Life on Bed Rest

For the past two and a half weeks or so my life has been quite different. I got diagnosed with pre-eclampsia when I was only 33 and a half weeks pregnant. This is a little scary, but it's nothing new since I had it with my past two pregnancies.

Usually things progress really quickly and I just get induced. This time luckily my symptoms have reduced and the progression has really slowed down if I follow my doctors orders of strict bed rest.

Blech. This next picture sums up how my daily life has been going. I usually sport some fancy fashion combo of a t-shirt and pajama bottoms as I lay on the couch all day. I break up the monotony by barking orders at either my children, husband, or mother who has come to help.

My kids are adjusting quite well as these pictures show and I am completely relaxed and at ease with our current predicament.

Oh and the house looks great too.

Thankfully I will be 37 weeks pregnant next Wednesday and they are planning to induce me then. Then the real fun begins.

The girl who knows too much and the boy who knows too little

Yesterday I was talking with Tygh when Izabella came waltzing upstairs and handed me a cup with liquid in it and nonchalantly stated, "Here ya go."

Tygh and I exchanged puzzled looks so she felt the need to explain.

"I'm playing Doctor's office. You know like you do when they check on the baby. I have a baby in my tummy too and I'm at the Doctors."

It then occurred to me that the amber colored liquid in the cup I was now holding was warm. This was not apple juice. It was a urine sample that she had just oh so casually handed me.

You see Izabellla, for some reason loves to accompany me on every OB visit that she can. At the beginning of every visit it is the same routine; they first weigh you in and then you are directed to go to the bathroom and bring out your sample. The bathroom is just a room without a stall in it and I never thought much about bringing Izzie in with me.

We had a little talk about when she is playing pretend doctor's office it is appropriate to do a pretend pee in the cup. I think she responded with something like. "Ohhhh. Ok Mom. No problem." She just didn't understand why I didn't want to bring her pretend game up to the next level.

She has proven over and over to be just a little sponge. Who knows what she'll do next!

Spencer on the other hand really is clueless about what is going on with me and how he is about to get dethroned. Izabella loves guessing about the gender of the baby and she likes to gather public opinion on the subject. Spencer's answer to her repeated question is always the same.

Izabella: "Spencer do you think mommy has a baby girl or a baby boy in her tummy?"

Spencer: "No. Not baby. Dinosaur."

Yup, that boy is in for a treat when he gets dethroned. Despite me pulling out my pregnancy books and repeatedly showing him pictures of pregnant ladies with fetuses, he still holds firm to his answer. He will tell me that the drawings are of mommys with babies in their tummies, but I am different.

Just think... what if he is right? A dinosaur is way cooler to a 2 year old boy than any silly baby brother or sister. But still, I am not giving birth to a triceratops or stegosaurus unless it comes out in egg form first.

The Secret to Avoiding the Flu Bug

As of right now, everyone in our family is completely knocked out with a flu bug... except for Izabella.

(But seriously, if you were germs, would you mess with this kid?)

While Tygh, Spencer, and I lay groaning and coughing in our bed, she jumps on the end of the bed and tells us how she needs some non-sick friends to play with because she's bored of watching movies all day while all we do is sleep. Life for Izabella must be like she's in one of those zombie movies the way she's the only one with a scrap of energy.

I read an article in this month's Parenting Magazine that had the most extensive list of things you could do to keep your family safe from the flu. (It basically told you to walk around with a can of Lysol in your hands and sanitize everything including the air your kids even thought about breathing.) Friday when Spencer and I were feeling are absolute worse, Izabella came up with a solution on how she was going to avoid getting sick too that was not on the list that Parenting came up with.

Izabella was basically on autopilot seeing how all Spencer and I could do was lay in bed. She went to the kitchen and got herself a muffin and milk for breakfast. When she was done, she took her leftovers and placed them on a pretty plate in the middle of the kitchen floor and excitedly went and got me to show me how brilliant she was. She declared that the germs would now leave her alone and she was going to be safe because they'd be too busy to get her.

I couldn't quite understand her until I remembered that at her school, teacher Annette talked to her about where germs like to live. Annette showed the kids that germs like to live on dirty hands, in the toilet and on food that wasn't properly refrigerated or preserved. The purpose of the whole chat was to teach the kids to wash their hands thoroughly and take care of leftovers, but that's not what my Izzie got out of it.

In her little unique perspective that only a 4 year old can have, she figured if you give the germs something they'd rather have like a tasty muffin, why would they even bother with an icky little girl?

As far as hand washing goes, she placed a Mr. Yuck sticker on the sink and declared that the germs liked it there and had taken over so she no longer can wash her hands.

I tried several of my own methods to avoid getting sick like washing my hands so often that they're cracked and bleeding and I got a flu shot, but so far Izabella's strategy has trumped all.

So if you're afraid of getting sick this flu season, might I suggest leaving a pretty plate on the middle of the kitchen floor as an offering to the germ gods.

Never a dull moment

Even though I am completely out of energy these days and I would love to just hibernate for the winter, my kids find a way to make life interesting enough to motivate me to keep going.

I lost my temper with Izabella last Monday on the way to gymnastics class. She was taking forever and a day to get ready and we were running late. She insisted on bringing one of her dollies with her and she had to make sure that her dolly was seat belted firmly into the middle seat before she could hop into her car seat.

Finally I snapped, "Just get into your car seat, darn it!"

She set her jaw, furrowed her brow and yelled back, "I'm not darn it! I'm Izabella!"

Well that did it. I laughed so hard that it completely dissipated my little temper tantrum.

We recently went to a safety fair where the kids had a chance to play in a real cop car. Izabella climbed all over that thing and loved pushing all the buttons for the lights and the siren. Spencer on the other hand, only wanted to play in the back seat. (I hope this is not a foreshadowing of things to come ahead.)

Eventually he insisted that both of the back doors be shut and that he be locked in the back. Izabella looked at me and said, "Uh Oh. We'd better call Daddy." She then turned to the police officer to explain, "My Daddy's job is to get kids out of jail."

I decided if we wanted to stay in the officer's good graces, I had best not explain what she meant (She also will tell you that Daddy fights with the bad police officers all day at work.) We quickly thanked the officer and went to tour the firetruck.

Spencer came up with this totally elaborate pretend game the other day where we were pirates and we were trying to get to our ship. He had me climb all around the couch and under the furniture to get to the ship. Once we made it to our destination (which was the coffee table), he jumped up on top and declared himself the captain and he set me to work and his deckhand. When I didn't comply he showed me he had a sword and he knew how to use it. This little 2 year old has such an imagination!

Tygh recently took a week off of work to go hunting and prove how tough he was. In honor of his life quest, he grew a beard. When he went back to work, he trimmed it into a goatee. Spencer and I absolutely loved it. (Tygh and Izzie did not like it). Spencer completely wants to be just like his daddy when he grows up, so he requested that he be able to have facial hair too.


To my dismay, the naysayers won, and Tygh shaved the whole thing off. I caught Spencer rubbing a rock all over his face that same day. When I asked him what he was doing, he informed me that he was "shaving too."


Lybbee is growing like crazy and is turning into a loveable and crazy family member. She lays down in Izabella's bed for quiet time and I've realized that the two of them are the same length from head to toe. She is growing so fast!

I was taking a picture of Spencer the other day when Lybbee came sprinting into the room and ran in between Spencer and the camera. You can see how the wind is blowing back her ears and Spencer's face as he braces for the impact. And yes, Spencer is wearing Tygh's tie and shoes and he was headed to work.Crazy dog. She fits right in with the rest of us.

If you were to look in our freezer at any given time, I guarantee that you would find at least one item from Schwan's. Seeing how I have taken up coupon clipping and saving money on groceries there is no way I would spend the extra moolah to get the home delivered frozen goods.

Our neighborhood Schwan's man Andy knows this. I have told him repeatedly that I am done purchasing their delicious but over priced goods. But Andy also knows that my husband is a sucker for the nostalgic frozen treats that he peddles. It seems like Tygh is always purchasing some ice cream treat and then whatever other items our Schwan's man manages to talk him into.

Since Andy knows that I always say no thanks to him, he has taken to only knocking on our door when he sees that Tygh's rig is in the driveway.

If he is having a slow day , and he sees the red truck out front, he'll come pay Tygh a visit (and it doesn't even matter if it isn't our scheduled delivery day or not). Andy has even been known to spot Tygh in town on his way home from work and follow him to the house and ask Tygh what he'd like to order. He is always so friendly and chatty with Tygh that he always buys something from the guy.

My Mom visited us this week and witnessed this all first hand. It was Wednesday (our normal delivery day is Tuesday but Tygh was out hunting and had missed him) and Tygh came happily bounding down the stairs and said, "Hey Aim, my best friend is here. Can I borrow your wallet?"

Mom was surprised when I quickly replied "Oh great Andy the Schwan's man is here."

So even though I am slightly annoyed with how much of my budget is being blown by Tygh's impulse purchases, I have to admit that I do admire his salesmanship skills.


This one goes out to you Andy, our friendly neighborhood Schwan's man.

A Little Ice Cream Goes A Long Way

For Labor Day weekend, we went to Saint Marie's, Idaho to visit Grandma Norma and Papa Jim at the Round Tuit Ranch. I will hopefully get around to blogging about the rest of the fun filled weekend at some point, but I just thought this photo progression was just too funny.

These next two pics are of my kids after they've had a hard day riding carnival rides and enjoying the festivities with Grandma and Papa. It sure is hard being a kid.
A reasonable parent would bring their children home for a nap, but Daddy had a different idea. He decided he would save the day and he bought two huge ice cream cones for us all to enjoy...

Look how much they saved for me. The little dears!


Looks like Spencer is finding his second wind
Then in true natural consequence fashion,
Tygh had to deal with two completely crazy kids after wards.
(I was too busy documenting our wonderful parenting methods).

Birthweek

It seems like the word birthday is a misnomer since it usually seems more like it is a birthweek celebration.

On the 22nd my mostly angel girl turned 4. (In case you're wondering she's just joking in the picture on the left).

First on Thursday Iz celebrated with the seniors at the respite care that we volunteer at each week. They surprised her with a pink doughnut with 4 candles on top. It was really sweet of them.

Then on Friday, she had a really cute informal birthday playgroup with her friends from school at the park. It was a hot day, but the kids didn't seem to mind. They played like crazy while the parents huddled under the shaded picnic area. Everyone brought their own sack lunch and we provided cupcakes and Popsicles. Everything was planned out by Izabella and it turned out to be my low key kind of shin dig. I neglected to take my camera out at all the Kodak moments, so this is the best pic I took.
That night I took her to a special girls only performance of Disney's Beauty and the Beast Musical that a local performance troop put on. She was so adorable at the play.

She was the only small kid in the audience, but she was surprisingly well behaved. It didn't hurt that it was a performance of her favorite movie right now, but she was spell bound by the whole thing.

She did say a few random critical comments to me during the performance that were too loud, like "Mom, the Beast doesn't have long enough claws" and "Belle needs to wear sleeves. That's not modest." Since she was the only kid around, people just looked at her and grinned.

At intermission I announced to her that it was time for a potty break. She did not want to leave her seat because she was afraid that we would miss the rest of the show and she declared that she did not have to use the bathroom. She then asked me if I had to use the potty very loudly. When I told her that I did, she felt it her duty to inform everyone, "Oh, My Mommy has to use the potty. We have to go to the bathroom now." Once we arrived at the restroom she waited outside the stall and asked my if I wiped my bummy when I flushed the toilet. It was a really embarrassing role reversal experience for me.

Saturday my parents came into town and we celebrated her birthday (and my Mom's b-day too) with cake and ice cream and another trip to the park where she got to try out riding her first Princess bike complete with matching accessories. (Thanks Mom and Dad!)
We asked Izabella how old Nanna was going to be she informed us that she was turning 100. When she was corrected that it was only 51, she replied "close enough." My mom asked Izzie if she would share her birthday cake and let my mom put her candles on it too, Izzie's eyes got really big with horror and she declared "We're gonna need a bigger cake. That's a LOT of candles." As you can see from the pic, it was a crowded birthday cake, but it all fit just fine.

Here's a pic of the two birthweek girls.

If that wasn't enough celebrating, Sunday we visited our family friends the Goveias and had cake again. Spencer didn't seem to mind eating so much cake in one week. One of his favorite games right now is to sing someone the happy birthday song, blow out the candles, and then eat the pretend cake complete with comments like, "Mmmm. Strawberry and chocolate cake. I love cake."

The funny part of all the celebrating was that a majority of it came before her actual birthday. So now each time Izabella sees someone who was at any of her parties she makes sure that she tells them that now she is really 4 years old.

I honestly am exhausted from all the big hubbub and I am grateful that birthweek only comes once a year.