Introducing...

Noah Alexander!
















Noah was born at home yesterday at 2:00 p.m. after three hours of labor. He weighs 8 lbs, and so far is the easiest baby ever. He is nursing like a champ, and Emma is so excited to have him here that she can't keep her grubby little hands off him.

I really wanted a homebirth, but since I had a Cesarean with Emma, Steve wanted to have this baby at a hospital. Our deal was if I had a successful VBAC with this baby, then any children we have after this could be born at home. Well, it all happened so fast that by the time my midwife got here I was ready to push and in no mood to mess with going to the hospital. It couldn't have worked out any more perfectly. I am so elated to have the birth that I really wanted!

I finally have some pictures to post, although I didn't take them myself. The proofs from my pregnancy portrait session are ready. I think they turned out really well, and I'm having trouble narrowing them down to my very favorites.

GRRRR! A guy from one of the dealerships we visited on Saturday called Steve today and told him that someone had traded in a van that was exactly what we wanted, and told him a price that we thought sounded great. Steve left work to go there and check it out. After driving it, liking it, and calling me to discuss it, he was ready to sit down and try to work out a deal. The sales guy went to talk to his manager, and then came back and said he was sorry, but they wouldn't let him sell it for the price he'd already quoted! What a bunch of unprofessional losers! Blah!

I took Emma to the doctor today. They wanted me to get her to pee in a cup. Please, people. I have been trying unsuccessfully for months just to get this kid to pee in a potty, there was no chance whatsoever that she was going to pee in a little two inch cup. Still, I tried, but she assured me she would rather do it next Thursday instead. Coincidentally, that's when she always tells me she'll be ready to use the potty. I am skeptical, however, because a lot of Thursdays have come and gone and still no peeing in the potty. Anyway, the poor girl hadn't peed since last night - and didn't finally go until 4:30 today - so no urine sample was given. Our doctor said we could give her antibiotics, but I'm really reluctant to do that, especially when we're not completely 100% positive she has a bladder infection. We left and I just planned to load her up with cranberry extract, but then she really seemed to be in pain and she still wasn't peeing. He had said that holding it would make it worse because the bacteria would sit there and multiply instead of getting flushed out. So, I ended up having them call in the prescription and I went and got her some probiotics to take as well. Poor Emma.

I think poor Emma has a urinary tract infection. For awhile, she's been saying that her butt hurts at random times throughout the day. For the past several days she's had a fever that won't go away and she's been pretty cranky. Now, every time she has to pee, she rolls around on the floor saying "my butt hurts my butt hurts my butt hurts" and eventually crying before she will finally go. I'm going to take her to our doctor tomorrow, but I'm feeling guilty that I didn't catch on and bring her in sooner. Bad mommy. :(

Yesterday we finally got to spend a few hours van shopping! It was fun, but ended up being kind of disappointing. We were planning on getting a 2003ish model with 60,000ish miles. There are two features I really, really, really want - remote sliding doors, and stow and go seats. Unfortunately, we found out that those features weren't added until 2004, and not together in the same van until 2005. Boo hoo for that because, even though I have been drooling over the Honda Odysseys for months, we're not doling out over $20,000 to get one with those features. After I got over my disappointment from that news, we started to look at other models. We drove a 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan that we liked (with the remote doors, but no stow and go) and then spent - okay, Steve spent - a long time haggling over the price of that. Our sales guy kept leaving to talk to his manager about different prices, and Steve was assuring me that they wouldn't let us walk out of there. Alas, they ended up giving back our deposit and letting us walk out of there. We hadn't looked into Dodges before that so were unsure if we would really be getting a good deal or not, and no agreement could be reached, so we left. Now after looking online some more, we think we may have made a mistake. Apparently Steve had gotten them down to a reasonable price, and we should have probably met them halfway, but live and learn, I guess. The problem with this is that we are seriously running out of time! I may try to talk him into just calling them tomorrow morning and accepting their offer.

This morning we had our carpet cleaned, and looking at all the plush expanse of perfectly spotless carpet has made me happy all day. I know it will look like it's old, stained, spotty self again soon so I'm trying to enjoy it while I can. If we ever get new carpet, I think I'm going to implement a rule of no food or drinks on the carpet. Somehow I don't think a rule of that magnitude will go over so well, especially since Steve already thinks I'm a fascist for making the dogs sleep on the floor!

I am going through picture posting withdrawal. Since we are (not really) working on the office, all the computer stuff is pushed to the middle of the room and a bunch of it is unplugged. My camera dock happens to be one of those things, and I could probably fix it if I wanted, but I don't want to wade through the huge mass of wires to figure it out. So, don't be expecting any pictures any time soon.

We still don't have any TV, which is nice, but I'm sort of cheating. I started renting Grey's Anatomy from Blockbuster. I had never seen the show before last week, but now I'm on season 2, episode 6 and I really like it. Emma is in bed already (!) and Steve wants to watch this week's 24 on the computer, but I may have to skip that in favor of watching another episode of Grey's. Decisions, decisions...

Emma and I came to visit my parents for a few days, and Steve let the dogs sleep in the bed with him last night! He also put them in the bedroom when he went to work today, so I know they are lounging on the bed all day long, living it up while I'm not there to keep them off. Darn that guy! They've been doing so well, and this is only going to make it harder for them. Steve said they know I'm the sheriff (and the "facist", according to him) so there won't be an issue when I get back, but I'm still annoyed about it.

I'd write more, but my mom wants to play Scrabble, and I'm not one to miss out on a good Scrabble game!

The dogs are officially not allowed on the bed anymore, as of two days ago. They are handling it really well, and that alone makes me feel much more affectionate towards them. I decided not to crate them at night, but let them sleep on a blanket on the floor of the bedroom. It's been a teensy bit annoying because they get restless and walk around on the floor, and their toenails going click click click click on the floor keeps me awake, but I'm sure that will improve as they adjust. It's just unfortunate for them that we don't have carpet on that floor - they would be much less annoying if we did. Maybe I should knit them some socks!

We have been making some progress, albeit slooooow progress, on the office. The wallpaper is down, so I guess that's the first big step out of the way. Unfortunately a lot of the paint that was underneath it chipped off so Steve has a big spackling job ahead of him. We also got our tax refund, which means that the van shopping can begin anytime! When it actually will, who knows, but at least it's a move in the right direction, right?

Emma is really into doling out compliments lately. Out of nowhere, she will say, "Mommy, you look so pretty this morning," or "I always have such a nice time with you," or other sweet things. She is quite the charmer. Anyway, she has a pair of plastic dress up shoes that have heels on them and because they make it difficult for her to walk, she calls them her tricky shoes. Occasionally we'll see a woman wearing heels, and Emma always notes the "tricky shoes". The other day we were at the store and a lady walked by us wearing a pair of boots with heels, and as she passed us, Emma said to her, "You are really good at walking with those tricky shoes!"

Why isn't there a way to make small one-sizeish portions of things? Yesterday I really wanted some chocolate, so Emma and I made a chocolate cake. It was delicious, and everything was great, until today when the darn cake is still sitting around and making me eat it all day long. Part of me wants to just throw it away, but a bigger part of me honestly wants to just scarf down the entire thing, and the bigger part of me is winning!

Remember that swap I joined? I finished the washcloths in the nick of time. Whew!

Emma is turning into quite the little drama queen. She loves free samples whenever we go to the store, and yesterday at Wild Oats she was especially fond of one that was chips and salsa. The next free sample was also chips, but alas no salsa. When she realized there was no salsa with this one, she sighed dramatically, sat down on the floor, and proclaimed, "This is the most horrible day I've had in my whole life!"

This morning I got maternity portraits taken. It was fun, and Emma liked being in them too. Now it's going to be hard to wait two weeks until I can see them.

I am loving this weather! We've had the windows open for the last two days, and it is heavenly. Yesterday we unpacked all of Emma's summer clothes and put them in her room, which has resulted in even more clothing changes than usual. At one point she laid them all out on the floor and pretended to take pictures of them with her toy camera, because "we don't want to forget all these wonderful clothes!" She is so cute!

I'm working on crate training our dogs again, but this time I'm easing them into it a little more slowly in hopes that they take to it a little better. So far it's going well. The first two days I put them in there and Emma and I sat right there and read books until they calmed down. Then we did two days where I put them in there for a little while and Emma and I left the room. They barked and cried, but eventually stopped, and then I let them out and gave them hugs and treats. Now we are to the point where they go in there whenever we leave the house. They don't bark at all when I put them in there anymore. They do bark when we get home, but I don't let them out until they've stopped. Pretty soon we're going to try the overnight thing, so hopefully that will be as successful.

Last night we took Emma bowling for the first time. She was so excited and she loved it - for about three frames. Then when it was her turn, she pushed the ball without waiting for help from us and it slooooowly rolled down the lane, and eventually stopped about ten feet down. She took off running after it, slipped on the lane, and fell flat on her back. I don't know if she was embarrassed or what, but she didn't want to bowl anymore after that. Whenever it was her turn, she'd say that she was worn out from bowling or that she'd just like to rest instead. When we left she said she was happy to be going home because bowling was too hard for girls who are three.

A couple weeks ago she started playing with an imaginary friend named Sarah (original, huh?). Every day they dress up and go to fancy parties together. This morning they had two big weddings during which they each married one of Emma's dolls. Here she is, posing with her lovely new wife, Charlotte.



















And here she is doing her other favorite activity as of late - climbing the tree in the front yard.

Every few months Parents as Teachers has some sort of info night. There is a speaker, and childcare is provided. I've never gone before because I wouldn't leave Emma with a stranger, but last night they had one and I decided to go. I was really feeling the need for a break, and if I had to sit there and listen to someone spout off her views on discipline (last night's topic) to get one, so be it. Emma apparently had fun in the child care, but I was really disappointed in the talk. The lady had a lot of good points, but also talked about spanking and the times when she thinks it is appropriate. She made sure to tell us that it should hurt the child, and that the smacks should be hard. Um, what????? Spanking is never appropriate. Ever. I almost got up and walked out, but I wanted to stay until the end and ask her some questions. At one point, she was musing why children bite, spit, and hit, because, she said, "We, as parents, don't teach them to do those things." Sorry, but hitting your child is doing nothing other than teaching them to hit. She also made the point that the things that are always unacceptable for any child to do is hurt himself or herself, hurt someone else, or destroy property. So...how does hurting your child show him or her that hurting others is unacceptable? It doesn't. I was going to ask these questions afterwards, but there wasn't an opportunity for questions. Grrr. I was really, really annoyed that PAT invited this speaker and I considered quitting the program altogether. Fast forward to today - we had a PAT appointment with our educator this morning. She asked me what I thought of the speaker, and I told her all those things and that I basically thought it was a bunch of crap. She said they had no idea she was going to say those things, and that they are putting out a statement in the next newsletter apologizing for that, and explaining that PAT doesn't advocate spanking, ever. After hearing that, I feel much better about the whole thing. I am still sad, however, that there are people like this woman out there who think that there is nothing wrong with hitting babies and children.

Tonight I get to go to my AP group's Mom's Night Out! Steve is going to drag himself away from work at 6:00 so I can go, and I am so looking forward to it!

Wonderful news! Steve has agreed to leave our son intact! I am SO relieved about this. I was so disappointed that, after being presented with all the facts, he still wanted to go ahead with such a horrible procedure, but now he has renewed my faith in him. After he told me that, I was feeling generous, so I told him we could name the baby his favorite name. I'm not a huge fan of the name, but I better start getting used to it, I suppose. Now we have two big decisions taken care of.

I told someone I would sew a few diapers to sell to her, and I'm pretty nervous about it. When I'm sewing diapers for my own kids, who cares if my stitching isn't straight or my snaps aren't perfectly aligned? Now I have to be really meticulous about things like that, and what if I find out that I really can't even sew a straight line? I just hope she doesn't feel ripped off after she gets them.

I may have made a big mistake. This morning I signed up for a swap for which I am planning to knit five dishcloths by March 15th. At the time I was thinking knitting five dishcloths would be no problem, but I wasn't thinking about how soon March 15th actually is. Eeek! I really need to get busy on those. I can do it - clean laundry is overrated anyway, right? Right?

Woo-hoo, I finished sewing all the size small diapers! I love them! Now I better get started sewing mediums because I probably won't have much time to do it when the little guy starts growing out of these.













We have a weird thing going on here with naps lately. Many days, Emma doesn't go to sleep at her usual nap time. She then starts to get tired and cranky around 5:00, and I am usually getting desperate for some alone time then, so I give in and nurse her to sleep. Then of course, she isn't at all tired and ready for bed by 11:00, and at that point I feel like I'm ready to collapse. I just need to adjust, and deal with her not taking a nap. That way she will be asleep by 8:30, and I will have my whole evening to do as I please, and it will all be worth it!

I'm knitting Emma the green cardigan version of this sweater (scroll down a bit), and it's making me crazy. I have the main part of the body finished, but the sleeves are killing me. I've had to change my needle size and alter the number of stitches several times to get the sleeves to be right. Because of this, I've had to start them over many times, and I despise working on double pointed needles. I would've scrapped the whole thing awhile ago, but I don't want to waste the time I spent knitting the body of the darn thing. Gah!

I had a professor in college who I had kind of forgotten about until recently. Last week I found out that he allegedly strangled his boyfriend in 2004, and is now on trial for murder. There was a trial in October, but due to a hung jury, he is on trial again starting this week. I've read every article I can find about it, and I'm convinced that he's innocent. I remember him being a really nice guy and I keep thinking about him and feeling sorry that he's going through this. I hope they find him not guilty.

We are planning to get bunk beds for the new bedroom, and Emma is very excited about them. Every day she asks if today is the day we're getting the new bunk beds. I didn't expect anyone to be sleeping in them for awhile, and I never said anything to her about her sleeping in them. Somehow she has gotten the idea that as soon as we get the bunk beds, she will sleep in there. Yesterday she told me that it will be sad that she won't sleep with us anymore, but she will have lots of fun in the bunk beds. I'm amused that she thinks this, but am also 99% certain she will not really sleep there as soon as she finds herself alone in there for, oh, about thirty seconds. Apparently, I think I know her better than she knows herself.

Today I was lamenting my lack of clothes that fit, and I put on one of my regular shirts just for kicks. After I put it on, Emma told me I better change right away because the baby brother was probably getting cold!