Saturday, October 9, 2010

Littlest Lopez



Check the pickle baggy.
Yes, I am pregnant! I feel very very blessed and very very tired! It's already begun though - the balancing game. I want to write so many cute things my toddler-child is doing lately, but I want to devote some special time to talk about my.. uterine-child, too! I am 11 weeks (almost), and thus far NO belly pics have been taken. But I hope to sometime soon, when it looks like a belly bump and not just eye-popping bloat. See, I documented every week with pregnancy #1 with a bare-belly pic. That ain't gonna happen this time around. I don't care how much weight you lose after having a baby, your body will NEVER look as good as it does pre-pregnancy. Same holds true for your bank account and your living room. And the inside of your car, while we're at it. 
I suppose I should explain the pickle baggy, right? 
I wanted to tell Pablo in a special way - not just holding up the pee stick and squealing, though that would have been my preferred way, as it requires such little effort! But no, my sometimes-high-maintenance husband told me well in advance that it BETTER! BE! SPECIAL! So, on Friday morning (Aug 27), I took the test and there it was! The two lines... then the digital one with the life-altering word on it: pregnant. He was about to leave for work, and I really hadn't planned anything in advance...... so I took a ziploc containing a large heinous pickle that he sometimes buys from Home Depot (the vendors outside the doors) and wrote I'm Pregnant on it. Then, when he came in the kitchen I said (something I have said many many times before) that his pickle looked revolting and maybe he should think about throwing it away, to which he screamed at me in a very normal-for-him high pitched tone, 'you better not throw my pickle away!'.. and I told him to check it out anyways.. so he did. And the immediately saw it and went a little pale and ran to me..  there was much hugging.. maybe something got in his eye, too. He was very very surprised (though, he shouldn't have been, if ya know what I'm sayin') and very overjoyed.

This time around has been QUITE different, in many ways....  
I haven't been even remotely as nauseated as I was with Andrew. I have a few theories about this: *I have toughened up. Pre-Andrew, I could not be in the same room as a vomiter (and I had never been vomited ON pre-child), much less handled poop-situations, snot on my person, boogers, other various bodily fluids, and spaghetti nights. I am now completely unaffected by them, and maybe this lends to an overall more 'toughness'. Maybe? I sometimes gag over certain things, and I honestly think to myself that whatever it was that made me just gag would have CERTAINLY made me vomit with my first pregnancy. See, I've gotten tough! *I haven't the time for leisurely vomit sessions. Yeah, sure, I could vomit at will during nap-times, but I have much more fun and relaxing things to do during that time. *Maybe I am having a... girl??! God help me. But maybe there's an ounce of truth to how your body handles babies of differing genders. *And more rationally speaking, it's simply the old 'every baby and every pregnancy is different.' Not much else to say than that!
I am still absolutely exhausted. THAT has not changed from pregnancy to pregnancy. It's amazing to me how your body goes into overdrive with pregnancies and literally FORCES you to slow down and give it the rest it needs. Unfortunately, this time around, uhhh... HAHAHA! Rest and toddlers just don't go together. So, thank the Lord for preschool days. And even on those days I am usually running around getting things done or meeting friends, so I am still exhausted when I pick him up from preschool. Oh, how I envy the days of my first pregnancy, when weekends meant nonstop lounging and general sloth-like behavior. Those days are so long over.
The amount that people ask and care about how you are doing goes waaaay down with subsequent pregnancies. I suppose they figure that I know what I am doing now, or the novelty has just completely worn off. And yeah, this also applies to spouses. The pedestal I was on with my first pregnancy was a mile or two higher than where I sit now! There was a fair amount of just awed basking in how I was growing life at that very moment in time - now it's more like "can you go wipe his butt please while I back the car out and don't forget to refill his water and give him ice if he wants some and make sure we locked the back door and hurry up cuz we're already late!!"...  Life now affords no time for basking.
I have food aversions, just like last time. Though, I can't really remember what I loathed last time.. it's a great many things this time around! I have no taste for sweet things - no ice cream or cake, which is quite the blessing in disguise, no? I really don't have much taste for anything - I just want to fill my belly when it calls for it. Maybe I'll enjoy food in a few months.Perhaps a little too much.

To sum up - I am so so so excited to expand our family. I am beyond words thrilled to give Andrew the lifelong gift of a sibling. I know what a gift it is, because I have my sister who I love so much and can't imagine life without. I know there will be hair pulling and pinching and much squabling, but I know we'll get through all that. May take years, sure!, but I know Andrew will someday be as grateful as I am for a lifelong best friend. I am so thrilled to be able to give them both a live-in playmate and someone to share all their life with.


Friday, October 1, 2010

30.5 months

Oh man. It's been a while! So much happens every day that it would take up way too much time I do not have to stop and write it all down. As usual, I'll be winging it.
You really really love music these days. And your 'favorite song' changes weekly... and it's always up to me/us to know what your current 'favorite' is - because that is how you request it. PLAY MY FAVORITE! Right now, it's a song from a random cd your cool Aunt Kelly burned. Not at all a toddler song - but you dig the beat. It eventually morphs into a slow version of the song, and you are convinced that the song it OVER at this point and you always belt out 'start it over!!' and I sometimes say that it's still your favorite song, and you say NO it's not! Who's dumb enough to argue with a 2 year old anyways? This lady.
You thoroughly enjoy our evening routine of doing Rock Band with daddy, after playing outside after dinner. You get cozy on the couch and you request your fave Beatles songs - lately it's a rotation of 3 or 4: Buy me some love (Can't buy me love), In my life, Paperback Writer, and Yellow Submarine. I usually give you a pre-bedtime snack while you bop and sing (while daddy plays the guitar or drums), and if I happen to forget, you scream across the house to me (where I am usually relaxing for a rare 15 minutes) - Mommy! being me my snack pleeeease!
You currently LOVE pumpkins. Which is quite timely, given the season we are entering. You love reading this one book I had for you last year, a home-made (etsy) book about carving pumpkins, and you absolutely love the page that says VOILA! A pumpkin face! You go around saying voila all day now. And you flip whenever we see a pumpkin out and about. We plan to take you to the pumpkin patch this month, so it's safe to say your mind will be sufficiently blown then.
Speaking of fall, I ordered your Halloween costume the other day. You will be a UPS delivery-man. You live for the UPS trucks (and yes, FedEx too), so I thought this was an appropriate costume this year. But mostly, the ensemble looks comfortable, which is paramount considering our costume debacles last year. Your cow costume quickly became a Mad Cow costume, as you were not so pleased with how itchy and uncomfortable it was. Considering how highly..communicative you are and how your rages this year put last years' fits to shame, we went with comfort this time around!
We sometimes call you The Puppetmaster. This stems from your very typical toddler way of bossing us around. If a song is playing, you'll point to me and say Dance Mommy! then point to your father and say Now you dance Daddy! And just general bossiness. It's something we have to work on though, how rarely you say PLEASE right off the bat. You say it instnatly when prompted in the slightest (and very sweetly, too), but it's rare that you say it the first time around.
Preschool has been going very well. I come to pick you up right after you're woken up from your nap there, and (just like at home) you're always pretty zonked. Trying to get any details of your day is pointless because all you want to do is NOT TALK and get home. I always end up getting bits & pieces of details as the day goes on (and the days to follow). It's interesting sometimes..  I learned the last name of one of your fave friends today - you said Jaden Edwards in conversation, and then I asked you what your other friend, Dylan's, last name was... and you pondered this for a few seconds and went 'pizza!!' and you had a good chuckle about that. Silly.
You love to go look at yourself in the bathroom mirror (using a little stool we have), when you know you look funny. Specifically, when you're taking your shirt off and it gets stuck over your huge head, so it looks like a shirt-turban. You could stare and giggle and make faces at yourself in the mirror for half an hour if I let you. 
I find myself lately basking in your cuteness and toddlerhood, when I can. If we're sitting and reading together, I'll burrow my head in your thick hair and just take big whiffs... which yes, makes me sound slightly crazy, but it's just getting so ridiculous, how fast you're growing. Every damn day you do or say something that reminds me how you're on a quick path to being a BIG! KID! and it's pretty emotional for me. I am so fully aware that I will never get these days back with you, and I hope and pray that I am giving you the best toddlerhood I can, because you will never get these days back either. I hope I'm giving you as much love and memories as you are giving me. Sweets!