Playing Catch-Up... Yet Again....

So you are all (the three that are still left reading this after such pitiful posting consistency) probably wondering what happened to my promise to do better and write more often. Ya, I'm pretty pathetic, but get over it.

We've still been having problems with our computer. Probably two days after I wrote the last post the computer crashed again and we (more like Jeff, I'm only a cheerleader in this area) just got it up and running a couple days ago. We're pretty much finished with PCs and ready for a Mac but well, this little thing called a budget seems to be getting in our way. So, if you feel called by God to either send us a large check for a new Mac or you just happen to have an extra one sitting around gathering dust and looking for a new home, look no further. Jeff and I would be more than willing to see God's hand move in this area of our lives. Just joking (sorta... but not really).

So my only other excuse is that I'm still sick and pregnant. And no, they aren't related to each other. I'm just over 19 weeks now, almost half way, so I've started feeling a lot better and have been having a lot fewer bouts of queasiness so that's a good thing. The sad thing is that I still have this horrible sinus infection. I finished my first round of antibiotics a week ago and it almost cured me, but in the few days between ending the first round and starting the second, it flared back up and now I'm feel like I'm starting back at square one with fighting this thing. Hopefully, now I'm really hoping here, that I'll be finished with this thing by the end of this round of drugs so that I don't have to go off and see the doc again. So the combination of being sick and still tired from the whole being pregnant thing has lead me to want to do nothing but crash in front of the TV or a book when the kids aren't pulling me in ten different directions and that's why the blogging has been more than sparse. So, now that I've filled you in, again, on why I haven't been posting in so long, I'll try and write a bit of what I can remember from the past month and what I've been planning to write all those times when crashing in front of the TV was the only thing that I could do.

Sydney Turned 3!
Yup, I can't believe it either, I have a three-year-old. We had so much fun celebrating her birthday this year. We've never really done anything for the kids birthdays other than Jeff and I having cake and present with them, but this year Sydney is finally understanding the concept of a birthday party so we had one for her. And not just one, two! On her birthday (New Year's Eve for those of you who don't know) we celebrated with family (Jeff's parents and sister will still in town visiting for the holidays) and had a great time opening presents, singing and eating cake and pink ice cream. Sydney is in love with Disney Princesses so we decorated with that theme and I made a pink cake (she specifically asked for a pink cake and pink ice cream) and printed off a picture of the Disney Princesses for on the top. One day I may just get some pictures off my camera and add them here. Anyways, it was a ton of fun and Sydney really enjoyed it.

The following weekend we had six of Syd's girl friends come over for a Princess party. Again we had a great time and it went a little too quickly, but we were definitely ready for naps, or so I though. Syd decided that she would just stay wound-up and play instead of sleep, which she really needed and which in turn made going to bed all that more difficult, but that's a whole different story. In the end, she had a great party and got lots of great stuff.

The End of The Paci
We've been planning on taking Syd's paci away from here for a while and decided that after all the fun and excitement of the holidays it would be time. We figured waiting an extra week till after all her birthdays might be a good plan so that she could get back into the normal life again before totally disrupting her by taking away her form of relaxation and calming. I had watched a show a few weeks before and the kids on the show were getting ready to give up their pacis. The mom was talking about this book that she had found and had been reading them to help them with the whole idea and I thought it was great. The whole idea of the book was that the kids are getting bigger now and there are other babies that need pacis, so we should send our pacis to the babies that need them.

I had just happened to be looking at the dollar bins in Target (who can walk past them, they're like an addiction) and actually found a book called "Bye Bye Pacifier". I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the book and realized that it must have been the book the Mom on the TV show had been talking about or else it was a really close cousin to it because it was the exact same idea. I was so excited to find the book and then there was the added bonus that it was only $1. What could be better? Only the fact that from the first time I read it to Sydney she feel in love with it. It's now been something like 2 and a half weeks and she still asks for me to read her the book like once a day... we were up to something around 10-15 times a day at the beginning.

Anyways, we had been planning on taking her paci away and it just happened that the day of her Princess party her paci went missing at night. We looked and looked and looked - for over half an hour - for the stupid thing but couldn't find it so we decided to use this as the time to take it away. Wow, I knew it was going to be rough, but that first night was insane. Sydney screamed bloody murder for close to two hours before she just wore herself to sleep. The sad/funny thing was that just moments after she went to bed (the first time) I found her paci. I quickly threw it in the garbage so that she wouldn't find it and we wouldn't be tempted to give it back to her to shut her up. The first night was really rough and the next couple days weren't a whole lot better. Thankfully by the third night or so she only asked something like 20 times for her paci before crying for a few minutes. By this time we all had the "Bye Bye Paci" book memorized and Sydney would "read" it to us. I really don't know what we would have done without this book, it totally saved us. So it's been about two and a half weeks or something now and I don't think she's even asked for her paci in the past couple days. Every once and a while she would mention it, but she now knows that she's a big girl and doesn't need a paci, and that if we found one (she still thinks they're missing and not in the garbage) we would send it to a baby that needs one. Thankfully Noah was never a paci kid so we won't have to go through this all over again with him.

I'm Not Just Fat, I'm Pregnant, OK!
That's what I feel like I have to proclaim everywhere I go. Or maybe I should just wear a sign, that might be easier. So this pregnancy I've definitely started "showing" earlier. With Sydney I think I might have been this size somewhere around 30 weeks or something, and with Noah somewhere around 25 weeks, but not so lucky this time around. I've started wearing Maternity pants, not really because I have too, I still have a few pairs of pants that fit just fine, but to add some more diversity to my wardrobe. I only have one pair of jeans right now that aren't maternity jeans and only a couple of other pairs of pants, but they're all really distinctive and you can totally tell when I've worn them like five days in a row or whatever and I don't want to go and spend money on something that I'm only going to wear for a couple weeks, so I decided to pull out my smaller maternity pants now and just be comfortable. Shirts are just starting to be a problem. I definitely have a belly now and I basically rotate between 6 or 7 shirts that still fit and look at least half decent on me. I'm not quick big enough for my maternity shirts, but I have a feeling I'll be pulling them out soon, if only because I'm totally bored with wearing the same shirts day in and day out. Also, it will help me proclaim, a little more subtly than words or a sign, that yes, I am pregnant, not just fat. I guess that's what happens when you've been pregnant this many times, it gets harder and harder to pretend that you can wear your normal clothes as long. Oh well, at least it seems like every other woman at our church is either pregnant or just had a baby so I'm not the only one facing the "I'm not fat, I'm pregnant" dilemma.

Well, I've now spent the past hour writing this and am about to crash so this will be the end for now. Jeff just wonderfully put the kids to bed so I can now relax and enjoy the evening. I'm so excited I can't wait... House is back tonight! It is probably my favorite show at the moment, that is until Lost returns this Thursday and we'll just have to see if that lives up to all the hype that they've been giving it or if it turns out like last season and isn't as great as the first. I guess I'll find out in only a short few days. Yeah! Until later... and hopefully not that much later...