When We Win The Lotto

Life In Motion Photography

Wow. I absolutely adore these photos. I received a coupon for $100 off "The Birth Experience" which was my first indication that we can't afford this photographer right now. Boo. She also does newborn photos -- some of which are hanging at the OB's office. There is one photo that I adore and I'm hoping that our photog friend (or my crafty and fantastic artsy family) will be able to recreate... Of course, the image would work much better if #2 is a boy. :-) I don't think I can link directly to the picture -- but if you go to the Portfolio and then Baby Love, it's the 2nd photo that loads in the slideshow. I just love that picture.

If #2 is a girl, perhaps we can do something similar, but with a tutu?

Is There A Lawyer In the House?

I'm sure it happens with every major profession - from computers, to doctors to car mechanics, but it's amazing the number of friends and family that suddenly have a need for a lawyer. This is not a good thing. Not that suddenly needing IT support, or a dentist or mechanic is all that much better.... but you know what I mean? Why can't people just be nice? And honest? And participate in life for the greater good of themselves and those around them?

Here's to hoping all issues get resolved.

It's Leaking

First the washing machine. Then this morning I find a strange little bit of water in the bathroom. I wiped it up, and thought nothing of it really - figured the cat was trying to cough up a hairball or something. A couple hours later, I return to the bathroom and see more water. Hmmm, I open up the cabinets and am greeted by a thin layer of watery ick. FABULOUS. The good news of course is that our amazing landlords were already on their way to Austin. The bad news - most everything that wasn't in some sort of plastic bag is now in the trash behind the house. It wasn't alot of stuff -- and honestly, most of it probably needed to go... but just try to picture a 9 month pregnant woman on the floor of the bathroom trying to mop up the mess, pull stuff out from under the sink and then try to stand back up! It wasn't graceful.

I suppose the other upside is that it wasn't the cat throwing up -- apparently she only did that yesterday on the freshly dry cleaned sofa cushions. Sigh. Only two cushions had to go back to the cleaners....

Now I'm off to attempt to work like a mad woman and make some progress on my to-do list both for work and for home. There is a mountain of stuff that needs to happen before Baden #2 decides there's much more room outside than inside! I do have my "official" 36 week check with the doctor tomorrow. Hopefully he can tell me what the large hard object just below my belly button is. I'm thinking it's a shoulder or something -- but I'm afraid to try and push or wiggle the baby for fear of causing early labor!! 25 days until the EDD, but we're hoping little one stays put until graduation ceremonies are complete. :-) We'll see.....

Motherhood and the $13 Billion Guilt

Found this article interesting. I know not everyone wants to breastfeed and that for some new moms, they simply can not for medical or other underlying reasons. A happy healthy baby is by all means the end goal. I don't think anyone should be made to feel guilty.

But -- the second scenario is most likely way too familiar for most...

My experience with Atticus was somewhere in the middle. I'm actually more nervous about this birth, which is a little funny since we're delivering in a brand new "women's wing" of the hospital. I did learn however that they don't do the bath in the room. Baby has to go to the nursery. I'm going to try and fight them on that one... we'll see how it goes. As long as they wait to clamp and cut the cord and I get the first couple of minutes with just me and baby -- I'll be pretty happy.

A Peaceful Revolution

Busy Weekend Ahead

We're supposed to have a great weekend ahead of us. That's good news. The to-do list is at least a mile long.

Crepes with friends tomorrow morning. I know - you're jealous. YUM!

Law Review Banquet with Supreme Court Justice Scalia tomorrow night.

Girls Movie Night on Sunday -- we're off to see The Best Worst Movie at the Drafthouse.

Oh - and a few loads of laundry, a trip to the grocery store, shopping for a little man "potty", trying to figure out the Cord Blood Registry thing, packing a bag for the hospital, running by the vet to pick up more meds for Peanut (nothing new - just continuing on the current course), perhaps stopping by the maternity/nursing store, drugstore/Target for some more diaper/tush cream (seems we went through a TON this week), return a thing to Costco, call my S-I-L to say Thank You, upload some photos and video from the camera to Picasa/You Tube... OY VEY!

That paragraph is really just for my own reference later - so I can make sure I've done everything I'm supposed to...

Quit Biting Me

There's a mad mosquito on the loose somewhere in the house. How do I know this you ask? I keep finding new bites and it's driving me nuts. Quit biting me you little blood sucker. I mean it. Trying to reach over my big ole buddha belly to reach my calves to scratch is getting more and more difficult.

So - I hereby order you to cease and desist.

Sincerely,

Jen

Cankles

I need to look back at the blog to see when the cankles started before Atticus arrived. Hopefully it was several weeks before his arrival! Greg and I are suddenly becoming more overwhelmed with the timing of #2. We should have reconsidered our planning about 8 months ago!! Oops. Too late now - but we are starting to freak out a bit. Seminar papers, finals, maternity leave instructions, graduation, moving quotes, looking for new daycare/nannies -- it's a lot to take in over the next few weeks.

And, I suppose we really should go to the storage unit and get the actual physical things we'll need for the baby!! Clothes, burp clothes, car seat... YIKES! The other pseudo stresser is that with my Grandparents moving into their apartment (and out of their house) we don't really have a plan B for guests. So - if #2 comes early - we're kind of up a creek! Our house isn't well suited for visitors -- but there's no way that I can handle everything by myself if baby comes before Greg's completed papers and school. And, having family camped out in the living room isn't all that conducive to finishing school for Greg. So -- where exactly does that leave us? Perhaps begging for mercy with my friend Deanna who's in the process of moving to Austin. Why Deanna? She and her husband work for the Hyatt's Lost Pines Resort just outside of town. I've been itching to go there actually for a weekend away with Greg. Golf course, lazy river, spa, etc -- it looks absolutely stunning. Maybe I can swing a few day stay for an old friend and her family? :-) We'll see.

Ok... well, now I'm off to search my archives for cankles and tackle a bit more work before calling it a night. I'm oddly awake this evening...

Tush Update

I'm sure Atticus will really love that I'm updating the world on his tush... but, I am happy to report that we're slowly getting better. Yay. Poor guy. He is getting really good at the word "owie" however...

We've also been able to pick out a few more words lately. Play-do, Milo (his friend at school), cheese (although I may be the only one that knows what he's saying - but it's a consistent "word"), hat, and a handful of other words that we're still trying to connect to the proper object. The favorite over the past few days is "car keys". Sometimes, it comes out kind of like cookie -- but when he's running toward the front door, it's usually pretty easy to figure out what he wants!

Water, Water

Poor Atticus has a raw tush. I feel awful. He can't walk, he keeps looking at me with big blue eyes and saying "owie" and "Mommy".

So, when I picked him up and brought him home this afternoon, I wanted to put some of the medicated spray on his tush. After many tears and owies, I got him to lay still on the changing table. I sprayed and was just letting him lay still for a while when we got the first tinkle tinkle little star. He hasn't actually done that since he was a baby! No biggie - carefully wipe it all up and let him continue to sit/lay diaper free. Finally decide he has to get up so we can eat dinner, etc, so I re-diaper him as loosely as possible.

Fast forward. Greg and I decide to risk the tinkle and let him be diaper free for the 15 minutes or so until bath time. Sure enough, after a few minutes of playing in his room, he starts to pee. But the funny part is he looks down at the floor and says, "water, water!". Greg and I start to laugh, I go run to get some paper towels, etc. As I'm walking back in the room the I hear Atticus let out a big toot. If that weren't enough to get me moving quicker, Greg says, "Oh G-d!". I nearly passed out from laughing so hard. Thankfully it was a false alarm - nothing but air, but holy moly did we laugh. Atticus saw us laughing so hard and even he was giggling although he had no clue why!!

We're hoping the combination of the spray and the Aquaphor starts to do the trick. If it's still red and raw tomorrow, I may move onto other recommended home remedies. For now, we're mostly sticking to the BRAT diet and doing all we can to clear up the raw bottom. Poor baby. I wish I could stay home and just let him drape over my legs with his tush in the air all day... of course, I don't know how long we could get him to sit still -- but if you saw how he's walking, he might stay still for longer than normal.

Pregnancy Brain

I had all these great things to update the world on earlier today... (I do my best thinking in the shower, I swear...) but now I can't remember what I wanted to say! This little creature in my belly truly is sucking brain cells! Hopefully that won't be a problem tomorrow when I'm trying to do my normal work, and fill in for the vacationing boss lady and help out my old crew! Let's just hope the little man is feeling better by morning. Actually, I'm ready for the whole family to feel healthy at the same time. That's a novel idea, eh?

We did get to quickly visit with Uncle Mike, the Great Grandparents and Pop both yesterday and today. That was the highlight of the weekend for sure!

And totally unrelated to anything - but since I have the news on in the background - what in the world is going on in Austin all the sudden? There has been a murder almost every day for the past week. Stop killing people. Do we really need to tell people that?

Ok... I'm feeling really random, so I'd best go ahead and log off until I collect my thoughts. :-)

Puj Tub

I really think I need this - The Puj Tub. Pretty cool, eh?

Dadu

Atticus has renamed Greg. He's no longer Dada or Daddy. He's now Dadu. It's really funny. He started calling him that a few days ago, and now it appears he's so pleased with himself that it's sticking. For the record - I'm still Mommy.

He's also making the connection between the phone and calling Grandparents. In the mornings, he'll grab the cordless phone, push some buttons and say "Bubba, Pop... Bubba?" Of course, if I actually call and put them on speaker phone, Atticus becomes suddenly quiet and just stares at the phone. :-)

The speech is still a little slow, but it's definitely improving. The other new favorite word is "car keys". He's figured out how to put the keys in the lock - he's actually a little obsessed with putting keys in the lock (both front and back door). And each morning, he asks Greg to pick him up and says "car keys" indicating he's ready to go.

Is it June yet?

I'm eagerly anticipating the next season of HBO's True Blood.

And for my other vampire loving friends, check out this video clip I found from the upcoming Details magazine photo shoot. Yeowzers!

Recovery

So... after two days of what I refer to as the plague... Greg and I began feeling MUCH better. This of course was very good news, because after two days of dying - the to-do list had grown by a mile and a half. Yikes. There is so much to get done!

Thankfully, despite the to-do list and the millions of other things eating away at our minds, Greg and I did manage to slip out last night for a planned date night. One of our favorite bands, Jackopierce, was playing at the Cactus Cafe on the UT Campus. This is a fantastic little venue nestled inside the Union. It's been open since 1979 and for some unknown reason, it's being closed down. Boo hiss. Seriously folks, the athletics department brings in how many millions of dollars - certainly they can spare and extra $100K to save the Cactus! Sigh... but anywho... It was a last minute announcement that Jackopierce was playing, and I couldn't resist getting tickets. Greg had to experience the Cactus at least once! And, while it was a short show - it was great.

Today was mayhem. Two birthday parties! The first this morning was for Atticus's cousin Paige. The big "1". The weather was a little funky - overcast and misty, but otherwise quite pleasant. When we arrived, most of the kids were wearing headbands with antennae made from pipe cleaners and pom poms. Freaking adorable if you ask me -- but I think it scared the daylights out of Atticus. He stayed glued to me for a little over an hour. Glued as in not even letting me put him down! It was odd. Lunch didn't quite go as planned, but Atti was definitely tired, so I put him down a little late - about 12: 30 and he fell asleep within 15 minutes I'd say... and he slept until almost 4 pm! Yeowzers! We then made a mad dash up north to Elijah's birthday party. Elijah is my college bud Brandon's son who also turned the big "1". I'm sad we were so late to the party - they were packing everything up when we arrived... but Atticus still managed to run around, chase some squirrels, climb some rocks, stomp in a few puddles -- oh and wave to the birthday boy. The park up north was really freaking cool - there were a ton of different playscapes and several huge pavilions. A great setup for a party.

We left the 2nd party and stopped by the IM fields in time to watch Greg (and our other law friends) win a softball game. Then home for dinner, bath and bed. Whew.

Funny, but I'm almost looking forward to a normal work-day tomorrow! It'll be a busy one, don't get me wrong... but the familiar routine sounds nice.

Barf

Literally. First Greg this morning, then I started just after lunch. Neither one of us can even hold down water. This blows - pun intended. We managed to get Atti from school & put him to bed - and now we're headed that way too... Hope we feel better tomorrow. Our friend Diane had this ??? for a week. Yuck.

~ Jen
Sent from my iPhone

A Mother's Whine

I was going to start with this evening... but really, I need to go back to Friday.

Friday:

• Jen mops cat pee from kitchen floor.
• Jen buys new big masonry tub to use as new litter box. Asks husband to replace old box with new big tub.

Saturday:

• So-so morning, gorgeous afternoon with the bluebonnets and a trip to Chick-fil-A.
• Atticus starts coughing at night.

Sunday:

• Jen mops cat pee from kitchen floor.
• Atticus continues to cough - but mostly at night.

Monday:

• Jen mops cat pee from kitchen floor.
• Jen goes to HEB at 9:30 pm to get groceries while Atticus has coughing fits.

Tuesday:

• Jen mops cat pee from kitchen floor.
• Jen attempts to meet friend for dinner, but Atticus throws temper tantrum, crying and throwing everything in sight. Jen packs dinner to-go and heads home.
• While carrying a screaming toddler out the door, trips over large rock messing up her pedicure and almost drops toddler.
• Jen puts a fussy toddler in the bath and in bed.
• Atticus screams and throws fit asking for Daddy for 20 minutes and finally falls asleep.
• Jen mops cat pee from kitchen floor.
• Jen asks Greg again to swap litter box.

Wednesday:

• Jen mops cat pee from kitchen floor. (Anyone else notice a trend???)
• Jen calls pediatrician and books appointment for 10 am to ensure it's just allergies/cold and not anything more serious. (For the record, just allergies and possible cold. Told to continue with the Zyrtec and in Benedryl at night.)
• Family enjoys a dinner out with friends.
• Jen goes to straighten crib while Atticus is in the bath with Greg - moves the blanket and discovers why her child was screaming last night. Poor guy barfed ALL over his bed, blanket and pillow.
• Jen feels like the worst mom ever because she didn't know last night and didn't even notice this morning when she retrieved him from the crib. Granted it was still dark outside - but you'd think I would have noticed.
• Jen attempts to change the sheet on the crib mattress while Atticus is in the bath - wrenching her back in the process because she can no longer lean that far over the crib rail to get to the mattress.
• Jen and Greg dress Atticus for bed and while Jen sits with him in the rocking chair asks Greg to get the Benedryl - but then realizes she doesn't have the dosing instructions.
• Jen attempts to do laundry to wash dried on baby vomit.
• Jen realizes that she's out of Oxyclean.
• Jen folds laundry in the dryer while washing the ick and notices that the washer is leaking - makes mental note to email landlord.

I'm exhausted. I'm still waiting on the dryer to finish. I've got the pillow case sitting in a bucket of water with bleach because the soap, the stain stick and the Ivory aren't doing the trick. I've washed the throw pillow again by hand and propped it up in the sink to dry -- I don't even know if it was supposed to get washed, but there really wasn't any other option. I'm pretty sure it's now barf free. I think the barf came out of everything else...

My back hurts, I'm tired, and I just want to go to bed. Thankfully Atticus seems to be sleeping ok at the moment even without the Benedryl. He hasn't coughed since I've been back in the house... figures. Take him to the doctor and then poof he's better? Well, time to check the pillow case and retrieve the things from the dryer. Anyone know if I need to treat the mattress or wipe it down with anything tomorrow? Guess it couldn't hurt to wipe it with a Lysol or Clorox wipe...

Bluebonnets

Greg knew of the perfect spot to take pictures in the bluebonnets... and it didn't involve dodging traffic off the median of a major freeway! Bonus!! If anyone local is reading this and wants directions - let me know. It's off Mopac and Breaker Lane.

I haven't edited any of these pics - so my apologies if several look the same.

April? Already?

Ummm, how is it April already? Yikes! I'm technically 33 weeks pregnant now - which means the official countdown will soon begin. We're not ready. Nope. Nope. Nope. We haven't narrowed down names, we haven't gone to the storage unit to retrieve the bassinet, or the newborn clothes... I haven't picked up any newborn diapers. There are a million other things on the to-do list that I haven't even started to work on...

For some good news... Atticus has suddenly developed a healthy relationship/association with his crib and sleep. I have NO clue how this happened, but I'm not complaining. If you ask him now if he's sleepy, he'll look at you, pretend to put his head down and then run to his room and try to climb into his crib. I think someone has reprogrammed my child and I couldn't be happier! He even napped for us over the weekend!! That hadn't happened in 3 months!

We've started the "moving" process - at least slightly. I've had two companies come out "inventory" the house and provide quotes. Moving across the country seems to have gotten pretty dang pricey - and that was before moving the cars and plane tickets for me and the kiddos. Perhaps we will look into a road trip - although the thought of being in a car for 1200 miles with a 2 year old and a 3 month old really isn't all that appealing - call me crazy! I'm not sure how many times I can sing The Wheels on the Bus...

We do now officially have a house in Perrysburg, OH. That's one less thing to worry about. Bummer is that we had to "rent" it as of 5/15/10 - which means double rent for the summer AGAIN. At least it's only 1/2 rent in Ohio until we actually move in -- and rent there is no where near what we had to pay in NYC!! I think we could have waited to see what else came on the market - but Greg was in a panic about us not finding anything after our last bout of bad luck. So... now we've got a house - approved by Yvonne and the realtor. 4 bedrooms - so there will be room if anyone wants to come visit us in cheery Ohio! The house is in a great location - in a subdivision of a golf course and country club. It's about halfway between Greg's office and his parents house. I need to figure out daycare still -- but I'm already working on that. There's also a fun little arboretum type shopping center relatively close by with a bookstore, restaurants, shops etc. Next up for me - settling the daycare issues, finding the closest parks and starting to look for a nanny. Lots to do!

Not much else... thankfully!! Hope everyone has a great weekend. I've put a few new pictures in the March folder of the Baden Family Photos and a couple new videos are up on YouTube as well from my week in Dallas.