Birth Week - part 3

Orange Race Car. Acquired from the toys at Julia's office while visiting that Tuesday. Kid didn't want to leave, so Julia played the old "take the toy with you so you'll leave" game. It worked and he was in love with that car. I made sure he knew it was Julia's, not ours, and that we had to bring it back on Friday at our next appointment. He brought the car to lunch with Greg and me. At nap, he put the car on the ground and gave it a pacifier and tucked it in. After nap, he bounced out of bed to find it and play with it. The car went to Deep Eddy pool with us. It had to stay in the car so other kids would not play with it. It went to the playground on Wednesday, raced down the slide with Jaylen and was filled with mulch. It was painted and then had bath. All the while he reminded us that it was Julia's orange race car and she was letting him borrow it. It even came out Thursday morning. He bounded over t o Julia, who was trying to take my vitals and announced "Julia. Julia. Look at my orange race car."

* photo taken by Zachary on August 19th, 2008.

Birth Week - part 2

Swimming. Lots of it. When babe decides that flipping over to ROP (posterior/sunnyside up) is an okay thing to do, then mama has to take control and persuade him that the left side, anterior position is much. much. better. So I did a lot of cat-cow/pelvic rocks, hanging out on my birth ball, some crazy inversions from Spinningbabies.com and a lot of talking to the baby to persuade him to flip back. He had been flipping sides a bunch the last few weeks and at my home visit with Julia on Saturday, she confirmed what I thought that he was again posterior. So more swimming was prescribed by the good midwife. And since I've spent this pregnancy in a small bikini with a growing belly at various waterbodies in Austin, I decided to head back to Deep Eddy. Of course on the drive it begins to thunder, and apparently thunder without rain or lightening means pools temporarily closed, so we ended up downstream of Barton Springs Pool in the Creek. Zachary and Greg played near the shore and I swam laps, avoiding erratic paths of novice canoer heading into shore.

Of course there was lots more swimming during Birth Week. After my baby non-movement scare, I canceled a chiropractor appointment to catch a last minute appointment with Julia Tuesday to check on the baby. Since I didn't get an adjustment from my super chiropractor and my back and S/I joints were hurting, I decided to pick Greg up from work and head over to Deep Eddy for some more swimming. Our plans were almost thwarted as I pulled out of the garage into the biggest downpour of rain all summer long. I decided that there was no way this could last all night and that the pools would reopen within 30 minutes of thunder. I decided to risk it and headed to Greg's office to fetch him. The rain settled to a gently drizzle once Zachary and I arrived at Greg's office, the skies to the west began to clear and the temperature dropped 15 degrees. Perfect. We ate a quick, early dinner at Magnolia before heading across the street to the pool. By now, the temperature was in the upper 70's after the rain, the pool was pleasantly empty and the cool evening air making the water feel pleasantly extra chilly. It was also a funny sweet night of women asking about my giant belly. The funny was the mom of 4 kids, who were taking their swim lessons that afternoon. Her 7 year old came over to Zachary and I in the pool and made pleasant small talk with Zachary and then asked me "How many months pregnant are you? My mom told me to come over and ask you because she wants to know." And of course, the poor mom heard this, which I adoringly loved. I did talk to the sweet, timid mom later and let her admire the crazy belly. The sweet was from the 2 woman swimming laps in the deep end with me. The first woman, who worked in an OB/GYN's office, told me she initially thought I had the worst case of stretch marks she'd ever seen. Thankfully she was observing my protruding and painted belly from across the lane with goggles on, so I forgave her. The other fabulous woman was a former childbirth educator who also taught prenatal exercise classes 20 years ago. We had wonderful conversations in the deep end about prenatal care, babies, differences between obstetrics and midwifery, about my lovely belly... So swimming became all about being a total exhibitionist and proudly displaying my pregnant self. Of course, the feeling of weightlessness in the cold spring water and of moving through the water gracefully will work wonders for the physical and spiritual health of a 39 week pregnant woman.

Oh, and all the swimming and pelvic rocking worked. That morning at our last-minute appointment, Julia confirmed that the little guy had moved anterior again. Swimming - good for me, good for my soul and good for the babe.

1, 2, 3, 4, Dinosaurs

Zachary has gotten into dinosaurs that past month. Not in the traditional boy way where you can name all the dinosaurs and play with brontosaurus and tell me which eat other dinosaurs and which is the biggest and smallest, but in a uniquely Zachary way.

Let me back up a bit and give some history. Zachary got a bunch of dinosaur and reptile and amphibian plastic toys from our 6 year old neighbor Jonah, who according to his mom, had enough to spare. He's been enjoying those a lot and got a little interested in dinosaurs, especially when our other neighbor friend likes to play "growl like a dinosaur" and the boys start chasing each other growling. Then add in a trip to the Texas Memorial Museum on the UT Campus last month. Greg had an all day Saturday conference on the campus and Zachary and I decided it would be a good time to go explore, walk around all day and see Daddy at his breaks. We hiked around campus and made our way over to the museum. Zachary was not impressed by the rocks and the gems, so we headed 1st floor to the Hall of Geology and Paleontology (where my favorite dinosaur is housed). He was at first intrigued and then very quickly got freaked out and wanted to go. But this is the kid who spends hours growling like a dinosaur and I was determined to make him look at just a little of it (esp. when 6 month pregnant mama walked across campus to get here and wanted some AC!). I picked him up and took him around and explained what different animals and dinosaurs and fossils were. We found sea animals and turtle fossils and wacky fish fossils, but the ones with the big big teeth kept freaking him out.

So using my mama scientist/teacher brain, I proceeded to explain that what we were looking at (a very not scary looking dead animal with very small teeth) was just the bones. No skin. That didn't sink in so I reminded him that he has bones under his skin. Lightbulb moment because he's been way into poking us and asking about our bones lately. "Yup, the skin is gone and all that is left is the bones. See, here's the head and here's the cheeks and here are where the eyes are, see? Feel mommy's cheeks and see how I have squishy spots where my eyes are. Ouch, gentle touch please"... well then he got it and then seemed to be enjoying looking at them. We talked about how the scientists found the bones and dug them out of the ground, just like we do at the Nature and Science Center. "Remember how we dig them out with shovels and brush away the dirt?" Then I explained that the scientists brought the bones back to the museum and they put them back together and Viola, skeletons at the museum.

Now fast forward a few weeks. Small son starts asking about how the dinosaurs got in the dirt. I explain they died and then got covered with dirt and then were found a long long time later by the scientists. Now starts up the "it died. It is dead" phase. Everything begins to be dead and to die. He begins to tell Greg how all these different things have died and were covered with dirt and sand. He asks me if the dirt will cover him when he is dead and if the scientists will carry his bones back to the museum after they've dug them up. This line of conversation has been going on for weeks, especially after we got back from the beach, where we did a lot of digging in the sand and after two weeks of dinosaurs theme in his preschool classroom.

So here's the fun part. At bedtime, part of our going to sleep ritual after Greg has completed all his daddy rites of sleep is that I go in and sing him a few songs and say a prayer (included in the prayers is our dinner prayer). So I sing him Hush Little Baby (Sylvia Long style) and a Sarah Hickman song and then a Beatles lullabye and he insists that I sing him the dinosaur song. I tell him I don't know it and can he sing it to me, assuming he'll break into song that he learned at school that week.

Well the song starts with "There are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11-teen, 13, 14, 17, 18, 13 Dinosaurs. Living on the Beach." (complete with crescendos and high and low notes). "1 died. and that left 3." .... the song proceeds till no dinosaurs are left on the beach. Then "the scientists dig up them bones. And take them back to the museum and put them back together again."

So we've been singing this as one of our goodnight songs the past week. The song has been shortened by mom... we count to 10 and then 1 dies and my bad math makes it 3. All the dinosaurs die till there are none on the beach and then we sing that there are no dinosaurs left. For a while I encouraged the dinosaurs to take off swimming or going for a walk or to dinner, but he's insisting that they die.

Crazy child. We are raising some poor kid who will be a nerd just like his mom and dad. I'm so proud.

Senna

A few weeks ago, we bid a bittersweet farewell to our dog, Senna. Greg and I adopted Senna 6 summers ago from Town Lake Animal Shelter and she was our first fuzzy daughter (legitimate, that is. Maya the cat was from pre-marriage). She's been a member of the family and we miss her. But, when we realized we were about to become a family of 4 with 2 pets in a 1400 square foot house with an itsy bitsy yard, we decided that we couldn't handle Senna's sad eyes staring at us when we took care of our human kids first. So we were lucky enough to find friends who wanted to start their family and Senna is a welcome addition to their family of 3. We're so grateful to them and know that Senna is happy again.

We love you, Sennacita.

Sandy and Windy

For Mother's Day weekend and simply just for a break, we headed to Port Aransas last week for 4 days and 3 nights of sand and saltwater. We left on Thursday before naptime and arrived early in the evening. Favorite quotes from our drive were "why are we going to the beach" about a zillion times. Favorite pictures from the drive were Zachary using his potty on the side of the road by the Guadalupe River outside of Gonzales.

We headed straight to the beach after checking into the motel and I was delighted to see Zachary attack the beach with such force. He loved it. We had to peel him from the sand covered sidewalks at the beach entrance and once he discovered the water, the wet sand, the shells, the unlimited fun, there was no turning back. Literally. He wouldn't go back to our little new house (as he liked to call our 50's beach motel). He was totally into the beach and we were delighted. He loved being wet, sandy, covered in sunscreen, beach snacks and wet sand. He loved splashing in waves, going into the deep water, sitting on his beach chair early Friday morning when he got cold "just watching the waves" as he told me. We loved his enthusiasm and enjoyed our last trip together as a family of 3.

I look forward to heading back next year to the beach again, taking enthusiastic Zachary and baby boy 2. We'll have fun and I'm sure Zachary will make sure his little brother enjoys himself too.