Monday, May 29, 2006

And by the way ....

Yes ... I am still pregnant. Once again I have watched my due date come and go. Apparently this is just the way my body does it. Wants to make sure this baby has plenty of time to get close to 10 pounds as well. Houston was 9 lbs 10 oz and i'm pretty sure this baby is going to be just as big, if not bigger.
Alright .... i'm heading to bed. Maybe this will be the night ...
~C

Kravitz (left) and Krickette (right) taken July 4th, 2002 in League City, TX.

Good-bye Kravitz, a.k.a. "Fatboy-Ratboy" ... the coolest ferret ever

We new it wouldn't be long, especially after Krickette passed away. Kravitz had been sick for a while and it was a wonder he was still with us for this long. He finally said goodbye on Friday, May 26th. We will miss that crazy little guy. He was the coolest ferret ever. Brett and I adopted Kravitz when we moved in together in college. We named him after our favorite musical artist, Lenny Kravitz. He pretty much had the run of our place in college. He was notorious for stealing mechanical pencils, erasers and pretty much anything else he could grab on to and take off with. There was a hole in the bottom of the box spring part of our bed that he would climb up into and hide stuff. You should have seen all the stuff that came out of there! He would drag things that were a hundred times his size across the house ... big cardboard boxes, the laundry basket when it was empty, etc. He even chased Mowgli around the house. Now she is the only one of the original four left and hope she sticks around for many, many more years. When we moved in together in 2000 we had Mowgli the dog, Gemini the cat, Scooter the iguana and Kravitz the ferret. I think most of our friends thought we were crazy but they loved hanging out with all the animals too. And apparently we were just beginning ... just over a year ago (before we lost Gemini to heart failure) we had 5 dogs, 2 cats and 2 ferrets. Now we are down to 4 dogs and 1 cat. I guess we are making up for it with babies but we will always have animals. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Friday, May 26, 2006


World Wide Knit in Public Day is Saturday, June 10. A group will be meeting in Gainesville at the Oaks Mall in front of Macy's from 1 - 3 pm. Bring a chair or floor pillow and your knitting or crochet. There is also a craft show at the mall this weekend.

Monday, May 22, 2006


Houston eating some yummy homemade pizza.

Mowgli on her 9th birthday. She so excited that she's yawning ... even though it kind of looks like she's growling.

Mowgli and Marz patiently waiting for daddy to finish cooking their steaks.

Happy Birthday Mowgli!!!

Today, May 22nd, is Mowgli's 9th birthday. I can hardly believe it's been that long since my college roommate and I drove to Old Town to pick out this tiny four-week-old Beagle Basset puppy. She's been through lots of ups and downs with me, lots of college parties, and lots of moving around after college. She has truly been a loyal companion and has always been very protective of me. And God bless her for putting up with Houston and never biting him. Honestly, sometimes I feel like biting him and for a dog her age to put up with him is really great. She barks and growls and warns him but never snaps. She had an electric toothbrush hit her square between the eyes today and even got kicked a few times as Houston is going through his "mama pay more attention to me" phase but she never struck back. Mowgli, Marz, Tiki and Tater all had a steak and zuchini for dinner tonight in celebration of Mowgli's 9th birthday.

Yes ... I am still pregnant

Uhhhh. I don't remember being this uncomfortable at 39+ weeks with Houston. I have extra fluid this time so my belly is HUGE and I have stretch marks. I never knew stretch marks were so darn uncomfortable since I didn't get any last time. I hope I don't watch my due date come and go again. I think I might cry if I wake up on Sunday still pregnant.
I remember when I was pregnant with Houston ... a couple of days after my due date I went to the grocery store and the cashier asked me when I was due ... I told her "two days ago". I thought she was going to pass out right there. I can still remember the look on her face. She told me I needed to go home and rest.
This time I'm not even at my due date yet and I don't feel like I could make it through a full grocery shopping trip. This whole being pregnant while caring for a toddler is really a lot more work than I thought it was going to be. At this point at least. It was rough for the first trimester because I was sick and didn't want to get up off the couch, the second trimester was much better, but the third has truly been a challenge. I had so much more energy last time but I didn't work during the third trimester with Houston. This time I have the 24-hour-a-day job of taking care of a less-than-two year old who is trying to enter his terrible two's early and trying to do some engineering work from home at the same time. Not the best combination, to say the least.
I had a really rough day today. I finally decided around 4:30 to stick Houston in the carseat and go for a drive, hoping he would take a nap. Sure enough about two minutes after we got in the car he fell asleep. So giving in to the stress of the day I went to the S&S and got a fountain coke and a three muskateers ... not the best idea for someone this pregnant but I felt I really deserved it after the day I had. And three muskateers claims to have 45% less fat than the leading candy bar! =-P So as Houston peacefully slept in the back seat, I drove around with my coke and candy bar and thought about the day. Trying to figure out what's different and what I may be doing to encourage the events of the day. And then the light came on ... it's totally me, not Houston. Okay so it is Houston acting but it's definitely due to my parenting. He's seeking attention.
Up until a month and a half or so ago Houston and I got out of the house all the time. I took him to story time every friday at the library where he got to run around with kids his age that he has been going to the library with since he was about six months old. We were also going to the Kids Love Drums class in Gainesville on wednesdays where he got to expend some energy and also play with some of his friends from the moms group that we've been going to since he was only a couple of months old. We would go to visit daddy at his office and walk across the street to the park. Also, at home we played outside more and I got down on the floor and played with him much more. Now I find myself trying to see how many days I can go without leaving the house ... so far my record is six. That's a long time for Houston to not see anyone but me and his dad. It's so hot out that we don't play outside like we used to. I can only take about 30 minutes and he will stay out there and play for three hours at a time or more if you let him. And I can't tell you when the last time was that I drove him to Gainesville during the week. Either for drums or to run around at the Farmer's Market with some of the other mom's group toddlers. The last time we made it to the library was the friday before Easter ... and it's right here in Lake City. It's so hard for me to get up off the floor now that I haven't sat down there and played with him in weeks. I would probably be acting out too.
So I left the house feeling extremely frustrated with Houston and came home feeling very frustrated with myself that I have let him down already. You see, my biggest fear in having another baby so soon is that Houston will not get the attention he deserves. I know it will be a challenge but I keep telling myself that I can work it out. Just make sure Houston gets some time alone with me each day and that when the little one sleeps to make sure I pay extra attention to Houston. And now I have realized that i'm already dropping the ball and the new baby isn't even born yet! Yikes!
If you are reading this and wondering what Houston has been up to here are a few examples. I wanted to sweep the floor today, as I do twice a day, every day ... as you would too if you had four dogs. So first I had to pick up the building blocks all over the floor and put them in the wagon that they belong in. I picked them up and went to get the broom ... but before I even reached the broom I hear Houston dump the wagon over and all the blocks are now back on the floor. So I sit down again and try to put them all up and now Houston starts pulling them out of the wagon and throwing them all over the living room. I was so frustrated that I gave up on sweeping the floor. Now I realize that he was probably looking at all this as a way to keep mama playing with blocks on the floor. He wasn't trying to drive me crazy, just wanting some attention. I had been working on a job on the computer for the previous two hours so when he got me in the living room with him I guess he wanted me to stay there.
Another new trick of his is to act like he can't hear you telling him to stop doing something he's not supposed to. Up until recently, if you told him to stop doing something, he would stop. Now he continues getting into whatever it is with this mischevious look on his face and starts laughing.
Also, i've been knitting some hats for the new baby with some really soft wool yarn I bought. Well Houston thinks it's hillarious to sneak up and try to pull one of the knitting needles right out of my hand, which removes all the stitches from the needle and causes me to have to start all over. If I were a more experienced knitter I could probably pick up the stitches and move on ... but i'm not ... so I can't. I just taught myself how to knit a few months ago.
I could go on with stories from today but I think you get the picture by now. I really hope I have this baby soon so that I can once again move around. For my own sake and for Houston's. It will be nice to get out of the house once again as well. Some of my mom's group friends have come up here to Lake City to visit me which has been great. If only I had friends like those here in Lake City. Stay-at-home moms with kids Houston's age and another on the way. It really is a great group of ladies and almost all of us are working on round two. Two mamas have had a second baby in the last five or six months and three of us are now pregnant. And all of our "older" children are within a year of eachother, most within just a few months of eachother.
Well I could probably ramble on for another hour or so but I better go get some sleep instead. Tonight could be the night!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Mother's Day Pic

I don't know what's wrong with the picture below. I can't get it to show up on this page but if you click on the little red x it will open the picture in another page.

Mother's Day 2006. I'm really looking forward to getting rid of the 'puffy face' I get when i'm pregnant!

The Belly!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

One more thing...

One more thing before I head back to the heating pad (see post below). Anyone else as excited as I am about The DaVinci Code coming out on the 19th??? I'm really looking forward to it. I wanted to read the book one more time before seeing the movie but I'm focusing all my reading on books about natural childbirth and home births until this baby is born. And i'm still waiting to hear when Dan Brown is planning on being finished with the sequal that he is writing. Anyone hear anything about that? I'm supposed to get an email from Books-a-Million when it is announced so I guess i'll probably just have to wait for that.
Okay ... I really, really need to get to the heating pad now.

Houston and a baby donkey.

Houston and a baby donkey.

Houston and Marzbar

Having fun at John & Jessica's wedding reception.

It's been a while ...

I haven't written in a while. Houston and I have been passing a cold back and forth for over two weeks now. It got me good this week. I've been trying to take it easy and sleep it off this week. Hard to do with Houston running around but i've been making a good effort.
My due date is quickly approaching. I've got all my home-birthing supplies ready and I've finished all the projects that I wanted to finish before the baby is born so i'm ready whenever he or she is. I've just got to shake this cold first. My midwife says i'm very unlikely to go into labor while i'm sick. Guess your body knows when you're not strong enough to handle it. I feel better today than I did yesterday so at least i'm moving in the right direction. I'm finding it very difficult to make myself rest while i've got all this nesting energy. I've been tired for so long and when I finally get my energy back I get sick ... figures doesn't it?!?!
I'm going to post some more recent pictures of Houston. We stopped by a friends house on sunday and they had two, two-day-old, bottle-fed donkeys. They were sooooo cute. Houston is used to chasing the dogs and having them run away from him. Well these donkeys were following him around and he wasn't too sure about them. It was really funny. I wish I had my video camera but at least I had the still camera with me.
Okay ... time for me to go back to the heating pad. My back can't take much of me sitting in this chair. Hopefully i'll be able to write more soon. I've got a few finished sewing and knitting projects I want to post. Until next time ...