Done

This morning it took me a solid 10 minutes to put on my socks. Also, my ankles look like softballs. Baby girl, I am ready.

Updates

I completely jinxed myself with that dang 5 year streak, and we had to take Porter to the ER this weekend. Ear infection and bronchitis, but it couldn't wait until Monday. He has always been one of those kids that gets a lot of ear infections, and is prone to asthma wheezing if a cold gets really bad. Twelve hours later with some antibiotics and an inhaler and he was good as new.

The chickens are doing well, although we lost one early on. I'm not totally sure what happened, but it got weak and probably wasn't getting much water or food and just lost the battle. The chicks are cute, but they are not exactly nice to each other. They sense weakness, and there is no mercy. They are already starting to get real feathers, and it'll be fun to see what their actual coloring will be.

I'm still pregnant, about two and a half weeks away from my due date. People keep telling me I look small, but I don't feel it. Everything hurts. I'm starting to be very, very ready to meet this baby. It could be any day now.

I'm Cooking: I made a new dish this weekend when we had some people over, and it was a hit. Summery and easy and really tasty. Brown Rice Salad with a Citrus Basil Vinaigrette. I cooked my rice with chicken stock and had more than 2 cups. There was still plenty of dressing. It was good the next day too!

One Day Old

No, I haven't had the baby yet. But because we like to have plenty of newborns to take care of, we got these guys in the mail yesterday...

They currently reside in our living room, but will eventually be outside in a coop. The kids are thrilled. And I have to admit, they are pretty dang cute.

I'm Cooking: I made Baked Salmon with Rice and Mangoes last night. I messed around with the rice quite a bit to make it tastier (and markedly less healthy) by adding butter, lime juice and brown sugar, but the idea is good. And mangoes go so well with salmon, it was delicious. I am sad to say that it was the last package of salmon in our freezer, but I made sure to enjoy it.

Free Range

Porter is five years old. I allow him to play outside of our house unsupervised, which he does all the time. We have a fairly big yard, which he roams freely. One of his jobs is also to get our mail. Our mailbox is not right in front of our house. You have to cross a street and walk up a hill to get to it. It is just barely outside of yelling range, but not at all far away. So he is also allowed to play up by the mailbox, which he does on occasion. We have had all the talks about looking for cars and staying close by, and honestly I don't worry about it much at all. Porter is a rule following kind of kid, and I've never once not been able to find him. He also tends to check in often. And obviously I check if I haven't heard from him in awhile.

So this morning Porter is playing outside, and I get a knock on the door. It's a woman I have never seen before, and she asks if Porter is here. I'm pretty confused, and I say yes. She said, well he's actually way up the street and points to our mailbox area. I told her that he gets the mail for us and sometimes plays up there, and she says oh I know all about that. She says she lives in a house up there and watches out for him when he's outside. She's faking nice, but clearly insinuating that I don't keep a close enough eye on him. I didn't really know what to say. The naked toddler and the barking dog were nice touches too I'm sure. She said she just wanted me to know where he was and walked off.

I should have introduced myself and explained where he is allowed to play, but I was taken aback and couldn't think. I'm glad that we have considerate neighbors that look out for kids. I would do the same if kids were playing outside of my window I suppose. But now I also feel weird letting Porter go up there, like I'm being judged and watched. I feel confident that Porter can take care of himself, and I know our neighborhood and his skills, and I'm just okay with it. I know bad things can happen, but I feel like letting him go a little is good for him. And I'm glad he likes to play outside by himself. It's better than watching TV or driving me crazy.

I told Porter that he had to ask me first now if he wanted to play up there. And he cried because he thought he was in trouble. He said his favorite tree is up there. Sigh. Parenting is hard enough without worrying about what other people think.

Spring Break

Spring break is here, and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, the weather is crazy fantastic and it feels so good to get out in the sunshine. It's nice not to have to rush around to preschool and nursery and swimming lessons and all that stuff that interferes with lounging in bed with Molly in the morning. On the other hand, I am really tired, uncomfortable and sort of done being pregnant. Which makes me a little grouchy. And having both kids at home all week to entertain a little hard.

I decided to embrace the nothing going on attitude this week, and promptly forgot to take Porter to his scheduled 5 year physical (yes, I know, he's been 5 for awhile). It's very unlike me to forget appointments, and I feel bad. But we did go to the beach instead. And even though we still had to bundle up a bit, it definitely felt like we were leaving winter behind.

Porter & Molly

Porter drew this picture today of himself and Molly. You might think that the one with shorter hair, holding the sword (actually it's a light saber) is Porter. But. You would be wrong.

Finally Among the Living

So in that last post, when I said Molly was on the mend, what I really meant was that she was spiraling down into the stubborn toddler virus from hell. She flat out refused to eat really anything. And barely drank any water either. I mean, we eventually acquired everything that normally works in this situation (thanks Karen). But if I came near her with a Popsicle or a Sprite, she started screaming and turning away. We couldn't go anywhere that required her to get out of the car, so for 5 days straight we watched TV and Molly mostly just stayed on the couch in her pathetic way while I tried to get her to ingest something with actual calories. And 5 days is a long time! Especially for someone who weighs 25 pounds.

Finally on Sunday night I called the on-call doctor emergency number and got one of our pediatricians. I thought he would reassure me, but he kind of freaked me out. Telling me what I needed to do, and when I should take her to the hospital (like really soon). I got her to drink a little water, put her to bed, and then stared at the ceiling in my bedroom all night worried. I took her to the doctor's office first thing Monday morning, and she actually was in a decent mood. But still not eating or drinking. Our pediatrician told me I had until 1pm that afternoon to get her going or I had to take her to the emergency room for intravenous fluids. She told me what I had to do, and it sucked. But spending the day with Molly hooked up to an IV sounded even worse. So Molly and I spent the morning on the couch watching Care Bears while I held her down every few minutes and squirted Pedialyte in her throat while she screamed. Awesome. Things still weren't looking too good, but then right down to the wire at one she had a wet diaper. I put her down for a nap.

About an hour later, she woke up and declared "I need sandwich." Which she did. Along with a bunch of juice and water and bacon (I'm catering to whims at this point). And just like that, she was totally back to normal. Fighting with Porter, screaming I'll do it about everything and being her usual self.

When I was getting her ready for bed tonight, I did notice that her poor little ribs are sticking out from her chest like they never have before. But I'm pretty sure that's nothing a little ice cream won't fix. She really had me worried there for a bit (along with my mom), but I'm glad she's back. And I'm glad I can still keep my zero ER visits in 5 years of parenting record for just a little while longer.

Marked

It has been a long week around here. We already had a lot on our plate, and then Molly got the stomach flu of death. I've never seen her so sick. She is on the mend now, but still isn't eating and is pretty pathetic. Porter seems healthy as a horse though, albeit really, really bored. We watched an entire season of Phineas and Ferb, along with many other stimulating activities that involved sitting next to Molly on the couch and trying not to get vomited on.

When we left the house this morning for preschool, I noticed this...

Porter says it's for keeping out the bad guys, but to me it looks more like the mark of contagion. I think I'll leave it on for just a little while longer.

Home Alone and Downloading

Bryce left last night on an eleven day business trip. So of course there are preschool work days and evening swim lessons and doctor's appointments and board meetings, all things made SO MUCH easier by not having both kids with me all the time. But hey, at least I don't have three kids with me yet. I also have a long list of baby related things to get done in his absence, but instead I decided to download the pictures from my phone. Not great quality, but much more fun.

On the Home Front

Tomorrow I will be 34 weeks pregnant. Which means that I could have a full term birth in as little as THREE WEEKS. Eek. I did buy a pack of newborn diapers the other day, but that is really, seriously all I have done to prepare for a new baby. I know that they don't need much for awhile, but we have a few pressing matters of a new bed for Molly and I'm not sure if three car seats will actually fit in the back of my car and where are all those tiny clothes again and just sheesh. How did time creep up on me like this? And why am I on the computer when I really should be doing something productive?

I also decided yesterday that dang it, I am going to potty train Molly for good, right now, before the baby gets here! Motivation! And then there was some success and a lot of fighting and peeing in pants. And a poop disaster that required me to throw away some clothes instead of washing them. And this morning when she threw a tantrum instead of sitting on the potty, I put a diaper on her and gave up. I feel bad, because I really didn't even try, and sometimes she is so good and clearly is showing many signs of being ready. But it is so much easier to have her in diapers at this point. And I'm lazy. And I just want to wait until it's easy. Or at least when I'm not pregnant.

Porter starts a new round of swimming lessons tonight, the "big kid" kind, where I'm hoping he'll learn to swim actual strokes. He can move across the water at this point and not drown. But I wouldn't really call it swimming. We will see.

I'm Cooking: Last night we had Balsamic Chicken and Mushrooms, Steamed Broccoli and Rice Pilaf. The chicken recipe was a new one, and it was okay. The idea is good, it just needs some tweaking I think. The kids ate it up though, which makes it a win for me.