Testing, Testing…

There’s been way too much testing going on around the Garff family the last few months.

It all started with my NASM exam in May to become an official personal trainer.  I passed.

May was followed by a VERY crazy June/July in which Steven was studying for the UT BAR and MPRE. He got a 127 on the MPRE (90%+), and we just found out he passed the UT BAR!!!

Last month, I decided to do some testing on my own.

I failed the first two, but the next 6 were a piece of cake. Sometimes you just know. And yes, I realize 8 tests may be a bit excessive, but after what happened with my first 2 pregnancies, I feel better just seeing those two pink lines. And I bought them at $.20/each, so I didn’t really feel like I was wasting them.

I’m almost 9 weeks and I’ve already done all sorts of crazy testing at both my OB/GYN and Hematologist, and so far so good.  My latest ultrasound even showed double good results. Yeah, you heard that right.  I am having TWINS. Oh baby (baby). The extra sickness and fatigue are really starting to make sense now. On the bright side, Dr. Boyer said she won’t charge us for a second ultrasound since she made a mistake the first time.  :)

It appears the twins are most likely fraternal, as they’re not sharing a sac, but we may have to wait it out to know for sure. I’m 9 weeks so far, and my official due date is April 21st, 2012, though we’ve already been told to prepare for a late March/early April birth due to twins being term at 37 weeks.

We had a hunch it might be twins, but after last month’s ultrasound, we figured it was probably just wishful thinking (or masochistic dreaming, pending your interpretation).  But when the doctor pulled the image on the screen today, her face got so confused, I knew something was up. Even though I wasn’t totally sure what I was looking at, it looked like 2 babies to me. Apparently, she has almost never missed a twin, even in early ultrasounds (mine was at 6.5 weeks last time, and she even checked for a hiding baby). It was a good thing I was laying down! We’re excited, stressed, confused, thrilled, and already going crazy at the thought of tripling the child population at the house.  But it’s a good crazy, right?

Staycation

We have AMAZING staycations in SoCal. If all of our family and friends lived down here, we would probably never go on a real vacation again. Two weeks ago we were at the zoo, last Saturday was a trip to the beach, and the rest of the week was pure bliss.

Liam and I started off the week by taking a trip to Disneyland with our Rancho friends Leo and Mollie.

It wasn’t busy, so we hit up Dumbo, Peter Pan, and Toon Town.

We only had a 10 minute wait for Mickey Mouse, so we had to take advantage of that opportunity for the boys’ sake.

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On Saturday, we hit up the LA County Fair. Opening Day was only $1, and we were able to find free parking so we had a cheap family outing. There was something for everyone, but mostly a lot for William.

A dinosaur and shark exhibit, for the boys,

the sweetest, smallest little lamb in the world. It probably was half the size of my dog. William would “sing” “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” every time he saw one. *melt*

A madhouse-like zoo for mom and son, complete with cows and llamas.

No joke, you walked in and were swarmed by goats. After what happened with the zoo incident, we weren’t expecting a love of goats. The second I put him down near a goat, William would say “all done” and ask to be held. Funny enough, he knew the difference between the sheep and goats and was fine with the “Baa Baa Black Sheep”, though he kinda warmed up to the goats by the end.

We didn’t get a picture, but William found a hay bale maze that he ran around in for 30 minutes. He LOVED it!

Of course, we had to find a dog on a boat. Took forever to pry Silly Billy away.

and a frosting shot for me (unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling so great and had to share it with my son).

Since we got parking free, we didn’t feel bad about splurging and got a late lunch at Tijuana Tacos---home of the best tortas ever. We are forever indebted to Lisa Anderson for her restaurant tip when we first moved here.

Sunday was spent at Dave and Mary Lou’s in Reseda (sorry, no photos), but rest assured, we had a great time.

But we obviously still had stamina left, as the last day of our Staycation was a full day at Disneyland.

We started off with the Bodes (who had to leave early since Scott had just gotten off work a few hours before we met up).

Then we all met up with the Maucotels,

and ended the day with the Andersons/Larkins.

The bonus of meeting up friends at Disneyland, was that we all got to take turns and go on the best rides. We hit up Star Tours twice, and also managed to sneak in Indiana Jones and Soarin’ as well.

By Liam’s request, much of the day was spent on boats (the current favorite word). As Grandpa Garff says, “It’s in the Garff genes.”

We’d never been on the canoes, riverboat, or Little Mermaid, so this was a good excuse to try something new.We used Silly Billy’s fascination will all things water and motors (some of his other current favorite words are drive, ride, water, and lawn mower) to hit up the fish carousel and Autotopia also. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let our little boy drive, but we all still had fun.

And of course, the obligitory fuzzy character picture. Liam’s life would not be complete without these characters (though truth be told, he was a little less sure about Brer Fox and Brer Bear).

Thanks to Silly Billy for taking a 1 1/2 hr nap in the stroller to make our day even better. We were there for over 12 hours, so I guess you could say we got our money’s worth.

Though we’re hoping to make next time a grown-ups only date night. Can’t wait!