I Think My Son Is An Alien

Okay so I know my son isn't really an alien from outer space. Sometimes it sure does seem like it though. He is just so outgoing. Not that there is anything wrong with being outgoing but it is really hard for me to relate to. When we go out to the grocery store he has no problem chatting up random strangers or the cashiers. He asks them questions like "what's your name?", "where do you go to school?", "what are you doing here?" and my personal favorites "why are you doing that?" and "do you want to come with us?". I can't understand how he can be so open and trusting of people he doesn't even know. When I was a kid I was super shy and mostly kept to myself. As an adult I am mostly the same way although I've learned that occasionally "small talk" is unavoidable. Where I find it uncomfortable and meaningless he actually seems to enjoy it.

Having a very social son has a few downsides. Especially for someone like me. Last week I was picking him up from preschool and as we were walking out to our van he sees his friend Jacob and Jacob's mom and says "You can come over to my house! It's an invitation!". I tried to laugh it off because honestly, kids say a lot of crap that isn't always factual. Unfortunately Jacob's mom took that as an opportunity to try and fish for a real invitation for a play date.  She starts asking me where we live and I'm thinking "oh, you have got to be kidding me". A play date to me would probably be one of the most awful things ever. It is somewhere between an awkward blind date and glorified babysitting. Especially because at this age you don't just have the other kid over, you also have to entertain the kids mom and any other younger siblings he may have. That just sounds like a lot of work to me. So I gave her a vague description of where we live and then jumped in the van and drove away. Was I being completely rude? Maybe. Did I manage to get out of having to host a lame play date? Heck yes! I did however have to have a little talk with Gavin about how we do not ask people to come over to our house without asking mommy in private first.

It's not just out in public that his big personality is apparent. It's also at home. My little guy will start yapping away from the moment he wakes up in the morning until well after I've put him to bed. (Me and Tim can hear him chatting to Claire at night when they should be sleeping) I'm not really sure where he gets it from. Sure, Tim is a friendly guy who gets along with just about anyone, but he isn't the type to sit there and talk your ear off. And as for me, well, Tim sometimes says that he thinks I am antisocial. Which isn't true at all, I can be friendly and talkative when I need to be. I just don't always enjoy doing it and somehow it never feels "natural". But it sure does come naturally to Gavin.

 So I guess I just need to learn to go with it. If my son wants to be everyone's best friend then I am going to let him. It doesn't mean I won't grumble a little bit next time the subject of a play date comes up but I guess I will have to learn to be more open to it.

Goodbye twenties, it was fun while it lasted.

A month ago I turned twenty nine. Twenty nine. That means I have less than a year left of being in my twenties. I never thought I would be one of those women who panics every time a birthday passes but here I am! I have to say that I am truly going to miss being in my twenties. All of my biggest life changing events and some of my happiest moments all happened in my twenties. It's going to be really hard to say goodbye.

I'm also a little unhappy that I'm officially getting "old". When I was a kid I thought thirty sounded ancient. And now that it is almost here I'm not sure how to deal with it. I mean getting farther and farther away from your youth is never easy. I don't feel old. Well, not all the time anyway. I sort of feel like I'm in some weird in between space somewhere between young and old. But sometimes things happen that make me wonder if I should worry. Like last week when I woke up and looked in the mirror and realized that after getting a full nights sleep I still had managed to develop dark circles under my eyes.  Or how now I have to think really carefully about whether to have a slice of cake or a bowl of ice cream. It just doesn't come off as easily as it used to. Or how I'm not really sure if it's still okay to shop at the Forever 21 or if I should just go ahead and start shopping in the old lady department of the department stores. I wonder if other almost thirties have this same problem.

I guess I'll just have to go with the flow and see where it takes me. Maybe my thirties will turn out to be the best years of my life. Who knows.

Darn you Justin Beiber, you make me feel old.

Okay, so it's been FOREVER since I last blogged about anything remotely important and this one is no exception. Basically I'm just at home waiting for the dishes in the dishwasher to get cleaned so I can start preparing dinner. Oh and don't be thinking that I'm on the computer so I must be neglecting my child. He is next to me pretending my flash drive is a race car. He is obsessed with cars. I honestly thought that parents just forced their kids into liking certain gender specific things like cars and dolls but no. I never ever forced Gavin. He is obsessed with cars all on his own. I guess it's just programmed into little boys before they are born. He keeps me pretty busy these days cleaning up after him. It's almost like he is a mini tornado sweeping through the house. He leaves behind a trail of destruction wherever he goes. Oh and his bedroom always smells like poop. It might be because the darn diaper genie broke a little bit. But still, it's gross, and I'm almost positive a little baby girl's poop would not smell as bad as Gavin's.

So anyway, I've been starting to realize that once you become a mom for the first time you get really boring. You don't have time to do things just for you anymore and just running out to do nothing with friends is next to impossible. In addition to that, the only thing you ever find yourself talking about is your child. The first paragraph of this blog entry is proof of that, so is the rest of it. It's almost like you lose your identity a little bit. Either that or you just get a different one. Since having a child, I have turned into a pasty white, dirty, smelly, tired, scatterbrained version of my former self. On the other hand I now credit myself with being able to stretch a buck, with being able to spot danger from a mile away (like an electrical outlet with no cover on it or the chords on blinds that hang to close to the ground and look an awful lot like a noose), and I am also getting really good at making that car engine noise when me and Gavin play with his Hotwheels. Sure those skills don't make me eligible for landing some high powered corporate job, but they sure do make me a better mom.

Speaking of which, Mother's Day is coming up soon. I saw this commercial for 1-800-flowers or something like that and in it they were giving Mother's Day flowers to all these different types of moms. They gave them to new moms, veteran moms, mother's that were expecting, mother's of moms, etc. The one that bothered me a little bit was when they gave one to a woman whose child was her dog. I know some people will hate me for this, but I find it a little bit insulting when people compare their dogs to children. I totally understand that taking care of a dog is very similar to taking care of a child, but it still makes me a little mad. I even have friends that are guilty of this. Friends who compare their dogs to my son. When I talk to them about the hardships of taking care of a baby and they relate it to them taking care of their pet. Once I was confiding in a friend at how hard it is to keep up with Gavin's energy all day long and my friend said she totally understood because her dog was a bundle of energy also... It's enough to make you want to scream. Or when they compare the cost of having children to the cost of having to take care of a dog. In my opinion, there is no comparison. I've never met a person who needed to save up for their dog to go to college. Just like I've never met a person who could just put their kids in the backyard whenever they wanted to pop out and catch a movie. Or take a vacation and just have the neighbors check that their child has a full bowl of water every now and then. That would be so nice. And don't even get me started on the giving birth part and messing up your figure. So please, can we just keep Mother's day to the real moms out there? Maybe they can dedicate a different day to pet owners. They can call it Pet Owners Appreciation Day. Just don't lump us all together because I really hate when my baby gets compared to an animal, no matter how unintentional it is.

Time Flies When Your Having... Fun?

Alright, so I realize it's been almost a full year since my last post but I make no apologies. I've been super busy. Actually I think busy is the wrong word. It's been more than that, I basically have taken on a whole new lifestyle and I feel like I'm always in a state of trying to catch up with my life and all the many changing aspects of it. Let me start at the beginning. A month after my last post I gave birth to a human being. So I think that gets me off the hook as far as this blog goes. I'm going to try as best as I can to sum up what's been going on since then. If it doesn't make sense or seems a bit out of order just keep in mind I have a nine month old that needs my constant attention so I'm pretty much writing this in between all my many mommy duties. Which reminds me... I'd like to give a shout out to Gerber Graduates baby snacks, without which this blog (not to mention all my housework) would never get done. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so I gave birth. Which I had always believed would be horribly painful with lots of blood everywhere and screaming and scary doctors with evil grins on their faces. Needless to say it was NOTHING like I had imagined. While pregnant I suffered from preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. I'm not going to go into the details of what those things are, if you really wanna know then look it up. Basically I had to be on bed rest and I also had to check my blood sugar levels fifty times a day (which involves pricking my own fingers and drawing blood, which I am not fond of). So by the time I reached 38 weeks of pregnancy I was more than ready to get that sucker out of me. My doctor had scheduled for me to be induced the day I reached 38 weeks and honestly it was the best thing ever. I showed up at the hospital at seven in the morning, they brought me to my room, gave me the inducing drugs and I basically just hung out until the baby was far enough down that I could start pushing. I only felt two contractions, which I'm not going to lie, felt like the worst menstrual cramps I had ever had, and then I asked for the epidural and around five in the evening I was ready to start pushing. I pushed for 45 minutes and then he just popped right out and it was over. Easy peasy. After that, me and baby hung out at the hospital for a few more days and then we went home. Little did I know the hardest part was yet to come. After we brought him home and it was just me and baby, I realized I had no idea what I was supposed to do with him. Lucky for me I have the best husband in the world and he was nice enough to take a whole week off from his job to teach me the right way to hold an infant, how to change a diaper, give baby a bath, figure out the snaps on all the little onesies and how to lay the baby down for a nap. He also woke up for all of the late night feedings with me and held me when I would break down and cry from all the pressure I put on myself about breastfeeding (eventually I would learn that not all women are cut out for breastfeeding and that formula would be my best friend). And then before I knew it that first week was over and my husband would go back to work and I would be on my own. It was scary and tiring at times but looking back I don't seem to recall any of the bad times at all. All I remember is holding that teeny tiny little thing in my arms with the realization that I had helped to create him. That I had helped to create life. It was wonderful and terrifying all at the same time. It was also wonderful to watch this little creature reach all his little baby milestones one at a time. Watching him learn new things and figure out how to use and maneuver this new body of his. I watched him learn hand eye coordination, how to sit up, how to eat baby food, how to crawl and pull himself up and how to play. He also learned some other things along the way that I wasn't particularly happy about like how funny it is to spit out his baby food in mommy's face or how to sneak little things he finds on the floor into his mouth when mommy isn't looking, or how much fun it is to slap mommy in the face every morning to wake her up. But despite all of that we somehow managed to make it all the way to nine months old with minimal damage and all ten fingers and toes still intact. So that brings me to where we are now.

So, what has been going on with us lately? Actually not too much. Tim is still out of a job. Him and the rest of the Northern Marine crew were laid off last March. At first we were under the impression that it would only be temporary but it is seven months later and still no job. We were hopeful last week when Tim got a call from his old boss saying that they wanted to hire him back. He was supposed to start yesterday but as soon as he got there they told him they were laying everyone off again. Apparently the company that was supposed to fund the Northern Marine company backed out. How have we survived for seven months without a real job you ask? Well, lucky for us Tim is a skilled carpenter who can do just about anything from putting up a fence to remodeling a house. He has managed to work several different jobs for random people and ended up making quite a bit more money than he did when he was employed. But now that summer is ending the side jobs are far and few in between and we are starting to get worried. He has applied for many different jobs in the area the last few months with no luck. There isn't much out there that pays enough to support a family of three so we have started to look in other areas. By other areas I mean in Oregon just in case we need to move back in with the parents for a while. Not our first choice but we have bills and a child and need to do whatever is necessary to make it work. It would be hard giving up our independence and privacy. I love keeping my own home and doing things my way but we need to do what is best for our family. But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that Tim will land a job here so we don't have to move and leave our home and our friends. I think my parents are secretly hoping that Tim won't find a job so that they get to be closer to their grandchild. I don't blame them. It's got to be hard not getting to see your only grandchild grow up. So I suppose that if we do have to move back at least someone will be happy.

Trash or Treasure?

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post! This month has been super busy for me and Tim. Well, mostly for Tim. He has been working his butt off lately taking on an extra side job, watching the neighbor's pets while they were out of town and working his regular forty hour a week job. Not to mention having to come home to an overly hormonal pregnant wife. Someone should give him an award or something.

Well, I went in for the three hour glucose test a couple weeks ago. It wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. The drink was carbonated this time and it was a lemon lime flavor instead of the fruit punch one I had to drink for the one hour test. The worst part wasn't even the five blood draws, the worst part was waiting for it to be over. Anyway, then they called me the next week to tell me that my blood sugar levels were still elevated after the test was over and that I needed to schedule an appointment with a nurse to go over what my diet should be. Then the next week I had a regular doctors appointment to check up on the baby and have a 3D ultrasound done. Well, we waited and waited but we never got to have our check up done because the doctor got called to the delivery room to deliver someones baby. So we rescheduled for the same day as the appointment to meet with the dietitian thinking we would kill two birds with one stone. Well, today was the day we were to have both appointments, the first being with the doctor, the second being with the dietitian. Once we got there we were directed to the ultrasound room and we waited and waited. Then after a very long time the nurse comes in to tell us that the doctor was still in surgery and it would still be a while. Then I happened to glance at the clock and realized that we had already missed our appointment with the dietitian. So I told the nurse and she said she would see if we might still be able to make that appointment. Well, we didn't because she was already on to her next appointment but she gave us the packets to read about gestational diabetes and the diet plan and food pyramid I should be following. Then the nurse tells us that the doctor is still going to be a while and suggested we go to lunch and have them call us when she gets out of surgery and since I don't have a life and Tim didn't mind playing hooky from work we agreed. So we go out to lunch and as soon as we order our food guess who calls! Yup, you guessed it! So I tell the nurse we just ordered our food and we will be there as soon as possible. So we eat fast and rush back to the hospital only to have to wait another fifteen minutes for our doctor. But finally she comes and we proceed with the check up. We still didn't get a good photo of the little guy because apparently he likes to lay with his arms up over his head and face. But the doctor said he looked very healthy and he was already doing the motions of breathing which is a good sign. She also said he weighs about four pounds which is in the lower part of the normal range and that from what she could tell she isn't very worried about my gestational diabetes because the baby is not on the large side and my fluids are at the right amount. So all is well with me and baby. Which is all I can ask for. I can't believe I've only got about seven more weeks left of pregnancy! It sure has gone by really fast. I wonder if I'll miss being pregnant. I sure am not going to miss all this extra weight! Hopefully it will come off fast.

So anyway, in other news... a week or so ago my husband calls me after he gets off work and says he has picked us up a couch and recliner. I asked him how and where he managed to do this and he replied by telling me that he found them for free on the side of the road. Now, if you know me at all you know that I'm not the kind of girl who picks things up off the side of the road. Mostly because for the most part the things people leave out on the side of the road are pretty nasty and not worth taking, otherwise they would have sold them. So I ask Tim if they were in good condition or not and he says yes they are and that in his opinion they were actually pretty nice looking. This did nothing to comfort me because I know Tim well enough to know that his idea of "nice looking" is not my idea of "nice looking". But what could I do? He was already on his way home with his find. So he gets home and unloads the furniture in our living room. Well, the couch and recliner were pretty large which I could live with, they were also made from this fake leather material and an awful shade of green, which I cannot live with. So of course we get in this big fight over whether it was a good idea for him to have gotten this stuff without even letting me look at it first. He tells me he doesn't think its "that bad" which is a step down from "nice looking" but I'm obviously not winning the battle yet. Anyway, we compromise and decide that I will sleep on it and give it another chance the next day and if I still hate it then he will get rid of it. So the next day while he is at work I stand in the living room for what seems like hours staring at the ugly furniture. Finally my feet get tired from all the standing and fuming and I sat down on the couch. And you know what? It really wasn't that bad, as long as I wasn't looking at it. So I start to think, what can I do to turn this situation around? And then it hits me... slipcovers. So we bought some comfy tan slipcovers for both the couch and recliner as well as some cute pillows I found at Ross. And I have to tell you, the living room has never looked better! So I guess what I learned is that one man's trash really is another man's treasure.

Super Sized

I went to the doctor's yesterday for my monthly checkup. Usually I am pretty excited about these visits because it means the doc gets to check on the little bub and tell me he is okay. He is still doing great, don't get me wrong, I on the other hand am not. First the nurse tells me I have gained nine whole pounds since my last visit which is enough to bum me out to the max all by itself. Not that I'm a total chunker, it's just not something any girl wants to hear, ever. Then they tell me I am slightly anemic and have to take daily iron pills to get what I am obviously lacking in my diet. It didn't sound so bad until they told me that the pills tend to cause nausea and constipation. Great! My fave! Then on top of that I didn't pass the one hour glucose screening test for gestational diabetes so I have to go in for a three hour test in which they will draw blood five times within those three hours. My arms are gonna be hurtin! I'm really worried that I wont pass that test either. I don't keep up the best diet in the world. Anyway, back to the doctor's visit... So then we had an ultrasound to get some 3D pictures of the little tyke. Unfortunately we didn't get any because he was in there with his arm up over his face. Like he knew we were watching and he just couldn't be bothered. I am pretty sure he was taking a nap though because he wasn't moving and by the looks of his profile his eyes were closed. So the doctor decided to take matters into her own hands and tried to get him to wake up and move by jabbing me in the belly with the ultrasound wand. That was a fun little treat for me and the baby. Well, it made him move but not in the direction we wanted. It also did not succeed in getting him to lower his arm. I don't blame him. If was being ambushed by the outside with an unknown weapon I would be shielding my face too. So the doctor gave up and said we would try again next month. She did say though that by what she could see he had no noticeable facial defects. So that's always nice to know. She measured him and told us that he weighs about 2lbs and 15oz. I'm not sure if that is normal or not because she didn't say. But the book said that during the third trimester he is supposed to gain about a pound a week. I really hope he doesn't though because that would mean I might end up with a thirteen pound baby. I really think I would die. So maybe I should stop eating all the carbohydrates and junk I usually eat and start eating my meats and veggies so that I don't end up with some monster sized baby.

Close Encounter

So today was an interesting day. I set out to get some much needed grocery shopping done with the help of my friend Dave. I like to get the shopping done when Tim isn't around for two reasons... 1. So he doesn't try to buy every single junk food item in the store and 2. so he isn't complaining the whole time that he just got off work and he doesn't feel like walking around the store. So me and Dave set off around two in the afternoon. We hit the Costco and then the regular grocery store in town. Then we decided to go back to the house to drop off the stuff that needed to be refrigerated before we went out to lunch and then finished the rest of the shopping at Walmart. So after we bring all of the crap back to the house we drive out through this little neighborhood to get to the main road that goes back into town. As I am driving I notice that there are middle school aged kids walking up the sidewalks with their backpacks and books. Obviously school was out so I slowed down to about twenty miles per hour, which is five miles an hour under the speed limit in that area, so as not to hit any of the kiddies walking around. Anyway, so as we are driving on this road, I notice we are about to pass the last of the kids, what I do not notice is that they have a dog with them. I didn't notice this because they were passing behind one of those community mail boxes that take up the whole sidewalk so my view of their canine companion was obstructed. If I had been able to see him then I probably would have noticed that he was walking along side these kids without a leash on. But since I didn't even know he was there you can imagine my surprise when the dog decided to run at full speed across the road to get to a little critter that was on the other side. He just seemed to come out of nowhere. But since I was going so slow anyway it was pretty easy for me to slam on my breaks but the dog still hit my car a little. Don't worry, he was fine. Just a little shook up. Then again so was I. So after that happened the kids that I guess own the dog ran out into the street to see if he was okay, which he was. I still asked them if he was okay and if they needed any help but they wouldn't talk to me. They just glared at me like I was some kind of murderer. Like I had WANTED to hit their dog. So I finaly just gave up and drove away. The moral of the story: DON'T LET YOUR DOG OUT WITHOUT A LEASH!! Or else I just might hit him.