A Moment

I have a moment, so I'll blog a moments worth.

Malachi's 4th ever swim lesson went really well today. They decided to put him with the beginner beginners. This was a good move. He did really well compared to the rest of the class, and I think that was very encouraging for him. He even jumped into the pool (holding onto the coaches hands) with a lot less reluctance than before. He didn't cry once, and there was very little choking on water. This was a very, very good lesson for him. Hopefully his next lesson will be good. Unfortunately that's not until Thursday the 28th because of the holiday/vacation.

Seizures update: no seizures in a while. I'm reluctant to say that, because every time I say that he has a seizure. However, after some blood work the Dr. increased his dosage of Valpakine to 250 mg 3x/day. We started that on Wednesday night, but even before that he'd been seizure free (partial and tonic clonic). I don't know if I'm comfortable yet, but I'm getting there. The medicine seems to have a very good side effect: he sleeps! He hasn't slept more than 8 or 9 hours a night in a long, long time. Keppra is said to cause light sleeping in children, apparently Valpakine works the other way and is stronger than the Keppra because he's now sleeping about 11 hours a night!

Simon is teething molars. I got a call at work the other day from P who said that Simon had been crying a lot that day and he felt really hot. Turns out he had a temperature of 100.6. His fever was gone later that night, and he seemed to be in a bit of a better mood. I knew he'd been getting ready to cut a molar or two, or four, so I checked and sure enough, he cut his lower left molar. I could tell that the second one was very, very close. He cut that one that night or early the next morning.

Teething with Simon is a bit weird. He's usually fine until the actual day of cutting. That day and for a while afterwards - about four days with a normal tooth, who knows with a molar - he's got the crankiness, lack of appetite, snotty nose, etc. So that's what we've been dealing with this week. Today, it seemed to be the worst for him because he wouldn't take his afternoon nap, so by 5:30 he was stupid tired and stupider hungry because he'd eaten very little. After a very rough dinner time, daddy took him to play in his room, which seemed to make him pretty happy. Once bed time came, he was really mad again. It didn't take long for him to go to sleep though!

John got lettuce plants today at EPA (think: Lowes or Home Depot) and planted them in our gardens. We now have approximately 16 heads of lettuce growing in our garden. Our dill, spinach, and zucchini are going to overtake other plants soon if we don't give a ton away/use it all. In fact...

Today a photographer came over to do some maternity shots. She's a friend from work and has this as a side business. She took pictures of the kids and grandkids on John's side last November and we really liked what came out of that. In fact...Simon's not had one year photos, so we might want to get in on that since he's already over 14 months.

She showed me some of the shots on her camera, and I'm anxiously awaiting some samples from her. I'm trying very hard to not bug her...especially since it's only been 81/2 hours since she left. Speaking of leaving...she left with a gallon size ziplock stuffed full of spinach and a spicy pepper. This might become a tradition, anyone who leaves, leaves with food.

The pregnancy is getting difficult. It's becoming increasingly difficult to do anything. Thank god for my maternity belt, which I'll get good use out of tomorrow at our Easter Egg Hunt. This is a work event, and I've been voluntold for crafts. I hate doing crafts...of all the things I could do that's what I hate the most. However, I like doing crafts at this event because it's the first thing on the schedule. I'll be able to enjoy the rest of the time half working half hanging/out with the kids. Also, this is my first time going to the DCM's (Deputy Cheif of Mission) residence, so that should be fun for me.

John and I are looking forward to our family vacation for Semana Santa (Holy Week). We leave mid-week and get home in time to be visited by the Easter Bunny - yay! This will be Simon's first conscious Easter, it should be fun.

And now my moment is over. John has requested I pick a movie, and so I shall.

tidbits

Because my life is so crazy with out being crazy (where does the time go? what do I actually do with my time?) my blog entries tend to be long, especially when I wait a week to update. So I decided that this time, I'm going to forgo the details and do tidbits.

Shots - Malachi and I have been perfectly fine over the last week. Neither of us have shown any signs of flu or colds even. I'm hoping this means that the H1N1 vaccine will work for us, but we'll see. We have the rest of the season to make sure we don't get it. John and I are trying to be wise about where we go with Malachi with out going over board with it.

Foreign Service Life - John's schedule changed effective yesterday. He now works 8-2 instead of 10-4. That means on admin days (sporadic Wednesdays when they have half days) he's off at 10 instead of 12. It was so awesome yesterday when he got home before I put Malachi down for his nap. Mom and dad had some extra child-free time during the day, it was almost like a weekend day. Tomorrow just happens to be an admin day and we're going to go downtown to the building affectionately known as Main State and go to the Passport Office to go get pictures taken and apply for passports. Malachi and I can't apply for Diplomatic Passports yet because we don't have travel orders yet but we all need our regular passports (for all non official travel) because Malachi's never been out of country and mind and John's expired last year or earlier this year. It feels like forever since we've been out of country!

Travel (in country) - Malachi and I are leaving for Dallas in less than 48 hours woohoo!! I'm so excited to go "home." I'm even more excited that John's joining us on Saturday to see some of his friends and so that we can go to FOJ as a family on Sunday morning. He got a late flight on Sunday night so it gives us all of Sunday together too. Unfortunately since our trips are short, I'm having a very, very hard time figuring out how to spend my time. John has a ride from the airport and is going to hang out with one of his best friends for brunch. Funny (short) story: I'm going to breakfast with said friend's wife earlier that day. That breakfast, my shower, and church on Sunday are my only set plans. So if you're a good friend expect a call or an email today or tomorrow to plan something during my time there.

Pregnancy - 25 Weeks today! This is the first day of my last trimester and the pregnancy is going pretty well! I have some aches and pains here and there but I push through them. I've been having a hard time the last couple of weeks not over doing it. I know that will be a huge issue this weekend in Dallas, but I'll try to get rest. John has been amazing to me the last few weeks. He's taking care of Malachi so much and cooking so much, it's awesome. He's been such a good husband, such a blessing to me.



Halloween - We had a great time this year! This was Malachi's first year to go trick-or-treating for real. His Pirate costume was a big hit. He got a ton of candy in about an hour and a half of 'treating and he's been very nicely sharing with mommy and daddy. John and I had a lot of fun as parents watching him do things that we did as kids. Next year we'll be at the embassy doing embassy parties and embassy style trick-or-treating which is different at different embassies/consolates.



How'd I do? I think I might have gotten into to much detail on some of those, but oh well. I think the format breaks it up enough to make it easier to read.

I know I've said this

but I feel like there's very little time to blog. Really when I look at my day not everything I do is valuable, but with the pregnancy and the exhaustion that came with it, I really don't do much more than necessary.

We've had a pretty good week! No more seizures this week. However, life for me is very stressfull because of the last one. Any time he trips, lays down on the ground, or anything that a normal three year old can get away with happens my heart stops. I've done a lot of praying for him, but I still don't want him to go unwatched.

Rick and Mickey came into town on Friday morning for the holiday weekend. We brought them to our favorite restaurant so far Dogfish Alehouse. John's really liked their beer, so we thought we'd try their restuarant. In the last two weeks we've been there three times, and I think we're going again for dinner - unless he wants me to cook.

Yesterday after nap time we made our way to the metro and to Washington, DC. John has some great pictures on his blog from the day. I was very skeptical of going - I really, really didn't want to brave the crowds with a 3 1/2 year old. But we learned that if we're in town next year we don't have to be nearly as cautious as were were yesterday.

We went downtown at 4:00 and I sat for an hour saving our spot (which was really good). John, Rick, Mickey, and Malachi went to the National Air and Space Museum which Malachi loves! When Rick came to relieve me of my post as space holder I joined John and Mickey on the Mall between the NAS Museum and and the Natural Galery of Art. I needed to eat dinner so I bought a ham and cheese sub and ate on the steps of the National Museum of Natural History. We then went to that museum which consisted of Malachi running to all the things that he really likes. I noticed he was most interested in the things that were at his level. The large dinosaurs and the big whale didn't interest him nearly as much as I thought they would.

After that museum we made our way back to our spot and hung out for about an hour and enjoyed a spectacular fireworks show. There was a large tree in the way of some of the lower ones, but otherwise we had a great view! We left shortly before the finale and made our way onto the first metro out of downtown. It got a bit crowded, but I know it would've been much, much worse after that train. We made it home by 10:30. We all thought we'd still be waiting for a train at that time, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Now I'm being pressured off the computer because we're heading to breakfast.

I hope everyone had a great 4th!