Languishing Thursday, December 19, 2013

A year after my last post on this blog and I find myself waking up in my big bed alone because the husband likes to get up well before it is humanly reasonable in order to work out at the gym before work. I lie in bed for a bit listening to the giggles and talking coming from the eldest's bedroom. Then the door opens and I hear more giggling, but with an echo, because they are in the bathroom. Most likely the eldest helping the youngest to turn on the sink for some unknown reason. Then they go back to the eldest's room because she has the big bed with more room for playing. I continue to enjoy the warmth of my flannel cocoon, delaying getting up even though we have school to get to, daycare drop-off, and work. Always, work.

So, I get up and we do the usual routine of eating, dressing, cleaning, and trying to get out the door without arguing. That's an impossibility, but I always hope it will happen.

It's Christmas time which is my favorite season. It has always been my favorite holiday. Family getting together, good food, happy memories, giving gifts to those I love. Everything about it is wonderful and it just keeps getting better with my girls getting older. A pink and purple, glittery, plastic bomb will be exploding in our house on Christmas morning and I couldn't be happier.

I'm so very, very happy in this moment in my life and couldn't want for more. I just want to remember this feeling and keep it with me forever.

Also, the gym is closed on Christmas morning so I'll have all of my favorite people in the whole world to wake up with that day. Perfection.

Sappy sadness Thursday, December 13, 2012

This is the last draft that I wrote and never published. I wrote it earlier in the spring this year when all the animal babies were being born, everything was beautiful, and my baby was 18 months old and stinking adorable. She's now 26 months old and OMG, how did the daughter make it to three years old because her sister might not get to 27 months?

It's interesting how you can be going along your day and then suddenly some totally random thing can set you off and you start crying for no good reason.

We're not having any more babies (unless someone wants to give us a lot of money so we can afford to pay the exorbitant prices for daycare, that is.*) and it hit me the other day at Goodwill. Two and done. I was dropping off a couple of bags of clothes that my youngest has outgrown and weren't "good enough" for the consignment shop. I handed the carefully packed bag to the man working the drive-thru drop-off and he tossed over the edge of the big bin full of other peoples donated clothes and when it hit those other bags it slipped sideways and a little jean romper with a tiny, pretty, glittery fairy surrounded by tiny silver stars on the front bib slipped out of the bag. It came partway out and slid between the bars of the cart and almost fell onto the ground.

I cried about it, that little piece of clothing that both of my daughters had worn. The eldest wore it with a long sleeve onsie that had eyelet lace around the collar paired with a sweet pair of white tights because she was a winter baby and needed the coverage. My youngest had worn it with pink leggings sporting little bows on the ankles, paired with a short sleeve white onsie with ruffly sleeves because the jumper didn't fit her until spring.

I almost got out of the car and snatched that jumper out of the cart to take it with me. I already have two overflowing boxes with clothes that have sentimental meaning for me. I plan to make them into lap quilts for both of them someday when I've gathered enough material. Why didn't I keep that jumper? I have no idea, but I drove away and left it there. I couldn't have the guys working the drive thru thinking I was a crazy person, jumping out of the car and snatching a baby jumper out of the bin, with tears streaming down her face.

We're not having any more babies and it still makes me sad sometimes.


*I also need a time machine to make myself 10 years younger because I'm an old fart that shouldn't be having any more babies.

OMG, kid (night potty training follows) Friday, November 30, 2012

I thought for sure the daughter just had the same peeing at night issues that I had until I was about 7 or 8 years old. Although, mine may have had something to do with some trauma caused by a family member who is not and will never be missed by myself. That’s a story for some other day, if ever. Anyway, back to the subject on hand, peeing at night.

She filled and I mean FILLED her pull-up so full I’m positive she lost 5 pounds just taking it off every morning, so I never pushed the potty training at night thing. Until the day that she pulled on said pull-up right before bed and started peeing in it before she got it fully pulled up. Excuse me? You waited to pee in the pull-up instead of the toilet? Gauntlet thrown. Bribery challenge has commenced.

The next day I showed the daughter how I wrote the numbers 1 through 7 on the white board. Each number represented a day that she woke up with a dry pull-up. If she could get a circle around each number for 7 days in a row she would get the super expensive, huge, plastic toy horse she had been lusting over at Target. I explained peeing before bed and that as soon as she woke up, she should take off the pull-up and put on underwear. She was giddy with excitement. I was giddy with excitement. The toddler was giddy with excitement (she had a cup of fruit snacks in her hand). The husband was a bit reserved about the whole idea. I guess he’s the smart one in the house.

The next day the daughter was thrilled to show me a dry pull-up. She was giddy with excitement. I was giddy with excitement. The toddler was still sleeping. The husband pointed out the fully soaked pull-up hidden behind her bedroom door. Yeah. She pulled off the wet one and put on a dry one as evidence that she didn’t pee overnight. Oy. She did this three more times. The second one was hidden on the floor, at the end of her bed. The third one was lying in the hallway next to the dry one she put on after taking off the wet one. Oy, again. Also, my husband is now smugly, smart.

I dropped the whole plan, but left those numbers up on the board. It was occasionally brought up during conversation. She would tell me that she has to make sure to pee before bed and then do so. Sometimes she would have a mostly dry pull-up in the morning, but not quite. I was just happy she wasn’t hiding wet, pee-filled pull-ups anymore.

I am knocking on wood as I type these words (they are being typed very, very slowly with one hand)…she was legitimately dry yesterday and again this morning. She used the toilet before bed and right after she woke up both days (still knocking on the faux wood). Could this be it? The daughter is giddy with excitement. I’m giddy with excitement. The baby is too busy picking her nose to be giddy. The husband is bordering on giddy. Hopefully, he’s still the smart one since borderline giddy is about as giddy as he gets, but I claim the smartest of all award because I snagged one of those super expensive, huge, plastic toy horses on clearance at Target in early November. 65% off bitches!

3 weeks left with observations/reflections Tuesday, November 13, 2012

I have 3 weeks left to be pregnant and some days I hope for less and some days (rare days) I wish it weren't over yet. This is my last pregnancy and as miserable as I usually am while pregnant it is going to be my last so I want to remember as much as possible about how it felt and feels.

9 months of heartburn is a no-good, awful, bad thing. No matter which way you slice it, my first pregnancy was a breeze with my two to three heartburn episodes in the first trimester.

Fetal movements have actually grown on me. I'm starting to enjoy them because it means she's still with me and waiting to come out to meet her family. I don't feel like she's some alien being trying to get out the fast and easy way anymore.

              **************************************************************

2+ years later and I'm sad that this was all I got around to writing about being pregnant with my second and final child. *sigh* I'm all melodramatic and shit these days. I also have some weird compulsion to take my few draft posts and either publish or delete them. I chose to publish this little tidbit.

Antiques Roadshow makes me cry Wednesday, November 07, 2012

I'm just so darned happy for those people that end up owning some piece of crap worth thousands of dollars. Like the lady I saw last night with the goofy looking chair that caused my waterworks to overflow. I had even seen that exact episode before and I'm pretty sure I cried the first time too. Me = Sap.

Anyone else cry at totally inappropriate things?

Just the way she is. Part 2 - my eldest Tuesday, November 06, 2012

And OMG, not another post about your kid! In all fairness this was another draft that had to be taken care of or my OCD would kill me.

March 29, 2010
- Pink is in! While at Dick's of all places the daughter immediately ran across the aisle and yelled, "I like it!" while holding a pink sports bra. Then she found the bikes and wanted to ride all the pink ones. I think we have a girl.
- This weekend at the pool was a "jump" ahead and a "jump" back. The daughter accepted being put under the water when jumping into the pool from the deck on Saturday. Then Sunday she didn't want to, but wasn't upset about insisting not doing it which. On Saturday she jumped by herself and I caught her several times. Sunday, she still wanted to hold me hands while jumping. Big jumps forward and then little jumps back.
- I keep telling the daughter that she mommy has a baby in her belly but she's not getting it. She loves babies though. She wants to look at them, smile at them, hand them toys and so on. I hope she loves this new baby too, although she probably consider the baby the intruder much like I did when my baby brother came home.

April 9, 2010
- Newest songs that she will stand up and perform for me: ABC's, I'm a Little Teapot, and Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. My favorite is the teapot song.
- The yell of "Mommy!" and the running leap into my arms is the highlight of every weekday and a great way to end the work day.

This poor neglected post. So much has changed since it was started over a year ago now.

July 28, 2011
- The daughter is in love with her little sister unless she's in one of those 3 year old moods and she asks us to make her 9 month old sister stop looking at her.
- She's a contradiction: Loves princesses, cars, fairies, dragons, fluffy dresses and running with her daddy.
- Her swimming skills have advanced so much over the summer. Our kid that was terrified to put her face in the water or get her ears wet is now jumping into the pool, swimming 2-3 feet unassisted, lying on her back with BOTH ears in the water and more. I give all the credit to her amazing teachers at the YMCA.
- I'm starting to see less enthusiasm to jump into my arms at daycare pickup. She's more interested in making sure all her friends are continuing to follow her instructions before we leave. Fun to watch, yet still sad.

Another neglected post update.

April 24, 2012
- She's 4 and crazy.

May 29, 2012
- Still 4 and crazy, but we love her.
- She loves swimming and got to swim in the neighbor's pool for a bit until the thunderstorm rolled through. She was not very happy that she couldn't go back out and swim more after dinner, but it was just too close to bedtime. She's hovering in the same swim class level (Eels) at the local Y, but she is improving in her abilities.
- She's a yellow-tip in TaeKwonDo and she loves it. She's allowed to punch and kick people which makes it a great outlet for all that energy and aggression. Her test for her orange belt is this Saturday and I'm sure she'll do amazing.
-  A very picky eater, just like me. She will try something first though at least. I keep telling her she needs to at least try, and she makes an effort now to do so instead of refusing immediately.

June 4, 2012
- A much more punctual update this time, but I wanted to mention the funny this weekend.
- I asked her if she wanted to go to a jewelry party with me and she said yes and immediately began planning her wardrobe. She wavered between a pretty dress or a skirt/shirt/tights combo. She finally decided on a pretty skirt, shirt, and tights. She made sure to mention that she had to wear panties so people couldn't check out her bootie. She proceeded to sing, "Shake mah bootie!" over and over again.
- At home, while watching TV, she was doing this crazy butt wiggle, shimmy thing in the chair with her butt up in the air. I asked what she was doing and she told me it was her bootie shake dance and then cracked up in hysterics. Crazy kid.

July 15, 2012
- We are going to the zoo today and the husband asked if she wanted to go I'm pretty sure the entire neighborhood heard the squeals and shrieks of "Yes".
- She knows everything. I thought she was supposed to worship her parents and believe everything they said and she wasn't supposed to distrust and disagree so much before she was 15. We're going to be in major trouble when she's a teen.
- Dresses, dresses, dresses. The only acceptable article of clothing. Skirts are OK, but dresses are way better. How did I have such a girly-girl? I hated dresses growing up.

Ain't science grand? Monday, November 05, 2012

Here's a fun little experiment to try if you are bored and have the following items on hand.

• 1 coffee mug
• Some water
• 1 microwave
• 2-3 packets of oatmeal (optional)
• 1 bowl (optional)
• 1 spoon (optional)
• 1 old vinyl placemat

Fill the coffee mug with water, microwave it until boiling (~3.5 minutes) and pour the water over the oatmeal in the bowl. Mix it with the spoon. Turn the hot coffee mug upside down on the vinyl placemat and leave it there for about a week (this time limit is an approximation based on how long I left the coffee mug sitting on the old vinyl placemat and may not be a necessary amount of time to create the expected result). Enjoy your oatmeal breakfast if you went with the optional ingredients.

After that week or so has passed, attempt to pick up the coffee mug (this may require a bit more force than normal) and admire the impact that all that science has had on the vinyl placement.

I would insert a photo here, but I wrote this post about 6 years ago, didn't finish it, and those placemats are loooong gone. I leave it to you to recreate and admire science stuff at work.