Happy Birthday Nic!

Nic is 5! I feel old. I can't have a 5 year old!!

We spent the day just hanging out, opening presants, eating cake, and playing outside since the weather is perfect. Oh, and also taking a million pictures.

The loot.




New Mario jammies.




Nic opening drums...


Norah seeing the drums...


Norah stealing the drums, and claiming them as her own. lol




After presants, it was time for cake!




And after cake, it was time for some backyard fishing.








After that, the kids played on the slip n slide for a while, and the adults just kicked back. Pretty uneventful, and yet, I am still exhausted. haha

Baking a cake, and blogging.

I had an appointment at the birth center yesterday morning, because I never canceled it. I am awesome at putting things off. Anyway, they called me asking where I was, and I explained to them my insurance situation, and told them that I wouldn't be coming. Well, the girl I talked to, Saphire, told me that she'd talk to the lady in charge of billing, and see if there was anything they could do, and then call me back today.
I was driving home from the party store when she called, so I didn't answer. She left a message saying that I could stay with whoever I was with now, and then at 20 weeks, switch to the birth center, and they'd give me a $700 discount. That's as detailed as she got, so I don't completely see the greatness in that. Does that mean that I still have to tweak my insurance, and the kids coverage gets dropped, but only for 4 months? Is the $700 discount just because I will only be going there for the second half of my pregnancy?
I tried calling them back, and no one answered. I had an appointment to take a tour of Nic's school, and when I was done with that, it was already after 5. (The school was so freaking awesome, btw. I think he'll have a much better time learning this way than just sticking him in a random school with a million other kids. I just picture him running in the back of the class, and having meltdowns when I think about "normal" school for him.) So I have to call the birth center again tomorrow and figure out exactly what they are talking about. It would be great if I could go there with my insurance exactly the way it is now, but I won't hold my breath.

Tomorrow is Nic's birthday. He has finally come to terms with turning 5. He didn't want to for the longest time. He'd always say, "I just want to be 4 forever." He didn't want a party, or a cake. He finally changed his mind. He wants a pink cake with green frosting, so that's what I'm making. The cake is in the oven right now, and will be decorated sometime tomorrow. He picked out some Mario things to go on top.
I'm sure there will be pictures tomorrow.

Nothing else is going my way...

I am starting to reconsider finding out the gender of the baby. Just for fun, and out of boredom, I have been looking online for gender neutral newborn items. I found a bouncer I like, and a swing that matches, then I start hunting for clothes and for some reason, "gender neutral" apparently means yellow or green, with giraffes. What the hell?? Why is a giraffe the singled out transgender animal? Apparently, all dogs are boys, and cats are girls. Giraffes seem to be ambiguous. It makes no sense to me.
Not to mention the simple fact that pastel yellow and green look girly! So I am stuck with white, white, and white. Unless of course, I want to pay $30 for a single onesie from a random baby clothes website. I thought finding plain black would be simple enough, but no! Black baby clothes don't exist! Unless I want to promote a random band that I may or may not actually like, or have some unnecessarily obscene phrase about "tits" or "my parents shake me" smeared across the front.

Oh well. We can't decide on a name either, so maybe if we know what it is, we can focus on one gender, and come to an agreement.

Springtime Fun!!

I guess technically this was still winter, since it was a couple days ago. But this is California, and we don't have seasons. It was 80 degrees, and we had a water balloon fight. In the process of that, the kids kept slipping on the grass, and laughing, making us say, "hey, they need a slip-n-slide"

Well, they got the concept of the slip-n-slide, but running at something full speed, and then falling onto your stomach is not a natural instinct type thing. I guess when you've spent your whole life learning how to not fall down, doing it on purpose is hard to do. So, we tried explaining how to do it. "Like a penguin!" was yelled more than I could count. It just wasn't working, so we had to improvise, and play kid bowling. It was fun for everyone!

Friday the 13th

I had my first appointment this morning. It was alot of waiting around, since they overbooked. But the building was at least clean, and I felt comfortable there. They did everything they do at a first appt. minus listen for a heartbeat. The nurse said that they don't even try to listen until 11 weeks, but whatever. I have no reason to think anything is wrong, so I guess ignorance is bliss. I have my next appointment April 10th, and I'll be 13 weeks then.

Norah's birthday party turned out great. Everybody had lots of fun. Her "best friend ever" Sophia came over, and they were wearing the same dress! haha It was cute and totally not planned.

Anyway, here are some pictures.

The cake. I was going to make a sand castle, but I didn't have time. I think it turned out cute though.


The twins.


The loot.






Nic didn't want to hear the happy birthday song.



Blowing out the candles.


Eating the cake. (and yes I already have a belly. I am going to be huge this time)


Eating more cake.





...and I have to add these pictures, because they were still on the camera when I uploaded the birthday pics. Devin bought new darts for our dart board, and the design of the box sent my mind straight to the gutter.


And hilarity ensued...



I mean, come on. That's the best design they could come up with?? LOL

Starting over.

Saturday is Norah's birthday, but Devin has to work, so we are celebrating tomorrow instead. She wants a pink cake, with little mermaid decorations (surprise? I think not.) So the cake is baking now, because I won't have time to do it tomorrow. BECAUSE, I also have my first doctors appointment tomorrow morning! Finally! I jumped through hoops for the insurance company, and they finally referred me to a doctor (in santa ana, but not downtown). I can't find out much about him online, but I did read that they are affiliated with most hospitals in OC. So hopefully that means that I can have the baby at St. Joseph. Fingers are crossed, and I know that I have no other options here after this, so I better like this place. I am not actually seeing the doctor tomorrow, I am seeing the nurse practitioner. I just want to hear a heartbeat dammit! I don't want to wait anymore. I'll meet the doctor next time.

So anyway, that's what has been going on.