Evel Knievel

We've had some rainy days this past week and rainy days means a stir crazy kid.
I'm sure my family in Michigan are all rolling their eyes about my complaint about some rain. I know ya'll have had 14,000 inches of snow this winter, but I'm a Californian now! One day of rain is plenty, thank you.

Well, Zach has become very good at balancing and tumbling and all that fun stuff.
He uses his bounce-y zebra toy in all sorts of new, fun ways.

He usually balances on top of it, standing with no hands. I wasn't quite fast enough with the camera this time.

He also likes to throw himself off the couch and do a somersault over the arm.





And no, you will never see my gray hair because I intend to keep my regular 6 week salon appointments, thank you very much.

Here's another of the Z-man being his usual charming self


And yes, I do know his hair is out of control. I've got to trim it soon!

Ultrasound day

I started my day off at work. Everything was going fine, we had an intern start her rotation with us so I was busy running around, showing her the office, the basics, where things are. I guess I got a little excited because I went to the lunchroom with the intern and proceeded to almost faint! How embarrasing! I didn't get to the "black out" stage, but I had the wave of nausea, the pricklies, the spins/dizziness...and when that started to retreat I broke out into a sweat! Not a glistening sweat, either! A full blown, just played raquetball for 4 hours straight kind of sweat! I can only imagine what she'll tell her fellow students tomorrow in at school.

I had to leave work early to get to my Dr.'s appointment. It was the 12 week ultrasound and they check for abnormalities linked to Down's Syndrome. Luckily, everything looked great! Both babies are still doing well! They were moving ALL over the place and their fingers and toes are starting to look like fingers and toes! I saw their faces...still look a little like Skeletor...I'm sure they'll look cuter soon. They are each about 3 inches which explains why I look 5 months pregnant.

Oddly enough, I still don't think I've fully realized that I have TWO babies growing in there. I think I thought Zach was a puppy until he came out! I don't know when it'll hit, but you can be sure I'll be in the fetal position rocking myself in a corner somewhere when it does.

Oh what a day

I know I'm supposed to be the type of mom who only blogs bout the wonderful things my child is doing. How much he likes to help around the house, how he listens and minds his Mama, how he never throws tantrums in public.

I'm not that mom.

We ran around to several places this morning doing errands.
Our morning was spent saying several phrases about 3000 times each.
"Don't touch."
"You have to hold my hand in the parking lot."
"Are you a big boy?"
"Do you need to be carried?"
"Zachary!"
"Mama wants a margarita."

Then it was naptime. Glorious, glorious naptime. He slept for just over three hours, where I talked to my dad, cleaned the bathroom, did laundry, cleaned the kitchen, and ate lunch. It was great. It was the first time in months that I've had energy and didn't need to take a nap!

Mr. Man woke up and he ate lunch. I decided it would be fun to go to the library and get some new books for Zach. I haven't been inside a library for almost 10 years, so I had to get a card. In line, Zach chucked his Cheerios and tried to climb/slide out of his stroller. Finally we get the card and head over to the children's area where they have toys and puzzles and all sorts of things I thought would entertain him if the books didn't work. (Key word is "thought").
He proceeded to NOT want to play with the toys, NOT want to look at books, knock over a tower of blocks some sweet little boy was building, and trying to push his stroller when I repeatedly told him not to. I them put him in the stroller where he proceeded to have a HUGE meltdown because he was in lockdown. I'm sure everyone was staring, I could feel my face beet red. He wouldn't calm down so we had to leave. Oh and the entire time he was crying huge crocodile tears he kept saying, "Dada, Dada, Dada", like I'm Nurse Ratchet. How many books did we get? Zero. All that for nothing.

We then met Jeff at TGIF's because I figured the entire afternoon went so flippin' well we should also strap him into a highchair. You can imagine that that was not a good idea. Chaos. He did have a very healthy dinner of french fries (wouldn't touch the grilled cheese).

I've been vibrating since we've been home. It's certainly nights like these where I look at my growing belly and think, "What the HELL was I thinking?"

Weekend fun and a sick kid

Poor Zach has a cold again. He came down with it on Wednesday and he has become such a big boy he has now learned how to wipe his nose with his sleeve! So now we have snot everywhere, on his face, in his hair, on his clothes, on me...good times. Plus, his cheeks and nose get red and raw from rubbing so much, he looks like he's had a few too many jack and cokes. He's always been such a trouper, even when he's sick. There isn't much that bothers this kid. But, Wed. night he woke up after being asleep for an hour and when I went in he didn't want up, he just sat in his crib crying, wiping his face...if he could've said, "Mama, I feel like sh*t" he would have. He couldn't use his pa-poo (pacifier) because he was all stuffed up...just not happy. That was the worst night, he's been his usual crazy monkey self since.

Last night we had a babysitter and Jeff and I went out with some friends to The Paseo Club for a wine and beer tasting event. So many things are wrong with that sentence. First off, after a last minute barf session, we were on our way to pick up our friends...figure they better use me as a D.D. now because when these kids come, watch out booze, I'll be a-comin'. I got to watch my friends all wine/beer taste...how fun! I had an O'douls. It was a good time, though...who knew being the only non-drinker in a group of drinkers would really be ok? Lol.
Secondly, we were at a private tennis club...our friends are members, that's how we got in...we didn't hop the fence. Me...at a private tennis club. Yikes. Just not my thing. It wasn't as high-fa-lootin' as it can get by any means, but still. I just don't understand the whole country club/tennis club/private social club idea. Why would you want to spend money to go to a bubble and be with only people who are exactly like you? Don't you want to hang around other people who might be a tick different? Isn't that more interesting? Oh well, different strokes, I guess.

Because I've now trashed the place, I feel it's important to tell you we are going there again tonight (lol) to play in a poker tournamant. It should be fun! The question of the night, though is do I have to wear my pearls?

Big news to report!!

I'm sure there aren't many people who don't already know this, mainly because I have a really big mouth (who, me?). Zach is going to be a big brother!! I will be 12 weeks this Friday, so Jeff felt more comfortable with me making the "big" announcement this week. As if that weren't news enough, we decided to make it even more exciting...we're having twins!! Yep, twins...two times the trouble! I don't think it's really sunk in yet, but it won't be long until I look like a beluga whale in the middle of summer...that'll make it way more real, for sure!
I'm due Sept. 1st, but it'll be sooner than that, I would imagine. So far, everything is going just fine. I've had horrific morning sickness this time, and have been taking Zofran (anti-nausea med) to help get me through the day. It's really kicking my butt and I'm pretty crabby about it. I'm pretty tired still and take naps when I'm home with Zach when he naps. I figure my nap-taking days will soon be over until I'm 50, so I'd better get some in now.

I've been feeling movement for a little more than a week now. Since this is the second time around, I know what to look/feel for. I can definitely tell the difference between gas bubble and baby!

I know that some of may not care, but some may, so I'll tell you about our journey with this pregnancy. As all of you know, Zach was conceived through IVF. He was our second attempt. This last time, Jeff and I tried for a while on our own, which didn't work. We then did some inseminations (think turkey baster), the purpose of which is to get those little swimmers closer to the target. We did that several times, all with no success. We finally moved onto our Frozen Embryo Transfer. We had some frozen embryos (totsicles) left over from when we made Zach. We thawed those out and had them put in. A frozen cycle is much, MUCH easier than a fresh cycle. There aren't as many drugs to take, since I'm not making any eggs. There is no retrieval of eggs either, so no surgery. It was really fairly easy. It was so easy in fact, I thought it would never work! I was geared up for another fresh cycle at the beginning of the year, and stressing big time about how we were going to pay for it. No, insurance doesn't cover it. So, you can imagine my shock when I got that positive pee stick reading 6 days after the transfer of my totsicles. We had transferred 4 embryos. 3 of which were good quality and one was (per the Dr.) such poor quality it was ether throw it int he garbage or put it in the mix, so that's what we opted for. At our first ultrasound, the Dr. looked for the heartbeat. We were pretty shocked when he said there were two....but we were in utter panic when he said there were three, yes THREE gestational sacs. Three of those little guys implanted. However, right from the get-go the third baby did not have a heartbeat...and at following ultrasounds it just got smaller. Be careful what you wish for, right? The twins have been doing great since day one, growing at the same rate, strong heartbeats, etc. Now we have to hope that everything continues to be ok with them.

I haven't been posting as much because there's been nothing to talk about besides being pregnant and feeling lousy, so now that the news is out, I'll be blogging regularly again.