Goings on

It's been a while since I blogged. I've been sick with a cold that has progressively been moving throughout my body, surprising me daily with new symptoms of fun. (Dripping sarcasm there.) John and I and Anne too, are very blessed to be extremely healthy people. I mean extremely healthy. The last time I had a cold that lasted for more than a day was Anne's first birthday party. For those not good in math, that was a year and a half ago. John and I have been together 4.5 years and I can think of 2 times max he's been sick with anything during that time. Anne as well. Her first cold came when she was 10 months old or so and her health has been pretty consistent since then. She does not get the normal 4 colds a year like most kids. And, yes 2 days a week she was in day care and still didn't pick up stuff. During that time, I was visiting mothers who sometimes has green snot-nosed little kids they didn't warn me about, and still neither Anne nor I saw an increase in cold. So although I am extremely grateful for my good health, getting sick throws me for a loop. I've been dealing with it well though. The past 3 days my latest, and hopefully last symptom, is a cough. I cough whenever I breathe and to make matters worse I feel like I'm having a perpetual asthma attack and I can't get a good breath in. It finally hit me last night-after 2 days of coughing-to try a steam vaporizor with the Vics stuff in it. So in a few hours Anne and I will trek to Wally World and get some of that and see if it helps. I fully expect to be recovered no later than Wednesday. (This is sick math according to April.)

Halloween was great. Anne totally got it and loved it. She went up to every door, albeit a little hesitant at everyone, and proudly said "Trick or treat!". We actually went out for about 45 minutes and she had a nice little stash when she got home (which I promptly let her pick 10 candies to eat herself and I will eat the rest). She loves, loves, loves carrying her pumpkin bucket around the house and playing with the candy. She hasn't stopped since Friday. Even more than Trick-or-treating though, she loved handing out candy. She and I and John sat outside for an hour after we were done Trick-or-treating and handed out candy to all the kids. She would actually run up to them when they were a full house away and give them their candy. In addition, when she saw kids across the street (which for our house location is a good 4 house lengths away) she would call to them to come over and get their candy. Even the few kids with super scary masks she didn't flinch at. No tears at all. (I'm trying to call anything scary "silly scary" and laugh about it with her and it seems to work. She really hasn't been afraid of any of the gory Halloween stuff people have up, and in our neighborhood, there's plenty of it.) Oh yeah, Anne was DW from the PBS kids show Arthur. Although her costume didn't entail much, she was a spitting image of the aardvark-even if everyone thought she was a mouse.





Oh yeah, the day before Halloween, Anne turned 2 and a half! I can't believe she's that old! It still amazes me and shocks me. I do admit though, the older she gets the more I enjoy her. I struggled so much to play and connect with her and I always thought that once she got old enough it would get easier, and for me, it has. It is such a blessing. I am so grateful that I was given an introverted little girl who is easy to play with at 2 years old. We there is hardly any imaginary play and as I read about my friends' whose kids do nothing but, I started to think about Anne and myself and I realized, I never was really into imaginary play either. I always struggled with it when my peers wanted to play pure imagination games. (Ie, let's go out in the back and pretend to chase Gremlins-I was born in '81 after all.) So I guess Anne is on the same path as me. The farthest we get in that, is occasionally for maybe half an hour, she wants to be Mommy and I'll be Anne. If Daddy is home with us, for some reason, he is Clifford (the big red dog). Recently she started pretending she is a baby, but it's not a regression thing in anticipation of the baby coming, I think it's because she adores looking at pictures and watching videos of herself as a baby. And I've done a lot of "Anne as a baby" talk recently (oh Anne, when you were a baby you would do such-and-such). Rather than imagination our days are all puzzles and coloring and crafts. It is lovely for an introverted mama. Sometimes Anne will sit on the couch and look through books for half an hour on her own. Glorious.

Baby #2 is great. I'm surprised at how much of the pregnancy is like Anne-certain things with it happening at exact same time as they happened with Anne. And yet so much is different. With Anne, I was able to hide the pregnancy to a certain extent with some people til 30 weeks. Can you believe it? It's true! But personally I never felt as if I showed until 24-28 weeks. With this one, I am showing big time! There is no mistaking my belly for anything but a pregnancy belly. The baby kicks all the time, but on the days he's feeling quiet, it sure worries mama! Usually he starts kicking again if I'm quiet and lay down. I am so excited to meet and see this little one. I really am. I never had that with Anne because I didn't know what it was going to be like. I didn't realize how in love with a child I could be. I cry at births on TV and pictures of babies. John and I also remain incredibly grateful and thrilled we didn't find out the sex of the baby. It adds so much to the anticipation. Not only do we get to guess when the baby comes, and how much it will weigh, and will the labor be like Anne's and the all important what will it look like, but we get to guess if it's going to be a girl or boy. I can't wait to look down between it's little legs and announce with tears in my eyes and voice who has joined our family. Will it be a boy like we all think or will we be thrown for a complete surprise and find out it is a girl? So glad we are waiting! Continue to pray for the good health of the baby and pregnancy as well as peace for my mind, as this is a mama who can't stop worrying.

That's all with us! Hope everyone else is having as good a streak as we are now!