My Life with a Leprechaun

C1's adoptive family picked him up today - well, the dad did. They originally tried to call in sick to parenting. Sorry, that's not something you can do. The mom said she caught whatever sickness C1 had and was out of commission all week. I was surprised since C1 just had a nasty cold, maybe she got something else. Anywho, he'll be with them until Monday.

I had C2 home with me today. I feel exhausted. We attempted to go see Alvin and The Chipmunks but some how I got the time wrong - I believe this is due to what I'm calling pregnancy brain. Basically, when you're pregnant you become slow in the brain. My life is a mess of post-its and random lists. Anywho, being about 40 minutes early for a movie with a 3-yr old is not possible. So instead we rented a movie and made popcorn at home. I knew that popcorn was the only real thing he was excited about anyways. LOL. We also went to "the red store" for some new rain boots. He's obsessed with hats so he picked out an Irish one for St. Patty's. Of course, this is how he walked around for the rest of the day.


Kids are crazy. I've learned not to argue so he was allowed to wear his crazy hat into Blockbuster.

We're taking a mini-vacation this weekend starting late tomorrow until Monday. I had planned on doing all these things around the house this weekend (or rather having Mary do all these things around the house this weekend :-)) But I definitely jumped on the opportunity to go away for the weekend and not have to cook and clean :-) It will be our first little trip with just the 3 of us. We're staying at a resort on the coast. We could never afford this place in peak season and it will be nice to have some time with C2. I've been trying to be very conscious about spending a lot of time with him to ease all the changes that are going to happen soon.

I attempted to explain some things to him about how C1 will be living somewhere else. I told him that we would still visit him but he wouldn't live with us. His only response was, "I want to visit Nana Patty". C2 isn't the sharpest tool in the shed to begin with and I think this is something that would be hard for any 3-yr old to understand. So I think at this point, he won't understand until C1 has actually moved out and is gone for a while.

Misc Stuff

My poor mom - yet again she had issues with her flights yesterday. She was supposed to get to Ohio at 5:30 p.m., instead it was 12:30 a.m. At least she was here for the ultrasound but I still feel bad for her. Then my a**hole brother is all, "why did you book her on US Air? They suck". Umm, there was weather issues, it really had nothing to do with the airline. He's such a dick and his only concern was my mom watching his kid today. I just hope my son doesn't get any genetics from either of my brothers.

In other news, my lower back feels totally f*ct for lack of a better term. It feels like I'm not going to be walking by the end of the day. I'm sure making the 5 hour round trip to the airport didn't help. I'm thinking it's from pregnancy since I seem to be in some sort of growth spurt where my hips are separating from the rest of my body. And I've been trying to sleep on my side, I am so not a side sleeper. Maybe I should've practiced this before getting pregnant. I bought one of those body pillows to see if it will help. Mary is jealous of body pillow. I'm hesitant to buy one of those expensive prego pillows but I just may have to if this doesn't work. I tried to buy some Icy Hot or Ben Gay last night but I'm not sure what I can take, everything said consult a physician if you're preggers. Luckily, I have an appointment on Friday but I may not be able to wait that long. Girl needs some relief.

The caseworker came by last night so we could sign even more paperwork, apparently this transfers us over as adoptive parents to C2. I didn't think this would happen until we legally finalized an adoption but apparently it's the end of the month so they wanted to make sure they cut us off from any foster benefits. Too funny, I've never seen the caseworker do anything timely before. We signed but now need to check if he can even go on our health insurance. We don't think he can until he's actually adopted. On that aspect, we finalized our paperwork earlier in the week so now it's up to somebody to give us the go ahead. We also have to do some fingerprint background check but can't do it until our paperwork is approved. I thought this was weird since we had a background check when we became foster parents but I guess it didn't involve fingerprints. Oh well, it's a confusing process that I hope is over soon.

It's a Yogi *boy*!

I should've known since it's been 28 years since a girl was born in my family but I was still holding out hope. But it's definitely a boy! I'm excited to know. Even though I was definitely hoping for a girl, I'll definitely be happy with a healthy baby boy. He was measuring just right with a good heart beat and all, that's what I was most looking to hear from the ultrasound. And Mary was wishing for a boy so she is thrilled especially since she also gets naming rights to a boy.

Here he is, penis and all ;-)


my boy!


he is well endowed - ha!


He kept putting his hand by his face which I thought was adorable!


The 4-D is definitely freaky

Well, apparently blue is my signature color...I've always said pink. ;-) I'm off to bring my mom to the airport and go to Babies R Us to purchase lots of blue things for my baby boy :-)

Ultrasound TOMORROW *eeeeeks*

C2 has been so cute and smiley since we got home. He keeps saying "I am so happy that you guys are home". He's such a sweet pea. Me and my mom took him to the pool today. Mary was getting C1 and then they had a few hours in the house until we got home. This was in hopes of creating a smoother transition. Of course, C1 was whiney and combative when we got home but so far we've avoided any major flip outs.

It sounds like the adoptive family did well with him. They were definitely overwhelmed but I don't think it's anything for me to worry about. He also came down with a cold there. Welcome to parenting a young child, they're always sick! Lucky for them, C1 has a pretty good immune system and even when he gets sick he's better in a few days. As in most everything, he is opposite of C2 who is sick most of the time and doesn't get over illness quickly.

He will most likely go with them from Thurs-Mon this week and supposively they're going to pick him up from school on Thurs and drop him off at school on Mon. That definitely makes things easier for us. I'm definitley glad I got the transition time reduced because it's a lot of driving since they live almost 4 hours away.

Plus, from my chat with them last week they were also glad to do a shorter transition. I don't think they're into the idea of sharing him with somebody else. They have been trying to have a child for 11 years so they are definitely eager to be parents and not share that duty with anyone. I'm so glad this family was found because I think it's going to be totally perfect for C1.

In other news, tomorrow afternoon is my ultrasound - yay!!!! I can NOT wait to find out if it's a boy or girl. :-)

A Day in D.C.

My one day in D.C. I did quite a bit. First, I enjoyed room service for breakfast :-) Oh, life is good. Then I headed over to the National Gallery of Art. I took a taxi over since I had no idea where I was going. Taxis are strange in D.C., there's no meter. It seems totally random as to what they charge you and the distance I went definitely wasn't worth the price. I later figured out they go by zones. Oh well. Anywho, the Nat'l Gallery was pretty confusing as in hard to navigate. Cool thing - it's free! So I spent some time and saw some cool art and some not so cool art and couldn't find some things I wanted to see.


This is me taking a pic of myself - pathetic...note my new hair (Mary had a slight panic attack to see that I had it chopped)

Then I walked over to one of the Smithsonians (I'm clueless and didn't know there was multiple ones until Mary clued me in) - Natural History. There were A LOT of kids there so for a minute I was sad not to have my C2 with me. Then I saw two little rugrats throwing tantrums and again felt relief to be kid free. The Hope Diamond is there and there was a cool butterfly exhibit. The Smithsonian is also free *sweet* but I paid to get into the butterfly exhibit. It was worth it, there was definitely lots of cool butterflies.


Me attempting to compare my diamond to the Hope Diamond ;-)


one of the many cool butterflies

Afterwards, I made my way back to the hotel stopping for lunch and at H&M. We drove by H&M on our way to the hotel when we were arriving and I mentioned I was going to shop the next day then I said, "though I guess they won't have maternity clothes". Well, they do! However, Mary told me not to shop so I controlled my urge. Hmph! :-\

I was pretty proud of myself since I don't know D.C. at all (the last time I was there, I was about 7 or 8) and managed to navigate pretty well on my own, only with a map from the Nat'l Gallery that showed the streets around it. Of course, it would've been nice if Mary was with me but it was still a nice alone day. In the evening, Mary and I walked over to the White House and then had a casual dinner.



Then we were off early in the morning. Luckily, on the flight back a very nice man agreed to switch seats with Mary so we could sit together. The flight was pretty quick and I wasn't as scared as I usually am but managed to get sick. Oh, lovely. Flying into Boston, we had a 4.5 hour drive home but we were happy to be greeted by a very excited C2 who my mom said had been looking out the window for the past 1/2 hour when I called to say we were almost there. And of course he was even more happy to see that I got him yet another stuffed animal to add to his collection. At this point, the boy can barely fit in his bed with the number of animals he shares it with. He's a funny little guy.

Since we've had the boys, any time we take a trip on our own, it's total chaos - picking up the dog, getting the boys, and returning a rental car. This time, C2 and the dog were already here and we have the rental car until Tuesday. Unfortunately, Mary had to leave early this morning to pick up C1. It sounds like the adoptive family was pretty overwhelmed with him and they decided it would be best not to take him to church this week (the mom is a minister). I just hope they aren't getting second thoughts after experiencing the realities of C1.

Blogging from the Nation's Capital

Well, I'm here in D.C. After a crappy flight, I was extremely happy to find we were staying in a fabulous hotel. I told Mary that any hotel that has little L'Occitane products for their hotel's shampoo, etc. is for me :-) Hehehe.

Yesterday was my birthday. It didn't feel very birthday like but I did have a nice day. In the morning, we went over to see some rentals that the university's rental agency offers. Thank goodness, Mary agreed with me that the first one was OUT of consideration. Taken, the rent is cheap for the area, it was not only disgusting and without a dishwasher (with 2 kids, I'm not living without a dishwasher) but also one of the three bedrooms was on a separate floor. We definitely need the kids on the same floor as us. Of course, people make what I consider crazy suggestions of having C2 share a room with the baby or for the baby to be in our room. We do plan on having the baby in our room for a couple of months but we're definitely not co-sleeping kind of people.

Anywho, the second place was a single family house. It definitely has the space we need and is actually bigger than our current home but it had some draw backs. It's old which includes some really cool features and character BUT it definitely needs updates in many areas of the house. And as renters, we're not going to be updating anything. The rent we could afford but it is high and I'm scared with such a big and old house that we're going to get killed on the utility bills. And with the high rent and utilities, we wouldn't be able to save much to purchase a home in a few years which was the original plan. But we'll see, Mary's obsessed with it and definitely wants to rent it. It's also available now so we have to see if they'll hold it for us.

After the rental search, Mary had meetings so I planned an afternoon of pampering. I got my hair cut, my eye brows waxed and much to Mary's dismay, I did get a manicure and pedicure. Of course, the nail salon had absolutely no other customers when I showed up and by the time I was leaving was packed. Luckily, somebody didn't start getting those yucky acrylic nails until right before I was leaving. Mary also freaks out about bacteria in places like that but it's a place I've had my nails done countless times and is very clean. I was happy to have some maintenance done :-)

We headed to the airport early and had dinner there before our flight. Eating an actual meal right before flying was not the best idea but I made it through without throwing up on the guy next to me. Yes, the guy next to me, since my ticket was booked after Mary's, we weren't able to sit together :-\ That part kind of sucked but later we decided it was better since as anxious flyers we couldn't feed off of each other.

Oh well, I'm off to explore and hit a museum or two. Mary's in meetings until about 5:00, I have my fingers crossed that she'll get out a little bit early and can see a few sights with me. The weather said it was going to snow here which I actually prefer to the rain that's happening right now. C'est la vie.

Ready to GO

We're off later today. My mom will watch C2 while we're away. It's a double bonus since we don't have to kennel Chloe. She's also been a lot of help this week and I always have fun hanging out with her. Yes, I admit, I'm a momma's girl.

Mary's mom (Jayne) comes up in a few weeks too. Jayne is usually total chaos but I'm actually looking forward to her visit. It's during Mary's "spring break" which she told me she'd take time off - I knew that would not happen. But now that her mom is going to be in town, she has to :-) Jayne was talking about bringing Georgia back up with her - she's now a "snow bird" dog since she's spending the winter in Florida. Of course Georgia has bitten a few people since she's been down there - oh, crazy Georgie. I'm hoping she'll give us a few more months since it's still too cold for Georgia up here.

I'm going to be a lady of leisure on my birthday tomorrow. I was trying to figure out something to do between the time we check out of the hotel and our flight - Mary's set up meetings in Boston of course. So I'm having my hair, nails, and eye brows done. Mary doesn't want me to get my nails done while I'm pregnant but I am in serious need of a mani/pedi. I'm already not dying my hair, am I just supposed to go to crap while I'm pregnant? ;-) Plus, I told her how me and my friend Melissa were constantly going for pedicures while she was pregnant and she has a perfectly normal baby. Anywho, I told her that if the place reeked of chemicals, I'd just get my brows waxed and leave. When we were in Florida - I went, noted that it reeked of chemicals and had no ventilation so I left. It's winter in Boston so I'm thinking it won't be crowded with lots of people getting their nails done.