Spin Time

My previous post showed me getting ready to eat a meal with the challenges of The Claw.  What I didn't tell you was that while that meal was delish, it ended badly for Doodle.  Towards the end of dinner she started talking about getting down because she wanted to "spin with Daddy".  We talked about who dinner was not time for spinning.  We kept asking her what she meant.  She just got louder, more demanding, and angry because we didn't understand her.  She wouldn't give in.  She wouldn't eat and was just being a pain.  We ended up threatening her with no story before bed unless she calmed down.  She is stubborn and wouldn't let spin time go.  So she got no story.  
The next night my friend Amy brought us yummy dinner.  Doodle asked if dinner was ready and I said yes it was ready, btu we were going to wait for Daddy to come home.  She said "So we can spin time with our fambily?"  And then it hit me!  While I was hearing spin, she was saying/meaning spend.  She wanted to SPEND time with her family!  I was immediately hit with a huge wave of mommy guilt.  Poor kid was demanding to spend time with her Daddy and we sent her to bed without a story for being sassy!   It was a Mom of the Year moment!  Needless to say, over the next few days we had a lot of what we are now calling "Spin Time".   We started the weekend off eating that dinner as a family!  

March 16 (240/365)

Saint Patrick's Day was Saturday and we took Doodle for lunch at Bodo's and then we went to the playground to play in the sunshine with the rest of C'ville!  I am always amazed at the influence of my Favoritest on Doodle.  She is a daddy's girl.  She tries different food if he is eating it.  She is a little braver when he is around.  And she is much more independent when he is involved!  I think I tend to push her a little too far too fast.  My Favoritest tends to give her a little more silent support and so she goes a little further.  Case in point.  She has tried these swinging disk things every time we go to the park.  And every time she gets to the first one and gets off.  One afternoon with daddy and she is going all the way across almost by herself!  I have always said one of the reasons that I love my Favoritest is that he balances me out.  The longer we parent together, the more I realize this is so true even in our parenting styles.  My girls are going to grow up realizing that there are different ways to reach the same goal!

March 17 (241/365)

The CLAW!!!

Before I begin this tale, I will admit.  I am my mother's daughter.  I am klutzy.  I randomly injure myself.  I know this about myself.  There isn't much I can do about it besides to abstain from high risk activities.  However, somethings like cooking just have to happen when you are a wife and mother without a million dollar annual income.  So, that begins the tale of The Claw!  
I was cooking dinner on our anniversary (mistake #1).  I was cooking chicken that started on the stove, went in the oven and then back on the stove (mistake #2).  I took the skillet out of the oven and then took the chicken out of the skillet so I could mix the sauce up.  Then enter Doodle chatting it up.  Me telling Doodle to get out of the kitchen and that I am trying to cook dinner.  As words come out of my mouth, I reach down to grab handle of skillet and stir sauce.  Immediately realize handle is burning the crap out of my hand, and drop skillet filled with salsa and cream cheese sauce all over kitchen floor.  Begin screaming at Doodle to get out so she doesn't get hot food on her.  Enter my Favoritest.  Flowers in hand.  Me over sink with cold water running over my hand.  Beagle licking hot food off floor.  Beagle coughing and choking because he burned mouth.  Happy Anniversary!  I spent the next couple of hours with my hand in cold water.  If I took my hand out of water, it was back on fire.  Being preggo, I could only take tylenol.  The pain was horrific.  We woke Doodle up and dropped her at Sisterwife's house and headed to the ER.  Several hours and a couple of percocets later, we were home.  It was only a 1st degree burn, but I was told to keep it covered in neosporin and gauze until the blisters healed.  And so The Claw was born!

March 13 (237/365)

I was surprised to find all the things that are challenging about having a claw!  Doodle had no pony for several days.  Half of my body was without lotion.  And I don't even want to talk about the challenges of one handed shaving combined with an ever expanding belly!  Most challenging of all was planning meals. I could chop anything and I didn't want to have to handle much raw meat.  We ate out the night after the incident and the next night we had pizza with Jayburb after our ultrasound, so I had avoided the dinner dilemma for a few days.  But a house wife's gotta do what she's gotta do!  So I planned to make my ghetto fabulous meatball subs.  It involves frozen garlic cheese bread, frozen meatballs, and a jar of marinera sauce.  No chopping, no raw meat, very little hands on prep.  I thought it was a winner.  Until I sat down to eat it.  One handed sub eating.... challenging:)

March 15 (239/365)

The Claw stuck around for a solid week.  I promise I will be more carful from now on when cooking!  And I promise to never cook on my anniversary again!

Beauty In 3's

This post is definitely out of order.  But this picture deserves a story all it's own and I wanted to have time to tell the story.  Right now Doodle and my Favoritest are out shopping for soccer balls.  The house is quiet and I am ready to share.  I have mentioned that this pregnancy has not been smooth sailing.  We have had a couple of spotting scares.  I have felt pretty crappy off and on.  In addition to that, we have been playing a waiting game for a couple of months.  As part of routine screenings we had an ultrasound when Sadie was 14 weeks along.  They look at the thickness of the baby's nucal fold (skin on the back of the neck).  This measurement combined with blood work provide good indication of Downs Syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities.  We had the scan, the neck looked good.  I left with a lab slip and didn't think about it again.


Flash forward 3 weeks and the blood work comes back.  The results were "screen positive" for Downs Syndrome.  What that means is that given my age, our chances for having a baby with DS was higher than average.  We had a level II ultrasound to look for any other "markers" for DS.  The good news was we found out that Poppy was in fact a Sadie.  The unsettling news was that they couldn't see 3 bones in Sadie's pinky.  Apparently this is a soft marker for DS.  Everything else about her was healthy, normal, and measuring right on track.  The high risk OB said she couldn't reduce our risk because of the pinky, but you could have a missing pinky bone for other reasons.  HUH??? We left the hospital a little shell shocked and unsure of what to think.  We declined an amnio because risking our daughter's life for our own knowledge just seemed selfish.


We did however get a second opinion with another high risk ob in town (Dr. T).  He was much more thorough when explaining the significance of the pinky bone in DS prediction.  His words were that given everything else about our daughter looked normal, he didn't put much stock in the pinky bone.  He agreed with our decision not to have amnio.  Our feeling was that she is our daughter and she is who she is.  We wouldn't do anything differently with the results so why risk the procedure.   Dr. T offered to do our regularly scheduled anatomy scan at 22 weeks, and given our experience with him, we scheduled the appointment before leaving.


My Favoritest and I decided to focus on the joy in our life.  We were having another daughter.  Doodle was having a sister.  We couldn't wait to share the news!  We did however decide to keep the testing results to ourselves.  I shared with a few close friends because I have to talk things out to process them.  My Favoritest told some colleagues at work mostly because that is how we got the appointment at Dr. T's office and because he needed additional time off work.  But for the most part we didn't share.  We didn't want to scare our family and we really needed time on our own to process things.


I spent a few weeks watching Doodle grow and learn new things wondering if Sadie would do those things in her own time.  I saw adults and children with DS everywhere I looked over the next few weeks.  They were always happy and engaged in meaningful activities surrounded by love.  I just smiled knowing it was a message.  I am not a super religious person, but I know God was telling me Sadie would be okay no matter who she was.  And that became my mantra.  "She is who she is and we love her".


As our anatomy scan grew closer and closer I started to ask God to make sure we had some answers after the ultrasound.  I didn't ask that her pinky bone be there.  I didn't ask for him to take away DS if that is who she is.  I asked him to give us answers.  To let us see a clear picture of her pinky one way or another.  I asked for clear pictures of all her other organs and bones.  And I asked for peace with whatever we saw.


We had the anatomy scan on the 14th.  The sonographer was very thorough and answered all our questions as she went along. She knew our concern regarding her pinky and tried several times to get a good view of Sadie's hands.  Stubborn girl wouldn't cooperate.  Everything else looked great.  Her heart, stomach, brain, nose, bones, and all her other organs were perfect.  Dr. T came in, and I immediately told him our stubborn girl wouldn't show her pinky.  He laughed and told us it was really normal for her gestational age to keep their hands balled up.  He tried a couple of times, and then turned on the 3D feature of the ultrasound.  And there they were.  The 3 most beautiful things I have seen in a very long time.  Three perfect bones in her perfect little pinky.

March 14 (238/365)

We walked out with good answers and very at peace.  Is there still a chance she could have DS?  Of course.  But based on the images from the ultrasound, we are at no greater risk than anyone else at this point.  The whole experience has made for a challenging couple of months.  I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.  I decided to share this story a while ago.  I decided that after our anatomy scan I wanted to share the story no matter what.  I want Sadie to read this years from now and know how much she was loved from the minute we knew she was part of our family.  Medicine and technology have given us the ability to know so much about babies before they are born, but there are still surprises.  We know that Sadie's organs and bones are healthy and where they should be.  We even got a sneak peek at her precious face and fingers.  The surprise will be in finding out who she will become as she grows into her personality.  All I know right now is that we are two lucky parents to get to watch her grow up!

A Little This and That

The Claw is gone, and I am only about 2 weeks behind.  I might finally get caught up!  


Due to traveling I did miss a picture.  Doodle hasn't' used her camera much in the last few weeks so I decided to crop a picture and find something interesting to share.  This is the background of a picture of Doodle and Bubbie.  Every time I looked at the picture, I thought of a rainbow.  What do you think?

March 11 (235/365 missed)

We are totally enjoying a warming trend in our weather.  It is slightly confusing to a 3 year old to have snow one week and play in the water table the next week, but she was really excited to get back to one of her favorite toys!  We invited our new neighbor who just turned one to come out and play too.  It was a great activity that both of them could enjoy:)

March 12 (236/365)

Down Home- Part 2

The entire reason for the whirlwind adventure was a celebration.  Our niece Jennifer was getting married to her beau Stephen.  Jennifer and her sister Mary Kathryn (MK) have always thought their uncle hung the moon.  Lucky for me, when I just the family they decided I helped him hang it straight and make it prettier:)  I am so grateful for my relationship with both of them.  They have grown up to be virtuous, confident, kind, and smart women.  I love that when Doodle and her sister hit the "awkward phase" Jenny and MK will be there to bolster their confidence, and to remind them it's okay to be true to themselves.  I hope that when my girls hate me they will turn to their older (but not old) and wiser (but not too wise) cousins for comfort and rational advice.  All of that being said, we wouldn't have missed this wedding for anything in the world!  Not to mention, Doodle was a flower girl!  
The wedding was beautiful.  The bride was stunning.  The groom was smitten.  I have told people it was one of the most genuine ceremonies I have ever been to.  The entire service was try to Jenny and Stephen. The bride beamed.  The groom cried tears of love and joy when he saw her.  It was not nice to do to this pregnant mamma!  And speaking of tears, that wasn't the first time I cried that day!  I cried when I saw my baby in her first big girl fancy dress.  I cried when I kissed Jenny and headed to the ceremony.  I cried when she walked in.  I cried.  A lot.  Not the ugly cry, but the "I need a tissue to dab my eyes" cry. Even as I'm writing this, I have tears.  I blame hormones!  So, here are a couple of pictures from the wedding.  We love you Mr. and Mrs. Sparks! And MK too:)

Doodle and MK

The blushing bride

MK, me, and Jenny

March 10 (234/365)
May she always want to hold her Daddy's hand!

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Sparks

Down Home! Part 1

We recently finished a whirlwind trip to Georgia.  We left VA at 9:00am and after 13 hours in the car arrived at Bubbie and Zayde's house about 10:00 that night.  Thankfully for us, Doodle is an excellent car rider.  Give her a movie, some snacks, and let her stretch her legs every couple of hours and she is good to go.  The only negative about her travel style is that she doesn't nap well in the car.  So, she finally took a nap on this trip around 5:00.  She slept till 7:30.  Which meant when we got to Bubbie and Zayde's at 10:00 she was rearing and ready to go.  It took her less than 10 minutes to unpack some little friends and get settled in!

March 7 (231/365)

Bubbie and Zayde have taken their role as grandparents vey seriously.  They rarely tell Doodle no, and pretty much follow her every command.  Don't get me wrong, they make her behave and follow our general rules and routines, but they let her do things we would normally say no to or limit.  For example, Bubbie has a tray with candles and glass rocks on it.  About 2 years ago Doolde discovered the rocks.  I told her she could have 2 rocks.  Bubbie got her a plaistic cup, removed the candles and told her to have fun.  I (along with Zayde) told her to have fun finding rocks for the next 6 weeks:)  Well, this trip we found a no-no we can all agree on.  As I was getting out of the shower I heard a loud metallic crashing sound.  I got dressed and walked into the hall to find Doodle upstairs looking through the railing/catwalk.  My Favoritest was down stairs with a stuffed Abby Cadabby in his hands.  He was telling Doodle not to throw things off the catwalk.  I looked at where Abby hit the ground, and knew that wasn't the noise I heard.  I looked to the left, and found the original crime scene.  Elmo, who lucky for all of us had only grazed the antique, straight from Turkey, irreplaceable samovar.  It's nice to know that we can all agree this is a bad game:)

March 8 (232/365)

The next morning, Bubbie took the day off and we had a girls day!  We started with a pedicure and then we took a special trip to Feinbrook Farm, the home of some of our adopted family.  Uncle Philip taught me to ride a bike and drive a car.  He is like the pied piper when kids are around and he always has something to show them!  He didn't disappoint Doodle!  He had a calf that needed to be fed with a bottle.  Doodle wasn't so sure to start with, but after a few minutes, she was curious enough to give it a try!

March 9 (233/365)

Rest Time

Sisterwife and I swap kids often.  At least that is what I like to believe.  Really, she keeps Doodle way more often they I keep the boys.  The whole pregnant, million doctors appointments, exhausted thing has put me super in debt!  But I finally got the chance to even the balance a little bit last week.  Sisterwife was at a doctors appointment and I had all 3 rug rats.  The little one, Butterbean was supposed to be taking a nap.  The two older ones needed to have "rest time".  Otherwise known as "watch t.v. and veg on the couch time.  Here is the conversation that preceded this picture:


Me: Okay guys, it's time to rest
Jayburb: Hey Doodle, wanna lie on the couch with me?
Doodle: Okay
Jayburb: You lay on the inside so you don't fall off (chivalry is alive and well in the under 5 demographic)
Doodle: Okay
Doodle climbs on couch, Jayburb lays down beside her
Jayburb: Wanna hold my hand? (can't blame a kid for trying)
Doodle: No thank you.


Me: trying to laugh silently, not pee my pants, and grab my phone at the same time... not an easy feat!

March 6 (230/365)