Christmas With the In-Laws IV

Dh talking smack while Baby E inspects a computer game he received.

Baby E was a major daddy's girl over the Christmas holiday. She spent almost every minute on his lap.
Baby E's favorite toy was a driver's console from her uncle and aunt. It honks, revs, and plays music. It drives me nuts.
Baby E will only eat bananas if they are still in their peels. She is such a big girl.

Christmas With the In-Laws III

Baby E faces off the singing, talking pony from Grandpa and Grandma.

And decides it's fun!

After a few presents, Baby E starts to get the idea of unwrapping.

Me stuffing my face. 23 weeks, and note the belly button already making an appearance!
A asks, "Why is my fiance wearing a luchador mask on his head??"

Christmas With the In-Laws II

Mama and Baby E both think the spinning lights are cool.

Baby E is a little too adept at unwrapping Hershey Candy Cane Kisses.
And then she has the nerve to try to steal my Ferrero Rochers!
Why is Baby E looking so unhappy?
Oh, that's why.

Christmas With the In-Laws I

Sitting with Grandpa, playing with a snow globe.

Grandma had lots of musical toys. They drove all the adults crazy, but Baby E loooooved them. Before long, she had figured out how to turn them on whenever she wanted. This frog sang a little song called "Jumpin Jiminy Christmaaaas!!!" and shook jingle bells.

Peering into her stocking.
She needed some help getting her goodies out.
Baby E wonders why Uncle T is always sticking a camera in her face.

Am I Being Taken Advantage Of?

Dh asked me to list some of his old textbooks for sale on Amazon. Since he is busy, you know, working his tail off at 3 am overtime shifts, I said sure.

Then he said we'd split the proceeds 50-50.

"WHAT?? No way. I'll be doing all the work! 75-25," I said.

"60-40. They're my textbooks," he shot back, "Take it or leave it."

"Leave it!" I shouted.

A few minutes later, he cajolingly offered 60-40 again. I countered with 65-35, to which he laughed admiringly. You do have to admire my Taurus stubbornness. It doesn't come out all that often, but when it does, oh baby.

Finally I did agree to 60-40 as long as he went and bought the envelopes to mail all the books off when (if) they sell.

Today I skimmed completely and thoroughly read Amazon's selling policy, then listed the books for sale. It didn't even take two hours. (Don't tell Dh.) If they all sell, we'll make a tidy sum. Heck, even if half of them sell, we'll make a tidy sum.

So. Should I have held out for 65-35?

Church Today

This story provides a little snapshot of the 15-year-olds I teach Sunday School to. In the sacrament meeting, it's common to have one or two teenagers speak to the congregation prior to one or two adult speakers. One of my kids stood up today to give a talk. "I'll be honest," he said, "I was asked to speak a few days ago, but I forgot and didn't remember until I saw my name on the meeting program this morning." The congregation started exchanging looks. He continued, "But I looked up some scriptures during the opening hymn, so I'm just going to wing it." Everyone laughed at the strange balls of this boy. A missionary leaned over to me and whispered, "He's one of your students, you must be so proud." I laughed and answered, "I'm horrified."

Book Reviews

A Little Bit Married by Debra Borden

Not particularly believable, but enjoyable and amusing enough. At times quite funny. Very quick read. Everything ends as you wish.

My main beef is it's hard to swallow that a woman whose lifelong dream was to be a housewife could so easily transition to having a job and being a single mother, but I guess having a live-in housekeeper would help things. I guess what really boggles my mind is how before the main character gets a job, she is a housewife and yet still has a live-in housekeeper.



The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

The first half of the book is very interesting. Explores how a house, a city, the subway system would all gradually "return to the earth" if humans suddenly disappeared. The author then broadens his focus to look at what could happen to nuclear reactors, oil refineries, and the Panama Canal, among others. It's all quite intriguing and full of useful tidbits.

The chapter on plastics has really inspired me to be more conscientious about recycling plastic! Weisman looks at the disturbing and growing level of plastic in the world's oceans. Also how no one really has any idea how plastics degrade, how long it takes, what effects its presence can and will have on the ecosystems of the earth, and yet plastic is so ubiquitous.

You pick up the author's feeling that humans should stop spreading out, but it still doesn't prepare you for his proposed solution to humans harming the earth: each woman on earth only has one baby. He proceeds to paint in rosy colors a future world in which our descendants can look out their windows and see the good they are doing to the earth by limiting themselves to one kid per woman, and then ends the book. That's it. Absolutely no discussion of the catastrophic impact of a world population halving itself every generation. No discussion of the complete collapse of every economy on the planet. How very likely our descendants would not be able to look out windows peacefully, because civilization would have collapsed under a disastrous reproductive policy. But no matter to the author. He clearly feels that is a small price to pay for having a lovely unsullied earth. Personally I would like to find a way to have a lovely earth without resorting to what even the author admits is a draconian measure. Bad end to an interesting book.

Feeling Big

Not fat, just biiiiig. This belly. It's out of control. And only going to get bigger. I made Dh take a belly shot on Sunday, but me being what I am (lazy) I never uploaded it to the computer and now Dh has taken the camera to work with him! Rude. So, I'll post that picture soon of my 21-week belly.

But on the other hand, I have been enjoying my baby's parties. And man, does this baby party. He is almost always moving. He must move a lot in his sleep.

I'm feeling very good except for pelvic pain. I think my lower back is out or something, well I really don't know to be honest, but walking for extended periods of time (more than 30 minutes) hurts, sitting on anything less than a cushy chair/sofa hurts, rolling over in bed huuuuuurts. It's really kind of weird. Rainbow suggested I get a donut. I don't really know what to do about it, other than just not walk and only sit on thick padded chairs. Anybody else have this during a pregnancy?

* * *

I haven't been up to much this week, other than getting excited for Christmas! I took Baby E to storytime for the 2nd week in a row. Last week, she sat on my lap the whole time, though she smiled and clapped. This week she wanted nothing to do with my lap and bounced and clapped her way through storytime. Before I know it, she'll be running around with the best of them.

This afternoon I went down to hang out with Rainbow. Her baby is 4 months old now and seriously sooooo adorable. That little one made me excited to meet my own baby! It helps that she is so sweet, mellow, and cheerful. A perfect 4th and last child.

Buying the Tree (Last Week)

Oops. These pictures are from last Friday, when we went to buy a Christmas tree! Woo-hoo! I love, love, love Christmas. As a little Christmas bonus, you can even kind of see my belly which has "popped," as they say.

Aborted Christmas Card Shoot

Unfortunately we remember this evening to take the Christmas card photo fifteen minutes before Baby E's bedtime.

Dh preps the camera. Baby E already exhibits uncooperative attitude.

Baby E cries because we will not allow her to continue playing the piano.

Dh announces, "This photo shoot is over! Baby E needs to go to bed! I don't care about the stupid Christmas card anyway!" Tucks Baby E into bed.

I decide to go to Target tomorrow and buy some cheap non-photo cards.

Here and There

I went to this thing last night. My friend had a booth - she does portraits. She invited me, so I did the friend thing and showed up. With K, of course. My friend's booth was very nice - excellent portraits (which are SO out of my price range) and a table full of adorable girls' clips and bows she makes (if only Baby E had enough hair!). But. The rest of this event? Bleh. As we left, I told K I felt like I had just been to ten candle parties. There was a candle lady, a P@mpered Chef lady, an @rbonne lady, some mortgage people who we completely avoided, and a few other booths. The P@mpered Chef lady and the @rbonne lady both tried to get us to do a party. Dude, we were so not into that. I hate hosting those parties. I'll go to one, but do not ask me to host. I hosted a M@ryKay party once, JDub was the only one who showed up. Even though I had five people rsvp.

Skip this paragraph if you hate sex. My mojo has not left during this pregnancy! Opposite of last time. Last time, meh. I probably would not have cared it we didn't do it for the entire nine months. Dh was not happy. But this time, I feel just like normal. Which is so marvelous! Maybe all the estrogen of having a girl zapped my desire? Who knows.

Did you notice that there was a link at K's name? She started a blog! I helped her set it up on Wednesday while Dh was at his last class of the semester (thank heaven). I typed her profile just to be a brat, but she has already changed most of it. I think she should have left it. I managed to bring sex and that annoying pina colada song into it. It was a work of art.

Anyway, I am reading Madame Bovary right now. I am almost 200 pages in. Can anyone tell me - is something going to start happening soon? Because so far it's just lots of unspoken longing and one case of child neglect. And it's losing me.