Drumroll please ...

It's a GIRL! We're so excited (No one is more than Shayla who has insisted since day one that she was going to have a little sister). I wasted a lot of energy having talks with her about how we would love the new baby no matter what, even if it was a boy (which by the way I thought it was). I had a talk with her this morning and said, "We're going to find out if we're getting a baby sister or a baby brother today, and we'll be happy no matter what, right?" She said, "Yes... but we'll be most happy if it's a girl!" We are definitely happy! The ultrasound they did was 4D. It was really cool. Here's my favorite picture of Little Miss Davis.



It looks like we're right on schedule so she should arrive around October 24th.

Forward

I don't usually read forwards I get in my email (no offense people who forward things). It seems like they all start to sound the same, don't they? However, I got the funniest forward from my sister-in-law. It was so good that I was laughing out loud reading it, which I don't often do. I figured that was worth a blog post.

"A 3-year-old tells all from his mother's restroom stall"
By Shannon Popkin
My little guy, Cade, is quite a talker. He loves to communicate and does it quite well. He talks to people constantly, whether we're in the library, the grocery store or at a drive-thru window. People often comment on how clearly he speaks for a just-turned-3-year-old. And you never have to ask him to turn up the volume. It's always fully cranked. There've been several embarrassing times that I've wished the meaning of his words would have been masked by a not-so-audible voice, but never have I wished this more than last week at Costco. Halfway, through our shopping trip, nature called, so I took Cade with me into the restroom. If you'd been one of the ladies in the restroom that evening, this is what you would have heard coming from the second to the last stall:
'Mommy, are you gonna go potty?
Oh! Why are you putting toiwet paper on the potty, Mommy?
Oh! You gonna sit down on da toiwet paper now?
Mommy, what are you doing?
Mommy, are you gonna go stinkies on the potty?'
At this point I started mentally counting how many women had been in the bathroom when I walked in. Several stalls were full . 4? 5? Maybe we could wait until they all left before I had to make my debut out of this stall and reveal my identity. Cade continued:
'Mommy, you ARE going stinkies aren't you?
Oh, dats a good girl, Mommy!
Are you gonna get some candy for going stinkies on the potty?
Let me see doze stinkies, Mommy!
Oh ... Mommy! I'm trying to see In dere.
Oh! I see dem. Dat is a very good girl, Mommy. You are gonna get some candy!'
I heard a few faint chuckles coming from the stalls on either side of me. Where is a screaming new born when you need her?
Good grief. This was really getting embarrassing. I was definitely waiting a long time before exiting. Trying to divert him, I said, 'Why don't you look in Mommy's purse and see if you can find some candy. We'll both have some!'
'No, I'm trying to see doze more stinkies.
Oh! Mommy!'
He started to gag at this point.
'Uh - oh, Mommy. I fink I'm gonna frow up.
Mommy, doze stinkies are making me frow up!!
Dat is so gross!!'
As the gags became louder, so did the chuckles outside my stall. I quickly flushed the toilet in hopes of changing the subject. I began to reason with myself: OK. There are four other toilets. If I count four flushes, I can be reasonably assured that those who overheard this embarrassing monologue will be long gone.

'Mommy! Would you get off the potty, now? I want you to be done going stinkies! Get up! Get up!'

He grunted as he tried to pull me off. Now I could hear full-blown
laughter. I bent down to count the feet outside my door.

'Oh, are you wooking under dere, Mommy?
You wooking under da door?
What were you wooking at?
Mommy? You wooking at the wady's feet?'
More laughter. I stood inside the locked door and tried to assess the situation.

'Mommy, it's time to wash our hands, now. We have to go out now, Mommy.'
He started pounding on the door. 'Mommy, don't you want to wash your hands? I want to go out!!'

I saw that my 'wait 'em out' plan was unraveling. I sheepishly opened the door, and found standing outside my stall, twenty to thirty ladies crowded around the stall, all smiling and starting to applaud.
My first thought was complete embarrassment, then I thought, 'Where's the fine print on the 'motherhood contract' where I signed away every bit of my dignity and privacy?' But as my little boy gave me a big, cheeky grin while he rubbed bubbly soap between his chubby little hands, I thought, I'd sign it all away again, just to be known as Mommy to this little fellow.

(Shannon Popkin is a freelance writer and mother of three. She lives with her family in Grand Rapids , Michigan , where she no longer uses public restrooms.)

Early Mother's Day

Shayla has actually been aware that Mother's Day is coming up (thanks to all the incessant and ridiculously cheesy jewelry commercials). She wasn't exactly sure when it was apparently because she thought it was yesterday. I woke up to her coming in my room with a breakfast tray (grapes and water). But that wasn't the best part. The best part was the card she brought with it. She is so adorable.


She actually does know how to spell her name correctly, but lately she has been working on sounding things out when she writes. She insists that her name is spelled with a "U" on the end and not an "A" because "U" says "Uh"

American Idol (last one I swear)

I think this will be my last post on American Idol since it may as well just be over at this point. Who gets voted off tonight... Brooke probably deserves it, Sayesha is living on borrowed time, and Jason did some serious damage with a more boring rendition of September Morn than Neil Diamond himself (not easy to do). So does it even matter who goes? They should just skip right to the top 2. Cook and Archuleta will battle it out and Archuleta will probably win because, well, lets look at the actual "voting" audience. I'm fairly certain it's composed of teenage girls, women over forty and probably a couple weird old guys. I guess I shouldn't forget the votefortheworst.com faithful who will probably push Brooke into the top 3 (Just for the record Brooke, I don't think you're the worst... but please don't sing I'm a believer in your low register ever again). Added to the voting pool this year is of course every Mormon in Utah who is voting for David A numerous times. So, David Archuleta will win and it will be totally cute and make us all feel warm and fuzzy and be much easier to watch than David Cook winning with that smug look on his face like "of course I won". And then David Cook will sell more records despite being second place and everyone will be content. The End.

*Note to Paula: We don't mind when you're a little drunk on the show, it makes things more interesting. But when you start critiquing performances that didn't happen it gets a little awkward.

Kyler's first golf lesson

American Idol... yet again

Seriously though, how good did the two Davids do last night? Sooo good! David Cook finally won me over (anyone who can make "You'll Always Be My Baby" that good deserves it). Is anyone else wondering why Kristy Lee Cook is still around? And can we just eliminate Sayesha too this week? That would be lovely.

Bejing 2008

There's been a fair amount of controversy about Bejing being chosen to host the Olympics this year. In San Francisco yesterday, the torch came through with lots of drama in tow. The protesters (who are trying to make people aware of the human rights violations committed by the Chinese in places like Tibet) have come out in mass. On Monday, a few people breeched security and climbed the Golden Gate Bridge to hang protest banners and Tibetan flags. The actual running of the torch was yesterday. I thought it would be great to go but it was supposed to start downtown and I wasn't interested in hauling my kids down there with all the demonstrations going on. Then all of the sudden the city opted to change to a secret route in the hopes it would keep the protesters away. Once I realized it was heading towards the marina (and no one knew where it would go which meant the traffic might be bearable) I hopped in the car and drove down to the Marina Green. There were cop cars all along Marina so I figured the procession would make it there eventually, which it did... right in front of me! And then it was total insanity when a mass of people caught up to it. I can't even describe to you how many cops came out of nowhere to line the streets and body barricade the torch.

This is what it looked like just before the procession got there:

Two minutes later it looked like this:





Here's my two cents (even though no one has asked for it and Zach wishes I would shut up about it). The Olympics should always be less about politics and more about the accomplishments of the athletes, but the honor to host them shouldn't be given to a country with a recent history of extreme oppression and disregard for human rights and lives. It would obviously be unfair for to the athletes to cancel them when they had no choice when it came to the venue, so the good that comes from it is that people are being made aware of what communist China is capable of. Most of the protesters yesterday were respectful (there were only a few idiots condemning the torch bearers and they probably couldn't tell you where Tibet was if they had a map in front of them). To make a very long story short, I totally support the athletes and think the Olympics should go forward, but I'm glad people aren't forgetting that less than 20 years ago Bejing hosted another even called the massacre at Tiananmen Square where the communist government killed and imprisoned it's own people who were peacefully calling for democracy and an end to oppression.