Just give Tina Fey the Emmy now!

Whatever your political views, this is hilarious!

Overwhelmed in a different way

#3 is here! She arrived on August 12, and we are all head over heels in love with her. I couldn't have ordered an easier delivery, and I'm feeling quite good a week later, compared to my previous births. Diva and Daredevil adore their new sister, JV is taken with her too, and I spend a lot of time just staring at her. I am getting very little sleep, she likes to eat about every 2 hours, and no one else can assist in this area for now, so I am pretty darn tired.

So now I am a temporary stay at home mom (do we call this TSAHM?) I plan to return to work in January 2009. It was nuts trying to finish up at work prior to delivery. I work on a lot of long term projects and deals, so it was a lot of transitioning. It was actually bittersweet - a few of them I've worked on for a year or more, some are reaching the closing stages, and I won't be there to see them through.

I am enjoying being at home and focusing on family. Diva and Daredevil start school on Monday, so we are gearing up for that. There will be several firsts on Monday - Daredevil starts kindergarten, and both will ride the bus for the first time (Diva has always done before/after care right at the school, so we've driven her.) But with me on leave, they will be bus riders for the first half of the year.

JV has already been on the horn with the school district's transportation office about getting the bus stop moved - it is right on a curve in our neighborhood where there are a lot of trees close to the road, so it's a bit of an blind turn that many people take too fast. The district's suggestion was to move it completely out of our neighborhood, where the kids would have to cross a busy road with lots of truck (the 18 wheel variety) traffic. Ridiculous. We just want the stop to be a few houses down within our neighborhood (closer or farther from our house, we don't care, we're happy to walk). We know a few neighbors feel the same way, so far we haven't enlisted their help, but we may soon need to.

I vow to be better about updating this blog and making it snazzier looking now that #3 is here and school is starting. I plan to add all kinds of interesting stuff, come back and visit soon!

Feeling Better!

I am feeling better, thank goodness. One of the stones is gone and the other is staying put for now, which is not causing any pain. So I went back to work. It was nice to focus on something else for a change. Unless anything changes, I'm going to continue working as long as I can. The longer I can get paid, the better, since I'm taking some unpaid time after my paid leave.

Today I went to Babies R Us to pick up some essentials after we unpacked most of our 5 to 8 year old baby stuff over the weekend. I'm trying not to get much, but there were some things I just have to replace or get new. I was shocked at how much prices of the baby basics have gone up since I last had a baby (almost 6 years ago). Yikes, this is one instance where I'm glad I was a pack rat and saved as much as I possibly could.

We are still woefully unprepared for this baby. The past few nights I have been waking up in a panic at 3 a.m. over all we have to do. (And general panic at the thought that in a few short days or weeks we will have a baby in the house again!)

While I am certainly grateful not to be in pain anymore, going back to work is tough because now I'm just too tired to accomplish anything in the evenings after work, picking up the kids, dinner, cleanup, etc. My past few evenings have consisted of, after the forementioned activities, watching whatever crappy reality TV show is on and passing out the same time as the kids. #3's room is slowly starting to take shape, although the crib is still in pieces. Hopefully I'll be closer to my due date (Aug 19th) than I had previously thought!

Pain on a scale of 1 to 10? That would be 20.

How to ruin a week at the shore for an entire family . . . Wake up with kidney stones on the third day there. Yup, kidney stones. At 36 weeks pregnant. After two stints in the hospital at the beach, we cut our week short and we are back home and I am heavily medicated. Thankfully, the baby is oblivious to my agony and is doing just fine. I sure didn't see this one coming. I have been good throughout pregnancy about staying hydrated and not drinking more than 1 caffeinated drink a day, but apparently I have been dehydrated. I've got stones in both kidneys, and I just have to wait until they come out. Went to both my OB and a urologist today, and for the next week we are going to wait and see what happens, then we'll talk about inducing, since I can only take pain medication for a short period of time. In the meantime, I am done working and am to rest, rest, rest. It's tough to do anything with the amount of discomfort I'm in, so it's maddening to look around the house and see so much to do. I was also counting on a few more weeks of working, since I am planning on adding unpaid time to my maternity leave. JV has been wonderful, taking full charge of the kids and house and driving me to my appointments, although he's very busy at work. My brother, sister in law, and my mother have also cut their vacations short to help us. At this point I need to stop worrying about the dog hair dust balls on the floor and the crib that is not put together yet and focus on both my health and what I'm grateful for - and there are so many things. Hopefully this kidney thing will resolve itself on its own, and soon.

"Picture This" - I sure didn't

Last night, Diva and I sat and watched the movie “Picture This”, starring Ashley Tisdale, on the ABC Family Channel. Diva is a huge fan of Ms. Tisdale, a Disney channel actress and singer best known for her role as Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical juggernaut.

Here’s the description of the movie per the ABC Family Channel web site:
"Ashley Tisdale stars as high school senior Mandy Gilbert who's not too hot within the high-stakes world of teen society. But her social status is about to dramatically improve when she lands a date to the biggest party of the year with Drew Patterson (Robbie Amell), the school's hottest guy. Only problem … she's grounded! With the help of her friends and her new, must-have video phone, she'll have to outsmart her overprotective dad and Drew's ex-girlfriend, in a crazy, adventure-filled day that proves that popularity can come and go, but good friends will always be in the picture.”

Cute, right? I thought this would be a nice, wholesome and innocent family movie to watch with my 8 year old. I was disappointed. While it told a cute overall story and it was clearly a vehicle to promote Ms. Tisdale’s acting and singing talents, it had some references that I thought were not only inappropriate, but completely unnecessary for advancing the plot. Here’s a short list:

• Several phrases describing sex with no commitment – “Hit and quit”, “hump and dump” and a couple more. Diva asked what these phrases meant. I just told her it meant a boy took you out and then never called you again. Lame and inaccurate, I know, but when put on the spot I didn't know what else to say.
  
• Slightly mocking references to Alcoholics Anonymous (as in, “Where’s your Mom? At an AA meeting, and then she’s going out for drinks afterwards”) I suppose this was meant to be funny?
  
• Discussing loss of virginity by using the term “deflower". As if that wasn't bad enough, they talked about doing it in the shower! Diva also asked what this meant. I gave a lame, inaccurate, G-rated answer to this too.


• Use of the word “a**” twice to describe the posterior. Really, what’s wrong with saying “butt”?


• Implied underage drinking at a high school party (I don’t think high school kids would likely drink fruit punch out of martini glasses, and everyone else holding opaque plastic cups at the party – are we really to believe there’s Coca-Cola in them?)

I must say these were minor or implied references, and since weren’t really central to the messages in the overall story, we kept watching, although in retrospect I probably should have turned it off. This movie was clearly geared toward a teen audience, not my rising third grader.

It didn’t help that peppered throughout the movie were promos for a new ABC Family series, “The Secret Life of an American Teenager”, which, from the ads, deals with a teenager hiding a pregnancy from her parents.

Of course, Diva and I have already discussed teen pregnancy as a result of Jamie Lynn Spears’ brilliant decision to get knocked up at 16, so she is familiar with the concept of teen pregnancy and how it’s just not the ideal situation for mother or baby. However, she does not yet know the specifics on how one actually gets pregnant. I’m sure that question will come soon enough, given that I myself will be giving birth in a month or so. :)

Anyhoo, the promos did indicate the new series comes with a warning: “Parental Discretion Advised”. I will use that discretion and will not permit her to watch it. I don’t know if “Picture This” had a similar warning, if it did, I didn’t see it. Granted, I did not research this movie much (at all!) but I figured it was FAMILY friendy, since it was the ABC Family Channel.

I wouldn’t have minded this so much if I was watching with a teenager, but with an 8 year old, I’m starting to stress a bit about her being exposed to so much at such a young age. I certainly don’t want her emulating such teenagers before her time. I wished I had been given some indication about this movie’s target audience.

So, as I learned last night, you still have to research and censor your kids’ TV choices, even when it’s the ABC FAMILY CHANNEL!

Take the kids to see WALL-E

We saw WALL-E yesterday and it got a thumbs up from all. What a great movie - animation is top notch, and it told a sweet love story, amazingly, with very little dialogue, with some messages in thrown in there for adults. This is one we'll buy on video and watch again and again. Daredevil thinks it was the best movie ever made, and Diva loved it too. I only looked at my watch once, and already an hour had gone by. It seemed like 10 minutes! While I enjoyed Kung Fu Panda, I think WALL-E is better. Go see it!

Happy 4th of July Weekend

Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend. We certainly are. The weather here on the East Coast is cloudy, with some rain here and there, and that suits me just fine. At almost 33 weeks pregnant I am enjoying staying indoors, baking brownies, vegging on the couch and watching the Beach Patrol: Honolulu marathon on TruTV. Daredevil has been watching the JAWS marathon on AMC and is loving it. Of course we had that talk that it's just a movie and the shark is fake, since I don't want him terrified of going in the ocean, as I was as a kid after first seeing JAWS.

Since it's not nice out I feel no obligation to park my beached whale self by the pool in one of my maternity bathing suits. JV took the kids out for fireworks last night. It was raining but they had fun all the same. I enjoyed the quiet time in the house and went to bed early. We saw fireworks last week after a baseball game, so I didn't feel like I was missing anything, although I think JV thinks I am unpatriotic by skipping them on the 4th. Today we might go see Wall-E at the movies to get out of the house. Other than that, we have no plans to do anything for the rest of the weekend, which is a beautiful thing!

Balancing Parenting Between Partners

I think the word "balance" assumes equality. Whether it's work/life, or shared parenting, the word "balance" for me assumes that both get an equal share of time and effort.

For me, this never happens. The pendulum swings back and forth. JV is a very involved and hands on parent, but he also works much more than I do, often involving nights and weekends.

I came across this New York Times article about "shared parenting", where couples really do try to share things equally. I found it very interesting and thought provoking. I'm all for shared parenting, but I think it's almost impossible (notice I say "almost"). Take a look at this article when you get a chance and let me know your thoughts:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15parenting-t.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there. I probably don't tell him enough, but JV is an amazing father and husband and I feel so fortunate to have him in my life. I am also grateful to my own Dad, who taught me, among many other things, to have a strong work ethic and to never quit when the going gets tough. Thanks, Dad. To all the Dads out there - take some time to chill out and relax today - you deserve it!

Winding up vacation

Today is our last day down South. We've had a very sunny (and HOT - 95 degrees!) week, and we've had a great time together as a family. The sun and heat has been exhausting, but it's been nice to sleep in and eat out. We've been pretty active, bike riding and doing a lot of walking, but a few times I had to bow out, citing 30-weeks-pregnant exhaustion and backaches. JV, Diva, and Daredevil went on a lengthy (8 mile!) bike ride this morning. I graciously declined, stayed behind and did laundry and a bit of packing. Tomorrow morning we will leave early for the long drive back home. We hope to arrive home around dinner time tomorrow night, JV did not want to be traveling on Father's Day, and I can't really blame him. All this focus on family this week, as well as the passing of my 30th week, really made reality set in that I'm about to have a baby in 8 or so weeks. I'm so not ready!

Getting ready for vacation - a heck of a lot of work

Tomorrow morning we are heading south for a week to visit relatives who live on a beautiful island in the southeast. While I'm looking forward to a week off, I'm not looking forward to the 10-12 hour drive it will take to get there. I'm also not looking forward to parading my 7 months pregnant body at the beach, pool, restaurants, generally anywhere in public. Ugh.

I've taken today off work to get ready for the trip -but it's now almost 1 p.m. and I haven't done a darn thing. Well, nothing in a packing sense. I've been running around all morning. Diva finished school yesterday, so she is home with me for the day. I made the offer to Daredevil that he could stay home too, but he opted to go to his preschool since they were having "Circus Day" today. And I had an OB appt at 8am. Had to take them both with me, always fun to have to pee in a cup in front of your 5 and 8 year old. They thought it was hilarious.

All went well there, then we dropped Daredevil off at his school, got Diva's hair cut, went shopping for summer footwear (always essential before the season's first trip to the beach) came home and ate lunch. Now I guess I have no choice but to start packing and doing the 1,000,000 other things I need to do (stop papers, clean out fridge, clean up house, put away laundry, replace foglight on car, etc.) Pathetic that I have to burn a vacation day to get READY to go on vacation! Wish me luck that I'll survive the marathon drive and maybe be able to relax a little bit. :)

My first post!

Well, here I am. I finally set up a blog, something I've been wanting to do for a long time. As soon as I figure out what my first REAL post will be, I'll be back!