Sixth Birthday = Sick Barfday

It's a rotten time to have a birthday. Prospective parents should really avoid each other in March/April, unless they want their prospective child to be tortured with a birthday that is constantly overshadowed by other festive busyness. The things you don't think about until it's too late....

Anyhow, Lauren was excited about her birthday, and thankfully, didn't begrudge the fact that I didn't do anything to plan a party for her until yesterday. Luckily, with just 24 hours notice, all five of her friends we called were able to come to a party today. So Lauren and I spent the afternoon yesterday preparing and planning her party. We decided on a cooking party. We bought supplies and put together chef's hats for each guest, and cool cooking-themed goodie bags, and were all ready to make personalized placemats and mini pizzas and decorate cupcakes and play party games.

The day after Christmas, we transformed our Christmas Tree into a Birthday Tree --an idea I read about in a magazine (the upside of time spent in waiting rooms at doctors' offices). It's hard to get a good picture of it, but trust me, it looks different than it did last week.

Lauren woke up hungry and excited on the big day. But as I made the breakfast she requested, she started complaining about her tummy. As I was baking the cupcakes and Lauren was trying to eat her breakfast and convince me that she felt just fine, it splattered all over the kitchen floor: vomit. So Lauren turned six and got sick, all in the same unfortunate morning.

We had to call the party guests and uninvite them, less than 24 hours after they had first been notified of the party, and only 3 hours before they were supposed to arrive.

Lauren, however, has been a sweetheart through it all. She just looks at it as her birthday lasting more than one day, since she knows we'll reschedule the party as soon as she's well. And hopefully, the sickness will stop with her...

Lauren spent her sixth birthday sipping diet soda and watching movies. I spent it scrubbing every germy surface in the house, and wishing I had knocked on wood the other day when I breathed a sigh of relief and thought, "Phew, we made it through the holidays without anyone getting sick!"

It's not just the cheap ones...

Expensive Christmas gifts are just as easily broken, almost as soon as they're opened.

For a couple of years, Emily (and some of her sisters, too) has been begging for a Nintendo DS. Finally, two days ago, Santa came through, and left a pink DS and two games under our tree.

After breakfast had been eaten and cleaned up, I decided I'd jump in and take my first turn with the new toys. The one I wanted to play was a brain game on the DS. But we couldn't find that game anywhere. (The disk is only about the size of a quarter.) We searched the house--seriously searched it, going through bags of trash and everything. It disappeared, and we have yet to find it.

Well, that doesn't much matter now, anyway. This morning, Hannah decided to give the DS system a bath in the sink, along with a few of her other toys. Bye bye, expensive gift.

I bet Santa's pretty upset.

Sugar and Spice

Baby Bidia is on her way. We opened the package tonight, and found this inside:

Do you know what Hannah immediately said?



"TOLD YA!"





The long story is this:



Doug, Katelyn and I went to my regular scheduled ultrasound appointment at my doctor's office last Thursday. Although the technician took a long time and tried several different angles, prodded my belly with the probe to try to encourage the baby to move, and even had me move from side to side, she couldn't get a clear enough view of the baby's heart to settle her mind that it was perfectly ok. So she told us that the doctors would probably recommend a follow-up ultrasound sometime in the next few weeks, just to make sure. As we were waiting for my appointment with the midwife, one of the doctors pulled us into her office and explained that there was some concern about possibly some fluid around the baby's heart, so they would like to send us to Maternal-Fetal Medicine and have them do a thorough ultrasound again. We took the doctor and ultrasound technician at their word, which was that we shouldn't worry about it, they were just being cautious. But still, you can't help but wonder and worry a little bit...



Meanwhile, I had this package with some important information sitting under the Christmas tree, which I was very anxious to open. To tell the truth, Doug and I both thought that we saw "girl parts" during Thursday's ultrasound, but the technician kept us wondering if we really saw what we thought we saw. She had a good poker face. As we left that appointment, however, I was really unsettled about it all. Boy or girl, I wanted to really see with my own eyes. So I decided that one of the good things about having to return for another ultrasound (despite the worrisome reasons for it) was that I could get another good look at the baby's gender. Just so I would have no doubts about it.

On Friday, the MFM office called and scheduled me to come in this morning--Christmas Eve. I was really glad that they could get us in so quickly, but then that sort of disrupted our plan of not finding out until Christmas. I convinced Doug that he and I could find out at the Christmas Eve ultrasound, and still keep everyone else guessing until Christmas Day.

Well, even though the baby was very wiggly and a little bit uncooperative, it wasn't too long before I could see again that it looked very much like a girl, and the technician confirmed my guess. She gave us a 5% chance of error, that it may be a boy, but tonight, when the girls all opened one gift from under the tree, I opened the anticipated package and saw that we had a second opinion to confirm--It's A Girl!


And the best news: The baby looks perfectly healthy--heart and all. Our Christmas miracle.

Sneak Peek

After enjoying the ultrasound screen this morning for about an hour, here's what I do know:

This baby is very cute! And photogenic. He or she has great leg muscles just like Daddy.

This baby is also very punctual. Bone measurements put this baby EXACTLY, to the day, at my expected due date. So I see we have a little perfectionist here.

And here's what I still do not know:

Boy or Girl???

I must admit I was looking for a clue throughout the entire session. So was Doug. (Kate was with us, too, but I don't think she was looking for anything.) And I thought I would recognize girl parts for sure, and probably recognize boy parts...but....it was never obvious to me. The technician says she knows for certain what the gender is, but she has been doing these things for 20 years, and I've only been seeing them on and off for the last 11. So, I am extremely anxious to open this present on Christmas morning!

Winter Break

It has begun. No more school until 2008. The days begin with the girls playing in their rooms, usually with Playmobil. They take the pieces out of the bin, line them all up, and take turns choosing their "team". Usually the hottest picks are horses and girls. But this morning, there was a surprising demand for one particular piece of plastic:

Emily: I'll trade you my dog for your girl.

Hannah: How about my girl for...the poop.

Lauren: I know, how about the poop and the bucket.

Can you find the poop?

To think what they'd be missing if they were sitting in a classroom right now!!





For something more appetizing, here's what we did last night:

Cheerio Christmas Trees

(a Davies Family Tradition)

3 Tbsp. butter

32 large or 3 cups mini marshmallows

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. green food coloring

4 cups Cheerios

small gumdrops for decoration

In large saucepan, melt butter and marshmallows over low heat, stirring constantly. When smooth, remove from heat and add vanilla and food coloring. Stir in cereal. Scoop onto waxed paper. With buttered hands, shape into trees (or a wreath, like Emily; or a snowman, like Hannah). Decorate with sliced gumdrops.

One batch made what you see in the picture above, so you may want to double it if you have a large family!

Seasonal Funnies

We've been listening to nothing but Christmas music. In the car, I have a cd that's mostly piano, but completely instrumental. Yesterday a slow, mellow rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" was playing, featuring a deep cello. Hannah listened quietly for a minute, and then she said, with a pouty lip, "Sad song!"
I think it's funny that even to an untrained child, minor chords = sad music.


Hannah's new favorite Christmas song is "Angels We Have Heard on High". She sings the chorus, "Glooo-oooo--oooo--ooooo--ria, In the jungle, the lion sleeps tonight."

She sings another popular song in her own way, too: "We wish you could marry Christmas, We wish you could marry Christmas..."

Lauren told me today that what she wants for Christmas is a pair of those shoes that have wheels in the bottom. I told her, "I don't think they make those in your size." She thought for a second, and came back with, "Well, Santa does."

My Crazy Pregnant Mind

Yesterday was a highly anticipated day for me. It was Gerberta's scheduled ultrasound. I couldn't wait to find out what she was having. (I was already assuming it was a healthy baby, so I was mostly thinking about the gender.) Gerb was predicting that whatever she's having, I'm having the same. So we would either both continue our preset patterns (hers is boy-girl-girl, boy-girl-girl, and you know what mine is!) by having girls, or we would both break our patterns with a boy this time.

I didn't get a chance to talk to Gerb before I went to an Enrichment Meeting/Christmas party last night. And of course, everyone I talked to was asking The Question. It all just added to the anticipation of talking to Gerberta. As soon as the closing prayer was said, I was out the door, in my car, calling Gerberta to hear the news. And it was an exciting conversation. However, as soon as I hung up with Gerberta, I experienced an unexpected sensation: a deep void of anticipation. Now that I knew, it was still exciting, but, I knew.

So, I started having these crazy thoughts....maybe I don't want to experience that "void" again next week. Maybe I want to continue to let the anticipation build and build, and keep everyone (including myself) curious and anxious to find out whether we're going to have a boy or a girl.

Am I nuts??? Am I even myself?!

A True Compliment

This morning, Hannah crawled into bed with me for the last few minutes of sleepy time, as she does almost every morning. I enjoy our morning cuddle time. Sometimes Lauren joins us, but today it was just me and Hannah. Most mornings, I have to pry my eyes open with a great surge of will power, and drag myself out of bed. But this morning I was awake before Hannah joined me. She lay down next to me with her head on my arm, and we looked at each other and smiled. She took a deep breath, and then said, "You smell good. You smell like a Mom." I so appreciate those sweet little moments!
I don't have the most keen sense of smell, but there are certain aromas that are sentimental for me. Like the smell of my Grandma. A couple of months after my Grandma Davies passed away, I went to the temple, and I encountered a lady there who smelled exactly like my grandma used to. This lady, who was a stranger to me, probably wondered why I was teary-eyed and and, at the same time, grinning from ear to ear while I was talking to her briefly. But it was just that familiar smell that made me feel nostalgic in a really good way. I'm so glad to know that my aroma (whatever it may be) has that same sort of effect on Hannah.

First Snow

Meet Bob.

Poor old Bob didn't live long. He spent one Saturday afternoon in the falling snow, watching Doug and the girls have a snowball fight.



But by the next morning, Bob had met his demise. The girls believe it was the work of our pesky neighbors, the Raccoons. Perhaps they were after his carrot nose?



But by Sunday evening, Mother Nature finished him off, for good. It has been pouring rain for almost 24 hours now, and I'm wishing that instead of building Bob, we had built an ark. It might come in handy soon.

Boy or Girl?

That's the big question right now. At least one of my Beehives asks me that question every single Sunday and Wednesday: "Do you know yet if it's a boy or a girl?" It's beginning to remind me of that road trip question, "Are we there yet?", except that this question does not annoy me. In fact, I'm happy to talk about it and get people's guesses and opinions. If you were here to have the conversation with me, here's how it would go...

You: Are you hoping for a boy this time?
Me: Well, it is true that in our deliberations on the subject of whether or not to have another child, I may have been overheard to say, "If I knew it would be a boy, I would go ahead and do it." However, we made the decision to have this baby without any revealed knowledge of its gender. We knew full well that it could very well be a girl, and still, we decided to go ahead with baby #5. Not because we're trying for a boy, but because we are excited to add another member to our family. I will be thrilled if it's a boy (not to mention terrified, curious, ready to shop, as well as unsure about how we'll all fit into the bedrooms we have in this house, in the long run). I will also be ecstatic if it's another girl. I ADORE my daughters. My sis-in-law, Kaelyn, tells me that I wished so hard for a girl the first time around, that's all I get now. If that's the case, then lucky me. I am so glad to have girls!! So, coming back to the question, my bottom line answer is, I'm not necessarily hoping for a boy, but I am definitely anxious to find out! It will be a fun announcement either way. Remember that Doug has eight brothers, and no sisters, so another girl would not surprise me, and would be a fun way for our family to be recognized. But then, in my family, there are four girls, and one boy. Hmmmm...

You: When will you find out?
Me: My ultrasound is scheduled for December 20th. (That is less than 3 weeks from now, people!) When the ultrasound technician asks me if we'd like to know the gender, I'll say "yes and no". I've never had the patience to outweigh my curiosity at the time of the ultrasound. Nor have I had the desire. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything when the baby is born and the doctor says "It's a ____!" There are plenty of other surprises that will be revealed on the birth day, such as "What color hair?", "Who does she look like?", and "Does she have Doug's toes?" Back to my point....We don't want to wait until Spring to find out the gender of this baby, but we do want to wait until Christmas. Even waiting those 5 days will be hard for me. (Maybe 4 days...we can open a present on Christmas Eve, right?) But I think it will be fun to have the gender sealed in a gift box and opened as a family on Christmas this year. So, if you're as anxious as I am for this news, you can call us on Christmas day, or check my blog. I promise I'll post it here.

Now, if "You" were my midwife, "You" would say, at my last appointment, "Well, the chances aren't great that you'll have a boy, but if you do, how do you feel about having him circumcised? (Around here, the ObGyn does that procedure, not the pediatrician. Is that odd?)

If "You" were my kids' pediatrician, you would say to me, "Wow, Doug might really be outnumbered, huh?"

If "You" were my mother, you would tell me that 12 ladies in your ward are pregnant. 10 have already had ultrasounds, and 9 of those 10 are having girls.

And if "You" were Hannah, you would have had this conversation with me, several times, exactly the same way, during the last several weeks:

Me: What should we call the baby if it's a girl?
H: Bidia.
Me. Oh, wow. What if it's a boy?
H: It's a girl.
Me: But what if it's a boy?
H: Then I'll call it a girl.

Doug tried to tickle-torture her into saying that it's a boy, and his name (for now) is Spike. (Lauren suggested that one, and we all use it now.) That worked on Hannah, but only for half a day. She is convinced it's a girl.

So, what do YOU think? Cast your predictions! I'd love to hear them.