Thanks a Lot, Pregnancy Expert.

My weekly pregnancy update email contained exercise safety tips today. Amongst a list of obvious others, the following movements were banned: "deep-knee bends, jumping, bouncing, or herky-jerky dancing."

I have watched every single season of So You Think You Can Dance, and have never ever seen anyone choreograph a herky-jerky. I took dance classes for years, but never studied the herky-jerky style. What in the world is herky-jerky dancing?

herky–jerky (hûrkē-jûrkē) adj: Spasmodic, not smooth or graceful: marked by sudden movements or changes.

First of all, I may have moments when I lumber like a newborn giraffe while simply walking from point A to point B, but I'm quite graceful and not at all spasmodic when dancing, thankyouverymuch.

Second of all, are you serious, What to Expect When You're Expecting email update? Do you know what we breeder types tend to do after we've had a baby? Keep breeding! That means that there's a high degree of likelihood that when we're pregnant, it's not our first time at the rodeo. We probably have small children at home. Small bendy, jumpy, bouncy, dancing children at home.

Now, the last thing I want to do is to put my baby in any kind of risk. I am a strict pregnancy ban rule follower: no soft cheeses, no seafood, no alcohol or caffeine. No roller coasters, no hot tubs, no contact sports. No sky diving, no marathon running, no bungee jumping.

But no regular jumping, either? Really? And how do you expect anyone with an almost-three-year-old to get through the day without bending down to pick something up at least fifteen times? Should I, for the next couple of months, ignore the "bend with your knees, not with your back" rule, so as not to break the "no deep-knee bends" pregnancy rule?

This particular "helpful" pregnancy email was absolutely not helpful. Send me advice that bans cleaning bathrooms, or orders me to adopt an all frozen yogurt diet, or something that I can get behind. Because this little nugget of wisdom officially puts me in my first awkward position as the parent of two children, and forces me to choose who is more important: the adorable little firstborn who wants me to pretend to be Tigger and bounce around the house with him, or the unborn child who I haven't met yet, but already love. Old blood vs. New blood. Risk vs. Reward. Ethan vs. (insert yet-to-be-named baby's name here).

Not cool, Heidi Murkoff. Not cool.

Weekend Getaway to Monterey

What do you do on a holiday weekend when your friends are getting married in a beautiful seaside town? You make a mini-vacation out of it! Ethan sensed the pomp and circumstance of the situation when Ryan loaded two suitcases, a daypack, a diaper bag, and the dog's bed into the car. With wide-eyed excitement, Ethan spent the better portion of the drive shouting "road trip adventure!" and dancing like a maniac to the overplayed pop songs that blared over the car's stereo.

Ryan and I always joke that since he's the photographer in the family, there will be little to no photographic evidence of his existence when Ethan grows up. Flipping through our family albums, I'll look like a super fun mom, and Ryan will look like... well, nothing. Nonexistent. Learning how to use (and not be intimidated by) his fancy professional cameras has been on my to do list for some time now so that we can remedy that situation. In the meantime, there's always my little digital point and shoot to fill in the gaps!

I present to you now actual photographic evidence (*gasp*) that Ryan is indeed an incredibly involved and amazing father. Sure, the pictures aren't as nice as the ones Ryan takes, but I think that content far outweighs quality sometimes - especially when my boys are having so much fun together!







The fun continued at Megan and David's wedding. Ethan had a wonderful time exploring the venue (read: insisting that one of his parents accompany him on expeditions to find ramps to run up and down, flower petals to throw into fountains filled with giant Koi, and gardens with mazes of pathways seemingly made for an energetic almost-three-year-old). We did manage to get him to sit in his seat long enough to snap a few photos:



(Why we never, ever think to hand the camera over to someone else to get a family shot of the three of us is beyond me. I suppose it has a lot to do with the fact that we usually have one of the aforementioned fancy intimidating professional cameras with us. Sigh.)

It was much easier to keep him entertained once the music started. That kid is all about the beat. The louder, the better. We took him for a few spins around the dance floor, and the trusty iPhone video camera was on hand to capture his pas de deux with Daddy.


Ethan was so cute in his little argyle sweater vest, and the poor guy was subjected to random kiss attacks from Mommy and Daddy throughout the evening. He thought he looked pretty snazzy as well, and insisted on wearing his "diamond shirt" again the following morning.



Side note: I hope it wasn't lost on you that his goldfish crackers coordinated with his napkin. That was no accident, my friends. That was 100% Ethan, who insisted on trading napkins so that he could match his snack with his linens.

He is so his Mommy's son.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Ever since we moved to the Bay Area, Ryan has been working freelance from home. Ethan and I have been spoiled by all of the time we've been able to spend with him and the flexibility that this has created for our family. When I had to go back to work when Ethan was two months old, Ryan was able to arrange his schedule to provide most of the childcare. It was easy to plan for family vacations, as we only have one schedule to work around. Best of all, Ethan had tons of father and son time, and got to go on lots of adventures like this:







Ryan starts a new job tomorrow, which will take some getting used to around here. It's an amazing opportunity (full-time commercial/advertising photography jobs are hard to come by!), and Ethan and I are so proud! That doesn't mean we won't miss having him around, though. Call us selfish, but we really enjoy our time with him!


Especially this little guy, who absolutely adores his daddy.

Baby Notch: The Sequel

Finally! After what seems like forever (but was really just a little over a year), Ryan and I can happily announce that we're expecting another baby! We've had so much support throughout our journey, and want to officially thank everyone who was there for us through all of the ups and downs - especially the downs.
We love you!

Quick preggie stats:

- At just about 12 weeks, I am already showing! Big time! At three months now, I look like I did at four or five months with Ethan.
- I'm super sick. Ryan says that I was this sick with Ethan, and thinks I blocked those memories out. I maintain that this time around is worse. Either way, no fun.
- I'm also super tired. In addition to the pregnancy fatigue, I'm working full-time, going to grad school full-time, and chasing after a toddler. I'm usually asleep before the sun goes down.
- Notice that "being a wife" is not on the list of things I'm tackling above. Poor Ryan has to pull his weight and mine around here. Cooking? Forget it. Grocery shopping? I can't stand the look/smell of food. Cleaning? Ha! Best. Husband. Ever.
- We do want to find out the gender, but won't be able to until July 27th. Just like last time, we'll tell you if the baby is a boy or a girl, but will be keeping the name a secret.
- Our due date is December 15th, but since we'll be having a repeat C-section, we'll likely get to meet this little one a week earlier.
- Ethan does not yet know that his world will soon be turned upside down. We've started talking more about babies around here, but he has no idea what he's in for.

Come to think of it, Ryan and I don't have any idea what we're in for, either! From jealousy issues with the firstborn to how to manage two kiddos at one time... anyone with good 2nd baby tips is welcome to send them our way!

Peter Cottontail Has Left the Building (About Two Weeks Ago)

Okay, I have a confession to make. I am so far behind with this Easter post that I actually considered back dating it. As though writing that this post was published two weeks ago would fool anyone. After Ryan called me out All on my own, I came to the conclusion that honesty is the best policy. So here it is. A post about Easter, over two weeks late.

Ethan participated in his first Easter egg hunt last year, which some of you may remember from this post (which was on time, by the way). He sort of understood the point then, and after 365 days of growth and development I was sure that he would be super jazzed about searching for eggs this year. With that in mind, we scheduled not one, but TWO Easter egg hunts this year. The first one was a community event at a local park, and the second was a small private affair in our own backyard.

For those of you who have read The Hunger Games, here's a quick description that may sound familiar:

- A mob of kids formed a ring in the grass, surrounding all of the Easter eggs and shiny wrapped candies, laying in the grass in plain sight (Cornucopia style).
- The Head Gamemaster counted down from 10 over a loudspeaker, signaling the participants to smash their way to the center with an enthusiastic "GO!!!"
- At this point, all rules of civility were off. Elbows were thrown, kids were pushed to the ground, necessary sacrifices were made to obtain that candy at all costs.

(For those of you who haven't read The Hunger Games, read it! It's fantastic! And then come back and reread this post... it will mean more to you than it just did. I promise.)

As for my little fighter? He just stood there, hands behind his back, taking it all in. Watching the other kids act like fools for little plastic eggs. Sixty seconds later, it was all over, and his basket was empty. Total Easter egg hunt fail.


Easter morning, we set up our own Easter egg hunt in our backyard. Oma hid the eggs, and together with Pa-Pa helped Ethan find each and every one of them, on his own time, without injury. It was much more our speed. Ethan opted to gather eggs in his Zebra backpack instead of an Easter egg basket. He ate the candy in each egg as he went along, and had a great time.



After the Easter egg hunt, Ethan found his Easter baskets (without competition), free to tear them apart all by himself. And that's exactly what he did.

An Outside Day

Disclaimer: At some point in this post, I'm going to complain about the weather. This will seem ridiculous 1) to those of you who know how incredibly gorgeous the San Francisco Bay Area weather tends to be, or 2) to those of you who live in places that are still getting ice and snow this time of year. But stay with me - my complaints are justified, I promise.

My toddler has the energy of a tasmanian devil. Of all of the fine qualities he's known for, sitting down quietly and calmly is not one of them. This kid is a mover and a shaker, always on the go. He's also a guy's guy who likes to run around outside, drawn like a magnet to exploring all of the dirtiest areas of the yard. It's for all of these reasons that the past couple of months or so have been so incredibly difficult for us him. Once a year, like clockwork, we hit our rainy season. A good nine months out of the year are sunny and dry, but the other three are nothing but straight rain. For days and days and days. And days. Which means no playing outside. If you also have a tasmanian devil toddler, you'll understand the horror of the previous sentence.

Thankfully, we've *finally* crossed back into beautiful weather again, and decided to take advantage of it today. From the time he woke up until it was time for his nap, we spent the ENTIRE DAY OUTSIDE. It went a little something like this:

8:00 - Hop in the car, picnic breakfast in tow, drive to the park
8:05 - Arrive at park, greeted by furry dog park patrons
8:07 - Set up breakfast on a picnic table by the play structure
8:10 - Lose breakfast to a sneaky golden lab who jumped up on the table and made off like a bandit with our bagels
8:11 - Move to a different picnic table, finish breakfast
8:30 - Play on the slide and watch the doggies
8:45 - Back into car, head to watch our friend coach baseball
9:00 - Arrive at field, watch game, hang with Coach in the dugout
10:30 - Head back home to pick up Daddy for a picnic lunch
10:45 - Collapse on couch, suck thumb, watch Backyardigans
11:00 - Head to Castle Rock Park for more outdoor adventures
11:15 - Picnic lunch in an open field
11:50 - Run around the park, climb hills with Daddy
12:40 - Head back home for a much needed nap

Doesn't that sound delightful? It absolutely was. And here are the pics to prove it (minus the early morning breakfast picnic with the doggies... too busy defending our food to snap any shots!):










Good riddance, rain. Thanks for making our hills so green... but really, you won't be missed.

Everyone in my house is a red hot mess.

Ethan went to his first trial day of preschool a couple of Fridays ago. In four short hours, he learned all about sharing... germs. I can't prove it, but I'm pretty sure that an adorable little girl with a not-so-adorable faucet nose shared her cold with my otherwise healthy little man. By Super Bowl Sunday my poor kid was just not himself. By Monday he was a mess. He was supposed to start preschool on Tuesday, but we decided to keep him home for the week. On Tuesday evening, Ethan was sleeping about 15 minutes out of every hour, spending the rest of his night in a heap of tears. When his fever hit 104.9°, I called the advice nurse at Kaiser. She told me to bring him in to the ER when his temp reached 105°.

Isn't 104.9° practically the same thing as 105°? Sheesh.

We gave him ibuprofen, and his fever broke. I thanked my lucky stars that we had avoided a middle of the night hospital run.

An hour later, at about 3am, Ryan's back started bothering him. Really bothering him. Writhing around in agonizing pain bothering him. I made another call to the Kaiser advice nurse, and we were told to make an appointment in the morning.

By 4am, Ryan was certain that he needed to go to the ER. I gathered my poor sick boys, loaded them into the car, and drove to the hospital. Since Ethan was in such bad shape, we just dropped Ryan off at the hospital entrance and came back home. After putting Ethan back to bed, I tried to get a bit of sleep myself. I kept waking up, checking my phone for a text or call from Ryan. When a message finally popped up, it wasn't what I expected.

Kidney stones. My husband's back pain was actually caused by a stone moving from his kidney to his bladder. Poor guy.

You can probably get a pretty good picture of what the rest of the week looked like. We're actually all still recovering from it. Even though I wasn't the sick one, I feel like I survived a major illness. I guess that's what sleep deprivation will do to you. Ryan of course ended up with Ethan's cold once he recovered from his kidney stones. Heaven forbid he catches a break after going through what I'm told is the male pain equivalent to child birth. And Ethan? He's over his cold, but is contending with the transition to preschool this week, which has thrown him (and me) for quite a loop.

But that's a post for another day. I'm still a red hot mess and just don't have it in me.