Whose your husband?

At the doctor's office on Tuesday I picked up a couple of free magazines. One was an issue dedicated to dads and I had a great time reading one of the articles written by a father of four.

The gist of the article was that there are two types of husbands/fathers/soon-to-be-fathers out there in the world.

Type one: The "doter" - he experiences sympathy pain, weight gain, buys gifts, rubs feet without being asked, and in general is really sympathetic to his wife's condition. You know the guy - he runs to the taco time in the middle of the night for crustos.

Type two: the "business man" - he just works longer hours because he isn't quite sure how to deal with his crazy wife and is nervous about having enough money and all the right stuff for the kid - as justification for working those longer hours.

I know which "type" I married. He's not type one.

how about you?

another zinger from the comedian in the family

Note: The Monkey has been in a big boy bed for almost a month with much success. The only drawback is that he sleeps much less during the night than he used to. In the wonderful cage - i mean crib - he would go to bed at 930 and sleep until 730 or 8 - it was heaven. Then throw in a long nap, and the day was great.

Since the transition, we are struggling to get him to bed before 1030 at night and he is generally waking up very grumpy at 6 am. He's losing about two hours of sleep a night and the nap during the day is shorter.

Can you say tired, irritable, sensitive, and a bit bi-polar monkey?

Try living with him.

Now, to the conversation.

From the other day.

Me, the mama: [yawn], oh boy, I'm super tired

the Monkey: me, too. More tired than in my whole life!

Truer words never spoken

Make this sugar bomb today!

I've mentioned many times in the last few months that I crave sugar. Here's something new to add to that unhealthy addiction.

Take a brownie mix. Mix the brownies according to the directions on the package.

Pour half the brownie mix into the baking dish.

Layer in caramello candy bars. Just set them on top of the batter. (a 9x13 pan takes about 5 king size bars)

Pour and smooth the rest of the brownie batter into the pan - covering the tops of the candy bars.

Put in the oven and bake appropriately. It's extra yummy to let them be just a little undercooked.

Eat the batter left in the bowl.

enjoy the brownies immensely.

(Note: My friend Erin made something like this for book club a while back with Symphony candy bars and they were divine. This is my own variation. I'm in love with them I think.)

Because I love my sister.....

My sister is funny. Sometimes she forgets every now and then how funny she is - but when she remembers, it's the best humor around.

She put this on her blog this morning. I don't share her sentiment, but I laughed so hard my eyes watered. I then called my mom to let her share in the laugh.

You see, my sister feels a bit frump these days. I say blame it on the weather or spending her days with teeny bopper high school kids, but regardless, that's how she feels.

Only because I love my sister, will I post these pictures. Sometimes, it's good realize that there is someone who always looks worse than you. And right now, that's me! In all my fat, double chinned glory.

The monkey took these glamour shots the other day - when we were outside enjoying the sunshine. No make-up, sweat pants - fattest stomach around.



Hi Chins - I'm Annie. Nice to meet you!




See Sister in Zion - it could be worse. You could have a 2 year old take your picture - at his eye level.

the countdown can officially begin...

Got home from the doctor a little while ago

barring any unforeseen changes in blood pressure, blood sugar, and overall outlook on life...oh, and that thing called labor, we (the squirt and I) have some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel


Tuesday, May 12, 2009
5 days early
pray for good lungs




seriously - pray for good lungs

(Just a side note: Why the lungs? My diabetes delays lung development. The Monkey spent 10 days in the NICU because he couldn't breathe so good, mostly my fault. We're hoping that keeping the squirt in a week longer will prevent the problems the Monkey had, or at least make them less severe.)

Spring!

shorts....check



sunglasses....check

water....check



bike and bucket....check and check

beautiful flowers....check



happy boy?

YES!

Happy Anniversary!

I've been married 6 years today. How time flies. Just like on the day we got married, the sun is shining, the weather is beautiful, and the birds are singing.

How did we spend our anniversary weekend this year?

Friday night - extended stay (2 hours) for "monitoring" in Labor and Delivery at the hospital. After a regular hour in Maternal Fetal medicine. Hospital gowns SUCK!

Saturday night - dinner to my favorite place (Rio Grande) and drove separate cars home.

Sunday - so far? Church meetings, grumpy toddler, more church meetings, nap watching Elmo's world, and a blog post.

Not bad for a 6th anniversary right?

Honestly, it hasn't been bad. I love my husband, and my sweet little boy. I can hardly wait for the squirt to join us (2 weeks and counting?) and am proud of the family that we're creating.

Most importantly I think, I am excited for all the years to come.

yeah, i know. me too.

The monkey woke up early this morning. His dad was still home. They watched Thomas the Train while I showered.

As per usual, when dad leaves for work, the monkey gets grumpy at me.

By the time we got around to thinking about breakfast, his exasperation was obvious.

He threw himself on the kitchen floor, looked at me in desperation and said;

"Mama, I need a coke."

The feeling was mutual.

some statistics

today was the 2 year old doctors appointment. Yes, we are three months late for the 2 year old doctors appointment.

it's okay though, no one seemed to mind. We braved the April snow (yuck, why does it still have to be snowing) and headed to the pediatricians. Thank goodness our dad went with us because at the thought of having to take his shoes off to be weighed, the monkey went NUTS! Dad had gum though. That made it all the better.



so, here you go.
Weight - 31.8 lbs (80th percentile)
Height - 38.5 inches (98th percentile)
Head - 95th percentile

estimated 10 months ahead of schedule in verbal, social, and motor skills. No wonder everyone thinks he is four years old.



The pediatrician told us that these days that to estimate adult height, for a boy, you double their height when they are three years old. My boy still has 7 months of growing before we hit that mark. However, if we were to estimate his adult height today, he should be 6 foot 5.

awesome.

my boy is a giant.

we still have 7 MONTHS TO GROW.

Grow, Monkey, grow!

Some thoughts about Easter

My mom wrote a great post here. You should read it -

We had a great Easter. As per usual, there wasn't much celebrating, or egg hunting, or coloring, but we still had a good day. There was candy, and baskets, and family, and new clothes and obligatory photo shoots with sunshine in the eyes of sensitive boys.

On Easter Sunday, I went to church by myself. In my married life, I've NEVER gone to church by myself. A couple of times I think Ross was out of town and I went to church with my parents, but it was rather unusual to do such a thing on a holiday, alone. Where were my boys? Home sleeping and playing with fantasy baseball of course.

The theme of the meeting was of course the last days and resurrection of Christ. It was a good meeting with a beautiful musical number by the choir. During the meeting, I sat next to a dear friend whose life is in utter turmoil right now. During the meeting as I helped with her girls and listened to the talks, I couldn't help but think of that thing called, "Eternal Perspective". Whether you are religious or not, it seems that we are all on Earth for a reason. We are born, live our life as best we can, experience our fair share of trials and joy, and then when it's our time, we leave - hopefully heading to heaven for grand reunions and to await the return of the rest of our family for eternity.

That being said - I can't stop thinking about my friend - and how much I've grown to love her over the last few years and how much I wish I could help her. The thing is though - she's one of the strongest people I know, and probably one of the handful of people I know with that true "eternal perspective". She gets life, living, and being a part of something bigger than herself. She is an inspiration to me and all that know her.

That's what I thought about on Easter this year - faith and family and the importance of being together through everything and taking care of those that are yours - because you never know how long you'll get to be part of their lives, at least on Earth - and how lucky I am to believe in a gospel and faith that is so comforting to me every single day.

Happy Birthday Uncle Haley!

The Monkey says "Happy Birthday, cu-cu-cachoo"

We tried this morning to record you a special birthday message. This was our best effort. Sorry it's lame. At least Elliott has cooties and boogers on his face - that should count for something, right?




Thanks for being a good sister and Auntie and being crazy with the little monkey. And for always telling me about things I'm supposed to remember but don't, but never remembering things I'm sure happened, but probably didn't.

Blog Stalking

Over the weekend, some of Ross' family was in town from out of state. We had a great time spending a good chunk of the weekend with them - at least when i wasn't at home curled in a ball on my bed thinking that I might be dying. Like Cameron in Ferris Beuhler's day off. Remember? Cameron is sick in bed and tells Ferris that he's dying and Ferris says, "You're not dying, you just can't think of anything good to do". Well, I wasn't dying, and I thought of a million better things to do, but lying in my bed with a good book that led to a long nap? That was heaven for my ankles, my blood pressure, and me.

Anyway

On Sunday night we had a brief discussion about Face Book. I de-activated my FB account after about 3 months of wasting time on the site. I only had 50 friends, most of whom I was related to or talked to all the time anyway, and I was getting sucked in to the stupidity of it all - checking out people I went to high school with to see if they were fat, or losers, or successful; spying on the women of my neighborhood to see how many of them were pregnant, that sort of thing. And - it was such a waste of time (for me). Spending hours surfing through lists of people....Oh the webs we weave, right?

At the same time I dumped FB, my husband went full steam ahead. Hundreds of friends, many of which he probably never exchanged more than a few words with ever. Lots of girls from high school - go figure - and people from the Olympics, etc. He's even friends with some of the MOMS of kids he went to school with (wrong on so many levels, right?).

That's not the point - the point is....

while on FB, I found the mother lode. I found the blogs of a couple people I went to high school with - who of course link to everyone else I went to high school with and for the last couple of months, I regularly spy on these people weekly.

It's embarrassing.

I cannot stop.

Why is it so much fun, and so interesting, to secretly look through the peephole to other peoples lives? People we know, but don't really know? People we haven't seen for years and don't really care about at all.

I don't know.

I suppose it's time to delete the bookmarks and quit looking.

but it's just so much fun.

what about the rest of you? Do you blog stalk?

"a picture of me doing"

I mentioned last week that we got a new-to-us flip video camera. It's a hit with the two year old who has decided to start talking and doing tricks just so that I'll film him and then turn the camera around and let him watch.

Here are a few of our latest video adventures from the week.

maybe the greatest song ever

Ross always thinks he can pick out music for me. Generally - he strikes out.

case in point - some crap band named OAR.

Ross likes bands with names like, "Wolf mother". I like bands with names like, "iron and wine".

For the last few months, that husband of mine has been on a Killers kick. All killers all the time. Yes, he's a few years late but he is in finance.

Me? I prefer background sleepy time music and what my sister and I call wuss rock.

I heart Guster and the thunder god.

I digress.

The boy I married brought a new cd home with him this weekend. He insisted that I would LOVE IT! and mentioned a track in particular.

Track numero quatro.

It's freaking awesome.

My new theme song.

the band?

Say Hi (to your mom)

The song?

November was white, december was gray.

The best line ever?

I'll feel better when the winter's gone.

me too.

take a listen.

enjoy!

3 years

Three years ago this July, I was diagnosed with the bedes. I suppose you could say that the Monkey save my life in a way. His impending arrival, and all the blood tests associated brought with them a great revelation. Years of not feeling well finally explained. Hundreds of afternoons of standing in the pantry binging on crap as fast as possible resolved.

Annie is a diabetic.

Duh!

I'd been going to my doctor complaining of such symptoms only to be dismissed for years. I wasn't anemic. My heart didn't have a murmur. My kidneys were not failing.

Yes.

In the months before said Monkey was born, learning how to deal with diabetes was a bit difficult, but I managed. Things were figured out, shots were given, and life moved on.

Last summer, with a 10 lb weight loss and chasing an active little fart around all day, every day - my diabetes were so under control that I was almost insulin free.

Then the squirt happened.

the bedes? no longer under control.

I use two kinds of insulin. Lantus, a long-acting, stay in your system for 24 hrs insulin and Novolog, a short 2 hour burst insulin for meals.

Last July, I was doing 10 units of Lanuts and maybe 30 units of Novolog a day. Not bad.

2 months ago, I was doing 40-50 units of Lanuts a day and maybe 50 units of Novolog.

All was well.

In the last 5 days things are crazy. So crazy that in an absolute panic yesterday I realized that i didn't have enouhg insulin to get me through the weekend and that my prescrptions cannot be refilled for two more weeks. After some frantic phone calls to my doc and the pharmacy - things are better. There is light at the end of the drug-dependent tunnel.

Why so frantic? Because, in the last 5 days I'm now doing over 100 units of lantus a day and 150 units of novolog. I'm close to tripling what I needed just a week ago.

and the numbers are still climbing.

quickly.

good thing the squirt will be here soon. My drug habit is getting expensive and taking a lot of room in my fridge.