Don't even get me started...

Oy.

Firstly, a belated Happy Thanksgiving, New Year, and every assorted holiday in between to those who have stuck with me though the drought here. I am a gigantic slacker, though to be fair, I had many a reason for my absence.

My rationalization for my absence is threefold.

Fold the First: houseguests. Although I don't know if it really counts as a houseguest when your mother comes to help wrangle your toddler because your husband works nights and you're in too much pain to do it on your own. Guest or no, she was here for over a month, and I scrupulously avoided blogging the whole time, for some reason. I have no wish for her to find my blog, or even find out that there is such a thing as blogging; ergo - no updates from me.

Fold the Second: pain. And have I mentioned to you the pain? It was one thing to have a rock the size of a goodly jawbreaker obstructing my kidney. It was quite another to have rubber tubing shoved unceremoniously up there in a lame attempt to roto-rooter the thing into proper functioning. It was, again, something totally different for the baby to kick with her delightfully sharp little toes that same exact kidney. (Although, to be fair, it's usually more like a heavy pressure than intense pain.) And then, wonder of wonders, my hip wandered off and left its natural habitat (namely, its socket) for greener pastures (namely, anywhere but the socket). It did this last time, and I seem to remember limping a bit, but it seriously pops and grinds when I attempt to roll over in bed at night (an undertaking in and of itself). Combined with the separation of the pubic bone (did this ever happen to anyone else? feels like knives in your... well, in an area normally reserved for happy thoughts), this has rendered me unable to put on or take off my socks, shoes, and pants without help. Have you ever seen a fat lady try to get into a pair of pants without bending over or raising either foot off the floor? It's amusing, if you ask Husband. This last one is a normal pregnancy thing, and I don't mind it at all. It's all the other crap that really takes it out of you. Most of the time I would just lie on the couch if I could, nursing two Tylenol and some apple juice. However, as a more-than-full-time working mom with a ridiculously precocious toddler, this is usually out of the question, unless I have help (see #1).

Fold the Third: exhaustion. I am just at or over 32 weeks, and I am so stinking tired all of the time, I can't hardly see straight. I have no energy. At all. I fondly remember the days when I was this pregnant with the Bear. I was already on bedrest, and so I napped whenever I wanted to and had people bring me food and entertain me when I felt like it. Now I have to bring food to and entertain others, and all I want to do is sleep. A lot. Hours on end I could sleep, if they would let me. Most nights, 8 p.m. is past my bedtime. (To be fair, the 5 a.m. alarm is awfully damn early, if you ask me.) So anyway. Yeah. Me = tired. Very very tired.

So, enough excuses. A brief update on other things:

The Bear has a vocabulary of at least 75 words, probably more. Every day she says something new and Husband and I just look at each other like, "where did she learn that? I didn't teach her that!" She strings them together into two and sometimes three word groups. I hesitate to call them sentences, exactly. They're more like "Bye-bye Daddy!" and "no juice - milk!" She runs, not just walks, but her balance is, sadly, much like mine. Today she tripped on her own feet and fell headlong into a door - she actually chipped a solid wood door with her forehead. Quite the thick skull has my child. She is growing some hair, but not enough to appease the callous weirdos who still think she's a boy. She has started potty-training herself, and has actually had some small success, both with the small potty we got her for Christmas (don't ask), and at daycare. She will talk into the phone now, which is nice for long-distance relatives, but she will also hang up immediately when she is done (sometimes to my amusement). She will be 18 months at the end of January, but is still fitting quite comfortably into her 12-month pants, although shirts and footie pajamas have progressed to the 18-month size recently. She's very skinny, always has been, but we feed her like it's going out of style, so it must just be all the running around in circles.

The new Cub, it seems, will be sadly neglected. We have no furniture, no room prepared (not that it matters for the first few months anyway), no new clothing bought (only hand-me-downs), no plan (who will watch the Bear? what about work?), and no name (although that one is getting closer). We did manage to haul the infant carseat out of storage the other day, and my mother finally started knitting on her blanket, after much debating over colors. That's about it, though, and I get the feeling this one may come early. I came home from work last week with an achy, crampy back, and was able to time some very serious Braxton-Hicks to 6 minutes apart and 45-65 seconds apiece for the course of the evening. They got better when I was completely still and off my feet for about five hours, but I've had a few more episodes of that recently. One of these days, it's going to be the real thing and I will be entirely unprepared, as usual. The Bear was induced early because I was so sick, so I've never gone into labor on my own before. I have no idea what to look for or expect. Any tips? My money is on the weeks between February 14-28. We'll just see what happens. Feel free to speculate, but if you have helpful advice, that would also be appreciated.

Other than all that, not much is happening here at la casa de los osos (house of the Bears). We're all fat and sassy here in the New Year. My resolution is going quite well, my school year is off to a good start, I got a nice haircut, and, best of all - 32 weeks and no stretch marks! I made it through my entire first pregnancy with nary a one (on my stomach, that is. We will not speak of the lifeless zebra teats that used to be my breasts), and I'm hoping for a similar turnout this time.

I'm back in for more surgery later this week, so I may space for awhile again, but I will do my utmost to keep updating regularly. We'll just see about that...