MONDAY NIGHT MUSINGS

Tuesday July 5th - Monday July 11th

- Have I told you about The Adventures of CJ? It's this really great series of stories in which CJ is the hero! He does things from find Amanda's wedding ring (Cameron's fiance), to visit the temple, to take care of Mommy and his soon-to-be baby brother. They're pretty great stories, and based on the demand (from CJ), I think the author (Bryce) should seriously consider a book deal :)

- I haven't really talked about my pregnancy much. Maybe because there's not much to report, except that I'm bigger than ever and that this little guy is apparently pretty cramped in there because he is constantly kicking and jabbing and moving. And I've got to be honest, it's pretty uncomfortable. I can't believe I still have 11 weeks to go - they are going to be the longest 11 weeks of my life! It's not that I'm ready for the baby yet, but more just really ready to not be pregnant any more. I sleep horribly, I'm uncomfortable most of the time, and summer has finally hit Wenatchee, making me hot and sweaty (and irritable) just about always. I seem to have energy in the morning, but by 1 or 2, it's gone and I'm wasted the rest of the day. My poor kids. Last summer was the "lost summer" because Bryce was studying for the bar, and this summer is going to be the "boring summer" because I'm too hot and tired to do anything. And I won't even talk about how I've already gained as much weight as I gained with Mattie the entire pregnancy, and  I STILL HAVE 11 WEEKS TO GO!! Ugh. My doctor is really nice about it, and I'm frustrated because I've been trying to walk and keep active and not eat a bunch of junk, but I still seem to put on about 50% more weight that I'd like each month. It's been very frustrating and I just hope that I can get it all off when this over (and that I don't gain 60 pounds, like my mom said she did with each of her babies...but she always got it all off). And I'm trying not to be too vain, because I can really get caught up in that kind of stuff. I just need to focus on my good health (besides getting ginormous) and the good health of the baby. 11 more weeks to go...

- Speaking of 11 weeks to go, we got my mom tickets to come here a few weeks ago. We bought her tickets for a week before my due date and to stay for two weeks. Part of me hopes that I have the baby before then, but she's our babysitting plan, and I really don't want to call anyone in the middle of the night to come be with our kids, so I guess I'm leaning more towards going to 39 weeks than going before that. But if I haven't had the baby before she gets here (39 wks), I'm asking the doctor to strip my membranes the minute her flight lands!

- Hopefully by the time the baby comes we'll have decided on a name. We're between two names, leaning towards one more than the other, but it might just come down to looking at our little guy to get a sense of who he is. It's kind of unnerving because I knew before CJ and Mattie were even conceived what I wanted to name them. And if this baby had been a girl, it would have been the same thing, but now we're torn. Oh well. At least we'll have another boy's name for any future baby boys.

- Mattie has started calling Bryce and me "Dad" and "Mom" instead of Daddy and Mommy. On the one hand, I'm not a big fan. She has the rest of her life to call us that - it's only this small window of toddlerhood that we get to be called Mommy and Daddy. However, it is cute to hear her talk so grown-up with her little voice.

- Our good friends, the Bromiley's, have a family cabin up at Lake Chelan. Bryce has been telling me about Lake Chelan since before we ever even moved to Washington, and so we jumped at the chance when the Bromiley's invited us up for some fun on the lake. And it did not disappoint! Besides not being as hot as we had anticipated (which was great for me because I didn't jump in the cold lake, like some of the others), it was just as beautiful as I had heard. That, and it helps to have such great people to hang out with. The only thing that wasn't great - besides my pregnant self in a bathing suit - was dealing with our kids. I hate to use the word "dealing," but that's what it felt like most of the time. It's hard sometimes for CJ, or rather, for us, when CJ is around older kids because he wants to play with them and do what they're doing and ends up completely ignoring us. For example, after a few hours of playing at the lake, we walked up the street a little way to a cute resort to get some ice cream. We were walking on the shoulder of a two-lane road so we needed to stay pretty much single file. But in his attempt to keep up with the older kids, CJ kept ending up in the road. And even worse than that, when the older kids started to run, CJ ran too, tripping not once, but twice, with the second trip being pretty bad, especially on the palms of his hands. Then when we got our ice cream, the older kids were walking on the dock, and so CJ wanted to run on the dock (again, not a good idea in his flip flops), and they were sitting on the ledge by the water. Considering CJ has an issue with balance, and had already fallen in the lake (he was sitting on a tube in the water reaching for the rope and just reached too far - thank goodness for life jackets), we weren't too keen on him sitting on the ledge, or running on the ledge either like he kept trying to do. And he kept completely ignoring us and running away from us. It was frustrating, to say the least. However, at one point, it was just CJ and Bennett, who is his age, and Austin, who is 5. All the kids were on the boat (except Mattie), and CJ was great. No issues of craziness. And then there was Mattie. She kept wanting to play in the water, but get there by practically walking off the dock. And then, a couple of hours after being there, the kids all went on a boat ride. They came back sooner than expected to drop Mattie off because she was crying. And then she cried inconsolably for almost half an hour. I could not figure out what was wrong. She said she had an owie on her privates, but when I took off her diaper, she looked fine (no redness, no rash, no scrapes or dirt or anything). It really was worrying me, but after about half an hour she calmed down and then was fine the rest of the afternoon. Anyway, if you can't tell, it was fun but exhausting for us. I like to think it would have been a little better if I wasn't pregnant and had a little more energy. But regardless, it was TOTALLY worth it and we'd go again in a heartbeat! Thank you, Bromiley's!!

Happy Monday!