an update of sorts

 
This past week has been hectic at best. Doctor's appointments, NOT having a baby, food poisoning, a wedding, a reception, impromptu family pictures, and the hum drum of regular life. We saw a lot of vomit in our house. In fact, until the baby comes, I think I'm puked out and I am the only one who didn't actually puke. Soooo...*deepbreath* here goes:

I had a check-up this past week with an ultrasound to check on Baby Boy's growth and development and to discuss the ridiculous amount of contractions I've been having. Following Fowler tradition, this little guy is a good deal bigger than his older brother, measuring in at a whopping 5lbs to Walter's 3lbs. To quote my OB, "Definitely bigger than the average bear." All fine and dandy but I'm measuring small which means that 1- my due date did NOT get pushed up and 2 - explains why I've been in so much pain lately from his feet and hands colliding with my innards. Unfortunately, the baby is in position and ready to go as soon as my body gives him the green light. Between his size, positioning, and my contractions, my OB is a little worried we've got a preterm delivery on our hands. Housebound. Nice.

In an attempt to have one final date out before the baby comes, JL and I took a very tired Walter to Brick Oven Wednesday night. Enter the food poisoning. Within minutes of leaving the restaurant JL was sick and we barely made it home in time. Home being a mile and a half away. The next 24 hours were not pretty and Walter's happy pink bathroom bore the brunt of it. It took three cleans before we got the bathroom smelling normal again. Thank goodness.

But JL pulled himself together and was able to go to his cousin Jame's wedding on Saturday morning while Walter and I hung out at home. Pretending to garden, but really just getting super muddy and ending the afternoon with Walter running barefoot around our back porch in nothing but his diaper while I tried to catch him and herd him into a shower. There would be pictures, but JL had the camera so he could take pictures of people behaving appropriately.

 

Mostly....

 

By the time Walter and I looked like normal human beings, JL returned home and we loaded up and drove down to Springville for the reception. Walter and I saw everyone we had missed with our homebound-ness and we took some impromptu family pictures before Lincoln heads off to the MTC next week! I like all of the ones where my almost 9 month pregnant bloated self is not in the front of the picture. Like this beauty:

 

And then we came home and slept. And it was beautiful. And woke up to Walter vomit all over his bed. And contractions. And life. But for a good five hours...we recovered, and that's what counts.

and this is why I do what I do

Walter has been down for the count with another ear infection the past few days and our schedule has been thrown off. So this morning I took advantage of his tired, but mostly good mood and loaded him in the car for a trip to Target. We were on a mission. We needed crib sheets, a mattress pad, and a new mattress for the crib since we moved Walter's with him into his toddler bed. As soon as I laid the mattress across the cart, my sleepy little boy angled his head onto the mattress and said, "Nigh Night Mama."


I'm not sure, but I think I'm going to keep him.

8 weeks and counting

Duh-duh-duh-duuuuuh!

Last week our good friends Guy and Ali introduced us to their 12 hour old little girl, Evelyn. On leaving the hospital, the first thing my husband said to me was: "I forgot how TINY babies are!" In my infinite wisdom, I replied, "Yes, sweetheart. Babies are small."

With 8 weeks left until our newest family member joins the club, we've hit major prep time for Walter. While he rubs my belly and pokes at my distorted bellybutton, we tell him all about the new little brother that he is going to have and how they are going to be best friends. We talk to him A LOT about the necessity of being soft around babies. We emphasize that he's a big boy now, with a big boy bed, and big boy shoes. Everything gets "big boy" put in front of it. We congratulate him for his big boy behavior. Telling us when he's dirtied his diaper, knocking on his door and asking to be let out instead of crying, holding our hands while we walk in parking lots, etc.

All of this emphasis on what a grown up kid Walter is becoming has distorted my view and I am glad that JL commented on how small Evelyn was. Because all of this prep and time with a toddler has not gotten me ready to be a mom to an infant again. And I really need to focus on that. So here is to hoping that 8 weeks is enough to finish what needs to get done around here.

how can you not love this face?

i look at you all see the love there that's sleeping

Walter has been soaking up new information lately. Colors, shapes, words, activities, books...everything fascinates him. In an effort to keep him entertained and engaged, we've started discussing music. Different instruments that he might hear, conducting, rhythms, genres. Dancing gets incorporated a lot into things.

I know, I'm making this sound like we're having enlightened theory conversations. We aren't. He's not even two yet. They're more things like, "That's a piano! Like the one at church and Grammy's house." "Can you drum with Mommy? Listen, do you hear the drum in the song? Can you help Mom drum with the drummer?"

I have to tell you, though, I am loving every second of this. As a wife and mother, I find that without even realizing it, I will let my own hobbies and interests fall to the wayside as I focus on the needs of my boys. When I married JL, I brought into our marriage a music collection carefully pulled together from the age of 11. Tens of thousands of songs, all of which I listened to and connected to at some point in my life. Top 40, Classical, R&B, Jazz, Opera, Experimental, Indie, Rock. Somewhere in the last two years, those songs have slowly disappeared. Files transferred to hard drives for storage, not use. CD cases placed on the top of shelves.

The past few nights, while JL has worked until midnight or later, I have sat up slowly retracing my steps through artists that I love and songs that mean something to me, trying to find ones that I think Walter might like right now. For the usual toddler reasons. As cheesy as I feel typing this, it's like coming home.

I'm gonna show Walter this video tomorrow. I think he's gonna dance all over the place. And in case you don't know who that wonderful guitarist is sitting next to Jerry Lee Lewis, it's Jeff Healey. Blind from the age of 1, and a musician that is dearly missed by many people, myself included. Look him up. And if you don't know who Jerry Lee is...you should be ashamed.

Welcome. Join the party.

I turned twenty-four today. I'd like to lie and say it was the best birthday I've ever had, but I can't. It wasn't my best birthday. That award still belongs to my twenty second birthday. We had just found out that we were expecting Walter (I was literally 4 weeks along), my sweet husband sprinkled rose petals all over our itty bitty, old, cheap apartment, and I got to spend the entire day with the one person in the world who means the most to me. Heaven.

This year my husband spent most of the day at work. In fact, he's still at work now, prepping for a software audit. I saw him for three hours total. Walter woke up with a fever, which got better then worse and right as I was about to go to sleep for the night, woke up screaming and continued to scream me straight out of my birthday and into a new day. Probably because I'm pregnant, about twenty-five minutes in, I broke down and cried with him. It seemed like the right thing to do.

The highlight of the day was during a video chat with my parents. My father walked in and joined the conversation by saying, "You look really pretty." Maybe I'm a big old Daddy's girl, because I just wanted to pretend that I was turning four and not twenty-four and whine like a little baby about everything that had NOT gone the way I wanted it to today and how I didn't even get a birthday cake or a solitary candle to blow out. Instead, I very calmly discussed my child's fever and my father, in his infinite wisdom said, "Welcome to adulthood." And...well...isn't that just the truth?

At least next year I'll know what to ask for: a completely healthy family.



* At my fourth birthday party, there was a cake with Flounder on it and the icing was so thick and deliciously rich I vomited everywhere and couldn't enjoy icing until years later. That is what a birthday should be like.