Rutabaga

I think that's a funny word, I had to look up how to spell it, and I've never eaten one, but its a funny word.
I am on partial bedrest, which basically means no intense exercise, no heavy lifting (other than my 20lb toddler) not a lot of walking, no running, and spending a lot of time sitting or resting.  That may sound easy, or nice, trust me, it's not.   It's annoying.   Chasing around Thomas is hard enough, but sitting on the couch and trying to get him to come to me when he's crying, or trying to explain to him why I can't pick him up all the time is not fun or easy.  Lorelai is just fine, she is growing like crazy , already weighs more than a pound (or so says the ultrasound tech in the ER) and moving like nuts. She's really strong, and her due date was actually pushed up a week, so we are 23 weeks rather than 22...  The bedrest (only partial!) is for me.  This pregnancy has been much harder on me than my first one was.   I have currently only lost weight, I am now almost 10lbs below pre pregnancy weight, and I contract ALOT.  If I am standing, or moving, or doing anything other than laying or sitting, I am contracting.   Thankfully the contractions aren't causing preterm labor, so that's good.  However, they are uber annoying. 
Okay, now that I have complained for a while, I shall cease and talk about happy things. Like my adorable son, who is saying so many words now.  Words I don't think I have taught him.  I have worked hard to teach him the parts of his body, and bear, and ball, and dog, and other stuff like that.  But the other day he brought me a book, and said "book" and he went to his bedroom door and asked me to open it by saying "door".  He just picks up on words, which probably means I should get my road rage under control, otherwise Thomas is going to think something in the van is named "Stupid"...
James only has two classes this semester, and I am so glad!  He is picking up all the slack at home, doing all the laundy, and dishes, and always taking care of Thomas, he's pretty much a saint, I don't know what I'd do without him!

The Haps

Thomas says please now all the time, if he ever wants something, or wants me to do something, he rubs his belly and says peazzz.  It's the most adorable thing I have ever seen, and I pretty much cave to whatever it is he is asking me.  Perhaps that's not the best parenting style, but I really want to encourage him to say please.. where is that happy medium between teaching him that please is what you say when asking for something, and that I will not always give him whatever he wants whenever he wants.  That is my parenting condundrum at the moment. That and I wish I hadn't taught him to blow kisses cause now it's interfering with his sign language thank you that we are working on...
He has an amazing sense of rythm, he gets it from his father, and I love watching the two of them dance. When I dance it's more of a "move my weight from one foot to the other and snap, or clap a little so I seem like I have some idea of what I'm doing" with Thomas it's totaly natural, he gets the beat and he moves his little butt, his legs, his arms, and his head all in sync and perfectly to the music.  I am jealous of my 16 month old's dancing skills....
I went to the hospital twice this week, so that makes it 4 times in the past two months, which is insane. That's quadruple the amount I had previously in the past 4 years.  This pregnancy has been much harder than Thomas was, many more pains, more contractions, more sickness, more tired-ness.  And I can't help but wonder if perhaps I am just more whiney this time.  Maybe I'm just a bigger sissy now, being a mom has made me a big baby.  Who knows?  But I do know that I find it utterly annoying that I never feel great.  James and I tried to go shopping, and after one store I had to sit down and get some water because I got dizzy and lightheaded.  What is this?  My sweet doctor is doing all she can, and she does a very good job of not making me feel like a whiney annoying possibly hypocondriac pregnant woman.  I feel like I always need to say "I'm not making this up, I really am in pain"  James is pretty great too, very understanding, always there to help me and get me what I need. 
We are watching You've Got Mail, and it's the end when she cries and says "I wanted it to  be you" and it made me happy, I just love that movie!
While at the hopsital they did an ultrasound to check everything and make sure all was well with baby Lorelai (she's great, it's just me having issues)  and we actually got a chance to see our sweet girl.  When we did out other ultrasound the woman was all about get in, get out, and go away.  We barely saw her, and Thomas was being bad so James missed it all. This time we got a good 20 minutes of the guy saying "Look, this is her arm, her heart, oh look at that cute face!"  And then after I called her a girl the tech said "Wait, they told you it was a girl?!"  And my heart stopped, and I said "What? Are you kidding me?" cause I was so prepared for a girl, and in the interest of full disclosure, I was on some serious pain meds, so Iwas totaly not all there, and the guy looks at me and says "Yes, I'm kidding, it's a girl!"  Long story short, it's still Lorelai in there, confirmed now for the 3rd time :)  This ultrasound was really good too, we could see more than just bones and her basic structure, we got to see her ears, and her cute little bottom, it was a lot of fun.  Of course at this point I was totaly drugged, so I had forgotten about the previous pain I was in.  It was better that way.  And now I'm pretty sure I'm babbling, it's been a long week, and I think I am still a little drugged, Thomas is crying and I'm going to go :) Sorry if this post is everywhere and off the wall, but that's what I am right now...

Shots

Thomas had his shots on Saturday, and the poor kid did so well.  He cried of course, but he just cuddled with James and I the rest of the day.  We felt so bad that we took him to Jamba Juice after and got him his own :)  He has been really sore every since, I have been giving him meds and if I'm even just a little late then he gets so sad and just holds on to me and cries.  I HATE IT!  But at least he won't have to have anymore shots for a while. 
I am starting my last semester of school tomorrow, and I am excited.  It's finally almost over!  It's going to be so nice to just be a mom and wife.  I can help James with his school and focus on my kids, I am so glad!  It will be nice someday when we are done with College and aren't students anymore, then our kids will be students and the cycle will continue!

Snow and Kisses

It snowed!! Maybe it was just a tiny bit, but still, it snowed!  I love it so much!  I have missed having snow this year, we made it through all of December with no snow, none.  What is that?  It's Utah, aren't we supposed to be ski central?  You can't ski if there is no snow!  Not that I will be skiing anytime, I have bad enough balance when I don't have a nice baby belly going on, I would probably die.  Speaking of the baby belly, with Thomas I carried really low, he sat below my belly button for most of the time, and I felt like I had a cute little  baby belly, this time, I am carrying much higher, so I feel like I have a gut of fat, rather than a sweet baby girl... It's probably just my pregancy self conciousness :)  I have actually only lost weight this pregnancy.  I am 20 weeks today, and I had an appointment yesterday, and I lost weight from my 16 week appointment, probably from being so sick, but what can I do?  I eat, oh trust me, I eat.  And I eat whatever I want, whenever I want. But I'm still not gaining, my belly is growing like crazy, and I am getting smaller in other places.  My arms and legs are both smaller, which is making my clothes fit funny..  They fit my belly now, but my legs are always loose, its kind of annoying.
Thomas give kisses now, mostly he half opens his mouth, and puts it against you.  On occasion he will stick his tounge out while kissing you, that's fun.  This morning James was heading out to class (on Saturday, yeah, that sucks) and he had on his scarf to ride the scooter, and Thomas reached out for James to pick him up, and then Thomas moved his scarf and kissed James's cheek, so adorable!  Thomas will also hug the baby, it's really sweet.  He is going to have a bit of a hard time adjusting to the baby being outside me I think, now whenever we talk about a baby, he goes to my belly.  And when he sees a baby, or a dog on TV, he gets really excited, yells "BABY!" or "DOG!" and starts dancing, so cute!  Maybe I should find a TV show that is about babies who play with dogs, any ideas?

New Year, new thoughts?

So one of my goals this year is to post on the blog once a week, I use it as our family journal, so hopefully I can get better at it!  I will try, and if I fail, please feel free to text/call and tell me I am a slacker and need to get on the ball! 
The holidays were VERY intense for the Harris family.  The week before Christmas I got a really bad upper respiratory infection that had me in the ER on Saturday, and then back in the hospital on Tuesday for liquids.  James was able to take off some time from work, which was really good, because I was totaly incapable of taking care of Thomas.  I don't know that I have been that sick in MANY years.  Probably since I worked at 5 Star and got Mono and Pnumonia at the same time and didn't go to the doctor for almost 2 weeks because I had to go to work. Oh, 5 star, I do not miss you.  Anyway, I finally started to be able to breathe well again, and we made it up to South Jordan for Christmas, I was on major antibiotics and all sorts of other stuff, to ensure that I was safe around the 2 newborns we had in the house, and then, the ENTIRE family got the plauge.  Well, that's what we called it anyway, it was HORRIBLE.  Christmas eve night I woke up at about 1, and spent the next 5 hours throwing up and feeling like I was going to die.  James stayed up with me for a bit of it, giving me some water, and giving me a blessing.  It was so bad.  And everyone but Michelle, Taylor and Thomas got it, including anyone who visited the house.  I was so sick all day Christmas, and then I started to get a little better, and James got hit with it the next night.  So finally we got all better, more time off work, lots of rest, and Thomas ended up with a horrible yeast diaper rash.  It was the worst diaper rash I have ever seen, we slathered antifungal cream on him for days, and now it's finally better.
But it really was a fun Christmas.  It was fun having the entire Harris clan together, a little intense, because even when my whole family is there we aren't even half of the Harris family :) but it was really fun.  We got a ton of fun gifts, and had a great time watching everyone open theirs.  We also bought Thomas WAY too much, which we said we wouldn't do... It's so hard not to spoil your child, I mean he's so cute, I just want to give him everything!  He is also a little too smart for my good I think, we are having a few issues finding some form of disciplin that works.  He doesn't really do anything bad, but he plays with things he's not allowed to, touches the TV, ect. So for a little while time out worked, it was devistating, I only had to do about 10 seconds and he was set, he wouldn't do it again, and then after about a week of time out, he figured out that it wouldn't last long, and if he just sat and waited us out, we would come get him eventually, and then he could play again.  He's 15 months old and he's already figured out that  timeout isn't a big deal... So we have taken to holding him, making him look at us, explaining to him what he did wrong and holding him still for a bit of time.  He HATES being forced to stay still, so we shall see how long that lasts...
This is my last semester at college, I'm so excited. Despite the fact that I have to retake my finance class, because apparently a 70% is not a C, but rather a D... So I'm taking it from the same teacher, because I now have all the answers and I want to make it as easy as possible.  At least now I get all of the concepts... So annoying.  We have another ultrasound this week, its our 20 week anatomy scan, so we'll get a good long look at our sweet baby girl, I can't wait!

Bragging

*WARNING* This post is full of bragging and all about "my family is awesome", if you don't want to read it, don't. But you're missing out ;)
So, I feel a little bit of a need to brag about my son, and so this is a great outlet for me :) 
Today Thomas fed himself breakfast, totally.  I gave him a bowl of trix (I actually held it so the milk didn't end up everywhere) and he took the spoon from me and fed himself.  He managed to only get a little milk on his onesie, and no cereal casualties at all :)  I did feed him the last few straggalers from the bowl, because he couldn't corral them, but he did it all by himself!
His new favorite thing to do is kick balls around, we have a lot of them cause he loves to watch them roll, and now he's figured out if he goes up to it, he can kick it and it goes all over.  He loves it, he gets so proud of himself.
He has his first taste of steak today. We went to Texas Roadhouse and my dad got prime rib, well Thomas has a few molars now, so I told my dad it was okay to feed him some meat. He wouldn't eat ANYTHING but my dad's prime rib.  It was great, he spit out the potatoes, the roll, the corn, my mom's pulled pork, nothing would make him happy but they prime rib.  He's starting off right :)
When we got home from the restaurant he was playing and I said to him "Thomas, do you want me to take off your coat?" and he turned to James and I and said "Yeah" and started to take off his coat.  We were so proud!
He will also now pick up toys and bring them to me if I ask.  So if he drops a toy, and I say to him "Thomas, can you pick it up and bring it to Mommy?" he'll pick it up, and bring it to me. He usually then wants it back, I mean it is only fair, he gave it to me, I should give it to him, right?  Of course our living room still isn't clean... ever, but we are working on it!
In other news, I passed my finance class. It was basically a miracle, because my teacher was nuts, but I did it!  I was so excited, I called my whole family :)
James finished math, which is also basically a miracle because he did his entire class in one week.  His dad and sister in law were instrumental in helping.  Without them it wouldn't have happened, and we love them and owe them a LOT!  We are currently coming up with a fun way to say thank you to them, thoughts?
Christmas is almost here, and we actually got snow today, of course it lasted about 2 hours, but hey, Thomas loved it, and we went and played while it was still on the ground :)

Great great week!

So Nuskin has been very very good to us this week!  We went to the Christmas party, it was really fun.  Good food, nice music, and tons of fun! Every year they give out a ton of prizes, every employees name gets put into a raffle type thing and they pull out names and give away TV's, vaccuums, Kitchenaids, and other fun stuff.  Well, James won!  He won a wood chip grill/meat smoker.  It was really nice!  He was so excited, he got to go on stage and he was so fun to watch.  As he was leaving the stage the President of the company said "Who is that guy? Where does he work? He should be in sales, he's funny!"  Then as we were leaving the party he came up to James and said "You were the best! Thanks" Then this morning at Costco (I'll explain in a second) we had like 30 people come up to us and tell James how awesome he was and how much fun it was to watch him, that he was their favorite.  The whole time I kept thinking "Well duh! I knew he was awesome! But it is nice for you people to realize it!" So after James won at the party, they then started giving the gifts that all of the employees got.  $100 gift card to Costco, two week pay bonus, $500 american express gift card, and a Kindle Fire!!!  It was so much fun!  And the morning after the party they always have a Costco morning for everyone to go and spend their gift card and play games and stuff.  We went, it was fun.  Then this afternoon James's boss called a meeting for everyone, and they let him know... HE DOESN'T WORK SATURDAYS!! I'm so excited!  I HATED when he had to work on Saturday, I'm so stoked! They want to cut back on overtime hours, so no more Saturdays.  YAY!  Anyway, it's been a right good week for us 'round these parts. Then tonight, we are going with my family to look at Christmas lights, I can't wait for Thomas to see them.  We also got him a new forward facing carseat to try, I think he'll love it!!  All in all, great week!!!