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.

Party of Five

A few weeks ago I lost my sweet tooth. I feel sort of dead inside, after going from a constant chocolate chip cookie craving all day, every day, for as long as I can remember, to no craving at all. This has only happened to me one other time--when I was pregnant with Liam. So based on past experience, I think it's pretty safe to say that there's a baby boy growing in my belly.

Kindergarten

Liam started kindergarten last week, but before school started we went in to meet the teacher and tour the classroom. That night, Ben asked Liam if he got to see his desk. Liam answered, "I don't think I have a desk. I don't even have a computer!"


Seriously, what a joke. Kids are expected to go to kindergarten without personal computers on every desk? Way to ruin a 5-year-old's expectations.

False Alarm

I promised myself I wouldn’t get my hopes up, but then I started planning our meals for the rest of the week: dinner at P.F. Chang’s, lunch tomorrow at Chick-fil-A, Five Guys after that, then Cold Stone for dessert and Thai Food the next day…

I even told Liam that maybe after we got his test results back he could have a bag of M&Ms. Can you believe that kid can’t even eat plain M&Ms?

Well, the blood test came back positive. The doctor can’t figure out what went wrong with his scratch tests, so we’ll be going back in for a re-test in a couple weeks. BOO.