Thursday, April 27, 2006

Anxiety prone

Maybe it is just a pregnancy thing, but I'm so much more anxious about stuff these days. Like today - sort of a milestone, D's first school field trip. We're going to a Jack Hartmann concert and I volunteered to be a driver. Starting about 3:00 a.m. I started worrying about it - what if I get lost, what if the other kid I'm driving gets car sick, what if I can't get her car seat in the car (being in a not-so-flexible state, it's a legit concern!), what if it rains and the traffic is bad....sheesh. I ran through about 100 different non-problems, almost e-mailed D's teacher to tell her we weren't coming, then woke up at 6 to tell myself it's all in my head. Crazy prego hormones. Ugh.

I'm really trying to be aware of our time committments though and I've made an extra effort not to over-programme our days. Still, we're supposed to go straight from the concert this a.m. to playgroup to my OB appointment and somehow get to the grocery store and figure out something for lunch -- it's just a bit much, so I suspect something will get skipped. I've found if I overdo it, by the end of the day I'm worn out and I get terrible Braxton-Hicks contractions and literally feel like my bladder is going to fall out of me. Which should be a REAL cause for anxiety, but I don't have time to think about it with all the made-up nonsense going through my head.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Saturday morning surprise

The original title of this post was supposed to be 10.5, which is the average number of hours I've been sleeping at night for the last week. It's been heaven not having to get up early to get D to school and since M has been sleeping in as well, we're all as lazy as can be. BUT, I had to change the title because after my lovely 10.5 last night, I woke up about 8, took a nice hot shower and as I came into our bedroom, I noticed a funny little black thing in the door to the hall. No biggie -- looked like a ponytail holder or maybe yard debris tracked in by the dog. So I got some TP to pick it up and when I grabbed it lo! and behold it was a frickin' baby black SNAKE. It squiggled around at me and I threw the whole thing onto the floor yelling for M to help. Luckily, D was already awake playing Lego in her room and when she heard me yell, had the good sense to yell back "I'm staying in here! Don't let it come in my room Mommy!"

So M got our official Wildlife Trapper Tupperware container (in case you aren't familiar with this style, it's the nice large square one that has trapped field mice, baby rats, lizards, spiders, a baby frog, and now, a black snake) and managed to scoop it up using the official Wildlife Trapper Flexible Cutting Board, and he and D took the whole thing into the front yard to let it go. He's very humane about the animals we trap - the vast majority are let go alive due to a nasty incident he had with a glue trap about 15 years ago. Long story. Tell you later.

Anyway, so the thing is out of the house, thank goodness, but now I'm left wondering how exactly it got in and wound up in our doorway without attracting anyone's attention - especially the dog's, some watchdog she is! - and if there are any others slithering around. Things that make you go hmmmm, indeed.

So that was our Saturday. Later in the morning we went down to the Farmer's Market where I scored some sourdough bread and then we all had smoothies and M got a veggie burger and I bought some chocolate. After lunch, D and I had our ritual Food Network Festival wherein we get caught up on all the eps of Barefoot Contessa, Paula Deen and Everyday Italian that I TiVo during the week. All in all, a nice day, even with the weird start.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Into the ficklemint

So here's what's been occupying my mind for the last week or so. D saw the Tarzan episode of Backyardigans last week and when, at dinner, I asked her for a re-cap she went through the whole show and insisted that part of it was them going "into the ficklemint." "Do you mean peppermint?," we asked. Spearmint? Basement? I think we ran though every possible _mint/ment combination until we all gave up in frustration. Especially me, since I take great pride in being fluent in Three-Year-Old-ese.

Anyway, I finally figured it out today - Into the Thick of It. I can move on now.

I had my 5 month check up last week. Everything looks great with BabyBoy and I'm very pleased to have only gained 10 lbs. so far. One reason it's a lot easier to keep my munching in check is the terrible heartburn I have every time I eat. Ugh.

Next week we get ready for our annual Easter Weekend Family Gathering. This year, in addition to my whole family, we'll be joined by M's brother and his wife and 4 kids. So it ought to be quite a crowd. We decided to rent a tent and some big tables and chairs so that we can all be outside in comfort while we eat and visit. It would be quite difficult to cram 14 adults and 7 kids into our teeny house, so pray for a continuation of the great weather we've had so far this spring.

For Easter Sunday I'm serving pastries/muffins, fruit, baked ham, hashbrown casserole, green bean salad, rolls, hard-boiled eggs and cake and/or lemon meringue pie for dessert. Plus coffee, mimosas, etc. Hope there's enough variety for adults and kids alike.