What the kids have been up to

This spring Lydia took an art class with Abrakadoodle and Dylan did a soccer clinic both at the Vienna Community Center. They both really enjoyed the classes and the added scheduling that was added to our week was minimal although I am a little relived to be done with both.

Speaking of scheduling, I think Dylan has inherited his mother's calendar-driven frame of mind. Dylan always wants to know what we are doing today. He recently told his preschool teacher that his favorite thing to do at preschool is the schedule. (The teacher goes over the day's schedule with the kids each morning - they put the events in order on the feltboard). In light of this, I made Dylan a weekly picture calendar of his own with the days of the week and symbols for the different things we do on those days. It fell apart though so I have to redo it. When I do, I'll post a pic.

The kids seem excited about the baby. They get near my belly and say "hi baby" and whenever one of them is sitting on my lap the other says, "(watch) don't hurt (the) baby." They haven't connected my morning sickness with the baby yet and I've been careful not to tell them that the baby is making me sick. But I think if I did, they still wouldn't feel bad for me, they'd probably still side with the baby. I've showed them what the baby looks like from the development pictures on babycenter.com. They haven't asked too many questions even though we've been pretty open about the whole thing. We've told them they will get bunk beds and Dylan seems excited about that.

The art class really helped Lydia learn her colors and she is getting her shapes and letters too. We've tried to incentize Dylan to learn to count to 100 (he's currently stuck on 13) by telling him we'll get a wii if he can do it. So maybe by Christmas.

Dylan and I go back to camp in 3 weeks. Can't wait. Lydia will hang out with Grandma and Grandpap and her cousins that week. Then we will all go to Kennywood together!

Lydia's language abilities have taken off so well that she can now bicker with her brother (yea). Here are some things heard at the dinner table:

D: I'm right and you're wrong. L: No, I right, you wrong. (Repeat about 532 times.)

D: It's lunch time. L: No, it dinner time. (Repeat.)

D: Ewww, vegetables. L: No say eww dylwin.

Week 10 update

Gosh, am I really doing less for baby #3 already by not blogging about my pregnancy for a whole month? Well, I have some excuses and I will report on the whole month. Excuse number one is that I've been really feeling the morning sickness, i.e., all day sickness. I guess it started around week 7 (last week in April). Then I got strep throat and was out of work for a whole week only to come back to the morning sickness. I've started to feel better this week though. The morning sickness was pretty bad, dry heaves and throwing up although thankfully not at work. I used sea-bands and tums to get me through I guess. But I haven't been taken my prenatals as much as I should and I haven't been eating as well as I should. When nothing sounds appetizing but you know you have to eat to not feel nausous then you go to the junk food. The week I had strep I hardly ate a thing so I don't know how this baby is getting what it needs. I haven't been able to open my (new) refridgerator without gaging (so sad) and I swear there is some weird smell in my kitchen that I can't get rid of so needless to say eating has been a challenge.
My first doctors appointment went well. It was quick. They confirmed the pregnancy and said my bloodwork looked good. I go for a sonogram on Friday. That will be exciting to see the baby this soon.
So with the sickness and the stress over my decisions about work I haven't been as giddy excited about being pregnant as some. But I guess that will come. I am thinking this may be the last time I want to do this. And I told Martin to remind me of that when the "mommy amnesia" sets in. The doctor said she wouldn't treat this pregnancy any differently than my last ones even though I am now (almost) 35. But I am feeling a little of the "I'm too old for this" sentiment. It's probably more the fact that I have two kids while being pregnant.
My feelings on work right now are that I want to quit. I don't foresee any great projects after this year (I actually don't know what I'd be working on now that the crisis is waning). Plus, I'm sort of at a plateau in my career. No real prospects of getting promoted especially if I'm working part-time. So I feel it's a good time to quit. Just found this article today. Wow did I need to hear that.
While I truely believe that God called me to this work up to this time, I think that for the sanity of my family, it's best not to have to commute downtown 3 days a week and put in telework hours during my only free time on the days that I am home. In a lot of ways it's logistics (better if someone is home to pick kids up and get dinner started). Granted we could get a nanny. But that's a lot of work too and she wouldn't be there on my telework days.
And yet I'm torn. There's the financial security and desire to send my kids to private school that may only be able to be fulfilled if I'm working. There's the desire to maintain some sort of career so I can eventually go back full time (in 20 years!). There's the fear that the grass isn't any greener and life is still going to be crazy and I'm not going to get to decorating our house, organizing our family pictures, our office, the kids' baby books (all those things I said I'd do when I started staying home). There's the fear that I still won't be able to (or want to) keep a clean house and will feel like a failure for not being able to do basic housewife things. There's the fear that I won't have the self-discipline to keep with my industry to be able to go back to work. There's the fear that I won't have the self-discipline to do creative, educational, and fun things with my kids and will let them watch too much tv. Part of these last fears is that I'm just tired. I want a break. I think not working will give me that break but I'm going to need to be just as "on" as when I'm working. Then on the other hand, there's the fear that I will end up filling up my time with volunteering that I'll end up avoiding my home and family responsibilities anyway (since maybe I work now in part to avoid doing as much housework). Yet, I know that (at least after the new baby is a few months old) if I'm not working I will be able to make progress and things that I feel are slipping through the cracks won't. It won't be perfect. I'll still forget to send the thank you card or register for whatever by the deadline but it's gotta be better than working on top of that, for me at least.