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.