That Face

I can just hardly stand how cute she is.

Prayers, Please!

Y'all, I just realized that this little cold I've got could potentially develop into a cough just in time for me to have major abdominal surgery next week.  This possibility is terrifying me a little bit!  Just the thought of coughing while trying to recover . . . ouch!  I just had to post this so I could ask you all to please pray for God to heal me of this quickly and that a cough does not develop!

Noah's First Day of School

Noah started school this week!  Monday was his very first day of school ever.  It's hard to believe.

Noah and Janey outside his school.

Me with the kids.  I am 37-1/2 weeks in this picture.

I love Jane's sweet face. :)

Nathan with the kids.

Even though Noah's been in a Mother's Day Out program for two years now, which would surely ease his transition into Pre-K, I knew he'd also have to get used to going to a new place with new people and having actual academic expectations placed upon him.  I had a pretty good feel for what he was heading into, not just because I'm his mom and have done lots of years of school, myself, but also because I had been doing a whole lot of reading and attended a training since I will be his co-teacher.*  Because I was getting excited for him, I had really been trying to get him excited, too, with little effect.  "Noah, you are really going to love school!  You are going to get to do so many fun things and make so many new friends!"  And he'd barely look up from what he was doing.  So I'd try again: "Noah, look at my eyes.  Mommy went to school, too.  I went to school for a lot of years, and I know what school is all about.  I loved school, and I am so excited for you, because you will love school, too."  "Okay, Mom."  And back to playing.  I just couldn't get him engaged.  Although one time he did tell me, "Well, Mom, I'm just a little nervous," an understandable feeling, and I just tried to reassure him that he'd love it. 

So I was really pleased that when the first day finally arrived, he was all smiles.  We made a big deal of it; Nathan went into work a little late so he could go with us to drop Noah off and stay for the morning assembly, we took lots of pictures, and we promised Noah he'd have a surprise after school that day.  He did have one moment, when I was leaving him with his class, when he clung to my legs and said, "Mama" in a very pathetic voice, but I detached him, and he did fine, sitting next to his friend from Mother's Day Out.  Nathan, Jane, and I found a seat several rows behind him, and after Noah spotted us, he seemed to relax a bit.

*("Co-teacher" is what they call the parent who will be doing the homeschooling element.  The homeschooling portion at this school is technically two days a week, but it's optional for Pre-K, which is what tipped me in their direction in the end.  We liked just about everything about this school, but I just didn't know if I could homeschool with a newborn at home this fall, so I'm glad that I'll be able to have some flexibility there.)

After we left him with his class, I thought I'd feel weepy.  I mean, this was his very first day of school, ever!  I had postponed him going to preschool the year before, because, among other things, it made me sad to think that once you put them in school, there's no going back!  Once you start, they are in school until they leave home!  These are fairly sobering thoughts for a parent; the beginning of school marks a shift in your family that is fairly permanent.  So I'd had a few sad moments in the week or so before school started.  But on the first day, I was not sad at all; instead, more than anything, I was just excited for Noah.

Jane, by the way, did not want to leave her brother.  She wanted to go to his class and stay at school with him.  On our way out, she was beginning to get really upset that she wasn't going to get to do this, but we placated (read: bribed) her with the promise of a pink donut.  It totally worked.  And, to make the day special for her, she and I had some fun play time with her friend, Elizabeth.

When Jane and I picked Noah up from school, we all went and got a smoothie for a treat, and I tried to get Noah to tell me about his day.  All I could get out of him was a story about what happened on the playground at the end of the day; something about how two other boys "attacked" him while he was resting inside a tunnel on the playground.  Somehow I get the feeling that he was probably just as involved as they were, or that perhaps he didn't realize it was probably not the best idea to block the tunnel where other kids might want to play, too!  It obviously wasn't traumatizing enough to stick with him, because he didn't mention it again after that day.

That evening, we took Noah to his "surprise," which was a trip to Chuck E. Cheese.  Now, you have to understand that we went there for his birthday in January, and he has asked at least every couple of weeks since then to go back.  So this was a real treat for him.  Anything to create positive associations with the first day of school, right?

Tuesday was our first homeschooling attempt, and it went pretty well.  Most of it was review from the day before, going over expectations at school (raising your hand, etc.), reviewing some memorization, re-reading The Little Red Hen, and so on.  Because we had an unusually busy morning, we had to do it as soon as we all woke up, and that was a little hard (we are used to more of a leisurely pace in the mornings).  And it was also a little hard for Noah to want to participate at first.  But he got into the swing of it about halfway through, and we actually completed everything in about an hour.  "This," I thought to myself in relief, "is doable!" 

On Wednesday, as we were driving to school, Noah kept repeating, "Yes, but Mommy, why is it so long?"  The length of the school day is about an hour and a half longer than Mother's Day Out, and they do pack in a lot more content, obviously, so I could understand his feeling this way.  But we talked about it, and he got distracted with getting to wear his uniform belt and fixing a sock on the way in, which somehow cheered him up. :)  He had a little more trouble detaching himself from me when I left him with his class that day, but when I picked him up, it was evident that the rest of the day had gone pretty well.  He told me all about how they ground wheat berries into flour in order to make a cake, just like the little red hen does in the book, and that his class's cake tasted better than the other class's cake.  After I had read the teacher's lesson plans for that week, I had told Noah that they were going to do an activity that he'd love (wheat berries into cake?  come on!  that's great!), and, sure enough, that's what he came home talking about.

All in all, I'd say he had a very successful first week of school!

Here's my cutie, sitting with his class at morning assembly on his very first day of school.

We sure love that Noah Thomas!

Another Baby Update

Hey folks,

Did I mention I'm having a baby two weeks from tomorrow?  Crazy!

I had another appointment today, and here are the specs: the baby is a little lower, but still pretty high.  I'm a little bit effaced, and I'm 1 cm. dilated.  So there won't be any baby today, but my body is certainly moving along a bit.  Hopefully, this baby will wait until the right day to make her appearance, getting as developed and healthy as can be in the meantime.

In other news, my blood pressure is good, my weight is holding steady at 35 lbs. (the same as last week, which is hard for me to believe after how much/badly we ate on our little family vacation this weekend), and Little Girl's heartbeat was about 130.  All good.

Baby Update

Today I had an ultrasound at my doctor's appointment.  Normally, you don't have an ultrasound at this point, unless there is an issue the doctor wants to check.  In my case, he wanted to see where the placenta was before my surgery (we already knew it was in the front).  So I got to see Baby Girl. :)

A few things I learned:

• She looks healthy!  
• She is pretty active (I could have told you that).
• He measured her head, abdomen, and femur to see how big she is.  He said, "The computer program is projecting her at 6 lbs. 12 oz."  Me: "Birth weight?!"  (That would be awfully small for one of my babies.)  "No, today."  Ha ha!  Of course!  Why would I ever entertain the idea, even for a moment, that I'd have a small baby?  No way!  Not me!  We have over three weeks to go, and I think they generally gain about a half a pound a week at this point, so that would put her at between 8 and 9 pounds at birth.  Now that's more like it.
• Her head and femur are measuring a normal size, but her abdomen is a little bigger.  The doctor said she is pudgy.  :)  It got me to thinking--were Noah and Jane pudgy?  I suppose you could consider them so, since they weren't particularly long but were particularly heavy.
• She is still sitting very high, and my body is not showing any signs of getting close to labor, which is a good thing.  

I didn't get any pictures, but this was the most unclear ultrasound I've ever had. I could not make anything out.  So it's okay that we don't have any pics; we wouldn't know what we are looking at, anyway.

I'm glad everyone is healthy!

Various and Sundry

My gosh, y'all, I cannot seem to keep my thoughts together long enough to write a thoughtful blog post.  I had started some posts about some reflections I've had recently on motherhood, but my brain feels so fragmented that I can't even seem to type them up coherently.  I blame pregnancy.  There is something to this "pregnancy brain," I'm telling you.  It reminds me of those "This is your brain on drugs" commercials from the 80's, except, in my case, this is my brain on hormones.

So since I can't seem to put together anything longer than a few sentences these days, here are some random thoughts, instead.

---

I've been thinking about our old life in Boston a lot lately.  Lots of unrelated things have crossed my path recently that have caused me to turn my mind towards that period of our lives:

• Lately (and I promise this is actually not because I'm having dark thoughts about the evil Houston summer), I've been reminiscing about the crisp fall and winter New England air.  About how I used to open the bathroom window when it was 17 degrees outside and watch the hot and cool air collide and make a magnificent fog when I was in the shower, and how invigorating it felt to have cold air rolling in while I showered with extra hot water.  I've also been thinking about how much I do still miss a proper autumn, with sweaters and crisp air and the beautiful leaves and the bite of the occasional windy day (although I don't know that I'll ever again have the terrible pangs for it that I did that first fall in Houston).  On a related note, I've often considered making myself a cup of hot tea in the evenings over the last few months, but it you just can't enjoy it in the same way when it's been over 90 degrees all day long.
• A friend from Houston is going on vacation to Boston and Martha's Vineyard this week.
• A good friend from Boston is starting a homeschooling adventure of her own with her son, focusing on a similar educational model that Noah's school will be using, so we've been chatting a bit more lately and comparing notes.
• I was reminded recently of how another friend came over to my house when Noah was only about three weeks old and washed a sinkful of dishes, and how I have never forgotten that act of service at a time when I felt so completely overwhelmed. 
• And, of course, we took a little drive out to the new Houston area Trader Joe's and picked up several of our favorite items there. 

I don't really have a point here; just that Boston has been on my mind more lately, which is certainly not an unlovely thing.

---

It's hard to believe, but this is my 1014th post on this blog.  What the heck?!  I had meant to do something special on the 1000th post, but it just slipped by without my noticing it.  So here's my little acknowledgement of the fact that this blog has turned into a great thing for me.  Thank you to those who still stick around and read it from time to time!

---

Garden update: The summer garden is kaput.  I very much enjoyed my garden this year, but I did not get as into it as last summer, mainly because of other projects around the house and my limited energy the last few months.  I'd say we had moderate success.  As you know, several of my tomato plants produced like crazy.  But, sadly, four of my heirloom tomatoes never produced fruit, the squash and cucumbers quit producing after I got busy and didn't water for a week or so, and the bell peppers had their one flush of fruit and then were finished.  The cayennes are finally starting to get going (I wish they had been producing at the same time as my tomatoes!), and the herbs are mostly looking good and holding on.  Mint tea has been a staple at our house this summer, and it's quite yummy.  It's time to start thinking about planting seeds for my fall garden, but--let's be realistic, here--that is probably not going to happen.  I might throw a few seeds directly into the ground and see if we get any winter squash, but I am not going to 1.) kill myself bending over with this huge belly in the Houston August heat or 2.) expect too much gardening maintenance from myself after I have a baby in a month.  So we will just see how it goes and enjoy whatever gets produced.  My perspective for my fall garden is that anything beyond nothing is a happy thing.  There is something to be said for low expectations, friends. ;)

---

My belly is very large, y'all.  It is seriously starting to get in the way.  You know that things have reached kind of a pathetic point when you drop something at the grocery store and an old lady steps in to pick it up.  Not a spry young or middle-aged lady, but an old, old lady.  As if she is in better shape to pick something up off the floor than I am (which she was).  

I will be 35 weeks on Thursday of this week.  I'll try to have Nathan take another pregnancy photo of me. I think my belly is about as big as it was with Noah and Jane and probably no larger, but that doesn't make it any less amazing to the occasional stranger who says, "You must be due any day now!" (been getting that one since I was only 7 months) or "Are you having twins?"  And I've seen two babies in the last couple of days at 8-12 weeks old who are literally smaller than my kids ever were.  An 8.5 lb. baby looks tiny to me!

The heat is not affecting me too badly; I'm not swelling, except that I have had to switch to my heirloom wedding ring rather than my own, because mine won't fit over my knuckle anymore.  I only occasionally feel extremely drained by the weather, and, when it happens, I think it may have more to do with the humidity than the heat.  Mainly, the only time I feel really hot is at night, when I wake up constantly if I feel warm.  It has gotten to the point that we keep the thermostat down fairly low, the ceiling fan stays on all night, and I sleep with just a sheet on me.  This is completely abnormal for a girl who usually pulls the covers up to her chin out of habit and for comfort, no matter the temperature in the house.  Often, Nathan wakes up cold because somehow the comforter has slipped off him, too, and now he's exposed to the cool house + ceiling fan.  He should really just huddle closer to me, in that case, since he keeps telling me whenever I lay a hand on his arm that I feel like a heater.

By the way, the C-section is scheduled for September 7.  We chose a Friday so that family can come visit over the weekend if they want.  Although I'm a little nervous about having such major surgery, I have had it twice before, so I won't be going into it completely green.  Having it in a new hospital with a new doctor does add to my nerves, but we'll actually be at a great hospital, and my doctor is supposed to be very well respected there.  Bonuses this round include: 1.) I get to have my baby 6 days early instead of 2-5 days late.  Hooray!  Every day you don't have to be 9 months pregnant is a plus, in my book.  And 2.) I don't have to labor and have major surgery this time.  I'm happy to just do one or the other and not both this round.

---

Hey, look, y'all!  I wrote paragraphs!!

Good night.

New Things

So many new things are happening right now!  I just wouldn't be able to keep up with life if I were to blog about them all.  But here are some of the highlights:

1. Jane is potty training!  Yes, folks, I have reentered the potty training world.  Noah's potty training was such a parenting debacle--it was a real test of not just parenting skills but also character, I'm telling you, and it lasted for over a year--that I have to admit I've been pretty gun shy about starting with Jane.  But when your child starts disappearing for a few minutes at a time then reappearing without her diaper and shouting jubilantly that she has used the potty, well, it's probably time.  (This may have something to do with the fact that she knew that jelly beans were involved with potty training.)  We started in earnest about four days ago, and so far, she has had two successes at Mom and Dad's prompting.  Really, she's still not getting it.  But I am hopeful that if we are just consistent for a few more days, something will click.  In fact, I humbly request prayers in that direction, if you are so inclined.
2. Noah is starting school in a few weeks!  After much angst about the schooling issue, we have decided to enroll Noah in a small Christian school nearby.  They meet only two days a week, and the home school component (which is a big deal at this school) is optional for Pre-K, which is what swung me in their direction in the end.  After doing my "co-teacher required reading" and buying school supplies, I do have to say that I'm getting excited about the prospect, but I am also glad that my role will not have any high expectations attached, since I will be, er, kind of busy and tired this fall. 
3. Did I tell you we're having a girl?  I realized that I have not made an announcement on the blog that our new baby is a girl!  We've known for quite some time now, but for some reason, it never made it up here.  We had such sure expectations that it was a boy that we were in a bit of shock for a while that we were having another daughter (not only has this pregnancy felt more like Noah's, but Nathan's side of the family is nearly all boys for generations, and we had always felt that Jane's being a girl was a bonus).  Although I was happy to be having another girl, it did take me a while to be able to wrap my mind around what a family with two girls would be like; I just always expected to have a passel of boys!  In any case, I'm now about 34 weeks pregnant, and I think I am starting to experience some nesting.  I've never been one to go too crazy in that department, but I will say that I am itching to go through Jane's old clothes and figure out what we need, and it's chafing me that I haven't had time to do that yet.  The delivery date, by the way, will be September 7 (we scheduled it a couple of weeks ago--no more labors for me!).  Now if we can just decide on a name....