Fall Firsts and Pregnancy No Nos

Aside from starting preschool, Evelyn has also started dancing in my ballet classes this fall! This may seem odd to those of you who know that she has come to class with me since she was 4 months old. But now is the first time she is old enough to actually participate, in the way that the other students are. I was a little nervous about how she would do, but very soon I was pulling out my camera to snap pictures of her, just like any other proud mama : ) She interacted with the other girls really well-she is 2 and a half and they are all 3, 4, and 5 years old. And in fact, not surprisingly, after the first week was bossing them around. Sigh. She told them where to sit, tried to tuck in their ballet shoe bows, and "helped" them stand the right way in line. Even the ones who are twice her age and size! She is a bit squirelly, since she is technically too young to be in the class, but I was delighted at how well she did. After her first class she spent the rest of the week talking about plies, gallops, and dancing with scarves. She loves wearing her little tutu and often mimics the activities we do in class at home (see video posted on facebook.) It's hard to say who loves it more-her or me : )

This fall we also had our first, slightly more serious, health issue. Evelyn was wheezing so I called the Dr to ask whether or not I should bring her in or what to look for. Much to my surprise (I'm not sure why) they consider even the slightest wheezing an emergency and saw her right away. They promptly put her on breathing treatments, 2-3 a day until all symptoms cleared up, which took about two weeks. This was so discouraging and frustrating to me. For a child who is rarely sick, she seems to have these odd health issues and I hate the thought of her being affected by them. But, out came the nebulizer and there we sat for 10-20 minutes each treatment. She does pretty well, although books and songs only cut it so much of them time and we have often turned to Elmo, online pictures of her, animals, or whatever else has a chance at keeping her still for that amount of time! The Dr said it's triggered by environmental issues-allergies-so she is very likely to grow out of it, but it's still frustrating. Fortunately her attitude is much better than mine!

Now, enough about Evelyn, what about me?! Well, I'm very pregnant, just starting my 7th month, and although I'm uncomfortable, everything is going well so I can't complain too much. Except that I love to complain, so I will : ) There are many dos and do nots for pregnant women- do take your vitamins, don't drink alcohol, do drink tons of water, don't take ibuprofen, do get regular exercise, don't eat shellfish, do sleep only on your side, don't go on any carnival rides. Blah blah blah. However, very few people talk about the dos and don'ts of other people REGARDING pregnant women. This is a sadly lacking social grace in our society, one that I feel a strong calling to correct, so that we don't spiral further down into barbarian ways. So listen up! First and foremost, it is never, I repeat NEVER acceptable to comment on how huge a woman looks-pregnant or not! Seriously, I have no idea where you people get these ideas! Big, big no no. This is closely followed by the second rule, no matter how surprised you are when someone shares her due date-do not show that surprise. No 4 month pregnant woman likes to be told she looks like she could pop any day! This is closely followed by the third rule. You never, I repeat, NEVER, ask a woman, pregnant or not, how much she weighs/how much weight she has gained. Are you kidding me? Are you sensing a theme here? Then you are right-the theme is comments that would be perceived as negative by women who are not pregnant, are most likely going to be perceived as negative by women who are pregnant. Hormones may be responsible for a lot of changes during pregnancy, but there is no magical hormone that makes a woman feel sexy when you are saying how big she is. Sorry folks, doesn't exist. Okay, so if I've now severely limited your conversation topics, what can you say? Here are some very acceptable examples: "Wow, you look fabulous!" "Look at how cute, and untired you look." "Do you need anything? Can I get you chocolate or a foot massage?" "Why don't you sit down and let me do that for you." And the always popular, "You are the most beautiful pregnant woman I have ever seen!" I guarantee that if you open with one of these comments, and not the "huge" one, you will be greeted with a smile, and not a dead pan "I'm not really sure how to respond to you" look. Plus, pregnant women are known to be slightly unpredictable, trust me, this is for your own good! Whew. Are we good? I really think that this is what our society needs to move to the next level, end polarization in politics, increase tolerance, establish peace in warring countries, and solve poverty. Just be nice to pregnant women and all our problems will be solved!

Home Alone!

So, I am sitting here, at home, by myself. This has happened maybe 2-3 times in the past few years, so it feels incredibly bizarre! I'm at home by myself, because two weeks ago Evelyn started preschool. Oh my gosh! I know, me too : )

We had been talking about whether or not to send her to preschool this fall for months. As some of you know, I'm a bit of a preschool snob (sorry, I just am!) since I taught Montessori for 6 years. But for a variety of reasons, none of the local Montessori schools would work for us this year and so I kept going back and forth over if I wanted to send her to a regular preschool (I know, I said I was a snob!) or just keep her at home. However, she was really starting to go beyond what I could sit and do with her on a regular basis-wanting to spell words and learn numbers, going over her shapes and colors, and lots of arts and crafts. I think I would have been able to keep up for a little while, but closer to delivery and after the baby is born would be a stretch for me. Plus, you may have noticed she is just a little bit social! I knew she would love it.

I found a great deal at a well established church preschool-that actually goes through elementary school-and I know many of the teachers as well as families who attend. So we went and observed, she cried when we left which was a good sign.

Her first day was hilarious. She looked so adorable, like a big girl but still a baby! Bard came with me and when we got to the classroom it was pretty chaotic. Lots of sad little two year olds

: ( Evelyn walked right in, sat down at a table and started to play. She looked around puzzled, at the other children, as if to say, "Why on earth are you crying?" Bard and I said goodbye, which didn't faze her at all, although Mama was a little emotional! I picked her up just a few hours later-she goes twice a week for two and a half hours-and the teacher said she had done great! Evelyn had over told her teacher when she had to go potty, which amazed me.

So now I sit here, alone, the house is quiet and I'm trying to decide whether to do a million things or nothing! I'm using the time to get extra work done and things taken care of around the house, which gives me a bit more freedom when I am with her-to just be with her. It's interesting to imagine what she is doing. Although I have left her in Sunday School many times, since I am the Director, I know what she is doing and who she is with. Plus, I'm just down the hall if she needs me. It's also interesting to think I am now the mom of a pre schooler and have a baby on the way. It feels very stereotypical! Hi, I'm Kristin. I'm white, middle class, live in a mid sized city. We drive a Subaru, have a cat, and my husband has a good white collar job. Sheesh. I tend to rebel a bit against these descriptions, which of course is impossible, since they are all true! For some odd reason it makes me want to wear some crazy outfit when I drop her off at her little church school, tell them I have my tongue pierced, or go get a tattoo. But that would just be fitting into another stereotype. I couldn't quite bring myself to wear the little lanyard that holds our key card, required for entrance to the building. And breathed a sigh of relief as I listened to Lady Gaga while pulling out of the school parking lot. On my way to my church job. Sheesh. Why do we strive to fulfill some stereotypes and run away from others? Maybe I'll learn more from Evelyn's school than she will.

Oops!

Yes, I do still blog, you just wouldn't know it by looking lately! So, since summer is over, let me give you a peak (or a long look, as it may be) at what we have been up to.

June

Well, I can't remember most of June, so that's easy! I was pretty sick for most of May and June; took time off work, gratefully received meals from friends, and spent way too much time trying to remember why on earth I had wanted to get pregnant in the first place. But, I started to feel better towards the end of the month and we were able to still take our planned vacation to Mexico (pics at right.) Evelyn loved it! We spent most of the days on the beach or in the pool. She did great staying at the hotel and on the airplane. I love how flexible she is that way, it makes travel so much easier. It was really nice to get away, with the baby coming, I'm sure it will be a while before we have a trip like that again.

July

Since I was feeling better, why not double my work hours and plan a huge event for our community?! Yes, July, as always, is defined by Sports Camp-our church's annual outreach for elementary age kids. This year we had the help of an intern, Kayla, who stayed with us. Evelyn fell in love with her-still asks where she is-and it was great to have her here. We had over a hundred kids at camp and it was a lot of fun. Evelyn had a blast at camp, she learned the songs and loved dancing with the kids. She never stayed late enough for any of the sports-maybe next year-but was there at the beginning where all the kids would come in and play with her. She thought this was great! I think my working so much wore on her though, so it was good for all of us when camp ended. We celebrated with a trip to Mount Rainier, which was beautiful and fun to share with both Evelyn and Kayla.

August

I thought August would calm down a bit, but between a work conference, a trip to the beach, flying down to California, and doing everything that I had put off for the previous two months (except obviously blogging!) it was a bit crazy too. We went to the ocean with my parents and brother and sis in law, and their two kids. This may sound relaxing, but shockingly it wasn't! I hurt my back the first day and with Evelyn sleeping in our room, got barely any sleep. But, besides being fairly cranky, it was fun to be there, taking the kids to the beach and park. Evelyn absolutely loves being with my family. Cousin Henry is probably one of her favorite people, we don't see them very much, maybe a few times a month, but she talks about him almost every day! She loves my parents too and pretty much thinks that they exist solely to spoil her rotten. Which may not be far from the truth.

The day after we got back from the beach, we got another dose of family by flying down to stay with Bard's mom. Although sadly we were there for the Memorial Service of Bard's Aunt, who passed away over the summer, we were able to have a wonderful time visiting family and celebrating the life of an amazing woman. Evelyn is so social, even in a crowd of people she has barely met before, she is at ease and goes around to people, interacting with them, and yes, bossing them around! I hope she was able to bring some joy to everyone while we were there.

After that it was pretty much time to finish up summer projects-the stairs to the backyard, tiling around our oven, and a ridiculous amount of yardwork-is Evelyn too young to help garden? The answer is no! We also finished up potty training her-she was potty trained back in May but I was so sick I put her back in diapers (cardinal sin of motherhood, oh well) but all summer she would tell me most of the time when she had to go anyway. She has done really well, which is great, although Bard can tell you his story of running her to the (of course) opposite end of the grocery store while she said, "Potty! Potty!" She almost made it : (

And, as you probably know by now, we finally had our ultrasound and found out baby #2 is a girl! I had thought it was a boy, so was kind of surprised, but we had planned to have two girls anyway, and I've come to realize that there are a lot of positives about having them closer together, so that's good. How can I plan that? Oh, I am just so talented! Actually, Bard and I have always planned on having two biological children and adopting a third. Our thought was that if this one was a boy, we would adopt a girl, since it is a girl, we'll adopt a boy. It's fun to think about, just several quick years from now, our family will look so different!

Well, trust me, this blog could have been twice as long! But I hope it provides a little glimpse into what our summer was like. And even though fall just started, we've already had big changes, so I'll be back soon to share those with you, maybe a few days instead of a few months!