26 weeks and baby tidbits

No pics of the big ‘ol belly today!  I have been dealing with the Most Wicked Cold of 2009 Brought to Thee By Satan, and I don’t feel like taking any pictures right now.  (I am in a great mood, can’t ya tell? My snark-o-meter is off the charts today.)

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I got the swine flu vaccine from my OB’s office last Friday!  Yippee!  Now I don’t have to worry about getting HAMTHRAX!

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I’m 26 weeks tomorrow and baby girl is doing great!  I had an OB visit this afternoon and she is measuring right on schedule.  Heartbeat was good, and she’s moving around all the time.  The best news was that I have only gained 15 pounds so far!  I’m not sure what I had gained at this point during my pregnancy with Aiden, but when all was said and done, I’d packed on a whopping 55 pounds.  It wasn’t pretty, folks. I’d love to gain less this time around, maybe a total of 30 pounds or so? Sounds good to me!

Note to self:  Stop eating everything in sight, or you are headed to heifer-ville once again.  Just sayin’.

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Pregnancy is something my body does well, thank goodness.  I don’t really have a myriad of complaints.  My lower back hurts sometimes and I get headaches a little more frequently, but that’s about it.  (Can you tell I am blocking out the anguish of first trimester sickness?)  But oh MY GAH this damn cold!!  I got it from Aiden last week, and I’ve been feeling yucky since Thursday.  No fever or anything, just a bad head cold with runny nose, congestion, a little coughing, and overall feeling like ass.  My doc ruled out the flu, which was a relief, but any sort of illness is just exacerbated by pregnancy.  Meaning:  I am one miserable, whiny pregnant gal at the moment.  Hopefully in a few more days I’ll be back to normal.  Meaning:  I’ll be a little less whiny.  Just ask my husband.

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Aiden loves kissing my belly and saying hi to his “baby sisser.”  Oh, and yesterday, he put his hand on my stomach and said with surprise, “Oh, Mommy!  Baby kickin!”  He then took my hand and pressed it on my belly, saying, “Listen, Mommy.  Feel dat?”  I nearly died from the cuteness.  If this girl is anywhere near as precious as her brother, I’m never gonna want to shut this baby factory down.

Almost 25 weeks

Thank you, everyone, for your sweet and kind comments about Vernon. We miss him.

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On a brighter note (or maybe just a chubbier one!) here’s me in all my glory at nearly 25 weeks pregnant.  From here on out, it’s gonna get scary, kids.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

24.5 weeks and counting!

A damn good dog

Last summer, I made a post on this blog that received quite a large response.  I wrote about the homecoming of our dog Vernon, a guide dog for the blind, who I raised and trained for the first two years of his life.  After training with me, Vernon had left our family and spent the next seven years working as a guide dog in New York City.  Last year, newly retired, Vernon came home to us to live out his senior years in suburban comfort.  Click on this link to read more  about Vernon’s early years in training with us, as well as his service as a guide dog.

We had hoped that Vernon had many more years of “the good life” ahead of him.  But sadly, it was not meant to be.  Earlier this year, in March, I noticed an odd looking lump on Vernon’s rear end.  The vet didn’t give us good news.  We were likely dealing with cancer, specifically an anal sac adenocarcinoma.  The tumor already extended into his body by four or five inches, and surgery wasn’t going to eliminate the problem.  In fact, surgery might make matters worse, damaging the delicate nerves that allowed Vernon to control his bowels and bladder.  Essentially, there was nothing we could do.

For months, Vernon seemed like his normal self.  He ate his dinner with gusto, played outside in the yard, and swam in his kiddie pool on hot summer days.  That dog always did love to swim in his pool.  Despite his old age, he tolerated Aiden’s antics and was a gentle and reliable buddy to our active toddler.  But all the while, the tumor kept growing.  It got as big as two baseballs, even pushing his tail off to one side.  Still, Vernon went about his daily doggy business without any problems.

And then, this week, it happened.  Vernon, the best housebroken dog I’ve ever known, the dog who would rather die than have an accident on the floor, lost control of his bladder.  He peed and dribbled all over the first floor of the house and sat by the door with a sad look on his face.  I felt so awful looking at that dog, who felt guilty for something he couldn’t control. I knew something was very wrong.  I watched him outside,  urinating and then taking a few steps, then urinating some more,  a few more steps, then more urination.  I watched him strain to empty his bowels, only to try again a minute later because he couldn’t do it.

We had to make the decision.  The decision that is kind and humane and utterly breaks your heart.  This was the beginning of the end for Vernon, and we owed it to him to allow his last days to be as pain free as possible.  So I made the appointment, and then made him a pound of ground beef, fed him six hot dogs, and a pile of dog biscuits.

Jason and I took him to the vet and sat on a thick blanket with him on the floor.  We were already crying the moment we walked in the door.  Jason rubbed Vern’s ears while I scratched his belly.  Vernon grunted with pleasure, his tail thumping his approval.  We simultaneously dreaded the moment to come, and just wanted it over already.  

The vet came in.  It was time.  I grabbed Vern’s big head and rubbed his ears, whispered into them so no one else could hear except me and this big hearted pup.  “You are such a  good dog, Vernie.  I love you, buddy. Thank you for everything, you good, good boy.”  As the vet made the injection, Jason held Vernon’s head and talked to him while I rubbed his neck and ears.  And wouldn’t you know… this dog who had never been much of a kisser… reached out and licked Jason across the face.  His final act… a kiss.

It was as if he was saying thank you.  When really, we should be the ones thanking him.

We’ll miss you Vernon.  You were, and always will be, a damn good dog.

Operation: Potty Training!

Aiden has shown lots of signs that he is really ready for some full-on, lets-get-serious-about-this POTTY TRAINING.  Honestly, he has shown signs of this for quite a long time.  I think I first blogged about his potty successes back in January of this year, when he was only 1.5 years old and would sit on his potty seat and do the deed (actually, both of the deeds, if ya know what I mean).  Of course, it wasn’t consistent and he still wasn’t really ready to get rid of the diapers at that time.

My idea was to go easy on the training.  I didn’t want him to feel pressured and begin to hate potty time.  So we just cheered when he did decide to use the toilet and didn’t make a big deal out of it if he went days or even weeks without showing an interest.  In the meantime, we bought the Elmo’s Potty Time movie, which we all love to watch (parents included)!  Then spring and summer rolled around, and my little nudist started to strip off his clothes and run around naked.  Imagine my surprise when we realized Aiden was NEVER having accidents when he was naked.  If he had to go, he would run to the bathroom, do his business, and that was that.  No accidents.  When he wore diapers, however, he’d forget and just go in those.  We tried big boy underpants but at the time, he didn’t seem to see the difference between those and his diapers.

Now, we are only a few months away from baby girl’s arrival.  Plus, Aiden’s almost 2 1/2 now.  I made the decision to start today with a more intense potty training mission.  We got Aiden suited up in his coveted Buzz Lightyear underwear, to which he said, “we don’t pee on Buzz!”  Every 20 or 30 minutes I remind him to use the potty if he needs to go, and I’m using a timer to remind ME to remind HIM!  And get this:  we went out of the house for THREE hours this morning, with NO ACCIDENTS!

Here’s how we did it.  I took one of his small potty chairs and put it in the car, along with a change in pants and underwear.  Everywhere we go, I give him the chance to take a quick potty break in the car so he doesn’t have an emergency when we are grocery shopping or at the playground.  This is especially nice when you consider that some public bathrooms (Hi WalMart!) aren’t the most appealing for a germaphobe mother and her toddler who touches everything!  So even though we were out of the house, Aiden still used the potty (and went every single time) about five times.

We got home, had lunch, and he’s now napping with a diaper on, because I am not insane.  Ha!  Other than naps and bedtime, I am trying to keep him in his cute big boy underwear and on a good schedule.  I’m sure we will have accidents, but that’s part of the process.  I’m very hopeful that I can help him learn this important skill and get this work out of the way BEFORE the stress and work of a new baby enter the picture.  We’ll see how it goes, but so far my big boy is doing a great job!

Belly pics!

Since I am finally moving out of the “she’s just chubby” into the “Oh, she’s looking pregnant!” stage, I figured I should post some belly shots.  I’ll be 24 weeks on Wednesday, and I need to take some new pics.  Here are the two most recent:

20 weeks (half baked!):

And at 22.5 weeks:

Maternity pants are in full effect around here!  I don’t feel much different, size wise, than I did with Aiden around this stage.  I actually think I have gained less weight at this point than I did in my first pregnancy, which is fine by me!  Little girl is moving all over the place and it’s nice to feel her flipping around.  This could very well be my last pregnancy (I always knew we’d have two kids… but beyond that… who knows!) so I am trying to appreciate the little moments.

I’m lucky that I am feeling very healthy and having a textbook pregnancy.  My headaches seem to have tapered off, and my only other issue has been some lower back pain.  Not too much to complain about! We’re enjoying getting her room painted and decorated, so I’ll have some photos of that soon.  We have a couple of name ideas floating around, but we decided that we will wait until she is born to “officially” name her.  We liked meeting Aiden at birth and seeing what he looked like before officially naming him, so we’ll follow the same pattern this time.  Time keeps marching on… it won’t be long before she is here! It’ll  be February before we know it!

This boy

Seriously, this boy.  He’s awesome.  He makes me laugh every day.  Today’s example?  We had Aiden’s weekly art class scheduled this morning, and I needed to get us both dressed and ready to get out the door.  He was occupied with his toys in the playroom on our first floor, so I ran upstairs to get myself ready while he played.

As I dressed, I could hear him giggling and talking to the dogs.  He loves our animals and has really taken an extra shine to them lately.  Then I started hearing it.  Thud.  Thud.  THUD.  I couldn’t quite figure out what he was doing, but I figured I should run downstairs to investigate.

I came upon a scene that must have seemed like heaven to the dogs!  Aiden had crawled up into his seat at the kitchen island and opened the big cookie jar where we store dog treats.  He was throwing the treats down to his very willing co-conspirators, who were quickly scarfing up the evidence.  Oh, and he was munching on a Milkbone of his own, too!  I had just refilled the jar last Friday… but after that escapade there are only FOUR bones remaining!  I think the dogs have realized a clear benefit to having a kid in the house. They just got more treats today than they would normally get in a month.  Lucky doggies.

I love my boy.

Making “birthee cake” for daddy

And then I laughed.

I was unsuccessfully trying to force Aiden into sleeping last night (what’s that you say? I’m not allowed to chain him to his bed? Shucks).  Bedtime is not our best time in this household.  Let’s just say that my child really would much prefer to stay awake and party with everyone instead of going to bed at a reasonable time.  If it weren’t for my need for sanity and desire for a window of child-free time in the evening, I seriously wouldn’t fight him about bedtime.  But Mama needs her down-time, too, so it’s an 8:30pm bedtime for you, little buddy.

Anyway, I had him in the bed and lying down with his head on the pillow.  However, he kept putting his fingers in his mouth and pretending to bite his nails.  Because he KNOWS it pisses me off.  And if I’m gonna torture him with bedtime, then by god, he’s gonna make it hell for me, too.

“Aiden, honey, stop biting your nails.”

“No, Mommy.  *YOU* SHOP (stop) IT.”

“Aiden Michael, don’t talk to Mommy that way.”

“Mommy.  I. NO. HEAR. YOU.”

And then I laughed.

Aiden-isms.

He doesn’t know how to refer to himself.

(looking for his shoes)  “Mommy, where’s your shoes?”

(Mommy, correcting his grammar)  “Where are MY shoes?”

(Child, wondering why Mommy is asking about her shoes when he clearly is otherwise occupied)  “I no know!”

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“Mommy, lookee diss!  Hurry up!  Lookee diss! Holy moley!”

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(While driving in the car)

“Aiden, stop putting your fingers in your mouth. We don’t bite our nails.”

“No, Mommy.  Aiden bite nails.”

“Please take your fingers out of your mouth.”

“No mommy.  Aiden bite nails.  YOU DRIVE.  Mommy, TIME OUT!”

[Mommy unable to come up with a fitting retort]

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“Aiden, what should we name your baby sister?”

“Ummm….  BUZZ!”

[Toy Story obsession, anyone?}

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(Leaving Gymboree)

"Daddy, drive this way!"

"That way?"

"No Daddy, THIS way."

"Okay, I'll go that way."

"NO, THIS WAY."

"Where are we going, Aiden?"

"Lunch.  Donals [McDonald's] burder, ice cream! Drive through!”

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(Waking up his Mama)

“Mommy? Good mordin.”

“Hi, baby.”

“Mommy, snuddle Aiden?”

“Sure, sweetie.”

“Mommy?”

“Hmm?”

“I love you, Mommy.”

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“Mommy?”

“What’s up, babe?”

“Aiden draw!” 

“Really, what did you draw?”

“Um, I no know.  On LEGS!”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

Twice in one day!

Woo am I on fire today… here’s my second post of the day!  This one is gonna be short on words and long on photos, since I managed to upload all the pics from my camera this afternoon.

My superhero.

Hanging out on his big boy bed.

Love this picture.

Aiden and his Great-PopPop, riding their scooters together!