5, 5*5, and more

It's been party season around here! First Kevin started finishing papers left and right so he suddenly had a lot more free time. Then things started warming up, with only the occasional polar vortex to drop things back down into the 40s.  Though it's been slow in coming, as Joseph says, "It's getting spring!" The grass has greened out, the trees have started to leaf and blossom, and I see gray less and less everyday.

Have I talked about how spring is my favorite season? It's hard to have a favorite season that can be so volatile weather-wise, so I get why people love fall. But oh, goodness, seeing pink blossoms and green grass and tulips sure is a great way to transition from winter to summer. In fact, as silly as it may sound, I cried one time when I realized I was going to be in Utah for the two weeks in Michigan that the spring colors peak, and I've sent out a few desperate and trying-to-mask-that-it's-desperate pleas for people to document it for me. That's how much I like spring.

Anyway, spring has been fun so far. For our 5th anniversary, we wanted to do something big, especially since we'll have a hard time getting out once the next baby comes. But, it was still too cold on our anniversary to go where we wanted, so we decided to delay a big trip until the next week. On the actual day, we went salsa dancing and went out to eat. I have to say, dancing through Braxton Hicks is a little uncomfortable, and by the end the baby was pushing on my right side so much that I looked lopsided. But it was fun anyway. And Indian food is always great.

The next day, we went to the Toledo Zoo to enjoy the nice weather and new aquarium. As always, we loved the penguins best. And I think they love us too.

And then . . . it was my birthday! It started out with a horrible sore throat and rain and 40 degrees and Joseph going to sleep late and waking up early, so I . . . well, I didn't start out as happy as I should have, and getting my frustrations out by driving to the church with my vacuum to use the extension cord there to vacuum the car and then driving around pretty neighborhoods with pretty trees didn't help as much as it should have. But food helped, and then Kevin and I were off to Holland, Michigan to see the tulips!

It was pretty. We had fun. Joseph was in good hands while we were gone.

At Windmill Gardens. There was a windmill, too.

Holland State Park at Lake Michigan. The waves were crazy!

We went to a Dutch-themed museum full of fun artifacts and art.

Next to the above picture, they had this fun re-creation. 

Centennial Park

Another park

Veldheer Gardens

It was fun roaming the cute downtown, admiring the delftware in the shops, and just being with Kevin. Here's to 5 more years, and many many more!

No more ambiguity

Note: This may seem like a strange thing to blog about, but it kept me up for longer than it should have the other early morning. So, bear with me and my random PSA.

Sometimes, I get stressed out by things that shouldn't stress me out, but do anyway. One such thing is the way people count sometimes.

Counting is hard, don't get me wrong. Oh, sure, it's not that bad counting objects. But what about when you're counting months?

So, here is my trick.
First, assign each month a number. January = 1, February = 2, and so on. This should come naturally because it is how we write the date fairly often.

Next, transform your question into numbers. For example, if you are trying to figure out what 5 months after March is, turn March into 3. 3+5 = 8. 8 = August. Done.

What about 5 months after November? November = 11. 11 + 5 = 16. 16-12 = 4. 4 = April. Done. (Subtract 12 because there are 12 months in a year.)

And that is all. No more worrying about whether you count a month one way or another. Because it's pretty easy to double-count if you are trying to count out loud.

What about days in the month? When Kevin and I started dating, we had a long, long, long discussion about this. He said that on his mission in Mexico 7 days was considered a week, but 8 days later was also a week. I think it was because if you were counting the days on your hand, counting from Sunday to Sunday really would get you up to 8 days listed. Even though a week is just 7.

This was entirely unacceptable. This sort of ambiguity was part of life before the number 0 was discovered (it really did have to be discovered, and it was more recent than you might expect), but now that we have 0 there is no reason to round up to 1 when 0 works just fine. So 0 days from now is today, 1 day from now is tomorrow, not today, and so on.

So the trick here is again basic addition and subtraction. What is 11 days from now? Today is the 3rd. 3 + 11 = 14. May 14. Done. Doesn't matter what time of day it is. It is still 11 days away. Or, if you are being cute, it might be 10 1/2 days, but don't say that unless you have to.

Now, if you throw words like first or second or 15th in, that changes things because the nth of something lasts until n actually happens (e.g. you are in your 1st year until you actually turn 1). So I understand complication there. But if you are trying to figure out the answer to "When is the ninth month of a pregnancy that began in the middle of October?", do this:
October = 10.
10+ 9 = 19.
19 - 12 = 7 = July.
So the ninth month would end in the middle of July and thus begin in the middle of June.

I think that's everything that kept me awake. I don't even know if it makes sense written down like this. But if I ever end up finishing that math book a polished version of this will appear.

You're welcome.

Second Trimester

Since I had my 28-week appointment today, I guess I'm officially in the third trimester now. Woohoo!

So far, it's been a pretty good pregnancy. I think I've had many of the typical mild problems (this list is just so I can document it somewhere . . . heartburn, nosebleeds, fatigue, crying over weather forecasts, Braxton Hicks, leg cramps, and not fitting in clothes), but all in all, I feel pretty great most of the time, especially when baby boy somersaults around inside me. I think I had a feeling of astonishment for a lot of the second trimester, especially after my ultrasound, an astonishment that I could feel so incredibly happy for so much of the time. I guess it was the first time in a while where everything felt perfect, that life plans were finally starting to come together. In fact, sometimes that astonishment would turn into a little bit of panic -- when would the other shoe drop the way it had in the past?

As I've thought about it, I don't think it will.  I don't expect that I'll always keep up this emotional high I've been riding (negatively affected only by potty training and cold temperatures), but I think things will stay good. So, yay for that.

And, I guess that today marks not only the end of second trimester but also the end of being 24. I think the deepest thing I have to say about that is that the first half of being 24 was marked by good weather and bad news, and the second half was marked by bad weather and good news. Hopefully we can get good weather and good news for most of 25!

And, here's the most recent belly pic. Here I am with some of my pregnant friends at Institute. I think this picture shows about half of the people due between the end of May and end of July in our ward. It's . . . kind of insane.

12 weeks to go! Onward and upward! (And outward. Lots more outward on its way, I am sure.)

Five

I've been preparing for this anniversary for a while now. I went through my literature anthology to see if there were any good love poems in there. I've looked through old Facebook albums to reminisce about the fun times we've had. I've even written up marriage/relationship/friendship advice based on what's kept us so happy (short version: you are going to be happiest with someone who makes you feel like a normal, good, uncomplicated, non-awkward human being, so try to help other people feel like that when they're around you). I've come up with reasons why being married to Kevin is the best thing ever (perhaps it is that his motto for himself must be "When we're helping we're happy").

But I haven't thought of any grand, sweeping, romantic things to say that will sum up 5 years that have been both as magical as Disneyland and as natural as breathing. Except that, I guess.

Anyway, it's been great. And Kevin is great.

Looking forward to infinity more!

Independent Play

Joseph did a really, really good job of entertaining himself today with his toys. I was getting a lot done -- scrubbing the bathtub, tidying the main floor, etc. -- when I heard him singing "It's okay. You'll be all right." I decided this was worth trying to catch on video, so I grabbed the camera and went downstairs. The moment he heard me turn the camera on while I was going down the stairs, he immediately stopped what he was doing.

For the next twenty minutes or so, I tried to get him to do it in front of me, but to no avail. So I guess I didn't use my free time very productively after all.

Here are some of the videos I caught:

I thought it was funny that he started singing "It's okay" but caught himself because I was there.

At one point I left, and he started singing the song and having the animals interact again. But of course I wasn't allowed to document it.

Oh well. Maybe some things aren't meant to be documented.

Coraline

Guys, do you remember that creepy Coraline book by Neil Gaiman? The one where she ends up in this alternate reality with a creepy creepy lady who wants to be her mother and sew buttons on everyone's eyes and her parents get kidnapped by Mrs. Creepy and somehow she escapes and the hand follows her around until it falls into a well and her dad makes pizza with ham and pineapple which she thinks is the weirdest thing ever, never mind the buttons and hands and nightmares? Remember that creepy creepy book that I never need to read again?

"Look Mommy! I have scary eyes because I don't have eyelashes."

Who decided to read that to my son when I wasn't looking?

April 6

Like Joseph, I loved to build blanket forts. I would often build them by sticking heavy books on top of sheets on top of stools and draping the sheets across the stools and the table. Then I would go in with my dolls and books and hang out until it got stuffy or boring.

One day, I built a fort. Before I got in, I asked my mom, "What day is Easter each year?" The answer was sort of complicated because it involved full moons and first day of spring and whatnot, so I didn't really get it. Then I asked, "Can my birthday ever be on Easter?"

"No. It just happens between March 20th and April 25th." (Or somewhere around there.) I was sad that my birthday missed it by just a few days, especially since Leslie got to have her birthday on Easter once.

"When is Jesus's birthday?" I asked.

"April 6th is what they say," she said.

I sighed and went into my fort. I didn't have Easter and I didn't have Jesus's birthday. While in my fort I said a little prayer that went basically like this: "Heavenly Father, Jesus was actually born on my birthday, right?" I felt good about it, so I spent the rest of the time in my fort happy about this little secret we had kept from the rest of the world.

§

This morning, I woke up and thought, "It's Mormon Christmas!" I had long since given up on insisting that Christ was born on my birthday and had decided to agree with the apocryphal quotes and context clues that most of us subscribe to that suggest that Christ was born on April 6th.

Then I went downstairs and checked Facebook. The first thing I saw was from an old friend who had a link to some reputable article saying that Christ was likely born in December. I didn't read it because it first cost money and then when he fixed the link the pdf was sideways. And it was long.

I was mildly intrigued nonetheless so I ran to my copy of Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage. Hmm. He was less authoritative about it than I was expecting. I googled December temperatures in Israel and found them to be livable. Kevin googled when lambing season would occur in Israel, with only ambiguous results. The verdict? Well, it could have been December.

Although this is a small point of trivia that has no real bearing on pretty much anything, I felt a little sad. For one thing, all my plans for Mormon Christmas suddenly seemed pointless (okay, not that I had any, but I wouldn't have felt weird singing Christmas songs today). For another thing, I no longer had the small bit of satisfaction that came from sharing a birthmonth with the Savior. Was that going to be taken away from me too?

But Kevin had some words of comfort for me. "Well, if it wasn't April 6th, it might have been your birthday after all!"

At any rate, I think I will make it through today without hiding in a blanket fort.