Now that Thomas is mobile enough to follow me around and try to climb up my legs, Baby R felt left out. So last night, he/she was rolling around while I was watching TV. My next ultrasound is the 18th, so hopefully then we can settle the Robert or Ruthann mystery.
Sunday was one of the best dinner experiences I've ever had. Curtis decided to make risotto using some turkey stock I had made and some leftover prosiuto from our zoo picnic. It was delicious! Creamy and warm, like good comfort food. The classical station was comparing recordings of Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini." The music perfectly fit the food. Thomas sat on my knee (with my arm around him for support) and Curtis fed him some of the risotto. (He loved it.) The cat was curled up on the footstool next to me. Having us all together with great food and great music, just made for the perfect evening.
The weekend turned out to be busier than I thought. On Saturday, I went to take a nap while Curtis kept an eye on Thomas and read a book. When I woke up, Curtis had pictures for me.
Thomas had pulled himself up to standing on his toy basket. After that, he found he could pull up on everything. On one hand, I'm proud of his accomplishment, but on the other, it meant a lot of work for me, and one step closer to walking and running. Babies can reach a lot further when they're standing up, so we got busy with a big round of baby-proofing. Everything off the end tables, chairs, and couch and out with anything that might topple on a baby.
I'm looking at the calendar and there's nothing marked for this weekend (shock). Next week is the school's Peak Week where all the students do various off-campus field trips and projects. Curtis skipped the faculty meeting when they assigned teachers to projects (due to football practice) and is assisting the trip to the Learning Garden. (I find this hysterical after hearing him gripe for 4 years about the twice a semester trips to the Berkeley Gardens with Bi 1B and his avowed disdain for plants.) The upside is that since it's a project in L.A., he'll be home every night. Some of the projects are in D.C. or Mexico.
But after Peak Week, things get crazy. Friday we head to Fresno, then Tuesday is Election Day (still not sure who I dislike least), Wednesday is the start of Lent, and Friday, I'm making soup for 100 people for my mom's group. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the rain is going to let up in time to do anything fun outside this weekend.
Ever been eating and heard whining and whimpering from near your feet? Maybe even felt some pawing on your pant leg? Looking down, you see a big pair of sad eyes that look at you, then your food, then back to you. That's right, we've got a . . . crawling baby.
Thomas's new nickname is Puppy (or Mr. I'll-have-what-she's-having), because he believes that all food must be for the baby (never mind that pregnant women like to eat too) even if he was just fed. Since we've been working a lot on drinking from a glass, even drinks aren't safe. His begging is pretty cute, except that he'll eat a good portion of your dinner off your fork, if you let him. It's really frustrating when you're eating something that he's not supposed to have until he's older. He doesn't believe you, if you tell him "Babies don't eat peanut butter, grapefruit, whiskey, etc."
I switched Thomas up to the 9-12 months size this weekend. On one hand, it's fun to see all the cute new clothes that I'd forgotten he owned, but I always feel bad boxing up the previous size. There are always clothes that he never wore, usually because it never got cold or warm enough. I'm glad that we're planning on having more kids, because otherwise, I'd feel really wasteful replacing his entire wardrobe every 3 months.
In other news, ALL the baby clothes are now neatly organized in labeled plastic tubs. It's part of the ongoing campaign to get everything neat and clean for my parents' arrival next month.
Saturday was a beautiful day in Southern California (unlike now, which is chilly and rainy). Curtis and I wanted to go out and walk around, so we took Thomas to the L.A. Zoo. We stopped at Trader Joe's and bought a picnic and ate in front of the gorilla reserve. Thomas didn't seem to care at all about the animals, but enjoyed looking at all the people. We even paid for a year pass since the zoo is only 20 min from our apartment and it also gets us into the Fresno zoo for free.
Today we got to see the results of the huge quantities of food that baby eats. In the last three months, he gained 5 lbs and 3 inches to put him at 21 lbs 10 oz and 28 1/2 in long. (The previous three months only saw a 3 oz and 3/4 inch increase.) We also verified that he has an enormous head. At 19 1/4 inches in diameter, he was a good margin above the 97th percentile mark. In height and weight, he was a respectable 60-ish percentile.
He didn't have to have any shots today, but he did have to go to the lab to have blood drawn to test his iron and lead levels. Instead of a heel-stick, they did the actual vein-in-the-elbow thing. I got to hold him tightly in my lap pinning his legs and other arm. One nurse held his arm out and tried to distract him while the other nurse stuck the needle in and filled the vials. Despite all the preparation, he was better than Curtis usually is! He didn't cry at all. His face started to turn a little red, but as they bandaged up his arm, he was already laughing and smiling again. SUCH a good baby!
This is a picture of the ultimate baby gate. It is two pieces of kitchen twine and an Amazon box. I looked at both Target and Babies R Us for a baby gate that would allow the cat to go through and didn't require drilling holes in the wall. The only one that fit the bill was $50 and I was far from convinced that Thomas wouldn't figure out how to push the footplate that opened the gate.
My system uses a box tied to the door to keep the door open at least 3 inches for the cat to go through. To close the door, you just spin the box around to the other side. A loop of string through the door plate hooks around the door knob to keep the door from opening any further. To open the door, just flip the loop from over the doorknob. The whole contraption is far out of Thomas's reach and cost nothing. Eat your heart out MacGyver.
Yesterday, we achieved crawl. While he often reverts back to his proto-crawl (where he puts his chest down between steps), he is now MUCH faster. He's now going into the kitchen and hallway and trying to go into the bathroom (ewww, litterbox). Today he and I are going to go check out baby-proofing gear that won't outsmart the world's stupidest cat.
He also got to feed himself dinner. I gave him some green beans, but he wasn't too excited by them. Curtis made him some whole-wheat pasta shells, and well, he seemed pretty pleased.
Ah, the warm glow of accomplishment. Yesterday, I put away ALL of the Advent & Christmas stuff. I even got it all back on the high shelf with the help of our new step ladder. You may ask yourself, "Why was the pregnant woman standing on a ladder lifting boxes when a large, strapping lad would be there in a few hours?" That's a very good question to which I have no answer except that it didn't occur to me until I was almost done. Still, it sure felt good to finish something.
Last night, I had the worst heartburn ever. It felt like someone was using a rib spreader on me, my sternum was on fire, and that any second I might vomit molten steel. It didn't matter if I laid down, reclined, or sat up, and I really couldn't sleep much. I had no idea that heartburn could actually be debilitating. Fortunately, Thomas took a long nap this morning, so I could get some sleep. I don't know if it was something I ate, but boy, did it suck.
Another checkup with my doctor yesterday. Got weighed, measured, and peed in a cup, the usual. Lost a little weight since my last visit, but hopefully, now that my appetite is back, I can start gaining some. Also, based on the ultrasound that I had, they've moved my due date to June 26 from the 12th. That's a pretty big change given that they'll induce labor if you go two weeks over your due date.
We also started the paperwork for the big ultrasound to occur sometime mid-February. As long as Baby R is cooperative, we should find out boy or girl then. At least the first ultrasound stopped the twins-plus nightmares. Last night, I instead dreamed that we were driving too fast down US-65 only with all the pavement removed and then drove off a cliff into Truman Reservoir. At least, in the dream, I faced death calmly. I really hate these vivid pregnancy dreams.
It's been over a week since the last post, which for me is a long time. I had stuff to blog about, but never seemed to get to the computer to do it. So below are four posts to fill in the missing gap. I'll fill in some more pictures later, but I'm having issues with the pictures from our studly new camera. I need to find a better photo program than the Microsoft Camera/Scanner Wizard. Plus, I just heard the baby cough, so back to work for me.
Curtis went back to work Monday. It's been great having him around all day. I get breaks to nap or relax and he gets lots of time to play with Thomas during his good times. But it is nice to have a routine. Thomas went back to his normal nap schedule, after several days of not wanting to go to sleep. I made some progress on the housecleaning front and had time to read the paper and take a good nap. Curtis entertained/tortured his students with a slideshow of both his babies (and the cat).
On the second, I (at last) had my first ultrasound. The technician was super uncommunicative and said Baby R was too small to even try to tell the sex. The monitor was turned away from me, so all I got to see was pretty much this one picture (which she almost didn't even print for us). Insurance allows me one more ultrasound later on with a peri-natologist who will check the baby's heart and other organs. I hope that one is better than this exam.
New Year's Eve we had breakfast with Lidarose before she had to fly home. We went to a place in Pasadena that we used to go to in college. Good nostalgia. We were going to go to the Norton Simon art museum while we were in town, but they didn't open for a couple hours, so we went home.
I had planned a nice New Year's celebration for the two of us at home. I got "the finest meats and cheeses" from Trader Joe's with a sparkling pomegranate juice for me and a "Bag o' Mystery Beer" for him.
But, party animal that I am, after watching the ball drop live in NY, I went to bed at 9:20pm. Curtis said he stayed up until midnight by himself.
New Year's Day, instead of going to the Rose Parade, we dropped Thomas off to play with one of Curtis's students and her mom. We went to another Met live opera broadcast. This time it was Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel, a delightful bit of fluff, with wonderful, whimsical costumes. It is also a very gender-bending opera. Hansel is sung by a woman, the witch by a man, and the Sandman by a woman.
Jenny: Gain 35 lbs, lose 45 lbs, put away stuff on a timely basis, pray more.
Curtis: Not gain 35 lbs, continue to lose sympathy weight from baby 1, remember to take a vitamin, wake up earlier, learn a language.
Thomas: Feed myself, grow big and strong, learn to walk.
Beckham: Purrrrrrrr
