Art--The Follow Up

As promised, here are pics of the art projects we did last weekend at the pottery studio:

Rachael calls all cats "Phoebe," much to our Phoebe-cat's dismay...our Phoebe is gray, not yellow with blue, orange, and green polka-dots...

The Real Phoebe. See the resemblance?

Lotsa green on this side...


A calico kitty! Just like Phoebe! ;-)

We also made this plate with her handprint...I thought this was cool.

We went to a "Mommy and Me" art class this weekend and did a St. Patrick's Day project, so hopefully we'll have pics posted of that project next week!

Art!

It's rather frustrating when the temperatures hit the mid-40s during the week (everyone at work/school), then the weekend comes and it bearly reaches 15 degrees. Augh! Sub-freezing temps make for some LOOONNGG weekends with a two-year old...can't really go outside, can't really stay inside all day...

Anyway, this past Saturday we decided to take Rachael to a pottery place not far from home. It was nice--got all of us out of the house and gave us something fun to do! Here are some pics from our adventure--Rachael liked it but was VERY serious about the painting process!

I cannot wait to see what shade of brown this clay kitty turns out to be after the application of its many 'calico' layers.... ;-) I'll post pics of our projects after I pick them up next week!

In The Home Stretch (Marks)

Next week officially starts new baby's third trimester. 12 weeks to go...

So far so good: my blood pressure isn't bad (especially un-medicated!), all of the recent tests I've had have come back normal (whew!), and baby is moving around ALL the time. When I was pregnant with Rachael I was put on bedrest at 32 weeks for hypertension, so I think I'll feel better once I cross that 32 week mark. The thought of bedrest again, well, makes my blood pressure rise. Ahh, irony--thou art a fickle wench.

Anyhoo, here are a few things that are different between this pregnancy and the last:

1) Being preggo in the winter is much more tolerable than being preggo in the summer
2) I enjoy not being swollen from summertime humidity
3) I am glad to not be sweating constantly because I cannot get the A/C to actually make my house feel like it's 60 degrees (Dave wore long sleeves inside in August)
4) It stinks a little bit not being able to go for walks outside.... but...
5) At least I'm not hot and I'm not swollen
6) Something that has nothing to do with weather: this baby is MUCH more active than Rachael ever was. 3am? Baby's wiggling. 3pm? Baby's wiggling. I wonder if this means she won't sleep when she's OUT of the womb, too....

In any case, I'm hopeful that I can make it all the way to 40 weeks this time without complications. I'm counting a lot of Enya and aromatherapy to keep me calm and in the neighborhood of 120/80.

Another fun stress reliever, of course, is this pretty girl! We took this before going to our friend Alex's first birthday party. How sweet is this?!

Wishing you all a pleasant, antihypertensive evening,
Kristine :-)

Amoxicillin 875mg BID x 10 days, Please

Ordinarily, I'm not a wimp about being sick. However--I'm NOT good at being sick when pregnant. I get that some women are just naturally perky and optimistic when pregnant regardless of what's going on, and that's just freaking fantastic for them. I, however, appreciate symptom-management agents when I'm sick, and most of those agents are strictly forbidden when with child. Here's my woe-ridden story:

Last Tuesday, I left work not feeling great. By the time I got to daycare, I was feeling worse. By the time Rachael and I got home, all I could think about was curling up into a ball (or as close to a ball as my preggo belly would let me) and being unconscious. Luckily, my attentive husband answered his phone at work on the second ring (yay David!) and agreed to high-tail it home.

I'm sure he was really excited to hurry home to a puking wife. What a guy...

Since last Tuesday, I've waded through a stomach virus, infections in both ears, and infections in both eyes. Note: I do not live in a shelter, and I do clean my house regularly. I blame this current rash of illness on my job...easy target, right? But really, I was working at the hospital the last two weeks (instead of my regularly-Lysoled corporate office space...) and spent some quality time on the pediatric unit. My immune system has no chance against the onslaught it encounters every time I walk onto a peds floor. I should have seen it coming...NO MORE PEDS FLOORS UNLESS I'M IN A FULL HAZMAT SUIT.

Anyway...

After realizing that I'm not going to get better without drugs, I phoned my OB/GYN's office on Thursday and pathetically ran down my litney of symptoms. As soon as the nurse heard "pinkeye," she paused, put me on hold, then came back and told me to call my family doctor. Sigh. Family doctor is not going to be thrilled to see a sickly pregnant woman; I've been down this road before. Irritated, I hang up on the nurse and called my family doctor's office...cleverly omitting any mention of being pregnant. Figure I'll cross that bridge after they agree to see me. By this point, I've infected Rachael with a few of my illnesses--she has pinkeye and the lovely hacking cough that's kept me up for the last few days. So I pack up the two of us, and we cough our way to the doctor's office, gooey eyes and all.

Family doctor's partner (a lovely woman who was recently pregnant herself!) walked into the room, looked at my red, crusty eyes and my ample belly and said "your OB/GYN didn't want you anywhere near her waiting room, did she? Well, no prob!" I was so relieved. She checked Rach and I over. Augmentin suspension and eye drops for Rachael. Amoxicillin, eye drops, and ear drops for me. All e-prescribed to our neighborhood CVS. Love it.

Off to CVS we go. This should be the end of my woe-ridden story...

Pharmacy tech comes to the drive-up window (thank you, God, for drive-through pharmacies!) and says "um, can you come back in 20 minutes?" I grumble and say sure... Drive off and figure I'll get Rachael and me a quick snack. One Panera scone later, Rachael and I are back at CVS for our drugs. Pharmacist comes to the window. "Mrs. Baker, we have all of Rachael's medicines prepared, but we can only fill two days of your amoxicillin prescription. We're short." At this point, she could have told me that they were going to have to inject the amoxicillin into my stomach every 6 hours and I wouldn't have cared. I just wanted to be lying down. So I take my two days of drugs and all of Rachael's remedies and home we went.

Two days later, I was able to get the rest of of my amoxicillin and am on the road to recovery. Unreal that they ran out of such a common drug--they really had to hunt for it, too. Seems like *everyone* is sick right now! At least the world will have one less sick, miserable, grumbling pregnant woman now that I'm on the mend. ;-)

Here's hoping that I can make it to May without more plague!

Play-Doh

Play-Doh is one of those activities that I admit had me a bit gun-shy... I was wondering when it would be cool to bring out the Play-Doh and not see Rachael (1) attempt to consume it, (2) grind it into my carpet, or (3) feed it to the cats. I don't mind playtime clutter--I do, however, mind combing purple Play-Doh pies out of my sad, abused living room carpet. Anyway, two weekends ago the weather was extra-horrible (bitter cold AND several inches of falling snow...) so, housebound, we had Play-Doh time.

I'd forgotten how completely awesome Play-Doh is! And it's much softer than I remembered...the Play-Doh I remember was crumbly. This is more like sugar-cookie dough. Soft, squishy, but holds together well. Rachael loved all the neat tools that came with the Play-Doh set that Jim and Jen got her for Christmas--noodle makers, Play-Doh scissors, cut-out shapes. All easy-to-use and fun. And while there was some Play-Doh that escaped the kitchen, it cleaned up easily--no combing it out of carpet (and no Play-Doh laced cat barf anywhere, either). Love it!

Here are some pics from our Play-Doh afternoon:

Pretty Pictures of Smart Girls

Thought I'd show off some pics of my pretty girls. First, our youngest daughter, who's currently 21 weeks gestation, shows off her profile in this artistic black and white portrait (that sounds better than "blurry ultrasound image"). I can just tell from here that she's a thoughtful, courageous, bright little lady. And I'm sure she can't wait to prove me right. ;-)

And next for our oldest daughter, who is now 27 months... I already know Rachael is an inquisitive, precious little explorer. She is learning manners now--she says "Tank you, momma, TANK you" when I bring her dinner or help her open her Mr. Potato Head box. She's able to better evaluate the needs of those around her--she knows that our kitty cats need GENTLE petting, not pounding, and if kitty runs away, that means kitty's afraid. She's gathering an appreciation for opposites ("Light on! Light off! Opa door! Close door!"). She now sleeps in a 'big girl' bed in her 'big girl' room, graciously vacating her nursery so we can re-stage it for an infant. It'll be interesting to see how she adjusts to her little sister in May--I'm sure it'll take some time, but she'll be great.

What an awesome job this is, raising little girls! Can't wait to see what they do next. :)

Halloween

Happy many-weeks-after-Halloween! Rachael was a bumblebee this year--pretty cute! She was pretty sick of her costume by the time Halloween rolled around, though. She wore it to downtown Royal Oak's trick-or-treating event one weekend, then wore it most of the day at daycare the day of Halloween....so by the time we were heading out to trick-or-treat around our neighborhood, she was DONE with Halloween. That's cool. I got my $12.50's worth out of her super-fine Target costume. ;-)

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Here are some more pics:

"Momma, his HEAD comes off!!"

Sitting with her Jack-o-lantern (groovy carving, Dave....)

And, for a little perspective, a pic from Rachael's first Halloween (2006). Awww....

Our little Bumblebee today!