March 31, 2006
Well, well, well. 

Yep. Here we go again!

So here's the story. As many of you know, I've been having two-week cycles for most of the past year. A couple months ago I went to my doctor, and she told me that basically, if my body didn't suddenly change course and start having more normal cycles within the next couple months, I needed to call them back and schedule an appointment with one of the doctors there who would discuss with me "where to go from here" - i.e., either the uterine ablation, or a hysterectomy.  Phil and I have spent the last few months talking the whole thing over quite a lot, and while we would be happy with our two kids, we felt like we'd always feel like something was incomplete. But that didn't mean we were ready to have another baby yet - we were just talking about the "what-ifs" and when we'd go forward with the surgery or whatever else. We finally decided, about two weeks ago, that we weren't ready to try for another but it wouldn't be such a bad thing if it happened. (Little did I know that by then the decision had already been made...) So, then, I had my last period sometime around the second week of February. (I had stopped keeping close track because they always just came every two weeks anyway.) The only reason why I even vaguely remember when that last cycle started is because I remember bringing supplies with me over to our new house the weekend we got the keys - the day of Natalie's party. Two weeks later, right on schedule, or so I thought, I started spotting a little and I just figured it was the new period coming, but it never really materialized - it just went away after about a day of spotting. I didn't have a new period two weeks after that, so I figured, oh great, so now it's my PCOS back again. Never really thinking it was at all possible that I might be pregnant. (You'd think after having two kids I would have known...) About a week after that 'cycle' was due to start, I found an old extra test that I'd had sitting around since I got pregnant with Ethan, and it was about to expire so I just went ahead and took it. It was negative, as I expected. Two weeks later, and I've been feeling awfully sick to my stomach for the last week. And I'm hungry all the time, too, but nothing ever satisfies because I have that nausea. And then a few days ago I started noticing that my cute tight jeans, the ones I fit so nicely in after losing weight recently (of course - great timing), were feeling a little tight through my hips. But, I couldn't possibly be pregnant. I didn't have ANY ovulation symptoms, and I KNOW my body to know when I ovulate. (Which was why we felt fairly comfortable throwing caution to the wind...) I must just be gaining a couple pounds because I've been snacking a lot...okay, almost constantly.  On Wednesday night the nausea got a lot worse, and then yesterday morning it was almost unbearable - I didn't even want to lift my head up off the table while I was trying to choke down some cereal. I told Phil that I was changing plans for the day; I wanted to take the van so that I could go to the store. (I needed to get some cake decorating stuff for a cake I'm making today for a friend, but I also wanted to stop by and get a test.) I still figured it was going to be negative, but I had decided that since I was obviously so messed up now, and I was having this worsening nausea, that I just was going to go ahead and call the doctor and move forward with whatever they wanted to do. I figured that when I called they would ask me when my last period was, and since I wasn't sure, they'd ask me if I was sure I wasn't pregnant. So I took the test, so that I could tell them with certainty that the nausea, bloatedness, and missed periods weren't related to pregnancy. 

So...after picking Phil up from work last night, we went home to drop off some groceries and let Phil change clothes before we wanted to head out to do something last night. I hadn't gotten the the bathroom all day (I took the kids to the zoo yesterday since it was SO lovely out!!) so I really had to go, and since I had two tests in the pack I bought, I decided to go ahead and use one then. (It's ideally done first thing in the morning, but since I had two, I figured why not?) Well, it was an instantaneous result. There was no waiting required - two little pink lines showed up right away. (So now I'm thinking that the old test I used a couple weeks ago really was expired.) There was no doubt about it - I was pregnant again! As the lines appeared I almost didn't even believe it, because I was so much prepared for the one line I had expected I would see, just confirming what I (thought I) knew.  In retrospect, I really should have known. I didn't have all the signs, but I had enough! What I think it really funny is that, this, my third time (or actually, my fourth, since I had that one miscarriage) was the first time I didn't know I was pregnant right away. Here I am, already around 6 or 7 weeks into it!

Of course Ethan is too little to know what we were talking about (I just cannot believe it - the thought that my little guy is going to be a BIG BROTHER??) but Natalie knew right away what was going on. I had a new baby girl in my tummy. She's been asking for a baby sister for almost a year now, and we've been telling her (and trying to tell ourselves as well) that it was up to God. I was trying to prepare her that there really might not be any more babies around here, girl OR boy. And even if we did have another baby, we don't know whether it would be a boy or a girl. Well, Natalie is already convinced that this baby is a girl. We're definitely going to have to find out what the sex is, so that if it isn't a baby sister we can prepare her for this -- she's so sure it's a girl!

We're a little shell shocked right now. Happy, but still shocked. It's not an "oops" because we knew that if we wanted a third child, it would have to be decided soon to start trying. But it is a complete surprise. I'd finally come to terms with the fact that we might just have two kids, and getting used to having my body back to myself again for a few months since Ethan weaned. (Not to mention that Ethan is just now getting a little more independent and it's been easier for me to get away from the kids for a day.)  To think that two weeks ago we finally came to a sort-of decision to "soon" start trying before we went forward with a surgery, and come to find out I was already pregnant. You'd just think that by this point, I would have known sooner than now!

So, surprise!

March 21, 2006
Welcome to the first day of Spring! And we have snow showers today to celebrate. Yeah, well at least it really is on its way...

I've not updated in so long- and so much has happened! I've just been keeping really busy lately, between getting the house settled, doing Usborne stuff, and occasionally taking care of my kids (just kidding on that one! Don't send out CPS!) I haven't sat down in front of my computer just to play around. 

And once again I don't have time for a proper update, but I'll do a quick "highlight" and I'm sure I'll be getting back into more details soon. It typically in the past has just taken me getting back on for a quick update for me to get back in the habit, and then I'm back to my wordy ways.

Let's see - we've gotten a fish tank up and running. It's a 29 gallon tropical freshwater tank. We have nine fish, and they are all alive even though they've been in our possession for about a week and a half! Yes! I haven't killed them yet! I'm doing a lot different this time, though. First of all, it's not a 1 1/2 gallon tank, and it has a power filter. So I'm not suffocating my fish in their own waste. (That's nice of me, huh?) And before I began the endeavor this time, I read several books so I wasn't a complete novice. The other difference this time? I'm not naming my fish. They are just "the fish" - though I do already see different "personalities" of several of them. Last time I named them, and they all died. So they are just "the fish".

Ethan is sleeping in a toddler bed now, and he's doing great in it! We never put up the crib when we moved in, we just left it out in the garage and just put up the toddler bed. It's much earlier in age than Natalie was when she 'moved up', but Ethan is doing great and we wonder if maybe we shouldn't have done it a long time ago. He HATED his crib - he always screamed in it. And never went to sleep on his own. Now he (almost) goes right down to sleep by himself (we just have to sit next to his bed for a few minutes) instead of the rocking, laying down with, and pleading we had been doing with him. Both kids now pretty much go right down at a set bedtime, and Phil and I have evenings to OURSELVES! What's this all about??

Yesterday we got Ethan's -ahem- 18 month photos taken. (In case you're keeping track, he turned 18 months old on Feb. 13.) Well, so it's his "about a year and a half" photo. Close enough for the second child, right? (Sorry, Ethan. I really do try, being a second kid myself.) His outfit was just really cute yesterday and he wasn't sick with anything but a bit of a runny nose, so I took him over to Wal-Mart for the $7.88 special. Can't beat that. The photographer wasn't that good, but Ethan did great for the first photo and that's all that mattered. At least I'll have a picture of him - I haven't even gotten out my digital camera recently to take any of my own pictures... hence the reason my "picture of the day" is a day over a month ago, and the banner picture at the top is from January.

Ethan also looked really cute because he's got a little 3/4 inch hair cut. It is cute, but it's very short and not quite what I had in mind...when I decided to try to attempt cutting his hair myself. I figured, I cut Phil's hair with the trimmers, how much different can cutting Ethan's hair be? Well, as it turns out, much different. Ethan has baby-fine hair, and it goes in several different directions to that hair line that is much lower than his daddy's (sorry honey). I did the back just fine, but around his crown and forehead, it was just a complete mess. I almost cried. I put down the clippers and carried the boy over to his daddy, and told him, "Honey, I ruined his hair." The poor thing. We put a hat on his head and took him over to Wal-Mart hair studio, and the girl there did a great job fixing my mess.

(This seems to be a lot about Ethan right now...)

AND one more thing about the boy. He's really smart. I mean, really. And I'm not just saying that because I think my kids are absolutely wonderful. (Which they are.) The boy is SMART. Scary smart. Lately I've been teaching Natalie some early reading things, and she wants to know what everything says, how everything is spelled, what all the letters sound like, etc. She's a little sponge right now. So, Ethan is hearing all the stuff I'm teaching her. The boy already knows a lot of letters. And not just the letters, but the sounds they make! I found this out when we were at the library a couple weeks ago, and Natalie was reading the letters on the "CHECK OUT" screen, to figure out what it said. As we were going through the letters, suddenly Ethan was answering before Natalie did. "O!" "U!", and so on, and not only that, but then said "ooo!" and "uuuh!". For about the last week, wherever we are, he points out letters and then tells me the sound they make.  He doesn't know them all yet, but he's getting them pretty fast. It's so amazing, to me. Yesterday we were at Big Lots (great fun) and he was so excited to point out all the letters on the store front (they are BIG letters, after all). "B! B! B!" then he starts into "buh! buh!" and he keeps going until you respond to him.

Last thing for today - the kids had their four year (Natalie) and 18 month (Ethan) check ups last week. Both of them are now at 95 percentile for height, and 50th for weight (Natalie) and 75th for weight (Ethan). I don't have the exact numbers because I forgot to write it down, but I'm going to call the office and get them later this week. We went to a new doctor that's right here in Pickerington, Shari Burns. She seems to be really great, and I like the fact that the waiting room has toys and climbing things for the kids to play with. (All our old office had were books that I figured every kid had sneezed on.) It was kind of strange having to hash through the kids' medical histories, since Dr. Kern had been with them since birth, but I think I'm going to really like her. She didn't even look at me like I was a weirdo for not getting my kids the chicken pox vaccine. Ethan had three shots this time, which was nice actually being able to get them at the office instead of going to an outpatient clinic. Less hassle on all of us! And now, finally, after a year of being behind because of Ethan's breathing issues last year, he is completely up to date! Natalie was just glad to hear she didn't need any until a year from now. Actually she told me she doesn't want any more shots "ever ever" but at least a year from now is an unimaginable time.

March 2, 2006
We are all moved in to our house! I'll try to get some photos up soon, but I haven't connected camera stuff up to the computer yet. The desk that my computer goes on is still out in our "staging area" of the garage, so I type with the keyboard in my lap and the monitor is sitting on top of my box of Usborne books. We're actually doing pretty good with unpacking - I'd say we are about 80% done at this point. My garage is full of boxes that I haven't broken down yet. (It's a nice big 2 car garage which currently cannot house a single car -or van, for that matter- because other than the boxes and my desk, it also has our couch in it, a fish tank, and several other odds and ends that haven't made it into the house yet. I LOVE moving. 

We moved on Friday afternoon last week, with the rest of the stuff trickling over the rest of the weekend. Then we had to be out of our apartment by Tuesday at 5. I knew I had plans all day long on Tuesday, and Phil takes our van on Mondays all day for his weekly church meetings (rendering me car-less on Mondays), so I knew the only time I could get over to clean the apartment was after the kids were in bed on Monday night. Well, I had to wait until the premiere of The Apprentice was over 9of course!), and then I had my weekly on-line Usborne group chat which goes until 11....and after that I finally headed over to the apartment. I was there until 3:45 am getting the place completely spotless. I had forgotten that our apartment didn't take a "security deposit" from us a year ago - they took a "security bond" -- which really just meant it was another payment that we wouldn't get back. If I would have remembered that I wouldn't have scrubbed quite so hard and so long on Monday night. I mean, I would have still cleaned it, but I got that place SHINING. And I've been paying for it the rest of this week because I'm still running behind on sleep. I LOVE moving.

But, we're here now and I am really enjoying it so far. No beat box turning on next door every afternoon at 1:00 sharp and continuing on the same beat for the next two hours. (Phil once found out that our old neighbors' job was "selling beats". Ohhhhkaaaayyy....) LOTS of space for the kids to run around. AND we have a dedicated toy room in the basement. (As I'm setting up the room, the song keeps running through my head, "welcome to our world, welcome to our world, welcome to our world of toys!") ALL the toys (except for just a select few which are in the kids' rooms) are destined for this world of toys room in the basement. Glory hallelujah - and it has a door to close everything up in it. (As Phil likes to point out, my favorite way to clean is to find places to shove stuff. Well, yes, that's pretty true. Well, now I have a room where I can throw all the toys and shut the door, and the basement is clean.) 

Natalie did great with the move. She only said once or twice that she "liked our old house better", until we pointed again to the fact that she now has a basement and a back yard. Then she said, "I like our new house best". I thought maybe when we moved last year that Natalie did so well just because she was younger and not as aware of things, but I think now that it's just her personality, because moving didn't hardly bother her at all this time either. Ethan, on the other hand, was pretty much a mess for a few days. It didn't help that he had a bad cold on the same days, so he was feeling miserable anyway, but all the chaos around him was giving him fits. Most of the weekend he just walked around the house in tears, saying "ma-ma! ma-ma! ma-ma!" non-stop, even when I was right there, and/or holding him. The turn around point for him was Sunday night, when we were over at the old apartment, picking up a load of things. The place was almost completely bare, and Ethan walked around looking really stressed out. When we got home, suddenly instead of walking around looking at all the boxes and crying, he went over to a box of toys that we'd already gotten out, and started playing. And he's been acting fine ever since. Maybe he just needed to realize that his toys were here, not there, so THIS was home now.

Well, back to unpacking. I'll try to get some pictures up in the next couple days.