*Waiting*

Hi darlings!

I've been putting off this post by a couple of days hoping to get some news to report... but no news yet... so I mine as well catch you up anyhow.

Remember that glucose test I had to take a week or two ago? Well the test went terrible... It's an hour long. I forgot my knitting and my book... and my cell hardly had a decent charge. It wasn't really the wait that got to me. I mean, a mother of a three year old is always in need of a little 'quiet' time. It was the sickly sweet drink, paired with the spectacular heartburn, and the inexperienced phlebotomist poking me EIGHT TIMES in one arm 'lookin'... I mean DIGGING for a vein. Oh. I'm over it now. But it was God's way of teaching me a lesson: It's best to be nice in most cases... always... BUT, Lindsey, by the 4th poke and second blood soaked cotton ball, it is okay to ask the guy to STOP. If it were Marcus or James or anyone else I knew- I'd have asked for someone else by the second poke- BUT it was me... and I must play by different rules, when it's me taking care of myself...

Anywho, I got the call that the test came back 'a little high.' Great. That means I had to take the 3 Hour glucose test: sweet drink, and four pricks over the course of 3+ hours. Nice. But I'm old hack at it. This make it a total of 3 times in my life that I've had to do this thing. I've always been borderline hypoglycemic. It's one of those things that if you are going to fail, you want to fail by a landslide... I failed by a couple of points. Boo. But FOR ME and FOR THIS BEBE, I went back to the hospital at 9am this past Sunday to take the thing. At 2:30 I was done. AND starving. Did I mention the fasting part? Nothing to eat or drink since 8pm the night before. Nice.

No news yet! I was expecting to hear something today or yesterday... but nothing. I expect to pass. I always do. I mean, what are they going to tell me? Control it with my diet? Riiiight. We eat/buy no processed food- other than dairy... and even that is organic, hormone free, and low fat. I make our own breads... 100% whole wheat and flax. We eat no 'white' things other than the guilty teaspoon of sugar in my coffee... when I DRINK coffee... which is rare in this pregnancy. You'd think I'd be eating ice cream and other pregnant yummies... but no. Not me. I'm a little pregnant but a LOT control freak. So, that's that.

Lets face it: I'll do whatever they want... for this bebe boy.

I taught our Mardi Gras class this past week, I finish with this batch of younguns on Saturday. I love teaching drivers ed. LOVE IT. I love the material, the kids, and the fact that what they learn is really important to the rest of their lives...

Yesterday I was off. I treated James and me to a fun day on the town. We went fabric shopping for the bebe. I picked out some fun cottons to make swaddle blankets. We had a special lunch at James' favorite burrito joint. Then off to the bebe.GAP for my big boy to pick out a slew full of new big.boy.drawers! To make the news even sweeter, he's worn drawers at night for the last THREE nights... NO ACCIDENTS! With all this drawer action, we needed to bulk up our supply! It was so much fun. He walked into the GAP, the young lady greeted us. James said: "Hi, I'm James. I need some help." The lady helping couldn't have been cuter or sweeter... she asked him what he needed and he said, "I'm a big boy and I need a lot of big boy drawers." She looked at me, I nodded and stood back. She took him to the rack in the back and let him pick out whatever he wanted. Needless to say, we are covered in the underwear department. While we were there celebrating his big day, I went ahead and bought some of his Spring wardrobe... I like ordering online from the site- rather than keeping one eye on him and thumbing through for his size. BUT I couldn't help walking out with a bag full of cute things to get us started.

Speaking of clothes... Momma needs to do some clothes shopping herself. My winter maternity clothes will NOT work in these warm temps. I've resorted to wear a lot of my prepregnancy things... It's funny. Me walking around with my comical belly bulging from my body.

That's it really. I've got to take the time to get some pics up. I've promised and yall have been so patient.

***My new blog friends!!! Thanks for finding me and commenting. I'm responding in the post below... check it out. xo***

Peace, love, and shamrock undies.
xo
lmkw

Jackson!

Yesterday morning I went to my 29 week appt. at the Maternal Fetal Medicine doctors. It was a good morning.

He's beautiful. He's healthy. And he will be here soon.






He moves most of the day... big, broad, spectacular moves.
I have unbelievable heartburn... but mind over matter plus a constant flow of Tums, and I'm living with it.
He's reached my ribs and spends a good bit of his time wrapping his toes around them!

We are still painting the nursery... we should have it done in a day or two. The bassinet will be bought and assembled this weekend... and we are opting for a new bouncer and floor gym. Once I get his layette purchased and furniture place in the nursery, we should be nearly ready.

We can't wait to meet our new son. I'm already so smitten with him.

Peace, love, and bubble.baths,
xo
lmkw

*I'll go back to the MFM dr for another ultrasound in 6 weeks... when I'm 35 weeks! I love having all these ultrasounds!

*Complete*

Hello my latent lovers!

As of this post, we've all survived another Valentines Day...

Hopefully each of you all had a moment where you gave love and felt loved in return. Is there anything better than the feeling of gratitude, appreciation, and adoration? I mean, besides chocolate covered strawberries...

This was my favorite Vday to date. I've noticed as I get older, the less about me things become, the more fulfilled and lifted I feel. I guess they've always been right when they say it's better to give than receive... but I failed to realize how much more I receive when I live generously. I guess you can log this as #834 in my Things Learned Through My Journey of Motherhood... Which I may later rename as What It Is To Be A Woman.

*In efforts to connect, but still get into bed early (I've got an early AM appt with my High-risk doc in the morning) let me highlight my weekend.

***Which, by the way, I vote that Vday should always fall on a weekend. It makes more sense that way.

Anywho, Friday we started with a Sushi/Hibachi date night, movie and surprise shopping spree... for.... *pause for emphasis*... MYSELF! I picked out some beautiful perfume and splurged on some furniture and accessories at PotteryBarn. I felt so indulged.

Saturday, I awoke to breakfast in bed... with Marcus holding the breakfast tray of goodies and James bringing in a parade of beautiful orchid plants for my bathroom! *perfection* What's cuter than a three.year.old telling me "Momma, dis one is a dendobium orchid (dendrobium). And deese here are a failinopsis (phalaenopsis)." ??? Nothing! He's at the age where he will repeat anything we get him to say... so yes, we exploit that feature. We headed out to New Orleans for lunch at Dragos... chargrilled oysters... and a day at the Aquarium/Riverwalk. This was geared for James and his sweetheart day. He loved it! He got to walk the entire time... and pretty much got to do whatever his heart's desired for however long he wanted. We just sat back, smiled, and said "Sure sweetheart, go for it!" It's nice to let go of the parenting control and let them have their fun. It's a treat for everyone, I think.

Sunday was bebe.Jax's day. We went out and got the paint for the nursery and ordered a bunch of goodies for his arrival. We started painting later that night... and should finish it soon. I can't wait to have everything ready to go for our new little boy.

And tonight we topped it all off with another date night dinner to our fav. spot, the Melting Pot. We couldn't secure reservations for Vday... so we opted for an easy follow-up. Maybe we should do this every year...

****
Things are shaping up around this joint. I can feel the momentum of Spring pushing us through our punch.list. I'm in love with 2009 already.

*I'll update you on bebe.jax progress soon... with the picture post I've been promising. Give me a day or two... or three.

Peace, love, and sea grass.
xo
lmkw

What is a week worth to you?

When you have a child... lots can happen in a week. Really big things, even.

In that spirit: I've been overdue blogging about my biggest boy, James. Ever since he was born, I felt like I could actually see him growing each day before my very eyes. Little things, big things, things perhaps only mothers notice. But one thing is certain, not a day has gone by that I couldn't point my finger on something and say "ah hah! That's it. He's bigger now because of that."



On that note, I have to update you (or rather provide a written record for myself) just where my boy is today... at Three Years, One Month.

To simplify it all in a very melodramatic pitiful way, he's grown. Completely. He's a complete little human- he can tell you all about how he feels... he can talk about his emotions... and he's tuned in to yours. He can ask questions effectively about deep things: Does this make you happy, Momma? Do you get scared, too? Don't you fink dat fish is sad when it's out of the water? Basically, he isn't limited by words or language anymore. AND he understands you completely. In fact, you can have quite a grown up conversation with the bugger without much complication. This may just be the coolest thing yet.


*One of my favorite things is that he tries out new words. I love this the most, because I love words so much. Big ones, little ones, funny ones... Blame Dr. Seuss and a hundred other writers. So when I hear my miniature.man experiment with new ones, it makes me dizzy with delight. Here are some of his recent favs: spectacular, bazaar, irresponsible, incredible, unfortunate. AND his favorite new phrases: Are you serious? Yes way! You've got to be kidding me! That's terrible news. I don't believe so. You're killing me! (thank Charlie Brown for that one.)

Other new things:
*Obsession with all things Peanuts... Charlie Brown Movies and Music
*Picking out sounds in a song: "Momma! Hear dat? Here dose biolins? I hear drums! Hear dat? Dats guitar! Dat's 'ccordian!" etc... it's completely crazy how tuned in he is to music- both the lyrics and the score.
*"Are you happy... are you sad... are you mad?" -He's very VERY in to asking us these things... it's a good way for us to explain how we feel to him, and how we deal with our feelings.
*His main toys/playtime still remain balls (football, basketball, soccer, and baseball) *We have the backyard laid out with a tee.ball diamond and soccer goal. He knows how to slide into the bases, field the ball, and run pass or carry plays in football. Everyday after work for an hour and a half, this is what he and MarcusHotness do. I sit on the porch, knit and watch... and heckle.

*He cooks pretty much all day. Anything you want. He's especially good at the seasoning part: "Taste it Momma. I need to a'just the seasoning? More cumin? How 'bout pepper?" I love this part most- because I can tell how much he mimics me and picks up on what we do in the kitchen together. In fact, there have been VERY VERY few meals where he hasn't been in the kitchen cooking 'with' me. Whether it has been slung to my chest in a bebe.sling, a bouncer by the butcher block, or banging on pots and pans underfoot. It's one of my favorite things about Motherhood!

*And building towers with his blocks. Loves this activity. AND I love to sit down on the floor with a pile of blocks and build with him. It's... relaxing! I can't wait for him to get a bucket of Lincoln Logs!

THE BIG THINGS:
I wouldn't dare say James is potty trained... because I'm too scared to speak too soon... BUT he has been in big.boy.drawers for an ENTIRE WEEK!!! He's only had four accidents so far. Not sooo bad, right? Seven whole days... four small accidents? Hey, it's progress. No pull.ups during the day. Pull ups overnight. But the neat thing is he wakes up during the night and yells to go potty... wakes up with a dry diaper. So there is a good chance that he will be diaper free very VERY soon. What will be his Big.Reward??? *sigh* A trip to Chuck E. Cheese's. Yes, I'm a sell.out. Oh, it's the one place in this world that I hate more than Walmart. So, if he can master this thing, I'll let yall know when we plan on taking him. If you love me... or love sheer misery, COME HANG with us at Chuck's. Yes?

AND the other super cool thing is that he's learning to read. He's got great fluency with his letters... and he's getting more automatic with his letter sounds. He's got great concepts about print: print has meaning, one to one match, punctuation symbols, left to right reading, pictures carry meaning, etc... And he's learned a handful of site words. He loves to spell out the words he sees in his environment. Yesterday we were pottying at the Driving School- and there was a bottle of Lysol by the sink. He's never seen that before, bc we keep all chemicals locked up... but he said, "see dat momma? L-Y-S-O-L. What's dat say?" And of course, I always respond, "Well, what do you think it says? What can you tell me about that word?" He then proceeded to sound it out. I almost fell on the floor. I mean, I'm not a fan of the 'sound it out' strategy... but sometimes it works! Holy cow. ***What are we doing together to learn this stuff? Nothing, really. We read lots and lots of books each day... we play with letters and words a lot... lots of pretend play... and when he shows interest in reading something, letters, etc- I take that moment and run with it.

*I can remember in college hating still being there... the transfer, the LONG HOURS, the redundant courses, feeling unchallenged, wanting more than anything to be done with it... all the tears and sick stomachs... There were times when the feeling to want to quit was soo soo intense and real I couldn't stand it. But I did it. The whole 187 hours. I really did it.

BUT having that training (and more importantly, that passion) has been the most fulfilling and rewarding thing for me to have on this journey of Motherhood. I feel so tuned in to our time together... and what's even better is that I feel like I'm not missing a thing. People have always said that the mother is always the first teacher... it's so true. But actually being trained in early childhood education and literacy is even neater.

God is great. His timing is impeccable. And He's always fulfilling His promises to us.

Have a great Lover's weekend, friends! Love is a good thing... and there is a lot of love out there to share. So get started!

I've got a glucose test at the hospital, a sushi/hibachi date night with my Hotness, and then a suprise visit somewhere... he won't tell. Then a movie. We NEVER get to go to a movie... so that should be a nice night. Saturday will be a Sweethearts date with my *two* best boys. We plan on treating BeauxJack to a day in New Orleans... the aquarum and Instectarium... and Drago's chargrilled oysters, of course! Sunday is bebe.jax's day... nursery and shopping spree. With Monday night finishing up our weekend of love at the Melting Pot. They were booked two full weeks before Vday... so we have to snaek it in on the tale end of the weekend. That's okay. Fondue now or later... just fondue, please. ***Pictures will follow***

Peace, love, and chocolate dipped strawberries!
xo
lmkw

The Middle of the Story...

Here are a few pics from the Winter garden post that will bring you deeper into our discovery time outside in Momma's garden. I am finishing up on the end bits and will post those soon.













Today we do laundry, mop floors, and make Valentine confections for Daddy, the ultimate sweetheart.

Peace, love, and raspberry Linzertortes.
xo
lmkw

Winter Garden

Today Daddy called us to come have lunch... fried fish! And no one turns down Daddy's fried fish. Besides, we helped catch some of those fish! One thing led to another, and we ended up in the garden pulling turnips. I took the opportunity to experiment with my camera. A goal for me is to eventually take the training wheels off and shoot fully manual. *eeek* Totally scary... but do.able. I played around with my aperture and shutter speed... you know, to get me ready for the portrait.lens I am shamelessly begging for. And here are just a few results. These are just the first few... I have more to come. I'll post those tomorrow.

Here's a peek.





I suppose we down here in South Louisiana could say we are in the 'dead of winter'... but Momma's garden is still very much alive and beautiful. Mind you, most of the fall crop has bolted and gone to seed, but it makes for a lively place to be for the bees and critters. I can't wait to share the rest.

*I've got a lot to learn... but with RAW format, post photoprocessing, and three ridiculously large flash memory cards to fall back on, I think I could eventually get better.

Peace, love, and snotty portrait lenses.
xo
lmkw

A Little Hodge.Podge

This post will surely be a little hodge.podgy... I mean, with more than a week offline, lots of knitting, house.improving, Superbowl.partying, a trip... and an ever expanding tum.tum, a hodge.podge post is absolutely necessary. I suppose the only other alternative is to want some sort of well thought out post... that neatly keeps on one track. And given the circumstances, is impossible. So, bare with me... because if I chose the later, I would never blog again. Too much pressure.

The laptop is up and running. I didn't lose a single picture or document or professional piece from my portfolio. VICTORY! However, the whole ordeal is a pain... It's like having a new computer... just without the 'new.' BUT all the companies have been great about providing their software to be installed again if the reload caused me to lose it. No harm, no foul.

I spent my time knitting and crossing things off my very pragmatic NewYearsRez list. I need to do a photo.post of my favorite things and places around the house as things shape up. *I will.* We've really made some strides over the past couple of weeks AND will have even more to show for it in the coming weeks. Nothing feels better than following through with your visions to create a home.space that suits you and your family. Plus, the nesting thing I'm going through doesn't hurt! The whole process really makes me stop and reflect dead in my tracks: Wow... I'm... really blessed. Feeling grateful is a great feeling... and I hope I can always be present enough to identify the goodness around me. It's a beautiful, free sort of feeling.

Oh, the Superbowl! So my team lost... but the party we threw here *ROCKED.* It was one of those great events where everything came together just right. I had intended on it to be a small get together... just us and my friend and her hubs and tiny.tot, aka Miracle. BUT it grew to something different all together. Lots of new friends came and hung out with us. The food was delish, the company was incredibly refreshing, and the kids played so well together. I mean, it looked like a PotteryBarnKids photoshoot in here! The kids were INCREDIBLY well behaved and added to our fun! Don't you just love that? It rarely seems to work that way... Nice.

Beaux.Jack and I took a quick trip to Poverty Point, LA... actually Delhi, LA, to visit my little brother. He came down from MO to fish and boar hunt. Yes, boar hunt. As in wild pigs with tusk that run through the woods. Since I may not see him until I deliver bebe.jax, James and I decided to make the trek up to see him. It was such a nice visit! The weather was cold and windy, which kept me from *seriously* fishing... but we caught plenty from our cabin on the water... we threw a bundled boat ride... and heard the wildest hunting stories I've ever heard. To make a long story short (with hopes of pictures to round up and post soon) my beautiful brother killed a 250 lbs. wild hog with his bare hands and a knife. ...............

Seriously.......
Let it sink in for a while.........
Whatever image you are producing right now is most probably more accurate than not...
Yes, like that scene in OldYeller... cept the kid was smart enough to stay in the tree...
And no reports of rabies thus far. Good news for Tboy, bad news for the pig.

Unbelievable that kid. He's... pretty much spectacular. Not because of his Lord of the Flies ability to run wild through the woods.... or his Man vs. Nature way of living every day... but because the total package of my brother is the wildest, funniest, sweetest, best.lookingest, only certain people can pull it off- thing you'd ever see. And I didn't even mention how smart he is... *well, perhaps the wild.boar wrestling story may contradict that claim... later.

And lastly... I have the urge to tell you about my ever.expanding waistline--- but I lost my waist weeks and weeks and weeks ago. I'm at the point where I am all bebe from ribs to legs. I feel like a walking whisky barrel. It's huge, round, and oddly hard and not cuddly at all. Of course, that's a good thing I think. Bebe.jax is growing and in.love with his belly space. I judge that from all the wild movement that's been going on lately. I talk to him, we all do, and he moves in reaction- like he already knows us. I'm completely bonded with this little boy. I can't wait to have him here among us. Being pregnant has been so good for me. I'm so happy where I am right now. I'm puff.chest proud of what all I have accomplishes... what my tiny family has accomplished... and I have an overwhelming feeling that I've got the whole world on a string. So much possibility. So much to look forward to. So much to live for. *pinch me* We start the nursery this week... I'm so excited.

We've decided to use most of the vintage cowboy we used for James. I've gotten mixed reactions about using it again. The bottom line is that his nursery was a custom collection from boutiques and antique stores... totally cool and unpredictable stuff. I can't bare to garage sale it. It makes sense to use it again since I love it so much. Plus, the money that it frees up can be used on a beautiful bassinet, blankets, and a beautiful layette for our new.boy. You know, since I don't have to reinvent the wheel here, I can pretty much have my cake and eat it too: cute custom nursery AND all the bebe gear and clothes and blankets and accessories I like! So, I feel it's a win.win. (Shut up, Erica... :) *I'll post all the goodness soon.

That's it! Blog.House.Keeping complete!

I hope yall's Vday plans are shaping up... this may be my best Vday yet. We've got nearly a whole weeks worth of sweet.plans. Being the only girl around this holiday really pays off! With bebe.jax rounding the corner, I may be forever altered by all of this adoring.

Share your plans, yo!

Peace, love, and banana.splits!
xo
lmkw