My father pretty much summed it up. He called this morning and when I answered the phone the first thing out of his mouth was “So, sure would be nice to be sitting on a beach on the Mayan Riviera right about now, huh?” Yup. Great minds, as they say, they think alike.

The minute Ryan got up this morning he was begging to go outside to shovel snow. I groaned. I said “after breakfast” hoping he’d forget. He didn’t. I groaned again, and said “after I wash these dishes.” He still didn’t forget. GO OUTSIDE AND SHOVEL SNOW NOW MAMA!!! Grrrrrrrrr.

I dislike winter, the blahs, the drearies, the short days, the cold. I dislike snow. Sure, I guess it looks pretty, but it’s just a nuisance. Gets in the way. Slows things down. And shoveling snow is so not my job (much as cleaning toilets and scrubbing showers and dusting and washing windows, and…   are not FatJ’s jobs). But here I am being dragged outside in the freezing wind, in my pajama pants, with a two year old forcing a shovel into my hands.

And dude, shoveling snow is not for the pregnant. Back pain, stomach pain, the inability to bend completely over…DONE. I need to hire a nanny. Or a shoveler. Or a nanny who shovels.

How many days till the Mayan Riviera?

Whenever there’s a holiday snafu, or a tantruming toddler ripping ornaments off the tree, or a dog chewing the head off a wise man, FatJ and I like to burst out in song: It’s the MOST WONDERFUL TIME of the year!!!!!!!!!!

We had a few moments like that today. But overall, it was a good day. This morning we drove up to our fave tree farm, Pinestead. While we were driving we realized this is our tenth, yes TENTH, year going to the Pinestead tree farm for our holiday tree. Wow. As always, we received excellent, friendly service from the whole Pinestead gang, particularly from Greg and Katie:)

This Santa ruled, too. Totally real beard. And Ry was ecstatic about the sucker.

Mr. Rudolph. He’s very concerned the tree won’t be staying in our house very long. He keeps asking us “is the tree staying here? The tree will be here in the morning mama?”

Well I’ve made it halfway through this pregnancy!! Kind of hard to believe. Twenty more weeks still sounds like a long time; but not so much so when I think about all the stuff we still have to do in our home re-org project!!

Yesterday I had a Level 2 ultrasound scan, as a follow-up to the routine ultrasound we had two weeks ago. I posted pictures after that first scan, but didn’t really say much then because we were waiting for this next scan to take place. At the first ultrasound the tech noticed a small white spot on the baby’s heart, which we were told later by the doctor could be a soft marker for Down’s Syndrome. Basically once I heard the words “spot on heart” and “echogenic intracardiac focus” and “Down’s Syndrome” I didn’t hear anything more of that conversation with the doctor. Not really words you want to be hearing as you innocently walk into a routine prenatal appointment. I was also informed at that first ultrasound that I had a low-lying placenta, which can lead to placenta previa, which is not a good thing. I wasn’t planning on having any of the 2nd trimester blood test screenings done, but once these findings appeared in our ultrasound I had the Quad screen blood test done right away, and a Level 2 ultrasound was scheduled. And then I went home and worried.

Of course THEN it was the Thanksgiving holiday week and we couldn’t get in for the Level 2 scan until two weeks later so the worrying got to be r-e-a-l-l-y spread out. Thankfully right after we got back from Thanksgiving I received a letter from my clinic saying that my Quad screen test was completely normal, so we breathed a little sigh of relief then. Yesterday was the Level 2 scan, and I am happy to share that we received a report from the ultrasound tech and the perinatologist that everything with the ultrasound and our baby looks completely and totally normal!!! They were again able to see the white spot on the heart, but upon closer inspection (a.k.a more expensive scanning) the spot was deemed to be nothing to be concerned about, and it is not an intracardiac focus. In addition, we were told my placenta is plenty far away from the cervix so the low-lying placenta concern from the first ultrasound is apparently a non-issue now. Hoorah, hurray, and yay!!!

Does one really stop worrying though? Well if it’s me, of course not. But the worry has greatly diminished from a few weeks ago. The Level 2 scan we had yesterday was so much fun!! We got to see the baby in detail, and got to watch the little bugger on 3D video for a long time. I was so so so tempted to find out the gender, but my desire for the HUGE SURPRISE AT THE END won out, and I avoided begging the tech to tell me the gender (she knew what it is though- I had to ask her that much.) Both FatJ and I think the baby looks like a boy based on the facial images we were able to see, and based on the activity level of this child. Holy cow, this kid was moving around like a crazy person the entire time. Arms were flinging and legs were kicking and fingers were opening and closing. Another reason we think it’s a boy?? Again, this kid is breech, just like Ryan. Stubborn little breech babies are what I produce apparently. At one point we saw the baby standing upright and basically doing a jig on my cervix (totally mocking us I’m sure, laughing that he wasn’t turned the ‘correct’ way. Stinker. IT ALL TOTALLY BEGINS IN THE WOMB!!)

Here he/she is, little Goy.

That’s the title of a book. Link to the book is here. FatJ and I have both read it. It was pretty good. Sort of a dark-humor The Office/Office Space-esque type of read.

Wow, that was a tangent.

Anyway. Today’s the last day of 2009’s NaBloPoMo, and I am scraping the bottom of the barrel here for ideas on what to blog about tonight. I haven’t really had a hard time this month finding ideas for this blog, but tonight…nothing’s coming to mind.

And whenever nothing comes to mind I just post a cute picture of my kid or blather on about some cute thing that he did. I guess I’ll top off the month with just that.

Ryan said some mighty cute things today. It’s not always just what he says that’s so cute, it’s how he says it. The intonation of his voice and the facial expressions that go along with it, and the excitement he gets talking about the simplest things. He cracks me up.

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We put a string of xmas lights in his room. He wants them on ALL day. He’ll randomly announce that his lights are on, and will make me stop what I’m doing to go and admire the lights. And he sits there and exclaims “these lights are SO beautiful mama!! It’s very Christmasy in here!”

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Ryan developed a fiery diaper rash over the weekend, created by his adamant refusal to use the toilet and the fact that he mini-poops in his pull-up about five times a day. When we got back home Saturday I told him he was going to wear underwear the rest of the day (to air out the rash) and that he was NOT allowed to go poo in underwear. Since that moment, he’s been doing his #2 business on the pot for the past two days, and has even been eager to do #1 on the potty/toilet as well. Tonight after dinner he announced that he had to make a poo. Here’s the conversation that accompanied that.

Ryan, in bathroom: Ryan go poop now. Go on BIG toilet! Pull down pants. Pull down excavator underwear. THEY’RE DRY!!!!!

Me: Yay! Aren’t you proud of yourself for keeping those dry?

Ryan, on the toilet, slams door. Opens door: Mama!!!! Pee on the blue seat!! Some pee on the blue seat! Clean it off now mama!!

Seat cleaned, slams door again. Opens door: The bell fell off the door mama!! I put it back on!! [bell=gift from Gma Karen from Polar Express].

Me: okay.

Ryan, on the toilet, slams door. Opens door: Mama you sit on the steps right there and wait!!

Me: Yup, okay, I’m sitting here.

Ryan, on the toilet, slams door. Opens door: Ryan’s going to get an M&M!!!!

Me: Yes, if you make a poop you’ll get one.

Ryan, on the toilet, slams door. Opens door: It will be a BLUE M&M!!

Me: Yes, it might be. But you won’t get any if you don’t go poo.

Ryan, on the toilet, slams door. Opens door: Mama, the poop’s not coming out. I want to sit down on the little potty now.

Me, helping him down to little potty: Okay, now go please.

Ryan, on the little potty, gets up to slam door. Gets up to open door: SOME PEE ON BLUE SEAT!! PEE ON BLUE SEAT CLEAN IT OFF!!

Me. Cleaned it off. Me, slams door. Me, waiting patiently on the steps.

Ryan, off the potty, opening the door: Mama, the poop doesn’t want to come out.

Me: Okay Ry, that’s okay. We’ll try again tomorrow.

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I think we’ve asked him one too many times if the new baby in mama’s tummy is going to be a boy or girl. He started melding the two genders together and telling us it is going to be a “goy.” Which then turned into what we are going to name future brother or sister. If we ask him what we should name the baby, he says “Goy.”

Today we were looking at my ultrasound pictures, and I asked him what the baby’s name is. And he cracked up laughing and said GOY!!! And then I snapped this picture.

So, I need a new watch. My watch has been broken for months and months, and I’d like to ask for a new one for Christmas or just buy it myself. Trouble is, I’m not sure which kind of watch I should go with. My last two watches have been of the relatively inexpensive variety- Guess and Anne Klein I believe- and both of them have stopped working within a year or two of owning them. On one of them the hands started going all wonky- they were loose and would just flip around the watch randomly, skipping hours of time at a time. The one I currently have, the Anne Klein, had what I thought was a dead battery because it wasn’t keeping time accurately. So I got a new battery, and sure enough, the same thing happened. I’ve been told at the watch counter at Macy’s that they don’t fix the watches there, they send them out to the manufacturer to be repaired, which ends up costing 50-100% of the original price of the watch. May as well just buy a new one.

Also, I have kind of small wrists so many larger styles of watches look really dumb on me. Couldn’t find the same watch I currently have (which is broken in the bottom of my purse), but it’s sort of like this only all silver, no gold. And it’s cuter than this too.

My questions to you…do you wear a watch that you just love?? What kind is it? Did you splurge on an expensive watch, or do you buy the cheapo kind and get a new one every year?

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Next fun topic on the docket- maternity swim wear!!

Have you ever purchased or owned or wore one of these monstrosities known as a maternity swim suit?? And what were your thoughts on that item?? Definitely recommended, or absolutely not??

We’re going to Mexico for five days when I’ll be about 28 weeks pregnant. And, I think I’m going to sign Ryan up for the winter session of parent/child swim class. Currently for the swim class I’ve just been wearing my normal swim suit, which is a two piece with one of those tankini tops. I’m willing to keep wearing it for the lessons and the Mexico trip, BUT I just noticed that the bottoms are starting to deteriorate, thanks to the chlorine in the Y’s pool. I’m wondering if I should take the plunge and order some maternity number, or maybe just wait till before the Mexico trip and buy some other tankini suit in a larger size at Target. Thoughts on the maternity swim wear???????

I mean, this isn’t horrible, but… well.

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Finally, something a little more fun. I’m thinking this bedding set for Ryan’s big boy room. Actually the set is just the quilt and pillow sham.

Then I’d like to add in some car or construction or transportation-themed sheets like these or these or these or these.

FatJ thought it would be cute to hang this poster in Ryan’s room, which brings about a bit of a quandary because this poster is red as you see, and the colors in the quilt do not include red, but rather, orange. Not that it really matters a huge amount, BUT. It’s something I’ll notice:)

We’ve been thinking for awhile that a slight bike theme would be cute. Gina actually came across this super cute fabric on etsy, and then told me how I can hire another etsy craftsperson to make me some bedroom accessories**, so I think I might do a throw pillow or two in that bike fabric. All this with the thought that the 2/yo’s bed will ALWAYS be made and those transportation sheets will NEVER be showing or clashing with the bicycle throw pillows which will ALWAYS be placed artistically upon the bed each morning. teeeeehya.

Thoughts on the bedroom decor??

**UNLESS someone I know wants to volunteer to craft me a couple simple throw pillows for FREE!! Hint, hint, wink, wink. I’m not sure who that would be…do I know anyone crafty?? Mother? Are your sewing skills capable of this? I mean, I made a nine square pillow in Home Ec in 7th grade that won me a prize- how hard could it be?? My excuse is I don’t own a sewing machine:)

The day started with a little daddy/son time watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade…

…and continued with a little FatJ-in-apron holding the boys to show them the turkey pre-carve.

After the fine meal was eaten, there came some pie-eating (I don’t know about you, but I didn’t like pie till I was about 18 years old. These two year olds seemed to love it though.) (Kim has a way better picture of the boys eating pie in this post.)

After a stint of attempting to get the children to nap, and being unsuccessful, they decided to play a little baseball down the hall. This here is Max sending out the perfect pitch to Ryan. It’s hard to see here, but Ryan’s just standing there with his glove down, while Grandpa prepares to catch the ball. {Ry has a few things to learn about baseball.}

Ryan spent some quality time with his newest cuzzie.

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Then last night we went on a family outing to Duluth’s Polar Express train ride/dramatic reading of the book of the same name. We hopped on a Christmas-decorated train and rode it to the train depot, where we all gathered to hear the story read aloud. The kiddies received a magical Polar Express bell, and had a chance to meet Santa. We were last in line to sit on Santa’s lap, and boarding had already begun for the return train trip, so Mr. Santa kind of rushed the last couple kids through. Ryan didn’t get to sit on his lap, but he went right up to him and answered his questions. Beforehand, Ryan asked FatJ and I this: “what does Ryan want from Santa??? What will Ryan get??” and so we were able to coach him with the words “a train, Ryan, a train!!!” Which is going to work out perfectly since a train set is just what happened to fly into our Target cart earlier that morning as Ryan’s Santa gift.

Here he is, talking to Santa.

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And finally, here Ryan and I are with Grandpa Bob, getting our up nort on.

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We had a great Thanksgiving!!

The last number of years I have not been one to head out shopping on this horrible day after Thanksgiving craziness. But this year FatJ and I were getting antsy, and we thought we’d steal this opportunity to get some Christmas shopping done- together, sans Ryan- so we decided to head out to a few stores this morning (remember, we’re in Duluth). We left the house at the very sane hour of about 9:45 am and drove right to Target.

Parking lot=craziness. We laughed our heads off at the Ontarians who parked their cars on Target’s sidewalk.

Store=craziness. It was difficult maneuvering the cart through the aisles.

Door busters purchased=zero.

Sale items purchased=one.

Total number of items purchased=ten.

Total number of Christmas gifts purchased=four. (I also purchased shampoo/conditioner, shave gel, wrapping paper and shoelaces:) As for the Christmas gifts, we got two items for Ryan, plus Ryan’s “big” Santa gift. NONE of the stuff we bought was even on sale (except one item), but like I said above, it was just nice to be out shopping together and get the Ryan Christmas shopping out of the way.

Next, we headed over to Miller Hill Mall. WOOT!!! We found a parking spot in the chaos and entered through the lovely JCP. While quickly making our way out of that store and into the mall, we saw a guy with an Argo coffee dispenser on his back walking around offering shoppers free cups of coffee. Never seen that before! We headed over to Younker’s (aka Herberger’s) and made our way through the hordes of crazy people shopping there. In the children’s area they had some deep discounts on Carters and OshKosh stuff, so I was able to get three kid-gifts out of the way. Then FatJ and I had to wait in line to go down the escalator, which was manned by a guy who told you when it was your turn to get on. Out in the parking lot as we were leaving we saw two pedestrians come within inches of being hit by some eejit in an Accord who didn’t know how to drive.

Seriously, Black Friday. This is craziness. This is also why the rest of the world hates Americans.

Happy Thanksgiving from the FatJ family!!!

(Click here to see last year’s festive Thankgsgiving pic.)

• It was cold today. Ry and I tried to go to the park and it was so freezing we had to leave after 5 minutes. HE could have stayed longer, but I was cold. I bribed him to leave by saying that he could drink tea with mama when we got home. He thinks drinking tea out of a mug is very grown-up, so he was quite inticed by that prospect. I just love my little manny!!! “Drinking tea with mama, MMmmmmm, this is good tea!!”
• We are presently in Duluth. Drove through the rain to get here. I spent most of the time reading, while Ryan spent it awake, asking every 2 minutes where the tunnels are, and are we at Grandma’s yet? He finally fell asleep with 20 minutes left to the drive. Figures.
• We’re dining out tonight with Tom and Kim. And GrandparentsB are babysitting all of their grandchildren at once. Should be a fun night!!
• And stay tuned tomorrow for a most-excellent photographic Thanksgiving memento, courtesy of the FatJ family (and a talented bro-in-law).

My brother thought the following story should have been included in yesterday’s post. So here it is. (Told in normal voice, rather than talking-to-a-two-year-old voice).

Back in January of 2007 FatJ and I and Tom and Kim went on a vacation to an Iberostar resort in Mexico. We had a fabulous, wonderful time…sort of a last hurrah before parenthood hit (Kim and I were pregnant with Max and Ryan, respectively). Anyway, one of the highlights of this trip was the day that Tom and FatJ entered a horseshoe contest on the beach, sponsored by the resort’s entertainment crew, the Star Friends. As the horseshoe contest progressed, it was apparent that FatJ was easily kicking the arses of Tom and all of the other players in the contest. I’m not sure where FatJ’s sudden horseshoe prowess came from (could it be the glass upon glass of Corona?) but the Europeans in speedos were in awe of FatJ’s incredible horseshoe ability. Emil (or Lars, or Hans, or Brutus- whatever his name was), the muscleman Bulgarian over-zealous Star Friend who led the contest, did a really great job of getting the audience riled up over the game; Kim and I were just about peeing our pants (literally- we had to go like every five minutes) with excitement just watching FatJ’s imminent victory go down right there on the white sands of the Yucatan peninsula. Finally, after much hand-wringing and nail-biting from the crowd, El Pat was crowned the All Time Greatest Horseshoe Champion in the History of the Iberostar Resorts!!!! It was a proud moment for us. He actually had Europeans in speedos coming up to him inquiring about his technique and commenting that he must REALLY be some sort of horseshoe pro back in the U.S. To which FatJ responded, “nah, I’m just a mediocre player back in the U.S.” Because the U.S. is so known for it’s great horseshoe players.

Now, the fun didn’t stop there. Later that night during the Star Friends evening entertainment, FatJ was called up on stage to receive his first place medal and award certificate for being numero uno in the Iberostar Horseshoe Contest. And that, THAT, my friends, was probably one of the funniest things I’ve ever witnessed in my life.

Fotos: El Pat, campeon de los horseshoes Iberostaricos:

That’s FatJ in the middle there, in the light blue button down shirt. Between two turquiose silk-shirt wearing star friends.

There he is again, posing with the other winners of that day’s various contests.

Here they are all doing “We are the Champions”

Post-ceremony, celebrating in the bar

Mexican Flag shots

My brother, after doing a Mexican Flag shot

the four of us