Stomach Bug

I guess it was inevitable that Wednesday night would only get better. After taking almost an hour to fall asleep on Wednesday night, William woke up at midnight. I went into his room and lay down with him, but he tossed and turned for more than 30 minutes before finally falling asleep again. I went back into my room, climbed into bed, got myself all situated and comfortable (which those of you with kids may remember is no easy task in the third trimester!), and then heard William crying again. The cry sounded a little different, though, so I quickly got up and went down the hall, and as I opened the door to his room, I was greeted by the horrible smell of vomit. I turned on the light, and William had thrown up all over his bed and himself. He was in a remarkably good mood, though. He looked at the bed and said, "Mess. Big mess." He was quite chatty as I stripped him down, gave him a quick clean-up with a wash cloth, dressed him in clean pjs, and then set about cleaning up his bed. He even sang "Clean up, clean up, everybody everwhere" as I worked. Ed woke up and we got the bed cleaned up, sheets changed, and towels down. I even put the dirty sheets, blankets, and PJs in the washing machine and started the load.

William threw up a few more times over the next 2 hours and finally settled down around 3:00 a.m. Ed stayed home with him yesterday, and he threw up twice in the morning, but was fine for the rest of the day. He took a long morning nap, so by the time bedtime rolled around, he was so tired that it only took him 5 minutes to fall asleep in his bed. But he woke up at 10:30, having thrown up all over his bed again. Although I had draped the bed in towels, he managed to get throw-up on his blanket and the sheets. So we went through another round of strip the kid, strip the bed, clean up, etc. He went back to sleep pretty easily. He woke up again at 3:30 a.m., but not because he threw up. Yay! He was very thirsty, though, and chugged a sippy of diluted apple juice and promptly went back to sleep. So far today he's been fine, although a bit tired. He fell asleep at 11:00, so hopefully he'll get a good nap in.

So that's been our adventure for the past 2 days. Although there's lots of stuff I should be doing around the house, I'm tired too, so I'm going to take a nap while he naps. All that "stuff" will still be there when I wake up, right?

Regression

We seem to be regressing a bit so I'm trying very hard not to get too frustrated. Last night it took William about 40 minutes to fall asleep and tonight it took him closer to an hour. I tried sitting in the rocking chair tonight, but several times he climbed out of bed and wanted me to hold him in the chair. So I ended up lying on the bed with him. How long will it take him to get back to where we were when he was sleeping in the crib--where I could just kiss him goodnight and walk out? Will we get there at all without me having to walk out and leave him crying and banging on the door? Am I just prolonging the inevitable? My first thoughts were to give it a week with me staying in the room with him. I'm still inclined to do this, but I'm just second-guessing myself, wondering if I'm setting a precedent that will just make it harder in the long run. It's not that he doesn't try to go to sleep. In fact, he psyches me out because for the first 10 minutes or so, he'll lie quietly and I'll think, "Ahhhh--he's going right to sleep." And then those legs will start kicking, and he'll start singing, and then he'll sit up and the tossing/turning/restlessness goes on and on.

Once he falls asleep, the rest of the night goes pretty much like it did when he was in the crib. He'll go back to sleep, although again--it seems to take him longer to fall back asleep. And I haven't tried leaving him before he falls back asleep. Ugh. I'm sure everyone has an opinion and justification about the best way to handle it. But since I've never been able to truly follow through with CIO, I don't know what makes me think I can start now.

BTW--I do plan to post pictures of William in his big-boy bed, but we bought new bedding for his room and I want to re-do his room before taking pictures. Right now it's just the ugly, exposed box spring with a mattress on top. His new bedding is super cute, though, and I'm hoping he'll really like it.

And I almost forgot--the on-line grocery delivery thing worked out pretty well. The produce they picked out wasn't too bad, and the meat seems fine, too. I'm not sure it's something I'll do again, but it's nice to have the option. And I may change my mind when the new baby comes. I'd let Ed do the grocery shopping, but I'm too much of a control freak and he doesn't pay attention to details.

So hopefully my next post will be a little more positive. I'm just feeling very discouraged right now. I think I was really hoping that the transition would be a lot easier than this. Oh well. We'll get there, right?

Big Boy Bed, Day 3

I've been sitting here for 10 minutes, trying to come up with something more interesting to start off this post with, but I'm tired, and I just want to report on our progress with the big boy bed. (And there is progress!) Last night wasn't too bad, except William managed to fall out of the bed. There's only about a foot drop-off, but he somehow shimmied his way down the bed and past the safety rail (which covers the whole side of the bed, except maybe the last two feet). He cried pretty hard when he fell, but as soon as I went in and picked him up, he settled down and lay right back down on the bed and went to sleep. He then woke up again at 4:30, so I sat on the bed and he got back in and went back to sleep after about 10 minutes. Then he was up for the day at 5:45 a.m.

Tonight, he fell asleep after only 30 minutes. Woo-hoo! I also started the bedtime routine a little earlier, and he was asleep by 7:50 p.m. So I'm hoping he'll sleep past 6 a.m. He was a little more reluctant to go to sleep tonight, though. He climbed out of the bed twice and went to the door and tried to open it (we put the safety things on the door handle so he can't open it), and then cried when I wouldn't let him out. But then he'd climb back in bed. He sang his repertoire of songs again (this includes the ABC song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Wheels on the Bus, and the Hello song--from our music class), and tossed and turned quite a bit with all his blankies. But all of this only lasted for 30 minutes, so I'm very thankful. We're just taking it one day at a time.

We have a few big things going on this weekend. I have a doctor's appointment (I'll be between 31 and 32 weeks) for starters. I can't believe I'm down to single digits now (9 weeks to go!). Ed and I have a Bat Mitzvah to go to on Saturday night, so we'll have a babysitter for William that isn't family (since they will all be at the bat mitzvah). And William and I have swimming class on Sunday morning. I hope William loves swimming! With all of that activity, I doubt I'll get much done, but I'm hoping to get some baby stuff organized. So that's all. Oh--I almost forgot. I ordered groceries online for delivery. We're supposed to get them tomorrow night. Stay tuned!

Big Boy Bed, Day 2

Since the rest of this post is boring, I thought I'd start off with some cute pictures. Guess who finally learned to smile for the camera and say cheese? He'll even take his pacifier out of his mouth!



Check out the cute outfit. He wore this today to our friend's baby's baptism.


And this would have been a great picture if I had gotten the lighting right.


So onto the good stuff!

Last night didn't go too badly. William woke up at 1:15 a.m. and got out of bed. But as soon as I went into his room, he got back in his bed. I sat at the end of the bed again and waited for him to fall asleep. It took him about 15-20 minutes. Then he woke up again at 5:15 a.m., but he wouldn't go back to sleep after that. I tried laying down in the bed with him, but he just wanted to play, and then he wanted some chocolate milk, and then he wanted to go down to the basement. So I ended up finishing laundry and folding clothes at 6:15 a.m. What a way to start the day, huh?

Because he woke up so early this morning, he fell asleep in the car at 9:45 a.m., on the way to our friend's baby's baptism. He was really good during the church service though, and had a good time playing at our friend's house after the service. He fell asleep in the car on the way back around 2:45, so when we got home, I moved him to his bed to finish his nap. He woke up but went back to sleep when he saw that I was laying down on the bed, too. I think if I had tried to leave, he would not have been happy.

So tonight was basically a repeat of last night, except Ed tried putting him down instead of me. That didn't go over too well, so I went up to relieve him and sat at the end of the bed. William played and played, sang all his songs, banged his feet on the wall and the safety rail, tried to do a few somersaults, and finally fell asleep after 50 minutes. So that's a whole 25 fewer minutes than it took last night! Progress, right? I've had my moments of regret when I think about how easy it was just two nights ago to put him to sleep. A few stories, a minute or two of rocking, and then into his crib where he'd promptly lay down and go to sleep. *Sigh.* But I know it's better to be going through this transition now, rather than closer to when the baby gets here. For now, it just reminds me of all those nights I nursed him to sleep and had to wait forever before I could put him in his crib. What goes around comes around, right?

Big Boy Bed

Today we moved the crib out of William's room and put the twin-sized box spring and mattress in there. We got a bed rail for the bed, and completed baby-proofing the room. William watched all the preparations with great interest and seemed pretty excited about the bed. He jumped on it, and laughed and put his head on the pillow. After dinner, we did our normal routine--took a bath, put on PJs, brushed teeth, and then sat in the rocking chair to read stories. As we read stories, though, I could see William eyeball the bed with an apprehensive look. After stories, I turned out the light and rocked with him in the chair for a few minutes, and then went to put him in the bed. That was a definite no-go.

I rocked with him in the chair for a few more minutes, and then tried putting him back in the bed. Still a no-go. So I lay down in the bed beside him. This seemed to make him happy, but then he started playing. I tried to ignore him, but then he started playing with me. So then I tried to leave the room, but he freaked out. And I couldn't just leave him in his room freaking out, so I held him for a few minutes and lay back down in the bed with him. After a few minutes, I sat up at the end of the bed while he goofed around and explored his new surroundings. He checked out the safety rail, banged his feet against the wall, tossed and turned with his blankets and pillow, etc. etc. He finally drifted off to sleep at 8:45, one hour and fifteen minutes after I turned the light off. I guess that's not too bad. Hopefully he'll get used to his new bed pretty quickly, and we won't have to stay in the room with him. I know that's a bad habit to start, but my instincts told me to give him some time to get adjusted.

We'll see how tonight goes. I think nap time will be even harder tomorrow. But it feels good to have finally taken this step. I've been dreading it, and although the jury is still out as to how it will go, just biting the bullet and doing it makes it seem like it's not that big of a deal after all. Stay tuned!

Motivation

When it comes to all the "stuff" that needs to get done day-in and day-out, I'm hopelessly unmotivated to do any of it. I make lists and set goals and try to think in terms of small, accomplishable tasks, but after William goes to sleep and the dishes get cleaned up, all I really want to do is crawl into bed and watch TV or read and talk to Ed. I hardly even want to blog anymore! And I certainly don't want to download bank statements, or organize pictures, or clean off my desk, or do a load of laundry, or back up my files, or iron, or organize closets, or catch up on e-mails, or sort through baby clothes and toys, or search for furniture and decorating ideas, or go through recipes and menu plan, or do any of the other dozens of things that always seem to need to get done. I know how to do all of these things. So it's not a matter of not knowing where to begin, or how to approach a project, or how best to organize. It's simply a matter of, I don't feel like doing any of it! I'm just plain 'ole lazy. And being pregnant is not an excuse. I've always been this way. I come by it naturally, though. My mom's motto has always been, "Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?" As she always says, "That mess isn't going anywhere."

I do get some motivation from Ed, who doesn't have a lazy bone in his body. He reaches a point where he can't stand to look at a mess or a pile or an unpacked suitcase anymore, and then I'm spurned into action. And I do prefer neat and tidy to messy and unorganized, so I appreciate this quality in Ed more than I probably appear to (based on my penchant for messiness!). But I need to find motivation within myself. Or at least some kind of happy medium. Tonight I made myself spend 30 minutes downloading my bank statements and entering them into Quicken. I didn't get a whole lot done, but it's a start. Maybe I need to approach my tasks in 30-minute increments and see where that gets me. I can be lazy for the rest of the night if I spend 30 minutes accomplishing something. It's a start, right?

I certainly hope that William inherits Ed's work ethic and neatness gene. Although I have no problem letting William make big messes and don't get uptight when chaos seems to reign, I also try to emphasize the clean-up, and we don't move on to a new activity until we've cleaned up from the present one. And I try to make sure that William is present for the clean-up, even if he doesn't always help. Although I'm a slob at heart, this is not how I want to be remembered! So far, William is really good about cleaning up. He gladly throws trash away in the garbage cans, and he's adept with the Swiffer Vac. So all is not lost. I guess wanting to instill in your children a certain value or mindset is pretty good motivation. It will have to do for now, anyway!

How the Boys Fared

Since yesterday's post was all about my girls' weekend, today's post will be all about the boys' weekend. Apparently, they were both great and hardly missed me at all! On Friday, Ed took William to Chuck E. Cheese. William enjoyed ski ball the most. After William's nap, they went to Ed's parents house for the rest of the weekend. Traffic was horrible and Ed turned on the DVD player. William watched Toy Story from beginning to end, and Ed said he didn't make a peep the whole time. Should I be very worried? First of all, that he had the attention span to watch the entire movie. And second of all, about how many of his brain cells may have died while he stared at a video screen for that long? Guess I'll have to stock up the van with a few more movies!

Anyway, they spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, with nothing more eventful than a trip to a toy store. They got back late Sunday afternoon and William went to sleep at his normal time, which is how I found him when I got home at 9:45 that night. I peeked in on him but he didn't stir, so I had to wait until morning to see him. And when he woke up and I went in to get him, he just snuggled up to me and went back to sleep. It was like I had never been gone! We spent the day together on Monday and today, it was back to the grind. He was very happy to see his friends at daycare this morning, and was apparently quite energetic all day.

The really great thing about the weekend, though, was that tonight, after I gave William a bath and got him dressed in his PJs and brushed his teeth, I turned him over to Ed for his stories and bed routine, and William didn't protest one bit. It has been a struggle lately to get him to let anyone other than me take care of him, and with the new baby coming, we were getting worried about this. But having Daddy take care of him all weekend seems to have done wonders. I think we'll have to be vigilant, though, about not falling back into the habit of me doing most of the hands-on care for William. But I also think that maybe things won't be as hard as I'm anticipating. This weekend, we're planning on transitioning William to the bed. We're just going to take things as they come and see how it goes. There's really no other way, is there?

Girls' Weekend '08

This was the 7th year that I have gotten together for a weekend with my 3 best friends. We've known each other for at least 25 years, and some of us for even longer. They are the most wonderful friends a person could ever ask for, and I am so glad that we have carved out one weekend every year that is just for us. It's a chance to reconnect, to learn from each other, to laugh like nobody's business, to eat and shop and play cards and eat (did I mention that already?).

In years past, we have picked a location near each of us to share the burden of travel. The first year was a condo on the beach in St. Augustine. Then we did New York City. Then the girls came to Washington, DC. We went to Atlanta, and then the Florida Keys, and for the past two years, we've stayed at ME's condo on the beach in Jacksonville. We plan to continue to return to the condo on the beach, although I'm sure we'll shake things up every few years or so and try somewhere different. We decided that since what we mostly do is sit around and talk and eat, a tourist destination with too many distractions was not always a good fit. The beach, however, is always a good fit!
After spending 48 hours with these women, I come away wanting to be more like them in many ways. MJ is so smart and insightful. She has the best sense of humor and is so appreciative of the people around her. TF is so on top of everything. She gets things done with an efficiency that is beyond amazing. She is also the least defensive person I know, quick to laugh at herself and open to any new ideas. ME is the most passionate, fearless person I know, and the most determined. When challenged, she does not back down. She has a huge heart and wants to take care of everyone around her, which makes everyone around her feel loved and special. I am so lucky to have them as friends.

There is absolutely a novel waiting to be written about our friendships and how we've evolved over time. We all have husbands and children now--though it has taken us 12 years to all get on this same page. I don't think any of us are where we all thought we'd be when we graduated from high school. But our journeys have been amazing and so very different. And yet, every year and every milestone brings us closer together. I can hardly wait to see what the next 25 years brings! Hopefully more moments and pictures like this:

Happy Valentine's Day

Here are my valentine's gifts from Ed and William:


Have I mentioned how much I love my husband? I'm off to get some hot tea to go with my chocolate!

(Hopefully I'll be back on Monday with a recap from Girls' Weekend '08, and an update on how William and Ed did while I was gone. Have a great weekend!

Commuting Nightmare

What a night! It took William and me over two hours to get home today. Sleet and freezing rain that started falling around 3:00 p.m. caused a ton of accidents, which caused the closure of the main route that takes us home every day. So we chose an alternate route that took us two hours. William was such a trooper, though. For the first hour, he just did his usual looking around, chatting, pointing out trucks and airplanes and diggers and whatever else struck his fancy. We listened to the news a little, and to his Barney CD. Around 6:00 p.m., when we had been in the car for an hour and 15 minutes, I pulled out the portable DVD player and started Toy Story. He's seen a little bit of it before, but he watched it for the rest of the ride home! At 6:45, I figured he must be starving. We were finally really close to home, so we stopped at McDonald's for dinner. Ed met us there (his commute wasn't nearly as bad, although it wasn't pretty either), and William had a great time watching the older kids who had come from a karate class. Apparently, he wasn't starving. Watching other kids was way more interesting than eating. He did decide, however, that mommy's sweet tea was much better than his milk. Ah well. What are you gonna do?

So we finally got home at 7:30 and we went straight upstairs to change our clothes and get ready for bed. It amazes me that he can go with the flow so easily, in spite of the fact that we have the same routine almost every night. He hardly ever goes without his bath. And yet, it's no big deal the very few times that we skip it. We are soooo lucky, I think. And I realize, too, that it might not always be this way. The one thing that kept running through my head on our ride home was, what if this happens and I have two kids in the car, and one is a baby who is hungry and wants to nurse and hates the car? Then what will I do? The DVD player was a bit of a life saver, so I'll be sure to keep that with me at all times, along with a movie or two.

Anyway, I also wanted to report that I've started feeling the Braxton Hicks contractions. Definitely a sign that we're getting closer! It's time to start getting the baby's room ready, I think. And after next week, we may go ahead and see if we can transition William to a bed. We'll see how easy-going he is then! I'm really apprehensive about taking the plunge and making the switch. But we should at least try. Worst-case scenario, we put him back in his crib and get another one for the baby. And it will probably be a good 8 weeks before the baby even sleeps in the crib anyway. Well, something to look forward to, I guess.

For now, I'm heading to bed to read my new issue of Simple & Delicious, and to watch the news so I can hear about everyone else's commuting nightmares!

Weekend Report

It's the end of another good but nothing-to-write-home-about weekend. My cousin's boys spent the night last night (they're 12 and 8) and William had fun hanging out with the big kids. They brought their Wii and William watched them and Ed play Guitar Hero and a few other games. We ate pizza for dinner and cinnamon rolls for breakfast and I think William was sad to see them leave.

I had my doctor's appointment on Saturday morning and it went really well! I didn't get scolded for my weight gain, and everything looks really good, so I don't have to go back until three weeks (rather than two). I was happy that I had gained less than 4 pounds this months. And my glucose tolerance came back with no problems. My level was 86, and they aren't concerned unless it's above 135. Whew! At the rate that I've been eating sweets, I was a little worried. After my appointment, I went to Target and then to Motherhood Maternity and bought a bathing suit, a dress, a pair of jeans, four t-shirts, and a tank-camisole. I spent more money than I should have, but I haven't shopped for myself in soooo long and I had to get the bathing suit and jeans. And I know I will get lots of use out of the t-shirts, too.

In William's world, he's now singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and he knows the alphabet song, but gets a little tripped up at "L-M-N-O-P" and tends to skip that part. He is also getting to be quite the show-off around new people. He plays shy, but then gets all silly. It's pretty cute. Today we went to a party with Ed's musician friends. They had a little jam session in the basement, so Ed took William down to listen. He said that William sat in a chair and just watched them all with no expression whatsoever. He sat perfectly still and watched them all play. He must have been down there for at least 30-45 minutes. For a child who likes to move around a lot, I think it's pretty funny. I guess he really liked it. I wonder if he'll be musically talented like his dad. I wonder if he'll want to play an instrument? Ed says he can play anything except drums. I'm totally down with that rule!

So that's it for another boring weekend report. I have lots to do this week to get ready for Girls' Weekend. I can't wait to go, but I'm missing the boys already. I'm sure they'll do great, though. Hopefully I'll have time to blog once or twice before the weekend.

I Met Another Blogger Mom!

On Thursday and Friday, I got to meet Seren, Sam, and Megan, from In Pursuit of Balance. How cool is that? They came to DC for a conference Megan attended, so on Thursday morning, Sam and Seren met William and me at my office building, and I led them on a wild goose chase that was supposed to be a tour of the Capitol but ended up being a visit to my office and then a walk to where I park so that I could retrieve my ID from car. And by then, it was too late to go back to the Capitol, so they got to see William's daycare as we dropped William off for the day. Probably not how Sam intended to spend his morning, but I loved seeing Seren IRL, and she and William played shy and gave each other a lot of furtive glances and sqwawked a bit as we walked down the street, but that was about it. Seren greatly impressed me with her counting skills, however.

On Friday, Megan met me for lunch and I had the best hour getting to know her and chatting about work and kids and how we got to be where we are now. I wish we had had the rest of the day to hang out. I felt the same way when I met Laura from Laura's Mommy Journal. There's so much we "know" about each other from our blogging, and yet I would love the opportunity to spend a whole weekend with these women (and so many other blogging moms!) to pick their brains and share experiences and soak up everything that I admire about them. Just like she comes across in her blog, Megan was so intelligent and quick to laugh and such an interesting person.

I so hope that I get another chance to hang out with Laura and Megan in the not-too-distant future. And that I get to meet other blogger moms along the way!

Belly Shots--28 weeks

I guess I have to get this one out of the way. Here's another crappy picture of my belly. Since all my other pictures are less than spectacular, I thought I'd stick with the look, rather than trying to get Ed to take a picture of me. It's better for comparison this way! And since we're talking comparison,

28 weeks:

23 weeks:
18 weeks:

Wow--I got big in a hurry. How much bigger can I get? Yikes.

I'm off to bed, and to watch the election results. It looks like good voter turnout, which is pretty exciting. It's pretty sad, though, that less than 50% of people will probably vote, and yet it's still considered great turnout. Oh well!

Weekend Report

It's Monday morning and since I didn't make the time to blog last night, I thought I'd steal a few moments this morning to do so, even though I don't have all that much to blog about.

Our weekend was good, and I actually got a few things accomplished. I went through William's clothes and found a few bags of long-sleeve shirts in 24 mo. and 2T sizes, which is awesome because he has outgrown the 18 mo. shirts. (18 mo. pants still fit him just fine, though. In fact, the 2T pants are way too big.) So I put away a bunch of clothes and re-sorted some others. Thank God for Ed's sister and her two boys. They are 5 and 3 and their hand-me-downs are awesome!!! I rarely have to go shopping for William. And since I really don't like shopping (and never have money to shop anyway), it all works out!

I also cleaned our bathroom, did laundry, and cleaned our whole kitchen table--chairs and legs and all. And I did most of this while keeping William entertained, which is no small feat. Fortunately, he's at that age where he can keep himself relatively occupied for long stretches of time. But he still needs lots of checking in on, and some diversion from time to time.

In William's world, he's talking more and more every day. He's putting lots of thoughts together, but not quite coming up with verbs yet. So he'll say, "Daddy shower," or "Bus, people, work" or "school, Michael" (which means he's going to play with Michael). It's funny that most of the time, I know what he's trying to say.

He's also completely done with bottles now. (Not sure if I've noted that anywhere.) I haven't even put them all away yet, so he sees them every day. But he really couldn't care less about them now. He still wakes up in the night about half the time, but he just wants me to hold him for a minute and then I put him back in his crib and he goes right back to sleep. I guess I could make the effort to get him to go back to sleep on his own, but he's so inconsistent about it, and half the time, he sleeps all night just fine. And no sooner will I go through the effort of letting him cry then he will probably get sick and then I'll get up with him again and we'll have to start all over. For now, I feel like the situation is fine and completely tolerable.

He's been eating well lately, which is nice for a change. Not a ton, mind you. But enough variety to make me happy. Last night I made roast beef and baked potatoes and we all had dinner together and ate the same thing! (Although I made peas for William and Ed and I ate spinach salad.) He's been on a bagel kick at breakfast, and he still loves him some fruit.

He's back to crying every morning when I drop him off at daycare, but it isn't too bad. It's more like fussing for effect, and he's fine once I'm gone. He still prefers me over Ed when we're home, but he loves playing with Ed, and Ed is so good with him. Ed engages him so much when they're playing. He asks William to count and say the alphabet and identify colors and shapes and repeat words. I hate to admit that I forget to do these things when I play with William. But Ed is always taking opportunities to teach things to William. I love watching and listening to them spend time together.

As for me, I'm getting bigger every day. I still feel pretty good, although my digestive tract is still out of whack. (And I'll leave it at that.) Maybe it's because I'm eating so damn much! LOL! I think I'm almost 28 weeks now. I have to get my glucose tolerance test this week. Not sure how I'm going to work that one out with William. Do I go to a lab on my way to work and bring William with me? Or take William to daycare and go to a lab downtown by myself? Or get Ed to stay home in the morning with William while I go get the test done by my house? Option 3 sounds like the best to me. But it all depends on Ed's schedule. Anyway, just 12 weeks to go. I'm getting excited to meet this baby. We still don't have a boy's name. I guess we need to get on that.

So that's it for now. I'll try to remember to take belly pictures tonight. I wish I had taken belly pictures with William so I can compare. I don't remember being this big this early. But who cares? I'm going to try to do my exercise video again. I haven't done it in two weeks. So maybe that will help. My most exciting news is that in 10 days, I'll be getting on a plane and heading to Florida for my girls' weekend! I can't wait to see my friends and relax and gab. And William will get a whole weekend of daddy! (Although daddy will likely spend the weekend at his parents, so William will enjoy that, too.) Hopefully, we'll all have a great weekend.

Getting All Politicky

It's no big secret that I lean to the left politically-speaking. I tend to not talk politics in my blog, maybe because I'm surrounded by politics all day long. At any rate, I have felt really torn this election cycle--not sure who to hang my star on when it comes to presidential candidates. That it will be a Democrat is a given. But which one? I will admit, though, that the prospect of John McCain as president does not fill me with as much fear and foreboding as a President Romney or President Huckabee does. Part of what makes me most angry about Republican and conservative rhetoric is the hypocrisy of their "family values" rhetoric. (I'm not at all saying that hypocrisy does not run rampant in both parties, so if you lean to the right, don't get all bunched up--yet!) It's all about legislating morality as opposed to actually proposing and supporting and passing legislation that might actually make life better for actual families. How about maternity/paternity leave? Affordable and quality childcare? Healthcare? I can appreciate fundamental arguments about what government is responsible for and what it isn't responsible for. I can find some truth in the arguments of a true, fiscal conservative. But don't you dare refuse to pass a higher minimum wage act, or vote against funding healthcare for children, and then turn around and tell me that the government should decide who I can or can not marry, or that I should have to observe prayer, or that the government can listen to my phone calls for the sake of national security.

Anyway, I digress. Liz at Mom101 wrote a wonderful post about what she discovered after really digging into the candidates' positions and platforms. To me, it's very telling, and reflects my distaste for social conservatism. So go visit! What are you waiting for?

As for where I stand regarding Barack v. Hillary, let me just say this. I'm a little worried about the baggage that Hillary would bring to the White House. How much of her agenda will be trying to accomplish unfinished business? After going through Cheney/Rumsfeld Act I, take 2, I'm just not sure if Hillary's past is an asset, or a strike. On the other hand, I'm not sure how "tested" Barrack is, and how effective he could be. A lot would have to do with who he chooses as his advisers and in his cabinet, I know. And I'm not saying that experience is everything. But since so many people are comparing him to Kennedy, quite honestly, Kennedy wasn't accomplishing a whole heck of a lot as president when his life was cut short. Sure--he offered hope and the prospect of change, which is a whole heck of a lot. But how will he work with Congress? How will he lead in foreign policy? Clearly, I have a lot more reading and listening to do.

So I'm right back where we started--still undecided. But either way, I'm excited that things have been so interesting--that there have been a lot of candidates and no clear front-runner. In a way, that might not be so good--as there isn't clear support for one. But Americans have been closely divided for a while, and it seems the norm now. I'll be eagerly awaiting the returns on Tuesday, that's for sure. And hoping, just a little bit, that things stay interesting, and that a clear winner will not emerge--not quite yet anyway.