Ten on Tuesday: Playing Catch-Up

1. A shot of me at 34 weeks:

2. After being put to bed one night, Tyler made his way back downstairs. As he got closer to Frank and I, we realized he was holding his belly. I asked him what was wrong and he said that he had a stomach ache. I, of course, thought that we had a sick kid on our hands. But nooooo, Tyler announced that his stomach hurt because “He was preganant and he had a baby is his belly”. And yes, pregnant was pronounced just like that!

3. After weeks and months of Tyler rubbing and talking to my belly, he was finally rewarded on June 1 with a faint kick by his Baby Brother. He was ecstatic and now tries to feel the kicks all the time. I have told him that his brother loves to kick in the wee hours of the morning (thanks, little one!). I have not had the heart to tell him that I am sure this will be the first of many brotherly kicks shared between siblings!

4. As my dad has become a connoisseur of Belgian beer, I decided to make it my mission to try as many nonalcoholic varieties of beer as possible during this 40 week stint I have going on. To count, I have tried approximately 7 different types and I must say that beer makers have come a long way in this department!

One night I was enjoying my drink by the fire outside and Tyler said “I want to be pregnant when I grow up so I can drink fake beer!”

5. In May we had a multi-family tag sale with our friends. After it ended and while cleaning up, Tyler and Olivia had snuck off to play. Or so we thought! I guess five is not too early to have your first love, because they made sure to seal the deal with a kiss behind the minivan! When questioned about their encounter, the two love birds ran off. A few days later in the car, I asked Tyler about it and he said that he and Livie were married because they kissed! I am cool with that; we will love my son’s in-laws!

6. At preschool for Father’s Day, the teachers asked the kids what they like to do with their dad’s. They then wrote each answer on a poster board next to the child’s name and hung it in the entry way for everyone to read. The day of this project, Frank picked Tyler up from school and called me on the way home to share his son’s answer with me. Frank told me to guess what Tyler said and I figured it was playing hockey, watching some kind of sport on television, or playing the Wii.

I was wrong.

Tyler told his teacher’s that he liked it when he and his dad “Watched the horse races together.”

7. A few weeks back, I was thrown a “Baby Sprinkle”. Frank and I explained to Tyler that when I was pregnant with him, I had a Baby Shower. He thought for a minute and said “Is that when the mommies get in the shower with their bellies and get all wet?”

8. Tyler and I recently took a Sibling Class at the hospital where I will be giving birth. Tyler was able to take a tour of the maternity ward, learn how to hold a newborn, and heard the rules about how to care for a small baby. During the tour, the nurses showed the kids in the class a newborn. Tyler was ecstatic. The facilitator of the class showed the kids the card attached to her bed and told them that the girls get pink cards and the boys get blue cards. This particular child was a girl and Tyler said “I’m not having one of them.”!

9. Frank and I have been talking about what Tyler’s next move will be in the world of hockey. He has been in Learn to Skate for the past two years and he could continue with it, but he already is in the advanced group. We finally decided that he is ready to play on a Mini Mite team and emailed the director for sign up information. After we heard back from him, we knew that Ty would be a go next year for practices and games (!).

One night during quite time, I told Tyler the good news, figuring he would be very excited. I told him that he will play on team in the Fall. He hung his head and looked at me with a sheepish look on his face. His response? “Really? I think I am going to cry, I am so happy.”

10. Over the past few weeks, out house has turned into the money pit.

The basement flooded when the water heater broke. Thanks to our neighbor and a friend, it was all repaired in a weekend.

Then a heavy downpour of rain seeped water back into the basement the next weekend and even sent it dripping in from the ceiling in the front of the house (still a mystery to us!).

Our AC Unit also decided that it needed a turn to leave a mark on the basement and it flooded as well. In order to stop the leak, we had to turn off the unit. The irony of it was that we had spent the morning taking the window screens out in preparation for the house to be painted the next day. So now we really had no air!

I will leave out the part about the plumber coming to fix the faucets that refused to be fully shut off and continue to drip, or the lawn tractor guy who came to repair the blades, or the fact that the dishwasher did not drain properly for a few days, or the fact that our crib has been recalled.

I am happy to announce that after these rough few weeks we are putting out lives back together and the money is flowing back into our bank accounts and not out!