By Julie

Monday was a very special day. My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Bethany Noelle! Mother and daughter are doing well.

It's been a veritable baby boom in our circle. Not only do I have a new niece, but in the last few months FIVE of my cousins have also had babies. Among our friends there are two new babies plus two more on the way. Wowie!


In other news, we finally hired a gardener. Not finally as in we finally gave into peer pressure but finally as in we finally found one willing to take our business. After a year of dead end inquiries and referrals, I finally found someone by calling a number in a mailer. During their first visit we watched surreptitiously through the window as they surveyed our front yard and laughed at its awful state, but after two visits the yard already looks worlds better. Hooray!

For the back yard we've got different plans. I've successfully sprouted seeds for a bunch of fruits and vegetables, the majority of which have already been moved into pots, but eventually they'll all need to be planted in the ground somewhere back there. I also gave up on the old batch of sunflower seeds that refused to grow and sprouted a new batch that's doing very well, but instead of planting them in the back I think I will eventually plant them in the front, but maybe wait until they look a little less weed-like to avoid confusing the gardeners.

Kevin convinced me to sign up for Netflix so that I don't end up working all through my leave. Here's the first batch of movies I watched:



By the way, did you know yogurt containers are not recyclable? I looked it up a while back and was shocked to learn type 5 plastics are not easily recyclable. This means you can't just dump it in your curbside bin. This recent Slate article explains it pretty well. Update: It turns out our trash disposal company will take all type 1 through 5 plastics in curbside recycling! Yay! Check with your local trash disposal service and maybe you'll get some good news too!

Labels: environment, gardening, kids, movies

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By Julie

I can't sneeze. The baby won't let me. I can do the AH-, but instead of finishing with -CHOO, I just wince painfully. Even blowing my nose is difficult because of the abdominal muscles required. I've never experienced this before because both Alex and Ana were born in winter. Something to keep in mind for all of you future moms who suffer from spring-summer-fall allergies like I do.


Yesterday while teaching the kids how to baby proof the living room for their soon-to-be-born baby sister, I told Alex how he used to play with the TV set. He couldn't stop laughing through the whole story.

Back when Alex was a baby, we watched two shows a week religiously: Charmed and Gilmore Girls. Eventually we had to stop watching Charmed once Alex got old enough to be scared of the monsters, but at first all he noticed was the bright light coming out of the box... and the row of buttons immediately underneath.

Alex learned quickly that pressing the On/Off button got Mommy and Daddy's attention right away. When he graduated on to the channel buttons, we bought a plastic shield made for babyproofing the TV. It didn't last a week. Alex figured out how to pull it away from the TV and reach behind it with his nimble little fingers. We ended up have to duct-tape over the buttons and use the remote control exclusively.

I have many other Alex babyproofing stories, but I can't recall any for Ana. Aside from perching precariously on the arm of the sofa I don't remember her doing anything else particularly dangerous or naughty. I wonder if it's because she had an older sibling to occupy her attention. Or maybe they just have different personalities.

Daisy's preoccupation with eating plants is bordering on the pathological. Kevin found several gigantic lumps of regurgitated grass in the backyard. But I think I've found a way to keep my plants out of her reach: container gardening. I've transplanted all the small plants into long, rectangular containers and set them on the patio tables and the corn into large pots set on top of the patio chairs. Thank goodness Daisy has short legs.

Labels: allergies, gardening, kids, pets, pregnancy

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By Julie

The nursery currently looks like this. No flooring yet. At my doctor's appointment yesterday, I was told it's still going to be a little while. I guess the baby is waiting for Daddy to install the flooring in her room.


Meanwhile, here are some seeds that I'm sprouting in my kitchen window: bell peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and corn. They're all growing like crazy, especially the corn. It's as if the seeds can feel spring just outside the window. I'll need to transplant them outside very soon, just not sure where yet. There is no spot safe from Daisy in the backyard. She likes to eat plants, vomit, then lick up the vomit. I wish I were joking.

I would consider planting them in the front yard, but our nosy neighbors (the ones that steal flowers off my rose bushes) have an unhealthy interest in everything we grow in our front yard, and if they see crops growing, I suspect they'll either steal the fruits of my labor or report us to city hall.

Other than the delight of seeing my crops growing I have little reason to like spring. Right now I have a giant wad of tissues stopping up my nostrils because they won't stop bleeding, and the reason they're bleeding is because I've been taking Sudafed nonstop, and the reason I've been taking Sudafed is because I can't take Claritin, and the reason I wish I could take Claritin is because my allergies are driving me INSANE.


By the way, here's a picture of the belly. It's not a video, but it's more bare skin than I've shown in a while...


... and here's a picture of Kevin getting some fun in before the baby comes. He didn't get shot until several matches into his day, which is quite good considering this is his first time paintballing.

I'm officially out of the office as of the 24th whether or not the baby comes, and Kevin's starting paternity leave as of the 25th. Yay! That's only 9 more days for me and 10 more days for him!

Labels: allergies, games, gardening, lusers, pets, pregnancy

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By Julie

Today I got a call from Alex's school. He had an allergic reaction to freshly mowed grass and was waiting in the nurse's office. When I picked him up, his eyes were still puffy, poor thing. I asked how I would go about keeping a bottle of Children's Benadryl at school in case this happens again, and they gave me a form for his doctor to sign.

Alex inherited allergies from both of us. We react to similar things but to varying degrees. I'm much more allergic to grass than Kevin is, and he is much more allergic to cats than I am. The list goes on. This season has been particularly bad for me. I've been alternating between Sudafed and Benadryl, i.e. whenever the Sudafed starts making my nose bleed, I switch to Benadryl, and whenever the Benadryl makes me too sleepy, I switch back to Sudafed.

In related news, we've been trying to hire a gardener for a year now. The latest attempt occurred this past weekend. The fellow had left an ad on our doorstep, but when I called and asked him to come give us a quote, he didn't show. I guess business has been too good.

Labels: allergies, gardening, kids, meds

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By Julie

So, what I was saying is this. Any third world mutt given a dinner of leftover chicken meat (sans bones even!) to complement some boring dry dog food would be totally happy, not to mention healthy. What does our purebred first world dog go and do? Have another heaving attack of diarrhea, all over the dining room.

Here's where I share my trick for deoderizing a room: microwave popcorn. The stuff is amazing, better than Lysol. Just pop a bag and wave it around. It will mask the foulest odors.

(Eating the popcorn after using it for this purpose is totally optional. I know I couldn't bring myself to do it.)

In other potty news, Ana is done using her little potty chair, yay! Now we can pack it away in the garage until number three is ready to use it.

And speaking of number three, I'm now at week 19. Within the last two weeks I gained a disconcerting 4 pounds for a total weight gain of 5 pounds. While putting on a sweater with a geometric design, I had a full on panic attack, complete with a self diagnosis of gestational diabetes.

"I look like a FAT ABSTRACT PAINTING!!!" I wailed.

Then Kevin reminded me that I went through similar growth spurts when I was pregnant with Ana. He wondered if it had something to do with the girly hormones, because my weight gain with Alex had been much more steady. I'm just glad that one of us remembers stuff like this. Hopefully my glucose test next month confirms it.

My belly is huge now. Not wearing a maternity belt is no longer an option. For weeks I tried and failed to find my old belt, and I was despairing at the thought of having to brave holiday crowds at the mall just to get a replacement when I finally found it in the last box of baby stuff, huzzah!

I've also started wearing nursing bras. Yeah, real sexy :P but none of my normal bras fit anymore, and I'm too cheap to buy new bras in a bigger cup size only to have to give them away in five months.



Here I've recruited Alex and Ana to my cause of cultivating plants that Mommy isn't allergic to. Costco apples come in these plastic packages perfect for sprouting seeds, sunflower seeds in this case. The kids are spooning potting soil on top of the seeds. Now the trays will sit in the garden window in my kitchen, where it's all snug and warm, until the seedlings get a few inches tall, and then we'll plant them in the back yard.

Recently Kevin wore a dark red sweater over a button down shirt.

Ana: Daddy, you look funny!

Me: Ana, that's not a nice thing to say!

Ana: (in a stage whisper) But mommy, he looks like a TEACHER.

Labels: allergies, food, gardening, kids, pets

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