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Happy Lunar New Year – Gong Xi Fa Çai, homeys.

Matthew had his 2.5 year well child check today. He is healthy, and exceeding weight and height on the growth chart 3′3″, 42lbs. – Dr. Lewis had to get a new chart that was bigger because it was confusing otherwise. Go M! Next WCC is age 3. He got the flu vaccine and Hep B (I think) vaccine, and is all caught up til kindergarten now. He seemed shocked and betrayed when he got his shots – he frowned but did not cry, but if he could he totally would have cussed me out.

His peeing thing – Dr. Lewis thinks he’s learning how to hold his urine and deposit en masse. She’s suggesting a timed potty training intro for him – offer him the potty after he wakes up, 10-20 min after he eats*, before we go out, when we come back and before bed – to get him used to the idea that people go to the potty.

Lindsey – she just had a weight check and is 7lbs 14oz! Yay! She is actually gaining fast now – the average they want to see is 1oz/day and she is at 1.28oz/day. Dr. Lewis thinks she a) has reflux, but it’s not bad right now as the vomiting doesn’t seem to bother her (and in the last few days she’s totally indifferent to it) and she’s gaining; and b) is not allergic to milk proteins – no blood in her stools, although the mucous in her stools indicates that she’s sensitive to something I am eating, which is not ruling out milk proteins as it might be a slight sensitivity. Based on this I am eliminating dairy from my diet and I am going to journal how she’s doing so if in a couple of weeks things are the same, I am going to go back to see Dr. Lewis and ask for a prescription for something for her. Right now both of us thought we should wait and see how she does as she both ages and as I tweak my diet.

She also has a teensy hemangioma on her right collarbone. Josh has the remnants of one on the back of his neck on the right. She says it is benign, it will get bigger and peak at age 2 at which point it will fade. Nothing to worry about. She comes back in a month for vaccines.

*She said that the vast majority of people poop 10-20 min after eating, and 70% of those people poop in the morning. How funny is that? That pattern describes me to a T!

I have been incredibly lax in updating. Mea culpa.

Updates here…

Matthew is doing great! He is growing like a weed and is probably the boss of you – he certainly thinks he is the boss of us. He is great at wagging his finger and telling Ava to go into her crate, or telling Mama and Baba (or as he likes to say “A-C and Dosh”) “NO!” and “MINE!” He is still his sweet loving self, though, which makes it a lot of fun.

Here is Matthew and Santa. He is not pleased.

I am about ready to pop with baby girl and I tell you there is no one else more excited about this feat than myself. A couple of weeks ago the baby was estimated at 7lbs and 2.5 oz. GULP. If I don’t have a baby by the 22nd, I will be going in for an induction at 8am that morning. I am beyond ready to remove this alien from my body!

Here I am last week at 37 weeks. Full-term.

Same stretch marks as with Matthew! Heheh.

And here is Josh, skeptical as always when I brandish my camera in his general direction.

I think he looks a lot like Gary here!

OK, all pregnancy entry up and coming! Beware!

I am now 19 weeks along. This pregnancy is going by so fast – it is amazing, in retrospect, how much time I had to navel gaze when I was pregnant with Matthew. Now, things are blazing by at an amazing speed, which is just as well! We are all quite excited about Baby Girl Cajo’s arrival…

That’s right! The baby is a girl! Here is a picture of her foot, where she has been heartily practicing the best ways to kick her mama’s butt (she’s doing a great job of it in utero, I will have you know):

Everything looks great and she’s on track gestationally, so that’s always a plus.

Diabetes – while pregnant, is a pain in the tuchas. My insulin needs are increasing as per expected as the placenta grows, I feel like a human pin cushion (Josh affectionately calls me a heroin addict), and it’s always a game – “Good morning! Let’s see how much two slices of whole wheat bread, peanut butter and sugar free jam will spike you now!” Otherwise, we’re okay in this area now. I gave Matthew an old insulin pen to play with after I was done with it and he saw me injecting one morning and uncapped his pen, lifted his shirt, and pressed his against his belly. Too cute. Let’s hope he never has to do that for real.

Other symptoms. Still exhausted. Still nauseated (this is actually lessening as of this past week, fingers crossed). Anxious for this phase to ebb!

My word, how big are you? I have a belly. I have had a belly since about 12 weeks but now it’s not as squishy anymore. And amusingly enough, I am actually down about 4 pounds from the time I got pregnant.

Way to help me lose my shit: tell me that the integrated screening came back “screen positive” for Trisomy 21 (Downs Syndrome). These last two days have been slightly excruciating. I had an amniocentesis today to get some more information about the baby’s chromosomal structure, but wow, talk about stress – that combined with pregnancy hormones had me bursting into tears every twenty minutes. Lame. Anyway, one fun thing did come out of this entire deal – Baby Girl Cajo (no, we are not sharing her name until she makes a final appearance) today at the ultrasound right before the amnio yawned and the tech caught it on film.

So, right now we wait – we elected to get the FISH results (a faster way to get initial data – within 2-3 days) and the final complete results will come in 10-12 days. I am feeling better, statistically, about everything happening, but I think we will still be anxious until we find out definitively one way or the other.

Matthew has been cracking us up lately. His latest favorite thing to say is “baby” while he looks for pictures of babies on the computer or in one of his books. When we ask him, “Do you want to kiss the baby?” he’ll lift my shirt and kiss my belly.

Lest you think he is ready and understands that his little world is going to tip upside down in four months (!!!!!), he is still hugging and cuddling his Gloworm and then hurling it on the floor and walking away. Troublemaker.

Cute, though:

He’s now over 3 feet tall, weighs over 37 lbs, and is wearing size 3T and 4T. Huge. And because of the amnio, I’ve been instructed for the next couple of days not to lift anything heavier than 10 lbs. Ha!

Due date is 12/29/08. I think we are either totally ecstatic or a tiny bit insane. Probably both.

- Matthew loves Dixie, his daycare provider, and the other kids whom she watches. We know he likes it a lot, because he’s treating it like home – all the kids now, as they get ready for lunch, say, “Put Matthew in the high chair first!” because if they don’t, he wanders around, taking food from everyone’s plates.

- Today, I took Matthew to get his very long hair cut. He hated every minute of it, but looks quite adorable. The sad part is that he really looks like a little boy now, and not a baby. At what point will I ever stop thinking of him as my baby?

- I am down 4.4 lbs from my first week returning to Weight Watchers and running again. Both parts of the plan (the eating and the running) have gone better than the first time I got serious, and better than I expected as well. I don’t think my weight loss will continue in this dramatic fashion – I think my body’s a little bit in shock. “What do you mean, run? Christ, I haven’t done this in a year. Where’s my chips? Sour cream? Wait, you mean we’re not going … what are you doing?” Things I’ve learned thus far? It feels amazing to me when at the end of a day I have proof that I’ve eaten cleanly (I’m counting every morsel of food that crosses my lips). It feels amazing to me that my endurance with regards to running hasn’t dropped down as much as I thought it would have (perhaps lugging around a 30 lb baby helps in this regard). It feels amazing to me that I am slowly regaining control of my life again – the very sustenance of it.

It just feels really, really good.

Of course, today we ended up eating our weights in dim sum in San Francisco – we met up with some friends in the Inner Richmond and while the food was good, I quickly realized how sane and sensible eating all week long, with one off day last week, really makes a difference – I ate too much too fast and was too bloated. Ugh. It was quite tasty, still, but definitely not repeating that mistake again.

On the slate for tomorrow – the farmer’s market and a run. This time without the dog – she can’t keep up, the lazy slug.

Matthew and I are going to be participating in a 5 mile walk in San Francisco on October 20, 2007, making strides against breast cancer. If you can, we’d love your support! Click that link to see how you can support us! And thanks!

Big hugs, originally uploaded by caseycasey.

Matthew is so incredibly cute, I can’t stand it. He gives hugs when asked, gives kisses (although right now they’re of the, “I’m going to open my mouth wide and mouth you with teeth” variety), waves hi and bye, and walks. WALKS. He can now pick himself up from a seated position without having to crawl over to pull himself up.

My baby is growing into a real person and I am not ready for it yet!

15 or so uploaded today.

Matthew is -1-.

Here is a link to all of the party pictures – I am too lazy to cut and paste all of them, but here is one of my favorites:

And the cake! What happened to the cake, you might ask?

Well, since last I wrote, a lot has happened. A list, if you will.

1. Josh and I celebrated our third anniversary! Happy anniversary to us!
2. Unfortunately, I was not here for the grand event, as I had flown into San Francisco for a whirlwind adventure and interviewed at a university there for a job that popped up.
3. We went to the Taste of Chicago this past Saturday – it was fun! Entirely too many people, but still a lot of fun.
4. Josh and I went out on a date – a friend of mine came over to watch Matthew while we caught a movie (Knocked Up). Good times.
5. Tuesday, I got a job offer from the school in San Francisco. I accepted it.
6. Thursday, told everyone at work about the position.
7. Bought one-way plane tickets.
8. Ordered boxes for moving (AGAIN).
9. Reserved transportation to the airport.
10. Put our apartment up for sublet on craigslist (if you’re looking for a 2 bedroom near the red line in Rogers Park, email me, like, yesterday).
11. Put a metric shitton of books for sale at amazon. Please to not mock our reading habits of old.
12. Put the jogging stroller that only holds diaper covers now up for sale on craigslist.(it sold)
13. Scheduled a time for the local thrift store to come over and pick up stuff.

So, as you can imagine, it’s been busy around here. I have pictures to upload of our almost-1-year old boy, who really loves giving us raspberries on our bellies (it’s hilarious), we have a lot of purging and packing and shipping to do. The amount we have to accomplish in the next 18 days is overwhelming.

18 days, you say? My last day at work is July 20th. My first day at the new job is July 30th. We fly, one-way, out of Chicago on Tuesday, July 24th, with neurotic dog and all.

Help!

*hic*, originally uploaded by caseycasey.

We’re practicing sippy cup usage; I finally gave in and put the nipple attachment on because all he was doing was sucking a bunch of milk and letting it all dribble out of his mouth.

My schmoopy is almost 1. Crazy.

More baby here.