When it comes to Shelby's behavior in public, she does extremely well. At home can be a different story, although I still think we lucked out in that department as well. Well Shel has always been great at sharing and taking turns, she never hits or bites. This may come from being an only child (and therefore we may have issues with Boy). When we are somewhere public with lots of kids around, that 'well behavedness' gets a little hard when she is the only one that cares about taking turns and sharing. Today we went to the Chandler Mall to wait for LaDonna to come get Shelby for a weekend stay.

We had Shel playing in the playground, and she was having fun climbing the bus. Shelby stands there and paitently waits in line as the kid in front of her climbs, and when that child is done, she starts, only to have another kid come up and start climbing, forcing Shelby to get down. She turns to look at me with such a shocked look on her face. "Mommy, he PUSHED ME!? Its not his turn, its mine." All I can say is "Im sorry he's not taking turns, but Im not his mommy, I cant control what he does." and hope that his mom can hear me. This happened the whole hour that we were there and the more it happened (along with getting hit, and pushed) the more upset she got. She came up to me and asked why no one was following the rules and I told her that I was proud of how she acted, even if the other kids weren't being as polite. Mike was with me and chimed in as well and said that all we could do was be proud of her, all that mattered to us was that she was bieng good. But really I just want to tell her next time to just push the kid out of the way and take her patiently waited for turn. Its the same as when she gets hit on the playground. The first time it happens I am glad she takes the high road and just gets away from the kid, but when it happens again, then a third time, I get pissed. I want to tell her to just hit him back but that goes against everything that we have taught her. Then I sit there and worry, does teaching my kid the 'right' way make her into one big pushover??

Maybe I think too much? This happens when I am tired but cant sleep becuase someones foot is wiggling in my left ribs.

In other news....

The scab on Shelby's head fell off today (after almost 4 weeks!) She is now proud of her new scar.

She makes me look at it every night when I brush her hair. Today she made me look at it this morning and it was off but still right there in her hair. So I took em (two pieces) off and she wanted to look at them!! Ok whatever, here take a look. She then wanted to keep the pieces ( I said no).

She had me take a photo of it so that she could see her new scar. I love that kid, but she's wierd :-)

(I'll spare you the photo)

While we were at the mall today, Mike and I took Shelby to Build-A-Bear to make a bear for Boy. I had been planning on taking her next week, but it was right there and she happened to have her dog Rocky, that she built in Colorado, with her today (and I had promised she could get new bows for Rocky's ears) and it just made sense to do it today.

We had a rough start this morning. To start things off, I can not go to sleep knowing that Shelby is awake. I can try, but I fail. Well Shelby couldnt sleep last night and we struggled till near 1am. Part of the problem is that the weather here is getting so much hotter, and we are at the point where its just barely too warm to be comfy, but not hot enough to justify turning on the air. Shelby was in her CAR jammies and complaining of bieng sweaty. A quick search showed the Shelby has outgrown all of her cooler weather jammies. She had one short sleeved nightgown and one short sleeve shirt/short set (both were dirty. I had her window open a little bit, but I cant stand to open if all the way, as it creeps me out. Shel is so used to being taken out of her bed while sleeping, thanks to me babysitting early in the morning. And since she is on the opisite side of the house, I would never know till morning. Im paranoid, I know, but I cant help it. So I convinced her to sleep in just her panties. 30 minutes later she is still awake so I let her come lay on the couch with her head in my lap,since it was cooler in the living room. She fell asleep and I put her in her bed at 1:05am and went to bed myself.


I still had my alarm set for babysitting, so it went off at 4, and I woke Mike up. He said thatsince I was just driving to the bus stop and not Crystals,he didnt have to wake till about 4:45 (he then showers, gets dressed and then we leave at 5:15)


Well about 10 minutes later at about 4:10 Shelby starts screaming! I run to her room as fast as I could waddle and she's sitting in her bed, hysterical, holding something in her hand. I turn on the light and see that she is holding throw up, so I get her to her bathroom to wash her hands as I check her bed, which remarkably was clean. I get her calmed down, and asked her if she coughed (cause there was only a little bit if she was able to keep it in her hands) thinking maybe she just choked. She said she coughed only once, so I take that as a gag. I ask if her tummy hurts and she says no. I gether a glass of water and take her to my bed, where Mike woke up as shecrawled in, and cuddled with her.


He gets up later to take his shower, and during that time Shelby has another round. So I take her to the bathroom, and I notice she is chilled. I go get her a nightgown, come back and clean her up. Get her sippy (she has only one, designated for when she is sick and has to be in bed)fill it with pedialyte (loving the fact that we decided to buy some months ago and keep it in the pantry for just this reason)and then its time to get Mike to the bus stop.
At this point she's now fully awake for the ride to the bus. After we drop him off I stop by BK for some toast sticks, thinking maybe something bread like in her tummy would absorb some of the acid, but she only managed one bite. I told her that was ok, she could eat it later. She asked for some of my OJ and I gave it to her not really thinking. She had it for a while then handed it back saying that the OJ hurt her tummy more.


When we get back home its 6:30 and I'm thinking she only has about 4 hours of sleep in her system, she needs to get some more. So even though she is not happy with me since the sun is up, she fell back to sleep rather quickly.


Well the booger slept quite soundly till 12:30!! I tried to wake her at 9, but she wouldnt budge, and I figured that she probably needed it if she was sick. I ended up falling back to sleep myself. Of course I am bieng punished now, as niether her nor I are tired now at 11:30pm. And she is playing so well in the playroom that I dont want to stop her. But Im going to send us to bed as soon as I am done writing this. The cycle will be broken tomorrow, as we are going to Nana's tomorrow in the early afternoon to meet the new puppy.
Shelby never threw up again the rest of the day, and scarfed down thetoast sticks. So Im pretty sure its all over with. Mike and I bought her two new hotter weather nightgowns today too.

Well, thats my long winded update for today :-)

Shelby's new nightgown. She wanted a picture.

When Shelby plays Ponyville, she sets up the whole town. Its really fun to listen to her playing. She's very animated.

Aparently painting the entire pad is just as fun as drawing. Notice her name(which was drying out already) also written on the pad.

Current Mood: awake

Shelby has a ballet class video that she lovesto dance along to, and yesterday I sat with her to take some photos. She takes it very seriously. Shel has two videos but one is a little too technical, this one is geared towards the younger set, with songs and dances that kind of "hide" the ballet steps in them.

Im taking donations for dance class tuition :-)

you can view the photos larger @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/snaprebelx/ cause these link to facebook and Im too lazy to fix it.

So this morning, about 5am,the three of us are heading to Tempe for our respective jobs. We saw this airplane flying around eratically. At one point we thought he was going down, less then half a mile from us. We slowed the car down, bracing for the explosion and then at last second he pulls back up. He proceeded to pull some more monuvers and when we were at the intersection of Combs and Ellsworth, he looked like he was about 30 feet from the ground, just barely missing the power lines lining the street. And he is coming straight at us! Mike was about to try to drive out of the way (we were stopped at a red light) when he pulled up again. It was REALLY scary. Mike said he felt like his heart was seriously going to have a heart attack, and I litterally had to fight not to throw up.

I called 911 and they said that they have recieved numerous calls on that plane, and that the FAA was looking into it. It was kind of an unsatisfying remark, as the guy almost crashed again while I was on the phone. But She had nothing else to tell me. We continued our drive, expectng to see an explosion behind us at any moment. Unfortunatly, I could find no info on what was wrong. I think the pilot had to have been drunk or something. It was just so scary!!

Needless to say, Michael required no coffee to wake him up this morning....

The Owie
Click photo to view larger

We had an interesting day yesterday. Mike took Shelby for a good thirty minute bike ride (where she had a small tumble). Shortly after they got home she asked if she could rollerskate. I said she could skate with me to the mailbox, so she went and got her skates and sat down in the livingroom to put them on. Her and Mike went to go get her helmet which was left outside after the bike ride. She aparently slipped on the door frame, and I heard the tumble and the cry. Mike picked her up and brought her back to the couch, where she calmed down in a matter of seconds, and snuggled into some Daddy Comfort. I asked him what happened and he said she fell on her butt. Shelby says "No Daddy, I hit my head." Mike says he didnt see her hit her head (and he was right there and saw her fall). I asked if she wanted her ice pack. (both kids have one for owwies. Shelby has an Ariel one and she picked out a Lighting McQueen one for Boy) She says yes, so I get it and Mike held it to where she said it hurt, and he didnt notice anything.

Shelby and I head out to walk to the mailbox, after she decided that she didnt want the skates. She's running around and dancing in circles. I tend to....pet (I dont know how better to put it) her head a lot, and I did it and felt that there was a bump.
I said "Oh wow Shel, you really hit your head hard!"
She says "Yeah. It hurt."
I moved her hair around to get a look at the bump and instead am met with a bloody mess. I freaked out a little at first cause I couldnt see how bad it was and ran Shelby back inside. Mike met us in the kitchen and asked what was wrong. I said that Shelby was a lot tougher then we thought, and I set her on the counter and showed him the back of her head. We cleaned it up with some water and an ice cube, while all the while Shelbys just sits there.

We called Mikes dad for an opinion, becuase we thought that maybe it needed stitches. What made it look worse I think, was the fact that it wasnt just a gash, but that the bump of it made it gap more. I had seen smaller cuts end up with stitches from my time at Tutor Time, and knowing that we had an urgent care near by (and thats saying a lot for Queen Creek) we decided that it would be better to take her then to not take her. Plus I started worrying about MRSA. If she got MRSA from a tiny little pimple, who's to say she wouldnt get it from this open wound?

When we got there the receptionist said that if stitches were needed, that we would need to go elsewhere, as they dont stitch there. She took a look at it and said that she could almost garanteethat stitches were needed. I asked her if we should just travel onward, andshe said to let the doctor see it, maybe it could get away with bieng glued. Mike made a joke about having glue at home,but the lady didnt find it amusing.

Shelby and Mike played with some silly putty that I had in my purse. You may call my purse a black hole, I call it being prepared! We didnt have to wait very long, as there was only one other person in the waiting room. We went back and got checked out, and then got moved to a 'procedure' room. The doctor came in and was very nice and friendly. He took a look at it and was very gentle. He said he was gonna clean it with some Hibacleanse. I mentioned to Mike that we have some of that at home somewhere, and then told the doc about her MRSA. His face changed and he said that makes it a bit different. He went back and forth and back again on weather to say stitches were needed.

He said that the wound would benifit from the stitches, but that he didnt think that given the placement of the cut (lower on the head, and buried under long hair) it wasn't worth putting her through the trauma of stitches. Since Mike and I agreed that we didn't care about a scar that hard to see, that we felt ok with not getting stitches. The doc said that if it was on pretty much any other place on her body, he would go with the stiches.

As he was cleaning it, he was trying to be gentle, but still clean it properly. I was holding Shelbys forehead while she leaned over for him to clean it cause it was an awkward position for her to be in (throughout this by the way, she is playing with the silly puttyin her lap. I would have loved a photo of this but Mike doesnt like me taking photos in these situations)
I mentioned to her "How are you not even wincing?!"
The doctor looks up and says "I know!! I have never had a young patient act like this? She is amazing. She must have a very high pain tolerance!" he then asks her "How'd you get so tough?"
Shelby then answers "Im not that tough. I cried."
Cant say that Shelby doesnt have some humility.

We were given a prescription for the anti-biotics that she was on with her MRSA, just to be on the safe side. We also bought some Go-gurts for her since the doc said that yogurt can help against the medicine upsetting her stomach.

The photo was taken (because Shelby wanted to see the owwie) after we got home from getting the medicine, so this was after it was all nice and clean. Mike thinks the photo makes the cut look worse, but I think it makes it look less severe. But im thinking thats cause you have to know that I do not have dainty little fingers :-)

Im hoping after this, for a rather UNEVENTFUL March....please?

PS: Shelby now thinks that in addition to us calling her ScarButt, we can call her ScarHead too.

Shelby waiting to be seen.
Click photo to view larger

Shelby hasnt really had an estabished doctor since she was about two. Figuring with the baby coming, and her needing to get ready for school, it was time to find one. For the last year and a half or so I have taken Shelby to a Pediatric Urgent Care, becuase the copay was the same as a Dr appointment.

We found a nice looking one only 10 minutes from the house, so we made an appointment about a week ago for today. I knew that Shelby would be getting shots, so I was trying to prepare her for them. The only problem was I think I prepared her too well, becuase she started to get excited about them!!! I tried to explain that they hurt, but only for a second, and I also showed her on a tv show what a shot looks like. I told her that I thought she was tough and could handle it, because she barely flinched when they put the IV in the top of her hand when she was in the hospital. She spent this whole week telling me how tough she was.

We had the appointment today. She is 37 lbs and I think he said 42 inches tall, but now I cant remember. He said that she obviously had a good diet since she was nice and lean, and that she was on the taller side of the chart. Gotta love that she got Daddys body type and not mine.

We also spoke a little about the Boy, since this will be his doctor too. Mostly the doc just told me to give his card to the hospital, and that they would scheduale Boys first check up. And also that he can do the circumsision in his office as opposed to it being done in the hospital. I just always assumed it would be in the hospital, so I havent given that much thought.

Shelby was given an eye test and had 20/40 vision, but thats off of the kids chart which had things like hearts, boats and plus signs. I almost think she would have done better with the letters to tell you the truth. When you get far away that darn sailboat really does look like a triangle! So I guess I need to take her to get her eyes checked now. I do hope she doesnt need glasses.

Then the time came. Shots. She got all hyped up and said "I can do this mom. Im tough." I reminded her that tough didn't mean that she couldnt cry (she had been telling me all week that she wouldnt cry). If it hurt, she could cry. Tough meant being brave enough to get through it.

Well the poor kid was put through more of a gauntlet then I expected! She got 6 pricks!!! The first one was a finger prick for a blood analysis. The nurse pricked her finger and Shelby just kinda gasped and had the hurt face. But then it was over, except that she turned into a bleeder. We had to put two bandaids on and hold her hand above her head and she was still bleeding. So the nurse suggested washing her hand with cold water, and that did the trick. But obviously she still got bandaged up.

Then Shel was given the TB test, which got more of a reaction. She squirmed a little and gave an audible "Owwww" but no tears or pulling away. And I dont blame her cause that was a heck of a lot longer then the finger prick was. More time for the pain to register. Then it was time for the real shots. Instead of the two that I was expecting, she got 4. They had me remove Shelbys pants, and I told Shel that she was getting them in her leg because it hurt less. I was put a little on edge though when she had Shel lay down and me HOLD her down. The nurse did the first one and Shelby didnt cry but yelled "Ow!" and the just rapid fired the rest of them. Shelby did not cry until the last shot, and the nurse explained that they do that one last because it burns. I sat Shelby up and calmed her down in a few seconds, but then she got upset with herself for crying, and said that now she wasnt tough. I told her that just wasnt true. She was allowed to cry, and she didnt even cry till the last one! I told her most kids would have cried at the finger prick, and then cried the whole way through. The shots were so rapid fire that she didnt even get a chance to breath between them and I think that might work for most kids, who are throwing a fit. But for Shelby I think it would have been best to do two, pause, if only for like 5 seconds and let her breathe, then do the other two. But she got through it and was rewarded with shiny holographic bandaids. She was done crying in less then 30 seconds, but was pretty upset that she wasnt tough. But after a pep talk from Nana, and a call from Daddy telling her that she was indeed a tough girl, she felt much better. Ending it all with a "Now I can go to school cause I got my shots!!!" I also took her to Walmart and got her some new Aquadoodle pens since the pen seemed to have disapeared during the move and a kids meal from Burger King that had pink panther sunglasses as the toy. And I loved the fact that she always chooses the apples instead of the french fries :-)

In pregnancy news everything is fine and dandy. I am 29 weeks and measuring right on time, so my due date is still May 13th. I have a total wieght gain of.....2 lbs! In the beggining I lost almost 10 lbs due to food aversions and morning sickness. Once I was able to eat again ( I never threw up, I just couldnt eat) I went right back up to my pre preg wieght and stayed there up until about 2 weeks ago. At my appointment last week I showed 2 lbs up from my pre preg wieght and my doc says thats the only wieght that counts as gain to him. He doesnt count gaining the loss in the beggining, back as gain. Im cool with that anyway. I can deal with 2 lbs in almost 30 weeks, as a lot of the mothers in my pregnancy group have gained 30+ lbs in less weeks!!! I should be gaining about a lb a week now, so I am hoping that I do not go above 20 lbs. 10 would be perfect, but if it goes above that then I just hope it stays below 20. I only gained 20 with Shelby, and that was all in the end as well, although I started gaining earlier with her then I did with Boy.

And yes, we are still trying to find him a name. We are having a shower for him and Shelby. We are celebrating his arrival and Shelby becoming a big sister. We will be having the party on April 18th as long as nothing gets in the way. This is 3 weeks before my due date so I hope we are not cutting it too short. Shelby was born just a week after her shower (and she was 2 weeks early). I think I will reach my due date with boy though.

Well I have rambled long enough. Till next time.

-T

Poor Shelby. She was so excited that we were going to Ikea today to get some shelving and storage for the playroom (we are trying to get it ready for Boy, with keeping non shared toys separate. And more organized in general). She LOOOOOVES the Smalland Play Center that they have there, and we do too because we are able to walk around, take our time for 2 hours, while she gets some good playtime it.

We get there and stand in line about 10 mins or so, and get her signed in. We say good bye, and as we are going up the escalator we see her playing with the puppets, laughing with a group of kids. We literally made it up the escalator and to the end of the second little "apartment" If you've been there you SHOULD know what I mean. If not, then it was only like 200 feet (it wasn't even 5 minutes from saying goodbye to Shelby). NOT FAR at all. Mike gets this look on his face and pulls out the pager that they give the parents, which is buzzing. So we head back downstairs and all I can think of, is in that time span only two things could have happened. She got bit (cause I know she would never bite) or she threw up. I have just gotten over the stomach flu, so her throwing up was what I was scared about.

As we get there we notice that a freakish amount of parents are there with buzzing pagers. All frantically trying to find out what was wrong. We never did find out WHAT it was other then they had to close done for an hour to clean (but this was not a scheduled cleaning) and none of the kids around me seemed to know. We are guessing someone threw up, peed or pooped, or bled. We figure something had to come out of some kid lol.

But how much of a bummer is that? Poor Shelby was excited for 2 days for the trip to Ikea. She gets less then 5 minutes? If it had been me, I'd rather have never gone in. It was like the cruelest tease ever.

Shelby knows now. So much for keeping it a secret from her till the safe point. Of course now Im petrified.

She was sitting in my lap crying about wanting a baby sister again, and it was kinda sureal as I tried to tell her that it takes a really long time to make a baby. And that we dont get to choose if its a boy or girl. She wants a girl so she can share her toys with it. Then back to the growing thing. I was telling her how tiny it starts out. Then she just kinda looked at me and said "Theres a baby in your tummy now." (which is what shes been saying the last week, before we found out) and I just kinda stared at her cause the way she said it was a little creepy lol. I just kinda nodded and said it takes a REALLY long time for it to grow. She put her hand on my belly and said "I see it, its in there. I can wait" and ran off to go play. And left me there shaking my head. And now she's playin in the playroom like nothing happened.



Im still worried for it all to be out there so soon, but I was 6 weeks when I found out about Shelby and everyone knew right away, and nothing happened. Its pretty much Shelby that Im worried about. But I dont know what it was, during that conversation, I couldnt look at her without telling the truth when she is flat out asking. I just need to stay positive.



I have decided NOT to go with the doctor I had with Shelbys birth. I liked her, but my moms right, somethings just dont fit. And after what happened last time, we need to be better prepared. I had 2 doctors from my delivery tell me I almost died, that it was serious. Then I have MY doctor who tells me "Oh it wasnt really that bad" but witnesses say that she was just as frantic and worried as everyone else at the time.

So I dont know if that automatically puts me in the high risk catagory or not. Or at least a high risk delivery. My mom said that they may choose to do a schedualed c-section instead. But I dont want a c-section, I was really proud of myself doing it the right way you know? But if they say that its better for me, then thats what I'll do.



Anywho, I got a photoshoot tonight (sarcastic yippee) for a family during a big party. At least I think thats whats going on. Im not really sure. The lady is indian and I have a hard time understandingher on the phone.

The plan when we found out was to wait until October to make the "official" announcement, butyou tell one person, who tells the other, who tells you, you cant leave this person out...ect. The next thing you know, everyone already knows!!!! So really, all thats left is my online friends. Mike and I are expecting baby number 2. We agreed that we would have two children, and even though this one is not technically planned (we werent trying, but we werent exactly trying to prevent it either) the timing is rather good.

1) Im babysitting, and doing the design work (which is work from home) so there is no job to give up both during pregnancy and after the birth. (when I was preggers with Shelby I had to give up my jobal most right away because worked with Autistic and mentally handicapped kids that often got violent with me. First time I got kicked in the stomach I had to bail)

2) The pregnancy takes place over the colder months. Now is hot but it will cool down in the next month, and around May its not too hot yet. So I will be more comfortable, plus when I was pregnant with Shelby (through the hotter months) I envied all the cute winter maternity clothes.

3) Baby will be born a little under 2 months before school starts, so that will allow me to spend time with the baby by itself (unless you count the other two kids that I will be babysitting while the older two are in school, but since this wont be thier sibling Im not counting them in the equation) without taking time away from Shelby. Bieng an only child myself Im not too sure how this jealousy thing will play out.

We still have a lot of the major stuff from Shelbys infancy. The crib, the car seat, the swing, the stroller (which I have not used with Shelby since she was 2 unless it was a long trip like the zoo), the bassinet/playpen and the Jumperoo. And I learned some stuff with Shel was just not needed. The baby monitor? yeah, never used that, Im too light of a sleeper to not hear a kid crying. We dont really need THAT many bottles. Or a bottle drying rack, or a bottle sterealizer (washing them worked just fine). When the time comes for the baby shower we will really only need basic small stuff. And I am going to make it less of a baby shower and more of a Big Sister Party for Shelby. Make her feel part of it too. Im thinkng the things we get for the baby can kinda be spun to include her. "Oh look at these bottles, so you can help me feed the baby." or "These toys, so you can help keep baby busy while Mommy cooks." type thing. Again, this could be me over reacting just cause I dont know how it will feel NOT to be the only kid anymore.

Shelby does not know yet. Im waiting till October to tell her. Because I am already afraid that by telling this many people this soon, that I am jinxing myself. I'm only 4 weeks, 3 days. I have 4 positive pregnancy tests (and a 5 day late period) but have not gone to the doctor yet. But if I lose it, sad as it will be for the adults, they will understand. Telling a child that they get to be a big sister and then taking it away is not as easy to deal with. So I will be starting the second trimester around October, so we will tell her then. I might wait till after Halloween so maybe beggining of November. I wont be showing till probably mid November anyway. Hell, im fat to begin with shelby may never notice till it starts kicking her when shes sitting in my lap.

it is kinda funny cause Shelbys been asking for a sister (she doesnt want a brother) for the last month. And yesterday when we found out, she was asking again. This time it was hard to keep a straight face.

So far there is one small difference between this one and Shelbys, I dont remember my boobs hurting like this when I was with Shelby. That was actually the red flag with this one. They hurt so freaking bad I knew something had to be up. Other then that, I dont feel pregnant yet. But I was like 6 or 7 weeks when I found out about Shel, and I didnt have any symptoms till about 2 weeks later. Itd be nice if this one was as easy as the last one. Or at least not worse. And hopefully I wont almost die during the deliver this time either. I wonder if there is even anything they can do to prevent that?

Anyway, aparently my family has a running joke that they find out things about my life online before they do in real life. I think we told everyone this time but if not.....Suprise!

PS Emily, I couldnt help but laugh at your response to the "survey" about wondering if I still planned on having another kid, cause I read it Thursday!!!

Current Location: Living room
Current Mood: content
Current Music: Little Mermaid playing in the background