Grumpy Old Men

Why do baby boys always look like old men?  Meet Ian Daniel Fletcher.  He is the son to my oldest friend Stacey and her husband Marshall.  She is not really old but I have known her longest. My first 12 years of life were spent with a dad in the Air Force.  We moved every 3-4 years and I was not a good correspondent and friends would move too.  I meet Stacey in 8th grade and we have been friends ever since.  We have not been too close for the last 13 years because that was went I went to the dark side.  Her religion is very central to her life and my lack of faith was always an issue with us.  When I started dating women, that was the beginning of the end.  We parted ways and I was in the beginning of my downward spiral with my girlfriend at the time.  I alienated a lot of people at that time and she was one of them.  She kept in touch with my parents and still calls them Mom and Dad.  My mom was the only other person she wanted in the delivery room other than her husband. 

Stacey, Mom and Ian

Ian slept pretty much the entire time we were there.  We sent Marshall away to go take a nap.  For a few minutes he had his eyes open so I took advantage and had him try on the hat I made him.  Babies can pull off a look like this! Back to my story, Stacey got married about 8 years ago and we only saw each other if Mom and Dad had us over at the same time.   A few years ago Stacey called me to apologize for they way we 'split' and that she would like to try to be friends or something like that.  I accepted her apology but we don't live close to each other anyway.  My life was on the right road but it is hard to be around people who have to start every conversation with, "I don't approve of your life, but...."  I have a lot of people in my life who don't care and it is a lot easier to be around them. And her and her husband never do anything separately so there was not much incentive to pursue anything.   

The year I was pregnant they moved to Branson, MO for their jobs and I went to Mom's to say bon voyage.  We went for a walk and she started with the "I don't appove of how you got pregnant but I am happy for you if this is what you want."  Great, some things never change.  I always ask people questions when conversation dies down and I asked about her best friend Sharon because I knew her too.  Stacey said she is like you.  I told her I always suspected as much and let it go.  Even Lori who saw a picture of Sharon years ago asked if she was a lesbian and at the time I don't think Sharon knew she was.  I thought her coming out is why I got an apology because she cannot hate Sharon for being gay because they share the same faith.  Stacey never wanted children and I remember very clearly the conversation we had about in the car we we were in our 20s and even were on the road to Millersville we were when we had it.  She married a man who did not want to be a Dad either so they were well matched.  Imagine my surprise when Mom told me last spring that they decided they wanted to have a baby.  I remember them coming to my parents unannounced on Father's Day and I almost asked her in the driveway 'Are you pregnant?'.  Why else would they be there?  8 months later on February 18, he arrived after a 36 hour labor.  We are glad to have him in the family.  He looks like Marshall.  And Al, Stacey's dad, Al because baby boys look like old men until they fill out. 

Baylor stayed with Buddy and they had a great time.  Baylor has always loved to nap on people and my parents do not approve of such things so imagine my surprise when we got back to Mom's and I saw this. 

Dad said he just asked to sit on his lap and in two minutes he was asleep.  He slept for about 2 and a half hours! On Dad!  He told us they went outside, took a walk, picked up sticks, and stones.  They had lunch, read stories, and had a great time together. 

He was happy to see me when he awoke and asked me if I went to see Stacey's baby.  I never told him where I was going and Dad said he said something to him about it while we were gone.  When I was on the phone with Stacey when she was in labor I had Baylor say Hi.  I gave him the phone and he asked her if she was having her baby.  He never did say hi though.  Hopefully he can see the baby soon because he is very interested in him.  Hopefully, he can be interested in a new baby in our house and hopefully we will have one! 

Spring is coming!

Slightly out of focus but you get the idea.  Spring is coming and this weekend it visited the PA Garden Show.  Molly came over to join us in our field trip.  We met working at a perennial plant supplier and our gardening together and plant shopping goes way back.  For Baylor the best part of the adventure was riding the school bus to and from the Farm Show Complex.  There was also a Horse Show going on at the other end of the complex so there was a bonus of seeing a horse walking around outside. 

I asked him to walk down a path on an exhibit and he wanted to head into the 'woods' of course.  I did not have a stroller and he did not want me to take Monkey Do, the monkey backpack with a leash, and he did really well just holding my hand. 

He picked out his Snoopy snow globe shirt to wear today.  As we all know he has great fashion sense!

He is a water baby and I should look sometime if water is part of his zodiac sign.  Not that I am a true believer in that stuff but is does no harm to look into these things.  He wanted to touch all the water there and there were many fountains and gutter helmet displays in the vendor area.  I should have put his rain coat on him. 

So I made him smell some flowers.  At least I picked some wonderful smelling ones!  He was pretty worn out and feel asleep in the car right away.  I carried him through Wegman's while Molly and I did some shopping and picked up something for lunch.  He woke up as soon as we got out to the car, naturally.  We recolored Molly's hair after we ate lunch. This time is was Egyptian Plum.  Baylor and I played outside for a while and walked over to the fire hall grounds to see the digger we had been watching through our windows all day long.  They were having rescue training all day and were destroying all kinds of cars in teaching the firemen how to remove a windshield safely, pop locks, and use the jaws of life among other things.  We watched them up close last year during a smaller training event.  The digger, all things are diggers, had fork blades and was picking up the cars and moving them around. He was running from window to window all morning watching the digger do its work.  Baylor stood on the forks and loved it.  I was a bit cold so we did not stay out long.  But he moved the remaining snow around before we went inside.  See more water.

What do you think about two?

I was a bit concerned about something the Dr said at the clinic on Tuesday.  I called the nurse and asked how many egglets there were on the ultrasound.  She called me back and said there were two.  I can look at this many ways. One being it can double our chance of having one baby. Second we could have twins. Third we could have twins one from each donor.  I was afraid to tell Lori because she almost passed out at our first ultrasound and they found two sacks.  The one was not viable and the other was Baylor. She took it well when I told her and I know we will be OK if any of these options occur. 

Baylor really loved his outfit this morning.  He loves my scarves. Today he threw in the sunglasses and actually kept them on all the way to the sitters.  They usually are off right after I put them on him.  I took a few pictures and then he told me that was enough. 

I can never take enough photos of him. 

Taking bets

to see who will win this race. 

So I went in for my IUI yesterday at the clinic in MD.  I had a 930 appointment and we had 6 inches of snow!  The roads were fine other than the interchanges and it only took about 20 minutes longer to get down there.  The Dr came in and verified who I was, the donor number, and vials.  Before she did it she said they were not sure if they could a second IUI with a different donor because they would not know the paternity.  I was thinking "Like we would know either?" but just said OK and let me know.  She also said it was a good cycle and I made lots of follies.  That kind of worries me and I have a call into the nurse to find out how many were there.  I don't think we are looking for multiples.  They called later that day and told me they could not do the second IUI legally and they could not return the vial for storage either. Since I am doped up on hormones I was not dealing very well with all of it.  I called my nurse at the OB's office and talked to her about it.  She did not see a problem and I asked if we could do the IUI in their office.  She said that should not be a problem and booked me in for 1:00 on Wednesday.  I love her.  Lori, Baylor and I left for the clinic at 6:15 which was pretty amazing and we picked up the case.  We even strapped it with the seat belt.  We had left my car in a parking lot along the way. She dropped me off, took the swimmers to the office, and I was only an hour late for work.  I went to the appointment and the Dr was late.  Pam and I caught up on things.  She is a kindred spirit.  I love talking with her and she always makes me feel better about things.  She had to look at the swimmers and said they are high quality top shelf stuff!  Good to know.  So now we begin the two week wait!  I will keep you posted.

I am cooked

Or so said my nurse today when she called with the results.  I have to give myself a trigger shot tonight and go to the office tomorrow and Wednesday for my IUIs.  Of course they are calling for snow tomorrow.  We have one more try with donor 2623 and decided to pick another donor and do two attempts which is what would usually do.  We are just taking our chances with who might win the race to the egg.  It does not matter if they are full siblings or half.  They will be brothers from the same mother and we will always be their mothers.  If we do it right, the kids will be all right, right?  

Road Trip

I found this little guy under the snow.  He used to be one of our jack-o-lanterns from Halloween but he is pretty much how I feel right now: pale, empty, and dried up only much plumper.  I have been pretty blue lately for many reasons. I am working my way out of it and hopefully will be my slightly brighter self soon.  

I meet a good friend from college at the Please Touch Museum in Philly on Saturday.  I have not seen her since my baby shower and as usual, we always say we need to get together soon and never did.  This time we were committed and made plans.  She lives in NJ and the muesum was a place we could meet in the middle and have something to entertain the kids.  She brought her daughters Kaitlyn and Lauren. 

On the way to Philly Baylor kept asking where we are going.  I told him we were going to Philly and he wanted to know if we were going to see Rocky.  I said we were going to a museum and he wanted to know if it was the one with the steps Rocky ran up and yelled.  Lori has an obsession with Rocky and I cannot stand the movies.  She used to fall asleep to them every night like her own special lullaby. Apparently she introduced the movie to Baylor last week so it was fresh in his memory.  He was running up the steps like Rocky in front of the museum.

The girls were very good with Baylor and I really think he should have been a little brother.  He really looks up the older kids and would follow them anywhere.  They all got a kick out of the floor piano and the one on the wall was from the movie BIG.  Even Janice took a turn.

They have smaller sections fenced off for children under three.  I saw the cow and knew this was the place for us to go.  He still talks about milking the cow at the farm show and showed the girls his milking skills. 

They are perfect models and would pose any time I pointed the camera at them.  And they are beautiful girls too! 

There is a large Alice In Wonderland exhibit and this was one of the rooms that get smaller towards the back. Lauren had to duck and Baylor looks as tall as a door.  There was a maze and a huge tree that went from the bottom floor up to the first floor with rooms on both levels. 

These are heavy plastic strips hanging from the ceiling.  He loved running through them and would disappear into them every time we were near it.  He is a good kid and never wants to be too far from me so it was good to know he would always come back to me. 

In the one room of the tree they had a kitchen set up and he was in love with the tea set and pepper shaker.  One girl had the Alice costume on and was cooking on the stove behind Baylor.  He is wearing a costume of the one of the card guards.  He did not mind wearing it and is serving tea to Kaitlyn. 

In one of other toddler areas there was a farm and two houses.  He was picking up plastic potatoes with a shovel and then we spied the mower.  And it was a John Deere one to boot! One Mom was chasing after her son and asked me to move her son was running off.  Keep in mind these areas are fenced off and employees are at the gates.  I was trying to move Baylor though a fence inside the area at the time.  I wanted to tell her I would be happy to knock down my son so she could get to hers but I just hustled Baylor a bit faster and out of her way.  Like the kid was going anywhere and he was Baylor's age so it was not like he was one or something and could not take care of himself for a second or two. 

Who knew there were scooters built for 4!

This was more my style and Baylor loved it.  It was beautiful and worth the extra three dollars for the ride. 

Of course we rode an interior horse that moved.  He was smiling the entire ride.

Towards the end he was getting tired and the wooby came out of the bag and into his mouth.  Too keep his hands free of course for other things.  This is not called the Please Touch Muesum for nothing. 

I took photos of everyone as the Statue of Liberty.  They have a huge piece of art in the center of the main hall that is the raised arm of the Statue made out of toys and this was at the bottom of the platform.  It was a good visit with my friend and I am glad we made the trip. 

In other news we are trying this month for a sibling for Baylor.  It may be our last if we go with what Lori wants to do.  I go tomorrow for an ultrasound to check if I have any egglets growing and that will be ready this week.  I hope it goes well and sticks this time.  I am not sure if I am ready to stop even though it is killing me financially.