Brag & Blab Monday

I KNOW!! I'm finally posting again! Are you shocked? It's been nearly a month! (And I was honestly SURE that it was longer than that, as I haven't even OPENED my blog since my morning sickness kicked in, and I honestly thought it'd been more like 2 months)

I have to say, too, that I am truly touched by the emails I have received by my readers inquiring about my health, and questioning weather or not I'm alright. Yes! I am! (A little woozy and lacking energy, overly exhausted and extremely cranky, especially if one were to ask my Lilly- but I'm okay!) And I'm back- though, I can't guarantee I'll have the stamina to blog every single day yet. MOST of my days are pretty okay lately.

This is really the shortest stint of morning sickness I've EVER experienced. With Lilly, it was like a perpetual stomach flu for 16 weeks, with multiple bouts of vomit per day, lots of sleeping from the time I got home from work on Friday night, not even waking for meals, until I had to wake for work on Monday morning, and food aversions so strong that I would vomit at the thought of them. My strongest craving was cheese puffs, though no one- including my pastry goddess mother in law- new what they were or how to make them. Truth was, neither did I. I had NO idea. I just heard them mentioned while watching That 70's Show and wanted them desperately.

With Mahone, the frame was about as long. 16 weeks before it let up, though i vomited twice only, and my biggest aversion was laundry detergent. I still remember my house being a pigsty and my laundry piling up to major proportions. I craved 2 things with that pregnancy- cheese dogs from Hot Dog On A Stick, peach flavored soft serve frozen yogurt. I wasn't able to get either of these things. I lived in New Jersey at the time, and the closest Hot Dog on a Stick was in Ohio. There WAS a TCBY at every truck stop along the utterly and horribly distorted and confusing interstate highways, though they only had chocolate, vanilla or swirl. Obviously, since I was craving peach, they were not satisfactory. The other possibility was the TCBY in Atlantic City, which was over 2 hours away. I planned to go on some weekend. But we never made it.

Scarlet was much better, and while I had that gooey nasty feeling in my belly nearly all the time, but I didn't throw up once. My house got messy, my laundry piled up, and I was ridiculously mean to my children for a few months, but otherwise, I got through it without serious issues, though it still lasted the average 16 or so weeks. I had serious cravings for raspberry filled doughnuts, which was spectacular because we had a Krispy Kreme down the street from us. The other thing I craved was a lemon dessert from Johnny Carrino's that was just divine. It was a lemon flavored cake that was filled with a creamy lemon filling, and smothered in a tangy, sour, lemon sauce and topped with sweet strawberries. I wasn't NEAR a JC's, but when we went to Birmingham for a temple trip, i was able to have lunch there, only to discover that they had discontinued the lemon dessert. GAH!!!!! You can imagine my frustration.

THIS pregnancy, however, has been solidly different. My morning sickness has been less sickness, and more exhaustion. Much wooziness, but not a LOT of actual nausea. Not that it isn't there. But then, it's also mostly at night. I'm usually fine in the morning, start getting tired around Scarlet's nap time, and then by the time they're in bed I'm sick enough to flop into bed with the lights on and crash and burn. At least I can mostly sleep through the worst of it. It's letting up, too. I feel much better more often, and I'm only at 10 weeks. That used to make me nervous, as a sudden disappearance of symptoms could mean travesty. Thank heavens for my sweet and patient nurse, who has spent much time with me on the phone, calmly, willingly and supportively calming my fears with reassurance and understanding. I have noticed that, even though i feel much better than I normally do, and some days I feel pretty normal, it is far from a 'sudden disappearance' of symptoms. I can always count on my exhaustion to kick in at least by bedtime. And in the mean time, I'm counting myself lucky. I'm especially more confident in my condition as I started being able to feel sweet baby flutters about a week ago. I am, as of today, 10 weeks and 4 days!!!

So anyway, now that you've had a not-so-short rundown of my entire pregnancy history, I can get on with my blogging.

Brag and Blab Monday.

I won't be including a mr. linky this week, as I'm writing this Monday night, and normally I post my blogs the night before the day it will be 'valid' and so, tomorrow doesn't really count for this. Also, I have to warn my Touchy Topic Tuesday fans that I won't be posting one tomorrow. I will be posting tomorrow night, but it will be for Wordless Wednesday and You Know You're A MOM When... BUT, assuming I still am feeling up to blogging next week (chances look good) then there WILL be a TTT- which seems to be a favorite amongst my readers.

So here you go, friends: Brag And Blab Monday!!!!

Brag:

I took Lilly to her kindergarten assessment on June 1st, and Lilly did spectacularly!!!

Let me break a few things down.

Our kindergarten has 3 classes:
Monday-Friday, with Wednesdays off Mornings or Afternoons.
And a full day class that goes Monday- Friday, no day off.
Well, I learned awhile ago that the full day class is only for students who essentially don't know anything and are not ready for kindergarten.

The teacher, upon finishing Lilly's assessment, asked what my preference was, and I said Mornings, (because morning starts at 8:20, and then ends at 12:00, and on Tues and Thurs, Mahone has preschool in the afternoon an hour away. Preschool doesn't get out until 4, so I'd need her in the morning or I'd have to have a babysitter pick her up at 3:20 until I got home at 5:00...LOOOOOONG story)

Anyway, the teacher asked me if I might consider putting her in the FULL DAY class because she gets to choose EXCEPTIONALLY SMART STUDENTS to fill 1/4 of that class because the peer interaction that the not-on-par students get from the exceptional students is just as beneficial for them as the teacher's attention!!

She said that she is very impressed with Lilly, and the only POSSIBLE way she can get into the full day class is if she comes in as one of the exemplary kids.

Of course I asked if this class would hinder my daughter's education at all, and she said absolutely not, because the work day is actually very intense. They don't have homework because of the intensity, but they do a lot of work in class, and she said that she has been teaching the full day class for 15 years and has NEVER had an exceptional student fall behind or become bored as they actually can in the mainstream kindergarten classes. She said Lilly is quite possibly too advanced for me to put her in a regular class, and she would worry about her progress THERE.

She also asked if my son would be skipping a grade and coming into kindergarten this year (just in talking to him, she learned that he can already read and he'll be four in July) I told her no, that he'll still be going to preschool this year.

So I came home and called Lilly's preschool teacher (my mom) and talked about it. We're putting Mahone in the morning class instead of the afternoon, and I'll be back at noon before Lilly is out of school at 3:20, though on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'll have to ask another mom on the playground to watch her until school starts as I'll have to leave by 8:00 to get my son to school.

Anyway, we're working things out because my mom, I and her future teacher feel that this is the best thing to do for Lilly so that she doesn't get forgotten or ignored because of the abilities she already has. Of course, there's a small possibility that she won't be able to make the class because the teacher DID say that she has to do more assessments and they only have a limited number of spaces. I'm not too worried, though. Lilly really IS awfully brilliant.
I'm SOOOO proud!

Blab: There are a few things that I really really need to complain about. Believe it or not, during the last month, I haven't been actually dead to the world- I HAVE been online a little bit, mostly on my January '11 birth board on Baby Center. And there are just a few things that seriously irk me about women on that site:

1. I don't give a flying rat's arse what you do with your son's penis. I really don't. It's inconsequential to me, and your child's private parts are none of my business. However, I DO circumcise. Yes, I feel that that is a very educated decision made because of research as well as discussions with our pediatrician as well as between my husband and me. I am sick to death of the attitude that if I HAD done my research, then I wouldn't be circing and therefore, i need to be further educated on the matter. I'm not dumb, I'm not uneducated. I feel that I am doing what's best for my child.

Furthermore, on the same topic, I am so tired of seeing circumcision of boys be compared to tribal tradition of circumcising girls. It is a blatant misuse of argument as there is nothing even similar about the two of them. Female circumcision is done to prevent a woman from EVER being able to experience sexual pleasure, as from that time on, intercourse is painful, and since the clitoris is removed entirely, she can not experience climax. It has absolutely ZERO to do with cleanliness, or even aesthetics as is on the top of the list of reasons for male circumcision. It is done as a sort of chastity belt, to prevent women from ever seeking out sexual pleasure from a man other than her husband- as though it were pleasurable in the first place. Knowing what I know about MEN, there is nothing like this going on at all. My husband is circumcised...and he has now fathered 4 children. Without pain.

I also find it incredibly hilarious that one of the main arguments for not ciricing is that uncircumcised men feel greater sexual pleasure than men who are not circumcised. Am I really the only person who calls Bullcrap on this one? I mean, in order for anyone to really know if the pleasure is so much better, a man would have had to have been sexually active for a decent amount of time to experience enough of it to get an opinion, then be circumcised and continue to be sexually active long enough to claim an opinion. The only articles I've ever read about this sort of claim is made by men who are angry at their parents for having circ'd them when they were babies. And it's bogus. Parents decide all the time what to do for their children, and while there are some pretty crappy parents out there, for the most part, all parents love their children, and only want what's best for them. If one feels that their parents have screwed up because of a thing like circumcision because you don't feel like you are sexually fulfilled, then it's probably a better idea to overlook it in the name of your parents having done what they felt was best, and invest in a Kama Sutra.

And last but not least, while Christians know that the law of circumcision has been removed from lawful religious practice, I find it incredibly humorous that so many people say "God put it there, it should be left there" when in fact, Jews and Christians alike very deeply study the bible- old and new testaments. God put it there, alright, but he also told us to remove it, revoked law or not. Christ himself was circumcised at 8 days old, and the frequent argument that he wasn't, in fact, is ridiculous. I know of NO evidence that Jews practiced a ceremony of 'blood letting' where they prick the end of the uncircumcised penis and let a few drops of blood out- INSTEAD of actually circumcising their boys, though I DO know that in the Old Testament, Moses's wife circumcises their son and then throws the foreskin at his feet. Sounds complete to me. One last thing- Jesus's circumcision was not his baptism, which many passionately against circing mothers say: "Circumcision by water" as opposed to a traditional 8 day old Jewish boy bris.

2. "Stolen Thunder": Who the heck cares if your sister in law or sister, or cousin, or whoever is pregnant at the same time you are? Pregnancy isn't about attention, and if it is to you, then you probably need to dig a bit deeper and learn to love yourself more.

So many people complain about the mean and hurtful comments that their friends and families make in their unsupport of their pregnancy, and the same people whine and cry about a friend who announces their pregnancy and they're due at the same time. STOLEN THUNDER!!!! Ugh. Isn't being all irritated that you're not the only one expecting doing the same thing to that woman, who should be able to be thrilled and excited about her pregnancy, that those unsupportive family members and friends did to you by saying rude and inappropriate things? I should say so.

Anyway, not everyone gets pregnant on purpose. Not everyone announces that they're trying to get pregnant. How do you know they haven't been trying for months? Or even years? How do you know that they got pregnant to spite you? Um...sorry, but I doubt it in 99.9% of cases. You ask "Is it too much to ask for for those I love to be happy for my addition?" Well, now I ask, is it too much to ask for YOU to be accepting and happy for your friend/sister in law/sister, etc. who is pregnant too? Put on your big girl panties and realize this isn't 3rd grade. It's not a contest, and pregnancy should never be used as an attention getter.

For the record, I've never been able to be pregnant with my friends. I've been pregnant at the same TIME as my friends, but I've always been across the country. I would LOVE the opportunity to be pregnant with a friend. Even more so, with a sister or sister in law.

3. Baby showers: Another thing I am so sick of is hearing how it's inappropriate to have a baby shower for any child other than your first.

The most common argument for this is that a baby shower is for the first child because people bring you big items and then you are expected to use those items for subsequent children.

Well, let me ask this question: How many "big" items have YOU received at your baby shower? I was lucky enough to have 2 showers- one with my first, and one with my second, as the first was a girl and the second was a boy. My mom gave me an awesome baby jogger at my first shower, but otherwise, we have purchased all of our big items including cribs, mattresses, strollers, car seats, high chairs, etc. Mostly, people brought me clothing and accessories for my babies, but nothing big. Do YOU take big items to baby showers? Well, I sure as heck am not going to show up at a shower with a 400 dollar crib. (For the record, my regular baby gift is Baby 411, and Teething Bling (which is awesome- google it.) and an occasional book for the new dad called Be Prepared: A Mans Guide to Parenthood.)

Not only all that, but I think that the majority of women who think that only one baby shower is appropriate, are first time moms, expecting to purchase all gender neutral everything and then use it for all 10 children they might have.

How ridiculous. Who wants to dress her baby girl in yellow and green onesies for the first 3 months of her life? Furthermore, who wants to dress ANY baby in blow-out poop and spit up stained baby clothes? Because, believe it or not, even baby clothes wear out.

Honestly, I just don't see the difference between having a baby shower and having a birthday party for a previously birthed child. I mean, do you tell a kid "You can never have a birthday party again because you got one on your first birthday." And do you tell your younger children "You can't ever have a birthday party because your older brother/sister got one, and it's inappropriate to celebrate EVERY child." Uh....no.

Point made? I think so.