Happy Birthday!

Today at 10:49 am there was a new addition to the van de Boogaard family, Brian and Elsha chapter. William Henry van de Boogaard was born at 8 lbs 1 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. Both mother and child are resting and doing well.

P.S.

Future post to come, I am sure.

-Brian

Officially

I'm calling this labor. After contractions waking me up Saturday night, contractions most of the day yesterday, contractions waking me up last night and contractions ALL DAY today I think it's safe to say this baby is coming soon.

As of now I am exhausted. I haven't had a good night's sleep since Thursday and the only way I've been able to sleep at all today is leaned forward over a pile of pillows in my lap. And that was only for the 3-5 minute increments between contractions. Fun times, I'll tell you what. I suppose we'll be leaving for the hospital relatively soon. We only live like 2 minutes away (the hospital is literally less than a mile from my neighborhood) and I'm not in a hurry to get there.

I'll try not to torture you all with waiting on the birth announcement, so if I can't get the blog updated SOMEBODY will. Wish me luck!

No news

Turns out they didn't do a cervical check on Monday so I have no idea how things are going yet. I'm getting a little antsy to have this baby, not because I'm uncomfortable, just because I'd REALLY like to have him a reasonable amount of time before Christmas. (For those of you saying, "Maybe you should have thought about that last March..." I KNOW.)

Of course, wanting to have the baby is not (apparently) motivator enough to make me get things done. I'm done Christmas shopping for Kalena, and that's it. (Okay, I have ONE thing for Brian.) Parents? Siblings? Anyone else? Nope. Mailed the Christmas cards? Nope. Written the Christmas cards? NOPE. Finished the receiving blankets or Kalena's baby book, both of which I SWORE I'd have done by the end of the year? Nope and nope. I keep thinking, yeah yeah, I'll get to it. And then I realize today is the 9th already and I freak out a little bit. So. Anyone want to watch Kalena for the next week or so so I have time to get things done?

See, all I had to do was write that blog!

Today Grand Junction had a snow day. HA! Seriously. Not that it affects me personally seeing as I'm not in school and I don't have school age children, but it did mean my mom (a high school teacher) got the day off so that was nice. Brian, on the other hand, got his car stuck 3 times between the house and his office. It took him about an hour and a half to make what should be a 10 minute drive. Anyway, it snowed most of the day, but we did take a few of the clear moments to let Kalena enjoy this first big snow (about 8 inches) of her life.

A small section of sidewalk in need of shoveling.

Hanging out on the driveway. (Where she could actually walk around.)

In the snow next to the driveway, where she could definitely not walk around. She thought it was pretty fun anyway.

Maybe now I should write a post about how I'll never win the lottery?

It makes me laugh

One of my Texas friends posted about the snow in Midland yesterday and the subsequent canceling of school for a snow day. That reminded me that while we lived in Texas Brian got at least 3 snow days. I know that the real reason for snow days in Texas is not actually the snow, it's the lack of any way to deal with it. There are no snow plows, roads aren't salted, and no one knows how to drive in the stuff so it's better for everyone if people just stay home. (By the way, just a side note here to the city of Midland-- having trucks sprinkle gravel on the loop is not even close to a good way to deal with ice.) Colorado, on the other hand, is always prepared for the snow which makes snow days MUCH more rare.

What I think is funny though is the comparison of what warrants a snow day in Texas versus what warrants one in Colorado. Take my experiences for example:

In Texas:

At least 3 snow days in 2 years of school. There was never more than an inch of snow, and one of the days school was cancelled just because it was SUPPOSED to snow. (It did NOT.)

In Colorado:

Going to school kindergarden-12 as well as 4 years of college in Colorado got me one single snow day ever. ONE. And that one doesn't even really count because it actually happened in college over spring break. (They did send out an e-mail announcing that all buildings on campus would be closed for the day, but obviously spring break meant no classes had to be cancelled.) Do you want to know how much snow it took to get us that snow day? 60 inches. That's SIXTY. As in FIVE WHOLE FEET of snow.

We always hoped for snow days growing up. If only I'd know that to get them I just needed to move to Texas...

It's getting a little old

This may come as a shock to some of you readers who haven't ever been to Colorado, but not all of Colorado looks like this all winter:

I know, it's sad and a little disappointing to learn that, but it's true. Grand Junction doesn't get a whole lot of snow. In fact, climate-wise, I'm living in a desert. (For all my friends in Midland who are wondering, Midland gets almost 5 full inches of precipitation a year MORE than Grand Junction.) The thing is, in the winter Grand Junction gets cold. Plenty cold enough for snow. Growing up I always thought it was sort of the worst of both worlds, all the cold and none of the snow. I felt like if it had to be cold we should at least get snow to make up for it.

And that my friends, is how I'm starting to feel about this pregnancy. I feel like if I'm going to have all these contractions, I ought to at LEAST get to go into labor! But no. Instead I get to spend all day thinking, "Man, I really wish these contractions would do SOMETHING." I am glad that at least my body seems to be gearing up for labor (something that really never happened last time.) On Monday I get to start the cervical checks (fun right?) I'm hoping I don't have to come out of that appointment extremely disappointed. Anyway, I'm sure I'll post when I do finally go into labor, so don't get all antsy if I don't post, thinking I'm off having a baby somewhere.

P.S. That picture is taken in Boulder and I got it from here.

Maybe it's just preparing me?

Over the last few days around here there has been LOTS of crying and little sleep. Why? We took away the bottle. We warned Kalena that when we came back after Thanksgiving that she wouldn't be getting a bottle anymore. You would think that two bottles a day wouldn't be such a hard habit to break. WRONG. She is fine when you go to put her down, right up until she realizes you're going to leave her in her crib with nothing but a stuffed tiger to comfort her. (Aren't we just cruel?) As hard as it is to listen to her cry, and as much of a pain as it is that it now takes her FOREVER to go to sleep, I'm not giving in. Actually, one of my BIG worries about this whole thing is that I will have this new baby before Kalena adjusts to not getting a bottle and then someone (BRIAN) will give her one while I'm in the hospital and I'll have to start all over later. Anyway, lots of crying and no sleep? I guess I should get used to that.

There you have it

Back in this post I said I'd tell you the most depressing book I've ever read. I have to agree with Kirsta and Kari, Angela's Ashes takes the cake. Probably because it's true. There were parts where I would think, "How can people possibly live like that?" And then it would just get WORSE. If you don't like depressing, don't read it.

The book I didn't find depressing (but my friend did) was The Lovely Bones. It's definitely not a happy story, but lots of stories aren't happy. Part of it may be that when books come out and get great reviews and all I hear is how amazing the book is, I have high expectations. Usually those expectations aren't met. You'd think after being disappointed a couple times I'd learn my lesson and stop having such high expectations, but no.

Anyway, I made it through November again. I'm not sure I said much of anything, but then again I'm not sure I ever do.

Back home

Well, here we are back in Grand Junction. The drive back was not much fun. Even though we left right before what should have been Kalena's nap time, she only slept for about 20 minutes in the car. The pathetic part is that she just wants out of her car seat. After a few hours of driving she will start pointing at her seat belt and saying her word for buckle and signing "please" over and over. And then when you tell her that she can't get out she cries. It's sad. It also gets old very quickly.

We've decided that we're just not doing any road trips for a long time after this baby comes.

Neigh neigh?

For many, many weeks, the only animal noise Kalena would make was a dog. She would say "woof woof" if she heard a dog bark or if you asked her what a dog says, although it took her quite awhile to associate the sight of a dog with the noise. (I blame our non-barking greyhounds for that. Although, never hearing our dogs bark didn't deter Patrick from pointing at them and saying "woof woof" Every. Single. Time. he saw them when they were visiting Texas.) It took quite awhile to convince her that not ALL animals bark. We did finally get the point across though, and now she'll do noises for a dog, a cat, a horse, a tiger (quietest roar ever), a sheep, a chicken, and a lizard (that one isn't so much a noise, she sticks her tongue in and out.)

Brian and I were both interested to see what she'd do when she saw some of these animals in person, so that was yet another reason to look forward to Thanksgiving. We're here in Alamosa with Brian's parents who have 2 dogs, a cat, chickens, horses, and a mule. She enjoys following the dogs and the cat around. One of the dogs is Onyx (she came here when we moved) and Onyx still runs away every time Kalena comes in the room. Buddy, the golden retriever, is much more tolerant and even the cat will sit still for the baby for a minute or two. She enjoys going out to feed the chickens, but the horses are DEFINITELY the favorite.

Brian's mom has been taking her out to feed the horses (they have 11 plus the mule) and she LOVES it. She rides around in the wheelbarrow with the hay and "helps" feed them. (Mostly she throws hay out the side.) As today went on, it became more and more obvious how much she likes the horses. She would go to the back door repeatedly and point out to the yard and ask, "neigh neigh?" and put up her hands in "I don't know" gesture as if to say, "when are we going out to see the horses again?" And when she's out feeding them she'll sign "more" when they run out of hay because she wants to give them more.

Brian's mom has been hoping (pretty much since she found out I was pregnant with Kalena) for a grandchild that loves horses. Looks like she got her wish.

P.S. She is currently pointing at these pictures and saying neigh.