The Polar Express, 2008

The drive. We were an hour closer than last year, but God played a cruel trick on us: Arizona does not participate in Daylight Savings Time, so we lost an hour. And there was traffic on our way out of Vegas. And snow in AZ. So it might have taken us longer to get there this year than it did last year.

At the Grand Canyon.

Note the completely inappropriate glove-wear on Claire. They are likely acrylic, and my size.

Rare snow down to the floor of the Canyon.

Claire, cold, but being a good sport.

Three napless, wet and very cold children aboard the Polar Express in Williams, AZ.

Reagan and Kate enjoying hot chocolate with their daddies. At the hotel bar. We should have had the bartender add some schnapps to their mugs, for the lack of sleeping that occurred later that night.

Kate gleefully making snow angels. She is also oddly inappropriately dressed in all cotton.

Reagan and Kate hunching their shoulders in a failed effort to stay warm. The winds were gale-force, and the windchill must have been in the single digits.

We survived. We even had a good bit of fun, in between the refusal of the children to nap in the car and very few bed times before 9pm. We left on the day Las Vegas was supposed to get several inches of snow, so it was slow-going. The roads were clear, but wet, until about an hour before we got to Williams. Then, it was craziness. Trucks spun-out and in the ditch, semis driving (without chains) like there was no snow. We made it in one piece, though, and quickly settled into our room. Shayne and her family were right next door, so the kids had loads of fun running back and forth through the shared door. The boys dressed Kate and Reagan up in their snow gear (or what constituted 'snow gear' for us) and took them outside. They were gone longer than expected, but that was because of their detour to the bar for hot cocoa after about 10 minutes of snow.

We pushed for the train at 8pm, and had to wait. The train had some electrical problems, so it was running behind, and we made the mistake of standing in line for it outside. By the time we made it inside the train, we were all frozen, wet, and slightly miserable. The kids were tired and cold, and we all vowed to never do this again. I think we might have made that vow last year. But the kids loved looking at the lights, drinking hot cocoa, eating stale cookies, and seeing Santa. We made it back to the station right at bedtime: 10pm. It was a rough night.

The next day we took a day-trip on the train to the Grand Canyon. It was gorgeous. The kids loved it. Kate saw the Canyon, immediately made a snowball, and threw it over the edge. It was a proud moment for Tim. There were a few meltdowns on the way back (see also: no naps), but we survived.

The next day we drove to Tucson to see my sister and her family. Lucy is adorable, and my sister is glad to be home from the hospital.

Going to see Santa!

Well, we're off tomorrow morning to ride the Polar Express. Last year was a lot of fun, and I anticipate even greater exuberance this year due to the girls being a year older. This year, we are going with Kate's best friend, Reagan, and her family, who are also some of our best friends. We are extremely excited, and Kate can't stop talking about how we're going to see Santa! And Reagan! And snow! And Reagan! And have hot chocolate! And see Reagan!

After that, and our trip to the Grand Canyon on Tuesday, we drive to Tucson to see my sister (who just got out of the hospital yesterday) and her new baby, Lucy. See you at the end of the week.

Full moon fiasco

I'm not sure what it is: are we unmemorable? Do we not pay enough? Or, like I like to look at it, are our kids so good that we don't stick out in babysitters' minds? Clearly, this third observation no longer applies after last night. I jokingly told Tim yesterday when he got home that I hoped the babysitter showed up...and by 5:45 I was on the phone to our sitter, eating my words. It happened again: she had forgotten. In her defense (do I give her any? hmmm), this was her first offense; the other sitters who had forgotten were all in Tucson. But this was the third or fourth time in three years that a sitter has not shown up to our house, and it has always been for a semi-big engagement (two prior anniversary dinners, last night's squadron Christmas party).

After profuse apologizing on her part, she mentioned that she had a bit of a conflict: she is moving this weekend and her landlord was supposed to do a walk-through with her at 8:30pm. As I waited for her to tell me that she would call the landlord and reschedule (obviously we were on the books before the landlord, and also, the party was starting in 15 minutes), she hemmed and hawwed and asked if it would be all right if she took the girls with her back to her house for the inspection. *This should have tipped me off to future issues.* I said that wouldn't work, due to a plethora of reasons, and she said she would "work something out" and would be over "in a few minutes". I immediately called our neighbor, Jen, who's son, Douglas, has watched the girls before. Thankfully, Douglas was going to be around, so I called our sitter back and told her that he would watch the girls for an hour while she went back to her house to meet the landlord.

I present rule #1: if you have to work this hard to make the babysitter issue work out, you probably should just cancel your event.

Our sitter showed up at 6:15, with plentiful apologies, and I gave her the lowdown on how to deal with bedtime for the girls (they get to have the Christmas lights on in their room until they disobey enough times to warrant turning them off; they need to stay in their room; they need to be quiet; if they are not quiet by 8:30, put Claire back in her room in the crib). I asked her if she had heard from the landlord: no. I called Jen and told her that our sitter would likely call Douglas around 8:00. We left.

The oblivious couple enjoys a night out at the squadron Christmas party.

We had a good time. Before dinner started at 7:00, I called the sitter to see how things were going. "Fine!" Had she heard from her landlord? No.

At 10:15, as we were driving up to our house, I noticed the first sign of things not-quite-right. "Where is her car?" I asked Tim. Once inside, I noticed Jen's slippers by the front door. Jen came tip-toeing around the corner: "Shhhhhh. Don't wake them." She had a serious look in her eye. And she looked sort of frightened at the possibility of the children waking up.

"Why are you here?" I hissed. She said that the sitter called her at 8:15, Douglas was in the shower because he had just finished a workout, so she came over to watch the girls. She never heard from the sitter again. She just up and left, and did not return. Let me say this again, as I'm not sure it's clear: the sitter left and Never Came Back. And when said babysitter left, she did not give bedtime instructions to Jen.

Apparently, after Jen arrived, the girls decided to rejoice in the light of the full moon. Kate could be heard from her room: "Miss Jen's here!" They had to go to the bathroom. They had to read another book. At one point, not long after she had gotten them in bed, Jen could hear Claire wailing from their room, "Miss Jen!" When she went upstairs, she found Claire with her pants and diaper half-off. Kate had tried to remove them after she had taken her own pants off. The children argued about whether the Christmas lights should be on or off. They discussed the merits of having the fan on or off. Jen mentioned bringing bungee cords to the house next time to keep them in their beds. In other words, it was a disaster. When Douglas called, she told him to stay home for fear that his showing up would set them off again.

I am pretty sure Jen is never going to speak to us again.

After she left, I looked at Tim and mused, "I wonder what would have happened if we hadn't had Jen come over....Do you think...?"

Tim's response: "Number one, there is no way of knowing what would have happened, so don't ask, and number two, you probably don't want to know the answer."

Decorations

Merry Christmas from the cat. Apparently one of his favorite sleeping places was the wrapping paper box.

Claire decorated the Christmas tree. That's a Little People toilet you see.

An update of sorts

How yummy do these look? Brownies covered in chocolate. Mmm.

It's a cold morning here. I went outside to plug the house Christmas lights in, as it's very overcast and dark, and I could see my breath. I'm loving it! I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the children this morning, as I had been planning to take them to the park to get out some pent-up energy, but I'm sure we'll figure something out.

The girls successfully slept in the same room for two nights. The first night Claire fell out of bed once and woke up crying another time, likely scared about where she was. The second night was virtually stress-free for us. Last night was not one of those nights, however, so we are still hit-and-miss.

Tim played Twister with the girls last night for the first time. It was hilarious. And it lasted about 3 minutes. I tried to find the camera in the midst of the game, but by the time I found it they were done.

And now for some photos.

What is it with my children and Kleenex?


Shopping for very specific Christmas decorations.


Enjoying her ice cream at Macaroni Grill.

REALLY enjoying her ice cream.

Progress?

The girls slept in the same room for nap time today. For approximately 3 hours. Granted, I was in there with them for the first hour, keeping them quiet, and we had just spent an hour at the kid's gym where they ran and jumped and bounced and so they might have been a teensy bit tired.

Now, it is almost 8:30pm and their room is suspiciously quiet. I left them in there together about 10 minutes ago, and I haven't yet heard the typical giggling and raucousness that is usually present at this hour. Hmmm.

I think it best not to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I'll just sit downstairs quietly and sip my tea in peace. Mmmmm.

The sound of silence

Aaaaaaahh. Can you hear it? The sound of the dryer running? The faint buzz of the ceiling fans? The clicking of my computer keys? It's mostly silent here, and it's only 9:09pm. This is a big change from the past few nights, when, at 10pm you could hear Tim stomping up the stairs to tell the girls to go to sleep already.

We are trying to get the girls to sleep in the same room again. It is a nightmare. We did this in Tucson eons ago, and quickly abandoned the effort as our sanity wore thin. Now, however, Claire is desperate to sleep in a toddler bed, and since we will need her room for the baby next year anyway, we are beginning the process now. Which is probably a good idea on our parts, as it will likely take until mid-April for the two of them to actually fall asleep at a reasonable hour, stay in their room all night, and also not pile all of their toys into the princess castle and have a sleepover in there.

The first couple of nights weren't too bad. They never made it past about 10pm, when we would remove a wailing Claire from Kate's room and put her in her crib. But the past two days have been complete misery. The girls have been uber crabby from lack of sleep, and the tantrums. The tantrums! So, much to the dismay of Claire, who seems to always get the punishment (because really, what is the difference to Kate whether Claire sleeps in the toddler bed or the crib?), we didn't even attempt the co-sleeping arrangement. If they are in better moods tomorrow, and I don't feel like I need to search the want-ads at 9am for ANY JOB IN THE UNIVERSE that will get me out of the house, well then we can try the sleep over again.

Do you have any advice on this matter? Thoughts? Anything? If so, puleeeez tell me.

Thankful

I am thankful for so many things. Let's start a list, shall we?

1. Tim is home, and ought to be home for the entire holiday season!
2. The new baby seems to be healthy, and is certainly kicking a lot.
3. Kate and Claire play so well together, with occasional bouts of the "it's mine!"s and the "waaaaah!"s.
4. It's raining right now! With a good chance of thunderstorms later!
5. Naps.
6. I'm mostly done with the carrot souffle, half-done with the sage stuffing with cornbread, the turkey is really easy to make, the cranberry sauce (to which I add orange peel and freshly squeezed orange juice) will simmer on the stove today and make the whole house smell like Thanksgiving heaven, and friends are bringing dessert and other tasty dishes.
7. We get to ride the Polar Express again this year.
8. My sister had her baby! Her name is Lucille (Lucy) Grace, and she looks just like my sister.
9. Tim has a great job, and I'm able to stay home with the girls.
10. Tim's parents will be here for a short visit right before Christmas.
11. I am meeting more people here every week, and am starting to find a network of friends.
12. I checked on Claire last night before going to bed. She had removed her footed jammies and her diaper, had thrown everything out of the crib, and was lying naked (naked!) on her tummy, with her arms under her for warmth. Her butt was cold. It was so cute. And I am so glad she didn't sleep like that all night. I hope. I haven't checked on her yet this morning.
13. Coffee.
14. Kate is young enough that she likely won't remember this Christmas, the one when she didn't get the 3 (her new number) jeeps she asked Santa for.
15. It's 7:30am and the children are still in bed!

What are you thankful for?

The castle

Tim got home on Saturday afternoon. The girls ran to him at the airport, and they had a very happy reunion.

After a long night's sleep for all, we took the girls to Excalibur, which Kate had been begging to go to for weeks. I was slightly apprehensive about the adventure; I didn't want Kate to be disappointed, but I didn't know what she was expecting. She has been very interested in princess stories lately, and I was concerned that she would demand to see Sleeping Beauty and others, and would maybe want to try on the glass slipper just for good measure. Luckily, the castle was decked out for Christmas, and that (along with all the lights and sounds) distracted her enough that she had a good time, not begging once to dance with Prince Philip.

Daddy's return: does it get better than this? McDonald's for lunch, followed by blue cotton candy ice cream with M&Ms. Followed by a meltdown.

Later that night, we had yet more sweets: a birthday cake for me.

Claire was a big fan of licking baking.

Things I'm Having Trouble Dealing With Today

1. This. Imagine this scene in every room of the house. Hurricane Claire must be stopped, but I don't know how. It is making me CRAZY.

Although Kate was the one photographed with the evidence, I'm certain it was Claire who pulled all of Kate's clothes out of her armoire and put them in the princess castle.

2. The strong-willed toddler, also named Claire, who wants to pee on the potty every 5 minutes. The problem is that she goes often enough that I don't want to discourage her. My issue, of course, is that I don't want to sit in the bathroom All Day Long. She also doesn't want to wear pants today because they make taking her diaper off more complicated. Oh, and I found her sans diaper this morning: she had unsnapped her jammie bottoms and removed her nappy, undoubtedly so that she could race over to the potty chair after I got her up.

3. Massive amounts of laundry that need to be washed and/or put away. It seems like I can never keep up with this task these days.

4. A pre-schooler who is whining about her Daddy having to go to work. I'm sure she is just worried that he's going to leave again, but let's stop the crabbiness, shall we?

Random

Kate looked at my hair this afternoon and told me, "Mom, your hair looks like a spider web." Gee... thanks? And I seriously thought my hair looked pretty cute today.

If you have called or emailed me in the past two weeks, and I have been slow to respond, it may or may not have been due to the fact that I read 2,469 pages in the course of approximately 16 days. Not that I was obsessed or anything.

The expression that most makes me smile at Claire right now is: "I want all done, Mommy." Then she waits (somewhat) patiently for you to wash her hands so she can get down from the table. Oh, and her use of the phrase, "no, thanks". As in, "Claire, if you want Halloween candy after dinner, you have to eat your corn." Her reply? A coy, "No, tanks, Mommy. I want Haween candy."

Kate told me the other day that she wants two (2!) of those cool ride-in Jeeps for Christmas. You know, so she can trade off. But probably not share.

From today's ultrasound, which was likely the longest look I've ever had at a baby in utero (15-20 minutes). All looks 'normal'. I know they can't say 'good', but 20 minutes of 'normal' makes you start to wonder if even they get tired of that term. According to the doctor, the baby weighs about 10 ounces and is measuring slightly big for the due date. But this is also 'normal'.

Another day in Las Vegas

Yesterday we filled our time with another trip to the strip, this time heading to the Mirage to see the dolphins and the Secret Garden with all the big kitties. It was a perfect day outside, sunny and warm with cool air, and the girls did great. Of course, I was glad that I didn't have to pay the outrageous children's prices to get them into the retreat, as they got bored about 1/3 of the way through it....But by great, I mean that they didn't try to climb into the dolphin pools (more than twice), and they didn't come home with any lasting marks.

I hadn't been to the Mirage in years. I love it! It is a great place to stay if you are bringing your kids, or if you just want a different sort of atmosphere besides slot machines and tables. The entrance is a sort of tropical oasis, with birds of paradise, running streams, waterfalls, and more humidity than you can find in most areas of Las Vegas at this time of year.

Then, back behind the pools (at which the crazy people were sunning themselves - I mean it was only 75! and windy! brrrr) there is this wildlife refuge that stands in striking contrast to the city in which it exists. There were three dolphin pools, and the secret garden had lions, white tigers, baby tigers, leopards, alpacas (meals for the kitties? I wasn't sure why they had alpacas in the midst of the large cat habitat), and regular orange tigers which I'm sure have a more technical name. The garden had all kinds of trees and shrubs, and it felt like we were in a completely different city than we actually were in.

Around lunch time, we decided to go to In 'N Out burger on Tropicana. Luckily, I had brought my babysitter, Kate, along with me, so that I could leave Claire with her without any concern for their well-being, while I raced to the front through the max-capacity 131 people to get our food. Oh, I know: mom of the year award for me again.

By the pool.

Looking for dolphins.

There's one!

A busy morning

Kate diligently studies the toy catalog, carefully examining every page.

Aliante Station was not as exciting as I had hoped. The girls were not thrilled with it, either.

I find that if I pack the morning full of things to do outside the house, showing up back at home just in time for lunch, the day goes by faster and generally there is less whining. With that in mind, we met up with friends who are in town and had breakfast with them at the Hash House. Mmmm...pancakes bigger than my head. I'm still full. From there, we went to find the last book in the Twilight series, to no avail. [I finally found the book at Costco this afternoon, after frantically searching for it at three other stores, with no luck.]

To take my mind off the failed shopping trip, we went to the Aliante Station casino, which is blocks from our house, and which had its grand opening this week. I had hopes of a mall-type structure inside, since it has several restaurants and a movie theatre, and the outside appears big enough to house at least several shops. Again, disappointment. The casino is all nice and new, but it already reeks of smoke, and there are no shops. We will not be hanging out there having playgroups anytime soon.

After naptime, we made paper chains to give the girls (Kate) a visual time frame for when Tim will be home. Bad idea. I told her that every night after dinner we would tear a link off the chain and when all the links were gone, Daddy would come home. She obviously wanted to tear all the links off right away and make her Daddy appear immediately. She was very dismayed when I told her it didn't work that way and that he wasn't coming home tonight. Lessons learned, eh? We'll see how tomorrow night's link goes and maybe that chain will just get recycled after bedtime.

Kate has also taken to wailing/screaming/crying at the top of her lungs at bedtime, and I don't know what to do about it. I think maybe she is scared? She says she wants to keep the light on in her room. I had to stay in there last night with her until 10pm when she finally fell asleep. Thankfully, tonight, it is quiet at 9pm. Which is good for her, because she was about to lose Sleeping Beauty movie rights soon, as I guess it has to be the dragon that is freaking her out? Ugh.

I survived!

Shark!

She didn't believe we were inside the pyramid (Luxor), but liked the statues just fine.

I have been hesitant to take my two young and willfully disobedient children down to the Strip by myself. Traffic, tons of people, unfamiliarity with where to park and where everything is located, etc., had me anxious that someone would get lost or stolen. I wasn't sure that the girls could handle the walking involved, or that they would obey me enough that I wouldn't lose them. So we took the stroller (used OFTEN for the wandering toddler who thought it was fun to run away from me) and a map and started out on our adventure.

After driving around Mandalay Bay approximately 4.5 times, I finally found the valet entrance that I wanted (my God, how many parking lots exist in this town?), and we were off. We passed the beheaded statue of Lenin at the Russian restaurant, threw too many coins into each fountain we saw, and finally arrived at our destination for the morning: the Shark Reef.

First on the agenda was the golden crocodile, the likes of which the girls had never seen. Its tail didn't tick, so I'm not sure if it had the desired scary effect. Next was the Kimodo dragon. I cannot imagine running into one of those in the wild. I hear they are vicious and would certainly eat me for a snack in no time. Claire tried to climb into the pirhana tank (thankfully, there was a guard standing by to bat her fingers away before she tried to pet them), and Kate learned that some fish bite (after I told her to stop trying to clamber into the tanks). We saw lion fish, jelly fish, a giant pacific octopus (which wasn't that giant), starfish, and lots of sharks. We even saw scuba divers cleaning the shark/fish tank. This was one of the highlights for the girls, until one of the divers began using an air gun (?) to power wash the rocks. And they're worried about the noise caused by kids tapping on the tanks? I could barely hear myself think over the racket. When asked later which exhibit she liked best, Kate replied, "The fishies." Of course.

After the fishies, we walked to the Luxor, where Kate was unimpressed. I'm not sure what she was expecting (I'll have to watch The Backyardigans Egypt episode again for insight), but I don't think she believed me when I told her we were inside the pyramid. Before leaving, we stopped for gelato, where Kate picked out mint chip for us to share. I'm pretty sure she chose that flavor over lime and strawberry cream because it was the last one she tried. And since the girls were so cute, the clerk gave us an extra cup of gelato for free. So, approximately 1 cup of gelato for $5! Kate thought having her own cup was the best; Claire was not pleased when she had to share my scoop.

Claire fell asleep on the way home, and I'm pretty sure that is the only sleep either child has had since waking this morning. Tonight should be interesting.

The great pants feud

Claire and I have been having a major disagreement lately: she vehemently declares her unwillingness to wear pants, and I disagree. Of course, I win, but it's a struggle every morning and every night (she is also opposed to pajama bottoms, as these could be construed as pantaloons). I remember when Kate was about this age and she became extremely, and possibly inappropriately, attached to her pajamas. This is somehow different, but has similar undercurrents. I just hope it's not some sort of obsessive-compulsive behavior showing itself in the toddler years.

I'm not sure if she realized I meant EVER when I told her no more pens after this incident.

On an entirely different subject, I have promised myself no Twilight series books today. I am getting NOTHING done. A glimpse into how serious my addiction is: I read New Moon in two days. It is 563 pages. I know. I have a serious problem. In my defense, I had already read the first chapter, which must have been at least 85 65 55? okay, maybe 30 pages, the night before, since it was printed at the end of the first book. After staying up until midnight the night before, I took the kids to the gym and read while I exercised on the elliptical machine for....a little while. Then I sat on one of the comfy chairs (after checking to see that the kids were happy playing in their pre-school room, of course!) for....a little while and read....a little more of my book. Hence the finishing in two days bit. I am hoping to make it until Monday before opening the precious third book. But I'm also trying to plan this whole thing out. I mean, I don't want to still be reading this series when Tim gets home, so really, I ought to be reading as much as possible over the next couple of weeks so I can finish before then, right?

Oh! And I have felt the baby move! Just sort of little stirrings, sort of like flutters, but it's very fun! I can't believe that when Tim returns, I will be almost halfway through the pregnancy.

For my husband, who will find this as funny as I did

I can't get this to upload to my email to send it the proper way, so here you go, Tim.

Conflicting interests

What they want to do today.

What I want to do.

It's finally fall here. It's 42* outside, the air is crisp, and the sky is blue. I want to curl up on the sofa with my pumpkin spice coffee, finish reading Twilight (which has me SO addicted to it), then read some Christmas catalogs, and smell the sugar cookies baking in the oven.

The girls want to color everything with their new pens. And then wash themselves silly in the sink. I hear the water running now. Gotta go.

When a toddler isn't sleeping, but a mother is

The water level was almost overflowing before I got the camera. What is it with my children and water?

***

Edit

Even better, apparently Kate also decided that the kitty's food and water would be better mixed together, with some slop spilled onto the laundry room floor. Wheeee! My laundry room smells like the humane society right now.

No decent Halloween pictures

The penguin misplaced her Halloween treat bag, and had to substitute her medical bag to collect the goodies.

Trick-or-treating at the mailbox. She didn't get much from this stop.

The kitty cat and the penguin would not hold still. Not during their professional photo shoot last week, and not on Halloween night. As a result, these are the best pictures we have of the girls in their costumes.

They did have fun, however. We went to far more houses this year than last - all the way down to the end of the street this time, instead of just to three houses. There were a ton of kids out in the neighborhood, which took me by total surprise (we had to close up shop by 8pm because we were out of candy), but the girls did really well not being too frightened by them. Kate had the "trick-or-treat" thing down very well, and even Claire was able to get her point across. At one house, I told her to, "say trick-or-treat", and she said, "teat, peas!". No tricks for her.

Tim is gone now, deployed for a good portion of the month. Oddly, they call all trips to the mid-East "deployments". It's sort of confusing; I tell people that he is deployed, and they get this pity-party look, and then sort of scoff when I tell them he'll be back for Thanksgiving. It is the longest that he has been gone since the girls have been born, but I'm pretty sure we will survive. The house is an entirely different matter. He has been gone for two whole days and already I have lost all power to the girls' rooms. I tried flipping the breaker, and unplugging several items, but to no avail. Even my neighbor is perplexed. Awesome. Whatevah, they don't need power in their rooms, do they?

The good stuff

Okay, okay. The details!

I am currently about 15.5 weeks pregnant, and am due on April 17. We don't know if we are having a boy or a girl, and since we don't plan to have any more children, we are not going to find out until the baby is born. I sort of feel compelled to do all those things during pregnancy that you can only do when pregnant, like not finding out the gender, and eating pretty much whatever I want. I'm not sure that this last strategy is smart, but it sure sounds fun, doesn't it? <=D

Things are going fairly well right now. The first trimester was pretty rocky, and there were several times when I just wanted to be put out of my misery. That whole thing about eating whatever I want began at about week 6 when I could only stomach eggs, fruit, and bread products. The sight of vegetables made me nauseous, and the smell of garlic almost made me have to leave the house. I felt somewhat ill when I was pregnant with Kate, but never got sick, and I was totally fine with Claire, although tired. With this one, I felt HORRIBLE. Miserable, gross, barfy, and lethargic. I'm sure trying to chase after two small children and act like somewhat of a good parent to them had something to do with it, but man. I am glad that is over. I do not know how other women do it, when they are actually sick throughout weeks of their pregnancy. Because when you're there, you feel like you will never get beyond how you are feeling, and it is sort of depressing. Lucky for me, my ickyness only lasted from about week 6 until about week 12. And I never really had to be anywhere, like work, or upright.

I was super stressed out about the health insurance thing, as you might have read about. In Tucson, I was spoiled: there was no hospital on base, so all pregnant women went off base for OB care. I had the best doctor ever. I delivered in a great hospital. My husband was home and not in danger of being deployed or TDY near or on either birth date. Here, things are different. There is a hospital on base and all prime insureds go there for OB care and delivery, and Tim has a deployment in March (he should be back by the end of the month, but eek! That is cutting it close, in my opinion). I have known too many women who have had not-so-fab experiences delivering their baby at a military hospital (Katie, I am most of all mortified by your experience), and I did not want to go through this.

Then, to top it off, I had a battle of wills with the admin staff on base. I tried to set up my first appointment, and they asked me if I wanted a morning or afternoon class. Class? Um. I tried to calmly and politely explain that I didn't need to attend the class about childbirth, and that I had in fact attended the same class in Korea (I saw a girl here at the hospital with the same book they gave me back then), and I was good, thank you very much. She told me that I had to go to the class before I could schedule my first OB appointment. I explained that I already have 2 children and that I was really okay with not taking the class. I mean, if you have to find childcare to attend the childbirth class, shouldn't that exempt you from the class requirement? They weren't going for it. I scheduled the p.m. class and began frantically calling everyone I knew (who does not live here and therefore wouldn't give my secret away) to ask about everything from TriCare Standard to actually giving birth here at the military hospital. I called the OB clinic back and asked if I could go off base for care. They said I could do so only if I was high risk. I muttered something about hoping I was. Then I changed my time to the a.m. class "because the children would be happier at that time and probably behave better". She told me I couldn't bring children to the class. I told her I was new here and what did she suggest? We went back and forth and I may have hung up on her.

I finally had a flash of genius: I remembered a friend who had just PCS'd from here, who had also had a baby before they moved. I called her and asked her the important question: if you could do it all over again, would you deliver on base here? She said probably not. Problem solved. She put me in touch with a friend of hers here who recommended an OB to me, and when I called to see if he accepted TriCare, they said he did.

I am not sure if I am breaking rules or getting through on some sort of loophole, or if it's just that I am actually considered high risk (I will be of advanced maternal age when I deliver, wouldn't you know), but TriCare hasn't given me any trouble about going off base. Let's all just breathe a collective sigh of relief, shall we? The icing is that this OB is great. I don't know yet if he is as great as my OB in Tucson, but I love him so far.

Kate understands that she is going to be a big sister again, and perhaps more importantly, that there is not a baby in her tummy as well. Claire looks at us like we are kooky when we start talking about the baby in my belly, and looks questioningly at her own tum. She loves babies, though, so I'm sure she will be a great big sister.

Overwhelmed, and suffering from writer's block

I don't know what has happened. Weeks ago, when I was secretly pregnant, I couldn't wait to share the news! It seemed like everything I wrote about was slightly lame, like I needed to just be able to talk about being pregnant and then everything would be back to normal. But it's not! At midnight, I think of great blog titles, fabulous and funny stories to write about. At 3pm, I have nothing. I might as well be napping! So here's a big shout out (Tim's favorite expression) to my 3 faithful, if bored, readers.

Tucson was great, as I might have mentioned. It was like going home, somehow. Probably because I know more people there than I know here, I was able to suggest places to go for lunch, and I even offered up a new and fun suggestion to my sister of a place to take her in-laws, although she has lived in Tucson for more than a decade.

I might or might not have gained about five pounds last week, from all the yummy places I went to lunch, and from Shayne's amazing dessert selection at last week's coffee. My sister and I took the three girls to get Halloween pictures taken at Sears (why oh why do I torture myself that way? They are horrible! And expensive!). It didn't go well. I spent gobs of money anyway. Shayne and Andrea and I took the kids to the zoo. Kate and Claire fed the giraffes (Claire for the first time; it was hysterical. She was SO excited to feed them [because Kate was excited], and then she saw the long purple tongue on the giraffe and freaked out and dropped the giraffe snack behind the little fence. Me, having just paid a whole dollar for that snack, raced the giraffe to it and won, so Claire and I could feed him together. I think she has recovered by now. I guess I should have started a whole new paragraph [or post] for this topic.). Kate played with her best friend Reagan for hours. Tempie followed Claire around faithfully whenever they were together. I read an entire book. It was such a great week.

I don't know if I will do the trip again next week or not. It is one thing to drive nearly 8 hours (not including multiple and unbelievably long stops) with two adults to corral the children, and to do it alone might be suicidal. But three weeks is a long time for us to be here alone, and I think we might get slightly bored. I think the secret is to get up and drive as early has humanly possible. If I can only drag my butt out of bed at 4am...

Kate is incredibly excited about Halloween. We took the girls to the Reid Park Zoo to go trick-or-treating, and now she can't wait until it's dark every night so it will be Halloween.

I have not figured out how to explain places to Kate. She is having trouble wrapping her head around the notion that even though we drive several miles in one city, that we are still, quite likely, in the same city. Every time I drove them from place to place in Tucson, Kate wanted to know when we would go back to Tucson. I'm pretty sure she thinks of Tucson as Reagan's house and Tempie's house. And perhaps after our trip, our hotel with the fountain.

And now, because of lack of direction and focus, I will leave you with some photos of our recent trip.

Hysterical

What a great idea this would have been for the big day, huh?

Living it up in Tucson

Tim has a conference this week in Tucson, so we all drove down together to see family and friends. So far the days have been packed. The drive here was slightly miserable, and is giving me second thoughts on doing it again next month without Tim, but we are having a great time here, so it was worth it.

I forgot my camera cable, so unless I Tim can find some way for me to download pictures off the camera, I'll have to save the photos until next week.

We went to Apple Annie's to get pumpkins on Sunday. Our car looks like CSI: had it in their shop for a week: the layer of dust coating the paint has brought out the tiny fingerprints that are covering all low-lying surfaces. But I digress. The pumpkin picking was fun. It was hot, so we kept it short, but the girls LOVED riding on the tractor-pulled hay wagon and playing in the corn-filled tub.

We've also spent time with my sister and her family, and the girls got to go back to their old school today. I was in heaven. I ran all sorts of quick errands that truly were quick! No buckling of small seatbelts! No whining! No back-and-forth about who got to play with the magnet doodle pad! I even had a peaceful, quiet lunch with a friend. And the girls and I were so happy to see each other when I picked them up.

Tonight I get to go to my old squadron's coffee and see many more friends. God I love vacation.

Camping...in our living room

We were supposed to be roasting marshmallows and sipping hot cocoa right now up at Mt Charleston on our very first family camping trip, but the girls are sick so we are going to camp inside instead.

We started out the day with a tantrum thrown by Claire. Tim was watching football and Claire saw a commercial for Nascar. After it was over, she threw herself down on the ground and started kicking and crying, whimpering something about "race cars" in between wails. Just now there was another commercial about her new favorite sport, and she watched with an open-mouthed smile as the cars whizzed around the track.

Instead of roasting hot dogs over a campfire for dinner, we will be eating one of my new favorite dishes and burning marshmallows over the gas cook top. We will also be sleeping in relative warmth and comfort, considering the actual carpet under the tent as opposed to a carpet of pine needles. I will be glad for the protection of our walls, since last night's winds brought a cold front through that has kept the temperature to about 60* today. It's bound to be near freezing tonight up in the mountains.

Kate is running around inside the tent yelling, "It's really fun! It's really cool!" over and over again. Camping is going to be a hit.

3rd

When the house is too quiet

If you find that you've had far too much time to, say, get some cleaning done, check all bathrooms for this:

Not pictured: Claire's jammies, wet to the knees from playing in the sink, and Kate's ill-fated attempt to make papier mache out of wads of Kleenex soaked in a basin full of water.

The next Food Network star

Sampling before I could add anything but water to the mix. Note the large glob of brownie mix on the counter.

This is good stuff, Mom! I'm going to have a bowl of this for dinner.

I decided, in a momentary lapse of self-control, that we had to have these brownies for dessert. Kate wanted to watch Diego instead of baking, but Claire was eager to begin her cooking career. Before I could get out the brownie mix, she had pushed a chair over to the island and was ready to get started. Although the kitchen was a minor disaster afterwards, the brownies turned out just fine.