Baby Fishy

I'm definitely feeling this baby moving around inside, which is really bizarre because I'm only 13 weeks. I saw my midwife this week and she said for a third baby, that's totally normal. So, okay! It's weird because clearly the kid has tons of room to swim around in there - she tried to get it on the doppler and, after finding the heartbeat almost immediately and losing it, it took awhile to find it again. I brought the boys with me, and Wyatt stood right up next to me, listening in with a big grin on his face. It's really cute to share this with them - he was too young when I was pregnant with Oscar to understand what was going on.

In other news, I'm trying hard to be patient, and it's a struggle right now. I can't say anything else about it, but, yes, it's all about a missing spouse! Argh. I know that us moving here rather than going to GA, then moving up a few months later was better. Truly, it was. Between the pregnancy (that we knew nothing about when we PCS'd), to getting homeschooling going, to just things like the second car that we was shipped here, but we would have had to drive up for the second move, it was all better. But, wow, I'm sick of this separation! All I have to say to people who choose to geo-bach on purpose - you are crazy. That is all.

We did turn today into a library day. Wyatt found some Magic School Bus books there, and was so excited about it. He'd watched some of the show at school, and eagerly sat down at a table and read through one of them while we were there. Happily, I just picked up the entire series over Black Friday when Amazon had the set down dirt cheap, and I also got a good price on a science kit based on the series that will be sent out monthly, starting in December. I've been kind of stumped on science for awhile, so I'm excited about it. We'll try to find corresponding books through the library, and I'll buy a few if I have to, then have the related DVD to watch as well as the experiments in the kit to work through.

We picked up donuts on the way home, had a snack, then turned school into a math (can't slack on that one!)/reading day, with some Magic School Bus DVDs at the end (he was SO excited to come home and find out I had them - I had debated waiting for Christmas to give them to him, but now I'm glad I didn't). It was a good day, which hadn't started out as such. Here's hoping the end of the week is just as good.

Patience is Elusive...

We're so close to being back together as a family, but not quite there... It's a lot harder to have patience with it when you are so close to the end. On the plus side, I'm nearly twelve weeks and the morning sickness (why was this ever named morning sickness? For me, it gets worse as the day goes on, but I'm usually fine when I wake up) is fading away slowly. I'm looking forward to the middle trimester; it's always the best one for me.

I'm actually hoping to run again when Oliver gets back. I haven't been able to do much since we moved as the boys are past the age of strapping into a stroller - not that I even own a jogger, anymore. Sold that puppy to someone in the Bahamas! Once you have multiple kids, and have chosen homeschooling for awhile, a jogger just doesn't make sense anymore.

Oh, and in the interest of cramming this post full of baby-related stuff, I got a crib! And mattress. For fifty bucks! A friend here had a relative that was getting rid of it. It was barely used, just been in storage for a couple years. I'm thrilled; that saves us several hundred dollars. It actually looks very similar to the one I gave away before we moved, not that I would have cared much what it looked like; it's just a temporary holding pen for a couple years that pretty much no one will see but us, after all.

Finally, the homeschooling gig is slowly coming together. I've even got Oscar doing reading lessons again. I had to buy another program, but he loves it, and no longer fights me, so it was worth it. It's been interesting bouncing back and forth between them, but I'm just trying to assign Wyatt something independent while I work with Oscar.

I have also started Wyatt on a new math program. We're going to keep up with some of the other stuff, but I don't think he's being challenged enough, and I need something with a little more structure as math is a weakness for me. We did the first few pages today; it took him forever because he kept distracting himself, but I think it might work out. Crossing my fingers on that one.

I'm doing very free-wheeling spelling lessons, though. The program I initially tried was a bust; it was rule-based, and he couldn't seem to recall any of the rules it was teaching, so I gave up, did some research on how kids learned to spell, and am doing something entirely of my own device now. I think it may be working, too - he used to write scribbles whenever he was playing and needed something written for whatever reason, but now he is actually writing words, and is far less stressed about whether they are spelled right or not (which I think was a huge impediment to writing before). Which is not to say that I've taught him that spelling right isn't important - more that it's okay to be wrong, and how to find the answers when he is.

Now, I just need to figure out how to be more organized. Everything is in a single bookcase right now; it's togther, but that's about all I can say about it. It's getting too chaotic, and I need a better way to let the boys know what is expected from them each day. I've got a few ideas, but think I will wait for Oliver to return so I can go out and search for the right supplies on my own. I will get a LOT more done that way!

Halloween is over - and so is Sandy, and not having a washing machine - whew!

I am absurdly tired right now. Sort of sad since it's only 1430, and the kids were nice enough to let me sleep in a couple hours while they watched Mythbusters on Netflix. I really don't think I'm as worn out with this pregnancy as I was with Oscar, but it wipes me out halfway through the day. Just to trick-or-treat, I had to lay down for awhile in the afternoon so I could muster the energy to walk around the neighborhood with the boys.

Oh, yes, the cat's out of the bag - we're expecting again! Considering how much I hate being pregnant, and a lot of other things, I'm pretty sure this time it will be the last, but we're happy about it. Once again, I'm doing a first trimester without Oliver, but such is life for us. He should be back here in another month, just in time for me to stop puking. Clearly, he is not sad about this, haha.

Anyway, the baby's due on June 6th. I can't exactly say it was a surprise to find out I was pregnant because, well, we DO know how babies are made, but we weren't exactly trying, either. Mostly playing Russian Roulette with it because we couldn't make up our minds. Hideously romantic, I know.

I had an ultrasound and determined I am not, thankfully, carrying twins. I'd had some irrational fear that that would happen, so it's good to know we're in the clear there. I also had all the initial tests, was told I have some kind of thyroid issue, so my midwife wants to put me on meds for the pregnancy, and maybe beyond. I have to admit, I'm kind of surprised by this. I have no weird symptoms, no family history of thyroid issues, and wonder if this is all some kind of test fluke, but we'll see, I guess. I go back in a month, so I'll have a nice long chat about it then.

In other news, hurricane Sandy almost rained out Halloween. Luckily, at least for us, that didn't happen. We mostly ended up with a day stuck in the house while the streets around us flooded out. Our housing area, though, seems to be on higher ground, so nothing bad here. We didn't even lose power, unlike a lot of my relatives farther up the coast. I certainly am thankful about that one.

We did nearly have a minor tragedy, though. Oscar had some very specific ideas about the Captain America costume he wanted for Halloween. He didn't want the redesigned movie one, but wanted the old school one with "wings" on the helmet. He also didn't want the muscle ones, which I have to agree look incredibly stupid. So, I had to go to the internet. After one cancelled order because of not enough stock (that took them four days to tell me, grrr), I tried again, only to have Sandy delay it. It finally showed up on the 30th, just in time for the church's trunk or treat, that was more like a "walk around the cultural hall and get candy" event because of the cold front that swept in after the hurricane left.

 
Technically, masks were outlawed at the church event, but I let him wear it, anyway. It totally wasn't the same without it, and, um, it's not a full mask, so I didn't see the issue. The only person to complain was another kid whose parents' had clearly not allowed him to wear his (he had the movie Captain America costume, and, yeah, it was almost impossible to tell what he was since he also didn't have a shield).

So, after my Halloween rebellion, we trick-or-treated for real the next night around our neighborhood. It was cold, and half the houses we went to with lights on didn't answer the door, so we gave up after awhile, but the kids still had fun. Andros definitely wins the Halloween prize, however. That's a holiday they do far better than what we had in the States (although, I'm talking the base here, not the outside community, which really don't celebrate the holiday).

And, finally, our storage stuff actually caught up with us yesterday!! Which means I have a washer and dryer again. Well, almost. After figuring out how to hook up them up myself, something that included having to buy a new cord for the dryer and switching it out due to the newness of our house, I discovered that the vent is completely blocked by something that feels straw-like. I'm guessing it's a bird's nest, because our laundry room is upstairs, but I'm really not sure. It definitely has to go, however, before we can use the dryer. I'd prefer to not have a fire. Luckily, I can call maintenance to get rid of it, as I have no desire to tackle that particular project. Hooking up a washer and dryer was enough alpha-female behavior for one week.