Family Shin-dig

This weekend we celebrated Aunt Linda's 50th birthday. Aunt Linda is Kevin's sister. Saturday was her big birthday bash. Mary had a grand time dancing with her family. She's quite the dancer. I think she gets that from the Kormann gene.

Here she is dancing with cousin Jennifer. She didn't care how tired she was, she wanted to keep dancing. Someone just hold me and dance.
We had Kevin's other sister, Margeaux, and her kids stay with us for the night for this shin-dig. Mary loves her cousins. Here she is sitting with Brianna listening to her IPOD. It was Petty cute. She had the pieces in her ears and bopping her head to the music. I guess I'm going to need to get her one full of Sesame Street music. If it keeps her entertained in the car, I'm ALL for it!
Here are all the cousins together. They had a great time. I wish they lived closer. They live about 2-3 hours away. But at least she gets to see them when she can.

Girls day of Fun

Friday was girls day in Simi Valley. We met up for breakfast at Corner Bakery. It was a day of fun with Leslie, Julie, and mom. We meet for a day of shopping and eating.
This is Mary is Victoria Secrets. She loved the stuffed Doggies. She had to pet each one and then kiss each one good bye when we left. She tried to feed them her Cheerios, but that didn't work so well.
Mary decided to try on shoes in Macy's. One shoes matched. The other, not so much. But she walked around in them like she was a pro. I see I have a shoe girl on my hands.
We had to go on a train ride, of course. It was all she could talk about whenever she saw it go by. We also rented one of those car stroller/carts to keep her entertained while we shopped too. Keeping this child entertained is just as expensive as shopping in general. But, we were able to shop easier with these options. So, whatever works!
We shopped and then had lunch. Usually mom stays with the girls and Mary and I go home for nap time. Well, today mom left with Mary and let me stay to play. We went to see Mama Mia. Cute movie. So, it was a good day of fun, with Mary and w/out.

5 Month Baby Check Up

Well, just bout in month 6 now. I"m 23 weeks along. I went to the doctor today. All's good. Since the baby is bigger, and has moved above my flubber roll, she was able to find the heart beat real quick this time. It was nice and strong. She said the ultrasound we had looked good. There was one part they wanted to look at again. There is a tube that goes to the bladder which she said had a dilation, or pulse, to it. She said it was nothing to worry about, but she wants to check it again at 28 weeks. SOOOO that is good for us so we have another ultrasound to try to figure out what this little thing is. Boy, girl, human??? So, that is set up for October 1st. 5 weeks away. Seems like a ways, but I know it'll be here in no time. So, until then we still can't buy pink or blue. Mary says she's having a sister, well two sisters, so we shall see if she is correct or not. She isn't correct on the two thing, that's for sure.

Fun with Wet Sand at Home

This table was passed down to Mary from her cousin's Aaron and Katie. WE've gotten some good stuff from them. So, Kevin got a grand idea to put some dry sand into it and make it wet to make sand castles. It was a perfet idea. When we went to Mexico in April we brought back a 5 gallon sparkletts bottle back full of Mexico sand. SOOOO, we had some good sand to make for wet play. Even kinda smells like the beach too.
Here is Mary's sand Castle. TA DA! That is about how long it lasts until she smooshes it and it's back to a pile of sand and we have to fill the bucket up again.
This is my geeky kid. Now when you point the camera at her she makes this goofy smile. This is her 'I'm having FUN' smile. hehe I love it. Kinda reminds me of myself. haha I'm so proud.

pregnancy has set in

Ok, I'm about 23 weeks pregnant, almost 6 months, and I'm feeling it. I feel large. The Internet says the baby is anywhere from 8-10 inches, so that's a bundle in my middle. A bundle under my already there flub, which is being pushed out. I've always been 'chubby' so even the first time I was pregnant I never felt pregnant, just more fat.
So, I was doing laundry today and getting stuff outa the dryer seemed to be more difficult. Just bending down to do anything seems more difficult. So, I'm trying to get Mary to help me by picking things up that are low. It kinda works. Keeps her busy to do what I want her to do.

The Heat Is Getting To Me

Ok, this sucks. I was shaving my legs today and I noticed something. I was shaving around my ankles and I notices that I did not have to be extra careful not to cut myself. This heat is making my ankles start to swell. It's not bad, but I noticed it. This did not happen when I was pregnant with Mary. I was not pregnant in the dead heat of summer with her. We shall see if this gets worse. It is only the middle of August, so we still have some hot time to go.

Granny Panties

I had a basket of clean laundry on the floor last night and Mary decided to play with my underwear. Yes, they are granny panties right now. She was entertained by them for quite some time, as were we. They looked REALLY big on her.
Even Pinto got to wear a pair as well. Doesn't your stuffed animal/blanket get to wear underwear too?? = )

OUCH!

Well, Mary has her first Urinary Tract Infection. Poor thing is in pain. It started yesterday. She would hold herself and almost cry when she would pee. So, today I took her to the doctor. This was a fun experience. They needed to get a sample to test. Well, she was not going to pee in a cup. Heck, I can hardly pee in a cup. So, they have these little bags that tape around her 'who who' and then we wait for her to pee. Well, it was not comfortable and she wanted to peel it off. So I had to keep her from playing with it while we waited for her to pee. I had her sitting on my lap when the peeing started. It started to run down my leg. All nice and warm and smelly. OH JOY! So I quickly put her back on the table and made sure the bag was catching the majority. Luckily we got a good sample. So, then I get her cleaned up and get the nurse. She even said that was lucky to get her to get the pee in there. The test showed she does have an infection and the doctor put her on medication for a week. 3 times a day for a week. Luckily it is pink and tastes good so Mary doesn't mind it. Now to get her fixed from this and try for the potty training thing. Not really looking forward to this. Oh well!

Hangin' with the cousins

This weekend we took Kevin's nieces. Brianna is 13 and Stephanie is 11. They were a great help with Mary. Mary loved them too, of course. I took them to my walking group on Friday and wore them out. This was them on the couch afterwards getting ready to take a nap.
Saturday we decided to take them to the lower lake in Castaic. I have not been there, in forever. It is cleaned up and nice. The girls had fun playing and swimming. We got there about 9:30 and Mary was asking to go home to take a nap by 12:00. She loves her naps. The older girls were pretty tired as well.
It was nice to have Mary spend time with her cousins. We wish they lived closer, but we'll take what we can get.

Half Way

Well, I am officially half way through this pregnancy. Just about 4 more months to go, depending on which due date you go by. My official due date is Christmas Eve, but I say I will be earlier than that. We shall find out in December. It's really taken this long to actually feel pregnant. I can feel it move, which is cool. It's not strong enough that Kevin can feel it, but I know it's there. So, about another 20 weeks to go!!

The Sex Stays A Mystery

Well, I had my ultrasound on Tuesday. We should have been able to find out the sex of the baby. BUT, it would not let us know. It was relaxed and laid back with it's legs together. It kept dangling it's feet around, but did not want to open it's legs. The ultrasound tech tried for about a half hour, but it would not move. I drank a Pepsi and ate cookies before hand and it still was not moving much. I guess the walking I did before hand put it to a nice deep sleep.
So we will see if the doctor wants to do anymore ultrasounds, but typically there are no more to be scheduled. If we don't have another one in a month or two we may go pay to have one done on our own. We shall see. So, until then I'm still looking at green and yellow clothes.

"Broke" in Baker

We went to State Line (mini Vegas before Vegas, for my Indiana family) for the weekend. We dropped Mary off Thursday at mom's and we were on our way for some fun. We met up with Sal and Steph and were ready to relax. We had a great time, as usual. They had a little bit more fun than me since I still cannot drink. It's ok. Me and Odoul's were great friends. The baby seemed to like it too. It seemed to kick when I had one.
Sal and Kevin a little 'toasted'

Anyway, we left Sunday morning about 9:30 to get home to Mary. We missed her. I was thinking about it and I really didn't have anything exciting to write about for our trip. WELL, that changed really soon.

We were headed down the 15 fwy back home. The last sign I saw said 15 miles to Baker. Then it happened. The car lost all the controls, but was still driving. Then it started to stop and go and stall. SO, we pulled over. Sal and Steph had already passed us and were on their way. So we were on our own. There we were on the side of the 15 fwy in the heat. Kevin looked under the hood to see if he could figure it out. Well, it was something with the battery and we had NO tools. So I call AAA right away. Tow truck on the way.

Poor Boken Down Car

Kevin's sweat beaded head waiting in the heat

About 45 minutes later the tow truck arrives. On the flat bed goes my car and we are off to the lovely town of Baker. We are dropped off at the only shop in town. Total grease ball, but it's a shop. The guy looks like something out of a movie. He's looking over my car with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, lit or not. Kinda scared me around the engine, but he was trying to fix the car. Well, he can't fix it but thinks it is the alternator. He suggests to get to a dealer due to the computer being hooked to all the stuff in new cars. Since the alternator is what chargers the battery while the car is running is why we lost power when the battery died. Ok, so decide to charge up the battery and buy a second charged battery and see how far we can make it to Barstow, the next major city. We are scared, but what other choices do we have.

Off we go with our two batteries. We are told to drive as fast as we can and try not to use the brakes or anything else that uses power. GREAT, let's drive 100 on the 15, the most dangerous fwy around. We get about 33 miles on the battery and it dies. Off to the side of the road we go and Kevin changes out the battery. We bought a wrench before so we could do this. Thinking ahead.

Ok, new battery in and about 30 miles to go to Barstow. We can do it. AND THEN we hit traffic. We have to use the brakes. So, we try to coast as slow as we can to not have to use the brakes. This is not working so well. We thought it was the line for the agriculture stop, but it was some lame accident on the side of the road. We get past that and THEN get to the agriculture line. Great, we need to use more brakes. Now it's not about miles it is about time left on the battery. We get almost to the front of the line and the car dies. So, we get pushed to the side of the place and park it. Another call to AAA. But we get to sit in an air conditioned room and use a bathroom. It was a great place to break down if you have to. The supervisor came and talked to use for a while. We learned some interesting things about the place. You usually drive through there and think it's some lame thing to slow you down, but it's not really. It has a lot of useful purposes. I have a greater appreciation for them now.

Ok, so the tow truck arrives about an hour later and we are on our way to Barstow. We tell him to drop us off at the Home Depot parking lot. We asked him to take us there because............DAD was driving all the way from home with the trailer to pick us up!!! Our savior!! We had to wait about a half hour and he arrived. It was a great feeling to see someone you know to drive up with a trailer to rescue you.

Sitting in the lawn chairs at Home Depot waiting for dad.

Load up and we are on our way home! We make it to Mojave and stop at Denny's for dinner. It's a little after 6 by now and we are hungry and poor dad needs a break since he just flew 2 hours to pick us up and then turn around to go back. We have our fabulous meal and head home. We make it to mom's about 8:45. We can get outa the car and relax now. AND see our Mary. She was happy to see us too. Now off to our own home. We take mom's van and we're on our way. We finally make it home at 9:30. TWELVE HOURS to get home from Vegas. Normally about a 4 hour trip.

So today my car went off to the 'car doctor' to get a band aid. Mary was very concerned about mommy's car. We shall see how long it will take to get it back. In the mien time I have the monster Durango and Kevin has mom's jeep. I would take the jeep but it's not really a practical mommy car.