Easter

It occurred to me yesterday that rather than writing a post about how I didn't have time to write a post, I could have, you know, written down one of those posts floating around in my head. Duh.

Hey! Dere's an egg right dere!

Whoa! M-a-M's!

Love Morgan's face here Hey Daddy, dere's another biiiig truck right here!More eggs.Cute little baseball Easter egg basketThe last egg

Easter was such a great day this year. It was the first year we actually bought candy and did an easter egg hunt and Conor loved it! It would have been so much fun to do it outside but it was pretty wet that day so we hid them all over the house during his nap. Too cute.

on Saturday before Easter Conor and I went to the Easter Egg Hunt at my dad's church and Conor collected tons of loot there too. (We now have waaay too much candy in our house.) Conor was pretty fascinated with all the kids there (like, a million - at least that's what it seemed like) and the bouncy house. He wouldn't actually get into it but he loved standing just outside and watching all the kids bounce around.

This is the face of one seriously tired, overwhelmed little boy. But man! What a cutie.

Blogging

I feel like I am constantly composing blog posts in my head. Anytime anything remotely interesting happens, or sometimes even the lack of interesting things, causes me to start writing posts in my head. I'm currently (head) working on four posts, Easter, how my CBEST went, how this baby is different from Conor even in utero (and also pressing on my lady bits in a rather uncomfortable way), and a written account of what Conor's constant chatter sounds like. But until I get them out of my head and onto "paper", they won't do anyone any good.

I'm swamped with homework and reading right now. This final term of school is truly a bear and I'm hanging on by a thread. It doesn't help that twice when I have sat down to do some reading I have found myself being woken up as Morgan comes home from work. Lord have mercy, I didn't even know I had fallen asleep!

Including the two hours a week I spend in class, I figure I'm logging about 20 to 25 hours of reading and writing each week. This is VASTLY more time than I have ever spent on homework during any other term and I'm only taking 2 classes!

All this to say, please bear with me. I hope I'll get a better handle on homework over the next few weeks and be able to return to more frequent blogging. In the meantime, know I'm at least thinking of the posts I should be writing.

Children, listen to your parents

In order to get into grad school and to become certified to teach in Oregon I have to take a number of tests, the CBEST, the ORELA, and the Praxis II. The first two measure basic knowledge such as reading, writing and basic mathematical skills. I usually fare pretty well in reading and writing but since I seem to altogether lack basic mathematical skills I decided to buy test prep book and take a little refresher course before my CBEST on Saturday. (Yes, I am spending 6.5 hours cramming before taking the test. What? Its a valid study strategy!)

So, I spent about an hour and a half going through the book and refreshing my memory on how to do such simple mathematical tasks as add, subtract and divide fractions. Bleck. I have ALWAYS hated fractions. Quite literally since the fourth grade when they were first introduced all the way through the remedial college math classes I had to take. Ugh. Fractions.

*Did I mention there are no calculators allowed on this test? Keep this in mind.*

So, after my refresher course I decided to take one of the two tests included in the back of the book. The good news is that I passed with 82% and the test only requires that you get 60% of the questions right. YAY! The bad news is that, with regard to basic math, habits that I developed in elementary school are still with me.

After I scored my test I decided to go back through the questions that I had answered incorrectly and see what went wrong. I re-worked all the problems and then took notes on what I did incorrectly the first time through.

These are my notes:
-read question carefully
-add carefully
-add carefully
-check work
-work problem backwards
-go with gut instinct
-add/subtract carefully
-add carefully
-read question carefully
-just don't get it
-add/subtract carefully
-just don't get it

Ummm, anyone notice a pattern here? With the exception of the two questions I just plain old don't get, I would have gotten all the questions right if I had just taken the time to add or subtract more carefully. I made stupid mistakes such as 12-3 = 7 and 7 x 7 = 14, or 54 - 19 = 36. It also appears I need to slow down and read the questions very CAREFULLY. Yikes. How many times did I screw up because it told me to select the answer from lowest to highest and I selected the answer that reflected highest to lowest.

So, note to self for Saturday morning's test: SLOW DOWN, READ CAREFULLY, DON'T BE AN ADDITION/SUBTRACTION IDIOT.

Meanwhile, my poor dad is shaking his fist saying "I've been telling you this for years!!!!!!"
Sorry Dad. Turns out I should have been listening.

Still no name for Baby Girl. As I enter the final 12 weeks of this here pregnancy I'm beginning to get a little concerned. What's YOUR favorite girl name? Wait, don't give it to me if you don't want me to steal it.

Because Hard Wood Floors is a mouthful

The other day.

ME: Conor, who is in Mommy's tummy?

CONOR: Baby Sister.

ME: And what is Baby Sister's name?

CONOR: (without hesitation) Carpet.

There you have it. Our daughter, Carpet Linoleum Walsh.

Oh, she's got the crazies

Had my first hormone-induced pregnancy freak out last night. Yeah, that was fun. I'm standing in the kitchen tearfully telling Morgan about how I'm certain he's going to leave me and Conor and Baby Girl because he, you know, wants a different car, and somehow in my foggy pregnancy head, this all makes perfect sense.

For his part, Morgan is standing there looking bewildered, befuddled and bemused, which turns rapidly into him looking amused which completely sets me off again and oh-no-don't-you-dare-laugh-at-ME-mister, finger wagging in his face. Ugh.

Of all the pregnancy complaints this freakout-this complete inability to control my emotions, this mental knowing that I'm being ridiculous but at the same time lacking the emotional werewithawl to do anything about it-this I hate the most.

I remember one Saturday evening when I was pregnant with Conor I was lounging on the couch (I don't remember what that is like anymore) watching a movie on TV. It was an old movie (by old I mean released in the early 90's) and I had already seen it numerous times and it wasn't even that good and who likes to watch movies on TV because then you have to deal with them cutting out scenes and adding in commercials and I guess what I'm trying to say is that the movie? wasn't really that big a deal. But Morgan said something like, do you really want to watch this movie? And I lost my shi...well you know, and stormed out of the house and proceeded to drive around in the dark for an hour. In the midst of this madness my friend Jamie called me and I told her about what Morgan had said and my indignity and the silence on her end of the phone (where there should have been righteous indignation on my behalf) woke me up enough from my hormonal madness so that I drove home.

So, pregnancy makes one glowy and beautiful (well, not me specifically) and it also makes one crazy and...well, crazy.

Good times!

Chips Ahoy: The perfect antidote to parenthood

Oy. Oy vey.

It turns out that being a parent is very, very hard work! No, I did not just figure this out today, but yes, it still comes as a shock every now and again.

My precious little angel-pie-face-nugget-love-munch, well how can I put this delicately? I want to punch him in the face. Oh wait. Is that bad? Should I not admit that out loud?

We decided not to spank anymore. We've each done it a few times but it makes both of us feel so badly, well, its just not worth it. However, that means we actually have to think about discipline and appropriate responses and, you know, outsmart our kid. UGH! Its actually really, really hard.

Its the gray areas that are killing me. If Conor hits me, simple, time out. But what if he pats me? Or what if he taps me? Or what if the taps and pats turn into something close to a hit but still not quite an actual hit? Does anyone know where the line between pats and taps and hits resides? I keep looking but it keeps moving.

We were at the library today and I swear, I wanted to lock him in bathroom stall and leave him there. He was yelling and "no"-ing and pulling books off the shelves and throwing them on the floor. Finally, we just had to leave. But its embarrassing! I know, I know, all other mothers have had their kids misbehave at one time or another but in that moment, I felt like my kid was the only one in the world who was being a turd. These other kids, and I kid you not, had freaking halos over their heads. Meanwhile, my kid's head is floating off his shoulders and spinning in circles while smoke comes out his ears. Or was the smoke from my ears? Anyway, we were straight out of The Exorcist.

Anyway, I'm self medicating with Chips Ahoy. Four of them right now but I should be able to consume at least another four before the end of nap.

**Special side note: Thanks Grandpa Joe for sending me the list of family names! Love you**

25 Weeks

I had my 25 week appointment yesterday and a follow up ultrasound as well. During the first ultrasound Baby Girl was being a little uncooperative and wouldn't quite give us the view we wanted of her heart or her left foot. There was also some question about the placenta which I tuned out because ew, placenta. Gross. Heart looks awesome with all four chambers pumping along as they should. Also, her cute little feet were crossed at the ankles and adorable as only baby feet can be. All of her bits and pieces look great and she is weighing in at 1 pound, 9 ounces and some number of inches long which I can't remember right now. Totally normal in the growth department.

NOTE: If the thought of the placenta or the umbilical cord are gross to you, skip this next bit. The placenta and umbilical cord are giving us some problems though. Normally the umbilical cord inserts on one end into the placenta very near the center and into the baby through the belly button (well, its not a belly button yet, but you know, it will be. Someday.). Apparently the umbilical cord has a marginal insertion which means that instead of being inserted into the center of the placenta its inserted somewhere near the edge. This is probably not a big deal but they do need to check again to make sure that the umbilical cord isn't inserted into the membranes at the edge of the placenta. As long as the umbilical cord is just off center, there really aren't any issues. They may need to monitor Baby Girl's growth a little more carefully but otherwise, everything is probably fine. I should know more in a month. I figure it can't be anything too serious if they are making me wait another month to do a follow up ultrasound, right?

And now, for the moment you've all been waiting for...

The cutest little girl you ever did see.