Our Little "It"

A picture and short video from my 20-ish week ultrasound this week. I'd never had the 3D images done before, so that was pretty cool (they did the shadowy kind too):

We did not find out the gender as planned, and this time I didn't see anything to tip me off. With My Boy, the technician told us when we should look away, but I peeked through my fingers and thought I saw boy evidence. This time she never told me when to look away, and I usually had no idea what she was scanning.

Baby looks good. The only issue is the placenta is too low right now and would come out first in a normal delivery, which is bad news. My Ob-Gyn said there's a 90% chance it'll move up out of the way as things stretch and grow, but if not I'll have a c-section a week before my due date. I really don't want that, but of course I'd do it for the safety of the baby. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Festivities

I am not an arts and crafts-type mom. I don't have a lot of skills in this area and the chaos and mess that often accompanies kid projects can make me feel crazy and mean in no time. One reason I'm slightly afraid of having a daughter is that girls seem to require more craftiness, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it if I have to.

My very capable friend (who has a 1-month-old and 22-month-old!) stepped up and hosted us for gingerbread house fun last week. My Boy mostly ate candy but did help a little with our graham cracker house. Look how cute they turned out! Maybe I could handle doing this myself? But if a friend provides everything and wants to have the mess at her house, I'll go for that (I even stole the picture from her blog--I'm really something!).

I took My Boy to see Mall Santa on Friday, which I've done every year since his birth to help document how he changes. This year there was no pooping through his outfit in line as with the first picture at 4 months (he was in a little Santa suit but ended up bare foot wearing the extra onesie and pants I luckily had in my bag):

The 16-month picture was uneventful, although he looks a bit reluctant:

Last year he had to be bribed with a lollipop to even sit on Santa's lap then promptly burst into heart-breaking tears:

This year he suddenly looked and acted like a kindergartener, walking calmly up to Santa, answering his questions, then giving this ecstatic grin for the picture:

He told Santa he wanted a "musical Leo baton" (a Little Einsteins toy that can be waved around and plays music), and I think he believed he'd get it right away because he kept asking me where it was. It's lots of fun that he can understand the holidays more this year, but we're still trying to get the details down.

Christmas Tunes

According to me, these are the best Christmas albums, in order of greatness:

1) Charlie Brown Christmas

2) Elvis Presley, It's Christmas Time

3) Carpenters Christmas Portrait

Apparently Best Buy and Target don't like the Carpenters because I haven't been able to find their Christmas album at either place. What?! Grrrrr! What are your favorites? I promise not to ridicule you as long as you don't suggest something hideous.

Fairyland

Although the name makes me giggle, Oakland's Fairyland is one of my favorite places. It's basically a storybook theme park with play areas, rides, and shows based on fairy tales or other children's stories. I love the quirky, vintage feel of everything (the park opened in 1950), the reasonable admission price, and the fun My Boy can have there - I think we stayed for 5 hours last time with our playgroup. I owe an official thanks to my friend for the pictures below. She captures my child's memories when I don't bring a camera, which is almost always.

As the "house of sticks" pig:

Making exactly the same face as the Snow White dwarf he's standing over (I don't think this was intentional, just a funny shot):

On an Alice in Wonderland carousel:

Before visiting Sacramento last weekend, I found out they have something similar, Fairytale Town. It's smaller than Fairyland and doesn't have mechanical rides but was still lots of fun. I was especially amused to hear them play a song over the loudspeaker with a chorus that said, "Poop in the potty, poop goes in the potty; poop in the potty, poop goes in the potty."

Going down the "there was an old woman who lived in a shoe" slide:

In Cinderella's carriage:

Going through the "crooked mile," my personal favorite:

The spell is broken!

You know what I've been thankful for this Thanksgiving? That Baby may finally be letting me off the First Trimester hook! It took almost 17 weeks this time around, but suddenly on Wednesday I had more energy and the pelvic bone pressure/back of the thigh nerve pain wasn't so intense. That night I actually cooked dinner and proceeded to eat a lot of it without getting slightly grossed out! The timing was excellent for me to pig out on Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt and uncle's house on Thursday. It was so delightful to legitimately enjoy eating again. Although I don't think I'm up for Indian or Thai yet, the good streak has continued through today. Hooray for not feeling like crap anymore! (knock on wood).

P.S. We potentially could find out the boy/girl status in a couple weeks, but we are some of those frustrating "let it be a surprise" people, so you'll just have to wait it out with us.

Dunsmir

I sure do like me some walking through historic rich people's houses! That's why I went to the Dunsmir Estate in Oakland several months ago with a friend and her little guy. Taking 2 youngsters on the tour wasn't the best idea ever, but we made it through. The house isn't as spectacular as a Hearst Castle, as interesting as a Winchester Mystery House, or as well-kept as a Filoli (all fantastic Bay Area rich-people houses to visit if you haven't), but I enjoyed checking out the house and nice grounds.



It's hard to explain to your boy why he can chase dirty rat pigeons around but not the nice ducks:

Pet Central

Even though it's expensive, sometimes inconvenient, and people may stand across from your church chanting unfair things during Sunday services, San Francisco and the Bay Area is still a pretty great place to live. I was going to make a giant post on cool things I've seen or done in the past several months, but one at a time seems more manageable. Here we go:

Pet Central (on Broadway near Stockton): I wandered in to this Chinatown pet store one day when I was running errands nearby. It's awesome! The animals seem well cared for and it's bright and clean. Looking at the fish downstairs is almost as good as visiting an aquarium--salt water, fresh water, more kinds of goldfish than you knew existed, giant $200 fish, etc. I've never seen cats there, but they usually have puppies--I almost had a cuteness-induced fit when I saw a baby weiner dog and baby Boston terrier there on one trip. They have reptiles, birds, hamsters, chinchillas, and all the supplies you might need. Plus they seem to have a large collection of Chinese movies for rent up front (pets + movie rentals...naturally!). Please, someone go there and purchase pets or pet stuff so I don't feel guilty for never buying anything from them.

Ode to Hotwire

It seems I have neglected to brag up the awesome deal we got on a hotel for our London trip: $119/night for a Hilton! That's in U.S. dollars y'all, not pounds! We got it through Hotwire.com, which lets you select the star level and geographic areas you will accept, then shows you prices but not exact names or locations of your potential lodgings until you commit to buy. It's a bit of a gamble, but it turned out great for us. Our room wasn't spectacular, but it was comfortable and clean and the hotel was in a very convenient location. The normal rate for our room would have been around $300 a night, so we saved some serious cash.

I also have to give much love to Priceline.com for hotels. As with Hotwire, you can specify the star levels and areas you'll accept, but you are committed to booking if they find a hotel for the price you name. So it's even more thrilling and scary, but it's come through for me too. Namely $60/night for a downtown Portland Hilton in April and $55/night for a good-enough San Diego hotel several years ago. I'd highly recommend using either site as long as you do a little research.

Bummer

Things that are bumming me out lately:

1) Mervyn's is closing. What's going to be my 2nd favorite place for boy clothes now? (1st = Old Navy. Yes, I'm kind of cheap.)

2) Local station 106.9 is now all news instead of Oldies! My sweet Oldies! KFOG 104.5 and KISS 98.1 are sort of helping me along, but I'm distraught. Are there any other options?

3) The Mormon haters have only become more rabid since California voted to define "marriage" as only between a man and a woman (NOT taking domestic partnership rights from gay couples). I understand that people are upset, but what is the point of the protests, singling people out online who donated to Yes on 8 and labeling them bigots, encouraging boycotts of the places they work, etc? These things only make Yes people more committed and serve to spread ugly, false stereotypes. Mormons do not hate gay people; in fact, Church leaders have repeatedly encourged love and compassion toward them. Many Mormons have good relationships with gay friends and family members despite differences in beliefs. I thought the Church's response to the backlash was excellent. It is not getting much attention, probably because it is courteous and reasonable (I'm sure the press would be all over it if it seemed at all inflammatory). I am hoping and praying the contention simmers down.

Mountain man on pain killers

My Husband has got problems. Specifically ones with his left arm that have been bothering him for awhile. So after he finished a really long project at work, he decided to take a Surgery Vacation--sweet! Well, if you consider having 2 same-day surgeries in 2 weeks sweet, I guess.

First, a tear and some bursitis in his shoulder were repaired/cleaned up. Then on Friday he went in to have the funny bone nerve in his elbow moved back where it should be (eeeek!). He's been a trooper and has been fantastic to help me as much as he can around the house--doing dishes with one hand, entertaining My Boy, etc. I'm a lucky lady. Plus he decided it would be amusing to grow a beard, something he's never done. Here it is:



I think it's a nice beard, don't you? He thought it might look strange since he has some white whiskers on the left side, but I think it's cute (it's not so cute that the whiskers turned white after the right side of his head went through the passenger window in a car accident when he was 17. So did a spot in the back of his hair from the trauma).

Here he is, all decked out in the temporary cast that's making him pretty uncomfortable right now. It comes off Thursday, then we go to a Ben Folds concert that night where I will have to be his bodyguard of sorts and keep jostlers away from the arm. Best wishes for a speedy recovery darling!

Halloween '08

We carved pumpkins:



Or at least we carved the 2 smaller ones and realized it's not that fun, especially when your child won't touch the guts and can't help much with the carving (and the smell is making you feel a bit barfy if you're pregnant). We decided to go for markers and stickers with the big daddy pumpkin.

We went trick-or-treating to the stores on Chestnut street with friends, 3 of whom were also Buzz Lightyear!



We knew the Nov. 1 church party would provide more treats and good times, so we opted out of doing anything more Halloween night. There are only a few areas of SF that provide the traditional experience anyway given all the apartment buildings. I am looking forward to the day when we get trick-or-treaters and I can celebrate my favorite holiday appropriately!

Is it over yet?

Blah. My tolerance for anything election-related is quickly running out. I will be ecstatic after Tuesday when I'm no longer receiving 5 pieces of election junk mail per day, hearing clips of a "rah, rah; boo! boo!" speech by a presidential candidate, or dealing with the fallout (good and bad) from my church supporting a sensitive state proposition. Politics often make me want to curl up in a fetal position and rock back and forth, but this time around has been especially intense.

Let's take our minds off the real issues and watch this instead. It's an old SNL Celebrity Jeopardy skit that may be the funniest one ever (a shout out to My Husband for bringing it to my attention). Jimmy Fallon's impression of Adam Sandler especially had me in stitches. Sorry for the ad. Wait it out; it's worth it:

Cat out of the bag

After about 14 months and 2 miscarriages, it looks like Baby #2 is on the way! Yes, I am 12 weeks pregnant today and everything looks good so far. We've seen and heard heartbeats and I've felt decently icky for the last 5 weeks--tired and VERY unmotivated/lazy, nauseous, some throwing up, etc. This is good news in my case though, as I felt "too good" with the miscarriage pregnancies. Baby will be a bit less than 4 years apart from My Boy, and we are looking forward to my May 7th due date.

Celebrity Sightings

In the past two weeks I've drastically increased my life-long tally of celebrity sightings. First, Miley Cyrus was on our London to LA flight:

She was NOT sitting in coach like the rest of us suckers (it really was horrible with the 11 hour flight), but I saw her when she came back to talk to one of her people. She was at times right next to us in the customs line at LAX, and I confirmed with another one of her people in line behind us that it was her. She was small and loud and in a much better, more talkative mood than anyone else seemed to be. She was with her blonde sister and some guy carrying bags for her, but no real bodyguard-looking people. That is my report.

Tuesday at the Oakland airport, I looked over and noticed this guy start loading stuff in a van that pulled up:

It's Adam from The Next Food Network Star, of course! I really liked this show over the summer and thought Adam would win the final 3 tie breaker, but he didn't. This is probably the most personally exciting sighting I've had, especially since I had a slight crush on him and knew a couple of my sisters would be very excited when I told them the news. I'm regretting not saying anything to him, but oh well.

For the record, the only other sighting I'd count is Mike from The Real World several years ago at a southern California airport:

Doesn't he kind of look like My Husband?

And I've seen the always well-dressed Willie Brown a couple times if I can count local celebrities (he's the former mayor of SF):

I've also seen those old lady twins who dress alike twice--once coming up the escalator at Macy's in Union Square, and once walking near Huntington Park on Nob Hill. I wish I had an identical twin to be crazy with when I get older! They are awesome:

Who have you seen?

London Pics

Some Big Ben/Parliament, Tower Bridge and London Eye shots (the Ferris wheel thing):











At Greenwich, standing over the Prime Meridian line:



Tower of London:



The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens. My guide book told me Queen Victoria's husband Albert didn't want a monument built to him but she did anyway and went all out:



The Princess Diana Memorial Fountain in Kensington Gardens. Very lovely:



Two more from Kensington Gardens. The palace where Diana stayed after her divorce is in the background of the 2nd shot:





My Husband during his tour of the Chelsea soccer stadium (I walked around a nearby cemetery rather than pay the $25ish dollars to go along):





So sleepy on the Underground:



Hampton Court Palace. We spent close to 5 hours here trying to absorb all the history and interesting info:



Me trying to look regal and stately:










Hedge maze (could only think of The Shining while in it of course):



Trafalgar Square with one of the awesome, enormous lions made from melted cannons:



Westminster Abbey--one of my favorite things. So many famous people buried in the floor!



One of the underground bunker rooms from which Winston Churchill and his people ran WWII:



On a fabulous night walk over the Thames after visiting the Tate Modern Museum:



The incredible Imperial War Museum:





At the British Museum with one of the Parthenon statues that Greece wants back (England says, "Ummm...no."):



Mummies!



In Shakespeare's backyard at his birthplace:





Warwick Castle further out in the country. My Husband is waving at you from the top of the tower:









The cathedral at Christchurch at Oxford:



Here's where the students at Oxford eat. This room was apparently re-created and used in one of the Harry Potter films (not that I'd know):



The Oxford/Christchurch Commons: