Just a Few of the Glamours of Mom Life

Third trimester hit me really hard! So hard, that I almost feel like I can understand Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball."

Yeah. That's pretty serious.

I'm 35 weeks along tomorrow. Everything was looking great at my appointment last week. And by "great" I mean: I'm huge, tired, uncomfortable, and full of emotions and contractions... So I'm right on track. ;)

Baby is head down! But let me tell you, he wasn't a week before. We are SO grateful that he decided to turn back around. He'd better stay that way or he's grounded.

I've been obsessed with PB&J sandwiches, taco soup, Apple Jacks cereal, and chips.

In this second pregnancy, I've perfected the sneeze pee (TMI?), gotten varicose veins, and been dealing with LOTS of hip pain, which my doctor told me means that my pelvis is starting to come apart in prep for birth a little too soon. The only cure is having the baby. Yay. Haha


I've made some pretty stellar decisions/ had some awesome mom moments in the last couple of weeks that I just want to share with you.

I asked Logan to cut my hair.

And he did. In the late hours of the night.

Many people with curly hair know what I mean when I say that it is hard to find people who know how to cut curly hair so it will look good. I haven't even attempted it here yet. My hair was so long that I could only pull it up all the time. So I decided to have Logan cut it all in a straight line, and I chunked pieces of it into random lengths--a technique I've wanted to try for a while.

Not that this is a good picture of me or my hair... But, it actually turned out pretty well. So I guess I'll just never pay for one again! ;) (This picture shows how great it is that my nose is already swelling this early... Maybe that means he'll come early.)


Audrey walked into the living room licking the potato peeler.

Yep. Luckily, she didn't cut herself.


I was doing my hair when I turned around to find Audrey sucking on the flusher of the toilet. ... Of all the places...

She'll just have a great immune system...


Ok. Now for some things that are actually great. I made Audrey (well, mostly my dad made it) a learning tower, and it is AWESOME.

        

She loves to be a helper, and it makes dinner prep 10 times easier. I found the plan for it on Pinterest, and it is actually pretty simple. Someday I'll get around to painting it.


Harvest is officially over! We are loving having Logan around more! And we have been enjoying Fall too!

           

Audrey has FINALLY started saying the best word ever. YES! She still says no quite a bit, but it is so nice to hear an occasional yes. 

She loved her first week in Nursery. We'll see how she does this next week when we try to leave her there by herself. How is it possible that I have a 1 and a half year old!? She is at such a fun age. I can't even believe how much she understands sometimes. I'm mostly loving this stage (except for at mealtimes. Picky picky picky!).

I just got called to be the Laurel advisor in our ward, and I am so excited! (Laurels are 16-18 year old girls in the youth program at church.) I had really awesome leaders throughout my young women years, so I feel like I have big shoes to fill! 

Here's a couple of cute pictures that my mom captured during spud harvest.

Remember that it is impossible to win an argument with a toddler, harvest may be long, but it does end, and that sometimes it's ok to have your husband cut your hair late at night.

Coast to Coast and Back to the Home We Love Most!

We are officially back in Farmtown, USA after moving and then traveling for a week and a half! We do not miss the tricities heat one bit. Idaho heat is hot enough for us!

So I know everyone will be surprised when I say that moving in and getting organized is very slow going when you have a bowling ball in your belly and a toddler running around being a really good "helper." Basically the only time things actually get done is when Audrey is sleeping or when Logan is home in the evenings. But we'll eventually be more put together.

I have been frustrated though, feeling like I get nothing done in the day because Audrey needs me to sit on the ground and play blocks or sing the ABCs over and over... and over (complete with sign language for all the letters, by the way.) I know none of you other moms have ever felt this way, right? But I am so grateful for all of the moms that have come before me and taught me (and continue to remind me) that being a mom doesn't always feel productive or glamorous, but it is SO important. And there is a time and season for all things.

To all those mommas out there who feel like I feel: I hear you.

I'm also grateful for a husband that does so much for us, who listens to me cry, and who eats Kraft mac n cheese happily any night of the week if I don't cook a real meal.


In other news, I've learned where my loyalties lie this past week as I've been going through our stuff and trying to purge the excess.

You see, we lived in this house when we were first married. And some of our stuff has just lived here for a couple of years while Logan finished school and his internship. So we are now reunited with all of our earthly possessions. And I am trying to get rid of stuff, because we have WAY too much stuff.

I apparently have a hard time getting rid of the following:

Bras -- Even if they aren't close to fitting me anymore
Shoes -- Even if I never wear them
Pickle jars -- But what if I decide I want to do that one Pinterest craft I pinned a hundred years ago?
Notes and assignments -- What if I need to dissect a shark again someday?

Logan has a hard time getting rid of the following:

Anything -- "We might need it someday"


Maybe we'll get better at this... Or maybe we'll become shoe and jar hoarders and entertain everyone on TV one day.


Pregnancy update:

I'm partway through week 27. This means that this week or next week (depending on who you ask) I am in the 3rd trimester! That went by really quickly... And at the same time, I feel like I've been pregnant with this boy forever.

Keeping up with Audrey (especially all of the bending) is probably the hardest part for me right now. My mobility is really starting to decline, and baby loves to be up in my ribs, making it hard to breathe.

I apparently have an obsession with Doritos this week as well, which is really healthy. I'm sure that my eating habits of the past few weeks are really going to show on the scale at my next appointment. It's a good thing I have Audrey to chase after or they might be rolling me into the delivery room.

But really. I've still been feeling pretty great. Just the usual aches and pains.


Our trip to Atlanta was really awesome! We flew there to visit Logan's mission. We saw lots of awesome people that he taught and served with. Most of them don't speak much English, but we got along just fine with my minimal understanding of Spanish and their minimal speaking of English. Oh yeah, and a lot of translating on Logan's part. I was so glad to meet these people and feel a little of the love that Logan has for them. We love the people there!

       

Audrey was a CHAMP! She was a wonderful traveller! And, of course, everyone loved her. How could you not?

We stayed with this wonderful family who cooked amazing food for us and took such great care of us, and we got to do some touristy things too. We went to the Aquarium and toured Peach Tree City in a golf cart. (Logan likes to call the freeway picture below his Jurassic Park picture because the trees are so dense all around you all the time that it seems like a huge dinosaur is going to charge out of them.)

I have to tell you about Peach Tree City though. It is a very affluent city ($$$) completely planned around golf cart paths. Yes, golf carts. They call it "living life in the bubble." People ride their golf carts EVERYWHERE. To school, to work, to Walmart. People strap their carseats into their golf carts. There is golf cart parking at all of the stores. It's absolutely NUTS ... I mean, unique. We got lost so many times, because these trails go through the Georgia jungle. But it was really fun to rent a golf cart and pretend that riding around town in a golf cart is totally normal.

    

The second part of our trip was a week in good ole [my] hometown, USA. My best friend got married, and we were honored to be a part of it!

I got to be Matron of Honor and Audrey got to be flower girl/ ring bearer. (The ring bearer took one look at the flowers and decided that was obviously the cooler job, so they switched roles about 30 seconds before we walked down the isle. And let me tell you. He threw those flowers way better than Audrey would have!)

Malena was stunning, as always. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful wedding! Logan was the champion of all dads at baby wrangling. Seriously.

    

We also got to go to Casa Bonita and take a picture with some giant Macaroni... So I call the trip a success! It was great to see so many family and friends before we buckle down for harvest time!

Also, I know that here I am considered a "city girl," but this week I had to try to parallel park... And I just proved how much of a city girl I am NOT. Never even learned how. Or maybe I just proved that I'm not a good driver. ;)


Remember that barn weddings have the cutest flower girls, Atlanta may or may not be harboring dinosaurs, and that singing the ABCs and handing out cracker after cracker to your toddler is time well spent. ;)

It's Blue!!

I will be 20 weeks (halfway there) tomorrow!

We had a great ultrasound today! [Besides the whole discomfort of having a full bladder thing, ya know.] Audrey stayed pretty calm and happy watching with her daddy. The pictures were all pretty clear. As far as we know, everything looks great!

And we got a VERY clear view that we have a little BOY on the way!!

        

She may look like she's way excited to be having a brother, but really she was excited to be eating a sucker. She doesn't really understand the whole brother thing. She can point to my belly if we ask where Mom's baby is, but she also thinks there's one in her belly.

Side note: Yesterday, I decided to start learning cute handwriting, so one of my practice notes ended up in this picture! A little sloppy, but I'm a noob, so that's ok.

We've both thought it was a boy from very early on. But, we thought so SO strongly, that I kept thinking that maybe it would be a girl after all. But, our gut, dreams (You know, like ones of Audrey scratching her brother and making him bleed), and most of the old wives tales were correct. 

My side of the family guessed:

Girl- 8

Boy- 9

Logan's side guessed:

Girl- 3

Boy- 5

I made this little thing because I have been bored out of my mind stuck here in this apartment and because I really love playing around on picmonkey. I also should note that the heartbeat was in the supposed "girl" range, but it has always been significantly lower than Audrey's, so we've kind of counted that as a sign of a boy too.

We have a little boy coming, and we couldn't be more thrilled!!

Remember that old wives tales are 100% accurate (kidding), ultrasound techs are trained to make you uncomfortable by pushing on your full bladder, and I am 2 for 2 on guessing my children's gender, so I'm probably always right about everything else too. ;)

Mom Appreciation Post

My parents are awesome. They had 8 children, and got to raise 7 of us. (I'm sure each and every minute felt like a such a privilege, right Mom and Dad?) ;)

There are many things I appreciate about my upbringing. But today, there is one that REALLY sticks out to me as I'm up to my elbows in throw up. (My, that got graphic really quickly, didn't it?)

We helped out around the house and were taught how to clean and work. We had weekly chores and dish nights and I'm sure we were always perfect angels about it... But no matter how much I thought I had to slave away as a teenager (I can feel my mom rolling her eyes), the grossest jobs always seemed to just magically happen.

When you become the mom and head housekeeper, you get to learn just how awesome those jobs are to do. If someone threw up all over the blocks, it wasn't my problem growing up. It just magically got cleaned up. Now, even if I leave them in the sink to soak overnight, I still have to deal with them in the morning. And let's not even mention all of the random jobs (like cleaning obscure places), that always just happened!

Mom (and Dad, but mostly Mom): Thanks for doing those unappreciated and invisible jobs. I appreciate you now like I never even knew I should have growing up.

...

And if you ever feel like reliving the old days and coming to clean my fridge out or clean up after my children's throw up, my door is open. WIDE open. ;)


Also, if anyone is concerned about the whole throw up thing, Audrey had a stomach bug this weekend.

3 Reasons why it's so fun when toddlers are throwing up:

• They can't tell you so they just walk around getting it everywhere. 
• Anytime she fussed at all, Logan and I both freaked out and grabbed towels and ran towards her to catch the puke that almost never was actually the reason she was fussing. (I'm sure that was very comforting to her.)
• The worst is just that you can't do anything to help them and they're just so miserable.

All's well over here now.


Remember to presoak throw up-soaked clothes, to keep an extra set of crib sheets (or 5) on hand at all times, and to give your mom the biggest hug ever for cleaning up your puke.

Hormones Create Soapbox Rants...

I hope I'm not about to jinx myself here when I tell you that this pregnancy has really been an easy one so far. I'm occasionally queasy, often tired, and have the usual little aches and pains, but I am feeling great now that I am well into the 2nd trimester. I'm about halfway through week 17 (out of 40).

We'll have an ultrasound to determine gender in a couple of weeks. I've had a little bump for a while, but a few days ago, I really popped out all of a sudden. Now, it's fairly apparent that I'm pregnant. Also, I cannot reiterate it enough. If you've never been pregnant before, just take a picture of your belly button before you get big. You'll thank me later. It will never be the same. Mine is already sticking out this time. Seriously.


And I need to soapbox for a second. This lady at the store went on and on about how TINY I am the other day. My answer was, "Yeah, it always seems that way to other people, doesn't it?" To which she just kept telling me, rather forcefully, that I was SOOO tiny.

It is never a compliment to continually insist that someone's opinion or feeling is wrong and that your's is right. Ever. And usually when someone is insisting to a thin person that they are tiny/skinny/perfect/etc, it's not a compliment either.
What they say: You're SOOO tiny! Seriously.
What they mean: You're skinny so you have no problems or body image issues, so quit acting like you can even talk about anything like that. I'm the authority here on your body and feelings, not you.

And when it comes to pregnancy, I've never understood why it's all of a sudden ok to comment on a person's size just because they are pregnant. (As if pregnant ladies don't have feelings. PLEASE. We have more feelings than we can handle, which is why commercials and food make us cry.) A couple of my sisters are very thin and they get really big bellies in the late stages of pregnancy. People point and laugh and make comments in the store like, "Woah, you need to see a doctor right away. Something's wrong with you!"

Do you see me walking up to an overweight man in the store and rubbing his belly and telling him he needs to see a doctor? No. Because it wouldn't be funny or polite. Guess what random grocery store shoppers. It's not funny or polite to do it to a pregnant lady either. Just saying.

And when people have really small pregnancy bumps, it's the same attitude as talking to a thin person.
What they say: You are so lucky. You don't even look pregnant. I'm HUGE!
What they mean: You're not massive, therefore, you have no problems and nothing to complain about. In fact, why don't you just stand there and let me tell you how right I am about you because you have a small belly.

I'm not even close to being the only person who feels this way. In fact, I've never talked to a pregnant lady who likes hearing (especially from strangers) that they are MASSIVE or TINY. And is this blog going to do anything to fix the problem? Nope!

I just wanted to write a little PSA in case anyone actually didn't know that pregnant people (or really any people [yes, including "skinny" people]) don't like to have their body shape and size examined out loud by other people. I think a lot of people don't think about it before they say anything or they think they're being funny. And some people mean well. And yes, it's my job to get over it and not let it bother me. But I'm just sayin.


Soapbox over.


The only things that really make me feel like I am pregnant are my dreams and my cravings/aversions. [And let's not talk about my hormones. The soapbox explains that one for you. ;) ]


Last night... well, early this morning, I had a dream that Logan didn't want to sleep next to me so he moved out to the guest house to sleep on the couch. [Because we totally have a guesthouse next to our apartment... you know.] In reality, he just left for work.

A few weeks ago I dreamt that my best friend, who is getting married in August, got married in this leotard dress with pom pom sleeves, and was magically a piano prodigy. [She doesn't even play the piano.]

And the worst one was getting bitten by a rattlesnake when I opened a cupboard and reached in. [But apparently my brother had already "neutralized" the venom... ? So I survived?]

I could never explain the detail in these dreams. But that last one, haunted me for days. It felt so REAL.


I have gained almost no weight, mainly because food has just been the enemy with me this pregnancy. Most of the time food just sounds terrible, even when I'm hungry. One or two completely random things may sound edible, but other than that, I'm just cramming food down to fill my belly. It was not like this when I was pregnant with Audrey.

The other day, I had a bowl of peas for second breakfast. Pizza hot pockets are a staple for breakfast. Ice cream almost always sounds ok. Logan did have to go out late one night for a doughnut with chocolate frosting. [I don't normally like doughnuts at all.] I could drink pickle juice by the gallon. The pickles are OK, but the JUICE!! MMmmmm. [Pause for a break while I go gulp some.] Meat almost never sounds good, except for chicken and hamburgers.

I've learned to get around this by making a list of foods and just making sure that dinner is something that sounds good to Logan that night, and forking it down whether it seems like food to me or not. But some days, I just have to have what I'm craving.

Yesterday it was Mexican beans and rice. Logan is so patient with these unpredictable and inconvenient cravings. So, we went to a Mexican place near us. He ordered a tostada, but didn't realize it was going to be the size of a medium pizza! Largest tostada I've ever seen. I guess that's his reward for being so kind to his crazy wife.


Audrey is as talkative and sweet as ever at 14 months old. She's been especially worried about where Daddy is all day lately. We have long [repetitive] conversations about this all day. She's working on cutting her 9th and 10th teeth, which is always a blast. And she brings me shoes to put on her feet all day.

The other day, I had her all dressed and ready to swim in the pool at our apartment. We walked over there to find it closed. Since she was already in a swim diaper, (those things DO NOT keep pee in) I had to think fast. So I pulled out a big Tupperware box we have and filled it up on the porch. It was totally redneck and the neighbors stared, but she LOVED it. We are looking forward to getting back to ID where our baby pool lives though, and where we don't constantly get secondhand marajuana smoke in our faces. [Legal in Washington.]


For the most part, Audrey and I hanging out here all day does not inspire any great blog posts, especially not anything farm related. We look forward to being out of this very... stationary and secluded stage soon [check out that alliteration] when we head back to the farm in August.

However, I relearned recently how weird farmers truly are. I was talking to Logan on the phone and he casually told me he was currently shaking potato plants.  .... You're what? Why? He shakes a potato plant, and counts the bugs that fall from it. What was even more weird to me than that is that it isn't weird for me to hear stuff like that anymore and it makes sense.


Remember to check tostada sizes before you order them, to be kind about other people's bodies, and to thank a farmer for finding joy in shaking potato plants so we can have delicious things like french fries that don't have diseases.

Baby Number 2

So the news is out!

Now you are fully able to feel bad for me for moving and having the stomach flu on top of being pregnant. I know Hitler was a man, but I still wouldn't even wish that on him. It was wretched.

And yes, December 2nd, is also my Birthday. :)

This pregnancy has been pretty different so far.

I haven't been as sick this pregnancy. I still have my nauseous days, but they're getting less frequent as I'm in the middle of week 13. (Last week of the fist trimester.) I've mostly been TIRED and extremely cravey. Poor Logan. But, we've only had ice cream for dinner once... and I've only called him crying about a chicken sandwich once... So it could be worse.

One of the biggest differences this time is that I've had more food aversions. Most days I literally feel like nothing sounds good. At all. Except if I think really hard I can usually find one food that sounds kinda sorta like it won't make me want to throw up. It's usually something we don't have or something that doesn't actually exist.

I've been really into banana milkshakes for some reason. I'm obsessed.

We think it's a boy. The early ultrasound thinks it's a frog. ;) We would be thrilled with a boy or girl, but we are sort of hoping for a boy.

I've felt some little baby movements already (way earlier than last time), but I feel like it's hard to always know for sure this early on because they feel so much like the normal stomach gurgles when they're still so little.

According to my apps, the baby is the size of a jalepeno, matchbox car, or lime. (I like The Bump and Ovia Pregnancy for apps.) I've definitely started showing a lot earlier this time around. And I've been feeling some really fun incision stretching.

I've also been doing actual exercises this time because I found one on youtube that I really like by Anna Saccone. It kicks prenatal booty. She has one for all 3 trimesters. I actually made Logan do it one day and he was impressed with the workout it is. Here's the link if you're interested. I did trimester 2 for the first time today and holy moly. I love it. And I'm not a work out kind of person.

Also, I get this question a lot since Audrey was a planned csection. Yes, I do want to try a VBAC this time. I'd really REALLY like to not have a csection again if I can avoid it.


In other news...

Logan is still working up a storm and loving it! He's learning a TON, and we're really glad that we decided to come up here and let him have this experience. Our plan is still to move back to the family farm in August.

We also have plans to visit Atlanta (where Logan served his mission) and go to Colorado for my beautiful best friend's wedding in August. Yes. I will be 6 months pregnant, and we are choosing to go to a hot and humid place... We'll just stick to air conditioned places like the aquarium!

The weather has been hot up here, so we've been swimming in the pool at our apartment and going to a splash park nearby to stay cool.

Audrey is no longer crawling. She's all walk and ALL talk. This girl talks to me all day. She's starting to say more words on purpose, which is really fun. Her favorites are: uh oh, bonk, ball, neigh, bottle, temple, momma, daddy, thank you, and banana. Of course, Logan and I are the only ones that understand what she is saying, but she's getting there.

Remember that banana milkshakes save lives, cloudy days were invented to watch Jane Austen movies, and that Ross has really cute maternity clothes!

Hello Again!

So I kept waiting to hear back from Logan's internship to write an official "Hey, we're moving to the Tricities" blog... But they didn't give us a date and address until a week before we moved... So instead, I'm writing a "Hey, we moved to the Tricities" blog. :) Also, it's totally fine that I haven't blogged in 6 months...

Logan graduated!! Yay! We're done! We were sad to leave our friends in Rexburg, but glad to be moving on to the next phase of life.

Moving was a little nuts. We were hosting my family and Logan's, packing up, and celebrating Logan's graduation all at once. We spent a couple of days back on the family farm sorting through what we wanted to take with us. Our apartment here is provided by the company he is interning for, and is "furnished" ... sort of. So we didn't bring a whole lot of stuff.

The night before the big move to Washington, I woke up in the night with the stomach flu. (Audrey had it the night before.) I was pretty much no help whatsoever with packing up the trailer and deciding what to take. Logan and his family did it all! We only left a few important things behind... Who needs the other half of the baking supplies anyways?

Also, a 7-hour drive is not so awesome when you have the stomach flu. But, we made it in one piece, and were SO grateful for the help that Logan's family gave us.

Logan is loving his internship up here. He is farming, of course. They grow mainly potatoes and wheat, but also do some onions, carrots, and even organic peas. The "small" portion of the farm he is working on for this summer is 18,000 acres! He is learning the difference between a family farm and a corporate farm. There are lots of pros and lots of cons, just like anything. But, he is learning what he likes and lots of new ways of doing things.

One of the things he really likes about up here is how much he is learning about different ways to do what he's been doing his whole life. He says he asks questions all day, and is learning so much! He also gets to speak Spanish all day. He really likes that.

The thing we like least about being up here is that we are a 40 minute drive away from the farm, and family isn't really allowed to be involved on the farm. We also only have 1 car, so Audrey and I pretty much hang out in the apartment all day everyday, which gets really old. But, it's only a few months... And we're thinking about buying a second car.

Also, did I mention he is working 6AM-6PM, plus the long commute? I'm only going crazy on some days.

P.S. Can anyone tell me why I decided not to bring books or other craft stuff? I only brought stuff to sew... And I don't even like sewing. Maybe I'll be singing a different tune in a couple of months.

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary. So I guess we're totally an old married couple now. Obviously.

Audrey turned ONE last week. I can hardly believe it! She is such a delight and we love her! She's walking pretty well, but still choosing to crawl a lot too. She has 6 teeth. She loves books and dancing to any kind of beat. She is still a Daddy's girl, but likes Mom ok too.

We did a little smash cake, and she really went to town on it. She even wanted to share with Mom and Dad.

    

Yum. Slimey frosting hands.

And as far as farm quirks go....

I've only been out to the farm one time, but I can tell you one new thing about this farm. Remember when I told you what a pivot is? (Yes, this is a test.) Well, here, they call them circles instead of pivots. Ta da! I totally know everything about Washington farming... [Insert cheesy grin here]

Just remember that bringing only sewing stuff to a new state does not make you like it, and you always need an umbrella when you live in Washington. :)