~ I don't own a full length mirror, in fact the mirror I use is pretty much good for seeing only what a headshot would show and the lighting is bad. This might explain a lot to anyone who sees me with regularity. Now you know. But when pregnant, I find this hugely beneficial to my daily mental health! When I do actually get full length passing glimpses of myself in glass doors or what not, I get a good laugh because breaking into tears in public is too much effort. Especially if it's one of the two days I did my makeup that week, hence being in public!
~ A dear friend is moving soon and it's a good thing she had me calendar regular get-togethers leading up to her departure so I'm not as big of a remorseful basket case as I could be in a few weeks!
~ I recently checked out a BBC series called "Muzzy" for the kids from the library. It was highly recommended on a homeschooling blog I read sometimes. It's a cartoon that's used in schools often for language learning and so I got the one in German. McKay will sit and translate the German one for us and it's been amazing to see how much he's absorbed at his school although I've rarely heard him speak German to his friends or teachers beyond a word or two. I was telling him tonight how smart he was and that he could try to speak more German to his friends and teachers since he knew so much - more than anyone in our family and could learn so much more by trying more. He just looked at me and said, "Yeah, I can do it cuz I'm smarter than you." He's already been correcting my accent recently when I've been listening to and having to repeat phrases aloud. Mr. Smarty Pants!
~ Everyone in this house is ready to potty train Morgan except me. For heaven's sake, she told Easton she needed to use the toilet and he started helping her to the bathroom so I had to take over. I'm just not ready until our next trip is over because it's a burden I'm unable to hand over to anyone while I'm off galavanting. However, Morgan has now shown she can do it and I'm all for celebrating the moment . . . but I will totally be buying more diapers tomorrow to restock the depleted supply.
~ What's one more cookie to a pregnant lady anyhow. Expandomatic pants are your friend and you can't tell me any different!
~ Preparing to leave my home and babies for eight days didn't have me scrambling to pack the night before. No, it had me obsessed with going on a family bike ride and ice cream stop so that if something happened to me and Ryan, our kids would have a fun family memory of our last evening together. The hills of our surroundings are nothing like the flat landscape of our blissful Netherlands family ride and my bike seat had me feeling it for many days to follow! Did I mention I'm six months pregnant?! And at one point Easton was in tears refusing to go on the hills were too much. The packing scramble happened in the three hours before we left the following day. I really don't know how Ryan puts up with me! I think it might be my enchiladas, but many days I'm truly stumped.
~ While taking one of my kids to a friend's house to apologize for and return his first ever stolen goods, my friend's kids got home from their school bus upset. Her son had been treated very badly on the bus and kids had been watching some really bad R rated movies on their portable electronics. It was just the latest for them but I was suddenly very grateful we have to drive Easton to and from school -- no matter how many naps my younger kids will be woken from or not be put down for even though my sanity takes a beating.
~ The kids are fascinated with my growing belly, especially the belly button spread. While laughing at my button, McKay noticed a few of my silvery stretch marks around my button and he asked what they were. I told him it's where the skin has had to stretch a lot to let the baby grow, but that that particular one was from him when he was in my tummy. Usually delighted by any feeling of power he has over us, he totally surprised me when his eyes got real big and he asked if it hurt me and he kissed it.
~ Walking some ruins and villages in Greece showed me I am sufficiently pregnant enough to be a bit tipsy. I can't just hike to the top of the Acropolis and not be huffing, puffing and snapping at a kind husband asking a simple question about my preferences because my prego clothes don't breathe and "I got hot!" When I thought going up was a challenge, going down proved far more precarious than planned since my body and feet didn't communicate well. Balance, what's that? I hope it comes back!
~ Easton's almost ready to lose one of his top front teeth. He will enter that cute and awkward stage of in-be-tween and I'm not ready. Every time I look at that loose tooth that Ryan desperately has wanted to pull for over a week now, I send that tooth some serious happy thoughts to hang in there for this momma who wants her baby to never grow up.
~ Eating out sounds so nice because I won't have to cook or clean it up. But having to sit up and eat properly over my plate on a table with a belly in the way makes me wish I could be reclining on cushions, hand fed by servants if I'm going to bother with the whole business.
~ While on our last trip, Ryan and I were eating and actually having a conversation because there were no children demanding our attention. We got talking about world affairs and Brazil at one point. Ryan was expounding on it's government and economy during the time of his mission and how it's been changing when I did the math. It's almost been 20 years since he was there! That totally knocked our socks off! Ahhh, seems like only yesterday . . .
I've always joked with Ryan about how he lives in his own little reality but I'm finding that more and more I'm really the one who is in need of a reality check! But I love my bubble.
