Signs

Signs of a good weekend:

Smiles:

Face painting, half rubbed off from a long nap, and Oreo crumbs around the mouth:
Face painting, meticulously maintained even with a long nap, and more smiles:
No pictures of Asher. That's a sign of a good weekend for him. He was far too busy to pause for a photo.

It's Not There!

Asher has taken to telling me, "It's not there!" at times. Daily recently. What he means is "It's not fair!" It never fails to crack me up.

Isaiah can count five objects out loud. He says, "Wa, Two, Fee, Foe, Fi!" The first thing he counted was fruit snacks and he was very pleased to learn that counting his fruit snacks earned him a second bag of them (an unheard of treat). He tried the trick again today and was sad to see that it didn't work again.

Naomi threw an hour long fit yesterday including many tears and self-inflicted solitude because I wouldn't let her keep all 20 of the papers she brought home from school. I made her pick five of them to keep. It was a sad, sad day. I can't wait until next week when her teachers send home another pack of papers.

I am feeling a little more normal these day (well, normal for pregnant anyway). I ate an egg salad sandwich the other day - which I would normally hate, and I really enjoyed the smell of the raw ground beef I was browning. So I'm definitely pregnant.

Richard is working like mad, but it's so nice to have him working from home. Sometimes a little too nice - it's hard to leave him alone and let him work.

Ballerinas and Birdies

Here's some of the latest art from Naomi. This piece is actually she and I. I am wearing green and she is wearing purple. We both have pink hair. Note that she even drew little blue pieces of tape on each of the corners. "Because it's a picture of a picture taped to a piece of paper."

The Worth Grand Prix

Today we needed a good, free, hyper activity for the kids. And those are hard to come by.

A little (well, actually, a lot) of cardboard + tape + the dining room table + a bin of toy cars + 3 crazy kids = FUN





Once the cars really started flying, we realized that we needed a crash pad at the bottom to protect the poor wall.

Naomi with her "trophy" and prize winning car.

Fun, fun, fun!

Too Much Law & Order

Yesterday morning I woke up feeling pretty good. I think I've got a handle on this morning sickness finally (now that's it's down to only being *morning* sickness). I got the kids all dressed and ready to go since everybody has school on Thursday's - which means almost non-stop drop-offs and pick-ups for me until noon. Then I ran up to shower and actually get myself dressed for the first time in about two weeks.

While I was in the shower, Isaiah came into my room and sat by the bathroom door (which was open). He whined "Mama" at me a couple of times, but for the most part I ignored him. Shower time is sacred! But pretty soon I noticed that Isaiah was kind of whimpering. I figured Asher had done something mean to him and that he'd get over it soon. But as I got out of the shower I realized that he was pretty upset. He wouldn't stop whining and whimpering and almost crying. He wanted me to pick him up. It was so uncharacteristic that I went ahead and picked him up and cuddled him for a second (buck naked), figuring that would solve the problem. But it didn't. He started full on crying. He wouldn't let me set him down. I started to worry. Was he sick again? He had just been pretty sick four or five days ago. I went looking for throw-up. None to be found upstairs. Was he physically hurt? I tried to ask him but every time I asked him, "Does your foot hurt?", or "Does your head hurt?" the answer was "yes" to it all. Finally I started worrying that he was emotionally traumatized by something. What if something happened downstairs that Isaiah had witnessed? Maybe a serial killer was downstairs slowly massacring my family and saving me for last! (This is the too much Law & Order part)

I braved going downstairs. Shockingly, all was fine. I asked Asher if he knew of anything that had happened to Isaiah, he said no. I asked Richard (who was working in the basement) if he knew of anything that had happened. No.

Anyway, on and on. He really was completely inconsolable. Snacks, cuddles, treats ... nothing could stop the crying. Finally I called our pediatricians office expecting that I'd really have to sell this to the nurse on call as a valid reason for an immediate visit. When I told her he had been crying for an hour and it was unusual, to her credit, she told me to come right in to the office.


So off Isaiah and I went, him crying all the way, to the pediatricians office. (Reason #486 Why It's Great To Have A Husband That Works From Home: leaving not-sick kids at home when taking sick kids to the doctor) It took a whopping 5 seconds with the doctor for her to see that Isaiah had a raging double ear infection. The poor, poor little guy. He was in so much pain!

So now he's highly medicated with antibiotics and Tylenol. And he feels much better - except for the 30 minutes before it's time for more Tylenol. And I feel like a terrible Mom for not having taken him to the doctor sooner when he had that "cold" last week. And I know that he might not have had anything wrong with his ears if I had taken him in earlier - ear infections apparently come on fast - but I still feel like a crap Mom. How can you not when your baby is in pain?

This is another one of those times when nothing really horrible happened, but it was a totally traumatic experience for me anyway. Trying to get dressed while holding a screaming two year old, a frantic call to the school to cancel speech therapy, driving to the doctor with a screaming two year old, sitting in a waiting room with a screaming two year old - all these experiences are traumatic for a Mom.

Man! This is a tough job!

Progesterone ... No thanks!

So here's the whole story. Because 1) Maybe it'll help someone else and 2) If I don't write it down I'll block it out completely and forget it ever happened.

I had a miscarriage about 8 months ago. It was my second miscarriage. Two miscarriages out of five pregnancies is actually not terrible odds. I think the latest statistic I heard was that one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage. So I'm really within the average, but it still worries us. (Us being my doctor and I) So as soon as I learned I was pregnant again, my doctor and I decided to put me on Progesterone just to be extra safe. Progesterone is basically the hormone that makes the babies. My levels of Progesterone were already normal, but "on the low side of normal". So I went ahead and started taking it.

At first as soon as I took the pill (twice a day) I would get super dizzy. I had to lay down for a solid hour after I took each pill. But after about 5 days that faded away, much to my relief. But then I noticed that I was nauseated all day every day. Not terrible or anything, but there was no relief. I've never been nauseated all day before when I was pregnant. Sure there's plenty of nausea, but there's always some time during the day where I'd get some relief. Usually between 11am and 4pm or so. After a few days of that the nausea got worse and worse. Pretty soon I was in bed all day. And not able to keep anything down. And here I am a week later having not eaten anything more than rice and Saltine's (in very, very small doses) all week. I have no energy since I've eaten basically nothing and I still feel amazingly nauseated.

I even spoke with my doctor about half way through this week. He recommended I not quite but perhaps take the pills both at night right before bed. It didn't help. He said I have 10 days left that he wants me to take these pills and that if I can't give him 10 days, at least give him 5.

I made it 2 more days. And then I quite. Because not eating and quickly loosing weight can't be good for the baby (I lost 6 pounds in the last week). Because I prayed about it and strongly feel that my baby will be fine. Because I am a mother - and I can't be a mother if I can't move. And, I admit it, I'm tired of feeling like crap. I was hoping that I'd feel much better today since I didn't take the pills last night, but unfortunately I only feel a little bit better. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

If I've learned anything from this experience, it's that I am a lucky woman. My pregnancies are normally not so bad. Sure, I'm always tired and sometimes nauseated - but not this bad. I can't imagine if I had to live like this for a solid 3 months or more. I sure wouldn't have plans for as many children as I do if it was always this hard.

I'm not saying that nobody should ever take Progesterone. I'm sure there are times when it is absolutely a miracle drug. And times when all these side effects are totally worth it because it's the only way to make a baby. But I was taking it "just to be safe". So, for me, the awful side effects weren't equal to the possible benefits.

So, that's the story. Now, assuming I start feeling better tomorrow, I'm going to start blocking this all out. I'm really pretty good at that. I'll have forgotten all the details in just a few months. It's one of the good parts of not having a good memory.

And More Snow

Yeah - those are icicles. Three foot long icicles. Which we thought were cool until we started hearing stories about roof collapses. Then we went outside and knocked those suckers down.


See how the road behind the kids is actually kinda clear? That was before it snowed another foot yesterday. It's not clear anymore. But the high tomorrow is suppose to be a whopping 36 - so there's hope.

Buried

I'm buried under mounds of snow and upset stomach. Today was a true blizzard. At times we could hardly see the houses across the street. The Government is closed for the 4th day in a row - that's some kind of record. The backyard is so deep in snow that instead of stepping down two steps out the backdoor, you'd have to step UP (if you were brave enough to go that way). The natives (children), who have done so well up till now, have finally become restless. And every time I move it upsets my stomach even more. I'm actually hoping that it's the flu. At least if it's the flu there's an end in site.

We told the kids about the baby this evening since I've been so sick. We figured they have a right to know why Mom has kind of checked out of life lately. It was so fun to see the looks on Asher and Naomi's faces. We were all sitting on my bed and when we told them Naomi's jaw dropped and Asher started bouncing up and down. Naomi asked if it was coming out right now and Asher asked if the baby was Poochy. It was adorable. Isaiah just happily sat on my lap, having no idea that he'll be slowly kicked out of that prime real estate over the next 7 months.

When September Comes

I had a doctor's appointment today and he told me that my official due date is September 18. I had been thinking it was October sometime. And then as I was driving home I heard Green Day singing their song When September Ends.

Funny, eh?


Not so funny is the fact that they just canceled school for the rest of this week. :( And Monday is a holiday. So the kids don't go back to school until a week after tomorrow.

Not funny, eh?

The Blizzard of 2010

I've been mockingly calling it "The Blizzard of 2010" for two days, and then today I turned on the TV and there was the bold headline. It's officially "The Blizzard of 2010". And, no, it's not over yet.

Richard has been religiously clearing our sidewalk every hour on the hour in the hopes that he can stay ahead of the storm. But it's been snowing at an average of an inch per hour for about 24 hours now. Nobody can keep up with that!
The kids love it, of course. Richard changed his plan from building an igloo to building a snow ramp for the kids to slide on. And it wasn't too hard a task since there was already a huge snow drift in front of the house.
In the picture below Naomi is about on ground level, and Asher is only about half way up the hill Daddy nicely packed down for them.

Here's Naomi at the top of the hill, with Richard at the bottom - you can see that it's nearly up to his shoulders. And Asher is stuck in the snow.
And here's a fun video of Naomi sliding down. You can see that Asher is totally stuck in the snow. Shortly after I turned off the camera Richard pulled him out. But poor Asher's boots stayed buried in the snow. And that began the series of sock changes. He went through three pairs of socks because the snow kept sucking his boots off no matter how tight I strapped them. Richard suggested that I duct tape them on. Maybe we'll try that tomorrow. Also in this video you can hear Isaiah saying, "In, Mama." repeatedly and me ignoring him.



I'm not sure what the latest total snowfall is, but they've been saying that this storm is even worse than they expected. Just when they thought it would start calming down, it kicked up a notch. School is already canceled for Monday and Tuesday.

Time at home with the kids is nice, but if we can't make it out of the house until Wednesday that'll make 4 straight days of being inside together. That's a lot.

The News

20 inches of snow are expected here in the next 24 hours. They're calling it a "Top 5 storm", meaning it will be among the 5 biggest storms on record here. The grocery store was a total zoo yesterday. School was canceled for Friday by Thursday afternoon - and it isn't going to start snowing until this afternoon (Friday). People are kinda acting like the end of the world is coming.

I had a "nickel auction" last night - guests each bring $5 worth of nickels and 3 things to auction off. Only 4 people came which was a big bummer. But it was still fun to sit around and chat with girlfriends. The biggest buzz was created by a pair of earrings that went for 45 nickels.

Our family has big plans for building an igloo tomorrow.

And lastly, I am finally with child. The latest Worth should arrive late September to early October. I am flat out admitting that I hope this is a girl. Because, one, my family goes girl, boy, boy, girl (and I'm that #4 girl!) so it would be fun to repeat that, and two, because this baby is sleeping in Naomi's purple princess castle room whether it's a boy or girl. We are so excited. I've only been to the Dr. once yet, but things look good. I actually managed to keep this a secret from most of my friends and family for a whopping three weeks. That's a new record for me. I'm not very good at keeping this kind of thing to myself. It's too exciting! Plus, I feel like poo and I want people to know why I'm suddenly a total party pooper. The Dr. has me on progesterone (just to be safe) twice a day and each time I take that little round pill it makes me so dizzy that I have to lay down for an hour. But I'm not complaining (much) because I'm so happy that this baby is finally on his/her way.

And that's the news.

Perspective

The forecast today said that it would start snowing in the afternoon, that the snow would start sticking after dark, and that there would be accumulation of 1 to 3 inches.

I was feeling pretty stressed about that since I have Young Women's tonight - putting me out of the house until 9:00 or later. It was on my mind all day - how scary that drive home late at night could be. I don't have 4WD or even anti-lock brakes on the van. Maybe I should take Richard's car? Maybe I should claim to be sick?

But around 3:00 today it was decided that our Young Women's activity was canceled. By 4:00ish when it started snowing I was feeling very cozy. No more stress. I looked out my kitchen window at the beautiful snow falling gently and felt warm and protected. I felt safe and even comforted by the snow. I felt loved by a Heavenly Father who sent such beautiful weather.

Then I remembered that Richard is still at work and is planning on staying late. So he'll have to drive home after dark. And the snow lost all it's beauty. It didn't feel safe and comforting - it felt harsh and menacing. Is it starting to stick? What if the wet spots from the previous weekends snow melting freeze over and then there's ice with snow on top of that? Maybe Richard should come home right now? Maybe it's too late.

I'm sure when Richard gets home the snow will go back to being soft and cozy and beautiful. It's amazing to me though how my feelings for the same thing can change just depending on my state of mind. I know I'm kind of a worry-er. But do I do this to myself very often without even realizing?

How often do I loose sleep (or peaceful daytime) over what are really insignificant things when if I just chilled out for a bit things would be fine?

I Won the Lottery!

Just kidding. Not really. I've never even played the lottery. But I feel like I've just won some sort of lottery or prize. ... Except I paid for it...

It's a brand new freezer!
Fully stocked with meats, fish, prepared meals, and veggies!
Mmmmmmm!
We signed a contract with Country Pride Food Services. And, ya know, we paid for all this food and the freezer, but they delivered it and stocked it and sorted it and will refill it with whatever we want (and pay for) whenever we want!

I've been living with one tiny little above-the-fridge freezer for way too long. I can never stock up on bread or cheese or (ahem) cookie dough. I could never do the "make two meals instead of one and freeze the extra" thing. But now I can! Wa-whoo!

Every time I tell somebody about this they say something like, "Oh, now you can freeze ..." And insert their favorite thing to have on hand in the freezer. I'm most excited about bread. We always have to make a mid-week extra trip to the store for bread. What about you? What are you so happy to freeze (or would be if you had a big freezer)?

A New Skill

I have been such having a blast lately figuring out embroidery. I don't recall ever before sitting down to learn a variety of stitches (although I'm sure my mother tried to teach me at some point). So I did what every self-respecting Worth does - I went out, bought a book, and taught myself. I have learned a whopping 3 stitches so far. My favorite is the wrapped backstitch (because it seems very forgiving of my messy,uneven stitches). I think I'm enjoying it so much because it's seems to be a great way to perk up these drab Winter days.

This is the second set of burp clothes that I've done. These ones are for Richard's baby sister, Karen (shh, don't tell Karen!), who is about to have her first baby. I love baby presents with the child's name on them because they're perfect for keeping as heirlooms. (Which sounds very snotty, like I deem these heirloom-worthy, but really it's just that I appreciate gifts like that, so I enjoy giving them and thinking that the receiver will enjoy them the way that I would.)


Don't look too closely at my amateur stitches, but I'm very happy with how these turned out! (My secret weapon is a fabric pen with disappearing ink which makes it so that I can write on the cloth and embroider right over it, but then any visible trace of the ink disappears within 72 hours.)

Side note: I am totally inspired by this blog. I think my next project may be a little stitched house that looks like ours.

Naomi's Slow Leap

Naomi can read. She just doesn't know she can read. She refuses to admit it. She's so held up by the fact that she has to take her time and concentrate that she can't see that she just finished an entire book. I am anxious for her to figure it out (figure out that she's already figured it out, that is) because I just know she'll be so happy to sit and read for hours.

So, that's why I'm calling this her slow leap. Here's a little video of her reading. You don't have to watch it - I won't be offended - but I had to put it up for posterity... and cuteness.

Asher Makes A Few Leaps Of His Own

Yesterday I wrote about the "big jump forward" that Isaiah has been making in his speaking. Today, Asher makes a few leaps of his own.

Isaiah Speak

Isaiah has hit a big jump forward in his learning to speak. He suddenly jumped to trying to say words even if he can't really say it right. It's a very exciting bit of progress. The other day we were walking in a parking lot and he said, "Ho me ha!" So I held his hand. Another day we were at the store and he saw a Diego backpack and said, "ba pa!". So what could I do but buy him the backpack? Like I said, this is really very exciting.

But there are still a few adorable Isaiah-isms that I know I should break him of using, but they're just so cute that I have a hard time finding the motivation.

ew ew ew ew = Diego
ha ha = dog
ho ho = Christmas or Santa
eh me = help me
wo mo = one more (usually said with one pudgy finger extended to illustrate)

I'm rather desperate for him to learn to speak, but at the same time I'll miss these little things. I guess that's true for any little person who's growing up. You always miss the phase they're just growing out of (well, most of them anyway).

And while we're talking talking, here's the first 30 words that Isaiah really learned to say correctly:
Mama, Dada, wa-wa (water), bubbles, bye bye, nigh-nigh(t), one more, me, you, more, no, whoa, yeah, ball, uh oh, hi, ow, wow, boo, hot, achoo, what, why, baby, pee, poo, new, no way, go, one.

My week

Pretty much immediately upon my arrival home from my trip, Richard took off for a conference. The conference happens to be near our house, so technically he's been sleeping at home all week - but I still have hardly seen him. He comes home long after I'm asleep and leaves within 30 minutes of us all waking up. At several points in the week our house was a kind of "home base" for other people who are working on/attending this same conference. The video below is what my house looked like all day on Wednesday (and yes, that's a genuine green screen you'll see). The link below that is to a blog post from one of these techies that will give you a picture of my house on Friday night.




Click here for Ralph Whitbeck's blog post showing the activities in my house last night.

There will be a couple more guys hanging out and sleeping at our house tonight. Nothing personal to them, they're really all very nice and well mannered, but I'm thinking it might be an excellent night to go see a chick flick by myself.

Donation

I had to do a little searching to find the best way to donate money to the Haiti earthquake relief. So since I did all the work, I thought I'd give you the link if you're interested.

http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main&s_subsrc=RCO_ResponseStateSection

I'm Pregnant!!!

*I wrote the following on the day that I found out I was pregnant this time around, but didn't publish it on my blog. For the record, I did manage to keep the news of my pregnancy mostly to myself for a month or so. Getting super sick made it harder to keep to myself since I felt like I needed an excuse.*

I miscarried about 6 months ago. And it was hard to tell everybody or to let the word of my miscarriage trickle down the same way that my pregnancy had. A month or two later people were still asking me how the pregnancy was going and it was always awkward and hard. So I swore that I would stop my habit of announcing my pregnancies the second I knew I was pregnant. I swore I'd wait at least a couple of months.

But today I found out I'm pregnant. And it's big news! It took me 6 months to get pregnant this time - the longest stretch yet. And I was really starting to stress about it. And people know I was stressing about it. And now, knowing that it's finally real again, all I want to do is call everybody in my phone book and start bragging. I admit it, it's selfish, but I want to hear the "Ohhh! Yeah!!! I'm so happy for you!!!" And I want to start talking names and room planning and all the other fun details about welcoming another baby into the world.

But I don't want to have to talk about a miscarriage again. I really don't want to HAVE a miscarriage again, but since that's out of my control I'll settle for just not having to talk about it.

So I'll try to sit on this news. Except, I already called Angela and Mom. I HAD to tell them! And then Ruth called and it didn't seem right to not tell her. And every time I talk to my friend Stephanie she asks me if I'm pregnant yet, so I'm sure I'll let it spill to her pretty soon. And when we start talking about Girl's Camp in Young Women's, I'll have to admit that there's no way I'm spending the whole week up there, because I'll be 7 months pregnant at the time. And if I go to book club or get together with any of my girlfriends, I'm sure to spill it then, too.

But I'll try to keep the count down. I'll try to keep it to honest-to-goodness good friends. People who I'd tell about a miscarriage anyway.

But who'm I kidding? I'll be lucky if I can keep this from going public for 2 WEEKS, let alone 2 months. It's just too exciting!!!