It's Official!

So this is what we came home to a few Thursdays ago. The Broads had decorated our house with wonderful "It's a Boy" balloons and noisemakers. It was VERY fun to come home to!

Here is how conversations with the neighbors went. (It all made me realize that while I really love having a bunch of stay at home Dads on my street, we just don't spend much of our conversation time talking about personal stuff.)



Neighbors: "Did you have a baby?"



Me: Um, no. (Really??Did they think I could hide that for nine months?) But I'm pregnant.



Neighbors: "You are?!"



Me: yeah.



Neighbors: "And it's a boy?"



Me: Well, no.



Neighbors: "....oh."



Me: We finalized the adoption today!



Neighbors: "oh. Well, that's nice too, I guess."



Introducing the latest addition to the Smith family:


Warren Logan Smith!

This is a picture with him and the woman who has been his caseworker for the last several years. We like her a lot. And are sort of sad she won't be around anymore.

This is the whole new and improved Smith family with the FABULOUS judge. He's showing us the notepad that he doodled caricatures on while we were having our hearing:



When Caleb first met the judge, he asked him to bang his gavel and say "Order in the court!" The judge looked a little worried and said, "Um. I don't think I actually have a gavel." Caleb was not amused. Seeing that the judge was about to lose a five year old fan before the hearing even started, he walked all around the chambers looking for a spare gavel. (The idea amused me. Like people keep extras in their desk?) He finally came back in the room and said, "Well, I couldn't find a gavel, but I did find this." And he proceeded to pull out a tape measure and bang it on the desk. The gravity of the statement was sort of lost on the fact that every time he banged it on the desk, the tape actually flew out a few inches. He was a great judge, though, and helped to make the experience very positive.

We are very happy that Warren has chosen to become a part of our family and feel fortunate that we were all able to enjoy this day with him.

Attention, please!

Today was ultrasound #2. And....

Nathaniel turns 7!!!

Today Nathaniel is 7 years old!!

He has been counting down to this day for approximately four months, so he's not excited or anything.

Today we are keeping it low key. Some cake. A few presents. Good stuff.

My seven favorite things about Nathaniel right now:

1. I love that Nathaniel is so very much his own person. There is no middle child syndrome going on there.

2. I love that he enjoys being in a book club with his friends, and that when it was suggested in said book club that they should skip a few books in the series, he was appalled and insisted we go to the library so he could get and read the ten books in between. (Finally, some hint that he's related to me!)

3. I love that he likes to sleep.

4. I love that he is so excited about school and learning.

5. I love that he was really excited to see Todd's MRI pictures, and bugged him for a full two months before Todd finally remembered to show him.

6. I love his beautiful dark eyes and long eye lashes and dark hair.

7. I love that he's mine.

Sarah Palin Poetry

I know it's no longer National Poetry Month, but Sarah Palin (with the unlikely help of Conan O'Brian and William Shatner) has reminded us that every day can be a day to celebrate a little free verse!

Go here to enjoy!

Discomfort

About three times per pregnancy, my babies go through a major growth spurt. This is not a pleasant thing for the person in whom the baby is growing. You've all seen the movie Alien, right?

Good times.

I spend a couple of days feeling generally achy, just short of crampy. And also, my liver doesn't seem to be able to fit any more.

Silver lining: My posture gets better, though, as slowly baby and organs take over my rib cage making slouching an impossibility.

Anyway, today growth spurt number one has begun. I feel gross.

Oh, and did I mention we're feeding four bachelors tomorrow? Because everyone knows the BEST time to have a dinner party is when you feel like your liver is about to explode out of body.

In fact I'm sure Martha once said that. "When I was expecting Lexi..."

Silver lining: I will be the only woman and all the men are straight, so to heck with flowers and cleaning and all that.

Classy

Today on my way home from my spinning class, I was feeling slightly queasy. I'm pregnant. So, I've basically spent the 3 months feeling queasy. However, today was a little different. I made it half way home and then knew that this was not going away. So, I turned a quick corner, pulled over on the side of the road (right in front of my friend's house) and puked out my window.

This is the first time I've thrown up this whole pregnancy, so it was kind of sad to have that record end. AND I'll need to call my neighbor later to apologize. It was a few minutes after 7am, so I'm sure someone in their house was awake to witness such loveliness.

Why does pregnancy have to be so very unpleasant? I know there are people out there who breeze through it and think it's wonderful, but I am not one of them...and in fact, I know very few people like that. But seriously, the aftermath of actually having the baby is hard enough, why (evolutionarily speaking) should it be so difficult during? Tired makes sense to me. Growing another human is hard work. But everything else? The aches, the pains, the vomiting, the swelling, the crampy legs. What is all that for?

I know there are people who have really really horrible pregnancies and I shouldn't complain about my little silly aches and pains. I know there are people who would give anything to experience pregnancy and can't, and so I should quit my whining and be grateful.

But it's hard to remember that when I'm throwing up in the street like a college freshman after their first frat party.

my BABY!

Today Benjamin and Todd are en route to Salt Lake City, where Todd will head down to Utah valley to hang out with relatives, and Benjamin will head up to Wyoming to go on a dinosaur dig. I dropped them off at the airport right after church. The whole time we were driving towards the airport, all I could think was, "I'm sending my BABY out in to the cold world without me. He'll practically be all alone!!"

I voiced this out loud to Todd, who gave me a look. I realize intellectually that Todd is a far more consciencious parent than I am in many respects and that Benjamin will be fine first in his care and then in the care of my own parents this week, but a mother's heart does not regard these things in quite the same way. It's not ME.

Heaven forbid my kids actually be able to function without me! Oh. Except that's really what I've been spending the last nine years of his life trying to get him to do.

Ugh. This parenthood thing is so confusing.