Underwear Overload

My son is potty trained! I haven't wanted to post about it, for fear of jinxing ourselves, as I understand he is very early as compared to most of the boys I know. We had introduced it and talked about it starting a few months ago already, as several of Gage's little buddies who are about 6-8 months older than him were just successfully trained around their 3rd birthdays. I had bought pull-ups (which I truly feel are a waste of money, but more on that at a later date) and some "big boy undies". Walmart only had Spiderman/Incredible Hulk ones but my dear sister bought some Disney character ones that Gage is more familiar with. Ever since he saw those "Car" undies, and especially the Buzz Lightyear ones, he's been hooked! (Thanks, Katie!)

We still wear a pull-up or diaper to bed and to nap, as I'm not ready to be changing sheets every night yet...
but other than a very few (two??) pee accidents in the past 3 weeks, Gage goes completely on his own, and mostly without even telling us anymore. All of a sudden we'll hear the toilet flush and "I peed!" and he'll come running down the hall with a grin. He does announce to anyone who is listening that "I hafta go poop", and usually wants us to view his production when finished. (Is this a boy thing???)

The Underwear obsession has started, however.
We usually go through 2-3 pairs on average per day, and NOT because they are dirty or wet. Because "someone" wants to wear a new pair every time he thinks of it! This is what I caught him doing the other day, while I was in the shower:
I counted. He had 8 pairs of underwear on his body. He had 5 pairs on the bottom half, and 3 on his head.

He proceeded to tell me that he was "going on a motorcyle" and this was his "helmet".

He also likes to put his own socks on now and loves to find the socks that mommy dislikes the most....the ones that match nothing he owns.

Belly Pictures

Why, may I ask, was it so much more exciting to watch my belly grow the first time I did this? Do any of my friends/readers feel this way? I LOVED to watch my belly grow when I was pregnant with Gage, and now this time around, I look at these pictures and just cringe. Maybe it's because I know that I am only 17 weeks along and could easily pass for 7 months along....
but I have to keep reminding myself that there are TWO babies in there, and that is obviously (duh) going to make a difference. Plus, my body is more prepared this time around, too.

Please don't get me wrong; I am so excited to be pregnant this time around, and am especially excited to be having two! Especially since I was feeling so awful for those first 3 months, I'm relishing in the fact that I wake up and am vomit-free ALL DAY LONG, and have been cooking meals again, and actually playing with Gage! And I also don't mean to be vain; I just can't believe how big I am getting....and fast! Ah!

If you can't vent about it on the blog....then where can you??

(And very truthfully, I am NOT looking for reassurance that I am "looking so good", or "your belly is so cute"--really and truly. I just needed a place to put the pictures that I know I'm sharing with mostly family and friends and wanted to make sure you all knew that I know you may be gasping when you see my belly!!!!!)

See how much smaller it looks when I'm in "action"???

Easy Chili Recipe

I tried a super easy recipe in the crock pot yesterday and wanted to share, b/c if you love chili like I do, you will surely love this recipe!

Crock Pot Chili
Brown 1 lb. hamburger or turkey with 2 C. chopped onions until the meat is brown and the onion is translucent.
Transfer to a 3.5 qt or larger crockpot/slowclooker.
Stir in:
1 can (39 oz) tomato puree
1 can EACH of black beans, chickpeas, and red kidney beans, rinsed
1 can zesty diced tomatoes w/ green chilies (I didn't have any w/ green chilies, so just used zesty diced tomatoes)
3 Tbsp chili powder (more for spicier chili)
1 Tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt

Cover and cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 8-10 hours.

*Can be made up the night before and put in the fridge for an easy warmed up meal the next day!

VERY, very good and highly recommended!!!

Enjoy!

Things

I have been such a slacker on the blog site, and what really stinks is that I have been feeling so good so we have actually be out doing things!

Two things to report:
#1 We found out on Thursday that we are having TWO BOYS! I wanted to add the ultra sound picture to this post, however I haven't had a chance since Thursday to get that done...
so I'll just share the news without a picture, and add that later this week. The Dr. did say, (quote) "Do not go painting your nursery quite yet...let's wait and take a closer look at your 20 week ultrasound in one month".
We are pretty positive that the baby on the left is a boy....looks quite obvious, but the one on the right was still a little questionable. And they are still both very little, so we should know a little better in one month.

#2 We had visitors this weekend; my friend Sarah, her husband Brad and their two little guys Nash and Linc stayed with us from Friday afternoon through Sunday morning. The whole weekend was a great one! Sarah is a little obsessive about the camera (yeah, um, 583 pictures from Friday pm to Sunday am?!?!?) but this was a good thing for me. I can now refer you to her website for some really cute pictures of Gage playing with her boys. My rough-looking self is in there, too.....
I don't remember her taking half these pictures!!!

Thanks, Foskett's for an amazing weekend! It was a pleasure to have you here!

Hostible

This is what Gage calls the "Hospital", as both of my parents work at the same one...and when we are in my hometown, we go and have lunch with one of the both of them.

So, yesterday, we had to take mommy to the "Hostible"....
and not for lunch!

I woke up with what appeared to be the stomach flu yesterday and couldn't keep anything down, no even water. So, 8 hours after starting in the bathroom, at 12:30 pm, Tim (who came home from work early for me) took me to the clinic to get some IV fluids. I received 2 bags of IV, just to replenish my fluids and then was sent on my way home. They took the nausea and vomiting away, but made me so edgy--I think it's because they have glucose in them. I was just shaking, and it was a very annoying feeling.

I slept all evening, and after a 30 minute break from 8:30-9:00 pm, I slept until 7 AM this morning. Still a little under the weather today, but definitely better than yesterday, and hopefully will be even better by tomorrow!

Can I just say that this pregnancy is kicking my ass? And I am not even halfway through it!

Toddler Update: Gage

Since this blog isn't (and to keep my readers at the edge of their seats) and shouldn't be "all about me" and my pregnancy drama, I thought I'd talk a bit about our little man and the "Mr. Independence" he is turning out to be.

We are successfully potty training the past week. I had been trying to encourage it for the past month or so, buying some "big boy undies" with Spider Man, and even though he wore them once for me, he really preferred his diaper and/or pull ups. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of pull ups, as they really only seem to work for naptime and when we are going to be in the car to prevent a mess. I think Gage feels like it's still a diaper, so he doesn't pay too much attention to telling us when he has to go pee.

This past week, all on his own, he has decided he wanted to wear his big boy undies and has been doing amazing. He tells us when he has to go and we've only had 1 pee accident in the past week. Really! We still wear diapers to bed, and pull ups to nap, but he's been in his underwear pretty much all day for going on 7 days now. Today, he went into the bathroom on his own, without the normal announcing of "I got to go pee!" and when we heard the toilet flush, we realized he had went all on his own. So, I'm hoping that this continues.

He has been singing up a storm, lately, as well. Not sure (HA HA HA) where he gets THAT from, but his current favorites to sing out loud are "Ring Around the Rosie", "Baa Baa Blacksheep", and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". I love to hear him sing; it's so precious. When I try to sing with him half the time he yells for me to stop. Bummer.

Gage has also decided that he wants to dress himself. I try to offer help, but he usually replies with, "No, I do it!" so I let him have at it. He's been pretty good about letting me help him if he puts his pants or underwear on backwards. (Side Note: Backwards undies are cute...his little butt cheeks hang out the back...I just want to squeeze them!)
He also want to clean his place at the dinner table, pick up his own toys (only when he wants to, not when we ask!) and loves to help feed Jazz. He loves our kitty (he and I both affectionately call her "Daisy Maisy" and even though he chases her around the house with his toy vacuum cleaner, she tends to follow him whereever he goes. It's sweet.

He really has been a sweetheart, too. He pulled my sweatshirt up tonight to expose my belly and wanted to see the "babies in there?" Yesterday he said he wanted two sisters, and today it was two brothers. We'll see!

I think that is about it. Of course he is doing and saying new things each and every day and depsite all of my added couch time, I've been having fun watching and listening to he and Tim play around the house. I think we are all getting ready for winter to be over so we can get outdoors again soon.

Another "50%" weekend...

Quick disclaimer:
Due to my being so down and out the past 3 months now, there really is little "news" to report. So what went from being a pretty boring blogsite has now shifted into a really boring blogsite! My apologies.

So for the past 3 weekends, I have had one really good day, and one really lousy one. It's frustrating, because I'm really starting to feel better overall, but I've learned an important lesson that I've reinforced two separate times: No eating sweets after 8 pm at night.

The difference between this pregnancy and my pregnancy with Gage is that with Gage, I craved sweets. I couldn't get enough of them, especially ice cream. I know I'm still early, but other than one ice cream blizzard a few weeks ago, I am completely turned off by anything sweet! So this weekend, I had a bar at a party...
and was up all night violently nauseated and vomiting. ARGH! Last weekend it was puppy chow, (which as my beezatches know is something I cannot put down!!) and I payed for that all night Saturday and into Sunday. So, I guess I've got to watch it. I'd love to say it will probably help me to keep the weight off, but HA HA HA, I've been eating like a cow. When I get my lazy rear end off the couch and grab my camera, I'll post my first belly picture so you can I'm not exaggerating.

On Saturday Tim and I spent the entire day and evening together...ALONE. It was so overdue! My mom and Ken came and spent the day at our house and Tim and I took off around 11:30 and had lunch together with (get this) uninterrupted conversation!! I think we spent aboout an hour and a half there; we sat at least for thirty minutes after eating and just talked. It was so nice. We ran some household (fun) errands (rugs for the hallways) and then browsed Ikea and the Mall of America. Both places were complete zoos, but it's funny how little I care about crowds when I'm not pushing a stroller or trying to maintain a toddler. I could live at the MOA. Really.

We then headed out for dinner at my favorite mexican restaurant, El Loro, located near my old work. That was another good conversation and a meal I was able to chew slowly and enjoy!!
After dinner, we went to our dear friends Tim and Julie's house for our annual "white elephant" gift exchange and game night. These are all past co-workers of mine from two jobs ago...
but we have all remained good friends and have so much fun together! There's Julie, Tim, Jeff, Duane, Erika, Bob, and Kristin; and two of Julie and Tim's friends were there they we all met and they joined in the fun. Usually I'm the one causing a ruckass, as I've showed my buns before after 10 glasses of wine...
so there were some brief walks down memory lane of Jill's past drunken antics. I tried to reassure them that I'm still fun, even when pregnant, but my butt crack did stay in my pants this year!

Today was spent on the couch, in my pajamas, feeling very lousy. But we won't dwell into that again.

15 weeks today! Only 25 (technically) to go!

Our Valentine's Day...

I'm a frequent visitor to Audrey's page over at Mom Generations. They have really cool give-aways and Audrey has been doing 365 days of fashion advice for busy moms. Even though she is about a quarter of my size (she's a tiny little thang) and some of her fashion suggestions cannot be used by me right now (yeah, like my starting-to-pudge pregnant belly should be emphasized with a big, thick belt around my waist! HA!) she has already helped me to answer a few fashion questions I wouldn't have known where else to ask.

For this Valentine's Day, in order to try and win an ipod Touch and a itunes gift card, (woot woot!) I have to write a post about my plans for this Valentine's Day. I'm hoping my answer doesn't ruin my chances, as being 4 months pregnant with twins, we don't have anything "fun" scheduled this year. I've pretty much been down and out on the couch and laying low for the past month and a half...and even though we were invited to some of our friends' house for a party in the evening, we've opted to stay home this year. Even though they are all going to have so much fun....(sigh).

I think we will most likely feed Gage dinner, bathe him and put him to bed, and then Tim and I will eat together ALONE after bedtime. Yes, I'm sure I'll eat both with Gage and then again with Tim (hee hee) but at least we can have some alone-time conversation and time together. I just have to be honest and say I don't feel like going anywhere this year...
I've been so tired that during the majority of the days, all I can think of is sleep. My precious, beautiful, bed...
and a good 10 hours of sleep.


So, that is our super romantic Valentine's Day this year. We have many, many more years to go and doing something fun, sharing the evening with friends, or even a dinner out alone. But this year--I think I'll request a foot massage and I'll offer a back massage to even things out!

Check out the site...
she's fun--and you can also link to her sister and her mom, who give two different prospectives on things. I relate to Audrey right now...but her sister and mom are both great writers as well.