The Haps

A few things that are all completely unrelated but have been happening around these parts...

Gus is obsessed with frozen blueberries, he goes crazy for those messy, stain-inducing little buggers.  Like, last night, wouldn't touch the pizza, yes pizza, that was sitting on his plate all delicious-like and instead opted for two huge bowls full of frozen blueberries.  When his first bowl was empty he looked up at me with those big eyes, his entire mouth and chin stained blue, and exclaimed, "Oh NOOOOO!  All GONE!"  So I filled er up, and that was pretty much it for dinner.  Toddlers are so weird you guys.

So... looks like my child is the class bully.  Goodness.  We've been having separation anxiety issues over the last three weeks or so, which has been super strange for him, but clearly the little guy is going through something.  So yesterday he did not freak out when I left him in class with Teacher Ann, Teacher Kathy and the rest of the kids, and he actually looked excited to play with all the toys, running around smiling, still hugging me real tight, but there were no tears, no drama.  And I was so relieved, because the whole routine just breaks my heart, and I was hoping that he would get better.

But THEN!  At the end of the class, when us parents came in during snack time the little guy was sitting on the teacher's lap, all smiles exclaiming, "Mama!  You came back!".  And THEN!  Teacher Ann pulled me aside to tell me that he had a bit of a "rough morning".  My immediate thought was that he was sad for a while, like last time.  No, he was just really aggressive with other kids, throwing toys, pushing, not sharing.  Ugh.  Now I am not at all surprised by this, he also seems to be going through a little aggressive testing limits phase as well, particularly with his little 7 month old cousin.  And we are working on it, but he just doesn't seem to be getting it, the "talks" we have about being nice to other kids and sharing, the time-outs.  I'm not too concerned, because I think HE IS A TWO YEAR OLD who does not spend a ton of time with other kids his age, and I think this type of behavior is actually quite normal.  But jeez, no one wants to be pulled aside by the teacher at the end of class.  I felt totally admonished.

I'm sure it's a phase, he's clearly going through something, and that something might even have to do with the fact that he can sense an impending, dun dun dun... new baby to compete with.  And I have to keep reminding myself that he is a toddler, and toddlers are, in essence, crazy.  Because I simply can't imagine it would be possible for two of the most introverted conflict-avoiders out there (I'm talking about Dan and I) to mate and produce a bully.  No, that just doesn't make sense!  All through grade school and even high school my friends used to yell at me for saying "I'm sorry" too often, or when completely unnecessary.  I am a conflict avoider to a fault, and it's something I have to work on, my self confidence, and the ability to stand up for myself and my opinions.  So no.  My child the mean kid?  No. 

Honestly, I have some hard core mama-bear fears about sending Gus off to school someday, and all that potential for him to have trouble making friends, or get his feelings hurt by some other bully kids.  Just the idea of it breaks my heart.  But there is the other side of it I suppose.  That fact NEVER even occurred to me, that he might end up being the mean kid, you know?  My mind is blown people. 

Switching topics...

I am becoming increasingly frustrated by my maternity wardrobe, since I'm doing the pregnant thing on a completely different timetable this time.  Blech.  So I am getting big, officially in the 3rd trimester today (whoa!), the weather is getting cooler, and my closet full of springy maternity tops and sundresses is looking very out of season.  Dern.  I was pregnant in the winter last time, but obviously not wearing maternity clothes yet, so... there you go.

I hate the idea of buying more maternity clothes, I've already made my fair share of purchases this second time around, a pairs of jeans, cords, some simple tanks for under non-maternity cardigans.  So I told myself NO MORE!  But goodness, it is getting difficult to get dressed in the morning.  I have a lot of great dresses that could work for the office, but now I need tights.  And the non-maternity tights I have are like torture devices, so uncomfortable sitting under the belly all day.  I am ready to rip them off my body with my teeth by the time the afternoon hits.  

Anyway, such a stupid thing to even be stressing about.  I need to just bite the bullet and buy some cheap winter tops from Old Navy, or shut up about it.  I remember getting this way in the third trimester when I was pregnant with Gus, so many changes happening with my body, I just have this intense desire to buy things that might help me feel like myself a little bit.

In other pregnancy news, tomorrow morning I do the lovely glucose tolerance screening for Gestational Diabetes, so that should be good times.  I've mentioned this before, but because Gus was over 9 lbs at birth, they do things a little differently, taking into consideration the fact that I could have been borderline GD during my last pregnancy.  So I took a two hour test at 16 weeks, which involved fasting for 8 hours, getting my blood drawn, then drinking the nasty flat extra sugary orange drink, waiting an hour, getting my blood drawn again, waiting another hour, and getting my blood drawn a third and final time. 

It really was a blast, as I'm sure those of you who have done this screening in any of its forms would agree.  Ugh.  Actually it was extra horrible to do at 16 weeks because I still had some of those first trimester symptoms, and not eating only made them worse.  Whatever, I passed, I was relieved, my midwife was cool.  I went about my second trimester. 

Tomorrow, at 28 weeks, I do the same two hour test again.  And the two hour test is not like the one hour test in that if you fail, you have to do the 3 hour test to confirm and/or rule out a false positive.  The two hour test is IT. Do or die.  You fail, you have Gestational Diabetes. 

Wow, all this third trimester testing stuff is really bringing things home, I can't believe how quickly these weeks have flown!  Should we be doing a refresher labor and delivery class?  Gosh, I haven't really even considered it.  Just not even on my radar.  At the very least, I should start reading through my Bradley books again.  Crazy.  As I've said, second pregnancy = SO DIFFERENT.  At this point in time during my first pregnancy I was obsessing about this stuff, constantly.  There really is just no time for obsessing anymore!