Hi-Ho Webbies! Here’s the geeky ways I taught my five year old during spring break:

Math:

1. Watching Daddy play the chocobo race in FFX “Is Daddy’s time more or less than the trainer?”

2. Making Dinner “If we break this cup of milk into four equal pieces, they’ll each be a quarter cup.”

3. Buying cupcakes “So this is $12.95. How much more would I need if it was $13?”

Reading:

1. Watch Cardcaptors Sakura in japanese subtitled.

2. Got him a Sonic the Hedgehog comic book.

3. Trade off reading the Frozen Junior Novel with him.

Social Studies:

1. Explain what a monarchy is after watching both Thor and Frozen on consecutive movie nights.

2. Show him my voting pamphlet and explain to him the importance of voting, and having your voice be heard. Don’t tell him that as we live in a solidly blue state our voice isn’t really as important in a presidential election.

3. Later in the week when he sees me reading “The Masked Empire” by Patrick Weekes, try to explain the difference between a monarchy and an empire. This one didn’t go as well.

Science

1. Prepare a Ninja Turtle Chia pet with him, and explain the life cycle of plants.

2. Explain physics with Angry Birds Space.

3. Try to explain why the toast for cinnamon sugar toast, burned when you put the setting all the way to dark.

P.E.

1. Play chase, hide and seek, and red rover.

2. Wander through the crowds at Costco for over two hour, not letting him once sit in the cart. I’m very mean that way.

3. Have him hike over mountains (rocks), through deadly forests (blackberry brambles), and over lakes (Really big puddles), to slay the dragon (me).

Art and Music

1. Dance Party to They Might be Giants, “Here Comes Science”.

2. Draw the red ninja (himself if you’re curious) fighting bad guys, in comic book form on our windows using washable crayons.

3. Color in about a half dozen different coloring books.

Well that was fun. Enjoy your own spring break if you haven’t had one yet!

Keep surfing Webbies, and may all your imaginings be fertile!

– Zenbry

Hi-Ho Webbies!

So another year with basically no post. I’m sorry! But hey at least I got in one, right?

Over the past year Kitlet #1 has started kindergarten, which is a mixed bag. He’s doing just fine, better then fine at his reading, but is having a harder time maturity-wise. Sitting still and keeping quiet are poison evidently. We’re working on it though.

A big thing for the whole family was a Christmas trip to Disneyland. It was crowded, but wonderful. Kitlet #2 loved the fireworks and snow, and ‘Da Fox loved the turkey legs. 🙂 The trip was made even more wonderful by our rental condo owned by the fabulous Britta Wagner. It is highly recommended!

I’ve started to go more by Zenbry, and less by Stara over the last year. Just an FYI for everyone. The other handle is just taken too often.

So the writing prompt I pulled this week was “Every Sunday”. I liked this one. It’s short (295 words), but I made myself smile.

Every Sunday I end up covered in sweat.

I mean I try, I really do to listen to those long, long, loooooooong sermons telling me what I need to do. Who I need to be. The tenants I need to hold fast to. But I’m fifteen. I’m a young man filled with life, and energy, and passion. Not some dried up, centuries old creature. I’ve read that “Good Book”. I know this stuff down pat at this point. So I start to fidget.

It generally starts out with my foot tapping. Because the soles of my feet really want to be out dancing, so instead I tap them. A simple beat. Basic and regular. Nothing to attract my mama’s ire. This leads to tapping my fingers on my thigh in a counterpoint rhythm.

You have to understand… The simple rhythm of one foot is almost as boring as the sermon. I need to add in the counterpoint to make things interesting. To make things flow. It’s really hard to do this though. At least it is for me. My foot starts wanting to follow the more complex patterns of my one, quiet little finger. In order to stop that from happening, I have to close my eyes and bob my head in time to the tapping foot.

This let’s me concentrate you see.

Except I get too into the beating, pulsing bass line in my head. The percussive music coming from my soul overwhelms me. I start slapping my hand on my thigh, pounding my feet in the ground, living my dance.

Then my mama slaps my arm and tells me to stop embarrassing her. To go run laps until they get out of church.

And so every Sunday I end up covered in sweat.

So that’s it my darlings. I’ll try to update a little more frequently.

Keep surfing Webbies, and may all your imaginings be fertile!

— Zenbry

Hey-Ho Webbies,

Just wanted to put out there that our littlest man is doing wonderfully. He spent a little over a day in the NICU before we got him for our very own. So far he has had no further health issues and is nursing like a vacuum. I’m doing pretty well considering the emergency nature of the c-section, but I’m still glad Da’ Fox was able to take off work.

All and all our family of four is happy, healthy, and having a good time getting to know our newest member.

Keep Surfing Webbies and May All Your Imaginings be Fertile!

–Stara

Hey-ho Webbies,

Short of it: Yesterday, October 6th, a beautiful 8lb 10.9oz baby boy entered this world. I is happy.

Long of it (Medical icky details. Read with caution!): So yesterday around noon I had my due date OB visit, and I must say, my OB was slightly miffed at me for getting to my due date after she had assured me I was going to go early. After leaving the office I started to cramp and leak a small amount of fluid. I paced around my house for  2 to 3 hours before announcing to my husband I was in labor and we needed to head to the hospital. The next two and a half hours passed with me cursing my female body and breathing deeply while rocking back and forth on an exercise peanut. Finally at six centimeters I gave in and said I wanted tasty, tasty drugs. After a hellish IV placement, and not so hellish epidural placement, an OB from the practice I see came in and decided to break my bag of water. I was all good with that, as I was sure it would speed up labor and I would get to deliver sooner. As he broke it meconium spilled and I was informed I wouldn’t get to hold my son right away as they needed to be sure he didn’t breath any of the nasty junk in. I was worried, but knew it was a normal complication. That’s when this got interesting.

Kitlet’s heart rate dropped suddenly from the 140’s to the 30’s. Very not good. I suddenly had two nurses and the doctor right back at my side. The doctor decided I needed internal fetal monitoring. As the nurse went to pass it to him to put it in he said in a deceptively mild voice, “Prep the back. I have a cord prolapse.” He then proceeded to tell me we were going to do an emergency c-section, but “everything is going to be okay.” In his next breath he said to the nurse, “I’m holding the babies head up, we need to go now.”

‘Da Fox was held back from coming in to the emergency room with me, even thought I had pleaded for them to let him come. The next few minutes are a blur, even just the next day. My epidural hadn’t been strong enough for surgery so they knocked me out. All I remember is about ten people running around and one nurse saying, “The heartbeat’s at 23.” Then pain in my IV and I was gone.

When I awoke I was alone back in my labor room with a single nurse and a much smaller stomach. She quickly informed me that my son and husband we’re in the NICU, that kitlet #2 was having a hard time breathing. ‘Da Fox soon returned and informed me our baby was on oxygen and an IV. I am fine by the way. After about an hour I finally got wheeled down to the NICU on a gurney and got to hold my son. He looks so much like his daddy it isn’t even stinking funny. The kid even looks forty! As we left he was finally let off the oxygen, but in the NICU he stays for observation of his fluid levels and blood sugars.

I miss him. I want him. But I know he’s getting the care he needs. He shows no sign of long term damage from his tramtic birth, and all signs point to him being let out of the NICU in a few hours.

If you’ve gotten this far you are a brave soul, and all’s well that ends well. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to call to check in on my son.

Keep Surfing Webbies, and may all your Imaginings be Fertile!

Stara

Hey-ho Webbies,

Haven’t posted recently, whether it is writing prompt or personal. Some of that has to do with editing the novel; a lot has to do with laziness, and some just the state of affairs for your humble host.

I’m currently 32 weeks pregnant with kitling 2.0, and am amazed, awed, excited and terrified to find myself thus. It only took us seven months this time as opposed to the thirteen of kitling 1.0, who is doing great by the by. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to look forward to this birth with as much joy as the last. At around the 5th month mark of this pregnancy Da Fox lost his job and we’ve been dealing with the normal repercussions of that since then. I hate being poor.

Da Fox finally managed to snag a job with Google. YAY! But is away this week for orientation for said job. BOO! I miss his desperately, probably because of hormones or something. I feel almost oppressively lonely with him gone. Which, you know, is pretty sad when you sit and think about it.

The fun part is having the kitling all to myself and all the play we get to do. He is fascinating to watch. Today at the park I told him we needed to stay on the playground, because an impromptu meeting was taking place over on the park’s picnic tables. My boy is not shy and would have gone over and joined said meeting without Mommy’s new rule. In protest he sat down and started breathing really heavy. When I asked him what he was doing, he informed me in no uncertain terms he was having a contraction. I had to laugh. The last couple of weeks I’ve been having some doozies of Braxton Hicks, and I guess he has picked up on it.

The title of this post is because I just needed to get this all out of my head, and writing is the best way I know how to do that. So there you all go my brain dump. Hope it is as incomprehensible to you as my brain space has been for me.

Keep Surfin’ Webbies, and may all you imaginings be Fertile!

–Stara

Hey-Ho Webbies,

I am now one day shy of my 33rd week of pregnancy, and most of the time I still can’t believe it. I mean 13 months of trying and a PCOS diagnosis had geared me up for a long fertility war, then first cycle on Clomid and Bamm!  bouncing baby boy comin’ our way. Oh, had I forgotten to tell you that Webbies? It’s most definitely a boy, 4 ultrasound techs better not be wrong with all the blue I’m buyin’. And wowzer with the buying. I live far from family and my friends here are all male, so no shower of gifts upon me, although The Mom did get us a rocker/ottoman combo and a diaper bag filled with baby wipes and butt paste and stuff. Everything else though is being bought and paid for by ‘Da Fox and I. Babies are pretty expensive creatures I have found out. Not that I’m complaining too much though. I do so love spending money. I keep getting cute things in the mail that I ordered. It’s like every other day is Christmas.

We are of course preparing for the kitlet in more mental ways too. Taking the childbirth prep course, reading up on breastfeeding, and totally freaking out at the thought of a 4 year old trying to slide down the banister in our house. That last ones not really true, I only had a minor freak out. In fact I’ve been remarkably calm most of the pregnancy. I worry a lot, but I don’t really have hysterics. I worry about him being a geek, or being a jock. I worry about his relationship with his grandparents, or lack there of. I worry about him finding his passion in life and I worry about turning him neurotic. I suppose most of these are normal, but they are still there. And these don’t even count the stupid worries like: How will he and the cat get along? How old will he be when he falls into the creek by our house? (Because I know at some point he’s going to.) How can he learn to ride a bike on the hill we live on? How in the heck am I going to be able to push him out?!? You know stupid stuff like that.

I worry about the last one because we have been told to expect a 9 to 10 pounder. I believe the first doctor exact words were “He’s Humongous.” And my normal OB said we were “Doomed”. My ob made that observation because I was 9lbs 3ozs at birth and ‘Da Fox was over 11lbs. Still not encouraging. At this weeks appointment she said she hoped he would come early, and if he’s on track to be 10lbs I’m not arguing with her too much. We’re in wait and see mode currently, so we’ll… well you know. Oh and for those of you wondering, nope, no gestational diabetes, I’m just growing him big. That’s about it for now. I’ll try to write more later.

Keep Surfing Webbies and may all your Imaginings be Fertile!

— Stara

Hey-ho Webbies,

Sorry for the long delay in updating. As I said in my last post, pregnancy makes me exhausted. Also I started this blog to mostly vent about infertility only to find I’m (With the help of drugs) just the right amount of fertile. Thus little webbies you get no updatey goodness. I am sorry. You also won’t get anymore updates for the rest of the year at least, as Fox and I am going to visit The Mom for Christmas. She is all excited because Sister Mega-bit has retired from her mission (read got sent home here) and is simply Mega-bit again.

As for my beloved parasite growing inside me, all goes well. We get to see next week whether it’s a boy or girl parasite at our ultrasound. Excitement abounds. We are all signed up for childbirth classes in February and March, and Fox even has a Daddy boot camp one Saturday. I haven’t felt movement as it were yet, but I definitely have what you young webbies today are calling a “Baby Bump”. And I refuse to let anyone assume it is anything else!

Being pregnant is funny. You find your mind wandering to really weird things. Like what hold your baby will like best for breastfeeding, or could you get your husband to pull out the couch so you could vacuum, because the baby is going to be here in only 5 months. Also I’ve become a total klutz. I kid you not, I knocked over two glasses of water, my chapstick three times, and the remote I don’t know how many time, in the hour and a half of watching TV I did today. That was only an hour long program mind you, but I spilled my water twice so I had to clean it up and refill my cup. I have been lucky though, I haven’t had horrible mood swings yet. Now that I typed this of course they are going to show up with a vengeance, but so life goes.

I ‘m really excited about where I am right now, and excited to see this little guy (or gal) inside of me once they come out. Not so excited about the process of them coming out, but I suppose that’s another post.

Keep Surfing Webbies and may all your Imaginings be Fertile!

— Stara

Hello webbies! So I started this blog after a year and some change of infertility as an outlet to help me work through the process. Little did I know that our first month on fertility drugs we would hit the jackpot. Yep webbies, that’s right! I is, are, will be for another 33 weeks or so, pregnant. The fox and I are delighted and excited.

My symptoms you ask? Exhaustion, occasional nausea, cramps, exhaustion. Yep, Stara is tired. I’m also a little scared. I hope I can do this right and our child doesn’t have to go through to many hours of therapy.

We actually found out about three weeks ago. The Fox found out first, as he peeked at the stick which I had so freshly peed on.  About four days after finding out I started to spot and promptly freaked out. The doctor has had me put my feet up and put me on progesterone to help calm down my uterus. I’m also on Glucophage to help my inside girly bits work with insulin correctly, a part of my PCOS. One of the few downsides to pregnancy is no leftovers. At least two websites I read say it was a no-no, so until my first doctor’s appointment that’s what I’m going by. The problem with this is leftover were my main source of lunch. Now I have to make a fresh lunch every day. Oh well. Anything for my parasite!

The other reason for my lack of updatey goodness is Dad decided he want to see what two heart attacks would do to the emotional state of his  pregnant daughter. Never mind the fact that he didn’t know I was pregnant yet with the first one. Both of his heart attacks were mild, and believed to be caused by his Marfan Syndrome. Which I may or may nor have inherited, and thus pasted on to my growing progeny.  He’s back at home now with tasty drugs to keep it from happening again.

My last bit of news is the death of Robert Jordan. I have read his books since my early teen years and his blog for the past two. I never met the man but his life and work touched mine, as well as thousands, millions of others. I keep erasing things here because none of it sounds fitting enough in tribute. I extend my deepest sympathies to his family. The world has lost a true storyteller and there are too few of those to let their passing go by quietly. Thank you Robert Jordan. May the last embrace of the Mother welcome you home.

Keep Surfing Webbies and May all your Imaginings be Fertile!

— Stara

Hi there Webbies! So that whole update regularly thing is right out, sorry about that. Not much new that I wanted to write about has happened of late. Although it does look like we might have relatives descend on us this weekend. For a little background info, The Mom’s mom, my Grammy died on Christmas day last year. Not my favoritest Christmas ever. She had been sick for a very long time and just kind of stopped fighting. This left Papa, my grandfather, and the husband of Grammy for the past 56 years, of course heart broken and drifting. He sold their house and went to stay with The Mom for the past few months, but evidently he wants to go visiting all his numerous relations. Which is many! The Mom is the oldest of 7 surviving children and I am the 5th grandchild out of 16 grand kids at last count. Papa also has a sister left. So anyway my youngest uncle on that side went and picked him up and they are now headed to his place, along the way is our place. So they might crash here for a night. Of course we don’t know for sure because Papa is crufty and changes his mind a lot. I’d love to see them and visit so we will see.

When Papa left The Mom got all weepy over the phone. She asked why everyone leaves her. Dad left, all three of us kids have left the house, Grammy died, and now in her words Papa doesn’t want to stay with her. What do you say to that? I tried to tell her we loved her and were only a phone call away, but she was having none of it. She was throwing a pity party and only she was invited. She was doing better by the next day, but it still sucked to have to deal with.

Family is a funny thing. We really are the kind of family that can rag and beat up on each other, but if an outsider messes with one of us we close ranks and beat the living daylights out of them. Except for The Mom. Of all my aunts and uncles, The Mom is the only one who can’t handle being teased. I don’t know why or how The Mom got that way in a family like that, but she does seem to have a harder time of it. No matter what else though, what we do or who we are, we all love each other and I think that is the definition of family.

Keep Surfing Webbies and may all your Imaginings be Fertile!

— Stara

Webbies! Come, sit, pull up and IP address. For those of you returning I did in fact have my appointment on Wednesday. I didn’t learn anything amazingly new. My blood test confirm I have borderline PCOS. On Monday I get yet another blood test to check for liver and kidney issues. If it comes back clean I get another drug on Tuesday to fix my ovaries insulin resistance, which is another part of the disease. I also get another ultrasound on Tuesday and maybe a shot to kick off ovulation. I am pin cushion girl! The other thing is the doctor thinks I might have some endometriosis. The only way to check this though is with surgery so, Blah!

Considering I’ve been told I have a not too happy issue, I’m doing pretty good. I’ve had moments were I have felt a little overwhelmed, but most of all I’m hopeful and ready to press forward. The part about it that does bum me out is of course, The Mom. She really doesn’t like this whole trying to have kids thing and since I talk to her at least once a week, I’ve been getting an earful.

In other news though, I get to go see a play this weekend! Stara is a big patron of the theater and loves to go.  So today I went out to treat myself to a shiny new outfit. At first I started looking for evening dresses. Do you know how difficult it is to buy plus sized evening wear? I sure didn’t. It’s either black, and I have a great LBD already, or it looks like it’s made for someone twice my age. My keen shopping skills kicked in though, and I hunted down a nice flared skirt and a beautiful purple silk top. The best part? They were both on sale. I rock! I also got myself a pair of flats, just ’cause. So I got some retail therapy in and a play tomorrow. Life is good.