An eventful morning...

Two mornings ago I heard the tell tale scritchy-scratching over our bed to know that some kind of critter, along with family and friends, no doubt, was getting a little too comfortable in our attic.  This morning, my dear, efficient and handy husband decides to "check things out" before we call in the professionals.  For some reason, along with some sticky traps, Papabear grabs his BB gun.  I suppose he had visions of shooting some poor, unsuspecting mice and NOT damaging the ceiling or roof.  I have learned there are some things...many things, actually, that I must let Papabear learn on his own.  He just won't listen to reason.  In this instance, I am sorry I did not think to just let the professionals handle things.

Anyway, Papabear heads up the attic stairs from the garage, brandishing his BB gun and sticky traps, and Littleman and I head out front to trim the rose bushes.  A few minutes into trimming I head back into the garage to get something and I hear Papabear call from the attic, "BRITT?"

Me: Yes?

P: We have a problem.

Me: Is it a big one?

P: Um....yes.

Me: (groan - I imagine some huge rat nest and rodents eating our air conditioning ducts and having hundreds of dirty little babies) Can you just come here and tell me? I don't want to shout up to the attic.

P: Um....okay.

Littleman and I wait for what seems like an unusually long amount of time for Papabear to appear.  I *THOUGHT* he was simply on the other end of the house.  Papabear finally emerges at the top of the attic stairs and says, "I fell through the ceiling...over the living room"

Me: WHAT???

But, before he could respond, I ran into to living room to see this:

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And this:

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Well, before Littleman had time to retrieve the broom and Papabear the shop-vac, I bent over, losing all of my breath.  I had to sit down immediately.  I was hyperventilating a little bit.  Back in the garage, Papabear comes down.  I am a little embarrassed at how long it took me to recover enough to ask, "Are you alright?"  Clearly he was.  He didn't fall all the way through, THAT would have been an entirely MORE eventful morning.  He fell up to his chest and had to pull himself back up, hence the relatively long wait.  He skinned his shin pretty badly and twisted his knee in such a way that it is still bothering him.  All in all, it could have been worse.  We have a guy coming over in a little bit with the first estimate.

Poor Papabear.  After the floor was cleaned up and he nailed some cardboard over the hole (so we cool our house and NOT the 200 degree attic) we laughed until neither of us could stand.  Littleman came over, hugged me, and told me "not to cry."  I told him they weren't sad tears...for now.  We'll see what the repair estimate turns out to be.

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End of days...

So, I have gestational diabetes.  On Monday I meet with the dietitian and get to learn all about how I need to change my diet AND learn how to stick myself four times a day to get my glucose levels.

I have no one to blame but myself.  I got pregnant twenty pounds overweight and even though I have been pretty good, clearly it's not good enough.  I haven't gained nearly as much weight as I did with Littleman and I have been eating healthier.  However, now I am REALLY going to have to watch myself. 

So, I feel like it's the end of days - cookie and baking days, popcorn and bread days, pizza and chocolate days....why must I be cursed with such a fierce love of food??????  It's only food for crying out loud!!!!  Sweets and bread be DAMNED!

Well, I am off to plan healthier meals with little to no carbs.  It doesn't help that I have to worry about high cholesterol as well. Ug.  I know I sound very down, but really, I am motivated to make a REAL attempt at changing my diet habits.  I can't jeopardize this baby's health, so it must be done.  Maybe when it's all over I'll have curbed my need for sweets and all things fatty and delicious.

OH, but you know what else? It's over 100 degrees here today.  It is so hot out I feel like I am melting to the pavement.  It's gross. You can't do anything outside, even the pool.  The water is almost as warm as the air, so it offers very little comfort. We are busy finding things to do inside.  Today was a flight museum, which was fun.  I'll post pics later.  I need to make dinner for a hungry hubby on his way home from work.

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Father's Day 2009

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Aunt Jen bought matching "Dad's My Superhero" outfits for the boys.  Super cute!

Even though it was a hundred degrees outside, the boys managed to have fun.

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The cousins loved playing together. We had a really nice afternoon hanging out with the family and eating yummy things.  Can't ask for much more.

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Settling in...

So, I've been home for exactly a week...and it feels like a century.  The mountain of bills and mail took me days to conquer and don't get me started on the amount of laundry, dusting, and cleaning that needed to be done!  Still, it was wonderful to be cleaning MY stuff and flopping down on MY couch, next to my hubby.  My travels were great, but left me utterly depleted.  I've returned to TX heavier and rounder and tackling 100 degree days that promise to rise as we get closer to my baby day. 

Here are some pics from L's graduation and a visit with our cousins in Brooklyn.  For some reason I cannot get the pics from my brother AJ's graduation to upload - which is very annoying. 

L entering to "Pomp and Circumstance."

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Littleman sitting nice with his uncles (thank heavens for juice boxes and goldfish!!!.

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Visiting with cousins.  Littleman and Asher hadn't seen each other in nearly two years, but they played like they have seen each other at every family event.  This was our first time meeting little Levi!

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Bathtime!

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Changes II

Yesterday I caught up with an old friend from high school I haven't seen in over a decade.  And I am so glad to see that some things...or people don't change.  This person was one of the most interesting people I have ever met in my many years of meeting people and it really makes me happy to know that hasn't changed.  

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Changes...

So, one of my baby sisters (technically the oldest of my three younger sisters, but I was practically this one's mother until I left for college) graduated from high school yesterday.  Littleman and I went to three graduations in the past couple of weeks...and it is mind-blowing.  NOT because keeping a just turned four year old content and quiet for countless boring minutes (in his mind), but because all these little babies I loved and cuddled and changed and sang to are turning into adults!  Mind blowing, indeed.  It doesn't really make me feel old, just altered.  Changed.

They are all still the darling cherubs I cradled, just bigger and ever-changing.  All of them are amazing in their own special ways.  It is a wonder to watch them grow and become the people they are becoming.  All of them are gorgeous - SO not fair!  I may have been as good-looking as a young teen...but standing next to these guys, seven months pregnant and sweating from chasing a little person REALLY does not do much for my ego.  Thankfully, I'm above all that. :)

Other changes I'd like to note:

-Littleman has not been on a schedule in over two weeks.  In fact, he has been up until 10 pm or even later every night the past ten days.  While every one here says, "oh, he's so good," he is, in reality, a holy terror.  I have been pretty flexible with Littleman, making him a pretty decent traveler...but this trip, this long ass, crazy days, no routine at all trip has turned my pretty well behaved three year old into a four year old monster.  I am hopeful that simply being back in his home, his bed, with his stuff, and doing the daily activities we used to do will turn him back fairly quickly...I am hoping...oh please, oh please...

-Spending the past 20 or so days with many teenaged aunts and uncles and my mother, has introduced some extremely colorful words and expressions into Littleman's vocabulary.  From the teenagers he has mostly learned to sprinkle in a newfound attitude to his demands. From my mother he has learned so much more.  In the past three days he has called a window that wouldn't open an "asshole" and shouted "DAMMIT" when he couldn't connect some toy pieces together.  Also, during L's graduation, Littleman said to me, "My penis is saying is has to PEE now!"  Super.  That one I'm sure he came up with on his own.

-Finally, OH THE HEART BURN!!!!  

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Catch up...

So, here's a little catch up post.  I'm just now recovering from the whirlwind that has been my life for the last week or so.  Z's wedding was AMAZING.  Intimate, personal, and filled with love.  Driving through VT, CT, NH, MA, NJ, and NY did wonders for Papabear's soul.  He hasn't been back since we moved to Texas in November of '07, so he REALLY missed it.  It was wonderful to have a weekend to ourselves.  It was wonderful to see old friends.  It was simply a wonderful weekend...even if we decided to head back to NJ at 11 pm on Sunday.  (I couldn't bear the thought of spending another day in the car, so I made Papabear drive back so we could wake up to Littleman on Monday morning.)

Anyway, here are photos from the last week.  The first one is the last picture I took of Littleman in AZ - he's on my dad's Harley, which freaked all of us out.  My dad only drove about 500 feet, but we were all terrified Littleman was going to fall off.  He didn't...but I don't think he'll be on a (moving) Harley again until he can reach all the way around the driver. :)

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On our first day in NJ, my mom and sister decked the house in Spiderman garb for Littleman's birthday (officially, he has celebrated 4 times and he thinks his b-day is some kind of month long event...)

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Here are some photos with Littleman and his best bud from birth, known on the blog as Skywalker.

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Here's Skywalker's little sister known as, The Princess, hanging with the boys.

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Killing time while Skywalker's mama went and had baby #3.

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And, here's my BF, JediMama, with her two princesses.

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On to Z's wedding.  It was really beautiful.  Papabear, Z, and his younger brother.

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I wish someone had taken a shot of my whole body, because this dress really shows off my legs...the only part that is remotely good looking.  But, for seven months pregnant, I'm not complaining.

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The couple's first dance.

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We celebrated my mom's birthday last night.  I actually made that cake...and Littleman picked out the crayon candles.

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Well, that's about all for now.  Forgot to bring my camera to the beach yesterday, but if it stops raining, I'll get back there before I head back out west.  My sister graduates on Thursday and we head back on Sunday.  

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WHOAAAAA Nellie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So...this trip is turning out to be even more of a circus than I could have ever imagined.  A miraculous circus.  This post is going to be one of those "list" type posts - because, in all honesty, I am way too tired to put together coherent sentences and paragraphs and such.  However, the MOST miraculous and amazing thing happened to me and it really does deserve full sentences.

My mother graciously offered to not only drive me and Littleman up to Albany for two days, but also to take me to see some people I really needed to see.  The plan was this: Monday evening to visit a friend and her handsome baby, Tuesday morning a visit to Ichabod to see my wonderful friends there, and then my mom would drop us off at my BF's house to spend the night.  My mom had a meeting Wed. morning so Littleman and I would take the train into Penn Station Wed. afternoon.

Here's how my less than 48 hours in the upstate NY region panned out:

-Monday evening - lovely time seeing dear friend, her baby AND her mom, whom I love dearly.

-Tuesday morning - I was given only an hour to visit with the 50 or so wonderful people I worked with at Ichabod. (My mom was literally circling the building while I "visited." Hey, beggars can't be choosy, right?)  Anyway, I spent one whirlwind hour hugging and briefly catching up with that wonderful group of people.  (One year, LF, I will come back and we can go camping with the Webbs, I'll bring some puppets and we'll relive the glory days!)

-Tuesday noon - my mom drops me off in the driveway of my BF's house.  BF returns from errands and we spend the afternoon as if I still lived up the street.  Our boys took only minutes to be as cozy with one another as they had been in years past.  It's amazing how they remember one another...I swear Littleman plays differently with Skywalker.  There's an ease there...a comfort zone...a bond they made when they were babies.  Anyway, we eat pizza, bathe the boys, set up the air mattress and settle down for an evening of peaceful slumber (...after ten or twelve visits to the boys room to tell them to get back in bed).

-Wednesday 2am - BF's husband appears in the doorway and says, "BF's water broke, we're heading to the hospital.  You okay here?"  Um, YES.  

-Wednesday 8am - BF has a beautiful baby girl!!!!  I am at her house with her two lovely children to share the wonderful news and give them hugs...as well as breakfast.

What are the odds???? I mean really!  The ONE night of the ENTIRE year I plan to spend with my BF and she has her baby!!!!  Two weeks early.  UNREAL.  TOTALLY and UNBELIEVABLY UNREAL.  I am still reeling from the whole thing.  A part of me is glad that she didn't have to worry about getting someone to watch her two babies while she went to deliver her third at two in the morning...but the bigger part of me is so grateful to the powers that be for allowing me to actually be THERE with her family and her for this.  I was there for the first two and it was killing me to think I'd miss this one....and somehow I was given this gift.  

Okay, so that was kind of list-like, but I am pretty wasted.  After visiting the BF and her new baby at the hospital, Littleman and I rushed off to catch the 6:20 train to Penn Station.  It arrived at 9pm.  If you are wondering what it is like to navigate that place with a tired, exhausted four year old, a suitcase, backpack, AND booster seat, seven months pregnant, let me just stop you right now.  It SUCKS.  Need I say more?  It totally, massively sucks.  If I had had more than 4 hours of sleep, I might have had the foresight to ask one of the more than friendly folks I know that live in the city to meet me and help me lug ourselves out to my stepdad's car. (By sheer luck he happened to have an art class in the city that wrapped up at 9, so he was right around the corner!)  Needless to say, I am UTTERLY grateful to my mom and sister who played with Littleman all morning so I could sleep until 10.  

And so, you are now letting out huge breaths, thinking, "well, finally she'll get some time to relax."  But NO, tomorrow I get to rent a car, pick up Papabear at Newark Airport, and drive to New Hampshire.  Papabear's BF, Z, is getting married Saturday evening.  Thankfully, Littleman will get some chill time with his Mormor in NJ.  As much as I want him with me, the poor kid has slept in a different bed every night since Saturday!!!!  He needs a break and to be spoiled by his east coast family.  Plus, I am looking forward to a little alone-time with Papabear before our lives are drastically altered by the arrival of my little belly buddy.

I was going to list some funny/interesting tidbits about our journey...but really, haven't you read enough? I will leave you with this funny little thing Littleman said to my mom and I at a fancy restaurant on his fourth birthday.  We were waiting for our food to arrive and Littleman was telling us stories.  You know the kind: LONG, completely plotless, that only the mind of a preschooler could generate.  At some point he looks at my mom and I and says, "I wonder when my mouth is going to stop telling this story."

How great is that?

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