A New Year

Oh my heck. How did this happen? I haven't blogged since well over two months ago. I guess part of the problem is that a good portion of my usual audience--the extended Dilts family--has actually had the privilege of hanging out in person with our family for a few weeks in December.

We went to James' family's home in Enola, Pennsylvania, where we spent three entire weeks. James is the fourth of ten children, and EVERYONE came home for the holidays, and more importantly, a couple weddings. James' brother Ethan got married... as well as sister Rachel. Huzzah!

So there were lots and lots of Diltsen. There were about twenty people staying at the Dilts home proper. Another eight were staying with a nearby sister. So lots of you readers were actually spending time with our actual personages. Whoa!

Oh, and I suppose we even got to spend time during Thanksgiving with a lot of you as well, because we went to James' brother's family's home, and then another brother also brought his own family to this shindig. So many Diltsen!

So that's why I haven't blogged in a while. And thus, for many of the Diltsen, none of the following will really be news, I suppose.

So. We flew home from Pennsylvania last week... and although that went about as well as could be imagined... Heck, I never want to fly with small children again. 'Small children' being defined as 'children small enough to require car seats'. Carrying children through the airport is definitely one of my least favorite things, stroller or no. And besides, one more kid, and it'd probably be more cost-effective to drive to pretty much anywhere in the States anyway. Or anywhere on this continent, even. So I've decided. I never want to fly with children again.

It probably didn't help that I was sick and baby was sick and tot was sick.

Amelia has been super sick for the last week or so. She's starting to feel better, but her mood has been dizzyingly volatile. It doesn't help that she is refusing to eat most of what we give her, too. Oh well.

Partly, Amelia isn't eating because we are starting to eat really healthily again.

It's hard to get children to eat, period. But it is possible to get children to eat healthy food, I promise. The trick is to not have any unhealthy food available. That's what we're doing. Of course, there's always a 'starvation phase' where the kid refuses all the good stuff you're offering in the hopes that waiting it out will somehow make a candy bar materialize out of thin air instead of those vegetables with hummus, but eventually, the kid will decide the good food is better than starving it out waiting for chicken nuggets and cheese sticks. It can just take a while. To my knowledge, no child has ever actually starved when their parents refuse to give them chicken nuggets.

Amelia is in the 'starvation phase'. She is really hoping we'll give her a donut or something. Her tactics are not working, but it's hard on us all. I keep telling myself that this is only temporary and eventually she'll give in and eat again and therefore finally get back into a good mood, but it's rough in the meantime.

One of the big reasons we're starting to eat well is because we decided it makes the most sense for us to have our next kid ASAP, because the farther James gets into his career, the less able he will be to help me out. And we want one more kid--just one more. Then we are stopping. Now, I know I've been pendulous on this issue, but I think I have finally made a real, permanent decision. Three, and that's it. No more. Just three. Just three pregnancies that result in live births, anyway. I'm half-expecting the next one to be twins or triplets or something, just because I decided I only want one more kid. And then, I don't know. I'm seriously tempted to have a tubal ligation or something drastic like that because I'm so sure, and because another kid would likely do bad things for my health. Getting my tubes tied is definitely something I'd pray my guts out over before I actually go through with it, but it is looking mighty tempting.

Among other exciting news this week... We just spent lots of money again and bought a few things. We upgraded our budget software so that we can use the app on our phones. And, speaking of phones, I finally ordered myself a new phone! New to me, anyway. It's a Galaxy S3, I think. I am so looking forward to that, because I honestly cannot even express to you how much I hate my current phone.

(I'll try to express it, though. Among reasons to hate it: it crashes at least once an hour; it often thinks I am touching the screen when I'm not, making using it nearly impossible because it then ignores my actual guiding touch in favor of the phantom touch; it came with so much bloatware that I cannot actually download all the apps I want onto the phone; it mysteriously won't run apps (usually ones I like) it is theoretically supposed to run without problem; it doesn't charge with its own charger; its battery life is pathetic; I cannot update the OS and it needs it; it's slow; it sometimes will not type even when the phantom isn't wreaking havoc with the touchscreen; and there are certainly more I can't remember right now. It's hard to remember all my complaints about it when there are so many. But honestly, the phantom touch issue alone is just THE WORST POSSIBLE THING. It will call people when I'm just trying to get back to the home screen. Typing can be a beast when it thinks there's a phantom intent on typing 'yyyyyy' over and over again. Heck, even scrolling down a website, or turning a page in an e-reader, or even unlocking the screen are often impossible. It's just the worst phone I've ever had.)

So, needless to say, I am exceedingly pleased to be finally getting a new phone. Huzzah!

Also, I am exceedingly pleased that we will be getting a Wii... huzzah! It is coming with the following games: New Super Mario Brothers Wii! Super Mario Galaxy! LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga! Wii Sports (meh). Sonic & Mario 2: The Olympic Games... or something like that (also meh). We also bought Mariokart, of course. And because adding Just Dance 4 to that order was only mildly more expensive than shipping (free shipping over $35 or something), we got that, too. It's an excuse to move my bod. Hhhhot (says James). Also, we figured Amelia would like to dance with us. We also got a second Wiimote and rechargeable batteries for the Wiimotes. Woohoo!

We have not yet splurged on DDR, but don't worry, we will. We figured we should wait until we got our tax return for that. Oh, and also, until we know if our Wii has Gamecube ports and thus is compatible with DDR dancemats. You know, important things.

So I am super excited for all the happy deliveries that will happen next week. I think we are expecting something like five packages in the next week or so. Yay!

Oh, and one of our friends had an old 21" cathode ray tube TV we could have for free. It also has a DVD player built into it, so it's super snazzy. We could, like, watch a movie on it. Instead of, like, on our computer. Weird. This friend also gave us an old bean bag, but it's in pretty sad shape. Still I am pleased. I will probably stuff it with old sheets or old pillows or something. And then we can have a sweet hangout for playing Mariokart on. And by sweet, I actually mean pretty tacky but acceptable.

Anyway.

I did mention that I've been sick for a while. I am sooo tired of feeling crummy. First, I was pregnant for nine months. And then, after I gave birth, I wasn't sick, but I was still physical weak and recovering from the ordeal that is childbirth for a while. And then I caught some awful illness. The acute symptoms didn't last that long, but the cough has been going on for upwards of two months. (So possibly it is pertussis?) The cough is actually often bad enough that I vomit from coughing so hard. Ugh. And then, over Christmas break, I still had this cough, but I also caught some awful (possibly) novovirus that made me spew out both ends for a day or two and then I wasn't spewing, but I still felt awful for a while, and then I think I got a secondary sinus infection that had a special talent at making my body produce extraordinary amounts of thick, green mucus. That is still going on, possibly, but I was just getting over it, maybe. And then today, I am starting to exhibit flu symptoms or something. Awful body aches. I cannot even hold my phone to my ear comfortably right now. It's nuts.

So I have not felt well for about a year.

I am anxious that I may just get pregnant immediately (dang it) and go right from battling a flu to another nine months of constant nausea. Sigh. (And it's totally possible, too. I just verified that I am, in fact, ovulatory, just three months postpartum. I think I started menstruating again this time at about the same time women who don't nurse generally start menstruating. Isn't that weird? It's not like I'm starving David. He is growing even faster than Amelia did, and I didn't start getting visits from Aunt Flo again after her birth until she was over a year old! And even then, I wasn't fertile yet! So I am really surprised that it's even possible to be pregnant again already. Eep!)

Anyway... how's David doing? He's doing really well. He is so chill, and he constantly has this expression of shock/curiosity/wonder. I love it.

For the past few days, though, he's actually been pretty fussy. Perhaps he is sick or something? My mommy senses were definitely tingling that something is off with him.

In any case, my intuition was also telling me that he's been bored out of his mind for the past week or so since we got home. I think he may be a smart cookie. I could swear he is turning pages (rather haphazardly, of course) in board books already, so long as I lift the page so he is at least able to get his hammy fist under the page to nudge it over. And he is just so INTERESTED in EVERYTHING. But this could all just be normal baby development and I could just be imagining that he's going to be a supergenius someday, I'll readily admit that.

And also, David is a chunxtor. He is working on his sixteenth pound as we speak.

I think that might just about be all the updates I can think of. It is promising to be an interesting, and possibly exhausting, year.

Love and homemade bread,
Jenna and Amelia and Dragon

P.S. Oh, and thank you to the family who sent us Christmas money. We wouldn't have been able to treat ourselves to exciting things like actually-functional phones and a Wii without you. We are very grateful!