Family Pictures Nov. 2015

I try to get my kids photographed as a group every six months.  This time we did it in Dville because I found an excellent child prodigy to take the pics.  Family pictures can be nightmarish but this was a pretty chill session.  We had such a good experience I talked the rest of my family into taking advantage of this kid's talent to finally get a whole family picture.  I think the last one we all took together was at Jay's funeral in 2013.  These pictures never feel complete without Nate but his skateboard avatar is always included.  Thanks Val for bringing it.

My siblings, teasing me bc they know how I do not like to be touched.  Cam, Phil, Val, Paige, Celia, Ellie.

All of us.  Literally, every single family member in one place. 33 + Nate sk8 + Piper the dog.  

Betty Lou, 14 months

Mimi, 8

Jude, 7

Silas, 5

All five kids represented.  Tiger Uppercut 8 months in utero.

Whole family, Nov. 2015

35 Weeks Pregnant with Schrodinger's Cat

When you're 34 and pregnant with your fifth kid you get to document it however you want.  I'm pretty proud of what this body has accomplished and I've never bothered to take maternity photos because who cares what I look like, I only care what the baby looks like.  But this time I hit my friend Jessica up to snap a few shots because I want to contrast what I feel (gigantic, in skeletal pain) with what pregnant actually looks like on me.  I carry about the same for girls and boys, as far as I can tell.  I think girls make me a little more thick in the upper body in the third trimester, just generally more swollen.  

28 weeks - beginning of 8 months pregnant with Tiger Uppercut

Of course I never got down to my "normal" weight between these two babies.  One reason is because I miscarried between the two (around February) and the other reason is BL didn't become a good sleeper until she hit about 1.  Sleep is key for me to regulate the rest of my body functions.  

May rolled around and we got this fun little welcome surprise:

The day we discovered Baby 5.  BL was 8 months.

Later on that day when Hush started to actually process what was comin down the pike.

It's Gone By So Fast!
No it hasn't.  All pregnancies take forever.  But that's kind of what I like about them.  I like having a nine (ten) month project and the pace of an imminent arrival of something wonderful.  It's like inventing your own personal Christmas and looking forward to it for nine (ten) months.
I've taken to thinking about this baby as Schrodinger's Cat, though slightly less morbid.  As far as the sex of the kid is involved I have both right now because either option exists.  So I wake up one day and think about my coming son and then the next day I'm obsessing over girl names.  It's really fun.  I get nine (ten) months to picture what my family will be like with three daughters or three sons. And then at the end I actually get a baby!  Babies are delightsome.

But that's not all I like about pregnancy.  I like the eating.  I like feeling like I'm being productive no matter what I'm doing.  I like being the second party in control of my body because the baby is in charge and my body does what it needs to do to make that little person.  I like the appointments because I feel like I am rewarded for growing bigger and responsibly taking good care of my body.  I love the ultrasounds because it feels like spying.  I love how excited the children are because they know what it's like to have a tiny baby.  I loving knowing generally what to expect of the physical changes because I've done this four times before.  I like being prepared for the inevitable pre-term labor that always drives me crazy but never results in a baby.
I guess you could say that I feel like I'm pretty good at this.  It's become my thing.  I've been pregnant for a total of 192 weeks of my life, 3.7 years.  That's rad!
But having babies in my thirties is slightly different than having them in my twenties.  Or maybe it's the different husbands or the location that cause the variance.  For babies 1, 2, 3 I had the easiest pregnancies known to man.  I hardly felt nauseated and I had a ton of energy the whole time.  I had such good pregnancies I looked into becoming a surrogate.  They aren't paid well enough.  But I would have done it for my family had the need arose.

7 Months pregnant with Jude.  Hair looks brown.  It's dark purple.

Mimi at Betty Lou's current age, about 14 months.  Me 8 months preg with Jude.

Babies 4 and 5 have been more typical as far as pregnancies are concerned.  I am super barfy in the first 16 weeks and I crave vinegar.  I also have never been so tired in my life as I was in the first trimester of this pregnancy.  I couldn't keep my eyes open!  Then right as that part finishes my skeleton starts to object and I get a super fun inflamed angry joint condition called PSD which makes it nearly impossible to lift one leg at a time and roll over in bed.  It's so painful I have had to crawl up the stairs and finally get a Physical Therapist.  My theory is that my relaxin doesn't kick in fast enough.  I think that's the hormone that makes pregnant people all loose and unstable.  So for a good 10 weeks I really suffered and finally had to hire a nanny to force myself to not chase babies and do chores all afternoon.  Being down (essentially on bedrest) is my idea of a nightmare.  You sit there and watch miserably as people destroy your home and make their own food.  I can't do it.  I have to get up and help.  Thankfully I have three very helpful big kids who are obedient and sympathetic.  But still, it's not a great situation so the nanny was imperative.

I finally designed and ordered this shirt.  Cuts down significantly on questions at the store.

Now I can move again, which means I am a task wizard and I tend to overdo it.  Keeping my house together relieves stress for me, especially when my little baby whirlwind is unloading laundry baskets as I load them and preventing me from loading the dishwasher by licking all of the dirty dishes while I gag.  I don't know if you know this but it takes a considerable amount of work keeping a household of 6 functioning.  Take, for example, the seasons shifting.  I had to sort through every item of clothing for four little people whose sizes have changed since the last winter and whose sizes I need to anticipate for the following summer.  Plus my entire wardrobe needs rearranging depending on what fits per each stage of pregnancy, a pregnancy which is opposite in seasons from my previous summer pregnancy.  I am literally up to my armpits in bins.  Thankfully I don't have to buy anything because I have everything handed down or saved from previous pregnancies (2 bins).  All of my normal clothes and shoes are in storage (4 bins) Imagine at least two boxes per age, one summer one winter.  I don't have all the boy clothes because we passed them down to our cousins up until age three, but I have all of the girl bins through age 2T (10 big bins) and size 6-8 girls (5 bins) and size 5-9 boys (6 bins, I think).  My 26+ bins are a masterpiece only I enjoy.  I have bin pride.

Wearing a creepy hydrating face mask.  About 32 weeks pregnant.

And so we press on.  Baby's kicking and very strong.  S/he kicks in different places than my other kids.  S/he's often kicking low which means upside down for now.  But sometimes the kicks are in my ribs.  We have bought exactly nothing in preparation for this baby.  Should probably buy a crib at some point.  As far as food this baby really likes bagels from Einsteins.  The good kind.  This baby doesn't like sweets too much (except anything with those bright red cherries that go on top of ice cream sundaes).  That's an unsual craving.  Baby is unconcerned about Coke which is very weird for me.  Baby LOVES Mexican food, specifically Costa Vida sweet pork enchiladas with green sauce.  I need a membership there. Also, what I wouldn't give for beef carpaccio.

Christmas 2015

A totally unprecedented Christmas this year!

Hush's family was having a reunion in AZ and I am too pregnant to travel so he took Betty Lou with him to see that side of the family. Knowing they'd be gone I didn't want to have Christmas without all the children together so I talked Houdini into taking MJS for the holiday. That left me alone at home for 24 hours of relaxation! 

Of course we did our own family Christmas before everybody left and that was a great success. And it's been pretty difficult to be away from my tiny baby. I think I've only spent maybe two nights away from her in the past. The big kids and I miss her terribly and worry constantly, but all of her proof of life's have come back positive.  Hush is taking good care of her.

Baby girl has a consistent reaction to Santa: please get me out of here.

Christmas morning alone in my clean house reading my book, 35 weeks pregnant.  Once in a lifetime occurrence for me. I am never alone. I have forgotten what I do when I'm alone. Turns out, it's jobs.  This week I organized:

Linen closet

Hairbow drawer

Bathroom drawers

Nursery set up

Game shelves

Mimi's closet

All of the toys

Mimi's drawers

Silas' drawers

Lego area

Piano area

Bills

I'm hyper project girl. It was like spring cleaning and nesting all rolled into one.  I love when the clean out/throw away hormones hit.

The week leading up to Christmas looked like this:

M8, J7, S5, BL15 mon. BL would like to quit Santa's lap, please.

Amazon pulled this fast one. It was delivered right around dinner and guess who was the first to the door? Mimi. I tried to tell her it was for homeless kids but she didn't buy it. Eventually I caved and not only did I tell her we'd bought it for her because she has been such an excellent helper this year and totally earned it, but I let her open it and set it all up days before Christmas.  She was thrilled!

On Sunday evening Hush and I surprised the kids with "Fake Christmas Eve".  We had a fancy ham dinner with martinelli's and then went on a drive to look at the Christmas lights.  While we were out the kids spotted Santa's reindeer and became convinced that even though it was fake Christmas maybe Santa would come early.

At home we did our Christmas Eve program including the nativity, Christmas songs charades, a few Christmas stories, birthday cake for Jesus and then "Twas the Night Before Fake Christmas".  It was just our little family (little is relative, there were six of us) and it was super chill because there was no actual Christmas stress.  I loved celebrating the holiday this way!

The holy family.

Wise men presenting baby Jesus gifts.

Crèche 

Hush likes events to look iconic so he demanded a mug to gesticulate, dad glasses and slippers and to have the children sitting by the fire while he read Twas the Night Before Christmas.  I enjoy his anachronistic little tableaux.

Then we did the Christmas Eve routine with cookies and carrots and a note and the parents staying up far later than anticipated.

And Santa DID come!  This was the best stairs shot I could get.

One gift highlight were the sumo bumper boppers. Fun to crash into one another.

Present highlights:  Silas got a bike, Jude got tons of Legos, Mimi got the bedding set and alarm clock she wanted, Lou got tons of balls, Hush got a meditation seat, I got a megaphone.

And BL scavenged chocolate from all of the stockings which landed her in the bath.

Helmets absolutely required for those things.  They lasted about 6 hours. 

And Grandma Pam sent some homemade jammies that match her cousins.

Kids at the condo with Dx and his gf and her family. Battleship battles begin.

My favorite toy is Structures. Just 200 pine planks that you can build into anything. Teaches kids about balance and architecture, kinda like blocks kinda like Legos you can reuse indefinitely.

November to Remember

November was a pretty idyllic fall.  There were leaves, some early snow, delicious Thanksgiving, and Pam's DCMT show.  That was the order of events in real life, but the pictures below are all out of order and I cannot be bothered to rearrange them in this rather restrictive publishing format.  

Highlights of November included a make-it-up-as-you-go-along family competition, reading by the fire, making food together taking advantage of the fall produce, and having a child prodigy take some family pictures (included herein are the outtakes, taken by me).

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in CA and Hush joined us on Wednesday and eventually drove us all back home.  So that's the context for the disordered pictures.

Seward Street Slides adventure in SF.  They are fast!

When we arrived in CA Jude was sick and very contagious so he had to be fully covered in order to play with cousins.  He's better now.  The md said it was "not strep" but gave him antibiotics anyway and they worked.  Who knows.

7+ months pregnant and wearing my most comfy clothes.  Shirt says "Rizzo's Got a Bun in the Oven."  Hair is a pale purple tinted color achieved by bleach and then a purple toner.  

Betty Lou is in her storage phase which is one of my favorites.  14 month olds like to see how many things they can carry in their arms.  It's funny.

Jude, 7, is a reading machine.  We reserve his favorite books in the library and he reads them in a night.  If I don't go down there and turn off his light he will read all night long.

In SF on the Mosaic stairs.  Beautiful installation, amazing views.  Add it to your must visit SF activities.

Rock Challenge

I mentioned the Family Competition.  Some times in Utah it's too cold to play at the park or go on a hike but it's not raining and you want to be outside somehow or another on a Sunday afternoon.  This Sunday I invented a Competition wherein the three big kids did challenges that Hush and I made up.  The challenges included singing the most lyrics to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, being the fastest through an obstacle course, answering trivia, shotgunning a Root beer, sticking your face/hands in the snow for the longest time possible, and building a rock tower using the most rocks.  The winner was rewarded with a UnBirthday cake and allowed to boss everybody around for the rest of the night.  Mimi and Si tied.

Freezing hands challenge

Snowface challenge

Mimi won for duration and artistic rendering of her own face.

Mimi made this whole Blue Apron meal by herself because I was too tired to stand up.  I love cooking with her!

This is my new uniform.  All the info you need, right there.  All pregnant women need one.

Lou is the fall queen.

Babies in sweaters kill me.  She looks like a tiny baby elf!

Sometimes I get bored planning meals so I just use all the produce in the fridge to serve to my omnivores.  The best way I've found to get them to eat anything is by closed eyes taste tests where they guess what color tomato it is or what type of vegetable.  

On the Friday after Thanksgiving I very unwisely planned a family car trip to the great Sequoias over in Marin.  It took us over an hour to get there and then there was absolutely no parking.  I had to let Hush out with the kids to do a run through of the trees for 20 minutes while I circled.  Then we piled back in the car, drove through Sausalito, drove over the GG bridge and finally unloaded again at Ocean Beach.  Jude met with tragedy at Ocean beach so we called Cam and Alex to meet us in the Haight to give Jude some dry clothing.  He refused it and we marched up and down Haight Street looking for replacement clothes and finding nothing.  We were then assaulted by the local color: a naked dude wearing a Santa hat covering his unmentionables kept sauntering by.  I normally have no problem with nudity but nudity for shock purposes bugs me.  Mimi was sure alarmed.
Remember next time: don't spend the whole day in the car the day before a roadtrip back to Utah.  Dumb me.  Bad planning.

Family activity that landed us at Ocean Beach.  You can imagine how this ended.

With Jude wiping out and getting drenched by freezing ocean water.  Hilarious!  He didn't think so.

Bowling on Thanksgiving, as per tradition.

BL sitting in the big red chair at Grandpa's house.  I use this chair to gauge my children's growth.

Silas has been having a hard time learning how to smile on command. 

One of Si's practice smiles.  He rolls his top lip under.  Still cute.

Three soon to be middle children on the Mosaic stairs.