calgon, take me away...

another round of random from yours truly...

...36 weeks and a day. word on the street is that the last 2 months of prego 2 suck a**. THE STREETS DON'T LIE. my body conks out on me every day just after taco settles down to sleep and huggy kicks into overdrive. i usually end up hunched over, hobbling about or leaning on walls, jala1 or the goob for support. rolling off the couch is especially awkward.

...the other infuriating part of this stage of prego is clumsiness. whilst i can't claim to be the most coordinated (though i can pat my nose and rub my tummy at the same time), i drop something causing a mess most every day. its usually glass and is followed by barring taco and goob from the kitchen which in this casita makes a 1/4 of the living space off limits to them resulting in its own aftermath. meow meow meow

...jala1 and i were fortunate enough to score comp tix to a tech rehearsal of "shrek, the musical" over at the 5th ave. i'm a sucker for a musical and this one was no exception. for this particular show it wasn't the song and dance that wooed me. sim to the movie, it was funny and clever and appealed to both adults and kids. the set and staging stole the show.

...babymoon2 was exactly what we needed. i hadn't been to portland in a decade and was surprised at the pearl district transformation. jala1 likened it to our own south lake union. Its a lovely neighborhood to spend an afternoon but i wouldn't want to live there. i'm all for denser living close to downtown but there's something claustrophobic about a newly spawned neighborhoods lacking racial and economic diversity. on the other hand we had some damn good food at park kitchen. other weekend highlights were cuban food at pambiche and spa afternoon at ummelina. oh so relaxing.

so there

no, huggy's not early. thats taco 15 1/2 months ago. i was convinced he was making faces at us. he's still surprising us...

Milestone 1: Last night we were reading taco a book called peek a who. Each page has a picture of something that rhymes w/ boo...moo, you, zoo. One page has a picture of a train. As I turned the page saying PEEEK A....tac answered CHOO CHOO. We made him do it 3 times because jala1 didn't think he actually got it. Lo and behold, our little man knows what a train is.

Milestone 2: this morning jala1 was asking him where his various facial features are and for the very first time he touched his nose in response, clearly identifying it vs any other body part.

Yahooey! He hits most milestones at daycare so it was nice to see these before they told us about it. The choo choo one was the first in a while we actually caught together.

33 weeks, aka "i am a birthing goddess"

i hit third tri and i'm finally making time to focus on this pregnancy. between prenatal yoga and regular massages, i'm getting some downtime to physically and mentally slow down and relax, if just for an hour or two a week.

jala1 and i spent today focusing on huggy. the birth refresher class we attended was a bit crunchy for us but overall we enjoyed it. fortunately the mini version of the class spared us from painting dilating cervixes and our most granola moment was standing in a circle around a lit candle lending strength to the 300,000 women giving birth world wide at any given moment. the class gave us both tools to empower us to have the birth experience we hope for. what we took away from the class was -
- time to reflect on the things we liked and disliked about taco's birth
- a refresher on breathing and pain coping experiences (though i will never equate holding ice w/ a contraction. i just don't find it uncomfortable, its like equating a mosquito bite w/ being eaten alive by a shark).
- a refresher on phases of labor
- tips for introducing the huggy to taco
- and, what i found the most valuable, time to reflect on each other and how we can continue to love and support each other

taco at 16 mths

taco at 16 months is super fun. he's got a mouthful of teeth (almost all his molars are in). his favorite word is bubble and he has an instant affinity for bald men. his favorite book is curious george at the aquarium and he likes dancing to schoolhouse rock. he's gentle round animals and the babes at daycare (good news for huggy). his favorite foods are bread and cheese. he regularly uses the signs for more and milk. he's got an easygoing personality and every day he seems to be figuring out more and more for himself. life is good.