Dan Freaks Out While Ordering Food

We have a Chinese Restaurant in town and apparently it's pretty good (I'm still off Chinese food from the Oskar vomit incident and simply from pregnancy making it not sound good). Dan orders delivery from this restaurant sometimes and knows that they have a $15 delivery minimum. He usually gets the shrimp and garlic sauce dish thing and wonton soup. Well, one day last week he was ordering and it was really hot out and Oskar and I were out of town. Dan had already dialed when he realized that it was to hot for soup. If it were me, I would say and an order of eggrolls or something- he just had to be close to $15. What does Dan order? The Pu Pu Platter for Two. FOR TWO. Did I mention that our microwave broke so re-heating things isn't quite so easy? Goodness. Dan is no longer allowed to make decisions under pressure.

Dan also doesn't quite understand furnishing a living room. I was telling him that I'm going to put up another coat of paint because although we like the color that we inherited, there are parts of the room that are a bit patchy and the cream from the past shows through. There is also some pet hair in the wall that I need to sand out. I made a comment that once this is done we can kind of start settling in and make it look like we've lived here for a year instead of a month. He pointed out that there are toys everywhere and that the commitment required there clearly shows that we've been here for a while. I was just saying that it might be nice to get some of our pictures on the wall maybe get some art up there or something. And I would LOVE to have some new furniture to sit on. To this, Dan responds, "You have a couch, a trampoline and a time-out chair! What more could you want?" We do have a couch- it is breaking and pretty worn out. We have a wooden time-out chair, which is apparently a very valuable chair, but that doesn't mean that it is comfortable for me to sit in. We have a trampoline, which has a 100 lb weight limit. Summary: We have a breaking couch that if we have more than 2 adults in here things get pretty cozy pretty quick. One other thing that bothers me is that we have absolutely stunning end tables, coffee table and entertainment table. I feel like I'm not providing them an appropriate venue to exist. I just want some couches. Maybe a cushy chair.

Anyone need a thousand tiny maple trees?

One week. That is the amount of time it takes me to go from not looking pregnant to looking downright portly. I'm starting to feel a lot better though and I can function as a human adult almost most the time. Baby is kicking away and sometimes when I take a deep breath it feels like something is about to break forth from my stomach. I don't remember this from last time. Pending fetal cooperation we will know the sex of the baby next week. I'm not holding my breath on the cooperation bit- at my previous appointment it took us 5 minutes to find the thing's heartbeat.

We had quite a storm go through here last week. It was VERY windy and it caused quite a few trees to come down around town. We noticed a couple days later that we had a hanging broken branch from one of our giant trees in the back yard. This needed to be dealt with, but as new-ish homeowners we find that again we were lacking the tools and since it was not hurting anything we were just going to let it hang there. Happily nature took care of it and the branch magically fell down while we were in the Twin Cities this past weekend. We were pretty fortunate- a town just about 10 miles NE of us got destroyed. There were a couple days where the weren't letting outsiders enter the town. I only heard of 1 injury though and no fatalities, so we can be happy about that. Our church was a temporary red cross shelter and there were about 30 people who could not occupy their homes. It could have been worse, but it could have been a lot better too. It is simply astonishing that the damage can be so much worse not very far away.

I have been up to the twin cities over the past 3 weekends for various wedding activities. It is not fun driving to the cities right now. Two weekends ago on 35 I went 2 miles in 45 minutes. I was super annoyed because 75% of the cars I saw were from Iowa probably going up to the lakes for the weekend. Hey Iowa, you have your own lake. Go there. This past weekend we traveled on Thursday and came back on Monday so it went much better.

Oskar got some much needed cousin time over the past couple weeks. Whenever he is with his older cousins he is simply insane. He doesn't have much chance playing with boys near his age because daycare is mostly girls. He has a blast with those two. He also got to see his younger cousin. He was so cute with him and seemed to actually listen to his aunt while she watched him for a few hours while we were at a wedding. He even held his hand for a while. So cute. When the little one becomes a little more sturdy I'm sure craziness will ensue when these two get together too.

Oskar Misses his Turn, Attempts to Crack Head Like Egg

Although a valiant effort was made to give his parents a heart attack, Oskar and both elders are recovering nicely after he decided sprinting into a door frame was a good idea. Dan did not respond well to the bulbous crack that appeared almost instantly on his beautiful head. I have learned that I respond better to injury and Dan responds better to illness when concerning Oskar. Oskar, like with every other injury he has gotten, was done crying in 2 minutes and back running around in 4. After consulting a mother and a nurse-friend we were affirmed in our decision to not rush to the doctor and he has been acting normally since the incident on Tuesday. For a time the bump came out about a quarter inch. It was gross and Oskar was not a fan of the idea of icing it to make it go down.

Tuesday was also an extremely warm day in Brandon, on the prairie, with absolutely no wind. Our house stays pretty cool, but it did get pretty hot around here when evening fell. The image below is what made me turn on the air to get us through the night. The chomps is generally a sweaty sleeper, but I couldn't look at that and not do something about it.

Oskar's headboard is finally completed and installed! Thanks to the guidance of the guy who builds all our furniture I was able to turn an old gate into what I believe is a beautiful headboard. 

Before

Installed- I know I've posted about this before, but I'm just so excited that it is finally done.

Potty training is not fun. Oskar won't even sit on his potty anymore. This would be a step backwards. I thought for sure he was ready, but maybe not? No one teaches you how to potty train a child. Thankfully the internet is full of helpful advice. Oh wait... On that note, if you are pregnant for the first time and you have a question do not ask the internet unless it is an incredibly reliable source. DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT READING ANY COMMENTS ON ANY BOARD EVER. Call your mom. Call your mother-in-law, friend, sister, me, whatever. Do not read the comments. Oskar hiccuped throughout his whole gestation. Then I saw a comment that if your child hiccups a lot he/she is likely to be stillborn. I did not believe it, but at 37 weeks pregnant with my first child that is hardly what I needed to hear. Most of my thoughts resonated with Susan's on Friends: This is impossible. It's just impossible. What that woman... did. I am not doing that. It's just gonna have to stay it, that's all, everything will be the same, it'll just stay it. Oh, what do you know? No one's going up to you and saying, "Hi is that your nostril? Mind if we shove this pot roast through it?" Yes, around 37 weeks, that's what I was thinking. No room for stillborn hiccups.

My little stud. I swear he wears clothes almost all the time,
although I will have a hard time proving that.

And here I am again. What was I thinking? 16 weeks as of yesterday and I am still dizzy and can't stand for long without support (usually a shopping cart). I am finally kind of starting to put on weight, but still can't break 140, which is disappointing. I know for many women, 140 is a healthy weight. Please keep in mind that I am probably taller than you and it really isn't a healthy weight for me, especially not pregnant me. I keep thinking the *morning* sickness has passed, but two days ago I was informed I was wrong. Again. Without going into too much detail I will only say that my throat is still recovering from this most recent event. Sadly I must report that I am used to it by now and that it is more annoying than anything else. It still must end. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further!

Those of you who are exceedingly cool (nerdy) know that that line is from Star Trek. I am pleased to report that I have completed watching Deep Space 9 and have made progress into Voyager. The theme song to DS9 nearly killed me every time I heard it. It is what I would provide if someone asked for the saddest Olympic fanfare. Congratulations guys, you made it to the Olympics but let's face it, you won't even qualify for the finals. Here's your participation ribbon, and the world's saddest trumpet playing just for you. In season 4 they put a drumbeat behind it. While I assume the intention was to liven it up a bit, to me it sounded more like Ha! You thought this was the Olympics! You are marching to your doom! And you will do it briskly! I realize this is a lot of opinion about a theme- but when it is 2 minutes long you have a lot of time to think about these things. And yes, I did fast forward through it most the time. When I would press play though, it would often be on the final note which was four measures long. FOUR. And the note should have ended on beat 1, not 4. On the upside, I loved the episode 'Trials and Tribble-ations" because we got to see my favorite creatures again! For the time, I was also way impressed with how well they merged the episode with the one from the original series. I know this paragraph will only be understood by about 1% of the people who may read this, but this is my blog, so there.

Throwback Thursday! Isn't that what the kids are calling it these days?
Oskar was our very own little Tribble for Halloween a couple years ago.
For those who understood, it was fantastic.

We have robins in our lilac again. One baby left the nest today- it was very exciting. I was able to get a couple pictures of them a few days ago. It took a while for the momma to get used to the sound of my camera, but she did. It might have been the camera scaring her away, it might have been the 2 year old or some other bird thing. This lilac bush is absolutely hideous and way overgrown, but it has had nests in it this year and last, so I guess it is staying. Sorry neighborhood. I put up a feeder in back and it took the birds a long while to find it, but now that they have we are sprinting through seed and suet. Very exciting. My pictures could have been better if I had used a ladder, but my doctor said no ladders for me. I can hardly blame her.

I hope you are all enjoying the start of your summer! Enjoy the weather and the sunshine and if you are having a rough day, keep in mind that you could be vomiting as well as dealing with all the crap you are dealing with. Dorisa Nelson- providing you the slimmest silver lining since 1986.