Thoughts From the Boys

As we were eating breakfast this morning I could tell Dallin was thinking about something and he finally shared his thoughts with us:
D:  Girls are so different.
M:  Why is that?
D:  They don't have pointy teeth like boys.  See?  Like these? (As he points out his pointy teeth.)

Before school one morning while we were eating a breakfast of Malt-O-Meal Austin proclaimed:
A:  This is so hot I feel my earwax coming up!
I guess it was a little too hot for him!  Who knew Malt-O-Meal could melt earwax?!

At home with Coen and Claire I told Claire she was my cute little princess and then to Coen I said:
M:  Are you Mama's cute little princess...I mean PRINCE?  Sorry!
C:  Mama, I not a prince.  I a little boy.  (Said with a very serious voice.)
Tory says only girls want to be princesses.  Boys don't dream about being princes.

My Little Shadow

As much as I love all of my boys and am sooo thankful for them, it sure is fun to have my one little girl, too.  There's definitely something different about girls.  She is my little shadow and loves to do everything I do.  I'll notice her moving her hands in a funny way and look down to see that that's exactly what I'm doing.  She loves to help with the dishes and folding laundry with me.  I usually put her in the tub while I'm showering and she has to have a poof to wash with just like Mama and puts her little foot up on the side to wash her cute little legs.  She holds her hands under the pump conditioner and pretends to put it in her hair.  So cute!  As soon as the water is off she has to have her own towel and then loves to pick a bottle of lotion to put on followed by her choice of hair bow or flower since they are right by my lotion.  She is such a little girl!

And whenever I play the piano she quickly climbs up on the bench to play along and takes it quite serious.  She really doesn't like it when I get up in her octaves and lets me know it!  But she sure is fun to play with!  I'm so thankful for my tiny, fun, little girl.

Counting Down-10 Days Left

That's right.  10 days left until our new baby arrives!  I can't believe it!  I don't feel as ready as I should.  I remember having a month left and all of a sudden it's only 10 days.  I do have all of his clothes washed and ready and I do know WHERE the bassinet and carseat are.  I just need to get them all washed up.

Monday I went to the Divine Consign sale in Grapevine to stock up on a few things that haven't lasted to boy number 4.  That was fun.  I LOVE Divine Consign.  The one I really want to go to is in Plano and it is 4 days after I have the baby.  Bummer.  I like to go on the last day when almost everything is 50% off and then if you go the last two hours many things are 75% off.  I can get entire outfits from Baby Gap, Children's Place, Old Navy, etc. for 75 cents!  Not that I am really into the name brands but let's face it, they do make some cute stuff!  But alas...4 days after baby is a little too soon.  Grapevine's isn't as big but I did find what I needed.

Now I'm just trying to finalize plans for the other kids for that day.  Kind of hard to work around a school day.  This is the first time I've had to deal with this situation.  And the other thing we're still working on is how to spell our baby's name.  It all comes down to one letter.  So hard!  With a last name like ours (with 11 letters!) one letter can make a big difference.

So anyway, 10 days.  He is coming!  And I'm so excited!  Excited to see him and excited to walk without a waddle.  I look down at myself and don't think I look that bad but then I see a picture of myself or stand sideways in the mirror and think, Holy cow!  I'm HUGE!  I should not be out in public like this.  I could scare someone.  Ha!  He is a big boy though.  I had an appointment yesterday and things look good.  The doctor was having a hard time finding his heartbeat and then finally decided it's because he is breech right now.  I've never had one in the breech position.  No wonder all the kicks feel like they're in different places than normal.  He is a very active little guy.  Watching my stomach is quite the show!  Very entertaining for his big brothers.  I'm posting pictures of myself since some of my family members are wondering what I look like.  I had Tory take some Sunday so they're pretty recent.

Can't believe it's getting so close.  I've been having lots of contractions lately.  Kind of crazy.  Sometimes up to 6 an hour.  They're not really painful but intense and not that comfortable, especially when another child is on my lap.  Ha!  "Don't touch me for a second!" is becoming one of my main phrases lately.  I am supposed to watch them or else I might be in earlier according to my doctor.  I'm also having my weird "feeding the baby" dreams so it must be close.  I always have these crazy dreams where I have my baby and then "forget" to feed him or realize it's been HOURS since the last time I fed him and I completely freak out.  I don't know why I always have these dreams.  Every time I have a baby this is what I worry about the most.  Feeding him.  I don't know why.  I've never had problems and have nursed each one for at LEAST a year.  You'd think I'd be comfortable with it by now.  Crazy me.  Now it's just time for the finishing details.  We are sooo ready to see this cute little boy!

*Oh...something else kind of fun.  Last night after I told Tory that the baby is breech he was feeling around trying to "see" where the baby is and he could tell exactly where he was and what position he was in and even found his little backbone and ribs!  I could even feel them.  Just like a tiny little washboard.  So cute!  But I never would have known that's what I was feeling.  Being a chiropractor, he has some very sensitive feelers on those fingers of his.  It was fun to picture him all curled up in there and know what bump went to what body part.

100 Days

I think the boys had their 100th day of school February 1st (or around then anyway).  The Kindergarteners always do a "100 Days" project.  Austin made a bridge out of 100 popcicle sticks when he was in Kindergarten.  This year Dallin's was supposed to be on a poster.  He decided to find 100 things in our house that could fit in 100 circles.  It was harder than it seemed!  We used lots of food items-beans, pasta, spices, sprinkles, etc., and everything else from fabric scraps, pipe cleaners, and glitter, to screws, buttons, and money.  There's even an outlet cover on there.  It would make a fun "I Spy" poster if it didn't have so many food items on it.  But I don't really want to "spy" ants in my house crawling all over it.  Ha!  It turned out pretty fun though.

Here is a closer look:

Our Valentine's Day

I'm a little late but wanted to remember our fun Valentine's Day we had together.  Since it was Sunday we had the whole day to be together.  I made the boys heart shaped pancakes for breakfast (I really need to work on doing heart shaped ones!  Not my best work!) and then Tory made heart shaped tortillas with beans and fixin's for lunch.  (Didn't get a picture of those but they were VERY nice hearts!)

Claire was sick that day so Tory and the boys went to church while I stayed home with Claire.  We had a nice quiet time.  When the boys came home we made sugar cookies.  For some reason Valentine's Day is my favorite time to make sugar cookies.  More than Halloween or even Christmas.  I guess heart shaped cookies with pink frosting just taste better.  ha

My four helpers and the finished cookies.

Then I made our "fancy" Valentine's Day dinner we always do as a family.  Tory requested manicotti which worked out since I like to serve something RED for our dinner.  I also made homemade breadsticks, salad, and of course our 1 2 3 Jell-O we always have.  Tory brought me a bouquet of beautiful flowers which made the table lovely. 

Each of the boys got a giant lollipop (which they've "always wanted all their lives").  With all the sweets that day and then Valentine's Day parties at school on Monday, mean old Mom wouldn't let them eat them until Tuesday.  But I think they thought they were worth the wait. 

Claire didn't think it was very fair that she didn't get one but she persuaded Coen to share.

And one more picture...

This was Austin's Valentine box he made for his school party.  I thought it was a cute little frog!  This picture was taken AFTER the party so it had been through a few trips to school and back and was ripped and missing a few pieces but you get the idea.

UIL Awards

So Tuesday was the big day Austin's been waiting for.  The day he would get his award for winning the Creative Writing competition.  He was so excited.  The school held a little ceremony before school started at 7:30 that morning.  All of the students grades 2-4 who participted in any of the events were there.  Austin's group was last and guess what...their awards hadn't come in.  The only group.  Poor Austin!  Guess he'll just have to keep waiting! 

Austin and his Creative Writing team and their coach Mrs. Kuhn

The Whole Group

Showing off their T-shirts

What Happened?

Do you remember Valentine's Day as a kid?  I always thought it was a really fun holiday.  My sisters and I would sit down at the table and make and decorate our Valentine boxes and then the hard part...addressing the valentines.  This was hard because every word mattered.  You didn't want certain people to get the "wrong" idea about how you felt about them or anything like that.  And of course we had to set out our most favorite valentines for our best friends.  It was quite the process!  Sometimes we got to throw in a conversation heart or two and then that added another step of finding the perfect message on each heart.  You had to be careful!  Every card and every heart message were read back then.  But that's what made it so fun!  At the end of the day the valentine boxes were stuffed with cards and messages.  We would read, and reread, the valentines.  Some were set aside to show our best friends the next day or if we couldn't wait that long we got on the phone to talk about what was really meant by "I like you" or "Be Mine".  And then there were always the few that were anonymous.  Those were the ones with "I love you" or some other sentiment.  We had to figure out who it could be from!  Back then it was all about the cards.  It was fun to get a conversation heart here and there but the real fun was in the cards.

Yesterday the boys had their Valentine's Day parties.  They had been rescheduled due to the snow day last Friday.  For Dallin's party he was told to bring the appropriate number of valentines with "To my friend" written on each one and then "From Dallin" on each one.  No names.  Austin had to do it this way in Kindergarten and 1st grade, too.  This year Austin was allowed to write each classmate's name and then his own.  A little more personal I guess.  I picked them up and they had their bags and boxes.  We got home and they dumped their loot.  I was shocked!  Each year I forget how much CANDY they get!  If there is a card it's usually just taped to a sucker, pixie sticks, jelly beans, etc.  The card was quickly ripped off to get to the "good" stuff.  Some don't even have a card.  They just write on the candy packages and save a step.

WHAT HAPPENED TO VALENTINE'S DAY?!

Doesn't anybody care about the secret love messages? The words stamped on the conversation hearts?  I guess not when you get several PACKAGES of hearts instead of just a few.  Wow.  Kind of sad really.  And gross.  Just another holiday that's all about candy now.  And another example of how people are losing the ability to communicate with each other with something as simple as a note.  But that's a topic for a whole other post.

And speaking of conversation hearts, did you hear what the new saying was this year?
"TWEET ME"

What's Been Going On?

We've had a busy week this week.  I think I've got us all caught up in the following 6 posts!  Enjoy!

Nursery Girl

Another exciting event that took place last Sunday was Claire's introduction to nursery at church.  Now that she is 18 months old she is an official nursery girl.  She gets to spend 2 hours playing, singing, and eating snacks every single Sunday.  What fun!  She might take a little time to get used to it.  She definitley likes the snack and song time though!  Hopefully the play time will become more fun, too.  I mean...just look at all of those toys!  Heaven right?  And there are other little girls to play with!  That's new and exciting!  Here are some pictures of our cute little girl I tried to catch after church.  She didn't really have time to be stopping for pictures.  Too many things to do.

Still working on growing those lovely locks of hair!

Grandma and Grandpa's Visit

Tory's parents were able to drive down for Austin's baptism.  They came Thursday evening and left this morning.  We had lots of fun with them. 

Tory and I each got private crochet lessons.  I've always wanted to learn and have attempted it a couple times and this time I think it finally sunk in.  I even made a pot holder!  It's the perfect size...for a play kitchen.  Oops!  Going to have to try for an adult size square next time!

We got a babysitter and went on a double date together.  Tory's boss gave him gift cards for Macaroni Grill so we started with dinner there and then went to see "Avatar" in 3-D.  Sooo good!  And even better, Tory was able to see the movie in 3-D for the first time in his life.  Normally he can't see 3-D.  Yeah for him!

Almost every night we put the kids to bed and then stayed up until about 11:00 playing Sequence and eating Blue Bell ice cream.  (Don't worry, we only had a 1/2 gallon and it lasted all of us the entire time.)  We decided that the person you want to be teammates with is Nolan, Tory's dad.  He's got some serious skill...or luck!  And the person you don't want to be teammates with is Tory.  LOL

We also did lots of cooking (many recipes to come on my recipe blog) and I enjoyed all of the help in the kitchen from food prep to dishes.  Ahhhh!  So nice to have a clean-up crew.  My dishwasher magically loaded and unloaded itself.  So very nice!

They also learned that Texas does get cold.  We never thought we'd hear them say "I'm freezing!" while visiting us but they did this time!  Normally we cook them out, this time we froze them out.  They had to wear coats and blankets and of course got to be here for our record-breaking snowstorm!

It was a great visit and we were sad to see them go this morning.  Maybe next time it will be a little warmer for them!

A Texas-Sized Snowstorm

This week, February 11-12, we had a historic North-Texas snowstorm and we were right in the middle of it.  It started snowing in the middle of the night and continued all day Thursday.  The kids were a little (ok...VERY) disappointed that they still had to go to school.  We were a little surprised, too.  But after the entire day of snow we realized it was the NEXT day that was going to be crazy!  They did end up letting the kids out of school an hour early on Thursday and announcing that there would be no school Friday.  All Valentine's Day parties will be postponed until Monday.  They came home from school and went right outside to play.  And the snow kept falling.... 

Friday morning it was finally over and there were 14 inches of snow to play in!  The kids had a blast even though we aren't prepared for snow...at all.  No boots or gloves for instance.  The kids wore some of mine and Tory's and did the best they could with their tennis shoes.  It was a really wet snow that was perfect for snowman building.  Tory and the kids built two HUGE snowmen taller than Tory.  They came inside to warm up for a bit and went out to find some kids had knocked one of them down.  Sometime later that evening the other one got knocked down.  Not nice.  We didn't even get a good picture!  Bummer. 

Coen and Claire especially loved playing in the snow.  But they did have slightly warmer things in their size from when we lived in Colorado.  Tory's parents, visiting from Colorado, were here for the big storm and we got to keep them one day longer because of it.  No school PLUS Grandma and Grandpa to play with = very happy little people!  And they thought they were coming to Texas to warm up....ha!  Instead they got to be here for our record-breaking snowstorm!

We don't have a snow shovel but Tory found that a dustpan worked pretty good.  One of his most favorite things to do is shovel snow so he had lots of "fun".  But seriously...he really does LOVE shoveling snow!  I'm not kidding.  That and chopping firewood.  Two of his most favorite things to do.  Crazy guy.  And two things he never gets to do here in TX.  He got stuck in his parking lot at work Friday and found that a trashcan works pretty good, too.  However, I'm sure the actual snow shovel is his preferred tool for snow removal.

Today we've had sunny skies and almost all of the snow has melted!  Our yard is a lake!  It was a fun, big storm!  Fun while it lasted.  Ok...NOW I'm ready for spring!

Austin

Dallin

Coen

Claire

Claire kept walking by the car and looking at her reflection.  So cute!  She was following Dada everywhere while he shoveled.  Much easier to walk on the shoveled sidewalks than in the deep snow!

Austin's 2nd Grade Music Program

This weekend was definitely all about Austin!  Baptism, UIL competition, and then Monday we got to go to a musical program at his school.  Grandma and Grandpa and the rest of the family all came.  It was just the 2nd graders performing.  I was pretty impressed!  Quite the talented bunch of kids playing instruments, dancing, singing, etc.  It was a full house but the 8 month pregnant lady (that would be me) earned us some side seats over by the tables.  I guess it's got its perks.  We had a great view of Austin and had fun watching.

Getting ready to start.

Austin playing his xylophone part.

Austin's Baptism

And now for the other part of Austin's big day last Saturday, February 6th.  His baptism!  The most important part I'd say.  And I think Austin would agree.  In fact the times ended up changing a couple times and we weren't sure if he was going to be able to do both.  I told him that the times might overlap and without even thinking about it he said, "If I can't go to both then I choose to go to my baptism." 

I was sure proud of his decision.  I know he was really excited about his UIL competition, too, and had been practicing for months.  Austin is such a good boy.

So after his competition we rushed back home to change clothes, eat some lunch, and pick up Grandma and Grandpa (who had traveled from Colorado Springs to be here for Austin's big day) and Dallin, Coen, and Claire.  We had to travel to the chapel where the baptism would be held in Colleyville, TX.  Tory and Austin got changed and the rest of us found seats.  Here they have one baptism day for the Stake where all of the children who turned 8 that month get baptized.  That was a little different for me since I didn't grow up in a big Stake like we have here.  There were 5 little 8 year-olds getting baptized that day.  Austin got to go 2nd and it was wonderful.  Tory baptized him and it was very special.

I'm so proud of Austin and the decisions he makes.  He is such a good boy.  He got his own set of scriptures for his 8th birthday back on Jan. 11 and hasn't missed a single day of reading in his Book of Mormon since he got them.  He is such a good example to his little brothers and sister.  When he opens his scriptures I see the other three run to get their scriptures or "something" to read like him.  After he was baptized we met in the primary room with some other people and friends from our Ward.  He was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Tory gave him his blessing and it was beautiful.  I loved how his role as the oldest child was mentioned and that it was his choice and even though it is hard it was something he knew he could do.  I just loved that!  Austin is so good at being the oldest.  And he always has ever since he was 23 months old and became a "big" brother. 

After his baptism we went home and changed and then Grandma and Grandpa took us out to eat at Red Robin.  It was super yummy and a great end to the day. 

Grandma has started a tradition of crocheting an afghan for each grandchild when they are baptized.  She brought Austin's and it is beautiful!  It's a pretty country blue color.  Hard to tell with our lovely family room lighting.

Austin's UIL Competition

Back in October Austin tried out to be on the Creative Writing Team for the UIL Competition that his school was participating in and was selected to be part of the 3 member team to represent their school.  He's been going to practices every week since then to get ready for the big competition that was last Saturday, February 6th. 

The big day finally arrived.  There were about 8 schools there.  Austin and his team were all ready to go and looked so cute in their team shirts.  Tory and I waited with him until he went in for his part of the competition and then came back an hour later to pick him up.  He said he thought it went well and told us a little bit about his story.  Tory and I were very impressed!  I don't know if we'll ever get to read his story but it was pretty amazing!  They are given a group of 5-6 pictures and have 30 minutes to write a story using at least one of the pictures.  There was a sun, a dog getting a bath, a kite, a swimming pool, etc.  His story was about how temperatures on Earth were getting so hot that it was dangerous to go out.  Kites would catch on fire, the water was too hot to give dogs baths, it was too hot to even swim.  Something was wrong.  They finally figured out that it was these people in space who were controlling the sun.  In true "boy" fashion there were fights and battles with rocketships and the people in space were defeated and the sun returned to normal.  It was so cool!  I NEVER would have thought of a story like that.  Ha!

Here he is with his coach and one of his teammates.  They played a little game "Set" to relax and have fun while they were waiting for their turn.

So anyway, he had lots of fun and hoped and hoped that he got first place because he heard 1st place got a trophy and he really wanted his own trophy.  We weren't able to stay for the results because he had his baptism the same day!  Only an hour to get to the church!  It was a busy day!  They told us we would be able to hear the results on Monday so off we went.

Monday he did indeed find out and guess what?


HE WON 1ST PLACE!!

I was so excited for him!  One of his teammates (and best friend) Jacob won 2nd place.  They are having a ceremony this Tuesday at his school to recognize all of the students who particpated in the competition and to hand out awards.  I don't know if there will be a trophy involved but we'll see.

Good job Austin!

Groundhog/Armadillo Day

Phil Says Six More Weeks!

Phil's official forecast as read February 2nd, 2009 at sunrise at Gobbler's Knob:

Hear Ye Hear Ye Hear Ye

On Gobbler's Knob on this glorious Groundhog Day, February 2nd, 2010, Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of all Prognosticators awoke to the call of President Bill Deeley and greeted his handlers, John Griffiths and Ben Hughes.

After casting a joyful eye towards thousands of his faithful followers, Phil proclaimed, "If you want to know next, you must read my text. As the sky shines bright above me, my shadow I see beside me. So six more weeks of winter it will be."

So there you have it...the groundhog has spoken.  Six more weeks of winter.  If you want to learn more about Groundhog Day read HERE.

But even more exciting is the fact that today is the first 'Armadillo Day' in Texas.  That's right.  Texans have taken matters into their own hands and decided to use the armadillo instead of the groundhog to predict the weather.  He was scheduled to come out right about now.  I'll keep you posted.

One-and-a-Half

Our little pink girl is one-and-a-half years old today February 1st.  What a fun little girl!  I just can't get enough of her.  None of us can.  She adds such a special spirit to our home and family.  It's so fun to see her personality coming through.  She is so funny!  There are a few things I've got to write down to remember.

-She is such a girl.  She loves her babies and gives them lots of loves.  She loves to put them in her stroller and push them around.  Her stroller didn't last long with 3 big brothers.  The lining was ripped off and destroyed in one week.  I'm going to have to sew another one with something that can withstand a tad bit more physical abuse.  But in the meantime she has figured out how to get them to sit in the frame of the stroller and is just as happy. 

-She is also very happy pushing dump trucks around with her brothers.  She usually gets the tiny one but can drive around at top speed nonetheless.  If she does happen to crash she has learned how to do a great crash and roll complete with sound effects from her brothers.  Sometimes she does it just for fun.  That's what they do right?

-If she is lucky enough to secure the BIG dump truck, she likes to put all of her shoes in it and drive them around.  Sometimes one of her babies is lucky enough to get a ride but shoes seem to be the best fit.

-She loves to say her prayers.  She is very good at folding her arms but that's about as far as it gets right now.

-She's got the best "fake" laugh...still.  I love it.  It's so loud and happy.  She's so happy and always laughing.  Putting her in her crib is when we get the best laughs.  I guess she really loves her soft and cozy bed!

-She loves to draw and holds a pencil perfectly!  If she finds any paper and a writing utensil she quickly finds a place on the floor, lies down on her stomach, ankles crossed, feet in the air and draws away.  She got a little magna doodle for Christmas and that thing can keep her occupied for over an hour at church!

-She is very good with a spoon.  I think she might have more skill in that area than a certain brother of hers.  And it's not the one closest to her in age.

-She's a little runner.  Always moving fast.  And it cracks me up because she pumps her little arms as she runs to do her errands and huffs and puffs like she's working so hard.  Sometimes I ask her to go get a diaper just to see her run.  Too cute!

-She copies everything the boys do.  As she's learning how to crash and dive onto her blanket I can't help but wonder what it would be like if she had three older sisters instead of three older brothers.  Maybe she'd be lining up her dolls on that same blanket for a tea party.  Ha!  But at least she's having fun and they love playing with her, too.

-She is so much more emotional, or maybe sensitive is the word, than the boys!  If she's not crashing on purpose and someone happens to bump her or anything like that...she falls into a heap of tears!  Wow!  It's the end of the world!

-She loves to sit and read books.  If she sees me reading she quickly runs and gets a book and comes up to sit with me on my chair.  It doesn't have to have pictures.  Anything will do.  And she'll just sit there and be happy flipping through her pages and sneaking me cute little smiles and sighs of satisfaction every now and then.  I love it!  I've never had a baby just sit on my lap like that for extended periods of time.  The boys were always go, go, go!  Even when I wasn't feeling well she would crawl up and sit on my lap and read her books and even fall asleep.

-She is such a cuddler.  I love it.  She loves to be held and I love to hold her.  Tiny little girl.

-She loves shoes and especially wearing shoes.  She's always got to have some on.

-I have recently discovered that she LOVES having her legs lightly rubbed.  I've never seen anything like it.  It hypnotizes her!  She can be throwing a fit on the floor not wanting to have her diaper changed and I'll start rubbing her legs and she freezes.  No blinking.  In fact the eyelids drop to half open.  As soon as I stop she'll grunt and point to her legs to let me know she'd like more.  Sooo funny! 

-She finally moved to size 3 diapers.  It might be the last size she's ever in.  She's also my first child who lets me know when she has a poo-poo. 

-Loves baths and comes running as soon as she hears water. 

-Very good at pointing to all her body parts and is always sure to give you a "honk" on the nose or a "beep" on your button when you get to those parts.

-Loves playing peek-a-boo by covering her own eyes and always jumps a mile when you finally say it even though she's peeking the whole time.  She also loves giving "high fives" on the side, up high, and down low and has mastered the actions of patty-cake.

-Eats lunch with Coen every day on the little picnic table.  I don't know if I would have let any of my other 1 year olds eat out of their highchairs but she is really quite coordinated and never spills!  She and Coen LOVE it and have so much fun.  It's like one of the big events they look forward to everyday.

-Sometimes I have to wake her (and Coen) up from her nap to go pick up the boys.  She is so funny!  She'll start "talking" away and doing a fake laugh like she's pretending she never fell asleep and was just finishing where we left off.  You know like you would if you were caught dozing at school and you were trying to play it off and "continue" the conversation you might have been having.   Cracks me up.  I'm just so glad she always wakes up happy!

What a fun little girl!  Can't wait to see how much she grows and changes in the next 6 months!

Adventures in an OB office...or lack thereof

Today I had an OB appointment at 9:20 am.  I try to schedule them as early as possible so that Tory won't have to miss too much work.  It's a 30 minute drive each way and the appt. usually just takes 5 minutes max.  That, of course, is not counting the waiting time.  Today I waited for 1 hour and 50 minutes.  I think that's a record for me.  Normally it's more like an hour.  It was miserable and I almost went crazy.  First of all, who wants to just sit in a chair for an hour?  A WAITING room chair no less.  Second, this office has the world's hottest waiting room EVER.  Third, it was PACKED today.  One girl and her husband had their entire extended family with them because they were finding out the gender of their baby.  Exciting.  Yes.  But I was sandwiched between two huge guys that really liked to use their arm rests...and mine.  Did I mention it was HOT in there?

Finally after an hour they called me back.  Hallelujah!  Got weighed and had my blood pressure checked and settled in for my brief wait.  "The doctor will be here in just a few minutes."  That's what the nurse said.  And both of my ears are working now so I know that's what she said.  Tick, tock, tick, tock.  No one.  I read every poster in the room.  I know what to look for for Lyme's Disease and every stage a baby looks like from Day 1 to 9 months and what to expect the 4th trimester (a fancy way of saying postpartum.)  It's good to review you know, in case I forget I should sleep when baby sleeps, bond with baby at feeding time, and take it easy.  Then I ran out of posters to read and they didn't stock my room with magazines.  There weren't even any good birth control ads on the calendars to read. 

I started to feel a little crazy.  There was nothing to do!  And I couldn't sit for another second.  I paced around.  I felt like a caged animal who HAD to get out.  After waiting 50 MORE minutes in the exam room and not seeing another human being that entire time I opened the door.  Yep, I LEFT the room.  No one was around.  Did they go on lunch?  Finally my nurse walked by and I let it be known how long I had been waiting.  Hey...they chose to work with pregnant ladies right?  We've got hormones!  I went back to my cell...I mean room and about 5 minutes later the doctor came.  (Mental note:  Leave room much earlier next time...but next time they'll probably remember me anyway.  Could be good...could be bad.)  Oh, did I mention the lights in this room were on motion sensors?  Yep.  Added to the fun.  I had to stand up every few minutes and wave my arms around like a crazy lady to get them to turn back on so I could see.  Apparently sitting and waving is not enough "motion".  Doctor's offices should have better artwork and magazines and some refreshment and you should definitely get a free prize for waiting that long.

So the doctor arrives and we listen to the heartbeat, which I do always love and really that's what makes it all worth it, and he measures me to let me know that my baby is still a big boy and then he's done.  That's it.  I felt like I needed to come up with some questions to ask him just to hear him talk to me and make it seem really important.  I've got to tell ya...on number 5 there just aren't a lot of questions to ask.  So in less than 5 minutes we were done.  I just don't understand why he couldn't sneak those 5 minutes in closer to the 9:20 time of my appointment instead of 11:20.  Good grief!  I was never so glad to feel the fresh air and have a change of scenery.  So...next time bring a book, a snack, a water bottle, a good game of solitaire, oh, and maybe I could bring Tory's cell phone and call him just to hear a human voice!  That would be fun!  And if all else fails...leave the room.