The Housewife Diaries

Recipe of the Day

2010-02-10T11:41:00.003-05:00

Italian Chicken

A great go-to recipe for giving chicken some extra zing!

Ingredients:
Packet of dry Italian dressing mix
White wine (remember, never use in cooking something you wouldn't willingly drink - don't buy "cooking wine", it's just bad wine with extra salt!)
2 T. water
1 T. oil (I use olive oil)
Chicken of whatever quantity you want - you can use this on chicken breasts, a whole chicken, or anything in between!

1. Put chicken in glass casserole dish (I usually use a 9x13 dish)
2. Pour wine over chicken, enough to give a good cover to the bottom of dish (add more for more flavor, less for a more subtle taste).
3. Mix water, oil, and Italian seasoning in a bowl, baste chicken.
4. Bake at 350 till chicken is done (this will vary based on what pieces you used for your chicken).

Alternatives:
1. Easily adaptable to the crockpot, just put everything in there instead and cook on Low till chicken is done!
2. You can use pre-made Italian dressing instead of mixing on your own, but you'll want to add more dressing because the flavor won't be as strong.
3. Especially if using pre-made Italian dressing, I like to marinade overnight before cooking.
4. This is great cooked on the grill if marinated ahead of time!
5. You can serve with mashed potatoes and a green veggie, some sort of bread, and fruit for a good well-rounded meal, or chunk up and put in salad, or whatever you want - it's very adaptable!

We're snowed in for yet another day (maybe we'll finally get to have preschool again tomorrow? I hope!) and it's supposed to be super-windy. Doesn't look too bad yet, more like "breeze" rather than wind. All the trees still have their snow piled on the branches, so it can't be too much on the windy side, can it? I'm wondering what excuse I can make that we *have* to go out, but we've already missed storytime (we were already planning on going tomorrow anyway) and the library books aren't due till tomorrow either. The grocery shopping is already done, and while I need to get new sheets, that's no more urgent now than it has been since we got the new bed almost a year ago. I'm thinking that the best course of action is to put Beth down for her nap, set Thomas up with a movie, and try to nap. Being up in the middle of the night for an hour with a kid wakened up by a bad dream can really set my mood in the wrong direction for the next day!

Recipe of the Day

2010-02-09T09:14:00.003-05:00

So, I know I haven't posted in forever and am not for sure this will last, but since I'm posting these on our playgroup's message board I figured I might as well publish them here, too. One of these days I'll get around to writing actual posts again!

One-Dish Chicken Supper

My notes: The "standard" recipe comes from the back of the Stove Top Stuffing boxes ... you can also add broccoli or frozen mixed veggies. The crockpot version is from the "Fix It and Forget It" cookbook. I wonder if this would be good with cream cheese instead of the sour cream or milk?

Standard edition:
1 box chicken stuffing (or turkey, your choice)
1/4 c. stick margarine, cut up
1 1/2 c. hot water
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (or equivalent; I often cook a whole chicken or turkey and freeze the leftovers, then just pull out a package of the larger chunks for this dish) - you can do this with cooked or uncooked chicken, I just use the cooked for convenience and time-saving
1 can cream of mushroom/chicken/celery (your choice)
1/3 c. sour cream or milk

1. Mix stuffing, margarine, and water, just till moistened.
2. Mix soup and sour cream (or milk).
3. Put chicken in baking dish, top with soup mix then stuffing.
4. Bake at 375 deg. about 35 minutes or till chicken is done (if using precooked chicken, cook till stuffing is nicely browned on top).

If using a crockpot, everything is the same except steps 3 and 4:
3. Put chicken in crockpot, top with soup mix then stuffing.
4. Cook on Low 6-8 hours.

And the quick list of updates since I haven't written in about a year:
We're expecting another daughter in May.
Thomas is in preschool and is looking forward to Kindergarten in the fall (actually, "looking forward to" doesn't quite cover it - he's been asking about just when he gets to start for the last year and a half!)
Beth is finally growing some hair and hates the fact that she isn't in preschool yet; she'll start a one day/week program this coming fall.
Clay is still at OSU and still loves his job.
Rob is still at OSU and living with us, and still can't wait to graduate.
Pregnancy is still a mix of enjoyment and discomfort, and I'm totally worn out by it!

Science Experiment gone very wrong ...

2009-04-03T00:24:00.001-04:00

You thought your kid(s) gave you a rough time today? Here's my afternoon ...
So, during "rest time" today while the kids were supposedly sleeping, I took the monitors outside so I could get some garden work done. I started to come inside to get some flour to mark an area to dig when I saw Thomas. I knew he had been playing (at first) but he does that frequently, then falls asleep. I opened the door to walk in and I heard water running - *lots* of water. I ran into the bathroom thinking the toilet was overflowing - and saw water dripping from the ceiling. Uh-oh! I ran upstairs, slipping in the hallway where there was also water dripped through, and found the bathtub completely overflowing(!) I couldn't get ahold of ANY of my peeps - not Clay, not Rob, not my dad, not Clay's dad, and *finally* talked to my mom but she had no idea what to recommend for cleanup! Gah! I sent Thomas to his room, started mopping up what I could with towels, and the phone rang. It was Rob, who went searching for Clay for me - apparently I was doing just what I should, thankfully. Their first reaction was "Is Thomas ok?" Which, OMG, I hadn't even thought of (since I had seen him before ever hearing the water). But seriously - what if, what if, what if?!
Apparently this was all a science experiment - Thomas wanted to know what happens when the bathtub fills all the way up (!), and then decided he wanted *me* to turn off the water (he couldn't figure it out) but got distracted and started playing rather than coming to *tell* me I was needed ...
It was a long day.

My little perfectionist

2009-01-20T09:25:00.002-05:00

I just had to share the latest adventure in the house ... apparently Beth is quite the little perfectionist, not willing to let on that she can do something until she can do it just right. After setting her up at the table with some Cheerios (just a few at a time, otherwise she throws them all over) and taking Dandy out, I was leaving the kitchen to go get my computer. Beth turns and looks at me and holds out her hand, "Nnno!" She had run out of Cheerios and didn't want me to leave till she had more! Gah!

Sleep!

2009-01-13T09:19:00.002-05:00

Beth is FINALLY starting to get back to sleeping through the night again - last night she slept from 7:30 PM - 9:00 AM *straight*! Yea! A good thing too, I was so sleepy. Thomas woke up at 8 and came to snuggle, then went downstairs, then came back upstairs and was playing so I convinced him to go watch a movie, and dozed off again. He was happy to comply and is finishing up his Thomas the train movie right now. Hey, it was an emergency - I needed sleep!
I got to go out with friends for a couple hours last night, it was a lot of fun hanging out, and the hot fudge sundae I got was fabulous. There were 10 of us at a long table so I only got to talk to a few other people, but it was still fun - I love my mama's group, it's nice having friends close by going through the same stuff.
I'm working at getting the house organized again, I got almost all the Christmas stuff back downstairs yesterday, I think there are a couple towels out still though that I'll have to track down. I'm trying to get into routines so that I can *keep* everything nice once I get it there. So far I've got this:

1. Kids get up, so I do too.
2. Feed kids breakfast, try to remember to feed myself - lol.
3. Check email/message board/other random internet stuff.
4. Make bed and get dressed.
5. Laundry.
6. Dishes, spend a few minutes clearing off counters.

By the time I'm on #6, I usually get sidetracked and do random stuff, sometimes cleaning and sometimes not, till around 5:00. Then, I've got this:

1. Start tidying up a bunch of stuff as quickly as possible before Clay and Rob get home.
2. Help kids clean up toys.
3. More dishes, start dinner.
4. Dinner.
5. Give the kids their bath and put them to bed.
6. Get absolutely nothing constructive done the rest of the evening and play games or mess around on the computer.

It's not perfect, but it's a start!

A long 3 weeks!

2009-01-08T20:31:00.002-05:00

We left home 3 weeks ago, and it was a VERY long 3 weeks. We got to spend a day in Indianapolis with our best friends who now live in a different state, then headed the rest of the way out to St. Louis to be with my mom's family for Christmas. Then, the day after Christmas my aunt died suddenly, so we of course stayed for the calling hours and funeral. We got home late last Tuesday night (was it really only a little more than a week ago?) then Wednesday morning went to Bucyrus to celebrate Christmas with our immediate families and New Year's Eve with my family (Clay's parents had plans). We got home Saturday night, slept and worked on Sunday, then Monday started trying to get back into the swing of things, going through the mail, etc. Well, one of the pieces of mail is the renewal for Dandy's dog license, which requires a rabies tag ... I wasn't sure when she needed her next so called the vet (old family friend who lives in Bucyrus) and found out that both she and Annie are due for shots. Ugh. So, packed the kids and the animals up on Tuesday to head for Bucyrus, promising Thomas that he got to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's (my parents), and Grandma would bring him home in time for preschool the next day. We got halfway to Bucyrus when I got the call that they were having to cancel the appointment, the vet's mom (who, at 87, had been in the hospital in Cleveland for a few weeks after they discovered an aggresive cancer) had taken a turn for the worse - they were hoping to make it up there in time to say goodbye. I guess when it rains, it pours. We had a great Christmas, but it's kind of sucked since then.
In happier news, Thomas had Spanish class at preschool for the first time Wednesday and loved it, hasn't quit talking about it. He still won't tell us what he learned (colors) but at least he had fun. Beth is getting SO close to walking, but gets quite upset when it comes time to sit down - she doesn't want to let go! She's also started using more words - we've got "Mama" (me) "Um-ma" (my mom) "Dada" (Clay) "baw" (bottle) and "ba" (bye). It seems like there might be a couple more, but I can't think of them right now. Oh, and she got another tooth and is working on several more - yea (ugh!) :-P

Sick!

2008-12-16T12:18:00.003-05:00

Another pop-in, just letting you know we're all still alive. Thomas caught the flu either from preschool or playing with other kids on Thursday, then I caught it, then Clay caught it, then Rob caught it. We'd never have made it without my mom who SO kindly dropped everything (even her workout that she was about to go to!) yesterday morning to come and take care of us. Thanks Mom!
Thomas seems to have gotten the hardest hit, he's still pretty wiped out but I think just tired now, not really sick anymore. Clay and I are both feel a lot better; I'm munching on crackers and drinking Sprite and Clay just won a game of Candy Land with Thomas. I think I'll even be able to make my appointment for massage therapy tomorrow (they're hoping to get rid of my headaches, though don't seem to be overly optimistic).
We're heading out to Indianapolis on Thursday evening to meet up with our best friends (Jeff, Onalee, Anna, Lydia, and Wesley). Wesley turned a year old this past week and we haven't ever seen him, we all lived in Kentucky at the same time but moved when Onalee was pregnant with Wesley and I was pregnant with Beth - it will be so awesome to see everyone!
After hanging out with them on Friday, my mom will drive out and meet up with us. Clay will take her car back to Columbus and my mom will go out the rest of the way to St. Louis with us - there really didn't seem to be any point in going *back* to Columbus on Friday then turning around and leaving on Saturday again.
Ok, I'm getting a little tired again so I'm going to read and rest for a while ... here's hoping tomorrow I'll be 100%!

Just popping in ...

2008-12-14T14:03:00.002-05:00

Just thought y'all would like to know that Beth stood up for the first time today; she was holding onto me, I was sitting on the floor - she was babbling away and I happened to look over and she was standing up! Yea! She also was rolling her tongue, it was very cute.
Thomas is sick, he was throwing up all night Friday and yesterday morning, then slept for 22 hours, being awake for maybe a total of an hour during that time. My poor kiddo! I'm not feeling the greatest today (or yesterday, for that matter) and took a 2-hour nap earlier, hopefully I'll be 100% tomorrow. Yuck!

Christmas Tree!

2008-12-05T21:42:00.002-05:00

We went to a Christmas tree farm today, actually to take pics for another family while they cut theirs down, but since we were there anyway we took advantage of the opportunity and picked ours out too. It smells so yummy! We'll decorate it tomorrow, I was planning on putting up the lights after the kids were in bed but Thomas apparently begged to help, so they're waiting till tomorrow. I love Christmas time, and I especially love the smell that sneaks through the house, reminding you of the season as you go about your day. Thinking about Christmas always makes me feel warm, even on the cold days!
Speaking of warm in the cold, I also baked some chocolate chip cookies today; however, the first ones ended up pretty crunchy. I put the dough in the fridge to chill, so I imagine the rest will turn out alright ... if not, I don't mind eating crunchy cookies! They make the best topping with hot fudge on vanilla ice cream (*stomach growls*).
I guess I don't have much to talk about right now, I'm feeling really sleepy for some reason so I think I'll just skip the goofing off or reading tonight and go straight to bed!

Oh yeah, and Beth now officially has 4 teeth and crawls, and is in love with our dog (the feeling is mutual - Dandy welcomed her into her crate this morning, cuddled right up to her!) Thomas loves doing workbooks, a friend gave us one and we've been doing a little every day the last few days - he keeps begging for more. I just wish he would focus that much on the OTHER things he's supposed to be doing (like picking up toys, getting dressed, etc.) Sigh.

Waking Up

2008-11-29T23:17:00.002-05:00

Wow! I feel like I've been gone so long that I should reintroduce myself ... in more ways than one! I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner, Beth has been around for 9 1/2 months, Thomas is in preschool ...
You know how they do those little questionnaires at your 6-week appointment after your baby is born to make sure you're not going crazy? Well, that wasn't a problem ... but soon after my appointment, we moved and a million other things were going on, and I started falling apart. I should have gotten help sooner, but thought I was getting better, yadda yadda yadda. I made an appointment to see my old OB/GYN from here back in August, but couldn't get in till September, which I did. She put me on meds, they sucked and didn't work out, ugh. So, last week I went to a FP and she was terrific (in spite of my laundry list of stuff to ask about). I'm now on Celexa for post-partum depression and I feel like I'm all of a sudden waking up to the world (hence the title of the post). I've felt like the real me had been shoved out and just watching this crazy mean person run (ruin?) my life, and my family's life. It's been so frustrating, it feels like you're in this big hole and trying to climb out but someone keeps dumping more dirt on you, you can't get out, and it's heavy! When I explained that last bit to Clay, he said "Yeah, you don't have to tell me, I've had to deal with it for years, but you do explain the feeling a lot better than me!" True enough, it gives me a new perspective on how he has to wrestle his emotions and reactions ALL the time, not just for a horrible several months.
But now I really am getting better, I can tell on so many levels! I've *missed* Thomas when he's gone, he has a new sparkle that we haven't seen regularly in WAY too long, and I'm generally happier and easier to be around. Yea! Now I just have to get the house and the family back on track (not in that order!) There's lots of stuff I want to do with the house, but I've been so out of sorts that I haven't managed to get off the couch long enough to accomplish something real in ... um, let's just say a long time. I have tons of sewing and mending to catch up on, too! As far as the kids are concerned, I can play (for short periods of time, this is medicine, not a miracle!) and I'm looking forward to starting to work with Thomas in workbooks and fun activities as we settle into a manageable and balanced schedule. Beth gets to play too, but really a baby can't do much with crafts other than chewing on the pieces!
Expect to see more of me on here in the future, but I'll be spending less time on the computer overall - I have a life to get back to!

Bearless

2008-10-23T09:50:00.002-04:00

Last night was awful, Thomas forgot Bear at preschool! He's had Bear since his first Christmas, my mom gave him to him (Bear is not an "it", definitely a "him" but it makes it confusing to write!) Bear is sadly the worse for the wear, but Thomas loves him and still sleeps with him every night (there have been maybe a half-dozen nights he's forgotten him since he started sleeping with him). I told Thomas that Bear was spending the night with Weather Bear, but it didn't seem to help. Weather Bear is this "bear" made out of wool fleece that they dress up in different clothes dependent on the weather, and is one of Thomas's favorite activities at preschool. I get an update on what he's wearing every preschool day on the way home. Well, to make a long story even longer, I was trying to get Beth back to sleep when I heard Thomas falling apart, called in the troops (Daddy) to hold Beth while I calmed Thomas down. It took nearly a half hour to get him to understand that we couldn't go get Bear, we would have to get him tomorrow (today), and get him to lay back down and stop bursting into tears every time he remembered Bear wasn't there (every other second or so). *Then* I got to go feed Beth and put her back in bed - it was a long bedtime!

A new day

2008-10-22T12:04:00.003-04:00

Wow, I just reread that last post and I sounded pretty depressed, didn't I? Today is much better, Thomas is in the other room watching Backyardigans while Beth takes a nap. We're visiting the pumpkin patch with preschool today, Thomas has been talking about it all week - I hope it lives up to his expectations! It's also Thomas's snack day, we're taking in some goldfish-type crackers and apple juice. I might throw in some animal crackers, too, now that I think about it - not sure there are really enough cheese crackers to satisfy the masses!
I'm just kind of having a lazy day so far, I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning off the refrigerator, tops of the cabinets, and the kitchen cart - it looks a lot better in there, but it'm making it harder to motivate myself to get more done today, it looks great already! Except for the dishes, new paperwork, laundry, the bathrooms need cleaned ... neverending!

I love my kids, really I do!

2008-10-19T23:33:00.002-04:00

Some days I wonder if I'm cut out for this mommy stuff. I love my kids, the thought of leaving them in someone else's care while I go off to work is stifling to me, but some days I want nothing more than to leave them in someone else's care while I join the "real world". I'm not sure how to overcome the disconnect, but it's there. Why is it that the people we love the most are the ones that drive us the most crazy? Which piece of my heart is so connected to my mind that when I lost that bit of heart to each child, I lost a bit of my mind too?
I'm told that 3-year-olds turn into 4-year-olds, then 5-year-olds, then teenagers, then produce grandchildren, but for now the 3-year-old is giving me way too many gray hairs for my age.
And Beth just woke up needing to eat. Sigh.
Goodnight.

Speaking ...

2008-10-06T15:44:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, Beth embarked on the journey that will lead to my eventual loss of sanity ... she started speaking. While I'm more than thrilled with the progress (in the last week she's started waving, clapping, walking with me holding her hands, and saying "Mum-mum-mum") I also have the experience now to realize where this is all leading ... Thomas's everlasting refrain of "Why?" will soon become Beth's! One, I can handle, if barely. Two of them ... oh dear!
It's funny how differently you watch and interact with your kids - with Thomas, I watched him all the time, noting everything that changed as he grew older. Still I do the same thing - I guess because he's always entering uncharted territory for me. With Beth, we've already been there, done that, so while it's exciting, it doesn't send me straight for the phone to brag about her newest accomplishment each time she does something new. That and I know that the sitting and "walking" lead to baby gates and childproofing like mad, the talking leads to INCESSANT questions, and the clapping and waving are already being used to get attention, even when there's other things that need to be done.
Am I the only one who sometimes dreads the next developmental step? What are you NOT looking forward to your kid doing for the first time?

Hello World!

2008-10-02T23:38:00.003-04:00

A fellow blogger asked if I have a blog and I realized I haven't posted lately, so figured if I'm going to give out my URL I'd better have something recent up! I could make all sorts of excuses, but I'll just skip them, you've heard them all before.
Thomas loves preschool, he's really looking forward to his first "Storytime" tomorrow - it's the enrichment program for the 3-year-olds at his school. He absolutely loves his teachers, loves playing, loves "Weather Bear", and is learning the days of the week based on which days he gets to go to school. I love it too; Beth and I usually get the grocery shopping done one day, we go home and work on the house the other - it's so much easier shopping with one kid rather than 2!
Everyone's been sick around here, Thomas just started feeling quite a bit better today so I'm looking for Beth to feel a lot better tomorrow (T brought it home from preschool, B got it the day after him, me the day after that, and Clay and Rob the day after that). Beth is growing and becoming much more mobile, she loves to roll all over the room especially when the obstacles are out of the way.
My brother Rob is living with us as he looks for a job and gets ready to start at OSU during winter quarter ... he's transferring there after leaving Miami University, so here's hoping OSU will be a better fit for him. I'm really glad he's decided to move on, it felt like he was just sort of stagnating at Miami. We love having him here, the kids love him and it's a lot of fun having someone else to play games with! He's a million times better about doing the dishes than I am, so while I might have thought it would take a bit *more* work to take care of the house with him here, it's actually made it easier! Yea!
I'm doing a lot better now that I'm on meds, I was diagnosed with PPD and - lo-and-behold - the world is a happy place again! We're also part of a playgroup where we've been making a lot of friends and enjoying new activities, doing lots of things we wouldn't do when it's just the kids and me. Today we went over to Homestead Park in Hilliard, it was absolutely terrific! The park is huge, we did a stroller walk then let the kids play in the different play areas while the mommies got to visit and be real people.
Ok, I should have gone to bed a long time ago, but wanted to get something up to let everyone (all 6 of you! jk) know that we're still alive!

Preschool

2008-09-10T21:05:00.001-04:00

FYI, the only time Thomas got upset was when I told him we had to go home. Apparently music class made quite the impression, it was the first thing he told me about. Now off to take care of Miss Fussy ...

First Day

2008-09-08T22:31:00.002-04:00

Thomas had his first day of preschool today - well, it was the open house, but he got to meet all his teachers and see the rooms he'll be in, etc. We spent about an hour there and he was SO ticked when I told him we had to go home, which is a good sign I guess. I was a little worried that he would not like the one teacher but he surprised me and buddied right up to her; he even gave her a flash of sparkle with his eyes. It was so cute - I had no idea he could do it at will - but he certainly did and made her notice how nice they are, which inevitably lead to Beth's and mine, but whatever. He was pretty shy with most of the teachers but the kids played together some and I even coaxed some "Hi"s out of Thomas to his classmates. I'm pretty sure he's going to love it, and know it will be a great experience for him.
I love how much he's grown!

When did I get old?

2008-09-03T14:50:00.002-04:00

Thomas turns 3 in 4 days.

Thomas starts preschool in 5 days.

Wow.

It seems like just yesterday that I was holding my newborn son with his fuzzy hair and sweet smell; I've only just started to reconcile myself that those days are long gone - even my second is no longer a newborn, but a full-fledged infant. It's so strange, so disconcerting to realize how fast the time has passed - I want to slow down the clock, maybe turn it back a little, just to watch him grow all over again. It seems like in the course of everyday life childhood sneaked up on us, hiding under the shorter-term babyhood and toddlerhood, waiting to surprise us as soon as we turned around. I love how my boy has grown, how his eyes sparkle, his grin stretches from ear to ear, his hair grows faster than I can cut it. He says the funniest things, asks a million questions, discovers more about life each day. His joy in the smallest of everyday things brings meaning into every aspect of life. A lot of days I could go happily insane with his constant questions, but trying to imagine a day without him takes my breath away! I'd love to keep his little arms wrapped around me, his "big, sloppy, wet kisses" covering my cheeks, but he's growing up so fast that soon they'll be big arms, small pecks on the cheek, and one day he'll probably find that he's too old for giving kisses to his mother - that is, until he grows up. How can I be bursting with pride at the person he's becoming and feeling my heart break at the little boy he's leaving behind, all at the same time?
In case I'm too busy to get on here and say it in a couple days, Happy Birthday Thomas. I love you.

I'm Back!

2008-09-02T10:22:00.003-04:00

It's been a while, but I think I'm returning to the blogosphere. We just returned from a trip out to visit family in St. Louis, but have yet to get back into the swing of things. Thomas woke up and promptly threw up the entire contents of his stomach - thankfully, that consisted only of water! He wants something to eat now, but I'm putting him off for a while, then we'll see what happens. He's otherwise doing great, is now fully potty trained, and looking forward to starting school next week. He'll have preschool Monday and Wednesday afternoons, though the first day is shortened. I can't believe he's old enough to start school!
Beth got her second tooth on Saturday, August 23 - the left bottom front tooth was first, right was second. She's working on some others, not sure which exactly yet but guessing the top 2. She's a lot easier with the teething than Thomas was, but doesn't take medicine NEARLY as well, so it's sort of a toss-up. Ugh.
Clay is HOPEFULLY getting results from his blood tests today, they did a whole slew of tests last week to figure out what's going on with his stomach, etc. He's had an upset belly for weeks, the doctor wants to be pretty aggressive as far as tests to figure out what's going on with him - colonoscopy, blood tests, the scope down your esophagus, etc. Yuck!
I've got an appointment with the OB/GYN this week to talk about hormones, etc. (read: possible PPD but I'm not wanting to call it that or admit that I MIGHT have something more going on than irritability) so Mom will be down to watch the kids for my appt. and the Parent Orientation for Thomas's preschool on Thursday, plus maybe for Clay's scope(s) if we can get them scheduled conveniently.
My brother Rob is going to move in while he finds a place to live and gets school/work figured out, he withdrew from Miami and will be attending OSU but isn't sure which quarter he'll get to start classes. It will be a lot of fun having him here, but I've got to clean out the computer room so he'll have somewhere to crash! It's going to be a BUSY couple weeks here!

First Tooth!

2008-08-15T16:21:00.001-04:00

Beth got in her first tooth this afternoon! Mother and Baby are MUCH happier!

The kids playing

2008-08-06T11:37:00.000-04:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

A trip to the zoo!

2008-08-06T10:42:00.001-04:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I should have taken more pics of the kids, not just the animals!

Big Kids

2008-07-22T16:24:00.002-04:00

Beth had her first solids yesterday! I could hardly believe how she was devouring everything, she ate the whole serving I fixed for her and opened her mouth every time I brought the spoon nearby. When I wasn't going fast enough for her, she was making grabs for the bowl to take care of herself - she's like Thomas's polar opposite when it comes to food.
Thomas started making some more friends today; we went to playgroup and met about a dozen more kids, about 4 of whom were all boys born within a month of Thomas. Apparently we're the only ones that are planning on preschool this fall - everyone else was feeling like their kids aren't ready yet and aren't planning on sending them to kindergarten when they turn 5 either. I couldn't believe it - I might not be ready for Thomas to be grown up enough to go off to school by himself, but that's just because I'm still in shock that he's not Beth's size still. I've gotten a lot more used to the idea lately, but it's still hard to realize he's as big as some of my preschool-aged swim lesson kids were back in the day. I love that he's growing up, but I wish time didn't pass so quickly! To be fair for the other kids though (and this isn't just my bias) he's a bit more advanced so maybe they really aren't ready for preschool.
Baby Peter has a new mommy - Beth has adopted him! I didn't think she'd be interested (Thomas likes him but does just as well ignoring his existence as he does playing with him) but she was ticked and he was nearby. I handed him to her and she played with him for a good 10 minutes before losing him (he's a pretty big baby doll, so I'm surprised she could support him for as long as she did). If I find it hard to believe that Thomas is growing up so fast, it's even more difficult that Beth is already old enough to play with dolls. I'm enormously proud of both my kids (what mother isn't?) but it makes me a little sad too! I never realized how true it is when women who have been moms for decades tell us newbies, "They grow up too fast!"

Play fountain

2008-07-16T20:01:00.003-04:00

We went to meet several of the people in playgroup at a local play fountain today, but as we'd never been and never met any of the families that were supposed to be there, the "meet-up" part was less than successful. We were all there, but so was every other family in Columbus - it was so crowded! So, we never actually found the other people we were going to play with, but it was a lot of fun anyway. Thomas was kind of intimidated by all the kids, so hung back more than I had thought he would going in to it, but he ended up getting soaked and having a blast anyway.
We're headed for the zoo tomorrow to meet with some of the same people, but a) we've been there and know what to expect and b) we're going equipped with cell phone numbers! We're going to go earlier though, so I'm going to take Thomas to the park right now so he gets exhausted earlier, goes to bed earlier, and wakes up earlier.

PS - We're all finally healthy, for the time being!
PPS - I did take pics at the fountain, and I have a lot to post I know, which I promise will happen at some point!

We won the lottery ...

2008-07-14T10:59:00.002-04:00

... but not the good kind involving a windfall of green. We've been down with an extremely nasty virus for the past week, the only redeeming factors being 1) Clay didn't get it! 2) Thomas got it first and was over it before anyone else started feeling symptoms and 3) We live close enough that my mom was able to come down and stay the night to take care of us. I guess I'm the one that got the sickest (fever was over 104 at one point and a week later my throat is still sore) but really, nothing is more miserable than a sick baby. I called in to the pediatrician's office and they wanted to see us, so I hauled my miserable sick self, Thomas's healthy but by now bored self, and Beth's very sad and pathetical sick self to the Dr. on Thursday. He thought it might be strep (imagine how well the throat swab went over) but turns out we've just all got another really nasty virus, and he's seen it a lot in the last couple weeks. So to relieve the symptoms of sore throat he tells me I can use children's benadryl and children's mylanta, mixed together and put in her mouth. The mylanta soothes it, the benadryl numbs it - I'm thinking this is great, and we leave the peds office as they are closing for the night. We head over to Meijer to pick up the mylanta (I have benadryl at home) and some groceries we need - get the groceries, but they don't have the mylanta. Ugh. So then I drag all of us across the street to Walmart where I'm informed that I'm the fourth person in 2 days to come looking for it and no, they don't have it and they can't get it. They suggest CVS, who tells me the same thing - you're the second person today to come looking for it and we don't have it, so sorry. Apparently our Dr. is sending everyone out for this and doesn't know that they quit making it. Grr.
My throat is only a little sore still (finally!) so hopefully today I can make some headway on all the nonsense there is to do around here - I'm absurdly behind after traveling to St. Louis, going to Girls' Weekend, then immediately getting sick - that's over 2 weeks of relying on my mom's overnight (she did some laundry and dishes for us, thank goodness) and Clay's spare time (which he has precious little of, I can't be thankful enough that it was all spent taking care of the stuff I couldn't do). So, I guess this is off for laundry!

Being Mommy

2008-07-07T14:19:00.003-04:00

As I'm writing this, Thomas is avoiding Rest Time by eating Cheerios and counting them (I declined the invitation to join him). As I'm sitting here listening to him and holding a teether for Beth, I'm thinking about how fast the kids are growing. It seems like just yesterday that Thomas was using the Exersaucer and yelling "Bwaaaaaaaaa! Arrrrrrrr! Ahhhhhhhh!" at the top of his lungs, and here Beth is, Thomas having outgrown it nearly 2 years ago. By the way, Beth is the seventh kid to use this toy, Kelley recounted for me while we were visiting on our Girls' Weekend.
Girls' Weekend was fun as always; this was the 10th Annual so we were doing "The Power of Ten" as our theme. We didn't get to do all the activities Jill had planned for us (alas, because they were really cool) but we did do 2: Write 10 things you like about yourself (3 have to be physical attributes). The other was Write 10 Accomplishments you're proud of. It was cool because while we could have easily come up with things for each other, it was quite a bit harder (and more time-consuming!) to come up with stuff about ourselves. It was actually really empowering - I wish we had been able to do the other activity she had come up with too.
We also got to get a massage, my first ever - I can see why people who have the money keep a massage therapist on staff! I'm wondering what specific types of massage would help my headaches, I'm betting there's something out there. I am getting SO tired of using bottles of Excedrin!
Believe it or not, that little segue on the Girls' Weekend is actually related to the first paragraph ... being away from the kid(s) for the weekend (Beth joined us part of the time, she refused to take the bottle) really made me realize how much I would miss if I were working outside the home. I certainly wouldn't mind the extra cash that would be available, but I would miss so many of the cute, cool, and overall amazing advances my kids make each day. There is something really amazing about a life that is nothing more than POSSIBILITY, or BECOMING. Let me explain that, since I'm pretty sure that what I mean with the caps isn't obvious.
Neither of the kids has much life experience under the belt, they haven't made any real life-altering decisions, they have very little in the way of limitations (ie neither will ever be real royalty unless they marry into it). Everything that they will become in the future has yet to be decided; yet, in a way everything is being decided right now. Each new day shapes in some way what they will become, how their personalities grow, what experiences they will be open to in the future. It's kind of overwhelming what an impact I make on the future just by raising my kids. I love who they are already, so I guess I'm doing ok, even though some days are better than others.
The funny thing is, the same thoughts apply to my life as an adult ... sure, the little things every day shape me, but my whole life is ahead of me and I can do whatever I want with it. A lot of days I wonder if I really do want what I'm doing right now, but with every new thing my kids do that I like I become more certain that I wouldn't want to do anything else.
Are you doing what you want right now? If not, what's holding you back?

Prepping for playgroup

2008-06-23T16:15:00.002-04:00

We're hosting our first playgroup here tomorrow, I've spent a huge part of the day procrastinating. I did dishes and started laundry, plus steam-cleaned the carpet where Dandy peed (again!) but that pretty much is the extent of my productive activities. Granted, Beth's been having a rough day and needing held a lot, but it's telling that I'm procrastinating by writing a blog post about procrastinating. Ahem.
So, moving on ... life is good in spite of nasty headaches and suchforth, I'm superly looking forward to going to Cedar Point with my mom (and Greg & Sarah) this Saturday, I can't wait - a kid-free day! Clay and his mom and dad (so, mostly his mom) is going to watch the kids so I can run away for a little bit and have some fun. THEN on the 4th of July weekend we're doing our annual Girl's Weekend with me and Clay's mom and sisters - 2 kid-free times in a row! Seriously! I love spending my time with the kids (and it's nice to finally be getting us all settled and back in a predictable schedule) but this weekend can't come soon enough!
Ok, now I really need to stop goofing off and sweep floors, finish dishes, do more laundry, and generally pick up. And prep food (not much to do on that, thankfully!) Then I can waste some more time.

Father-Son activity

2008-06-21T15:44:00.002-04:00

We got Clay a "Doodle Box" for Father's Day, basically a tool box with supplies to decorate it. Clay and Thomas had a great time decorating it together today, they put stickers and Thomas's handprints all over it. I'll have to post pics once I get them taken.
Allergies are murder here, we're all feeling totally drained, and have been since we got up this morning. Ugh.
Mom and Dad came down to drop off some shelves for Clay, he's going to use them in his garage. He's got so much stuff to put away that he really needs some organizing tools, so this will help a lot.
Now I need a (cat)nap before Thomas gets up!

2008-06-20T14:13:00.002-04:00

Not a whole lot going on right now, Thomas is napping, Beth is just hanging out, and Clay is supposed to be home soon. We're going to go up to Bucyrus to celebrate Greg's birthday this evening, but will return home afterwards. Next weekend we get to go up to Bucyrus and I get to go to Cedar Point with my mom (and brother & his fiancee) for a totally kid-free day. Yippee! I can't wait!
I'm getting a major headache, so I'm going to eat and try to head it off.

Updates

2008-06-19T08:57:00.003-04:00

We gave Clay a cute picture frame and "Doodle Box" for Father's Day. The picture frame was our project at playgroup, Thomas did pretty much all of it himself. I gave him the letters for "Daddy" and traced/cut out the kids' hands, but he did all the gluing, coloring, picking out what to put on there, and placing everything. Now I just have to a) take a picture of it and b) print out a picture to put in it. The "Doodle Box" is actually a tool box sold by Craftsmen that comes with paints and stickers and such for the kid(s) to decorate for their Dads. It's still in the box, Clay and Thomas can do it together (lol, I'm seriously looking forward to watching this, I can just hear Clay trying to not be completely anal while a 2-year-old decorates). Clay wants to take it to work after it's done, I guess tools are pretty hard to keep hold of there, so he wants to be able to lock them up.
Thomas's sandboxes arrived, along with a little playset and (finally!) a slide for the big swingset. Now we just have to get the swingset finished and the sandboxes filled. We got the sandboxes and little playset from a garage sale, the playset has a little steering wheel. It's taken up residence in the basement, Thomas calls it his "car" and a new favorite phrase is "Should I drive it ... ?" I love his "Should I do X?" questions, I'm not sure whether it's a cute saying he's come up with or a new way of discovering standards of behavior. It certainly helps though!

Father's Day!

2008-06-10T09:16:00.002-04:00

The kids and I are going on a secret mission today. Well, not so secret as I'm spilling it here on the 'net, but as Clay doesn't read this blog (I doubt he knows even where to find it!) I can tell. One of the mommies in our new playgroup is hosting a Father's Day craft-making playdate, so we're going to work on a picture frame for Clay. I'll have to work on printing a picture to put in it later, the photo printer isn't hooked up yet, but one thing at a time ...
I'm trying to decide what else to do for Father's Day. I think Clay is an incredible dad, and no amount of money spent will ever be able to tell him that. We're both pretty big fans of the Combined Gift idea - instead of getting smaller gifts at each occasion, we'll do one more expensive gift for XM/FD/MD/BD/GD. I've given thought to a La-Z-Boy recliner, but not so sure yet, they're pretty expensive! Any ideas, anyone?
Ok, off to get us out the door!

It's hot!

2008-06-09T11:15:00.004-04:00

Mid-90s here, it's been miserable without A/C in the cars. We went up to Bucyrus this weekend, Clay fixed the white car (cv axle?) and I helped take pics for the Little Theatre's production of Seussical. Beth was going to be the baby at the end for next week's shows (they had another baby for this week) but yesterday afternoon Horton (main character) asked "Can't we just use the same baby we've had since the other baby is so little and can't hold her head?" Reassured that she's been able to hold her head for MONTHS now, he still wants to use the other baby. Whatever. Here's a pic of the costume I made for the babies to wear - not identical, tho the same pattern, this is a pic from the pattern using the original design:

Kind of annoying, but at least we'll have a cute costume for Beth for Halloween!
Ok, needing to get started on housework, etc. for the day. I'm so glad we have central air!

Off of hiatus (maybe)

2008-06-04T16:18:00.003-04:00

What with moving in and all I haven't been much for posting lately, but as my mom has posted on her blog THREE TIMES since I last posted, I figured I'd better get started again.
It's been quite a month! (Wow, a month already! I can't believe it's been that long!) Let's see, we left PA April 29, closed on the house April 30, Clay graduated that weekend then went back to PA to finish up his stuff there and get the movers all set, we stayed in Bucyrus till our stuff arrived the following Tuesday, May 13, and have been unpacking ever since. Well, sort of. We had the Cold From Hell (ALL of us! Sick 2-year-olds are NOT fun!) which seriously lengthened the time it takes to unpack. The kids and I went to our first playgroup-meetup last week, it was nice to meet some other people.
We're loving being so close to family, Clay's parents (55-minute trip) have been down twice and mine (1 hr. 10 min. trip) have been down once - a visit every weekend since we moved! My mom also came down one day to shop for some Little Theater stuff. And this is all since we officially moved in - everyone but my dad was here before that at least once to help us get stuff cleaned up and ready for move-in!
My brother Greg and his fiance Sarah came over for dinner last night, which was nice. I made some chicken fettuccine alfredo (main dish) and strawberry shortcake (dessert) as the main things of the evening - salad and rolls to round us out. It was nice having them over, we got to play a game of cards too, which was fun. Here's hoping we can do it again soon!
Ok, Beth is eating which makes it really hard to type so off for now, but I'll try to be posting more regularly from now on out.

Sleep, glorious sleep!

2008-05-27T16:08:00.002-04:00

Beth slept 12 1/2 hours straight last night, and that's all I have to say about that!

LOL

2008-05-26T19:11:00.003-04:00

Ok, have to share this tidbit before getting dinner ... Thomas is annoyed that I'm not doing somethingorother and is apparently convinced that when I'm on my computer I'm blogging. In response to my not jumping up from the computer to do whatever he happens to be wanting me to do, Thomas says:

"Mommy not finish doing her bug!"

He makes me nuts, but how cute is that?

Sick

2008-05-19T10:25:00.003-04:00

Ugh. Clay passed on his cold to both Thomas and I, I have no voice right now but am feeling better than I did at 6 when Beth woke up to eat. Clay has his first day of work today, so this morning we had to frantically search for the little container we keep the keys in so we could get his passport out of the safe. We never actually found it, but fortunately found an extra key where we keep the house keys.
I found a group of mommies online that live here in the Columbus area and do playgroups and such together, so I'm hoping to get started right away! We're still unpacking lots of boxes, but probably won't get much done while feeling lousy. After we're over our colds we'll try to get started with a playgroup regardless of how many boxes there are - try to get settled in and make friends right away!
Ok, off of here - Beth is awake!

Back again!

2008-05-15T09:32:00.002-04:00

Our stuff arrived at the house on Tuesday and we're now unpacking like mad. I've gotten Thomas's room unpacked (I made it a first priority to get him settled in) and I think the kids' bathroom is all the way unpacked - as for everywhere else, well ...
Thomas is in a Big Boy Bed and loves his "Beep-Beep" (Lightning McQueen) bedding. Though when I asked him yesterday afternoon if he liked his bed (he loved it in the morning) he said, "No, I like Daddy's bed." Too bad for him, Daddy's bed is already taken!
Here's a shout-out for my sister-in-law Jill: She's going to be running in the Nike Women's Half Marathon with Team In Training. It's a fundraising adventure for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and she'll be working her tail off to head out to San Francisco in October. It's a seriously major commitment, she can NOT back out once she's said "yes" (which she has). The way it works is they pay for her flight and room out there, but she's got to raise four times the cost. The other three parts go straight to leukemia and lymphoma research - 75 cents of every dollar, in other words. If you look at the stats on fundraising, that's not a bad percentage as is! So, to support a great effort for a great cause go to her TNT page and make a donation! You can keep tabs on how she's doing by reading her blog - send her a word of encouragement whenever you can.
Ok, off for breakfast then more unpacking the Sea of Brown!

New House = Lots of Work!

2008-05-09T00:42:00.004-04:00

Ok, sorry I've been off for so long, I haven't been on my computer much at all (I had about 2 dozen blog postings to read from my Bloglines last night) but there's been a lot going on! I'll post pics at some point, probably on Flickr first (it's easier to upload more). Anyway, bought the house, went to KY for Clay's graduation (that he graduated was cool, that we got to see Jill and JR was cool, the ceremony itself was pretty lame). Probably would have been cooler had it been the only thing going on right now. Because of the way the closing costs and $ from the sellers worked out, we actually forked over less cash than our down payment. How's that for cool? They were only estimating that the costs would be about $500 (I have no idea how we got so lucky on that!) then with the $ from the sellers ($1200) taken off that, we paid less than our official down payment. Sweet.
Clay headed back to PA to give his final and be there for the movers. The movers got there today and told Clay it would be 6 hours tops to get everything packed, but they didn't leave the house till about 8 PM (got there around 11 I think) so we must have a lot more crap than we need (or they thought!) Anyway, our stuff should arrive next Monday or Tuesday, so we'll be official Columbus residents soon! I'm thinking that the fact that we're again Ohioans will hit sometime around after our first night sleeping there.
The sellers left the house nice and clean, but we wanted to have everything as nice as we could before getting anything inside, so I've done tons of dusting, vacuuming, and steam cleaning this last week, and Mom and I washed windows today. I'm looking forward to getting everything there and settling in.
Ok, off to sleep now, but figured I'd post a bit of an update for my 4 readers! ;-)
Oh, and my computer isn't working right so don't be surprised if posting's a bit patchy for a while.

Financed!

2008-04-29T10:39:00.000-04:00

Our mortgage finally is all the way through! Yea! Now I have to finish packing since we do need to leave at some point today.

Catch-up

2008-04-25T16:59:00.002-04:00

Ok, so I've successfully missed Beth's Saturday, Thomas Tuesday, and Thoughtful Thursday ... there's been a lot going on! A brief rundown:
House went under contract Tuesday evening, I woke up in the middle of the night realizing that something is messed up with it. See, they wanted to include the closing costs in the price of the house (you know, add the $ to the agreed-upon price and put in the contract that we would pay closing costs out of it). Fine, great, no problem (really, no skin off our backs!). Alas, we put the $4K in the wrong spot so right now it looks like we'll be forking over $4K *cash* at closing and they'll be getting their loan for the agreed-upon price (without the $4K added in). Needless to say, no good. So, we got ahold of the buyers, they have no problem with rewriting the contract correctly - great, awesome, no problem. But now they're thinking closing costs will be more so we'll have to work that in too ... anyway, they'll be over tomorrow afternoon and we can rewrite to make it a happy ending.
Except. (You know that was coming, didn't you?) The ~~unhelpful idiots~~ very nice people at our new mortgage company decided that they want this house sold (lock, stock, and barrel) before they'll close on the new house, and they saved this lovely piece of information for this week. And having this house under contract isn't good enough. Grrr. Well, we're getting all that worked out (actually, I won't take any of Clay's credit, he's been doing ALL of that end, he's been amazing with everything he's had to hold down lately) but annoying doesn't really cover what I'm thinking of them right now.
Ok, enough ranting, at least on the obnoxious mortgage people (I understand they have a job to do and this country is in a mess with people buying houses too big, etc. etc. but REALLY!)
Thomas was adorable earlier this week:
Thomas: says something unintelligible by anyone else that sounds something like Mommy's bad
Me: (amused) What did you say? Mommy's bad?
Thomas: No. Mommy's pretty good. Mommy plays on the floor.

Beth, not to be outdone on the cuteness, had this to add to the week: She was wanting to suck but wasn't hungry (she'd completely drained me, she was literally sloshing) so I got out her pacifier. (And to answer questions ahead of time, yes, I do hate them, but as with all things baby, whatever works!) I stuck it in her mouth and she couldn't keep it there because she was so happy she was grinning like a little imp. Clay walks by and says, "Wow! She likes it?!" Now, I'd spent a couple weeks lurking in the baby aisle looking for a pacifier that she'd like (I knew she preferred latex nipples and the Gerber-shaped pacifier, but finding both of those requirements in one her size - not so easy). Apparently I had been doing this for my health, though Clay *knows* how much I hate the things ... anyway, the grins she was giving were hilarious, especially through a pacifier.
Ok, Thomas is up and it's time for bubbles outside (as promised if he'd let me finish typing). I've got a few more topics to cover, but they'll just have to wait for future posts!

House in PA ...

2008-04-22T20:37:00.003-04:00

... is under contract. Need I say more? *Sighs with relaxation."
Yea!

Good news/bad news

2008-04-21T20:02:00.004-04:00

Bad news: Clay's sister was in the hospital overnight for a racing heart - her heartrate was over 220! I can't even imagine, I'd be terrified. Apparently it's fairly common (something like 20% of people over 30 experience it) and she doesn't have to do anything (meds or anything) except have a followup appointment in 60 days. So, a bit of a scare but not nearly what it could have been!

Good news: We have a family coming over tomorrow evening to make an offer on the house! Yea! They seem really nice, they moved here a year ago from San Diego and started renting a house with the option to buy, but decided they do NOT want that house (it sounds like it might be kind of yucky). Here's hoping it all goes well ...

We've all been enjoying the gorgeous weather (it's been in the upper 60's through mid-80's), Thomas especially loves sidewalk chalk. Most common phrase heard in our house right now: "Ta-ess go ouside an do side-walk?!"
Beth officially chuckled for the first time last night. She had sort of heh!'d before, but we got 2-syllable chuckles last night. Heh-heh! I love watching the kids grow, I feel like I've turned around once and they both went from newborns to what they are now.
Speaking of gorgeous weather, we went over to the Freeze for the first time (last time) of the year on Saturday evening - we waited in line for (I kid you not!) over an hour! The line REALLY didn't look that long, but I guess the servers are still getting in their groove for the summer. Yummy though! While we were there, several people kept asking how old "he" (the baby) is. Beth was wearing pink.
And we wonder why the nation is in such a state.

My legs are sore!

2008-04-18T21:42:00.003-04:00

And no surprise - I certainly expected to pay for my spur-of-the-moment run yesterday. On the other hand, I had a lot of fun doing it and look forward to doing more. In fact, I'm planning on doing a 4-mile race on July 4 with Clay's mom and sister (Jill, whose blog I've mentioned a few times here). We do a Girl's Weekend every year with Clay's 2 sisters, mom, and me - Kelley won't be in town in time to go for it, but the other 3 of us are going to slumber party at our new house Thursday night then go to the race in the morning. I'm SO looking forward to it, the last time I participated in a race was Thanksgiving 2006 - and that was the first time I'd run in a year (which was the first time I'd run since Clay and I got married). So you could say I'm a bit spotty on my dedication to the activity. Here's hoping that signing up for a real race will help me continue.
We spent the morning outside, Thomas played with sidewalk chalk while I did some yard work, then we went inside to cool off for a bit. We then left for a walk, stopped at a garage sale to benefit Relay For Life, then went to the park. We got back home for Thomas to take a nap, then Jenn and Dave came over (with Henry, of course) for dinner and another trip to the park. I spent a good bit of time running around on the big playset going down the slides with Henry, which was great for my sore legs. They ached, but I know that it helps get rid of the lactic acid, so beyond just having fun with Henry I was glad to do it for me, too. Thomas spent nearly 20 minutes giving Jenn a dissertation on the ducks, it was hilarious. They had brought over KFC for dinner (the second time in my life I've had it, it was great) and got some of the parfaits with it, so after playing at the park for ?? (a long time) we headed home for dessert. Yum.
Playgroup yesterday was lots of fun, we were outside most of the time then, too. It was a little sad since it was likely the last time we'll see a couple of the people, but such is life I guess. We've made a lot of good friends here in a relatively short period of time, I'll be surprisingly sad to leave for just having been here 10 months. On the other hand - just 10 days till we live in Ohio again!
Oh yeah, and the people who came to look at the house on Wednesday really liked it and are talking to different banks getting the rates information, researching deeds, etc. Here's hoping!

Thoughtful Thursday #1

2008-04-17T19:33:00.002-04:00

Have you read the book "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin yet? It's been on the NYT Best Sellers List for 62 weeks thus far - it's #1 in its category right now. I read it after my mom passed it on to me, and I can't give it anything less than the highest recommendations. It's the best non-fiction book I've read in ... ever, I guess. Certainly among the best, I'm sure they've already added it to the required reading for all the Comparative Studies classes in colleges across the country. It tells the story of the director of the Central Asia Institute as he went from Loafer Climber Dude to humanitarian and director of an NGO whose mission is "To promote and provide community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Central Asia." So they build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The guy, Greg Mortenson, is incredible in his drive to both reach out to girls and provide a non-extremist education in areas most Americans wouldn't (and shouldn't!) dream of going. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that no Americans should go there, but there are plenty of us over there screwing things up trying to make everyone live like us, and I certainly wouldn't trust the "average American" to grasp the concept of cultural relativity. Which is a point Mortenson makes pretty strongly in the book - the "American way of life" is just that - our way of living - and not necessarily appropriate to all (most) situations in the world. The book is both witty and ... prescient. Go get a copy! You'll be reading about a future Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

Running!

2008-04-17T08:25:00.002-04:00

Three cheers for Jill! If you haven't been reading it, her blog is here. And I know she may have had a hard time hitting the road lately, but she's successfully gotten *me* off *my* butt. This is the first time in ... uh ... nevermind (let's just say that figure is in YEARS) that I've gotten myself (just me) out there with the sole intention of taking a run. I ran 1.8someodd miles in 20:35, at least that's what the Gmaps Pedometer tells me. And I had a great time doing it! I even stretched afterwards (go me!) And it was after only the first half-mile that everything loosened up (including my lungs, which were totally confused about being asked to work in the cool air).
I woke up early with you-know-who so she could eat, but since I couldn't put myself back to sleep easily I was thinking about Jill's blog and was like "That's so inspiring, I could almost get myself out of bed to do that!" Which turned into "Well, I really could get myself out of bed to do that ..." Which moved to "I think I'm going to get out of bed to go for a run." To "Hmm, I've packed away all my exercise clothes in boxes since I was *sure* I wouldn't be using them in the near future." Then to "Well, I've got these pants and this shirt, my running socks *are* out still, so I can make do!"
Go me!

Life

2008-04-16T22:17:00.004-04:00

So, lately I've been blah. No news to my 3 regular readers (shout out to Jenn, Jill, and Mom), it keeps me posting, which keeps me sane, but worth saying all the same. Because apparently, I'm not alone. Here's yesterday's post from one of my favorite blogs:

Mayor of Dullsville

I feel boring.

I feel so boring I can't even adequately explain how boring I am. Possibly that is because everyone reading this is over six years old, and I no longer have anything to say to people over six years old. I do child care, and laundry, and grocery shopping, and preschool applications and precious little else. I feel like I've lost the ability to discuss anything other than children.

I don't mean that I'm unhappy, because I am enjoying the mommy thing. I just would also enjoy feeling like I had something to contribute to an adult conversation.

How do you stop being boring?

Another blogger posted a comment that I found really helpful:

A. YOU are not boring.
B. Changing diapers IS boring.
C. That does not make you a bad person. It doesn't mean you aren't a great mom just because you don't want to speak toddle-speak or talk about your kids 24/7. It means you are a grown up. And human. And INTERESTING.
D. To combat this, I read about other people's lives (novels as well as blogs). I listen to NPR. And I started something on my blog called Thinky Thursday where I made a promise to myself to write one post per week about something that had nothing to do with children or housekeeping in any way. It pushes me to engage with ideas out there in the world, and to have little conversations about them. And since I started that, I have found myself starting those conversations with my friends in real life too. This helps a little.
E. We ALL feel this way. It comes and goes and is a normal part of having very young kids I think. I'm sending some hugs, for whatever that's worth.

So, I'm going to try Thoughtful Thursdays (sorry, but "Thinky" is a little too kiddish for a day devoted to NOT posting about kids). Which means Beth is getting bumped to Saturdays (so there's something to look forward to every couple days rather than everything happening at once, and the alliteration goes better this way). See how boring I am? I have so much "bore" that I consider the alliteration of my titles.
Since I will not be posting about it tomorrow, I'll have to say today that we're hosting playgroup tomorrow and then post about it Saturday. And Beth discovered yesterday how to use her voice on purpose, and today I heard her chuckle for the first time. Clay claims she's done it before, but I kinda think he's full of it.
Clay's dealing with a serious academic misconduct at school, I feel really bad for him - he had a really miserable day today where he had to confront his Problem Child and the Child With Problems. (PC being the problem, CWP being the ?inadvertent? provider of copy material.) The s**t hit the fan last Thursday when he caught it in the first place, and he's been consulting with deans and such since then finding out procedures and all. For one of the first times ever, I think my job will be easier than his over the next few weeks.
Thomas was pretty good today, he was thrilled that Henry and the rest of the playgroup are coming over tomorrow, so maybe that influenced his behavior this evening just a bit. And here's a cute tidbit from when Clay got home, complete with grammar:

Clay: It's my Thomas! Hi! How are you?
Thomas: Hi! Thomas pretty good.
Clay: (chuckles) Are you pretty good?
Thomas: Uh-huh. (grins)
Clay: How was your day?
Thomas: It was pretty good. Thomas day pretty nice.

Clay and I were just about rolling.

To top it off, we had a showing on the house at 6:30 that seemed to go really well, here's hoping we hear back from them soon! I'm nervous to type it (don't want to jinx us!) but I think they just might be the ones. Finally! See, and I need to get over this whole jinxing thing - I know it's not real, but obviously on some level don't, 'cause it does make me nervous. I'd say I'm a dummy except that I know I'm not. Silly, maybe, but not dumb. :-)

Oh, and before I forget, a link to my flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hwdiary/

Thomas Tuesday #2

2008-04-15T16:08:00.003-04:00

I'm pretty excited about heading out to Ohio, we close on the house in 15 days! It would be nice if this one would sell first though, I *really* don't want to have to pay a real estate commission!
I've been thinking a lot about what I can do to be a better, less frustrated mom - how to more enjoy being a mom rather than just making it through each day. I think a lot of my frustrations are about fear of criticism of my mommy-ing, like how can I let my kid get away without taking a nap, or let him stay up late, or watch movies, or what have you. I'm trying to take a serious chill pill on that - it doesn't matter what other people think so long as we're all happy and healthy. At least that's what I'm trying to tell myself. I've been trying to be more relaxed at naptime and bedtime - if it takes an extra 10 minutes, so what? The thing that makes me most uptight about it is worrying that Beth will wake up and be throwing major fits, but I guess if I have to go get her it will just be "Naptime Interrupted".
We went over to Jenn and Henry's today, Jenn made these AWESOME pumpkin pancakes along with yummy bacon, it was so terrific. Then we took the kids over to the park that's a couple blocks away, the boys had a total blast while Beth slept. Once she woke up we decided to head back to their house for lunch (well, the boys ate - we were still stuffed on pancakes!) so I could feed Beth (she hadn't eaten since 9). Henry's coming over later tonight to play while Dave and Jenn go to Mythbusters, I think the boys will be in seventh heaven. Unfortunately, even the promise of Henry coming over if Thomas took a nap wasn't enough to get him to fall asleep. However, he's up playing in his room so I guess I can't be too bothered. At least we're both getting some rest (at least from each other!)
Some pics from this morning:

BBQ!

2008-04-14T00:36:00.003-04:00

We had Jenn, Dave, and Henry over with Dave's parents last night for a barbecue. First cookout of the year, yea! It was a lot of fun, but I need to email my brother Rob - he makes the best hamburgers, I don't know what all he adds but they're terrific. Mine were okay, but nothing compared to his! It was 70 and sunny yesterday, rainy and 50 today. Clay taught Thomas to say "April showers bring May flowers!" which Thomas really enjoyed, he loves to talk about the "pretty flowers" in any possible context. Good karma to whomever planted the daffodils here at the house back whenever! Needless to say, I'm glad we had the good weather yesterday for the cookout! Jenn and Dave brought salad (they make the BEST salads ever!), chips and hummus (both the boys loved it when they had it at their house last), and Jenn made gingerbread from scratch. It was heavenly, especially with the vanilla ice cream. I've been really good and haven't completely finished off all of the rest of it that they *too* kindly left here. I don't give it much past tomorrow though!

More pictures - Thomas Tuesday and Beth Thursday #1

2008-04-10T22:10:00.007-04:00

Hey, I'm getting good at this! Or not . . . I've got bunches of pics to post but I'm not doing it all right now. I do want to start posting pics of the kids every week, so consider this both Thomas Tuesday and Beth Thursday. Beth is shown grinning bunches and snacking with Daddy, Thomas is modeling his "Nemo pants" that I made him in one, and the results of a chocolate long john donut in the other.

Here are the results of my sewing for Beth lately:

And a "Special Treat":

It's a love-hate thing

2008-04-09T15:51:00.002-04:00

I love being a mom because:
*unconditional love
*toothless grins
*"toothed" grins
*I have (and am the only one to have) the power to fix all the ills of the world (at least according to my 2-year-old)
*I don't have a boss to tell me what to do
*most days, I can have a mid-day nap if I want
*ever feel like the world wouldn't miss you if you were gone? Children are the definition of neediness. The world would end if I weren't around.
*spontaneous hugs
*getting to watch as my son starts to understand the workings of the world
*getting to see his sense of humor develop
*getting to watch him go head-over-heels for his sister
*I'd miss at least half of what's going on around me if Thomas didn't point it out to me - I'd never notice the schoolbuses, the big red trucks, or the little blue golf tee he spotted in the yard this morning
*Watching Thomas become able to do more and more things by himself all the time

I hate being a mom because:
*Thomas now wants to do EVERYTHING by himself ALL THE TIME - Heaven forbid I should try to help speed anything up
*I spent 20 minutes this afternoon picking up cat food that was ALL OVER the guest room - fully half the bag was strewn around the place
*I am currently a Giant Boob
*I can't just run off or take a nap or whatever without making arrangements for the care of my kids
*No independence
*The last time I got a full, uninterrupted night's sleep was . . . umm . . .
*If I never had to watch "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" again until it's actually Halloween, it would be too soon
*Whining
*I get SO TIRED of having to use the Mommy Voice

Ok, Internet, what do you both love and hate?

Selling

2008-04-06T20:22:00.004-04:00

We've had tons of calls for the house, and lots of people wanting to see it - I've already lost track of the number of viewings. We've got someone coming for a second viewing tomorrow . . . keep your fingers crossed for us! The gal came today with her sister and real estate agent, and wants to bring her mom by tomorrow. She seems really nice, here's hoping she likes our nice little house enough to buy it!
We're all recovering from the trip to WV. Thomas woke up throwing up in the middle of the night last night, but doesn't seem any worse for the wear today. Beth has been kind of upset too, and I wasn't feeling the best either, so I think we must've gotten something at the memorial service or hotel. Ugh. On top of which, Clay is still sick (is he ever not nowadays?) so not a whole ton of help when he's sleeping (which is most of the time when he's home). If I had known the allergy shots would make him sleep this much, I'dve vetoed them from the beginning. Grr.

Pictures, finally!

2008-04-06T20:14:00.004-04:00

As promised, though far past when planned . . .

The house:

Brilliant!

2008-04-03T15:53:00.003-04:00

Clay emailed out to about 60 realtors last night telling them about the house/willing to negotiate commission, etc. - we've gotten 3 calls to see the house in the last 5 hours. I knew I married a smart guy!

A day!

2008-04-02T19:10:00.002-04:00

Remember when you were little and the worst thing that could happen when you were sick was that you got sick on a weekend, or holiday, or summer vacation? Well, I have discovered that our moms had it even worse. Poor Thomas caught Clay's cold and has been miserable all day - and it's nearly 60 outside, sunny, and otherwise perfect. I would have loved to go for a walk with the kids or taken them to the park today, but alas . . .
Not much going on otherwise, I've got a couple pictures that need posting of the stuff I sewed in the last few days, I think I'm going to wait until tomorrow to start any other stuff. Somebody posted a bunch of baby girl's clothing on Freecycle, so I'm picking them up after playgroup (assuming we get to go to playgroup). Yea!
On a totally unrelated subject, I was looking on CNN.com and saw a story about a 4-year-old whose mom neglected him till he was only 10 pounds. How horrible! She told police that she just wasn't ready to be a mom, and when he was born with a severe disability she just got so overwhelmed. Which got me thinking about how the OBs and pediatricians are always saying "If you ever consider hurting your baby, get help right away!" Now, isn't a big part of the problem that these poor women feel like there isn't any help to turn to? Just food for thought . . .

New House

2008-04-02T12:40:00.001-04:00

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Sickies

2008-04-01T14:16:00.002-04:00

Clay's been down with a cold since Friday, and as of this morning it's official, he passed it on to Thomas too. Thomas's nose is running away without him, but other than that and being a little cranky he's not doing too badly. Beth is still sound asleep, I left a bottle with Clay this morning while Thomas and I went to the store, and she's been asleep since he gave it to her.
Jenn and Henry came over yesterday, it was great - Thomas started looking out the window watching for them to arrive as soon as he got up. The boys had lots of fun playing, I finished off Beth's dress, and Jenn worked on a cross-stitch she's been at since a junior in high school. I certainly have had projects unfinished since high school, but I have to admit giving up ever getting them done and just tossing them. Heck, I'm about to toss a project I started just a few years ago - a robe that I cut the wrong size (it was my first sewing experiment and I didn't know better, so I went with what their measurements on the back of the envelope said - that I was a size 10 - rather than my actual size of 4). Anyway, Thomas is pulling out my sewing fabric all over the place, so I'd better go stop that.
PS - Our new house is officially under full contract, all the radon and repair stuff negotiated and everything. Yea!

Beautiful Day

2008-03-30T17:15:00.002-04:00

It's gorgeously sunny here, low 50's, and you really couldn't ask for it to feel any nicer. March really is in like a lion, out like a lamb this year! The people who came to look at the house earlier seemed to like it pretty well and said they expected that we would hear from them soon. So, here's hoping.
I was up till 2 AM again - for some reason Beth's favorite time to eat is between midnight and 2 . . . I get totally deflated during those 2 hours every night. On top of that, Thomas woke up for some reason around 6:20, so I had to go put him back to sleep. Getting out of bed woke Beth up though, so then I had to feed her until a little after 7. This girl EATS! Thomas ate just fine, but Beth is amazing in her capacity to hold copious amounts of milk. I still haven't figured out which leg (both?) is the hollow one.
Now that the house is finished getting ready to sell and all I have to do is keep it that way, I can get some more sewing done. Yea! I want to get a few more dresses and some diaper covers for Beth, plus a few things for Thomas done. I think I'm going to go for a simple diaper cover for Beth first, then some Nemo pants for Thomas, then tackle some dresses. I've missed getting my sewing done, but have had so much to get ready for the house that I just haven't had time. I'm going to have to make sure that I keep sweeping the floor where I set my sewing machine up though, I don't want it to get all yucky looking!

Phone calls

2008-03-29T11:59:00.003-04:00

We've gotten about a 5 calls since yesterday for the house, though nobody has actually set an appointment to come and see it. Thank goodness! The downstairs is pretty much done (needs a good scrubbing in a couple of the rooms, but otherwise ok). The upstairs, however, desperately needs attention. Go figure, Clay came down with a cold on top of it, so he's going to be relegated to watching kids and making a flier to put in the "Take One" tube (that we don't have yet).
I got Thomas in bed so he was asleep by 9:30 last night - thank goodness! He's been so messed up with Daylight Saving Time changing, so it's the first time in ages he's been out before 10. Here's hoping we'll be able to continue that! He woke up this morning convinced that we needed to go to playgroup and promptly fell apart when I told him it wasn't for another 6 days (including today). At least we know he has fun there!
I didn't get to go to sleep until 2 AM, we were in bed at midnight (or was it 11? Can't remember . . .) but Beth decided that was the time to start eating. I would've liked to get a full night's sleep last night, but alas for me.
Now to tackle more laundry and cleaning!

Busy busy busy!

2008-03-27T21:00:00.002-04:00

As if I ever talk about anything else - sorry. We're progressively getting the first floor of the house ready to show. Now just the kitchen and mud room to do, then we're ready to do the second floor! Yea! Especially since pretty much all that needs done on the second floor is the computer room.
We had playgroup earlier today, which was great as always. We didn't get there until 11:00 even though it starts at 10; we weren't even awake until 10:15. I guess I'm going to have to do a reset by waking Thomas up and just having a miserable few days, he's been stalling and staying awake until at least 10:30 the last few days - and hasn't been taking his nap either.
After playgroup we went over for lunch at Jenn and Henry's, lots of fun there too. I'm happy to learn that I'm not the only one who will go to any lengths to avoid talking on the phone. I love email, at least if I say something idiotic I can erase it before sending.
Ok, Thomas and Clay are done picking up the trains, so off to give a bath to the Master Staller.

Scrub-a-dub-dub!

2008-03-24T19:06:00.002-04:00

An appropriate title given all the cleaning being done around here - I've done umpteen loads of laundry, dishes, etc. etc. Clay got home early today (yea!) but promptly fell asleep (boo!). I plopped Beth on him (at least he was being a useful sleeper!) and got lots of sorting clothes done. Since the Great Crawlspace Catastrophe I've been washing baby clothes and sorting, etc. I'm getting rid of a bunch of the ones we never used for Thomas because they weren't in good shape - why I didn't do so before packing them up last time . . . we'll never know. Thomas fell asleep right before Clay got home (just after 3 PM) and didn't wake up until after 6:30! It was awesome, I was able to get so much done, I even took Dandy for a jog around the block. *Pats self on back*. Clay's complaining of a headache so I bullied him into taking some meds. You see, we really need to get to the store (Thomas has been wanting more juice since we ran out 3 days ago) and given his 3 hour nap, Clay does not get an excused absence from this shopping trip. Hee-hee! We just got the inspection results from the house on Clay's email, so he's reading through that ("while my headache goes away") then we're off to see the wizard . . . oh, no, nevermind, wrong story! ;-)

Long (short) night

2008-03-23T18:35:00.003-04:00

Meaning the part where we were awake was long, the part we were asleep was too short! Last night around 11:00 Clay went down to the crawl space to take a bunch of the random stuff we've pulled out to make it less cluttered in here. He noticed several of the totes were on their sides, and when he went to take a closer look saw that they had water in them! Apparently when the creek near our house flooded a few weeks ago (it had rained/snowed several inches within just a couple days) the crawl got water in it - whether from the sump pump failing, the place where it drains out got frozen, or what we don't know. Now here's the sucky part . . . most of the baby clothes (not in use) were down there, so got all mildewey and gross. I got cracking on the laundry right away (after doing laundry all day long!) and would spin a load then put it in the laundry sink to soak in Oxyclean while spinning the next load. There were 2 loads of darks, 2 of lights - the sink would hold 2 loads at a time. So, I spun 1 load of darks, got it started soaking, spun the other and added to the sink. Then I spun a load of whites, moved it to a laundry basket while I spun half of what was in the sink, moved it to a separate laundry basket and spun the other half of what was in the sink then put the rest of the darks in their laundry basket. Then, while I spun the last of the lights for the first time, I got the other lights started soaking, then when the second half of the lights finished spinning, added them. Started an actual wash cycle of the darks, moved them through like a regular cycle of wash to the dryer, did the other half of the darks, same deal. I started half of the lights washing and the second half left in the laundry sink, this time soaking in a solution with laundry detergent too - and got to bed around 2 AM to start feeding Beth. Ugh.
On a happier note, we got to set up an Easter egg hunt for Thomas this afternoon, and he had a total blast. I got lots of pictures, which I'll post sometime in the next week once the house is more under control (yeah, right). We also put a For Sale sign out in the front yard yesterday! Keeping our fingers crossed . . .

Do-nothing Day

2008-03-21T22:28:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I didn't do Nothing, but I didn't really get anything accomplished. I ended up being needed by at least 1 of the kids the entire day, until about 10 minutes before Clay got home (and an hour before we went to Jenn and Dave's for an awesome pizza dinner). The only time Beth didn't need held, I was taking care of Thomas - go figure. Thankfully it's now the weekend, so Clay can hold the kid and I can get the house done. Yea! Not tonight though, I want to go to sleep!
I'm debating going to the Easter egg hunt tomorrow morning with Thomas, it's at 11:30 at the local park so he'll be awake in time but I don't know how Clay will feel about it - there really is a lot to do to get the house ready! We'll see how it is tomorrow, if the weather is icky forget it!
We've finally got our house in Ohio officially under contract (ok, so it's not ours yet, but I can call it ours in anticipation). The sellers came down a total of $9000 from where they had originally priced it, $4000 from the current listing price (they had already come down $5K before we had ever heard of it). Nervous about spending that much, but I don't think we'll be regretting it in the long run. The inspection is scheduled for Monday, here's hoping it goes well! The current owners had a pre-listing inspection done and fixed a bunch of stuff, we'll see how it is now. I'm not expecting anything too terrible, they've owned the place for 20 years and really done well with maintenance and all. I can't wait to get there! We'll close on April 30, so only 40 days. Wow, I've got so much to do here! Starting tomorrow - right now I want to go to bed!

A Fork In The Road

2008-03-20T22:31:00.003-04:00

Ok, so nothing really to do with my day, but I love the title. It's actually the title of a new blog my sister-in-law is writing. Check it out here. She's really got an inspirational message, and gets it out so well that she makes me want to get off my butt and stop whining about my whiny kid(s). Applicable message to a different situation and all . . . Check it out, it's SO worth the read.
I got our closet cleaned up yesterday, today I got started on the bathroom closet but only 2 shelves done thus far. I'll go spend a couple more minutes in there before bed, that way at least everything will be out of the way if one of us gets up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. I'm figuring I'll work my way out into the main areas - not to mention that while they can use a little tidying, the living room and kitchen are already pretty much ready to go. I hope this place sells fast.
We had playgroup today, the kids had a great time with the Easter egg hunt we set up. Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one to think of bubbles for egg filler, so there were a disproportionate number of bubble eggs - on the other hand, you really can't ever have too many bubbles with a 2-year-old! One of the moms had gotten some puzzles, Thomas didn't notice too much with the Easter-themed erasers, but in the long run I know what will be his favorite bit of haul. The kid is crazy about puzzles, he's got 5 or so and could quite easily spend all day working them. Good thing we have so many jigsaws packed away - as he gets older they'll be used a lot!
Ok, enough chatter, the bathroom closet beckons . . .

Rock-a-bye Baby

2008-03-19T12:08:00.002-04:00

7 hours of uninterrupted sleep! Yay! Granted, Beth slept on me the whole night (she had some gas that she just wasn't giving up) but we got to sleep from 1 AM to 8 AM when Clay's alarm went off. I wonder how long we could have gone but for the alarm . . .
Beth's still being very clingy, wanting to be held all the time, and unfortunately the Snugli has not yet been a success. I'm wondering if maybe I need to turn the temperature up in the house, maybe it's a warm thing . . . though I've tried blankets too and that's not getting anywhere either. On the other hand, we REALLY need to get the house cleaned up to get it on the market - I need an extra set of arms! Too bad you can't grow an extra set of those while pregnant!

There's no place like home!

2008-03-18T13:14:00.002-04:00

It's great getting to visit family, but there really is no place like home. It was an exhausting week, we looked at over 20 houses. Most of the ones we had originally had on our list were definite not-interesteds due to neighborhood. Also, we arrived in the middle of the big snowstorm that dumped upwards of 15 inches on Central Ohio, so our original appointment with the realtor was rescheduled from Saturday (the 8th) to the following Thursday (he's a busy guy!) A bit of a bummer for us, but it gave us the opportunity to go see the neighborhoods of the houses we thought we were interested in. We got back to Bucyrus and ditched all but 2 of our list, then spent the next few days coming up with a new list. We went down on Thursday and looked at them, again ditched all but 2. We wanted to look at those 2 again, so we scheduled another appointment with the realtor on Saturday (the 15th). We also came up with a few more in another neighborhood that we were interested in, so we looked at those, too. Yay! After a whole week of constantly looking at houses on the internet or in person, we finally we found The One, so now we're working at hammering out the contract. I'll post pictures at some point, but I've got a lot to work on for our house here too!
Thomas rearranged his attitude while we were gone and is much better behaved now - I think he was just getting bored. My mom said that's part of the curse of having a smart kid - they get bored with same ol' same ol'. Now if we can get back to a normal sleep schedule we'll be in great shape!
Beth is doing well, growing like a weed - much more of a chunk than Thomas ever was, though nothing compared to lots of babies. And she is SO long! I'm kind of worried right now, she likes the pacifier. Thomas was never interested, so no concerns with him - the things just make me really nervous. So many of the kids (Thomas's age!) in our playgroup STILL use them - I don't want to have it be something she's dependent on. On the other hand, it's nice to have something (other than me!) that will calm her down and keep her happy. I guess the debate will continue . . .

Daylight Saving Time

2008-03-09T21:32:00.002-04:00

Sucks. I was all excited and happy that everyone (including me) was able to sleep so late when I came out this morning and saw the clock saying 10:30 - until I went into another room where the clock hadn't already been adjusted. Granted, 9:30 isn't anything to complain about, but it doesn't warrant actual excitement the way 10:30 does. Anyway, Thomas ended up missing his nap in order to adjust - it will be a long time before we do that again! It was pretty much a mess from about 6:00 on, in spite of getting to eat dinner with his Nana and Grandad (we all met at Bob Evans). He was in bed asleep by 9 though, which is something of a big deal as it's 2 hours earlier than we have managed the last few days. Here's hoping we get some good rest!
We're having fun resting and hanging out here - Clay and I went in search of a sled for Thomas earlier (totally unsuccessful) in hopes of introducing him to one of the greatest joys of childhood in winter. Tomorrow we're leaving the kids with my mom to go look at the neighborhoods of the houses we're considering, so hopefully we can stop and find a sled somewhere along the way.
I'm in the midst of loads of laundry right now, Mom's new machines are freaking crazy. I swear they're more complicated than my laptop! I think you need at least a bachelor's degree to figure out how to run the things. And it beckons . . .

No house hunting today!

2008-03-08T17:50:00.002-05:00

We've got something like 14 inches of snow blowing and drifting all over the place here, so we missed out on our trip to Columbus today. A bummer on top of that, we won't get to go until Thursday now - the realtor is booked Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday. On the other hand, Thomas has been great - he totally idolizes his grandpa, following him around (and dragging him when necessary), deciding what random thing they need to do next. Dad is getting tired, but I think he likes being the Most Popular Guy Ever. We went outside for a while earlier, Thomas had a blast but was definitely ready to go inside when it came time. The promise of hot chocolate probably helped! We've all been relaxing and enjoying being inside, though Clay had to work on grading exams, too. Mom and I helped him for a while, hopefully we'll be able to talk the guys into a game of cards later. We're going to work at a crossword now, while waiting for dinner to finish. I love times when you really can't get out (we've been under a Level 3 snow emergency, which means any non-emergency travel is illegal and you can be arrested for driving) so you just hang out and enjoy the day - an enforced Time Out (in a good sense!)

Made it to Ohio

2008-03-07T23:23:00.002-05:00

Thank goodness!
A trip that normally takes 6 hours, we finally made it after 9 1/2 - nothing, I assure you, to do with the extra kid. In fact, both kids were real troopers the whole way - Thomas didn't really start getting whiny until about the eighth hour of travel, and Beth slept (of course) the whole time except when she wanted a bit to eat. Good thing Clay has long arms, he's able to drive and hold a bottle for the baby at the same time - when I'm driving alone, I just have to make hushing noises and pray we get wherever we're going soon.
We're in the midst of a horribly nasty winter storm (put it this way, blizzard watches are out), so who knows if we'll actually get to go look at houses tomorrow. I hope we can, I've been looking forward to it all week, but I'm pretty much convinced that we'll end up spending the day playing cards and staying warm in the house here. Thankfully we've got the whole next week if we need to reschedule!

I love my job

2008-03-06T17:28:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I know I've been complaining a lot about Thomas (I would say my kids, but I don't think Beth has warranted much complaining as yet), but can I just say I think he's absolutely the best kid ever? I did some thinking after a cool-down time last night (after posting my mini-rant) and decided that I've probably been a bit of a brat lately too - and I don't have the excuse of being 2. I also decided that probably a lot of what's been going on is the result of boredom at being cooped up in the house so much with winter and pregnancy and all. So, we did the trip to the gym this afternoon (after playgroup, which was as always a big help in attitude) and it was awesome. Thomas spent an hour running after balls, kicking them, and running after them some more. He got so tired that he laid down and wanted to "go night-night on floor!" He was so mad when we told him he had to go home and go to sleep in bed. After his nap I asked him if he wanted me to get out his legos. Now, he has this HUGE milk crate of Duplos and Mega Blocks, which had been taken away for a) a consequence of repeatedly not picking them up, and b) to make them cool and fun again by not having had them to play with for a while. So, I offered to get them out - "UH-HUH! Thomas is big happy!" How cool is that? And he's spent the last hour running Duplo trains around the living room, narrating how it's gone to get stone with Ooh-hoo (his grandad plows the roads and puts stone down as part of his job of taking care of the roads in their township), it's taking the stone to the trampoline, the stone is dark, the train is getting more stone from Daddy's shoes, etc. etc. It's been hilarious to witness, just beautiful kid-play. I love how his imagination is developing.
Ok, definitely time to finish packing for the trip to OH and some more house cleaning.

Long Day

2008-03-05T23:16:00.002-05:00

I really don't like bratty kids, but I have to admit that today Thomas fully qualified as Brat #1. I know a million reasons I shouldn't hold it against him (and I don't) but it was a very frustrating day. In the 20 minutes Clay was home before Thomas went for his bathtime, Clay got a new view on why I am such a frazzled mess at the end of the day. When I got back downstairs from putting Thomas in bed, Clay told me that if he could he would be paying me six figures for getting through days like today. I've been trying to think of what I could do to get Thomas some exercise, I think it would help, but the weather is just so crappy this time of year. I had a brainstorm a little while ago and realized that there's a perfectly good gym and indoor track that will be great to wear out little legs on just over at the university. We are SO headed there tomorrow after playgroup. Even cooler is that Clay doesn't have a lab tomorrow, so he'll get to come play too. I can't wait!
Now to get the nightly 3-hour feeding in so I can go to sleep!

My afternoon

2008-03-04T15:54:00.003-05:00

Part 1: So, I know that when you reach the stage where your kid is recognizing when he's gone pee in his pull-up that it's supposed to be a good thing. Can I just add the exception of it's NOT a good thing when aforementioned recognition occurs in the middle of naptime? Especially after hardly more than an hour on a day when we had to get up early.
Part 2: Picture this. While trying to convince Kid #1 that he really can't get up yet (uh-huh), Kid #2 starts demanding feeding at the top of her lungs. I head downstairs to pick up a cup of milk for Kid #1 and grab Kid #2. We all climb into the glider, Kid #1 on the left leg drinking milk while Kid #2 nursing from the right. I am SO glad no one with a camera was around, because that was probably a picture no one could pass up.
And Kid #1 is lying in bed talking still, a half-hour later.

Randomness

2008-03-03T14:47:00.002-05:00

Headaches suck. Terrible twos also suck. Combined . . . this is the story of my life today. And for the last week.
I've gotten headaches for years - really bad, nasty, put-you-on-the-floor headaches with no good reason. I get headaches with weather changes, headaches with being too tired, headaches with any sort of extreme (too hot, too loud, too bright, etc.) for any length of time, etc. - I get a lot of headaches. They aren't migraines (so said the headache specialist) and migraine meds don't work - I wish they were so they did. Because symptomatically they're pretty much migraines - just the treatment for one won't work for the other. Ugh. So if you ever see me and I seem not altogether *there*, just out-of-it, saying/doing idiotic things, whatever, that's probably what's wrong. During the first half of pregnancy with Beth I got more headaches than normal (not quite daily, but certainly more than every other day). During the second half, I rarely got headaches. Post-birth, I've gotten one every day the last 7 days. And I have 2 kids now, one of whom has redefined Terrible Twos. Enough to make anyone pretend to be Grouchy the Dwarf for a bit, right?
Enough with the complaining, how's this for weirdness? Thomas woke up in the middle of the night Sat. night with a fever, had it still at 7:20 Sun. AM, I took his temp and it was 102.5. Gave him motrin and put him back to sleep, when he woke up he was fine. No other symptoms (ever), woke up in middle of night last night, was definitely warm but not a high fever like before (didn't take temp), fine this morning. How weird is that?
Now that Beth's eaten again I'm taking a nap!

Better day

2008-03-01T23:25:00.002-05:00

And thank goodness! I've been sleeping horribly the last few nights, waking up (or being woken up) too early, and have a 2-year-old set on removing all doubt as to the existence of the Terrible Twos; these combined have made for a rotten last few days and pretty grouchy mommy. Ok, to be fair Thursday was great until naptime, but the rest of the day sucked. Thank goodness for playgroup.
We're looking at houses in Columbus, keep ditching some and adding others, so we've been hanging around 25 or so to look more seriously at. Clay is going about deleting a bunch right now and finding that there aren't very many at the lower end of our price range. Surprise, surprise. On the other hand, going somewhere to stay we don't want to buy to have to move in a couple years, so let's get what we actually want now, right? Not be ridiculous (can we say sub-prime NO!) but well-considered and thought-out as to what we want and what we're willing to pay, and where those two criteria can meet.
Apparently I'm being paged again (nothing like an infant to make sure you feel necessary to the running of the world!) so off for now!

My Kitten/Horse

2008-02-29T10:47:00.003-05:00

In general life, Beth most closely resembles a kitten - very cuddly, tiny little cries, just very cute and adorable. When it comes to eating, however, she is a horse. Case in point: born 18 days ago at 5 lbs. 14 oz., 17 1/2 inches. 2-week check-up today weighed in at 7 lbs. 1.75 oz., 20 1/2 inches. Normally they are just hoping to have the kid back at birthweight by the 2-week. So I ask, do I have a kitten or a horse?

Food!

2008-02-28T14:52:00.002-05:00

Yay! I'm (day)dreaming about my freezer right now, as the mommies from playgroup brought over a bunch of casseroles and soups for us to eat. How awesome is that?! We hosted playgroup today, so while trying to finish up getting ready this morning (thank goodness Jenn and Henry were the only ones *really* on time, I don't mind looking frazzled in front of them!) I was trying to figure out what we were going to have for dinner. I was drawing a total blank, then Jenn and Henry arrived bearing a dish of lasagna rolls. Those went straight for the fridge so we can have them tonight - then everyone else started showing up with more food for the freezer! Everything sounds delicious, I can't wait to eat them all. My mouth is watering just thinking about dinner tonight!
Playgroup went really well, though for about 20 minutes there pretty much all the kids decided to take turns having a crying break. We (the mommies) couldn't figure out what *that* was all about, but the time passed and everyone was happy again. Lots of fun getting to hang out - thank goodness my mom was here for those 2 weeks, it was easy doing the little bit of tidying needed for everyone to come. Somebody else had been signed up to host this week but sent out an email Tuesday that her son was sick so she wasn't going to be able to (not that any of us would have wanted to bring the flu home anyway!) I figured we might as well, I think all of us mommies care more about having a place to gather and let the kids play while we talk than we do about inspecting each others' houses with white gloves. Not to mention that with the new baby I've got us well stocked on snack foods, so no need to run to the store. Plus, this way I won't be hosting for a while so less worries as far as interfering with the house being on the market. Anyway, it went off without a hitch, except that I've got another headache so I think I was sort of fuzzy the whole time. Jenn and Henry got to stay for lunch after which was great, but I hope I didn't bore Jenn to death since I was pretty out of it, having just taken headache meds. The boys had a great time playing - for some reason both of them have been acting up a TON the last few days, so they spent a lot of the morning trading places in time out.
Off to change (another) diaper!

First Day

2008-02-26T21:44:00.003-05:00

Well, not really, but the first *full* day alone with the kids. We weren't actually alone all day, we went to Bible study in the morning (yay!) - Thomas even stayed in the nursery, which is great, because he won't at our church. I was worried he'd fall to pieces - at this stage, with Beth being new, I wasn't sure I could put him through the separation in addition to everything else. He did great though, had lots of fun playing with the other kids. It helped that one of the kids is from our playgroup (that's how we got hooked up with the Bible study). We did pretty well overall though, even made it there only a few minutes late (and not even really late, they were starting late anyway).
Poor Thomas is teething really badly right now, asking for "orange" (Motrin) "red" (Tylenol) and "the other orange" (Orajel). He was being quite the stinker, but when his teeth hurt like that I pretty much expect it. Why is it that whenever he has a growth spurt, his teeth seem to think they need to join in the fun? Ugh.
Crossword time!

Home alone . . .

2008-02-25T17:43:00.003-05:00

Well, not exactly. This was my first day alone with the kids. Clay's parents went to his lecture this morning, then after we all went for lunch at Subway they headed home. I took the kids to the store to give Thomas a little more of a breaking point from our-house-with-grandparents to our-house-without. It's nice that Beth is still sleeping so much, I got a nap too!
Still looking at houses in Columbus and planning out what needs done here to put this house on the market. Fun stuff.
Diaper time!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2008-02-23T18:30:00.002-05:00

My mom's birthday is today, and we get to celebrate with her some more! Yay! She was going to head back home today, but by the time she was packed up enough she would have ended up making half the trip in the dark, and she hates driving in the dark. I'm certainly not complaining!
I've got another headache, I guess pregnancy is good for some things (other than the end result!) - I didn't have many headaches in the last trimester at all, but I've had one every day this week. Ugh.
Clay's parents arrived yesterday, so we've already had lots of fun getting to visit. I think that their being here will help Thomas (who every night and morning has taken to saying "I want Grandma" over and over) adjust to my mom going home. Thank goodness we'll be seeing her in 2 weeks again when we go to look for houses! Thomas was so funny last night, thrilled to see his Nana when she waited for him to come downstairs (he was playing upstairs to keep him occupied until their arrival) - "Nana! Nana! Nana!", gave her a big hug, backed up and started looking around, "Where's Ooh-hoo?" Clay's dad and Thomas call for each other by calling out "ooh-hoo", so Grandad is AKA Ooh-hoo.
Mom and Clay are out running, Nana and Grandad took Thomas for a walk, and I am recovering from my headache and hanging out with Beth for a little bit. She's so crazy-easy to take care of, you have to look every so often to see if she's used her diaper, she doesn't even get bothered by it! Still waiting for that other shoe . . .

Thomas is not to be outdone!

2008-02-19T22:17:00.001-05:00

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Rugrat #2

2008-02-19T19:41:00.003-05:00

Apparently I should be playing the lottery, because I've gotten so lucky with my kids! Thomas was a really easy baby, but Beth is even easier - I can hardly believe it! Thomas was nice and quiet, just a very sweet baby, cuddly and so forth. He was a pretty spitty baby, but nothing major, no big problems or complaints (even from super-tired new parents!) Beth is even more easygoing (hard to believe, I know) and absolutely LOVES snuggling. Not to mention that she hardly ever spits up or has a hard time burping (I could *never* get Thomas to burp easily, it took forever!). I think I was pretty overwhelmed when Thomas was born, what with being a new parent and all. This time I'm able to spend a lot more time enjoying my kids, especially making sure to enjoy Beth as a newborn. Pretty cool how much love you can have for a creature that has done nothing to earn it except to exist. I love my family!
Beth only woke up 3 times last night, which was awesome, but I'm getting really tired of all these extra hormones that make me break out in a major sweat! If menopause is anything like this, I can TOTALLY understand why people so hate it. I got to sleep in bed for a few hours too - sweet!
Off to feed the baby!

Little One

2008-02-19T15:03:00.001-05:00

Make a photobook - it's easy!

Sleep

2008-02-17T09:44:00.002-05:00

Yay! I got to sleep in bed for nearly 3 hours last night! Actually, I could have still been sleeping right now - Beth is still asleep - but one of the disadvantages of nursing is that eventually you get really uncomfortable. Eventually, you wake up. Last night was long anyway, I wanted to get her started sleeping more in her bassinet post-feeding (we've been sleeping in the glider a lot since we got home!) but she kept waking up to eat. And eat, and eat, and eat some more. I wonder what the MPG rating is on a baby? And if you consider the cost of formula . . . makes you feel pretty good about gas prices! So it was a good night to get some horizontal sleep (as opposed to upright-ish in an extremely comfortable reclined glider). Both kids started crying around 5:30ish, so Clay took care of Thomas and I got Beth (who was presumably hungry again). Thomas didn't know what was wrong but was trying to give Clay a run for his money:
Thomas: "Daddy go downstairs!"
Clay: "You want Daddy to go downstairs? Okay . . ."
Thomas: "Thomas go downstairs too!"
Clay (catching on): "No(!), Thomas is not going downstairs, Thomas needs to go night-night."
Thomas: "Thomas rock!"
Clay: "No, we aren't rocking either."
Thomas cries.

For all that, I didn't mind getting the last 2 hours of feedings all down the front of me (twice), having to change pjs twice, another diaper, and more feeding and burping, all before poor Clay got back downstairs. I guess the first couple days of Beth being home were the Entr'Acte, now we're in Act II - "Life To The Fullest, With Two Kids".

Now I'm being paged - off to do some (more) feeding!

Moms are wonderful

2008-02-15T21:26:00.003-05:00

Can I just brag on my mom a little here? She's out here right now helping me take care of my 2 little kids (and my husband and myself!), and hasn't even dropped all the stuff she's been doing! She's the treasurer for the board of their local theater and not only has been taking care of all of us but keeping up with a crazy-insane amount of work for that too! Since this delivery was so much easier than with Thomas (and he wasn't bad either - we went to the mall the day we got out of the hospital!) I'm in a lot better shape and able to get out and do stuff, so I've basically gotten to recuperate while not having to worry AT ALL about the condition of my house. I guess this is why people hire nannies! I hope I'm able (and allowed!) to run off and take care of Beth like this when she has her babies! I know a lot of people have rough relationships with their parents, but mine are just totally awesome. And always have been, and always will be. So are Clay's, but this is my blog and I want to write about mine right now! So there.
Post-partum visit at the hospital today, Beth is already regaining weight, and we've got the ok to go to playgroup and everything! Yay! Thomas will be thrilled next week, I know it's a big deal for him to get to play with his friends, even if they are all at the age where they do more playing around each other rather than with each other. Thank goodness for Henry, Thomas would have been in real pieces already without contact with another of the toddler set. Our pediatrician in KY was of the set that couldn't imagine taking a baby into public (read: even church) for the first month. We were at church the first Sunday with Thomas, so I was a little traumatized at that. The lady at the hospital was just like "Of course it's not a problem, just make sure those hands get washed!" Sweet.
Now I get to go play cribbage with my totally cool mom. Not only do I have someone taking care of me, I get a playmate too! ;-) Clay plays games too, but as he's grading exams and trying to catch up what he missed with Beth being born . . .

Wuv, Twue Wuv

2008-02-14T15:46:00.002-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day! As I'm sitting down here to blog about my most recent accomplishment (duh) I'm thinking about where we were a year ago and how far we've come. I don't have the dates written down, but give or take a couple weeks a year ago we were sitting in the pulmonologist's office listening to him tell us that he just had another patient with Clay's same illness leave the hospital after a year (!) - thankfully without ending up needing the lung transplant she was on the list for (!!). Clay had gotten bronchiolitis, which is like bronchitis but of the bronchioles instead of the bronchi. Fairly common in children (well, decently common, though certainly not something every kid gets) it's extremely rare in adults, and while less dangerous in kids - well, the other lady who the Dr. talked about is a good example. He would be at the other end of the house, I would have our bedroom door closed, and Thomas' door was closed, and Clay would wake us both up with his coughing. In what was supposed to be his final semester of graduate school. Graduation ended up pushed back, his dissertation defense rescheduled a couple months later, etc. etc. Thankfully he had a terrific doctor and made it through what can keep you hospitalized for a year in just a couple months at home. Between then and July he finished his research, wrote his dissertation, defended his dissertation, applied for, interviewed, and accepted a job as a Visiting Assistant Prof. at Bucknell University in PA; we sold our house, bought another one, found out we were having another baby, packed up all our stuff, and moved to PA, where Clay basically immediately started work.
All before the end of July.
Clay loves his job, and got to spend a few nervewracking months looking for another (permanent) position for once this job is over. After applying to and interviewing for several different places, he just accepted a position as a part-staff, part-faculty member at Ohio State in Columbus, in charge of the Analytical Chem labs as well as teaching a couple classes. It's a bit more involved than it sounds, but that's the basics. We'll only be an hour away from *both* sets of our parents (yay!). In the meantime, I got more and more pregnant until giving birth on Monday to the most beautiful girl ever. And we're looking for houses and planning out getting our house ready to sell, planning for moving in mid-May.
Quite a year!
Beth is gorgeous - I know I'm obviously biased, but I really think she's one of the prettiest babies I've ever seen, even without the bias! Both of my kids are so awesome, I can hardly be more amazed. My family is so cool - appropriate to think about on a day that's supposed to be about love!
I'm sitting next to Beth right now while Thomas is taking a nap and my mom is doing treasurer-type stuff (for their local theater). Jenn and Henry came over earlier, which was totally awesome, and came bearing lunch, which was also totally awesome. Mom and I had just been looking at each other trying to figure out lunch since we had used the last 2 pieces of bread for Thomas' sandwich earlier and neither of us wanted to make a store run today, and Jenn called wondering if they could come by to hang out for a while. I was obviously totally thrilled, and then she goes on to ask if we wanted her to pick up something for lunch on the way. Wow! How cool is that?! Big thanks to them for saving our afternoon; not only did they solve our lunch issues (store run scheduled for tomorrow when we do the postpartum visit at the hospital!) but Thomas had waken up having a rough day, so Henry's visit really turned it all around for him. And us.
Anyway, I'm off to rest for a while, and figure out what we should eat for dinner. Fortunately, we've got lots more dinner options than lunch laying around, so shouldn't be quite the same issue!

The kids

2008-02-13T13:26:00.000-05:00

Email out to the Mommy's Group

2008-02-13T12:45:00.002-05:00

Easier to just post something I've already emailed out than typing it all over again!

Hi everyone!
We won't be there, Elizabeth Rose ("Beth") joined us on Monday at 11:27 AM. 5 pounds, 14 ounces; 17 1/2 inches long - the tiniest baby I've ever held! We got to come home yesterday afternoon, everyone is doing really well - easy labor and delivery! Well, as easy as it possibly could be - my water broke at 5 AM, didn't leave the house until 9:57 to drop Thomas off at Jenn and Henry's (thanks again Jenn!), contractions didn't start getting closer than 5ish minutes and more painful until we were at the hospital. Not even enough time for the epidural or any other pain meds, though I thought I had wanted one. I'm a big wimp when it comes to pain, but apparently didn't need one - even the pushing wasn't as painful w/o meds this time as even just the early contractions were with Thomas' labor (we were induced for him and I did get an epidural after a bit). I know all of you with girls will disagree, but I'm convinced I have the most beautiful baby girl ever to have existed!
My mom is here helping us transition from life with one kid to two, and will be hanging out for the next couple weeks (yay!) so not only are we doing really well, I have a doting grandma here to help if I want a nap! Thomas is amazed by his new baby sister, and has already associated her with pooping and crying (ie he thinks that's all she does) - he's not sure there's a difference between her and his baby doll we got to help him get used to life with a baby. Except that his is quieter.
Anyone else have a kid this tiny? Even the newborn stuff is like a tent on Beth, and when I looked at the preemie stuff at Wal-Mart it's about as wide as it is long - she's not just short, she's skinny, so there was no point in getting any of it either. If anyone has any idea where I could find something to fit her other than the gowns (also tents!) please let me know - it's going to be a couple weeks before she's big enough to not be swimming in the newborn stuff.
Hope you all are having as awesome of a week as I am!
Karen (and Thomas and Beth!)

Will post pics soon, I've got to find the camera cord first.

Welcome to Beth!

2008-02-12T08:57:00.001-05:00

Arrived yesterday at 11:27 AM, 5 lbs. 14 oz, 17 1/2 inches. Never got the epidural, not enough time! Went in right around 10 AM, the midwife was right on. Overall great experience, and they're letting us go home today! Childbirth w/o meds is not nearly as comfortable pushing-wise, but I'd do this 100 times over induced labor. Now I'm off for a shower while Beth is snoozing in the nursery, just wanted to update in case anyone looks at this!

Oh, and by the way . . .

2008-02-11T06:55:00.000-05:00

Labor is so much more comfortable sans Pitocin. Not that it's a cakewalk, but lots more comfortable. And so much better at home too . . . breakfast is good!

In Labor . . .

2008-02-11T05:50:00.001-05:00

Water broke around 5 AM, I am SO hanging out at home as long as possible - I can eat whatever I want and no nurses to stop me! Midwife's guessing we'll head for the hospital sometime around 9 or 10, which is a good time Thomas-wise. Assuming we make it that long, I'll call Jenn and make sure it's alright for him to hang out with them until Mom gets home, and we can drop him off on the way to the hospital. Babysitter is available until her class at 9 if we aren't going to wait long enough. Wish us luck!

House is ready, we're ready; time to show up, Beth!

2008-02-10T22:40:00.000-05:00

Now that the computer room is the best it will ever be (until we actually sell the house, that is) we are officially ready. Dishes are done, going to fold the laundry in a bit, Clay's been run like mad (by me) all afternoon getting stuff put where it should go, rather than the convenient piles that had formed in the computer/guest room. Got rid of a box and a half of electronics stuff too (this is very impressive, btw, Clay got rid of a bunch of cables and everything!)
Never having spontaneously gone into labor with Thomas I'm a little unsure as to when to actually be calling and telling Mom to head out. It's funny though, the midwives at the OB all know that I was induced with Thomas, but don't discount that as far as how I know what might be going on (or not). I've got a hunch that I could end up getting too far along before calling Mom and she won't make it in time - apologies in advance if that happens Mom!
I am SO hoping this "prelaboring" turns into real labor soon!

Snowy day!

2008-02-09T15:58:00.001-05:00

The weather people had called for "a little snow in the morning" - we now have over 4 inches sitting on the ground here. The awesome dude across the street was taking his snowblower and running it up everyone's driveways, so that was more than terrific. Clay is doing a review session for his students - they have an exam on Monday. I'm getting a little hangout time just by myself right now, Thomas actually went to sleep today for his nap (yay!). I probably should try for one too, but instead I ate Oreos. Which means no sleeping, or I'll wake up feeling super lousy. Beth's still pretending to be a bowling ball, I so hope she decides to join us soon. Like, today. I am so tired of not being able to sleep (no pun intended). I know it's "preparing me for caring for a newborn" - whatever. I much prefer the feeding and diapers to not being able to sleep due to pain and discomfort. I'm now down to 64 saved properties on Realtor.com, have been going through and weeding them down, then going to make a list of my favorites so we can make a shorter list of ones to look at when we go. Wow, life moves fast - except, of course, in regards to having a baby. She'd better show soon, she's sapping all my energy the last couple days and I'm not even keeping up with the dishes and laundry (did a bunch of it today but just because it was *that* bad on my clothing situation). The ninth month sucks.

Dr. Visit

2008-02-08T09:36:00.000-05:00

She gives me hope! Yea! Did the internal exam today.
Midwife: "Have you scheduled your appointment for next week yet?"
Me: "Not yet."
Midwife: "Well, let's go ahead and schedule it but hope to cancel!"
Me: "Yea! Are you giving me hope?!"
Midwife: "Well, don't hate me if nothing happens, but yes, I am."

Big grins.

Which means today I'll be cleaning out the guest room for everyone to get here. Yea again!

I am SO ready for this kid to show up.

2008-02-07T22:14:00.000-05:00

And having spent about 4 hours looking at houses online today (after 2 hours last night) I am also ready to give up and just print everything out, shuffle it all together, and pull one out at random. I can't believe that 3 months from now (ok, 3 months and 11 days, give or take a few) we'll be living in another state - hopefully having given birth and survived the first bit of infancy, sold one house, purchased another, and done everything (including any necessary packing for what we'll need access to in the first week) that's required with a move. 3 months. That is, before Beth can fit into the next size up of clothing. What are we thinking?
On the other hand, we get movers this time, and they'll do all the packing, loading, and unloading. I am so very excited about this, last time I was already packing 3 months ahead of time, and still we had family helping us pack stuff to move the day before we left. My mom is also very happy about this (both sets of parents swore that they wouldn't be helping us move any more about 4 moves ago) and has (silly her!) already volunteered to come help me clean before we leave. I have such a cool mom. I just think she's nuts, does she not realize how much there will be to clean considering that we will be moving in 3 months and that will be with not only one but two kids, one of which will need my presence at least every few hours for the foreseeable future?! So either she's totally nuts (my vote) or really REALLY cool (which I already knew). Thanks Mom.
I need a hot fudge sundae.

More nesting

2008-02-06T23:43:00.000-05:00

And I have not, in fact, figured out what Thomas is trying to tell me - it took a half an hour tonight to calm him down enough to sleep without getting through to me. I need to figure out a way to record it and post so everyone can tell me what he's saying.
Got both bathrooms clean, the entire inside of my car, took Thomas for a walk, did the vacuuming, packed the hospital bag, did all the rest of the laundry and the dishes, and cleaned the crayon off of Thomas' walls and rocking chair (he did that yesterday, I was so ticked that I chose to ignore it until today). On the bright side, I discovered that the rocking chair is about 6 shades lighter than I thought it was - I cleaned off literally decades of grime (it was mine when I was his age) that I didn't know was there. For anyone who doesn't know, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers were sent here from Heaven Above as God's Gift to Mommies - especially in regards to crayon. I ran the thing over the arm of the rocker where the coloring was, took one look at where I had taken the crayon off and took the whole thing into the bathroom so I could scrub down the entire chair. I am so impressed with it - over the years it's had a couple pieces replaced with unfinished wood, and now they surprisingly almost match. I swear nothing in our house is that gross, I just thought the icky feeling was because the finish was old on the chair - you know how some old wood finishes get grimy feeling over time? If I remember I'll take a picture of it and post it here tomorrow. Now I'm off to bed, since Clay fell asleep about a half hour ago and it's pretty sad to see a 6'4" guy curled up on a loveseat - he *so* does not fit.

YEA!

2008-02-06T11:55:00.000-05:00

Back to Ohio we go! Clay accepted the offer from Ohio State earlier today, so starting May 18 he will be working back in Columbus! Now I guess I have to get serious about decluttering and packing stuff up and house cleaning. Which is what I should be doing right now.
Now all I need is for Beth to decide to show up . . . I am SO done being pregnant.

FINALLY!!

2008-02-05T22:18:00.000-05:00

I think I've finally figured out what Thomas has been talking about the last several nights. I don't know exactly what he's saying (something that sounds like both "smells trash" and "more chest") but tonight he added in that he needed a tissue. I think he's talking about that his nose is stuffy (well, not actually stuffy, but he thinks it is!) and so he needs a tissue. Go figure. Here's hoping that's what it actually is.
Clay is home after traveling all day to get here - I think it would have been faster for him to drive - his first flight was delayed, so he missed his connection, and the flight he did get couldn't land at the airport for all the fog. So he was supposed to be home (our house, not just the airport) by noon, and he walked in at 6:45. Poor guy, he's exhausted, and Thomas was Daddy-obsessed, so he "got to" play with a toddler all night. They had lots of fun, but poor Clay! He's asleep now (can you blame him?) which makes for a very quiet night for me! Now off for a nice ice cream sundae again!

Now that we've gotten that out of the way . . .

2008-02-05T14:31:00.000-05:00

Apparently the talk about nightmares being just like stories or movies (in that they aren't real) worked last night. Thomas slept until 10:30 (he didn't fall asleep until 11, so that's not a major shock except that he wasn't sleeping past 9:30 the days before) and went down fine at nap time . . . I put him down at 2 and he was out by 2:05. Now I just need to get the rest of the housework done! Clay was supposed to get back early enough for us to all do lunch today, but his flight to Philly was delayed and he missed his connection to W'port. So poor Dave gets to cover Clay's lab for the second week in a row, and we got grilled cheese for lunch instead of whatever fabulous thing we might have eaten. Maybe I'll talk Clay into dinner tomorrow night to make up for it.
Got some ribbon at the store yesterday to finish making the boyish onesies into girlish onesies, I think they're going to look really cute. Will post pics once finished. Lots more to do on the rest of the house before Clay gets home and/or before Beth arrives and/or before putting the house on the market. I'm a bit nervous about it selling, but it's such a cute house that I don't imagine it will be too bad. I hope. Sigh.
Off to more dishes, laundry, cleaning bathrooms, and general randomness.

Nightmares?

2008-02-04T23:29:00.000-05:00

Thomas has been crazy-wild the last couple days, I thought it was just Clay being gone, but now I'm not so sure. I put him to bed tonight and he was all upset for me not understanding whatever he's been saying (still haven't been able to figure it out from the first time several nights ago). I left him to scream a bit because it wasn't going anywhere and I can tell a lot of it is a delaying device (he's good at those). Well, when I went back in and sat him down to rock, I asked him what was wrong. I didn't offer him ideas, no "Are you x? y? z?", which I would have thought I would have needed to in order to get an answer. He looked up at me, thought for a bit, and told me "Thomas scared." !!!!!!! Lots of mommy hugs at that, I held him and rocked and we talked a bit. I asked him what he was scared of, I gathered that he must have had a bad dream and is now scared of sleeping, which would explain the horrible nightmare lack of napping the last 2 days - no pun intended. That and he's scared that our cat will go into his room. Sometimes she pushes his doors open at naptime or when we're in there rocking before bed, though mostly that is fixed by shoving the "Nemo Pillow" in front of the doors before sitting down. I did some googling, this is around the age that nightmares start showing up as imagination really sets in (he started playacting with Bear a few weeks ago, so I know it's started kicking up). That and stress from things like potty training, switching to a "Big Boy Bed", other big life changes, etc. In the last 3 weeks we've ditched both sides of the crib in favor of bed rails, Clay's been gone for 2 1/2 days each week, I'm getting more pregnant (38 weeks today!), and we've been pushing the potty training. Poor guy. I think more than anything though it's the potty training - he was ok last week with Clay being gone; the baby is in fact not here yet and he doesn't really have a concept of what will change (everything) when the baby comes, or what the baby coming even means; we did the bed rails at different times and he wanted the second one, didn't really care or bat an eye. Which leaves potty training, which we've been sort-of doing for a while, but really started pushing hard on a few days ago. I'm going to wait and watch again tomorrow, see how he's doing once Clay is back, but if he's still a mess we are SO going to the pediatrician. Unfortunately, we've never seen this pediatrician, so they'll have no background idea of what he's normally like, but Clay's seen the same person (they have specialties in peds and ?allergies?, I think it is) and they sound like they're the listening/comprehending type that's not making sudden/unfounded assumptions. So right now I'm in a holding pattern but am not willing to wait long to get out of it - it really rips your heart in two to have your toddler son tell you he's scared. Out of nowhere. Anyway, now off for a big hot fudge sundae. Pregnancy heartburn sucks.

Crazy Day

2008-02-03T22:50:00.000-05:00

Clay left for another interview today, and I'm pretty sure the day would have been a total wash without the Superbowl. I know absolutely nothing about football (Me: "Are we rooting for the blue people or the red people?"; Everyone else: Laughs; Dave: "Uh, the blue ones, that's the Pats!") but getting to go hang out made the world an okay place to be again. Thomas woke up early today and was in a Mood (you know, one of *those*), then Clay left which didn't help either. Oh yeah, before that even, when we got up this morning Dandy had peed on the floor again . . . not a good way to start a day after yet another rotten night's sleep. Anyway, we went to church, came back home and I laid Thomas down right away, no later than 2:30 - he jabbered until 4:30 or later! I ended up waking him up at 6, I didn't want to get him up any earlier because I knew he'd be a serious mess. Thankfully Jenn had invited us over for Superbowl, or I don't know how we would have made it through the night. Even *with* the promise of going over to Henry's it took 2 screaming (I mean scary screaming, not just goofy or throwing a fit) fits out of Thomas just to get in the car. I've never heard him go like that, it was actually kind of frightening. Anyway, we managed to get over there and after about a half hour of laying on my lap Thomas cooled down enough to play. He and Henry had a blast, especially later - they were chasing each other around the kitchen/hallway/dining room. It was so funny, Henry would slow down for me to be able to tickle him as they passed by. Jenn and I played a few games of Mille Bornes while half paying attention to the game, which was great - she knows more about football than I do (btw, just heard on the radio that the Pats lost - sorry Dave!) though how much that says is not much (see note on conversation above).
Back to typing from an extended break of talking to DH . . . he just left this morning, but already wishing he was home! To give a bit of an anecdote, Thomas loves to play with Lite Brite pieces (remember those toys we all played with when we were little? Still around, in travel version here!) and has been obsessed with playing with them every morning this week. I kid you not, we were up in his room for an hour playing with them Friday morning before he would ever come down for breakfast. And he didn't get up until 10:30. Anyway, before we ever even got out the door for church (which is at noon) he had managed to get them taken away. For them to have been taken away . . . it was a rotten morning. Did I mention how extremely grateful I am that Jenn invited us to crash their Superbowl party? Ok, I know I did say it a couple times already, but I honestly don't know how we would have made it through the night.
Ok, so definitely bedtime, especially if tomorrow is in any way remotely like today.

Pictures!

2008-02-01T23:31:00.000-05:00

This is the newborn-size stuff I've made thus far, plus a couple Baby Belly pictures. The placements are being annoying with the picture versus the words, so a description of what you see:

Pants to girl-ify some of the NB onesies from Thomas.
A cute little lavender dress, I'm all proud of my decorative stitching at the bottom!
Me in my cute shirt from my mom!
A gray jumper I made - can be worn with any of the onesies (even the boy-ish ones!), though unfortunately thinner (more see-through) than I had hoped. Can't tell in regular lighting though.
A pink onesie I did today, very cute also under the jumper, as well as any of the pants.
A green sweater I crocheted ages ago in preparation, and finally get to use!