What a weekend

Bjorn turned 34 today (convenient what we me turning 29 and all a couple weeks ago). He came home for the weekend. It was so nice and normal that I have sort of forgotten that the next time he's here will be when we move out.

My mom came to visit. She bought me a new camera for my birthday to replace the one the beach destroyed and all I could do nice for her was take this awful picture. Thanks, Mom!

I have no idea what he's doing, but I love it.

Andy celebrated his end of soccer season party and got a trophy. Yay for trophies! I used to mock "participation trophies." Now I get it. I then tried to get him into watching the USA v. England game but he decried it "boring" and I decried his attitude one that must be in another room.

I didn't mean to take this artistic picture of her, but look how awesome and perfect her face is?

We had Andy's preschool graduation Friday. The folks at the George Mason CDC really did a nice job. Here they are preparing for a song to sing the parents.

The event was complete with caps. Sadly, no gowns as I had expected or I might have dressed him a little better. Also weird is that while he has "graduated," he's still got the summer there. Good thing he doesn't really understand what it means yet.

Andy standing outside his school. I've been quite impressed with them. I hope we can find something as good in Southlake for Meg.

Diagnosis

I stayed home yesterday and got both kids to the doctor yesterday. Meg's vomitus interuptus from the evening before had subsided, but she woke up with a goopy eyes. Andy woke up Wednesday morning with a fever of 103. I forget that Wednesdays only one doctor is working so we couldn't get in until noon. Fortunately, after sleeping from 6:00 p.m. to 5:45 a.m., Meg was tired and took a good morning nap.

Anyhoo, the diagnosis -- ear infection for him and sinus infection for her. Prescription -- omnicef for both. Dr. Murphy said that the vomiting was due to the congestion dripping into her tummy and irritating her stomach. He recommended staying away from dairy for a few days since it can lead to increased mucus and also irritate the stomach. It's strange to stay away from milk products. I forget how much dairy she eats, from cheese to yogurt to milk.

With the kids being sick and thus turning my world upside down, I haven't had a chance to talk about how great it was having my mom here last week. A running joke with my sister has been that she taught Megan (as a joke) to say:

"Megan, what does grandmother like?"
"Grandmother loves malt liquor!"

It worked so great that we taught Andy to do that as well with phenomenal results. Jennifer loves asking Andy in front of friends what grandmother likes. When Mom was visiting, we braved going out to dinner with two little kids. Andy wanted hummus, which wasn't on the menu so he asked Mom to read him the menu to see if it was on there. She was kindly complying when he turned to her out of nowhere:

"Grandmother, is malt liquor your favorite?"

We nearly fell out of our chairs. Then we called Elizabeth.

Wacky

Is it spring yet? Seriously. It was warmish last week only to get cold on Friday as my mother arrived, rain and then snow a little Saturday. Then Sunday into Monday, it snowed a lot, like seven inches here in Fairfax. Fortunately, Mom leaves tomorrow and not today or travel might have bee a little messy. Plus, she got to see all the snow which we don't have in Dallas. So with the sub-freezing temps, we're expected to be in the sixties this weekend. I already have some buds on my daffodils. It's just been sort of wacky.

It's been great fun having Mom here. We have been doing a lot of shopping, eating, drinking, playing and entertaining. Oh, and more shopping. She even babysat for a bit last night before the storm hit so Bjorn and I could get out alone.

We've been trying to get Meg to take a few steps and she's this close and just don't doing it. She does smile big when you engage her. Andy, meanwhile, is in this weird stage right now where he cries about random things, like how the toilet paper is going to go away forever and how sad he is that the water goes down the drain. It is sort of like he's grappling with the concepts of life and death and just doesn't know how to process it so he fixates (and cries) over seemingly benign stuff.

Both kids had a bit of a fever yesterday. She seems better today (well, although she started some loose stools in the afternoon), but he took a three hour nap and still feels warm. We'll see about tomorrow. I took today off with the intention of getting out with my mother (we did manage for a few hours) so I always hate to call in after a vacation day, but you do what you got to do.

Breaking news

I can now fit into my fat jeans. I won't disclose the size, but they are real jeans with a real waist complete with belt loops and a zipper. I can't tell you how great it feels to now be wearing stretchy maternity clothes any longer. Of course, I have only one pair of jeans like this so I may instead be wearing these every day.

Bjorn has gone back to work and my mother is here helping. It's so wonderful having her here to help ease into having two kids. It's going to be very strange next week when I'm on my own with both kids when Andy is home from school and Bjorn is still at work.

Andy is tolerating Meg pretty well these days and generally seems pretty interested in her. It will be different once it's just the two of us and his needs have to take a backseat.

Gran-mun-ner

My mother came this weekend to visit and help get stuff ready for BGB, who is now officially due in less than a month. We toured Babies R Us (it's been a while since I've been there) and stocked up on newborn diapers, a new Diaper Champ, some newborn nipples for bottles and lots of other things that I haven't needed in a few years. I still have some stuff left to do, like rent a breast pump and some other exciting details, but I feel pretty confident now that the main stuff is on hand.

It was really good that she was here to help me really think about what we needed to get. While I'm very ready to not be pregnant any longer, the thought of a newborn in the house is actually quite scary. A friend gave me the name of a night nurse she used a few days a week with her daughter that I'm hoping can help me a few days a week when BGB comes. My theory is that if I can avoid the true, all-consuming bone-numbing fatigue that comes with a newborn, I might actually be able to survive getting up three or four times a night for months on end. I swear after having Andy, I began to understand why slept deprivation is a form of torture. It really does mess with your head.

Speaking of my head, I am recovering from an ear infection. If you're counting at home, you'll know that this pregnancy has brought me:
1) Four months of morning/afternoon/evening sickness.
2) Stomach flu.
3) Strep throat.
4) Never-ending cold.
5) Fluid in my left ear that refuses to drain due and makes it difficult to hear.
6) Bronchitis.
7) A middle ear infection.

I'm back on penicillin and I'm hopeful this will knock it out. I went to my internist as opposed to my OB and I'm glad I did. He listened to my lungs and said it's not pneumonia, which is a relief since I've been coughing for two months. The ear was definitely infected so he gave me the antibiotic as well as some steroid nose spray that is safe in pregnancy. He hopes the nose spray will help dry up my sinuses and hopefully dry up the fluid in my ear as well. Fingers crossed.

Andy loved having my mother here for the weekend. She spoiled him by reading him lots of books, helping him work puzzles and generally being his playmate. He was sad when we had to say good-bye to her at the airport although I imagine my mother was ready for a good nap.

More Thomas

Andy is fascinated with Thomas right now, and not necessarily in a good way. It all started when I checked out a book from the library with several Thomas the Tank Engine stories in it. He loved, loved, loved them. Once we realized he loved that, we figured why not Tivo a couple of the episodes and watch them later. Now it's like a mantra he chants over and over again, "More Thomas, More Thomas," hoping that we'll eventually give it. It's like he's joined a cult or something the way he says the name over and over again. He even woke up the middle of the night a couple of days ago and in his haze of sleep, he called out for Thomas. It's like Dylan on 90210 only without the weird guy in the wheelchair. Well, kind of.

My folks were here this weekend and I have some fun pictures to post once we get done cleaning out the basement in anticipation of the new floors tomorrow. It was great seeing them and Andy can now say "Grandmother" (although it tends to come out "Grand-mare" instead) and "Pop." It was really neat seeing him recognize them from the pictures and immediately warm up.

Edited to add the picture of my dad and Andy "jumping" off the basketball hoop base.

3T

It's official - Andy can now wear 3T clothes. It's funny, it sort of snuck up on me. For the longest time, I would buy the next size up, so at 3 months, he was in 6-12 month stuff. Then after blowing past 12-18 months, we settled on 24 months. I had been thinking that 2T was slightly bigger than 12 months, but I discovered at Target this weekend that the sizes are the same (if that's true though, why bother having size 24 month and 2T in the same style? What's the point in that if they truly are exactly the same measurements?) At the airport last week, we found out that Andy weighs 29 pounds (while checking our bags, the flight attendant thought we should weigh him too for fun). With that knowledge, I started to realize that the 2T clothes stop at 28 pounds.

I realize that's a guideline, but considering my mother kept complaining him pajamas were too cumbersome to get over his arms and legs (despite my chant "They're supposed to fit snugly. It says on the label!) it is perhaps time to graduate up. So I bought some 3T pajamas by Carter's figuring the pants definitely would be too long. Instead, the whole ensemble fit. Go figure. Now the poor kid only has like four pairs of pajamas that aren't 18-24 months and most of those are in the laundry trying to get the remnants of meals past off them. Of course, tonight he decided that the only thing he wanted to wear was his Spider Man costume for next Halloween so perhaps we don't need pajamas after all.