Monday, June 21, 2010

Father's Day Weekend

A few cute pics from the week...












Pre-playset play...



We spent a nice quiet weekend at home over Father's Day. The weather Saturday was partly cloudy but warm, whereas Sunday was nasty - foggy, on and off sprinkles and about 55 degrees. My parents spent the day with us on Saturday and it primarily consisted of Dad & Dean (aka. J&D Construction; formerly J&D Moving/Packing/etc.) constructing Ainsley's new slide & swingset - affectionately known by us as "The Taj Mahal of Play Equipment"!!! And what a project it turned out to be!!! J&D spent 10 hours on it Sat,






Dean another 8 on Sunday,



and FINALLY finished it tonight - whew!!!
And only one leftover piece (determined by Dean to be non-important)!!! Ainsley LOVES it of course, but is a little timid of the slide since it's pretty steep and fast and she hits the ground flying. We catch her at the bottom right now until we can figure out something to pad it. The sand box is in place and the playhouse will be here Saturday and then the Short Playground will officially be open for business. We decided as long as it's looking less likely we're building (still waiting on word from the bank), we needed to expand our "play area" as we're getting more and more cramped inside. Here's hoping to good weather this summer so we can spend LOTS of time outside this summer!

Work is finally becoming more manageable - I've started taking a half day on Mondays plus my day off on Tuesday and it's helped immensely. Plus my staff have started to schedule lighter which has also made a difference. Only 2 weeks of work left - hard to believe, really. Not that I won't be working at all, still have to be involved behind the scenes, just not seeing patients for 7 whole weeks!

I hit the 37 week mark on Saturday and am definately feeling it. Into the home stretch and uncomfortable, though I remember it worse last time. Maybe I just don't have the luxury of sitting around and thinking about it this time!!! Especially not with a little Boo constantly asking - "What doing Mommy? Why, Mommy?" etc. Still have managed to keep the weight down (approx. 30 lbs less than last time - woohoo!) and am not suffering the cankles and lower leg edema like before.
38 weeks before...
Today...
Maybe I'll actually take it off faster than 1 1/2 years this time too!!! I'm hoping to be bathingsuit ready by March actually, as we are considering a family trip to Mexico with my best friend Catherine and her family. Plus, would love to do the Danskin Tri annually since I had so much fun the last time (minus the swim). This year is impossible as it falls 4 weeks after my c-section. Oh, and on the VBAC front, as suspected, a no go. I got the phone call Friday from the Chief Medical Officer at the hospital who personally believes in VBAC's but hospital policy and insurance will not allow it. If I was gung ho for it I could go live in Seattle until I go into labor, but that's NOT going to happen. And I'm most certainly not waiting to drive there until I start laboring, especially after last time. So unless I go into labor early (which they've got bets on at my office!), little Ian Parker Short will be born around 7:30am on July 8, 2010. Weird to know the date and time!!!! Also, a little bit of a hard pill to swallow - the whole idea of not truly experiencing childbirth. Ah, c'est la vie.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Beautiful Weekend

So summer is definately on it's way as the temperatures finally move into the 70's and the sun makes an appearance!!! I spent Sat am at work, while Dean & Ainsley spent the morning entirely immersed in World Cup World. ONE WHOLE MONTH OF SOCCER - oh my!!!!! Of course, the house was cheering on England


and was mightily disappointed by the ridiculous gift of a goal the goalie gave the US.

The afternoon was spent napping and playing with Ainsley's new water table. We had finally decided last week to buy the Costco playset we've been eyeing the last couple months and of course they were sold out!!! Hoping they come in soon so we can start spending more time outside and staying entertained. Especially with our little man so soon to make an appearance!!! 36 weeks today and counting down the minutes!!! Definately into the uncomfortable phase and ready to meet our little guy. No word from the hospital on a change of VBAC policy, so still planning on July 8th c-section at 7:30am unless we hear differently.


Looking forward to another nice day tomorrow and keeping my fingers crossed that no animals get sick!!! This is my LAST weekend of call until August - woo hoo!!!! In jest, I even said to Dean this am that a couple months off call is almost worth getting pregnant again - he was not so inclined!!!

Joint Birthday Party

On our one beautiful day last weekend (luckily!), we celebrated Ainsley's birthday along with 6 other kids. All of the kids are between 1 - 4 (most are 2) and their birthdays all fall between April and July, so we decided instead of attending 7 individual birthday parties and getting 6 different gifts, let's draw names and have a big party with all the kids at once sometime in the middle. It worked great and everyone had a fab time!!! We went to the Olympic Game Farm (local drive-through zoo) and had the gift exchange and paparazzi-esque photo session. One of the moms (so creative!) made little t-shirts for all the kids with their birthday number on it.




Next it was off to drive the farm where you can see all the caged animals, but then others roam free and nearly attack the cars to get slices of bread you can feed them. The yaks, fallow deer, and buffalo are very forward literally putting their heads into your car windows!!!



Fun, but a little scary for the kids! Especially the rambunctious buffalo that was literally jogging alongside our car and shoving his entire huge head into the window!!! Unfortunately, since I was just trying to keep bread in his mouth and keep Ainsley from getting too scared and avoiding being licked myself - no pics of him. After the farm we headed over to one of the family's house for a potluck and cake and most importantly, swingset time!!!! All in all a great day... might make the joint party a tradition!!!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

FOUR day weekend!!!

Yes, you read that right, we actually had a four day weekend over Memorial Day!!!! Although the weather has not really cooperated, the time off has been a huge relief and welcome respite. We kicked off the weekend with super late Friday nights of work - me finishing about 7:30pm and Dean getting home sometime after 10pm. Saturday we headed out to Brinnon where we toured the Brinnon Shrimp Festival. For a very small town, it had quite the turnout. Beyond the highlighted belt sander race, they had the "European Super Slide" ($3 a slide or $7 for 3 slides - HIGHLY overpriced and overrated but A LOVED it!!! And what the heck does European have to do with anything???),
a bouncy house (a little too crazy for our taste - maybe when A's a little older), and a pony ride - again, a fave.
Spending the day and night with Grandma & Grandpa was great too - love the fact Grandma has so many wonderful books and songs and toys!!!!
After A went down, we played 13 rounds of Mexican domino train - tons of fun and Dean beat out mom by just a few points (Dad & I were decidedly much worse!). Sunday morning after a brief stop for a delicious breakfast at the Timber House in Quilcene and a quick jaunt on the very windy Quilcene marina beach, we headed home for a relaxing afternoon - much of it spent asleep after a poor night of sleep at the cabin. Monday we decided that Dean is definately nesting as we managed to organize our very messy medicine closet by 8am! We then spent some quality time at the park with Shannon & Payton where the sun actually came out for a good hour!!! Today has been made up of primarily appointments this am, but we're enjoying another relaxing afternoon and evening here at home.
Looks like "jazz hands"!!!!!

On the pregnancy front, little chumlito is head down and we're just waiting to see how my efforts for a VBAC pan out. 5 weeks from Thursday is C date otherwise - feels like I'm counting down the minutes!

We looked at the Toyota 4 Runner today and have decided we like the interior/exterior design much better than the Pilot, so we'll be working on that project as soon as we hear our final offer from the bank. The more Dean & I have discussed it, the better waiting is sounding. Just the idea of multiple trips to Seattle alone is a HUGE turnoff right now - I was uncomfortable enough in the car to & from Brinnon. And who knows, maybe we're looking more at the fall than next January as it is. Hoping to know more, irregardless of what we decide, over the next week or two...