Baby Crazy

I hope that you get as much enjoyment from reading this post as I did writing it. Over the last few months I have been browsing through tons and tons of baby gear, necessary and not so necessary. I knew that there was a whole world of things out there that I didn’t know existed, but I didn’t realize how outrageous some of these things were. The other day I was talking to my best friend, Liz, about some of the things that I have found online, and got the idea to share a few of them with the rest of you. My hope is not to offend anyone with my personal opinions on these things, so please take what I say with a grain of salt.

Peter Potty Toddler Urinal
I do wish that I had room in my bathroom for this. I actually wish I had room for four or five of these, so my little boy could feel the real experience of going to the mens’ room. I would assume that this would be a nice conversation starter too. Now, one con I see here is when your little boy goes over to his friends’ houses and he doesn't know where to pee since there’s no Peter Potty Toddler Urinal.



Safety 1st Jack Potty

This is one that I wish they had in an adult version. If gambling were legal here, I would be awful tempted to get one. I mean, who doesn’t wish that their toilet looked like a slot machine? “Flashing lights and spinning shapes” would make pottying much more exciting. Too bad you can't insert quarters anywhere.




Toilet Buddies
These are fun; they are stickers that you apply to your toilet to "empower your child to explore the toilet independently. Sounds intriguing. They also claim to " HELP REDUCE THE FEAR AND ANXIETY CHILDREN EXPERIENCE DURING THE TOILET TRAINING PROCESS." Personally I think I might be afraid of going anywhere near the toilet if it looked like an animal. Although the 12 sets that they offer are all named. So now if you're not sure what you want your little one to refer to the bathroom or bathroom acts as, your solution is here! Instead of Little Johnny saying, "Mommy, I need to go poop," he could say "Mommy, I need to go see Poo-Poo Panda (or Doo-Doo Duck)." Now that sounds much more appropriate. You can also choose from Gatago Giraffe, P.P. Pig, Leaky Frog, or Can Go Roo. If you're worried about the animal staring at your little Johnny while he's doing his business, there's no need to fear. Every animal comes with an additional eyes closed face that goes inside of the lid, how thoughtful. The first thing that came to my mind was amusement park photo-op spots. I can hear it now, "Look Mommy, there's Poo P. Bunny. Time to potty." Then you're running after little Johnny as he's pulling his pants down in public and he's scarred for life. Maybe these aren't so thoughtful.
GatorGripper®
One of the most traumatizing things I remember as a child was getting a loose tooth. The loose tooth wasn't scary, but what normally came next was. I remember looping a piece of floss around my tooth and the other end to a door knob, then praying to God that my Dad would be right and "I wouldn't feel a thing." No one ever offered to do all this for me and I remember always feeling like I needed to get the loose tooth out so it wouldn't come out on its own and choke me in the middle of the night. If only my family would have had a Gator Gripper, then I wouldn't be nearly as disturbed as I am today. The claims to make tooth removal pain free and FUN sound awful promising.

Zaky Infant Pillow
I enjoy looking at this one. The point is to have your child feel like you're still holding him after you have laid him down to sleep. On their website they say to bring it to the hospital when your child is born and ask the nurse to put these around your child in his bassinet while he's in the nursery. I would expect to be laughed at. And if I ever went looking at babies in a nursery and saw one with these fake puppet hands around him, I would laugh really really hard.

Nosefrida, the snotsucker
I plan on having a nasal aspirator and I see the benefits of having one. However, I do not see the benefit of sucking my babies snot myself when there are little devices that we've been using for many many years successfully. There are many gross things that I realize that I'll be doing for my child, but I don't think he will feel like I love him any less if it's not me that sucking his snot out of his little nose. Eww.




Tinkle Tube
I am going to let their website explain what this is for, they do it much better than I can do. Although I want to say first that I thought this was used when you couldn't find a bathroom while traveling, then I found out that I was wrong.
“Stand the child on or in front of the toilet seat with your assistance. Be sure to hold the child securely at all times to prevent him from slipping and falling. Unzip or pull down the boys pants. Remove both caps from the Tinkle Tube. Place the Tinkle Tube over the boys little soldier. Now hold and aim the tube towards the toilet. Shake the tube out, rinse and replace the caps. Store the Tinkle Tube in your bag for the next use.” I feel so bad for the child whose parents felt that this was a necessary potty training item.

Baby Toupee
One of my worries about my baby arriving into the world is not the possibility of him being bald. But if it were, there's a solution for that! I do hope that once I go into mommy-mode I have lots of brilliant ideas, like the baby toupee. Maybe I could get a few of these so the baby and the dogs could go as the same thing for halloween next year. Oh...the possibilities....

Baby Mop
Just the other day I was sitting around wondering how I could teach my baby work ethic as soon as possible. And maybe when I could start expecting him to do his chores. Just a second ago I found the Baby Mop. I tell you....there's a solution for EVERYTHING on the internet.



Since Bean Sprout isn't here to help me out yet, I must do my chores alone. Hope you enjoyed this, there should be more on the way.

TIMBER!

Pictures from the disappearing act of our much hated holly tree.

This is the tree before any cutting ensued. Remember, hollies are normally bushes--not trees.
During the cutting. I was feeling more and more liberated about our landscaping.
Almost there :)
Yay! No more holly tree. Our landscaping is a work in progress (so don't judge our lack of it). We plan on putting another tree, maybe a river birch or dark leaved plum, around where the holly was. You can't see it, but further to the right there are three lovely pink Crape Myrtles that now look a little lovelier. To the right of the door I want to do a flowering bush, maybe a hydrangea, and then spruce the flower bed up.

I no longer have nightmares of that tree taking over our home and family. I must thank my amazing husband and his beyond awesome parents. I swear, I have the best in-laws a girl could ever ask for.

24 Weeks Down, 16 (or so) To Go.

Today we had our 24 week doctor’s visit and as always we got to see our wiggly little Bean Sprout, opps—I mean Griffin. The visit wasn’t too eventful so I used the time to ask lots of questions about labor and what to expect. BS is growing and I felt a little sorry for him that he was all scrunched up in there. It was fun to see what is causing the movements that I’m feeling. Dr. Brody said that he should be around 13 inches now—Holy Cow!! Already? Don’t they only get to be like 18 or 19 inches? I’m clueless here, so I’m really not sure. I asked lots of questions about labor, induction, and epidurals and he really made me feel comfortable with my plan. (I may go into this in more detail later.) He even said that I could eat before I deliver! Woohoo...it’s not going to be as bad as I thought.

Last week I signed Dave and me up for a few baby classes. I wouldn’t have predicted it, but I am rather excited about these classes. For the most part I am enjoying the “ignorance is bliss” way of going about doing things, but I suppose a little insight never hurt anyone. I am hoping that these classes not only provide helpful information, but also a little entertainment. Although I don’t expect the classes to intend on being entertaining, I know that watching Dave sit through Breastfeeding 101 should provide quite a few smiles for me. We’re also taking a class on what to do with the baby once he gets here, like how to bathe him and diaper him and other necessary things. I hope that Dave is paying extra attention in that one.

We have one more four week appointment, which will be the beginning of the THIRD TRIMESTER! There are only three, right? ;) After that appointment I will begin going every two weeks. That sure is a lot of time spent at the doctor’s office, but I do enjoy that place quite a bit, so I know I won’t have any complaints. Also I will schedule my 4D ultrasound at 30 weeks for 32 weeks. I can’t wait for that, not just for the novelty of it but I am pretty sure that they give us a DVD to take home (his first home video). I should be able to the video on here, but more so I am excited to let my Nana see the baby moving around in there. I know it will mean as much for her as it does for me.

The pictures from today’s ultrasound don’t show a whole lot, so I don’t think I will post them. Although there is a good picture of the lens of his eye....woah.... He head is still skull like and not so much baby-looking yet. I am still having quite a bit of back pain that, sadly, hasn’t gone anywhere. I did get the name of a chiropractor, so maybe, hopefully, relief is near.

Just a Few Things

I woke up this morning with a hankering to write. The further along we get in this adventure, the more I want and have to share. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I am a pretty open book. In my head I have a million ideas/thoughts spinning around at a time, and most of the time I find it difficult to tell stories or jokes or even just sit and think about a single thing for more than a millisecond. To go ahead and warn you, this post will reflect my ADD.

Pre-pregnancy dog/animal pictures would catch my eye and I could spend too much time searching for cute ones. Since the hormones took over my brain, I just melt when I see adorable baby pictures. I can’t help myself; I just sit looking at the pictures ohh-ing and aww-ing. This morning I was browsing through the blog, A Cup of Jo, and found this, which made my heart smile.
Pictures like this almost bring me to tears now. The images that they play in my head make me so anxious to get our little Bean Sprout here. I’ve said a million times that I don’t really enjoy the being pregnant process, but I know that I can’t even begin to imagine how much love, devotion, and adoration that our baby is going to bring out of me. I can’t wait to be sleepy with him. I can’t wait to be his nourishment. I can’t wait for him to make best friends with the dogs, Jack and Lucy. I can’t wait to see his little fingers and toes and little lips and tiny nose. Even though I didn’t know this 6 months ago, I can’t wait to be his mom.

I have been going back and forth asking myself if I should or shouldn’t post what I will tell you next. But like I have already mentioned, I’m an open book. The subject: Bean Sprout’s legal name debacle. The verdict: ehh....pretty much almost kinda close to maybe having a real name. Let me remind you that if Bean Sprout were going to be a little girl, she would have already been named. I asked Dave, since he’s being the indecisive one, why this was. He said that he knew deep down that we weren’t having a girl so we didn’t have to drive ourselves nuts over if it was perfect or not (although it was), I’m not sure if I believe him. So, we’ve been stuck on one name for months and haven’t decided against it or even thought of anything else. I really like the name and it fits all of my stipulations for naming my child. Most of the time I already think of him as this, even though I haven’t referred to him by this name. I need to get out there before I tell you this name, that we haven’t “named” him yet. (Although, most likely this is it.) I am just going to start referring to him by this, and if our hearts change before he gets here, then we’ll go with something else. Are you ready? Griffin. If you see me on a regular basis you already knew this, but now it’s in writing. There is a middle name that I have a good feeling about, but we’re just going to start with the first name. I’m not sure if I’ll stop calling him Bean Sprout on here, it’s kind of already stuck.

There’s an exciting thing possibly happening today! When we bought our house there was one thing in particular that I already despised. It wasn’t a deal breaker, but I really really didn’t like it at all. On the side of our house we have a holly tree. Hollies shouldn’t be trees; they should be bushes. Sometimes I dream that I am in a terrible horror movie where that awful tree is taking over our house and ruining our lives in the process. It is ugly. The more I look at it, the uglier it gets. In a year it has seemed to grow exponentially, just as my hate for it has. We have talked and talked about cutting it down, but just haven’t got around to doing it. Yesterday our neighbor had a tree cutting service at his house cutting some of his larger trees down, and then another neighbor got them to cut one of his down. Dave wanted to go ask what they would charge to make our holly disappear, and I was willing to pay whatever they quoted even if I needed to get a second job to afford it. He finally decided against asking them, worried that he’d be too tempted to pay what would definitely be much more than doing it ourselves. What is worth more than all the money that a second job could have provided is the determination that he got to call his Dad and ask if he would mind helping do it today!!! Oh happy day! I’ll post before and after pictures later.

I should stop here. That’s enough for today.

P.S. Happy 6 months Griffin “Bean Sprout” Jeffers! We’re almost there.

Good Morning and Good Week

Good morning. I woke up in a fabulous mood today even though I have an entire house to get clean before I run out of steam. Usually I watch Ellen around this time, but since she is showing non-stop reruns I thought it was a perfect time to write a little post.

This week has really put a smile on my face and kept my good spirit in tact, and I'll share why. Tuesday I spent the day with my beautiful nieces, my super awesome in-laws (yes, I do in fact mean that), and my favorite Jo Ann in the whole wide world. We spent the day eating and swimming then eating and playing; it was so great that I had to go to bed early. Yesterday I went to have coffee with my cousin that I haven't seen much of lately. We got a chance to catch up and I really can't wait to spend more time with her. It's such a blessing to have family that I love being around. Today Dave is working from home, this doesn't mean that I'll get to talk to him anymore than usual, just that I get to look at him more--and that's enough to make me smile :) And then tomorrow--my best friend will be in town!!! I can't wait to see her. I think Christmas was the last time that I saw her, and that is far too long to go without her. I wish every week could be like this one.

So if anyone out there is wondering what kind of cake that I would like for a baby shower, I have an inspiration cake.
Scary, huh? I found this on cakewrecks.com--you should really check that out. If you know me, you should know that I enjoy the absurd, especially if it makes me laugh and this really makes me laugh--pretty hard.

23 Weeks

23 weeks 1 day

Oh how close the six month mark is (less than a week away)....oh how crazy it is that I have been pregnant for nearly six months. Adding the unbelievableness for me is that I will be in the second trimester for only four more weeks. I say it a lot, but time is really speeding by and in no time Bean Sprout will be laying in my arms instead of kicking around in my tummy. And right now, that excites me more than anything.

Just to warn you, I am about to vent for a minute. Hello uncomfortable me. Up to now any discomfort I was having seemed temporary, and I now feel guilty complaining about it. Now, I realize that I have no clue what’s coming next and maybe I shouldn’t complain about this new lingering discomfort—but Ouch! For an entire week I have had a constant dull pain in my middle back along my spine. I can’t do anything to get rid of it, no stretching, no Tylenol, no sitting or lying still—nothing. Last night I finally broke out the heating pad and it helped enough to help me to sleep. I won’t complain about how I felt like I was about to catch on fire, and I’ll just be grateful for the fact that the heat did actually help. I think I can see the cause of this pain; of course, the baby’s a culprit. The curve in my lumbar region pre-pregnancy had too much of an inward curve and would cause pain around that area or lower. Now the curve continues to move inward as my belly pushes me out. My arm hides the problem area in the picture but it’s there, and it hurts. Speaking of my growing tummy, most of the time it feels too big for my skin. The tightness, especially after eating, adds to the uncomfortableness. My perfect world thought has been that I hope that he is a little baby up until age 5 or so, and then he can grow to be really tall. I say that but his size is really the least of my concerns, I just hope he is healthy happy smiling baby. I also realize that the worst is yet to come in regards of pain and discomfort; however, in the end seeing and holding our little Bean Sprout will make me forget about all the things that I need to vent about now.

Our next doctor’s visit is next Tuesday and like usual I can’t wait to see how Bean Sprout is growing in there. It seems like it’s been a really long time since our last visit, although it’s only been a month, but I always get really anxious for the doctor’s visits.

This is going to be an exciting two weeks and then the end of the month will be upon us and we’ll be that much closer to meeting our little boy ☺

Just Some Pictures

Little clothes warm my heart. Today's gift for Bean Sprout.

Dave also warms my heart. This was after our awesome date day. I got to eat Japanese food cooked by a very entertaining chef, watch a good horror movie, and then do just a little shopping. It was beyond nice. Thanks Dave!

Dave practicing baby holding. Lucy was a good sport.

Pretty sure this isn't how you do it.

Jack wasn't as corporative.

He's also bigger than most babies, but just as cute.

This one may bore you.

Not much is new right now which is quite refreshing. The summer is treating us well and I am glad that we're enjoying it. Dave has been doing some work on the house, trying to get us more organized. Well I should say, he has done a lot of work on the closets which in turn should encourage us to be more organized. He had been using the closets in both his music room and the (now) nursery for his clothes and other junk. Our closets basically consisted of a bar set high and a shelf above. Pretty boring and inefficient, if you ask me. The nursery has a "walk-in" closet that is 4' wide by 5' deep. He lowered the bar for hanging clothes to the lower half of the closet and added four 20" deep shelves above, then added five 10" shelves to the right side of the closet. It is now a storage mecca, and it is beyond nice to have that project completed.

*The target will be coming down soon.

Dave took off Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday with me this week to work on these projects and other things that needed to be worked on. Since he is working on his school stuff, we really only have time on the weekends to get things done and then every other Saturday is occupied by his actual classes. Needless to say, the time this week has been quite valuable for us. It's also been kind of nice to have more than an hour a day to communicate. Tomorrow we plan on going on a lunch date to see a movie (which we never do) and eat lunch, and possibly grab Bean Sprout a little outfit with a BRU coupon that came in the mail. I may even dress up a little for this occasion ;) Speaking of our time together we have played tennis for the last three days. Sometimes I enjoy tennis and other times I am really bad and don't enjoy it at all. On Monday evening we played in something like 98% humidity, which took the life out of me. It was so sticky out and I tired out far too quickly. Yesterday's games were played in the morning and were much more enjoyable and I decided to dress in more appropriate attire. Getting exercise in without hurting, cramping, or sweating to death was a real treat. Today we played around lunch time and it may have been 1000 degrees out, I was having a ton of fun playing and even playing better than I had been, but my body decided it was too hot. I was drinking tons of ice water but I still had to surrender to the heat and not over do it.

Yesterday I made something for dinner that I may end up craving all the time now. It was a delicious combination of chickpeas, cucumbers, red onions, and tomatoes. Ohh....how I love love love chickpeas, I could eat them everyday. I mixed all the veggies with olive oil, a little red wine vinegar, lemon juice, dill, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Yummy!! Healthy and tasty!

Over on the left you can see my latest product of boredom. I had been joking about making "bean spout '09" tee shirts for anyone who wanted one (even if it is just me); and like most things I joke about, it came to fruition. I found zazzle.com and it's now one of my favorite things. You can get to my store by clicking here . The site is very nice, you can customize just about anything you want from postage stamps and travel mugs to dog shirts and baby onesies. Here's the shirt that I created, which you can get to by clicking on the image of the shirt in the zazzle box on the left.
The font that I chose for this shirt is called "birth of a hero" which I thought was fitting (but first I liked it for the way it looked). I also did a Bean Sprout beer stein but felt it a bit unrelated to the birth of my son. I put his "logo" on a mug too and I am considering dog shirts next. Oh let me know if you have any suggestions for anything that I should put on the back, like a slogan...he needs a slogan...

Hopefully I didn't bore you too much. Next time I should have much more exciting things to write about....I hope.

21 Weeks

21 weeks 4 days

We're past the half way point and every day I am more and more ready to meet our little boy. It won't be much longer till I hit the third trimester, and I am hoping that it's all down hill from there. Bean Sprout is a wiggler. I feel him all the time now. He still feels rather low, but I am starting to feel him a little above my belly button too. The other day I was laying in the bathtub and felt a pressure move across the top of my belly, as I looked down my whole belly moved to the left. He must be getting stronger. Dave still hasn't been able to feel him yet. I believe that Dave calms him down, because even if BS is moving around Dave will put his hand on my belly, then BS is still. Dave has a calming affect on me too. All the kicks and movement make this experience all the more real, and draws me closer and closer to my little boy.

The name debacle is still on going. I think I have something in mind, but Dave is still sitting on it. I swear, he is much more picky than I would have ever imagined. I am still trying not to rush the process, but I have some projects that I would like to work on for the nursery that involve his name. I guess they will wait.

My appetite is noticeably increasing. Even with my grazing technique, I am feeling hungry right after I eat. I am trying to keep lots of good foods around to munch on, but we eat them up faster than we can buy them. It would be nice for our garden to be flourishing, and to have the ability to run outside to grab whatever I am wanting. Too bad we're amateur gardeners. It's our first gardening experience and we're doing so-so. In the beginning we had 3 tomato plants, a cucumber, a couple of banana peppers, a jalapeno, and 3 bell peppers. So far we have been defeated by only one tomato plant. We have havested 2 banana peppers and we're waiting on everything else. It looks as though we will have an abundance of tomatoes, unless they're planning on kicking the bucket too. Next year I am hoping to expand our little garden to include a larger variety of veggies. I have read that the baby can now taste what you're eating via the amniotic fluid that he swallows, and that eating a variety of foods will accustom him to different tastes. This hopefully will make him less of a picky eater.

Becoming a Mamma Bird

At the moment I am taking a much needed break from painting. This is the forth day in a row that I have been painting, and it's starting to get old. The majority of this work has been for Bean Sprout so even though it's draining me, I am determined to get it finished and do it well in the process. I could be wrong but I think I may be "nesting." Even when we're not working in the nursery I'll still go in there and look around, and think about what's going where. It's a nice feeling, but at the same time it's starting to take me over. We painted the nursery with the accidental can of green paint that we had originally got for the dining room which didn't work out; despite the lack of planning it ended up being absolutely perfect for the nursery. We knew that we'd be using that paint, but couldn't remember exactly what the color looked like. It was a pleasant surprise to have it work out the way that it did.

So far I have painted an old night stand of Dave's that will live beside my momma chair and a dresser that Dave's parents were not needing anymore that will also serve as the changing table. My goal is to have everything painted by tonight...but that's quite a lofty goal. By the way, I did consult with my doctor about painting and I was assured that it was fine.

Yesterday I noticed paint on Lucy and realized that our living room had turned into painting quarters. All of us are ready to have BS's nursery ready.

Time for pictures!

The dresser before, well after I took a couple knobs off.

Dresser after, still needing knobs. We need to do some knob hunting. The little black bear sitting on the dresser came from the Pottery Mill, which we got on our Gatlinburg trip.

The left side of the room. The little green basket beside my chair was in the bath room, but I decided it would do a nicer job holding books. The turtle on the night stand is actually a little light. My best friend Liz got it for me a few years ago, and now it fits perfectly in Bean Sprout's woodland themed nursery. The curtains need to be ironed and a few other things touched up, but overall I like this side of the room.

This view is from the BS's bathroom (he has the master bedroom, lucky duck). I think that the crib will go in the corner, where the piece of it is. I am also considering a brown valance for the short window. I'm not a huge fan of valances but I think that it would tie the windows together.

I forgot to take before pictures of the room. Imagine a huge desk where the crib will go and boxes and other random crap throughout the rest of the room. It was pretty much a mess, so maybe it's better that there are no photos to document it.