Random

First of all, thanks to all of you for your words of encouragement - they were so appreciated!  I am feeling a lot less stretched and worn out now, thanks be to God.  He really gives just what you can handle and no more - but still enough so that you remember to lean on Him and not yourself.  It's a lesson I could probably use more often than He gives me - but that just shows His mercy, right?! :-)

James is 2 months now!  And he is 13 lbs. so VERY healthy.  His doctor joked as he came in the room for the checkup, "So, why aren't you feeding him?"  Ha!  This guy is eating and eating and eating.  He feasted every 2 hours last night (UGH! Sleepy over here!) but I think he just burns up those calories with all his joyous baby coos and wiggles.  He is so darn cute.  I think he is going through a growth spurt, although I think he has been growth-spurting since he was born.  I think both of us will be glad when he is ready for some cereal.  I have a feeling I'll be introducing it early as I did for Luke, who was definitely ready at 3 1/2 months.

We are entering the months of birthdays.  I am going to be up to my ears in cakes this month.  Luke next week, Sophia the day after his, and with the end of March the end of the year chess party for the kids my husband coaches.  Apparently the veteran players have already informed the newbies that I make a chess cake every year.  Not that I was planning on not making the cake - I love doing it and I am touched by their enthusiasm over it.  It just takes a long time to make all those little chess pieces and squares out of white and dark chocolate.  :-)  Now that Paul has 25 or so kids on the team, I may have to make an additional cake just so that there is enough to go around.  I already use two boxes for the cake, but since the party includes all family members, I think two won't cut it.  And I did say boxes.  Frankly, I think boxed cake mixes make great cakes and since I spend hours, literally, working on the chocolate chess pieces, I am going to get boxed cakes and cans of frosting to cut corners without any hesitation.

I kept forgetting to record something funny Paul said to me when I was about 6 or 7 months pregnant with James.  I was telling him about some of the pregnancy issues I had been noticing, like heartburn, and he goes, "Are you in the 4th quarter yet?"  Let me tell you, I just about peed my pants laughing.  Can you tell it was football season?

My knee was checked out last week and nothing appears to be wrong with it that could be seen on an Xray.  I was given a cortisone shot in the knee to reduce the swelling since waiting 6 weeks hadn't done it and taking a round of oral anti-inflammatories is a no-no since I'm nursing.  It still is a little swollen and funny feeling, so I have to decide if I want to go back and do the MRI to really take a look at it.  The doctor thinks I have some shredded cartilage in there that is continuously irritating the joint, thus it swells with fluid.  However, I am able to bend it much more comfortably even if it still feels weird.

Paul is working out of town tonight and I have been enjoying the quiet, although I do miss him.  Since I have a nursing infant, I only really get "alone time" for a few hours at a stretch.  I don't mind it enough to bother pumping so that someone can give him a bottle so I can be gone for a longer time, but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy the times when I am by myself with no little one near me or on me!

Still working on Little Man's birth story.  I can't work on it during the day when the kids are up and in the evenings I am usually too tired to do anything that requires thought.  And now I am using up my energy on this post and that tells me that I won't be doing any much work on the birth story tonight.  I thought I'd stay up until James wakes up for his next feeding and do little tasks that have been put off.  However, it's now 9:30 and the tiredness is catching up to me.  If I stay up later, I'll probably also end up consuming something high in calories and low in nutrition.  Isn't it ridiculous - if I wasn't so tired, I'd eat better and if I ate better, I probably wouldn't be so tired.  It's hard to get off that vicious cycle.  I keep meaning to, but I really like my sweets and carbs.  If it weren't for this dumb knee, I could have my cake and eat it, too.  But I think I really need to start watching it before I begin to gain baby weight without having a baby to blame it on!

So there's a little random update.  I appreciate all you readers and your comments; thank you for your friendship.  I had no idea when I started this that I would make friendships like this; it's really such a blessing.