Who the hell is Ryan? And what's so special about his life?

Time for Updates. You know you wanna know, right?

NewKid on the Blog
Official Weight Gain, Week 31: 10 pounds.
Official Stretch Mark Status: None to report for this period.
No lie! I am very happy with the weight gain because it means I am on track for keeping the gain under 25, although truth be known, I'm gunning for 20 (I gained 22 with Arun). Nope, not proud, just RELIEVED. Everything else is looking good, heart rate is good. I could SWEAR she turned during the weekend. She was ALL OVER the place on Saturday and now, I can feel teeny feet on my right side. The same side a HEAD used to be just last week. We still have a ways to go, so yeah - she could turn back, I guess. Also, regarding the stretch marks - I'm still thinking it is the flaxseed because I got stretch marks when I gained weight after quitting the cigs. Why am I not getting stretch marks NOW? That's crazytalk.

Arun Macaroon
I'm sure there are sweeter things than hearing your child say his name for the very first time, but frankly, I'm drawing a blank. I have to get some video of him saying "Ahhh-oooo. Ahhhh-oooo" He's also starting to display the whole Peculiar Toddler Behaviour for which all toddlers are famous. Like, if I get the can of sparkling water out of the fridge BEFORE I dig the straw out of the cupboard, that shit just ain't kosher. My understanding is that his jabbering is probably along the lines of "Good god, woman - straw before the water! STRAW BEFORE THE WATER." Fortunately, once he gets both the water and the straw, all is right with his world again and he lets it go. Thus far, he just doesn't "hold on" to stuff, so we are still Tantrum Free. Although we have had some that approached Category 2 levels come our way - really in the realm of Fits, not Tantrums, though. They usually happen just when he has gotten up in the morning or if he has gotten up in the middle of the night. He cries inconsolably and then hides behind the toilet in our bathroom. Overall, right now, he is just a joy. He is SO much fun these days, loves learning, and is very excited about EVERYTHING. Life is his oyster. The only semi-challenging thing on right now is the schedule that has manifested itself from all the teething activity. In the last few weeks, I have discovered no less than FIVE teeth in various stages of eruption - and those are the teeth that I can SEE. No wonder he was so out of sorts several weeks back - poor kid! His sleep is so out of whack these days that he goes to bed at 10pm and doesn't get up until about 10am. At least he is sleeping for a solid 12 hours, but our schedule is really funky right now because I made my appointments for the doctor, Parents As Teachers, playdates and such based upon the understanding that he would be up at his normal time of 8-8:30am. Jeepers.

9 1/2 Weeks
I feel like utter crap all of the time now. Between nausea, exhaustion and breathlessness, it's not pretty. I can never fully get comfortable now, either. However, I am totally cool with it because this is normal 3rd trimester agony. I am so grateful to not be sick with something, that I'll take Totally Normal Pregnancy for 500, Alex. THANK GOD. I don't even give a crap about all the projects that won't get completed now before NewKid arriveth. They'll still be there waiting. For the next 9 1/2 weeks I've decided to just focus on getting the house organized, reading books, and spending time with Arun. The important stuff. NewKid-wise, I am actually ready. I probably should buy a pack of newborn diapers and dust off the bassinet, but that's it. We will go with co-sleeping so there was no point doing a room because I'd like Arun and NewKid to share a room for awhile until they get older. Preschoolers don't seem to care about their rooms or personal space anyway. When Arun gets to be about 8, we'll do separate rooms then. In the meantime, I will be adding some decorations to Arun's current room to include Anjali - for example, I've purchased the letters to her name so that I can paint them and hang them opposite the wall to Arun's letters (Sidenote: The letters come in handy when you are teaching the alphabet. We've been working on A, B, C so I've taken down the A down a few times for Arun to play with. He has a puzzle alphabet and some magnets, but this adds another texture to the mix - a nice tactile way to learn).

Taco Bueno Es Muy Bueno!
Um, yeah. A Taco Bueno opened up near to us. Apparently, this chain is some Texan transplant and oh my, they are beating the pants off of Taco Bell. I mean, not that we have been eating any Party Burritos from there. NOT US.

BlogHurt
Unfortunately, X is putting the kibosh on BlogHer this year. It seems, he is not entirely comfortable with my taking our newborn precious progeny on an airplane (although, a newborn is physically capable of flying). X is the not normally the type to be like this and I have to respect his opinion on this since I guess NewKid is HIS kid, too. I'm still working on it (What, me give up??), so time will tell. However, it's not looking very promising. Sniff.

Book it, babycakes.
I've read before how Baby Books can cause massive amounts of guilt in mothers. I never understood this and thought it was silliness until I went shopping for NewKid's baby book yesterday. I didn't really shop around much for Arun's book - I picked one off of Amazon called A Baby Book for You that the Boston Museum of Fine Arts was selling. That book has served its purpose - it's got all the basics you need, and I hijacked a few pages for other things (i.e. the gift list was used to track his weight so I could do the silly graph for his first year - and YES, the intent was to be goofy - I had planned the graph all along.) Anyway, I looked at some of the baby books at Border's yesterday and HOLY SHIT - apparently you can write an entire NOVEL about your child's first year. Cripes. I love my kids, but I would never be able to keep up with all the pages provided and frankly, I don't need something like that hanging over my head. Therefore, I am getting another copy of the same one I got for Arun. It's simple, easily updated and actually includes pages for up to 5 years for basic memories.

Oh, Snap.
I would LOVE to take photos of my precious progeny to show off. However, said progeny gets excited whenever the camera is presented and immediately comes over to sit on my lap so that he can see the pictures on the camera not quite understanding that a picture first needs to be taken. Also, am I the only fool that likes the house to be clean BEFORE I take snaps? I suspect my adult-aged kids are going to look at their baby pictures thinking "Criminy, why was the house so CLEAN when we were babies? What happened back then? GAWD, it's such a pit now!"