Sunday, March 14, 2010
Happy Birthday to the best dog you could ask for!
Today is Emma's 5th birthday! Happy Birthday Emma. You might be the most licky, co-dependent dog anyone has ever owned, but I love you with all my heart. In five years I have learned that for the most part, you think you are a weenier dog, if anyone touches a door knob you had been be prepared because Emma will trample you in an attempt to get outside first only to turn around and immediately look at you like 'now what?' and you have the most ridiculous obsession with the chuck-it anyone has ever seen. But, you were my first baby and I love you all the same. It's you little idiosyncrasies that make you MY dog :) Here's to many more doggy years!
Re-Evaluating Priorities
With all this "baby crazy" going on in my life lately I feel maybe my priorities have gotten a bit skewed :( I began 2010 wanting to do some things for myself, as I felt I had spent almost all of the last 3 years doing things for Graham and Tim and work and never really taking time to myself. But 2 months into 2010 and I am starting to think that maybe I've taken things a bit overboard.
I've taken some time this past week to do some "meditating" if you will, on my life and you know what I realized? I already have the most perfect little boy anyone could ever ask for. God has already blessed me just by giving me the opportunity to be a mom and even more, he has given me a wonderful husband who supports me so I can stay home to take can of him.
I have spent so much time lately worrying about trying to get pregnant or why it is that I can't get pregnant again that I've almost forgotten what happens when you do get pregnant... you get to be a mom! I am a mom and I really need to remember that. Of course I know that I am a mom, I mean I'm still with Graham 24-7, but am I really remembering what it means to be a mom? Like taking the time to laugh and play and hug, taking the time to teach and pray, taking the time to enjoy all that I have already been given! It's unfortunate that sometimes you get so caught up with life and all it's struggles that you forget the important stuff. So even if I'm only ever able to have one baby, I just need to remember: I am already the luckiest person just to have Graham and be a mom!
I've taken some time this past week to do some "meditating" if you will, on my life and you know what I realized? I already have the most perfect little boy anyone could ever ask for. God has already blessed me just by giving me the opportunity to be a mom and even more, he has given me a wonderful husband who supports me so I can stay home to take can of him.
I have spent so much time lately worrying about trying to get pregnant or why it is that I can't get pregnant again that I've almost forgotten what happens when you do get pregnant... you get to be a mom! I am a mom and I really need to remember that. Of course I know that I am a mom, I mean I'm still with Graham 24-7, but am I really remembering what it means to be a mom? Like taking the time to laugh and play and hug, taking the time to teach and pray, taking the time to enjoy all that I have already been given! It's unfortunate that sometimes you get so caught up with life and all it's struggles that you forget the important stuff. So even if I'm only ever able to have one baby, I just need to remember: I am already the luckiest person just to have Graham and be a mom!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
The Kid Must be Growing
Graham must be growing, either that or he has been taken over by aliens and is no longer my child. This week Graham has been just a basket case. He's totally fine one moment and then next he is falling apart and is completely inconsolable. It usually starts with him not getting his way or being told "no" and ends with him hysterically bawling. This fit lasted for over a half an hour on Wednesday. Finally, after failing at all other attempts to make this stop, I gave up and put him down for a nap, at 10am! (He usually naps about 1-3pm)
Again yesterday, we got home from Kidercise, where he actually listened and paid attention to the teacher for once, he wanted to sit in the front seat of the car. I let him for a few minutes, but after touching every button, knob and light in the car and emptying the glove compartment I had had enough, so I said time to go in the house. He lost it, completely freaked, to the point I told him he had to go get in his bed for a nap (10:10am), to which he usually cries even harder and screams "I no need a nap!" Today he looked right at me, stopped crying and said "I go to bed myself mom," and he went upstairs and got in his bed. He proceeded to take a 4 hour nap. Don't get me wrong, this is fabulous for me, but it's just totally not normal.
On the positive side, Graham has actually started eating lately. I know, I know all kids eat right? Not my kid, he will go days on a slice of cheese and a couple crackers. He's just been a horrible eater ever since we switched to solid foods, but this week, the kid is eating everything in sight. He'll even tell me what he wants for lunch/ dinner. Plus, even after a 4 hour nap, he will go to bed and stay put at night. I expected a huge battle, but apparently he's just super tired because we tuck him and never hear a peep from him again... well until 6:45am when he begins trashing the house all over again :) So does he looks bigger to you?
Nice underoos huh? :)
Again yesterday, we got home from Kidercise, where he actually listened and paid attention to the teacher for once, he wanted to sit in the front seat of the car. I let him for a few minutes, but after touching every button, knob and light in the car and emptying the glove compartment I had had enough, so I said time to go in the house. He lost it, completely freaked, to the point I told him he had to go get in his bed for a nap (10:10am), to which he usually cries even harder and screams "I no need a nap!" Today he looked right at me, stopped crying and said "I go to bed myself mom," and he went upstairs and got in his bed. He proceeded to take a 4 hour nap. Don't get me wrong, this is fabulous for me, but it's just totally not normal.
On the positive side, Graham has actually started eating lately. I know, I know all kids eat right? Not my kid, he will go days on a slice of cheese and a couple crackers. He's just been a horrible eater ever since we switched to solid foods, but this week, the kid is eating everything in sight. He'll even tell me what he wants for lunch/ dinner. Plus, even after a 4 hour nap, he will go to bed and stay put at night. I expected a huge battle, but apparently he's just super tired because we tuck him and never hear a peep from him again... well until 6:45am when he begins trashing the house all over again :) So does he looks bigger to you?
Nice underoos huh? :)
Friday, March 12, 2010
Bring on the Caffeine
Due to various reasons, I have never been an avid coffee drinker. First of all, it used to drive my stomach nuts. I'm now starting to believe that had more to do with the 'battery acid' they served as coffee where I used to work than actual coffee itself, but I suppose that's still up for debate. Second, I've always been able to substitute Mt. Dew for coffee any time I needed a caffeine pick me up. Well, I don't like HATE Diet Mt. Dew and the 9 million calories in the regular stuff really doesn't do my diet any justice, so that's out. And third, there is always the "caffeine is not recommended during pregnancy" bit. And no, I'm not pregnant, but I figured better to be overly safe than sorry, right? So needless to say with the exception of a rare Sunday morning Joe, when we got up way too early and I didn't want to look too sleepy in church for fear of looking rude, I just don't drink coffee.
So why start the caffeine now when so many people are struggling to stop the addiction? You can write this down or in stone or where ever because I don't see it ever changing: I AM JUST NOT A MORNING PERSON! I can function in the morning, get up, get ready or get Graham some breakfast etc, but I can't jump out of bed and tear after Graham at tornado speed at 6:45am. And I find that I spend the majority of the morning disciplining/ scolding/ yelling at Graham partially due to the fact that I am just not awake yet... and of course partially due to the fact that he is just plain sassy almost every hour of the day.
Anyway, after all my baby, or lack there of, drama last week, I have been doing some major reevaluating and I have decided that one cup of coffee every morning is not going to completely abolish my chances of getting pregnant, nor is it going to harm a baby, given I do actually get pregnant some day. So in the spirit of not wanting to be a complete rag every morning, I am going to try having one cup of coffee every morning in hopes that my "I'm not a morning person"self can try to be a little more pleasant!
So why start the caffeine now when so many people are struggling to stop the addiction? You can write this down or in stone or where ever because I don't see it ever changing: I AM JUST NOT A MORNING PERSON! I can function in the morning, get up, get ready or get Graham some breakfast etc, but I can't jump out of bed and tear after Graham at tornado speed at 6:45am. And I find that I spend the majority of the morning disciplining/ scolding/ yelling at Graham partially due to the fact that I am just not awake yet... and of course partially due to the fact that he is just plain sassy almost every hour of the day.
Anyway, after all my baby, or lack there of, drama last week, I have been doing some major reevaluating and I have decided that one cup of coffee every morning is not going to completely abolish my chances of getting pregnant, nor is it going to harm a baby, given I do actually get pregnant some day. So in the spirit of not wanting to be a complete rag every morning, I am going to try having one cup of coffee every morning in hopes that my "I'm not a morning person"self can try to be a little more pleasant!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks
Last month I joined a book club... which if you know me I'm sure you're thinking, Kate doesn't read. Well I mean I read: People Magazine, Dr. Seuss and other kids books to Graham, but I haven't read, read, like for fun since, well, ever! Outside of mandatory school reading and required text reading in college, I have read less than a handful of books, Marley and Me, Tuesdays with Morrie, I was a great mom before I had kids and Nanny Diaries... don't get me wrong, they were all great books, but I just didn't find myself 'wanting' to read. But 2010 is a new year and a year in which I am trying to do new things, especially for myself, so I thought, "what the heck:" book club here I come.
*Let's preface the last sentence with saying the club is really just a group of my mom friends who pick a book to read each month and then get together to gab and drink wine, hardly ever mentioning the actual book. Seemed like a plan either way as I saw it :)
So the first book they chose, since I've been a "member" of the club was:
Christopher Moore's book Lamb. It's a book about Jesus' life birth to 30ish as told by Levi, who is called Biff, Jesus' fictional best buddy. Again, I'm not a reader and the thought of a religious book with a fictional character didn't really seem like it would be my genre, but this book is HILARIOUS! It's 450ish pages and I just tore through the thing like it was my job! It's super funny with some serious and sad parts, but overall just a great read. It's not a religious book in any sence other than it does make you think a lot about Jesus' teachings while on Earth and how his teachings are still very relevant, practical and true in everyday life today. I really liked it and would recommend it to anyone who ca take a little humor with a religious tone added!
Needless to say I finished my first book club book with a whole week to spare. I'm actually excited to see what book we pick next. Who knows, maybe you can teach an old(ish) dog new tricks!
*Let's preface the last sentence with saying the club is really just a group of my mom friends who pick a book to read each month and then get together to gab and drink wine, hardly ever mentioning the actual book. Seemed like a plan either way as I saw it :)
So the first book they chose, since I've been a "member" of the club was:
Christopher Moore's book Lamb. It's a book about Jesus' life birth to 30ish as told by Levi, who is called Biff, Jesus' fictional best buddy. Again, I'm not a reader and the thought of a religious book with a fictional character didn't really seem like it would be my genre, but this book is HILARIOUS! It's 450ish pages and I just tore through the thing like it was my job! It's super funny with some serious and sad parts, but overall just a great read. It's not a religious book in any sence other than it does make you think a lot about Jesus' teachings while on Earth and how his teachings are still very relevant, practical and true in everyday life today. I really liked it and would recommend it to anyone who ca take a little humor with a religious tone added! Needless to say I finished my first book club book with a whole week to spare. I'm actually excited to see what book we pick next. Who knows, maybe you can teach an old(ish) dog new tricks!
Monday, March 8, 2010
No Dice...
So last weekend was an all together failure in many departments for me...
First, our Dr. did not agree that we should start any type of fertility drugs without going through the whole series of tests to make sure there is not an actual problem first. Normally I would be on her side, but since we went through these same tests 3 years ago, and found nothing, I'm not really all that jacked up to do them again. Some are super painful, some are really expensive and some are just annoying. My opinion this time around is try the drugs, if we still aren't pregnant then clearly there is a bigger issue and we need to do some more exploring in my lady business. But why beat me up for 2 months? Anyway, my lack of a medical degree came into play and even after begging and some tears, I settled for a gauntlet of tests, the first of which is on Wednesday. I will be having my second HSG, which if you've had one, you know feels very similar to having a giant needle stuck through both your ovaries. Apparently it's really just a small tube with some dye in it so x-rays can be taken, but I would like to see the actual apparatus this time, b/c I'm fairly certain it must look more like a giant needle! Then in two weeks I have to go in for a series of blood tests and the whole nine yards. We shall see from there what other tortures they can come up with. So now I am praying even harder to get pregnant just so they'll stop beating up my girlie parts!
Second, Graham came down with some terrible diarrhea this past weekend and pretty much shot our whole potty training progress to hell. He had gone 2, almost 3 days without an accident when this started and it all just went out the window. We had to revert back to Pull-Ups out of sheer lack of underwear and the fact that we were at Tim's Aunt's house... not really cool to have your kid pooping on everything at the relatives! So we are finally over our bug, but the potty training is slow going again today. Lots of accidents and not wanting to go, ugg!
And third, due to all this lovely disappointment, my diet was totally sabotaged over the weekend. We were traveling and I was already upset and I just gave in :( It's not like I gained 10 lbs overnight, but it was more that I totally lost my will-power. I suppose, as with almost everything in life, there are going to be setbacks, but this weekend was a giant step in the wrong direction in oh so many ways. But today started a new week and tomorrow will be a new day, so I guess I'm just going to take each thing one day at a time!
First, our Dr. did not agree that we should start any type of fertility drugs without going through the whole series of tests to make sure there is not an actual problem first. Normally I would be on her side, but since we went through these same tests 3 years ago, and found nothing, I'm not really all that jacked up to do them again. Some are super painful, some are really expensive and some are just annoying. My opinion this time around is try the drugs, if we still aren't pregnant then clearly there is a bigger issue and we need to do some more exploring in my lady business. But why beat me up for 2 months? Anyway, my lack of a medical degree came into play and even after begging and some tears, I settled for a gauntlet of tests, the first of which is on Wednesday. I will be having my second HSG, which if you've had one, you know feels very similar to having a giant needle stuck through both your ovaries. Apparently it's really just a small tube with some dye in it so x-rays can be taken, but I would like to see the actual apparatus this time, b/c I'm fairly certain it must look more like a giant needle! Then in two weeks I have to go in for a series of blood tests and the whole nine yards. We shall see from there what other tortures they can come up with. So now I am praying even harder to get pregnant just so they'll stop beating up my girlie parts!
Second, Graham came down with some terrible diarrhea this past weekend and pretty much shot our whole potty training progress to hell. He had gone 2, almost 3 days without an accident when this started and it all just went out the window. We had to revert back to Pull-Ups out of sheer lack of underwear and the fact that we were at Tim's Aunt's house... not really cool to have your kid pooping on everything at the relatives! So we are finally over our bug, but the potty training is slow going again today. Lots of accidents and not wanting to go, ugg!
And third, due to all this lovely disappointment, my diet was totally sabotaged over the weekend. We were traveling and I was already upset and I just gave in :( It's not like I gained 10 lbs overnight, but it was more that I totally lost my will-power. I suppose, as with almost everything in life, there are going to be setbacks, but this weekend was a giant step in the wrong direction in oh so many ways. But today started a new week and tomorrow will be a new day, so I guess I'm just going to take each thing one day at a time!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Keep Your Fingers Crossed!
As most of you know, our family is a little challenged when it comes to making babies... it's not that we can't have them, we obviously have Graham and as far as I'm concerned he's perfect in every way, it's just that it takes us about a hundred years to actually conceive a baby. Why you ask? Who in the hell knows! If you have any suggestions you'd like to throw out there, please let me know. I'm up for some new ones, because the same old 'ovulation troubles,' 'not enough sperm,' ' having to have sex while standing on your head to be in the right position' have all been thoroughly tested and ruled out.
According to medical knowledge as it stands today, we should be able to make a baby in any given month, yet this miraculous occurence has yet to happen and now another nine months of my life has gone by. That's nine months of peeing on sticks, forcing the ever so endearing "wanna try to have a baby" sex, which we all know is great, and nine whole months of WAITING for that little pink line that never appears. So add that to the 18 months it took us to get pregnant with Graham and I could have 4 kids by now... well maybe not, but 2 at least!
Enough of that, the point is that this Friday is "D-Day" in baby world for me. We have a fertility appointment at 1:45 and I will either find out I am already pregnant, which would totally be my luck now that I've waited for 3 months for this appointment, or I will find out what my next steps are towards actually conceiving another child before I'm 40! Either way I'm hoping for big things... so keep your fingers crossed, maybe say a little prayer or throw an extra Hail Mary my way because as things seems to roll in my life, I'm going to need it!
One last story on this note... we have been saying night-time prayers with Graham now that we feel he is old enough to somewhat understand. So we were praying on Saturday night and he asked me who I pray for and I told him I pray for him and our family and that hopefully someday he will have a brother or sister to play with. When we went to church on Sunday I told Graham to remember to pray to baby Jesus, because like Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights, we must pray to "baby" Jesus. Anyway, he told me he did and I asked what he prayed for. He said he asked baby Jesus if he could have a baby brother or sister to play with. I asked what baby Jesus said, he told me "baby Jesus said to give me a baby sister right now... I want to play with it!" Not totally sure that we're quite there on grasping the idea of praying or even what a baby brother/ sister really is, but I guess it's the effort that counts :)
According to medical knowledge as it stands today, we should be able to make a baby in any given month, yet this miraculous occurence has yet to happen and now another nine months of my life has gone by. That's nine months of peeing on sticks, forcing the ever so endearing "wanna try to have a baby" sex, which we all know is great, and nine whole months of WAITING for that little pink line that never appears. So add that to the 18 months it took us to get pregnant with Graham and I could have 4 kids by now... well maybe not, but 2 at least!Enough of that, the point is that this Friday is "D-Day" in baby world for me. We have a fertility appointment at 1:45 and I will either find out I am already pregnant, which would totally be my luck now that I've waited for 3 months for this appointment, or I will find out what my next steps are towards actually conceiving another child before I'm 40! Either way I'm hoping for big things... so keep your fingers crossed, maybe say a little prayer or throw an extra Hail Mary my way because as things seems to roll in my life, I'm going to need it!
One last story on this note... we have been saying night-time prayers with Graham now that we feel he is old enough to somewhat understand. So we were praying on Saturday night and he asked me who I pray for and I told him I pray for him and our family and that hopefully someday he will have a brother or sister to play with. When we went to church on Sunday I told Graham to remember to pray to baby Jesus, because like Ricky Bobby from Talladega Nights, we must pray to "baby" Jesus. Anyway, he told me he did and I asked what he prayed for. He said he asked baby Jesus if he could have a baby brother or sister to play with. I asked what baby Jesus said, he told me "baby Jesus said to give me a baby sister right now... I want to play with it!" Not totally sure that we're quite there on grasping the idea of praying or even what a baby brother/ sister really is, but I guess it's the effort that counts :)
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