A lesson in PATience

Have you ever seen the SNL skit of "Pat," where the central aspect of the sketches was the inability of others to determine the character's gender? I wonder if the creator of that skit was also an extremely impatient pregnant mother who pressured people to tell her the gender of her unborn child WAY before you could even tell. My doctor was smart in not saying his guess of the gender at 10 weeks. Apparently, two women whom you pay $75 each for a commercial ultrasound and gender check have not googled how many weeks it takes to tell the gender of a fetus. Because one said for sure a boy, and the other said for sure a girl. Google (and my doctor) says it is impossible to tell before 12 weeks, and you should wait until 15 weeks to tell the gender because both genders look exactly the same until then. 

So am I having a girl or a boy? I am not going to ask anymore, or declare it on my blog, until my doctor officially tells me at around 14 weeks like a normal, more patient pregnant woman would do.

Until then, I am also not going to tell Maddie because she will think either her mother is crazy, or that babies can just change gender in utero.

On a positive note, Josh and I went to see the broadway play The Lion King at Mandalay Bay and it was FANTASTIC. I cried at least four times, but that could just be a pregnancy thing. I was blown away by the costumes, sets, and talent and would highly recommend it. It is definitely child friend too if your kid is old enough to sit still.

It's a boy! (unless it is a Peter situation)

Yesterday, I had a doctor appointment. I am about 10 1/2 weeks along, so I, of course, pressured my doctor to tell me the gender. His immediate reaction was, "it looks maleish, but lets see what we find," followed by, "it's just too early to say for sure. I don't want to be wrong. Let's wait until 12 weeks." Josh had the biggest grin I had ever seen, and I was in shock and tears! Really? Another boy!? For some reason I wasn't expecting that AT ALL.

So he said "maleish" but said it was too early to tell. That would drive me crazy for the next few weeks. So, my sister, who is also pregnant, and I went to one of those places that you pay for an ultrasound and find out the gender and get pictures of your baby. Jamie is for sure having a boy, and I am 99% also having a boy. We feel like we are having twins or something, and we both left squealing and speed-dialing the proud daddies.

However, because I am not very far along, it is only 99%. You would think that was pretty definitive, but my mom was told that I was a boy when I was in-utero. She even had my named picked out: Peter. (I know, I would have been the nerdiest boy.) So you never know what will happen!

I know Ultrasound pictures are totally annoying to people except the mother, who is immediately in love with the little blob. But here is the little guy playing hide-and-seek with his arms up over his eyes.

On a side note: As you can imagine, Maddie didn't take the "little brother" news very well AT ALL. She is a little more excited since I took her to the store to pick out whatever little boy clothes she wanted, but it is going to take some serious time for her to get over her dream of a little sister, whom she had already named "Charlie."

Just a silly post

Here is Maddie being a kitty nurse and feeding my mom's abandoned kitties with a bottle. As you can imagine, she loved that job.

In my family, pregnant women are spoiled rotten. Mostly by the other women in the family who know how miserable it can be. So even though I rarely feel sick this pregnancy (how lucky am I?), I am taking full advantage of it because who knows how many times I will get to do that in the future? So I got the best chair in the room, I hoarded the entire plate of nachos, stole Josh's drink, etc., etc. Josh took a picture of me acting like royalty so I would feel a little embarrassed, but it didn't work. Soon after, I asked Josh for a refill.    :o)

Of course, the thorn in my side is my sister is also pregnant, so I have to be nice to her too and don't get to boss her around as much as I would like. But she is due about two months before me, so I am just waiting until then to take full advantage....

Fashion Island is the coolest mall in America because you can go and spend a day with kids without spending a dime (except for the carousel):

Maddie was so happy that Alladin loved her hair and said he wants Jasmine to do her hair like that:

I took a picture of Lucy in the middle of the dark Alice in Wonderland ride to see if she was enjoying it. This was right when we turned the corner and the White Rabbit popped out. Obviously, she hated the ride.

Maddie's Uncle Brian and cousin Cole call her "Maddie Poppins", so of course we had to wait in line for a picture with them too. Mary Poppins was so in character and awesome. Slightly bossy, snotty, proper, and polite. Even I felt a little star struck!

I am slightly ashamed, which is why I wouldn't look at the camera, but I was SO FREAKING EXHAUSTED at the end of the Disney day that I kicked Maddie out of the stroller and made Josh push me to the front gates.   :o)    You can see how Maddie felt about that.

Parks at Newport are awesome because it isn't too hot and there is sand and they are right on the water. These kids had a blast. There is nothing more fun than playing with cousins at the beach.

Josh took Maddie boogie boarding, which she loved. Her new favorite song that Josh showed her later that day is "Surfer Girl" by Beach Boys.

I needed a nap so bad, so Josh offered to take Maddie golfing with him. Surprisingly, she loved it. Mostly because she got to ride around on the golf bag while Josh dragged it from hole to hole.

Then they came back and ate Claim Jumper for dinner. After a full day of super fun things with her dad, Maddie told me, "I just love my dad."     :o)

Mother's Day Hike

For our mother's day celebration on Saturday, we decided to make my mom breakfast and then take everyone up hiking at Red Rock before it is too hot. (Too late. It's now too hot.) Here is Grandma with three of her very jealous grandkids. They are all used to having their Grandma's full attention when they are with her, and are not fond of having to share her one little bit.

When you go hiking with little kids, there is a lot of hand holding,

dancing,

stopping to smell the flowers,

water breaks,

"ta-da!"s,

finding Grandma caves,

listening to VERY long enthusiastically told stories,

and carrying hot, tired kids the whole way back,

For those of you who drive through Vegas and don't see beauty, here are a few shots my brother-in-law took from the hike. I think it is beautiful.

And when you go with Josh, there has to be one of these shots:

You Know Summertime is Here When....

....Maddie gets to go on cool adventures with Grandma Karen & Aunt Juli in her motorhome and jeep. Here they are on the top of a mountain, followed by Maddie's drawing of the experience from her perspective. (Josh went too.) Obviously, she LOVES these adventures.

....pictures like these start coming from Josh's iPhone.

....Family reunions seem to be once a month. (We loved seeing Elena and Ruby again at the Tobler Reunion!)

....It's "bring your child to work day" again. Maddie LOVED it because they had all kinds of food and fun planned, and then she got to lay on the couch and watch a movie in Josh's office. She probably thinks being a lawyer is so much more fun than it really is.   :o)

....There are a bunch of shows that come into town for kids, like Elmo's Green Thumb. 

....It's Women Conference weekend at BYU with my mom and sisters.

....There are a bunch of college graduations - recently my brother in laws, Rod and Nate, and here is my baby brother, Kyle, with my sister Stacey, and dad and mom. (I hate when I am the only person in the picture that interprets "silly picture" to mean "ugly face.")

....Babies start popping out, like my cousin Allie Tingey. Maddie is so excited to practice being a big sister. In fact, she reads up on how babies are made and grow in the tummy almost daily. She rubs my tummy and talks to the baby already, so the next seven months are going to feel so long for her.

....Josh religiously plays raquetball with any person he can convince to play with him. He and my brother-in-law, Rod, take it very serious and are a perfect match. One or the other always wins with a 15-14 score.

....Maddie starts having end of the school year presentations. Here she is completely frozen during her "solo" part. I literally thought she stopped breathing. Poor little thing gets major stage fright.

....Josh and Maddie find indoor things to do for their daddy daughter dates. Bowling in princess dresses is a favorite.

....Maddie proudly graduates to the next level in her swim class.

And, yes, I am still (thankfully) pregnant and DEFINITELY showing. Here I am at seven weeks. SEVEN WEEKS! (I am now 8 1/2.) That isn't even two months yet. I am going to be massive again. Here I was the day I went into the hospital to have Evan over six years ago, and I have a feeling my stomach will look insane like that again this pregnancy.