Um, yeah, he's your problem today.

That's the general unspoken message that I've been conveying to Daniel all morning. Thankfully Ethan is thrilled to see Daddy and so needs no convincing to follow Daddy around instead of Mommy and demand that Daddy read him a story from his Baby Blessing Bible for the 95millionth time in an hour.  So far this morning I did do laundry and unload the dishwasher, and I changed two diapers, but that's about as far as I contributed on the childcare front.  Then I grabbed the car keys and ran out the door.  

Then I ran errands. Alone.  This is momentous because I haven't left the house alone in probably close to a month. With the exception of running to Taco Bell one night to grab some food.  Lately I rarely leave the house at all. Daniel and Ethan are off at the Children's Museum with a friend of ours and his daughter.  I'm resting and drinking some diet coke before I go pick up another friend and head off to craft afternoon.

I GET TO TALK TO PEOPLE!!! IN REAL LIFE!!! 

Note to self. Get a life. Seriously, you're pathetic.

No real resolution on the whole kitchen/Christmas gifts thing.  Whatever we do, we have to be budget conscious, because money is getting tight, due to vacancies we have in rental properties we own.  This is not a good time of year to be trying to rent out a property, much less two.  I just told Daniel I needed him to decide soon (like immediately) about what he wanted to do, because I cant afford to wait until he researches kitchen floors for weeks if he's going to then decide that we should do gifts instead.  Which is what he typically does, he researches things very very thoroughly. And that's great, but not in this case.  

Okay, time to go! Out!

Kitchen floors? Seriously?

Last night I finally realized that there was no possible good reason for me to go shopping today, and that it just wasn't worth driving Daniel 30 minutes to work and then back home, just to shop for things I don't really need.  Sigh.  I did some online shopping this morning, but again, couldn't find anything that I desperately needed.

I had really hoped to buy Daniel's present today. I have spent the last two months begging and pleading with him to give me ideas. And I had been getting excited at the thought of giving him a list of what little things I wanted (we usually just buy a few small things and don't spend more than $50 total).  I also had a few small toys chosen for Ethan at amazon.com since he still mainly has baby toys and is getting bored with those.  But as of this morning Daniel had still given me NO ideas, which lead to some, um... discussions early this morning. 

Then he came out of the shower and informed me that he had been planning secretly that we shouldn't do presents this year, and that we should just do a family present.  I was a little excited at this idea, until he told me that his idea of a family present was a new kitchen floor.  (insert blank stare here).

There are a lot of things in our condo which bug me. The kitchen and bathroom floors are NOT on that list. I happen to like our floors and think they're really practical and have said so many times to Daniel.  

So now I'm totally grouchy.  It's raining, so we're probably going to be in all day, and Daniel's at work all day (he told me originally that he would come home early, but that's apparently no longer the plan). And my little Christmas tree is going to stay lonely, with no gifts. Because I'm getting flooring instead.

Sigh.

In happier news, Thanksgiving was really nice! We caught the ferry to Bremerton with about 1 minute to spare, thanks to the massive lineup. But we made it and had a fun ride over. Ethan loved watching the water and the things go by outside.  Our afternoon was fun as we socialized with my relatives and caught up with them. Dinner was yummy, and I didn't have to cook, which made it even better!  And then we caught the ferry home with 5 minutes to spare and had a relaxing evening at home. 

Tomorrow I'm off to a craft afternoon at a friend's house. Which should be interesting, given that I do not do crafts and have a 1.3 second attention span and tend to get bored quickly and wander off. But I'll get to socialize with my girlfriends and catch up with them and have a break from home, so I'm excited!

Okay, time to entertain Ethan and work on getting our Christmas cards done. Busy day at home!

Yeah, so I skipped a holiday here in my blog

I signed off and then thought 'duh, it's thanksgiving tomorrow and I didn't even mention it! And I have SO much to be thankful for this year!'

Tomorrow should be a nice Thanksgiving. We'll be catching the ferry over to my grandmother's house in Bremerton, but that's not until noonish, so we'll have a nice quiet morning at home. And since it's a holiday there is nowhere to go and nothing to do.  No work, no shopping, no cleaning (I got that done today!).  Just watching TV and relaxing. Which we need so desperately. In the pre-baby days we would have slept in, but Ethan believes in sleeping until 8:15 on weekdays and until 6:45 on holidays and weekends. Maybe he wont realize tomorrow is a holiday and will sleep late. But I doubt it. 

Then we'll spend the afternoon with my relatives and will head home after dinner.  A fairly low pressure Thanksgiving. All I have to bring is the wine (sigh) and sparkling juice.  I tend to drink relatively cheap wine under normal circumstances, and some of my relatives are wine aficionados, so it might not be up to their standards. Since I just bought whatever the Trader Joe's people said went well with turkey.  But I don't get to drink it, so who cares.  

Anyway, Happy happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. May your holiday be full of love and happiness and many reasons to be thankful.

More Christmas stuff

Okay, so 1) I am totally out of work, 2) it's already 4 PM on the east coast so no one is around to give me work and 3) I don't want to work anyway, so I'm using a few hours of PTO and am shopping online. 

So far I have bought something for myself and my best friend's Christmas present. Which took me all of 5 minutes. I logged on to Sephora.com, browsed the cute stuff, saw something I liked, put it in the basket and purchased it. 

Why can't shopping for my husband be so easy? He needs nothing. He wants nothing. When he does want something, he just buys it. Which is why I've totally given up on birthday gifts, but darn it, I need something to put under our (2 foot tall, fake) Christmas tree. I keep begging for ideas, but he has nothing. Whereas I usually either give him a list, or tell him to go to the Sephora store, tell the salespeople how much he wants to spend and he comes home with a perfect gift.

This is going to be pretty much my second or third "real" Christmas. And I'm almost 32. I didn't grow up celebrating Christmas (that's a whole 'nother LONG blog entry).  I've had a few since then, but I'm still a little lost with the whole thing. I love going to church on Christmas Eve and all the pretty music. And, fortunately, my parents don't celebrate Christmas still (they go to church and all, but no presents), so I don't have to buy them anything. 

Oddly enough, I married into a family that also doesn't really do Christmas. They also go to church and give presents, but there's no decorations or tree or anything, and they usually just hand us the gifts (or money) when we are leaving to go home. 

This year the in-laws are coming here for Christmas, since daycare is closed December 24-January 1st, and Daniel and I both need to work on Boxing Day, so they'll come down for Christmas and Boxing Day and will leave on Saturday. I'm cooking a "traditional" dinner this year, because I'm utterly tired of Chinese food. And, although I do not cook, at all, I figure they don't usually eat "white people" food and wont really know the difference unless I totally foul it up.  

On a slightly different topic, I just emailed one person with my list of recommended downtown Seattle Christmas activities. Drop me a note if anyone else wants it!

New post

I deleted my last post. It was just too whiny. Apologies to those of you who got it on your reader feeds before I took it down.  Seriously, I'm pathetic today.  

Last night my bladder apparently got the memo about me being in my second trimester of pregnancy.  It's amazing that one small cup of tea before bed can lead to 4 trips to the bathroom between 10 PM and 6 AM. Seriously, what's up with that! And I know that I'm only in the second trimester according to some sources, others start it at 14 weeks. Whatever.  Oddly enough, I look less pregnant than last time at 13 weeks.  And my pre-pregnancy clothes are still too big, although I am starting to gain weight.  

Well, Ethan's done with snacktime, so I need to go figure out a new activity that doesn't involve taking everything out of my kitchen drawers or hitting the cats with his sippy cup.  Coloring maybe. If I can convince him to stop trying to eat the crayons. The kid is sneaky and fast with chewing on the crayons. Thank goodness they're non-toxic!

Oh, in other amusing news, I got an email this morning from a new special interest group forming as part of my professional organization. A special interest group for Chinese people in this field. :) I wrote them back and said my last name was courtesy of my Chinese husband, but that I appreciated the invite and wished them luck with the new group.  :)

Christmas is coming!

One of the best parts about living in the city is being able to be downtown during the Christmas season. Because it is very dark and fairly cold and totally depressing in Seattle in the winter, but when you go downtown there are lights and music and decorations and carousels and people in Santa costumes and everyone is happy and smiling! I even smiled at 6:15 this morning when I was walking from the bus to the office, because there are more decorations going up all over the place and they're so bright and cheery. I'm looking forward to bringing Ethan downtown to enjoy them all. Last year he was fairly unimpressed.

Okay, so do you want to know how to drive me insane? Tell me there's something that I need to do or fix or generally deal with, then tell me I CAN'T do anything about it for two days. There was a billing error with one of my appointments at the hospital I was visiting originally for my OB stuff, and they charged my old insurance. So I got that statement on Saturday and wanted to call and fix it, only to discover that I couldn't until this morning! Ahh!! I tried to keep the obsessing to a minimum though. And this morning I called and they knew about it and were getting ready to bill the right insurance, so whatever.

Today I'm going to the eye doctor. I'm about out of contact and want to get my eyes checked before baby #2 totally screws up my blood pressure and vision. I'm not a huge fan of the eye doctor because to do the exam the doctor has to be rightupinmypersonalcirclepleasepleasemoveawaybeforeIfreakoutIhatehavingpeoplethatclosetome!!!

Yeah, I need my personal space. Badly. I do get lonely at work sometimes, but overall I greatly enjoy the fact that when I'm here, I can sit at my huge desk in my huge office without even seeing another person for 99% of my day. It helps prepare me for the evenings and my days off when I just serve as another piece of furniture for Ethan to try to climb.

So, that's my insanity for the morning. Hurray for a 3-day week! Daniel has to work on Friday, unfortunately, but he claims he's going to leave early. I'm still trying to decide whether to come downtown and shop or to make Daniel bus to work so I can have the car to hit the malls on Friday. Not sure I really have the energy for either option though. I'll figure it out later.

Rain, rain go away.

I had to restrain myself this morning from grabbing Daniel as he walked out the door to work.  Partly because I love him and partly  because he was taking the car with him on my usual Carrie-has-the-car-and-gets-to-go-out-day [Weeping].

It's been a tough week and a half.  Daniel's been super-duper busy at work lately. Insanely busy.  Far too busy to have time to call me or answer my plaintive messages on Skype. Which I've been trying to keep to a minimum, really. And by the time he gets home from work after 7, I'm wiped out and he's wiped out, and we don't have the energy to even talk, and just watch TV for a while, before I go to bed at 9 (it's really pathetic) and he works for another hour or two.

And although I go to work three days a week, my work is fairly insulated. My three coworkers and I don't say much more to each other besides "good morning", and most of my work is alone, with communication through email.  

I told Daniel this morning when he left that I felt like my only adult conversations this week were the ones I had with nurses and doctors at our many appointments. They are all nice people and all, but I'm not sure that counts.

If I'm going to make it through this long, rainy winter, I need a plan.

But, on the good side, I've used my angst this morning to fuel the following activities:  1) made the list for our Christmas cards and put our pictures in all the cards, 2) put the other pictures that I picked up into the appropriate albums, 3) did 2 loads of laundry, 4) unloaded the dishwasher, 5) organized Ethan's clothes, and 6) tidied the scary hall closet. Now it's 10:45 AM and I'm out of things to do.

Oh, and I totally scared the UPS man this morning with my uncombed hair.  He was dropping off a big box of diapers though, so my appearance probably was not totally unexpected. Fortunately I did get dressed around 10 AM, so at least he was spared that sight.  :)

Entering the danger zone

What is the danger zone, you ask?

This is the point in pregnancy where I finally don't feel sick ALL the time! I have an appetite and only feel sick when I get hungry, which work together to mean I am now eating ALL the time! Which would be not so bad, except for the last 8 weeks I've been eating pretty much nothing, so when I did feel motivated to eat, I didn't worry about what it was or the calorie/fat content. So I have a houseful of really yummy, totally not healthy snacks.

And that, my friends, is how I managed to gain 40+ pounds in 6 months when I was pregnant with Ethan.

This time, I'm in exactly the same place as I was last time. I'm down 8 pounds since I got pregnant. My clothes actually fit better (I'm not sure where my babies hide, but it's not in the usual place, as normal people have clothes that are getting tight by now) than they did before I got pregnant. So in addition to the cupboards and fridge full of not healthy food, I have the bad thought running through my head of "oh, I lost weight in the first trimester and things fit so well now, one more cookie/piece of candy/meal of mac and cheese won't hurt".

I need to post pictures of myself 9 months pregnant and immediately post-partum everywhere for a reminder. I cannot afford to put on that kind of weight again. I'm now 14 pounds heavier than I was at this time last pregnancy and I need to put the brakes on the unhealthy eating immediately, for my sake and for the sake of the new baby.

I think Daniel's going to be taking a big bag of candy to work tomorrow. Although this means I now have to get through the next 6 months of without all of the following: alcohol, good sushi, candy, ice cream, cake, and macaroni and cheese. Someone, please tell me that this is even possible.

Online sale at Fleurville

When I was shopping for a diaper bag pre-Ethan, I developed a serious crush on a bunch of different types of bags, including Bumble, Petunia Pickle Bottom and Fleurville. Thanks to a great sale on Amazon, I ended up with my Bumble bag, which I have loved dearly for the last 15 months. But I am really wanting a new bag for the new baby, so was excited to hear about Fleurville's annual sale on seconds, going on now.

The website has this disclaimer:
As we clear out space in our warehouse, we may find more bags to add to the sale. Please keep checking back for new bags! Seconds are bags that did not make the cut during our rigorous Quality Control process. They are all functional bags with all of their components that have cosmetic blemishes which could include but are not limited to: fabric flaws, stains on the fabric, wrinkles, cloudy TPU, and lamination issues. All seconds sales are non-refundable, non-returnable.

I figure that my current bag also has some issues after being dragged around for months and exposed to a toddler, so for these prices, I was willing to take a chance. Go check it out, their bags are gorgeous.

Update from today's appointments

Our ultrasound this morning went well. I dutifully drank my 24 ounces of water, then sat in a waiting room full of equally uncomfortable pregnant women as we waited for the ultrasound people to call our names. They were running about 10 minutes late this morning, which is an ETERNITY when you have a full bladder. Fortunately, this place worked differently from the clinic that did Ethan's ultrasounds- I had to have a full bladder until my name was called, then was allowed to go use the restroom right away, before the actual scan. Before I've always had to suffer through a full bladder while being poked and prodded in the abdomen, so this was a welcome change.

The scan went well, even though the baby was being overly laid back and refused to turn the right direction for what the technician needed to measure. I had to keep shaking my hips in a 'hula' motion to try to jostle him/her into action. It finally worked and we got the necessary measurements. And I am measuring 4 days ahead of my last scan, so my due date is now June 2nd and I'm 12 weeks pregnant! Almost out of the first trimester!

After that, Daniel dropped us off at home and went to work, then an hour later Ethan and I hopped on the bus to go to Ethan's 15-month appointment. Ethan's finally over 20 pounds! He weighed in at a whopping 21 pounds this morning, up in the 7th percentile! His height was a little less impressive, but the doctor admitted that it's hard to accurately determine the height of a wiggly toddler. He got his shots and we walked home where, thankfully, the annual fire alarm testing was all done. We do have one issue that we have to follow up on for Ethan at Children's Hospital, but it's nothing major, I think.

So it's been a busy day and we're totally exhausted at 2 PM. But it was a good day and it was nice to get good news from all the medical professionals in our day today.

Beware the leaning piles of paperwork

I'm totally buzzing on a sugar high at the moment. I had one maple cream Santa, one snack pack of butterscotch pudding, and 5 Trader Joe's ladyfinger cookies. Oh, and a diet Pepsi. And the sun is out! Energy surge!!!

Then I remember the leaning piles of paperwork and feel very tired again. It's not work paperwork, it's the dreaded "prove that you're really married" paperwork for Daniel's green card status change. And there is a lot of paperwork. Which I feel is a bit of overkill in our situation, because of two main reasons.

1. Seriously people. I'm pregnant. And I have a 15-month old at home. No one would EVER do that for the sake of proving the validity of a marriage for ANYONE. EVER.

2. He's Canadian, not from some far-off country that frequently shows up on immigration watch lists. We like Canada. They watch our TV shows and our news and shop at our stores and our restaurants and their economy gets dragged around with ours. If they want to live in our country, let them. It's cold up there. They need a break. And Daniel's been in the US so long that he says things like "let's pray for the new leader of OUR country and OUR government." Of course, I point out to him that it is not his country or government, but he thinks that it is. That should count for something.

We've spent the last 3 days gathering up bank statements, mortgage statements, donation statements, Ethan's birth certificate, pictures of us and our families, you name it, it's in the pile to be photocopied and sent in. The newest problem came up today- and I feel really bad about this one. My dad is writing one of the affidavits for the application. The other person writing one asked for the address to put on the letter, so it looked professional. Which made sense, so I sent that info to my dad as well. Not thinking anything about it. Then he emailed today to say that he'd made it to get the letter notarized and he'd mailed it off to the immigration office earlier today. It was not supposed to go to the immigration office- they will have no clue what to do with it, since there is no case number or ID number on it. The letter was supposed to be sent back to us to send in with the rest of the giant pile. But that info got lost in the shuffle, so Dad now has to do it all again tomorrow.

Good thing Daniel is such a good husband, he does make all of this insanity worthwhile. And I'm certainly not going to live apart from him or move to Canada with him, so I'll just suck it up and keep photocopying/harassing my friends and family for letters.

I need more sugar.

Oh- we have our second ultrasound tomorrow. I so totally need to see the baby! This part of the pregnancy is so stressful- my symptoms are diminishing, I don't look or feel pregnant, too early for baby movement, too early to hear the heartbeat (or at least it was on Friday). I need reassurance! It's an early appointment, so I'll post in the morning and let you all know how it goes.

Appointment update

I'm back from my LONG appointment. And I smell like cigarette smoke. From the bus, I think. Yucky. Anyway, made it to the doctor in plenty of time, since the bus was early. But it turns out that was good, because it took forever to update my record. Since apparently I'm mysteriously in their system, but from 4 years ago when I was single and had a different name/address/insurance/emergency contact, etc. I'm still not sure how I ended up in their system, since I have no recollection of ever visiting a doctor connected to this hospital.

Anyway, the reception people were so nice and friendly and I know the life's history of the person who checked me in, which would annoy me in some instances, but I liked in this case, since I left my old doctor due to cranky reception people. I've been assigned to an OB now, who I'll meet in 4 weeks. And I have my ultrasound for the integrated screening scheduled for Tuesday morning at 7:30 AM. Full bladder ultrasound! Hurray! Oh wait, no...

The only slightly bad thing was that the PA couldn't find the baby's heartbeat with the Doppler. But it's early still in the pregnancy and I'm, um, well padded in my abdominal area, so she was not concerned.

Oh, and then I had to go to the bank and get something for Daniel's green card from our safety deposit box, because he needs to start applying for his permanent green card. Getting stuff from the safety deposit box involves these things 1) talking to strangers, 2) waiting patiently while they fill out all the forms for accessing the box and 3) being LOCKED in a small room!!!!. Daniel totally owes me for that one.

I really need to work now. I've accomplished little today, and something must be done about that.

Friday! It's FRIDAY!!!

We have a fairly busy weekend ahead of us, but I'm still really looking forward to the chance to have a little downtime in my own home. There was quite a bit of resting time at my parents', but it's different when you're at someone else's place. I think the highlight of this weekend will be watching Kung Fu Panda, which should be on my hold shelf at the library by this afternoon. Fun!

This morning I'm off to my first OB appointment at my new practice. I'll be meeting the PA today, since that's their procedure for new patient intake, then I'll be assigned to an OB after that, and since it'll be a scheduled c-section, I should be seeing pretty much the same person all the way through. Hurray! I'm hopeful that my medical records have made it over to the office- the old hospital says that it can take 15 days to get them out, and it's been 14. Cutting it close.

Not really anything else exciting going on this morning. It's 7:30 and sort of daylight, which is nice. It was dark so early last night- way earlier than in Virginia, since we're so far north. I'd forgotten how draining that is. I was so conflicted when we were watching the Office- it was a great episode and I wanted to watch, but I so desperately wanted to go to sleep too! I managed to stay awake until 9:32. Then that was it for me. Ah, the exciting life of a jet-lagged pregnant woman.

This is why moms of toddlers drink in the afternoon

And why it's so sad to be a pregnant mom of a toddler and not get my evening glass of wine for recovery purposes... he did this over and over and over. When I removed him from the situation, he whined about something else.  Not enjoying this particular phase so much. 

You need to have your audio on for the full effect. Listen carefully when the door is closed. Keeping in mind that he's the one shutting the door repeatedly. 

Trip recap

Okay, I am unpacked, Ethan and I have been to the grocery store, my kitchen and bathroom floors are relatively clean, and I am really hoping Ethan's nap is going to continue a while longer! 

As I said before, the trip went well. Ethan slept for 3 of our 4 flight takeoffs, napping for about an hour on most of the flight and sleeping for 3.5 hours on our flight home. So that part of the trip went SO much better than we had thought it would go.  On our flight home, we were in a section of the plane that was full of kids, so we weren't too worried about Ethan crying then. But he still was fairly happy until the very end of the flight, when he had just had enough and really wanted to go to bed!

We also had fun checking out the different play areas in the airports we visited. We were impressed by the play areas in Seattle and Cincinnati, and were really upset to find out that Atlanta has closed ALL of their toddler play areas because of insurance costs.  Even the tiny little Tri-Cities airport had a table with one of those bead toys on it, which Ethan enjoyed.  He also had fun looking out the windows at the airports and screaming at the airplanes and airport workers.  

Probably the funniest part of the trip was when we arrived in TN on Tuesday night. We had made plans to stay with some old friends of mine for that night, so after landing and meeting up with my brother to borrow his car for the week, we drove to my friends' house.  We got out of the car, rang the doorbell, waited a few minutes, and then the door was opened by my friend, with a VERY shocked look on his face. In the busyness of life with their three kids, trying to sell their house and planning for a trip of their own, they'd lost track of what day it was and when we were coming!  Fortunately, things were clean, since the house was being showed the next day, and they'd randomly made a double batch of food for dinner, so it wasn't a big deal. But very amusing to us.

The next day we drove to Roanoke, where my parents were outside to meet our car within about 0.00001 seconds of us driving into the driveway.  Daniel and I pretended that they were happy to see us, but we know the truth.  Ethan then spent the next 5 days being utterly and completely spoiled rotten.  

The other really amusing part of the trip was our family picture experience on Saturday. We decided to all wear blue shirts for the family picture, and made lots of jokes about matching outfits.  But it wasn't too bad, since we parked near the photo studio and walked quickly to and from our car. BUT- my parents and I ended up in one car together while Daniel and Ethan went back to my parents' house with my brother and his wife.  And then my parents remembered that we had to drop by Sam's to pick up something. So there we were, wearing our matching outfits, walking around the giant warehouse store.  Where we promptly ran into a pastor friend of Dad's, who gave us very strange looks until we explained that we did not normally dress in matching outfits and that it was post-family photo.  I told my parents that I felt like I was 14 again, embarrassed to be seen in public with them.  

So, travel went smoothly, visiting family and friends went well, and we're slowly readjusting to West Coast time.  I'm really glad we were able to go on the trip, and I'm really glad to be home again! Probably our last plane trip for a while, as Ethan's getting big enough to really need his own seat, and costs are really high for that many people to fly cross-country.  But we got our money's worth on this trip, so all is well.

Now I need a nap. Badly.  Or I need to get my Internet to work properly so that I can watch last week's Ugly Betty online. I need to catch up!

We're back!

We made it back last night, arriving home around 10:30 PM, after a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up food for Ethan's lunch today and milk for his breakfast. I managed to get through the pile of snail mail on the counter and take a shower before passing out in my bed. Don't remember anything after that until Ethan woke up, ready to play at 5:15. Darned East Coast timezone.

Now I'm trying to catch up at work- ended up getting a huge project in while I was gone, and I need to deal with that. Fortunately my coworkers covered really well, so that was nice.

We did not touch the suitcase or our email last night. I was proud of us, as we're both the type that have trouble resting until everything is done. I have a long to-do list for tonight and tomorrow, but hopefully will get life back to normal soon. I'll blog about the trip when I get through the rest of the stuff. Thanks all for your prayers for our safe travel, they helped!

Enjoying my last bit of peace and quiet

Granted, the peace and quiet is at work, so I'm busy reading expert reports, but I'm still by myself and there is little background noise. Probably the last time this will happen for more than a week.

We're all packed- and I think our carry-on luggage might be heavier than what we're checking. Poor Daniel has to carry a gigantic backpack full of toys, games, coloring books, snacks, snacks, snacks, lunch, sippy cups, diapers, teething medicine, wipes, the lost continent of Atlantis... seriously, who knows what's in there. I'm carrying a purse :) I carry a diaper bag every day of my life though, so I think this is a fair trade-off.

And we're checked in to our flight. Fortunately I called the airline this morning when my boarding pass did not say "infant in arms". Which was good, since in the 6 months since we booked our tickets (using ff miles), they have changed flights so many times that Ethan's existence got lost in the shuffle. And it turns out that we have to sit in certain seats, since there are extra oxygen masks in certain places, so they had to rearrange that. But we're still sitting together, which is good.

I feel like I should bring sedatives for the poor people sitting near us tomorrow. Ethan probably wont cry much. But he's likely to spend his whole time trying to get the person next to us to look at him so that he can repeatedly say "hi". And if the person acknowledges him at all, he'll probably try to go sit on that person's lap until he can charm someone else into paying attention to him. My child is NOT shy.

This afternoon I have to feed and bathe Ethan, finish packing up a few last minute things, tidy the house so the neighbors who will be checking on our cats don't think we're slobs, and try to get to bed early, since we have to get up at 3.

I wont be blogging again until we get back, but I hope you all have a great week and I'll be back with stories of travel with a toddler in 9 days!

I won something!

Most of the giveaways on Bloggy Giveaway ended yesterday, so I was hopefully checking my email all day.  And a few times I got emails from the people, but it was always just a list of the winners that was sent out to all the entrants. Boo.  Right before I went to bed last night, I got one more of those "list of winners" emails, but this time my name was on it! I won a Flip Video Camera!!!!!!!  Amusingly enough, I won at the Have Kid Will Travel site, which I find funny given that my whole energy these past few days has gone into mentally and physically preparing us for our first big trip with a kid!

Just waiting now to hear back from her on the details and hoping the nice lady at the site wasn't freaked out by my excessive use of exclamation points in my email.  Yeah, I was pretty excited.

We're on nursery duty this month at church, so that'll be interesting. We're serving with our good friends, so we'll be able to chat at least.  Ethan, of course, will not even remotely care that Mommy and Daddy are in the nursery with him. After all, there are trains to be played with and a slide to go down.  After church I plan to try to get Daniel to take me to IKEA, as I'm getting a bit of cabin fever (I've gone out this week, but nowhere fun), and I do not want to stare at these piles of clothes anymore.  SO tired of packing!

Anyway, so that's all from here. Go check out the site at Have Kid Will Travel, it's a fun one!

Halloween- Part 2

So, Ethan's daycare party went well. Ethan spent the whole time crawling off and hanging out with other parents and ignoring me. He's a tad bit social. Heaven help the people sitting near us on the plane on Tuesday.






























Later in the afternoon I decided to put on a costume after all, and spent the early part of the evening dressed up as a irritable and mean pregnant woman :) Totally an act, of course. Traffic was not fun getting to Daniel's office, then he wasn't done working yet, which annoyed me, so by the time we got to the mall, I was well into character. The mall was INSANE. Wall-to-wall small people. I gave Daniel the stroller and hung out outside the stores while he went in with Ethan and got candy. Ethan had a great time holding his little basket and looking around at the other kids. We walked around for a little while getting candy, then we headed to Red Robin to get dinner. All in all, a successful, but completely exhausting day.