Fire Station Outing

Yesterday the MOPS group that I am a member of went to a fire station in McKinney. It was a very fun outing and Caleb looked forward to it for as long as he knew about it! Just like any other little boy, Caleb loves fire trucks and all things related.
















The kids got to go into a fire truck and look around. It's a little hard to see, but here's Caleb swiping a flashlight from their gear and playing with it.
















I finally got him to look at me and smile, of course with flashlight in hand. What will I do with him?
















Here he is hollering at me because he didn't want to get out of the truck and give someone else a turn. He eventually complied and came out of his own accord.
















Caleb in front of the fire truck again. I guess there's only so much you can take pictures of in a fire station!















Before the nice firemen took us on a tour of their quarters (very nice by the way), one of them put on all the gear that is necessary for fighting fires. Some of the kids where pretty nervous when the fireman put on his gas mask, but Caleb ran right up to him to give him a high five.

Baby Update for January

I figured that since I sort of use this blog as a scrapbook of sorts for our memories, I would start posting the information I get at the doctor with each visit.
Today was, and still is (it's not over yet), a very busy day. With the arrival of ice to our fair city tomorrow, I so tried to get everything accomplished today that I would put off to tomorrow, my day off.
My first stop, after dropping the boys at school, was my monthly doctor's appointment. After settling some business with the insurance people (they pre-certified me with my insurance company for a normal vaginal delivery. um, no thank you. c-section for me please!), I parked myself in the waiting room to serve my time before my turn came up. Now, it seems like everytime I'm at the doctor I have to wait, which I don't really mind as it gives me some time to read what I want to read instead of something that involves a small dog, truck, perky cucumber, etc. The only problem is, and this is no one's fauly but my own, but I always seem to have something scheduled to be at right after my appointment. As a person who is most of the time early wherever I go, I get a little antsy while waiting and I know this affects my blood pressure. Next month I won't schedule anything, just to see what happens.
Anyway, after the regular potty in the cup, blood pressure, weight taking routine with the nurse, I finally got to see the doctor (I gained 5 pounds by the way, but that's all I've gained. I knew it was going to come back to haunt me now that I can actually eat!). This was just a find the heartbeat and talk appointment so we did the talking first and he answered some of my questions. Then he went to work finding the baby's heartbeat. He looked, and looked, and looked, and after 4 or 5 minutes of looking I was getting a little nervous. He finally found it and it was 145bpm, or that was the best he could do. The little rascal was moving around so much it was like a game of chase the tadpole, or avacado as the baby books say this week!
My doctor also discovered that at my last visit I was supposed to be screened for cystic fibrosis, a test I know I've had before, but since there was no record of it we did it again. Last visit they took 6 vials of blood from me, so really what was one more?
Next month, the 21st, we have the big sonogram. I will be spending the next 4 weeks having long discussions with this child that they are spread eagle, since he/she seems to be a little less cooperative than Caleb was at this age!

Why Do I Do This??

When I was growing up, I had some serious self esteem issues, like most teenage girls. When I met Jes, I seemed to just mature and grow into a confident person who I never thought I would become. As an example of this, when I was younger, just the thought of having to speak in front of a group of more than 2 people who I knew or didn't know made me break out into a cold sweat and become a stammering idiot. And what do I do now? See what I mean.
The only hold over from the old Shannon is over analyzing what I have said or worrying about an mistakes I made. (Am I the only one who does this?) Tonight, I spoke at a cancer support group on exercise and had a great time and the talk went really well. It was such a great experience being around all the survivors, fighters, and caregivers tonight that I will go back later on this year and do another talk on physiology.
I am making a decision now to not find something to worry about.

Yet Another First

About 3 or 4 months ago we got a mailer that advertised the new Veggie Tales movie "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" and Caleb got so excited. We have been talking about it since then and we decided that Caleb was probably old enough to take to a big boy movie in the theater so he could see it. We planned to go Saturday, but I was just too wiped out from the week and we knew it would be super packed so Caleb and I went yesterday.
We packed up and went to the theater in the mall near us in Frisco and of course we got there early. So, Caleb and I had lunch at Chick fil A in the food court and looked at clothes for him and baby to kill some time. Finally we went up and were able to buy our tickets. Of course I took pictures.

















Caleb waiting for our turn to get in line to get our tickets.
















I had to have his picture in front of the AMC sign.















In the theater waiting for the movie to start.
While Caleb enjoyed the movie, we probably won't go to another one for a little while. He got a little restless about half to three-quarters of the way through, so it will have to be another really special movie before we venture out to do this again! It was still a fun time for just Caleb and I. I always love seeing the look on his face anytime I get to experience yet another first with him.

Snack Time

Caleb always needs sometime of snack around the 3 o'clock hour to hold him over until dinner. A couple of days ago he decided that he wanted his snack on the kitchen floor because I was unloading the dishwasher and he loves to help me with this task. Here he is with his snack of water and raisins while I had an orange. Silly boy!

Chivalry Is Not Dead

Yesterday was just like any other Tuesday. I dropped Logan and Caleb off at school and came home to do whatever it is that moms without kids do (I still haven't figured that one out). When it came time to go get the boys I left a little early, took my time and stopped at Starbucks for a (decaf, of course) Frappacino and went on to get them. Other than having to drag Caleb to the car because he was still asleep when I picked him up, it was an uneventful trip to the car. As I left the church and passed under the freeway bridge, I did the unthinkable, I ran over something that I can only describe as a rather large chunk of metal. As with most times when I run over something, I just prayed that it did nothing, but I could not ignore the very loud sound that I heard as I passed over it. I came to a light and I hoped all was fine, until I took off again. My poor little car was making the worst noise and I managed to pull off onto a small road with no traffic. I got out and looked and lo and behold I had a flat tire. Not flat like leaking air, flat like a pancake. Now, here I am about 5 miles from home with 2 kids, pregnant and it's cold and windy. I'm not a girl who was never taught how to do this and I would have tried to change it myself, but the tire iron just happened to be missing from my trunk. I called Jes and he said he would try to get ahold of one of his guy friends to come help me. About the time that I hung up with him, a very young man had doubled back and came around to help me. He changed my tire, using his own tools to get the lug nuts off. I was so relieved and it was a teachable moment for the boys. When I got back into the car, I said, "Boys, when you grow up and see a lady on the side of the road with a flat tire, please help her." Logan looked right at me and said, "I will" and somehow, knowing him, I know he will.

Second Baby Syndrome

Who knows if this is a real syndrome, but it is what I have taken to calling the way that I am feeling about this pregnancy. With Caleb all I would do, talk about, think about, obsess over was him, but this time around I have moments when I actually forget that I'm pregnant. Is this normal? While we are so excited to be pregnant and have another child, we both had a moment today when we looked at each other and realized that we are no longer a family of 3, but soon will be a family of 4. It's just strange. Yesterday I had a moment in Target. It was just Caleb and I, as Jes had gone off somewhere to do something else. I was looking for bath toys to replace the ones that were in the bathtub when Caleb decided to poop in the bath (never done that before and I'll save that for another post) when I ran across the onesies that they have at the end of the aisles with the cute sayings on them. I nearly bought one and it really hit me then. I'm excited, nervous, apprehensive, worried, and every other thing you can think of, all rolled up into one. I guess I'm normal.