Drops of Awesome

Personal Blog of Author Kathryn Thompson

Archives for May 2009

Sleep of the Spoiled

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IMAG0058The kids didn’t die on the Titanic but you couldn’t tell that to look at them on Sunday during church. Both of them fell asleep during the first hour of the meeting. Magoo was sitting bolt upright between my parents in his little bowtie, snoring with abandon.

Laylee had flung her body face-down across my lap with the statement, “It doesn’t hurt me when you rub my back.” I took that as an invitation and began rubbing back and forth in what was apparently a IMAG0059sleep-inducing rhythm because when the meeting was almost over, I pulled her upright and she flopped over coma-like into Grammy’s arms.

It’s been months since Magoo last fell asleep in church and years for Laylee. My parents joked that they must be the most boring grandparents on earth to cause both kids to conk out like that. I think it had more to do with over-stimulation, days of constant attention, gifts and activity and late nights spent staying up until it was dark enough for Papa’s glowing spinning psychedelic plastic flashlights to have maximum mind-bending effect.

I was practicing doing Laylee’s hair for her ballet recital and Magoo was wearing a bowtie in anticipation of his aunt’s upcoming wedding. They both kind of look like they passed out after the mini-prom. At any rate I was grateful for a camera with a silent shutter. Wouldn’t want to disturb their slumber… or you know… annoy the other church goers who were still able to pay attention over the sound of Magoo’s snores.

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Odd Numbers or Bad Things Come in Threes?

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My friends with big families love to help prepare me for this next little munchkin by telling me horror stories about the adjustment going from 2 to 3 children. They’re trying to be helpful but I’m afraid they don’t quite understand the concept of “help.” “Good luck,” doesn’t really count as a well wish if it’s followed by the implied, “You’re sure gonna need it,” and it’s even worse when they come right out and say, “Your life will soon be a raging inferno of chaos and despair.”

Then they give a knowing smile. It’s all quite lovely, really. Word on the street is that although the adjustment from one to two is rough, adding another kid is mind-blowing. I’ve been listening to this for years with half an ear, thinking that it can’t really be as bad as everyone says. Now that I’m in the runaway train car of pregnancy with no turning back, I’ve started to remember some of the horror stories I’ve been told. It’s not hard really because the minute my bump started to grow, so did the cheerful warnings and words of happy consolation. They’re always smiling when they tell me these things, as though happy that I’m finally gonna “get mine.”

The thing is, I am happy that I’m finally gonna get mine. We’ve wanted this baby for a long time and possibly another one to follow shortly thereafter. We both knew our family wasn’t complete and although the age gap between two and three is wider than the gap between one and two, it’s not for lack of desire. My brain and body just weren’t ready yet. I wonder now if they ever will be or if I’ve already used up the prime baby making juice that was in me. My body is not handling things as well as it has in the past. My hips and pelvis have already started separating, thanks to the gigantic Magoo and his 10.5 pounds of girth. I’m having pain very similar to what I experienced after he was born but at a fraction of the intensity. It gets worse every day though and the bones in my pelvis and hips just feel bruised all the time. I hobble way more than a 5 and a half month pregnant woman should.

Then there’s the brain stuff. I’m hanging in there. I’m functioning but I’m definitely not at my peak. I can feel that things are a bit “off” but not enough to warrant major medical intervention or prescription changes. If this goes the same as it did with Magoo, it will be more than two years before I can wean completely off brain meds and feel normal again and what then? Start this whole thing over again?

It scares me.

We’ve always thought we’d have 4 kids but I question that number every day of this pregnancy. I’m still throwing up, though far less frequently. I’m emotional and in pain and it’s hard to think clearly about this decision when I feel this way. Dan keeps reminding me that we have plenty of time before we have to decide but I like my life planned out in neat little rows five to ten to eighty years at a time. I like at least the illusion of being in control.

Magoo and this baby will be four and a half years apart. I kind of want this baby to have a sibling closer in age. I would love for Magoo to get a brother. He’s already crying about the possibility that when the baby’s a little older, he’ll have to move into a room all by himself.

Yesterday I was talking with a friend who often has Laylee and Magoo over to play with his son. We were discussing the fact that the kids generally get along well when they’re playing in twos but when there’s an odd number of children, someone always gets left out or mistreated. Yesterday it was the two boys ganging up on poor Laylee. Just as often Laylee and Rowan gang up on Magoo because he’s the youngest. Am I doomed to live the life of a bouncer or referee if we stop at three kids?

I want the best possible family.

The problem is, I don’t know if it’s best to give my kids one more sibling or to be a more consistently sane and healthy mom for them. We’ll pray about it. We’ll weigh our options. We’ll see if I go as crazy after the birth of this child as I did with Magoo.

Today I’m just going to breathe and appreciate the family I have, Dan, Laylee, Magoo and little Wanda jumping on my pelvis while she swims around in her own urine. It’s not a bad little band of five.

Everyone But Papa Survived

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My parents were out visiting from Montana this weekend and we wanted to hang out with them in a relaxed way, a way that didn’t involve driving into downtown Seattle to see something quintessentially Seattle-like.

titanicInstead, we ate steel-cut oats, played games and explored the Titanic… in Redmond. Country Financial is sponsoring a free traveling exhibit of artifacts from the world’s most famous shipwreck and it happened to be in Redmond this weekend. I was pumped to go. I think my parents were a little less than pumped but they just wanted to hang out with and spoil Laylee and Magoo so they came along for the ride. Maybe their reticence was due to the fact that my dad had a premonition he wouldn’t make it out of the exhibit alive.

There’s something about that boat that’s always fascinated me long before Leonardo DiCaprio cavorted around on the silver screen. I’ve seen movies, documentaries and pictures about the events surrounding the disaster and the efforts to recover the artifacts from the ship and I’ve always wanted to go down in one of those bubble ship things and, I don’t know, look for ghosts and jewelry and such.
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The exhibit was set up in a mall parking lot with a few huge semi-trucks linked together to form an impromptu museum. We got our picture taken in front of a backdrop of the grand staircase and each of us was given a boarding pass with the name of an actual passenger on the Titanic. They told us that at the end of the exhibit we could find out if our passenger survived or not. Is it just me or does Magoo look a bit trepidacious about spending his Memorial Day weekend entering things called “exhibits” that look like giant trucks smooshed together, where the chance of survival is highly unlikely?
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In a fun gesture, the exhibit organizers gave local bloggers special treatment, letting our group skip the lines and giving us permission to take pictures inside, although picture taking was not allowed by people who do not publish their thoughts, opinions and whims online. The coolest thing they handed out to the geeks in attendance was a certified piece of coal that was actually retrieved from the titanic. I’m not sure what to do with said piece of coal. If I had a coffee table, maybe I could put it on there on some sort of special gilded dish and wait for people to ask me about it. In all likelihood its usefulness will only come next time I play Two Truths and a Lie at a sleepover party and I’ll say, “I have a piece of coal from the Titanic in my sock drawer.”
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As we entered, I heard one tween boy rush ahead, “Come on mom. Let’s just hurry through. I just want to see if we survived.” Laylee and Magoo seemed equally unimpressed by the artifacts although they peeked inside each case and listened intently as we explained what an iceberg was and how the ship crashed and sunk. They have a great and strange love of all things morbid.

In the end, everyone but Papa survived. Pretty good odds, I’d say considering the odds of the actual passengers on the ship.

This sign puts a lump in my throat:
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Go to the site and have a look to see if they’re coming to your town. It was a cool exhibit and the price was right. It’s a great chance to teach your kids a little history and maybe instill in them a healthy fear of ice. It may be good in a watered-down glass of ginger-ale when you’re pregnant but when you least expect it, it’ll tear a hole in your hull and send your one true love on a one way trip into the frigid drink.

*Besides the lump of coal in my stocking, some silly putty and the chance to cut in line, I was not compensated for attending or writing about this exhibit. I just appreciate a company willing to support the arts and education in these tough financial times so I’m giving a shout out to Country Financial.*

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In Honor Of Danny Gokey

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It’s been just months now that I’ve been waiting for an excuse to post this video, what I like to think of as the best music video ever made. You have to watch to the end. It’s worth it.

I have to say though that I’m not sure that Danny appreciated the dramatical nature of the material. His timing on the pregnant pause just before singing “–HELLO!” just did not move me the way Mr. Richie’s always has. That could be why he only came in 3rd place.

*For my mom and other non-American-Idol viewers. Danny Gokey, the third runner up this year, sang this song on the season finale tonight, thus giving me the needed excuse to share this nugget of YouTube goodness with the world.*

Lock Them Up Because You Love Them

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On the way to the bus stop today, Magoo spotted some bedazzled slugs awaiting collection. He likes to call them snails but I know a slug when I see one. He gathered up two, one in each hand, one for himself and one to present as a gift to Laylee when she exited her yellow limo. As she climbed down the steps he held out his chubby little hands to her.
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“OH! I wish I had one!” she gasped.

“IT’S FOR YOU! THIS ONE’S FOR YOU!” he said, handing over her prize.

She was speechless.

I informed them that I knew of a neighbor’s garden on the way home with tons of snails he’d be willing to part with. The harvest began. They decided they were snail farmers, taking their time to gather up every snail they could spot on the way home, comparing them with each other and lumping them into categories based on size, color, and character traits.
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Laylee’s ended up in a little yellow bucket full of grass and rocks. While she went to search for more, I noticed her original babies were going AWOL.

“Laylee! Your slugs are crawling up the walls of the porch.”
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Like a no-nonsense mom of 20, she marched over and gave them a good talking to as she peeled them off the walls, the chair and the sides of the bucket. She puffed out some air and looked at me while rolling her eyes heavenward. “I’ve got to find a way to keep them IN.”

She then turned the bucket over on top of them, piled rocks around the rim, stacked two chairs on top of it and topped those with rocks.
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“If you see them trying to escape, tell them to GET. BACK. IN,” she requested.

I hope she remembers this discipline technique when she’s 15 and I decide to follow her parental example. I love you so much I need to lock you away forever and pile rocks on top of you. I’m sure that will go over really well.

Best Maternity Shirts Ever – Downeast Basics

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If you’re pregnant, you need these shirts. I promise.

At the beginning I ordered 4 tees and tanks to wear under my existing non-maternity tops. They’re the longest maternity shirts I’ve found, going down below the bottom of the zippers on my pre-pregnancy pants. I’m getting large and in charge and I can still wear my pre-pregnancy pants with the zippers open and an elastic band to hold the buttons in place. I then wear one of these shirts and top it off with one of my old t-shirts. Buy them for you shall love them. They’re $5-$10 each and have saved me a ton of money on maternity clothes so far.

*I have no affilitation with Downeast and have received no free product from them.*
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The Personality

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ultrasound-012So, we did end up taking Laylee to the ultrasound and I’m so glad we did. She was fascinated by everything, especially the part where the baby peed right “on camera” and the doctor replayed it a few times for her in slow motion.

He then said, “You know what that is?”

“Is he spitting something out?” I asked.

“Nope,” he and Dan both answered, “Wrong end.”

Oh.

Laylee thought that was hilarious. And the doctor informed us that from the pee pattern it was very obvious that my 100%-sure-it’s-a-boy baby is actually female in nature and very healthy from all outward indications.

The doctor was extremely thorough, even bruisingly so, measuring every major bone and heart valve. When I asked if he was completely totally for real for real sure it was a girl, he said, “As I said,” with such authority that I had to believe him.

I was shocked at how happy that made me. All along I’ve thought this baby was a boy. Before I was ever pregnant, I KNEW our next little guy was a little guy. I had no doubt about what his personality would look like. I was fine with a boy.

But when my sisters left earlier this month, I told Dan through my tears that a part of me wished it were a little girl. This could be our last baby and I think every girl needs to have a sister. I know that boys would likely say that every boy needs a brother but I have never been a boy so I can’t vouch for that.

My mom knew it was a girl all along. She says it’s because of a premonition she had while picking out clearance baby clothes at Kohl’s. So her shopping wisdom trumps my parental intuition and two medical professionals’ ancient Chinese gender tests. She IS a great shopper.

So yay. Any baby name ideas? We had the boy named and ready to go. But little Wanda’s got nothing in the way of an offline name. If I use the name you share with me, I promise to email and let you know.