Place your bets!

Within our friends and family, we are having a pool of sorts on Noodle's birthday and sex. I'm due June 14. JM was 8lb 4oz and came four days early....

June
6
Sandy girl 8.1

7
Karen W. boy 7.6

8
Poppa Art girl 7.8
Mary Beth boy 8.2
Emily T. girl 7.14

9
Karyn C. boy 8.7
Nana Ellen boy 8.9

10
Dale boy 8.6
Celeste girl 7.0

11
Lala boy 8.8
Karen T. girl 8.6

12
Jowers girl 8.1
Lim's girlfriend Sharon girl 7.9
Grandpa Wes boy 7.8
Mimi Pattie boy 8.2 9pm
Cheryl boy 8.2 10:37am
Kim S. boy 7.5
Aunt Susanne girl 8.10
Mike girl 8.7

13
Peter girl 8.0
Emily M. girl 7.8
Sarah boy 7.6

14
Mandie girl 7.14

15
Corinne boy 7.10
Katy boy 7.14

16
Meagen girl

20
Elizabeth girl 8.2

Pam- girl 8.2 "late"
Z- twins, each weighing 8 lbs. If Z is right, he wins not only bragging rights, but $1000.

If you haven't submitted your vote, add it in the comments section and I'll add you! Good luck to all!

Popsicle Tour

We took a hospital tour tonight, or to went to the "popsicle" as John Michael was calling it (love that). It is really sinking in that this baby is coming soon! I am really glad we went, as we're delivering at a new hospital this time (our doctor moved), so now we know where to go! We were the only people that brought a child on the tour, so I really hope we didn't scare anyone into having second thoughts about parenthood. For them, it was certainly a preview of what life with a two year-old would be like. JM was pretty good, content with snacks and even a bribery lollipop, but decided halfway through the tour that he was done and ready to cruise the halls. It was a total toddler day for him today. One minute excruciatingly happy (such as showing off how to run fast for the entire tour group) and the next, hating everything (such as when we wouldn't let him run all willy nilly all over the hospital).

Squeaky wheel

Dear MBRox,
Thank you for your email regarding our Anti-Bacterial Hand Soap. I appreciate and value your feedback. As America?s #1 Anti-Bacterial Hand Soap brand, we set the highest standards for our products and customer satisfaction, and we want you to love everything we offer! We are sad to hear that this product did not live up to your expectations. I have forwarded your remarks to our Quality Assurance team. Due to your feedback we are currently looking into the design of this pump and hope to have a solution to this issue in the coming months.

Our products are 100% guaranteed, so if you're not happy, just bring it back. To return or exchange an item in the store, please bring the following items with you when returning merchandise:

1. Your invoice as Proof of Purchase

2. The credit card used to purchase the merchandise (for gift returns, the original credit card is not needed, you will receive a merchandise credit if requesting a refund).

To find a store location, please click on the link below or copy and paste the URL into the address line of your browser:


http://www.bathandbodyworks.com/corp/index.jsp?page=storeLocator&clickid
=footer_storeLocator_txt

I appreciate your interest in our products and look forward to serving
you again in the future.

Sincerely,


Kathryn R.
BathandBodyWorks.com Customer Service

Visit www.BathandBodyWorks.com

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Original Message Follows:
------------------------


To: customerservice@bathandbodyworks.com

From: ******

Subject: Product Questions


Order Number:

Name: MBRox

Phone Number:

Wrote: I am a big fan of your anti-bacterial foaming hand soaps, so much
that I will make a separate trip to Bath and Body Works just to stock up
on them. Last week, I purchased 5 new fragrances and I must tell you
that the new plastic packaging is AWFUL! In the two soaps I've opened
so far, the pump gets stuck each and every time you use the soap,
causing it to shoot out across the room (and gets all over my
shirt, instead of on my hands, causing me to curse the plastics engineer
who designed it). I just wanted to give you a heads' up. If this poor
quality continues, I will certainly be looking elsewhere for my family's
hand soap.

Sick mama

Last Tuesday afternoon I went to the gym and I swear I yawned about 100 times in the 45 minutes I was there. I've been trying to go to the gym a few times a week this pregnancy, so I thought (hoped?) that maybe this was a sign that I was overdoing it. I really wish I could say that I've been consistent with my prenatal workouts this time, but I'm lucky if I get to the gym twice a week. It really makes me happy to go, though... Good stress relief. Anyway, I digress. By the time I got home, I could barely stay upright at the kitchen table at dinner and quickly progressed to the sofa. By late evening, I was hugging the porcelain goddess, which I must tell you, is not easy, when you have a gigantic belly protruding... Yes, despite two flu shots, gorgeous "windows open" weather and being at the end of flu season, I somehow got a flu bug that took me OUT for about 36 hours last week. Boo! Being sick while this pregnant is really not fun, let me tell you. Not only do you feel bad, but laying in bed is no fun, either, since it hurts (me, anyway) to lay on my sides for hours on end. And, may I give a shout-out to my awesome husband? He worked from home... like seriously worked from home with back to back conference calls Wednesday and part of Thursday while trying to juggle taking care of our son at the same time so I could try to rest. I have no idea how single parents do it. When mama's sick, it's incredibly nice to have backup to pick up the slack.

By Friday morning, I was ready to shower and put real people clothes on and by some act of God, neither Mike nor JM were showing any signs of illness, so we decided to follow through with our plans to go to Corpus to see Mike's sister and her family and go to the beach. We had a really great low-key weekend visiting with them. I am so mad at myself, because I forgot the camera. I wish I could share the picture of the look of pure joy on JM's face when Mike was whirling him high above the water at the beach in Port Aransas, or when JM held onto my fingers and was kicking his foot into the water and giggling, or burning lots of energy pushing a dump truck full of sand around and around and around (and around).

God bless Mike's sister. She gave us cousin Evan's entire collection of wooden Thomas the Train tracks and wooden trains and a ton of Thomas stuff. We got JM a train table off of Craigslist for his upcoming birthday and he is loving all the new trains so far. (insert adorable picture of JM with train here :)

Playdate

JM's friend Kamryn's mommy had an interview this morning, so she came by for a playdate. Why we don't do this more often, I don't know. Since the kids are the same age, they entertain each other (or at least provide ideas for what to do next, since they don't really play together, yet). We did bubbles and pushed the car around and made pictures of fun girl stuff like flowers and butterflies with sidewalk chalk (usually it's garbage trucks and diggers, over here). Having another friend to do all this stuff with just made it more fun! JM loved pushing Kam around the driveway, in particular.

We'll keep him

I am a terrible mother. I never seem to clue in on when JM has an ear infection. It shouldn't be that hard. His nose starts running. He gets crabby. He won't sleep. He won't eat. It should be a no-brainer, but I always think we've entered some new difficult phase of toddlerdom. The night after the zoo, he had a fever, so I took him to the doctor Wednesday morning and sure enough; ear infection. That day, he was a sad sad sack, like I've never seen before. He refused to get off the sofa. Poor thing. Thursday and Friday, I could not please him. At.all. He would ask for a cereal bar. I would get him a cereal bar, then he decided he wanted a different cereal bar, then I got that one down and he started to cry when I opened it. I was so desparate for him to eat or drink anything that I let him eat popsicles all day and raided the cupboard, placing numerous items in front of him, but he could not be satisfied. He threw a freeze pop across the white carpeting, when I told him after me opening two other flavors and him not eating them, that he could not have another one. Nice. He decided he hated taking medicine and spit it out at me and threw the syringe across the room. Multiple times. Not the best thing when you are trying to help them feel better. We wound up giving him some meltaway tylenol instead of the liquid and got as much of the antibiotic liquid medicine in him as we could.

We were supposed to go to the lake with my mom and Art on Friday, but he was acting so crazy that we decided to stay home. We left early on Saturday and it was incredibly awesome to have three other people help me with him. As the weekend progressed, he got happier and less like a wounded tiger. Today, he slept in, ate and was back to his normal self. I am so SO glad that my sweet boy came back! We'll keep him!

The wildflowers were gorgeous this weekend! Bluebonnets, indian paintbrush and yellow flowers all along the roadside all the way out to the lake. I've never seen them so pretty!






I don't think words can express how thankful I am for a good day with JM! The past few days when he was grumpy and sick and I was trying to make him feel better were really trying. We got a lot done today and had fun, too. Good Monday!

Waco Zoo

Our weekly playgroup usually stays close to home, like meeting in someone's home or at a park, but one of our moms brought up the idea of taking a field trip to Waco to go to the zoo a few weeks ago. After last summer when we took JM to the National Zoo in Washington and it was a complete bust (he pretty much cried the whole time because he didn't care about the animals, just wanted to run and we wanted him to stay in his stroller), I was nervous, but I have to say that we both really enjoyed the zoo, yesterday, which made it worth the 90 minute drive each way.

The Cameron Park Zoo is really small and the animals are really close up! At one point, we turned a corner and a tiger was like 5 feet from us with only some (hopefully strong) wire in between. We were able to get really close to some giraffes who were eating their lunch and a little "Outbreak-type" monkey (per Celeste) who came up to the window and really entertained the kids. There was a lot of shade under the trees, which made it really pleasant. It was small enough that I felt comfortable letting JM out of the stroller and let him walk much of the park, so he enjoyed going from exhibit to exhibit in his own little toddler-ADD way. It only took us 2 hours to get through most of the zoo and apparently we missed a whole river exhibit that is supposed to be neat (doh!), but we saw enough and I think all the kids had fun!

Noodlin

Since JM is taking his first long nap of the week (he's getting some molars in and ehem, driving me CRAZY with his sassy attitude) and I have a few minutes, I thought I'd devote an entire post to baby number 2. First off, let me say that I completely empathisize with JM, as I've heard the molars hurt to the high heavens, but with the pregnancy his acting so unlike himself is wearing.me.out. So anyhoo, I'm 30, almost 31 weeks and it's starting to feel a little like "go time." JM is still doing well in the big boy bed and I've moved most of his stuff into the new room, so now there is a big old empty crib and nursery just waiting for Noodle. I've got the cloth diapers out in there (planning on doing cloth, again) and all the boy clothes ready (if it's a boy, I'll take them out of their storage containers). I am waiting a few weeks to buy one cute pink going home sleeper-type outfit and one cute blue one for the hospital, so I can return the non-needed one when it's the other sex. So far, we have only purchased a very limited amount of baby stuff for Noodle. A few days ago I got a gently used swing for a steal off Craigslist. We borrowed a swing for JM and I thought it might be a good permanent investment. Last week I bought a changing pad and cover and yesterday I was in Wal Mart (yes, I did actually type that, I'm becoming cheap in my old age) and they had cans of Similac formula on sale for $18 and with a $2 coupon I had, I just couldn't resist. Yes, I am still planning on breastfeeding Noodle, but would like to have the flexibility brought on by a bottle here and there, and specifically the bottle before bedtime, which has always been Mike's special time with baby after bath. With JM, I could never pump enough extra to garner a full bottle at night, so we did formula mixed with whatever I pumped and it worked well for us.

Noodle must have been listening at my 28 week doctor visit when I told the nurse practictioner that this baby was a lot quieter with the movement than JM. As I said it, I was picturing myself holding a serene and easy to please and please God, fat baby. Ever since, Noodle has been asserting his or herself significantly more in the movement department and let me tell you, that little bugger is STRONG. Swift kicks to the gut. Elbows everywhere. Complete body rotations. I've got it all.
Now I am envisioning an unshowered version of myself with two rowdy kids tearing the grocery store apart... Still picturing Noodle nice and fat, though.

I need to give a shout out to my friends at the Boppy company. When I was complaining about the pains I've been getting on my sides trying to sleep lately, the Hot Chicks told me I needed a Boppy Pregnancy Wedge. I've had it for two nights now, and I must say that it's quickly become my favorite pregnancy accessory (even over a bowl of chocolate brownie ice cream, perhaps!). You put it under your belly when you sleep on your side and the extra bit of support makes you a lot more comfortable. Plus, it's small so you can easily move it when you shift from side to side at night! Worth every penny of the $15 I paid for it on Amazon.

We don't have a ton of weekend plans, so I hope to enjoy being a threesome for one of the gulp, 10 weekends we have left until my due date.

AC: Delight

Big boy bed

The moment I had been dreading for a good five months came this weekend. We moved our sweet baby from the crib and room he has slept in since birth, to his new room and big boy bed! When I say that I've been dreading this, I mean, I've spent a lot of time worrying that we were doing the wrong thing. Our pediatrician said to keep him in a crib as long as possible. My beloved Toddler 411 book concurred. Both my mom and Mike's mom questioned moving him. Since he is just so little and has been sleeping great in his crib and hadn't figured out how to climb out, I wondered myself why on earth we might mess that up. As much as I would have liked to have been confident about this, when someone with experience and authority questions you, a part of you listens and questions, too. I really don't want to rush JM into growing up! At.all. I want him little forever! The other part of me knew that we have this new sweet baby coming and did not want to buy another crib. We never did a bassinet in our room with JM. He slept in his crib from the get go, so don't anticipate doing that with Noodle. We've had the big boy furniture since February... and wanted to get him into the new bed with ample time to adjust without feeling like we were moving in a stranger and giving him the boot from the only bed he's ever known. I had always said "April" and mentioned doing the transfer this weekend to Mike, who proposed just doing it right then (30 minutes before nap time) and ripping off the proverbial band-aid. The suddenness of it all, the moving of all of his stuff into the new room and the ensuing empty crib and room made me cry (he's my BABY!, after all). I can't stand that he's so "grown up." But, this is what happened. He's been doing great so far, with 3 naps and 2 full nights' sleep under his belt.

Heritage Society Egg Hunt

It isn't often we encounter "high society" in our lives here in Austin.
Today, on the lush green lawn of the Austin Museum of Art Laguna Gloria, I must say that we were amidst a sea of seersucker and madras, a smocked dress and pink pants-wearing group I was unaware of existed for the Heritage Society's annual Egg Hunt. Although I drooled over other bride's pictures of Laguna Gloria, it was booked (and expensive) when we were doing our reception-venue hunting. I had never been there. This morning, with temperatures in the low 70s and adorably frocked children running around, the grounds seemed especially beautiful. Between the train, the cupcakes at 9:30am, the egg hunt, face painting and Easter Bunny meeting, John Michael and his best-buddy, Rhys, both had a ball. Since I don't have any maternity seersucker and was obviously underdressed, I will be going big next year, as in a large sunbonnet, sundress and accompanying mint julep. Here are some pictures from today. My favorite is the one where JM is trying to climb into the fountain to get the floating egg. I also like the look on his face on the train. He could have cared less that a stranger was driving him away from us; he was SO excited to be on a TRAIN!