Yum Timbits!

Every week a get an update from Baby Center educating me about what's happening with the Murp and me. I generally find it really interesting, like last week my baby became a fetus, the Murp is no longer an embryo, which is really cool. However I find it really amusing or kinda disturbing (depending on how yeck I feel) that every week Baby Center tells me how big my baby is in relation to a piece of food.
At 5 weeks the Murp was the size of a sesame seed, at 6 weeks a small lentil bean, at 7 a raspberry, 8 a kidney bean, 9 a grape, 10 a kumquat and now a fig at 11 weeks. So I've wondered if the Murp continues with this rate of growth next week s/he would be the size of a chicken wing? And really how big is a fig? I think it's about the size of a Timbit*. Is my baby a Timbit? ('cause considering how much I love Tim Horton's there is a real possibility)
Hmmm Timbits....



*To all of my American friends, Tim Horton's is this really amazing donut/ coffee/ the best soup place ever in Canada. Their donut holes are called Timbits and are little pieces of heaven.

Dog Park.

Yesterday Adam and I were invited to my friend Carolyn's daughter N's first birthday which was held at The Gym. Watching the kids play was interesting and really made me want to play in the ball pit too, but instead I behaved like an adult and chatted with some of the other moms.

When I first got there I had a quick conversation with Carolyn who was consoling an unhappy N.
me: So this is where you come for your classes with N? And she gets to play with all of this fun stuff?
Carolyn: Yeah, the kids play and all of the moms chat and stuff. A lot of the kids here we met in the class.
me: Oh so it's like a dog park for babies?
C: Exactly.

Water? No Really, Water?

Murp is officially on her/his first time out. S/he's decided that I shouldn't be allowed to drink water. Apparently Murp doesn't care that it's hot out and I NEED water to stay, uhhh, healthy. No no no, Oh Mighty Murp doesn't want the Mama to drink water, so s/he makes me sick when I drink it.
To recap water makes me sick. Makes me all pukey and unhappy. Plain ol' water.
I've been drinking a lot of Propel (the Gatorade fitness water stuff) but I really don't like it. I like water.
Oh well. I keep telling myself, this too shall pass.
Then Murp will come out of time out.

Murp Update.

There's still a Murp. S/he has been nice enough to inflict me with morning sickness, except it appears whenever. I still haven't puked, although I have clear aversions, but I never know what they are until I am about to eat something. Nice. My most recent one? Water. Plain water. It's strange. I'll drink some water, and feel like I need to chuck it up all over whatever surface is in front of me. Thanks Murp!

I'm still tired. Although not as narcopeticky, and afternoon naps are my favorite thing.

I've managed to lose some weight, and I still can't eat red meat.

I think it's a girl, Adam thinks it's a boy. I think I might have a leg up on Adam, I've had some baby dreams and she's a girl. There is always lots of pink. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Hmm I guess that's it. I am hungry right now, so my writing is degrading.

Murp, out.

Jesus Camp.

Adam and I watched Jesus Camp last night. I'm not sure why I like to torture myself with documentaries that I KNOW will send me into a tizzy. And yet, I do, it's like I'm some sort of sadist/ masochist freak (because I also made Adam watch it.) Throughout the movie we'd look at each other wide eyed and shocked that people think like the people on the show did.
So to recap, the movie followed a couple of kids and their families who are Evangelical Christians as they prepared to go to a summer bible camp. The camp claims to prepare the children to be "dedicated Christian soldiers in God's army", and to teach them how to take America back for Christ.
I know WTF! Soldiers? Soldiers! These were children, pre teen children at the oldest, talking politics, bashing other (christian) religions and praising George W. Bush. The pastor, Becky Fischer explained that there are Muslim camps that teach children how to use guns and hand grenades, to justify brainwashing the children in her church and ultimately the camp. I'm not sure if there are Muslim camps that teach children this, in addition to being prepared to lay down their lives like Becky says, but to use that as a basis for her camps is wrong, in my opinion. Granted she doesn't have the kids using guns and other weapons, but to try to model a camp after something so grotesque is scary, even if it is just in name.
During one scene, one of the leaders at the camp brings out a life sized cutout of Bushy-Busherkins and they have the children pray to him, begging him to choose a good superior judge. They prayed for him to continue to lead the country as well as he already has. I sighed out loud at this scene. (I only sighed because I was getting numb and it wasn't the worst of them all.) Children shouldn't get involved in politics, they should be worried about child things. It was a scene that really evidenced how these children were having their childhoods robbed from them. It was sad.
There was another scene where a particularly brainwashed child was commenting how there are dead churches. The ones where the worshippers sit quietly and pray quietly. She mimicked them making her voice drone and robotic chanting something like 'We worship you God...'. I was disturbed by this scene because she's 9, and yet she has this hatred for other Christian sects, hatred for other people. When I was 9, I had no idea that there were other religions, nor did I care, because I thought everyone was the same, and I was happy with that thought.
That same girl would preach to other random strangers, and there was a scene where she gave a book to a random girl in a bowling ally, telling the stranger that God told her to do it. Her parents were proud, the stranger was befuddled. I worry that someday that little girl will approach someone and the stranger won't politely thank her, that stranger may get offended, perhaps hurting her. And yet her parents encourage her to do this. I wondered to myself what I would have done. After my initial shock, I think I would just tell her I wasn't interested and to have a nice day. Then I would stare daggers at her parents for allowing their daughter to be so brash.
There was another girl in the movie. She was 10 and liked to dance. She commented that she will only dance to Christian Rock, and that she sometimes danced for the flesh, but it was wrong and she shouldn't. She should only dance to proclaim her faith. She's 10. 10! So wrong. During the movie there were several close ups of this little girl crying during a lively prayer. She seemed to really get involved and always ended up crying. I wonder, if God loved her so much, and her him, why does she cry so much? Why is she encouraged to cry? There was one scene where she spilled 3-4 big tears and she looked right into the camera, then quickly away. Aware that she was being filmed, like she was making sure that her tears weren't wasted. Again, a freaky loss of innocence.
The last boy I need to mention was about 9 or 10; he had a bad haircut, but that isn't the issue, although it did bare mentioning, it was that bad. He liked to preach and was often given the opportunity. He told Ted Haggard that he particularly liked to preach about faith. Ted asked him if people liked to listen to him and the kid said yes. To which Ted asked if it was because he was a cute kid, or because he has good content? Then Ted told him to keep it up and rely on his cuteness and that by the time he was 30 his content will come. The kid was a little taken aback, and Ted was smug. This exchange solidified my dislike for Ted, I thought it was mean spirited. I don't think a child should preach, but who was Ted to tell him he wasn't good. Anyhow this is neither here nor there. This child was almost militant in his beliefs. A conversation was filmed of him and his mom during one of their home school lessons regarding evolution. The boy said it was stupid, and doesn't understand how people could believe it and not creationism. (The whole movie seemed to really lack in the whole science department, clearly no engineers are being turned into soldiers.) The mother also asked him about global warming and he explained (I'm sure he was just regurgitating) that it's not true, that the mean global temperature has only gone up 0.6 degrees in 10 years, and that isn't anything to worry about. (To which I commented that 0.6 degrees in 10 years, when it's been stable for millions is a lot, anyhow I digress.) I was saddened by the whole scene. Science is important, and yet, he is missing out. The movie said that 70 or 75% of the home schooled kids in America are Evangelical Christians. That's a lot of science not being taught.
Finally there was a lot of anti abortion talk. What I found interesting is that the leader was showing the kids what a 7 week embryo looks like, it was about 5X too big. Clearly someone missed a science lesson, or 400. Anyhow the kids were all given plastic embryos, there was much crying and loud praying. I rolled my eyes. I have strong convictions about abortion, and they seem to be the exact opposite of what these kids are being taught. I had to look away. Children should not be involved in politics. But this abortion talk is for another entry, on another day.
Anyhow the movie was interesting. If you're as liberal as I am, it's scary. Becky even commented that really liberal liberals should be scared. I'm not so much scared by her, I'm disgusted, and I pity these children. Ted commented that the Evangelicals make up so much of the population that they can sway a vote, that scares me a little.
Little liberal me, with a blog and a argumentative nature.

Hey guess what?

I'm finally pregnant!
YAY!
I thought that this would be the best way to tell the rest of the world. And by world I mean my readers, and by readers, I mean reader, as there only seems to be one.
In any case, YAY!
Apparently poking oneself in the belly nightly for 3 weeks, then getting the most invasive type of insemination, taking a multitude of drugs everyday to stabilize the wonky reproductive system and crossing every crossable body part is all it took! (good to know for next time!)
The estimated due date is sometime in February, (in the middle, and we're really hoping for a non-valentines baby), so I am 2 months pregnant now. I understand that it's early to be announcing anything, but geeze people, I've held off this long! Besides if anything were to go wrong it's not like I wouldn't have written about it here!
So right now we're calling he/she Murp. I came up with that from the first ultrasound where Murp wasn't more than a lump of conception, and I tried to say blob and blip at the same time as I was gasping and thus Murp was christened.
We will find out the gender as soon as we can.
We already have names picked out, but we're keeping them secret. (I have to be able to surprise you all with something, but don't worry they are really good names. After all I am really good at picking names, I mean Bonsai, Chachi? The best pet names for those pets!)
I don't have any morning sickness yet, although I am bracing myself. I get carsick even easier, which I didn't think was possible, but it is! I was having nasty bouts of dizziness which prompted the doctors to worry that it was eptopic, but alas, it was not.
Oh there is only one baby. After all I did have 5 eggs this cycle.
I have no desire to eat, and I finally understand how Adam feels all of the time. (He gets hungry but has no appetite, just a hungry feeling) When I do eat I can't stomach meat well, or any animal product, I only want veggies. I can have a little meat, but a whole meat entree leaves me feeling like super crap. I try to avoid that. Milk is gross to me, unless it's on a frosted cereal, or I put chocolate in it. I don't want ice cream, which is terrible because I love ice cream! I do love popscicles though! (A good byproduct of this is that I've managed to lose 5 pounds!)
I am peeing a lot, and it's irritating. I am very sleepy, last night I slept for 10 hours, and was up for 3 and needed a nap. Sometimes if I am sitting on the couch watching TV I'll just fall asleep, then I'll wake up an hour later, totally confused.
I am hungry, without fail every 2-3 hours, and yet I can't figure out what I really want to eat.
I'm getting weird heart palpataions, but after talking to several doctors and 2 advise nurses, seeing a doctor and getting an EKG, it's a normal pregnancy thing. They aren't painful, just weird.
Hmm I think that's it.
I'm sorry this is so jumbly, but I've been keeping it in for the past 6 weeks! Sigh.
So here's hoping I don't get morning sickness, and that Jamba Juice moves in next door, becasue I really like it.
YAY!

Patience

Dear The Impatient Jackass behind me at a light.

Sir, I understand that the light turned green a millisecond ago, and I apologize that I haven't peeled out of the intersection fast enough for you. However I must implore you not to honk your horn at me exactly half a second after the light changes. (Yes it was half a second, and I'm being generous.) I will explain why I don't jump on my accelerator when the light changes. First there are still cars in the intersection, I don't want to hit them, call me crazy, but I don't want to be in an accident. Second squealing out of an intersection is lame, I try not to do it. Third, it's surprisingly easy for me to squeal on out, you see I drive a hemi, and if I jump on the accelerator from a dead stop there will be squealing. Finally I care about my car, if I floor it out of every intersection I will need new tired ever 20,000 miles. (The last guy that owned the car owned it for 20, 000 miles and the back tires were bald, he was the original owner.) So Mr. Late-Model-Civic just wait. You will have noticed that once I get my tires rolling I quickly make my way down the street. (After all I do enjoy the hemi). In any case if you care to debate this further, meet me at the next light and I will demonstrate just how small your penis is, 'cause a Dodge Magnum with a hemi will always beat a 4 banger. Every. Time. Just like rock beats scissors.
So in order to save your masculinity, let the girl in the really hot car drive responsibly, and you, be patient.

Thank you,
The girl in the smokin' hot Magnum.

Happy Canada Day

No really it's still Canada Day. I haven't gone to bed yet. (work with me here, 'kay people?)
Anyhow blogger and me have broken up, Nicole and Paris style, and it appears that we have rekindled, perhaps we'll be able to squeak out another bad television show. Or not.

Today Adam and I mourned not living in Canada and not being in Ottawa, we vowed that sometime on this day in the future we will be in Ottawa. It's so strange to be somewhere that doesn't even recognize the importance of today. Even when I was in Korea I was able to celebrate Canada Day. Oh and celebrate my friends and I did. We went to a party being hosted by the Canadian consulate. They shipped in Big Rock beer, Alberta beef and BC shrimp (I think there was some BC salmon too, but I was all about the beef). If I hadn't been as hung over as I was then perhaps I would have been able to enjoy more good ol' Canadian beer. In any case the party was fantastic, many drunken patriotic Canadians and just as many drunken American army boys, who were very polite and tolerated me drill them about Canada. (My favourite question was "What is the Canadian capitol?" They always got it wrong, but I was determined to educate them all, one drunken conversation at a time.) A good time was had by all, and I promise that I didn't irritate too many of the boys with my questions, mostly they played along, laughed and answered my questions, asked me some of their own and stared at my boobs.

Back to today, no fireworks, no hearty "Happy Canada Day!"s and no Canada birthday cake. Sigh. It's a little sad for me. It's all good though, I did get a promise out of Adam that someday I will get to be in Ottawa for Canada Day.