Taylors

As we were leaving the Farmers' Market yesterday, LaVor asked if we were hungry for lunch.  While I don't feel like I'm eating as much as I did while pregnant, I do feel like I'm beyond hungry and more "starving" come meal time, due to nursing.  So when LaVor said he had a new place he wanted to take us, that had a zillion milkshake flavors, I couldn't wait.

We got off the freeway and ended up in the cute downtown area of Loomis.  Right before our eyes was a small restaurant named Taylors.  The second we walked in, we were greeted by the never ending list of milkshake flavors.  There were way too many choices!

From Yelp - the list starts at the ceiling and goes to the floor

It was a toss up between salted caramel pretzel and banana cream pie. Banana cream pie was the winner and for one major reason - I've wanted pie in my milkshake for a long time. And all because of a blog post C. Jane wrote several years ago.

I've been wanting a shake with pie in it ever since but couldn't find anything around these parts that came close. Sonic has a coconut cream pie shake but it doesn't have chunks of pie in it, and that's what I wanted...chunks!

When our shake was ready yesterday, and I tried sucking it up through the straw but had trouble, because of the chunks, I knew I found my "place". It was delicious! Sweet banana chunks, buttery pieces of crust, even a hint of cinnamon, all incorporated with delicate vanilla ice cream and milk.

Sharing it among three people, it didn't last very long. And I ended up craving another one for the rest of the day. It's a gosh darn shame they have so many other flavors that I want to try, and that I'm trying to rid myself of the extra fat around my midsection, because I can see myself visiting Taylors often.

My Three Boys

What's a Sunday afternoon without a nap?  All of my boys are sleeping and taking advantage of this day of rest.  (Spoke too soon...The Lime just woke up.)

Speaking of The Lime, we were watching the A's game on Thursday night (naturally) but had to send The Lime to bed before it was over.  Then Josh Donaldson hit a walk off home run so LaVor decided to get The Lime out of bed, since he gets a kick out of the pie.  After all of the excitement was over, he went back to bed but before he got to his room, he said to LaVor, "Thanks for getting me up to show that to me, Dad!"  It was just about the cutest thing I've heard come out of his mouth (especially lately).

Speaking of LaVor, while we were outside selling lemonade yesterday, LaVor held Doodlebug the entire time.  There's something heart warming about a big tough guy holding a tiny baby.

And speaking of Doodlebug, this little guy has gained a pound and a half and grown an inch in the two weeks he's been here.  Slow down!  This is the part of parenthood that I dislike...time zips by.

So for that reason, I need to go love on my three boys while I still can.

"Lemolade! 50 cents!"

The Lime and I were at the grocery store yesterday when I remembered that he had mentioned wanting to have a lemonade stand. I asked him if he still wanted to do it and he exclaimed, "Yes!" So we bought all of the components for a successful stand.

He asked me if he could do the stand when he woke up from his nap but I suggested he wait until Saturday, when people are home from work and school and are driving around the neighborhood.

So that's what he did. After he ate his doughnuts and we got ready for the day, we setup shop outside and he transformed into a salesman. Within a minute of being outside, our neighbors were gathered around him, asking for multiple cups.

This fueled The Lime's fire and he begn shouting, "Lemolade! 50 cents!" over and over again. A few more neighbors came by and before we knew it, his pitcher was empty.

Our neighbor across the street came by with his daughter and bought a couple cups. As they were leaving, The Lime said, "Make sure you come back!" They heeded his suggestion. The whole family came back and as we chatted with the parents, the daughters ended up buying the entire second batch.

Unfortunately, we were out of sugar so we had to call it quits. But he made $14 and loved every minute of it. We're talking about selling Otter Pops next time...that is if The Lime doesn't eat them all beforehand.

He's Here

We have thoroughly enjoyed our first week as a family of four and are sad to see it come to an end. LaVor is back to work this week and both The Lime and I are dreading it. Like LaVor said last night, if there was a way for him to still make money and stay home, life would be perfect!

But since that's unlikely, we're striving to make it as perfect as we can, given our situation. And with baby boy #2 in the picture, things are pretty close to perfect.

Having a fresh, fuzzy, little, soft, squirmy, yummy smelling baby around is wonderful. We're (but mostly I) are so grateful he's here.

It all started last Saturday when we were leaving dinner. I took The Lime outside since he gets restless waiting around for the check. I had to sit back down immediately as the Braxton hicks contractions I had been getting for months were now all of a sudden painful. My first thought was, "I just stuffed my face with chips and salsa and taquitos! I can't go into labor." My mom scared me earlier that week saying if you go into labor with a full stomach, you throw it all up because your digestive system shuts down. I couldn't imagine having contractions AND throwing up...death sounds more appealing. Nothing else happened until we pulled into our garage and another contraction hit. I wasn't sure what would happen during the night so I ironed The Lime's church clothes and wanted to give him his bath, since I knew it'd be the last one with just us but LaVor objected. He told me I needed to lay down and quit trying to do everything.

So that's what I did...rested in my bed and started timing the contractions. After three hours of increasingly painful contractions, I still wasn't in line with the 5-1-1 rule but I had measured 3.5 cm at my appointment the day before and didn't want to take any chances of not getting my epidural. So we left for the hospital at 12:30 Sunday morning, leaving The Lime in good hands with my mom. We got checked into triage and they hooked me up to the monitors, asked me a million questions, and monitored me for 20 minutes, only to send me home. There was no change in the dilation and they wanted the contractions closer together and more painful. So off we went, back home to wait it out.

I stayed in our bedroom and LaVor tried to sleep on the couch. But between The Lime waking up with a coughing fit and my moaning during contractions, nobody got any sleep. After trying to relax in the bathtub, we decided to head back to the hospital since my moaning had turned into wailing. There was lots of screaming and gripping as we made the 8 minute drive to the hospital, where I was thankfully checked in at 5:45. The nurse said they had been extremely busy all night and weren't sure where they'd put me. Honestly, I didn't care where I went, I just wanted drugs. She ended up putting me in a delivery room and I was once again hooked up to monitors and checked for progress. "Oooohhhh, of course it would be this!" she said as she checked me. "Ummm, what does that mean?" I asked. She didn't respond but said the anesthesiologist was on his way. I overheard her in the hallway say that I was a 7. Several minutes later, the anesthesiologist arrived with more questions and then it was time for the good stuff. Except, it wasn't the good stuff I was hoping for. Because of how far along I was, they didn't give me a "full on" epidural but more of a limited use one (can't think of its name) which took effect immediately. The instant relief from pain was glorious and much needed. I spent the next hour or so being poked and prodded while LaVor tried to sleep. The pain medication was making my chest and face itchy and the oxygen mask was getting on my nerves. I could tell the medicine wasn't as strong as before and the pressure was mounting. We paged the nurse and told her it was time.

This part scares me. It scared me with The Lime and this time was no different. Knowing the inevitable is no fun, especially when you can feel it.

I was lucky enough to have my doctor be the one on-call so I didn't have complete strangers seeing my lady parts. And while I didn't feel an extremely close connection with my doctor (she was sort of shy) during my prenatal visits, I appreciated her calm demeanor during the delivery, especially since the nurse was getting on my case about how I was holding my legs, how I wasn't pushing down, and how I needed to "get mad!"

It didn't take long before I felt defeated and started crying. The medicine had worn off and the combination of contraction pain plus pushing pain plus being exhausted caught up to me. I knew the baby was going to come out eventually but I wasn't sure how I'd make it happen. After about 40 minutes of feeling like every blood vessel on my face exploded, eventually screaming at the top of my lungs (yup...I was one of those), and experiencing that dreaded ring of fire, we had a little Doodlebug.

We weren't surprised when we found out we had an 8 pound 3 oz baby, who measured 19 3/4 inches long. He had big hands (from LaVor) and big feet (from me) but other than that, I wasn't sure who he looked like.

After everything was cleaned up and put back, LaVor was talking to his brother and mentioned that his parents were coming up after his cousin's baby blessing. "Blessing?" the nurse asked me. "Are you guys LDS?" Even though she wasn't cutting me any slack during the delivery, we made lots of connections and figured we had to be related somehow. Her mom was from Little Rock, she grew up Catholic and joined the church as a teenager. Her name was Barbara and couldn't stay to chat for too long but we ended our time together agreeing that the gospel is a huge blessing that brings so much joy and hope to our lives.

My parents brought The Lime over a few hours later and he was a bit hesitant when he walked in the room. I think it was a shock for him to see the baby outside of my stomach but it didn't take him long to relax.

We only had to stay overnight which I appreciated. The bed was so uncomfortable and was killing my back but I did enjoy the constant flow of food. All of the nurses were also a joy to interact with, even in the middle of the night. We found out one of them lives down the street from us and her son is the nice guy who drives an old Blazer and waves at The Lime.

Overall, I think everyone is adjusting nicely. My biggest fear has been if The Lime is getting enough mom/dad time, love, affection, and attention. I've spent a few moments crying in the bathroom, to ensure he doesn't see me and have a breakdown himself (like we did a few weeks ago). But I think he's doing well. I think him being older has helped since he can comprehend the situation a bit better than if he was still a baby himself.

We have lots to be grateful for but are especially blessed that Doodlebug arrived safe, sound, and healthy.

Let's Bowl

Grease 2 is one of my favorite movies and I can't go bowling without singing "Let's bowl, let's bowl, let's rock-n-roll!"

I "like" our local bowling alley on Facebook and saw a post a few weeks ago that they were doing free bowling during the summer for kids. I immediately signed The Lime up and got an e-mail with coupons within minutes. When I saw how hot it was going to be this week, I thought it would be the perfect time to put them to use.

It must have been a combination of me not knowing what to do and the boy working the desk not knowing what to do, because it took about 15 minutes for us to get situated and for the game to start. Bless the experienced woman next to us that took matters into her own hands and got us moving.

Since the belly is too big to bowl, my mom was The Lime's competition. It might have been because of the bumpers, but The Lime won both games.

First & Second

Although he had the lightest ball available, it was still a smidge too heavy and he got creative with his technique.  He narrowed it down to throwing it overhand while sliding on his bum.  The lady next to us guessed that he was a baseball player.

They played two games and I think it was a bit too much for him.  He was getting antsy to go home by the first few frames of the second game but he pushed through and did well.

The only thing that would have made his experience better was if I had forked out over 2 bucks for an ICEE.  

But that's what Fridays are for at AM/PM.  30 cents (tax included) for a small slurpee.

Another great way to stay cool during this heat wave.

The Final Countdown

We are in our last (possible) week of being pregnant. I'm due on Saturday but according to a police officer we ran into this weekend, I look like I should have delivered a month ago.

My mom has been in town for the last week, which has eased a bunch of anxiety I was having about her not being here when the baby is born. She, The Lime, and I have been getting out of the house each day to help pass the time. Lots of trips to the park, baseball games, library visits, and mall runs.

We didn't have anything planned for today until about 11:00 when The Lime said he wanted to go to the Pirate Ship park. We brought his huge blue bouncy ball with us and played a game of "soccer" before attacking the playground. While it isn't the easiest to get around, I'm still feeling capable and I want to take advantage of every second I have left with just The Lime and I. We played fire station and spent a good amount of time talking on the swings.

Unfortunately, when we got home, his sassy mouth and lack of listening got him into trouble and he was sent to nap time early. I was feeling bad for getting upset at him and then a flood of emotion came over me. We talked about the situation and finished it off with a kiss and mutual "I love you". That's when I started crying and couldn't stop. "Why are you crying?" he asked. I told him I just loved him so much! Then his lower lip started to quiver and before I knew it, he was bawling. I asked him why he was crying and he said he didn't know. So we sat there, him on his bed and me on his floor, hugging each other and crying. We decided to talk about happy things so we'd stop and our conversation took us to doughnuts and toots, where The Lime said Doodlebug won't have a bottom or toot. I assured him that he would not be lacking in that department, especially since he's part of our family.

He's such a wild and crazy kid but I am grateful The Lime is also in tune with his feelings as well as those around him. Part of me can hardly wait to see how he steps up as big brother but the other part of me wants him to be my baby forever.

Yahoo for Cousins!

My sister and her family have relocated (just down the street and around the corner from their old place) and since I'm not much help moving things, I've offered my child watching services. It gave my sister some extra time to focus on house things and it gave The Lime a companion that can actually play with him (37 week legs don't move very fast).

It was just our luck that I was watching my niece on the same day that a local hatchery had their Toddler Time. Even though both kids are out of the toddler stage, they're actually perfect for the activities, as I believe they're geared for older kids anyway.

Frogs were on the agenda for today and the sweet girl heading the class did a great job. The parents, on the other hand, were so rude and talked the entire time. The girl's voice was getting louder and her requests for parent participation grew more frequent. It's confusing to me when they tell their kids to sit down and be quiet but they stand and talk. I can only imagine what their kids were thinking.

After the singing and stories, they have the option of feeding the fish or doing a craft. The Lime always opts for the fish and bypasses the craft altogether.

The fish go nuts when the food hits the water, which gets a wild reaction from The Lime. Thank goodness he can go back as many times as he wants to get more food. Unfortunately, his hands smelled the rest of the day, even after numerous washings and hand sanitizer squirts.

We weren't too far from the temple so we made a slight detour before heading home. The kids were naturally drawn to the fountain and I tried to keep them somewhat reverent but water and reverence don't necessarily go together.

We walked around the grounds and got to a point that had a staircase. The kids transformed into posed princesses and silly geese. I couldn't stop laughing as I snapped photo after photo.

The kids had lots of questions about the Angel Moroni, which made me realize I need to do some investigative work. After one more hand dip in the fountain, and a reluctant picture, we made our way back home for a rousing lunch of macaroni & cheese and watermelon.

The second half of our day wasn't as exciting, unless you consider my car overheating "exciting", so no photos were taken.

Our visits have not only been fun but the kids wear each other out and crash by the end of the day. Everyone is a winner when naps are taken.