Pregnant Belly Dancing: A New Pregnancy Trend

Apparently, there is a new trend for pregnant women--pregnant belly dancing. Yep, women in their third trimester baring their bellies and getting down.

First of all, WHAT? Secondly, The movements that they were making looked kind of painful for a pregnant women. At least they did to me, and I can still run part of the time during my morning workout.

More importantly, my belly should not be seen in public--ever. I don't think any amount of gyrating would make my stretch marks look any prettier. As a matter of fact, I'm quite positive that it would have the opposite effect. I'll go try it out in front of the mirror and let you know.

Mmm yep. Not a pretty sight.

Well, I guess I'll have to sit this pregnancy trend out.

Memorial Day

I guess we didn't want to waste any of our holiday or something because our memorial day started at 6:30 am! Actually it started earlier for me. 6:30am is when we left for the Hot air balloon festival in Anthony NM. We actually got there in time to see more action this year. The last two years we have gotten there too late and just saw the tail end of it.

Here we are all crammed in the front of the van to get a better look. These are our two favorites. The purple one is a monster and it is so cute! I wish we could have gotten a better picture but it was next to impossible.

In the afternoon the kids got to play with Hailey's "wet n' wild" toy that she got for her birthday. That lasted all of 10 minutes. You can tell that you have acclimated to El Paso when your kids are freezing in 90 degree weather. ha ha.

After that Hailey got to use her gift certificate to Chuck E. Cheese's that Aunt Mandi gave her for her birthday. The kids had a blast but I have to say, Jackson and Alexia are serious saftey hazards in that place. They were climbing all of the rides. Particularly when there were other people on them. People that we don't know. I'm sure they were quite annoyed. Probably not as annoyed as the guy who was playing Skee Ball. Jackson kept trying to run off with the balls. Hailey and Garrison were good sports though. Jackson kept stealing the balls and chucking them up the lane. More than once he grabbed the ball and started running up the lane. Conal had to actually climb up on the the game and chase him up to the top. It was so funny. I wish I had a picture but unfortunately it all happened too fast.

Jackson and Alexia did get to go on a few rides that were age appropriate. They loved this "Wheels on the bus" ride. This little bus sings "The Wheels on the Bus" song and they both would sing a long. Well, Jackson just says "round and round" over and over but close enough.

A rude awakening

Imagine this: It's in the middle of the night. The house is quiet. You are sleeping peacefully. And then.......the person next to you.......jumps out of bed.........screaming.

Unfortunately for Conal, this has happed too many times in the last couple of weeks. I'm lucky he is a patient man and doesn't freak out too easily. The problem is that I keep getting "charlie horses". This was also a problem when I was pregnant with Garrison and in the 3rd trimester. Man, those things hurt! They are so bad that the only thing that will get rid of them is to quickly stand on the leg with the problem. Believe me, you have never seen a pregnant woman jump out bed this fast. Don't ask me why I can't jump up that fast when I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but that is another post.

I really do try to be quiet about it, but I end up making somewhat of a commotion everytime. One time Conal said, "Man, I thought you were being attacked or something!" Poor guy! Sorry Con!

Are your kids sugar deprived or something?

I'm sure everyone at Conal's cousin's wedding reception thinks my kids are sugar deprived or something. First, Garrison was drinking some Horchata and he said "Mom, this is GOOD. It has SUGAR in it!" Then a few minutes later, Alexia and Jackson downed two huge pieces of cake between the two of them. Jackson kept saying "more, more" and Alexia kept trying to box him out with her elbow to get the next bite. They were seriously acting like they were starving to death or something. The funny thing is that we had just eaten dinner right before the reception, and the kids had gone to a birthday party earlier in the day and had been eating candy, and other treats all day.

I've decided that kids and wedding receptions aren't the best mix. It was a backyard reception (very pretty) and we couldn't keep Jackson and Alexia out of the their dog house. Then Jackson wouldn't leave Aunt Carol's walker alone. He was pushing it everywhere until Uncle Mac gave him a ride on it. Then he really wouldn't leave it alone. ha ha.

All things considered, our kids weren't the worst that they've been at a wedding reception. At least no one had a meltdown or anything. Plus they got to play with their cousin Lane who came with his Mom and Dad to visit and to go to the reception.

3 year old + baby powder = disaster area!

It was sort of funny when it first happened, not so funny when I was cleaning it up for 3 hours, and now I can finally laugh again.

I think that the "Keep out of reach of children" warning on the bottle of baby powder is less from the danger that the powder itself poses and more for the danger that a child may find him/herself in once their parent sees the mess they have made with said bottle of baby powder.

Holy cow! One bottle of baby powder can make such a mess. You can sort of see the mess that the baby powder made on the floor but this picture just does not do it justice.

It was ALL over the main floor. It was on every hard surface. I had powder handprints on everything. It was so hard to clean up. I dusted 3 times, vaccumed with my floor mate 7 times and mopped 4 times. We are still finding baby powder in the strangest places. I got out the crockpot this morning and it had a film of baby powder on it. I have no idea how that happened---it was in closed cupboard when the "incident" occured.

Apparently I need to heed the "keep out of reach of children" warning. ha ha.

Your weapons are useless against them!!!

Anyone remember that line from Tommy Boy? It's where they are driving drunk and in order to avoid being busted by the police they drive recklessly into a field and jump out of the car pretending that they are being stung by a swarm of bees. The police officers finally leave once they yell "Your weapons are useless against them!" Classic.

Anyway, a couple of days ago this scenario kept running through my head as the bee body count kept rising in my master bathroom tub. The first time I was in there, there were 5 bees buzzing around. I went in a half hour later and the count was up to 15. By the end of the day I counted 22 bees that I either cleaned up or had to kill. Yikes! WHAT is going on?

Apparently, bees built a hive in a little space in our roof and they were getting into my bathroom through the vent. I don't even want to know how many bees were in there. EW! Luckily, we have a really good pest control guy who knows how bad this kind of thing bugs me (no pun intended) and although he laughs at me for it all the time, he came over to check it out. They had to come back the next day in their bee suits (feel sorry for them, it was close to 100 degrees outside) to take care of the problem. So far so good. I hope the problem is fixed! If not, I guess bees aren't SO bad. I'd take all 22 bees over ONE scorpion, and I'd take that one scorpion AND the 22 bees over one itty bitty little mouse. My family may not believe me on that though. They saw me run all over a park with my plate of food in my hand to avoid bees. Personally, I think running around while eating is a good way to work off the calories as you are putting them on ;).

Is this your first?

I have heard this question so many times the last couple of weeks. It is becoming a great source of entertainment for me simply because of the response that I get back when I say "Nope, its my 5th!". It is seriously SO funny.

A couple of weeks ago the lady who was taking my blood for my glucose test was just making conversation and asked if this was my first baby. When I told her it was my 5th she sat there with her mouth wide open for like 15 seconds until I started chuckling. Then she said "Oh sorry, I just thought that you look WAY too young to have 5 kids". While, I will accept the compliment about looking too young, I think that the wide open mouth was more because she was thinking "Do people even have 5 kids anymore?"

My friend Cynthia (who is also expecting her 5th I might add) said that people seem to think 4 is a lot but when you go to 5 you have crossed some sort of imaginary line and now you have a TON of kids. You must be right Cynthia!

The wide open mouth response has not been uncommon. Usually after the shock has worn off the person will say something to the effect of "Well, good for you!" or "Well, congratulations!". However, the obvious initial shock still makes me giggle everytime!