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Glucose test

By • On • In Pandemic, Pregnancy • 1 min read

It’s funny to think back to going to doctor appointments for my first pregnancy in that I would get stressed about having to pee in a cup.

This time around I have to worry about catching a super contagious virus that we hardly know anything about. And that pregnant women may fall into the higher risk category.

Since the official stay-at-home order went into place, there has been a lot of confusion and differing opinions on what that means for OB appointments. Should I still go into the office? Skip them? Do them over the phone? I couldn’t really find a straight answer — probably because no one really knows what to do yet.

Unfortunately I was due for my glucose test so I couldn’t really avoid a trip out. It was my first time venturing out of the house in weeks, which definitely felt strange.

I was expecting it to be like a ghost-town, but the streets didn’t seem that empty. Luckily though the doctor’s office was totally empty. My appointment was in the evening in the lab after the regular offices closed so there were maybe three cars in the parking lot. And no one else was even in the waiting room, so that was good, too.

The lab technician was wearing a mask and that did make it feel a little creepy. If I had “white coat syndrome” before with Jackson, I kept thinking what is this going to do to my blood pressure in the hospital when all the doctors and nurses are wearing masks??!

To be safe, they ended up putting me into my own little area with a reclining chair and a curtain to separate me from the rest of the room. It actually was pretty comfortable!

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Window art

By • On • In Kids, Pandemic • 1 min read

Ever since the Shamrock Hunt, Jackson keeps wanting to hang his artwork in the windows (not just in the living room, but in the playroom, too!)

Pretty soon it’s going to look like that scene from A Beautiful Mind with all the scribbled paper plastered all over the walls.

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Interesting movie taste

By • On • In Kids, Pandemic • 1 min read

I was on another Zoom meeting for work while Jackson was watching YouTube videos of marching bands at Buckingham Palace (one of his usual favorites).

When my call ends, I notice he’s watching what looks like something from the 1930s — a slow-paced, black-and-white video inside a bread factory. With no sound.

Definitely not your typical kids show, but he was utterly fascinated!

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Mr. Independent

By • On • In Kids, Pandemic • 1 min read

I was on a Zoom meeting for work while sitting at the dining room table when Jackson disappeared for a bit into his playroom.

All of a sudden he starts shouting, “Mommy! Come see what I made! Come see what I made!”

He runs over to me holding up a full-blown, freshly-made watercolor painting. Mind you, none of the art supplies were out when I left him in that playroom.

I tried to maintain focus on my colleagues, but all I was really thinking was, Whaaaaa? How did he do that?!

My meeting came to an end, so I headed over to the playroom and, sure enough, Jackson somehow managed to find and set-up the paint tray, paint brushes, paper and a little cup of water — all by himself!

He was pretty neat, too. There was a little paint on the table, but luckily none on the walls!

Note to self: Move paint to a higher shelf in the closet.

(Edited to add: I later discovered how he pulled this off. When he finished painting, he stashed away the supplies — including the little cup of water — in one of the drawers that he can reach in the dresser. Not where this stuff is normally kept, but that works I suppose.)

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Learning French

By • On • In Kids, Pandemic • 1 min read

Apparently Jackson has picked up a little French, too. He keeps running around the room singing the French song “Alouette, Gentille Alouette” while upside down.

I have no idea where this came from! But he keeps doing it over and over and over. Another reason why I can’t get any work done at home, haha.

(Edited to add: It was from the Wiggles… of course! And Lachy sings it while doing a handstand.)

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Learning Italian

By • On • In Kids, Pandemic • 1 min read

Here’s a video we sent to our Italian friends: Jessica, her husband Marco and their son Michael, who is just a few months younger than Jackson.

Jessica and I were exchanging messages to one another as the virus escalated in Italy. Her family was staying home on lockdown, but thankfully they have all remained healthy.

Jackson picked up a couple of Italian phrases surprisingly fast. His pronunciation was on point, too! I should keep up with these bathtub lessons — he could be fluent by our next Eurotrip!

(FYI: At the end, he keeps saying his name is “Emma,” which is one of the characters from the Wiggles…)

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Shamrock Hunt

By • On • In Kids, Pandemic • 1 min read

Our town held a Shamrock Hunt, a social distancing-friendly “event” to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in which you decorated shamrocks to hang in your window. Then you could go for a walk around the neighborhood trying to spot all the shamrocks.

Jackson had a blast — both in coloring the shamrocks and finding them in the windows on all the houses.

Also, notice in the picture how many types of green coloring materials I tried to provide, and yet he wouldn’t relinquish the green PERMANENT marker!

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St. Patrick’s Day festivities

By • On • In Kids, Pandemic • 1 min read

Given Jackson’s obsession with bagpipes, we were super excited for St. Patrick’s Day this year. He watches bagpipe parades on YouTube on a daily basis, so I made a list of all the possible festivities in the Chicago area that we could take him to see real bagpipers in person.

St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Chicago, of course, ended up being one of the first big events to get canceled as the coronavirus hit locally. We had been following the news out of Italy as the virus spread rapidly there, but it still felt very distant and it was quite a shock to hear the city canceled what is normally such a huge event in Chicago. Soon enough, all the suburbs followed suit.

Elmhurst, however, held their St. Patrick’s Day parade the weekend prior. We were none the wiser at that point, and happy to show Jackson some pipe bands in person. He was so excited to see them marching by — and begged us to follow them down the parade route. (Which we did — up and down the street again and again and again as more pipe bands continued to come throughout the parade.)

As it turns out, this was the last activity we participated in before going into quarantine mode!

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It’s a boy!

By • On • In Kids, Pandemic, Pregnancy • 1 min read

His name is Jackson Bennett, and he’s 29 lbs, 2 feet 8 inches and nearly 3 years old.

That’s how long it has taken me to update my last blog, which ended on a cliff-hanger back in 2017 as I headed to the hospital pondering if the baby was going to be a girl or boy.

And here we are now in 2020, this time a few weeks away from Baby #2’s arrival.

I’m a bit late to the game this time around, but I figured I’d try to document at least the final moments of this pregnancy, plus life during quarantine (in case you missed it — we’re in the midst of a global pandemic) and all (or at least some) of the hilarious things Jackson does day in and day out.

For the new site, I went with a layout similar to Facebook’s newsfeed in the hopes that if my posts are more like short and quick social media posts then it’ll be a bit easier for me to keep up with. So fingers crossed I won’t go dark for another three years after this next baby comes!

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