Autumn

Fall is fabulous. I don't really know if there is anywhere else on Earth that does fall as exquisitely as the northwest since there are so many places I haven't been, but here it is just glorious. There are so many species of trees and they all seem to change at a different time so there are colors for a long, long time. It's the onset of sweater weather and three quarters of us really love sweater weather. The final quarter of us loves SoCal summers. Perhaps one day we'll convince her sweaters are amazing. 

Grandma Debbi is so good to send the kids packages for the Holidays. It always makes Aeryn's day. I'm still amazed at how lucky both our girls are to have been welcomed so completely by the other person's family. We are truly lucky that way. When Aeryn sent a "thank you" text she had to include a selfie... which is so funny to me. Kids have always taken selfies, even in the days of traditional cameras with delayed gratification, but I'm sure the reversible cameras and digital displays on most phones just make it that much more exciting.

We watched our neighbor's girls for a couple hours one day and one highlight of the afternoon was playing in the leaves.

I can't blame them, who doesn't love to play in the leaves?

Then to make it actually feel like Halloween, since somehow October has decided it is almost over (seriously, HOW???) some friends of ours orchestrated a pumpkin carving party. Aeryn takes this very seriously as you can tell.

We decided to use real knives this year instead of those cheap, bendy pumpkin carving kits and while it seemed like a good idea at the start, she was actually really scared of using the knife. She asked me to cut the eyes and nose after she drew them on, then used a scraper to put all her other designs on the surface.

For year number 5,487,827,346 (or maybe just 5) she chose to make a cat. This girl is definitely consistent.

After she had completely finished, she saw the drill one of our friends had brought to carve theirs. She is clearly her mother's child and was completely drawn to it. Smart girl... drills are pretty awesome. She tried to smooth out the eyes somewhat and then just took to making random holes in the back of the pumpkin. We'll just pretend it's for ventilation. 

With three days to go I'm not done making her costume. She was expecting her dad to send one and then late last week we found out that wasn't happening and set to work. We will see how it turns out, I am not even close to considering myself a seamstress and costumes always freak me out. Secretly though, I'm glad that I get to make it. As cute as her Frankie Stein was last year, I really missed out on helping her put it together. Here's hoping I get it pulled together and have something to report in a few days...

Pregnancy Woes

I try really hard to be optimistic. For the most part, I have very easy pregnancies and am not sick at all compared to others I know. With Aeryn I worked comfortably every single day and expected to go to work the day she was born, until she let me know she had other plans. This time I'm not feeling so fantastic.

I'm at 25.5 weeks. The baby is growing and kicking like crazy - putting on a funny show the other night where I could see him kicking through the blankets on my bed. I couldn't help but laugh and wonder what kind of bundle of energy he will be. The crib is set up and I'm getting a good start on decorating and other nonessentials the way I'd like them to be. Things are rolling forward quite splendidly.

However, I'm a little irritated. Last week I caught a cold. A piddly little cold that I can't kick to save my life. Ten whole days now! Jim and Aeryn didn't catch it, which I am grateful for, and it's the kind of thing that normally would have me down and out for maybe a day. I didn't bargain for how much harder it is on your body when you're growing a person. Then there's the fact that I can't lift heavy things. Ok, I get it, I can adapt and let people help me once in a while. Until I get a spontaneous thought to relocate the printer, lean against a wall to nudge a dresser out ever so slightly (like 2") in order to reach the outlet behind it and in doing so cause major pain to my foot. Six days of incapacitating pain that has me hobbling around like I don't have that foot at all. The doctor even said it was probably due to pregnancy and the way hormones cause your body to relax and I just overtaxed it and blah, blah, blah. Long story short he said to STAY OFF MY FEET until it feels better - which he said to allow at least 2-3 weeks for, which is where I get really grumpy. I'm not a stay-off-my-feet kind of person. Though the way I change my walk to compensate for the foot then triggers lower back pain and sciatica... so perhaps sitting on my bum for a while is the way to go.

After how difficult it is for me to get pregnant, I feel bad for complaining. This is miraculous and wonderful and the best thing in the world. There are days though where pregnancy is really frustrating. It's definitely different this time around. For the first time pretty much ever, I'm feeling the difference between the upper thirty's and the upper twenty's. This was much, much easier eleven years ago.

So there it is. Pregnancy may be the most amazing thing in the world, but it's also crazy hard some days.