"Bouuut...Din-sores, and heli-topters..." ***edited to include pictures for those interested***

I never thought it would happen, but I haven't been as into blogging lately as I used to be. Facebook and Pinterest (mostly the latter) have been taking over the majority of the time I spend on the internet.

Remember how I used to post pictures on here of crafts I made? Honestly, since Pinterest, I've been making too much stuff to even have time to take pictures of it all. I've sewed tons of things--pajama pants for Jamie (free pattern), burp cloths (free pattern), and just recently finished a car seat cover (free pattern) for the baby. And my friend helped me make a patchwork quilt-top, but it's actually pink. (I had leftover flannel from my first pair of pajama pants that I made in my high school sewing class. It was more about the process than the finished product.) So that's being saved for our someday-daughter. Oh, and I've also made my own hand soap and laundry detergent, and made around ten freezer meals for post-partum. If you'd like to look at my boards, you can see them here.

So, I have 4 days to go...ish. I've actually felt some contractions this time around, strong ones even, but nothing regular yet. I had NONE with Jamie until I was induced, so I don't really know what it's like to go into labor in the traditional sense. We're just trying to do everything we can to get ready; Jason is steam-cleaning the living room rug next to me as I type this. Whatta guy. :)

At my midwife appointment last Tuesday, the baby was at a -1 station, and I was dilated almost to a 2, 80% effaced. We were hard-pressed not to get a little excited, but then, nothing. I think this happened about the same way with Jamie. This past Tuesday, he was 0 station, no other changes. So, it will be interesting to see when this little guy decides to come out.

I don't know if the all-natural thing will be successful or not; I haven't had the time/discipline that I wanted to train myself in hynobirthing, i.e., to train the body and mind on getting deeply relaxed on command. Since I'm nervous about having two kids, especially with my limited child-rearing capabilities and in such a small space (still in our little two-bedroom apartment), my focus has been on getting ready for life AFTER baby, rather than the day of his birth. I still feel good about trying, and if I do accept pain medication, he will still be born more gently and peacefully that the average birth attended by an MD--low lights, immediate skin-to-skin, gentle cleaning, soft voices, pokes and tests will be seen to at a later time, etc. We'll see how things go, and I'm going to do my best and not hate myself if I find that it's just not right for me at the time.

I would hope that if I do get an epidural, or due to the fact that I would even consider it beforehand, that no one (especially no one I'd call a friend) would take pleasure in thinking that I was "wrong," or gloat that they "knew" I couldn't do it. Most people who would even read this blog would never do that, I'm sure, but for the few I'm not so sure about--I'd appreciate it if you'd please keep comments of such nature to yourself.

I thought I'd post a few things about Jamie, before the baby starts taking up a lot of the attention. Jamie's...well, where do you start? He hasn't slept in the "big-boy bed" we set up for him yet. He'll say he wants to, we'll kiss him goodnight, walk out, and ten seconds later his door will open and he'll come out and tell us, "I need seep in my crib." Apparently he hasn't figured out that if he would sleep in the twin, he wouldn't need to bellow for us to come get him in the mornings.

In the mornings and after his naps, Jamie will say, "Mama, what I dremt bout?" That means, ask me. So we say, "What did you dream about?" And each time he'll say, "Boouuut...Dino-sores, and heli-topters, and elephants, and..." the list goes on, the same with new things added each day. "Peatots [peacocks], leopards, air-panes." It's pretty cute.

He's obsessed with helicopters lately, and watches the most horrible, cheesy 1995 low-budget kids' show about them EVERY DAY. It's utterly painful. The small airport a few miles from our house had an Aviation Day this past Saturday--it was such a blessing! Didn't cost us a cent, no long lines, and Jamie not only got to see helicopters and airplanes up close, but got to sit in them and watch a helicopter take off! He still talks about it every day.

I would put up the pictures, but the camera is upstairs and I'm almost 9 months pregnant. So, maybe tomorrow.

***March 17th: here ya go.

About to get on the "bus" that took us over to the festivities from the parking--this got Jamie excited, too. He loves riding on buses. (Still talks about the tram at the airport when we went to Sacramento last Thanksgiving!)

Watching RAPTLY as the helicopter took off.

The military guy who took this picture gave Jamie his hat to wear since we were facing the sun. :)

It was such a good day!

Oh, and thanks to a Father's Day card with a recording that plays when you open it, he also loves Darth Vader. (Doesn't realize how evil he is, of course.) He loves to watch this video:



And, really, it's an awesome video with great music.

Potty-training is at a standstill, pretty much. He can wear underwear all the live-long day (except during his nap) and keep them dry, but he saves his #2's for the diapers he wears while he sleeps. He's pooped in the potty ONCE, months ago, but refuses to since then. So we're down to 2-3 diapers a day. Anyone had this same problem and found solutions?

(Lol. I just thought, I should ask that question on Facebook--I'd get answers much faster. Maybe that's why I use it more--waaaaay more comments!)

The other day I gave Jamie Peach Mango juice, and when I told him what kind it was, he said, "Dat flamingo juice!" Then enjoyed laughing with me as I busted up. :) He's a happy kid. He loves to laugh, loves to join in playing with others, and is very friendly.

Well, I'm pretty well ready for this baby to vacate, of course. (The only reason I wouldn't mind waiting, besides just having more time to get ready, is that now that I've FINALLY been released from my church calling--nursery coordinator--I can actually go to classes this Sunday if I don't have the baby before then! It's been over a year since I've been able to do that.) He almost perpetually has a little foot poking out of my right side, and quite often I find my ribs sitting on top of a seemingly hard little bottom. But really, it's not too bad. And knowing how things are once they come out, I'm definitely not as impatient as I was with Jamie.

Though I dread becoming a sore zombie, my quiet nights turning into loud and painful (i.e. crying and breastfeeding) ones, and all the adjustments, it will be nice to have my body back to myself. And I do want to meet my new baby and start discovering his personality. I think that it's almost just as hard to picture him and really grasp the idea that he'll be joining our family this time as it was with Jamie--and Jason agrees it's BECAUSE of Jamie. That boy just takes up so much of our time and attention, it's hard to even picture there being any kid for us but him--much less finding time to try to picture what said kid will be like!

As long as this is a wordier, more journal-like post, I'll say that I dread the idea of Jamie thinking we don't love him or need him as much, and his little world being rocked by all the change that's coming. I know it will be good for him to have a sibling, and that we're really giving him a gift. But even the idea of him being unhappy about it for any length of time, since his reasoning skills aren't exactly developed, breaks my heart. If that makes sense.

Ah, hormones. And contractions. I'm experiencing both at the moment.

Well, another day of nesting is ahead tomorrow. Or, technically, later today...yikes. I need to get to bed.

'Bout time

...for an update. This will be long.

How was everyone's Christmas? Did December go by as quickly for you as it did for us? I can hardly believe it's nearly over already! Next year I need to start doing Christmas-y things early so they all get in there. We didn't even get a chance to go see the lights at the Mesa Temple! (Thankfully, I'm told they're up through January, so even though it will feel kinda funny, we can still go see them.)


I'm six months along now (though not quite, in this picture), and definitely bigger this time around. I seem to be carrying lower, and pants have become a problem. Even one of my pairs of maternity jeans from last time don't fit--they make my hips ache and throw my back or something out of alignment! My first choice of pants these days are Jason's pajama pants. Ugh. Three more months is looking long and uncomfortable from that perspective, though maybe a little too soon in regard to all the changes little No-Name will bring.

Still no real prospects on a name for this little man. We've tossed a few around and looked at some websites and a baby-naming book, but nothing feels right yet. :( Suggestions welcome as long as you're not offended if we don't use it. :) I like names that aren't too common, but not too weird either.

I'm wondering if this baby will be a bit calmer than his older brother. I'm not sure why I think that, though, considering that he's still plenty wiggly. I don't know how he manages it, but he seems to be able to dig way down into BOTH of my hips at the SAME time!

Jamie is doing really well. His vocabulary and ability to formulate sentences seems to improve by leaps and bounds all the time. When we were at Jason's parents' house for Christmas, Uncle Justin was tickling him, and Jamie very clearly said, "Hey, don't tih-toe my feet." Other than asking him to put a "please [pees]" in there, we were proud. He still talks in third person a lot ("Hey, wait for Jamie!" "Jamie no wahn go nigh-night!" "Jamie wahn some tan-dee!"), but that's improved also.

He also likes books a lot more than he used to, which is great. I started cutting back on the amount of TV he watches, and it has helped so much with his obedience, his moods, and just the general peace in our house. He's learned to find other things to do, and he doesn't even ask for TV very much anymore.


Speaking of "other things," jigsaw puzzles are Jamie's current obsession. There are usually between two and six of them out on the table. He's up to ones with 50 pieces, and he's really good at them. Every day, puzzles, puzzles, puzzles.

(I had to pretend to burp to get this face.)

One of his most exciting accomplishments is potty-training! He's doing really great at keeping his big-boy underwear dry all day, most of the time. He has gone #2 in the potty once, but now always goes in the diapers we put on him for bed- and naptime. We're not worried, though; he'll get there, and this is a huge improvement over just two or three weeks ago. Thanks to my sis-in-law, Michelle, for giving us the idea (and the courage) to just put him in underwear all day so he could feel wetness. It's worked great!

I'm remembering a high school newspaper convention that my journalism class went to in my senior year, half because it was in Anaheim and we could go to Disneyland (remember, Crys?), where we had our paper critiqued and learned that graphics make something news-y much more readable. I apologize. I need more pictures. Maybe tomorrow I'll take some to match the subjects of all this text.

Okay, I'm not so great at this--to go back a bit, here are a few highlights from our trip to Nor Cal for Thanksgiving. (I did put pictures up on Facebook right away. It's just so much easier to do on there...)

Okay, this is before we left. I made these, and both cost me less than $3 (with plenty of leftover stuff). I really like how they turned out. I barely finished them a day or two before we left, so next year they'll feel fresh and new.

The group of us, after the meal had been eaten and we had somewhat digested, just before we headed to the Cox-side-of-the-family dessert get-together. I asked my parents to let me take a picture of them at some point, too, but it never happened.

The lone picture I took at the get together--Jamie on Ali's toy horse. I really am a total slacker about taking pictures a lot of the time...

On Saturday, we headed up to Apple Hill again with Rob, Michelle, Conner, and Michelle's dad, her sister Keri, and her two little girls, Corrinne and Lily (Lily's the little one).

Un-toe Rob and Jamie, waiting for the horsey rides to open

Oh my goodness, Jamie loooooved his pony ride.

See that grin?
(He threw a total fit when his ride was over.)

Both of us who drove up (I drove my parents' car and Keri drove hers) left our lights on by accident because it had been really foggy down in the valley. Fortunately my parents' battery didn't die, so it was available for jumping Keri's, which did. (It was no big deal, and I enjoyed getting to see how jumper cables work. And the men enjoyed being manly. :))

How about we leave it there for this post? It's taken me all day to get just this much done. I started this morning, did a little more in the afternoon while Jamie napped--or rather, I heard him start talking and yelling from his bed almost as soon as I sat down, and I shamelessly let him sit in there for ten or fifteen minutes so I could do a little more--and now Jason is getting Jamie ready for bed. (I had to sit down. I was standing in the kitchen forever putting together chicken enchiladas and my legs are tired.)

December/Christmas post, hopefully with three, count 'em, THREE videos coming next!