Hi There Ya'll

Baby No. 2 at 12 Weeks

So, let me explain what you are looking at here.

The baby's head is near the upper left-hand corner. It's belly is in the center of the picture. The baby's left arm is almost in front of it's face.

During the ultrasound the baby's hand opened and closed as if waving "Hi" to us. During the time this picture was taken the baby was about the size of two martini olives, (mmmmm......martinis!)

Unless the doctors really tick me off, I'll be giving birth at Stanford Hospital. (I have no problem flying down to Phoenix and giving birth there if I don't feel comfortable with the treatment I receive at Stanford).

Because Stanford Hospital is attached to Stanford University, it is a teaching hospital. You spend the first half of the appointment talking to a resident or fellow doctor and the other half of the appointment talking to your actual doctor.

So, the doctor and resident I have at Stanford are pretty cool. My doctor's name is Dr. Chueh, (pronounced 'chew'). She is a high-risk OB. She agreed with me that as long as this pregnancy goes normally there should be no reason why I can't have a VBAC, (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean).

Even though baby looks normal and healthy my doctor still strongly suggest that we get a nuchal translucency test to make sure the baby does not have Down Syndrome. We also have to do genetic counseling where we get to hear all about the wonderful disabilities our baby could be born with. I'm really looking forward to that appointment...NOT!

We are still going for an all natural birth and I am doing as much as I can on my end to improve my chances- praying, yoga, praying, eating healthy, praying, keeping active, praying, taking my prenatal vitamins..... did I mention I was praying?

Since every pregnancy is different, we are approaching this one with the hope of having a more enjoyable birthing experience. We are trying to let go of our sour feelings we have towards Madigan Hospital in Washington and keep an open mind and good attitude toward Stanford and it's staff. However, this time around we will not ignore our intuition or blow off our gut feelings as just first-time parent fears. So mom, you may want to get that phone number out for Thunderbird Hospital, just in case.

The Wake Up

The Date: One ordinary Saturday morning in March
The time: Too damn early for decent people to be awake
The place: The Mattingly's bedroom

Asleep in the bed is Ray and Michelle, with Elektra sleeping in 0between them. Slight movement is made on Michelle's side of the bed.

Michelle's thoughts....

'.....I've got to go pee. Oh, but I don't want to wake up Elektra. I can't believe she work up at 2 am. This is crazy. If I move slowly, maybe she won't wake up. Okay Joi, slowly....'

Sound of baby moving. Elektra turns over and pops her head up.

'.....Damn! Well that didn't work. No peace for mommy this morning...'

"Well, hello princess. Good morning."

Bright smile and giggle from Elektra.

"Okay, mommy has to go to the bathroom. Come on. Let daddy get some sleep."

They both waddle their way down the hall to the guest bathroom.

"Oh, I needed to take that test. Your dad asked me to. Where is it?"

Sound of Michelle rummaging through bathroom drawers.

"Ah, here it is. Okay, turn your head Elektra, you don't need to see this. If I ever see you using one of these before you turn 25 I'm going to kill you."

3 minutes later.....

"Oh wow, look Elektra, we got two pink lines. Yeah! Okay we have to surprise daddy. Lets see..."

Elektra and Michelle leave the bathroom and head down the hall into Elektra's room.

"Daddy asked me not to throw any more toys at his head like I did when I found out I was having you, so we have to think of something else. Let's have one of your toys hold the test result and we can put it where daddy will see it. What do you think?"

Elektra, who lost her attention to what her mother was saying the moment they walked into the room, was now focused on picking up a piece of red lint on the carpet.

Michelle proceeded to scan over Elektra's vast selection of stuffed animals, her eyes settling on the baby Tigger.

"This one will do. Okay, now lets get the test stick and put it somewhere easy for daddy to find.

The two of them went back to the bathroom to retrieve the test stick and then made their way quietly into the master bedroom.

"We'll put it in the master bathroom so daddy can see it as soon as he wakes up. I'll put it up here on the sink."

Michelle places the Tigger and the test stick on the bathroom sink. They then make their way down the hall all the way into the kitchen.

Moments later, while Michelle is checking her emails and Elektra is enjoying a nice bottle of strawberry rice milk, sounds can be heard from the master bedroom.

Moments later, Ray is heard coming down the hallway.

"So, wait, I don't understand. Is two lines good or bad?"

Michelle gets up from the computer desk and meets Ray near the end of the hall.

"Two lines mean, yes, silly."

"Well, I don't know. Every test has some different way of telling you. Some have lines, others have crosses. You got ones with little babies on them, or you have to look for a colored design or you have to do the hooky poking and you turn yourself around. You women make it all confusing."

"Well, there is no confusion. We're pregnant."

"That's kind of what I thought, but I just wanted to make sure. Yeah, Elektra is going to be a big sister!"

Elektra, who has now joined her parents at the end of the hallway looks up at the two of them and smiles. Ray then leans over to Michelle's belly, "You better be a boy. "

Michelle pats her belly, "We'll love you not matter what you are".

"Yes, but you're still going to be a boy."

All three of the Mattingly's head to the kitchen to eat breakfast and start their day.

The End.

The Truth About Florida

So, everyone seems to have gotten just bits and pieces of what went down in regards to me going to Florida. At some point a rumor had even surfaced that I had left Ray and moved to Florida.

Let me set the record straight. I have not left my husband. And we have not been stationed to Florida.

I took a trip to Florida for what had to be the longest distance and most expensive babysitting job in the world.

Corinna and Mike had planned a cruise trip for the two of them and everything was set up for Mike's parents to watch the kids while they were away. Well, due to unforeseen illness the babysitting plan fell through and Mike and Corinna were left with only two options- try to fit all three kids into their suitcases or find another babysitter.

This is where I come in. Corinna called and explained the situation to me. My first thoughts when she asked were, (and I'm sorry, but I must be honest), "Hell no! I just spent all last year traveling back and forth with Elektra in tow. I don't even want to look at a plane let alone spend six hours on one. Don't people remember, I HATE flying!"

But luckily for Corinna she said the magic words, "You don't have to give us an answer right now. Think about it for a few days, talk it over with Leonard and let us know."

I spent the first 24 hours pouting and steaming over the idea of getting on another plane. One of my New Year wishes were to not have to do any major traveling this year and a six hour flight to Florida was definitely major traveling. But then I started to soften up.

I would be able to see the kids and see how they were doing. I would be the first family member to visit the Brown tribe's new house. It was an all expense paid trip to a place I've never been to. And what really sealed the deal, was that I would get Christina's old IPod since she just recently upgraded to a newer one. (Okay, a chance to get a teenager's used IPod may not be enough to get you to take a six hour flight with a cranky 13 month old, but it worked for me).

The call form Corinna came a few days later. They couldn't thank me enough for agreeing to come and watch the kids. Ray said Mike and Corinna just racked up a whole summer of 'you owe us big time' babysitting points just off this trip alone.

So off to Florida we went. We'll just call the flight going there the 'pre-IPod flight'. It sucked! I had to transfer planes and both flights were packed. Between dealing with a cranky toddler, having no leg room and sitting next to twig-thin teens who's intellectual conversations consisted of whether of not Brad Pit was hotter when he was married to Jen or now that he's married to Angelia, you can understand why at several points during the flight I started entertaining the idea of stabbing myself in the neck with a pencil. Instead, I just drowned my pain with several glasses of ginger ale. (I was a dollar short of being able to purchase the glass of wine that I really wanted.)

Finally we arrived in Florida with Elektra soaking through her diaper and me wishing I had one on as I scrabbled to get off the plane and to the nearest restroom. We made our way through the maze and when we finally got out of the restrooms we made our way through the even bigger maze that was Orlando Airport. Eventually we found Corinna, Mike and the kids.

I'm sorry to say that my time there has now become somewhat of a blur to me. No, I didn't get a hold of Corinna and Mike's alcohol stash and drink away my pain the entire time I was there. Although I will admit to looking for the liquor, but alas the cupboards were bare. No, instead I caught a really bad case of the flu.

From what I can recall, the kids were wonderful. The boys were well behaved and Christina was a lot of help. I did get to meet the 'man' in Christina's life, Robbi, whom Ray and I have nicknamed, "Chicken Legs". (You would have to see Robbi's MySpace picture of himself at the beach to fully appreciate our chosen name for him).

Anyway, I also remember feeding the fish at the nearby pond, making cupcakes for Caleb's birthday and ordering pizza one night. There was also the trip to Chucky Cheese and going to the beach and having dinner on the pier.

In the past when family have watched the house for Corinna and Mike something always died. I was determined not to follow tradition. Everything stayed alive even if I did look and feel like walking death during the end of my stay. Despite getting sick, I did have fun being in Florida. The weather was wonderfully warm.

My 'post-IPod flight' home was more pleasant. Elektra had also caught a bit of the flu so she spent most of the flight cuddled in my arms fast asleep. As we landed in California it dawned on me- I had just been in Florida for a week and not seen even a glimpse of Disney World! Oh well, guess we'll just have to save it for the next trip.

Total thanks to Corinna and Mike for the trip to Florida, for having cable T.V., for watching Elektra when I needed to rest, and for having enough cold medicine to keep me going those last couple of days.

Also a big thanks to Christina, Zach and Caleb for entertaining Elektra and me, for making me realize that cupcakes and spoons full of frosting is an acceptable dinner option and convincing me that although having just one child would be a lot less stressful, it would not be as much fun as having three. Thank you!

Superbowl at the Mattingly's?!

No, this is not some early April Fool's joke. No, it was not the result of losing a bet either. And no, it was not caused by a moment of temporary insanity. We, (yes, we), actually hosted a Superbowl Party this year.

Yes, I know how unbelievable that sounds, but it's true. We really did invite people over to watch a sports game with us. Okay, wait, let me clarify that. We invited people over to watch a sports game with my husband while I watched Elektra and knitted a scarf.

Several of Ray's co-workers came over with food and kids for an afternoon of shameless couch potato munching and whatever else guys do when they sit around a television watching football.

The spread was worthy of a Methodist potluck. We had Hooter wings, veggie trays, cheese trays, chips, dips, and a chocolate fondue with slice pound cake, oranges and cookies to dip in. Ray and I also contributed two cakes- one decorated to look like a football field, while the other was shaped and decorated to look like a football.

It was a great party. The kids all behaved while the adults were all loud and rowdy. Of course I have no idea who won or even who performed at half-time, but the Hooter wings were Awesome!!!!

Elektra's 1st Birthday!

It's Birthday Time For Elektra!

On January 20th our little girl celebrated her !st Birthday.

We had hoped to spend her birthday either in Phoenix with family or at least in Disneyland. But both plans fell through. We settled on just celebrating her B-Day at the park, but even that plan was soiled with the start of a downpour that morning. So we found ourselves spending her birthday indoors where it was warm and dry.

Because of Elektra's allergies we couldn't give her a regular cake. The cake we needed could not have any eggs or dairy in it. It took some searching online, but I did manage to piece together a recipie for a cake that Elektra could eat.

The cake itself came out more dense then a regular cake. It was more like a pound cake in it's texture and feel. The taste remined me of sweet bread. Since there would only be the three of us I made to small cakes. One for her to eat now and one that I froze for a sweet snack later.

The chocolate frosting was made from cocoa powder, powdered sugar, canola oil, imitation almond extract and rice milk.

We made a princess party hat and laid some decorative cloth over her highchair, (mainly for the sake of protecting the highchair).

We put Elektra in her highchair, gave her a toddler fork, placed the cake in front of her and then stood back. Unfortunately she didn't give us the, 'cake all over the face and all over the place' moment we were hoping for, but she did have fun stabbing the cake to death and running her fingers through the frosting.

The Stress Is Getting To Her

This shopping stuff is just too stressful. That's it, next year for Christmas everyone just gets a gift card!

The Santa Picture

So we almost created a moment for our child to use as a guilt trip on us later in life. We almost forgot to get Elektra a picture with Santa Claus! (Gasp!)

It's not that we forgot or anything. I mean we had good intentions of dressing her up and taking her to the mall with the other heard of parents. We would stand in line with the other kids all in itchy outfits waiting our turn to plop Elektra on some strange man's lap. He would ask her what she wanted for Christmas and her response would be a high pitch cry that could be heard as far away as the food court. Then we would stand there as proud parents watching her get temporarily blinded by the camera flash. And for the price of a full tank of gas we would walk away with 4 wallet size photos of an event she won't remember or even care about when she's 15. At least that was the plan.

Well, with all the activities going on, the whole Santa thing sort of got pushed to the back burner. But not to worry, where theirs a will theirs a Mattingly willing to dress up in a Santa costume.

That Mattingly would be David, Elektra's grandfather, Marine, retired DPS Officer and now undercover Santa Claus.

Let me just say that Elektra adores her Poppie David, but when he put that white beard on it was a scene from one of those 1980's stranger danger videos they use to show you in school. Elektra wanted nothing to do with Santa and she clung to us for dear life. Trying to sit her on his lap you would think we were trying to make her sit on a pile of hot coals.

We did manage to get a few pictures for Elektra just had enough. And, of course, as soon as the beard and hat was off, Elektra was back to loving her Poppie.

Christmas Morning At Grandma Ann's

Behold!

BEHOLD!
The Drama.
The Spectacle.
The Awe.
Christmas Morning At Grandma Ann's House!

The Big Surprise

December 20, 2007

We flew into Phoenix to spend Christmas with the family. As usual, what was originally planned as a relaxing vacation was turning out to be several days packed full of activities with the family.

With Corinna and her clan flying in from Florida, the whole family was in town and we took the opportunity to get some professional family photos done. I even managed to drag my mom into the photos. It has been over 14 years since the last time she had any professional photos done of herself. We called in the expertise of Lori Lott, our wedding photographer, to handle the herd of Mattingly's that had taken over Linda and David's house.

The following days were filled making our rounds to spend equal time with parents and grandparents. To reduce the amount of luggage we took we decided not to do our Christmas shopping until we got to Phoenix. (At some point near the beginning of December I swear we had all decided that because everyone's money was tight we would not buy any gifts for each other. But apparently the holiday spirit is stronger then the will of the wallet.)

So on top of all our, "you're-in-town-so-you-need-to-come-visit-us-because-we're-family-and-if
-you-don't-you-know-you're-going-to-feel-guilty-about-it" obligations, we also needed to shop for gifts, wrap them and get them under the tree without other family members noticing. We realized there would hardly be any time to hang out with our friends. So we promised ourselves we would visit them on our next trip down.

As the days went by my fantasized vacation slowly started to evaporate. There would be no dropping off Elektra with the grandparents and having a date night with my hubby that included wining the jackpot on the nickle machine at the local casino and celebrating with a big scoop of ice cream at Mary Coyle. (Hey, I'm allowed to dream!)

We did get a chance to have the grandparents watch Elektra for us, but not for a romantic evening out. Instead, we needed to do some more last minute shopping. The whole family had planned to get together for dinner at Linda and David's that night. Near the end of our shopping Ray started receiving phone calls from his mom. Supposedly Caleb and Zack were hungry and getting restless. We were holding up the dinner train and we still hadn't finished buying everything on our list. So we made a mad dash through the aisles and threw what we could find into our cart.

The cell phone was still ringing as we loaded the car and headed to Linda and David's. When we got to the house we parked in front since the carport was full. Rather then waist time opening the garage and going through the garage door we went through the front. We didn't want two hungry boys waiting a second longer then they had to for their dinner.

As the front door opened, I only had a second to notice the lights were out in the house. Then everything went bright as a large group of people crowded into the front room yelled, "Surprise!".

Ray, my sneaky little hubby, had planned a surprise birthday party for me and invited my family and all our friends. The party was awesome. I couldn't believe how many people showed up, especially with it being only a couple of days before Christmas. I discovered later that all those phone calls Ray was receiving was to confirm last minute party details and to check-in on where we were at.

Ray's brother, Frank, served up bowls of homemade chili. There was also chips & dip and of course a huge birthday cake. I think our friends were more surprised then I was when they found out that I never suspected a thing.

Well, it wasn't the jackpot at the casino, or a double scoop of honey banana ice cream, but with over a month of planning, Ray had pulled off a surprise 30th birthday party that was nothing short of perfect.