Dreams

This pregnancy has given me a lot of dreams about the toilet. On more than one occasion I have woken up grateful that in that dream I hadn't actually found a toilet!

When I was pregnant with Isaac, and I was in my first trimester because I was still working at the time, I had a dream that Isaac was going to be born June 27th, even though his due date was July 3rd. When I told my coworkers, they asked why that date? I said I didn't know. Months later I was admitted to the hospital on June 26th and induced, and Isaac was born at 6:33am on June 27th. In hindsight, looking at all that I went through and the trauma that happened, I can see that that dream was Heavenly Father's way to prepare me for what was to come. It wasn't the first or the last time I'd dreamed about an event yet to take place, and it took me a while to appreciate that gift.

Months ago I had a dream that Brooke would be born 10 days early. As much as I can remember, I had the dream twice. She is due June 8th, and my c-section date is June 2nd. I felt that the dream I had meant 10 days before her actual due date, which would be about May 29th. I don't know if Brooke will actually come early, but it makes me wonder. I haven't had nearly as many complications with this pregnancy as I did with Isaac, so I'm not really worried there. Maybe it's just a heads-up? Maybe it was just anxiety, and she won't actually be born until my c-section date?

I have been having a lot of anxiety, and lots of flashbacks of what I went through with Isaac and it keeps me up in the middle of the night. I have to consciously pull myself out of it and make myself physically relax just to get back to sleep. Since I've been using this blog as a journal, I've considered putting down my experience here just to get it out and off my mind. Writing things down is supposed to be good therapy. We'll see.

The sewer line

The repair man showed up super early today, totally catching me off guard. But, the drain problem is fixed! Apparently there was a blockage about 80 feet out in the sewage line.

Sewage line? EWWWWW.

He said the line is really rough (I took that to mean not nice and neat and straight, but then again this place is ancient), so he wasn't really surprised by the block.

In addition to washing bedding today, I'm also going to be scrubbing floors and everything else I can think of that was touched, if that backed up water wasn't just bubbly washer water but was actually sewer water.

EWWWWW!

Treasure box at home!

Potty training continues to be a struggle, and it's been hard not to laugh at the people who suggested that maybe Isaac would be potty trained by the time Brooke is born (and they say it like they believe it would really happen!) Isaac does continue to make great progress, and we've come a long way since just last summer. He can stay dry fairly well, as long as we're the ones who tell Isaac it's time to use the potty and make him sit there until he goes. I think his biggest problem is he's not listening to his body.

Poo has been another issue. At school, if Isaac goes poo on the potty he gets to pick a surprise toy out of their Treasure box that he gets to keep as his very own! Not long ago it was the Speed Racer car. Then recently he brought home a Spiderman bouncy ball because he stayed dry the entire time at school in his big boy underwear (or undy-wear, as Isaac calls them).

The only poos he's done at home have been teeny tiny turds that get stuck in his bottom cheeks, so when he sits down on the toilet they fall in. He's always just as surprised as we are, but since it is poo in the potty, we count it. We decided that to get Isaac to really go poo on the potty here at home, maybe we could do our own Treasure box.

Yesterday Dan didn't have to be in to work until late, so he spent the morning talking to Isaac and talking the subject to death that if he went poo on the potty that day, after work he'd stop by the store and pick up a small Lego's Power Miners set for his Treasure box present. Isaac didn't have any Lego's yet, but he really wanted some. But then Isaac complained that he didn't want a Treasure box toy, that he didn't want to be potty trained, and on and on.

Mid-afternoon Isaac and I are in the living room and he tells me, "I have to go". I asked where? He said he had to go poo! So I hurried him upstairs and we got him on the toilet, and I was afraid it was going to be another time where he says he has to go just as he's going and that there wouldn't be enough time to get him on the toilet. But he did it!

Isaac did a real poo on the potty!!!!!

Dan got home from work after Isaac was asleep, but we told him that in the morning when he woke up he could have the Lego toy. At 5am I noticed Isaac's bedroom light was on, but he did great to stay in his room until 6am like he's supposed to. At 6am we all got up and went downstairs and Isaac was thrilled with his new Lego toy! Daddy and Isaac had a great time putting it together, and we're hoping this was a great incentive to get him to poo on the potty regularly. We're going to put together a bucket filled with little Dollar Tree toys and make that his real Treasure box for going poo on the potty.

A benefit of renting

THIS is not our problem.

We don't have a basement, but off the kitchen you go out the door and down a few steps into the laundry room (also where the gas furnace is), and then there's another door on the left that leads outside and another door on the right (partly pictured above) that leads to the garage (Please ignore the dirty walls... the previous tenant had a dog and we were able to clean most of the dirt off the walls but didn't have the time or motivation to really scrub walls no one ever sees).

On Saturday while doing laundry, we discovered water backing up and pooling out of the drain that's right in that corner! Quickly Dan unplugged the big freezer cord that was running right through the puddle, and we called the emergency maintenance guy. He couldn't fix it with his snake, so he said he'd get a rotor-rooter guy out on Monday. We had to finish doing laundry, so we kept an eye on it and finished, then when the ground was dry enough we plugged the freezer back in.

All day today I waited for a phone call from someone. Finally at about 4:30 I heard from the guy and he asked if now would be a good time to come over? I said perfect. A few minutes later he called back and said he'd forgotten he had another appointment already scheduled, and could he come late morning/early afternoon tomorrow? Arrgh! I told him it depends on the time, and explained the time frame I have to leave to take Isaac to and from school. He said he'd give me a call when he knows. So tonight I had to do more laundry, and kept an eye on our puddle. It's really impressive with bubbles floating on the floor and everything.

I'm glad we're not the ones paying for the repairs, but it's also nice if we don't have to wait days to get the repair done!

The cArNiVaL

Isaac's school had its annual carnival, so this was Isaac's first time going to one. He was sooooo excited, he talked about it all week long and couldn't wait for Friday night to come! I spent $4 for 25 tickets and $1 for 3 raffle tickets. Talk about cheap entertainment! You can't tell from any of these pics, but it was crowded and hot and smelled of school, people, and the occasional dirty diaper.

Isaac loved all the games they had, and didn't care much for the rules. Throwing the bean bag in the shark's mouth? It's much easier when you walk right up and just put it in! "I won!" he yells! Most of the teenagers in charge of the games were good natured enough to give him a tiger-ticket, even if he "cheated".

Throwing the bean bag at the small target? It's easier to just go up and hit it! "I win!" he yells again!

You gotta love the fishing game. Everyone's a winner, no matter what!

They had a junk-food walk, which is like the traditional cake walk. Isaac has never done anything like this before, but he caught on quickly. When the music stopped, they drew a bunch of numbers and the winner got to pick a junk food item off the table. Isaac won! OHMYGOSH, he was so excited he won, he picked out a bag of Mixed-Up Adventures Goldfish Crackers, and was so pleased with himself that he squealed (and if he'd been younger, it surely would have ended in a meltdown!)

This was a jungle tunnel. He doesn't like dark, cramped spaces, and considering this was made of cardboard boxes that's exactly what this was. But after a few tries he made it through!

Then he got to drive a super cool RC car. He couldn't master the controls to turn the car, so it smashed into the walls alot, but he had a great time.

Dinner time! For 6 tickets Isaac had a pizza dinner complete with chips and a soda. For a picky eater like Isaac, this means the chips were opened and he didn't touch them, he ate about 3 bites of his pizza, and put the soda down after he discovered he didn't like the feel of the bubbles tickling his nose. But he still enjoyed the experience!

Hockey time! Again, it was easier for Isaac to pick up the puck and then put it into the hole at the end. "I win!" he yells again.

I didn't understand the rules of this game, and Isaac didn't care, but he still won a couple of tiger-tickets from it.

Take a wild guess how Isaac won this game? Yup, walk up and just put the ring on the peg!

Isaac's teachers came dressed as clowns! This is one of Isaac's favorite teacher, Mrs. LaBlue. Isaac calls himself Speed Racer and he calls her Racer X! See him holding his Goldfish Crackers tightly?

Isaac won a total of 10 tiger-tickets, which he could then use to buy little toys/trickets. Mommy's purse was full by the time we left just an hour later! We're hoping next year Dan doesn't have to work so he can be part of the fun also.

The best wardrobe EVER

Is it just me, or does it seem like there are more baby girls than boys? I've noticed it for years and years, and there's got to be statistics on it or something. But I'm learning that the benefit of everyone having girls is that everyone has free clothes to give you when it's your turn! I know with Isaac, for almost the first year we barely had to buy anything because of things that were given to us, but it wasn't anything like this!

I had boxes in Isaac's closet, each marked according to size. The 0-3 months are already in drawers or in the closet, and the rest were packed neatly into little boxes. Then a friend gave us a massive box of her daughter's old clothes (and shoes and toys)! Super cool because many were in sizes and things we still needed for those sizes. But then I came across a couple problems: First, I needed bigger boxes! Second, what was I going to do with 14 dresses in one size? I decided to weed through everything and get rid of alot of things...

I couldn't let go of a single one of those dresses. Or anything else for that matter. Pathetic. Me, who hates to be in a dress or skirt of any kind, is going to find a way to dress her daughter in 14 different dresses in a matter of a few months.

And I won't wear used shoes, but the baby shoes that were given to us were in like-new condition (like a 6 month old goes walking through the mud every day?), so I've got a good size box filled with shoes for at least Brooke's first year. A basket is on the dresser with probably 10 pairs of newborn size shoes. Crazy.

But she's going to be the best dressed kid on the block!

Being outside

Was it last week? My days are running together, but we had a few days that were more summerish than springish. We took advantage of it as much as we could, including getting Isaac outside. That's always been a challenge. We don't know what it is exactly, but he has never really enjoyed being outside. I suspect it's a combination of Autism-related things, like being too hot, too bright, fear of getting dirty (he can't stand to get anything on his skin or clothes), and of course bugs.

For Easter my mom gave Isaac some silly string, and he had a great time being outside! This summer we should definitely stock up on silly string!

And the boys did a great job with the cleanup.

NO TOUCHY!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you hear me scream this?! Probably not since I haven't actually screamed at Dan, but there were some raised voices this morning.

My husband has, on more than one occasion, tried to do something to "fix" the computer when it didn't need fixing. He has no business whatsoever getting near a computer to fix anything. Our computer is nearly 7 years old, so it's not lightening fast anymore. But it worked! So when he tries to "fix" it, what it does is make problems. Usually I'm able to fix the problem if it's something minor. Once we did have to take it in to be fixed. Thanks to his little wild hair he got last night, we're about to take it in a 2nd time as soon as he gets paid again. I'm handy with computers, but this is something I haven't been able to fix! Not even the restoring-the-system thing worked, it just told us we hadn't made any changes to our computer!

Our main browser was IE, which was great because it had all our favorites bookmarked and everything. With Isaac's potty training, each time he uses the potty he earns a checkmark, and each checkmark is 15 min of computer game time, so all of Isaac's games were bookmarked and easy for him to access. Not anymore. We can't access IE. No matter what we've tried, it says there's a problem with the ad-ons. When you try to access one of the bookmarked websites, or type in the web address, it says we're offline and can't access those websites offline. And then a little box pops up from NetZero for us to dial in (we haven't had NetZero in years). We can use Firefox! Do you know how horrible it would be to not be able to use the internet at all for over a week! I'm so glad Firefox works, but it has problems. Each new webpage we brings up, it also pulls up the NetZero box for us to dial in. And the bookmarks aren't user-friendly like in IE, so each time we want to access something we have to type in the address. This also means for Isaac's game time, for the whole hour of it, each time he wants to play a new game on a different website, mom or dad (meaning me) will have to stop what we're doing and come type in the different website for him.

We've had this talk before. I thought he heard me the first couple of times I told him. I told Dan I don't want him touching the computer anymore to try to fix anything, and he said only if he had someone there to help him do it. And I said noooooooooooo. DON'T TOUCH IT! Why does he do this?! I flat out told him that now that this is the 2nd time we're going to have to pay someone to fix our computer because of something he did, maybe he'll finally get it that he needs to stop messing with it! We'll try to take it back to the same place we did before, and hopefully they can fix these problems, plus fix the desktop (yikes), and since after Dan's "fix" it runs even s-l-o-w-e-r than before, so hopefully they can fix it all.

I think if this happens again, I'll threaten that we'll need a new computer and the thought of spending that much money on a new tower should get Dan to keep his hands to himself.

My header

Pretty cool, huh? It's something I've been working on for a while, trying to create one that I really, really liked. This is my SPRING one, and I'm hoping to have a SUMMER one done before Brooke arrives. I'll also make one for FALL and WINTER. I collect angels, so I'm adding an angel to each header I'm making (Willow Tree won't mind, right?)

Cheap recipes

We have these awesome Quick Cooking cookbooks, but alot of the ingredients call for convenience food items and with money being so tight... I decided to look for more simple basic recipes, and found some great collections online.

http://www.aaa-recipes.com/

http://www.basic-recipes.com/index.html

http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/1918/great.html

Towards the bottom:
http://grandpappy.info/indexrec.htm

http://www.homemakerbarbi.com/printable-menu-plan-great-depression-recipes/

http://healthyrecipes.oregonstate.edu/all-recipes

http://www.thriftyfun.com/Recipes_833.html

Old menu ideas, not really recipes:
http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#30familymenus

Dry underwear & hot dogs

TWO milestones today, can you believe it?!

The first is that Isaac spent most of the day in his big boy underwear, and stayed DRY! Potty training an autistic child is, I'm sorry to say, a pain in the ass. It really is. He's at the point where he can usually stay dry between trips to the potty, but the problem is he doesn't listen to his body about when he needs to go. That means it's up to Dan and I to try to figure out when he probably needs to go, then we have to push and threaten him to get upstairs to sit on the toilet. Then he sits for 10 seconds and stands back up and says "all done" when he hasn't done anything, then we have to force him to sit back down until he does go. But he is going pee in the toilet, and today was his very first day going to school in his big boy underwear! I packed a change of clothes in his backpack and talked to one of the teachers about it. When I picked him up from school, he had a Spiderman bouncy ball that he'd earned from their Treasure Box because he stayed dry at school today in his big boy underwear! Mom is so proud! The underwear lasted all the way until late afternoon when the poop came. I swear I hope Isaac is pooping in the toilet soon. We're going to make out a potty schedule for him so he has a visual aid about good times to use the potty, and hope that helps. It's been a long hard process, and unless people understand Isaac's special needs, if we try to share with some people how awesome he's doing on the potty we get totally rude comments like, "He's how old?!" He'll be 6 in June, thank you very much, and we couldn't be more proud of the progress he's been making.

The other huge milestone was Isaac ate a hot dog for dinner tonight. Meat. Something other than PB & J or a pancake. And not just a hot dog, but in the bun. I had some coupons so before going to the store I asked Isaac if he'd like to have hot dogs and he said yes. I asked him if he'd like them plain or in a bun, and he said in a bun. So after school I took him to the store with me and had him help me get the stuff. At dinner time I asked if he'd like his leftover pancake or a hot dog, and he said hot dog! I nuked the dog in the microwave, then sliced it in half lengthwise (since Isaac has always had chewing/swallowing problems, I didn't want him to choke). I put 1/2 the dog on the bun, and diced the other 1/2 up. He didn't want ketchup or mustard or anything, which he never does, he likes everything dry and plain. So he picks up the bun and starts eating, getting through that extra bread length. He gets to the meat part and makes a face as he's chewing the hot dog part, and I'm thinking Oh Great! He doesn't like it! Then he swallowed and continued to eat the entire rest of the hot dog and the bun! WOW! We are slowly, slowwwwwwwly beginning to make progress in expanding the foods that he'll eat. The last time he had a hot dog was when he was probably 2 and cut into itty bitty pieces. After that he liked corndogs, and that became a dietary staple for him until about a year ago when he wouldn't touch them again. And that was the only meat we could get in him. We can hide fruit and fiber in things like pancakes, but you can't mash up meat! It's a tricky balance to find foods that will be tasty to him, and also not offend his sensitivity to textures.

We had ice cream for dessert tonight, and of course Isaac wouldn't touch it. But I guess that's actually a good thing?

Progress

Today I went to Isaac's Parent-Teacher conference, and it was great as I knew it would be.

Isaac is doing great in the structured classroom. He's initiating more with his peers, but now they're going to be working on how he does it since grabbing a friend's toy and saying "Chase me!" while running away doesn't exactly create the kind of fun friendly response Isaac was seeking.

He's doing GREAT in reading, and he has impressed the teachers that he knows the simple words like ball, girl, boy, play (I think they call those sight words?) They're especially impressed because they haven't been working on that at all, so it's something he's picked up on his own (here's me patting myself on the back). For 1st grade next year they're planning on having him attend the mainstream 1st grade class for reading time (and maybe math?), but the only thing that might hold him back is if the 1st grade teacher can't understand his speech then that would be a problem. But she's planning on shooting for the mainstream reading class next year! He will be just about at peer level in that subject! How awesome is that?!

Soon I want to post videos of before and after of Isaac: before when he was totally nonverbal and using ASL to communicate, and videos of now and how he won't stop talking!

For my LDS friends

You'll understand this:

http://www.peepsofmormon.blogspot.com/

How did Eve do it?

All through the night you can hear moaning and grunting coming from our room... It's me, trying to roll over and get comfortable. I've been in so much pain, and I don't know how many times I've wondered how Eve did it.

Did Eve have heartburn? She didn't have Tums.

Did Eve throw up or dry heave every time she brushed her teeth? I'm assuming they cleaned their teeth somehow.

Did Eve have Sciatica that caused pain and numbness down her lower body? She didn't have ice packs.

Did Eve have groin pain, the kind the doctor says is another pinched nerve, but actually feels like someone has taken a wooden baseball bat and stuck it between your legs and beat upwards repeatedly? She didn't have Tylenol.

Last night as we were crawling into bed I told Dan that I wondered how Eve did it, handling it all with no Tylenol or ice packs. His totally male response was, "I think she was so busy helping Adam work the land that it just took her mind off of her pain."

Pause... *Blink Blink*

I admit I had harsh words to say about that. I know he can never understand partly because he's male and partly because he is who he is, but I still couldn't believe those words came out of his mouth.

This is the same guy who knows I have to wash dishes in shifts and ice my back in between because the pain and numbness gets so bad I can barely walk. This is the same guy that I ask to help me get things out of the dryer because bending over creates a horrible pulling with contractions when I stand up again. This is the same guy who knows that after helping with yard work I'm down for the rest of the day and the entire next day with unbelieveable pain. This is the same guy who I have to have help me vacuum the house because it's too difficult for me to work the vacuum and haul it upstairs too. This is the same guy who, knowing all this, figures Eve took her mind off her pain by doing manual labor?!

I'm glad we weren't Adam and Eve.

A crazy busy Easter weekend

SATURDAY

We left home early Saturday morning and headed up to Portland. Dan's youngest sister, Shelley, delivered her 2nd son premature on the 3rd, and he was being released Saturday afternoon. Because of timing issues, this was our first chance to drive up to see them and the baby. They were at Emanuel Children's Hospital, baby Landon in the NICU and mom and dad in the Ronald McDonald House since they live in the sticks way out on the coast of Washington. So up we went!

We wanted Isaac to see the temple where we were married, so we stopped on our way through. As we were pulling in I asked Dan if he thought we'd see any brides and grooms and we could show them the consequences of what happens when you get married. He didn't think that was too funny. I was surprised this picture didn't really capture the trees in bloom.

Since it was 9am and freezing cold, there weren't any wedding parties out yet. We took advantage of the near empty grounds and took lots of pictures.

We hit the road again and met Shelley and Andrew at the Ronald McDonald House. Isaac brought his Easter basket since we heard they were having an egg hunt put on by the Girl Scouts, even though I didn't think we'd make it there in time. We did!

Isaac was off like a bullet as soon as the egg hunt began! He quickly filled up his ducky Easter basket...

Filled up the blue Easter bucket he was given, and finally had to start filling up a plastic garbage bag! There were so many eggs!!!

After all the loot had been found, all the kids and Girl Scouts posed for a picture.

Back inside the House, Isaac was thrilled to start going through his eggs and seeing what candy and toys were inside.

Isaac lovedlovedlovedloved this dinousaur toy! You push buttons on the back of his head and he moves and roars! He's really into the Land Before Time videos right now, and he just thought it was so cool that they had a Cera there for him to play with!

Here's their dining room area... Pretty cool, huh? That train actually goes around the room and makes soft choo-chooing noises and ding-dings!

They had food there... And Dan learned an important lesson that you don't ask a 5 year old child to hold your donut for a minute.

Each room at the house has a theme, and Shelley and Andrew's themed room was sports. Dan fell in love.

We were finally able to meet the man of the hour, Mr. Landon Ray Walls. He was darling! And he was a hefty preemie too... He was born 6 weeks early, but weighed 5 lb 13 oz and was 19.5 inches long. When Isaac was born at 39 weeks, he was 6 lb 12 oz and was 19.5 inches long!

After visiting for quite a while, it was time to go. The hospital was having some kind of safety fair, so on our way out Isaac was able to climb in and see the inside of an ambulance (way cool)...

And a real police car! They were letting kids climb in and sit in the driver's seat of the police car, but Isaac didn't want to do it, crazy kid.

We headed south again and went to Dan's parents' house. Isaac was able to have another Easter egg hunt, this time with his baby cousin Andrew, who is Shelley and Andrew's eldest son. Because of the loot he gathered earlier and because two of his other cousins were going to be egg hunting later that day, we only let him keep about 5 eggs.

Finally home! Isaac dumped out all the eggs and stuffed animals he got on his egg hunts. I counted 67 eggs. Can you believe it?! He seriously made out better this Easter than he normally does on Halloween! Past Easters we've only been able to do one egg hunt, so this was a huge event for him this year.

His favorite egg surprise was one of those bopper-balloons that you blow up HUGE and it has a big rubber band attached to one end. He got three of them! All of his candy, little toys, and stickers filled up his blue Easter bucket almost to the rim.

SUNDAY

Easter Sunday morning Dan had to work super early, so it was just me and Isaac. He got me up at his usual time, 6am on the nose, and we came downstairs to see what the Easter bunny had brought. Earlier we had all been to Target and as we went down the Easter aisles we asked Isaac what things he might like in his basket this year. He picked out this small chocolate bunny and a pack of Easter Play-Doh, so while Isaac wasn't looking Dan grabbed them and purchased them and hid them in the van. So now Isaac thinks the Easter bunny has some magic ability to know what he likes, kind of like Santa. Except the Easter bunny didn't even need a list!

After Dan got off work, we drove down to Springfield to my grandparents' house for Easter dinner. Isaac had his third egg hunt there! This time the eggs were filled with coins so he could add them to his piggy bank to save for the next coolest toy.

When we got home we were able to color eggs. My mom had bought Isaac these cute bug Easter egg kits that come with the dyes and the plastic and sticker bug parts. We colored the eggs Sunday evening, and had to wait until the eggs were dry the next day to put the stickers on...

The stickers didn't work too great, but Isaac still had a great time and he wants to color Easter eggs every day of the year now!

Poo in the potty!

Isaac went poo in the potty at school!!!!! This is HUGE news when it happens! They have a box they call the Treasure Box, and if Isaac goes poo in the potty at school he can pick out something from the Treasure Box. Today he went poo, and he picked out this Mach 6 toy. He already has one, but he still thought it was super cool since Speed Racer is his thing (he calls me Ma Racer and Dad is Pops Racer). It was funny though because the teacher told me about his achievement before he came out the doors, so I was super excited for him... But the only thing he wanted to talk about was the bunny named Silver that one of the teachers brought to class today and how he got to pet him. He's finishing his Augmentin so there's been a lot of poo lately, but maybe while he's loose he'll get one or two more in the potty here at home. Another highlight of the day was when he told me he had to go pee, then we went upstairs and he actually went pee in the potty instead of in his pull-up! It's been such a slow and painful (and expensive) process, but it's so exciting when he has great days like today!

Feeding the baby

It's already turning into an adventure and she isn't even born yet! At first I was sure I was going to bottle feed Brooke because of all the issues I had with trying to nurse Isaac. Then after talking to different people, there's a possibility that because with this pregnancy I can't tolerate soy or most dairy that could mean Brooke will have these allergies. So this is why I've decided to try to nurse her after all.

So we took a trip to Target to collect some of the baby things we still needed. Target is only 1 of 2 places to shop for baby stuff in town, so we're very limited here. We get to the bottle aisle, and it's an entire aisle designated for bottles, bottle nipples, nursing pumps, and every other boob gadget you can think of. They had bottles that were glass and they had bottles that were $10 a piece. They had bottle nipples for every friggin age month. And each and every single one claimed to reduce gas and colic. After 20 minutes of standing in this aisle, Dan finally decided he was going to go check out the diapers and wipes. He asks me if I'm coming, and I say no, I'm going to stare at the shelves a few minutes longer. I don't remember it being this difficult shopping for Isaac! Finally, on the very bottom shelf at the very right corner I find a package of 3 inexpensive bottles with nipples and caps included, for ages 0-3 months! Score! Peons like me need the simple things like this! So we have bottles.

Now it's time to look for nursing bras, and since I have a Target gift card balance to use that means I'll be getting them there. Except our Target doesn't have nursing bras. In fact, like many of the items in their store, their entire selection of bras was pitiful. So I looked online and hallelujah they have nursing bras online! But what size? It's been a long time since I've been bra shopping, and honestly I haven't needed to this entire pregnancy. With Isaac it was a different story. In his case the good Lord giveth and He never taketh it away. I found a website where you can enter in your measurements and it'll give you your correct size. Mine said, "Congratulations, you are size ???" Well, that was a huge help. At least my size just confused the system and didn't cause it to crash.

Since Isaac has Friday off from school, I'm planning on driving to a sister city where they have a Walmart and just trying on a bunch to find the right fit for that brand (Walmart always has a huge selection of bras). That should thrill Isaac since I'll have him with me. But I'd rather go through the headache of doing the dressing room thing rather than ordering a bra online that doesn't fit and running out of time to replace it!

The garden

I thought great weather would never ever come! I get so antsy to be able to get outside and play in the dirt and start making things grow again. The trouble this year is that being heavily pregnant and feeling pain and stretching in places I never expected, I've had to leave the gardening to Dan. And since gardening is not his thing, he can get pretty grouchy about it.

Here's Dan in the backyard working on preparing the garden site a few days ago. The ground was super soft so he just got out there and dug and pulled up the grass and weeds, and it didn't take him too long either. Isaac thought he'd be fast enough to run from me and the camera!

Yesterday after dropping Isaac off at school, and since Dan had the day off and the weather was beautiful, we ran to the farm supply store and bought seeds to plant after Isaac got home from school. Isaac has been earning dimes for his piggy bank by doing chores like making his bed, so he was able to earn a couple dimes by helping us plant seeds in the front and backyards.

We were able to use the bricks and pieces of bricks we had to create a border around my strawberries. I had meant to do alot of things this last fall, but with spending the whole day throwing up it just wasn't a priority to work in the garden. So the strawberries had stretched and were starting to go into the grass and surrounding garden area, and we can't have that! We were able to move the rope trellis over and secure it well for use this summer. We planted pole beans (green beans) and spinach. In the buckets we planted hubbard squash, acorn squash, oregano, and basil. We need to start our peppers and tomatoes indoors, as well as our other herbs before we can get those in the ground outside. I didn't want to plant as much as we had last summer because 1) I'm not the one doing the planting and remember: Dan gets grouchy, and 2) I'm hoping by having fewer plants out there we won't have as big a problem with powdery mildew as we did last year. I can't wait to take pictures of our garden when it starts to grow and get pretty!