The Queen's Rambles

I never care to look in the mirror or see pictures of myself, but I think I missed the boat. I should have been admiring my beauty all these years! Now? Now I’ve got a face full of black eye bags that don’t seem to quit.

I’ve hit that stage in pregnancy when I wake up at 4 am and am ready for another nap at 7 am. The same thing happened with Erik, but it wasn’t a big deal. School was out, which meant I had no place to be. I could sleep all I wanted.

Obviously that doesn’t work these days. Erik jumped in my bed around 7, ready to go play Candy Land. My god, I am sick of Candy Land and he’s only been obsessed with it for three days.

The first day I didn’t let him cheat because I thought that would be teaching him things that would get him in trouble in the real world. Now it is all about the cheating. He stacks the deck. He looks through the deck. He takes over my turns. He basically does whatever he wants. He happily draws my cards and moves my guy, but he’s only happy if I’m actually sitting in the chair next to him. Why? Why can’t he do all that with me in the other room?

He was sick and whiny yesterday so I kept him out of school. We couldn’t go anywhere, so it was just him and me with no interruptions. I don’t know how I used to be so home bound back in the day. I get really fidgety if we don’t get out and burn off our energy. I did manage to get our Shutterfly books done and I got a pair of snow boots ordered for the boy. It seems so silly to get him boots that he will probably only need a few days, but when you need them you need them. I got a great deal at Lands End and ordered them in red so maybe we can use them with the baby in a few years.

I really wanted to get started on my Christmas cards, but couldn’t manage to get Erik out the door and to a store. Some days it is just not worth the fight. I thought I’d be all old fashioned and actually hand write the addresses and cards. Wouldn’t that be a nice touch.

Ha!

I got through fifteen of them. I have 37 to go. I’m buying labels tomorrow. It’s one thing to do that if there is no other option, but when I can get labels and get the job done in a jiffy? That’s what I’m going to do.

I don’t really trust myself to drive, though. We were coming home from the gym and I totally blew through a red light without even realizing it. The opposing traffic was making u-turns and left turns. I saw what was going on, but the red light didn’t even register in my brain. I hope they don’t have a camera on that light. It is almost always green because it just feeds into a place of employment so cars only come in and out in the morning, at lunch and in the evening.

Someone slap me. I’m feeling comatose. Is it wrong to go to bed at 8:47 pm?

I’m very glad I impulsively bought Erik a pair of snow overalls. I just wish I would have had the same impulse to get him a pair of snow boots. We had about six inches of snow on Saturday, so the boy had a wonderful time doing little boy stuff out in the snow. It was so wet that the sled wouldn’t even go down the hill, so Mike had to hold the handle and run down the hill to make it go. What a good dad.

Today he had better success and even kept his feet warm with a pair of forgotten rain boots. I need to get on the ball and get some snow boots so he can play outside while we are in Sweden. It will be a long week of being cooped up on the farm, I think. We least we get a day to explore Gothenburg.

I dug out a bunch more Christmas stuff today and was thrilled to find enough Christmas cards to last at least two years. Now I just need to get some mailing labels and we can get started on that giant project. I’m really surprised we haven’t gotten any cards yet. I bet a lot of people don’t have our new address (if you are on LJ and want our new address check HERE If you aren’t on LJ, you’ll have to give me a comment. I doubt very many of our family members have the new address, so I guess they just find out once we get our cards sent out. I should have done the “We have a new address!” card thing that fancy people do, but I’m not fancy.

I also pulled out the fabric Christmas bags and was very happy to be able to get some presents under the tree! Those fabric bags are genius! Thank you Mommy/Prof for the idea. I’m going to have to sew a few more since last year’s bags were kind of specifically constructed for those gifts. I can re-use them, but I will also need some to fit this year’s bigger presents.

In the spirit of Christmas, I’ve decided to give my mom a gift. She is super pissed that we aren’t telling the baby name. She made a deal with herself that if she didn’t bug us with a bunch of nonsense names, we would tell her the name. Problem? She didn’t clear this deal with us.

She has been very good and hasn’t told us a single name. With Erik it was a constant onslaught of Coyote, Stetson, Wolf, Zane, Zeke and just other stuff that wasn’t to our taste. It was so irritating that I told her if we ever had another baby I wasn’t even going to tell her if it was a boy or a girl. Since we were able to hold our tongue about Erik’s name so well I think she believed that we’d be able to hold our tongue about the gender. Of course, this was before Facebook when we actually shared our secrets online in a semi-public place.

Since she’s been so good, I’ve decided I’ll give her some clues about the name, then her big Christmas present will be the name. I just wrote a little clue note, listing the top 10 names and telling her it was on the list. Next week I’m going to tell her the initials. I am working on her yearly photo book right now and have included the name in a caption. If she actually reads any of the captions she’ll learn the name. I’m fairly certain she doesn’t read the captions, at least on the first go around.

I don’t know if I will be able to keep the name a secret on here until April, either. I am sort of having second thoughts about the name anyway, so who knows what it will actually be. We were fairly set on David for Erik for awhile until I decided I really disliked the name. I’m a fickle soul.

Fa la la la la! I can’t think of any thing else to write. My mind is too wrapped up in Harry Potter. I’m on book 2 right now and have also been watching the movies this weekend. What a difference in the quality from film 1 to 3! Also, that Twilight dude looks WAY better in these movies. That pale look is just not sexy. And did the giantess just EAT something out of Hagrid’s beard? I’m going to barf!

I think it’s time to wrap this up. The end.

The boy has been on my very last nerve today. He’s not doing anything he doesn’t usually do, but I’m just completely out of patience.

As we were about to leave for preschool I noticed with immense relief that he had all his clothes on, including socks. I had time to go to the bathroom. Big score for the pregnant lady!

But when I walked back out, he was completely naked. Instead of bringing me his clothes, he had to act like a four year old and run away from me until I yelled at him. We were late for school.

At Kohl’s he couldn’t just walk like a normal human being. Oh no. He had to act like a four year old and hide behind every rack of clothes and try to make me find him, until I just walked away. But I couldn’t really walk away because that would be bad. But I wanted to!

Then he couldn’t just look at items and see them as things we don’t need. Oh no. He had to act like a four year old and beg for all the cool toys and not stand still in line.

On the way out the door, he couldn’t just hold my hand. Instead, he had to go up to the lady who was lighting her cigarette and ask her over and over and over again what she was doing. She totally ignored him.

Then he had to run out in front of a car. Thank the lords of Kobol I caught him before he was squashed. It about gave me a heart attack.

As soon as we got home, he stripped again then decided to wallow all over me. I was not in the mood for a stinky little boy to wallow on me. “But Mommy, I just love you and want to cuddle!” How could I say no?

Then he was whipping around the curtains. Instead of instantly obeying me when I told him to stop, he kept doing it until he knocked a glass of water over. Then, like a four year old, he refused to take responsibility. When I asked him if he knew the meaning of stop he could only say “s-t-o-p-p-p-p-p.”

Did I mention he was stinky? It was bath night, and instead of sitting there like a normal person, he had to splash around like a giant frog, soaking my legs. I hate getting wet through my clothes.

I am the biggest grump in the world right now. Good thing he’s cute or I would have locked him in the closet. At one point I told him he was lucky I didn’t lock him up in a dark closet. “But Mommy, none of our closets have locks.”

He knows too much for his own good.

He really is a good boy. I need to get a grip. Hopefully I won’t be so grouchy tomorrow.

Thank you guys for all the congratulations! And all the name speculation. You make me giggle! I better not say anything more about the name or you’ll all know it anyway. I will give you one hint. It is not Wilma. Yabba dabba doo! That narrows it down to nine, for those of you who found the top 10 Swedish names list.

Also, I am very frustrated because our router is not working. I am stealing internet from a neighbor, but I am unable to send out e-mails unless I happen to find a thirty second window when our router is actually working. I want to sream.

I went to Kohl’s today and was VERY VERY VERY tempted to get a little girl dress or three. I restrained myself. I am going to have more hand me downs than I know what to do with. I may as well save my money for things we really need (diapers, anyone?).

My friend said she would give me some refresher knitting lessons, so I think I am going to try to knit a striped cardigan for the baby. I’m thinking lavender and green. I should also think about making this baby a quilt! I don’t even know where to start. I am a little scared to turn myself loose in a quilting store.

Does anyone else find it weird that Elizabeth Mitchell stars in Frequency and the killer is named Jack Shepard? (I think he is the killer. It has been a long time since I’ve watched the movie, but I am playing it right now).

I really should get back to reading my book. Ofenjen has inspired me to do a Harry Potter re-read, so I started that tonight. I was reading a different book, but it didn’t hold my attention. I found myself scraping soap scum off the shower walls with my fingernails instead of reading my book. Disgusting! I’d say that’s a sign that a book is boring me, if ever there was a sign.

Has anyone ever noticed that I bore easily?

Understatement of the year.

I had quite a talk with the mom of Erik’s little preschool girlfriend today. Thank goodness she has three boys! Apparently Erik told the little girl that he has a big pen.is. Oh joy. Does anyone have a sex ed book for 4 year olds? I talked to him today about keeping his penis information private, but he thought I was crazy. Instead of understanding, he wanted to take off his pants and show me that he could “wag his wiener.” Please send help.

We had a little book exchange party this morning and I don’t know what to do. Ok, so that’s not true. I know exactly what to do. I have to be a book censor. Erik ended up with a Garfield book, which would be fine and dandy except it focuses on Garfield being fat. A few months ago Erik started calling me fat. I was not a happy camper. I mostly extinguished the behavior, though he’s tried it out a couple of times since then. I really don’t need this book in my house. I feel sort of guilty, but it is going to have to disappear.

We’re pretty excited! I won’t know what to do with a girl! I’ll be able to shop in the forbidden 2/3 of the baby department. I’ll get pink and minty green and purple and teal! I’ll get to share the joys and sorrows of Anne Shirley, Jo March and all my other favorite friends. (Not that I wouldn’t recommend them to Erik, but I think it is more likely a girl will enjoy them). I might get to enjoy doing a craft or doing something that requires sitting for more than five minutes. There might not be so much running! Always with the running. I get so tired of the running.

We might even have a name picked out. I’ve been sort of thinking of a name, but Mike refused to comment on it one way or another. I said it again today and Mike said “Ok, let’s just name the baby that.” It’s way too soon!

We won’t be sharing the name until the baby is actually here because 1) it is more fun to have a surprise! and 2) I don’t want to hear any criticism.

Anyway, the name is a traditional Swedish name with a totally made up middle name. Mike was telling me that even though it is a traditional Swedish name, it would be very unusual for a girl to have the name. I was quite confused because my friend sent me a link to the most popular Swedish girl names in 2008 and this one is listed in the top 10. We even had to go through my link history to try to find the site since he didn’t believe me.

I didn’t think we were going to get to find out and I was getting a bit agitated. She kept her legs crossed for most of the ultrasound, just barely waving her arms around a little. I remember at the 20 week ultrasound with Erik, he was totally doing somersaults and flips. This girl is already a lot calmer.

Finally at the end she gave up the goods, but the tech was not willing to say it was a girl with any authority. When the doctor came in, she was very sure it was a girl so now I get to start the great boy clothes purge of 2009.

In other news, Erik is really into the Christmas spirit. He’s currently watching A Year Without Santa Claus, one of those old timey stop motion animated movies. He’s mesmerized.

Here’s a picture of our Activity advent calendar, made with nothing more than garland, tape, binder clips and holiday card stock.

We made a craft for Grandma today. I had a plan to make hand print reindeer, but Erik wanted to make her a sock puppet. Using the dirty sock that was currently on his foot. I talked him into making a paper bag puppet and I think he was pleased with the result. My mom will be amused.