Sanity's View of Pregnancy

When I am not overwhelmed by horomones, when I'm not suffering from lack of sleep, when I'm able to walk more like a person than a penguin, I generally have a sane view of pregnancy.  As I approach the last few weeks of my second pregnancy I'm having some not-so-sane views of pregnancy.  So, I thought I would post some of my sane thoughts & feelings about this whole thing before the onslaught of posts from my pregnancy-induced insanity begin.

I believe that pregnancy is a wonderful gift and an absolute honor.  To allow God to use my body to create another object of His love, another person to glorify His name, another person to help build His Kingdom .... it really just leaves me speechless to think of the immense responsibility and grace that comes with cooperating with Him in this way.

I believe that life starts at conception, at the joining of the sperm and the egg.  I believe that God breathes life into a new human at this very moment.  I believe that God literally enters a woman's body to create and breath life into a unique expression of His image.  I am in awe that God so greatly desires to share His divine love that He has entered my body twice to create two unique expressions of His image.  Two images that without my cooperation, without my sacrifice, would not exist.  I am in awe of this incredible act, of this incredible idea - God has breathed life into a new human inside my womb.  I am thankful for the trust, the gift and the journey He has blessed me with.

While I was pregnant with Landon, a friend pointed out that I had two guardian angels with me at all times while pregnant.  [This was when my relationship with Landon's guardian angel started to take hold :) ].  While pregnant I have two souls in my body.  And as a Eucharist-loving-Catholic, I believe by participating in the Mass and consuming the Eucharist, I am able to share Christ with my child before he/she even takes a breath in this world.  --ALL so stinkin' COOL!!--

While I find pregnancy to be a great honor and a great gift, I also know it comes with great sacrifice.  Body aches, horomones that trigger nausea and headaches, avoiding certain foods, stretch marks, heart burn, insomnia, exhaustion, swelling, and the dreaded "pregnancy nose."  And then there's labor and the pain, and in all honesty - trauma!  The Father donates ONE cell, the Mother supplies the rest -- the oxygen, the nutrition, the space.  But it's all worth it! To cooperate with God to bring an absolute miracle into the world. To participate in what only a woman's body was designed and created to do.  It is all worth it, it is all an honor.

So, as the future posts come regarding preganncy, and there is sarcasm, negativity, and complaining involved, please remember this post and my SANE view of pregnancy!

Brownie "Spread"

 [A post by Josh]

Alright, so I am stealing Allison's computer to be able to post my latest "Aven" moment. [no offense to the Avens, you know I love you all] 

Most of you probably don't know, but brownies are my favorite dessert of all time.  To the point that when Allison and I got married, I did not want a Groom's cake.  All I wanted was a large tier of stacked moist, gooey, half baked, brownies.  So with that said... the other night Allison and I decided to treat ourselves with homemade ice cream and a box of brownies.

We started the night off with cooking dinner, nothing fancy, just the usual... rice and chicken.  Allison usually cooks dinner, but this night she only cooked the rice (this will come into play later).  After we finished eating dinner I got excited about the brownies, so I went ahead and started preparing the dessert.  Allison is not fan of baking at all so she gladly stepped aside to let me work my masterpiece.  I think she would rather clean the entire house while being 9 months pregnant than to bake anything.  I on the other hand rather enjoy baking.  Maybe it's because I treat myself to samples of the dough before actually baking it (to make sure it tastes right of course). 

So now that I have set the stage for the evening and my love for brownies and enjoyment in baking, let me fill you in on how I discovered how to make "BROWNIE SPREAD."  That's right, it may be the newest product you see in the stores.  It started off like any normal baking of brownies from the box.  I opened the bag and poured the powdered mix into the bowl.  I then grabbed an egg, cracked it and threw the shell away.  Next, I needed to recall the amount of water to use so I quickly glanced at the box, filled the measuring cup to 1-1/4 cup full of water and poured it in.  That's right, over a cup of water for brownies.

Now you may be asking, "Why would you pour that much water into the mix for brownies?"  This is where I bring Allison back into the picture.  When she finished cooking the rice, the empty box was still on the kitchen counter.  When I quickly glanced over to see how much water was needed, apparently I looked at the wrong box.  Now, you tell me if the rice box looks anything like the brownie box.

Not the same size, color, or food for that matter. 

Oh, and the fact that it says "Rice Range Top Directions" should have been my first clue that something was not right.

But no,  I was so anxious to get these brownies started and finished so I could savor every bite that I literally threw it all together without paying attention.

I was wondering why the mix was sooooo soupy.  On top of that, I only added the 1 tablespoon of Canola Oil that is listed on the box above instead of the 1/3 cup that was suppose to be measured.  I figured 1/3 cup of oil and a 1/3 cup of water (which is what I was suppose to add) is somewhat close to the large amount of water I had already dumped in, so went ahead and threw them in the oven to see how they would turn out.

2 HOURS later (that's what it took to cook out all the water) they were finally "finished."  I let them cool down for about ten minutes and decided to take my chances.  My first initial reaction was "they are not that bad, I can make this work."  I took out a very small piece for Allison to try; hoping to reaffirm, or maybe convince myself, that they were good to go.  She muscled through it but quickly said it was awful and she couldn't handle the texture.  So I cut a piece to prove her wrong and plopped a scoop of homemade ice cream with chocolate fudge on it and started going to town.   About 4 bites into I realized there is no disguising the truth, mixing browning ingredients with rice cooking measurements DO NOT make for tasty brownies.  Gooey...yes, tasty...no.   Unfortunately we wasted a perfectly good brownie mix to discover what we are now calling "brownie spread".  I swear you could have spread it on a piece of bread like peanut butter.  I don't know if any amount of cooking could have cooked out all that water.

Oh well, still enjoyed the ice cream and had a great laugh with Allison.  So the moral of the story-- brownies are worth the wait and fully reading all the directions.  Don't rush, or you might find yourself mixing it with some other random box sitting on the counter only to later discover that you have invented your own "brownie spread."

18 Month Check Up

Landon had his 18 month check up yesterday.  Should have been a relatively uneventful visit, but of course it proved otherwise.  Here are the details....

1. ripped several paper leaf decorations off the doors in the waiting room
2. no toys out in the waiting room because it's flu season, so he decided the Little Tykes picnic table could double as a jungle gym
3. flirted with the nurse that brought us back to the room
4. freaked out over having to lay down on the examining table to get his height measured. Full on wrestling match and crying to get him to lay down, followed by nasty looks at the nurse he had just been flirting with.  Crying fit #1
5. Height is 34.5 inches, putting him in the 95th percentile for his age, where he's been for most of his life
6. Actually sat still on the baby scale!  Decided the nurse was worth flirting with again.
7. Weight is 26.5 pounds, putting him in the 50th percentile for his age, where he's been for most of his life.
8. Not interested in reading books with me while waiting for Doctor to come in.  The chairs in the room and the trash can are much more exciting. 
9. So excited the Doctor and her med-student are in the room he starts his "show off dancing."  Floor is slick and he's in socks.....face plant into the floor right in front of the doctor.  4th time in less than 2 weeks he's split his lip open.  Blood everywhere.  Crying fit #2.   
10. Doctor asks questions and checks him out while he's sitting on my lap.  Pouting and thumb sucking.
11. Put him on the table again so she can check him out up there.  Freak out and wrestling match and Crying Fit #3. 
12. He sits still while waiting for nurse to return with the shot.  He decides reading a book isn't such a bad idea.
13. Flirts with the nurse when she comes in and does another "show off dance."  This time without socks so no face plant. Phew!
14. Lay down on table again.  Wrestling match again.  Crying Fit #4.  But this time the crying fit is more intense because he got a shot while on the table this time.  Pouts and sad faces at the nurse.
15. Falls asleep on the way home.

Good news is he's growing at insanely steady rate and was more concerned with his bandaid on his leg from the shot than he was with his lip.

*sigh*  Most likely at the next visit to the doctor's I'll have two kids to traumatize!

Landon's Guardian Angel

I believe in Guardian Angels.  I have always believed in Guardian Angels.  But the impact of Guardian Angels was not always apparent to me.  It took having Landon, being his mother, and watching him grow over the last 18 months that I finally understand the importance and impact of their work.

Landon was sitting up and crawling at the age of 4 months. He was independently standing at 7 months, and walking at 9 months.  He climbs anything and everything that looks like it might be interesting to get over or be on top of-- this includes our deck railing (2 stories high).  I'm pretty sure he's been moving non-stop since the day his brain could send signals to his body to wiggle in-utero.  His Guardian Angel (and all care-givers) are constantly on the move in order to keep up with him.

I am shocked that we have yet to go to the Emergency Room with him. I am shocked that he's not required stitches or a cast for broken bones.  I have personally witnessed some invisible force move his body, his head/face just out harm's way numerous times.  I can only attribute the narrow misses and the lack of serious injury to his Guardian Angel. 

So this post is to be a public recognition of this dear angel's work. And a request, for all who read it, to say a prayer of thanks to God, for creating a special angel for my special child who has no sense of danger and no concept of inactivity.  And also to request a prayer for me.....that I will handle Landon's first major injury with sanity and without complete panic!  Because while we have avoided the emergency room so far, it is inevitable that we will be visiting it sooner than later.  After all, he is the child of a mother who received stitches in her head twice before the age of 5, and a father who broke his arm in 2 places falling out of a tree. :)

Halloween 2009

So, after posting pics from this year's Halloween, I started feeling nostalgic.  Found these pics & video from last year and decided to share.  So cliche to say, but I can't believe how much he's grown!!

My sister....festive in random "ski" stuff from our house.

Little Tigger & Eeyore

Happy Family!  The orange shirt is as festive as I get!

Landon would jump like this all the time!  Ironically, he never took to the "Johnny Jumper" thing. He apparently preferred to exhaust the arms of any willing adult.

Halloween 2010

We don't really know many of our neighbors so we opted to go to my Aunt & Uncle's neighborhood for Halloween this year. That way family could see Landon (and help chase him) and I could see some of my former clients that live in their neighborhood. 

Landon was dressed up as a dinosaur and actually left the hood/head on most of the night!  He RAN the whole time and attempted to play on swing sets, play with toys in garages, and invited himself into a few houses. He's only had a few M&M's and Smarties in his whole life, so had no idea what this whole "candy" thing was about.  But being allowed to run all over the yards and from house to house was apparently the best thing ever!

Here are some pics.....

Happy Family! 

This is outside my Aunt & Uncle's neighbor's house that we pre-partied at. Chili and pumpkin desserts, etc.  

We had just come from our friends' cabin. We were exhausted and smelled like campfire! 

Landonsaurus Rex is about to attack!

My sister dressed as "Flo" from the Progressive commercials.  She is way more festive than I am and will most likely always be considered "cooler" than me by my children.

An "active" moment with my cousins Chloe and Clara.  I'm not sure if this was a sweet gesture towards Clara or an antagonistic move, but it made for a cute picture!

Okay, this pic is not the most flattering for any of us, especially me. BUT, I had to post it to prove that I did participate in walking a little of the neighborhood that night. 

My Reasons....

....for starting this blog

1) We have a lot of family and friends and I'm not good at keeping in touch.  This hopefully is a way to keep people informed about our life that care to know!

2) I'm horrible about writing in Landon's "Milestone Journal" that I started in order to keep track of things.  I'm horrible at writing in my own journal to keep track of thoughts and happenings in my life.  I'm horrible at remembering events (the big and the little) unless they're written down or photographed.  So I'm hoping this is a way to remedy my poor ability to keep track of the things going on in our lives.

3) My life and every detail about it most often feels like chaos to me. I'm always attempting ways to get better organized, stay organized, etc.  This is yet another one of those attempts. :)