Elle's new words

Elle has become a talking maniac. Some of her new words are:
boot - This is what she says when she wants us to read to her. She says it like "book" but with a "t" at the end. If she hands you a book and you don't start reading right away she'll get grab it away from you and wave it in your face saying "boot" over and over.

bruish - This is what she says when she wants to brush her hair. She also likes to "bruish" our hair too. After her naps she likes to go into the bathroom to look in the mirror and "bruish" her hair.

poopa - This is what she says when she's poopy or if she toots. It's pretty cute.

base - This is her word for bracelet. She has a round teething ring that she likes to put around her wrist like a bracelet. Pretty much anything she can put around her wrist will be called a "base".

ca-ca - This is her word for cracker. It may not sound cute but it really is when she says it.

Elle is also starting to walk for real. She still crawls when she wants to get where she's going quickly but she's walking more and more. Sometimes if she's crawling somewhere I can tell her to walk and she'll get up and take 10 steps or so. She's getting so grown up!

Joseph is getting grown up too. Just yesterday I told him to do something and he yelled "No one commands me like that!" He seemed shocked that that little outburst earned him a timeout.

A household tip

Here's a great tip for you! If your dishwasher drain filter gets clogged with food do not use the vaccum cleaner to clean out the soggy food and undrained water. If you do, your vaccum cleaner will stop working and your wife will get very irritated at you and wonder why in the heck you wouldn't just scoop the stuff out with a paper towel or something. I mean seriously. Why would you do that?

So keep your fingers crossed that our expensive vaccum cleaner will start to work again once all the pieces have dried out. Urgh.

In happier news, I got an awesome food processor and a KitchAid mixer for Christmas. I would like to cook with them but I can't right now because there are vaccum cleaner pieces drying all over my countertop.

Merry Christmas!

I'm going to bed in a second but I had to say how cute the kids were opening their presents from us tonight. Joseph was happy with everything we got him (even though we managed to get him a couple of small things he already had). Elle's eyes were a big as dinner plates no matter what we gave her. It was fun to see them so excited and happy.

Now I'm all full on the cookies and milk we left out for Santa and I'm headed to bed. I'll try to take at least one picture of the kids tomorrow to post.

Is that weird?

I just wrote an email to my IFs. I debated it for two days, thinking what it should say and if I should even write it. I wanted to suggest that we get together for dinner and perhaps bring our kids along. Now that I sent it I'm worried that maybe I shouldn't have.

This is all like the aftermath of some kind of crazy first date. I'm sitting here worrying that maybe I tried to contact them too soon. What if they think I'm clingy? What if they think I'm too pushy? Augh. Why don't I know anyone I can ask about this? What is the proper amount of time one should wait to send an email after one has agreed to carry one's baby? What would Miss Manners say.

In other news I can't think of what to bring to Christmas dinner. This makes me crabby. I always get cooking anxiety and I'm certain that no one will like whatever I bring.

I have issues.

Intense

Joseph brought home a little "pinch pot" he made for me in school. I asked him how he made it and he said "It took a few days. First I made the pot and then we put it in a killer for 2 days to dry." Wow, that is some intense pottery.

Elle is starting to walk. She can take 3 or 4 little steps before she falls. The problem is that it doesn't seem like she really likes to do it. She knows she can get where she's going faster and easier by crawling. She'll get it soon though I'm sure.

I should be filling out the 1000 pages pages of paperwork that I got from the insurance company that is going to be covering my surrogacy. Just looking at the instructions made my head spin. I feel like I've been doing nothing but paperwork ever since I started looking into surrogacy. When do I get to the fun stuff, like giving myself shots in the butt twice a day?

All systems go

So here we go! The guys said they are very excited to work with me. Looks like very soon I will be pregnant with the child of a gay man I just met. Add that to my list of Strange Things I Never Thought I Would Do.

The meeting

The match meeting was awesome. I don't think a single thing about it could have gone better than it did. We sat and talked for two hours and I bet we could have talked for two hours more if we didn't each have other placed to get to. It was really, really great. I've got my fingers crossed that the case worker calls today and says that the guys for sure want to go ahead with this. (I already told her that we do.) I would be pretty shocked if they said no, it just went too well for me to think they would say no.

Since the guys don't have an egg donor selected yet I was told I could expectt a 2-4 month wait before the transfer. We'll just have to wait and see what happens now! I can't wait!

A little nervous

I should go to bed but I don't think I'll get much sleep tonight. I'm starting to get a little nervous about the meeting on Monday. I should be nervous. All I have to do is get these guys to like me enough that they'll let me carry their child. Not pressure!

Maybe they're thinking the same thing though. Maybe they won't sleep tonight because they're worried about getting me to like them enough to agree to carry their child.

Well, wish me luck!

So happy together

My boy is back home. I think he got taller in the week that he was away. I know he got smarter. "Do you know Mommy" he asks me "that seagulls are very aggresive in California? You have to watch your food or they will eat it." He's such a little grown up sometimes.

It seems like he had a great time. Right now he's happily playing with Legos that he got in Legoland. Scratch that. Right now he's shrieking "Help me! Help me! because the Legos that he got at Legoland are not going together the way he wants them too. Ah, it's good to have him home.

Proof

You will never be able to prove to me that it doesn't matter to babies if they are bottle fed or breastfed. Not after what happened to me this morning.

Elle was sitting on the bed with me as I was getting dressed. Before I had a chance to put my top on Elle came flying over to me with her eyes as big as dinner plates. She pointed at my chest and said "Na na!". Then she rested her head on my chest and softly, softly patted me as she made little yummy noises like she did when she used to nurse. When she finally pulled back she had a HUGE smile on her face and she kept saying "na na" over and over. For the next 5 minutes or so she kept resting her head on me and then burying her head in my chest and sniffing me.

I was really suprised that she reacted like that. She's been weaned for a little while so I didn't expect her to remember the word "na na" at all. I certainly didn't expect her to have a reaction like that to seeing me topless. I guess she has good memories of nursing. I have to admit that this makes me very happy. I hope that even though she's not nursing any more she'll still see me as who she can go to for comfort and protection and love.

So now I'll never believe that bottle feeding is as good as nursing. Not after that.

That's my boy

My mom just called me from Disneyland. Or rather, the hotel near Disneyland that they are staying at. Joseph had such a bad melt down that my mom had to take him out of the park. Do you get that? My mom had to take Joseph out of Disneyland. If you know my mom and know how patient and understanding she is with Joseph then you know how crazy that is. She said he screamed all the way out of the park. I'm sympathetic because I've been there, done that. I know how those meltdowns can be. It's rough. I'm glad I wasn't the one dealing with this one.

Joseph is taking a nap now and we're keeping our fingers crossed that he'll do better when he wakes up. We'll see!

Update! I just talked to Joseph on the phone. He doesn't really seem to see what the big deal was. He's worried that everyone is being (in his words) too hard on him. Sigh. That kid.

Great Googley Moogley

I just got the best Google hit ever! what are the disadventages of having the internet in your home

Glad to be of help to spelling challenged people everywhere as they decide if they should go ahead and use that free AOL disk or not.

My boy

My little boy is in California now for his week long vacation with grandma and grandpa. I miss him already. He called me when they had a layover in Las Vegas. He thought it was pretty cool that there were slot machines right in the airport. He wanted to play them too.

It sounds like he's already having a great time. I have to confess that I'm a little bit sad. I wanted to be the one who took him to Disneyland for the first time. I'm glad he's getting to see it and all but I still wish I was the one showing it to him. Sigh.

In other news, Jesse's office Christmas part was last night. It was pretty fun. About 20 different people stopped me to ask me if I was feeling better from my stomach flu. Jesse must have sent out a newsletter or something. It was a little bizzare to know that his entire company knew I had the poops.

Now I have to go brave the crowds to do a little Christmas shopping. Wish me luck.

Not good

Ugh. Stomach flu. Not good. Back to bed now. Buy me presents to make me feel better.

The best of me

I was re-reading some of my stuff from the start of my blog. There's some kind of fun stuff in there. For example:

Joseph is attracted to dogs.

Joseph comments on my lovely lady lumps.

Jesse has the lamest reason ever for not watching the kids.

I talk about my fear of corn-backs.

Joseph wonders what his head is made of.

I want to kill someone for saying a word wrong.

A commercial gives me body hair anxiety.

Joseph wants to wash an old man.

Joseph wants a healthy colon.

Joseph talks about why you shouldn't take candy from strangers.

Joseph gets a 6 pack.

I eat trash from a deli.

I hope you enjoy these. I did.

The safari begins

Per Ben's suggestion, I will now be refering to my surrogacy journey as my surrogacy safari. So here's my safari update.

The PIPs called the agency and said they are "thrilled" that I want to work with them and that they can't wait to meet me and that I sound like I'm "perfect" for them. Jesse and I will be flying back to LA to meet them on the 17th/18th but at this point I feel very confident that we'll be safari-ing together. Then, the PIPs will become my IFs. Awesome.

Zicam woes

Joseph has another flippin' cold and I am determined not to get this one. I've started using the Zicam mouth spray every 3 hours. It's supposed to taste like mint. I think it sort of tastes like watered-down mouthwash filtered through hot ass. It's pretty bad. But, yesterday I woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose and this morning I did not. So it's all good.

On Saturday I went to the Mall of America to meet up with 4 other Minnesota surrogates. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. All 5 of us are on our first surrogacy ..... um, not journey, but some other word for journey. One of the women is about 6 weeks pregnant and the rest of us are all just very recently matched. It sounds like several of us may be having transfers very close to each other.

Even though I had never met any of these women before it was really nice sitting and talking with them. We had a ready-made topic of conversation and within minutes of meeting each other we were laughing and talking like we had known each other for a long time. We hope to get together again after the holidays. It will be nice to be able to talk to some people who are all going through the same things.

Of course, all of this is assuming that my agency ever call me back.....

What was I thinking?

What was a thinking naming my last entry "Big PIPin'"? I've gotten about a dozen hits from people looking for that exact thing. I'm thinking they had to be a little let down with what they found.

In other news, no call from the agency today. I'm sure I won't hear anything over the weekend either. I guess that means either the PIPs hate me and don't want to work with me or that ...... they haven't decided yet for some reason. I don't know.

In yet other news, Elle took her first steps today. Ok, so they were more like little shuffles and it sort of made her move sideways rather than forward but I'm still counting it as her first steps. She's so proud of herself! She stands there with a big smile on her face and her chest all puffed out. It's cute.