Category: Pregnancy

I woke up that morning after the phone rang several times. I finally got annoyed and got up to answer it. It was some guy from Bert Ogden Nissan calling, once again, to convince us to go in to the dealership. I told the guy I was speaking to how we had very specific wants and needs, which included trading in the Equinox and having our new car payment cut in half—and I knew this was impossible. He asked how much we owed and I told him, and he said, “Oh yes ma’am, we’ll definitely be able to do that.” So I went to the bedroom to tell Mario, who’d been listening and was already awake. We got ready and went to dealership after I called Mom to watch the kiddos.

I can always tell beforehand how something’s going to go for me, and as soon as we drove onto that parking lot I knew it wasn’t going to work out.

We spoke to someone and told him we didn’t want to string him along and told him exactly what we wanted: trade-in, payment cut in half, and we never give a down payment. We’ve only given a down payment for 3 of the 4 cars we’ve owned and bought at dealerships. He promised he’d be able to help us, so that gave me a little spark of hope, but I guess that’s what they’re trained for, right?

He showed us a Sentra, which was really nice and drove incredibly, but I kept thinking about a van. We’re going to have 4 kids…we need something bigger, not smaller. But Mario said we can always trade it in later when we actually need all the space, so I agreed. Long story short: they were totally trying to jip us. Even after giving them our requirements they still came and told us we’d need at least a $4,000 down payment to have a $400 a month payment and they were only giving us $4,000 for our truck. That was bull, because we’d gotten it appraised for much higher. I was about to just get up and leave and the guy said he’d run the numbers again. Sure, just keep lowering my damn points! But, whatever. I read Twilight and Mario read his book and we waited.

A manager comes to us a while later and sits down, makes small talk about reading. I close my book and stare at him and he begins to talk. This one tells us we’d need a $4,800 payment to get a payment of $545 a month and showed us two other tiers of down payments which would somewhat lower the monthly payment. Um, no. Every single one was still more than we already paid and this was for a car. I told him, “Look. We came here because the first guy I spoke to said he’d help us. I gave him the facts. I wouldn’t be here right now if he hadn’t said that. This is a waste of our time, yours and ours.” He didn’t even try to convince us. He just stood up and shook our hands and we left. Grr. Waste of a Saturday morning!

Since we didn’t have anything to eat in the morning we went to eat at Taco Bell. I hadn’t been there in a while and was surprised Mario brought up going, since he’s not a big fan. When we were eating I remembered that the darn dealership guy didn’t give me my driver’s license back. Grr. We went back to get it then went to Freddy’s (Mario’s cousin) dealership to check how much the car was worth. He gave us the facts quickly and straight up. And he told us the truck was worth at least $8,000, not $4,000.

We went to the mall after that to the Mimi Maternity store. I was on a hunt for an inexpensive, but nice dress for my baby shower the next day. I didn’t want to spent more than $25 since it was a dress I’d probably only be wearing once. JC Penny didn’t have anything and the Mimi Maternity store had one dress I really, really liked, but it was $40. I was moping around, complaining when Mario reminded me about “the store downtown we went to last time”. I put the dress back on the rack and strangled him with a hug. He does pay attention sometimes! He said, “You see, I’m not completely useless.”

All the way over there, we had some interesting conversations about some people we know. Dirty people LOL.

We had an easy time finding a parking space, amazingly, but had no luck finding the store. Mario was remembering Melrose, which is where I got my dress for Mrs. V.’s daughter’s quinceñera, but they didn’t have anything but pants. We reached the end of the strip and crossed the street and went back the other way. The store I was thinking about was one I could have sworn was on a corner, but we went to every corner store and nothing. I was about to give up when I remembered the entryway to the store I was talking about and lo and behold, we found it! They didn’t have any dresses whatsoever, but I did find a nice blouse. I figured I’d pair it with jeans and my brown sandals. I was glad just to have found something.

I helped Mary and Elda with the distinctivos (or, favors) for the baby shower. After a few hot glue burns and making a mess of some, I finished with my part and came back home to start working on the grapefruit pies I was making for the baby shower the next day.

I don’t remember where Mario went, but he said he’d help me and then wasn’t around so I spent 2 hours peeling the darn grapefruits on my own. It felt like an eternity, but it was so nice to be done with it. Now I just had to wait till the next day to eat it!

Thanks to our very late night the night before, we woke up late. Well, I woke up late and woke Mario up late for work again. I didn’t even have the strength to wake up and make Mario breakfast. I slept in with Alaethia till 11:40.

I’d gotten up to pee and John texted that he was at Target and heard a kid yell “Obama!” when he saw him on TV. I think it’s a bit creepy that he has that effect on people. Even Alaethia can spot his voice in a second and yells, “It’s Yobama” LOL.

I asked John if he’d go with me to work. I had to pick up the Constellation Turtle I’d ordered for Alaethia and my W2 form. He said yes, but he was running an errand. Alaethia and I ate leftover meatloaf from the night before. John came over and ate while I showered. Mom came over and offered to watch Alaethia. Even better, because then they’d never let us leave talking to her and I had only an hour to get over there and back and pick the boys up from school.

We went over there and said hello to everyone at the office area and even got to see two of my kiddos, Tony and Manny. We went to Vero’s office and I picked up my stuff and chatted with her for about half an hour. We went to the library before we left but it was empty. As we were leaving I saw Mrs. V. inside the office. We chatted a little bit. She told me the kids missed me *tear*. I said, “Aww, I miss them, too. I miss everyone.” The principal was standing right there when I said that and he said, “See? I told you not to leave!” I laughed it off, but I felt weird LOL.

We rushed out of there because I felt like I was going to pass out from the hot flashes I was having. We went straight to pick up the boys and we got home and got started on homework. Of course I had to take Eenan back to school because he lost a pencil his friend had lent him and he was afraid she wouldn’t talk to him anymore. He’s lucky we only live a few blocks away.

I started cleaning and washed a few things. I tried updating a bit and then went to chill out at Mary’s and gave the boys dinner. Aly and I ate leftovers again (pancakes LOL) but she kept sucking on the pieces and spitting them out. Grr. I was certain she’d eat well since it was something she liked, but nope.

I washed dishes while she played and then she wanted to watch TV, Noggin, of course. I made Mario some dinner and waited for him to get home. I bathed Alaethia, then caught up on my entries some more. Mario got home and he showed me pictures of their latest project. I must say, I was quite impressed. Mario watched TV while I updated some more (gosh, it feels like I’ll never catch up).

The baby’s been moving around like crazy. I feel every little movement. She flings her little limbs all over the place and it hurts sometimes! I can even feel her tiny foot pressed up against the left side of my belly. I press my hand to her foot every chance I get. I think she’s running out of room in there. I get a pain on my lower back and, er, nether regions whenever she starts rolling around.

While I was sitting at the kitchen table typing on my laptop and Mario was on his laptop in the living room, we hear Alaethia in deep conversation with someone. We turn and listen closely. She’s talking to “Pum-bah”, which is Spongebob. She’s talking to him on her princess cell phone. “How are you? You good? I’m good. Thank you for the magic water.” How cute is that? She’s like a sponge herself, this kid! She’s amazing.

I got up, made breakfast, paid bills online, washed tons (and TONS) of dishes, did all the laundry, organized all my drawers in the kitchen, pulled all of Mario’s miscellaneous junk and tools out of said drawers and into little containers that I bought especially for him (now to train him to actually use them). By the time I knew it, it was lunch time.

I made lunch for Aly and myself and as soon as she was done, I tried potty training to no avail. She loves to follow me in and remove her diapie and sit on the toilet, but I can keep her there for 10 minutes and she won’t do anything. She’ll look around and point at the ceiling and tell me, “Guess what, Mama?” and I’ll ask her, “What, Baby?” And she’ll say something random like, “Spongebob?” LOL

As soon as I let her off the toilet and I grab a diaper, she’ll get up and pee on the floor, I’m not kidding you. I feel a little like a failure because everyone was constantly talking about how fast girls were at learning. Maybe it’s just because I’m pregnant and Emily will be here soon?

I started clearing off the kitchen table and then went to pick up the boys. I was dead tired by the time I got back and helped them with their homework. Not even putting my feet up was helping. My status on Myspace was something like, “Is so exhausted” and Mario left a comment in return that said,”Rome wasn’t built in a day baby, I told you to take it easy”. I can’t take it easy though. I need to move around and do something or else I feel useless.

I chose that night to finally start weaning Alaethia off milk at night. It’s kind of like she’s still waking up for a bottle and wakes up even more now that she’s not in her crib (since it’s in her room) and is sleeping between us again since she’s scared to be in her room still. I was sure, that even after she’s weaned off milk, that she’ll still want a sippy cup, but I’d rather she just take water and eventually get bored of it, than keep drinking milk and messing up her teeth.

Mario went to bed early and then I took Alaethia with me. She made a big ol’ racket trying to wake her Daddy-O up and then, after about 15 minutes started asking for her mee-ulk. She literally screamed her head off for 2 hours, tossing her orange sippy at me in anger. Mario got so sick of not sleeping that he gathered up his pillow and another comforter and left to the living room. I was losing my mind, but I told myself this was it; I’d promised I’d wean her off when I stopped working, because it was impossible to do when I was.

Just when I thought I’d give in and get her a sippy of milk, I got an idea. I told her, “Look, I didn’t want to tell you, but Spongebob sent this Magic Water especially for you from Bikini Bottom. He doesn’t want you drinking anymore milk at night because then you’ll end up with teeth like his.” I even threw in that what if the Magic Water gives her mermaid fins since it’s from Bikini Bottom? She eventually conceded and either liked the story so much or was just so exhausted that she just drank the water LOL. It’s safe to say I got about 4 hours of sleep that night. The good thing was, I was 2 days closer to having her weaned completely off the milk at night.