Time goes by....

So a couple of things.

First, I realized that when I posted that the baby was here I neglected to mention his size. Or anything really other than his name.

He was 8lbs 5oz, 20 inches long and was born at 11:31pm on 11/20/09. He was not my biggest child (that honor goes to Kylie at 8lbs 12 oz) but he was my longest since both of my other girls were 19in and 19.5 in respectively.

Second, I keep meaning to blog, I really do. It's just that in the last week my world just happened to get away from me and time moved at warp speed. I personally blame the lack of sleep but it could just be that I now have 3 children to wrangle and that is harder than anything else I've ever done.

Third, the birth story. I'm working on getting that up and should have at least part of it done tonight. The girls are with their dad for the week so I have a little more free time frankly.

Four, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving and feel all around truly blessed this Christmas season for the gifts we have been given individually and as a family.

I will leave you with this picture.

Welcome to our house....

William Raul Gonzales

I will post a birth story soon, I promise, but as you can imagine, I'm tired and we are trying to get ourselves together and get nursing handled and that's a bigger priority than telling you about begging my midwife not to make me push the baby out. As he was crowning.

Yes, I really did. I also told everyone in the room I changed my mind. As he was crowning.

We are a breastfeeding baby. Hence the hat.

Literally a couple of hours old or so. Massive amounts of hair

Moms and stuff

Still no baby. Sorry all. I promise he will be here by Friday though, one way or the other. Unless he's stubborn and insists on being born Saturday but he's COMING and I'm starting the process 7:30am Friday morning. Eviction time buddy, sorry.

Truthfully I'm a little disappointed, I had hoped to go into labor naturally and labor most of the time at home with my husband and mother in law but alas, appears not meant to be. And I'm a little scared because I know what's coming next and it's the hurty party. I'm excited to meet this little guy, I feel like I know him but not fully yet but the part where he makes his grand exit? Not my favorite part. Sorry.

ANYWAYS, with these thoughts swirling around in my head I've been thinking a lot about my own mother. I miss her of course and I hope she's in heaven and has been getting to know my little guys spirit up there but of course I'm sad that she wont get to be here for his first bath. Or first diaper change. Or to cook for me. (Yes, I am selfish, what do you what, I'm an only child.)

I don't have a whole lot of pictures of my mom on this computer and almost none of her with Lulu since she passed when Lu was only 8 months old but I thought I would share a few of her that I have.

She was truly a wonderful Grandma and while my children have amazing family and fantastic Grandparents in Nana and Grandma Leslie and Grandpa Rex and Grandma Linda and Grandpa Jerry I'm a little saddened that Lulu and this new one wont know my own mother like Kylie did. I'm especially sad that I wont hear my mother singing her new Grandson a silly made up song like she did for Ky and Lulu or telling stories about how I ate pork chop at 6 weeks old and if it was good enough for me its good enough for .

Back of my Mom's gravestone. Long story about this gravestone but short story is, this quote was perfect. Thank you Nana for finding it.

My mom and Kylie (she's 2 in that picture) watching a movie. Both appear, well, puzzled.

I'm fairly certainly my mom is singing a song to Kylie in this picture. Kylie was captivated.

Me, my Mom, Kylie and Lulu when she was a little over a week old. Why yes, I am still wearing my pajamas. Why do you ask?

Adventures in Castor Oil

This blog post will be short because I actually have a better one in my head. I actually have 2 better ones. The first involves a political lesson I gave my 14 year old recently. Knowing what I do about my readership (hello family!) I have to be careful how I word that so you people don't call CPS on me. (I'm kidding of course. It's just a long post that many of your might want to ignore altogether.) The other blog post will include a birth announcement. But, well, that birth hasn't happened yet. So I can't even begin to write that one. *sigh*

But I did want to share a semi-funny story with you all involving me and my pregnancy induced crazy and Castor oil.

So last Wednesday I went home early from work with contractions that SEEMED like they might be getting closer together. But not fast enough. It was also the day before my due date.

Up until that day I had been the biggest opponent of Castor Oil as an induction method. I knew exactly one person who had used in and gone into labor and her story was so horrific (involved a very fast labor and multiple bowel movements) that I couldn't remotely stomach the idea.

Until last Wednesday. Last Wednesday I was so desperate to make the contractions stop and just get it over with I stopped by the grocery store on the way home to find some of the "magic" oil. I had done my research and one website suggested there might be Castor oil pills. I couldn't find them. But it also suggested that 58% of women who had taken 2 oz of Castor oil had gone into labor within 4-6 hours.

Those seemed like frankly good odds last Wednesday.

I could not find the Castor oil however. So I called my husband and told him if he loved me he would bring me some. And he loves me. So he brought some home and then immediately said he couldn't be a part of it. He felt like it wasn't going to be pretty and darnit, we're still newlyweds.

I decided to go easy on myself and I took 1 oz of the Castor oil in orange juice. Let it sit an hour or so and nothing. So I took the other oz.

Let me stop here and say, taking that second ounce was rough. I knew the texture by that point and while it didn't taste particularly bad it does strange things to juice. Basically it sits on top of it and gets all over your mouth and no amount of orange juice will really help that.

And so I sat. And waited. And I knew what SHOULD come next. The exiting of anything I may have consumed for the last 3 years in a horrible method. But if it brought on labor I was ready for it.

Except.

Except NOTHING happened. NOTHING. No gut wrenching bathroom trips. No nausea. No regrets. No contractions. NOTHING HAPPENED.

In fact, my contractions stopped altogether for the evening.

Disappointment, thy name is Castor Oil.

Which is why I sit here, 4 days past my due date, still at my office job and still not delivered. Not even Castor Oil can save me.

Quicky Halloween post

Here are Halloween Pictures as promised and teased about in a previous post. Sorry all, my brain, she no work so good this pregnant.


The girls and I Halloween night. I'm wearing a black dress and a cape. I'm sure my friend Erin recognizes that lovely piece of costume. (Sorry Erin, still mean to send this back to you!)

The girls for Halloween. Remember, Lulu is Wall-E and Kylie is some goth/punk singer. Or Brett Michaels. Whatever.

Funny story about Halloween.

Lulu's costume came with a built in bag. The front of the Wall-E costume opened up and people could just toss candy into the pre-made bag. It was the most perfect costume ever.

Lulu quickly learned 2 truths while Trick or Treating that night.

1. If you go to the door by yourself and make mom wait at the end of the driveway people are more apt to focus JUST on you and make all sorts of fuss about you. Also, avoid going up with crowds of other children.

2. If you make mom clear out your candy from your costume bag after every stop and carry it in her bag people are more likely to give you several pieces of candy instead of just one "because you don't have ANY! yet!"

My child learned fast this year.

Kylie also learned trick or treating with her little sister sucks. About half of the time people completely ignored her and didn't give her any candy. Which is the way of it when you're 14.

In the end she just ended up stealing about half of Lulu's candy anyways.

The gift I still need

I am 40 weeks +1 day pregnant. I am still working outside the home. I am tired. I have 2 daughters at home who want my attention. Plus a husband who is anxious to meet his first baby. And two dogs, one of which (Tasha) can not stop checking on me every 2.9 seconds. And a cat that thinks my belly is his personal elevated bed. Even when I'm sleeping.

We are also dealing with some pretty serious issues with Micah's lovely grandmother Jenny. I wont go too much into it here but I will say that this week has seen some aggressiveness and confusion on her part that are escalating and it's hard for us to know what the right course of action is.

People keep asking me what we still need. Do we have everything? What else could we use?

My answer is always "A baby".

(For the record we do have some larger items we still need but I have the money for those items. I just don't have the desire to go by the swing or bouncy seat right now.)

But what I really need right now is patience. This baby will come on his own time. Or by the 20th, whichever comes first. (I have a schedule induction date because no one wants me to be in the hospital over Thanksgiving which is what we will be up against if I go 2 weeks overdue)

Grandma will be okay. She needs to adjust to her new environment and she is struggling with the confusion of dementia. She is now in a closed unit and it's hard for her to accept. Additionally, she wants to sit and eat with "friends" and it's hard to make friends in the closed dementia unit since, well, everyone has some level of Alzheimer's or dementia. We need to be patient and fight for her best interests.

My daughters always need and deserve my attention. I need to be able to explain to them what I need and what I can give. This is the last week that Lulu will be the youngest child in our house. This will be the last week that Kylie wont be "on call" to watch a small infant so Mommy can take a shower for a year or so.

Tasha and Molly and Jason are lovely, sensitive animals that love me. They can tell things are changing in the house and they aren't entirely sure how to deal with them. They need some love as well.

So I just need some more patience. Okay, I need a lot of it. Everything will be okay. Deep breath. It will all be alright. I just need some time. And patience.

And guacamole.

Healthy Obsession

So I know I've mentioned my love of guacamole on this blog maybe once or twice before. But I think Sunday may have alerted my husband to a growing problem I have with it and he may be forced to act on it soon. As such I am coming clean now in an attempt to abate his possible "Guacamole Intervention".

Sunday my Mother In Law Leslie and I went to Holiday craft fair. We walked and talked and did some minimal shopping for about 2 hours. I had one contraction and it was a faker. *sigh*

I dropped Leslie off and realized that I was very close to my favorite restaurant of all time, Carlos Miguels. It's a Mexican restaurant in Lakewood/Littleton and I live somewhere between 30-40 minutes away from it. I called Micah but he had eaten and wasn't interested in going out.

So I called them for pick up and got some dinner on the way home. A chimichanga. Yum. And also fresh "tableside" guacamole just the way I like it, to go.

I had every intention of sharing the goodness of the guac with Micah. I really, really did.

I discovered instead though that Carlos Miguels wants to destroy my marriage. The container for the Guac of Life happens to fit the cup holder in my car. And the waitress, when she noticed I had tipped for a pick up order, loaded me down with warm, salty chips.

So I did what any pregnant, ravenous, guac loving woman would do. I drove down E-470, I-25 and I-225 going about 65 miles an hour eating guacamole from the cup holder in my car. I meant to just have one or two bites, I really did. I swear.

But I got home and Micah greeted me and I'm sure he was thinking he would enjoy a little guacamole too. But alas there was MAYBE 2 bites of it left in the container and I would have eaten those too had I not been busy licking the rest of the guacamole off my shirt where I may have dropped it. While driving.

So, my name is Lacy, and I am a Guacaholic.

The Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

So in October Micah and I took the girls to the pumpkin patch. Okay it was Oct. 3rd. Yes, I know, I'm behind.

We had a great time overall.

I'm just going to post some pictures for you all since the guilt of taking a month to post these is eating at me. Or I have ice cream upstairs calling my name.

Lulu riding a metal horse. Totally not a staged photo......

Kylie treats her sister to some face painting. She actually snuck this and did it because her sister would like it AND paid for it from her own money. Don't tell her I told you though, it would ruin her reputation.

I'm so glad my husband doesn't have anxiety issues and won't freak out when he see's I posted this most flattering picture of him on the internet.

I adore pictures of small children with their backs turned running in fields. If there be pumpkins, even better. For the record, I'm not being sarcastic, I probably took 8 pictures just like this one.

Lulu contemplates if she can lift that pumpkin.

Girls posing for pictures. If you look closely at Kylie's right hand you will see her newest appendage, a cell phone.

Tricycle obstacle course.

This little goat was begging me to take him home and cuddle him.

Highly inappropriate body art. Kylie snuck this too.

Lulu made me pose like this. I really like that pumpkin though.

Super Phone

For those that don't already know what a big freak I am, I have 2 cell phones. Personally. I have a pink phone whose provider is T-Mobile and I have a black Iphone which is provided by AT&T. And yes, I work for that "other" cell provider that starts with a V and no, I don't have their service. It's weird. They just don't give a discount that's worth it to switch.

My Iphone was a gift from Micah when we were first dating. I think we had been seeing each other exclusively for about a month and we were burning through our phone minutes so he decided to add me to his plan and get me what I assumed would be a cheapie phone. Instead he pulled out all the stops and got me an Iphone (I think he was in love by that point. At least I hope so.) and then spent about a year teaching me to use it.

I keep the pink phone as my "Main" number because AT&T isn't always reliable and service can be spotty. Also, I have a killer deal on unlimited minutes with it and am hesitant to give that up just yet.

My Iphone has been a life saver on numerous occasions and I thought I would share those moments with you.

Last Christmas my group had a Christmas party. Except the managers forgot the music AND the camera.

TADA! My phone did BOTH. So they were able to take pictures I could email them the same day with the iphone AND it played Christmas Carols ala Trans Siberian Orchestra. Iphone saved the party.

Lately it has taken to granting me small blocks of time in the car where Lizzie can listen to "her" music on headphones with it and I can get some peace. I think that is the biggest time saver of them all.

Yesterday though, the Iphone saved the day for several people. Yesterday I was sitting in the Social Security office waiting to change my last name. No comments on how long THAT'S taken me to do, please. The number they called when I walked in was 62. My number was 197. They estimated my wait time as 90 minutes. *Sigh*

So I'm sitting there, entertaining myself and watching this little girl with her grandmother. Her grandmother has been there forever and this little girl is about 2. I don't know if Grandma was unprepared for the wait or what but she brought nothing to entertain this child. And for the first, oh, 45 minutes, I was there, that was fine. I know they had been there a lot longer than that. Little girl played jungle gym on Grandma and there was another child there slightly younger than her who kept coming over and "chatting" with her. They ran up and down the aisles a couple of times. But towards the end of the 45 minutes she started acting up.

She was whining and beginning to get loud and kept saying "Bye bye" to her Grandma had to leave. Now, this doesn't bother me because, well, she's 2. She can't help it. She's stuck there and it's been too long and she wants to play and there is NOTHING for her to play with. SS would do well to have some color books on hand.....

Grandma is getting frustrated and her number is still 6 away from the last number called and people are starting to look at the child and roll their eyes and frankly, get a little rude.

I pulled out my handy dandy Iphone, pulled up You Tube and despite the 10 signs saying not to use your cell phone in the lobby, showed Bella Sesame Street clips. Bert and Ernie singing, Elmo sing, Big Bird talking about ice cream or something......

The child was quiet. Grandma was grateful. Rude people at Social Security lobby were appeased and Bella got to watch Snufalufogus dance around.

For my next Iphone trick I plan to solve World Hunger. Not sure how, but when the opportunity presents itself me and my Iphone will be RIGHT there!

That baby.......

As I round the corner into my 39th week of pregnancy I'm starting to field a lot of questions about "When are you going to have that baby?".

Mostly from Micah.

But co-workers are also kind enough to ask, as well as strangers and even Lulu. Lulu is exceedingly worked up about when the baby is coming.

You see, way back when, we explained a timeline that made sense to her. First there would be her birthday (Sept. 26th), then Halloween (Oct. 31st) and then the baby would come after that but before Thanksgiving.

Well, we've had a birthday, we've had Halloween and she's starting to see Turkey decorations all over the place. It's time for the baby. So where is he?

He's still inside me, that's where. And I think it's beginning to frustrate her just slightly because she has taken to asking "How many more days until the baby?" about every 1.8 seconds.

Kylie, on the other hand, has no issues about when the baby is coming. She's old hat at this frankly, becoming a big sister at the ripe old age of 9 for the first time, and so she knows that the baby will come when he comes. Besides, she has more important things to worry about, such as, where is her black eyeliner, will I buy her more books and does she get to skip school when the baby is born. Priorities for a 14 year old.

Yesterday, I started having Braxton Hicks contractions about 9:30ish in the morning. I knew they were fakey's, as I call them, so I stayed at work and was able to work through them for the most part but it's kinda nice to know my body is finally DOING something towards getting the baby here. Because lately? It's been kinda lazy on the contraction front.

I don't think Micah can clean anything else in the house, his nesting instinct is so pronounced and if I change my budget one more time it's going to result in a Wall-Street collapse, I'm sure. (I nest in dollars, he nests in household stuff. That's why we make a great team.)

So any day now William, any day now......

Rosie the Charlantula

I am working on Halloween pictures, I swear. But this story is too cute not to tell and I think even without pictures you'll appreciate it.

For Halloween I conned Kylie on coming out with Lulu and me while we walked the neighborhood. Kylie was Wednesday 13 (A band? A singer? I dunno for sure.) but I just called her Brett Michaels. Lead singer of an 80's band called Poison. She was not amused. Lulu was Wall-E which was perfect because it went over her jacket and snow hat perfectly and she was toasty the whole time.

As we are rounding part of the neighborhood Kylie advises us that "There is the spider house". Apparently Kylie remembered a few years ago going to the door and then asking her if she wanted to hold their pet spider. A tarantula. She declined. Probably not politely.

Let's take a moment to remember who we are with at this moment. My Goth child who is wearing eyeliner thicker than my pinky and total black with a cowboy hat and mesh shirt. Also in tow is my 5 year old dressed up like a Robot.

We get to the house and the lady who is at the door asks if Lulu wants to see her ring. And yes, it's a brown tarantula. And I died. Okay not really. Lulu is fascinated and stares at it through her goggles. The lady asks if she would like to hold it.

Now let's stop here for a moment. I'm pretty sure she expected the answer to be no. Because was 5 year old girl in her right mind would say yes to holding this hairy giant spider?

My kid, that's who. She asks me to take off her glove and holds out her hand for Rosie to step on to. The lady explains that Rosie has suckers on her feet and is furry but wont bite. Lulu has no reaction as Rosie steps onto her hand and just HANGS OUT. Kylie is dying behind me and I'm squatting in my witches costume wondering where MY child is and who I have under this costume of the robot.

Then Rosie makes what could have been a fatal move. She steps onto the sleeve of Lulu's coat and suddenly Lulu FREAKS OUT. She starts screaming and waving her hand and luckily I was already squatting so I grabbed her hand in and in a brief second told myself that I could take the giant hairy TARANTULA if I had to.

Blessedly the lady was also squatting and we had Lulu's hand still while Rosie was still attached and she was able to get the spider off the coat and child with no issues. We checked Rosie out before leaving and she was fine. Lulu also was fine and was later able to explain she didn't want the spider in her hair. I totally get that.

So to recap. Toasty warm Kindergartner holds Rosie the Charlantula (Lulu's pronunciation, not mine) while Goth big sister and Mom barely keep from peeing themselves at the sight of it.

Happy Halloween to us.

Random Updates

I'm 38 weeks, 1 day pregnant.

I'm tired.

I'm possibly a little cranky.

We had a snowstorm in Colorado Wednesday and Thursday.

Kylie helped shovel snow without griping about it. I consider my parenting work to be a moderate success.

Lulu has begun to focus on art more than TV for entertainment. While this is fantastic and I continue to encourage this behavior I am a little tired of writing the stories to her little art projects when every fiber in my being is begging for a nap.

Micah and I had a very serious conversation about buying Lulu an Iphone for Christmas because she loves to play with the YouTube feature on mine and that + headphones = at least 30 minutes of silence.

We decided against it.

My midwife informed me yesterday that my no later than date is November 19th since she is on call for Thanksgiving and does not want to induce me then. That means if I go to 41 weeks (which would be November 19th) they will induce me the day after. While I'm not looking forward to induction if I can help it, it's nice to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

I have a cold.

Here is a picture of Micah and Kylie shoveling the driveway.



I am hiding safely in the garage. It's good to be pregnant. I guess.

The kids are supposed to go over to Brian's house on Sunday for a sleepover. Kylie is protesting vehemently. I'm torn on the issue personally. On the one hand, he raised her. Regardless of legal whatever, that's her dad. And the reason she doesn't want to go is because he wont let her wear black clothing.

On the one hand, I get that this is who she is and it's a phase and the more you fight something like that the more she wants it and rebels against parental rules. So I want her to be who she is today, even if it isn't who I would wish for. He disagrees. So on the other hand, do I force her to go somewhere where she isn't allowed to be who she is (within reason) or do I allow her to tell the man that raised her for 14 years to forget all about her and that she gets to be in charge because he didn't formally adopt her?

We are packed for the hospital and only because Micah made me. If this stuff was left up to me I would show up at the hospital with a pillow case full of movies and a pair of pants wondering what else I was supposed to bring.

Lulu is going to be Wall-E for Halloween. This is possibly the best costume ever as Wall-E is essentially a foam box with goggles. That she can wear over her coat. Hurray!

Kylie seems to have decided against going trick or treating. Be this a lesson to you Brian. When you told her she couldn't go it was the thing she wanted to do most in the world. When I told her she could go her interest in it waned and now she wants to hand out candy. Just sayin'.

Overall, still pregnant and probably not going anywhere anytime soon.
But feeling very smug about my parenting right now. I'm sure God will show me humility soon but if he could just let me have a few more minutes of being superior that would be great.

Why do they care?

I'm often surprised at how much people give a crap about my reproduction. I shouldn't be, I am, after all, a product of the internet generation and I use the internet to fuel all of my research ever, and yet, random co-workers and people on the street asking me questions and then telling me the "right" and "wrong" thing to do still amazes me.

1. When I found out I was pregnant and I finally started to tell people I had no less than 5 co-workers ask me how that happened.

My 14 year old knows how that happened. I assume that adults my own age or older know how it happens too. If you need me to really tell you we have some larger issues at play.

2. When did it happen?

Really? People REALLY want to know this? My EX-HUSBAND asked me if it happened while we were in Mexico (Micah and I, not he and I). I told him no. But why would you ask?

3. Do you know what you're having?

Okay this doesn't bother me so much. I'm having a boy. It's the follow up questions that come with it. If I'm lazy and say no people ask if I'm going to find out. If I tell them it's a boy, they ask if it's my first. Second? Third? First Boy? And then, THEN, I get the comments about "I bet you're glad it's a boy finally." That is possibly the most insulting thing I've ever heard. I had my heart set on a girl if you must know. But whether it was a boy, a girl or a monkey it's the last baby that is exiting my body. The suggestion that I'm relieved and don't have to keep trying for a boy tells me that strangers really will say the oddest things.

Also, before we knew what we were having people would try and lobby for me to either a)find out or b)not find out. EVERYONE has advice on this subject. When I would tell people we planned to find out I got some really adamant people telling me what a bad idea that was for any myriad of reasons. My favorite was "It'll make you push harder to find out."

I've had 2 kids. The last thing I've EVER had on my mind while pushing them out was the gender. My last child my only thought while pushing was my then husband's vasectomy.

4. What are your plans for delivery?

My midwife asking me this? Totally fine and appropriate. My husband and Mother In Law asking? Also fine. Close family members I'm also okay with.

Co-workers? Strangers? People in line at Wal-Mart? Stop it. Seriously.

Also, when I tell you my plans please, for the love of all that is holy, do not try and argue with me about my decision, whatever it is.

I'm choosing to go medication free. I have a reason for this. I also have 2 other children so it is possible that I've thought about this maybe once or twice. For what it's worth I've had both a medicated and an unmedicated birth. My unmedicated memories make me want to vomit with anxiety because I remember how bad it all hurt. I remember calling my Dr a liar because it hurt so bad. My medicated birth was, by far, so much better for me. And YET, I am still choosing to do this unmedicated. Really, I've thought about it. Telling me that birth hurts does not help.

Also, conversely, when women tell others to bring the epidural on in month 8, I don't blame them either. That stuff hurts. For REAL. So don't try and talk women OUT of medication if they choose too, I don't care how uninformed you may think they are. I'm going to say it again, labor hurts. It's not easy, it's not "fun" and while it's well worth it in the end, judging someones ability to tolerate pain is just plain mean.

5. Are you going to circumcise/vaccinate/eat your placenta? Etc........

WOW, really? REALLY?
Again, friends and family I'm cool with. If you're close to me. And close to me means I'd call you at 3 am for bail money.

If not, don't ask. These questions have no right or wrong answer except to the individual making the decision. They are bound to start controversy and I have no desire to hear about your cousin who either a) had to be circumcised at 5 because it wasn't done when he was an infant or b)your cousin who was scarred for life and became a serial killer because he was circumcised (or vaccinated for that matter) as an infant.

For the record, no, I wont be eating my placenta. I don't care how much protein it has in it.

Can you tell I'm grumpy? Sorry. But I am. I'm still pregnant and so done with it that I can't stand it.

My housekeeping skills can be summed up in one conversation

Me: What's that sound?
Micah: A vacuum cleaner.

How the got their names

For some reason I find the process that people use to name their children fascinating. I love 99.9% of names people pick for their children because of course they always seem to fit that child but I also love the time and thought that parents put into the process of picking the "right" name.

A name is something that you give your child that they will carry with them forever. It helps shape and mold them and make them who they are and who they will become. (You know, along with upbringing and morales etc.)

So here is how each of my children got their names. I just thought I would share with you.

Kylie LeAnndra

Kylie is a name that my stepmother really liked and wanted for my half brothers daughter (my niece). At the last minute they changed their minds and so 4 years later I used it for my daughter. It also helps that its a)an Irish name and b) her birth fathers middle name is Kyle.

Kylie is Irish, meaning Handsome (okay it was for a boy in Ireland) or Boomerang in Australian Aboriginal.

LeAnndra is me changing up my middle name. Originally Kylie's middle name was going to be Nicole but at the last minute my mom suggested I use LeAnndra instead since her fathers middle name was getting some billing, perhaps mine should to. LeAnndra means "like a lioness" and I find it appropriate.

Elizabeth Ann.

Elizabeth is for Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. The A&E movie is my favorite movie of all time and had I seen it 7 months earlier Kylie may very well have been named Jane.

Ann is also using my middle name and giving it to my child. I just had to be sneakier about it. At the hospital, after Brian had filled out the birth certificate information he looked at me and said, "Hey, you, Kylie and Lizzie all have Ann in your middle name." I faked being surprised and really was shocked he hadn't noticed sooner.

William Raul.

William was all Micah's idea. He really, really, really wanted to name the baby that. I was heading more towards Jeremiah. Or Paul. Or Benjamin. Or anything that wasn't William because Micah wanted to call him Bill and when I think of the name Bill I think of old, bald, fat guys. (Apologies to all Bills right now) He finally won me over with a promise to call him Will, not Bill. But every so often he messes with me and make me think that William is still a bad idea.

Raul is Micah's grandfathers middle name. He insisted and while I was all about putting Lee as the middle name (More homage to ME!) I agreed, seeing as Micah loved his grandfather so much.

I toy with the idea of adding Julian as a second middle name to this baby as homage to my mother but I generally am not a fan of 2 middle names so that probably wont happen.

So how did you name your babies?

The ballad of Jenny and Fran

Jenny and Fran can't seem to get along. Already today they have had it out and involved a third party with the "it's not fairs!" and the "She touched my stuff!"

Fran has accused Jenny of wearing her clothes (she isn't). Jenny says she doesn't have to share the closet (she does). The two have been bickering since at least this morning and I suspect by the time I get there after work Fran will be claiming she doesn't have to share the bathroom since it's on her side of the room if Jenny won't share the closet because it's on Jenny's side and Jenny will have punched Fran in the teeth. Except Fran doesn't have teeth and I'm not sure Jenny has the strength to follow through on a good punch. Although Fran may be dead because she does like to nap a lot of I think Jenny has enough strength to hold a pillow over Fran's face.

The "funny" part of all of this is that these are not two sisters bickering and sharing a room. No. These are 80+ year old women in a nursing home who became roommates over the weekend. Neither one is particularly happy with it, apparently and they don't seem to like each other.

Micah got a call from the social worker earlier today detailing the argument for him. He tried to talk to his grandma, Jenny, who is unhappy regardless. *sigh*

I'm off this evening to try smooth things over, at least with Jenny.

Pray for me. I think I may need it.

You know you're 36 weeks pregnant when....

1. Your 5 year old knows the routine in the morning involves putting Mommy's socks on for her
2. Your 14 year old's routine involves Mommy's shoes
3. Your coat struggled to zip up over your belly
4. Strangers start saying "Getting close now?"
5. Your appointments become weekly
6. and involve you taking off your pants
7. People start asking what you're doing to help labor along...and wink at your husband
8. You realize that doesn't sound like a bad idea if you could figure out how to get your belly out of the way
9. Your socks leave marks on your legs
10. Getting your leg over the bathtub is exhausting
11. You want to get a pedicure but aren't sure if you need one since you haven't seen your toes in 2 months
12. You also haven't shaved your legs in that length of time
13. The dogs no longer fear your hunger, they know you can't eat more than an M&M at a time
14. You're co-workers beg you not to take on too much work as they don't want to have to do you're stuff when you're out
15. You rework the budget 15 times in one day because that's your idea of nesting
16. When people ask if you need anything you ask if they can go to the bathroom for you as you're tired of spending all your time in there
17. You wake up tired every morning and realize you lost count of the number of times you visited the bathroom
18. Getting out of the car requires assistance..and occasionally a fork lift
19. Slip on shoes never looked so good
20. You have a countdown calendar going on and you tell EVERYONE about it

Parent Teacher Conferences

Last week I had the parent-teacher conference for Lulu with her teacher Mrs. Brunning. Who I love.

For some unknown reason Kylie's parent teacher conferences were in Sept, less than a month after school had started. I missed out on going because I didn't know about it. But even if I had I can already tell you how they would have gone.

Teacher #1: Kylie is brilliant but lazy. She speeds through her work and then just reads.
Teacher #2: Kylie is so smart and talented but she seems a little lazy. We really have to struggle to get her homework turned in, even though she aces every test.
Teacher #3: Kylie is gifted but lazy....

You see where that goes. So yeah, I'll just check her report card, thank you very much. Talking to 7 teachers about how gifted by lazy my kid is does nothing for me.

So back to Lulu.

Lulu was truly shy for the first time in almost a year and didn't speak the entire time. She just stared at her teacher and smiled.

According to the teacher Lulu is doing well at school, she's got all of her capital letters down and most of her lowercase. She's desperately trying to read and spends a lot of time sounding out small words. Her memory is good and she's moving quickly through math and reading concepts.

She also is apparently the guide dog of the Kindergarten. According to the teacher Lulu is very outgoing and talkative and is very good at multitasking. That is to say, she can color a picture and talk at the same time. Apparently not all of the children and create a picture and describe it so she will pair Lulu with that child so they can see her process as she creates and helps the other children come out of their shells.

None of that is a surprise, I don't think Lulu stops talking from the moment she gets home until she falls asleep.

She also told me that Lulu is very helpful, wants to help others and is very empathetic to the needs and feelings of others. She doesn't want anyone to have their feelings hurt and goes out her way to make sure everyone is "okay".

And doesn't stop talking. Which sometimes gets her in trouble. But overall a joy to have in class.

I honestly don't know how I got so lucky sometimes.

Brilliant but lazy and talkative and helpful. What more can a mother ask for?

Maybe a bad example

As I approach the end of my pregnancy I have begun to take to my bed earlier and more frequently. Micah was kind enough a few weeks ago to give me his vibrating heating pad for my back and it has done me a world of good.

Like a caring and loving daughter, Lulu has noticed that I seem to hurt a little more and when she comes in my room and sees me using the heating bad she'll get a very concerned look on her face and ask if my back hurts. I generally tell her yes, a little bit and she gives me a hug.

So you can imagine my laughter last night when I came into my room to find Lulu on the bed looking like this:


She said her back hurt too. And then couldn't stop talking because she's so little the vibrating made her sound funny when she opened her mouth.

I've created a monster.

*and yes, I really do sleep with all those pillows plus 2 more you can't see. I'm a freak.

Donuts with Grandpa

By now it should come as no surprise to my readers that I grew up in a household of women. I've been known to say once or twice that women raising children together is the way it should be. Because in the past I've had more help with my kids from other women than with the father figure in the house. And my own experience was being raised by 2 women.

I'm kinda getting to the point where it might be okay to do the Mom and Dad thing in the house. So far it's looking promising anyways, what with the help with dinner and kitchen cleanup and laundry and reading stories that the Dad in our house does...but I digress.

Today at our elementary school it's Donuts with Dad morning. Donuts with Dad is actually a community event I started about 4 years ago when I became President of the PTO. (Why, yes, I am tooting my own horn, why do you ask?) When I took over the PTO was solely about raising funds for pet projects that the former board liked and was not necessarily about the school or the kids. I got lucky, the entire board quit and I started with a clean slate. And no help. But I was passionate about PTO not just being about money and so that fall we held our first DWD or Donuts with Dad.

Because of the makeup of our community we opened it up to ANY male figure in a child's life so Dads, Step Dads, Uncles, Brothers, Grandpa's, even friends and neighbors could come and support the child.They get a donut and juice or milk and the child gets to show off their school, classroom and teachers as well as friends. We do a similar event for Moms in the Spring but the Dad event is by far better attended (free donuts, hello) and we get somewhere around 200-300 people to the event. Considering we have about 450 students, including pre-school, that's pretty good.

Not once, in those 4 years, did either of my children have a male figure attend the event with them. For those of you who are keeping track, I did actually have a child in the school 4 years ago but her father couldn't be bothered to come. Even though his wife organized and planned it. He is on vacation for it this year.

Micah was unable to attend this year but Lulu didn't actually invite him anyways. When she and I talked about it she wanted to invite her Grandpa. Luckily for us Grandpa accepted and Lulu was very excited.

This morning all she could talk about was showing Grandpa off. Like he's a display piece in her collection of people who adore her. Oh wait. He probably is.

To be fair she offered to save me part of her donut. I decline. I've seen what happens when she saves anything for me and it's not pretty.

As far as I can tell Grandpa came and Lulu was pleased. Here is the photo my friends on the PTO took for me showing my littlest girl and her Grandpa. I hope she got to show him off. I hope he liked it.

Thank you Grandpa!

PS - Elisa:

Actually that's not your little girl keeping you up, it's my inability to convey the story properly.
That's Micah's step-dad Rex who is, by all accounts, the only dad that matters as far as Micah or I are concerned.