Catching Up

I have so much to catch up on. Last week was such a busy, crazy week. I had something going on every single day. This week isn't going to be much better. Here's what happened last week:

-Diego had his eye re-check (see previous post)
-Diego had his first dentist appointment. It went really well. No cavities. Yet.
-Both boys started swim classes again. Diego remembers a ton from last year, so he's doing great. Celo has shocked me with how well he listens to his instructors! I thought he was going to be climbing in and out of the pool and refusing to do anything they asked, but he sits calmly (for the most part) and does whatever they ask, except stick his face in the water. We're working on it.
-I pretty much finished Eliana's room. Just a few more final touches and I'll post pictures.
-I had my 35 week appointment and my wonderful doctor scheduled my c-section for May 27th. They decided to schedule me for 38 weeks because I've never made it past that point anyway. Also, a brand new doctor is joining the practice. The nurses filled me in on him and said he's really young and new, which to me translates to inexperience, so I really really don't want him doing my c-section. My favorite doctor in the group understood my concerns, so he offered to do it himself on the 27th. If I happen to go into labor on the 26th, which is the first day the new doc will be in the hospital, Dr. B said he'll come in and do the surgery for me. I can't believe how soon it is!!
-Nesting mode set in full force and I deep cleaned the entire house. (Marcelo was a huge help. I can't leave that out. He's the best.) It feels amazing to have every room spotless and to know that if something happened and I went into labor and someone had to come watch my kids, I wouldn't have to be like, "Oh no, I hope they don't look in that room!" I'm not the world's most organized person, so having a completely tidy house is a giant accomplishment for me. Huge. Too bad Eliana is coming in 2 1/2 weeks to ruin it all. :) My guess is she'll be totally worth it. Actually, it'll be a miracle if the tidiness lasts until her arrival.
-My friend that I haven't seen in 12 years came to visit! It was so great to see her and catch up. She's got 4 kids, but you'd never know it. She looks amazing and just as gorgeous as I remember her. And her husband is a sweetheart. I wish the stay could have been longer! Now I'll have to plan a trip up north to meet her beautiful kiddos. :) (P.S., MOVE HERE.)

There's more, but I'll post everything else separately. I know you'll be on the edge of your seat.

Eyesight

Diego got his eyes re-checked today. He didn't do well on his first test, but this time he passed. He's 20/30 in both eyes, which means no glasses for now. For now. I'll be shocked if I end up with even one child who doesn't eventually have vision problems. Bad eyesight runs in both families.

I have amblyopia (lazy eye), which started at a very early age. When I was two, I had to wear an eye patch. That helped to correct it a lot, but I distinctly remember being in 3rd grade and having a friend stand in front of me saying, "Look at me! Look at me!" And I said, "I AM looking at you." So sad. Sidenote: The last time we went to Colombia, we saw a family friend who knew me when I wore the patch, and he told my kids, "Your mom LOVED to play pirate when she was little." So mean.

When I was 9, my 11 year old brother and I finally convinced my mom to take us to an eye doctor after much complaining that we couldn't see. My first pair of glasses was already a -2.25 or something like that. Whatever it was, it was stronger than my 25 year old brother's current prescription. And it just kept going up from there. Right now my contacts are -5.50 and my glasses are -6.00. It makes me laugh when people have wimpy prescriptions and claim to be blind. I know lots of people have vision much worse than mine, but it's pretty sad to not be able to see something more than 5 inches away from your face. It's pretty sad to have worse vision than your 70 year old grandma. (True story. I gave her my old glasses a few years ago, but my current glasses are too strong for her.)

A few months ago, our newly installed smoke detector went off in the middle of the night. I woke up in a panic and reached for my glasses but couldn't find them. It was such a horrible feeling to wake up so dicombobulated and not know what the heck was going on and on top of that, to not be able to see a darn thing.

One night when Marcelo was driving, I took off my glasses just to see what the world would look like without corrective lenses. This is what it looked like to me:

Except much worse. I could not function without glasses or contacts.

This just reminded me of a time one of my best friends and I were having a sleepover and she told me to take off my glasses and then held up a remote control and said, "Is this the front of the remote or the back?" and then laughed hysterically when I couldn't tell if the darn thing had buttons on it or not. It was just a black blob.

So why not get Lasik? My older brother's prescription maxed out at -2 or -3 something, and he got Lasik and can now see just fine. I'd love to get it, but I just have one little problem: I am completely terrified. I have a weird eye issue. Kind of an irrational fear. Like, if I see a sharp object, I kind of flinch and squint my eyes protectively so the sharp object doesn't hurt my eye. Even if it's like 8 feet away. It's weird. Or I'll see the sharp/dangerous looking object and immediately have detailed visions of how that object could possibly come in contact with my eye or my kids' eyes. It's a problem. Anyway, just thinking about getting Lasik makes me break out in sweats and practically hyperventilate. The thought of something coming in that kind of contact with my eyes.....shudder. I don't think I could do it.

So, my close relationship with 1-800-contacts shall continue. I am very very grateful for contact lenses.

Our Weekend

This weekend we went to a birthday party for my cousin's daughter. The party was at the same little park where I've had Diego and Celo's birthday parties. They love it because the family brings a bunch of little ATVs and the kids do their favorite thing: drive. Here are some pictures from the party.

You know how sometimes you take a picture of someone and they don't really look like what they look like in person? All of Diego's pictures are like this to me. So when I saw this picture, it caught my breath because this is exactly what my handsome Diego looks like to me. Please never grow up and start dating.Here he is playing chauffeur to his my little cousin Sofi. He drove and drove and drove around for approximately 2 hours, always picking up different passengers. Here he is giving my mom "a big squeeze". You can't fight a love like theirs.And then there's Celo. He was just there for the food. Well, for the cotton candy. Here he is waiting patiently for his cotton candy to be done.Happy as can be to be to dig in.It was impossible to take a picture of him once he had heaven on a stick in his hands.I had to interrupt Diego's driving to snag a picture.

And Celo just wanted me off his tractor. Notice the wedges on my feet. Wore those things all day. Perhaps that's why my feet were too swollen to squish into my heels on Sunday.
Marcelo and the boys watching someone whack the piñata to pieces. Oh Celo. I'm sorry you inherited my tendency to constantly wrinkle my nose.

The Boys and the Belly

I had Marcelo take a few pictures of me and the kids last week. It's so hard to get both kids to look at the camera at the same time. I'm hoping to try again soon. Maybe we'll actually include my face next time.

I've been feeling really sad today about my pregnancy being almost over. I'm in denial that she could come in 3 weeks!!! (If she comes at 37 weeks like Celo.) I really really hope she holds out longer. If I make it to my scheduled c-sec, that's 5 weeks from now and even that sounds too soon. There's still so much to do! I have a long "housework to do list" and a small list of items I still need to get. Besides that, I just feel totally unprepared to handle 3 kids. I already feel so sleepy all the time, so how am I going to survive those sleepless nights with a newborn? Maybe I'll get lucky and she'll start sleeping through the night at 6 and a half weeks like Celo. OR, maybe she'll get up a couple times a night for the whole first year like Diego. Let's hope not.

Besides the sleep thing (which I obviously care about way too much), I'm worried about other aspects of transitioning to life with a newborn again. I'm sure it'll all come back to me, but since it's been so long, it feels like I'm doing this for the first time. There are so many things I've forgotten about caring for a little tiny baby. I'm praying that I won't have the complications I had with Celo while nursing. I may have forgotten some things, but I have NOT forgotten the pain I went through. It was like razor blades shooting through my ducts every couple of hours for 6 months. After my surgery, they said I should have no problem nursing again. I hope they're right!

Oh yeah, and then there's the little issue of actually getting this baby out. After my experience with Celo, I'm not exactly looking forward to another c-section. If the same anesthesiologist walks into the room, I will definitely be demanding another one.

For now I'm trying to savor these last few weeks of pregnancy. I love feeling her kick and move. She moves more than either of the boys ever did. Marcelo watches her bounce around in my belly and says, "What is she doing, dancing in there?" Sometimes she has bouts of crazy spastic movements, so like a first time mom, I told my doctor at my last visit that I was worried she was having a seizure or something. He just laughed at me. But seriously. That's what it feels like sometimes!

Anyway, I'm not saying it's for sure, but this is most likely our last baby (Marcelo would say definitely our last baby), so I'm feeling soooooooooo ridiculously sad about this pregnancy coming to an end. I'm going to miss this chapter of life! Funny how easy that is to say right now, but a few months ago I would have said thank goodness I'm never doing this again. Kind of hard to appreciate pregnancy when you're constantly nauseous.

One more thing I'm going to miss: Eating my way to a guiltless 30+ pound weight gain one delicious bite at a time. Speaking of...my freshly baked chocolate chip cookies are calling my name.

I Need Grass

We have a pretty good sized backyard. There is plenty of room for the boys to run and play and even drive around a 4-wheeler. BUT...I don't have a ton of grass. There are large patches here and large patches there, but there are also large patches of dirt. That's why I never invite people to come over to have their kids play in the backyard, because I know they'll get sooo dirty and I'm not sure how many parents want that.

When it rains, all that dirt becomes mud. And my boys loooove mud. Yesterday, after it had rained, they asked if they could go play in the mud. I said, ah, what the heck. Go nuts. They whipped out their big dump trucks and tractors and went at it.

I always ask Diego to do stuff for me when I take his picture, but he always has plans of his own. He'll do what I ask for a second (like hold up his dirty hands in the picture above), and then he'll say, "I want a picture like this," and come up with a pose of his own. Here he is making me take a picture of him shakin' his booty.Celo got so filthy. I had to shampoo his hair 3 times to get all the dirt out.I hosed them down before bringing them inside, and then gave them a much needed bath. The laundry, mopping, and cleaning that accompanies this kind of activity is worth it.....every once in awhile. I'd much rather just have grass for them to run around in. I keep crossing my fingers that the sod fairy will show up one of these days.

Another Newborn Shoot

I had so much fun doing a newborn shoot for a friend a couple of weeks ago. There's just nothing like a sweet little sleeping baby. She was such a trooper and let us move her around to a bunch of different spots. To check out the pictures, go to Surina Photography.

My little Big Boy

Diego after running and running outside. His face was bright red and he said, "I need to sit down."

I need to know what is going on with my 4 year old. All of a sudden, he thinks he's all grown up. When I tell him to do something, he rolls his eyes and says, "You don't have to tell me. I already know." Oh. Excuse me.

Then yesterday while he was helping me make dinner, we had this conversation:
D: Mommy, why do I call you Mommy?
Me: Because I'm your mommy.
D: But why don't I call you mom?
Me: You can call me whatever you want.
D: I like mom. Mom, can I pour the salt in?
Me: Sure. Here you go.
D: Thanks, Mom. Hey, Mom, I like helping with dinner, Mom.

Okay, this was not cool. I'm not ready to be Mom. So I said:
Me: Diego, I like mommy. You don't want to call me Mommy?
D: No. I like mom. Okay, Mom?

Thankfully, he forgot about it after awhile and went back to calling me mommy.

Also, for the last few days he's been asking me a horrible question that I don't want to answer: "How is the baby going to get out of your tummy?" What?? Are we really at the point where he's asking me this? Why can't be just be an innocent little boy forever? So far my answer has been, "The doctor is going to take the baby out at the hospital." And then he says, "But how? Where is the baby going to come out of?" And I say, "Mommies have a special place where babies can come out and the doctor is going to help get her out when she's ready." And then I try to change the subject. Is this good? Bad? I have no idea what to say. I have c-sections and really don't want to say, "Um, they're going to cut me open and yank the baby out of me."

Lastly, it has been 4 days since Diego took a nap. I think it's safe to say that naps are officially over. I've known it was coming for a long time, so I'm not really that sad about it. I've been making him have "quiet time" in his room and that's been going great. He feels like such a big kid and loves to be in there doing puzzles, coloring, playing with playdough, or whatever other activities I give him to do. This is HUGE because this is my child who has always been incapable of entertaining himself. I'm thrilled with how well it's going. I have a lot of friends who tell me their oldest child took naps until age 4, so I know it's not that uncommon, but I also know several kids who stopped at 2, so I'm so thankful it lasted as long as it did! The other good thing is that he's falling asleep a lot earlier. Since daylight savings and putting the boys in the same room, they've been staying up until 10pm talking. Last week they started falling asleep at 9:30. But now that Diego's not napping, he's crashing at 8pm! Yay! Celo tries to keep him awake by yelling, "DIEGO! TALK TO ME!" But Diego is zonked out.

So yeah, my little boy is getting too old. At least I still have another year before kindergarten. I'm really not pleased with how fast time is passing.