Unfortunately it ain't just the ice cream

Don't get me wrong - I am super-excited to meet our new little guy! But at just over halfway there (23 weeks), my reactions swing wildly from Wow, where did the time go? one minute to Holy Sh*t, where did the time go? the next. I think it is most often correlated to the physicality of a moment. I'm five years older than the last time I did this preggo thing, and the bod is complaining! I'm also chasing the four year old, who is really a pretty good kid. It's just that his normal energy level could drain me when I wasn't pregnant, let alone now... thank goodness for the Mommy-break of preschool. Mix in a liberal dose of recent spousal stress, and whew! Lately I'm - not sure if a mess is the right word. I'll settle for stressed. And this conjures up worries for when I will need to do more than just carry kid #2 around. I've developed a healthy respect in recent years for my friend Kim - who does it all, with 5 children. I hope I'm as good a Mommy with two.

And on that note, I'm off to search out some ice cream, some chocolate, something...

Pop

Daniel has always been a kid who liked participating in crafts. We've recently seen an explosion in drawing around our place. Sweeping crayons, vibrant colors - and even some figures emerging. Some are helped along by the "draw a dinosaur" video we recently found at the library. I'm loving it - only thing is, I think I am going to have to hide the computer paper. Mr. Observant kept his eye on where I get the stash for the printer, and has started helping himself every time there is a new creation in the works.

I may be fooling myself, but with my first pregnancy I seem to remember more of a - call it a gradual expansion of my figure. This time around, I'm feeling like I rolled over one day and poof! Clothes don't fit, and I'm starting to lumber a bit. Add to that, I'm experiencing the hip pains sooner as well which is making for some interesting late nights as I try to get comfortable and get some sleep.

We've had several days now in the 50s, which has led to park visits. It's glorious to get outside! As I drive Daniel to preschool, there are people out and about who are tending to their yards and doing various out-of-doors projects without having to be bundled to the gills. It's a very anticipatory - Spring feeling, which feels wonderful!

Frakkin' Bureaucracy

I am so angry, I haven't known what to do with myself. I really don't like paperwork. And every year, despite my best intentions I wait until April 14th to file our taxes. (There's no excuse really. In the grand scheme of things, our taxes are relatively uncomplicated, we usually receive a refund...)

This year, I thought I'll be on top of this. E-file your taxes! Less paper! Get your refund in 8-14 days! Who can argue with that? The taxes were bounced. Immediately. The reason? My birthday on the form didn't match what the Social Security office had on file for me.

Excuse me?

Come to find out, during the stretch of time that I got married and had to change my name on every piece of identification I owned, somebody down at Social Security made a boo-boo and entered my wrong date of birth. Never mind that I've been working and paying taxes since I was sixteen, including for five years with the new name before stepping away from the paid workforce to raise my son. And their mistake comes back to bite me hard now?

They freely admit it is their mistake. They can actually look in their records and say that up until 2001 they had it correct. Well for cripes sakes, change it back!

No. Instead I have to drive a 40 mile round trip, take a number and wait an interminable amount of time in an office to present my birth certificate and prove who I am. I tried to do so this morning while the little man was in preschool, so I could at least spare him the aggravation. I had to leave, as I ran out of time to wait. This means I get to do this tomorrow with Daniel. This also means that the Social Security Administration's error will cost me 80 miles on my car, gas money, an unknown number of hours and a mountain of aggravation for me and my kid.

Frakkin' bureaucracy.