Uninsured

Ben started a new job three months ago, and the health insurance doesn’t kick in until February 1st. We’ve been on COBRA since the job switch, but this month I thought it might be fun to not pay the $1,100 and just be uninsured for a month. All of our doctors and the new insurance provider said it was fine to have a lapse in coverage. Plus, if we needed it, we could have still sent in the check and been covered in January up until the post office closed today.

So really, there are only about seven hours between when we could have been covered in January and when the new insurance starts. Right now we’re in the middle of those seven hours, and I’ve never been so paranoid.

First I thought Ben would definitely get in a car accident on the way home from work. Then I just knew Liam or Eliza would fall off their chairs and crack their heads open during dinner. And now I’m imagining that every movement my baby makes is a contraction, and I’m probably in labor.

Here’s hoping the next three hours go by faster than the last three.

The Great Bedroom Switch of 2012

We have three bedrooms on the main floor of our house, and we’re not ready for Liam to move to the basement. This means someone is going to have to share a room when Baby #3 comes, and we’ve had a really hard time trying to figure out whether it should be Liam and Eliza or the two boys.

We finally decided to start out with the two boys together. Eliza was in the bigger bedroom, so last week Liam and Eliza switched bedrooms.

So far it’s worked out perfectly. We’ll see what happens when the screaming baby arrives.

Here is Eliza’s new big girl room:



Ben’s parents gave us two sets of that blue and white bedding when they redecorated one of their bedrooms last year, and we already had the pink stuff from Eliza’s nursery. I did a google images search and found out that dark blue and light pink were, indeed, allowed in the same bedroom, so this room was practically free to put together.

First, we borrowed the box springs and mattress from my cousin (Thanks, Leah!).

Next, I took apart the bed skirt from the second set of bedding and recycled Eliza’s old clothes hamper.


Then, I cut up one of the pillow shams (also from the second set of bedding) so we could keep using this memo board.


The lamp spent its former life on my nightstand, and then buried in storage, so I’m sure it was happy to get a makeover. It took a $5 lampshade from Hobby Lobby, a little bit of polka-dotted fabric, and a package of something called wooden doll heads, which I found for $1.50 at JoAnn. They had big holes drilled halfway through them, so Ben just had to drill them the rest of the way through before I could glue them on the lamp and paint it.


And finally, my google search gave me the birds-on-a-branch idea. The branch came from a tree in our backyard, and the birds came from scrap fabric, mostly from that second set of bedding. I made the quote out of contact paper on my Silhouette machine.


I can’t believe how amazing it has been to have a second set of bedding. I didn’t even touch the sheets or comforter, so Eliza can wet the bed all she wants and she’ll still have a second set of matching bedding to swap it out with. (Don’t worry, Leah—the mattress is covered in plastic.)

Next up: the boys’ room. But I still need to paint a dresser to go in there, so it might be a while.

Sleeping Arrangements

Last night we came home from our Christmas vacation to a thermostat with dead batteries and a 47-degree house. Liam and Eliza had fallen asleep in the car, so we carried them to their beds, loaded them with blankets, and blasted space heaters at them.

By 1:00 a.m., their rooms were pretty toasty, so I turned off the space heaters. By 4:00 a.m., the whole house was pretty toasty, so I went in to remove their extra blankets.

That’s when I realized that Eliza had taken matters into her own hands. I found her sound asleep on the floor next to her bed.


She's pretty new to the whole "big girl bed" situation, so it's perfectly understandable that she didn't know how to just take her covers off.

The Soak Zone

We tried to give our kids an up-close and personal experience at Sea World yesterday, but Eliza didn't appreciate our thoughtfulness at Shamu's show.

Totally Backfired

Liam always comes in my room when he wakes up in the morning. This morning I was already up when I heard him coming, so I hid behind the door and yelled, "BOO!" as he walked in.

I can’t help it—teasing is a horrible trait I inherited from my dad.

So, while he whimpered and jumped a mile, involuntarily smashing pieces off the Lego ship he was carrying, I started laughing hysterically. Unfortunately, my laugh turned into a cough, which triggered my pregnant, early-morning gag reflex, which sent me running into the bathroom to vomit.

It was a very confusing 10-seconds, and 7 hours later, I’m still coughing.

Poor Liam deserves a better mom.

Reallocating Eliza's Movie Theatre Budget

There are several major differences between Liam and Eliza, other than the obvious boy vs. girl stuff. Eliza slams her fingers in doors or drawers at least once a week—she NEVER learns. And every single time she eats, I have to remind her to stay in the kitchen. Plus, she spills her drink almost daily. She’s perfectly capable of drinking out of a cup, but totally incapable of holding a cup upright while thinking about something else.

We took Liam to the movie theatre for the first time when he was 1½ years old. He sat perfectly still through the entire movie, Shrek the Third. I knew Eliza wasn’t ready for the movie theatre that young, but now she’s almost 3 years old and we really needed to get out of the house today.

We decided to try her out on her first movie theatre with Arthur Christmas.


She made it through two previews before she was out of her seat, climbing on the seat in front of us. Even a 50-foot screen and a lap full of snacks couldn’t keep her attention.

I guess we’ll try the movie theatre again in another 3 years. Hopefully Baby #3 is more like Liam than Eliza.

Plus, It's International Women's Day

I’m a c-section girl now, so if everything goes according to plan I should get to pick my baby’s birthday. Thursday is my doctor’s day off, but he usually comes in in the morning anyway, so he said I could pick any day of the week. His only suggestion was that it be a few days before my due date.

My due date is March 9th, and I was really hoping for a March 8th baby. March 8th is cool because, first of all, it’s my Uncle Barry’s birthday and he’s one of the nicest men on the planet. But more importantly, check out what my kids’ birthdays would be:

Liam: 08-31-05
Eliza: 03-18-09
Baby: 03-08-12

Five out of six of the same birthday digits! Crazy, right? I think it’s totally worth ignoring the "few days early" advice and making my doctor come in on his day off.

Sure Enough…

It’s a boy! I was secretly hoping for a girl all the way up until the Bravermans took my girl name on Parenthood last week. Now I’m over it.

But now I need to start looking for boy names. I need an old-fashioned English or Irish name that goes with Liam and Eliza. I like Oliver, Miles, Quinn and Alexander, but I’m not in love with any of them. Anyone have any ideas?

Weird Weather

Even after living in Utah for 15 Octobers, it always surprises me that we go from running the air conditioner one day to the heater the next. My kids went to bed in their summer jammies and woke up asking for hot chocolate. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this.

Faux Peanut Butter

I can't believe nobody ever told me about this:


Somebody actually made a soy concoction that tastes exactly like peanut butter. I just had my first peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my own house since Liam was born. Next I think I'll try making peanut butter cookies.