I have all these little things I feel I should mention, but none of them is worth its own post, so you get a mess of my thoughts here. Enjoy wading through them all!
-I began having Braxton Hicks contractions at 22 weeks. Doesn't that seem awfully early? They are so strange-- because they really don't hurt, but they stop me dead in my tracks every time. Craig doesn't understand this at all. He says, "But if they don't hurt, then why do they bother you so much?" The only way I can think to describe it is this: imagine you're writing a letter or something (with an actual pen, not typing) and then without you having any control over it at all, your hand just makes itself into a fist. It doesn't hurt. But good luck writing that letter until your hand decides to be not in a fist any more. Now picture all the muscles in your abdomen doing that. (Okay, it's just your uterus, but at this point your uterus is so big it pretty much fills your entire abdominal cavity, so it's basically the same thing.) It really is impossible to do much of anything while that's going on. Even if you're not in pain.
-My midwife said I could take something called "
CALM"-- a mixture of calcium and magnesium and something else-- that should ease up the BH contractions. But at this point I'm only having a few a day, so I don't think I need to do anything to stop them. Besides, I feel like this is just my body exercising and getting in shape for when labor comes (you know, in four months). So why stop that training process, even if it is kind of annoying and totally involuntary?
-Colton is steadily adding words to his vocabulary. He surprised me the other day by pointing to a dog and actually saying, "Doggy!" He also knows "Daddy" and will copy my "woof woof" when prompted. He also thinks it's very funny to say "moo" along with me. He likes to point to his nose (and my nose) although you could probably tell him to point to just about anything on his face and he'll point to his nose. But he likes pointing to his eyes and ears, eventually, and sometimes his hair. And his feet. And occasionally he manages to guess right which thing I'm telling him to point to. We all gotta start somewhere!
-Colton is also doing this fabulous running move, which is basically just walking kind of fast, and trying to pick up his feet a little higher, but in no other way resembles running. It's adorable, and not nearly as fast as running, so I like it. Occasionally when he gets excited, he'll just do it in place, a move I think he learned from his cousin Caleb. It is equally charming when Caleb does it, so I'm glad he taught it to his little cousin!
-We are having the most gorgeous autumn ever! The trees look like they're on fire, and every time I look at our backyard it takes my breath away. I love all these beautiful trees! And the weather has been perfect, except for the week my parents were visiting (every time they come they bring Seattle weather with them-- it's kind of amazing). I feel like Virginia has finally won me over to being a lover of autumn. And it only took eight years!
-But I'm still dreading winter, don't worry. That will never change. And last year's freakishly harsh winter just about did me in. I'm praying we don't have another one like that!
-Our little brown chicken, Sophie, is proving to be quite the escape artist. Every few days, we'll notice that she's in our neighbor's yard and have to go chase her back home. This is particularly unfortunate, because she's also our fastest chicken AND our best layer. So she's hard to catch, but I hate to lose her, even though she's pretty annoying. The first time it happened, I thought it was our fault for leaving the gate open (although it would have been unusual for her to wander so far from the other chickens, who clearly had NOT left our yard). But since then we've noticed some wood piled against the fence, and suspect she's climbing that and jumping. Crazy little Houdini bird!
-This morning, when I walked the kids to school, this nice lady who I often see bringing about ten kids to school (I suspect she runs a daycare, because none of them look like siblings) mentioned that since we seem to go the same route, if the weather ever turned bad and I needed a ride, she would be happy to help me out. I thanked her, but quickly explained that I do in fact have a car, I just enjoy the walk. It made me appreciate how nice it was of her to worry about us! And it also made me appreciate our car, and that when it rains, driving the kids to school is an easy option. I tend to take for granted the things I have, so any reminder to be grateful is good for me...
-The other night, Bentley couldn't sleep at all. I think it was one of those perfect storms-- he'd barely eaten any dinner (because, admittedly, it was gross: lentil soup that hadn't cooked long enough paired with rolls that turned out to still be doughy. Yuck.), he was worried about the testing they're doing at school this week, and Craig had decided (against my better judgment) to show him Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music video, which kind of freaked him out. It made for a very long night. The next day, though, Bentley was as chipper as anything, while Craig and I looked like we should have been extras for Michael. I found his perkiness pretty annoying, although I probably would have been more angry if he'd dared to be grumpy. Kids these days!
That's about all I can think of for now. Next post will be a hodgepodge of pictures! Stay tuned!
