8/8/08-8/10/08

Friday 8/8/08 – I think I have discovered why I have been in so much pain over the past few days. I woke up this morning with not much pain at all and noticed that my tummy is sticking out more than before. I guess my body was stretching out more and that is why I have been so miserable. And now that I realized this, I remember that this happened last time I was pregnant too. Yesterday we decided that we would go ahead and get a 4D ultrasound of Clark and I made an appointment for next Wednesday. Cherie donated some money to the cause ($40) so it will end up costing us $80 out of our pockets. It's really more than we have to spend, but this is the last time we will be able to do something like this so we are going to go ahead and just do it. The website says that we will get 2 B&W photos, 2 color photos, and a 20 minute DVD of the session – hopefully it turns out to be as good as it looks on the website. I think I will drink some juice before the appointment to make sure he is moving around when I get there.

Saturday 8/9/08 – I had a photo shoot today at Central Park in Roseville for Nancy Strom's son (she is from work). There was bright sun without a cloud in the sky, which is the worst kind of weather for an outdoor photo shoot because it causes all kinds of shadows on the subject's faces. But I did what I could, and then during Lijah's nap I edited the photos. They turned out good in black and white, but it was hard to get the coloring right in color. I told them that I would do a reshoot if they were not satisfied because of the bad light conditions we were faced with. I'll send them over to her this week and see what she thinks. I don't think they turned out horrible, I just know they would have been much better if we had better lighting. Maybe I am being too hard on myself. After Lijah's nap we headed over to long lake for a quick swim. I didn't know that Stockyard days was going on, and the lake and park were packed! But we found a spot to park right next to the beach. Lijah had a great time, as usual. He even walked in up to his neck this time. The whole time we were swimming he was singing away (I wish I could understand his lyrics!). There was a lifeguard boat on the shore and he kept wanting to climb in it, so instead I brought him out to the really deep water to watch the older kids jump off of the floating dock. Then the lifeguard called a safety check so I thought it would be a great time to head out. We stopped by the park on the way out to eat our dinner (sandwiches and grapes), but there were mean kids at the park that were spitting and throwing sand, so we went down the slide once and then headed back to the car. I opened up the back and we sat in the trunk while we ate our sandwiches and had a sort of tailgating party of our own.

Sunday 8/10/08 – Mark came with us to church today. Lijah was well behaved so I actually got to listen to the talk that was given. It was on having agency to make choices – it was a really good talk and helped me refocus on doing the right thing and making the right choices in my life. Lijah again took off his shoes half-way through, so I just let him keep them off rather than battle with him. He was being so good so I thought a little leeway was ok. After church I finished editing the photos from the shoot yesterday and worked a bit on updating my Uber website. The other day I showed my portfolio to someone at work and I realized that I did not have my best photos up, and was actually a bit embarrassed, so I wanted to get some new stuff up. After Lijah's nap we hung out in my bedroom and picked up a bit (Mark was napping on the couch so I didn't want to go downstairs and ruin his nap). Then we made a spaghetti dinner with Wonderbread garlic toast, watered the garden, and went for a walk with our neighbor Margaret. I had gotten a voicemail from her to call her right away. She hadn't seen me out in the yard this past week and was worried that I was on bedrest or something. She is the sweetest neighbor I could have ever asked for! When we got home I gave Lijah a bath. The other day he had gotten into some goopy gluey stuff and had a chuck stuck to his head. In the bath I soaped it up and tried to scrub it out. Instead, a chunk of his hair ripped out of his head with it! Poor thing, I felt so horrible! But after the initial 'ouch', it didn't seem to bother him the rest of the night. Jason tried to take this as a chance to give Lijah a Mohawk since he has a chunk of hair missing now…..but we'll see about that….. I think Lijah is getting a bit confused on what "too" means. At first he was saying it when he wanted something "too" but now anytime he wants something he points to it and says "too". At least we know what he means, it's nice that he is able to let us know what he wants….. Before bed I thought we would turn on the Olympics for a little bit. Lijah doesn't like the TV on so he kept running and turning it off. But then I showed him the girls doing gymnastics and flipping and twirling and he decided that he did want to watch it. Every time someone was done with a routine he would sign for more. Then when it was time to go to bed he didn't want the TV off. Silly kid…..