Bigfoot & Us

While growing up, I always dreamed of becoming a mom and raising little kids.  I'd try to imagine what their sweet faces would look like and even blissfully daydreamed about their sticky little hands and how giggling and tiny feet would fill my future home with happiness.  But no matter how much you try to imagine the future; I know now that it is almost never like you thought it would be.

For example how I could not have guessed my current daily interaction with all things related to Bigfoot.

Every.single.day we talk about Bigfoot in our house.

Sometimes we tell stories that involve Bigfoot, we seek out shows and kids' movies that include Bigfoot  (or anything close to him - there's more than you imagine:  Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer, Scooby Doo), we ask the Librarian for books about Bigfoot, or we pretend we are Bigfoot.

It is all about Bigfoot over here.

It started a few months ago.  Grey was watching a prank show with his Aunt (hi, Uch!) and someone in a Bigfoot costume was getting ready to scare his friend.  The show started feeling especially spooky, so Uch changed the channel before the reveal that it was all just a joke.  Which was actually turned out to be more scary than just watching the whole thing.  oops.

So for a few weeks, Bigfoot was really scary.  After lots of talking, stories, and reassuring, Bigfoot started to change from scary to fascinating. And because we just kept talking about it, now Bigfoot is a full fledged family friend.  Even Gem knows and speaks about BigFoot now and when she hears a noise outside, she says, "Bigfoot outside?"

So I spend my days making up little stories about Bigfoot, and pretending to be Bigfoot, and wondering aloud what BigFoot might be doing at any given moment.

How strange the path of motherhood is, no?

thank YOU thursday: Jamie A

Dear Jamie,

In real life we've met like, what? two times maybe?

We met through work, both project managers and so most of our initial conversations began via phone and instant messaging.  We spoke mostly in hilarious hashtags while I checked that I was on mute 64 times during our con calls because I was usually cracking up so loud.  We were hashtagging before everyone was doing it; before it was like a real thing.

Then you left work.  Then I left work.  And really, where would this friendship have to go?

But our friendship did have somewhere to go.  Because we live in the age of the internet. And, Jamie A, you have become my internet guide to happiness and inspiration.

Maybe that's weird to say and doesn't seem like an actual thing.  But I think that your role as wise internet guide is massively important in my creative life.  And go figure, my creative life is enormously important to my everyday life.

There is so much junk and garbage and mindless scrolling possible in the age of the internet.  But then my internet guide of happiness and inspiration (read:  that's you) steps in with these hidden gems to remind me why having access to all of the world's knowledge can be so wonderful.

You introduce me to funny stuff (Honest Toddler), beautiful passages about being a Mom that stick with me long after reading them (The Sweet Spot), and inspiration that calls me to action (Robyn's story, thus leading me to mine)

And not only do you send out these small gifts back from your adventures in internetland, but you also encourage and support me in my own small village of the web.  You comment on my statuses with "I can't wait to say I knew you when!" and you send me links to register for online writing courses for moms.

Jamie A, seriously.  thank you.

Your pinboards, random emails with a shirtless Joe Manganiello, and sharing of inspirational blog posts have a true and impactful effect on my creativity.  The internet was created with the assumption that there are people like you out there that make sure others can find the good and inspiring in a sea of questionable content.

#youremyfavoriteinternetfriend
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we're growing

Spoiler alert:  by the end of September, we will be bigger by one tiny human!

Yep!  I am currently growing a new little Studerbaby and our whole Studer zoo crew is overjoyed!  Brandon and I have this strange contradictory feeling that we kind of know what we're doing (being two kids in and all) and yet this abyssal fear that everything is about to be drastically new and impossible to manage with an official outnumbering.  Grey has been very sweet and caring, especially if I tell him that the baby is making me feel sleepy.  And Gem's favorite thing on the planet is babies - so she is already practicing intensely on being a little mumma herself.

We found out in mid January - actually Bullet was the first to give us an inkling as he became weirdly attached to my side and after two years of sleeping under our bed at night is now persistent at sleeping on the bed at my feet.  No matter how many times we kick him off, he comes back up while we're sleeping and that's where we find him in the morning.

after a night of bad dreams = EVERYONE is in our bed!?!!

We were planning on keeping it a secret until we had our whole family over for dinner one Sunday and Gigi joked that she thought we were bringing everyone together to announce a new baby, everyone laughed and then I got visibly awkward and weird and my Mum was like, 'wait....are you?' and I was like, "um....uh, what?  I don't understand the question."  worst.secret.keeper.ever.

So our family has been keeping it under wraps for the past two and a half months with us (good job family!  Love you!!).  We finally made it 'facebook official' (that's a real thing in today's day and age; insanity) last Friday on my 12 week date.  And now with this post - the cat is officially out of all the bags!

Being pregnant the third time around has been interesting.  I unconsciously compare how I feel this time to the two times before - sort of like a barometer for everything ranging from which gender this babe might be to how pregnancy differs with each subsequent child.

Just like the first two, I'm thirsty for milk and I have heartburn.  Unlike the first two, I have absolutely no interest in drinking coffee (wah!) and I am dead tired.  Like falling asleep while standing up tired.  It's ridiculous and part of the reason my blog posts have been so far between (sorry).  I just cannot get it together.  I'm hoping now that the first trimester is coming to a close that I'll get a little boost in my step, because this has seriously been ridiculous.

I've even googled multiple times "third pregnancy exhaustion" just to make sure something wasn't weird.  Newsflash - it ain't.  Apparently you're more tired because, go figure - you already have wild babies to take care of on top of another little bean sucking all of your life force out of you to ya know, grow into a real live human.  hah!  And I'm pretty sure my body is just like, "Seriously?  SERIOUSLY?"

I have been resting and taking it easy waaaaaaaaaaay better than I did with my first two pregnancies as well - which feels horribly inefficient but also a relief to just do what my body asks without fighting it every step of the way.  I'm asleep before 9pm almost every night.

This will be my first summer pregnancy which despite everyone's warnings - still seems exciting and fun (talk to me again in July, right?)  For now, we are relaxing and doing a lot of talking to and about the baby.  The kids know that we'll have a new baby by Halloween (which could be 7 years from now for all they understand about time, HAH).  And at least once a day they ask to talk to the baby and say strange things to him/her like "Do you have a blankie and pillow in there, baby?"  or "we ate pizza today, baby"

The only thing I'm sure of right now is that this baby is seriously loved.  We are so blessed.