The Queen's Rambles

*I haven’t written in four whole days! Where was I? Stuffing myself with turkey. I just haven’t been motivated lately. Not sure how to get motivated, either. I guess after near daily posting for eight years I can give myself a little break.

*I am totally exhausted. The vibrant, freaky pregnancy dreams are hitting me hard. Last night was a doozy. I won’t go into details (can anyone say boring?) but the last dream ended with a little old Asian lady trying to have lesbian sex with me. I’ve been disturbed all day. I don’t even know how to have lesbian sex, and if I did it wouldn’t be with an old lady.

*We started decorating for Christmas much earlier than usual. I was shocked by the prices of artificial trees, so made Mike go to Wal-Mart with me really early on Sunday. They were a little cheaper there, so we got a smallish one to fit in our small living room. I wasn’t expecting to put it up this week, but when we got home from Latin Cardio Mike had it all up! Erik and I each had a total melt down over his desire to decorate the tree RIGHT THIS SECOND and my desire to cook dinner before putting the ornaments on. It was probably one of my worst parenting moments in the history of my motherhood.

*Erik has spent hours moving around all the ornaments. I am going to go insane before this holiday season is over. I’ve decided it keeps him quiet and busy so I’m going to let it go. he can keep playing with them right up until Christmas Eve. We’ll do a quick fix before pictures. Other than that, I have to be zen about the whole thing. I keep telling myself that Christmas if for the kids. Let him enjoy it. Why stress out? If I’m bald by Christmas, it’s from pulling my hair out.

*I was really excited to get Erik’s first evaluation from preschool. Then I read it. Bah! There was no information! There was a big printed out thing about what’s normal four year old behavior, then a small note at the bottom saying Erik was fun in class and enjoyed school. That was it. I wanted information! I wanted evaluation! I wanted something so I could gauge what was going on.

*We have our big ultrasound tomorrow. Expect a big announcement about the sex! I really hope the child cooperates. We didn’t have a problem with Erik, but I’m afraid this one will be asleep in a bad position and refuse to wake up. I don’t remember when Erik became Thumper, his fetal name. I just remember him constantly thumping and spinning and shaking and causing a general riot in my innards. I do feel this baby once a couple of times a day, but it is generally a really week feeling and only lasts for a second. The other day I laid down on my right side and learned that the baby is capable of thumping for all its worth, but as soon as I rolled over it quit. I can only hope this means we’ll have a much calmer second child.

The truth comes out! I am too wordy! Who’d have thought? Either that, or no one cares about guessing baby stuff. Anyway, we have the big scan on Tuesday, so I’m going to re-post the link to our baby guessing game one more time.

CLICK HERE

I had a regular appointment this morning and got very scared. It took forever for the doctor to find the heartbeat. You can imagine how long those three minutes must have felt. I do feel some movement on occasion, but nothing like I remember feeling with Erik. In the end, she found the heartbeat way over on my right side, well past my belly. I don’t know how the babe ended up over there, but the heartbeat was plenty strong once located.

That was the most exciting part of my appointment.

Prior to my appointment, things were so exciting that I had to put my book down. I could totally hear the appointment going on in the adjoining exam room. I first noticed the sound of the doppler heartbeat, but didn’t think much of it. A few minutes later I hear the doctor exclaim “You’re dilated to five! You need to go to the hospital right away!”

The lady was not impressed. She had to get ready for Thanksgiving; she didn’t have time to go to the hospital.

This exchange went on for a few minutes, ending with the doctor telling her it was her third child and she would probably have it within 12 hours. I think the lady started to get the idea that she needed to go to the hospital with or without braised turkey drums.

I’m totally exhausted from pie baking. Really, it’s not the pie baking that did me in. It was the constant need for a four year old to “help” and talk and run and jump and spin and did I mention the talking and the helping? By the end of the evening it took every ounce of self control I’ve ever possessed not to snap his little head off. It didn’t help that Mike had to work an odd shift today. It was great to have him home until noon, but he didn’t get home until almost 8. I am generally D-O-N-E at 5, especially on days with no preschool.

I did take a nice gym break, so at least there was that. I did an hour on the elliptical and it about killed me. I felt like I was barely moving, but I couldn’t go any faster. I guess it is a result of the pregnancy, combined with my lack of exercise the last couple of weeks. I’ve only been making it to the gym three times a week instead of six, which kind of sucks. But at least I haven’t gained any weight. I am probably just losing muscle mass.

The front desk lady almost made me cry. She was talking about how Erik has gotten so big and about how he always used to sit on the little couch and read all the letters on one of the big signs. Then she said that she thinks I’m a really patient mother and really great with him. It is probably just the pregnancy hormones, but I thought I was going to cry. It is not often that there is anybody to say things like that, and I always feel like I am on edge with him. She also said that he’s a shining star. How could a mother not well up at that? I, too, think of him as a shining star, but then I think making he’s just glowing because he’s so pale.

I sure wasn’t feeling the patience this evening as he kept grabbing at the pie crust and trying to do the fluting around the edges like I was doing it. I don’t really know the proper way to do it. I know my grandma always just used her thumbs to pinch it, but she never showed me how to do it. She was very jealous of her cooking skills and in later years she was very resentful that I was a better cook than her. I think she was proud in a way, but she was just a bitter person. I miss her, but I am also happy for her. No matter what the end of her life brought–oblivion or heaven–at least she is no longer suffering with herself. She didn’t have many physical problems (for someone her age), but her own mind kept her trapped and miserable.

Isn’t that a cheery thought?

I can’t believe it has been 12 years since I’ve had a Thanksgiving with my family. I’ve spent the last nine Thanksgivings with Mike. That first Thanksgiving together the food was pretty sad! I’ve come a long way in the cooking department since then. Of course, that meal suffered from extenuating circumstances. It’s hard to keep track of the timing of the turkey and mashed potatoes when you keep going to the bedroom to enjoy some good, old fashioned premarital Thanksgiving sex.

There. That was a happier ending for this post.

I finally watched the series finale of the UK Life on Mars. I’d read spoilers about it already, but nothing could have prepared me for the weirdness. I am not meant to be a British television viewer. Their desire for reality or ambiguousness or whatever it is they desire leaves me confused and depressed. I know they think American shows are too happy. I happen to like happy. Give me a fairy tale ending any day of the week. If I want to tune into reality I can flip on the news and hear about the daily onslaught of raped and murdered children. Usually by their own parents.

In other weird news, I’ve got another Erik story for you. What’s new?

He is obsessed with marshmallows. I let him have mini-marshmallows for a snack sometimes, though I fail to see the appeal. Today he had a little bowl of them, and somehow figured out that he could stick one to his skin. He had one hanging on that skin flap between your upper lip and nose for at least an hour, until he took a shower. As soon as I suggested we take pictures of his marshmallow face, he ripped his clothes off and started posing for the camera.

I have pictures.

I do not have pictures that I can share on the internet.

I can’t even crop his face out to show you because he was doing some complicated “break dance” moves that basically had his head between his legs.

Anyway, he wanted to take a shower with me so the marshmallow melted away, but that didn’t stop the madness. As soon as we were done, he had to have another marshmallow stuck to his upper lip.

We went over to a kid place called Romp ‘n Roll and he was happily running around with the stupid thing sticking out. The adults were giving him strange looks and the kids kept asking why he had a marshmallow. We ran into some friends and they were very confused.

He had it on for at least an hour, maybe longer. He was beet red and soaked with sweat, so decided he needed a rest. I use the term lightly. The child doesn’t rest for longer than 30 seconds. Basically, his rest consisted of picking the marshmallow off his lip and eating it.

Handy snack!

In other news, I went to BodyPump for the first time ever on a Tuesday. I’d never seen the teacher before, but she looked really familiar. Eventually I figured out that she looked exactly like Sandra Bullock. It was starting to freak me out. She seriously could be on some sort of impersonator show, except she has a thick Spanish accent. It was disconcerting, but better Sandra Bullock than Keanu Reeves.

Mike did a very good deed this morning. Erik woke up before he left for work, so he took him downstairs, parked him in front of the TV and told him not to bug me. Amazingly, the child stayed there by himself for a full hour. Sounds dangerous! And it was glorious to sleep until 8:30. Usually the child can’t stand to be by himself for more than five minutes, so I’m still surprised he stayed on the couch that long.

The Thanksgiving feast was. . . interesting. I thought Erik’s class was dressed up as a bunch of Princess Leia clones, but if you look closely you can see the hat is actually two turkey drumsticks. Does that mean their head is a giant turkey? I call him turkey head all the time. It has a whole new meaning now.

The kids said a little prayer, sat down and ate and then got really bored. I couldn’t believe how long the kids were expected to just sit there and eat. Finally I got tired of standing so had Erik sit on my lap while I talked to a few of the other moms. I found out why they all look so tired. One mom was expecting her fifth child. Another just had her fourth. I talked to at least six moms and every single one had three or more kids.

Erik was getting really wiggly and we were in a big room so I finally let him off my lap and he went over to the corner and spun around and around and around for a good 20 minutes. I know Erik is high energy, but I couldn’t believe the other kids were able to sit still for forty minutes. That seems excessive for preschoolers. I kept waiting for something fun to happen, but much like the Halloween party, it was totally lame-o. Maybe my expectations are just too high?

On another note, we went to a little MOMS Club event this morning and I got my pottery piece back from that horrible night a few weeks ago. If you remember, the pottery lady was really rude. I thought my piece would turn out fairly horrible, but it was ok except for the giant, running black streaks down my snowman’s face! It is obvious that she dipped it in glaze before all the paint was dry because I sure as hell didn’t hand in a piece that had black dripping all over every thing. I guess I should have picked it up myself because I certainly would have had something to say. It reaffirms my decision not to go back there again. Our group is going back next month and taking the kids(!!!) to make things with their hand prints. I wasn’t planning on going because I don’t want to give that woman my business and I sure as hell don’t want to take Erik into a place full of breakables, but now I won’t even be slightly tempted to go make a keepsake.

Since our event was at the mall, I was able to get Erik some Christmas PJs*! Another thing crossed off my list. Our club is doing a pajama drive for the Great Sprout Tuck In for our fall service project, so we’re having a pajama party and everyone is supposed to bring in new pajamas or books to donate. I was kind of laughing at this project since I pajamas are obviously not a need. I can’t make my kid wear them, but I suppose kids that live in homes without central heat could really use them. I grabbed a few pairs to donate, but now I have to hide them from Erik since they have robots and aliens on them. They are too small for him, but I fear he will want them anyway.

It will be nice to have some cute PJs for our Christmas morning pictures, if I can just get Erik to wear them. He is past the age where I can comfortable take nude pictures of him. Heck, he is past the age where I am comfortable with him running around with his wang hanging out all the time. I tried to make him at least wear underwear this afternoon and he thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. Freak child.

Speaking of the freak child, he had a huge melt down this afternoon because I wouldn’t teach him to breathe under water. I’m such a cruel, cruel mother. Why does he think I have such skills? Finally he calmed down and told me he could breathe under water if he had a swimming helmet on, so he wants me to buy him one. I think he needs to learn to swim before he can start in on the SCUBA lessons.

*I usually get him a pair or two of Hannah Anderson long johns, but none of the designs this year are particularly Swedish. I don’t feel like spending that kind of cash on something that will be worn two times.

I can’t believe I used to sit around being bored all the time. It seems like I barely have time to take a breathe these days. I had three commitments on Friday, plus Erik had preschool! Thankfully Mike took the day off work since a huge project was finally done, so he was able to help me clean the house.

Can I just say how nice it is to have a clean house? I am not a neatnik, but the house hasn’t been really, truly cleaned in weeks and weeks and it was starting to drive me insane. It was disgusting. I am not very methodical and organized when it comes to cleaning. I want everything done immediately, so I flit from task to task, overwhelming myself and not accomplishing much. Mike is a man with a plan. He’s the Energizer Bunny. He goes to work and doesn’t finish until the house is sparkling. Now everything is washed, even the walls, and the piles have been removed. Time for the dirt collection and pile building to start again, but at least it has been brought down to a manageable level.

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is this week! And Christmas is coming fast on it’s heels!

I have most of the gifts bought, but still have a lot to do. I just added another project to my growing list of Things That Must Be Done. I may be insane.

I saw a really cute idea in Family Fun magazine. You take an advent calendar that has little pockets and you put in cards with activities for each day. Examples: Watch a Christmas Movie. Make Cinnamon Ornaments. Read a Christmas Book.

You get the idea.

I want to do this! I think it would be a really great way to make the lead in to Christmas a little more thrilling for Erik, plus it would motivate me to get off my ass every day and do something special with Erik. I have seen all kinds of really simple Christmas craft ideas and keep thinking “We should do that!” but I know myself. It just won’t happen. If I plan this calendar, we’ll have to do something every day. I think it could work. Plus, there are a ton of things we have/want to do anyway like decorate the Christmas tree, send a letter to Santa, send a craft project to Grandma, bake Christmas cookies, drive around and look at Christmas lights, etc. This will just make it a little more organized and exciting.

We made pumpkin cookies this afternoon. Erik has his big preschool Thanksgiving feast tomorrow and I signed up for dessert. My original plan was to make individual pumpkin pies, then I realized that would be a major pain in the ass and not something a four year old will appreciate any more than a cookie. I went all out for the Halloween party and it was actually fairly uncomfortable because I was the only parent who went a little crazy. What can I say? I love making special foods to celebrate the holidays.

It doesn’t help that I am the only first time mom in Erik’s preschool class. There is another woman about my age, but the rest are probably in their 40s. They seem pretty tired and totally over making special memories. I’m sure I’ll be like that with number two, but at the moment I still have the time and energy to go a little overboard. Sort of. Only not this time. Pumpkin cookies for all!

There was plenty of dough left over, so I made a few cookies for the family and then let the child dip up some cookies with the scooper. He was totally into it, but somehow most of the dough ended up in his hair instead of on the baking sheet. Then, of course, he was in a cuddly mood and just wanted to curl up with his head against my cheek. Not exactly my idea of sweetness and light. It was a little clammy.

What else?

My big ultrasound is coming up in eight days! I am not as excited as I should be because this whole pregnancy doesn’t feel real. I don’t even know how I managed to get pregnant (well I know but it doesn’t seem possible according to my calendar). I don’t think I am going to believe it, until I see the baby. Plus, I know exactly how hard a newborn is so it is hard to get really excited about diaper blow-outs, sleep deprivation and screaming. I am not looking forward to the screaming.

Let’s be positive, though! I made a little guessing game for those of you who are interested in baby stuff. You can put in your guesses about sex, time and date over HERE if you are so inclined. My due date is April 20th but I’m having a c-section. They usually do them a week before your due date, so I guess that kind of spoils the date guessing. Of course, I could always go in to labor early. I’ve learned my lesson about thinking I can plan anything when it comes to child birth, but it sure would bee nice to avoid labor and go straight for the c-section. I am terrified of the idea of my previous c-section scar breaking open. It often pulls and tugs, so I just feel like it is not very sturdy.

I better get to sleep. The boy has been sleeping less lately, which makes for a tired momma since I don’t go to bed any earlier.

Remind me to never get Christmas portraits so close to Christmas again. The last time I got them done in October, which seems early but who cares? At least there are not five million people waiting for their turn.

The funny thing was, the two people in front of us and the two people behind us were very clear that they were NOT having Christmas pictures done. They were all in to have one year portraits for their little girls. Strange coincidence.

I also found it odd that Erik didn’t want two of the girls to look at him and was being a total pain in the ass, but was really friendly and talking to two of the other girls. This wasn’t even at different times. I don’t understand.

[Total tangent. I may have to go see New Moon. Those werewolves are hot.]

I also don’t understand why they can’t be more organized at the photo place. This was our first time at JC Penny’s. We’ve been to Sears and Wal-Mart and so far the best organized place has been the Wal-Mart in my home town. They had three people working at Pennys. One was the dedicated photographer. The other two were just running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They were both editing pictures, answering the phone and dealing with customers. It felt like they were doing a whole lot of nothing, but maybe they were doing something important. I didn’t understand why one of them didn’t answer the phone and deal with customers and the other one could have done the editing, instead of them both running back and forth all over the place. I was annoyed.

At least Erik was mostly good for the shots and tired hard to smile. Too bad his trying hard always led to that horrible teeth baring thing that little kids do. The photographer tried to get him to laugh naturally, but he was not into her jokes. She kept telling him that he had stinky feet, which totally PISSED him off. Can’t way I blame him. I wouldn’t be laughing if someone told me I had stinky feet.

When we came home, he found a spool of thread and I just couldn’t deal with him so I let him string it all over the house. Sometimes silence is worth the price of clean up.

But then I made a mistake. He got himself trapped, so I had to cut him out of his mess with scissors. I put them away, but I saw him go in the kitchen, climb up the counter and grab the scissors. I watched him snip the threads to bits (at least it will be easy to vacuum them up) and was pretty sure he was going to cut a hole in his shirt. He was wearing a shirt with a giant stain on the front, so I didn’t really care. I probably should have stopped him. That’s what a responsible parent would have done, I suppose. But I didn’t have the energy. I thought he would probably feel it if he cut himself and not do much damage. That’s my only excuse.

Sure enough, he cut a big hole in the shirt. He was really scared to tell me and was expecting me to blow a gasket, so it was a nice surprise for both of us when I calmly told him that’s why he’s not supposed to play with scissors. I need to find a new spot for the scissors.

On the baby front, I have to stop looking at the baby center boards. I’m sure there are intelligent, articulate women who post there. They are rare, though. Most of them are either dumb, ignorant or just plain moronic. I’m really interested in what people are naming their babies because I can’t think of any baby names at all. I need inspiration, but I also need to know what really popular names to avoid (Isabella!). One lady says she is naming her daughter Chagrin. I want to send her a link to a dictionary.

*Santa is not going to make Erik happy this year. The child wants a gas station. Not a play gas station. A real gas station, with a real car wash that will sit in our real yard. When quizzed, he says he needs a gas station so he can talk to all the people getting gas and they’ll give him a ride through the car wash. I just don’t know what to say to that.

*Santa will be bringing those building panels I posted about earlier. Just got the e-mail that Hearthsong is having free shipping for the next week. Score!

*I decided against threading, mainly because I know what I’m getting in to with the waxing. Plus, I can walk into Hair Cuttery with Erik and know that I will be seen right away and that Erik won’t be frowned at. The only places I know that do threading are fancy salons that require appointments and would probably be irritated with Erik or the kiosk in middle of the mall. Call me vain, but I prefer not to have my personal grooming taken care of in full view of anyone who happens to walk by. I don’t understand why people would choose to do their threading or teeth whitening in such a public place.

*I probably should spring for electrolysis. They do that for eyebrows, right? I am horrible at beauty maintenance, but shaped eyebrows sure do look a lot better than my big caterpillar bushes. And then I wouldn’t have to drag Erik to the Hair Cuttery any more. The woman doing my brows asked if he ever stops talking. No, he really doesn’t.

*After eating tacos for 10 straight meals, not counting breakfast, I think I’m done. I’m sure Mike will be relieved. At least Erik has been enjoying them. I’ve decided he is old enough to eat what we eat if he’s hungry and he’s been doing really well with that. He still gets weird kid stuff for lunch, but I’m so happy he is eating real food for dinner and not complaining about it much.

*My wedding ring was hurting the other day so I removed it. Now I can’t get it back on. I think I need to get it cleaned, re-sized and possibly repaired. When I first got my engagement ring it broke two different times. It just randomly split! Crazy! It looks like it has another split in it, which is really irritating. I love my ring.

*I want a new ring for Christmas.

*Erik came in my room at 6:30 this morning, asked if I was ok, then went back to his bed. Very strange. I don’t think he want back to sleep, though, since he came back at 7 am raring to play the goo game.

*I have my car! I called down there to light a fire and see if I could get it in time to take Erik to preschool. They had it an hour before I needed it. Whoo-hoo! They offered to come get me, but it is such a short walk that I decided we could walk. Erik, the child who has unlimited reserves of energy, suddenly decided he was tired and didn’t want to walk. What the hell? I was about ready to beat him right there on the street. Even with him dragging his feet, it took less than 10 minutes to walk to the shop. When we arrived, Erik started begging for water and the guy behind the desk brought him his very own bottle. You’d think he had won the lottery. Simple things, right?

*I’ve been feeling the baby all day today! I’ve felt it in the past when I’m laying really still in bed, but today it has been a non-stop tap dancing extravaganza in my belly. I’m excited! I remember being so sad at the prospect of not being able to feel Erik kick me any more. Ha! He had a major time out for hitting me today. I had no idea the kicks on the outside would be so similar to the kicks on the inside.

*My house is semi-clean. I was supposed to teach my friend how to quilt, but she ended up being a no show. She sent an apologetic e-mail later, saying she was sick. Honestly, I was relieved. The house was not quite in company order, but now at least the dining room is pretty much cleared out and the floors have been vacuumed. Tomorrow my big plan is to get a big bucket of hot, soapy water and clean all the baseboards and wainscoting. Wainscoting my look really cool and sophisticated, but man oh man does it collect dust.

*My friend and I are sharing Thanksgiving cooking duties. We flipped a coin to see who will host and she won (or lost, depending on perspective). Instead of a full meal, I just have about five things I’m responsible for. No potatoes! No turkey! No gravy! I’m making two pies and some side dishes. It’s going to be nice to have the meal feel like a holiday with other people, yet not have to do all that work. Usually I do it all for the three of us and I’m the only one who even cares. Mike enjoys it, but it is not his tradition so it is not as important to him.

*Ellen asked about my prenatals. I am currently taking folic acid and children’s chewables. In some ways I feel very guilty. What if I am ruining my baby’s chance to be a super smart astronaut doctor? I don’t feel like the baby will be deformed since I didn’t stop the prenatals until the second trimester.

*I spent most of the afternoon uploading all our pictures from the year so I can start working on gift calendars and photo books. My new camera is insane! The photos are typically 4 megs or larger, so it took all day. I really should edit things out as soon as I transfer them to the computer, but it is so hard to delete a single Erik picture even if I know it is not ever going to be printed.

*Erik and I had quite the photo session this afternoon. He decided to take pictures of me, but I couldn’t just smile at the camera. I had to “smile cute and perfect” and he had very definite ideas of how that would happen. He’s a little dictator. He did get a couple of good shots, so maybe he knows what he’s talking about. I suppose this little snippet would mean a lot more if I posted some of the pictures, but you know I hate posting my own pictures, esp when they are very uncomplimentary.

*I think I am feeling well enough to get my eyebrows waxed tomorrow. I like to get it down because it really does make a difference, but when I’m feeling sick and gross I can’t bring myself to do it. Now that I’m back to life, I should suck it up and get it done. Has anyone ever tried threading? How bad does that hurt? How long does that typically last?

All I want to eat is tacos. In fact, if I had any cheddar cheese left, I’d go make myself a couple right now. They have to be “real” tacos though. Instead of using the pre fried crispy shells, I limber up some corn tortillas in grease, drain them on paper towels, fill them with meat and cheese and then pan fry them. So, so yummy. Would someone please go buy me a block of cheddar? I’ve had tacos for my last four meals (not counting breakfast). Poor Mike and Erik had to have Italian cheese on the last batch, but I don’t think either of them noticed.

I am feeling MUCH better, as you can tell from the taco talk. I am crossing all possible crossing body parts that I stay well for awhile! I even had the energy to go to Latin Cardio today and shake my money maker. Now, though, my leg joints are hurting so maybe I over did it.

I did not complete a Dear Jane block this week. Booo! I thought I did. I even scanned it in, wrote it up, and posted it all over the place. Later, I was going through my Dear Jane notebook and realized the block wasn’t complete. I thought it was just a simple pieced block, but it has to have four diamonds appliqued on top of it. Hopefully I will get to that tomorrow.

I don’t know, though. My car is still in the shop because the mechanics wanted to really examine the brake line when it wasn’t wet outside to make sure there isn’t a leak. I don’t want to be driving around with brake problems, so I agreed. The car is supposed to be ready by noon tomorrow. If I can pick it up by 11:45 I’ll have time to run Erik to school, otherwise he’s just going to have to skip tomorrow. Bah.

Do you realize that Christmas is almost here? Yikes! I think I have something major picked out for Erik (A Cool building set things) and am just waiting until Cyber Monday to order. I’m not sure if Hearthsong participates in the free shipping day, but maybe I’ll get lucky. Other than that I think he’s getting a marble run, a transformer and possible a TAG reading system. I may also look around at Wii games and try to figure out if there are any that he can play and that he would be interested in. He can play Dora Saves the Snow Princess by himself, but he finds it pretty boring. He is obsessed with the World of Goo, a tower building game. Problem? He can’t do most of the levels by himself. Mike is a good sport and doesn’t mind playing it with him, but it annoys the shit out of me, especially since we’ve already done all the levels once. I’m just a girl when it comes to video games. Give me Bejeweled, Tetris or Collapse. Something like that.

I finally made Erik and appointment for Christmas portraits. Now I just have to get him a new outfit and hope the road rash on his face clears up. I kept waiting for various scratches and owies to go away, but as soon as one is gone, another one appears. I guess that makes it more authentic. I just wish I would have tried on his outfit the day I bought it so I would have got the right size. Bah!

Erik was asking a lot of questions about the baby this afternoon, so I pulled out a book that my friend gave me a few months ago. It has lots of pictures of 3D ultrasounds, so I thought it would be perfect to help Erik understand what’s going on.

Ha!

I should have looked through it a little more closely. He was very interested in all the pictures and wanted to flip through the whole book. I didn’t realize it had lots of pictures of women giving birth. “Mommy! Why is that baby’s head in that lady’s butt?”

Oh dear.

I think it’s time to go to bed. Aren’t you glad I had such coherent thoughts tonight?

Now that I’m feeling a little better, I am able to be truly positive, instead of grasping for positive straws.

I still have a bit of a cough, but I have re-entered the land of the living and am ready for food! Except I didn’t have a car today, so we are still out of food. Bah. I made a nasty frozen dinner that made me sick. Now I am eating frosting. It’s all for the baby, right? Ha. I need to go back on those prenatals so I don’t gain 100 pounds with this pregnancy.

I decided that today we were going to make a dent in the pig-sty of our house. I don’t let Erik bring many toys up here, mainly because the living room is a very small space and he doesn’t play with them anyway. He has two beach buckets of toys in the living room and the only play he does is simple: dump them all on the floor and walk away.

Usually I can get him to pick everything up really easily. I just have to tell him he is having a race and bet him that he can’t beat me and he’ll get it done in less than three minutes. Today? Of course not. Today he said it was boring and he wasn’t going to do it.

I brought out the big guns and said he couldn’t watch any of his shows until he picked things up, but he wasn’t biting.

I decided it was not worth a big, showy power struggled but I was going to win. I walked away, and went down to do laundry.

He spent a long time watching the laundry spin. Then he spent a long time watching me scrub the bathrooms and “helping” me. Ugh. I wasn’t going to tell him no because I think it’s good for kids to get a sense of family chores even if they are less than helpful.

I think I may have solved my powder-room-smelling-like-a-men’s-urinal problem. I hope. I pray. I hope.

I often spray down the toilet and the floor and wipe it all down on my hands and knees, but it never seems to help. Today I sprayed down the walls. When I wiped them down, the rag turned yellow so I’m hoping that was the source of the nastiness. It never occurred to me to clean the walls, but maybe his aim really is that bad.

I was finally really bored and decided that if he wasn’t going to get to watch his shows, I could turn on the country music station.

The second I turned that on, he started howling “noooooooo!” and had his toys cleaned up within two minutes.

Poor kid has no taste in music.

The other topic: Our Lemon Saturn

I called the mechanic and he said not to drive it under any circumstances. You don’t want to mess with bad brakes. I have AAA, so I called them and the tow truck driver was here in less than 10 minutes.

He took the car down to the mechanic and I sat around waiting to hear the bad news.

It wasn’t that bad, but it will still set us back almost $1000. I don’t know what bad would have meant. In addition to the brake problem, they said that something with the steering would not pass inspection so we’re having that taken care of as well. I tend to believe them because I’ve noticed steering problems lately.

I should get the car back tomorrow afternoon. I am ready to drive it straight to Honda and trade it in for a mini-van. I think we are going to wait until February since that is supposed to be the best time to buy a new car. Can we really afford to wait? What other bombshells will the car drop? As Mike pointed out, it should be a damned good car now. We’ve replaced just about everything on it except the engine.

At least all my bathrooms have been scrubbed down and my living room has been vacuumed. I don’t feel like I am living in a hovel anymore.

I also decided to do a couple of things to make myself happy. I’m getting my haircut Saturday and I just ordered a pair of titanium earrings. I hope my sensitive skin can handle them. Everyone says there’s no way my ears will have a problem, but knowing my skin I am proceeding with caution. It would be fantastic if I could finally start wearing earrings again, though the selection doesn’t seem particularly great. I love earrings, a little known fact since I haven’t worn them in years.

Grain Damaged has challenged me to do one Dear Jane block this week and my week is running out. Now we know what I’ll be doing tomorrow during preschool.

Last Friday I went up to my quilting room, determined to do some quilting. I looked at the table and turned right around again. It all seems so overwhelming. But I’m going to do it. I’m going to pick a simple block and knock it out of the park. And then I’m going to organize the sewing table a bit so it doesn’t drive me out of the room.

I think I am going to pull out my square top

put a border on it and get it quilted even if it kills me. I love the top and want to use it on the guest bed, but have no idea how to quilt it. I think it would be cool to incorporate squares into the quilting, but I just have my little home sewing machine and that is not going to work well for me. I am a piecer, quilter. I guess I’m going to bite the bullet and do some kind of diagonal grid quilting. It will be fine. Right? Surely it will be fine. Just not perfect. I need to accept the fact that I will never have a really fancy QUILTED quilt. I have to be content with having the colors and fabrics being designs that I love.