Data Collection

We had a visit with Dr. Jostes today to check the status of Super. No fancy ultrasounds this visit, but I did get all my stats taken and hear the heartbeat. I have officially gained 9 pounds (four of them being in the last month) which Dr. J said is perfect for where I am with my pregnancy. After my performance over Thanksgiving holiday, I was convinced that it was going to be a solid 10 pound gain, so I was thrilled with just 4. The baby is growing at the perfect rate based on the size of my belly and Super's heart rate was around 140 bpm.

The next appointment is December 27th, again after another holiday weekend. This is the big one where we learn the sex. What say ye, People of my blog (Pombs)...Boy or Girl?

Myopia

I am always nagging my clients at work to look at the big picture. They often get tunnel vision on one aspect of a site and don't see the project as a whole, which often delays progress and frequently takes things in the wrong direction. So when Rick and I were counting off all the annoying things in our life which are contributing to general malaise and continuous lack of sleep, I realized I should take my own advice and look at the big picture. It was Thanksgiving after all.

The basement flooded on Wednesday night. And we're not talking a few seeps here and there. We are talking running water from the wall window (where George Burns lives or lived, he may have been "displaced" during our cleanup efforts-I hear the sewer system is lovely this time of year). The silver lining of a having a basement that floods is that you have a basement to begin with. And that means we have a lovely house that keeps us warm and for the most part, dry. We have a house because we both are blessed with jobs we enjoy.

Bear/Bexar continues to use the house as his own personal bathroom. In fact, he seems to prefer the privacy of pooping in the house. Beyond recognizing the humor in the fact that we seem to have the only Bear that does not shit in the woods, I also recognize that because of Bexar, our family has had a faithful and loving companion for 11 years. He has lifted our moods and licked our faces for his entire life. He has always been there for us, so it's only fair that we are here to clean up an accident or give him a lift off the floor when he needs us.

With big families with big personalities like mine, there are inevitably going to be annoyances. They may be due to scheduling, personalities, a crazy pregnant lady who has violent mood swings, or just someone's in a funk and isn't feeling the holiday spirit. But I can't imagine not having them around during the holidays. Sure, we can be a scary bunch that seems to take joy in dishing out endless amounts of crap, but that's the way we roll. It's very comforting to have the endless support and understanding that a family can provide and I wouldn't change a thing.

And while I wouldn't ever categorize Super as an annoyance, the pregnancy does come with it's own set of challenges. I can't lift our wonder-mutt in and out of the car, I can't seem to get the deposits to match the withdrawals (Patrick knows what I mean), I can't booze it up with the siblings over the holidays, and I generally feel strange most of the time. But, I am thankful that my body is capable of carrying a baby and the absolute miracle of the experience. I cannot believe that by this time next year, our Super will be around 6 months old. And for those of you keeping track and waiting patiently for the Super Update, he/she is the size of a large APPLE as of yesterday! Crazy town.

So because of this timely holiday I was able check myself and realize that all these little pesky things contribute to one big, wonderful thing and for that, I am thankful.

A day to remember

Seven years ago today Rick and I went on our first date. He picked me up and we went to dinner at the Boathouse and then, because I had no idea what to do with this artsy fella, I took him to the City Museum. Odd how things work out. It was a perfect date and we never looked back.

To demonstrate what loving support Rick provides in this duo, I present this recent exchange:

K: My pants barely fit over this gut.
R: It's not a gut. It's a baby.

In other equally exciting news that may not seem like anything to those not living in our world, BEXAR/BEAR WAGGED HIS TAIL TODAY!!! Now some of you might think this is NBD, but for a dog that mysteriously stopped moving his tail about two months ago, this is very significant. You have no idea how sad a wagless tail is on such a sweet dog. Sure, it was just a few swipes back and forth, but I almost cried. I think he knew it was a special day too.

Birthday Wishes

Happy birthday to my Dad, Pat Harkins. Hope you had a great day. We miss you!

Don't lose focus

We were contacted on Saturday morning by the Hagemann girls and were notified that our attendance was requested at some garage sale action. I think, more specifically, they needed someone to drive them garage sale-ing, but we ask no questions. We just show up and are ready to hang. We drove around looking for garage sales, with little to no success. We did see lots of Boy Scouts running around on some can drive thing. When I pointed out all the boys to Chloe and Parker, Chloe quickly got us back on track, "Kay, we are looking for garage sales, not boyfriends."

She's quite the dedicated shopper.

Super Thursday-Week 14

It's Thursday, so you know what that means.....time for a Super Update! Super is now 3.5 inches in size (the length of a large lemon!) and weighs about 1.5 ounces. Super's thyroid gland is starting to function and has a fine hair called lanugo starting to grow all over its body (got that from its Dad). Super can now make facial expressions and is constantly moving its hands and is starting to suck its thumb.

Is there a way to break a child of thumb sucking while still in the womb?

This one's for you, Granny

This is my great grandmother, Granny. She lived next door to us growing up in San Antonio. Granny's love language was spending of time, and boy did I spend a lot of time with her. She taught me how to play Gin, make cream cheese icing and fudge, told great stories of way back when, and fostered a love for the gameshow Jeopardy.

Yesterday's announcement that Prince William and Kate were getting married reminded me of another of Granny's great loves: The Royal Family. She had tons of books about them and loved to go through them with me. She wasn't a huge fan of Prince Charles (who is, really?) but liked Princess Diana, though she was a bit "common". I remember being relieved that Granny wasn't around when Princess Diana passed, because she would have been devastated both by the death and that Diana was dating an Arab. Ok, he was Egyptian, but methinks Granny might not have found that acceptable either. She was a bit "old school".

This was one of the books Granny gave me that we used to go through all the time. I will make sure to go through it in preparation for the royal festivities.

While I am sad that Granny is not around to watch this wedding (I am sure she would DVR it for repeat viewings and commentary), I am sure she's got a much better view now. I will watch the wedding while eating fudge and cream cheese icing and missing my great grandmother.

At least they have concrete floors

Rick and I run a tight ship at Casa de Erwin. You mess with us, we will show you who is boss. So when Bexar/Bear had four accidents (three of which were of the numero dos variety) in the house in a 24 hour period, Ricker decided he would show B that actions have consequences and took B to work today so he could be under strict supervision.

Of course, we weren't really trying to punish the ol' boy, and it's a good thing too. B has spent the morning getting taken on walks by Bob Cassilly himself and being fawned over by the City Museum staff. I guess having little to no control over your bowels has its perks after all. Hope they have the power washer at the ready!

Update from Kerrville

It's not all candy-talk and bagel-complainin' in our family. Thankfully there are a few people that actually lead constructive and interesting lives. The leader of this interesting, do-good team is my grandfather, Gaddy. Gaddy lives on a ranch in Kerrville, Texas. Because Gaddy is one of those super-capable manly-men, it was no surprise to us that he had rescued a fawn this summer. The fawn was nicknamed "BABY DEER!!!" (you have to scream it) by toddler Jocelyn who was, suffice it to say, more than a little enchanted by BABY DEER! I think it's name at the time was also Lash, but no one really called it that. From a family who had cats named Little Kitty and Big Kitty, can you really expect more creative animal names?

This was BABY DEER in June 2010. He was living in Gaddy's fenced in back yard area and would sleep in Gaddy's bedroom. It was about the cutest thing in the world.

Bigs feeding BABY DEER! Can you handle the cuteness?

We had been wondering about the status of BABY DEER over the last few months, but were almost afraid to ask lest Gaddy let it go. We hate goodbyes. So imagine how thrilled we were to receive a video update from our cousin Elizabeth on the status of BABY DEER! This is my first effort to upload from youtube, so my apologies if it doesn't work.

According to Elizabeth, BABY DEER has full access to the house and was seen begging for food during dinner. I can't stand it. I also can't wait to see how this all plays out. I count on my Texas cousins to keep the updates coming!

Bagel Buyer Beware

So there was some confusion regarding a previous post. Apparently some people thought I was complaining about the actual hole that occurs naturally in the center of most bagels. Seriously? People, do I seem that unreasonable? Sure, the great bagel debate of last week might have painted such a picture and had certainly festered in the minds of both Erwins, which almost resulted in there not being a Friday Morning Breakfast this week. Rick was terrified of his wife jumping over the counter and attacking the nice (lazy with inattention to detail or any quality control standards) bagel lady. But I convinced him that after last night's dinner where I was informed that my spinach tortilla veggie wrap was normally serviced on a stale, hard white tortilla, so there was no sense sending it back, that I was all out of rage for the food service industry. Both he and the bagel lady were safe.

This morning I was lucky enough to get photographic evidence of the aforementioned burned out hole on not one, but BOTH our bagels at our Friday Morning Breakfast.

This is my bagel. Six cheese with plain light cream cheese. No, I haven't already taken a bite out of it. The hole you see was there upon delivery. What is not so obvious in this picture is that the burned out section continues from the south, up in a northeastern counter-clockwise direction on the eastern half of the bagel. Covered up by cream cheese. Naturally.

Though it may look like Rick has nacho cheese (which would be awesome) on his bagel, this is actually the jalepeno salsa cream cheese in some strange lighting. Rick actually got the shiz end of the stick this week and this better shows the burned out conditions that we are dealing with. Again, this is how the bagel looked at handoff from the bagel lady/my nemesis.

Rick, always being the happy customer and reluctant to admit when he's wrong (he was adamant in his stance that I was being irrational earlier), crunched and flaked his way through his burned, scratchy bagel. We both vowed to try a different type of bagel next week, and if the same thing happens again, I am coming over the counter. Watch out bagel lady; consider this a warning shot.

So long 1st Trimester!

My iPhone pregnancy app (Thanks Rick!) says that I am now 13 weeks pregnant today, and officially out of my first trimester. Whew! The "new weeks" always start on Thursdays, so I will now be updating the public on the Super Size and any new developments on Thursdays. GET PUMPED UP PEOPLE!

According to my phone (do we even need doctors any more, I am sure there is an ultrasound app), Super is now around 3 inches; the size of a large plum. Super weighs 1.5 oz and is now starting in inhale and exhale amniotic fluid and has fully formed fingerprints. WooHOO! It also says that I should be starting to show around this week, but I think that my extra long torso is just making it look like I had a big meal. Maybe next week!

Common Denominator

Received these disturbing images from big brother Patrick yesterday. In descending order of enthusiasm:

Congrats buddy, in the apparent sea of serial killers, you are king. The half-hearted thumbs up put you over the top.

There was really a tie for second as these two were the only ones willing to touch the more potent center portion of the AJ. This guy won second because of his casual demeanor. He almost looks comfortable holding that thing. Almost.

Stare too long at this crustache and you will turn to stone.

This guy probably wanted his identity concealed, but Patrick wasn't having it.

And finally, what is clearly a forced situation. This is also the same face I make when I pick up a dead rat. Patrick clearly has some dirt on this poor woman to make her take this picture.

What all of these people have in common is that they are more than a little dead behind the eyes. Whether that's because they love AJs or were forced to hold them for the picture by my taser-wielding brother (it was bring your taser to work day) remains to be seen.

slippery slope

I tried to avoid maternity clothes as long as possible, and thanks to some sort of contraption that keeps your pants from falling down while you walk around in public with them unbottoned (tres chic), I have been able to do so up until this point. I probably could keep it up for another month or so, but I have been lured in by the sweet spandex contraption that is the maternity jean. I dragged my trusty Ricker to the store with me on Saturday and after much fussing, messing around with some sort of tummy pillow that is supposed to give me an idea of what I will look like in 3 months (spoiler alert: terrifying!), and hearing Rick repeatedly tell me "they look like jeans", I found my first pair. I figured best to just throw in the towel now and be comfortable and get my money out of these things than to fight it and risk that our child will be born with zipper marks across its forehead from too-tight jeans. I was ready to embrace comfortable living right up until I saw the commercial for the pajama jean.

I then realized it's a slippery slope when it comes to seeking comfort in clothes. One minute I am wearing stylish maternity jeans, the next I am sporting pajama jeans and (they fit any body type!) and a ratty sorority tee to Aldi's with my cat carrier to pick up antibiotics to treat my invasive bed sores. Here's hoping I find a middle ground!

I trust your judgement

So someone may have mentioned to me that I've been a little irrational lately. Though I say that even in a non-hormonal state I would still think it's not acceptable to serve your customer a bagel with a huge burnt out air bubble in it (filled in with cream cheese mind you) and want to return the bagel to the lovely (read: negligent) bagel distributor that provided me with this busted bread item. And all of a sudden I am called crazy. I call it passionate about breakfast.

I need your opinion. There's been a situation brewing in the women's bathroom at my office building. There is one bathroom facility on our floor that all the offices on our floor share (there are only four offices and multiple stalls in the bathroom, so it's not as horrid as it sounds). BUT, there is a person that puts toilet paper down on the seat and then LEAVES IT THERE when they are finished for the next person to, I presume, dispose of as we see fit. I have stumbled into the stall with the impromptu toilet seat cover (ISC) a few times and it drives me insane every time. This made me crazy pre-pregnancy, so I don't think I am being too nuts here (though some could argue that I was a bit "off" before as well). I have had my eye out for the ISC-leaver for TWO YEARS and I think I figured out who it was today. I was "thisclose" to saying something to her, but then I heard my husband's sweet voice in my head telling me once again "don't go all crazy on this poor innocent person". So what say ye, people o' my blog, do I:

a) Stop being crazy and use another stall and get over it
b) Ask the lady politely to tidy up her mess
c) Ask the "stall pig" why she thinks that somehow it's not ok for her a$$ to touch the seat, but it's ok for her to leave her a$$ napkins all over the toilet for someone else to pick up.

I'm leaning towards C, but wanted to get a consensus before moving forward.

Out of the closet

So I just realized that almost everyone that reads this blog already knows this, but for the few of you that are out of town or don't see me on a regular basis, I am pregnant! Since most people knew, I felt it was a bit strange to not be talking about this HUGE thing that is happening on the blog that is supposed to be about our lives.

This picture was taken on 11/1/10 at our second appointment. We call the baby "Super".

We found out on September 13th and we have been "Super-excited" since then (sorry). I have not had any real sickness issues and have just had endless sleeping abilities. I also think my superpower is to inflict my pregnancy symptoms on those around me. It's not teleportation or mind-reading, but for now, I will take it. The girls in my office have both been nauseous and tired, Mom has had some strange cravings, and Patrick's his usual moody self (this may or may not be related to my pregnancy).

The due date is May 20, 2011, so we will be adding to the already awesome group of May birthdays in our family! I will keep you all in the loop on the goings on as the adventures of Super and the Erwins continue!

Drunk with power

I never really thought people were paying attention. So I made one little comment about Almond Joys, never imagining the far reaching influence I would have. It's like the blog equivalent of the butterfly effect. I received this troubling photo from my dear friend Kristen on Wednesday:

"Should I be concerned?" was the attached message.

Kristen and Dave are newlyweds and imagine Kristen's surprise when she noticed the AJ in the grocery bag after Dave returned to the store. As a dutiful blog follower, she contacted me immediately. Look, I am not saying there's a guarantee he's a maniac, but I'd sleep with one eye open. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer and all that. If he starts leaving you love notes made with random letters cut out of magazines, it's time to get worried.

This blog has taken a strange turn of late, and I promise to get off the candy topic soon. Maybe next week. Or when you guys stop sending me stuff about it. Be safe out there!

Building my army

My brother Patrick and I have been involved in a t-shirt exchange program for some time. This has resulted in both of us having the most awesome t-shirt collections on the planet. Basically, any time you find a t-shirt you want for yourself, you buy one for the other member of the t-shirt exchange. It's wonderful. So when Rick found an especially timely t-shirt last week, we had to order it for my dear big brother.



It arrived yesterday and it would seem that Patrick was less than enthusiastic about donning the Swedish Fish t-shirt we purchased for him....

Meet Jack, Patrick's dog, and the lower maintenance of all the Harkins/Loyd/Erwin pets. Unless you have food sitting out. Or food in the sink. Or a trash can in your house. In any of those scenarios he's a a bit of a food bandit. But health-wise he's pretty easy when compared to Chance and B.

To answer your question, Patrick, I think you can still wear the shirt even if you don't like Sewdish (as you call them) Fish. Though it would probably be a fun conversation starter. You can tell anyone that asks about how they contribute to your dental problems and potential diabetes. The ladies will swoon.

You can read all about how this started in the comments section of this post.