The baby

The baby is due in 16 days - eeeek!  How is it that you can be pregnant for 9 months but it all still seems so surreal.  I have been feeling pretty good and I suppose things are going well.  No real problems.  The baby has dropped down into position - so the good news is that I can breathe after walking up the stairs, not so good news is that the baby is doing a headstand on my bladder.  Oh well.  I prefer to breathe.
Another good thing is that Christmas shopping is done.  I should remember that this is easier when it's all done ahead of time for next year when there is no baby birthing time bomb about to go off and get it all done ahead of time anyway, I say that every year though.  I switched practices with this pregnancy and am now seeing midwives and I think they are great (and very funny).  It's so much more relaxed than the other practice, I guess things just take care of themselves and they just check in occasionally to make sure things are OK on the outside.
There are 3 potential midwives that will help me deliver at MCV Hospital.  The first one I met was younger, she was OK but not the warmest log in the fire.  The 2nd one I met is fantastic, she is an older British woman and she kisses me on the head and squeezes my arm on the way out the door.  She is like a friendly Nanny McPhee.  The 3rd one I only met last week and she was great too. Our friends had her on duty while they delivered and apparently he thought his wife was dying and she was knitting in the corner.  So, it'll be an experience.
I'm finding it hard to wait here at the end.  I am stuck between thinking - let's just get this going and hold up, I'm not ready yet.  Very conflicting.  The boys seem to be excited though and Sam kissed my belly before he went to bed tonight.  We moved the boys in together and they seem to be doing well. Oliver is assigned to the top bunk by Sam which I think he doesn't love,  but he likes being in the same room as Sam so it works OK.  The baby's room is right next to the boys' room so we are hoping (against hope) that they won't all wake each other up. I do hope that Oliver adjusts well to the new arrival.  He still misses Sam when he's at school so I think it will be hard for him since feeding etc takes so long with newborns.  If I make it to my due date, the boys will be on winter break when the baby comes, which is tough for me, but it will make it better for them.

I would love to post a belly shot in here but can't seem to figure out how to access it and I haven't got the patience to try and find it - next time

Jack Jack

Douthat State Park

It was a very long summer. Late Spring I found out I was pregnant. I was so sick with this pregnancy, from morning until night. I felt icky all day and then around 4:00 I was positively ill. Luckily Joel usually came home around 5:30 so I only had to survive an 1 1/2 before I could go off duty. We decided to call the baby Jack Jack. Sam and Oliver were very into The Incredibles at the time and because I was so ill we called the baby Jack Jack to explain that just like the movie, our little baby could turn into fire or a ball of lead and make me very sick. This was as clear as we could make it. I would tell them that Jack Jack was on fire and that meant I needed to be left alone until he turned back into a regular baby. I realize that it probably only made sense to a 5 and a 3 year old but at least it worked.  We have been debating about whether or not to move Oliver into Sam's room and when I talked to Ollie about it he said, "I don't think that it would be very good to have him in there and then turn into fire."  I guess the explanation needs to be clarified so that he doesn't actually think that our baby will burn our house down.

This summer was also a ridiculously obscenely awful heat wave. I don't really like being hot at the best of times and this was just the pits. Joel always says that he doesn't really understand why it snows when he can't go and play in it, I have to say the same about the hot weather. This summer it was so hot you couldn't play outside, so while it was nice to look out the window at the beautiful day it wasn't really useful. We may as well have been in a blizzard but at least then you could have bundled up, you can only take off so many clothes before someone calls the cops.  It did have the World Cup in it which is a fun time in our house

Brookgreen Gardens

Once I found out I was pregnant I signed the boys up for every imaginable camp to try to give them something to do while I felt so awful.  We joined the pool, which turned out to be a necessity.  We went to Charlotte to see Phish, Asheville to see fireworks on the 4th of July and Pawleys to see the ocean.  Sam started swimming laps at the pool and Oliver got his own big boy furniture for his bedroom.  Now it seems that it's getting chilly and with every drop in temperature my mood is improving. Now, I am going to have to come up with a new web address for the blog now that we are going to be the 5 Simpsons...

Yay!

I'd forgotten my log in, but here I am (clearly need to blog more often). More to come...

video games

Sam likes to pretend play video games. He talks about them a lot (doesn't play them, just likes to talk) the other day he had a Spiderman Band-Aid on his arm and he pulled up his sleeve to show me the band-aid and told me that it was a video game. He had created an on off button and one to move Spiderman. A little while later he said, "oh man!" I said, "what's wrong" and he said" my video game just ran out of batteries, lucky I have some in my pocket." Priceless

I've heard so many people tell me - that they're grown up before you know it, pay attention it's gone in a minute, enjoy it while you can - it doesn't last long. I heard that so much and I believe the people that told me were telling the truth. But you just don't understand it, it's impossible. When you have a newborn and a 2 year old it truly feels like the days of exhaustion will just never go away. And you feel like if someone tells you that you need to enjoy every minute you may just hit them with a sippy cup.

I'm starting to understand now (and I sort of wish I didn't). Sam is too big to ride in the stroller and Ollie wants to walk with Sam. I loved strollering, we used to walk everywhere. There is a itty bitty park a couple of blocks away from our house. We call it the tot lot. It's a little sand park with very few toys in it, mostly stuff other people have donated from their yards. We spent so much time there. It was this strange thing all the kids love the tot lot, we could never figure it out, it really was not a good park. All of my friends would sort of congregate there and meet up. It felt a little like a very family appropriate Cheers bar. You were almost certain to see someone you knew, even in really cold weather. We went to the tot lot last fall and it was a dud, they didn't seem to want to bethere at all. I feel like we are leaving the time of everything being entertaining and it's more challenging to make fun. I'm heading out of the stage of words like "lasterweek" and "yestermorning". Kids music is not always on demand now, now they like catchy mommy music. I thought I would like that and I certainly like listening to my tunes, but I sort of miss Raffi in a very bizarre twist. Sam now has play dates with kids whose moms I don't even know. There is just this sort of exchange at the door . It's not as if I want to stop them, I like them growing up I guess I just don't like leaving what has been so comfortable (and really cute). There has been this huge debate in this house going on for ages now about whether or not to have another little tyke. The thing is - that doesn't keep you in the bubble forever either, you're going to have to leave that world sometime.

It's not as if my kids are now teenagers - it's still great. They are still very creative and play imaginary games. They don't fight and are very kind to each other and their friends. They still dress up in costumes and like to sing and dance, they are in no way acting too cool. I can just understand what wise advice I was being given - Pay Attention, nothing stays still.

2010

So, it's 2010. So far this year is off to a great start. We have had lots and lots of snow. I haven't been skiing yet but we're going Thursday (just to Wintergreen but a little's better than nothing). Our rock climbing class went very well. I didn't expect to get so nervous being so high up but it does sort of freak you out. Well, I guess the most interesting development in the past month has been the cats. Lucy died this past summer (RIP) and we decided it was time to get another cat. So we went to a rescue group and we came home with 2 cats. They were fostered together and when we asked her if they needed to be together she said "no, they just like each other, but they wouldn't be lost without each other". Somehow I think we must have wanted 2 anyway since I am not sure how but that translated into "they really like each other and it's so nice for them to have a friend, so you really should take 2",. At least I think that's what I heard.

One (Charlie) is just the opposite of Lucy, he is gray with white feet and a white chest and Louie is white with orange. They are clearly not related. They are very sweet and very good. Charlie is a little spunkier than Louie. Today he followed us and the neighbors to the Pharmacy and walked right in. He is funny, he is also not as smart as Louie. Louie is very sweet and very lovey. He has a habit of sleeping on your head and he purrs REALLY loudly so it's bit of a nuisance. The poor thing has cat herpes, apparently it's very common - and no, he didn't get it from us. He had been abandoned in a parking lot and they said that it's common for cats born out and about. It makes his eyes runny which is really yucky. It doesn't have any other health implications though. They say it might stop when he is clam and not stressed out, but with the kids loving on these cats as hard as they do, that is probably not going to happen for a while.

Last weekend was Valentine's day. We aren't usually big Valentine celebrators, but we booked a sitter for 5:00. I was invited to the wedding of an ESL student of mine. I have never been to a Mexican wedding and didn't really know what to expect. It was a strangers wedding, so I thought 1 hour for the service 1/2 to reception and an 1 hour at the reception. It started at 1 - we'd be home by 4:30 at the latest. Well, we got the church and it was a mass with a group wedding. There were 5 couples getting married that day. It was standing room only and the service lasted about 2 hours. I am still impressed that my children behaved as well as they did considering the whole service was in Spanish and we were tucked in a small alcove and couldn't see a thing. So I was put in the family photo (very honored) and then we left for the reception.
The bride and groom showed up at 5:30 (clearly, we canceled the sitter). So we had decided that this was our Valentine's - a new experience, a wedding, yummy food - pretty good day I think. Well, we got served our salads and the boys (who had a Sprite and a Orange Fanta and were going truly insane) had been really good and so they started to run around with the other kids. Then, right when the yummy food was on it's way out of the door - Oliver fell and split his chin and needed 2 stitches. It was a shame to leave, I was pretty excited to see the dancing. The groom made us some plates to go (slightly awkward I though) and we headed home. Of course I as worried about Ollie but I seem to have 2 pretty accident prone kids so I'm getting the hang of it a bit. It was fun and I hope I get invited to more. I could make a hobby of different cultures weddings (without the exceptionally long mass and extensive wait for the reception to begin and split chin).

Aaah the winter

I'll start this post off not with the winter but with Thanksgiving. This year we went to Asheville (normally the Lavelle family goes to Pawley's) but this year we headed for the mountains. Asheville is so great that time of year. The kids and dads went on the Polar Express, leaving from Bryson city heading toward the North Pole (which I believe is in Dillsboro) and then back again. They had on pajamas and drank hot chocolate, very cute. After that was Thanksgiving and we went to Highlands to visit the Wordens and Baboo. It was beautiful and freezing. While we were in Asheville Joel and I went to the movies and saw Men Who Stare at Goats (we're fans of the Cohen bros.). It was a great movie, but even better was the theater, it used to be a Regal but now it was something different. It had a warehouse feel to it when we walked in and then when we got to our theater it had sofas. Not the fabric kind like they have at the Brew and View that are comfy but feel sort of dirty) but nice ones and it felt a lot like watching a movie in my house but without the mess and a really nice TV. Asheville always seems to have a funky something in there.

SNOW SNOW SNOW! A foot of snow, the good kind, not slushy but not too powdery so you can't do snowballs or snowmen. Sam and Ollie loved it. To be honest, Oliver was not too tolerant of the cold. He liked it and then lost it after his feet got cold, but as I recall so did Sam when he was 2 1/2. The went sledding (or sledging as it's called in this house) and had a blast. Leyla Sleime and Sam went sledding for hours over on the southside.

December, since Joel tends to be a bit of a Grinch, decorations are up to me, that's fine with me since they're just the way that I like them. As a side note, every year Joel is becoming increasingly jollier and I think he even put Christmas music on when he was in the car on his own. HoHoHo. Christmas was great. I love Christmas. I'm not a crazy tacky themed sweater Christmas person, I'm more of the carol liking white lights and roping kind. Either way though, it's fantastic. This year the boys really got it. Next year we are going to have to dig a little deeper than Santa though so that they don't end up too simple.

This year Sam wanted a Leapster (a Leapfrog product that is pretty much a gateway drug into a DS system but with "learning" games). We debated it for EVER. It was really difficult, neither one of likes video games and have never really played them so it was a tough call. Our fear was that he would get so into it that it would become something difficult to manage. He didn't ask for anything else, that was it, the only thing over and over. On the one hand, we could get it for him and manage it and maybe he'll get over his fascination by the time he is older. On the other, he could get really into and never stop, lose all of his friends and become a compulsive gamer who gains 87 pounds and yells a lot for things that he didn't want to get up and get. I have to face it, video games aren't going away and it will be a part of his life in some form. But all evidence shows that they are pretty much useless and have no real value or place for a 5 year old. Well, we went for it and got it(suckers). He really doesn't seem to care. He wanted it all the time and now he just wants to show it to his friends. So, as usual I think I know it so well, I'm totally in control and I am pleasantly surprised. Puts me in my place. Oliver got Playmobil. I really like Playmobil toys. They are so fun. I think that Lego and Playmobil have the best business models around. Make lots of small plastic pieces and don't out any of them together and make the kids (parents) do it. They make a fortune, it's not cheap.

Our church has a family service on Christmas Eve and all the kids are in the pageant, there is no rehearsal, they just dress up and are told when to walk up to the manger. Last year they were both barn animals and Oliver sat down on the step faced the congregation and picked his nose for about 15 minutes. This year Ollie was a barn animal. He wanted to wear the goat head and the donkey body and he really couldn't be talked out of it so he was a "gonkey". Sam was a wise man, and if I do to say so myself, he did look very regal (in a 5 year old sort of way). It was precious. That night our friends Ingrid and Steve came over for some wine and cheese and then we ate raclette (Sadly, the French not the Swiss kind - but still good) after we had done all of the elf work.

We stayed at home for Christmas this year on our own without visitors. We were a little scared of being lonely and depressed on Christmas night. Up until now we've been with one family or another. But I think it's time to stay put, so we did. Christmas morning was great. We did have to show Sam the Leapster because he kept opening his presents and disregarding them because it wasn't his video game. The Playmobil knights castle was the biggest hit though. For Christmas dinner we had our 93 year old neighbor over, she is great and I think had she not come it would have been sort of a lonely holiday. We ate roast grass fed beef and had spinach Gruyere casserole (seriously, I probably ate about 1 1/2 pounds of cheese within 48 hours - seriously) and we watched Elf. Couldn't have hoped for better.

Like I said since we were mildly worried about being lonely, we decided to have the first annual Simpson Boxing Day party for all the other potentially mildly lonely people sticking around for the holidays. That also went very well. I have to remember not to keep all the alcohol in the kitchen though. You would think I'd learn, but it has to be out of reach of small hands, so it's a little dilemma. Also, don't put brownies close to the edge of the table over the carpet,they're stuck in there for good now.

The day after Boxing day my dear friend Kristin and her new husband came to visit. Sarah and Tony were also in town this year which made it great and we all went to Zeus Gallery, which is always a good call (fried oysters and grilled octopus salad).

Then we left for the beach to have New Years with my family. We had a blast. Francis and Juny got the Wii Fit for Christmas (which now of course, I desperately want). on NYE we had the Wiinter Olympics. We played all the games, ski jump, slalom, snowboard, snowball fight. It was awesome and very funny. I ate a lot of cheese at the beach (and dried meats and steak) It may appear like I am talking about food a lot but Holiday food is good food and good food always needs to be mentioned.

We came home on the 3rd and it's not been so sad, it's OK that all the holidays are gone until next year. Joel and I are taking rock climbing lessons so that is fun and I'm back to working so we're busy.

There ends the chronicles of Simpson holidays 2009 and 2010 has yet to be written but it will be a good story I'm sure and I can't wait to read it.