Don’t be the honey badger, give a shit

     Ever since childhood I’ve been very passionate about saving the earth.  It started with animal rights I believe; then I added more causes like recycling, the right to life, not wasting things, and then I became the littering police.  I’m a tree hugger. I’m sure I was a joy to live with.  We went camping the summer after senior year of high school and on the way there my friend Laura was about to throw a pop bottle out of the car window.  I was really quiet in high school, I was “that sweet and innocent girl” (except when people got mad that I started dating Matt because he was my ex-boyfriend’s friend and I got called a few choice words but that’s a different story.) Anyways, everyone was really shocked when I screamed at the top of my lungs and told Laura “don’t you dare throw that out the window and litter!!!!!”  I think I scared the crap out of her.  I was also furious when they attacked a tree with an axe later that day.  Can you see why I chose to cloth diaper?  Any other choice would have made me a total hypocrite; except “elimination communication”, which would make me go insane.

     The point is we are supposed to recycle in my home. Matt has been taught all about it and while he doesn’t really care about the cause, he normally does it to avoid being nagged. He was doing well for awhile.  Lately I’ve been finding things in the trash that were supposed to be recycled.  This morning it was my jar of strawberry jam (that had enough jam to make another sandwich which also made me mad; what a waste) and a bunch of plastic bags.  Two days ago the soda box was sitting on the counter, empty and it needed to go into the recycling bin.  So I picked it up and low and behold there was trash shoved in it, including a bunch of candy bar crumbs.  I may have dumped it all off on the counter, recycled the box and walked off in a huff.  I’ve nagged, I thought about putting a sign above the trash that reminds him to recycle, I’ve tried the guilt trip about his child’s future, and nothing has changed.  So I decided to put the recycling right next to the trashcan even though there is no room and it wont look pretty, and I’m going to put a picture of the honey badger on it that says “don’t be the honey badger, give a shit.”  If that doesn’t work I’m going to tell his mother.

     And now for something completely different.  It’s finally starting to seem real to me that there is a baby on the way.  All of a sudden I started thinking about how awesome it will be to have him here for the holidays.  I keep imagining dancing around to the ghost busters song and decorating for Halloween with him (while he sits in a sling or his bouncer and looks at me like a crazy person.)  Oh and can’t you picture him/her posing with pumpkins for a photo!  Think of the baby Star Wars Halloween costume!  I am getting way too excited.  Even though the baby won’t care too much about the holidays yet I can always pretend.  As he gets older I will be able indoctrinate him into my holiday obsession.   At the very least I can teach him or her to be a recycling fiend.

Matt's Baby Safety Ideas, 15 weeks

     First, I hope this post doesn't sound mean to Matt, we bicker about things all the time because it is funny.  So I didn't really get mad at him for any of this, I just laughed.  

     We went to Target the other day because I can never think of any other store to go to and I want baby clothes!  So I was looking around and Matt was sighing and we came across the safety section.  The conversation proceeded thusly:

Matt:  “Why do you need to put covers in outlets?  I’ve never seen a kid try to stick its finger in an outlet”

Me: “Maybe not but they try to stick objects in them”

Matt: “I don’t believe that, I’ve never heard of any kid doing that” (proceeds to go on a tangent)

Me: “YOU did that when you were a kid!  Your mom told me”

Matt: “Well I don’t remember that, it seems pointless. Can I get a Darth Maul action figure?”

Me: “Not with THAT attitude”

     I also told Matt I want a wipes warmer and he said “they don’t need that, that’s stupid.”  I told him since I hate the cold so much I figure our kids will too.  He said “they won’t remember it anyways, they don’t have the capacity.” Then I threatened to attack him with wet wipes and see how he likes it.  I can see how this is an unnecessary purchase but I don’t want to touch cold wipes either, so case closed.  He also refuses to use those baby carriers that you wear on your body.  To be fair, he has not complained about using cloth diapers .

     The other day he said he only wanted this one kid.  I asked him why and he said “you have no idea how hard this pregnancy has been for me."  Seriously? LOL When I asked what specifically is so terrible for him he said “I haven’t had pizza in months” Which is a lie, I've found pizza boxes on the counter when I come home from work.  My food aversions are starting to go away a little, so fingers crossed!

I'm pretty sure much of my baby bump last week was just bloat, because it shrank.  So no picture today.

How far along? 15 weeks, 1 day

Total weight gain: No idea but I doubt I gained any weight, although I've been trying to eat more.

Maternity clothes? I bought 7 shirts from old navy and target, and got my target ones in the mail a couple days ago.  I might wear one to work tomorrow but I don't necessarily need to yet.

Best pregnancy moment this week: I SWEAR I felt a little nudge today.  Just one nudge, and it didn't feel like a stomach thing.  So possibly feeling baby was a real upper :)

Miss Anything? Energy!  I took a 1 1/2 hour nap today, because I was exhausted from barely doing anything.  Then I did dishes and stuck a load of laundry in and it wore me out.  

Food cravings: I'm on my 4th popsicle in the last 2 hours.  Don't judge.  Oh and I really want chocolate chip cookies.

Looking forward to: decorating the nursery.

I'm not making this shit up

     The first part of my post is going to be a little gross, just a fair warning.  There is this trend called the “lotus birth” which is where you birth the baby and wait to cut the umbilical cord.  In fact you never cut the umbilical cord.  You carry the placenta around attached to the baby, in a bag or bowl and let it fall off when it’s good and ready.  Side note: If anyone I know ever decides to do this, I will not be carrying that baby til it falls off.  Some people rub lavender, sea salt, herbs and other things on the placenta to help it dry out and keep from smelling.  Now when it finally falls off, some people bury it or stick it in their freezer.  I found an article where, a year later, they used the placenta to make an art project.  I’m not joking.  They unfroze it and used it like a stamp or something.  The rationale behind all this, is that the placenta has an emotional and spiritual connection to the baby.  It seems to me that it would also be a bacterial connection once that thing sits in a bowl or bag for a day.  The whole thing just freaks me out. 

     There are a lot of trends my generation is following that scare me and seem unsafe to me.  My mom didn't practice any of these and I turned out just fine.  To each his own, that’s part of being in America, but my baby wont be wearing a beaded necklace for teething,  (it’s an amber necklace that supposedly stops the pain) or eating solid, unmashed food at 6 months, (baby led weaning) or attached to her placenta for several days (Matt should just eat it) and we wont be co-sleeping (we are not sound sleepers). He will definitely be immunized and will sleep in our room for several months, be breast fed and cloth diapered.  I’m looking into donating the umbilical cord as well.  I’m also trying to convince Matt that we can afford for me to stay at home.  So now that you probably learned something new that you didn’t want to know, I’ll leave you with this:

On the off chance you thought I was serious, Matt will NOT be eating the placenta.  That’s nasty.

Speaking of nasty, there's been a lot of drama around my family this week and I think we all need some comic relief.  You should watch this video.  I apologize if you think it's really stupid.  It's about the honey badger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg

14 Weeks, and My Embarrassing Scary Story

    First I have to share what happened last night.  It was the middle of the night and I had just woken up from a nightmare that involved my mom telling me a “true” ghost story.  I’m not sure what woke me up, but all of a sudden I heard some beeping and it sounded like my camera turned on and off, I could hear the lense going in and out.  The first time I didn’t think much of it, but the next two times it scared the crap out of me.  I refused to open my eyes because I didn’t want to see a ghost or let it know I was awake.  So I tried to wake Matt up without being conspicuous, and told him to turn it off.  He got up, turned on the light and said “it IS off.” Which scared me even more.  So he went to sleep.  Then the lense went in and out again.  I woke Matt up, and he realized that my old camera was running out of batteries and that’s what was making the noise.  So he took the batteries out.  It still took me a couple hours to go back to sleep because I had gotten so scared.   I kept thinking “what if the ghost is trying to take a picture of itself!” Lol  I thought about just throwing it outside but that’s littering.

     Yesterday we went to my parent’s for dinner because my brother is moving to Minnesota and it was his last night.  So mom made enchiladas and we talked and watched Yo Gabba Gabba and then a movie. During dinner Caroline said “Why is Julie always coming here?”  lol thanks Coco. 

Sophie's idea of cuddling is climbing on top of you and shoving her face against your face as hard as possible.

     On Wednesday we had our monthly doctor’s appointment.  We heard the heartbeat, yay!  It was 153 bpm.  I asked the doctor if I’m going to show earlier since I’m short-waisted or if that just depends on the person.  She said I will probably start to show earlier but some women get lucky and don’t show til after 20 weeks and hardly look pregnant.  I told her I WANT a baby bump; I’m looking forward to it. I shan’t be ashamed of it.  I can’t imagine I would ever get depressed about the weight gain.  My mom told me I was beautiful all the time when I was a kid and as a result I am filled with a strong sense of conceit.  In fact, although I had some body issues in high school, I was SO conceited that I assumed any boy who flirted with me must like me, and I figured the reason no one asked me out was because they must be intimidated by me.  True story.  I cringe when I read my high school journals, they are so embarrassing.  I didn’t go on a rant and tell the doctor all of this by the way; I stopped at “I can’t wait to get a baby bump.” 

     We started taking pictures, I know its silly to take a picture in a brown shirt in front of the brown shower curtain, but oh well.

I think this was 5 or 6 weeks, its basically just the "before" picture.

13 Weeks

14 weeks!  I made it bigger since the color is so similar, I promise not to wear a dark brown shirt anymore.  

Total weight gain: Minus another 3 pounds.  So I’m back at my high school weight.  I’m trying to eat, but I keep getting full really fast.

Maternity clothes?  I’m starting to look for some, my belly band is getting tight.

Best pregnancy moment this week: Hearing the heartbeat again, finding out that baby is only a little bit below my belly button.

Miss Anything? Eating normal portions.

Food cravings: Ice cream!  Also, tacos made at home.

Food aversions: Same as always, but I’m feeling less turned off of things.

Gender: I’ve come to the conclusion that even if I don’t get a girl ever, I will be happy.  Just as long as I don’t have boys that like to torture animals like on the movie we watched last night L

Symptoms: Not able to eat as much at one time, a little fatigue.  Also my dreams might be more vivid but I’ve always had really vivid dreams.  Sometimes I can control parts of my dream, I’ve ended a lot of nightmares that way.

Looking forward to: getting a baby bump that the average person will notice.  Not the “is she pregnant or fat?” bump.  But it’s getting there!

New Project

      I’ve had this project in my head for several months, and I tried to find fabric once before but it didn’t work out because I wasn’t sure what I wanted.  This project involved getting three kinds of fabric that somehow coordinated with each other, putting them on canvas and sticking them on the dining room wall.  At first I wanted to frame them but that’s way more expensive.  Also I wanted some geometric fabric at first, in three different bright colors. 

     I told Eric about my plans a couple months ago and he said “you should take me with you to pick out fabric!”  Eric is way more artistically creative than I am, and he has a good eye.  Plus his taste is more similar to mine than Matt’s is, so Matt just gets frustrated when he tries to help me.  Eric is moving to Minnesota in about a week so I finally decided to get the ball rolling before he left.  On Wednesday we went to Mangelson’s.   It must have been a funny sight, us standing in the fabric aisle. I was in my giant puffy purple coat and Eric was in his badss leather jacket.  It was fun though, and here are the three fabrics we picked out:

     My camera decided to die after a couple pictures so I'm stuck with these.  The blue is prettier in person.  I'll post the finished project though!   I actually decided to have 6 square canvases and make two out of each fabric.  So this will look entirely different from my first plan but I’m really excited!  I feel like I would have passed by the blue fabric, but Eric pointed it out and I think it’s really pretty. In fact I got two yards in case I find something else to do with it.  


  Today we went grocery shopping for the first time since October.  It's hard to plan meals since I have to consult the powers that be whenever I get hungry.  It was double coupon day though!  We only saved $10 but that's better than nothing.  Yesterday we bought this 6 month size sleeper.  The clearance was 33% off at Gordmans so it was super cheap.

    

13 Weeks! Plus last weekends shenanagins

How far along? 13 weeks, I just told you

Total weight gain: I have no idea but considering I keep feeling like I’m starving, then get sick when I put food to my face, I can’t imagine I’ve gained anything.

Maternity clothes?  Needing the belly band again because I can’t button my pants.  Also, 90% of my dresses don’t fit anymore. I figured this out when I was getting ready for church and couldn’t zip it up due to my growing chest.  TMI?  Well you asked.

Best pregnancy moment this week: Getting to the 2^nd trimester!

Miss Anything? Being able to eat whatever I want, specifically fried rice, burgers, pizza.   

Movement: Maybe by the end of February?

Food cravings: Tacos, breakfast burritos, baked potatoes

Food aversions: Breaded chicken, pizza, still anything greasy or unhealthy

Gender: Still saying girl

Symptoms: I normally just get a stomach ache at mealtimes and especially at night.  I’m not as tired, but when I get hungry it’s out of the blue and I’m just all of a sudden starving. No warning.

Looking forward to: getting a baby bump!

     Last weekend we went to visit Anakin.  I got to hold him first and he was so tiny and cute!  I was a little nervous because I forgot which ways you can hold a newborn.  I mostly just remembered to support his head. I forgot how heavy 7 pounds is though, I can’t believe in a few months I will have that weight in my uterus.  And I thought my back hurt now!  Anyways, it was really fun seeing them.  Matt held him too and was a little scared, it was his first time holding a newborn and he hasn’t held many babies at all in his life.

     Before I was pregnant I watched a couple documentaries that made me leery of epidurals, even though I knew they were very biased on natural childbirth.  But I have to say, after reading Jill’s birth story and seeing Anakin’s (perfectly normal sized) head in person, I decided I’m just going to get a damn epidural.  Jill got to play pretty contentedly on her Ipad for much of her labor instead of writhing in pain for several hours, so I figured I would rather have that kind of birthing experience.  At least with the first one, maybe I’ll get brave next time and say "bring it on!"

     After that we went to a get-together at Emilee and Aaron’s place.  We watched “The Office” and “Hallpass” and I had a caffeine free soda (Did you know it tastes the same as regular soda? WOOT!) while everyone else enjoyed some gummy bears soaked in vodka.  A couple of Aarons friends came that I recognized from Peru, but had never talked to.  Seth came too, it was fun! 

     On Sunday I went to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D but I wasn’t all that impressed.  It just wasn’t made to be 3D in the first place.  I’m not a fan of 3D anyways, I just thought it would be fun to see it in the theater again.  Now I’ve had the songs stuck in my head all week. 

     Tomorrow I want to share my new project but I'm too lazy to take a picture of the fabric right now and I don't want to make my post too long.  

The Name Game

     Even though we have several months to come up with an identity for our child, the name game is at the forefront of my thoughts. Girls names are easy, we already have two girl names picked out as well as their middle names.  (So hopefully we get at least two girls!)  Boy names on the other hand are very difficult.  They are SO difficult that at one point I decided to give the job to Matt because I trust him and I honestly couldn’t think of boys names that I liked and Matt agreed with.  I like:

*Henry

*Jack

*Milo

*Lewis (too close to Lucy, our second girl name)

*Theo (but Theodore is forever a chipmunk to me)

*Jasper

*Leo (but Matt only likes Leonardo and although it might grow on me, it’s a little too much for me right now)

*George (I have an obsession with old man names.  How cute would a little baby named george be?  But maybe not a 16 year old…I’m not sure)

     Plus, with the exception of Lucy, I want the first name to have more or less than two syllables so it sounds nice with our last name.  Also I don’t want the first name to end in R since our last name ends in R. Finally, there are a lot of names that I either have negative associations with or just pop culture associations with that I can’t get over.  I have all kinds of issues, can you tell? 

Matt likes:

*Gabriel

*Leonardo (Heroes in a half shell.  TURTLE POWER!)

*Elijah (A child I came across while learning to be a teacher.  Bad associations.)

*Isaiah

*Isaac

*Abraham (just a little too old sounding for me)

*Oliver (Matt’s cocker spaniel.  That’s just wrong.)

*Archer

*Sterling

     First of all, I was all for Gabriel and then Matt decided he doesn’t want to make a decision until we know the sex.  That’s in March (hopefully) so the planner in me is going crazy because I hate waiting.  Second of all, Sterling Archer is the main character in the inappropriate cartoon “Archer.” He’s not someone I want to name my kid after.  I jokingly said the other night “hey, we should give our kid the middle name Danger” (even though my instincts shouted STOP YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING)

Matt LOVED it.  He said he wants to name our kid Sterling Danger Palmer.  No joke.

“This is your pilot, Sterling Danger Palmer, speaking. Buckle up”

“Your surgery is scheduled with Dr. Sterling Danger Palmer”

“And now ladies, welcome to the stage, Sterling Danger Palmer”

The third one fits the most. Alas, that is not the life I wish upon my child.  I realize the middle name won’t really be used much but it’s necessary for dramatic effect.

I’ll just hope the baby is a girl.

For any name lovers, these are girl names I love in no particular order:

Ophelia           Eleanor            Elaina             Lorelai

Lydia               Charlotte          Lucy               Cecilia

Alice                Helena             Clara              Audrey

Margaret         Evangeline      Georgia         Elizabeth

Samantha       Cordelia           Fiona             Bernadette