Nutcrackers and Bone Crunchers

Well, gang, we ventured into Portland (and Vancouver) this weekend to see the notorious Duck (aka D'Arcy and Audrey's best buddy) play Clara in the Nutcracker. She was so beautiful and danced so well, it was really an amazing show. We've only been privileged enough to see her dance about the living room (usually with Audrey in tow) but seeing her on stage was just amazing; the girl's got talent! I can't tell you how proud I was to see her lead the bows at the end of the show. I know she made two of her grandma's cry if that's any indication.

Our trip was a short up-and-back trip on Saturday and Sunday. We stayed in a nice suite in Vancouver and Audrey actually did really well with the car rides, wacko nap times and nonexistent bedtime. Kathryn and Jeff rode the train down from Seattle for the weekend and Elizabeth rode over with John and I, so even though we didn't get to spend as much time as we'd have liked with the Moore clan, we still got to get in some quality time with the Paynes.

I thought I was handling the travel amazingly well until I tried to get out of the car when we got home Sunday afternoon. YOWZA! I'm starting to understand what all those crabby pregnant women are talking about. I've had hip issues since I gave birth to Audrey that have, until recently, gone untreated. For the most part, it's not so bad, but apparently having a four-pound baby in my belly brings out the worst of it.

I've just started going to a new chiropractor who specializes in pre(and post)natal care. He (honest to God) looks like Lex Luthor...almost a perfect cross between the guy from Smallville and Kevin Spacey. This just makes him more awesome. Anyway, it looks like I'm going to be going in every week for adjustments and he's really been helping pin-point a lot of my hip problems. Yesterday I got the elbow-of-death treatment on the back of my hips and he noticed that when I think I hear my hip popping, it's really almost coming out of it's socket. Wow--what a mess! I'm so used to either being medically boring or just sucking it up that it's very strange for me to admit that I need treatment for something.

I'm hoping that most of this is purely related to toting a bun in the oven and that it'll be relatively easy to maintain a healthy back and hips once Bailey gets here. I know John at least is tired of me moaning like Mama Seal and sleeping with twelve pillows, but I do have to brag on him too. After a looong weekend of driving, I sent John out at 7pm on Sunday to buy me an exercise ball so I could sit comfortably. Not only did he do it without complaining, but he came back with cookie dough ice cream and Ghirardelli chocolate too. Now, that's love!