10 things I love about my pregnant wife

For this last installment of the things I love about my wife, I list 10 things that I love about my wife that I didn’t even know until she got pregnant. Lest anyone feel that this post is disparaging to my wife, I’m sure she loves many of these things about herself just as much or even more than I do.

I love that my un-pregnant wife doesn’t burp constantly. Something about being host to a fetus has caused severe irritation to whatever causes burping. The poor woman burps constantly.

I commented previously how much I love that my wife loves to sleep. I just thought she loved to sleep until I saw how much she sleeps now that she is pregnant. She wakes up from a nap and is already tired.

I love (and miss) that my wife at one time loved food. We looked forward to going out to eat, or just looked forward to lunch and dinner at home, and would even spend time at dinner discussing what we should eat for the next meal. Those days are now gone. The thought of pretty much any food is enough to trigger the vomit reflex.

On that same note, I miss that my wife no longer appreciates smells. She used to swoon over my well cologned body. Now she doesn’t even want me to use scented soap. Anytime I cook, she gags. Anytime we drive by restaurants, she gags. When she walks into any room in our apt, she gags. I have resorted to eating in my car just to avoid smelling up the apt.

Robin has always been one to internalize everything she witnesses. If we watch a movie about a transvestite clown that has a hoarding problem, she will turn to me and say “please don’t ever be a transvestite clown that has a hoarding problem”. Now that she is pregnant, she frets about any disease, ailment, or condition that she hears about, reads about, or sees on tv, no matter how far-fetched or rare. I pray daily for a healthy baby.

I just thought that my wife cried a lot. I remember a previous post about dreading this very thing because I knew pregnancy exacerbated crying tendencies. I could not have been more correct. Just the thought of something that could possibly be construed as sad, happy, sappy, touching, or patriotic is enough to elicit tears.

Robin is adamant about not knowing the gender of the baby too soon. She wants to know the sex a few weeks before the birth, but not any sooner. Most people are trying to talk her out of it, but she is convinced that knowing the sex and then naming the child before it is born will make the pregnancy go by slower and that she will go crazy buying things for the baby. As far as I am concerned, she is the one suffering all the side effects of pregnancy, so if she wants to wait a few weeks, it is fine by me.

Robin has always been very vocal about not wanting to have a baby anytime in the month of June or even early July because she didn’t want any child to steal her birthday glory. The first due date we got for the baby was June 21st, Robin’s exact birthday. However, all those worries about having to share a birthday went out the window, she was just ecstatic to be pregnant(the due date has since been moved to June 28th). I think it was just a test. She passed.

Robin has always been adamant about not wanting to have really gender specific things for the baby. If it is a girl, for example, she hates the bright pink ruffled car seat, hello kitty rattles, and pink polka dot crib stuff. I guess our baby will be constantly clad in bland yellow clothes and will only be allowed gender neutral toys and accessories, but that just seems like so much work, so I hope Robin relents on this one.

Even before she got pregnant, Robin bought a name book and had been marking that thing up more than her seminary scriptures. One night she went over each of the girl names she had marked as “like”. Out of the dozens of names she read aloud, I liked a grand total of 2. Most of the names my wife likes would have been great if our baby was born at the time of the Boston Tea Party. She claims the names are timeless and classic. I claim that school bullies couldn’t care less about timeless and classic. Luckily, we do agree on some names—but I guess we’ll only be having two kids.

In a few short months all these points will be moot(or mute, as Robin says) and we will be happily celebrating parenthood, but until that point comes—it is just fun to discover all the things I love about my wife that I didn’t even know until she was with child.

It is amazing to watch day by day as a human life grows inside of my wife. I couldn’t be happier that Robin will be the mother of this child. That is one lucky baby.

Thanksgiving...

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was gooble, gooble good. My Thanksgiving was great and I'll post about it and the CA trip soon, but tonight I want to give thanks to my Cody.

He is a hard worker.

He's a hit with my nephews.

He is on top of things - he gets things done.

He hates fish and never requests it for dinner (I hate fish too).

He is sensitive to me and my needs.

He vacuumed yesterday, bought me a red poinsettia plant for our coffee table, and cleaned up for my return to AR (he flew home one day earlier than me).

Which brings me to my next point - He lets me vacation more than him. I flew to CA on Monday and he didn't until Wed. and he flew home one day earlier than me. He's just selfless like that.

I have so much in my life to be grateful for and one of my most treasured blessings is a husband who was worth waiting for (through bad dates, Mr. Wrongs, and years of no significant other).

Today is the Superbowl...

the World Series...

the U.S. Open...

the NBA Playoffs...

March Madness...

the Stanley Cup Playoffs...

the World Cup...

of politics and Cody couldn't be more enthralled. My husband loves going to sporting events and will watch sports on the television in social environments, BUT he is not the type of man to watch Sports Center at the end of the day or a game (whether playoff or not) on his own.

And although he's not an avid sports lover, he is obsessed with politics. He has scheduled our employees today so that he can vote, and then retire to the house early for watching everything politics.

And now I find myself asking him if we are going to be ordering in tonight so that we don't miss any announcements. Who am I? When did I start caring? I now watch Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC (in that order). All channels I wasn't acquainted with prior to marrying my husband.

So in conclusion: Cody is unlike most men when it comes to sports, but competition is competition - whether in sports or politics - and like other men, he does love himself a good competition.

Off to watch some political commentary and outcomes.

Memphis

My parents were out visiting in early October. We had a great time! For the first few days of their stay we went to Memphis: the birthplace of rock n' roll and home to the blues.

Overall City Shots:








We stayed at the Peabody hotel. They are famous for their ducks, who march out daily to wade in the lobby fountain. There is something very cute about ducks walking...maybe it's that ducks remind me of young toddlers with a diaper on. Who knows. But it was truly amazing to see how many people got off tour buses and came down from their rooms to see these ducks march from the fountain back into the elevator after a day in the lobby.

The Hotel:



look at all the people waiting for the ducks!


The first day we went to the Mud Island River Park. It is a nice park which has a topographically correct replica of the Mississippi River. We spent a long time looking up and down the river at all the barges. My dad couldn't get over the amount of goods being transported on these barges. He could have stayed there all day starring at those suckers if we'd let him!

Mud Island:





We also went to Beale Street and ate BBQ at the Blues City Cafe, listened to some good music (even from Rudy Williams who has a music note on the street), and ordered a pricey pay per view movie ($15!!!) in our shared hotel room. And no, it's not weird to share a room with your parents after you're married. I thought it might be, but it was actually fun.

Beale Street:







The next day we headed to Graceland and did everything Elvis. I loved it all. Did you know that Graceland is the second most visited house in the USA, outside of the White House? I loved the tour so much that I wanted to buy three Elvis CDs as souvenirs. Cody somehow conned me into buying zero, with the argument that the CDs were probably over priced and we could get them elsewhere. I'm the fool who two weeks after the trip still doesn't have any CDs. I really wanted the Gospel one too. Is it too late to be an Elvis groupy?

Graceland and Elvis:











Sun Studio's drive-by (where Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis recorded):


Then we headed to Corky's for lunch. We also went to the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The day was ended with a drive around the nice neighborhoods of Memphis, dinner at the Kooky Canuck (largest hamburgers ever and first time trying fried pickles (YUM!)), and another stroll down Beale Street and another movie in the room.

Lunch;


Civil Rights Museum:





Dinner (the table next to us ordered this!):


It was a fast mini vacation, but we packed in the sites.

Her Angel...

My Grandma Sprague (Bernice Eleanore Hardy Sprague, aka "Birdy") passed away recently on Sunday, September 19th. She was the perfect grandma: positive and loving. She had all the fun toys, the fun dress-up clothes - lipstick - and purses, the good food, the best "soft tickles" in sacrament meeting, and the most kind words after a recital or test or anything really. She lived a full life and was 90 years old when she passed.

I'm very lucky to have such an amazing family and enjoyed the time I had with my mother's side of the family the following weekend as we gathered in California for the service.

The service was tearful, meaningful, and beautiful. Here are pictures of the program table, the dessert table from the luncheon after the service, and the roses from my grandma's garden at the pulpit. She had a green thumb.




My grandmother always called us "sweet-hearts" or "angels". My nephew, Joshua, used to respond to her, "I'm not an angel Gigi (Great-Grandma), I'm Joshua LaMonte Davis and I'm 2." Identity was a sensitive thing for him at that age, he didn't let me call him a monkey or rascal or anything but his given name. Oh well.

I, on the other hand, always was happy to be called her angel. And now she's my angel in Heaven.

Carny

Cody and I went to the Arkansas State Fair last Monday. We saved big bucks because on Monday - parking, entry, and rides were a dollar each. It was a great steal.


We went to the products tent and I bought some baking stuff. We watched a Monkey show. We listened to an amazing country group. We saw a pig "Chelsea" give birth. We went on 5 rides and ate like we were asking for a heart attack. Corn Dogs - YUM!


I am a Carny at heart. Now I like all my teeth and would never want to live out of a camper, but I'm a Carny because I absolutely love the fair. More than the average person by leaps and bounds. People watching is unbeatable. I love the demonstrations, the animals, the thrill of going on a ride that could break in two any second, the colorful lights, the fattening-greesified food, the memory of Cody's proposal. All this plus Monday's dollar deal = perfection.

The baby chicks, ducklings, and piglets were so cute:




How'd you like to give birth in this tight space. Chelsea did. I felt so bad for her...she was in pain and biting any metal she could find.


On a ride: