Last Saturday, I headed out to Wisconsin with Dave’s family for a golden wedding anniversary. I had some reservations about traveling, but it was really only a little more than an hour away, and it was about the same distance from the hospital as our house is.

So I got ready for the party and I was also getting things ready for my sister Claudine’s bridal shower (which was the next day). I was a bit stressed out as I had planned on making lasagna, ordering Claudine’s favorite orange chicken from Panda express, considered making sugar cookies and getting all the bridal games together. I was really excited to do Claudine’s shower because I’m the matron of honor and I wanted her to have a great time.

I went to the maternity store a couple weeks before that and although the dresses looked great on the pregnant mannequins, I had a hard time finding a dress that didn’t make me look like a whale under a tent. I just had to find the dress that looked the least whale-ish.

A Whale Under a Black Tent

I swear that I had bought some maternity hose, but when the time came for me to dress up, I couldn’t find them. I then found the receipt and realized that no, I never bought any. So I ran to the drugstore and bought an XXL Queen pair. Of course, XXL Queen pairs of hose aren’t made to fit pregnant whales, so the control top wasn’t helping me. But I sucked it up and survived.

It was then, in my pretty whale-tent dress that I realized that my ankles were HUGE. They were fat and swollen. I asked Dave if they looked big, and he just laughed and said, “My wife has canckles!” To those of you who don’t know, cankles are ankles that are so fat that they become one line with your calf - making it seem like the ankles don’t exist at all - they become cankles. And that’s what I had. I stared at them all night and Dave would laugh every time.

CANCKLES!

We were at the reception, and they had an awesome DJ. The music was great and I just wanted to get out of my seat and dance dance dance. Anyone who knows me or has seen me at a reception knows I love to dance. But I knew that I got tired easily so I didn’t want to risk exerting myself too much, so I decided not to get on the dancefloor. But then Earth Wind and Fire’s “September” came up and I just had to move. Dave asked if I was sure and I said yes, and we ruled the dance floor - Dave, my big belly and me. I only lasted about 2 songs before I knew it was time to rest.

…then came my line dancing kryptonite - the cha-cha slide (also known as the Casper slide). I got up off my seat and cha-cha line danced my big ass off. Everyone was really entertained watching the pregnant lady do little hops on the dance floor. It wasn’t even little hops - it was more of a bobbing up and down. By the end of the song I was pooped!

Afterwards we went home, after I went in the bathroom and took off the super queen hose. I was so exhausted I went to sleep as soon as we got home, which was at around 2am.

I woke at around 7am with some weird pains in my stomach. I fell asleep again, and woke about 20 minutes later. Could it be? Was it time? Fifteen minutes later, another pain…after an hour, I knew the answer…It was the cha-cha slide that did me in!

The first thought in my head? “Oh my god! I know I said I wanted the baby out now, but we’re not ready!!!”

The second thought?

“Damn, Claudine’s gonna be PISSED that I’m having the baby the same day as the shower that I’m supposed to be hosting!”

…to be continued!

Our Last Photo Before Benjamin’s Birth
(not that we knew it would be the last!)

Tags: Pregnancy by Yano
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Just an FYI, I’m still alive and kicking, as are my husband and baby.

My prediction that motherhood would be a walk in the park and I’d have tons of free time was pretty wrong. How could someone so small take up so much of my time? Not that I mind…he’s so awesome and I can look at him for hours. I didn’t get the shakes, neck ticks, cold sweats or itches that I thought I would without more than an hour of internet time a day. Truthfully, I’ve only been on the ‘net about 5 times since the baby was born, each time for a quick look at email and favorite sites…

I’m installing photoshop right now and other necessities, so hopefully I’ll have some great pics up for you all…and of course, some good stories!!!

Tags: Daily by Yano
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Well, as you’ve already seen from Claudine’s post (posing as Dan) I’ve had the baby! We came home today and there’s TONS of things to do, but you know that I couldn’t stay away from this blog!

Real quick, thanks for the comments, emails, text messages and calls…you all are awesome!

Also, here’s our ‘official’ picture of little Benjamin:

I’ll be posting all the wonderful gory details of what happened Sunday (and Saturday night) over the next several days, in between feedings, of course…

Here’s some teasers -

- What the cha-cha slide had to do with my labor
- My “unusual” epidural
- How awesome hospital food is
- Why I only took 3 pictures at the hospital

…and much much more…

See you all later!

Tags: Pregnancy by Yano
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Claudine here, posting for Christine, who’s without her beloved DSL at the hospital…

Allow me to introduce you Benjamin Cristopher!

Born April 9, 2006
7 lbs 15 oz
19 inches long

I’m too tired to try to remember how to put up thumbnails of pics with links, so y’all will just have to wait until Christine comes home or Melanie posts her pics… sorry! This one will just have to whet your whistle till then.

Congratulations Christine and Dave!

Tags: Uncategorized by Redpac
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In various books I’ve read about the last stages of pregnancy, they’ve talked about the ‘nesting instinct’, a period at the end of pregnancy when expectant mothers start really fixing up the baby’s room and have a burst of enery to make the baby’s area as comfortable as can be.

Dave and I have been feeling a bit of that lately, though in different ways.

Dave has been working non-stop in the nursery, trying to find the perfect comforter for the twin bed, vacuuming and arranging things around the room. He’s also been really cleaning up around the house, trying to make it perfect for when the baby comes.

Me? I’ve been working on my new desktop computer, trying to make sure that all the programs I need are installed that I’ll be using to make baby movies, modifying pictures, setting up our new cable internet connection and scanning old photos to keep in my archives. That’s my nesting instinct - the techno geek nesting instinct.

To each their own - Dave can take care of making sure that the house is a nice comfy place for the baby. I’ll make sure that the baby’s first internet experiences are safe and entertaining.

I’m a GEEK!

Tags: Pregnancy by Yano
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As some of you may know, I had eye surgery a couple years ago on a detached retina. The eye is doing ok, but it hasn’t quite healed yet (the doctor said it may take several years to get to the way it was before the surgery). I had gotten glasses to wear right after the surgery which were made according to my old prescription. After two years, I still can’t see that well out of them. It’s not a big deal since I wear my contacts all the time anyway, but I’ve been thinking that once the baby is born I’m really not going to want to bother with my contacts much.

So I had a choice to make - get new glasses, or use my old ones which I can see OK out of, but I wouldn’t go on a long drive with them on. Oh, and Dave has commandeered my old ones which are coincidentally very close to his prescription. This makes me laugh, because there’s little rhinestones on the side of the glasses and they’re a bit retro, but that doesn’t seem to bother Dave.

I’ve got a vision plan with work, but I recall that when I got my last pair I had to pay a LOT extra for the frames and the lenses. My eyes are pretty bad (over so they need to do a lot of special things to the lenses to make them lightweight because using glass would squoosh my already very squooshed nose.

Speaking of squooshed noses - last week, when I was helping clean my crap out of my dad’s place, I found all my old sets of glasses. I wanted to keep them but Claudine the Lion-Heart said that I should donate them for people who can’t afford their own glasses. Fine, they can have them. I just don’t want to hear some inner-city kid crying to his mama saying, “Who the hell would get these huge frames with PINK TINTED LENSES!!?!?!?! I feel like a FREAK!”

Yeah, they do look a bit dorky. I apologize to anyone out there who gets my old glasses. If you think the glasses look funny on my face now, imagine the superfreak that I was when I was in 6th grade (actually, I think they may be different frames):

Yeah, you can tell that the boys were lining up to get dates with me!

Sadly, all my glasses were more or less that style until I was a sophomore in highschool and the doctor made me get contacts to decrease the damage done to my eye.

So anyway, I decided to go get new glasses. I was at the eye doctor and we were going through the steps and everything and he remarked that yes, my eyes are really crappy. “Am I legally blind?” I asked…and he said, “Can you see without your glasses on? What is that on the wall?” I looked at the light on the wall and said, “Well, I know it’s a big fat E because if I squint really hard I can see it, but other than that, its just a smudge on the wall.” “Well,” he said, “You can go ahead and say you’re blind.”

We ran through a couple lenses to figure out how bad my eyes are now (which turned out to be -8.75 and -9.25) which is always fun. I love seeing it blurry with one else and then he switches it to lens 2 and it’s so much clearer. Then he switches to another lens and it’s even clearer than that. It goes on and on til I can’t tell the difference anymore.

He also did this weird test that I haven’t done before where he put a card with a plus sign on it that was made of several lines right in front of my line of vision. He then said, “You’re getting double vision now, right?”

“Um, no, there’s just one cross.”

“You sure there’s not two?”

“Nope, just one.”

He then told me to close my eyes, did an adjustment, and told me to open again.

“Do you see double now?”

“Nope.” Another adjustment.

“Now?”

“Oh, I did for a second, but then my eyes adjusted and there’s just one now.”

The doctor looked at me confused and wrote a couple things down. He asked me if I had a wandering eye and I said no, but that I was a little cross eyed when I was a kid, but that happened to a lot of kids, right? (I’m really sensitive about being cross-eyed) He didn’t answer because he was jotting notes down. He then had me look at the wall where an image was projected.

“Do you see two flowers there?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed, happy that his little trick was working for me now. I then told him when the flowers were one over the other, and then when they merged into one. I was proud that I finally passed the test. He wrote some stuff down.

He then proceeded to take the plus sign card and put it in front of the lens - “Do you see doube now?”

“Nope!” Oh boo, its still not working.

He then told me that since I was pregnant my eyes might be making these extra adjustments that they shouldn’t, and that we’d do the check again once the baby’s born.

We then picked out some lenses - at this point I really don’t care what they look like since I wear contacts all the time anyway, but we managed to find a pair that looks similar to the ones that Dave stole from me. Surprisingly, I only had to pay $35 for everything rather than the $250+ that I had to spend the last time on “special lenses” which I realize now was probably a load of crap.

So I’m excited to get my new glasses next week, I’ll definitely post pictures. I hope that I’ll be able to see double after the baby’s born, though I don’t really know who would want to!

Tags: Daily by Yano
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Over the last several weeks I’ve been joking around with Dave that I’m ready to have this baby at any moment. He’d reply to me with, “No! He’s not full term yet. His lungs aren’t fully developed. Give him some time. 37 weeks is full term and you’re not there yet.”

Well, I’m at 37 weeks now. I’m full term! Yay! He can survive without too many problems out of my womb.

Now get out, baby! Now!

Tags: Pregnancy by Yano
8 Comments »

Thanks to Sue and Tiasha for this one…

On Wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 AM in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. That won’t ever happen again.

Well, ok, it’s lying. It will happen in another 100 years, but are you really willing to wait that long if you miss it?

Lack of updates will be spotty - the laptop is on its last legs (I’m getting pretty tired of holding the adapter for it in that “just right” position so it charges the battery) and I’ve convinced Dave that we need a new desktop to replace the Windows 98 one I’ve had for the last 4 years that takes 10 minutes to boot up and randomly freezes up on us.

Tags: Quickies by Yano
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I was on my honeymoon about 2 years ago in Maui, Hawaii, and I’ve just dug up the tapes of the whale watching we did. The weather was pretty bad the first couple days we were there so we had to do a lot of switching around of our schedule. But we were able to get some whale watching trips in, which was pretty awesome. It seemed like whales were everywhere! Today I’m sharing a video I took during one of our tours where a mother whale and her calf passed directly underneath our boat (boats have to turn off their motors if a whale is a certain distance from the boat). It was amazing to see these huge animals underneath us - the video doesn’t really give you a good perspective on how massive the mother and her calf were! It was truly one of the most memorable days of my life…

Sorry for my shoddy video work - this is what it’s like to be on a whale watch - you’re standing around, looking at the horizon, waiting for a whale to breach and by the time you realize it, your camera is too late to get a good shot. But I managed to get a couple good ones in!

Enjoy!

Tags: Daily by Yano
3 Comments »

I got this one from Lyn…something for me to look forward to!

—-

RAISING BOYS

The following came from an anonymous Mother in Austin, Texas…

Things I’ve learned from my Boys (honest and not kidding):

1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.

2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.

3.) A 3-year old Boy’s voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20×20 ft. room.

5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.

6.) The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn’t stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.

7.) When you hear the toilet flush and the words “uh oh”, it’s already too late.

8.) Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.

9.) A six-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old man says they can only do it in the movies.

10.) Certain Lego’s will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old Boy.

11.) Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.

12.) Super glue is forever.

13.) No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can’t walk on water.

14.) Pool filters do not like Jell-O.

15.) VCR’s do not eject “PB &J” sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.

16.) Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.

17.) Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.

18.) You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is.

19.) Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens.

20.) The fire department in Austin, TX has a 5-minute response time.

21.) The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.

22.) It will, however, make cats dizzy.

23.) Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.

24.) 80% of Men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid.

Those who pass this on to almost all of their friends, with or without boys do it because:

a) For those with no children - this is totally hysterical!

b) For those who already have children past this age, this is hilarious.

c) For those who have children this age, this is not funny.

d) For those who have children nearing this age, this is a warning.

e) For those who have not yet had children, this is birth control

Tags: Lists by Yano
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