Rob - You always run to turn off The Brady Bunch when it comes on after Curious George.
Jen - I can't stand The Brady Bunch, I don't know why it was so popular.
R - Um, Jen, you ARE the Brady Bunch!
J - NO I'M NOT! I'm a badass.
R - You're not a badass Jen, you're a goodie-goodie, accept it.
J - But I want to be a badass, does that count for anything?
R - No.
It's been a rough few weeks for me. The head cold that started on April 22nd decided to turn into a raging case of sinusitus. I struggled with the cough and congestion for a good two weeks until finally, I felt like I had been in a horrible girl fight and I was the loser. It got to the point where if I touched my cheekbones or even chewed too hard my face felt like it was going to explode. My mother was the first person to tell me she thought I might have sinusitus but I didn't go get it diagnosed until I was talking to Rob one day and I started crying uncontrollably because I felt so horrible. At that point he pretty much ordered me to the doctor and I was so pleased to go and not have to take care of our daughter that it felt like I was going out on some fun adventure! Sad. By the end of the day I was sent home with prescriptions for every drug that was safe for a pregnant woman to take and within three days was feeling like a totally different woman. I am very thankful for the prescription drug sector and I'm sure they are thankful for me since I kept them in business for a couple of weeks.
I know what you're thinking... That's it? She had a cold and sinus infection and that's why she's so put upon? Well, no, that's not all. Once the sinusitus cleared up I was lucky enough to have a flair up of my morning sickness even though I have been on zofran my entire pregnancy. I've been fairly lucky with the fact that the medication is at least letting me eat and keep down what I eat, that is until the last couple of weeks. No matter how much medication I take it seems my body wants to purge anything that goes into my stomach. It sucks. And now it's a bit worse because I got a letter from our prescription drug program a couple of weeks ago telling me I had been a bad girl by refilling my zofran through the loal pharmacy and if I wanted to continue refilling my zofran prescription I would have to do it through mail order. You know, for the cost-savings benefits and all that other hullabaloo they tell you. So, I sent my prescription in and since it was a new prescription I had to mail it in and when I took my last pill yesterday I freaked out because like I said,,, it was the last pill and guess what folks? The mail order of zofran hasn't come yet! I called our prescription program and asked when I could expect my order to arrive and they said they just got the order but if I would like to have it rush delivered they could do it for an additional charge of $15. YES PLEASE! I think the woman on the other end felt my pain because I actually told her that I would start crying on her if I couldn't get the pills here pronto. She laughed and said she understood and I promised to name my unborn child after her, I figure it's a fair trade. Once the phone call was finished I'm sure she told everyone she just spoke to a zofran addict... and that's okay.
So all this sickness is why I haven't updated my blog lately. But don't feel neglected, I have become somewhat anti-social in my day to day life as well. It seems when I am sick and nauseous I have no desire to be social, which is really not normal for me, but it's hard to want to be around people when you are constantly having to excuse yourself to go worship the porcelain. I'm hoping we're nearing the end of this period because I'm ready to start functioning like a normal person again!
I have had some time to still take Avery to the park and play outside with her. Here are some recent photos of the 'The Girl' in her favorite setting - The Great Outdoors!
And a couple of her in 'The Great Indoors!' She still won't leave the toilet paper alone!
The stage I hate most in pregnancy has begun.
I've started waddling... There is nothing attractive about waddling, people.
Rob and I celebrated our four year anniversary on Saturday and it was much like our wedding day - I was sick. But after not being able to enjoy a nice Valentine's Day dinner with the hubby due to insane nausea, I wasn't going to let a little thing like a hacking cough keep me from a date with the hubby. Rob treated me to a romantic dinner and it was definitely a much needed evening off from being 'mommy.' And just to remind us of our aging, here are a couple 'then and now' pictures. Oh, and yes, I'm completely aware that I'm in severe need of a tan. It's been a looooong winter people!
And just for fun, here is what Avery think's about us being her parents. You can see she's just thrilled!
I've never been a big fan of people who will name their child a fairly common name and then decide they need to do some funky spelling to be different. I figure life is hard enoughalready , do you really want to torture your child by spelling Jennifer as Genniffer? And yes,,, I've seen that spelling and every time I would see her I would say "hey Gennif-fer... with a G" because I'm mean like that, and because the girl was nice enough to be able to take a joke, although I'm sure she wanted to punch me in the face every time she saw me. And that would have been okay.
So, with that all said, I'm trying to figure out which spelling I like for my unborn daughter's name better. Do I want to go with the common spelling, the spelling that most people would automatically think of? Or do I want to go for the old English way of spelling? I never thought such a simple decision would make me think so much. Oh,,, what's the name, you ask? The name is Hadley or Hadleigh. The middle name will be Evelyn after my grandmother. So do you like Hadley Evelyn or Hadleigh Evelyn? Decisions, decisions.
So you know how I said I wasn't going to find out the gender of this baby I'm carrying? Something happened that didn't happen during my pregnancy with Avery - my willpower gave out! We were in the ultrasound yesterday and I told Rob I was thinking I wanted to find out the gender. He, being the good man that he is, tells me that it is my decision and we will do whatever I choose - because he already knows that the baby is a girl! On a sidenote Rob thinks that the women on my side of the family are unable to produce boys because the majority of the babies born to my mom's side have been female. He says it's not really the men at all that decide what the gender will be, simply, when the male sperm meet our eggs we won't allow them to trespass and we spit them back out. Meet the reincarnation of Henry VIII everyone! That's the logic I live with every day ladies and gentleman. I have no hair left.
Continuing, because Rob said he knew it was a girl I was very much adamant that I would prove him wrong because again, just like with Avery, I was sure this little one is a boy. I tell the ultrasound tech that we would love to know the sex. Well, right away when she moves the wand to "the area" I can see exactly what our child is......... it's a girl!!!!
We're thrilled and very excited. Except about the fact that Rob was right, on that point I'm a bit annoyed. And Rob? The poor guy can't win, he'll be surrounded by females for the rest of his life, even our dog is a female, but secretly I think he loves it! There's a whole lotta estrogen up in this joint!
I went to watch the Salt Lake City Marathon yesterday and all I can say is WOW! My friend Lisa ran her second, yes SECOND, marathon and a friend and I went out to support her. We brought both our children and Avery and her little friend were so well behaved. Avery had a ball and at one point she wanted to start running with all the people that she saw and I had to hold her back... ridiculously cute, I think she's going to be a runner!
It is so inspiring to see people of all different ages, races, height, weight and so on wanting to run 26.2 miles. My friend Lisa was recruited to run for Team in Training to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and she raised over $2,100! That's incredible! I should also mention that it's not surprising she did this because she is someone who really just wants to save the world one day at a time. Our group of friends have started calling her "the Superhero" and we even wrote that on our sign that we took with us to embarrass her along the route of the marathon (don't feel too bad for her, she loved it,,,, she even asked for glitter!) I'm happy to report that she finished the race and is now home being pampered by the hubby! Well done, LIsa!
There was also a funny little story that came out of our trip to watch all the fabulous runners. When I got to my first viewing point of the race I had arrived early enough to see the early starters as well as the crank wheelchair competitors - now THAT is inspiring, I can't imagine running a marathon but to see these men and women using their arm muscles to power their way through 26 miles is incredible. I also had the opportunity to see the very first elite runners come through (I hope you all know how big this was for me, I live 40 mnutes away from the starting point of the race and it started at 7am, I got there at 6:50,,, do you realize how early I had Avery and I up at!?) I had my camera with me and decided to take a few shots of the beginning of the race and was able to take a photo of the first runner. When I got home I showed Rob the pictures I took and when he saw the picture of the first runner to come through he said, "I think I know that guy, he works with me." I told him I was sure he was mistaken, he did not work with a man who is an elite runner, especialy the first man out of the gate! He was positive he knew him but I just blew him off because the picture was somewhat blurry and I figured he was just imagining things. Well, imagine my surprise when I look up the results this morning and his co-worker's name is listed as the man who won the half marathon! My husband pretty much just said, "told you so, he is an amazing runner, he is sponsored and everything!" Alrighty then. I also looked at the 5k results and it showed that Rob's friend's wife won the female division of that race! I wish I would have known Rob worked with world-class runners when I was running my 5k back in September so I could have mooched off of them for some advice!
All in all, it was a fun day and I was so inspired watching all the runners get out on the road and accomplish an amazing goal. I was so inspired I told myself I would train for the 5k again next year figuring it will give me a goal to look forward to after I have the baby. It will also get my backside moving! But now I'm re-thinking it. No, I'm not deciding not to run next year, I'm just thinking I might run the half marathon instead! Three miles or thirteen miles... potato, po-tah-to.
The movie 'Juno' just came out at the video store yesterday and I promptly went to rent it. I wanted to see this movie while it was in the theaters but the opportunity never presented itself for a date night for Rob and I. Rob has been out of town this week so I've been a lazy wife and mother and Avery and I spent most of our day yesterday lounging around in our PJs. I had planned to have it be an entire day of lounging because I haven't had one of those days since before Avery was born but when I realized 'Juno' had been released I showered and got myself ready for the trip to the video store. I remember thinking, "this movie better be as good as everyone says it is because I don't want to have showered for nothing." Sad, right? Yeah, but that's okay, sometimes you just have those thoughts when nothing but laying around your house, eating chips and salsa sounds appealing. I am happy to say that this movie was soooo good. It's quirky and sweet and an alternative outlook on how to make "a garbage dump of a situation" a situation that isn't all bad. Rent it.
Avery is in that stage of her life. The stage where everything you say is repeated; I like to call her a parrot. I am happy to say she has not said any curse words yet, thank goodness (let's all give props to the parents for making sure they don't "slip.") It's fun for Rob and I, and our entire family for that matter, to try to get Avery to say new words and see which ones she annunciates best. It's sad that we are pretty much entertained just by having a two year old talk but I don't care who you are, listening to a toddler try to wrap their head around the english language is some funny stuff.
I'm proud to say Avery has quite a little vocabulary now and is starting to use it in the correct manner. She can count to twenty, sing her ABC's (kind of) and she has officially learned her mother's favorite word. What's the word? No, it's not "dude," which I really need to stop saying because yes, she does say that. The word is "Starbucks!" And she says it just that way, "STARBUCKS!', very loudly and many times she'll throw her hands in the air in celebration, because who wouldn't? It's caffeine, people!
Who cares about writer's block when I have a two year old always willing to provide material for me! I hope this video thing works,,, this is the first video I've ever uploaded!
Avery at her best!
Toilet Paper Obsesssion from Jennifer on Vimeo.
Colbie Caillat: Coco
I just purchased this CD after it was reviewed on a local radio station the other day. Easily, one of the best CDs I have purchased in a long time.
