A growing family

Our family has grown again. In fact, we don't seem to be satisfied with a family of fewer than four souls all told, including pets. Joseph and I have been feeling for a while that we are ready for another dog. It seemed like a good time to get one since we still have a few months to train and adjust to a new dog before having our baby.

We looked at Safehaven Humane Society, the shelter where we found Luna almost two years ago. We also talked to friends who knew of dogs that needed homes and scoured Craigslist. We were looking for a female that would be good with kids and not TOO wild, but beyond that we didn't have any firm ideas about what kind of dog we wanted. Joseph has the most experience with shepherd mixes, so he was partial to those.

After a month or two of looking around, we found a dog! Sticking to our celestial theme, we named her "Nova" (which is surprisingly easy to mix up with "Luna). She's about an 8 month old yellow lab. (Although so many people- including a veterinarian- have asked if she's a golden retriever, I'd be willing to believe she's a mix.) She came from a young couple who had a two year old and were expecting a baby AND both worked full time, and they understandably didn't have time for a puppy. They had one other dog- an older male pit bull- and Nova basically grew up playing with him in the back yard. Originally, they told us, she came from the Salem area where she belonged to a German couple who had given her some training in German. It would be interesting to see if she remembers any of that.

We've had Nova for a week now and my assessment is that she's basically a very smart, good-natured puppy. She can learn commands ("sit," "shake," and "down" were new for her) with just a couple of tries. She is definitely an energetic puppy, but does a fantastic job of controlling herself in the house. She is a snuggle bug and loves pets and rubs. She is very eager to please people! She managed to chew up one comb and a cardboard tube of ribbon before we got her some chew toys, and now she mostly works on those. She gets distracted by things, sometimes leaves puddles when strange men try to say nice things to her, and chases cats. Her greatest asset as far as I am concerned is that she is absolutely and unfailingly gentle with Diana. Diana is absolutely in love with the "doddy," who can always make her smile. She whacks her lovingly on the back, pulls her tail and ears and fur, grabs her nose, and Nova just walks away if it becomes too much. After growing up with a male pit bull, she can be VERY rough and tumble with her playing- there's lots of growling and pawing and sometimes nipping if she's playing with another dog. But while she lunges at toys that Joseph and I wave around, she just sniffs and walks away if Diana waves the same toys in her face. She knows not to get rough around kids and I appreciate that. Now, whenever Nova is lying down around the house, Diana will seek her out and just sit down next to her to figure out what they're going to do next. It's very cute. I suspect those two girls will have something very special as they grow up.

Baby news

I'm almost six months pregnant now, and I have been DYING to know baby's gender (and that everything's okay, because moms worry). Our midwife doesn't do ultrasounds, so for Diana I volunteered as a model for ultrasound tech training at the local pregnancy resource center. It works out very well and it's free, but they legally can't tell you your baby's gender since they're not a medical clinic and run into liability issues. So they basically browse over the area and let you speculate wildly.

Now Joseph and I and everyone else who cared to guess have felt that this baby was a boy for a long time. By the old wives' tales about fetal heart rate (lower heart rate for a boy and higher for a girl), this baby seemed like a boy (HR around 120-135). But really, there's no way to know without an ultrasound and I REALLY wanted to know whether I needed to be preparing for a boy or if we'd be able to use all of Diana's old clothes, blankets, etc.

With slight distrust, I talked to our insurance company who said they'd cover an ultrasound as long as it was ordered by our midwife even though they wouldn't cover our midwife. Weird. But that was all I needed to set up an appointment at the hospital. Our visit reinforced how much I hate hospitals and the medical system but love the sweet nurses and technicians who make it work. The tech who did our ultrasound was incredibly nice and very well practiced. She breezed through our ultrasound, got us some great pictures, and though he was mostly modest and difficult, we determined that we're having a little boy!

We're very excited, but part of me is a little baffled since I don't know what to do with a little boy. I remember being a little girl and I can understand what Diana is thinking and feeling. I've been assured that little boys are sweet and love and need their mommies, though, so I think we'll have a great time. Here are some pictures of him:

Here he is in 3D with his little hand jammed up under his nose.

Baby's profile

To my surprise, several people alluded to the fact that I had been hoping for a boy or had wanted to have the first Sullivan boy. Thanks to pregnancy hormones, my memory is already worse than it has been, but I'm almost certain that's not the case. As the oldest child, the first grandchild on both sides of my family, and the first girl, I always resented the idea that having a boy was superior to having a girl. Sure, in most cases, the family name is passed on through a boy, but I don't think either one should be valued any differently for any reason. When I had Diana, someone mentioned that we may have lost our chance to have the first Sullivan boy, and that actually bothered me a lot. Who cares?? One day Diana may change her name, but she is just like her dad and in her manners and characteristics she is a Sullivan through and through. Some days I wonder if I shared any part of my genes with her!

So yes, we are thrilled to be having a little boy, and no, that wasn't what I was "hoping for," I just felt like we had a boy in there. Just had to get that off my chest. We don't have a name yet, but we're going through some family names (and some names that we just like). We may break the tradition of naming a baby after a family member. I was encouraged to consider some of the Cespedes family names like Eulalio, Atanacio, Leopoldo, etc. but I'm not sure how well that will work for our little guy. I will do everything I can to avoid having a child named Marcus Aurelius Apollo Creed Sullivan, which is Joseph's current top choice over Maximus Sullivan. It should be fun preparing for him in any case!

Reboot Days 4, 5, and 6: Attitude

Matt's colorful vegetable juice, Day 4

Well, Joseph's out of the race, but Matt's still going strong. After the first three days he'd lost 6.6 lbs. It's been six days now and Matt is down 10 lbs total!  He's even inspired some other people to try the Reboot, or at least to watch the documentary. He seems to feel fine. I hope that he'll get the time to write an entry on this blog about his Reboot experience, but in general he seems to be as energetic as ever and thinking clearly. His body seems to be doing just fine without caffeine, sugar, carbs, or even much protein. I imagine he must feel better too!

I've been struggling with the workload and having a good attitude. In addition to making 4-5 dishes/juices/smoothies each day for Matt, I have to make food for the rest of us. But I can't make the food until I've cleaned the mountains of dishes (have I mentioned we don't have a dishwasher yet?) and then put them away so that I can dirty them again making two separate meals, after which they need to be cleaned. Meanwhile, Diana is running around my feet very sweetly playing by herself, but that usually involves scattering her toys (and other things) around the entire house including all over the kitchen floor where I'm working. There's also the occasional bump on the head, pinched finger, need for snacks, dirty diaper, and clinging to mommy's legs just to see what I'm doing. Then I have to pick and sweep up everything that she's scattered around the house and do more dishes. By the way, that's why I fall behind on blog posts.

Now, I volunteered for this, and I'm still happy to do it, so it should be fine. But darn it if it's not a struggle sometimes to give to others gracefully and without complaining! To me, it highlights how very much humans are weighed down by a naturally selfish nature. God gives so much to us freely, people who could never deserve it, and here I am getting grouchy about the workload that I volunteered to take on. It certainly feels like a lot of work sometimes, but I know there are other people who do still more with a better attitude. Joseph has helped me with cleaning up and dinners, which is incredibly sweet of him since he has more than enough to do with his two businesses. I have figured out that when I stay on top of things instead of taking breaks when I want to, the days go much more smoothly. There's no rushing and stressing. That's probably something I should have learned long ago, but sometimes it takes a while for things to really click. I'm also trying to work on having a better attitude regardless of the circumstances. Some days are still better than others, and hopefully I'll continue to improve with Joseph's encouragement and lots of practice. (Oy.)