I forgot to blog about Mother's Day. It was great. It really was a simple day- but it was great. Saturday I got red ROSES. I forgot what a romantic flower they are! I'm just gonna say it- Greg never gets me flowers. I'm pretty sure he got me some ONCE before in our whole marriage. Once. I loved them and they made me so happy every time I saw them. I really love flowers. I wish I wasn't so allergic to them! But roses aren't smelly so they gave me no issues! Hoorah! Church is at 8:30am. Pretty early. So no breakfast, well not a sweet mother's day breakfast. But I don't blame him. Went to church, it was nice. Totally random, but sweet- all the men in the ward took over the women's callings and they set up a brunch for us! Tons of sweets, mini sandwiches, veggies, fruit and lemonade. It was really cool. We had a quick lesson and just snacked and talked. It was SORT OF strange for a relief society meeting, but I liked it all the same. And it was really heartfelt and I felt really appreciated as a woman. Came home and we all took a 2 hour nap. It was amazing. Scarlet slept and we slept. This never happens. Sundays are always a mini nightmare with Scarlet. Church just ruins the whole eat/sleep routine and we never know what to expect. It switches around every Sunday. But this Sunday, it was perfect. When we woke up I felt sooooo good. Greg got me some yummy chocolates that I indulged in, even though I was waiting for my glucose test results and was SURE I had gestational diabetes- which I don't. Phew! I was so depressed waiting for my score. I was sure I had it. I feel really spoiled that I don't. Anyway, it was just a really perfect great mellow day! Those are my favorite days! Oh yeah! Almost forgot! First thing in the morning, I'm in the kitchen and Scarlet walks out smiling to give me a paper she colored. It had scribble lines all over it and she totally knew she was giving it to me. It brought tears to my eyes. It was the sweetest thing. Greg told her it was for me when she was coloring it. Who knew, such a small thing could be so sweet and emotional?

Last weekend we went to the Washinton DC Zoo. We have hardly done a thing since we moved here. Since Greg takes the car- all of our errands, doctor's appointments- EVERYTHING has to happen on Saturday. Not to mention someone was always sick for the first two months. On a whim we decided to go to the zoo. The night before Greg asked Scarlet if she wanted to see monkeys and that we would in the morning. Well, we started to wimp out the next morning but the moment Greg picked her up from her crib she excited asked about the monkeys and we figured we couldn't back out then.

Oh man. We took public transit. What a mistake. Greg didn't mind, but he also isn't pregnant. Scarlet also doesn't cling to him the way she does me. It was NOT COMFORTABLE. And I forgot I get a little carsick on metros/trams if I'm not careful. And everything felt dirty. And there was unexpected maintenance on metro, so we had to stop in the middle and ride a bus for awhile and then get BACK ON the metro. The whole thing took FOREVER. It sucked.

Just getting started took forever. There was a sale at REI just for the weekend. Greg really wanted to get these hiking boots so we went there first. Since there was a sale it was the busiest I've EVER seen an REI. It was insane. The line was at least 30 people long. Really. It was nuts. So THAT took a lot longer too. Greg ALSO hadn't received some clothes he had ordered for a trip, and he was leaving really soon and wanted to just buy them if they weren't going to arrive on time. So he had to try on clothes too. 

When we FINALLY get going, then of COURSE Scarlet is suddenly hungry and crying for the food that we JUST put inside the trunk and we're on the freeway. So we get to listen to her cry. Then by the time we get out of the car she is so hysterical she won't TOUCH the food. So the drama just continues. Not to mention this is WELL into her nap time. It was just one of those DAYS.

But we made it. It was hot. The animals were sleeping in there shadowy caves. It was CROWDED. But we saw the monkeys.

 I even saw one poop in it's hand and then eat it. Yes. Really I did. It made me want to PUKE.

Cutest story ever. Scarlet is staring at the window and yells in the CUTEST, most EXCITED voice- "MONKEYS! OO EE AA AA!!!" SO LOUD that the WHOLE ROOM could hear and you hear this roar of laughter and giggles in reaction. It was so cute. I was in the back of the room and just heard the whole thing. It was so cute.

Looking at goats. Scarlet was so brave and kept reaching in and petting it. I was impressed. I wouldn't have done that.

 She had a great time playing in the mist- until a kid knocked her over.

 Back to see the monkeys for round two.

Even though, in a lot of ways, the day sucked for me, I'm glad we spent it as a family and I'm glad we tried to do something fun. 

 The other day Scarlet brought her diaper over to put on her baby and doggie. Then before I knew it she put them on the changing table. So cute!

 Scarlet loves to look at the camera and watch videos, but hasn't caught on we have to TAKE the picture FIRST. This is what usually happens.

 If I keep at it I eventually get something like this.

 Then she put them in the stroller.

 Covered them up with her blankie.

 Pushed them around the living room.

 And got inside with them.

She's been doing it everyday since. Adorable.

I feel really bad because I've been so especially in love with her lately, but today I wasn't a super Mom. It's been a rough day in general, but still- I could've risen above and played with her more, yelled less and felt less sorry for myself. Oh well. No one is perfect everyday, right? Not implying that I'm perfect ANY day of the week. But I most assuredly am a lot better than I was today.

Greg's out of town for awhile. Yesterday went surprisingly well. It was just like the old cop days. Going to bed alone, having a lonely night of tv watching. But it wasn't a big deal. I didn't even get out the gun like Greg asked me to. Today was another one of THOSE days. We went to Target, I decided to register while I was there, because then I'd get a free gift card. The computer printed out my registry too light so the scanner would scan it. They wanted me to type in everything AGAIN. Then somehow she said all I needed to do was print it again. Then the computer couldn't FIND me. Then I said forget about it (I already had my card at this point) then she chases me down and said it was now working and gave me the scanner. Well, the only 2 things I REALLY wanted to register for weren't even there. But I walked the isles to see if there were a few things and there were. Then the scanner started to die and I had to exchange it for a fresh one. It was just one annoying thing after another going wrong. And Scarlet is always hard to shop with. I sort of felt bad, I let her destroy the isles more than I normally do. Usually I'm very watchful and clean up everything she takes down. I didn't do anything this time. I left it all there- is that horrible? The whole thing took FOREVER and I only registered for 9 items. Then we went grocery shopping. I just hate running errands. I hate being in the car. It is such a waste of time! You aren't living in the car. You're just in the car. I hate it. This is why I will never live far from town.

Then out of nowhere my back started hurting really bad and never stopped all day.

I dropped Greg off at the airport before the sun even rose, yesterday, and haven't talked to him since. He tried calling me today, when I was OUT so I missed it! Then he was gonna call later- but didn't. Something logical must have happened- but of course my mind goes a little crazy and I imagine the worst and before I know it I'm planning my future raising my two kids alone and getting really depressed. This is how my mind works. We were supposed to go to a friend's house today, but one of her kids woke with a fever, so we canceled. It's probably nothing, but sickness is the LAST thing I want to deal with right now.

It's taking forever to get Scarlet's lyme results back. I was all fine about it all until 2 days ago and now I'm all stressed again. I'm sick of the stress!!! It disables me.

It's just been a downer of a day. But I shouldn't whine, because everything really is fine. 

I've also been stressing out about delivering here. I don't know my doctor at all. I don't know the hospital. I think I want to do it natural (I think) but I feel really unprepared. Last pregnancy I saw doctors every other day 'cause my stupid placenta and I took my classes and felt so IMMERSED in the whole thing. Now I feel like I've just been tossed in and there's no time to get a grip on how it's all gonna go down. There's no reason for me to worry, I just don't know FOR SURE not to. Like you hear these stories or people say things about doctors being crappy or this bad experience or that. My last one was SO GOOD and I just want it to be that way again. I just wish I've talked to my doctor more than once. Which is so stupid. The woman who delivered me, I'd never seen her before in my life. And honestly- the only thing she ever said to me was, "Push, stop pushing. You're doing great. Do it again." She just directed me in the calmest voice. It worked for me. I talked to my sister today, who had a very similar labor to me- LONG and mostly natural. There were some definite differences though- she dilated to a 9 and just stopped so finally got an epidural. I have no idea how dilated I was, but I do know that I went 34 hours without one and only had the epidural for 7 hours? Since I didn't go through the last and worst part of labor I was all concerned that I had no idea what I was getting into. But after talking to Amy, I feel like I could do it. I just need to prepare myself physically and mentally. I just need to be not stressed one of these days to get to researching it! By the way- anyone recommend any great books or anything to prepare me???

The babe has been hurting me lately! Scarlet NEVER hurt me with her kicks. ONE very particular night she kept kicking my crotch over and over and OVER. Seriously for twenty minutes straight she kicked the same spot every second. It was like she was dancing in there. So after awhile, that hurt. But that was it. He is hurting me now! It seems almost everyday he suddenly get me and I go, "Wo!" and jerk my body. It's always so unexpected! It's like I can't hold still when it happens.

On Sunday the Young Men sang a hymn and I looked at the 12 year old boys and thought, "We're gonna have one of those!" And I got so excited. A boy. It will be so different to have a boy! I'm so excited. I can't wait. With Scarlet, everything was so unknown, as excited as I was- I was in no rush to have her out. But with this one- oh I can't wait to meet him! I just wish he was here! I mean, why not? And then my belly would be gone. I saw a pic of me and I was even pregnant, but you couldn't even tell and I thought, "My body used to look like that! I can't wait for it to look like that again!" It was only 4 or 5 months ago, too. Crazy! Even though I must have been showing (because I took the picture) I just thought, "Man, if I look like that again, I will be a happy woman." My stomach is just in the way now. It's hard to hold Scarlet and read her books. I have to have her on the side of me or on top and it's not comfortable. After I do the dishes my stomach is always wet from pressing against the counter and I never realize until I'm done.

Scarlet is getting so rebellious. People always say "they test the boundaries" and I never realized it was so literal. But it IS. She will be doing something she's not supposed to be doing, but she'll be staring RIGHT AT US and moving really REALLY slow and you just see it in her eyes. She's thinking, "Are they going to stop me? Or let me?" And she used to be so obedient! I mean, she still sort of is- but often now she DELIBERATELY ignores us and just won't listen! I'm just a little shocked about it. I mean, I know it's totally normal, it's just really new for her. But it stinks, she'll just run away and it's so much harder to chase her these days.

Scarlet has her colors down. She is always telling me what color things are. It's great. It makes me want to get into more complicated colors like turquoise because she just has the basic ones down. And she's been way into this ABC book and loves when we sing the song at the end, so now we're working on our ABC's! I feel so silly saying that, she's so young, but she's so interested- so why not? It excites me. I'm glad her brain works. I wouldn't be worried if she WASN'T doing these things, but since she IS doing these things- it's clearly working. And that's great.

I'm pretty confident that Scarlet sleeps in the yoga position of "downward dog". This baffles me. I could never be relaxed enough to sleep that way. But the last couple of times I've seen her sleeping, she is in that exact position. I'm wondering how long it's been this way and how long it will continue. Nuts.

Last week I was browsing through pictures and suddenly I saw pictures from Central Point and we were in our house and my heart just ACHED. Oh man. We were happy in that house. We hated Greg's job, but we loved everything else. We are happy here, and everything is great for the most part- but when I see those old pictures and videos, I get so sad and I ache for home. I ache for our house. I ache for the comfortable life we had there. I don't know if it will ever go away. I just really loved that part of our life.

Oh yeah. Scarlet is obsessed with Snow White. I think that movie is kinda scary. I seriously don't look at the witch parts. She watches it almost every morning. That or Dora. I REALLY want to have her be Snow White for Halloween. Wouldn't that be amazing? Her hair! I mean seriously, it's meant to be.