welcome, Isabella!

Isabella was born on November 2, 2008
at 5:29 pm
weighing 7 lbs and 1.6 ounces
and measuring at 20.25 inches in length

countdown

I had my baby shower yesterday. It was a lot of fun. It's nice to get together with family and friends and just relax, eat, chat.... I think we all had a good time.

I feel very fortunate to have such generous people in my life. I was given a lot of nice items to help with the new arrival (which really helped since I donated most of Julius' old baby stuff to Hurricane Katrina!)



I can't believe that in a few weeks I'll be a mommy to two little darlings instead of one little darling!

one of my fav songs/videos

I found it on youtube... I've always loved this song and video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elVMHKb8A4A

Placebo: special needs

ten more weeks to go

Hopefully more like 7 or 8 weeks to go.... lol Julius was born at 37 weeks, so I'm hoping Isabella will be born around 37-38 weeks as well.

I'm just really, really tired of being pregnant. The nausea has come back, but thankfully I'm not puking. I'm always so tired and sore...everything hurts. It's so annoying. I feel like a walrus, I walk like a penguin and I'm so moody....

Some people enjoy being pregnant. I'm not one of those people.

In other news, Julius started preschool last weeek. My little boy is growing up! LOL He goes every morning (M-F)... can you believe it? It's started already. School every weekday for many more years to come.... Poor kid. LOL But I'm glad he's enjoying it. His preschool teacher is awesome. She's just so happy and I feel that's so important. She really seems to enjoy her job.

Palin: wrong woman, wrong message (taken from the LA Times)

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,1290251.story

By Gloria Steinem
September 4, 2008
Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.

But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.

Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can't do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn't say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden's 37 years' experience.

Palin has been honest about what she doesn't know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, "I still can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?" When asked about Iraq, she said, "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq."


She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she's won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain's campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax. Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn't know it's about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them. Or perhaps McCain is following the Bush administration habit, as in the Justice Department, of putting a job candidate's views on "God, guns and gays" ahead of competence. The difference is that McCain is filling a job one 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.

So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.

Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

I don't doubt her sincerity. As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she doesn't just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She doesn't just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning power plant in her own small town. She doesn't just echo McCain's pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.

So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, "women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership," so he may be voting for Palin's husband.

Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest.

Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.

And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.

This could be huge.

Gloria Steinem is an author, feminist organizer and co-founder of the Women's Media Center. She supported Hillary Clinton and is now supporting Barack Obama.

running the numbers

An American Self-Portrait

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=7


It's amazing... please check it out!

photos from OBX

Julius and his cousin, Jonah, sharing a big hug :)


Josh and Julius at the NC aquarium


Julius and I at the Currituck Lighthouse


Julius: ready to climb the 218 steps to the top of the lighthouse


And lastly, check out my big ol' pregnant belly! :)

Today Julius started his Mitey Mites hockey session. It was so adorable watching all these four and five year olds skating around the ice in their equipment and jerseys trying to get the puck into the goal.

Of course Julius, being such a sweetheart, spent so much time wanting to help every child that fell down, that he missed a lot of the pucks. LOL But he had a fun time and everyone left the ice with a new sticker to put on their helmet :)

The other night we went to see a Frederick Keys game. They had their annual peanut-free night. It was a lot of fun, and not only did Julius get a baseball that landed in the stands, but he also won an allergen-free teddy bear from the raffle they were having that night!

Summer is going well. Julius is happy that he's going to be a big brother. It's a girl. At least they "are pretty sure" it's a girl. LOL We've already picked out the name: Isabella.

Doesn't it sound so sweet?? Julius and Isabella :)

Jedi Julius

Taken while spending the weekend at Bethany Beach.

(don't mess with a Jedi *lol*)


We had a great time :)

Julius turns 4

17 weeks

I haven't vomited in two days. Hooray! I think the worst is over and I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

This past weekend was Julius' birthday party. I'll post photos up soon. It was so much fun! Everyone had a great time :)

so maybe getting off the IV wasn't one of most stellar decisions... I've been feeling pretty crappy: though I won't admit to out loud to anyone!!

I'm really trying to focus on positive thinking. I mean, I'm a firm believer of self-fufilling prophecies, so I doing my best to keep telling myself that I am fine.

It works... except when the evening comes. Then.... augh.

Five more months to go! lol

Hyperemesis Gravidarium

I haven't been posting for awhile. Most of you know that I'm pregnant and I've been dealing with HG and had to go through daily IV treatments and most recently a new combination drug therapy.
Well the side effects were too horrible to live with. So I called my doctor and told her that I would much rather vomit than take the medicine.
Yesterday the nurse came and removed the PICC line from my arm, and today I am officially 15 weeks pregnant!
I'm in a much better mood now that I am off the meds. I'm still puking, but 4-5x a day isn't that big of a deal.
I'm finally starting to get a little tummy, which is just weird. LOL It'll probably be another few weeks before my jeans start getting snug on me, but I'm definitely starting to show!

5 more months to go before Julius is an official big brother :)

No More War

I speak for a man who gave for this land
Took a bullet in the back for his pay
Spilled his blood in the dirt and the dust
He's back to say:

What he has seen is hard to believe
And it does no good to just pray
He asks of us to stand
And we must end this war today

With his mind, he's saying, "No more!"
With his heart, he's saying, "No more!"
With his life he's saying, "No more war!"

With his eyes, he's saying, "No more!"
With his body, he's saying, "No more!"
With his voice, he's saying, "No more war!"

Yeah, nothing's too good for a veteran
Yeah, this is what they say
So nothing is what they will get
And there's no American way

The lies we were told to get us to go
Were criminal 
let us be straight
Let's get to the point where our voices get heard
And I know what I'll say

With his mind, he's saying, "No more!"
With his heart, he's saying, "No more!"
With his life he's saying, "No more war!"

With his eyes, he's saying, "No more!"
With his voice, he's saying, "No more!"
With his body, he's saying, "No more war!"

No more innocents dying
No more terror rising
No more eulogizing
No more evangelizing
No more presidents lying
No more war

With our minds, we're saying, "No more!"
With our hearts, we're saying, "No more!"
With our lives, we're saying, "No more war!" 

background noise

today we had a wonderful presentation on the research of tv/video watching on child's brain and language development. One thing that I loved was how the presenter didn't say "kids shouldn't watch TV!" because, duh, that's practically impossible for a parent to prevent unless they don't own a television to begin with. But what was really interesting was the information about what happens when television is on as background noise. There are actual studies that observe kids playing when the tv is on vs. on, while parents are engaged with them with tv on and with tv off, and the ability to filter out language when there is a lot of noise going on (tv on, people talking around them and someone talking to the specific child). Anywho, the presenter has a website that is equally interesting www.lisaguernsey.com

past lives

Julius has always said things that blew my mind. For example, once my mom had commented to him that she had lost her earring and was looking all over the backyard for it. He told her (without even seeing her that whole day) "Mima, it's not outside. It's in your room." Sure enough, that evening, my mom found it lying on her bed. He's always saying things like this. It's really incredible.

This morning was no different:

Today we were sitting on the sofa watching tv while sharing a snack. There was this kids' music video thingy on it about a train in a Japan. I pointed to the screen and said, "That's a country called Japan." Julius turned to me and replied very seriously, "I know that Mommy. I used to live in Japan before you were born." And then he turned back to the television and continued to eat his fruit snack.

Wha----????! LOL

Vote/Boat

Today I went to vote. Julius tagged along and listened as I explained the importance of voting, what happens when we vote, and what it means for people to vote.... he was listening very intently and watched as I voted on the screen in the booth.
As we walked back to the car, Julius asked me, "But, Mommy, where are the boats?"

LOL