Today I am 12 weeks pregnant

I'm nearly to the end of my first trimester. Thank goodness.

The past week has taken with it most of my nausea (though some food aversions still remain) and has given me a little bit more energy. I actually come out of Hank's room in the evening and can type out a blog instead of just diving headfirst into bed. Hence all of the blogging lately. It's funny, my energy comes in spurts at random times and gives me random urges. Like the other day, Hank was napping and I was hanging with Johnny when I got the itch to make a yarn wreath (here's an example of what I'm talking about). So grabbed one of the wreath forms I got on clearance online a few months ago and some yarn and bam! Knocked out a yarn wreath. And then the energy was gone. So weird.

I still wouldn't say I have all of my energy back, though. Of course, that might be because I've been keeping up with my boys during the day, which is enough to tire anyone out, right? Especially since they were both up at 4:45am today. Urg. Talk about a long day.

I was actually considering taking a belly picture today... and then decided against it because I just look like I've been chowing down on donuts. Seriously, my body is so practiced at this pregnancy thing that it got the memo that it was pregnant and my abdominals just disappeared. Hopefully the rest of my body is just as awesome and will just pop this baby out in 28 weeks. You hear that, uterus?! Have a consult with my abdominal muscles, STAT!

And that's really all. Not much else to report. Except for getting kinda depressed after reading this article: Three is the most stressful number of kids. Hopefully John doesn't read this thing any more or he'll be pushing for a fourth one soon...

Escondido Renaissance Faire

[WARNING: Picture-heavy post]

You guys. We had the most ridiculously fun time at the Renaissance Faire on Saturday. So much fun that I don't even feel nerdy raving about being at the Renaissance Faire. :)

Johnny's favorite movie right now is Brave, which is about a young Scottish princess who is not into getting married, but very into horseback riding and archery. Thus, Johnny has been obsessed with riding a horse and with shooting a bow and arrow. All kinds of things get turned into bows and arrows: bamboo skewers, drumsticks, branches he find at parks, etc. When I heard about the Renaissance Faire in Escondido was happening this past weekend, I figured Johnny would get a huge kick out of it. I mean, what little boy wouldn't like knights, swords, and pirates?

So we went with my mom. And spent all day there. Seriously. We got there at 11am and left at 6pm. It was crazy. We saw pirates, fairies, fauns, a queen, knights, cabin boys, wizards, and LOTS of cleavage. Of course, once the boys spotted the playground, they bypassed everything else and played there for awhile.

Arriving at the Faire. Hank was sleeping in the car with John.

Trying out a fireman's pole for the first time.

Victory!

The Queen's Parade. Both boys stopped playing on the play structure and watched. They were enthralled by the costumes and music going by. Heck, I was, too!

But by far, the best part of the day, was when Johnny and Hank spotted the archery area. Remember how I said Johnny was really into bows and arrows? He spotted the bows and said, "I wanna try!" My original plan was for John to take the lesson with the archery instructor and Johnny could watch, since Johnny is 3, and therefore not so much into taking direction. But when we bought our ticket, Johnny was SO EXCITED to pick out his bow and try it.

This is what unadulterated excitement looks like. For Johnny.

When we got to the front of the line and met our instructor, Johnny tried out the easiest bow, but he couldn't pull it back. So the instuctor just said, "I can make that work for you," and he walked us back to the farthest target (he said we'd get the best pictures there), where he proceeded to instruct Johnny on how to pull back and shoot an arrow. 

The guy was SO patient with Johnny. Since Johnny is, you know, THREE, he had a little trouble following the man's directions. He would say, "Okay, now let go of the string. Let go of the string. Just let go," over and over and over again without raising his voice or getting impatient. For all seven arrows. The man was a saint.

Look at that face!!! Such excitement.

The kid was stoked.

You guys, it was magical. Johnny has been talking about shooting a bow and arrow since the first time he saw Brave a few months ago and he got to fulfill his dream this weekend. When I uploaded all of the photos, I got all teary-eyed looking through them because just look at the JOY! Gosh, it was awesome.

Anyway. Moving on from the archery. The rest of the day was spent watching the entertainers, listening to music, eating some lunch and more playing on the playground.

Eating some lunch. Fulfilling dreams is hard work!

The handsome hubby

The boys dancing to the live music and vocals of Mister Mac (not pictured)

Watching a juggling show.

Juggling with fire.

Standing on top of five precariously balanced chairs and juggling fire.

It's fun when you run, Daddy!

Playing a "choking on water" game with G-ma. Hank thought it was hilarious.

Watching some play sword-fighting.

Old school teeter-totter on our way out.

It was a little pricey to get in ($17 per adult, 4 and under free) but for a whole day of fun, I thought it was worth it. Especially since both boys SLEPT ALL NIGHT! Whoo-hoo for tired children! :)

And that has made all the difference.

No, this is not a post paying homage to Robert Frost.

It's about sleep. 

Hank has never been a great napper. For the first eight months, he slept in a sling on my chest because he just couldn't settle himself at the 45-minute mark (which is the length of an infant's REM cycle). Then for awhile, I nursed him to sleep and placed him in his crib for naps, but he just could not sleep past 45 minutes. Sometimes I'd get an hour, but that was pretty rare. I figured out pretty quickly that if I went in there, nursed him back down, and then held him for the rest of his nap, he would sleep soundly and thus, sleep better at night. So I would hold him for about 1.5 hours on the weekends and a couple days during the week when Johnny was occupied with something else. But the guilt! Oh, the guilt. I'd be sitting in there holding Hank, knowing I couldn't put him down or he'd wake, listening to Johnny talk to himself down the hall, sometimes coming to Hank's door and saying, "Mommy? Can you come play with me, Mommy?"And the fact that he wanted to play with me and I couldn't (or wouldn't, depending on how you look at it) come out really wrought havoc on Johnny's and my relationship.

FINALLY, as in, for the last nine days or so, he has started sleeping for a full two hours. Sometimes longer, depending on how long our morning was. And I don't have to do anything at the 45 minute mark. I guess he finally got to the age where one nap is enough and is no longer overtired by the time I put him down.

Napping like a boss.

Now Johnny and I have some one-on-one time together and it's great. I'll tell Johnny, "I'm going to go put Hank down for his nap. I'll be right back, okay?" And he'll say, "Okay. Then we'll have some Johnny and Mommy time?" It's really nice that my independent, will-not-hesitate-to-leave-me-behind-in-a-public-place little boy wants to spend time with me. Hank's napping really HAS made all the difference.

Product of Johnny and Mommy time.

Backlog: Outside in March

I was just doing some photo organizing on my computer and came across these ADORABLE pictures I never got around to posting. You know, because I'm gestating a fetus and all that. (That excuse may get old, but at least it's legit.)

What do you mean I can't slam this shut repeatedly?

Hanging up our paintings to dry

He painted numbers. Because NUMBERS!

Loving the swing.

LOOK AT THAT FACE!!! Heart explosion cute.

I think we spent much of the beautiful weather weeks in March at home with major colds. Or maybe that's just my cynical memory speaking. But some of the days in March were gorgeous! Luckily April was just as nice. Hopefully May will be awesome, too.

Two-Foot Expansion

I'm 11 weeks and two days pregnant, due on November 18th and yes, I'm hoping for a girl. And yes, I have done the math and realize I will have a 3-year-old, a 2-year-old and a newborn.

I have debated whether or not I want to put this news up on the blog, especially since I decided to keep it off Facebook. See, I'm a world-class complainer. And having so many of my friends available at the touch of a fingertip makes it easy for me to complain too much on social media and frankly, I'm tired of being that person. So I'm limiting myself by keeping news of my pregnancy away from places like Instagram and Facebook because if I keep it mum, I sure as hell can't complain about it.

Which is why I debated putting it up here. But then I figured there are only 15 people who still read this thing and they likely already know the big news and don't care if I complain as long as I throw up some pictures every now and then. Am I right??

This first trimester has been quite the trial. Taking care of TWO children, including one that still wakes frequently at night, has made this third pregnancy much harder in some ways. The nausea and fatigue has been worse this time since, you know, having two kids means not being able to eat protein and complex carbs every two hours like I'm supposed to (hell, getting to the grocery store to BUY the protein and complex carbs is hard) and getting a full night's sleep is just not in the cards.

However, in some ways it's easier than my last two. With my first, I was still teaching for the first trimester and then I was alone and completely lonely for the rest of my pregnancy. That was hard in its own way. With my second, I was still caring for an infant in my first tri (which looking back, seems WAY easier than dealing with two toddlers, but he was my first which means it was difficult) and then I was so busy with young Johnny that I had trouble eating enough. At least this time around, Johnny and Hank can entertain each other for ten minutes while I lie down on the couch. They are also into watching 30 minute segments of Sesame Street when I really need to take a break (it's not my favorite thing to fall back on, but it could be worse I suppose). And this time? I've completely given up on cleaning. I mean, having two kids kind of broke me of that silly cleaning habit, but now? I don't even feel guilty about having a dirty house. I just don't have people over. ;)

So here we are. In a little more than six months, we will welcome another little baby into the house. And I can't WAIT to smell that new baby smell again!