Reminiscing

One of my latest pregnancy projects has been putting our blog into a book.  My friend pointed me to a Groupon offer for a Blurb blog book, and then Blurb sent me a coupon that expires May 31, so I've got extra incentive (besides a due date) to get a move on this book.

I've just relived our move across the country (I think this blog book may only make it through 2009), but in June I'm already at 95 pages), and have had a lot of fond memories pop back.  First of all, how much I do NOT miss Tucson.  Except for the thunderstorms, creosote, and real tortillas [side note: Matthias pointed out that the tortillas in our fridge say "Better by: 23JAN2012".  First of all, that long of a better by date is disgusting, and secondly they know that they will never be the best].  We do miss the people though, but now we don't even have that many friends who still live in Tucson.  There really is no going back to those days, and for that I'm glad, even though we tried to have fun while we were there.

Secondly, I highly recommend taking some sort of church history tour if the opportunity ever arises.  Wow, it was amazing, and I've loved rereading our thoughts as we were driving through the unknown.  Maybe it's also special because I've been teaching about the Restoration in Sharing Time this month.

Thirdly, our apartment here was really nice.  We love our home, but I did like our 2 full bathroom apartment, and our Master Bathroom was amazing.  I've also been longing for a swimming pool as of late, so help alleviate the stresses on my back.  You still can't beat that we are paying only $200 more on a mortgage for a house with way more space, a yard, a garage, and an amazing view and neighborhood.  I'm so glad we bought our house when we did, and we love being homeowners.  I also really look forward to having my body back so I can get back on top (and bottom) of the housework.  I can only do so much bending over these days, and my nesting really wants to get down and dirty to clean up, but I just can't physically do it.

I'm completely amazed at how different our lives are just 2 years later.  In 2 days we will have been homeowners for a whole year!  We are in love with New Hampshire, we love the people, and the seasons, and even all of the rain that people keep complaining about.  I especially love how much greener the world is when the sun comes out again.  We are still in the spring green colors, but soon we will be in full on "summertime, when all the world is green".

Baby girl still hasn't made her appearance (we're still over a week until the due date though), and we are really grateful for that because Matthias was able to do his "Reach the Beach" race in Mass. this weekend.  I will make sure he blogs about it because it was such an amazing experience.  However, we were a bit worried about him being on a 30 hour race an hour and a half from home so close to the due date.

Speaking of baby, I had a rather interesting experience at the doctor the day before Reach the Beach.  First of all, my blood pressure has been amazing this pregnancy, and my measurements and weight gain have been "perfect".  So when I went to the doctor on Thursday, and my blood pressure had suddenly spiked 20 points I got really nervous.  Granted, Oliver was hanging on my legs as they were taking the blood pressure, and I was going on less sleep than usual because of RTB prep, but I got really scared because it was the exact appointment that they decided I was most likely preeclamptic last time, and I was induced 4 days later.  Luckily my blood pressure went down 10 minutes later, and the lower number (sorry Desi, I don't remember which is which anymore!) was never in the worry zone, and there was no protein in the sample, so they think I'm doing all right.  Plus the fact that I don't get dizzy and have to lay down as much as I did last pregnancy, and the fact that I am still wearing my wedding ring, I think we'll be okay.  But then when the OB was trying to find the baby's heartbeat, she found it much higher than usual.  Typically they are really good at looking at my belly, and find the heartbeat right around where they first put the doppler, but she had to really move around to find it.  Great heartbeat, but she couldn't be convinced that the baby wasn't breach.  Yeah, 2 weeks from the due date and a possible breach baby?  Yikes!  So she sent me in for an ultrasound (which they had me do with Oliver after they discovered the preeclampsia to measure fluid levels) which I was able to go to right away.  Luckily, everything was fine.  I didn't find out the estimated weight, though, because I was trying to keep an eye on Oliver so that the nurse could intervene when necessary.  The OB wanted to talk to me after the ultrasound, so we took another trip to the waiting room, where Oliver again made friends with everyone, and when we got called in all of the nurses were so excited to see him again (he seriously loved it!), and the OB said to wish Matthias good luck on RTB and that we shouldn't be worried at all.  There were so many similarities to the days before Oliver's induction that it was crazy, but to have such a completely different outcome was a real relief.  And even though I know we'll have to pay for yet another ultrasound (this is our 4th, when usually it would only be 1.  At the gender ultrasound they didn't get all of the pictures of the heart that they wanted, so we went in again.  At the second appointment the doctor was worried about fluid levels around the heart, so we had to go to a pediatric cardiologist, who thought our baby had the most beautiful heart she had ever seen...seriously, she wanted to put the pictures into a textbook!), I'm glad that our doctors really are trying to do what's best for the baby.   I do get mad at a couple of the doctors, but since I've started requesting doctors instead of just taking whomever, I've liked the practice a lot better.

I'm pretty sure that Oliver knows that baby sister is going to be here soon because he has been demanding a LOT more attention, and not always in the best ways.  Luckily he's got plenty of snuggles and kisses, and "na-nigh"s to remind us how much we really love him, no matter how silly he can be.  Hopefully things will be settled down within 2 weeks of his sister coming, so that we can hope to have a bit more order in our house.  He's been doing really well with potty training, but is still nervous about going #2.  It also doesn't help that his incisors are coming in, causing him a lot of pain (I've had to teach him which toys he can bite, because sometimes he just needs to bite something), and also causing his same "teething diapers".  Teething is so hard for him and I am excited for it to take a break again.  And he still loves wearing his "choo choos" instead of "bubboh"s (his diapers look like they have bubbles on them), so it's not too bad, even if he does try to run away when he asks to go potty (yeah, I don't get it, but once I catch up to him he'll come to the bathroom with me and have dry underwear and then go in the toilet, so can I really complain?)

Also, he's losing some of his baby talk.  It makes me happy that he's progressing and growing up, but sad at the same time, because we've loved his little "words".

Truck used to be "kret" and now it is "kruck"
Book used to be "Go-ko" and now it is "Koob"or "Cook"

He knows so much these days that we get blown away by the things he says and does.  Sometimes he will even string 3 words together!  The highlight of the day is "Mayman, kret, hi!" (Mailman truck hi) when he runs to the window and knocks so that the mailman will wave hi to him.  He is so excited to learn, and read books to us (pointing out all of the cars, trucks, tractors, and airplanes, and let us know what color they are), and he is soooo fast at reading letters that I wonder if I should start trying to teach him words.  He reads letters backwards, so maybe just teaching him left to right should be where I start.  He also loves singing with us.  In nursery the music leader is teaching the kids the "Latter-Day Prophets" song, and he knows a LOT of them, even if he can't say them all yet.  (Brigham Young is "Myoung")  He'll also sing "I am a Child of God" and fill in words here and there.  He's a pro at the actions for "Popcorn Popping" and "Patty Cake", and he loves singing the "'Beam" (Sunbeam) song.  Oh, I almost forgot that he also loves singing his ABC's.  He still can't say J though.  It's a hard letter.  He usually just makes an "ugh" noise when we get to J.  We've taken some really cute videos of him on my new iPod, so I'll have to actually upload them and post them. 

And finally, some amazing news that I feel like I can finally tell people because it's posted on her blog, but I am now a Mint Chick for Peppermint Creative!  She had a creative team call awhile ago, and I applied nervously, but luckily I made it!  So now instead of just showing you my pages that I make with her goods, I'll just mention that I made them with her goods instead of just linking to my credits.  I'm a Challenge Team Member, so I will be hosting one challenge a month.  I'll be sure to let you know so that you can play around.  I've already written my first one (so that if I'm unavailable due to baby girl the challenge will still go on) and I am really excited about it!  I also made one of my favorite pages ever for it, and think that there is a lot of inspiration from the challenge.  This is beyond exciting for me and I've been bursting at the seams ever since I found out!