Anna's Weekend

Ok, so technically it's not over yet, but it's been so eventful!

Anna is now mobile - she has rolled over a handful of times before, but now she really has the hang of it. Yesterday she was laying on her back watching (what else?) Baby Einstein, and I walked out of the room for a minute. When I came back, she was on her tummy, happily playing with her toys. She actually stayed like that for several minutes before demanding to be returned to her back. She did it again when I was reading my magazine, later that day, and that night she rolled from her back to her tummy again, and then onto her back by herself, all in the same direction. I'm sure that within a couple of days she will be able to cross the room like that! Today she has also been practicing her rolling, letting her Daddy see it as well.

Just as exciting - Anna got her ears pierced yesterday! She was such a good girl. Her Grandma accompanied us to Easton, where we went to Claire's. Grandma held her while her Mommy kept an eye out for Child Protective Services ... (!). Anna cried for a few minutes, but recovered quickly and then took a bottle and hasn't seemed to notice the earrings since. They are nice, tasteful, small gold balls. She looks even more girly now. She also seemed to really love Easton, lots of eye candy for her.

Today she's been happy because her Daddy is not working, so she got some quality time with him. She took full advantage by giggling at all of his funny faces, and of course, spitting up all over his shirt with a big huge smile.

Tiger Takes One For The Team

The last week or two, Anna has focused in on Tiger. As soon as she sees him, she starts trying to reach him, just obsessed with this furry creature moving around the house and playing with her toys. He's been surprisingly tolerant of her curiosity. He just lays there while she grabs his ear and shakes his head around, pulls at his fur and pokes him in the eye. Friday night she actually looped her finger through the ring his tag hangs from and used that to yank him around at will. He just looked at me like he was wondering how long he had to allow this to go on. We are so lucky to have such a good-natured pet.

Ghost Stories

Last weekend I decided I needed a good long book to get into. Something brought Anne Rice to my mind and I remembered that I still had a copy of The Witching Hour in the house. Haven't read this since college and it was sooooo good (not to mention long enough to keep me involved for awhile). I looked for the box it was in and actually found it. I started reading it again and it is just as good as I remembered.

That same day I had my weekly phone call update session with my sister and we somehow got on the topic of ghosts. We exchanged stories and opinions as to whether or not we thought our respective current houses are haunted. I told her that while my husband experienced something strange in our house way back when he was a kid, I haven't seen or felt anything that raised my suspicions.

Well lo and behold the very next morning (Sunday), Dan and I are enjoying the fact that Anna is letting us sleep in a bit, when all of a sudden we wake up to a strange sound. Sort of buzzing, vaguely mechanical, loud enough to scare the crap out of us. Dan gets up and it turns out it was coming from our bathroom. You know those scrubbing bubbles shower cleaners that when you push the button, sprays your shower with cleanser? Well we used to use one, but haven't in several months. It was still hanging in our shower and suddenly decided to go off. The weird thing (ok, one of the weird things) is that when you use it, it beeps for 15 seconds before going off then sprays for like another 15 seconds or something. Well this thing didn't beep first, and just kept spraying until Dan finally took the batteries out. Freaked me out. So it is gone now, with the rest of our garbage, but maybe I spoke too soon about our house.

Saturdays

As is probably the case with many working moms, Saturday is my absoulte favorite day. I get the whole day with Anna (usually by myself because Dan works every Saturday). I also get to see the new tricks that Anna has pefected throughout the week. Today's treats:

She's getting better at bearing weight on her legs. I pick her up and set her on her feet and she can "stand" for 5-10 seconds at a time. She gets really excited at this new position. She's already done it three or four times this morning.

Also, for the last week, she likes to grab things in her right hand and swing her arm around frantically in a circular motion. She's done this with everything she's held so far today and managed to throw her teething toy clear across the room - right into daddy's dirty socks. So we're washing that toy now.

The last two hours of activity has worn the poor girl out and now she's in her swing with her ladybug toy, sucking her thumb. This means it's mommy's time to do some housework. I'm sure she'll continue to entertain after her nap. Saturdays rock!

Pregnancy Dreams

So while I am on the topic of the new pregnancy, I have to share what is definitely the craziest pregnancy dream I have ever had. My dreams this time have been more vivid than ever before and they are just nuts. So two nights ago, this is what my hormone-drenched head came up with:

I am at the hospital and very very pregnant. I am dressed in a white gown, as are all the other patients. The maternity ward seems to be a very social place and very open in its layout. I am in a smaller room with Vicky, a pregnancy weekly website buddy (who is not currently pregnant in real life). She is in labor and we are talking about how cool it is that we are going to have our new babies together. We hug and bond. Then I think to ask, what day is it, it doesn't seem like it's really time for me to have my baby. The nurse tells me it's December. I am shocked because the last thing I remember, I was only three months pregnant. I am upset that I have absolutely no memory of the last six months of my life. My mom is there and she and the nurse just laugh at me like it's a typical pregnancy thing. I continue to insist that it's not funny, it's disturbing, but no one seems to agree.

Then Vicky is gone and I want to find the room she's been taken to. While I am looking, I see that my dad is there and he's in a very bad mood for some reason. My brother is also there, having traveled from Dallas to be here for the birth, but he is refusing to stay with anyone while he's in town - he's brought a tent that he insists he will sleep in. Outside. In December. In Ohio. Ok, whatever, because here comes my sister, directly from the airport, she is also here from Phoenix for the birth. My husband is in the waiting room also and is being generally supportive of me.

I am walking around, socializing, when I see a baby in a swing. It's the son of another pregnancy weekly website friend, and he's asleep in the swing, only he's wiggled his way up to the actual mechanical part of it. So I pick him up and snuggle him and put him back where he belongs, then I find his mom, who is also pregnant (though again, not in real life) and wearing a white gown. She is perfectly groomed, hair and makeup, and looks beautiful. She is socializing with some other people and I tell her what happened and she thanks me and goes to get her son.

Well all of a sudden I realize that I am not really having contractions anymore and a male nurse eventually comes up to me with a form he wants me to sign. Mom looks at it and laughs again and says that they are sending me home because my contractions stopped. I object; after all I am supposed to have a c-section, so it shouldn't matter; in fact, I wasn't even supposed to be having contractions to begin with. But mom says that it's "policy" and says that it has something to do with the fact that it's dawn. So I am upset and for some reason, again ask what is the date. I am told it's December 1st. I look at Dan and say, "it's Anna's birthday!" He of course agrees, and I point out that we should do something special for her birthday. Dan says ok. So I am sent home and my dad is driving me and Dan home and on the way I keep insisting to Dan that we do something special for Anna's first birthday. Dan assures me that it will be ok and says we will just drive through Tim Horton's and get some doughnuts.

I sort of wake up from the dream and I think I told Dan a couple of times that "they sent me home." He tells me I am having a bad dream and I answer, not bad, just strange. Indeed.

The Big Surprise

Ok so here is what happened: the hubby and I had a bit of a "birth control malfunction" on March 29th. We didn't realize until afterward. We were shocked, but given the fact that it took us well over a year to conceive Anna, we didn't really think that anything would come of it, even though it was smack dab in the middle of my cycle. So I start feeling a bit nauseous the following week, in the middle of the day, and I figure it's just stress. Four days before I am due for my period, I buy a three pack of the early detection pregnancy tests. I take one immediately and it comes back negative, so I feel better. Then Thursday, April 14th comes and and I am due and I don't get my period. So I take a second test while Dan gives Anna a bath. It comes back ... inconclusive. The second line appears, but it's very very faint. Dan sees it and asks - semi-panicked - what that means. I don't know. I take the last test and it's the same. The next day I buy those dummy-proof digital readout tests and I can't look at it. I ask Dan to look. He comes in from the yard, takes off his shoes, washes his hands, says hello to Anna and I am freaking out. He looks and says, "honey, you're pregnant." I burst into tears. Dan smiles and hugs me. Welcome, Baby Trojan.