Photos from the 4th of July Weekend

Jerm and Marlene's Baby Shower (this took place on Sunday morning—when it actually wasn't raining).   Camping and random shots:  I'm always so bad about busting out the camera when we get to places. It's a problem.
I guess I should be glad I even took this many.

32 Weeks

Here's the belly at 32 weeks. Nora's just two days shy of 18 months here.

Wheeee! I'm huge!

Oh, and here's a photo of the preggo Dills (minus one cousin, Tricia, who was not present):


We're almost in order of due dates, too.
(I'm actually due before all these ladies. That partially explains my hugeness.)

(Trace, I linked to your photo from Facebook. I hope that was okay.)

Dilly out!

On a Lighter Note

Nora was having some regularly scheduled naked time this morning, and while I was not even looking (I was on the phone for work at the time, I think), she took it upon herself to pee in her potty (and on it a little . . . and around it a lot). I didn't even encourage it, and because I missed it, I didn't even get to celebrate it as it was happening. By the time I found it, she was like, "Yeah. That's old news. Where were you?"

I thought that was pretty cool.

She's actually sitting on her potty again right now (I'm letting her have a bit more half-naked time again before nap time). I have her potty in the room with us with her toys, etc. So, she sees it all day long and sits on it occasionally.

Nap time for a little one! Catch you kids later.

The Mysterious Armpuff

Well, the armpuff mystery is still somewhat unsolved. I've been all over the place for this thing, and I'm about sick of doctors' offices. I've had an ultrasound, I've taken a round of antibiotics for this thing (my CNM prescribed those), I've been to a regular MD, and today, I went to a surgeon.

The surgeon was a bit more alarmed about it than I thought he'd be (so far, nobody has been overly alarmed about it—which is fine by me). (I went to this surgeon not long after Nora was born because I had an "issue." He actually didn't want to do surgery on me for that "issue," so when the MD was referring me to a surgeon, I requested this guy. I felt like he wouldn't cut me if he didn't have to.) So, now, I'm waiting for a phone call to make an appointment (obnoxious) for an MRI. I'm not sure when I'm going to be hearing from them. I'm supposed to call the surgeon's office if I don't hear from them by Tuesday morning. So, that's a bit frustrating.

I'm lucky that this is happening right now instead of when we'll have socialized health care. It'd be really scary to have to wait six months for that MRI (over in Chicago instead of Michigan City). That's all I'm going to say about that.

I've never had any weird "health things" happen to me in my life, so this is pretty strange. I'm trying not to be worried about it, but I'm finding that a bit challenging. I probably wouldn't be concerned at all if I weren't about to be the mom of two. You know? Okay. Maybe I still would be a little bit, but I'd be able to shrug it off a little better, I guess. I suppose if I had an appointment made for this MRI, I'd be less anxious. So . . . one thing at a time. Baby steps to the phone call to make the appointment. Baby steps.

I forgot to mention the fact that the surgeon wants to remove this lump no matter what the MRI says. The MRI is basically a precaution (he feels that the ultrasound doesn't really give a good enough look at the situation). The plan for now is to remove it after the baby is born (outpatient-style). I'm not looking forward to that.

I've never had surgery for anything before. I had two of my wisdom teeth cut out one at a time (I didn't even get put to sleep for that). That's about as severe as I've had it. I'm such a wuss.

Nora's cryin'. Gotta go.

Toddlerific

I've been doing a lot of chasing a toddler lately. This leaves me with less time to do things like showering (and getting ready after showering), blogging, and relaxing (even for, like, a second). She's all over the place. In fact, you can tell that a bit from this stream of photos (Willi got ahold of the camera this weekend and shot away):

   

Nora did manage to sit on the couch with me for about a half hour yesterday afternoon. It was heaven. She never sits still that long—let alone with me! We just laid there together, and it was so nice. I wish she'd do that more often. Instead, she's got to be a monkey most of the time. I really hope she gets that out of her system before this baby gets here (or at least a good portion of it—I know a kid's gotta be a kid).

 

Nora's also been doing a lot of testing lately. At the table, she is constantly trying to stand up in her chair (and she's even fastened in there). It's a battle of wills every meal (when it's just her and me) to get her to sit on her butt. She does it, though, because she wants to see what I'll do (over and over and over again). I have to make her sit because if I don't, we'll move onto other battles of will, and I don't think I could handle more of those. I can see what my sisters were talking about now when they said that a parent can just get tired and let stuff slide. If there were more kids around doing this sort of testing, I could easily see myself falling into that. It's also really hard to be stern when your kid is, like, smiling and being all cute while she's being testy. Little rat. Constant vigilance!

 

At the moment, I've got her naked, and she's right next to her potty chair. She's not successfully used it yet, but she's been sitting on it when she's naked. I suppose that's a start! I don't think she's anywhere near being potty trained (or even being ready for it), but anyway I can plant the seed is helpful (I assume). I've heard that if the kid sees the potty constantly around this time (between 12 and and 24 months of age—for those who don't have kids, that's between one and two years of age*), he/she is more apt to go use it when the urge might arise. So . . . we'll see. I'm not going to force it, but I'll keep the potty around and let her have some naked time. So far, she's not had an accident this morning, and she's been naked for nearly 45 minutes.

 

In other news, this weekend should be a fun time! We're heading to my parents' for some camping and family fun action. I'm even going to try to camp out (and so is Nora)! We'll see how that goes. Hopefully, I'll remember the camera (and if I remember it, I hope to remember to take some pictures).

 

Have a happy, safe holiday weekend, everybody! Remember: fireworks, booze, and guns don't mix! Dilly out.

 

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* Before I had kids, I never understood why they always talked ages in months. I remember hearing conversations that went like this, "How old is he now?"

 

"37 months."

 

I remember struggling as I'd try to do that math in my head (I'm really bad at math in my head).

 

Honestly, once you get past, like, 24 months, it's time to start using years. I understand why people use it, though: there are a lot of milestones that happen in short month increments. Plus, doctors visits are supposed to happen at certain months during the first two years. Also, clothing sizes are broken up by months when kids are under the age of two (or at least sized for under the age of two).