Sugar Tests and Scrabble

I am now almost 28 weeks pregnant. As many of you moms know that means that it is time for the glucose test. Basically, it is a test for gestational diabetes, something I am grateful not to have had to deal with in both my prior pregnancies, and something I am hopeful I won't have to deal with in this one.

Basically, you fast overnight get your blood drawn, drink a disgusting, room temperature sugar drink that tricks you into thinking you might be getting something similar to orange soda, but in reality just makes you a little queasy and lightheaded, sit in the waiting room for an hour and then get your blood drawn again. It seems fairly simple.

Yesterday, I set my alarm for 6:45 with the hopes of getting to the lab by 7:15. However, as mentioned in a previous post, my alarm clock pre-dates my college days and if the volume works at night, it doesn't mean it works in the morning. So when I woke up to the Little Lady calling me almost an hour later (hey its daylight savings time, these kids haven't adjusted yet--don't judge my sleeping habits!) I knew I wasn't making it.

Last night, I decided to set the alarm on my phone for 6:35 so that I would get there by 7 and be out of there by no later than 8:15. This would still give me time at home to get the Ladies ready (with the hopes that the Lady would want to go to the special screening of Peter Pan that her school was putting on in lieu of actual classes because of staff-development), fill up my travel mug with my pre-made iced coffee (look at me planning ahead!) and throwing some fruit salad and yogurt in my little lunch pack (eating healthy too Bean? how ever do you manage to be so organized?)

You see where this is going right?

So the alarm didn't go off at 6:35 and instead I woke up at 6:50 to the sound of the neighbor locking and unlocking their car door. This they do every morning and it is almost as annoying as listening to a car alarm, because it still jolts you out of a deep sleep. This morning however, I was grateful. I checked the alarm on my phone to see why it didn't go off. Can you say PM? I mean how much more cliche can I get here? Am I on an episode of Seinfeld? First no volume, then the dreaded AM/PM switch? Yikes.

Well, I was up, showered and out the door by 7:08 and arrived at the lab at 7:20. There was a woman in front of me but I figured my blood would be drawn and the drink drank by 7:30, out the door by 8:35 with enough time to stop home, kiss the Ladies, give a few instructions to the sitter, grab my coffee and be at work by 9.

I sat down and pulled out the iPad. Oh, Scrabble, with your crazy words that don't make any sense while there are plenty of words that I know are in a dictionary, just not the Scrabble dictionary that should be perfectly acceptable and are part of the English language, which you ignore and/or deem non-existent, I am a bit addicted to you.

Well thank goodness I grabbed not only the iPad but a book as well. I am not sure I could have endured the 40 minutes it took the woman behind the counter to figure out the handwriting on the form so that she could perform the correct tests on the woman in front of me, while all the while listening to the beeping of the door as client after client came in to be stuck with a needle. When the woman finally went into the little room in the back it was 5 to 8. Her actual blood draw took about 3 minutes.

First blood draw: 8:01 am. Ugh.

Back out to the lobby to wait. In the following 15 minutes almost everyone else who was waiting was taken in, poked, prodded and headed out to meet their day. I did feel grateful for another preggo lady sitting beside me, at least I wasn't the only one who had to stay there for a while.

I was also grateful that I brought that book. After kicking the computer's ass a few times on Scrabble (so what if I sometimes use the Best Word option? I mean that is what it is there for and it teaches me new words, and really who among us couldn't stand to learn a new word or two--we live in an society where everything is shortened and abbreviated ttyl, lol, byb, gfy, etc. it is nice to learn an archaic word that will probably never come up in regular conversation but that can score you a shit-load of points on Scrabble), I took out the book and hoped the hour was almost to a close.

Second blood draw: 9:05 am--left arm, apparently not the arm to draw blood, I am pretty sure I heard air escaping from the needle after she poked around for a minute and didn't find a vein. 9:06 am--right arm, apparently the "good arm" and also the arm that had already been used.

9:20: Stopped at Dunkies for an iced coffee and a not very good multi grain bagel. I should have just gotten a donut. Dunkies, I love you--but your bagels suck.

9:30: Finally made it to work.

Present moment: Debating on weather or not to strip off these bandages on both arms. Why can't they just use band aids? Why do they have to use real tape that totally sticks to your arms? They might as well use duct tape, I mean it basically comes off in the same fashion.

Hopefully, all the time wasted was worth it and the tests come back negative. I guess I can be grateful for the few chapters I actually got to read and I did get a bingo in Scrabble on a triple word space (all by myself thanks, sometimes I just throw words up there hoping they work) who knew you could spell itemize with an s?

Top Mom? Why Yes, I am.

So the Little Lady seems to be readjusting to life with her father at home. I haven't had anymore odd "Daddy?" sightings, but last week while she and I were perusing the pages of US Weekly, she pointed to this picture of Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi, who was wearing a bikini and looking pretty good (and by pretty good, I mean amazing) for a mom of a 1-year-old and said "Mommy?"

And do you know what I said?

"Yes, that's mommy." I mean she has long dark hair and was wearing big black sunglasses, I think it was a mistake anyone could have made.

It also made me realize that to our kids, on some days we are a former model/Reality TV host with a super hot bod and a love for food and dramatic dismissals of chefs and on other days we are 12-year old Asian boys with bad teeth.

So I guess the question is, which one are you today?

Beach Babes

The Ladies and I were very excited to have a beach weekend. Even though the temperature dropped 25 degrees from Friday to Saturday and we didn't get a chance to spend anytime outside or make it anywhere near the beach, we had some serious quality time with the cousins, in what promises to be a preview of this summer. However, come July there will be two more cousins added to this crew, so hopefully there will be a ton of sunshine so that these kids can get outside and run.

Here are some pics of the usual suspects.



The Lady





Bunny





The Big Guy and the Little Ladies





I think the shirt says who this is





The Mad Man



Some Sweet September Ladies



The Wild Woman



The Wild Man





The Big Guy





Who doesn't like Twizzlers before bed?

 





The Little Ladies like them.

 



The Lady and the Wild Man



O' Big Daddy Where Art Thou?

The Little Lady is missing her dad. I know this because she keeps on pointing out random men with dark hair and questioning their paternity.

Now, I will preface this by saying that she easily picks her father out in photographs and that I just took her for her 18 month check-up and her eyesight is fine, but the other day she saw a picture of Adam Sandler, pointed to him and said "Daddy?"

I love Adam Sandler, and while he is definitely much funnier than my husband, he is certainly not as attractive.

Yesterday, in Dunkies she pointed to a small Hispanic man with his black hair totally gelled back, wearing dark sunglasses and once again said "Daddy?"

Quite possibly the most bizarre "daddy sighting" occurred in the doctor's office while we were waiting for the nurse to come in. Our Pediatrician's office has black and white photos of kids taken by a local photographer hanging in each room. In our room was a photo of three Asian kids, I would say their approximate ages were 12, 10 and 8. The oldest boy had a mouth full of braces and a super big grin on his face. She pointed to him immediately and said "Daddy?"

Really? Really Little Lady? That is a twelve-year old Asian boy with what looks like the start of years of orthodontia work, and while I know your dad also spent years in braces (and probably should have worn his retainer more) it is clearly not your father.

I do feel bad for her though. The other night my husband called to say goodnight to her, and in what was possibly the sweetest thing ever, sang her "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" over the phone. Once he got off the phone she started crying for him. I had to give her a photo of him to keep with her in her bed. I had to give it to her again this morning when she woke up because there is nothing worse than her disappointment when I bring her into my room for a little Elmo time and she doesn't see him sleeping in the bed.

We are counting down the days.  .  .

The Little Lady at 18 Months

As promised a pic of the Little Lady wearing a chocolate chip. She is also wearing a tutu.

 

The Little Lady dressed herself. She is wearing a Spring skort and t-shirt over her Elmo t-shirt and a pair of Valentine pants. Apparently, I am not the only one waiting for Spring to come. Note the peanut M&M in her hand. I am pretty sure you can find a few bad parenting decisions going on in these photos. See below.

Probably shouldn't have let her play with scissors. . .

Kids at Play

Here are a few shots of the Ladies playing with the Wild Ones at an indoor playspace. Try not to think about the amount of germs in the ball pit.

The Wild Woman

The Lady loves the Mermaid pose. Note the handcrafted necklace she made at Dad's Morning Out!

The Little Lady, moments before scratching the Wild Woman in the face, minutes before we decided it was time to leave!

The Wild Man at rest!

It's Been a While. . .

I know all of you have missed my annual Groundhog's Day rant and my endless droning on about how much I hate winter. This year, you have been spared, at least until the next snow storm hits and I am once again drowning in the grey of the season.

For now, I am just going to focus on the things that are going well, since quite honestly, I am hanging on by a thread here.

So, I hope everyone enjoyed Valentine's Day, the hubby is away so the Ladies and I celebrated by eating a lot of strawberries and Hershey kisses. Today, is the V-Day party at Lady's school and she was very excited to write her name on each little Valentine as well as wear her fancy sparkle tights. We are back on a dress only kick, which is fine, except that there are no fall/winter dresses left on the shelves out there and we have been wearing one of three dresses to school pretty much everyday. On the positive side, at least she is getting dressed in the morning.

However, next year we are going to be in afternoon nursery school. I feel like we have been demoted to JV. Perhaps, it will help with our time-management issues in the morning, but it is going to be a huge pain in the ass in terms of drop-off and pick-up, especially on the days that I am working. I was hoping that my husband would be able to drop her off in the mornings that I didn't work, so that I didn't have to pack all three kids into the car--looks like that isn't going to happen. I am thinking about hiring a driver. How much do you think that would cost?

The Little Lady turned 18 months old yesterday. I will post a few pics of the V-Day celebration included a shot of her wearing a melted chocolate chip on her face. Good times.

We are off to the beach house this weekend to hang with some cousins and to give the kids a chance to run. Hoping for a little sunshine and that I don't have to listen to "Max and Ruby" in the car on the ride up. Would it be bad parenting if I snapped that DVD in half? Probably.What if I didn't do it in front of the kids? Advice would be greatly appreciated!