Thank You

So, here is my Thanksgiving post. I don't even want to write a post, because I love the one my husband wrote so much, and I don't want it to not be the one all the new readers read. He's a funny guy right? Yeah, I'm lucky, he's a good one!

Anyway, today was a lovely Thanksgiving feast! My mom made the turkey, stuffing, and sweet potato casserole. My sister brought the mashed potatoes, another type of stuffing, and Butternut Squash soup. I made some different veggies, a corn bread casserole and homemade Mac and Cheese. Add biscuits and cranberry jello mold and it was A LOT of food! And there were only 7 adults there! It was crazy. But nice to have such a mellow family Turkey Day. The kids would only eat the mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and this cranberry jello mold. Oh well, maybe turkey just isn't there thing.

We did the tradition of going around the table and saying what we are thankful for. There's so much, sometimes it's hard to remember. Especially when you feel like you are dealing with one bad thing after another. It's nice sometimes to stop and take a moment to appreciate the good. Like my husband, my amazing amazing husband. Seriously, I have no idea what I would do without that guy. He's my better half, my heart and soul, the love of my life. I know how lucky I am to have him, and I try to let him know, a lot. Obviously I'm thankful to my amazing kids. They make me smile and laugh on a daily basis, and definitely keep me young (and tired!) I'm thankful to my parents who have given me unwavering support and love throughout my life. I'm thankful to my siblings, who show me endless love.

I'm really really excited about the upcoming transfer. Oh, did I forget to mention that! We are in the home stretch (well, kinda). My sister's retrieval is set for Saturday! Wow. Which means if it's a Day 3 transfer it will be this Tuesday! Day 5 will be Thursday! Oh. My. God. How did we get here? The good news is that the end is in sight! The bad news is that I have to start my PIO shots on Saturday night. For those of you that aren't infertility savvy, that means Progesterone in oil. It's a big-ass shot that goes in, well, your ass (cheek). It's intra-muscular, so it's a long needle. And it's not all that much fun. But it's necessary. So, those start Saturday.

I'm really hoping to get a positive pregnancy test in the next few weeks. It would be such a great holiday gift for my sister. And she really deserves some good news right about now.

So, Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Hope you had a great day!

Caba

Dad Speaks

I want to do a post!

Well, do a post then…

Fine!

Don’t yell at me.

I will yell at whomever I wish!

Take your “whomever” and stick it.

Listen; stop distracting me from my post. This is important!

We’ll see…

There you go again, undermining my posting ability!

You are still yelling.

YOU are yelling!

Nuh-uh.

Are TOO!

Wow, I’m sorry you had to read through all of that. The “terrible twos”, as they are commonly called, are rapidly approaching and I feel like I’m in the middle of an argument at all hours, even with myself. Mind you, our kids are not two, so if this isn’t the terrible twos yet, (the “Nightmarish Nineteen Months—es’s’seses?), then we are probably going to have to build an underground bunker and just ride out the entire year of 2009. Steel-enforced bunker. Radiation proof. Anyway, here are some examples of “(Pre) Terrible Twos (Coming this spring to Fox!)”

• The Moop couldn’t stack three little Santa Claus figures on top of each other (which weren’t meant to be stacked anyway), so he threw himself face first on the ground and kicked his legs very hard. He also cried until he choked.
• Boots tried to open the gate we have at the foot of our stairs which was locked on purpose so that she shouldn’t be able to open it. After 10 seconds of attempting to open the locked gate, she yelled very loudly and then grabbed Moop in a bear hug, head butting him repeatedly until he cried.
• Both Boots and the Moop scream “MINE!” reflexively, even if they aren’t pointing at anything specifically, and even if they are alone.
• Boots very often points at Mommy and shouts “MINE!” when the Moop is sitting in her lap reading a book. Meaning, of course, that her voice has been modeled after a landMINE exploding in your brain cavity.
• On random nights, Boots requires that she take her dinner while sitting in my lap facing me. She refuses to sit in a common high chair like the peasant children do. She will then accept bites of food of her choosing, which she then will chew slowly while resting her head on my shoulder. While this happens, the Moop eats a few bites of something, and then takes his hand and sweeps all other bites of food onto the floor while farting and laughing. Come to think of it, he probably got that from me. I’ll let that slide.
• The Moop will seek out any button that runs any type of electrical equipment and then proceed to turn it on and off 368 times until the button offers its letter of resignation moves on to greener pastures.
• The Boots will wake up at 5:00 am on some mornings and begin to serenade the house with a song she wrote that contains the names of every object she has ever seen, or any person she has ever met. “Mommy, Daddy, Apple, Puppy…” and so on until my fingers are pressed so far into my ears the tips touch each other somewhere near the part of my brain responsible for finding my car keys.
• When it is time to leave for daycare in the morning, Boots will streak through the house looking for a hiding place rather than getting her shoes for me. That leaves me stalking through the house carrying two tiny pink sneakers looking for a pair of midget eyes and a tuft of hair.
• We have approximately 9,321 children’s books in our living room. When Boots decides it is book reading time, she points at the massive book pile and says “Mine?” That leaves me to take a book, hold it up to her and ask “This one?” She will then most likely say “No?” This series of escalating questions usually ends with me holding up all 9,321 books in turn leading me back to the first book, which is the one she wanted all along. By this time, however, I have arthritis and the Moop has already applied for college.

I love being a Dad; I really do. More often than not, I find myself LOL-ing and ROFLMAO-ing and other internet idiocies. (And really, if people LOL-ed as often in real life as they do on the internet, there would be about 10,000,000,000 people being evaluated for psychological problems. “How was work today? LOL!!!” “It was OK… ROFLMAO!!!1!11!” “I drank coffee! *choking from laughing so hard*” Seriously, take it down a notch, internet chatters. You aren’t that happy. You just aren’t.) As a parent, I feel like I’m allowed to be annoyed sometimes. My sleep patterns are constantly messed with, and I am constantly told how much I am loved by a giant purple dinosaur, which is exactly as disconcerting as it sounds.

I do know that my kids are growing up entirely too fast. The other day, Moop helped me figure out the new tax laws, and I was all like “Wha?!?!?” and he was all like “PUPPY!” and then I was all “Dude!” Strangely enough, I followed everything he said, and I guess in the end that’s what being a parent is: Understanding your kids even if they are speaking gibberish. If I get annoyed, I’ll blame it on a lack of sleep. If I get a bigger tax refund, I’ll thank the Moop, because he is a tax genius. If I stumble upon Middle Earth one day, I’ll thank Boots because she is a mischievous hobbit. If I survive the teenage years, I’ll thank myself with a hearty handshake and a “Well done, sir!” which will probably put me in line with the other 10,000,000,000 people being mentally evaluated, and that suits me just fine.

Slacking...

Sorry about that. It's been a long week and a half. I've been really sick. First, I had a cold that just would not go away. Finally the Dr decided maybe it was more than a cold and put me on antibiotics and some other thing. It finally kicked whatever I hadd out of my system. But not before TOTALLY screwing up my stomach. So yeah, it's been fun. Blech.

On the cycle front, I finished my week and a day of doing my lupron, and went on Friday for my first ultrasound and bloodwork. All looked good. Lining was nice and thing and ready to be plumped up! Ovaries were suppressed. They lowered by dosage of Lupron, from 10 to 5, and now I'm taking Estrace twice a day. I go back Tuesday for my next ultrasound and bloodwork. My sister started her shots too ... so I think we are still on schedule for her retrieval somewhere around Turkey day.

I'm tired and honestly don't feel like doing a longer update, even if I should. But I will leave you with some super adorable pics of the twins. They had their "school" picture a few weeks ago, and we just got them. I can't get over how OLD they look. I have realized, as much as I don't want to admit it, that I do not have babies anymore. I have toddlers. I'm not ready.

Here is Boots channeling her inner Pebbles Flintstone.


And here is Mr Moop looking cute as ever. They combed his hair forward, and it just looks too funny!


And lastly, the two of them together. They really are beyond cute. I have no idea how the photographer was able to get a picture of them together where they actually both looked at him! But I'm glad he did!


Enjoy,
Caba

Shot Night #2

We had the life insurance guy come yesterday, since DH and I don't have life insurance outside of from our work. So we really needed to get that taken care of. But the appt ran really long, and we were watching the clock, because the nurse told me to do my shot between 7-9pm. We just made it at 845pm. It was so easy really. And I've done these tiny shots before, and yet, I still was slightly stressed about it. Totally no big deal physically, but kind of a big deal mentally. It's the start of the cycle. I'm excited, nervous, scared, and mostly really really really wishing with all my heart that it will work.

Ok, took a break from writing this post to do shot #2. All went well. DH does the shots, even though they are easy. This way I can just watch tv and not pay attention to all the goings on. hehe. He's the best.

I'm still slightly sick. It's been lingering for a week, and it's VERY annoying. I want it to go away.

Did I mention that I'm in the middle of the reading the Twilight series and I really love it? I need to find someone who will go see the movie with me, because I know DH will so not be into it.

I have a headache, so this post will be a short one. 2 shots down, many to go! Supress ovaries, suppress!

Caba

So much going on ...

I'm sorry I've been slacking. I'm sick AGAIN! I'm seriously so sick of being sick. I'm getting sick more than the kids!

Halloween was totally low key over here. We left work early on Friday to go to the kids Halloween parade at daycare. Needless to say, it didn't go smoothly. The older kids were fine ... but the younger ones didn't really know that to do, and once Boots and Moop say us, they ran over, and didn't want to stay in the parade and kept crying until we picked them up. Chaos at it's best. We literally got no pictures from the parade. Then we came home and they ran around the yard in their costumes looking so cute and playing with their pumpkins. We didn't take them trick or treating. They are too young and definitely don't need the candy. Plus, we wanted to keep them on schedule with dinner, baths and bed. Next year for sure we will take them trick or treating!

Here's Moop making a funny face on the front steps


And here's me and the Boot


Here's the two of 'em lounging on the front steps


And this last one makes me laugh. It's been a long day for Mr Moop


Now, on a very exciting and terrifying note, I got my meds in the mail yesterday! I forgot how big those damn PIO needles are! Oh man, those are so my least favorite shots EVER. But for such a good cause. 8-)

Tomorrow is the day. Seems like we've been talking about it forever. Tomorrow night I start my Lupron shots and will start this surrogacy journey. Holy crap. Hopefully I will be pregnant soon. Woo hoo!

Caba