Off my rocker, boo boos, and troodons...

If the title of this blog doesn't suggest that this will be a pretty eclectic post, then I don't know what will. :)

I am 33 weeks, almost 34 weeks, pregnant now and I've officially had my first major meltdown of this pregnancy. Ok, so Mike might argue that point and be able to share a few other stories, but this one I'm referring to, was bad (way worse for me than anyone else...I'm sure!). When we arrived at the family reunion in WV last Saturday I started to feel overwhelmed and like I could just start crying for absolutely no reason at all. I had no idea why, but I assumed it was just a rush of hormones and hoped it would pass. I was in a room full of extended family (Mike's dad's fam) who I rarely got to visit with and some of who I had never even met before. Anyway, I kept it together.....for awhile.

We'd been at the reunion for a couple of hours and Nattie started getting fussy, so I took her in to the house and figured I'd lay down with her and try to get her to nap and, hopefully, that would help me feel better too. Well, she was NOT in the mood to sleep...at least not for me! I fought her and wrestled her..but no luck. Did I mention that it was really, really hot out and there was no air conditioning turned on in the house? A hot, hormonal, tired pregnant gal wrestling with a one-year-old in temperatures that are nearing those of hell should not be messed with! :) I started sobbing...freaking out....I couldn't stop. I walked around the house looking for a room that had a fan or a breeze or some kind of child restraint, you know, so that I could at least tie Nattie up (ok...not really). I decided I needed my husband and that I would get the keys to the car from him and take Nattie on a short, air-conditioned, ride to get her to fall asleep (the car always puts her to sleep...plus I was secretly hoping to crank the air to sub-arctic temperatures and let it blow up my shirt!).

So, I took Nattie outside and walked all over God's creation looking for Mike. I found him just as he was driving away in a truck with some of the guys. I yelled and waved my arms...but no luck and no keys (later found out they were in the car the whole time!). I started sobbing, again, and I think I said some swear words in my head (some bad ones probably). Since I was a total mess, I needed to find a way to avoid any of the fam seeing me in this state. I didn't want to have to explain that I was just a whack job and there was really no good reason why I was crying. I walked around for awhile looking for a secret entrance back into the house so that nobody would notice the mascara and sweat running down my face (believe it or not it was hotter outside than inside). By the way, this whole time Nattie wants nothing to do with me. She doesn't want me to hold her, she wants to run into the pond or go sit in some weeds or just kick me and yell..ahhhh!

I made it back in the house with Nat, but I still couldn't stop sobbing. At that point, Nana came to the rescue. She walked in to find me in freak out mode and offered to take Nattie and told me to go lie down. I found a room with a fan (halleluia!) and promptly planted myself directly in front of it for the next two hours. I woke up looking like I'd been run over...puffy eyes from crying...mascara crusted to my face....sweaty hair....I was a beautiful sight. I fixed myself up as best I could and decided to join the rest of the party. I opened the door to the garage and walked out to sit down and visit like a normal person. Everyone...like 30 people, turned to look at me as I walked out (at least that's what it felt like!). I'm sure they were all thinking I was off my rocker and were wondering what happened to my face. Someone asked how I was feeling (like it wasn't obvious!) and I started crying...again! Lucikly, that was the last of it for the day! Mike came back and took me to our cabin so I could change clothes and fix my face and then I was MUCH better and I haven't cried since. Although, I'm sure it's only a matter of time. I just LOVE hormones.

Moving on...this picture has nothing to do with my story...obviously. They were out on the deck this morning "helping" me water my flowers in their jammies. They decided, instead, to get in the kiddie pool fully clothed. I had to strip them down outside and, afterwards, they wanted to come in and snuggle with each other on the couch for a bit.

Yesterday, Mike and I thought we'd take the kiddos to a local spray park (we'd never been before). Well, it was in the upper 90's out and there were 9,000 crazy kids there. It was not quite the experience we were hoping for! Ben was irritated because we didn't bring him a toy for the water (alot of the other kids had buckets, etc) and he kept getting cold (how it was possible to be cold while outside yesterday, is beyond me!?). Nattie was loving it, that is until she was almost sent to the ER again. Poor baby! Some kids had big Tonka trucks they were zooming in and out of all the kids that were playing. It was an accident waiting to happen! A little boy crashed his big, metal truck....at full speed...into Natalie. She literally went up in the air and cracked her head on a metal bar and then the concrete. I was right there, but couldn't stop it. I screamed and grabbed her. The little boy was crying because he felt bad, but I'm sorry....where are your parents?!! I thought for sure she would have an open gash somewhere on her head and we'd be back to the ER...luckily, it was just several big goose eggs and lots of tears.

Before the crash...

After the crash and 20 minutes of an ice pack on her forehead. She's a little bruiser!

Benny resting on the way home from the spray park. His eyelashes, turned up nose, and lips make me smile. I love his face and sometimes I almost think he looks pretty... :)

Finally, a recent Benny funny.... Yesterday, while he was eating his dinner, he said "Mom, did you know there are some animals that are nocturnal?" I started laughing and said, "Oh really, like what?" He then rambled off several different things..."Owls, some birds, bats, and troodons." I had no clue what a troodon was, but I was informed by my little palentologist that they are a type of dinosaur. I looked it up on the Internet...and sure enough, he was right...and they're nocturnal too. I'm pretty sure he's picked all of this up from the new PBS show called Dinosaur Train. I just love how how brain soaks up what he is hearing. :)

Whew...sorry...that was a long post. Congrats if you made it to the end! :)