Our Son the Plumber: 04/30/06

Every since the internal workings of our downstairs toilet have been broken, Sean has been completely fascinated by how toilets work (or don't work). Now when we have to turn on the water to fill up the tank manually he wants to be there to "look at the floater" which of course is currently not able to do its job.

Ian is Well:

Yesterday was his first time with food poisoning so I think he was expecting to feel worse for much longer. After a relatively good night's sleep he's back to his usual self. Neither of us slept perfectly well. I was feeling pain in my hips and Harriet was doing summersaults in my belly. Ian after a day of laying in bed and on the couch was awake. Then Sean woke up wet in the middle of the night so we had to deal with that. Then once again we had to go to sleep and it took us both a long time. So we're both a little tired but at least no one is throwing up.

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Saturday's Plans Put on Hold: 04/29/06

Ian has food poisoning from bad Chinese food near Berkeley. We suspect his lunch because one of his other friends also started feel ill during lunch. For Ian, it didn't hit him until dinner where he felt oddly "full." Then at three in the morning he really got ill. He crawled back into bed around seven this morning and has been there ever since.

I got up with Sean at 8:40 AM and we had a simple breakfast of eggs, toast and milk. There was no point in making either of our "big" weekend breakfasts when Ian couldn't join us.

The Disappearing Farmers' Market:

Sean and I went to the BART station in Castro Valley to shop at the Farmers' Market but no one was there except for a Caltrans gardening crew! Looking online now, I see that we were a week early. Fortunately Hayward runs one year round, so we went there instead. Sean was a big help with picking out vegetables.

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Yoshi and Shamimi: 04/28/06

Ian had Sean with him yesterday because of Sean's cold. He tried introducing Sean to sushi and sashimi but with a cold, Sean wasn't feeling brave about food. Now he's calling sushi "yoshi" and I know he'll be a college student and we'll still be calling the food yoshi and shamimi!

Friday:

Just a few more hours until the weekend beings for me. Sean appeared much better this morning. We talked about taking him to school rather than to Berkeley with Ian but I haven't heard yet where he is. Hopefully Ian will tell me before this afternoon so I know where to go (home vs. preschool).

Update on Sean:

Sean is at school. He proudly announced to to his teacher that his "nose is all better."

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Colors and Miracles: 04/27/06

For the last week I've been reading Colour by Victoria Finlay about the history, economics and culture behind various hues. I'm currently in the chapter about the color red. In it, she discusses the history of carmine (now mostly used as Red Dye #1) and it's harvest from the cochineal insect in the Americas (including Mexico). The bulk of the Mexican harvest was in the cactus ranges in the center of the nation (roughly Mexico city to Oaxaca). Some daring entrepreneurs risked life and limb to smuggle the bugs out of the country (rarely with any success). They would have to take the bugs on the leaves of the cactus plant, wrapped up in thick cloth to hide the evidence from customs agents and police.

I didn't think much of this information while reading the book beyond the interest in bug guts being used for such a lovely shade of red. Then while asleep I made another connection to the info: the miracle of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Her image was found painted on the tilma (cactus cloth) of a local native in the place where cochineal flourishes and at the time that Spain was trying to control the export of the dye from Mexico. If you look at the virgin's basic shape, it's rather like that of a prickly pear leaf. Couldn't this miracle have been this man's way out of a sticky smuggling situation?

I am not trying to lessen the importance of the Virgin of Guadalupe to Mexican culture. She is the heart and soul of the country and as important a visual icon as the Statue of Liberty is here in the States. But can't a miracle have humble and earthly beginnings?

With a New School, Comes a New Cold:

Sean is home today with a cold that he caught at his new preschool. I bet he's really bummed about being sent home: he really loves his new school. Ian is taking this round of staying home with Sean which I appreciate. I have a project I'm working on with a tight deadline. Going home today would not have been an easy thing to do.

Building a Blog

I've been having fun today building a set of working prototypes for a blog we're designing for a client at work. My current job doesn't have much opportunity to build pages from wire-frames (whereas it was a near daily event at Oracle). It's been a nice addition to today's tasks.

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Huh: 04/26/06

Huh? Huh? What? Huh? What? Huh? Huh? Huh? What? Huh? What? Huh? Huh? Huh? What? Huh? What? Huh? Huh? Huh? What? Huh? What? Huh? Huh? Huh? What? Huh? What? Huh? Huh? Huh? What? Huh? What? Huh? Huh? Huh? What? Huh? What? Huh? Huh? Huh? What? Huh? What? Huh? Huh? Huh? What? Huh? What? Huh?

I'm getting very sick of hearing "huh?" from my son but he comes by it naturally. Ian does it too but Sean seems to do it far more frequently than his father. It's not that he can't hear me because if I stop him and ask him what I just said, he can tell me. He just doesn't stop to think about what he's saying and out pops another "huh?" ARGH!!!!!!

Valentine Rose:

At last, the rose bush that Ian gave me for Valentine's day has bloomed. I now am the proud owner of one long stemmed red rose. I hope the warmer weather that is coming will encourage more blooms. The first one is such a lovely saturated red.

Steps: 3500

Playing Pokemon: 04/25/06

Sometime over the last year Sean discovered Pokemon at school. A couple weeks ago he and Ian bought a pair of old Nintendo games, one for the Gameboy and one for the Nintendo64. Unfortunately in the most recent move we lost the power block for the Nintendo64. We ended up ordering a replacement from Nintendo USA and it arrived at work yesterday. So last night Ian and Sean cuddled up on the couch and played the Pokemon game together while I cooked dinner.

Shamimi and Bayonaise:

That's Sean-speak for sashimi and mayonnaise. He has learned of both from another video game, Harvest Moon: Magical Melody. One of the ways of making money (and eating) is to fish and then make sashimi from the fish: this is the bit of the game that Sean has really mastered. So now he's learned about various types of "shamimi" and has expressed an interest in trying the raw fish sometime. He will have to wait until after Harriet is born so I can have some too. Another part of the game is keeping chickens and selling the eggs. One way to make more money from the eggs is to process them into mayonnaise or as Sean calls it, "bayonaise."

On Plumbing:

Last night during Sean's potty break before we went to bed, I noticed that the downstairs toilet was making running noises much longer than it should have. It's had this problem on and off since we've lived in the house. I tried to do the standard fix and the float stick came off in my hand! Then Ian tried to use a screw driver to shut the water off inside the tank and the rest of the mechanism broke. The whole thing was so absurd and it was so late at night that the three of us broke into laughter. The toilet still sort of works but needs to be turned off at the water supply at the wall between uses. This weekend we will buy a new mechanism and play plumber to get the thing fixed.

AFP Results and Being Ticklish:

As both sets of parents already know, Harriet's AFP results came back normal. She spent the entire evening celebrating by tickling me with her feet. She's tall enough now to both punch me at the belly button and kick me on the backside of my C-section scar from Sean's birth. The scar is the one and only place that I am very ticklish. So she ended up tickling for about two hours non-stop last night.

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Siblings at Play: 04/24/06

Yesterday the three of us were lounging in bed: Sean likes to crawl into our bed on the weekends before we all get up. Sean and Ian started knocking on the bedroom wall and then Harriet began kicking me to the same rhythm of their knocking. Later Sean situated himself so that he was wedged perpendicular to Ian and me with his feet on my belly. He started kneading my belly with his toes and then Harriet started kicking his feet!

Halfway Done:

I'm now 20 weeks pregnant. Of course with the planned C-section, I only have 19 weeks left until Harriet's birthday. Where has the time gone this pregnancy? It seems to be flying by compared to when I was pregnant with Sean. I think part of it is that I'm worrying less. I also think that Sean's needs are enough of a distraction to keep me dwelling on the pregnancy. Harriet is fortunately active enough to remind me every couple of hours that she's still around and doing well.

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Easter Eggs: 04/23/06

Easter was last Sunday but last weekend we were so busy running errands and whatnot that we didn't get our eggs dyed. As we're not a religious family we postponed the pagan bit of the holiday until this weekend. Yesterday afternoon after Sean's nap we finally got the eggs dyed. Ours turned out beautiful and colorful. I wanted to take a photograph of them but our digital camera seems to have lost its mind. Next month we plan to upgrade our digital camera to an Olympus SP 320. Since I couldn't capture the moment, I've recreated it (more or less) in Bryce.

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Steps: 4500

Spring Cleaning: 04/22/06

Ian and Sean were a huge help this morning in cleaning the house. We took out six bags of garbage. Ok; Ian took out six bags of garbage. I concentrated on filling the bags and in putting books back on the shelves. Sean meanwhile ferried his toys down to his room to either be put in his "bed time" (bed) or his "box" (toy box).

Strange Dreams

For the last week every dream I've had has been centered around a Hellenistic style mansion that exists somewhere beyond the clouds. Each story is different but they all either start or end at the house. In one dream I was trying to escape with the survivors of a mass murder (including a panther who could take the form of a human male). In another I was the gardener at the house. In the third dream I was out by the reflecting pool looking at the statuary and reading books to Sean. In last night's dream I was among some wealthy folks who were leaving the house for an RV trip into space. We took off in the SRV via an old train right of way and warped to a planet with giant dinosaurs.

Sean Mooning at the Bookstore

This afternoon we stopped briefly at Bay Books. While there Sean needed to use the bathroom. He likes to go in by himself and Ian left me to stand guard outside. I heard Sean flush and thought everything was okay. Turns out it wasn't. He needed a little help and had come out with his pants still down. As I was trying to shoo him back into the bathroom, he ended up mooning the store's owner. Fortunately she has a sense of humor!

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Good Sleep but My Bed Was on Fire: 04/21/06

I woke up at five this morning on fire. Not literally, thankfully. It was just an awful hot flash. I jumped out of bed, ran into the bathroom to dance on the cold stone tiles and to down a couple cups of chilly water. That helped some and I was able to get another hour of sleep.

"Go Away! You're a Horrible and Mean Mommy!"

That is Sean's standard response now when I make him do something he doesn't want to do. It can be something as simple as showing up early to preschool because preschool is closing early to something more complicated like making him eat a little something of everything on his dinner plate. I know some of this added grumpiness is because he's growing through a massive growth spurt. I swear I he's taller each morning. He is rapidly growing into the kindergartner that he will be next year. He seems to be all legs now.

"You Look Cute in your Owl Jammies."

Last night when I was tucking Sean back in from his middle of the night potty break (we always wake him up before we go to bed for one last pee), Sean complimented me on my owl nightgown (a gift from my in laws when I was pregnant with Sean). He gave me a big hug and told me I looked really cute in it. That made up for the earlier name calling. I guess I'm not always a horrible and mean mommy.

Berkeley Barn Owls:

I just read in the Daily Review that Berkeley has adopted the barn owl as the official city bird.

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A New Bible: 04/20/06

Pastafarians now have their own bible. It is on sale at most major booksellers, including Amazon.com for $10.74. I am seriously tempted to get a copy for myself. But first I must BookCross a few more books!

Hot Flashes:

With Sean I was consistently and comfortably warm from the very beginning on my pregnancy. With Harriet, it feels more like a preview of menopause in that I get these annoying hot flashes. Right now I feel like I could cook an egg on the surface of my skin. I'm wearing a thin t-shirt at work and I know the air conditioning is going full blast (because I can hear it) but it's doing me no good! Anyone have a walk in freezer I can spend some time in?

I think my experience is different this time because of the influx of extra girl hormones. I'm also going through PMS type things at the end of each lunar month as if I'm gearing up for my next period: this means breaking out in acne, getting faint migraines and the like. I had no PMS symptoms with Sean.

Helicopter Shirt:

I've finally begun sewing the helicopter on to Sean's red shirt. I've done the main body of the machine last night. I'm keeping this piece as simple as possible. I hope to get more done tonight.

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Sean the Artist: 04/19/06

Sean's recent art piece, Flower Colors, was selected as the best piece from the "Other Applications" gallery on the 3DCommune newsletter. Scroll down to the "Other Applications" and click on the "caligula00" link next to "Flower Colors." As Sean does not have his own 3DCommune account, I posted it under my user ID. Can you tell that I'm a very proud mom?

A Good Night's Sleep:

Ian and I went to bed early last night and both fell asleep almost as soon as our heads hit our pillows. Remarkably I managed to sleep the entire night (some eight hours) without a bathroom break and without any sciatica. Harriet must have found a very good spot to sleep last night. I didn't wake up until this morning when the alarm and then Sean climbing into our bed woke me up.

Eighty Years Old:

Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her 80th birthday today. She invited ninety-nine other eighty year-olds who are having a birthday today to celebrate with her. Happy birthday to everyone celebrating today!

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Steps: 6000

Back to Work; No Sleep: 04/18/06

A number of things conspired against me last night and I did not get much sleep. I was congested. I had bad sciatica pain. I was too hot or too cold. Ian was snoring. Ian does not snore that loud but on nights when I'm already having trouble sleeping it adds to the frustration.

Update on Harriet:

I don't know what's gotten into Harriet but she's been dancing on and off today. She's far more active than I've ever felt her. She's also decided that Sean's not so bad; she likes his laugh. She's also decided the cat's not so bad and now rolls towards Caligula's purring rather than kicking and or punching at it.

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New Pants: 04/17/06

Today I'm off from work because Sean's school is closed. His teacher is at a conference of some sort. Anyway, while helping Ian find clothes for Sean, we realized that he's out grown most of his trousers! After breakfast today Sean and I went to Ross to get two new pairs of trousers for him.

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Rain, Sun, Wind: 04/16/06

We woke up late today: 9 o'clock. When we got up it was dark, windy and pouring rain. Sean had gotten twelve hours of sleep and seemed like a new person for all the rest. We watched the rain as we made and then ate biscuits.

By lunch time the rain had cleared and the sun and blue sky were out but it didn't last. By the afternoon when Sean was napping it was raining again. Now that it is almost dinner time, it is clear and sunny again.

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Ultrasound: 04/15/06

Yesterday everything went well. For the blood work I was able to walk right in. Then for the ultrasound, they wanted to take me an hour early! As I knew that Ian and Sean were coming, I stalled until 4:30. By then I was in desperate need to use the toilet and couldn't wait any longer. A full bladder is needed for the important scans and one is required to drink about 32 ounces of water before the test. For a pregnant lady, that requirement is borderline torture!

Anyway, I had a really gentle and nice technician named Mohamed. He let me run to the bathroom after about half an hour of taking scans. Then he concentrated on taking the scans that we could take home. Since he knew we wanted to be told our child's gender, he called in a radiologist at the end to make the call. She was much rougher that he was but she did manage to get a good scan showing that our baby is a girl!

Near the end of the scan, Ian and Sean showed up. Seeing me on the hospital bed really worried Sean. He thought I must be very sick and kept asking me if I would be all better soon. I tried to tell him that I was perfectly fine and that we were just checking on the baby but he didn't believe me. Eventually Ian had to take Sean out for a bathroom break and some fresh air. The ultrasound was just too off-putting for him. Ian missed seeing that we are having a girl but I got to see it.

Afterwards we went to Carrow's to celebrate the good news. Sean wanted to ride in my car just to be sure that I really was okay after all. He had with him a huge basket of plastic Easter eggs that he had found during his field trip to the park near his new school. During dinner he and I looked inside each and every one together.

Lost in Fremont:

This morning we decided to head down to Fry's for a couple of computer parts. It should have been an easy drive but Ian didn't exactly know where we were going and I had no clue where we were going. As Fremont isn't that large, we didn't stop for directions. Eventually we had to stop for lunch and a potty break for Sean. Then Ian looked up the address and we tried again. At four o'clock, after four hours of circling in and around Fremont we finally found the place.

More Legos:

On the way home we took the 680 up to Pleasanton where we stopped at the Lego store to use most of Sean's recent Easter money to get more Legos for his collection. For $12 one can fill up a large plastic cup with any sort of loose Lego from the wall of Legos. We took a little bit of everything to augment the collection we started earlier this year. Now we have trees, wheels, windows, doors and all sorts of other nifty things.

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Normal Weather and Daisies: 04/14/06

In honor of a normal day of weather (fog on the peninsula and partially cloudy skies in East Bay) I have changed my header to a jolly daisy pattern. Of course we are still predicted more days of rain but I'm not thinking about that right now.

I chose a daisy theme because of Sean's latest art project. He has learned how to use my scanner (including connecting it to my computer, turning it on, starting Fireworks, starting TWAIN, hitting preview and finally scanning) and his first solo project was to scan a Shasta daisy against different colors of paper. I then helped him assemble his scans into one final piece.

The Big Ultrasound and AFP Test:

I'm leaving work at three today to do the AFP blood test and for the big ultrasound down in the radiology lab. Ian and Sean will be joining me for the ultrasound. Even though there is no family history of defects, I keep worrying about seeing something horrible today during the scan. Why can't I just sit back, relax and enjoy the process?

After the test we're going out to dinner. When we get home, I will scan whatever images we are given at the scan.

Egg Hunt:

Sean and the rest of the preschool are going to the Castro Valley community park this afternoon for an Easter egg hunt. We sent Sean to school with a basket and his permission slip. Ian will be picking him up at the park at 4 PM to make it to my scan in time. I hope he has fun at the park.

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Bumble Bees: 04/13/06

Yesterday at school the kids made bumble bees, using their hands as the outlines for the wings. These are hung up on the wall of the school so once they are done learning about insects, we'll be able to take Sean's work home and scan it.

No More Cold:

Ian, who got the cold before I did, is still suffering through the dregs of the cold. He has a cough and a runny nose. My cold is remarkably gone. I think part of Ian's problem is that school has been keeping him up late. He'll be better once he can get some sleep.

Rain:

It is still raining on an off. Around the Bay Area we've had mudslides, falling trees, sink holes, flooding and some homes destroyed. The area we live in seems to be weathering the rain well. We're a naturally rainy area due to orthographic effects so I think our hills and land are used to heavy and consistent amounts of water. The areas that are usually only foggy are now having the worst reactions to more than two months of rain.

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Steps: 3500

Art Projects: 04/12/06

It's great to see Sean working on art projects at school again. He's made a strange yellow and black creature out of tongue depressors (maybe a bee of some kind?) and now a dragonfly. I've added the dragonfly to Sean's gallery and he helped scan it.

The Cold, Day 8:

I have a little bit of a lingering cough but otherwise I'm over this cold. I had another relatively good night of sleep and would have slept better if my right hip hadn't been so sore. I suppose the baby was expecting another night of coughing and had burrowed low to avoid the noise and jiggling as best as possible.

Rain:

It is still raining. Now at 2 PM, it's pouring. The alley is flooded. Ugh.

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Steps: 3500

First Day of School: 04/11/06

Sean fit right in with the kids at the new school. When Ian left him, he was sitting at the table eating waffles and chatting. The topic of the morning was working mothers: "My mother is at work. Yeah. Mine too." and so on.

I used Google Maps to find the most efficient way to get to the new school. There is a definite flow to the traffic from the 92 through Hayward and into Castro Valley. If I follow the flow and then pull off at the very end to go through the hills rather than cutting straight through Fairview and then going along the flat bits of Castro Valley, I cut half an hour to forty-five minutes off my trip to pick up Sean even though the path is sometimes longer.

Anyway, yesterday I under estimated just how good my short cut for Sean's new school was and ended up driving right by it! I had to turn around. Nonetheless, I was there much earlier than I expected. Unfortunately Sean wasn't ready to go home. He was in the playroom with another boy and they were playing with an alphabet toy. They were pretending the different letters were race cars!

It took me about ten minutes to convince Sean that it was time to go home. Finally I got him to go but all the way home he asked if he would be going back to school in the morning. He had a really good day.

The Cold, Day 7:

I actually slept last night. Today I just have a little bit of the cough remaining in the form of a small pocket of congestion in my chest. My nose has gone back to normal pregnancy congestion so it is annoying but I can at least breathe.

Rain:

In protest of the continuing rain (we can expect at least five more days of it), I have changed my header to rain clouds. They will remain there until things dry out and I am able to plant my vegetable garden!

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Steps: 4500

New School: 04/10/06

Sean starts his new school today. He woke up early today and seemed very excited about starting.

The Cold, Day 6:

I spent most of last night coughing. I had two options for lying down. I could position myself to not cough and have sore hips from sciatica or I could cough but have comfortable hips. I am so tired!

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Steps: 3500

Garage Sale: 04/09/06

Yesterday Sean's old day care had a garage sale. We went to buy the remainder of their day care books, a toy for our upcoming baby and a favorite dinosaur toy that Sean had played with. It was also a chance for Sean and Alex to say goodbye though neither one was too keen on the idea. We were there as a family carted away the play house that all the kids had so enjoyed playing in. Watching that being pulled apart and driven away was the hardest on both Sean and Alex.

The Cold, Day 5:

The cold had progressed from an annoying running nose to congestion in my chest and a hacking cough. I think I'll be fully well sometime next week.

Sean Pictures:

Sean supervised this morning as I put a few more of his baby pictures on my site. He's coming to terms with those pictures being of himself but he clearly doesn't remember much (if anything) from before our move to the East Bay. Here are the latest updates:

• Howdy
• Feet
• Math Time
• Tummy Time
• Lake Miramar

Weather:

It's pouring again. We had another 36 hours of dry skies but at five o'clock it started to pour again.

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Steps: 3500

2003 Found: 04/08/06

In December when my laptop's screen needed repair, I tried to get my Cube up and running again. While it worked a couple of times, the hard drive ended up failing spectacularly and I had to reformat it. In the process I thought I had lost all of Sean's early baby photographs.

Last night though, I found most of them! I had copies of the emails I had sent to friends and family in my old imported email from that computer. I've now saved all these pictures to my local copy of my website and will add them to the site as I get the pages built.

The Cold, Day 4:

Last night I couldn't breath through my nose. I stayed up with Ian playing video games hoping my nose would finally clear. At last, around one thirty in the morning I could finally breath! So today I'm tired but my nose is still mostly clear.

My cold has now progressed to the coughing phase. Hopefully this stage won't last two long.

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Dinner Date: 04/07/06

Last night Ian was at Berkeley late to grade midterms so I took Sean out to dinner. I let him chose where we would go and he picked Denny's. He likes their "old cheese sandwich with bears and apple sauce." We had a really nice time. We shared the same side of the booth and chit-chatted about his upcoming new school, his new math book, and plans for the weekend.

The Cold, Day 3:

I can't breath out of my nose. At least it is Friday! Ian says he'll take Sean out tomorrow for a little while so I can just crash by myself.

Barn Owls:

I've been enjoying watching this year's brood of barn owlets grow via the webcam on the Owl Pages. Today I got a really good look at the one of the birds and was surprised at how much it looked like a poult. So I did a little reading up on the barn owl and learned that the bird's moon face is mostly an illusion caused by the placement of the feathers.

Thirty-Six Hours of Sunshine:

We had a brief gap in the rain, about a day and a half of warmish sunshine. This morning it was still hot and clear but now I've just heard thunder and by the time I make my drive home in an hour, it will be raining again. The NOAA website shows a huge mass of rain (with thunder and lightning) heading our way. It's a mile or two off the coast.

I take it back. In the time it took to write and post this update, it has made landfall. It is officially raining again.

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Third Prenatal Appointment: 04/06/06

I had two appointments today: one with my Ob-Gyn and one with a nutritionist. We didn't get any new scans of the baby as he or she cooperated and we could hear a nice, strong heartbeat on the Doppler.

Blood pressure was high as I was nervous. So I'll be monitoring my blood pressure at home again -- no surprise there. As I drive into the parking garage at the hospital I can feel my blood pressure spike. I wish I could force myself into a calm state of mind for these appointments but so far I've had no luck.

In other news, the healthier lunches have contributed to me losing 6 pounds. If all goes well, I can gain 3 of them back by the end of the pregnancy. LOL!

The nutritionist was delighted and gob-smacked that I had bothered to keep a list of everything I've eaten in the last month and remembered to bring her the list. She read through all eight pages and didn't have much advice beyond drink one more glass of milk every day. She seemed surprised as to why I was there since I'm already eating a balanced diet.

Because of Labor Day, my C-section is now scheduled for Tuesday, September 5th.

The Cold, Day 2:

Sometime in the middle of the night my sore throat turned into a stuffy nose. With being pregnant, I already have a stuffy nose. So now it is like someone has filled my sinuses with cement. Normally I can sleep on my back with my head supported by a pile of pillows to help with the stuff nose but not while pregnant. Lying on my back leads to terrible sciatica pain. Some how I did manage to get some sleep and other than not being able to breath well, I'm feeling pretty good.

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Sibling Rivalry: 04/05/06

Yesterday on the way home from daycare, Sean and I discussed his upcoming change to the preschool. Sean is really excited to go to a "big kid" school where no one wears diapers. I told Sean that the baby won't be able to go to his school for a long time because he or she will be too young. Sean then replied that the baby will always be a baby. At that point the baby started to kick furiously as if to reply: "I will not! Someday I'll be as big as you!"

I Have a Cold:

Over the weekend Ian came down with a cold and yesterday afternoon I realized that I now had a sore throat. With being pregnant there isn't much I can do for the cold to mask the symptoms. I'll just have to tough it out and stay hydrated.

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First Day at School with Underwear: 04/04/06

Sean did really well yesterday at school with his underwear. He's confident enough now to go to the potty when he needs to (although he does still sometimes need reminding at home). He had four more days at his old school before they shut down but he really wants to start at his new "big kid" school. I think I'm taking the move to a new school harder than he is but this is usually the case with him and me.

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First Drive In: 04/03/06

This morning was the first post time change commute. I think most people over-slept or perhaps they were stalling hoping the rain would go away: the freeway was nearly empty. It made for a dark, rainy but otherwise easy commute.

Owlet Updates:

Both the great horned owl and the barn owl webcams now have nests of owlets. All five barn owlets have now hatched, the last two hatching on March 30th.

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Steps: 4000

Leap Forward: 04/02/06

Let me preface this blog entry with this: I HATE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME! I hate driving to work in the dark. I hate having my sleep schedule monkeyed with.

We agreed last night to save the clock resetting until this morning but as it was really late (even by standard time standards) I decided I would probably forget in the morning to reset the most important clock: the clock radio. So I made an exception and set that one clock before heading to bed.

In the early morning Sean had a little bit of an accident so I got up to help Ian change the sheets and what-not. I looked at Sean's clock and saw that it said 6 AM. My body told me it must be earlier (meaning 5 AM by standard time) and I hoped that Ian had reset Sean's clock.

After getting Sean settled back into his bed I stopped at the bathroom and saw to my relief that the clock said 5 AM. I was glad to know that on Monday I wouldn't be crossing the bridge in this sort of pitch darkness. Then when I crawled into bed, Ian moaned that he couldn't believe that it was really seven in the morning! Turns out he had also decided to set the alarm clock forward before forgetting! I'm glad we caught the double springing forward before I ended up at work tomorrow at 6:30 AM.

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Steps: 5500

Sharks: 04/01/06

This morning after breakfast we took Sean to the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center to see the new tiger shark tank. Although it is just a tiny exhibit, Sean enjoyed his time there and was fascinated by the beautiful sharks. They also had some fish, some shrimp, some crabs and a gopher snake. All of these creatures are representative of what lives outside along the estuary.

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Steps: 10000