cars and food

Well, Laura thinks that Landon’s lymph nodes are smaller. They are still swollen, especially the one side, but that the swelling is going down after 3 days of antibiotics is a VERY GOOD sign. Keep your fingers crossed though, we aren’t out of the woods yet.

I am pretty proud to finally be able to say that Landon has gone a FULL WEEK with no potty accidents. He’s been peeing and pooping in the potty. He did, on Friday, suddenly decide to start peeing standing up. I have no idea why. It’s been a little odd, and out of the blue, but he seems to be able to do it okay. Up till now I’ve had him sit to pee, partly because, I’m a girl, and that how you pee! And partly because my reading about potty training said that boys who sit to pee have an easier time pooping in the potty, and that’s the thing we’ve been having the most trouble with.

I took Bobby’s van in to have the 30K service done to it. It also had a couple of minor warranty issues to check out, and needed a front end alignment. I dropped it off a t 7AM on Tuesday at Hyundai of Tempe. They have a shuttle which ran me to work, and they told me I had to be picked up no later than 3:30. So at 2, I call, and the car isn’t done yet.
They sent the shuttle to pick me up at 3, and the car STILL wasn’t done yet. So they gave me a rental, no charge. I came home, then realized I didn’t have a car seat for Landon (Bobby picked him up from Laura’s that day). So we trooped over to Wal-Mart to get a booster seat, since I’m planning to move him into one around the time that Bear is born anyway. The car seat in my car is almost too small for him as is, and a booster will be easier to deal with, plus he’s the right size for a booster seat at this time.

Landon loves the new seat, and enjoyed riding in the rental car. We get there Weds around 11AM to pick up the car, and I get told the battery failed it’s test and has a dead cell in it. So we wait another 30 minutes for them to put in a new battery. Out the door was $580 for everything. UGH. And Bobby’s van still needs new tires and will need a brake job next time. PLUS, my car is due for its 30K service, like, now.

Still, Landon was excellent at the dealership. He loved looking at the cars and was happy and well behaved.

I’m really hoping that Bear is allergy free. I’ve grown used to reading everything, to paying close attention to all food that Landon eats, and to being very careful with food in general. I know if Bear does have a food allergy, whatever it maybe, we will manage to find ways to make good food that Bear can eat.
Still, it would be so nice to be able to offer this kid bites of whatever I happen to be eating that day, and to not have two kids to chase around at birthday parties watching everything they put in their mouth.
I bought this book: Cody the Allergic Cow: A Children’s Story of Milk Allergies off of Amazon yesterday, it hasn’t shipped yet, but I’m hoping to start teaching Landon the “why” of how come he can’t have the same cake as everyone else. He’s getting to the point where he can understand concepts like this, and I’m hoping this book will help him understand and help give me some ideas for ways to explain it to him. If anyone has other suggestions for this, let me know.

I’m pretty sure this is my last child. Assuming things go according to plan, I don’t think I want more than 2 kids. I just have to wait for Landon and Bear to have me some granddaughters, so I have someone to pass my stuff down too.

cake or death

Friday night we had some really good tacos (because my husband is an amazing chef) and played Rick’s game, which is fun, but unfortunately I feel asleep around 10:30, so I missed the last hour or so. I feel bad for falling asleep, but this pregnancy makes it hard to fight when sleep overtakes me.

Saturday morning we caught up with an old friend, which was fun. After Landon’s nap, we took him out to Grandma’s house and left him there overnight. Bobby and I went and caught the latest Harry Potter movie. I wasn’t horribly impressed with the movie overall, it felt like they were leaving out huge chunks of story, and I’ve never read the books. I shouldn’t notice that they are skipping things. (like seriously, no one ever explained what “The Half Blood Prince” MEANS!

After that we went over to the Macaroni Grill, as they have a Gluten Free menu and are in the same shopping center as the movie we saw. Unfortunately, their GF menu was very limited. Bobby could basically choose among three things, Steak with no seasoning, Chicken with no seasoning, or a salad. He got the steak, and was not impressed. Also, a bit pricey for what he got. My spaghetti was good though.

Sunday morning we headed out to pick up Landon and spent some time talking with Grandma. They gave Bobby a gift certificate to take a cooking class, he seems pretty excited about that, as well as a coupon for some rose bushes for our yard.

We went to the mall and had lunch and let Landon ride the carousal and play in the play place. Bobby picked us up Wii Resort, which is a fun game. We played it while Landon took his nap and had a blast.

I made Bobby a cake (with Landon’s help) so that we could sing happy birthday to him

	Dairy free/gluten free cake using the Pamela’s mixes 7/26/09
	cut cake 7/26/09
	Blow the candles out 7/26/09

The cake was really tasty. Bobby made dinner, which was also very tasty. Once we got Landon to bed we watched Pen and Teller’s Bullsh*t about Lie Detector Tests.

We went to bed around 9:30, and I couldn’t sleep at all. I tossed and turned. And then I got hungry. So at 11ish, I gave up and got up, and had a slice of leftover pizza and sat in soft light and read for an hour. I then went back to bed around midnight, and tossed and turned for another half hour or so before dozing off, only to wake up at 2:30 to pee and 5:30 for work. I’m a little tired today, but so far not too bad. I’m a little embarrassed about my late night pizza though.

Oh and I also posted Pictures from our fourth of July party, and the set from Bobby’s cake are here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/JadeSymb/4thOfJulyAndACoupleFromBobbyS31Birthday?authkey=Gv1sRgCI3wx6LxqM-htgE&feat=directlink

SPARKLERS!! 7/4/09

Uncle Jack, Landon, and (a pregnant) Jen July 2009

7/26/09

7/26/09

7/26/09

Landon at the party 7/4/09

fire 7/4/09

waiting to sing happy birthday to dada 7/26/09

Blow the candles out 7/26/09

Happy 31st birthday dada! 7/26/09

we get by with a little help from our friends!

First off, I need to do a shout out of THANK YOU to the following people:
JT
Rick
Laura
Dirk
Aleana
Oz
Crystal
Eric
Gyan
Mel
and
Julia

For all their help with the moving this weekend.

Friday we went out and had dinner at Oreganos, which was so tasty, and I ate way too much. After that Bobby ran his space opera game, which I am really enjoying!

Saturday morning the wonderful people listed above met Bobby at the house in AJ to pack and move the remaining stuff. They made a huge dent in the items and were totally awesome with all their help! I watched Landon, Emily, and Bridget during this time in order to keep them out of the way and to let the movers move. The kids were pretty good for me, and they ate a good lunch for me too!

Once everyone made it back to the house in Mesa with their loads of stuff, I had pizza and wings waiting for everyone. After everything was unloaded, Laura, Mel, Julia and I disappeared into the nursery to sort all the baby clothing. We got rid of some toys and sorted them as well. Landon has less toys, but still WAY MORE Than he needs, especially with his birthday just around the corner. (speaking of, his party will be on August 15! It’s going to be a pool party at our place)

The nursery is coming along pretty well, we’ve got more clothes than we need, and I got everything newborn through six months hung in the closest. I’m still working my way through some stuff, and I need to get the furniture in the room still. I know I’d be nowhere near as close to done as I am if it hadn’t been for Mel, Julia, and Laura though. Those girls ROCK!

Many people left after lunch to go back to their weekend fun, but Dirk, Laura, Rick, Julia, Jamie, and Gyan hung out and got in the pool with us. Landon enjoyed getting to spend extra time with Emily!

Sunday we took a trip to IKEA to try and help us solve some storage solutions and look at some other furniture. We purchased a wardrobe for Bobby to put his stuff in so that I can have most of our tiny master closet all to myself. The closet in the new house is like less than a fourth of the size of the one in the old house, so we need to condense our crap.

Bobby made us an excellent dinner while putting together the wardrobe, which was above and beyond the call of a husband.

Overall, a productive weekend, if not a relaxing one.

Bobby’s birthday is this Sunday, so for his birthday dinner this week at Laura’s he requested Alligator Piquante with Lime jello for dessert. Should be an interesting meal.

Julia and Laura are throwing me a baby shower on October 17th. We are registering through Amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/baby/178NIE6GG9M8M

There isn’t much on it because we don’t need much. I’ve been using the priority buttons to help give some guidance on what we need, what we like, and what would be nice, but is totally not needed.

If you want an invite to the baby shower, I’m supposed to provide a list of Email addresses, as Laura will probably just do evites. If you are interested in attending, feel free to email me, comment here, or PM me with your email address. It’s three months away, so toward the end of Sept I’ll ask one more time, to make sure I got everyone’s!

Bear names?

Thursday Hench night was fun and relaxing, except that almost all the food was not Landon safe. It makes for a stressful meal when everyone is eating potentially poisonous food for your child.
Landon did end up apparently getting his fingers in some none safe cake, and then licking his hand, before Bobby got to him, but he seemed to suffer no ill effects, so the cake must be light on dairy.

Friday Rick had us create characters for a new game he was running. (Rick, as in Bobby’s friend from elementary school, who was his best man at our wedding and who currently games with us every other Friday.) The game was pretty neat, as we created average people (I’m a firefighter) who are going about their everyday lives when aliens suddenly invade. I enjoyed the game.

Landon and Em were playing in the backyard while we gamed (over at Em’s house) and they got into the humming bird feeder and got covered in brown sugar water. Landon also wet himself in the yard. He was having too much fun playing and didn’t want to come inside.

Saturday we went met up with some friends and had lunch at PF Changs. They have lunch bowls that run between 7.50 and $9 that are most excellent. Then we went and saw Wicked at Gammage. Some of us sat on the floor in Row 13, and the show was AWESOME. I loved it. The musical was way better than the book, and highly enjoyable. Landon stayed home with Courtney, our best babysitter.

It was a matinee showing, so we came home and had dinner, and then we put Landon to bed and went for a swim. We also watched Eureka, which was enjoyable. Overall, Saturday was an AWESOME day.

Sunday we had lunch with Uncle Jack, and then we went out to Aunt Heather’s to see the family.

We also hit home depot and picked up some paint for Bear’s room. We are doing a Disney Car’s theme. Here is the inspiration: Disney Home – Cars So for now we picked up the “Three Cheers for Pooh Red” and some more Cars stickers like we had in Landon’s old room. Landon’s new room is going to get updated to something Spacey I think, or maybe something construction vehicles or something. I plan to take him shopping to see how he wants to decorate.

We also picked out a new fan which Bobby installed, as the fan in the nursery was falling down. Grandma (MIL) bought a couple of new infant outfits for Bear as well, so we have some clothes. Almost all the nursery is still at the old house though. Hopefully we can rectify that soon. I have the urge to sort through it and get it ready to go.

Also, my husband rocks. He’s just been so supportive of everything the last few weeks. I’m so lucky to have him!! I love him so much!

So we’ve been talking names. I think I’m more obsessed with the name thing than Bobby, and that my persistence is bothering him. I went through the 10,000 baby name book, and emailed him a list of about 30 or so names I liked. Of which he liked none. After much talking, at this point, we still have no name, but we do have three names that are in the “running” at this time:
1. Oliver Robert
2. Wesley Robert
3. Orion Robert
I like Wesley best, he likes Orion best, but we both sort of like Oliver, so it’s the lead in the sense that it’s the most agreeable to both of us. Bobby is sick of my “but I knew a guy named XXXX and he was (insert unpleasant trait here)” stories. Bobby hasn’t vetoed Wesley and I have vetoed Orion yet, we are waiting to see if either name grows on us.
Either way, we still are open to name thoughts, and are hoping the right name just sort of strikes us. It didn’t happen that way with Landon though, so I don’t expect it to happen with Bear.
I have to laugh because our measuring stick for a name is, Do I like it better than Bear? I can’t tell you how many suggestions one of us has made to have the other say, “I’d rather just call him Bear!”

Cute story time:
Landon was fussy yesterday due to lack of nap, so he was sitting in my lap watching TV, leaning against me. Bear was kicking Landon’s back like crazy the whole time! Not that Landon cared.

Also, we tried on Saturday to put a shirt over Landon’s head that would not fit (this is happening more and more, his size 2T clothes fit fine, except the collar won’t fit nicely over his head) So I told him I was sorry, it was too small, so we would give the shirt to his Baby Brother. Landon has been talking about it nonstop since!

And don’t forget:

Vote for the Game Depot!!

A contest to chose America’s Favorite Game Store is being held online.
A game creator/supplier is running a contest to select the best game store in America.
If you wouldn’t mind, would you go to the voting website and select Game Depot.

http://www.goodman-games.com/
Then click on the picture that looks like the one below to vote.
Select Game Depot (Tempe, AZ)

I have shopped at the game depot for over 13 years now, and this is my favorite game shop. It’s one of the few game shops that feels open and welcome to everyone who might come in. They owners are wonderful people who run an amazing store. They host a variety of game events for players of all types and all ages. They keep an excellent and diversified inventory, so there is always something new or cool to look at. Most of all The owners really do care about their customers.
Game Depot
3136 S. McClintock Dr., #11
Tempe, Arizona
85282
480-966-4727

This is the best game shop, hands down. Please vote for them!!!!

Take your best guess!

Keep in mind, my due date according to me is Nov 23 (thank you charting)
Bear is measuring for a due date of Nov 14, and has from the start. My doctor has my due date down as Nov 14, so pretty much any time in Nov is fair game!

Bear’s Photos:

Bear

It’s a BOY!!!

It’s a boy!!!

And the cause of the bleeding is a bacterial, infection, which is irritating my cervix, which is why i am bleeding. It’s not dangerous, and I’ve got drugs to fix it.

Pics later, when I get home!!

Floor is open to name suggestions.

4th of july

Okay, so the weekend was long, and it was mostly good.
Thursday we had a wonderful dinner with the Hench at Laura’s, where we all wished Mel a happy birthday. Since we had Friday off, we stayed a little later than usual, and it was good. Good friends, good fun, good food, and good conversations.

Friday we got up and got ready for the party, in the sense that we had to go buy food and the like. After Landon’s nap we ran him out to Grandma’s for the night. Bobby and I then joined some friends for Dinner over at Monti’s. The food was good, but the service was spotty, and orders were wrong. Still, good company was had. After dinner we went back to Laura’s to game. Bobby ran a very fun game, I know I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to the next one!

Saturday we slept in, by virtue of the early riser in the family being at Grandmas. Once we got up we got to cleaning. We cleaned and cooked and organized most of the day away, taking a lunch break after Landon was dropped off at home by Grandpa.

The party itself was a blast. We had about 25 people over, although 8 of them were kids. We had a lot of people in the pool and spa, and we played both rock band and guitar hero world tour. We had a ton of food, although I think in the future I shall ban cheese chips from the house, there were some control issues with the food. I was trying to keep the cheese chips out of Landon’s reach and out of his room, but some made it to his room. He didn’t get any, so that’s a plus at least.

We did let the kids play with fire, and we did set some grass on fire in our backyard, but the sprinklers took care of it. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Sunday we had our morning run to the hospital (see previous post) and then spent most of the day being lazy. We did go to a birthday party in the evening, but I spent most of that sitting on the couch with my feet up, and I let Bobby chase Landon.

I need to take a second here and give a huge shout out to Bobby for being so supportive, helpful, and wonderful this weekend, especially Sunday. He was awesome taking care of both me and Landon. I couldn’t do it without him.

Also, I want to thank ALL of you so much for all your comments on the last post. I also posted it to a couple of my online communities, and got some good feedback from mom’s who’d had the same thing happen to them, and now have healthy babies.

I am trying to pick up Landon less, he’s 35lbs or so of weight. He’s not taking the change very well though. I feel bad for him.

I’m pretty shaken by the whole thing. I can still feel Bear moving about, but I was feeling free comfortable and confident that everything was going well and that we’d have a new baby soon. It was very scary to have to think about that not being the case. I’m nervous now, and just praying everything goes okay.

I know I overdid it on Saturday. I cleaned all morning, and then played hard with the kids and the pool and the rock band. I picked up other peoples heavy children, I stayed up way too late. I’m hoping some rest will take care of it, and that it’s a one time deal that doesn’t mean anything, and that Bear is fine.

scared

Hosted a fun party last night, but I think I over did it.

I woke up to blood. Not a ton of blood, but enough to make me panic. A few drops and I wouldn’t have stressed, but this was more like a light period had come in the night. Of course, Bear was not moving around when I woke up.

So I called my doctor, and ended up going into the hospital. I kept waiting for Bear to start moving the whole way to the hospital, but nothing.
We got there and got checked in right away, and they found Bear’s heartbeat no problem. Of course, after they found the heartbeat, Bear started moving and kicking and squirming. They monitored me for contractions (none) and checked my cervix (high, tight, closed) and sent me home. They said the blood was older blood, not fresh, baby seemed fine, no idea what caused (is causing) the bleeding. Still lightly spotting.
I’m on pelvic rest (no sex) and been told to “take it easy” and “drink lots of water”
I’ve got an appointment on Thursday with my doctor, they said wait till then for further instructions.

I’ve been scared out of my mind all morning.