morning and said that there was an opening at one of the prenatal specialists in town's office and that my regular doctor wanted me to go in today and have a targeted sonogram. So we spent about 30 minutes looking at all the bones, vertebrae, and movements she has. I have my regularly scheduled appointment on Tuesday so I'll find out then why the sudden need to go to a specialist. But as of today, everything looked as perfect as could be. She's measuring one day behind her due date. So, the fact that I haven't been able to eat a lot doesn't seem to be bothering her one bit, which is really the only concern I've had.


No names yet, but I expect that will come in a new post very soon. Here are a couple of the pictures we got. She likes to suck her thumb and we also caught a glimpse of her patting herself on the back. Pretty funny!

Couldn't Have Drawn it Better Myself

Thank you, Marshall Ramsey!

Saturday at the Lake

Today we spent the day in Louisianna at Lake Bruin with our community group from church. We had a great time- following are a couple of pictures and I'll direct you to the Werne's blog for more pics and a great video of the tubing highlights. Thanks, Kilman's- we all had a blast!

Dad & Wilson swimming in the lake

There was a tractor- need I say more?

(Also, this is the new face you get when you ask Wilson to smile for the camera. At least he's participating in the process now instead of screaming "NO!")

May I Rant?

Mr. Politician:

It's not enough that I have to endure your chubby face in my mailbox EVERY day of the week, and your commercials on TV all day long, and you and your "helpers" ringing my door bell all day thereby setting my dog into a frenzy and potentially waking my child only to hand me another copy of the chubby face emblazoned flyer, xeroxed copies of tear stained letters from your wives, pictures of your poor kids and their fake smiles, you are now calling my home at all hours of the day. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! It's obvious that you know we don't want to talk to you. You hide behind "private caller" & "1800 service" so, in turn, we don't answer. But that's not enough for you- oh no. You or one of your family members, church friends, or dog sitters leaves a message- not a live one mind you, but a recording. You don't even WANT to talk to us. You just want yet another opportunity to force yourselves on us. If I had a question for you or was even remotely interested in what you have to say- I can't have any sort of exchange with you. So here's what I have to offer in return- I'm not voting. There I said it- I'm usually a very patriotic, everyone should vote kind of person, but now I'm not going to vote for any of you on August 7th. (They always say every vote counts- what would happen if NONE of us went? I mean what if literally NO ONE showed up. How funny would that be? Who would be the winner? I'm just curious, not trying to start a movement or anything.) There is also supposedly a demographic of people that chronically doesn't vote. Although I usually do, I think I'm still in the age category that all of you are supposed to be reaching out to, to draw in to really sway your campaign. All you've done for me is tick me off. You'll find that our generation responds quite well to a Sesame Street type approach. Everyone gets about 15 seconds. Set your platform to music and come up with a little song and dance to accompany it. No need for a lot fluff- just the bare facts. Quite frankly singing "The Ladybug Picnic" gets me to the count of 12 every time and I can still remember most of the words to Rubber Ducky from 25 years ago- I can't remember any of YOUR names or what the difference is between any of you from any of the 25 times I've had to avoid you TODAY.

One common thread among all of our local candidates is street repair/beautification. For the past 3 months all you've done is make the place look like a city dump. At every entrance to every neighborhood and on every street corner there are approximately 50-12 campaign signs. As if I'm going to be driving along and say "well, I've seen 83 signs for this guy but only 81 for that one, guy number one must really have his stuff together. I'm gonna go with HIM. He's got great cardboard sign placement- he'll take our community places." Although it's almost as annoying, just have your friends put ONE sign in their yards- bombarding us as we leave our neighborhood doesn't help your cause.

I had to get this out because it was just building up and I'm scared people are going be greeted at my door with a cordless phone and a pile of glossy card stock being hurled out past them into oncoming traffic if I get one more UNSOLICITED call (I guess y'all conveniently kept yourselves out of the candidates for the "do not call list") or stack of junk mail (honestly, how many copies of the same advertisement do you think I need filling up my already overflowing garbage can). At least with telemarketers it's a real person you can either ask not to call back or get the satisfaction of hanging up on. I'm scared of where this obsessive campaigning trail is leading. Next summer am I going to open my front door to find a cardboard cut out of you and your family standing there with a recording of where you go to church and what your opponent did behind closed doors?

I think a nice independent publication produced a week or two before the election and mailed to each registered voter would be a good start. Everyone who has their hat in the race gets a page- double spaced, size 12 Times New Roman font. You may have one section to list factual qualifications you have for the job (sorry, the fact that you are a member of a church or the NRA does not count- both are required just to maintain a residence below the Mason Dixon line)and in the second section you may list goals you have for your term- be careful here, this will be a legally binding document. Note there's not much room here to tell me anything about your opponents or other public officials that have "gotten in the way" of you doing your job. We'll go with Mr. Rogers here- don't worry about your neighbor, you just worry about you. I haven't decided yet if I want to see your face printed on your page or not. This will be your only contact with the voters other than any public debates you wish to take part in, phone calls you wish to answer AT YOUR RESIDENCE (your phone number WILL be listed on your page), and I'll allow a final list of candidates to be published in all newspapers a few months before the election. Still interested in running?

Thank you for your time,
Maggie

PS- sorry if I've offended any of my regular readers, but you did choose to read the whole thing and it wasn't addressed to any of you!