Time with Taryn

 Taryn has become my best friend here in SoCal. Even though we don't teach at the same school anymore, we still keep in touch and get together. During our spring breaks, we had a chance to go to Disneyland one day (for free because her dad has a lifetime silver pass!). It was really crowded, so we actually didn't go on any rides. But we still had a great time. We watched the boats in the New Orleans Harbor, took the choo choo train around the park, got Dole Pineapple floats, went in the Tikki Hut, watched ducks by the Snow White fountain, saw an awesome parade, ate churros and popcorn, and watched Donald duck and the real ducks waddling around the courtyard. Tanner was fascinated by it all.

 In the Tiki Hut, he was afraid of the birds at first. He really didn't like it when the white birds went up into the ceiling. "Oh no!" We were worried about his reaction to the thunder. But he has proved to be an unpredictable kid because when the thunder came, he clapped and shouted, "Yay!"

 He loved the ducks everywhere! We stayed at the Snow White fountain for almost 20 minutes. It was the perfect thing for him- way better than standing in lines for rides.

 Tanner also loved the parade. Each time a new float approached, he would yell "Oh, WOW! What's that?" He yelled "Lion! Lion!" when the Lion King float came by, but it sounded more like "Yion Yion!" He bounced to the music and said "Song, song!"

 Later in the week, we got together with Taryn again!! We met up at her house in West Hollywood and cooked lunch together. Tanner was a really good boy and didn't even touch any of her fancy things. He was mostly concerned about her kitty and wondering every few minutes where it was. He didn't want the kitty to be too close to us!

After lunch, we headed up to the Griffith Observatory. It was such a beautiful day! Tanner was adorable in his Osh Kosh Bigosh overalls.

Can you see the Hollywood sign? It looks much closer in real life.

Tanner walked around most of the observatory instead of riding in his stroller. He is really good about staying right next to us, or wanting to push the stroller in the direction we are going. Taryn pointed out that some kids just run off as fast as they can when you let them walk beside you. I'm so glad that Tanner doesn't do that! (cross your fingers that it will stay that way!)

Being with Taryn is so much fun. I love her tremendously! We have no problem talking for hours and hours about everything from teaching to cooking to politics to religion to travel to everything. We have a joke that we are the two members of the Mutual Appreciation Society because we enjoy each other's company so much. We also rock at teaching music and drama together. I hope someday we get another chance to do that! 

Easter!

Dada and Tanner decorating eggs. Tanner was excited to do this again- 2 times in one week!

 My deviled eggs. When Jeremy saw me dying eggs without the shells on, he was sure they would end up looking gross. Boy, was he wrong!

 We enjoyed Easter dinner at the Corey's house. We had lots of yummy food including Salmon that Jeremy BBQ'd. This was to keep with our young tradition of eating fish with honey glaze sauce in memory of how Jesus ate fish and honeycomb after he was resurrected. I also successfully made tomb rolls for the first time. Yum!

 Family pics at the Corey home.

 The little people at the dinner were so adorable. They played really well together, but hated picture time.

Easter is my favorite holiday (other than 4th of July), and I enjoyed our Sunday dinner so much! But it was hard to fully dive into the Easter season this year because we were in the midst of putting our home on the market. More explanations to come later!

Aquarium of the Pacific

While Grandma Nana was here, we spent Saturday, March 23 at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. It was diver's day, so we all got in for free with our scuba diving passes! The aquarium was super cool. I personally liked it more than Monterey Bay Aquarium because of all the activities that Long Beach had outside. They also had theatres, craft stations, and movies that would play on the walls of the aquarium every 20 minutes. Since it was diver's day, they had a huge expo of diver merchandise, and they had divers go into the tanks and talk to us through walki talkies.

At first, Tanner was a little nervous about the big tanks and not really sure what the hype was all about. He was nervous about the fish swimming by. We showed him that they can't get through the glass. After about 15 minutes, he felt comfortable walking up to the tanks and touching the glass. Soon he was shouting "Whoa! Fishie, fishie!" "Oh, WOOOW!" and "What's this?" Just like at the zoo, he would watch intently at each tank for several minutes and got upset when we ushered him to the next tank. He is quite the observer!

 He liked the lorikeets from a distance, but was very nervous when they came near us to get food.

Tanner's favorite thing was the display of the water sources that lead to the ocean. What a silly kid. He wouldn't touch the water at the petting areas with star fish. But he loved the water tank that was completely fishless!

Grandma Nana

My mom, whom we are calling Grandma Nana, came to visit and help take care of Tanner during March 19-23. It was great to have another grandma helping with all the chores, daycare, cooking, etc. Jeremy was out of town this week and I had the Jr. High play to co-direct, and so Tanner basically didn't see his parents for 4 days. There were two days in a row where I only saw him for an hour in the morning. Nana did SO much with him and she took a bunch of pictures to prove it! We couldn't have survived the week without her help.

Tanner LOVES helping cook. I give him the oregano seasoning because not very much comes out at a time.

 We colored Easter eggs one night while I was home. Tanner loved plopping the eggs into the die, taking them out and plopping them in again.

 The eggs of course cracked from all the plopping. So Tanner figured out he could take the shells off!

 My favorite from all of Nana's pictures. Look at that bed hair!

Oh yeah, I'm pregnant!

Sometimes I still forget that I'm pregnant because there is so much going on. But my body is reminding me more and more that I have something growing in there, especially when I try bending over. Each week, I am being forced to slow down my pace, literally every step of the way. Right at this moment I'm 34 weeks pregnant, and I feel like there is hardly any more room for the baby. 

(March 8, 30 weeks pregnant)

Health

My health is great. My midwife said yesterday, "Your pregnancy is so perfectly normal! It's amazing!" Virtually the only symptoms I've had is being very tired and having a weaker back (I threw it out in August). As long as I eat a little bit every 2 hours and drink tons of water, I've avoided nausea and heartburn really well. Just like with Tanner's pregnancy, I've never thrown up. I sleep very well in any position (I've got a lot of pillows to help), and I even convinced my midwife to let me forgo the glucose test since there's no sign of me having gestational diabetes. 

I think the only negative of having such an easy pregnancy is that I have to work even harder at putting my body first. People at work see me going strong and they forget that I'm pregnant, too. I have to be good about setting my boundaries, taking time to eat and pee and rest, because I've learned that the only person who will fight for me at work is ME. There have been times when things get extremely stressful with directing the shows (5 down, 3 more to go!), and I'm glad I have the guts to tell people to cut me more slack! 

(March 23, 32 weeks pregnant)

My Size

Everyone is shocked when I tell them how far along I am. They claim they would have guessed 2 or 3 months less than what I am. They might just be saying it to be nice. However, I do think it's taken awhile longer than anticipated for my belly to really start popping. Jeremy and I don't think I really started looking prego until the 3rd trimester, which is why we only have a few pics of me earlier in my pregnancy. 

It's nice that people think I'm not huge, but at the same time, it's a little annoying. I would like to get some credit for all this time that I've been carrying around this baby! Plus, even though I may not look as big as I "should" I feel very pregnant, and I wish people could see how pregnant I feel.

My students are hilarious. "Oh, your tummy is getting fatter!" "When is your baby going to hatch?" "Are you going to name it after me?!" Every week I still get a kid that asks "Wait, you're pregnant?" To which I say "Yeah! What did you think was happening to my belly?" "I thought you just ate a lot."

My favorite was the following conversation with my Kindergarten students:

Boy- "Whoa, Mrs. Zavoral, your belly is getting bigger!"

Me- "Thank you! I know, it's so exciting!"

Girl- "Mrs. Zavoral, it's okay. We still love you just the way you are, no matter how you look!"

(March 19, 31.5 weeks pregnant)

Hypno-birthing

Our hypno-birthing classes are wonderful, and I am learning a lot. If you haven't heard of hypno-birthing, you've gotta look into it. My midwife recommended it to me during my first birth, since natural was the route I wanted to go. We didn't take hypnobirth classes then mostly because of scheduling conflicts. But this time around I decided to make it a priority, mostly for the breathing benefits (I hyperventilated when birthing Tanner). I have a couple friends that have hypno-birthed and say they loved it. Jeremy has been really supportive, and we actually decided to try this birth without a doula, so Jeremy will be extra busy this time around- and he says he wants to be!

Anyway, hypno-birthing is a birthing method founded in the early 90's based on complete relaxation so that you can have the calmest, most natural birth possible. Your birth partner guides you through a bunch of relaxation exercises which involve deep meditating and focusing. Our midwife says that all her patients that have done hypno-birthing have quick births (less than 8 hours) with virtually no complications (usually the women doing it are very healthy), and the moms stick with it all the way through. Our hospital is also really supportive of this type of birthing. I'm working hard and preparing my best so that I don't ruin the statistics! 

(April 6, 34 weeks pregnant)

And now for a list.  

Thoughts of a Mommy Pregnant with Baby #2:

• Will he look like Tanner? What if he isn't as cute as Tanner? What if he's cuter than Tanner? Will that mean that I treat them differently?
• This pregnancy doesn't seem much different than the first. Is that wrong? All I've ever heard of is "every pregnancy is soooo different. My first was this and my second was that." Am I missing something?
• Wow, I get so tired after work. I wish I could have enough energy to hold Tanner and play with him, and roll around on the ground with him. He's gonna be neglected even more when the baby is actually here. Poor Tanner!
• It's hard to think of having another baby in our family. What will his personality be like? Will he like us or think we're totally weird? Will he fit in with us? 
• Did I eat this much when I was pregnant with Tanner?
• What if he thinks we love Tanner more? What if Tanner thinks we love the baby more? What if we actually do love one more than the other? Is that possible?
• What if he's a super tall kid and he ends up being taller than Tanner by the time he's two? Will Tanner hate this? Probably.
• I think Tanner moved more. Well, no I think this baby moves more. To be honest, it's really the same. This baby even stays primarily in the same position as Tanner did. His feet are always in the same spot that Tanner had them!
• I felt a significant personality from Tanner when I was pregnant with him. But I don't feel a strong sense of anything from this baby. Maybe because I've got a toddler on the loose keeping me distracted? Well, I actually do feel something. I think that this baby will bring us a lot of love and that he will have a great need for love.
• Maybe he'll look like Jeremy. That would be cool, but then the boys wouldn't look like siblings. 
• What if they made a mistake and he's actually a girl? Then that would change a lot of dynamics between her and Tanner. Is it gonna be harder on them that they are both boys because they'll be competing all the time? Or will it be easier because they can just play rough all the time.
• What if he's not as smart as Tanner, or maybe he'll be smarter? How do I help bring out both of my child's strengths without hurting the other one if he isn't as strong in that area?
• Tanner is still such a baby. I mean look at him, he's only 21 months old. How do people have kids 18 months and 12 months apart? That sounds so exhausting now that I'm doing this.
• Is anybody even reading this?

March 13