Belly, belly, belly

I am now 22 weeks pregnant and have finally taken a belly picture.  Hopefully I can manage to take a few more through out the pregnancy so this child can also see what it looked like while stretching out my belly. 

I've noticed a few obstacles to documenting my "progress" this time around. 

1.  I'm pretty lazy these days.  It's hot out, a lot of days I don't bother styling my hair.  A growing belly and a messy hair-do don't make a lady feel all that pretty, so I avoid cameras.

2.  Zack.  We think he is freakishly cute and love to take pictures of him.  He, however, does not enjoy this.  So, whenever we get the camera out he furrows his brow, says "no, no, no!" and shoves his hand in the camera lens to avoid being photographed at all costs.  Often times the camera puts him in a bad mood.  Since 2 year olds can be a tiny bit moody from time to time I try and avoid doing things that I know will set him off. 

3.  I'm a teensie bit afraid to see what the belly is looking like.  It's feeling a lot bigger than it did when I was this far along with Zack.  Denial is powerful! 

However, when I compare the belly pics side by side I'm not seeing too much of a difference, at least size wise.  I think I'm a bit "rounder" this time.  Somehow with Zack my belly was sticking out, but flat.  Awkward.  I must give my compliments to my photographer, his skills have greatly improved.  2 examples, the background and the fact that I'm looking at the camera this time.  Though, looking back at other pictures of me while I was pregnant with Zack, my skin was out of control.  Acne city, much like a teenager going through puberty.  Thankfully this time I'm not quite the pimply teenager I was last time.  I guess being 30 has its benefits! 

It's pretty hard to believe that I'm already half done with this pregnancy...only about 4 months left!  November will be here before we know it. 

Running, 100 degrees and Smoking....

What do running, 100 degrees, and smoking have to do with one another??? 

It's what we saw two people doing while we were driving home from church yesterday. 

We are just cruising home in the 100+ degree heat, at 12:30, when we see runners.  2 of them.  The guy is slightly a head of the lady.  He's doing a bit of a shuffle jog.  She's doing more of a speed walk.  And she's smoking.  A cigarette.  While out for a Sunday jog. 

I told Zack they were making a poor decision, just like people who ride their bike or motorcycles without helmets are making a poor decision. 

I can maybe almost a teensie bit understand running when it's 100 out (ok, no, I can't.  That's what treadmills and running outside at 5am in the summer are for).  But I absolutely cannot comprehend smoking while running.  Well, really, smoking at all.  But while exercising??  Poor decision.

Oh to be 2!

Two year olds are hilarious.  Sometimes completely irrational, and sometimes the most logical people on the planet.  I happen to wildly love my sweetie pie 2 year old Zacky boy.  He makes me smile on a regular basis.  For example, the other morning I was making him breakfast, which really is just re-heating pancakes in the microwave.  When he heard the microwave beep he came running into the kitchen yelling "Yay!  Yay!! Pancakes!!!!"  I smiled at his joy over microwaved pancakes. 

In addition to a deep love for microwaved pancakes, he has a deep love for his blocks (legos, technically, but we call them blocks).  His love for his blocks is so deep that we sometimes have a hard time prying him away from these blocks for a nap, a meal, and for bedtime.  There have been tears involved more than one time when we have had to put these blocks away so they could go night, night.  I think I may have gotten a glimpse of how he feels about this myself, just the other day.  I had built him a pretty sweet set of stairs with his blocks.  My building skills have greatly improved over the past couple of weeks, and I was proud of how structurally sound these stairs were.  Then Zack destroyed them.  I nearly cried.  I wanted to show James my stairs when he came home from work.  Just a little glimpse of what it might feel like to be a 2 year old....

Um, Ouch.

Yesterday I had a very domestic day.  I made 2 loaves of bread, did at least 2 loads of laundry, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, and successfully completed a sewing project that transformed one pair of jeans into one pair of maternity shorts.  Then came time for dinner.  I made a delicious frittata that involved putting the whole frying pan in the oven to set everything up.  I took the pan out of the oven and let it sit for a few minutes, just like the recipe told me to.  I came back to the pan a few minutes later, and grabbed the handle just like I would normally grab the handle of the frying pan.  Only this frying pan had just been in the oven, at 400 degrees, just a few minutes earlier. 

Ouch. 

I must have made some sort of funny noise because I sure did get James' attention. 

I hung out at the kitchen sink for a good 5 minutes after that, holding my hand under the running water.  The whole time I am, of course, holding my sweetie pie 2 year old who loves to tell his mama, "up, pease mama."  I decided that 5 minutes of running water was enough, but as soon as I removed my hand from this water I was greeted by intense burning.  Not fun.  James got me a bowl of water which I soaked my hand in during dinner.  It's quite challenging to eat left handed, mind you.

I continued to soak my hand in water all night.  It was the only thing that brought me relief.  When it came time for bed I was hopeful that I could just cover my hand in aloe and it would stop hurting.  Sadly, this was not the case.  I moved my already uncomfortable pregnant self out to the couch so that I could put a bowl of water on the coffee table and [somewhat] easily soak my hand while I attempted sleep (on my side, of course).  I think I did manage to actually sleep with my hand in the water (and no, I didn't pee my pants like you are supposed to do a slumber parties when your friends put your hand in water).  Around midnight or so I was able to wrap my hand in wet wash cloths and use an icepack rather than having to do the whole hand in the bowl method.  When I woke up this morning my hand was no longer in the wash cloth, or anywhere near the ice pack, and I didn't feel like it was on fire. 

I've got some crispy, blistery fingertips today, and the palm of my hand is quite red, but thankfully that's fading away, and it only hurts when it encounters a lot of pressure or heat.  I've decided to relinquish all of my domestic duties for the day, maybe even through the weekend.  We'll see how James feels about that. 

I'm also going to go ahead and claim pregnancy brain on this one.  If I was in my "normal" state of mind I don't think I would have grabbed the handle of a frying pan that had just come out of the oven.  At least I hope not....

Random Thoughts in my Head

Apparently I'm feeling much better, because I am beginning to think clearly (well, somewhat clearly) once again, and I also seem to have the energy to do strenuous things like blogging.  My brain is full of random thoughts.  I figured the best way to get them out is by blogging about them.

First off, my little boy (who is 2 now!!!  WOW!!) is the sweetest little guy EVER (no offense to anyone else and their little boys or the child in my womb if it just so happens to be a boy).  But seriously, Zack is sweet as can be.  Last week he was busy at work playing with cars or doing something else that is very important to a two year old.  Then he stopped what he was doing, sat down on the dog bed, and said "pray."  He then proceeded to fold his hands together, and bow his head.  About 2 seconds later, he looked up and said "Amen," and then went about his playing.

I just stared at him, and thought to myself "did he really just stop everything and pray??  And where oh where did he learn to bow his head and fold his hands??"  We do our best to pray with him every night before bed.  It generally involves a family hug, while either James or I prays, and while Zack lists off names of people he feels we should pray for.  At the end of the pray we all say "amen," and then James and Zack usually cheer, saying "yay, yay, yay!!" as loud as they can.  This is clearly not what Zack was doing.  I talked to his BSF children's leaders today, and sure enough, they are doing their best to teach the kids to bow their heads and fold their hands when they pray.  They were both excited that Zack did this on their own, and so am I!!!  Sweet boy!!!

Second, I would like to provide a brief recap of my morning.  I am trying to get ready, and Zack is asking to play with playdough, or "paayyoooough" as he calls it.  So I give him some playdough and sit him at the table.  About 2 minutes later, I hear crying and Zack comes running into the bathroom.  He says to me "mama, paayyoooough, dog-dog."  I say, "did Walter eat your playdough?"  Zack's response, "yeah."  He and I head out to the kitchen and sure enough, there's Walter, licking his lips and sniffing the table, hoping for another tasty morsel of playdough.  Rotten beagle.

And lastly, I can now be called "Karen the Pregnant Walk-Runner."  Since I spent most of the last 2.5 months in a nauseous fog, I didn't do much running.  I did do some walking, and have recently started a run/walk method.  I've done this a few times around the neighborhood, and more recently, I've been using the treadmill (seriously, it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy too hot already!!!  Pushing the jogging stroller, AND being pregnant, don't help.  I'd have to run super early in the morning, but I'm so crazy hungry when I get up, I can't even think about anything but eating.  So, the treadmill during nap time is where it's at!).  Pre-baby growing, I would try and bust off 3 miles as fast as I could, always seeing how close I could get to 25 minutes.  That's no longer the case.  Today I ran/walked 1.5 miles in 19 minutes, and I consider it a victory.  I'm so crazy competitive with myself.  I'm having to remind myself that now is no time to be setting new records for myself!  There will be plenty of time for that once I'm done growing a person.

And that's about all I've got for ya.

Annnndddddddd, I'm Pregnant.

And that, is VERY exciting news in our household!  Waaaaaaaaaaay more exciting than new neighbors! We are so incredibly blessed.

The past couple of months have been very long, just ask James!!!  He took over full duty of grocery shopping, housework, and pretty much everything else while I sat on the couch in a daze.  It's been amazing, how incredibly tired I've been.  I remember being tired when I was pregnant with Zack, but I would take 20 minute power naps and be good to go.  I was so crazy tired that I was taking hour to two hour long naps nearly every day, and sleeping 9 hours at night!  And, even with all that sleep, I barely had the energy to get up off the couch to get myself a glass of water.  Sending a text message fatigued me (both physically and mentally, I think I forgot how to think for a while there!), I'm not too sure how exactly I completed my BSF lessons during this time...I sure don't remember much!  Add to that fatigue everybody's favorite, nausea.  And then you've got yourself one very useless Karen.  Poor sweet Zack, I felt so guilty on so many occasions, cause I was such a boring mom!!  Up until a couple of months ago, he hadn't really watched TV.  He's now addicted to the movie Cars.  He loves Mater.  A lot.  And tells me "watch Cars" while pointing to the TV at least 5 times a day.  We've got to work on this addiction. 

Thankfully I'm getting my energy back, and I've only got a teensie bit of nausea left, which I'm very excited about!! 

We are looking forward to November, when we will get to meet this sweet little person. 

Finally!!

It's the exciting news you've all been waiting for!  We have neighbors!!!! 

The house next door has been empty since shortly after our sweet little Zack was born.  James and I have been able to live as if we were private investigators, spying on the [vacant] house next door.  It was empty with no signs of life for well over a year, and then finally last fall it was put up on the market. 

Well, after 160 thousand years (give or take a few) of being on the market, someone bought it, and moved in!! 

I'm not sure if the owners are the people who witness Walter in the backyard wearing James' underwear around his neck or not, but James did talk with the guy this past weekend, and found out that they think Walter (and his barking) is cute.

And, that's about all I've got on the exciting news home front.  If you must, sit on the edge of your seats for a while until I can come up with something else to report.