I won a raffle prize that included a $500 SouthWest Airlines giftcard. I gave it to my mom for her birthday so she could come visit her only grandbaby. She decided not to use it for her birthday and wait until fares were cheaper. Now she AND my dad are going to come in February. YAY! I can hardly wait.
Wednesday I go in for an ultrasound (finally), but Baby R is already starting to be noticeable (at least in my new maternity dress Christa got me for Christmas).
I forgot to mention. The Sunday before Christmas, Thomas's other front tooth came in. Now he can clamp down on things with his opposing teeth. He really likes biting the baby spoon. He looks like a narwhal with the spoon handle sticking out from his upper lip.
Apparently, all that love and adoration Thomas got over Christmas was exhausting. We got back Thursday evening and he was asleep by 9:30. Friday morning, he slept later than he ever had in his baby life. At 10:40, I decided to wake him up to feed him. His diaper had long since failed, and he needed a bath and new sheets. He sat with his head down, sucking his thumb during the short bath and tried to fall asleep while I dried him off (which he usually hates). He took several long naps through the day and went to bed at his usual time. I guess he was just tuckered out. Today he seems much more like his usual self.
We survived Baby's First Christmas. It was not as bad as we feared; everything fit in the car. He got lots of toys, books, and adorable outfits. 
But that was all overshadowed by Uncle Craig and the Christmas E.R. After preparing the Christmas Turkey, Uncle Craig was removing the pan of drippings from the barbecue. The pan splashed, fat hit the briquettes, flames shot up, and Craig got a second-degree burn over the back of his hand, a free trip to the E.R. with follow-up at the Burn Center, and a stylish bandage to wear for at least a month. He and his daughter missed Christmas dinner, and with Craig's wife, daughter, mother, sister, and mother-in-law in attendance, the level of worry and fluster reached previously unimaginable heights. They were back in time to open presents, which was good. Here's Craig's mother-in-law demonstrating a lobster maraca.
But overall, even Uncle Craig's hand had to take a backseat to Christa's Surprise Marriage. That's right, Thomas has his first uncle! We heard about this when we arrived on Friday, but apparently two days before, she told her parents that she got married August 20th. It was quite a surprise since no one knew they were even engaged. Here's a copy of one of the wedding photos, with her husband, Jeremy. They had gone to the local courthouse (which is next-door to the police station). 
We leave day after tomorrow. So far from ready. Can't post, must run around like headless chicken. But quietly, so as not to wake the baby.
It's been raining since last evening. I love rainy days. I love to sit inside where it's warm and leave a door or window open to listen to the rain and smell the wet air. Of course, a rainy day in SoCal is a disaster. I'm sure the news tonight will be full of mudslides and houses sliding down hillsides. And if there's more than a half inch, the streets all flood. But I still like a rainy day. Somehow I doubt Thomas would enjoy a walk in the rain though.
is when Thomas goes down for his morning nap. It's completely quiet. I read the paper and drink hot cocoa and the cat snores on my lap. It's all so calm that I can temporarily forget that we're leaving for the holidays in four days, house is a mess, cards aren't done, gifts aren't wrapped, gifts aren't mailed, and I'm still in my pjs. Maybe I'll write a blog post before facing all of that.
Curtis and I went out yesterday WITHOUT the baby. Thomas spent the day with one of Curtis's students who loves babies while we went to the movie theater to watch a live broadcast of opera from the Met in New York. The opera was Romeo et Juliette by Gounod. Soprano Anna Netrebko was absolutely amazing. And the guy who sang Mercutio was totally cute. We hadn't been to the opera in a long time. It was so great. Thomas apparently had a good time playing with Lefty at her parent's estate, and she loves him.
Thomas's upper right incisor broke the surface this morning. It's his third tooth (he got his bottom two incisors months ago). I give the left incisor another week before it makes an appearance.
Someone found a new use for Thomas's outgrown car seat.
We joked over who got the job of buckling it in.
If the cat is on the floor, it's lying on a piece of paper on the floor.
If the cat is on the chair, it's lying on a blanket on the chair.
If the cat is on the couch, it's lying on a throw pillow on the couch.
If the cat is on the bed, it's lying on my clean shirt that I just put down for a second to grab my pants to get dressed.
Curtis has developed a theory (rooted in physic) for why this is. Apparently, a cat lying on a surface is acted upon in the downward direction not only by gravity (mg), but also my an electrostatic interaction between the molecules of the surface and cat fur. The two forces push the cat into the ground with more force than a typical object of mass m would experience. Therefore, cats are always looking for a little more padding to cushion their bones when they lie down. Curtis calls this theory "creaky cat bones."
Well the cat has decided that a box spring, mattress, mattress pad, two sheets, two vellux blankets, and a down comforter are just NOT enough padding. What it's creaky cat bones really need is (in a addition to all that) a human for padding. It has started to sleep on our backs, usually mine. This also puts its nose mere centimeters from the ear, meaning the purring is EXTRA loud.
Why my new doctor (Dr. Little) is WAY better than the guy I started going to:
* The building has large amounts of free parking.
* When I arrived, the staff not only knew why I was there, they also already had the copay form filled out for me to sign.
* My time was respected. I did not have to wait an hour in the waiting room; instead, I was walking out of the building an hour after my appointment time.
* My doctor spent most of that time TALKING to me. She covered her policies, the hospital, diet, supplements, medicines, and a whole bunch of other things.
* She tried to listen for a heartbeat, but the baby must have been back-up, since she couldn't hear anything. Next time.
* She requested an ultrasound from my insurance company. Hopefully next week I'll get the approval to make the appointment and finally see this baby.
* They also gave me a goody bag with a bunch of prenatal vitamin samples, coupons, info, and the hospital's pre-admission forms.
* She even looked over the records I brought from my first pregnancy so I didn't have to duplicate some blood tests, saving me (and the insurance company) money.
Yay! Reassuring Competence!
Are you ready? I'm not.
We finally picked up the pictures for our Christmas cards, but I'm only 20-25% done writing cards. I still don't have the nativity scene or Advent wreath (!?!) up yet and I still need to make a couple of gifts and figure out what we're getting for one last person. Sigh. But before any of that can happen, I have to do laundry, wash diapers, and fill out paperwork for my doctor apt this afternoon.
Can I get an extension on Christmas?
Saturday, Curtis pulled an all-nighter. He was a chaperon for X-Night, where students get to spend the night at the school, eat junk food, watch movies, and play massive amounts of video games. They had two rooms of networked Halo 3 competitions, two Rock Band setups, several Guitar Hero 3, a couple of Wiis, and several other game systems. Curtis took comfy clothes, his toothbrush, and a selection of his favorite no-caffeine energy drink. Being a chaperon for this kind of event was not as fun as he thought it would be (teenaged boys are DISGUSTING to clean up after), but he did get to eat lots of pizza and hang out with the kids.
Sunday, I pulled a near all-nighter. It's been very windy (and dusty) around here and Thomas had a stuffy nose. When he laid down, he felt like he was drowning in his own snot and would wake up and wail. So I spent most of the night rocking, bouncing, patting, comforting, nursing, and hoping that THIS time, he'd stay asleep more than a half hour. He seems better now; he's been sleeping since 7:30am. But I think it's safe to say that Curtis's all-nighter was way more fun than mine.
Many of my 10 readers already knew that, but now we're officially announcing it. That's the reason for the sporadic posting. The nausea and exhaustion are starting to let up and hopefully things can get a little more normal around here. The baby is due in June, but no idea yet if it'll be Robert William or Ruthann Marie. I'm just hoping that there's only one in there, since the other newly pregnant woman in my mom's group has come down with a case of twins. I've already been having the dreams where armies of nurses bring in baby after baby. Ahh, pregnancy dreams.
