gain 30 minutes

Makenzie informed me today that if I only made her brush her teeth for 2 minutes instead of 3 that she could gain at least an extra half hour of time per month to do other things. I informed her that she could spend that extra time at the dentist getting cavities filled. She decided 3 minutes a day wasn't so bad.

I don't usually keep score in the game of insta-parenting... but if I did, 1 point!

picture this... and laugh, it's ok it's even funny to me.

I am 31 lbs exactly (to the ounce) bigger than I was before being pregnant. Having this extra weight is like lugging a really heavy bowling ball that I can't put down. With 3 weeks to go, I still can't get used to it. With that being said, what had happened was...

I was in Target the other day, walking around when I realized my shoe was untied. I debated how to go about tying my shoe. Anyone who has ever been pregnant would know this is not an easy feat and in fact at 37 weeks I wasn't sure if I could do it. Most of the time, I ask my husband or I smartly wear clogs, not sure why today I decided on shoes that tie. I looked for a place to sit down but was afraid with my recent larger size that I may break something. So I decided to attempt to tie it myself, I bent down with the grace of hippopotamus attempting ballet, you have seen fantasia right? I actually think those hippos may display more grace and beauty than I did in Target. I begin to tie my shoe, when I realize my belly is cutting off the my airway.. and I am having a hard time catching my breath. I tried to tie faster, but got more panicked and realized I was actually fading out. I went to stand up and realized that I wasn't strong enough (due to lack of oxygen) to stand up! I have a choice, throw myself backwards and lay on the floor to regain my breath or finish tying my shoe, pass out and hope I don't injure anything. I chose to throw roll myself backwards (with the prowess of a leopard, OK maybe not)... So yes, there I am my hippo self sprawled out in the middle of the aisle on my back, not even sure what to make of the event that just happened. I didn't see anyone around (hooray) so I rolled on my side, stood up brushed myself off and wondered if I was the only pregnant person in the world this has ever happened to? surely not, right?!

I wonder if target has security cameras, I certainly I made some security officers' day.

You can laugh, really it's funny.

sea horse

When we were in Disney World over Christmas we saw a Sea Horse exhibit in Epcot. Makenzie was very interested in them, so later that night we watched some videos about the Sea Horse. We discovered that the males give birth instead of the females.

Saturday morning I was having pretty severe back pain (I think I slept wrong). Makenzie says to me- "I bet you wish you were a Sea Horse, so the man could give birth"

ha! the image of Drew or any other guy giving birth is kind of funny!

Gummy Bears

When Makenzie moved in, Drew and I upped our intake of vegetables. Not for the reason you may think, like we want to set an example for the six year old now living in our house. More for the reason that SHE likes vegetables and fruit. She has a few that she doesn't like, but for the most part she craves and loves all fruits and veggies.
Drew and I are kind of on the same page when it comes to fruits and vegetables, potatoes count for vegetables and gummy bears with "real" fruit juice count as a fruit serving.
Sidebar for Confession: We have a subscription for gummy bears, yes 6 times a year we get 10 lbs of gummy Bears in the mail, this is not a joke. Drew consumes most of them, but I do my fair share of consuming. Makenzie probably consumes 10 actual Gummy Bears total, she has self control.
When Makenzie moved in I let her go to the store with me and she would point out things that she liked, grapes, strawberries, Bok Choi? huh? I didn't know what it was, let alone how to make it. We were quickly introduced to her 3 favorite foods, remember she is six. I thought for sure it would be french fries, pizza and macaroni and cheese. No, not even close. How about Lobster tail, crab Legs, and grapes?? Her favorite restaurant is Red Lobster. A few nights ago we went out to dinner, hoping she would order off the kids menu. The waitress announces the special of the night, lobster tail and crab cakes... bet you can't guess what she ordered. She ordered the special.
One time I did not have time to make her anything for dinner and we tried to run through the McDonald's drive through, she crossed her arms in the back and said she would not eat any of that disgusting food... ugh!I finally got her to order apple slices.
There are some nights drew and I are gagging on the vegetables as Makenzie is happily chomping away enjoying them, yeah I know we are pathetic. I have seen drew wait until she's done and left the table and dump them in the garbage or save them for her for the next day, what a guy!
This next part is where it gets kind of sad... for Drew.
Being pregnant has changed my cravings from junk food to healthy food, to be exact, brussel sprouts. I had brussel sprouts one time about 5 years ago and thought they were disgusting. However, for the last 3 months I have been craving them like crazy, which means I am cooking them and poor drew is "trying" to eat them. At 2am the other night I could not sleep, so I made myself some brussel sprouts and turned on the TV. Oh yeah late night snacking, yummy.
I have trouble even buying ice-cream and other junk food right now, it makes me feel sick just looking at it, drew claims he is losing weight while I pack on the pounds. It's true, the only junk food he has gotten is his subscription to Gummy Bears and anything our sweet neighbors and family make for him.
When our little man is born I wonder if he will be a gummy bears guy or a brussel sprouts guy?
(if he is like his cousin Makenzie, we are going to have to budget him on his lobster tail and crab leg consumption, that can get really expensive!)

on repeat forever

Drew and I both have the iPhone and we have our calendars synched to each other. It's so nice that he can add an event at work and it will email or text me a reminder, it solves the "you never told me" problem that can happen if you just write something down on the calendar in the kitchen. Actually we decided to get rid of the kitchen calendar this year, day 9 the iPhone calendar has worked so far. If you know me, you know that computers and especially iPhone's are not my thing, but drew set me up and gave me a tutorial on how to add an event and I can do it 99% of the time without a problem. As an example of how not in tune with computers I am... when I first got my computer from drew 2 years ago it sat in the box for about 2 weeks. Drew finally got upset with me and asked why I wasn't using the laptop he bought me. With extreme angst and embarrassment (we had only been married about 6 months, so communication wasn't what it should be) I informed him that I could not find the "on" button, but I was too proud to ask him for help. It was not in the same place as all the other laptops I had used before. I'm way beyond that stage in life now, I have no problem asking him for help. So where am I going with this, what had happened was...

Kenz got an Ipod touch, most genius gift ever from her mom. Makenzie used to play on my iphone and she would move everything around and make it convenient for her. Not cool for an aunt who then can't find what she wants on her phone, and then I would get reminders to "feed my pets" or "clean cages" on pet hotel. All those games are now on her Ipod and my apps and email are left alone.

Today at about 5pm I received a reminder email/text from my calender saying "pick up Makenzie from daycare and get ice cream". Weird that I/Drew would put this on our calendar. Then about a half hour later I got another one saying the same thing. I started to look through the events of the day, then the month, then the year. I realized Makenzie's Ipod touch had been synched to our calendar, Makenzie took advantage of the calendar app and decided to make a "new event" of ice cream at 6pm every Monday on repeat forever, with two reminders 1 hr prior and 30 minutes prior. I can't help but laugh that she is that clever! I can't turn on a computer, but my niece can add an event to our calendar and set up reminders?!

don't wake the sleeping bear

Have you ever tried waking up a bear from winter hibernation? yeah, me either. The closest I have come is waking Makenzie up in the morning. To put it in mild terms, waking her up earlier than 9am is like trying to get a mule to walk further than they want to. She is not a morning person in any way, except Christmas morning. Every other morning is a struggle. So much so that I end up doing everything, she gets in the shower and stands looking dazed. Everything she does is in super slow motion, I wonder if a cup of coffee would help her get going? Anyways, she goes to bed at 8pm so its not like she isn't getting enough sleep when I go in at 7:54am to wake her up. That's not a typo, 7:54am. I have a weird thing about times, if I ever have to pick you up there is a good chance I will pick you up not on the 5 min mark of any time. I will never pick you up at quarter after, 7:14, 8:19 those are more likely to be the times i say to you. Back to story. At 7:54 every morning I go in to wake her up and pulling teeth at the dentists office may actually be easier, never tried it but I have an image that it is. You have to stay right next to her reminding her what she is doing, "brush your teeth, keep moving the toothbrush" "put your shoes on, on the right foot... tie them" "eat your breakfast, you have to chew" Every single step has to be said about 5 times. It's borderline torturous, for both of us. We get to the bus stop and usually she begins to perk up, praise God! Her poor teacher would have her hands full if she had to continue with our morning routine. Why am I telling you all this? What had happened was...

Last night she went to bed, like any other night. This morning I went into her room at 7:54 and she was not there! Her bed was made, radio and light turned off, and her towel was hanging. I didn't panic because what stranger would steal her and then make the bed? I walked down the stairs though, slightly nervous as to what I might find her doing. Having flashbacks of photos my sister had sent of her sitting in the corner hiding, with 10 juice boxes and a jar of pickles. No crazy snacking going on in here this morning. There she was at the kitchen table completely dressed all the way to her jacket and teeth brushed, doing some extra homework?

She wanted me to have time to make her pancakes (with white chocolate chips) for breakfast. I told her I would make her whatever she wanted! Today was the the most stress free morning we have had in this house, ever. Her words on the way to the bus stop were "I would like to make this a regular habit, so I can have pancakes every morning"

I would love to only have to worry about just making pancakes every morning. I wonder what Monday morning will bring us? I could go for another stack of pancakes.

Disney "World of acceptance"

Where we live in the northeast is not what you would call the "mecca" of diversity. A christian singer Nicole C. Mullins has a song with lyrics "mama looks like coffee, daddy looks like cream, baby is a mocha drop American dream". That is what I consider my niece, a Mocha Drop American dream.

There are times though that Drew and I have experienced rudeness from strangers that DO NOT feel the same way we do about her, or us. The most surprising thing is they make it well known and say things. When did it become normal to state your opinion on something you know nothing about? We have had people from every race and color say things to us about our "child", the first few times I was literally aw struck that someone could actually say things like that out loud. I have opinions (and trust me I'm no saint when it comes to keeping them to myself) but some of these things left me utterly stunned without response.

I am not sure why, but the local Home Depot is where most of comments come from. Not the workers but the customers. Same with the local Chinese buffet (I'm pregnant and I love Chinese, don't judge). We get strange looks and comments from every color of the rainbow at least in our own hometown.

One lady at the Chinese Buffet said to me with Makenzie within earshot "Why don't you stick to your own kind, you have to go around stealing our men?" My initial response was (because I had food on the brain) "Your eating here too? I like Chinese food" It clicked as she gave me a strange look she was talking about My niece not the food. I then grabbed my niece, covered her ears and let the lady know a thing or two about her attitude. I know it was not at all a response of grace or kindness, but to think that in 2011 there are still people that feel this way was a disgrace.

Another time a lady walked straight up to me and Drew, looks at me and says "I hope he doesn't believe that "that's" (pointing to Makenzie) his!" JAW HIT FLOOR!!! what in the world? She is referring to a little girl as a "that"... hello, she is a little human being! And this lady has NO IDEA that Drew has devoted his entire life to this little girl, that he loves her. Oh, can we mention that little girl is living without her mom for an entire year to defend this country and the freedom to have any family she wants! There was/is so much I wanted to yell and explain to her. This time we just stood there jaws dropped. The worst is that the "that" heard the whole thing and is old enough to realize what was going on.

There are probably ten more examples I can share here, but I want to get into the something that has restored my hope in our situation. Disney World.

Disney World brought all stares and rude comments to a complete halt. Everyone in Disney World is part of the great rainbow we call the earth. There were so many "different" families, we were left alone. Not one side glance or comment. It was beautiful. There were people of every race, religion, and ability. We had one lady ask us when we adopted our little girl, we explained the whole story to her and her eyes were not filled with judgement they were filled with compassion. She then told us about some families in her church who were trying to adopt from other countries and the things they were going through. Families can come in any shape, size, and color and the Disney atmosphere embraces that, now the rest of the world needs to catch up.

My brother said it right... "wait a minute, lets not be judgmental! Isn't that Gods job?... life gets awfully difficult when we put each other down."