Chuck E. Cheese's Where a Kid can be a Kid (sometimes more annoying than others)

Last week we took Ella to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate us finding out that we are having a boy (also because I love going there for the pizza). Now that she is 2 1/2 she understands more what games are and ran around the whole place playing all the games she could. At one point I was playing this game with Ella where we each shoot water at a target. It was after we had finished dinner and we bought Ella a fun plastic cup that they always offer. I had set the cup down behind me on the bench and started showing Ella how to play the game. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a little girl maybe around age 4 run up and grab Ella's drink and just start chugging it down. I immediately grab it from her and think Swine Flu (her not us) and tell her "No, that is not yours". I then look around for her parents and they were nowhere near her at all. In fact, they were across the restaurant chowing down on pizza not even paying attention to where their daughter or older brother was. The girl then runs around and grabs the game controller that I actually had ahold of and tries to start playing it. Thats when I grabbed Ella and got out of there. Ella was not all too pleased with this little girl as well and gave the girl her famous eyebrow scowl.

I wasn't sure what to do in this sort of situation. It was something where you read about it in a parenting magazine, but never expect to actually see it first hand. I ended up throwing Ella's cool cup out (Paul thought we could just take it home and toss it in the dishwasher since it has a sanitizing feature), but I just preferred to toss it. Later while we were still there the older brother had also butted in on a game Paul was playing and then the little girl again tried to interrupt Ella as she was playing another game, all the while the parents were still sitting in their corner munching on pizza.

I probably should have said something to the parents, but they seemed like the type of people who could care less about the situation and just think that I am some crazy over protective mom. So we left the place  knowing that another kid is growing up not learning proper manners and there is nothing we can do about it except to teach Ella and her future brother that there are just some people like that in life and we will have to just go on living our lives and accept those people for who they are.

A Little Boy Coming Soon to a Home Near Some of You

I had my 20 week appointment and ultrasound last Thursday and it was, I don't know how to put it into words, but it was one of the happiest, amazing, lovely, whatever joyous word you can think of, time during that ultrasound.

We found out we are having a little boy! Very exciting for us. We already have a daughter so adding a son, wow I just typed SON, feels like it will make our family complete. When I first explained to Ella that she will be getting a little brother her response was " I wanna sister". But after talking to her several more times and telling her that her dad has two brothers and Yaya has a brother and anyone else that we know of who has a brother, she came around to liking the idea.

I am already having dreams of him being in high school and playing sports and us being so proud of him. But of course, we will be proud of him if he doesn't play any sports as well. I am already calling him a different name everyday, and no, because of that I will not be telling anyone what name we are going to name him until he is born, just incase we do change our minds several hundred times just like we did when I was pregnant with Ella. Ella's name wasn't picked out until maybe two hours before she was born, and it wasn't even a name we had on our long list of names.

Ella is excited to help change the baby's diaper and give him a bottle or help put him down for a nap. I have even started looking through baby boy bedding and have fallen in love with woodland creatures for the theme of his room.

So, I am halfway to the finish line. Before my appointment last Thursday 20 more weeks sounded like torture, but now that I know it is a boy I can at least daydream of what he will look like and who he will be while I slowly count down the last half of this pregnancy.

A Conversation with Ella #1

Ella: You go to work?

Me: My job is to take care of you.

Ella: (Realization in her eyes) You at work!

Girls Day Out

Ella and I had a Girls Day Out yesterday which consisted of perusing the books at Barnes and Noble. We spent a lot of time in the children's section and finally settled on two books for Ella. The two we chose were Trick or Treat, Dora! and What is Thanksgiving?. I was aiming to get her a book that explains what Halloween and Thanksgiving are.

We then headed over to the cafe in Barnes and Noble, bought some coffee (a chocolate milk for Ella and a decaf non-fat latte for me) and settled down at one the the tables to read Ella's new books. Ella really enjoyed sitting there sipping on her chocolate milk, talking about her books and people watching. It was also a successful trip because she didn't point out any of the old men and state they were Dumbledore from Harry Potter, which is exactly what happened the last time we were there.

Birthing Plan

During my first pregnancy everywhere I looked there was mention of preparing a birthing plan. I never did write one up. How was I supposed to know what I wanted during the birth of my child when I have never done anything like that before. So, Paul and I went into it blind (so to speak) and I wouldn't have changed anything about it. It was a textbook birth.

I was told this time by my doctor that the second pregnancy is always easier and I would even have a birthing plan because I know what I want now. I have been trying to think about what I would have in my birthing plan and so far this is what I have:

    1) Give me an epidural ASAP!
    2) I only want to push once and then have the baby come out.

And that's it. This is my birthing plan. I just want to do whatever is needed to have a safe birth. I really don't want to have a plan. I have an idea of how I would like it to go, but I know that it could be unpredictable, so my plan is to just go with the flow.

I have also considered letting Ella stay in the room with us while giving birth. I feel like if she doesn't see the process then she might get confused and upset to see me pregnant one moment and then the next moment she sees me holding a foreign baby in my arms and become jealous. I just don't know how that would affect her, though, witnessing the birth of a baby. My feeling is that if she witnesses the birth then she will realize it is something natural, and I will get to skip the step of explaining where babies come from down the road (just kidding).

So, this is where I stand so far. I might change my mind and have a long birth plan list, or it might stay as simple as this. I have read where other moms have said throughout there pregnancy that they would get an epidural and then in the end change their minds and decide to go natural. So who knows what I will be saying when I am in my ninth month of pregnancy. I guess I will just have to wait and see.

Oh, and don't worry. I am going to do research regarding letting children stay in the room while giving birth. I don't want Ella to come out traumatized if that is what happens to kids her age witnessing a birth.