Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Tidbits

  • Chase is trying with all his might to break me. And more often than not, he's succeeding.
  • Chase flipped/fell/climbed (with little forethought about consequence) out of his crib on Wednesday. Nothing terrified me more than hearing that thud and then a scream. He was already up and walking to the door (sobbing) by the time I reached his room so I have no idea how he landed. He informed me that he fell on his nose and mouth... which is consistent with the rug burn he has on his face.
  • Adam, Chase and I went out to take pictures for a website a few days ago and as we were leaving Chase yells "I need my tamera (camera)!" So he grabs it and then yells "Wait! I need my manbag!" He then proceeds to run to his room, go into his closet, pull out my blue and white flowered purse, place the camera in it and sling the purse errr, manbag over his shoulder.
  • On his way home with Daddy Chase announced that "Mommy's growing the baby out. And then I can hold him, and kiss him and hug him and play trains with him. And I can show him off to Mommy and Daddy and Riley and Alexander and Miss Bekah and Miss Dannette and Miss Shelby". I think he is going to make a fine big brother.
  • Our air conditioning was on the fritz. Luckily we are renters ;~) My in laws arranged to have someone come take a look at it and it should be fixed soon. The air guy informs me to not worry about the heat (which I had on that day, it was cold again!)... even though the compressor is shot, the heat will kick on the electric backup heat... so we will always be able to warm the house. Hmmmm. I ask him "If that were to happen, do you think that would affect your electric bill?" He smiles, nods his head knowingly and says "Yep, that will take a real bite out of your electric" So suddenly I am very aware of why we have paid through the nose for our electric this winter. Turns out the winter is the worst time for a compressor to blow because you don't know about it until your bill spikes (or until a professional fills your clueless butt in). *sigh*
  • I recently won a gift certificate to the Sweet Tea Shoppe and I finally made my choice! I plan to get another charm as soon as we know lil bean's name.
  • I started scrapbooking again and it feels great! I am a little behind (as in just finished with Christmas 2008) but I am making headway!
  • Adam is busier than ever! He signed 5 clients in 4 days... in addition to the clients that came with him. We're only a few days in but it's looking really good and we couldn't be more pleased.
So that's all I have for tonight. Hoping and praying that I get some energy back soon... I love being pregnant but being this tired is rough.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Change is Good

Recently I alluded to 'big changes coming to the G household' on my facebook status. I got a variety of guesses back including twins (emphatically NO!), a promotion for Adam (not quite) and a move (again not quite).

As of today Adam has opened up his own law practice.

This has actually been in the works for weeks but we wanted to wait until he was officially on his own to make the announcement.

I don't want to go into all the reasoning behind this decision... at least not right now (maybe in a future post... maybe not ;~). However, it was made with much prayer and hours upon hours upon hours of discussion. Financially it is better for our family and professionally it is better for Adam.

I love how giddy and excited Adam is about this adventure. I think next to our wedding day and Chase's birth, this may be one of the best days of his life.


Testing out the new desk.


Chase helping us measure the 4ft bridge.


Carrying blinds into Daddy's new office.


My husbands mantra.

He's worked hard to get to this place.

The office!


Couldn't be more proud of this guy!


I think Chase feels the same way.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Babywearing

So with this pregnancy I have been thinking a lot about babywearing. I liked the idea when I was pregnant with Chase but it never seemed really necessary so I didn't do it very often.

When I did use a sling, I used this one:

It worked well for infants (Chase was all of a few weeks when I used it) and it was ridiculously simple.

Then there was a recall on it... blamed in the death of an infant. I checked the tags and mine wasn't actually part of the recall. It was either the model after or before but this particular one wasn't part of the recall. Still, in my head I couldn't get past the idea that a baby died in a sling so similar so I stopped using it. I tossed it in a bin and forgot about it.

A few months ago Adam and I did a purge session at our house and I tossed it in a giveaway pile along with some other odds and ends baby stuff. I didn't even think twice about it.

A week ago, I was at a friends house who had started using a similar style sling with her second baby. She abruptly stopped using it when she heard about the total and complete recall on all of these pocket style slings. Apparently the positioning of the chin on chest for the baby lead to 2 more infant deaths.

3 beautiful babies lost their lives in this sling. My heart drops just typing that sentence.

And I put Chase in that sling... must shake off the guilt....

She went on to tell me that they were offering a very nice replacement sling... or they had other items if you were spoiled on the babywearing idea... which I am most definitely not.

This is the sling they are offering:

It's very similar to a Mei Tai Wrap which I have always liked.

Oh well... guess I missed the boat on that one.

The next morning I was at MOPS. It had been a rushed morning to say the least and I was more than a little frazzled by the time I sat down. I look over to the swap table and what do I see poking out from the top of a box? A black toile sling just like the one I used to have. Weird.

I didn't feel comfortable taking the sling and claiming it as my own just so I could get the replacement sling so I relaxed in my chair and started talking with someone.

But I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe it was my sling... I had given a lot of stuff away and I had given some to the church (as well as Goodwill and other places). So I went over the box to poke around and immediately recognized some stuffed animals and other odds and ends as stuff I had donated. Then I opened the sling and sure enough... there were a whole bunch of knit caps that I had tucked in there when I donated it!

It was my horrible awful recall sling! I was ecstatic!

As soon as I got home I checked the website to be sure they were in fact recalling this sling and low and behold... they were!

I submitted my claim, printed the form and sent in my sling! In a few weeks I should have a brand new sling to use with lil bean!

Now I have my ring sling (used extensively on our SF trip), a handmade Moby wrap (thanks to my friend Danielle's instruction!) and soon a Mei Tai wrap! I'm ready to wear this baby!

Oh and the replacement sling comes with:

Score!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Nerds

Home sick? Bored? Have PhotoBooth?































Minutes of enjoyment.

Yep, we're nerds.

Friday, April 09, 2010

Sick, stuck and smells

Our pediatrician was called Monday morning... and we got an appointment. The diagnosis... pretty sever case of strep throat. I have to say I didn't see that one coming. I thought it was probably an infection but I was leaning toward an ear infection. Nope, she took one look in his mouth and with wide eyes said this throat was extremely red.

Off to the grocery store for antibiotics!

The worst part of the whole adventure... when the pediatricians office said that Chase's insurance had been canceled. Yep. I am there with a sick kid and Carefirst has royally screwed up. I swear medical insurance is the most evil entity on earth. The sad thing is I knew it would happen. I saw it coming... I did everything I was supposed to do to avoid it but nope, they went ahead and screwed up anyway. *sigh*

Thankfully I have someone (a broker) helping me straighten everything out. Fingers crossed it gets worked out quickly.

Anywho... after that eventful morning Chase and I headed home to put up the quarantine tape. We were officially in for another 24 hours.

And unfortunately, we were quite literally stuck inside. My thought was to spend a nice relaxing Tuesday morning on the deck with the umbrella up, the water table full and maybe a popsicle or 2... not so much. Between the 8-10 wasps hovering around our shed/deck and the horrendous cow manure smell... there was no way we were sitting outside or opening the windows. Oh and the air conditioning is broke so we essentially were stuck in a darkened sweatbox.

Have I complained enough yet? Sorry, the answer to that is probably yes. Again, I am sorry. It was just a rough few days.

Thankfully things have been improving. We've been able to leave the house and actually spend time with other people (and oh how I have missed other people!) We went to a consignment sale where I snagged this:



beat up and weathered but it's perfect for our backyard! Now the weather just has to warm back up so we can use it ;~)

All and all things are going well around here. I'm still extremely tired... hence the lack of posting... but maybe once I am out of the first trimester that will subside a bit. I have all these projects and ideas but not enough energy to complete them!

I could have sworn my sewing machine was glaring at me the other day.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Easter Fun

Things have been pretty low-key around here lately.

Chase and I have both had a stomach bug (although him way worse than I) and I've been experiencing some round ligament pain. I had this with Chase but it wasn't until about 23 weeks so I was caught off guard when it struck at 9 weeks. Just one of those things that isn't in the book.

Unfortunately all that meant we had to miss the big Easter party that Bekah hosted on Friday ;~(

Thankfully the stomach bug avoided Bamma who came over on Thursday and took care of Chase (and my house!) all day while I was too weak to get off the couch. It also avoided Adam, who took over the care of the house on Thursday when Bamma left.

The silver lining is that we've had some very awesome family days.

Saturday we just spent the day chilling out around the house. I boiled some eggs in the morning and in the afternoon we had the greatest time dying them. I seriously underestimated how much fun this would be with a child. I could have dyed 4 dozen more!


He insisted on the chef hat.







My egg:

I ♥ AG

I ♥ CG

Adam's eggs:

So tragic. He took a header off the breakfast bar.


This looked way cooler in my mind.


Our cast of characters!

Unfortunately we seem to be carrying on the tradition of being sick on Easter. Saturday night Chase was up at least 4 separate occasions with stomach bug issues... which really caught us off guard since we thought he was on the mend. He also spiked another fever mid morning... our pediatrician is definitely getting a call from me in the morning.

Nonetheless we had a fantastic Easter... more to come.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Remember me?

Jessica... wife of Adam, mommy of Chase... scrapbooker... (hopeful) seamstress... used to write on this blog with surprising frequency...

Hi! How are you? It's been a while I know. Sorry about that.

Apparently I got pregnant and then bean started the subtle process of zapping all my energy. Seriously, it's all I can do to walk myself to bed at the end of the night... let alone attempt coherent thought. Anyway, I am hoping to play catch up so you might see a few posts right in a row.

Last week Chase and I took a road trip to Annapolis to visit Christine, Andrew and Gabriel. We had signed up for a cooking class at Whole Foods which started at 11, so we tried to get there a little early to have some hang out time.


Enjoying the nice weather on the porch.


Chase was fascinated by the horse in the neighbors yard.

Too quickly that hang out time disappeared and we headed to the cooking club. I ended up sitting with the boys on the floor... they were among the youngest and didn't get the whole 'sit on the carpet and watch the entertainment' thing. Not to mention the fact that Chase was being unusually clingy (which should have been my first clue...).


The entertainment just happened to be a clown. I know, not surprising when you are dealing with kids but when I was 14ish, I was talked into watching Stephen King's "It"... a decision I have regretted ever since. Fortunately this clown had a 'Jesus Loves You' pin on her shirt which made me feel a bit better. Still, I was happy when the clown left.


Next we walked around the store collecting goodies...


cantaloupe from the produce section...


a kids cliff bar from the prepared food section...

They also got a slice of pizza, a cup of carrot juice slushie, a sticker and a piece of chocolate!


Enjoying our lunch.


This face should have been my second clue...

After we left Whole Foods I called a friend in the area and stopped by to see her. Unfortunately her little girl was sleeping (an unusual 3 hour nap that day!) so it was us talking while Chase played with her toys.

She gave us the cutest gift ever!

She had these game pieces and instead of throwing them away, she decided she could make them into a really cute toy for her little one. Glue some magnets on the back and ta-da! Chase loves his set and they reside right next to our alphabet! Thank you Sylvia!


On the way home. Not unusual but notice the flushed look with pink cheeks?

Yeah, that... all 3 clues I should have picked up on... equaled a child that did not feel well... at all. By the time we got home he had a blazing 104.3 fever. Mother of the year should be calling any moment.

The rest of the evening was extremely low key and consisted of us laying around until daddy got home.

It was a lot of fun but I think I need to stop the long road trips until I am out of my first trimester at the very least. I was whooped by end of the day!