the 9 month BUMP

I finally remembered to have Marvin take a picture of my rather large bump this morning.  I'm really bad about getting on the other side of the camera, since I take the bulk of our pictures.  Since Calvin's very into showing numbers with his fingers I thought I'd have him help.  He was very excited, if you can't tell.

Have I mentioned I'm ready to meet this guy? 

Well I am.  Sleep is not fun, I think waking up to feed a baby is better than this uncomfortable interrupted sleep right now, but it's also been 3 years since I've gone through baby boot camp, so I may be changing my story soon..................  Ask me in a few weeks which is better.

I am experiencing a few things this time around I never experienced with Calvin.  Heartburn for one, it's pretty much torture the second anything acidic passes my way, lots of fruits, tomatoes, spicy foods, and chocolate.  It makes me sad that a peach causes my body so much discomfort right now, because we are in the land where peaches are INCREDIBLE.  We had eggplant Parmesan for dinner and I'm still feeling it, several hours later, which is why I am not in bed trying to sleep right now.  Swelling is new too, and boy are my legs swollen.  Yesterday was fairly humid and ouch, I was uncomfortable from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed.  Today was a little better but I still can only wear one pair of shoes.  Thankfully it's still sandal season.  I did go get a pedicure today so my feet don't look as Hobbitish, although they are still fat.

I had a non stress test the other day and my contractions still aren't regular, but I feel like they are getting stronger each day, surely one of these days it will start things moving.  I'm elated I've been released from my physical limitations, although Marvin and I disagree on what that actually means.  Hopefully we won't have too much longer, I've never been great about waiting, and I'm ready to get this show on the road.

Birthday Boys

Both Marvin and Calvin have birthdays coming up in the very near future.  We'll celebrate Marvin's 30th soon, and I'm hoping to do something out of the ordinary to celebrate, of course in a low key way, per Marvin's request, and also because hopefully we'll have a newborn at this point.  His birthday requests are pretty simple:  Fried Tacos and peanut butter pie, they usually don't change which is consistent with his dependable personality.  I have a few other ideas to make this day special for him, but since Marvin reads this I'll try my hardest to keep those a secret.

Growing up my mom made some pretty fun cakes for our birthdays.  I still remember going to the cake store and picking out the cake pan we wanted for our birthday."  I'd love to do continue to make something fun for our kids each year, and this year since he has an obsession for "Cars" I think we'll go with a Cars Birthday theme.  Since I'm away from all my cake decorating supplies, I'm hoping to borrow a few things from a friend here to make a fun little cake for him.  Calvin and I had so much fun browsing through ideas and since we looked at all the Cars Cakes he's pretty excited to have a Cars Birthday.  He often tells everyone that he's going to have a Cars Birthday, even when they don't understand English.  He also started singing "happy cars birthday to you."  Can you tell he's excited?

Now I am in NO way talented in the realm of cake decorating.  I wish I had the skills my sister-in-law has, but let's be honest I don't.  So I was hunting for a simple cake.  Here are a few front runners, that I think I can possibly recreate, of course with some help from my artistic husband.  I like the idea of using real cars, but unfortunately I haven't found too many here, so we may have to be creative.

 Now these are little out of my league but loved them:

I can't wait to be a little creative and make these birthdays special for some pretty special guys!

gifts

 

I love this idea of keeping track of all the gifts Father has given us each week so this week I'm starting a list, and hope it is a way to reflect back on the week and record these sweet gifts.

#1  Our active little guy in my belly, who makes my belly move in waves.  So thankful for his hiccups each  night as I try to drift off to sleep.  It's a gift I don't take for granted even though I'm so ready to meet him.

#2  Random little kisses on my belly throughout the day from a little boy eager to be a Big Brother.

#3  The body, waiting in a new city with some sweet new friends as well as old friends.

#4  Tortillas available at every store, and whole wheat ones at that!

#5  My protector of a husband, who carried all our groceries and pushed Calvin up a very steep hill on a muggy day.

#6  The cool breeze that fills our apartment.

#7  A pair of shoes that fit.  This summer i bought a pair at the market and when I got home one shoe was stretched out from how they grouped them together, they now are the only shoes that fit.

#8  Nap time

#9  Sweet locals, who love to pinch children's cheeks and give them sweet things.

#10  Hearing "Down in my heart." every time Calvin sees a heart. (From the song I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart."

#11 Seedless Grapes

#12 new music that makes my heart sing! 

Make a Funny Face

Calvin's been very into making faces lately.  His inspiration comes from Mac on the movie Cars.  He's such a goof, and these pictures he requested me to take of him the other day while we were playing on the playground.

Now what to say about the movie Cars, ummmm.  It certainly is a favorite right now.  If you ask him about it you're more than likely to get an ear full and hear all about his favorite scenes, which will probablly start like this: "member when......" followed by a lengthy detailed recount of part of the movie.

This movie certainly has developed his love for any type of cars.  Before he'd play with a car for a few minutes then move onto something new, but now he spends most of the day playing cars, both with an actual car or him pretending to drive around the house.  It's wonderful to be able to throw a car in my purse and know he'll be entertained.  He also LOVES taxi rides right now, because they are like race cars.  If we get a real crazy driver once we get out of the taxi he'll say, "He was a really good driver."  or "That was Amazing."  Oh the simple things that amuse him right now.  I'm certainly loving this stage he is in right now.

Today’s Stats.

I am 34 ½ weeks pregnant but feeling more like, and looking more like, 40.

Hoping to meet this little guy in less than 2 weeks. I can't wait to wrap him up in my arms, and also can't wait till the "take it easy" part of this pregnancy is over.

23 more days till my baby is 3, how did that happen?

 5, the number of shirts currently in my limited wardrobe, I forgot to add a few shirts to the bag Marvin was bringing, oops.
2the number of shirts I have with me without a stain on it, this belly is seriously causing some problems.
I've been away from home for 31 days now.

Lately a good night sleep means I only had to wake up and go to the bathroom 3 times, most nights it's much more than that. I think my body is preparing itself for some interrupted sleep.

It's crazy to think that in a few short weeks we will be a family of 4.

We get to see Marvin's folks and brother in 43 days.

1 Little boy who is eager as can be to play Cars Dominos, guess this means this post is finished.

So you speak English.....c'est gentil

Marvin and I usually have reverse culture shock traveling to this country.  People are so helpful, patient and nice.  It's really strange at first, because for the most part when you enter a store in Nineveh they either follow you around straightening every box/thing you touch, or think you are completely wasting their time.  The first day I was here I stopped by the store and the man in front of me asked me if I wanted to help putting my groceries on the conveyor belt, and I was only buying a handful of items.  I'm sure I probably stared at him because I was in shock at the offer.  Back home in Nineveh I'd just get scolded for carrying a bag of groceries while pregnant.

Today was another one of those moments that just made me thankful for the friendliness here.  It also made me laugh.  I needed some blush and lip gloss so I was browsing through the selections this store had and the sales girl came up to me and rattled off something I of course didn't understand, except that they were having a sale.  So the sweet girl tried her best to communicate with me what the sale was but to no avail.  So she went and got her friend, she started speaking to me in German, but I don't know German so I asked her if she knew English, then she went into French.  Cracked me up, because I clearly said the word for English.  Thankfully some of my high school and college french came back because I actually understood what she said.  I knew that would come in handy one day and I'm glad I still have a tiny bit of it tucked somewhere in this brain of mine.

Nice

Being a parent is stretching me.  Marvin does a better job at letting Calvin dress than I do, Marvin sort of jokingly calls me the fashion police.  I don't think I'm that bad, but I often send Calvin back to his room to choose a different pair of pants or shirt to match, so maybe I am the fashion police. (He also doesn't seem to mind.)

I have my principles when it comes to fashion, and have tried to stick to them.  There are a couple of things that truly bug me:

I refuse to buy anything with a logo plastered across it, because we not human billboards.  Even if the things are very in at the moment, like coach purses.  It's sneaky advertising if you ask me, and I'm I know most people don't agree or have a problem with it, but I'm weird. 

The second thing that bugs me more than anything about children's fashion is character infatuation.  Those in children's apparel fashion know a thing or two about kids, they love their characters and love to wear them.  This lovely green shirt was given to him by our language teacher and the boy is obsessed with wearing it.  If he sees me take it off the clothes line it must be immediately worn.  Like I said these people know what they are doing.

Working in early childhood I've seen my share of character shoes, and they always make me cringe due to their tackiness.  I've learned I should never say "I'll never let my child....." because this past weekend we ventured to the mall to buy Calvin some shoes and came home with these........

and a little boy beaming in delight, because they have spiderman on them (he's never seen a single episode of spiderman, yet loves spiderman) and they light up.  Again I am eating my words and do you know what?  They aren't that bad. To see the joy they give him as he puts them on makes up for their tackiness.

1 year ago.....

was perhaps the craziest emotional day in my life.  We got a call letting us know we would be able to return to our job overseas sooner than expected.  A few hours later, my parents got a call we had been waiting for years, a new liver for my dad.  It was a night we will never forget, and praise the Lord my Dad is in better health than he has been in for years. 

I am so grateful that he's been given this unbelievable gift.  It's something none of us take for granted.  This sweet young lady who lost her life, gave my dad more years to enjoy life, and to be a part of ours.  I am so grateful to organ donors, it's a gift only a few can give.

Daddy Time

Thankfully Marvin snapped a few pictures of Calvin’s while we were apart.  Marvin tried to keep him pretty busy but that last little stretch was tough, on both of them.

Calvin enjoyed some time at Daddy’s office everyday. Our office manager loved him to pieces, and it gave Marvin some time to get some work done.

They played countless games, wrestled a lot, had lots of yummy snacks mommy usually doesn’t buy, and Marvin let him watch his first ever movie, “Cars”, which is a post in itself. (Let’s just say he loves that movie and even though he’s only watch it a handful of times he’s already memorized a good chunk of it.)

Marvin took him to the river, to the park, the amusment park, he rode his first zipline, took a little trip out of town.  Overall Marvin did a great job at wearing out the little man.  Thankfully Marvin didn't have a problem getting him to take a nap every day. 

Hooray for quality Father Son bonding.  Calvin's lucky to have such a good daddy.

Thankful it's Done

Monday we headed to the hospital for Calvin’s surgery. We had tried to prepare him as much as we could but obviously he didn’t quite understand what was going to happen. Thankfully he was much more comfortable around the doctors and nurses than he was on Friday. Although he was extremely scared when it was time for him to go into anesthesia, and we are pretty sure he fought them due to the bruises on his legs.

The surgery took a little longer than expected due to a larger problem than the doctor could see on the surface, but we’re hoping it will be successful and they won’t have to redo the initial surgery. We should know if it worked within the next 15 days.


This was a new hospital for us, and was very nice, it was just different and we didn’t quite know how things worked. We were blessed with a nurse who spoke English during the day, and so Calvin wasn’t quite as intimidated when it was time to get dressed for surgery. He even gave her a huge hug and kiss when it was time to leave. We were also blessed that both of us could stay with him in the hospital overnight and that it was only a one night affair.


He showed us his stubborn side after surgery. He refused to go potty. After 2 hours of watching him roll around in his bed due to pain we had the nurse call his doctor at 2 a.m., who had to come back to the hospital to put a catheter in. He felt much better after the fact, and was able to finally sleep. In fact he was still sleeping hard when his doctor came to take it out at 9:30 in the morning.

While Calvin overall did not enjoy the hospital it was a time for lots of movies and he even enjoyed the local children’s channel, and he is still talking about watching Jay Jay. He had a heavy dose of snuggle time and plenty of attention from both of us.

He is recovering and his activity level is back to normal. He’s very relieved to be back “home” at the ABC house. It’s going to be rough to keep him subdued this week while things heal. Thanks for those who prayed for him during this time. We’re very thankful it is over, now as Calvin said it is my turn to go to the hospital so that his baby brother can come out.

One

Tomorrow I get to see my man and little man!!!  I cannot wait.

It's been tough being apart and it's almost over.  All of us have been counting down the days.

Although I've missed them like crazy, this separation has been good at teaching me how to do a few things I usually tend to lean on my husband for.  I've had to be more aware of my surroundings, pay attention in taxis and use more Turkish.  Thankfully people are very patient and helpful here. 

I've had to open jars, or pry them open.  Lock the door at night.  Exchange money.  Self Navigate.  Take the trash out.  Everytime I do these things I'm so very grateful for Marvin and how he truly is my help mate. 

So here's to one more day!  Tomorrow is going to be a great day!