Little Slugger

We've had a hard time deciding if Joshua is going to be right or left handed. He constantly changes hands when he's eating or coloring. Even his teachers at preschool haven't seen much of a preference. It's looking like he will be a lefty. Out of the blue one day, he announced that he wanted some scissors to cut paper. I didn't have any kiddie scissors at the time so promised we would find some at the store. Every time he goes to make his own brand of confetti, he cuts with his left hand. It also seems that he uses the fork or spoon most often in his left when we are eating...well when I can get him to use the fork and spoon consistently. He is ALL boy!

Anyway, Eric wants to cultivate the left handed preference and teach the kid to play baseball. We found a little kiddie tee and whiffle ball at the store this weekend and gave him his first try. Sure enough, when he picked up the bat to hit without any prompting he hit lefty. Eric is thrilled. Not being a baseball fan, I don't really understand this elation but I'll grin and go along with it. I shot this little video this evening while he was trying the tee out for the first time. Too cute! I was sitting in a chair with my feet up and had a great view.

Scary complications...

Leave it to me to be unable to have an uneventful pregnancy. With Joshua it was my blood pressure. I have white coat syndrome which means I tend to freak out when I have to go to the doctor...ironic I know. I had to see a specialist several times with Joshua do to the high readings I would get and keep a blood pressure log where I checked 3-4 times daily at home to prove that I didn't always run that high. Right at the end of my pregnancy with Joshua I did become borderline for pre-eclampsia but it never progressed past that stage. This has been much scarier!

After my glowing check up and sono of Friday, we decided to take Joshua to the zoo Saturday morning with two of his cousins and my sister-in-law. At our lunch stop I discovered that I had some spotting of old blood. So, I called the weekend on-call nurse and headed home. She said it was probably just from my exam and to spend the rest of the weekend laying around and being lazy. If I didn't have any other problems I could go to work on Monday as usual. I never did see any more blood so carried on as normal Monday morning. That night I had a little more and the same on Tuesday morning. Still all old, brown blood but enough to catch my attention and make me freak out a little. I called in sick to work and got an early appointment with my ob/gyn. 3 hours and another sonogram later we found the problem. The sono that I had on Friday was super quick due to the back up in the ultrasound office (45 minuted behind schedule) and the fact that I hadn't had any problems up to that point. The sono they did Tuesday was much more in depth. They found that my placenta on one end is close to my cervix. Apparently the tissue in that area of the uterus if delicate and friable and the corner of placenta that was there has come free of the uterine wall and bled a little. So now we at least had the source of blood. There was still some there but it hasn't been actively bleeding. There is no telling when it all happened. It could have been there last Friday and was missed or it could have happened after that. Fortunately they think the problem will right itself as my uterus grows and moves into the abdominal cavity. The placenta should move with it and away from my cervix. Also, the baby is fine and growing normally. I have been home on limited activity all week. As I am too scared to move much, I have probably limited myself more than he really intended but I figure I'll err on the side of caution. I can go back to work on Monday with a very light schedule and they will do another sono at the end of the month to see how things are going. I don't think I've ever paid so much attention to the toilet paper when I go to the bathroom and I don't remember ever being afraid to sneeze before. Not my best week overall. Raging hormones and an overactive, bored mind do not make the best of combos.

So when I say nothing new is going on around here...

My recent lack of blog posts has been largely from being in the midst of first trimester yuckiness! I am a little over 12 weeks along with baby Millner #2 and we had our first sonogram on Friday. My official due date is December 7 but this baby will be a scheduled c-section so I was told anytime after Thanksgiving is fair game. They'll set the c-section date based on later sonograms to gauge development. I must say I am looking forward to NOT going through labor this go around. When I had Joshua, I was induced the day after my due date and went through 17 LONG hours before they decided to do the c-section. After they delivered Joshua, I was told that there was no way he would have fit through without breaking something....Thank God for modern medicine! My labor was not fun with Joshua. I had back labor and though I like to think I'm not a total wuss....it HURT! I am so glad that my body will most likely only have to recover from the c-section this time around and not from surgery and labor!

So far, this pregnancy has been more difficult in the sense that I feel much worse this time around. With Joshua, I would have nausea in the morning for a couple of hours and it would be gone by lunch. It started around 6 weeks and was gone by 11. This time has been a real guessing game and I'm still getting nauseous. Thankfully I don't do the all out vomiting scene with it, though I have come perilously close this time. I have had days without feeling sick followed by consecutive days and nights of non stop nausea. This week I seem to be unable to fix dinner without getting nauseous. As I am the first one home and fix dinner for us 95% of the time...this has been a real problem. I also have some serious food aversions. I can't even see any sort of Asian food advertised on tv much less smell it without getting woozy. Same goes for yogurt and pork. Although, I do know where the pork aversion comes from. I went to the Texas Dental Convention in May and took a day and a half oral surgery course. The morning of the second day was a hands on portion involving practicing the surgical techniques on pig mandibles. I had signed up for the convention in January and never gave it a second thought. Frozen pig jaws at 8 AM when you are 9 weeks pregnant is NOT a good combo. I had to walk out and get air frequently much to the amusement of my desk mate. I was a decided shade of green by the time the morning session finished.

We are busy making plans to do some remodeling to the house to get ready for baby number 2. Our study has been in need of help for sometime now. Particularly after the cat managed to ruin the carpet while learning to use his litter box. Whoever tells you that you don't have to litter box train a cat is lying! Or at least that was the case for our cat! Mostly the room is a collect all for junk, a bed that isn't used, and my husband's reloading equipment for ammo. We are going to rip up the nasty carpet, lay hardwood, and make it a study/craft room that is much more functional. Once that is finished I can start sorting out all the junk that got relegated to the guest room closet. Our guest room will by the new baby's room and we have some minor painting to do on Joshua's room to transition it to a big boy room. I've got it all laid out in my mind...now I just have to find the time and the energy to get it all done.

I'll leave off for tonight with a sono picture. I can't seem to get it to scan well but it was a great shot!

It's been awhile....

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted anything on here. I guess things have been trucking along with no "big" upheavals or anything other than mildly interesting. I had a pretty quiet birthday this year followed by a fairly tame Easter. My parents were in town for Easter and my Mom was only 10 days out of knee surgery so we stayed pretty low key. The four of us did make it out for an evening of dinner at PF Changs and Bob Newhart at the Bass Hall. We hadn't done that since I was pregnant with Joshua a little over 3 years ago...way too long! Joshua spent the evening with a close friend and had an absolute blast. Someone besides mom and dad got to listen to Elmo endlessly and blow bubbles in the backyard until it's too dark to see. Needless to say, Joshua has a new best friend and wants to know when she can come back!

I have also completed my concealed handgun class and sent all my paperwork off to become official. That was a VERY long day. The state mandates 7 hours of class time followed by a shooting proficiency test. The class stuff could really be covered in less than half the time so it made for a drawn out Saturday. At least I got it over with all at once and don't have to worry about it for 3-4 years.

For my next big adventure I am off the San Antonio next week for the annual Texas Dental Association convention. I try to go every year to get most if not all my continuing ed credits but also to catch up with a bunch of my classmates. It's pretty much a girl's weekend...no hubbies, no kids. Definitely a nice break for mommy! I just hope they don't cancel it with the swine flu scare. They have closed tons of schools around here until May 11th. I am beginning to wonder what I will do with Joshua if his daycare follows suit. We had a doctor at the practice have to leave unexpectedly so most days I'm the only doctor there. Of course if all the schools around us shut down...perhaps we should too. Hmmmm, quite the quandary.

I've joined the Dark side!

I have been converted to the dark side....of guns that is. After my last post on our increasing arsenal I had a very interesting experience at lunch one day. I had an absolutely dead morning at work. I had a four hour case scheduled that cancelled at the last minute leaving me with absolutely nothing to do except check hygiene and hope I could find a filling to do. I know you're thinking I'm a crazy dentist but I really hate just sitting around and twiddling my thumbs. The hygienists were crazy slow that morning as well. I guess no one wanted to come to the dentist. Anyway, I left the practice at 10:15, ran some errands and went home for lunch. We had been out of town the weekend before so I had some extra time to try to get my house in order. I had the stereo on and was cleaning downstairs and then went upstairs after eating. I was finishing some stuff up in the master bedroom, opened our shutters and found a car parked in my driveway with no one in it! My dogs bark at anything that moves and I hadn't heard a peep out of them. I thought maybe someone was walking to the door but still found it odd since anyone I really know doesn't expect me to be home in the middle of the day. I waited a few minutes for the door and nothing. I walked around the upstairs and checked windows to see if I could see anyone on our property and still nothing. At this point I am slightly alarmed and a little annoyed. I had 15 minutes to get back to work and the car was parked in the driveway behind mine (yes, the garage door was closed). I called Eric and tried call my office to see if anyone could pick me up. I opened my garage and ventured outside with garden tool in my hand and ran to the neighbors to see if on the off chance one of their visitors had parked at my house by mistake. No one knew anything about the car. I got the description and the license and went in to try my office again. While I was on the phone, I heard a car door slam and saw a big man getting into the car. I have no idea where he came from! He pulled out of the driveway and left the neighborhood.

So, after that I decided I really needed to know how to use some of the arsenal that has made it's way into my home. Eric has gotten his concealed handgun license so his pistol is never here. This weekend we went to the gun range for Eric to show me how to shoot his pistol. It was too cold to go to the outside ranges for the rifle and shotgun. I went with grim determination and was not at all excited. For the past several weeks Eric and my dad have been trying to talk me into a pistol of my own and a concealed license. I have been trying to keep my mind open so we took a couple pistols and a revolver to the range for me to try. I am truly amazed to say this next statement. I LIKED IT! I didn't think I would ever feel that way about shooting a firearm but I really had a good time and I did pretty well. I could hit the bulls eye consistently at 6 and 12 feet. I guess all those years of dart playing really paid off. Of course since I actually enjoyed myself, Eric insisted that I find a handgun for myself. So....I am now the owner of a Walther 9mm pistol and will try to take the concealed class in the next month or two. Who woulda thunk?!?!?

In other goings on...all of Joshua's medical tests came back normal and he has been symptom free since we went in for the last blood draw! Potty training is in progress but going very slowly. My son is incredibly stubborn! I have to put him in big kid underwear and take away his pants for him to go number 1 in the potty. We haven't even ventured to Number 2 territory. I am hoping he'll start to get the hang of it. He really doesn't like not wearing pants so they are my big bargaining chip! Well, that and a couple M&M's when he makes a successful trip. All of our spring flowers in the yard have started to bloom so I'll leave with a couple of shots I got over the past few weekends

Back Patio Joshua in the Bluebonnets

Sylvester in front of the Columbines

Welcome to the gun show?

Lately my house has acquired an arsenal and I'm not really sure how this all happened. I am not a big fan of guns. In fact I have never shot any sort of gun. Not even a BB gun. I am slightly afraid of the things if I am being perfectly honest. Somewhere, I have lost control and find myself in a household with not one but four guns. These four guns have all come on the scene since November. My lovable, wonderful husband tends to be rather obsessive in his hobbies. When we bought our house three years ago, looking up how to care for a single rose bush evolved into a massive organic gardening mayhem complete with compost bin and collector in my kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against organic gardening. I tend to have a rather black thumb and admire people who can coerce things to grow and produce healthy, yummy food. It was the staggering amount of information and stuff that went with the whole thing. I think Eric owns just about every organic gardening manual out there.

I should have known I was in trouble when he started spending lots of time with a taxidermist friend talking about hunting. Eric has never really been the hunting type. He's gone out twice that I know of and didn't bring anything back with him. Both experiences have been over 10 years ago. Out of the blue (to me anyway) in November he started talking about how it would be fun to go turkey hunting this spring. I tried to be the supportive wife..."sure honey, if you really want to go" and thought it would blow over. Boy was I wrong! Shortly after the election the gun fever really kicked in. I started hearing eloquent speeches on how gun laws were going to change and we really "needed" a semi-automatic rifle for protection.....WHAT?!?!?!?!? I'm still not sure what we are being protected from, perhaps little green men? This all strikes me as very odd. Didn't you have 8 whole years to yearn for and purchase such a gun? We start on the discussion of guns and how much I don't like them. You always see the horribly sad story of how some kid got a hold of dad's gun and shot a friend, family member or himself in the process. I bring up these points and insist if there is EVER going to be a gun in the house there must be a safe. I didn't think the topic of discussion was over but three days later a shotgun shows up in my house. I am still totally confused on how this happened so quickly and think I must have been bamboozled. The point that really rankles is I wasn't told about the expensive purchase until after it occurred.....GGGRRRR!

So for Christmas, said gun safe entered the house along with an inherited rifle that materialized from my in-laws house. I had never heard of said rifle before but so it goes. I thought, ok he has a hunting gun surely the madness is over. WRONG AGAIN! After Christmas the semi-automatic discussion came up again. He went with the shot gun before because it was so much cheaper. Now he has found a way to assemble the semi-automatic from used parts. Does this sound like a bad idea to anyone else? Over the next several weeks gun parts were continually delivered to my doorstep. In fact one day the mail consisted of gun parts and a prescription drug order....I have a problem with this! I am also feeling like we are under surveillance of some sort at this point. Long story short, the gun has been assembled, it works without blowing anyone up and the count in our gun safe is up to 3.

Eric's birthday was yesterday and what did he want for his birthday? You guessed it...a gun. We now add a 40 caliber pistol to our arsenal and a concealed handgun license. This I can sort of see the practicality of. In his profession, Eric comes across some crazy people. Now the big topic of discussion is teaching me to use it and getting me a license and gun of my own. Where did I lose control?

Spring in Texas

If you ask my friends, they will tell you that I don't care for the climate in Texas. I have lived in Texas longer than I have lived anywhere else but I still miss the changing of the seasons that we used to get in Colorado. I absolutely love the crisp mornings and changing leaves of autumn. I miss the days of sledding and snow man building in winter with fires in the fireplace and hot chocolate with marshmallows. That's being said...I love it when all the spring flowers start to show up here. Bluebonnets are one thing Colorado didn't have. We don't have bluebonnets yet but I have caught glimpses of color in the flower beds as tulips, daffodils, iris and crocus are peeping through the mulch. I also love the redbud trees that are in bloom in many of the neighborhoods near my office.

Our normal Sunday routine includes community group (Sunday school at most churches) and a worship service. I really love the church we go to but lately it seems like the service goes longer and longer. By the time we get home, get Joshua fed and down for a nap and start chores it's almost two o'clock and the day has gotten away from me. I know many of my friends relish the time because they can get away from their kids for a few hours and enjoy nothing but adult conversation. The kids are usually happy in Sunday school so it works well for everyone. For Eric and I it seems like it has become 4 hours away from Joshua and the quality family time we so cherish on the weekend. It didn't bother me when he was little. He would stay with us the entire time when I was still nursing him. As he got older we would take him the the nursery during community group and have him with us in the service where he would fall asleep on my shoulder and nap. Now he has to go for both sessions since he's just not old enough to sit through a service quietly. It probably wouldn't bother me as much if he enjoyed going to Sunday school. I never have a problem taking him to preschool but he does not want to go to Sunday school. He cries each week and beseechingly says "please don't go, mommy." It breaks my heart. We've had a crazy couple of weeks around here so we decided to play hooky from church this morning and check out the flowers at the Dallas Arboretum. Their bloom festival is still a week or two away but there were lots of pretty flowers to see already. Joshua had a great time as always. Anytime he's outside he's happy.