"My Sweet Sunday Moment" Pillsbury Sweet Roll (Review & Giveaway & Contest)

I've been given the opportunity to try out Pillsbury Sweet Rolls with my family and share the experience with my readers! MyBlogSpark and Pillsbury generously sent me a coupon for the rolls and a "Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack. In addition, one lucky reader will win a Pillsbury "Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack just like the one I got! Keep reading to find out how you can enter to win the prize pack, or a family vacation, or both!

{Pillsbury "My Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack which includes a Pillsbury Doughboy Giggle Doll, blue silicon spatula, blue silicon pot holder and dishcloths.}

When the box arrived with my "My Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack it was standing on it's side on my front porch. I went to pick it up and it made a sound- the trademark pillsbury Doughboy giggle. It took me a minute to figure out why my box was making that sound but then I smiled big when I realized what it was! Chicklet was so excited that when I went to snap the following picture:

a certain little girl reached in and started to run off with that doughboy... ;) I had to snap fast and let her have it because she was pretty much bouncing off the walls with excitement. I was excited about the rest of the goodies and checked them all out while she hugged that doughboy 50 times. We decided we'd be having us some yummy cinnamon rolls sometime in the next week! Seemed like a great family activity to help pass the last dragging days of this pregnancy.

Okay so it wasn't a Sunday when my little helpers and I decided to make our Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, but it sure was sweet! :) We all had to wear our aprons because of course, it's more fun to cook when you're wearing an apron, right? ;) And over our pajamas to boot. Because baking cinnamon rolls in your jammies is more fun. Hey and it was getting close to bedtime so we were just chilling around in our jammies anyway.

Yeah my daughter's cornrows look slept in. Because they are. So there. And my kitchen has baby-related boxes all over it. And my kitchen table is sewing central. Now that you've seen my junk, let's pretend it away and concentrate on the yummy cinnamon rolls and cute kids!

Getting ready to start! Can't make cinnamon rolls without our doughboy, right? I never use canned biscuit type things so I had no idea how to open the can and hubby kindly informed me how. Lol!

Cute little hams aren't they? :D

Chop chop! He's got a butter knife and is prepared to use it.

Thinking super sugary sweet daydream thoughts?

Arranging the sweetness.

The kids were excited. Neither had ever had a cinnamon roll before!

Helping Mommy put the cinnamon rolls in the oven! Careful, it's hot! :)

Our assistant, Mr. Doughboy, with some of the prize pack goodies.

Chicklet trying out one of the dishcloths from the prize pack. She's a little zoned out- it's actually bedtime when I took this so staying up late and baking cinnamon rolls was a double special treat.

Buggie's examining the picture of the finished product and carrying on a monologue about it, which I understood about 10% of. Sometimes when he gets to going on excitedly it's a bit hard to translate... Hehe...

Taking the tasty treat out of the oven! That funky potholder thing from the prize pack actually worked. I was surprised, wondering how something like that would work to protect me from getting burned, but surprisingly it did.

Frosting?! They have FROSTING?! Can I PLEEEEEEEASE taste some FROSTING?! PLEASE!!!!

Yep, it's edible. Can I lick the frosting container out too?

Dishing out the deliciousness...

Hmmm let's see if this is as tasty as it looks...

Thinking...

I asked but they just kept chewing. Hello? Guys? Is it yummy?

Does the rapidly vanishing bites of sweet roll in these pics answer whether or not they were delicious?

Hubby and I had some too and we decided that they were really yummy! We contemplated eating the leftovers after the kids went to bed but decided to behave ourselves and save them to share after lunch the following day instead. ;)

The cinnamon rolls and prize pack for this review, and it's accompanying "My Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack giveaway, were provided by





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**Now it's your turn to join in the fun!! There are 2 things to enter so read on to find out the what, where, and how:

-Go HERE to enter Pillsbury's "My Sweet Sunday Moment" contest for a chance to win a family vacation package! In addition, when you enter the "My Sweety Sunday Moment" contest, you will have a chance to print out a coupon for Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls!
{In an effort to recapture Sunday mornings as the ideal occasion to reconnect with family and loved ones, Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls is teaming up with Melissa Joan Hart, star of the new ABC Family sitcom "Melissa & Joey," for the My Sweet Sunday Moment contest, where you and your family have a chance to win a seven-day "week of Sundays" vacation to California, including a visit to area theme parks and Melissa Joan Hart´s sweet shop, SweetHarts! Enter today by visiting Pillsbury.com/SweetSunday and telling Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls why your family loves Sunday and why you want more of them for a chance to win.} HURRY and enter before September 2nd!!

-Go HERE and scroll to the bottom of the post for the rules to enter the "My Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack giveaway! (This review is posted on both this blog and my review blog but the giveaway is only attached to the one on my giveaway blog. This link will take you to the same review on my giveaway blog. Please scroll to the bottom to see how to enter.) COMMENTS ON THIS POST HERE DON'T COUNT. Please click over to my review blog to enter.

To live-blog my labor or to not live-blog my labor?

Ah decisions, decisions! ;) Would anyone even read it I wonder?

Happy Birthday Bug!

Happy 2nd Birthday, little man! How time has flown! I feel all nostalgic, remembering this day 2 years ago, snuggling my newborn mini-man.

(Trying on Daddy's hat.)
Later there will be cake and balloons and a present, maybe two.
For the morning though, he's easy to please! He wanted cookies for breakfast- lucky I have some Cookie Crisp cereal left in the cabinet. He got his wish. :)
Afterward perhaps popcorn and a movie on this rainy afternoon? But who needs the movie- we'd rather have popcorn and watch the rain! :)

Follow it up with a nice long easygoing nap and we're having a splendid low-key day so far! Now to figure out what to have for supper for the boy who doesn't like real food... hmmm...

Life Updates August 3-10

Tuesday the 3rd of August began with a certain little man going poo in the potty a little bit for the first time ever. He was almost as proud of himself as I was of him! :) His sister was ever so encouraging, talking to him in a high-pitched sugar-sweet voice. She was was thrilled when he went and promptly asked me if that meant we all get an m&m. Hmmm... Ulterior motives? Hehe... ;)

I had contractions ALL DAY LONG and painful ones at that so by the time evening rolled around I was about ready to claw my way out of my own skin to escape them. Why can't I have "normal" Braxton Hicks? Rumor has it they are not supposed to hurt, but mine always do. Rumor also has it they're supposed to feel different than true labor contractions, but mine feel exactly the same; nice and painful like getting chewed in half by a shark. Rumor also has it that they are supposed to not last longer than an hour at a time or else it means it's real labor- I can only laugh at that one. If that were true I've been in real labor for a few months already... should I call up the Guinness' Book Of World Records and see if a 4 month labor makes the record? Lol!

Also this day, between wishing one could escape their own body for a vacation, I taste tested my newest batch of homemade yogurt. I should blog about it soon. This was the third time I've made yogurt and I made a double batch for some experimenting. It turned out both the best and the worst results yet! ;) I shall keep you in suspense until I can do a yogurt blog post. If I put all the details in this post it will likely get lost in the archives quicker than I can sniff out chocolate. I want a less cluttered post for a topic that is informational in nature in case someone wishes to reference it later. Like myself to look back and see what worked and what did not. :)

By Tuesday evening I was throwing up from the pain and wearing on my body the contractions were doing. When they finally stopped near dark after the kids were in bed asleep I cannot even begin to tell you how relieved I was.

Wednesday promised to be another difficult day, with my uterus behaving much like the previous day. The kids were up too many times all night long and it didn't take long for the throwing up to start since I was again contracting and still hadn't recovered from the day before.

Thursday morning at 8am sharp the contractions began again. I see a terrible nasty pattern forming here...

But I was wrong! The contractions slowed to a stop around noon and the rest of the day was actually quite nice and even productive! After the kids went to bed I was cooking up some more beef to freeze cooked for use later, and when I went to put a fresh ziplock of browned beef in the freezer I saw that cookie dough from a week and a half before and had to have some. It was yummy, of course, since there were chocolate chips in it and what with chocolate is NOT yummy, I ask you? ;) I browned up 4 pounds of beef and loaded the dishwasher too. Okay technically I browned up 5 pounds of beef but I went ahead and made it into taco meat for the following night's supper. And then I was having a preggo snack attack so I had a taco. You know, to make sure it was edible. ;) Just taste testing!

Friday the 6th came much to my relief. It was a long week.

Chicklet and I had a tea party. Again. I've been getting my tea down, thanks in good part to Chicklet taking to the idea of having tea with Mommy every day and reminding me. It makes it much more fun to drink tea when your almost-4-year-old thinks you're having a daily mother-daughter tea party. :)

I've been crocheting on Bug's baby blankie too. I hope to have it done in time to present it to him for his 2nd birthday. *sigh* Oh how it grates on me to say that! In my defense, I DID have it partially done by his birth and he spent notable hours wrapped in the finished end of it on my lap as a newborn while I crocheted on the unfinished end. So he really did get to use it as a newborn... :-/ Really. But it's been unfinished for 2 years too long, used or not, and it would really really make me happy if I could get it done in time for his birthday. Which is WEDNESDAY! Oh my how time flies! He's still my little baby, how can he really be 2?!

Sunday the 8th my hubby left town on business again. :( The kids and I had stir-fry for supper. It was uneventful.

Monday morning started with me blowing my stuffy morning nose and starting a bleeder, which upset Chicklet. Again an uneventful day followed. I was up until 1am because when hubby's away I have this desire to sit up all night and guard the house. Not that I'm a heavy sleeper if the house NEEDED guarding, but I'm a control freak, what can I say? 1am is actually early for me to be turning in when he's gone. There was a funky storm and I was up listening to it rumble through and when it finally hushed up I went to bed.

Today an hour after I went to bed, at 2am, Chicklet came in my room to give me a hug. In the middle of the night? Umkaaaay... Then at 4am I woke up to the kids arguing! Bug has learned the word NO and it's his absolute favorite. Chicklet however takes personal insult when he says it. So he's in his crib grinching "No!" and then she respons with a snarl to "Stop saying No at me!" and they were getting louder and louder and I hollered for them to hush up and go back to sleep! It's 4am for goodness' sake! :p But no, No such luck. There was all manner of drama which I had to deal with until just before 6am when they finally fell back to sleep and I was able to go back to bed. The day RE-began at 8am as usual with Chicklet staggering from her bed to mine to snuggle. We got up, me very very slowly, and got Bug up, and then I blew my nose and started a bleeder again, just like yesterday. :-(
But after all that, this day ended up on a happy note because hubby got home and this was his last business trip hopefully for the year! At least for a good while because this coming Sunday marks 36 weeks pregnant (!!!) so they know he needs to be close to home from here on out in preparation for the big event. :) I'm so happy he's home for good! For a few months at least. So today was a very good day after all! And tomorrow my little Buggie baby turns 2 years old! No! If I stomp my foot and cross my arms and pitch a fit can I slow time down do you think? (You're thinking you know where my 2 year old leanred his NO fits... *wink*) If I thought it might work I'd try it. Children grow up way too fast! And next month Chicklet will turn 4! I'm feeling all nostalgic and sniffley now...

'Otion and Uh-oh's - Toddler Tales Tuesday

7/13 An American Girl catalog came in the mail. Bug is napping so I let Chicklet peruse the catalog to keep her quiet. She's been "reading" it for ... an hour and 10 minutes so far.

7/14 Bug (23 months) had a little piece of chocolate covered grahm... I went to wash him after and wondered why his fingers were distinctly less messy than his face and what he'd used to wipe it on. It was then that Chicklet (3 3/4 years) informed me that she had licked his fingers clean for him.

7/15 So I warmed a bowl of soup for lunch after feeding my tots some finger food, and guess how much I got to eat? 3 bites. Yes 3 bites. The other 37 bites are now in two little toddler bellies running around my living room, while the finger food is untouched on the table. I'm sure you other mommies know exactly how this goes. ;)

Weekend of 7/17 Buggie peed in his little potty! I think this is the second ever time and the first time in a long time. It was when he first woke up and I put him on the potty before he had a chance to go in his diap. He looked down and said, "Oooh no! Uh-oh..." but I told him it was a good thing, not an uh-oh! He was excited that he got an m&m for it. :D

7/25 Chicklet comes up to my husband and I with a toy Nemo figurine on a toy plate, telling us she cooked supper! We're havin' fish tonight!

7/30 Chicklet is hugging Bug on the couch. Bug giggles, "Mama! See (she) squishing me!" Hehe...

8/1 I think I'm gonna miss my free daily belly massage. :D My two little helpers love rubbing lotion on the preggo belly. Bug comes running up to me, pointing up at the Earth Mama Body Butter lotion on the top of the computer desk with one hand, making rubbing motions with the other hand, and saying, "'otion" over and over again. As in lotion minus the L. I love toddler-speak! :) Baby gsister loves getting the massages too. And the tots love it when baby sister pushes her feet against their hands as they are rubbing in the lotion. Such a sweet bonding time! :)

8/3 My little man pooed in the potty a little bit! For the first time ever! He's almost as proud of himself as I am of him. :) He was also quite excited about getting 2 more m&m's. Then again who wouldn't be excited about m&m's right? I sure would be! ;)

8/4 Chicklet says to me, "Mama we can go down slides just not on our bellies when we are pregnant... right?" The things she comes up with! Like I'd be going down a slide on my belly at my age, preggo or not! Hahaha...

8/9: Chicklet-ism: "Mama I was walkin' and I stepped on a-sumpthin' ouchie and I fell down and now I don't wanna walk on two feet!"


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If you have a sweet, cute, or funny Toddler (or baby/kid) story, I'd love it if you'd share it! :)
If you would like to post a Toddler Tales Tuesday on your blog, please leave a link to your post in my Linky below, AND post the code for this blog hop in your Toddler Tales Tuesday post! Commenting on at least one of the other linked posts would delight the writer of said post I'm sure - hint hint! ;) The linky will remain open for 2 weeks following the date of this post in case you want to add a post late.
If you don't have a blog or would prefer it, you may share your baby/toddler/kid tales here in the comments.

Prenatal Appointment Update! And Musings on Toddlers.

With all the preceeding week's goings-on, particularly cooking and baking all day Friday and galavanting all Saturday, my ankles vanished completely. Ah my first real cankle-attack, how thrilling... :-/ Not. My dear husband spoiled me though and had me laying down resting or napping all day Sunday! I have to say that was such a vacation for my poor sore tired body, it was just amazing! Isn't he sweet to have babied me all day like that? I was worried about going to my prenatal appointment (rescheduled from the week before if you'll recall) with my feet looking like they were wearing their own inner tubes ready for a float down the river. But thanks to hubby spoiling me rotten, they were almost normal looking by my appointment. Sure I was still only seeing vague bumps where my ankle bones once dominated, and the tops of my feet looked kind of fake what with how smooth and veignless they were due to light swelling, but my toes actually looked like toes rather than a row of vienna sausages and the "inner tube" effect around my ankles was gone.

My appointment was Monday the 2nd and going anywhere in this heat just sucks the life out of me so that's all I did. :p It's nearly an hour away in good traffic so I like to go somewhere else when I go in to the city so I can feel like I got something accomplished, but I just couldn't summon the energy after my appointment to do anything so I just hit the road for home. Upon getting back into my home town I was getting backseat requests to go to Dollar Tree which I'd just been to (for hubby's birthday balloons the previous Wednesday), so I opted for another local store. I thought I'm tired and sore but I'll run in for a minute and they'll feel like we did something fun and then they will nap and I will nap and life will be good. Well we were in the store about 5 minutes when my Buggie got his arm stuck in the shopping cart! This poor boy just cannot catch a break lately, can he? :( The carts are tiny, nearly minature ones, and he had put his arm in the slot between the cart where he was sitting and the push handle of the cart which I was holding, and then couldn't bring it back up again because his elbow joint was bigger than the slot. He must have had it turned in some strange way to get it to go in there in the first place. I had lotion in my purse, because I'm a mom, and I know that one must have a tool for everything in either the purse, the diaper bag, or the car glove compartment! Lol! Meanwhile the lone cashier heard me tell Chicklet to please step aside so I could park the cart and get her brother unstuck, and Buggie pitifully moaning, "I skuuuck! I skuuuck!" The cashier asked me what was wrong and I said, "His arm's stuck but I'm sure I have some lotion in here somewhere..." as I'm digging around in my purse. She didn't wait to see and ran off down one aisle in a panic, hollering for the manager that a baby was stuck in a cart, and the manager came running and then both of them were hovering and clucking and panicking and the rest of the employees were peeking around trying to see what the commotion was about. I was like, "Okay everyone, it's okay, calm down now, I have lotion!" The manager kept saying over and over how many years she's worked there and this has never happened! Never happened! Never happened! How oh how to get him out! She kept saying she didn't know how to get him out. Even after I said I had lotion. Yeah she was really freaked. Then she was jerking on his arm trying to free him and the jerking hurt him and he started crying and then I was biting my lip to keep from snapping at her to BACK AWAY FROM MY KID NOW! I however have had 2 kids who have had a talent for getting their appendages stuck in things, especially between the rails of the crib. *sigh* I do not know how they do it but they can get a finger or leg or arm stuck where it should not have fit IN in the first place. So I'm very well aquainted with the virtues of lotion, and after holding up the bottle by way of an excuse-me since I didn't trust my tongue at the moment, and stepping between my son and the panicking manager and then slathering some on Buggie's arm, it slipped right out with no trouble as I knew it would. The crowd of panicked onlookers waiting to see if I was going to sue over this or not was frazzling my already overbaked for the day brain cells so I assured them that we're all just fine, he's fine, why yes he does have a red mark but trust me he's fine (thinking to self that he wouldn't HAVE a red mark if *someone* hadn't tried to YANK his poor little baby arm free!), and then we escaped the infamy to the car and went home for a blessed nap.

But allow me to backtrack to the actual prenatal appointment! ;) I FINALLY got to meet the head midwife at my new birthing center. I know, right? somehow I've been going there for the last 6 or so months and managed to never have an appointment with the head midwife! I had never even seen her. So when I walked in and a completely unfamiliar woman greeted me, I had a good idea who I was meeting and I was pretty nervous. I had made up my mind to tell whoever I had my appointment with that considering I had never even seen the head midwife and I have a real problem with strangers being at the birth due to my own personality, personal history, anxiety, and just being a shy person all around, I was wondering about the likelihood that the head midwife would be attending this baby's birth. Wondering as in, 'since I don't know her at all, have never seen her, and don't think I have enough prenatal appointments left in my cue to get used to a total stranger to the point of comfort it takes to not mind them seeing me stark nekkid and giving birth, I certainly hope she will not be the one on call, please, oh please, tell me she will not be the one on call so I can quell this panic attack about having to give birth with a stranger!' So of course I go in ready to plead shy and there it's her doing my appointment. And wouldn't you know it but God knows exactly what He's doing- I totally liked her. Seriously. Strangely enough after my one leisurely and comfortable appointment with her I really like her and am totally okay with it if she's the one delivering babygirl! I had to laugh at my human foolishness and thank God for knowing what He was doing even as I had my human worries over something He'd already taken care of. I should have just given it to Him but you know I forget to do that sometimes... more than I'd care to admit. Life would be so much less stressful if that were not one of the many things I'm prone to forgetting.
We discussed PPD and GBS and how to get babygirl off the nerve she gets on sometimes when I can't even walk for the pain. I asked about the painful grinding and popping in my pelvis with every move I make and she thought I could either see a physical therapist or wait it out since it would likely resolve itself postpartum. I think I'll wait it out. I'd rather not throw money at a therapist for something that I had a gut feeling would resolve after the birth even before the midwife expressed that same sentiment. She asked me about my previous breastfeeding experiences. I told her about the difficulties with my kids (well really mostly just Chicklet's tongue-tie and the sub-problems resulting) but that we'd made it to 13 months for both of them before they self-weaned. I told her I was sad not to be able to continue a little longer with them but she told me how great it was to have nursed them for over a year and that it was wonderful that I was able to stick with it with Chicklet with having so very many problems. She was very encouraging. She didn't belittle any of my concerns, or my decisions. And she didn't seem to mind my affectionate kids either. *smile* My tots are very lovey and think that everyone wants a hugging kissing toddler in their lap. Of course everyone wants toys shared with them, right? ;) And everyone wants a little person standing beside their chair petting their arm of course. I try to remind them not to overdo it with strangers but they are so used to being that way it's against their nature not to be. It's a little more difficult for a toddler to comprehend that some things that may be encouraged at home may not be encouraged in the company of strangers. So because at home they are hugged and kissed and loved on and when they are affectionate it's met with enthusiasm all around, they of course would assume that the whole world works that way and everyone must love to be loved on. And I confess I don't try too hard to reign them in... love isn't something that the world gives freely and oftentimes after they get over the initial surprise, people absolutely melt and nearly come to tears after being loved on by my kids. The world could use a little more of the pure love of toddlers- maybe then more people would be able to understand the pure love of God! And I know that all too soon my little lovey babies will grow into more reserved children all on their own. It's just how things seem to work. I hope they will always feel free to be affectionate at home, even when their natural tendency to hold back with strangers starts to kick in. It sure brightens my day when one of my littles climbs into my lap and lays their head on my heart and just soaks in being held. Or stops playing to run up to me and kiss me on the arm and then runs off to resume playing. Or comes up to me, arms outstretched, and asks, "Hugs?" How could I not just melt! :)

Life updates July 24-31

MORE UPDATES!

Sunday the 25th Bug was fine all day until mid afternoon and suddenly he came running up to me whimpering and upchucked curdled milk at my feet. Hubby put him in the tub while I cleaned up. Bug was acting pretty chipper considering he felt like a hot oven. He got cranky at bedtime. I kept alternating motrin and tylenol all night long. He was just burning up. Other than the fever that began with spitting up his milk, he acted fine over the next few days. I was SUPPOSED to have a prenatal appointment, since I was on every other week now, on Monday, but not knowing what the deal was with my son and his strange fevers I thought it best to reschedule. The fever was lower Monday afternoon but still there. He was just as chipper and sweet as he always is. No more puking. He ate well once the fever dropped from scalding down to just hot. I had lost one of our ear thermometers (or rather a toddler got ahold of it and it's now MIA) and the other one's battery is dead and I misplaced the replacement battery somewhere so I was just going by feel. When you touch someone and their skin feels like when you are ironing a shirt and touch the fabric just as you lift the iron and the fabric is so hot it feels like it's burning your hand... yeah that's a good sign the person has a fever. Poor little fellow. But the tylenol / motrin kept it tolerable through Sunday night and then Monday it stayed moderate on it's own until bedtime, when I had to start up the meds again.

Meanwhile hubby was out of town for a few days for work in replacement of the previous time when he didn't have to go after all at the last minute. Our son seems to pick Daddy going out of town to have his fever spells or something! What this meant was that one super tired preggo mama was once again living off a couple too many sodas a day to be able to take care of the kids. Not good for my weight gain or my contractions or any other health aspect at all of course, but necessary for survival.

Tuesday my dishwasher decided to spew water all over my kitchen floor. Thankfully the kids and I were standing right there and as I'm at the stove I hear two little voices exclaiming, "Uh-oh!" and "Oooh no!" clueing me in immediately to the problem before it became a two-towel operation to clean up. I hadn't done dishes for a couple days so I really needed them done, of course. Isn't that the way it goes? I was too tired to play dishwasher repairwoman that night and hubby was coming home late the same night so I wound up handwashing dishes until he could look at it. Hand washing dishes stinks no matter who you are but I happen to have an extra reason that it stinks and that is that I have eczema and dish soap sets off a pretty bad reaction. I get blisters all over my hands, wrists, between my fingers... and the blisters swell up full of fluid and itch like mad, then burst and bleed and scab. Quite a bad reaction to dish soap. Therefore as much as hand washing dishes is the pits anyway, it is even moreso when one is literally allergic to it. When hubby finally had the chance to take a look at the dishwasher for me it was of course suddenly magically fine. *sigh* go figure. It's been fine ever since too. Who knows what it's issue was that day. I sure don't. I'm just thankful that it didn't require an expensive part or repairman to fix and hope it doesn't decide to get dishwasher PMS on me again anytime soon!

Wednesday the 28th I was awakened to contractions at 5am and they hurt too bad to fall back to sleep. They went on that way pretty much until about 2:00 in the afternoon. Chicklet got her hair caught on the doorplate or whatever you call that metal piece that is around the hole where the doorknob latch goes into in the door frame so the door stays closed. She wanted me to braid her hair so it wouldn't get caught on anything else and it's really hard to be still and french braid a wiggley distracted toddler's hair while in pain from contractions. I obviously didn't do a good enough job of it either because the middle part was undone and flying around loose again within an hour. *sigh* This was so not my week so far. I decided things were going to be better because my husband was home from his business trip! Hooray! So I got the kids and myself ready to go and went to the farmer's market and Dollar Tree and we got Daddy some birthday balloons and hats for his birthday Friday. Bug's fever that seemed to show up every evening around bedtime didn't show up this time. He was still up a few times of course, giving me plenty of opportunities to check on him. The fever did not come back. I had tried to look in his mouth one morning this week but he wouldn't let me, telling me my finger was "icky" so I instead tickled him and then tried to look in while he was laughing. I think there's a half-in molar back there from what I could see so that could explain the random fevers and throwing up, especially since he didn't have any other symptoms and nobody else in the house had so much as a sniffle. So we decided to chalk it up to teething.

Thursday I worked on getting those dishes all caught up. I had only been handwashing barely enough to use- I'm sure you can imagine why. So my sink and counter were full of smelly dishes and I went to work getting them all caught up again after we established that the dishwasher was not actually broken, just having a momentary fit or something...? I had lots to do the following day- my husband's birthday! :) Oh and this is the day I discovered my first new stretch mark for this pregnancy. I didn't think there was room for a new one on there- my belly looks about like a giant raisin or something for all the marks. But alas there it was, a brand new red one. Or rather an old one that was lengthening again. So I got out the lotions and oils and decided I need to remember to grease my belly daily- much to the kids' delight. They think rubbing in the lotion is just too much fun and were stoked when I resolved to make it a daily habit. And it is even more fun when the belly pushes back at them. Very super cute! I don't know if they really "get" that the pushing back was a real live baby, their sister, growing inside me. I think that Chicklet understands that there is a baby in there (she sure tells everyone we meet about it so proudly!) but I don't know if she connects the movements with the baby or if she thinks we're pretending we feel the baby. Either way the tots adore massaging lotion on my raisin-belly and babygirl loves it when they do too. She wakes up and pushes her feet against their hands like, "okay now massage my other foot..." :) It's cute overload for me!

Friday my hubby had taken off work. I got up and made everyone bacon and eggs for breakfast. Then I made yogurt. Then I made my hubby's favorite meal and Chicklet helped me make the meal and bake the cake and make the pudding for it. We had supper and our little family-only birthday party with balloons and hats and everyone had a wonderful time! :) After the kids went to bed hubby and I made cookie dough together to freeze which was really fun!

Saturday morning I went to the Farmers' Market with a friend and then we went for a long drive and talked and it was really nice. Bug went home to take a nap with Daddy, and Chicklet stayed with us because my friend's son is her age and she loves playing with him. For some reason they got in an argument over something in the back seat though and were not as friendly as usual. Bummer...
When we parted ways and I got ready for a date with my husband! :D We went to dinner and a movie and a wonderful friend watched the kids for us and gave us a gift card for the dinner. What a wonderful fun time we had! Probably the last chance for a while considering the baby on the way. I wouldn't want to leave a nurseling for as long as we were gone for our date for sure. That precious nursing bond is so sweet and special! I can't wait! I'm not going to want to put her down for a few months at least I'm sure. ;)

Life updates July 17-23

UPDATES!

Backtracking for a minute, the day before my last update, which I didn't mention in said previous update, the young man who mows our lawn was weedeating out front and his weedeater decided it hated my car and threw some rocks at it. The rearmost side window kinda... disintegrated. Being an awesome honest hardworking upstanding sort of young man, he told me right away and paid for the repair- I would likely not have noticed for days if he hadn't. We fired him. Okay no I'm just kidding! We told him he's all the more valuable to us for his honesty and have been reccommending him to all our local friends! There is nothing more important than someone who is both honest and hard working when you're making a business transaction! The fact that he told me right away is better than a million references or years of business experience to us. I highly doubt we'll ever be looking for a new lawn guy unless and until this particular young man decides to get out of the lawncare business.

July 17-23:
Saturday started out on a great note as Bug kind of slept in a bit so I caught him just waking up when I went to get him. This never happens- he's a little morning person! So I plopped him on the potty right off, knowing he'd have to go, and he did! He thought it was an uh-oh so when he started going he told me "Uh-oh! Ooooh nooo!" I told him it was GOOD to pee in the potty, did a happy dance, gave him an m&m, and Dada and Sissy came in and clapped for him too. He was lit up like Christmas by the time we got done celebrating. He tried a few more times that day but couldn't pee again. It's okay, he's just starting to realize what peeing even is! Plenty of time to learn to control it. He's not even 2 yet so I'm not worried. Besides with the changing table now in the bathroom, getting him on the potty often is much easier. He's bound to accidentally go again. And again. And someday he'll figure out what that gotta-go feeling is and then we'll be doing good! And having to buy stock in chocolate candies. ;)
The car window was scheduled to be fixed Monday so we were carless all weekend. I wound up walking as promised but alot more than I thought or should have considering. I think I walked about 18 blocks over the course of Saturday! I walked to a yard sale and back, to the farmers' market and back, and detoured to get some fresh eggs on the way back from the market. The yard sale I went alone but I was pushing a double stroller full of 70 pounds worth of toddlers the rest of the time. When I got home my feet were tingling and starting to swell and I was sunburned and heat sick and in so much pain! My husband would be going out of town on business for the first half of the week though so I decided to tough it out and not take a nap so I could spend time with him. I did go to bed early though because I was so tired and sore and my ankes were puffy and tingling.

Sunday Buggie was a bit stopped up so I gave him some apple juice which he didn't really even want- he took 2 sips. He also had what looked like a mosquito bite and it wasn't bothering him in the least but his sister thought he needed a band aid so we put a Dora band-aid on it. He was acting fine other than telling me he needed to poo and being a little clingy but not wanting to eat or drink much of anything. For supper he had a single serve container of applesauce because he wanted it and hadn't really eaten anything else all day. About 5 or 10 minutes after eating the applesauce he was sitting in my lap and began to whimper- 2 seconds before the applesauce came up. He spiked up a fever for a few hours but it ran for the hills when I gave him tylenol. And fever or not, 5 minutes after upchucking his applesauce he was bright and cheery and sweet as pie again. I was thinking what great timing, with hubby leaving town in the morning and not knowing what was wrong with Buggie! But Bug was cool all night (I know because I kept checking on him) and woke in a good mood, acting normal all day Monday.

Mama wasn't as lucky. I was feeling totally fine and then just suddenly blacked out. I have always had some forewarning before I pass out because of blood sugar issues so it's been years since I've gotten bad enough to pass out now that I know the warning signs. So to be going on about a normal day and then I'm checking my emails on Facebook one minute and all of a sudden come to conciousness as my head is 2 inches from the keyboard in a freefall. I felt just peachy dandy fine afterward too. NO clue what was wrong with me. I called my midwives' office and they wanted me to have someone drive me in to be checked but I told them I was out a car until later that day when the window guy was coming and my son had a mystery fever the night before so I was keeping an eye on him though he seemed just fine now and that I felt totally normal both before and after the incident. They told me just to make sure I kept eating enough protein and drinking enough water and if I felt weird within the next few hours I needed to come in. I felt fine though. And on a good note my hubby wound up not having to go out of town after all. Of course he got some serious runaround before they informed him of that but we were glad he got to come home as usual that night and by then the glass guy had fixed the car window and Bug had been acting great all day so things were definately looking up. :)
One bad thing did happen though and that was that Dora band-aid on my son's skeeter bite... apparently he's allergic. When he woke up and I was changing his morning diaper I noticed that his arm was swollen and red around the band aid tabs. I took that thing off and where the tabs had been there were patches with blisters upon blisters. I felt absolutely terrible! The bite however was just a tiny red dot almost not even there. My poor little fellow! :'( It's bad when a bandage does more harm than good... :(

After that we had a pretty uneventful, normal week, for a few days at least. Bug has been waking up alot at night though and I've been hitting the caffeine pretty hard to compensate. I also have not been out walking since then because Thursday after nap I got out of bed and couldn't even walk to the bathroom. Apparently my 18 block walk day did what all the walking so far has also done and enticed babygirl further into position. I knew it had helped her drop - Bug wasn't even head down until right before delivery and Chicklet was my first so I finally got a good experience at what happens in the lower internal region when baby drops... Right down onto a nerve she went so that it felt like knives in my cervix with every step. I was doing the crab walk at snail speed and gritting my teeth growling and boy the kids were looking at me strange. I could scarcely walk the rest of the night. I decided that I was not going for any more walks outside and most certainly not long ones. I'll walk an extra lap or two in air conditioned buildings for sure. I actually *like* walking, believe it or not. But not out in the cankle-inducing blistering heat and not so much that her little baby head cripples me by way of nerve-pinching. So I'll be backing off on the walking now. :( I wish I'd done more of it earlier on before it got so hot. Rain or no rain... I'll be looking forward to getting out on the weekends because there will be air conditioned stores to walk in.