The Katz Cradle

An Important Decision

2011-05-02T10:52:00.002-04:00

Abigail’s fourth birthday was coming up and she had an important decision to make.

After being gone half of Friday, March was upon us before we knew it which meant we had a three year old turning four very soon. The big decision, we decided, was going to be up to her. Shall we have a party at our house, destination party or maybe pay someone a lot of money at a location like Chuck E. Cheese? I am even cringing at the fact of going back to a birthday party at that place let alone paying them to host it. Josh and I decided that we would put the decision up to her since she was pretty much officially leaving her toddler years. (Yes, I totally just made up a milestone.) We had been talking about getting four day passes to Disney and we could swing her birthday in there and call it complete! I didn’t think that I would have a hard job of persuading her to have a Disney day for her birthday versus a party at our house but I did want the decision to be up to her. As long as she went along with what I want to do. What? Too mean? I only have a few years of her life I can do this so back off. Soon she will outsmart me and I will have to go along with what she wants. So there!

A few weeks before Abby’s birthday, we figured we would test the waters. Especially since she likes to change her mind from day to day. I was not going to have a party planned for 20 kids only to have her throw a fit that we should have gone to Disney. So we approached her very slowly. Her birthday was still a few weeks away but if she went with the party decision, we needed to get invites out ASAP.

M: “Abigail, we need to talk. You have a birthday coming up and have a very important decision to make.”
A: “Okay, Mommy!”
M: “We can do one of two things for your birthday. It is your decision. We can have a party at our house with all of your friends, or.”
A: “I want a party at my house, Mommy!”
M: ‘Wait there is another option! We can have a party at our house with all of your friends, or we can go spend the day with Mickey at Disney.”
A: “I want to go see Mickey!”
M: “So you don’t want to have a party?”
A: “Nope. I want to see Mickey.”
D: “How about we sleep on it and then we can see what we want to do. Your birthday is still a few weeks away.”
A: “Okay, Daddy!”
The next morning we woke Abigail up and before we even said good morning she said:
A: “Mommy, I have a very important decision to make. Should I have a party at my house or go to Disney to see Mickey. Mommy, I decided. I want to go see Mickey for my birthday.”

Josh and I just looked at each other and said “Great decision! We will go to Disney! Do you think we should see if anyone wants to come with us?

Abigail immediately said “SPRITE!” Next phone call was to solidify the plans with the Sprite’s Keepers, who I had already pre-warned to make their calendar available at the end of March. I knew exactly what the decision was going to be. What? Too pushy? Not when it comes to talking your family into going to Disney with great friends!

Just Need to Stop...

2011-03-14T16:02:00.001-04:00

Breathing…Just kidding.

I feel like I have not been able to catch my breath lately. I feel like I am constantly being swept out to sea by a fast moving wave and can barely stay afloat. My toes brush the sandy bottom occasionally and if I do manage to stand still, I continue to run hard not making much forward progress.

I worked during my vacation in December and knew that I had another vacation coming in February. However, this time Josh and I had a vacation planned for the second week in February. This vacation could not be compromised by work. We had planned (and paid) for a Caribbean cruise months ago. Work was just going to have to deal without me for one week. I do like the fact that work can’t seem to manage without me for just one week but on the other hand, I am not performing brain surgery or any other life saving function that can’t wait a week. Yes, I deal with the Governments of the US and other countries but as everyone knows, things don’t happen in a week. Anything that must be worked can wait. I was not taking my cell phone, Blackberry, computer, email or watching for smoke signals on the horizon from work. I was going on a truly unplugged, kid free vacation (I love my babies but mama needed some “me” time). Josh and I had a lovely time enjoying no bed times, no early rises, no dishes, laundry and all the other wonders of home that we usually have. It was one week to be selfish, take naps, and eat until our eyes popped out of our heads. But then there was the inevitable return to reality. Work had been trying to channel me through ESP and let me know that I was going to be traveling to Dayton, Ohio the next day. Okay, in their defense they warned me that this could be coming and I need to check my email for a plane ticket when I return home. But still! We got home around 9:30 AM on Sunday and I was on a plane at 11:00 AM on Monday heading for cold and snowy Dayton. That just sucked. What was worse, we couldn’t bring ourselves to tell Abigail that I was going away again. She was fine while we were away but she actually got teary when she went to go down for a nap because she thought we were leaving again. So we would just tell her that I was working late. Thankfully I was going to be back home on Wednesday so that story was going to work quite well.

There is nothing like trying to travel and catch up with work when you have been away for a week. I have never had to change my out of office response on my email immediately from one trip to another. Sure I have had to change it from coming back on a trip on one day and then unknowingly having to extend the trip but two back to back? Forget it. I got home Wednesday night and Thursday was a nightmare at work. Still trying to play catch up on my email when work isn’t stopping for you to catch up can be challenging. Thankfully I had no immediate plans to leave any time soon so the pain would be temporary. However, our weekends were packed and the end was not going to come any time soon. Then I went into work at the end of the next week for my yearly merit discussion (yippee!) at 9:00 AM and was asked if I could leave on Sunday for Bethesda, Maryland to attend a training class. Sure. I had only been home one week out of three. What is another trip? So with 48 hours notice to get on a plane, I planned a trip to MD. This training class was at our corporate headquarters. Since I have only been there once in my almost 10 year career, you don’t say no when your manager asks if you can go. I didn’t even have to dust off my luggage, packed and headed for MD. I had a nice time learning lots. But I was really ready to just plant myself in the state and sleep in my own bed for a little.

I was at work all last week and of course work just keeps piling up. I feel like I have one of those “IN BOX” bins on my desk that magically keeps multiplying like rabbits. I am hoping that I am going to stay put for awhile. I have no plans but I didn’t have plans for the last two trips and only got 24-48 hours notice. I guess that it is great that they want me but I really wouldn’t mind a small break to give my feet a rest.

Maybe by June…

When the Ingredients Separate

2011-02-01T09:20:00.000-05:00

Poor Abigail. We have been experiencing some separation anxiety lately. What makes it worse is that I am the only one who does drop off with the exception of one day a month when I have a 7 AM meeting. We have no idea where this came from. Abigail has been going to the same day care center since she was 5 months old. Granted she gets a new teacher every year but everything else is the same. Same core group of kids, same location, same cafeteria, etc. The only real change has been the food and for the better! I liked their menu before but now it is including neat things like fettuccini alfredo with broccoli and chicken noodle soup. They still get pizza and chicken nuggets but only once a month.

So back to the problem at hand. Drop off hasn’t always been good but this year we settled into a routine in the 3-4 year old room. Abigail would help me take Madeline to her room. Madeline is content to give a kiss and runs over to her friend Riley where she is greeted with a plethora of baby dolls. Madeline LOVES baby dolls. She likes to put them face down, say “night night shhhh” and puts a blanket over them. Total cuteness. But that is for another post. We had been going great until December. We took the kids out for a week between Christmas and New Years like we do every year. I am off of work, Josh is off of work and my parents are usually in town. Plus we save a week of tuition. It is a win/win situation. The first week back was easy but starting the second week of day care, meltdown city. I don’t know what changed but Abigail couldn’t let me go. I had to peel her off of me and let her sit on the floor in a pile of whiney while I went to work. Not really what I want at 7:30 in the morning to start off my day. Josh would get the scoop from her teacher at the end of the day and for a few days the report was Abigail being sad for a little and then after nap she was her happy, cheery self. Well, then came that one day that Josh had to drop her off. I called to check on things and was told she cried for Daddy for over an hour and had to go to the office. Great. Not only do I feel bad that my baby is so unhappy but she is disrupting class so much that she had to go to the front office. Now, the front office at day care is not like going to the office when you are bad. The front office staff had her sit in a chair and read some books to calm down. Abigail, being a book fiend, thought this was great. The next day the meltdown started before I was 3 minutes out of our driveway. I had to sit and talk through the crying and whining for almost 20 minutes before we got to school. This was just going downhill very quickly.

Josh talked to his mom and I talked to mine. We even called the pediatrician because not only was it affecting her, it was affecting me. I was so stressed out that I started to break out like a 15 year old. Not to mention, I am stressed at work. I can deal with being stressed at work and not home or vice versa. But both starts to take a toll on me. Such is life of a working mommy. Thankfully we could tell that she did not have a separation anxiety disorder (can actually result in physical results such as fever, vomiting, passing out, etc). Just a bad case of missing her mommy.

We actually thought we had it licked a couple of times because Abigail decided she wanted to be dropped off in the front office with the books. Fine with me and thankfully fine with the front office staff. Unfortunately, when it came time to go back to her classroom, she melted down. At least it wasn’t with me there. We tried rewards, stickers, happy faces, Ouija boards and nothing. Her teacher was even trying to help us by making Abby her special helper for the morning. Finally last week it started to work. Thursday morning came and Abigail said “I am going to be Ms. Wendy’s special helper today and make you happy Mommy!” WORKS FOR ME! Sure enough, she went right in, kisses and hugs to me and went about being a special helper. Later that night we over did it on showering her with affection and how much she is a big girl. Friday was even better! Then of course the weekend came. Darn weekend!

Yesterday was sad but no crying. I had to say goodbye to the saddest face in the window of school. Her little bottom lip curled out and her eyes on the brink of tears. I just made silly faces and got into my car. Today there were no real tears until she was running to the window to give me a kiss through the glass…and banged her hand on the counter which just brought sad face and tears. Great.

Just have to keep taking this one day at a time. And she thinks this is just hard on her!

Ta-da!

2011-01-10T15:18:00.000-05:00

New format!!!!

When I first started blogging, there were about 3 choices for your background. I didn’t have anything fancy to say so why get a fancy background. I just stuck with some basic design and started blogging. However, I know that there are people out there with neat backgrounds. I was curious as to when Blogger would get on the ball because I know I don’t have the time to change my background, let alone learn how to do it. So last week I posted and noticed that Blogger had some new enhancements. Well, 5 minutes later and here is the finished product!

The only thing that is seriously bothering me is the fact that my Katz Cradle picture is not centered. Now, this is not a function of the picture nor the layout of Blogger. It is just something in the HTML that is making everything justified to the left. It is driving me only mildly crazy because I only have a mild case of OCD but we will see how it goes. Just pretend you didn’t notice it.

Notice what? Exactly!

Madeline

2011-01-06T11:50:00.001-05:00

My precious Maddy-Boo. She continues to amaze me every single day. We are still being blown away by how much she does new on almost a daily basis. I actually was told by day care today that Madeline is the only kid in her class (12-18 month olds) that actually talks. She is not just saying 1 syllable words either. Full blown, understandable, 3 syllable words. Just this past weekend she asked for lemonade because Abigail had lemonade. Granted it came out em-ohn-ade but I think that is close enough for a 16 month old with not even 4 teeth.

Speaking of teeth, we finally are getting friends for the two teeth at the bottom. Of course I still love the little mouth with the two teeth but they were getting lonely. One popped out recently on top and thankfully the one next to it just popped out recently so she doesn’t look like a jack-o-lantern. One other friend who came to the party is a back molar. We have been having some periods of crying for no reason, which we knew meant teething, but was surprised when a molar came in.

One thing that Josh and I are amazed at is Madeline’s outgoing attitude and personality. Of course that also means she is very determined and wants what she wants. We have had to do a lot of policing because she wants something when Abigail has it and vice versa. Though it is still easier to distract her to a different toy. Abigail is a whole other story and often has a tantrum because of course Madeline has the one toy in the hundreds of toys that we have that Abigail NEEDS at that moment. But Madeline is her own person and it is funny how similar yet different are the two personalities. Abigail has always been clingy and scared of loud noises. I remember my parents got these singing monkey’s for Abigail (insert eye roll here) and it took her almost a year to warm up to them. Madeline just hears a loud noise and laughs as if to say “that is all you got”?

Of course there is a few words that she just refuses to attempt. Madeline has a Shamu stuffed animal that she sleeps with. Josh got it for her on her first birthday and it is adorable to see her snuggle up with this little whale in one hand and her thumb in her mouth. However, she does not say Shamu. She doesn’t even try to say Shamu. Nope. Shamu is Boo-bee. I have no idea where that came from. We try to correct it but if we say Shamu, she just looks at it and says Boo-bee. The other one is a bunny that she snuggles with in Josh’s car. The bunny was Abigail’s but she prefers a stuffed bear. For some reason Abigail named the bunny Bunny so we don’t have a creative name for him. However, Madeline has come up with Boo-bah. Now, this is very distinctive and cannot be confused with Boo-bee. We get into the car, get Madeline’s seat belt on and place Boo-bah in her lap. Whatever makes her happy!

Madeline continues to grow up and I am seeing more of my baby slipping away and a toddler starting to sprout in front of my eyes. I am trying to take it all in because I know I will soon see a little girl in front of me.

Catching Up

2011-01-04T15:06:00.001-05:00

Okay. I am a big girl. I can take it. You can start yelling now at the lack of blogging I have done. Go ahead. I can wait. Feel better? Good. Now, that we have that out of the way…

Yes, I have not blogged in a long time. Longer than I care to between posts but what can you do? Life has been marching on and I have felt like I have just been pushed along so fast that my feet have not touched the ground. Remember that new project I told you I was working on? Well, it has consumed me. I barely have time to come up to breathe to work my other programs and then I am pushed down again. I even was so lucky to make a trip to Little Rock, Arkansas to get acquainted with that program and people who work this every day. Of course they don’t understand that I don’t work their stuff every moment of every day though I have had to give that impression. I felt like I was cheating on one contract with another. Sorry BWC, I have to work late tonight. Don’t wait up for me. Meanwhile, I am in bed with ATS the whole night through and ATS is leaving cryptic text messages on my phone. It has been quite a balancing act to say the least. I actually worked 20 hours during my staycation at home before my family came in town. I even worked 5 hours during the week of plant shut down. Not too happy about it but you have to do what you have to do sometimes. I would blog about that but I would just as soon forget it than dwell on it.

Happy 2011 on top of everything. One thing I really would like to do this year it to blog twice a month. I know it sounds like a new year’s resolution but it really isn’t. I don’t know why I can’t find an hour or so a month to blog. There is just no excuses and the kids are growing so quickly. I am missing so many milestones that it is hard to keep up. I finally was “forced” to download the pictures from our camera because it was full. Though most of that was due to Josh’s videos from the Dolphin’s game he went to. But I figured the best thing was just to do a catch all post and give you a quick rundown of the highlights.

Thanksgiving in West Palm. Always fun and lots of food. We even visited Lion Country Safari. It was the first time I had been there and Abigail is still talking about it. We saw lots of animals and spent almost all day there. Great time.
Partying with the Keepers. One of my favorite activities. Sprite turned into a grown 4 year old which makes me want to groan because Abigail is only a few months behind. By the way, I think we are still working off the sugar!
Chanukah. Abigail lit her own chanukiah this year and Josh decided to look up latke recipes. He made the most DELICIOUS latkes. Josh and I actually didn’t get each other a present since we, thankfully, didn’t need anything and also we were going to be spending a lot at Ikea to redo the bonus room.
Little Rock, Arkansas. I was there for a week putting in 12 hour days. Not to mention I got some water in my purse which temporarily shorted out my work blackberry. It was a hectic trip to say the least and since it was almost all work (and exciting Arkansas) I won’t go into too much detail about it.
Staycation. Josh was off of work but I had to work…a lot…but the good news is that we finally got our furniture for the bonus room, took two days and we now have a completely usable room. Anyone who knows what that room looked like before knows what a daunting task that was.
Winter Break. My parents came and we had a nice time. But like all visitors, it was nice they came, nice they left.
New Years. Josh marinated steak and we had sweet potato fries. The champagne flowed and we even had some nice ice cream. After we finished everything and started to wind down the party, we realized it was only 10 PM. The excitement! We ended up watching the Marx Brother movie marathon and enjoyed each other’s company.

There, now you are caught up to speed on almost everything. The kids needs a post of their own to document the last month or so of their lives. Maybe I will do that tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Perfect. Just What I Needed.

2010-11-10T15:43:00.005-05:00

I love contributing to the Spin Cycle from Sprite’s Keeper. I don’t do it often enough because even though she generously gives us a week to spin, I just can spin any time into my spinning schedule which is spinning out of control.

What is even better is when I spin the spin! I like being able to get my creative juices flowing. This week’s spin is on perfection. But since I am already perfect (you can stop laughing now) I realized I was stating “Perfect. Just what I needed.” After a lot of things the past two weeks:

I went to the school’s Halloween parade to see the girls in costumes. Madeline saw me and started crying immediately. Abigail saw me and started crying two minutes later. Perfect. Just what I needed.

I had to miss Halloween to travel to Singapore for work. This is the second of Abigail’s four Halloweens and first of Madeline’s two Halloweens that I have now missed. Perfect. Just what I needed.

I almost missed my plane heading back home because I fell asleep in the hotel. I set the alarm, thought I hit snooze but I turned off the alarm. I needed to leave the hotel at 4:30 AM and woke up at 5:15 AM for my 6:50 international flight. Thankfully, I made it all the way to Chicago but my bag took 40 minutes to show up on the belt in customs. I ran through O’Hare carrying my laptop briefcase because the handle decided not to work. Almost missed my plane to Orlando. Luggage didn’t make it but I was able to swing by the airport to pick it up from the next flight. And in case you were wondering, it takes about 24 hours to travel to Singapore not counting layovers. Perfect. Just what I needed.

The girls were perfect for Josh. PERFECT. I get home and they melt into piles of whiney. Perfect. Just what I needed.

I had planned a trip to DC to visit some friends. Of course my meeting in Singapore is the same week as the weekend I had planned to go to DC. I couldn’t change my plane tickets and suffer the change fees just because of work. So I was home for 14 hours between my Singapore trip and my DC trip. Perfect. Just what I needed.

We went to a brunch at my friend’s house. The kids were playing in the basement with some of the dads while the moms were upstairs. I went to go check on Abigail (I took only Abigail with me to DC) and proceeded to slip off one of the steps and landed right on my tailbone. It hurts to sit, lay down, and forget about bending over to pick something up. Not to mention this happened right before my 2 hour plane ride back to Orlando. Perfect. Just what I needed.

Abigail wanted me to tie her shoe while I was driving yesterday. Yes, she sits behind the driver's side. I told her that I can't do that and she will have to live. She decided to cry and carry on. I couldn't do this under normal situations so forget about it with a bruised tailbone. So I took off her shoe to which she cried more. Yes. Over a shoe. I put her shoe back on when we got into our driveway because I could get out of the car. She went into the house and took off her shoes. Perfect. Just what I needed.

Last night Josh had a parent teacher night and was going to be home late. I have had both girls at home by myself plenty of times. No big deal. However, everyone decided to test out their lungs. Madeline went to bed and woke up crying. (Teething! Tooth on the top broke through) At the same time, Abigail walked into her bed. I actually had both girls crying at the same time in two different rooms. In stereo where available! Perfect. Just what I needed.

I also came back to work to find out we won a proposal and my manager wants me to work on the award. Great. I can cut back on my other programs, right? Nope. I am now part time on three programs. You do the math. Perfect. Just what I needed.

I also realized that between Halloween, Singapore, and DC, I have some posts to write. Perfect. Just what I needed.

Make Me A Liar

2010-10-20T10:45:00.002-04:00

Madeline is really trying to put sounds together to make words. Some of them are actually quite distinguishable.
On Monday Josh picks up the girls and I am greeted at the door by my family when I come home from work. Greeted usually means Abigail says hi mom while she is glued to the TV (she only gets about 30-60 minutes a day before dinner), Josh is running around getting dinner together and Madeline runs over to me to either say hi to me or if something better, like crayons or the cat, she runs over to greet them. Fortunately I get first dibs more often than not but I think that is just because I will pick her up.

Josh and I usually spend a few moments in the kitchen catching up before I run upstairs and change into some kid friendly clothes before dinner. I always end up wearing a bit of dinner and it is not because I am a messy eater. I asked Josh if the girls had a good day and this was the conversation:

J: School said that Maddy is talking and said agua when she wanted water.
B: Whatever. I don’t believe that.
J: Me neither. There is no way.
B: Madeline, say agua.
M: Agua.
J and B: DAMN!

Madeline has been nodding when she wants things and we have been getting a kick out of that. We know she understands so much but the communication has not been there in words we can understand. So of course we started trying out bunches of words and got some results. This is about all we got:

Oreo – Oooohhhhh
Book – Boo Kah
Abby - Abbb Boo

Thanks for making a liar out of your parents, kid.

Potty Training 101

2010-10-19T10:46:00.001-04:00

Rule 1:

When you are potty training, you drill into the head of your intended pupil (child) that you do not go pee-pee in your clothes. Not underwear, pajamas or even swim suits. Pee-pee goes in the potty. Bottom line. Underlined. Bold lettering turned on. Italics are totally optional.

We have been working on potty training for over a year and while accidents are few and far between, we still have them. But since they are very infrequent, we don’t make too big a deal out of them anymore.

Rule 2:

When you take your child to the splash pad that you have been going to for years because it is close to your house, has bathrooms and even a changing table, make sure said bathroom is not locked because they decided to implement a key system.

The splash pad we go to is in an open area. I don’t think that it was originally thought of as a splash pad for kids because it is all cement. Originally, it did not even have tables but has evolved over the years to have tables and even a tarp over the area for shade. Next to the splash pad is a playground with two different size play equipment. It is perfect for us on Sunday mornings when Josh plays basketball. It is only 20 minutes from our house and free. Awesome! Not to mention we usually are there with very few kids on a Sunday morning. Friends usually join us and the kids have a blast.

Rule 3:

When your child turns to you in a wet bathing suit and says “Mommy, I have to go potty”, you look deep in her eyes and try to figure out how long she can hold it because of Rule 2. You try to explain Rule 2 and soon realize that every word just flew over her head.

So being a mommy, I have to improvise often. I told Abigail that she is just going to have to sit in the grass and disregard Rule 1. Of course she looked at me as if I had two heads and I just told her that she can break the rule this one time. She sat in the grass and just couldn’t do it. Looks like we did too good of a job with Rule 1. I tried to move her one piece swimsuit aside, tried to put a towel around her thinking she had stage fright, and even just sat there with her for a few moments willing the pee-pee to just flow. Nothing.

I finally gave up and said we can just load up in the car and go home. I could run to the nearest store but loading up two wet kids or even attempting to change them and then unload the car was not happening. It was just easier to go home at this point.

I started to pack up everything and directed Madeline to come over and get a dry diaper before the car ride home. I turned to tell Abigail to just put her shoes on and saw this:

Rule 4: When your child decides that the only way this is getting done is to strip naked and sit in the field next to the splash pad to do her business, you just laugh and grab the camera.

PITA

2010-10-06T10:02:00.001-04:00

For some reason, both kids decided to bounce off of the walls this past Sunday. I went to a baby shower and when I called Josh to give him a hard time about giving me the car with no gas in it again, I knew I was coming home to a house of insanity…more so than normal. Abigail decided that listening was a option she didn’t even want to exercise and Madeline was just being dramatic because she was upset that I wasn’t holding her then upset that I was holding her. Just how I want to start off a Sunday night to get into the swing of a full work week.

Josh and I finally just decided to ignore the bad behavior rather than trying to compete with it. We had a lot of time outs but at some point you just give up because they do lose their effect if they have to be done in a row. Unfortunately a 3 year old doesn’t understand go to your room and think about what you have done. Now, we were still correcting behavior but the two of us were just spent and in need of a cocktail. Josh finally told Abigail she was being a PITA. (Pain In The Ass in case you don’t know what I am talking about) I laughed and when she repeated PITA to us with an quizzical look on her face, we just said that she was being a pain today and left it at that.

So Monday morning comes and Madeline is fussing again as I attempt to get the three of us out of the house. We think she is teething because she just fusses for no reason. (Nothing logical equals teething. Right?) I finally just tell Maddy that she will have to sit on the floor and cry for a moment while I get the last minute items corralled before we head out of the door. Abby sits down with Maddy and matter-of-fact says to her:

“Maddy, you are being a PITA.”

I stop in my tracks. “Maddy isn’t a PITA.”

“Yes, she is.”

“Do you even know what that means?”

“Yes, she is being a pain.”

Damn…Smart girl…JOSHUA!!!!!

I called Josh in the car to relay the entire conversation. He just laughed…

We have been watching what we say from a language perspective for so long that cursing has pretty much been erased from our vocabulary. Now we are forced to go to a whole other level and make sure we clean up quips! But I live for quips and one liners! I guess we just have to teach the right ones.

Yes, I am Talking To You!

2010-09-23T16:34:00.000-04:00

We have been anxiously awaiting Madeline’s first words. While she has started to progress from just pure baby babble and cooing to discernable sounds. Sometimes she looks at us and says “Do be addor thipbt” and while I will always answer her so she knows that I am listening to her, I am sure she is asking me for a raise in allowance that I am not giving her. Josh and I do not believe in baby talking back with her because how can she learn proper language if we are not practicing it. So Josh and I constantly talk to her and as I have stated before, what she understands is amazing. If I tell her that breakfast is hot, she blows on it to cool it off. If Josh tells her to tickle Daddy, then she reaches over to tickle him. She will sit down if asked and helps put her shoes and socks on in the morning. Madeline has a sense of humor and gets a kick out of when I take her socks off at the end of a day and tries to bring me her stinky socks. I guess my reaction is funny and that keeps her coming back.

With all of this fun, we have been keeping an eye on the calendar knowing her first words were just around the corner. Abigail said her first word at 13 months and since Madeline was now 13 months, we were just waiting. Would she say “nana” (banana) like her big sister or maybe “Oreo no!” (stupid cat) which is the most common phrase we say in our house. As we wait, I keep saying “mama” to her and Josh keeps saying “dada” to her. However, the other day I was holding Madeline and making dinner. I was going to drain the pasta and had to put her down so I did not hold a boiling pot of water in one hand and a baby in the other. Shocking, I know. So I put her down and walked away. She stood right up, raised her hands and walked towards me while saying “MAMA! MAMA!”. I immediately put the pot down to pick her up and Josh just stood there saying “And there is her first word!” (I won! HA!)

Speaking of talking and listening, Ms. Abigail is having issues with her listening ears. I am sure I bought the warranty on them but they seem to be sputtering out. I am sure I at least have the receipt. We have had to have a few timeouts recently because of not listening. I even went to her after her 3 minute time out and asked if she was ready to listen. She said no so I put her right back in time out for another 3 minutes. Josh and I are having our patience tested daily. This week we asked her what she had for lunch and what she did at school. After 45 minutes of working through it and changing our techniques, we were unsuccessful. Finally the only thing we could do was to put her to bed early for being stubborn and obstinate. Punk.

It seems as if we are working hard to get both girls to talk to us! Good thing I have you people to listen to me! Right? Is this thing on?

One and Beautiful

2010-08-31T11:27:00.002-04:00

I am long overdue for Madeline’s one year post (Happy Birthday, baby.) but before the month of August got away from me, I wanted to do a quick post. There are so many milestones that Madeline has hit before Abigail and I have been amazed every day. Not that hitting milestones is a race and we are keeping score but it is just so fun to see who did what first. We only have Abigail to use as a benchmark and since she is growing up fabulously, we know we are on track to have another outstanding girl.

One of the most amazing things is that by one Maddy is walking. Not just a few steps but full out walking from the kitchen to the family room without falling down. She still toddles like she has been drinking the spiked milk but walking is walking. It was amazing how quickly she took to walking. We were seriously seeing the differences from week to week instead of just month to month. My parents even came down to visit once and then three weeks later and remarked at the difference.

We are also still saying “Dooo! Or Doh!” to everything and not really saying Mama or Dada yet. Sometimes it is said as a fluke but we working on speaking words to hear in hopes that we will get something back. As with Abigail, we have also started baby sign language teaching her how to put her hands together to say more. Well, we sort of made progress. Maddy will put her pointer fingers together and say “Boah!” Which of course we applaud and she just laughs. So we aren’t really talking much but what she understands blows us away. We were at a friend’s house the other day for a birthday party. Maddy made herself right at home and started to take off small magnets off of their refrigerator. I was concerned that she would swallow them so we just turned to her and asked “Can you put those back on the fridge, please?” Sure enough, she turned right around, walked over to the fridge and stuck them back on. I turned to Josh and stated “I totally didn’t think that would work!”

Madeline is making strides to becoming a toddler and I am seeing my little baby slipping away. She knows what she wants, understands everything and will be talking up a storm before I know it to keep up with her sister.

Happy Birthday, Maddy-Boo.

Poof! Gone!

2010-08-25T16:41:00.000-04:00

I am back. The summer, as usual, went by in a flash. I have been writing posts in my head but unfortunately that does not get the post onto the computer. I just need to get back into the swing of things.

We had a good but very busy summer. I can say that easily because I was at work all summer just like I am all winter…and fall…and spring. I never really see the change of seasons from inside my cubicle. But Josh definitely knew it was the summer. We counted down the days until the end of school and with excitement (and some apprehension) the summer started.

Summer started off with swimming lessons for both girls. Yes, we had our 10 month old in swimming lessons. We really didn’t think that there was a point to this but the instructor assured us that if she can crawl, she can swim. Our main focus was taking Abigail to swimming because she is the one who I fear the most about falling in the water. Okay, I fear that both of them could drown but I will admit that I keep my eyes on Madeline more since she doesn’t understand what she can and can’t do. Abigail understands it but often chooses not to follow directions but that is a whole other story. After 4-6 weeks of swimming lessons, Abigail was able to swim by herself and Madeline could float unassisted. I was so amazed. I am now a little more secure with Madeline around the water and really liked that she got used to it.

Once swimming lessons were over, Josh finally got to enjoy the girls with being able to capitalize on all the fun things that we have in our backyard. Theme parks, story times and running errands as a good house husband. I totally get spoiled by having him run all the errands for me so I can come right home after work. What was the best part was that Madeline was done with bottles by this point so Josh didn’t have to worry about feeding her a warm bottle in the middle of a theme park. Though he could have just warmed it up on the pavement, it was just another stop that Abigail wouldn’t have the patience to sit and wait for Madeline to eat.

And almost as quickly as it started, it ended. Last week was our first week back to “reality” and life as we know it for 10 months out of the year. Abigail has moved into her 3-4 year old room and we now have to take a right into day care instead of the left we have been taking for 3 years. It is amazing how the little details mean time is moving fast. Madeline is also in a new room since she is a walking girl. Not just a few steps but walking the whole house without falling down. More details to follow.

Thanks for catching up.

EPCOT

2010-06-21T16:46:00.001-04:00

I think the smiles were going to be permanent on our faces. While the kids were slightly fading, we knew we had to persevere. There was still so much Disney to see! We were so excited to be heading over to another park and meeting up with our friends. After taking the monorail over (and it slightly dying on us for about 10 minutes which led to me freaking out that I wasn’t going to see my friend) we walked right into EPCOT and met up with the Keepers of Sprite. I was seriously more excited about seeing them than anything over in EPCOT. After oohing and aahing over how much the kids have grown, we headed to see what ride we would first hit. The boys decided that they wanted to ride Mission Space since it had a 5 minute wait. Works for me! The girls decided on the ride next door which was Universe of Energy. As we entered the darkness of Universe of Energy, I thought that this may be fun for Abigail because it has dinosaurs in it. Abby loves dinosaurs so I figured we would give it a try. I asked Jen if she foresees any problems and she said it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Her little Sprite will just cower in her mommy’s hair if she does get scared. Similar to the Sesame Street Safari of Fun episode. Then the announcer states that small children may be scared because of the dark and loud sounds. Okay, now I am wondering if we should still do this ride. We can do it. Right? (Did I mention I had Madeline in the Bjorn and Abby next to me?) Sure we can! The show started and poor Sprite started to meltdown. Unfortunately you are locked into this ride and there is nowhere to go. I felt so guilty because I felt like I talked Jen onto this ride with the kids. Abby just sat there with her hands over her ears and telling me she was having fun every time I asked. Maddy jolted one time during the big bang (the ding dang?) but promptly fell asleep after that. 45 minutes later, the ride was over and all the kids were again sane. We met up with the guys and decided to go to the Living Seas with Nemo. That one everyone should like. Right…Right? Well, we walked in and it started to go downhill again. I said that we can just meet up with them after but Jen stated that they had just ridden that ride. She was pulling out all the stops not to go on another ride. However, once she was on the ride, everything was great. We had a fun time at Nemo and even did Turtle Talk with Crush!

Minor tangent…I am so glad that Jen blogs more religiously than I do so I could totally just hyperlink her posts instead of writing out ones of my own. I am so sneaky.

After the Living Seas, it was getting soon time to depart. What we did walk by was a character meet and greet. Knowing Sprite is scared of characters, I asked Jen if she minded if we went in and said hi to the characters because Abigail would love it. She of course didn’t mind and we all waited the 15 minutes to see all of the major characters. I was so excited that Abigail was going to meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. It isn’t every day that you can meet all the prime characters in under 15 minutes. It was the perfect end to the day. After lots of hugs, we said we were going to leave before the fireworks because Abigail is petrified of fireworks. Unfortunately she heard me say the word fireworks and I proceeded to freak out. Like seeing the streetlights and telling me that they are fireworks. That kind of freak out. The only thing that seemed to soothe her was her knowing that I am the all-powerful Mommy. I told the fireworks to go home and they went home. So no fireworks!

We trudged back to the parking lot and decided to just walk to our car instead of undoing the stroller and kids to load them into the tram. As we found our aisle, Josh asked me for the keys. I told him I didn’t have them and he told me he didn’t have them. Um. Where are the car keys? Remember in that last post how I said we were so busy getting out of the car? Well, we left the keys in the IGNITION of the car. Thankfully, only at Disney, would we return to our car 12 hours later and still find it sitting there with the keys in the ignition.

We were beat tired and covered with multiple layers of sweat, dirt and sunblock but it was well worth it. We have loads of memories and pictures.

Disney Magic

2010-06-17T16:30:00.001-04:00

We arrived at Disney around 9 AM heavily armed. We had water bottles, the double stroller, three bottles of sunblock, snacks and the credit card. We were set.

Usually when we go to a theme park, we are only slightly armed. We have passes to the other Orlando area attractions so there is no reason for us to spend an exorbitant amount of time at any of them. Whatever we don’t get on that day, we will save for next time. But with one day passes, you go first thing in the morning and try to cram in everything possible until your feet and the kids fall apart.

As we pulled up to park the car, Josh got out of the car and started unloading. I stayed in the car to enjoy the last bit of air conditioning and finish the song on the radio that we were listening to. Then I got out of the car to give Josh a hand. We decided to not load up the stroller because we were only going a few feet to the tram stop. Abby was so excited to see the tram and the fact that it was going to be a neat ride. Little did she know what she was in for. Once we took the tram, we went to the monorail and crammed in it as much as possible. There is no way you wait the 5 minutes for another tram! As we unloaded the tram, we set up the stroller and we were on our way. The first challenge was the gate. I was still nervous about the passes not working for some reason and me being forced to resort to tears. Thankfully, we got in and headed for a first stop…the bathrooms. Yes, I know that was anticlimactic. Sorry. You will get over it. The first real thing we did was to head to the back of the park so we could work our way forward. The line for Daisy Duck at the front of Main Street was 20 deep as it was. We headed for Fantasy Land for our first ride, which ended up being Mickey’s Philharmagic. This is a 3-D movie with the music of Disney. I had to feed Madeline anyways and where better than somewhere air conditioned. We sat down and at the first loud noise, Abigail started crying. We just told her to put her hands over her ears and Josh and I started singing. Because she likes the music, it was a very short fuss. Not to mention, Abby had never been to a 3-D movie before. This in itself was a new experience. After a short show, we headed to our first real ride. Peter Pan! I love this ride. Josh stayed out with Maddy in the Bjorn and I took Abby on the ride. I honestly don’t know who was more excited. After the ride we both had huge smiles on our faces. What more, Josh had a huge smile on his face because he found out that Madeline can pretty much ride everything from the Bjorn. We headed for the carousel, Small World, Winnie the Pooh and more. This was just going to be a day of awesome rides and smiles all around.

We finished with Fantasy Land and headed for Mickey’s Toon Town. There isn’t that much to do there from a ride perspective but we did see a kiddie coaster. Works for me! I would hold Madeline and Josh could take Abby on a coaster. First the height check and they were off! They even got to ride in the front seat which makes the coaster better, so I am told. I DO NOT do coasters. Next we walked by the Disney Race Track. Abby wanted to go ride the car. I was not a fan of this because she wouldn’t get to drive the car (The car is on a track if you didn’t know) and what fun would that be. But I decided it would be perfect timing because Madeline needed to eat some real food. I fed Maddy in her stroller and waited for Josh and Abby to come around the bend. After Maddy was done, we started looking for Josh and Abby. To my surprise, I see a little girl in the driver’s seat with a huge smile on her face. I was so happy that they let her drive. She came off of the ride dancing and we headed to lunch. Lunch was the usual theme park fare of hamburgers and chicken fingers. We were pushing her to eat quickly because we had so much time and so little to do. Wait, strike that, reverse it. Quick, name that movie!

We finished up the rides in Fantasy Land and headed for Liberty Square and Frontier Land. The only thing that we wanted to do there was the Haunted Mansion. This was really going to be a test of Abigail because while it isn’t scary, it can be for a 3 year old. However, with me on one side and Josh on the other, she did so well. Of course she later said she didn’t like the ghosts but I am sure we could get her on there again. We are so mean. The next rides were much more tame. We did Aladdin’s Magic Carpet and the Jungle Cruise seeing all of the animal animatronics. Animal-tronics? I just made up another word! The last stop was Pirates of the Caribbean. Now, Abby LOVES pirates. Her favorite thing at Sea World is the show Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island. We figured this would be another scary ride for her but with pirates, we may be able to pull this off. Sure enough, she was a trooper! She had a great time.

After that ride, we looked at the Magic Kingdom map. We did everything there! I was shocked and even Josh didn’t believe me. But it was only 4 PM and we still had time to play. What next? EPCOT!!!!

House of Mouse

2010-06-14T11:51:00.000-04:00

We live in Orlando. So it should come as no surprise that one of these days we were going to visit Mickey Mouse and all the wonders of Disney World. We had been putting this off for some reason. Disney is EXPENSIVE! We are blessed to have passes to Sea World, Busch Gardens, Aquatica and Universal thanks to my brother and his girlfriend. These passes that we have were free so we are not complaining nor depriving our children of theme park fun in the theme park capital of the world. Though even if we didn’t have Sea World connections, we would have bought passes. I am a Sea World addict. I did also price out the theme park tickets for Disney. The lowest option for us would be $250 per ticket for an annual pass with blackout dates. Hmm. Let me see. $250 PER PASS or free…I will let that soak in for a moment. We would just have to be happy with what we have.

Then about two months ago, Josh came home and a coworker of his had two FREE passes to Disney. We were so excited that we could finally take the girls. With free passes, we picked a date and set everything up. One thing that I was very adamant about was that I wanted to company to come with us. I wanted to be selfish and go on the rides with Abby instead. We could take turns between Josh and I but I really wanted it to just be our family of four for the first time to Disney. Not to mention, when you go with a big group of people to a theme park, you have to accommodate everyone. Get the consensus on where we should eat, stop because someone needed a bathroom break because they didn’t need to go when we made a group stop or even have to skip a ride because someone doesn’t want to go on it. Nope. I try to make my weekends Mommy and Daddy time with the kids. I don’t mind sharing once in awhile but not when it comes to the first time at Disney. Second time to Disney, no problem. We even like to go to Sea World or Busch Gardens with friends because we can be leisurely in our explorations. But with one day free passes to Disney, we had no time to be leisurely! We had rides to go on!

Now here are the weird twists…We had planned to go to Disney on June 11. I was going to take off work and we figured the crowds would be at a minimum on a Friday before schools got out for the summer and people are more inclined to go to Disney during a weekend rather than a weekday. Thankfully friends of ours told us to make sure that the passes we had don’t expire. I didn’t even realize the passes had expiration dates but THANK GOODNESS we did look because the passes expired on June 10. (Thank you again Aaron and Karla!!!). We would have been screwed and I am pretty sure I would have just sat down and cried on the front steps of Magic Kingdom. So we changed our plans last minute and decided to go June 5. Yes, it was a Saturday but again it is still before the summer kicks in. What I didn’t realize (I don’t realize a lot sometimes) was that it was Gay Days at Magic Kingdom. This is the annual get together of the homosexual community. While I am very supportive of having Gay Days events, I am not supportive of it at Magic Kingdom the first day we are taking the kids to Disney. They can come the second day we are at Disney. I was just so worried about the wait for rides. Thankfully, everyone was on the big rides like Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain, neither of which we could (I wouldn’t have gone anyways) ride because Abby wasn’t tall enough. Not to mention, everyone was just so nice and happy there that even waiting in the lines we did were made better by the groups there for Gay Days. One group of guys gave Abby a magic wand and a wishing star from their Cinderella breakfast. I would totally go back to Disney on Gay Days. Now for the best twist, our friends and fellow theme park buddies, the Keepers of Sprite, decided on June 4, that on June 5, they would go to Disney. It was unbelievable because I had not told a lot of people that we were going to Disney because I didn’t want company. But how could I be in the same park at Jen and not see her? We chatted on the phone on Friday night and decided we would meet up in the afternoon because she too understood my request for no one accompanying us to Disney.

The best part was that we did not tell Abigail where we were going. This was because for one, she has no concept of time. We would have been asked if we were going to Disney today endlessly. No thank you. Second, we really wanted her reaction. Unfortunately it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. If you want to see a good reaction, go here! (Jen also mentioned how she called me but left out the jaw dropping part of We were all going to be in Disney together!) We were met with a more skeptical reaction. “Mickey Mouse? Mickey? Donald?” and then a smile as if to say “I will believe it when I see it.” Which I can’t say I blame her because after paying the parking fee, driving and then unloading the two tons of stuff you need into the stroller, taking the tram to the monorail, loading like sardines into the monorail car, getting to the gate, you then finally get to see a Disney character.

I am going to have to write a few entries in this blog to fully document what we did. If I did it just here, then this would take you days to read.

Doctors Can Make Me Vomit

2010-06-07T11:39:00.001-04:00

Last week we had a weird anomaly. Abigail vomited after a nice morning at the beach. What is weird about this? She has never vomited before other than the usual baby spit up. But never the gut wrenching, abdomen crunching, stuff that can come from not feeling your best. The day started out pretty normal. We had a lot of family in town for Memorial Day and my one plan was to go to the beach. The original plan was to do this on Sunday but after Josh hitting Old Town a little too hard and sleeping until noon, it wasn’t going to work out. Therefore I decided to hit the beach on Monday because it was our last chance (I am not even going to get into the BP oil spill debacle) that weekend. The girls all loaded up in the car, Josh’s mom, Teri, Abigail and Madeline. We had a fabulous time at the beach. I even got a workout schlepping everything onto the beach and then back to the car. We played in the water for about an hour and headed back for lunch. Abby wasn’t even hungry when we got back to the house. She had some crackers and goldfish on the beach but nothing abnormal. After nap time, Abby still didn’t want to eat. She finally drank some water and then 30 minutes later…you know what happened. We turned on the TV and it went downhill very quickly. Poor baby wanted to just sit in the bathroom and “spit up” as she put it. It was sort of hard not to laugh at her sitting on Josh’s lap while hugging the toilet. Finally we got her to bed after she just wanted to keep “spitting up” though there was nothing else that was coming up.

The next day she felt better and even ate a little bagel for breakfast. I decided since she had no fever, said her tummy was feeling better I would take her to school. Poor baby had a tough day. Her teacher said she wasn’t herself and just wanted to lay down. That night was pretty uneventful and she was even perfect when it came for bed time. The next morning I decided to see how she was doing. She had half a cup of milk and one bite of waffle since she had not thrown up in over 24 hours. As we were loading up in the car, Abby threw up again. Of course this time all over the car seat and interior of the car. I won’t even tell you what that smelled like. I decided that I would take her right to the pediatrician after dropping Maddy off at day care.

After the weight and temperature check, (she had no fever, thank you) we proceeded into the waiting room. Thankfully, our pediatrician’s office has walk in hours and I can get right in to see someone. I tell the nurse the whole story and she does her obligatory “hmmm, okay” and states that the doctor will be in soon. The doctor walks in and I have to share the entire story again. I don’t know why doctor’s offices do this. Why do I have to tell the story twice. Let me just tell my story once and be done with it. So the doctor walks in and I rehash everything. The first thing the doctor says is how I shouldn’t have given her milk if she was throwing up. Um, didn’t you listen to me? She hadn’t thrown up in 24 hours and had half a cup of milk. See you even knew that because you were paying attention. Then he told me that I shouldn’t have given her waffles because they are high fat and that just sits in her stomach. First of all, I gave her one waffle and a small douse of syrup. It wasn’t a bagel with cream cheese, waffles, bacon, sausage and eggs slathered with butter. It was one small waffle. Then I told him that when Abby first got sick, she had goldfish crackers and juice. Then I told him how she only ate one chicken nugget for lunch the following day. I even told him that we give her “water juice” which is only about 30% juice. I again got a bit of a tongue lashing for giving her the empty calories of juice instead of something nutritionally better. Not to mention that juice stays in your stomach longer and can cause more vomiting. Should I mention that my kid loves vegetables and shares my salad when I have one? Thanks for the guilt sandwich. I wasn’t even hungry.

The doctor did an exam of Abigail’s eyes, ears, mouth, etc. and then said “I am going to get something off the printer and then we are going to need to talk.” I immediately started to internally freak out. What are we going to need to talk about? What did you find? What are you getting off of the printer? Should I alter life as I know it? The doctor came back and said that Abby is fine but probably just has a bug…that is it…Just don’t give her any dairy for a few days and then handed a prescription of an anti-nausea medication if the vomiting is persistent…Are you kidding me? You just freaked me out and the guilt over a bug? Thanks.

We proceeded home and Abigail took a 4 hour nap. After that, she ate a little dinner and went to bed. The next day, she was almost back to normal and by Friday, she was back to her old self. I am definitely going to go back to our pediatrician and request not to see THAT doctor in the group. I don’t need that sort of pediatric care. I am afraid of what he would say if I brought her in with something more than a stomach bug!

Why Not?

2010-05-26T14:07:00.001-04:00

I knew this stage was coming. It is the beginning of the end when your child turns to you and asks why? I know it is just natural curiosity to ask why after a statement when you are young and trying to figure out the world. But…

IT IS DRIVING ME INSANE!

“It is time to go to school, Abigail”
Why?
“Let’s put your shoes on.”
Why?
Daddy has to go to work
Why?
Dinner is ready!
Why?
“Bed time!”
Why?
“Can you find my sanity?”
Why?

I almost want to make a drinking game out of it. One shot for every time that she says “why?”. Gosh. I would be drunk before I hit my cornflakes! Maybe not the best idea. Especially since I drive the kids to school in the morning.

I really do like the sense of questioning your surroundings and foster the sense of curiosity. I want to teach her to never take things for face value. Question authority! Except mine. Or Daddy’s. Well, Josh can fend for himself.

Both of us are really answering every question that she has because we do not want to squash the questions and the learning. Yesterday Josh told her to put her sneakers on versus her sandals. “Why?” Because the forecast called for rain and therefore not sandal weather. “Why?” Because there is a low pressure system moving in which increases the chance for precipitation. “Oh…” I am sure about 90% of what we said just sort of sailed over her head but we answered the question.

Unfortunately there are situations where I can’t quite get to the “Oh…” moment. As I picked up the girls from day care the other day I told Abigail it was time to go home. “Why?” Because it is getting late. “Why?” Because the sun is going down. “Why?” Because the Earth is rotating. “Why?” Because it does that every 24 hours. “Why?” Because that is the way life is. “Why?” Do you want to watch TV when we get home? Mommy is going to need a break.

I really do like the curiosity. I just have to keep telling myself that.

Why?

Why not! Take that!

Dollars and Sense

2010-05-12T09:22:00.000-04:00

I am cheap. I have accepted this. I can’t even say that I am just frugal. I am just all out cheap. I question every nickel and dime that I spend and wonder if I should have spent it. I don’t know why I do this. But, I can live with this. I am even alright doing a Spin this week because it is free.

What really amazes me is that I have no hesitation on spending money when it comes to the kids. Now, I will wait for a sale for anything but if they need it, we buy it. I guess that is the real key word. If they need it. Not just they want it. Of course that may lead into why I don’t spend money on myself. I don’t really need anything and I am very happy with life as it is currently. I have plenty of wants and what girl wouldn’t? But actually spending the money is a real problem. I will wait for sales, coupons, and deals just to buy anything. Even when it comes to something I need. For example, my favorite shoes broke. The leather upper separated from the sole. Nothing I can do about it but I sure did look to see if I can fix my four year old shoes that I wear to work at least twice a week. Unfortunately, I did not find that there was anything I could do so I waited for a sale. How pathetic is that? I only bought those shoes four years ago and the moment they break, I wait to buy new shoes that I am sure I will get another four years out of them. But where am I leading with this?

A new road opened on our side of town yesterday. Now, I have been waiting for this new road for years to make my trips to and from day care that much easier. Normally, I have to take an extremely roundabout way to get to day care. Day care is 17 miles away from our house but I hit 9 lights, 4 stop signs and traffic from the high school depending on what time I leave. That trip takes me at a minimum, 30 minutes. That 30 minutes is if there is no traffic, I hit most of the lights correctly and there is no back up on the two lane road leading into day care. But, there are no alternatives. Well, there were no alternatives. The new road cuts into the highway that is easily accessible from where we live. That means I can jump right onto the highway, go one exit and then go to day care the back way. This new way means that I hit 1 light and 3 stop signs and the trip took me 19 minutes this morning. The new way I go never has any traffic except for the two lane road right in front of day care. However, because the new road is open, a lot of people who normally travel this road are taking it the opposite direction that I travel and traffic this morning on that road was non-existent. So where is the rub? Well, there is a toll on this highway (So I guess that makes it an expressway? Toll road? Whatever. I would worry about it but time is money! Boy, can I spin the spin of the spin or what.) The toll each way is $1.25. That is a pretty steep toll per way. If I take that every morning, that is $6.25 a week in just tolls for one way. If we use it round trip, then that is $12.50 a week or about $500 a year (we take the girls out of day care for the summer). In just tolls.

I used to work on the other side of Orlando and had to spend tolls every day. There was just no way around it to get from my house to work and back without tolls (Well, technically there is but my 40 minute drive would turn into about 3 hours. Literally) I was spending up to $6.50 a day in tolls depending on if I took some of the streets to avoid a toll or did day care pickup or drop off. Yes, each day! But, like I said, there was very little choice so I just went with it. When I changed job locations, I didn’t have to take any tolls at all. I saw this as a pay increase in itself. However, now I am back to the possibility of tolls. So do I pay and go the easier way? Suck it up and don’t think about it? Take my old way and just go with it?

I am just that cheap that I am spending brain power worrying about it. Why? Because it is free!

"And You Can Quote Me On It!"

2010-04-20T16:22:00.001-04:00

“You need to post more.”

“I know. Pictures will be up this weekend.”

“No, more Katz Cradle posts.”

“I know, I know. It is so hard to keep up sometimes.”

“I put an easy Spin up. It is quotes.”

“But I just did a post about quotes. Abigail-isms. Can’t you coordinate Spins with my brain waves?”

“Then spin the Spin! Quote your quote post.”

“Good idea. You are so smart.”

But I one-uped you, Jen. A quote spin about quotes with quotes. Take that! I love you!

Ellipticising

2010-04-06T08:13:00.003-04:00

Yes, I have made up a new word again. In case you didn’t know, I do this from time to time. I have been meaning to write this post for awhile to celebrate a momentous occasion. I am the proud owner of an elliptical machine. I know most people wouldn’t care too much but this is very important for me. I have been needing to work out since about October 2006. I sometimes look back and see very cute and skinny pictures of me and want to know where that body went. Well, I can actually tell you exactly where it went.

Here

and here.

Well, pregnancy from these two beauties. Now I would like to get one thing straight. I wouldn’t trade those lovely faces for one pound I gained. Or even 10 pounds that I gained. Though, to tell you the truth, I lost the weight rather quickly with them. However, things just moved enough during each pregnancy and never found their original place again. But, again, they were worth it. What I did notice was that my pants were starting to get tighter. I finally was excited to come back to work after my maternity leave with Madeline in my regular clothes. However, I didn’t fit back into everything. I even stretched out a few pairs of pants. But I was NOT going to buy new clothes. Something had to change.

A quick background for those of you who may have forgotten or don’t know. I used to run, a lot. I ran track through middle school, high school and 3 years in college. I love the adrenaline kick of a track meet and loved that I could eat whatever I wanted because I would just burn it off the next day. I had a nice tan, flat abs and had a very low body fat percentage. Once I graduated college, I continued with working out and had a gym membership. One of the best things was that my gym was on the way home to my apartment. I would have to literally pass by the gym to go home and thus made going there 3-4 times a week, that much better. Yes, I could have gone more but I never was one to workout on the weekends. Even when we moved to the other side of town from the gym, I still went. But then Miss Abigail started to make her debut. During my first trimester I was just too tired to even contemplate driving home let alone going to the gym. So I let my gym membership lapse. The reality was I could either workout or spend time with my baby. No contest. I decided that I could take her for walks or runs around the neighborhood and get my exercise there. However, when you get home at 5:30 and the sun starts to set at 6:00, going out for a run started to happen few and far between. Not to mention we don’t have sidewalks or even street lights where we live. If you have seen where we live, you would NOT run in the dark out there. Once the daylight savings time started to change, I was able to purchase a jogging stroller from Craigslist ($40 for a Graco. One of the best finds!) and did start to workout here and there.

Then Miss Madeline started to make her debut. I was cursed again with unbelievable fatigue and had to give up my workouts. Not to mention, you are not supposed to elevate your heart rate like I do when you are pregnant. So the workouts subsided again. During maternity leave, I decided that I would take Madeline for walks here and there while I am home. Unfortunately, September and October in Florida are not times of the year you would want to be outside. I tried for mornings but it just didn’t happen. I resigned myself to needing something inside. I tried a few DVDs and nothing was really giving me any results. I knew the only way that I was going to get this accomplished was to get a machine. I started to comb my old friend, Craigslist. I did my research, checked Consumer Reports, and consulted a few websites. I finally decided I really wanted a Nordic Track Audiostrider 990. Yes, that model specifically. Finally, I found it. There was someone selling one about 40 minutes away for a steal. I talked (made) Josh into going and checking it out. He went all the way there, decided to purchase it, and couldn’t fit it in the car. Naturally. What I was really blown away by was that the ladies selling it actually drove it to our house for us. Amazing.

I have never been so excited about a purchase before. Currently the elliptical is in our bedroom next to our bed. I figured it would get more use if I have to walk by it to go to bed at night. That way the guilt will just be radiating from it if I skip a night. So far, I have been pretty good about doing a workout 3 nights a week. What is better? I have lost almost 10 pounds. I have noticed it and my clothes are fitting better. I still would like to lose a few more so hopefully this post will motivate me…and maybe others.

Sock It To Me

2010-03-23T09:32:00.000-04:00

I don’t believe in shoes for kids that don’t walk. Call me weird (Go ahead. I can handle it) but I just don’t see the need to spend the money (which is usually a lot when it comes to anything that has to do with a baby) for shoes that are never going to get used. Yes, they are cute but serve little to no purpose. We didn’t get shoes for Abigail until she started to take her first steps because all the books we read stated that kids learning to walk should be barefoot so their little feet can “grip” the floor and therefore assist in their balance. I will admit that we actually were a little late in getting Abby her first pair of shoes but there is no way I am getting Madeline shoes before she is really going to start showing interest in walking. Which at the pace she is going since she has started pulling up on everything at seven months, may be sooner than later.

So if we aren’t getting shoes and it is still winter in Florida, what do we do for Maddy’s little feet? We have a dozen cute little socks that come in all colors and even ones that look like she is wearing Mary Jane shoes. Adorable. My problem is, however, that I cannot keep socks on this kid! She rubs her ankles together and the socks fly off. Between getting her dressed on the changing table this morning and feeding her downstairs, I had to replace the socks three times. THREE! I put the cute socks back on her before we leave the house and then put her in her car seat. By the time I get to day care and pull Madeline out of her car seat, the socks are already gone again. I put the socks back on and take her into day care. More often than not, Josh brings Madeline home without socks again. The other day I went to get Maddy dressed and there were no socks in her drawer. Where are they? Did they run off and join the circus? Is there such a thing as a sock circus? I decided this was getting ridiculous and she just doesn’t get socks at day care. Even with the weather a little on the cold side, she is in the warm house to the car which has a car seat warmer blanket and then outside for all of 50 feet until we get into day care. Because she is still a baby, she isn’t big enough for the buggy that they take the older infants out in during the day. So what does she really need socks for? It is really just for me. However, I swear I get the judgmental looks from the parents (and sometimes babies!) dropping off their kids in the matching outfits with matching socks and/or shoes. I don’t know why I have to justify to them (or maybe myself) that I am not a bad parent for not having my kids feet covered. I don’t know why I even feel that having socks is a measure of my parenting but I swear I feel the eyes boring into the back of me as I exit the baby room in the morning.

I was at Publix the other day with Madeline in the Bjorn and Abigail in the shopping cart. A man stopped me and noticed that Maddy only had one sock on. He told me that the other sock was in the vegetable aisle and walked back there with me. (Clean up on aisle three!) I thanked him profusely (since they are very cute socks) and just took them both off. This past weekend we were at a garage sale and since I didn’t want to leave there with only one sock since Madeline was in the Bjorn again, I just didn’t put socks on her. Of course one of the women selling her wares (not her garage) chided me for not having socks on my baby. I simply said “I know. I can’t keep socks on her” but it went on deaf ears since I am sure she thinks my kid will end up with pneumonia from not having socks when the temperature is in the 60s. People were walking around with flip flops!

I did find out that the socks did not join the circus. They actually were hiding out in the cubby at daycare multiplying like rabbits. There were TEN pairs of socks in her cubby. There shouldn’t even be one since she doesn’t leave them on her feet for more than two seconds. Fortunately this battle is only going to be a little longer because she will get shoes eventually. I predict she will be walking by 10 months anyways.

Everyone told me about it. I just wasn’t prepared.

2010-03-04T15:04:00.001-05:00

I like when “they” give me information. You know “they”. “They” recommend things like don’t start solids until 6 months old. “They” recommend that you don’t go swimming right after you eat. “They” are supposed experts in anything in your life. Well, “they” told me that your second child will hit milestones quicker than your first child. I don’t know if it was because they see the first child doing all these things or what but I always take anything that “they” say with a grain of salt. However, I got a taste of it when Madeline turned three months old and rolled over. Thanks to this blog, I was able to look and see that Abigail did that at four months old. I figured Madeline was just listening to “them” and was getting milestones a lot quicker but not dramatically.

By six months old, Madeline has progressed to a full crawl. Not an army crawl like Abby did where she seemed to pull at the floor and drag her legs behind her. I am talking about a full belly off of the floor, hands leaving the floor, on her knees crawling. She can go from her back to her belly, up on all fours and crawl across the family room. I got the biggest kick out of taking her to the doctor for her 6 month check up where they ask you the milestone questions. This month was “Is she turning from back to belly and belly to back?” I laughed and said “Are you kidding me? She is crawling already. We passed that milestone two months ago.” The doctor just sort of looked at me and said “Wow, that is really early.” With that in mind, I decided to look back into my blog files (which is the whole reason I have this blog in the first place) and saw a post about Abigail crawling…at 10 months. 10 MONTHS and that was on track. Madeline is doing this at 6 months, people.

I am constantly marveling at her. The other night, I came home and sat right on the floor to play with Madeline. We usually have this routine where Sesame Street is on from 5-6 PM which means Abigail has completely checked out. So I play on the floor to get some Maddy time because usually after dinner is more Abby time. I like to balance. I was watching Madeline eyeing Oreo on the ottoman. His swishing tail was saying “grab me, Maddy!” So Madeline started crawling over to him and I just watched to see how she was going to negotiate playing with his tail since he was elevated on the ottoman. She ended up about 6 inches away from the ottoman, put one hand up, then the other. Slowly she tucked her feet under her and stood up. Yes, now at 6 ½ months, she is now pulling up. Time to lower the crib mattress.

Take that “they”!

Random Abigail Ramblings

2010-02-23T12:27:00.000-05:00

A: Good job, oranges!
M: What? What are the oranges doing?
A: They are buckled in.

I wander over and she has carefully buckled in the bowl of oranges in her booster seat.

-----------

M: Goodnight. I love you.
A: I love you
M: If you need anything, what do you say?
A: Anything!!!!
M: If you need to go potty, what do you say?
A: Potty!!!!
M: If you need Mommy, what do you say?
A: Mommy!!!!
M: If you need a million dollars, what do you say?
A: Million dollars!!!!

Good night

---------

M: That is my breast pump. What are you doing?
A: I pumping!
M: What are you pumping?
A: I pump milk for Madeline.
M: Okay. That is a little creepy.

Abigail just smiles with her shirt up and the breast pump pushed to her chest.

---------

M: At the end of this show, it is time for dinner.
A: No!
M: Yes!
A: One Sesame Street then dinner.
M: How about one Elmo or Bert and Ernie then dinner.
A: No, one Sesame Street.
D: Abigail, you do realize that Mommy negotiates for a living.
A. One Sesame Street.

Abigail holds one finger up and I just melt at that smile.

The B Word

2010-01-12T10:37:00.002-05:00

Pumping at work and breastfeeding in general has been going really well. Not just average well but exceedingly well. I am very thankful that I do not have the issues nor have ever had any of the issues I had with Abigail. What is weird is where I have to pump at work. With Abby, work had a nursing room. Anyone who needed that room checked out a key from the medical department and had access to the room. It was awesome. There was a mini fridge, bench and magazines. There was only 2-3 of us using it at a time so scheduling, while a little hairy at times, it wasn't a big deal. But I moved to another office and never saw a nursing room here. I figured I would worry about it when I needed to worry about it. I did see a separate bathroom from the main group of stalls in the bathroom but I was NOT pumping in a bathroom unless I was desperate.

Miss Maddy came along and I found I had a need to really know where I was going pump when I went back to work. My first day back, I went to the medical department to ask where I can pump. They told me to just come down to them and then I can pump in an exam room. Weird but not a big deal. It has a table and a sink, which is about all I need. I can deal with just transporting the stored milk in a cooler during the day. What is really weird is that they have to let me into the medical department exam room. So three times a day I have to go down to the medical department (I need the exercise anyways), ring the bell, get someone to let me in, do my thing and then go back to my desk. I was not having a big problem doing that but lugging my bag up and down stairs was starting to get to me. No, not the weight of it. Just how it painted an obvious sign on me of "look what I am going to do". I would invariably have to explain to a few people what exactly I was doing and that I would be back at my desk in 15 minutes. Not fun. I decided that I would leave my bag in the medical department since it is behind a locked door. There isn't anything valuable in it anyways but it is still out of sight in a corner for me when I need it. I take it down for the first pump and bring it back with me after the last pump.

The other day I completed my morning pump and was heading back for my noon pump. I get to the medical office and there is a sign on the outside door that read "Out at meeting. Be back at 3:00." Ummm. I can't wait until 3:00 PM comfortably. I run around the administrative offices down there trying to find the secretary. Maybe she wasn't in a meeting and could let me in. No luck. I run back up to my desk and brainstorm with my cube mate on who can let me in to the medical department. I could call our emergency line...No, it wasn't that sort of an emergency. So I decided to call our security department. Surely they have a key to every door in this place. I talk to the first guy and explain I have to get into the medical department and it is locked. I can't wait until three and I just need to pick something up. I am very gingerly skirting around announcing to my entire office upstairs (I sit in a very large cubicle farm) that I need to get into the medical department for my breast pump. He tells me that he will have to check if we can let me in and will call back in 5 minutes. Sure enough, I get a return call from the commander in the security department. I, again, explain everything stating I just need to pick something up and someone can even escort me in there. Heck, I would even tell someone where to get it if they could go in there and pick it up for me. The commander tells me that he will call me back in 5 minutes. Fine. Five minutes later I get the director of security calling me stating that he has to know exactly what is in there and why I need it so badly. I very straight forward say "It is a breast pump. I need my breast pump." Without taking a breath, he tells me to come down and he will meet me in the medical department.

I got down there, got my pump and everything worked out fine. I just was trying to be very professional about requesting my personal items from the medical department. I told the staff down there that if anyone knows of a meeting that will close up the department to just tell me. Communication is the first step!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

2010-01-11T12:20:00.003-05:00

For some reason, Madeline hates her car seat. It isn't so much the seat itself but it is being strapped into it. She just doesn't care for the five point harness and unfortunately for her, this is going to be how she travels in a car for the next few years. Also, she sits behind the passenger seat and sits backwards. Not the best way to go when you are still figuring things out. But since there are really no alternatives, this is how things are going to have to be. Thankfully, once the car is in motion she normally is fine with everything so we try to put her in her seat as the last thing before starting the car. I even have taken to strapping her into her car seat in the house and then carrying her out to the car. Again, once the seat is in motion, she is usually pretty happy. Unfortunately she is getting heavier and carrying her is taking two hands now a days. Not something I can do when I have a toddler attached to one hand (who always wants to be picked up when I have the carrier. Yes. One kid in one arm and one kid in a heavy carrier. Try opening doors with that one!) but we make it work.

Sometimes Madeline has just had it with being in her seat. Either she is hungry, bored, whatever and starts to wail. We used to be able to just pop the pacifier in her mouth and satiate her for a little until we arrived at our destination. However, since she decided she would rather chew on the pacifier instead of suck on it, we have gotten rid of the pacifier altogether. I am not upset with this AT ALL. I never liked the pacifier in the first place but since she did, I went with it. Maddy has found her thumb and sucks it to sleep but if she is all worked up because she doesn't want to be in her seat, the thumb just doesn't cut it. So I decided I would sing to her so she knows that I am there and hopefully it would calm her down. The other day I started with my repertoire of kid songs. "ABC", "Pop Goes the Weasel", "Wheels on the Bus" etc. Nothing was helping until I started to sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider". Instantly the crying stopped! I figured, she finally calmed down enough or cried herself out a bit. Then I went to the next song and she started crying again. Fine. I started Itsy Bitsy again and she stopped immediately. Of course I sang it about 46 times until we got home but it was worth it to keep her happy.

What is really great is that Abby has started to help me. If Maddy is crying, I ask Abby if we should start singing a song. She says yes and starts singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider went up the water spout..." At the end of the song, she directs me to start singing. I sing my four verses and then back to her. It is an Itsy Bitsy tag team song to make Madeline happy. I am just glad that there is something that will calm her down. Of course singing with Abigail is just icing on the cake. Hopefully this will work for awhile!

Sleeping, Singing and Warm Fuzzies

2010-01-02T21:51:00.004-05:00

We have been enjoying our vacation this week. The girls went back to day care and Josh and I had the week off. It was so nice for us to be able to be just the two of us for a little while. Of course I don't want reality to hit us next week but we got to go back and earn the money. It makes us appreciate being on vacation that much more.

Speaking of the girls, they are growing up more and more. We are having lovely days of being a family of four and watching both kids develop their personalities. Madeline has decided that she doesn't like to nap much but loves the Bjorn. She can seriously be in that thing for hours on end and still be happy. I think she just likes seeing what we see since she can't sit up yet, the Bjorn offers her the best view. We have even started to not take the double stroller out because Maddy doesn't want to be in it. Because she is constantly sitting up in the Bjorn, she doesn't have the chance to sleep much. But if we put her in the stroller to nap, she gets upset because she can't see. It is a never ending loop. Also, we have had to do some tough love when it comes to sleeping through the night. At her four month check up, the doctor told me that she should not be snacking through the night. She should be able to sleep through the night and we need to break the habit of her snacking very quickly. Otherwise she will get in the habit of not sleeping through the night until she is 23. Just kidding. So Josh had to start taking the monitor to check on her if she wakes up. Simply put, if she sees/smells him then she knows no food is coming. If she sees/smells me, she just wants to be soothed and eat. Poor Josh. But it is getting a lot better. Madeline is sleeping about 11 hours a night. THANK GOODNESS.

Abigail is also getting cuter and cuter. It is amazing to watch life through her eyes. We are having more and more fun with her every day. One of the really great things that we have started to do is to sing together. Now, this may not seem like a major accomplishment but before now, she would either want to sing by herself or have you sing to her. We are all about songs in this family so there is a lot of singing. Abby likes for us to even make up songs. She will ask us to sing a song about birds, grass, or firetrucks. Whatever she sees. Sort of like a singing version of the game "I Spy". Lots of fun. My firetruck song has been with us for awhile (Firemen ride firetrucks and firetrucks say "WOOOOOOOO". It is a Becca original. I should copyright it) But lately, she has been directing us to sing with her. Yesterday, she was singing the Itsey Bitsy Spider and then we heard "Mommy, sing!". I started singing and then heard "Daddy, sing!" Josh started singing and we all were having such a great time. Tonight was the best by far. I was giving Abby a bath while Josh had Madeline in the Bjorn doing dishes in the kitchen. Abby asked me for a hot dog song. Ummm, I don't know any hot dog songs so I, again, made one up. Ruff, ruff, pant, pant, HOT DOG! I could make money doing this! Anyways, she loved it. So much so that she started singing it with me. We were face to face singing a silly song together. We even took our show downstairs and showed Josh.

Oh, the warm family fuzzies. Life is good.

Be Still My Heart

2009-12-10T16:22:00.002-05:00

When Abigail was a baby, we took full advantage of the portable swing and bouncy seat. The swing was the only way she would sleep for the first month and the bouncy seat allowed us to put her down so we could eat dinner. We would make funny faces at her to entertain her (us) if we just wanted to give our arms a rest. One thing we never did was to buckle her. I mean, seriously, where was she going? We were always right there and she didn't even turn over until she was 4 months old. Once she started to get the hang of sitting up, we put her in her high chair and the bouncy seat and swing were put away.

It was nice to dust off the old but good pieces of baby furniture again when Madeline was born. I really was looking forward to having the same fun with Madeline that we did with Abigail. The swing wasn't so much fun for Maddy as it was for Abby. I did get some more sleep at times when Maddy wouldn't go back to sleep or if she was spitting up a lot. But the bouncy seat...she LOVES the bouncy seat. I don't know if it is because of the sitting angle is different, the bounce is a more of an up and down direction versus the swing going back and forth. Whatever the reason, as long as she liked something. I was worried that we would have no arm relief.

As with Abby, we never buckled Madeline into the bouncy seat. We were always just an arm's reach away from her and always made sure that Abigail was very gentle if she wanted to see Madeline in the bouncy seat. Of course Maddy mostly would sleep in the bouncy seat so we had to teach Abby that she couldn't touch her new baby sister if her eyes were closed. Of course now if her eyes are open or closed, we get a status report. Very cute. Minor tangent: It wasn't cute when I went to wake up Madeline one morning and Abby was with me. Abby climbed up to see Maddy in her crib and then announced in a very loud voice "Her eyes are closed!" Poor Maddy jerked awake and her lower lip stuck out before she started screaming. Poor baby.

We continued our routine until friends of ours, with three little girls of their own, mentioned that we should always have the seat belt on the bouncy seat or swing because their middle daughter decided to see how high the swing would go and their baby bounced out of the seat on to the floor. Thank goodness she was alright but they had to make a quick trip to the emergency room. When Josh and I heard this, we both stopped breathing for a moment and we promised that we would always strap her in from now on.

The other night we were having dinner and Madeline was in her bouncy seat on the floor between mine and Abigail's chair. Josh was on the other side of the table and we were having a nice dinner at home. I had Madeline smiling and cooing. Of course Abby wanted to play with her baby and got off her chair to give Maddy a kiss. I asked Abby to get back into her chair and she proceeded to push the back of the bouncy seat all the way to the floor and let go. The seat, and thus Maddy, bounced up. THANK GOODNESS I had put the strap on. Madeline just came up about 4 inches off of the bouncy seat and back down. My heart absolutely stopped. I jumped up and put Abby in time out for playing too hard on the bouncy seat. I know that she didn't know what the consequences were of playing on the bouncy seat like this but I had to do something to scare her from doing it again. As I sat down, the reality of what almost happen suddenly started to sink in. What if she wasn't strapped in...What would she have hit...I was just an arm's reach away and look at what almost happened.

Time out ended and as I just held onto the table still reeling from the event, I asked Abby to come back to the table and tell Maddy she is sorry she pushed the bouncy seat. Josh asked me what happened and I told him. He just said "thank goodness I didn't see that." I wish I hadn't seen that.

And people wonder why I am neurotic!

Rolling on The River

2009-11-30T09:00:00.003-05:00

Madeline has decided that since most of this blog has been about Abigail, that it was her turn. Literally. Yes, she has turned over, folks. While this may seem like a normal milestone for any baby, we were amazed that Madeline was doing it at 3months old.

I remember taking Abigail to the pediatrician and one of the milestones for a 4 month old was the ability to roll from back to stomach. This takes some coordination and head control. So we were not prepared for Maddy to even attempt it before the month of December and her looming 4 month birthday. But she decided that she wanted to be the center of attention for both Josh and I. She had been rolling on her side quite successfully and I thought she would just work this out for another month before completely rolling over. Boy, was I wrong. We just were sitting on the floor after dinner playing as usual. I was playing with Abby and Josh was playing with Madeline. I heard Josh saying "Almost! Almost!". I looked over to see Maddy grab the side of the play mat and pull herself over. Wait! You can't use props. That is cheating, Madeline. So we put her back onto her back and see if she would try it again. Without hesitation, Madeline rolled to her right side and onto her stomach almost immediately as if to say "Take that, Mommy!" Yes, I was just proven wrong by a 3 month old. I can deal with it.

Now that Madeline has perfected rolling over, it has been hard to keep her on her back. She rolls over when she is put on her back anywhere. That includes the bouncy seat and swing. Now we can't forget to strap her into either of those unless she is asleep. But as you will see below, even that doesn't work all the time.

Yes, she was out cold in this picture.

The only issue we now have is that once she is on her tummy, she doesn't know how to get back to her back. But we are working on that one. By this rate she will be walking before she is a year! I don't know if I am ready for that one.

Sleep is NOT Overrated

2009-11-23T11:46:00.001-05:00

Everyone tells you that the second child will hit milestones much earlier than the first child. “They” tell me this is because the second child wants to keep up with the first child. While I heard this, I wasn’t sure of it. I didn’t want to start comparing Madeline to Abigail and scrutinizing everything they do. I know that it sometimes is hard to not compare your child to other children but you want the reassurance that your child is on the normal track of life. Of course you secretly say to yourself that your kid is actually smarter than their kid because they can do X, Y, and Z better or at an earlier stage. I don’t know why we do it but we do.
The whole purpose of this blog was to write down those milestones in our lives. Not only baby milestones but also just my thoughts on any one day. I actually started blogging in 2006 when I found out I was pregnant. However, I wasn’t ready to share it with everyone so I eased into the blog talking about other nonsense (well, it isn’t nonsense to me but probably to you). Sorry for the tangent.

One milestone that I realized I didn’t write down was when Abigail started sleeping through the night. I knew that I would always remember that date because it was the day I returned to work after my maternity leave. We joked that Abby knew I was returning to work and therefore knew she started to sleep through the night. Well I returned to work on November 2 but Madeline was still not sleeping through the night. I would get Madeline to bed anywhere between 9 and 10 PM but would see her shining face between 2 and 3 AM. Fortunately, she would only be up for about 15-20 minutes allowing me to go back to bed until the alarm went off at 5 AM. I honestly had no clue how I was going to function a whole day at work this way but it is amazing what you do when you have no alternatives. I worked hard Monday through Thursday and then left early on Fridays to get a nap before Josh got home with the girls. I also would catch a nap on either Saturday or Sunday to sustain me through the week. But since we are not squirrels and do not store up sleep for the winter (especially when it is in the 80's here…IN NOVEMBER!) this was starting to drain me. But miraculously, by the end of the third week back at work, Madeline decided to test out sleeping through the night. THANK GOODNESS. Of course because I figured this won’t be a lasting thing, I wasn’t telling a lot of people. I really didn’t need her to prove me wrong. But the next night and even the night after that, she slept through the night from 9:30 PM to 6 AM. I think she would have slept later except I wake her up at 6 AM during the week. I will soon start pushing back the bedtime but I don’t want to move anything yet. I did see her at 3 AM on Sunday morning but we were so far out of whack on schedule on Saturday that I wasn’t surprised. But I will take her sleeping 4 out of the last 5 nights!

I got more sleep Friday night than I have had since August 12. Thank you, Madeline!

Mooove Along Cow

2009-11-17T13:59:00.002-05:00

Since I had successfully nursed Abigail for the first year of her life while working full time, I had no issues with doing it again this time. However, since I had so many initial problems nursing, I was mentally prepared to see a lactation consultant and purchase additional items that may help me with nursing. I even resigned myself to having to supplement with formula here and there if I couldn't pump enough. (Minor tangent: I never had to give Abby formula but had to pump one or two times extra a day to make her bottles for the next day. Not the most fun and I had no clue how I would find time to do that with two kids) But it wasn't something I wanted to do. My body was made to feed my baby and I wanted to continue that with Madeline.

Breastfeeding is not exactly like riding a bicycle. Okay, maybe like riding your friend's bicycle. Same principle but different techniques sometimes have to be used to jump it over a curb. In the hospital, I asked to see a lactation consultant to make sure that I would not fall into the same problems I had last time. I slowly made it to the two week mark and the visit to the pediatrician to get Madeline's status. She was doing very well nursing and we just took off from there.

Then I dusted off my old friend, the pump. I have a love/hate relationship with this device. I love that it allows me to provide milk for Madeline when I am not with her but I hate having to lug it everywhere. It is seriously heavy! Between the pump, tubing, flanges and cooler with ice packs, my passenger seat belt keeps beeping at me thinking there is a passenger on the front seat. Nope, just my pump bag. With the experience I had from last time, I decided to start pumping early to build up my freezer stash. I wanted to make sure that I was ahead of myself by a little so I didn't have to worry.

When I pumped with Abigail, I would normally get a total of 3-4 ounces each pumping. I also was supplementing with herbal vitamins and Mother's tea. I started pumping here and there with Madeline. For some reason, my body kicked into ultra high gear thinking I was providing milk for a small village. As of Madeline's 3 month "birthday", I have almost 200 ounces frozen and I pump four bottles worth in the three times I pump a day. (I have to go down to the Medical Department at work and use one of their exam rooms to pump. It is private but a little weird) I am just so shocked in the difference my body has made between the two kids. Thankfully it has made for one less thing to stress about. I don't worry if there is milk left over in a bottle that gets thrown away by day care or if Josh takes a night feeding once in awhile.

Too bad this kind of milk doesn't go well with cookies!

The Panties Told Me To

2009-11-11T12:07:00.004-05:00

With going back to work and Josh leaving the house as I wake everyone up, I have to get both kids ready in the morning to be out of the house by 7 AM. Madeline is easy to get ready. She just lays there looking cute as I dress her. Like this:

Abigail is a different story. She can be a little more challenging to get dressed and it always depends on if she is in the mood or not. Josh thankfully has been leaving for work 10-15 minutes later in the morning to help me out with this sometimes daunting task. While I can get Abby dressed by myself, she usually wants to do it by herself. If at all. I really don't want to be fighting with her or put her in a bad mood first thing in the morning so we try to do it in a positive way. Josh usually can convince her to get dressed by herself a lot more easily than me so I let him have at it. I just stand their with Madeline and either finish getting her ready or help Josh. But yesterday morning, she wasn't having any of it. Until Elmo told her to do it.

Abigail is a self proclaimed Elmo-holic. She loves Elmo and all things Elmo. So of course we have Elmo panties (and pajamas, and shirts, videos, dolls, you get the point) for her to put on. Convinced that this would be the easiest way to get them on her, I chose the pair with the big Elmo on them. However, this was still not coaxing her into getting dressed. Josh picked up the panties and with his best Elmo voice made the panties ask her to get dressed. Immediately, Abby turned to Elmo on the panties and said "OK!" as she pulled on her shirt. I threw Josh another pair of panties to put on since we didn't want to break the spell of the Elmo panties. She got completely dressed listening to Elmo. She even gave him a high five.

The next morning, we figured we could get away with the same trick. Sure enough, she stops fussing the minute Elmo asks her to get dressed. Abby gets dressed right away talking to Elmo the whole time. After all her clothes are on, Abigail gives Elmo a kiss (yes. she kissed the panties) and put them on her bed. Of course Josh and I are now convinced that we are going to have to pay for some sort of therapy in the future. No sooner did we share this sentiment than Abby picked up the panties and started to have a conversation with them with her voice as Elmo. She knew Elmo wasn't really in the panties. Whew!

Amazing what you come up with to get your 2 1/2 year old dressed. Who knows what the trick will be tomorrow. Otherwise she may walk out of the house like this if it was up to her:

Back to Life, Back to Reality

2009-11-09T10:35:00.001-05:00

Back to life, back to reality

Back to the here and now yeah

Show me how, decide what you want from me

Tell me maybe I could be there for you --Soul II Soul, 1984

The inevitable has a habit of sneaking up on you. I knew that I only had 12 weeks off for maternity leave but those 12 weeks look so long in August. Not so much in October. I had been planning since I left to go back to work on November 2 so I started getting things done in October when Madeline had a more predictable schedule and I was physically able to run around town. The last week in October, one of the smart things I did was put Madeline in day care. I wanted to make sure that she could cope with the change while I was available to swing by. I also had exciting plans that week. I went to the dentist and the eye doctor. I also got a hair cut and my nails done. I also wanted the chance to do a few trial runs of getting out of the house. During my leave, getting out of the house could take 2 hours and I wouldn't care. However, I really needed to be out of the house by 7 AM. Was that going to mean I was going to have to wake up at 3 AM? Maybe. But after a few tweaks, it only took me 45-60 minutes. Not too bad in the great scheme of things. Then before I knew it, Monday November 2 came.

When I had gone on maternity leave the first time, I had come back to 700 emails. Yes, 700. This time I really thought I was going to come back to more because I am on a busier program. I had taken my computer home to at least check in on things but after just a quick call to my manager once in awhile, I soon decided that getting on my work computer wasn't necessary. I also knew that my first week back would be very slow at being efficient and getting back into the swing of things would be a work in progress.

Monday morning started at 5:00 AM. I had told Josh that everything that could be done the night before needed to be done. My purse was packed, pump was clean and lunch was made. Perfect. I got up at 5:00 AM (only after being back to bed for 20 minutes because Maddy had a 4 AM feeding) and got myself ready to go. The plan was to be done with everything I needed to do while I had two hands free by 6 to get the troops up. It almost happened like that. Madeline had decided at 5:45 that she wanted out of her bed. So I brought her downstairs while I finished breakfast and she sat happily in her bouncy seat. Then the real test started. I brought Maddy upstairs to get Abigail up at 6:00. Abby is normally a morning person (doesn't get that from me) but this morning she wasn't waking up on her own. I had to wake her up and get her dressed. Not easy to do with one hand but sometimes she is helpful and gets herself dressed. Thankfully, it was one of those days. I had them both downstairs within 10 minutes. I got Abby her breakfast and fed Maddy hers. We all got everything we needed to get done accomplished and was out the door by 6:50. I dropped everyone off and headed to work. WHOO HOO.

Of course I got NOTHING done on Monday. I come to find out that they had suspended my work account and no one could figure out how to get me back in. Called the help desk, a system administrator, the IT department, Human Resources and the Employee Service Center before I found out my MANAGER had to call the Employee Service Center to verify that I came back to work. I found that comical since he was out of town. But I was back at work. They told me to wait until Tuesday and I should be running. Nope. Had to call the help desk back (which they are hardly ever helpful) and it took my VP calling the IT director to get anything done. Finally I was able to get on my computer. But then I had to call back to get email up and running. And one more call to get my time card working. Ugh. Of course I finally get everything working to find out that my "replacement" during my leave didn't do much of anything. I now have more work to do than when I left but that is a whole other post.

The rest of the week outside work was pretty good. We had dinner every night, a clean and fed toddler and a happy baby. Now if I can just get Madeline to sleep through the night, we will be in business.

Are You Kidding Me?

2009-10-29T20:22:00.003-04:00

Since we are down to the last few days of freedom before I have to go back to work, I planned on some fun things this past weekend. I put on the calender a few weeks ago "Theme Park". I told Josh that I didn't care what the weather was like or which theme park we went to but damn it, I want to go to a theme park. It is one of the perks that we are fortunate to enjoy living in Orlando. Not to mention that we have the HOOK UPS!!! (Minor tangent: We haven't had to pay to go to a theme park in years. My brother works at Busch Gardens so we have Sea World/Busch Garden annual passes and his girlfriend got us Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure passes for free. We also go to Disney for free with our friends who used to work there. But since they don't any more, we lost that hook up. Oh well. Thankfully, Abigail is not really into the House of Mouse)

We decided on Sea World since it was more toddler friendly and closest to us. We woke up in the morning and had a relaxing morning getting everything ready to go. I was having problems getting Abby to put her shoes on her feet by herself (because helping her would actually make her more irritated) so I told her we were going somewhere special. She looked at me inquisitively and still wouldn't put on the shoes. I simply said "Would you like to go to Sea World?" She looked up at me to make sure I wasn't joking and immediately started jumping up and down shouting "Sea World! Sea World!". The shoes got on in 3 seconds.

After Madeline's breakfast, we loaded up the double stroller, Bjorn, diaper bag, water juice and milk (because Abigail has to have one in each hand...we are teaching her double fisting early) in the car and headed for Sea World. Once we got there, unloaded the car and put a healthy dose of sunblock on everyone, we headed in. After going through the gates and the employees trying their best to corral anyone they can into a posed group shot so you can have a souvenir picture of your day at Sea World for $19.95, we walked past Sea World's newest roller coaster, Manta. I am NOT a fan of any roller coaster but since I know Josh is, I always will wait patiently for him to ride the ride...as long as the wait isn't unreasonable. We walked by Manta and the ride wait time was 20 minutes. Perfect! Usually he can get on sooner because he is a single rider. There is always at least one empty seat on the coaster. I told him to go ahead and I will wait with the girls.

As we waited under the coaster to catch Josh, Madeline started to fuss. She is not a fan of the car seat especially when she is not in motion. It is a great thing that the car seat unhooks from the car to the stroller without unbuckling but poses problems for my kid if we stop moving. So I took her out and decided to hold her while Abigail was waiting patiently for Daddy. 10 minutes...15 minutes..."Mommy, potty!". Okay, let's go. I grab the diaper bag, Madeline and Abigail and head for the bathroom. I get the potty seat out, get Abigail's pants off and lifted her on the toilet with one hand because Maddy was in the other hand. We do everything and even though it is a bit of a juggle (struggle) we head back to the coaster where we hear "Manta is experiencing temporary difficulties. Stay in line because the wait is short". Josh calls me and says he is still in line and is going to wait. Okay. We will sit and wait. I break out the snacks and Maddy decides she needs to eat. Well, there I am sitting on the curb at Sea World with the stroller in front of me and a blanket draped over Madeline so I can nurse her. Three minutes go by and Abby said "Mommy, potty!" I asked her if she can hold it because I am convinced that she doesn't really have to go but she did have a lot to drink in the car on the way over. She tells me she can't hold it and starts to walk back to the bathroom. I interrupt Maddy's mid morning snack, strap her into the Bjorn and head over to the bathroom. On the way over there, Abigail trips and starts crying. So here I am holding her, holding Madeline, holding the diaper bag and getting to the bathroom. I put her down Abby plays with everything we walk by. Ummm. Potty? I get everything out, put her on the potty and she says "No potty!" Are you kidding me? Unfortunately if she doesn't want to go, she will not go. I ask her nicely to go because, after all, I schlepped EVERYTHING over there to go. Nope. No luck. Great...we walk back to Manta and I hear "Manta is experiencing technical difficulties." Notice there wasn't any "stay in line because you are going to ride soon." Lovely. As I got back to the stroller, Josh is walking towards us because Manta was broken. The look on my face sort of said it all. In my head it said "40 minutes, 2 kids, 2 potty breaks, 5 minutes of nursing, screaming baby because she is hungry and you didn't even get to go on the damn ride...here take a kid and where can we get a beer."

I finished feeding Madeline and thankfully we had a fabulous time the rest of the day. It was also the start of their Halloween Spooktacular so we had loads of candy. I just fear the next time Josh asks if I want to go to Sea World I will simply say "Are you kidding me?"

Footnote: There were MANY opportunities for Josh to get on the coaster because every car that went by had at least one open seat. But Josh decided to wait for the front of the line since that is the best seat and the line wasn't that long. However, only FOUR people can ride in the front per car. I am down there waiting with two kids and he decides to wait in the longer line? Are you kidding me? Yup. He got an earful for that one.

Footnote 2: Don't even ask about the new Dolphins hat I got him and the chlorine.

Day 1 Down, Day 2 In Progress

2009-10-27T15:01:00.002-04:00

The first day of day care went well. I actually was pretty busy doing exciting things like going to the dentist. Of course every quiet moment I thought about what Madeline was doing and how she was liking her new room. It is hard to just hand over your baby every morning. But Maddy ate well but barely napped. Initially I was a little worried about this because since she is a baby, she needs to sleep a lot. Poor thing was so cranky on the ride home yesterday. Josh had to drive home with her screaming the whole 30 minute drive from day care home. The good news is that she slept from 9 PM last night until 4 AM. She hasn't done that in a few nights so I am very thankful. I have been very worried about how in the world I am going to get back to work with her waking up two times a night. Even before I was pregnant I needed all the sleep I could get between a 2 year old and a very hectic job.

I have had to start early in the morning when I go back to work so I have been waking everyone up a little earlier every day. During maternity leave, I had been letting Abby sleep until she wanted to wake up in the morning. It made for better weekends because she would stay sleeping past 7 AM instead of 6 AM. However, I am going to have to start waking Abigail up at 6 AM so I can get everyone moving and head to work by 8 AM. It is so sad that I am going to have to wake up at 5 AM to get to work by 8 AM. Just think of that for a minute.

When Abby was a baby, I would say that life was like a dance. Everyone had to take a step at the right time and it was beautiful. However, if someone takes a step out of turn, then it would all go downhill very quickly. I know that it is going to be more of the same. Abigail is going to have to have to get dressed and eat in a reasonable amount of time so that I can feed Madeline and get her dressed in a reasonable time. Then everyone has to load up into the car and I have to make sure that I don't forget anything because turning around would not be optimal.

So day two of getting everyone in check went well and we are going on to day three tomorrow. I only called twice on day one to check in and once today. Part of me wants to call every moment but the other part knows that she is fine. By next week, I am not going to really have the chance to call in much if at all. But again, I know she will be doing well.

And So It Begins

2009-10-26T09:20:00.003-04:00

This morning's ride back home was the quietest in 12 weeks. Today was the first day of day care for Madeline. I had been worried about this day for a very long time. Even long before she was born I was worried. It is just in my nature to worry. I think you would be surprised of the crazy things I worry about on a daily basis. But if you did know, you may have to commit me. Maybe it is better that is in my head.

The first day of day care for Abigail was almost as daunting but for different reasons. Since this was our first baby and we were handing over the child raising reigns during the day to someone else, we had every reason to worry. But since we had friends who had a son in the same school, we knew that she would be taken care of. The real difference this time is that Abby was 4 1/2 months old and was turning herself over by the time she went into day care. She could see pretty far in front of her and even reach for toys. Maddy is only 2 1/2 months old and I am putting her in day care. She is not turning over yet and can only see a little in front of her. But I still know that she will be well taken care of. Two of the same people who cared for Abby when she was in the infant room are still there. They know me and I know them so I feel good about that.

This morning I loaded up the car. Abigail, her clean nap time bedding, Madeline and a huge bag containing diapers, wipes, milk and clothing. I had labeled everything the night before and portioned off the bottles. I think I got a workout walking in this morning bringing all of that stuff in. After I dropped Abby off in her room like normal, I headed on to the infant room to drop off my little baby. I was very worried about what I would do if she fussed while I dropped her off. What if she was gassy? What if she decided she was hungry again? What if she just cried and cried? But thankfully I dropped her off in the arms of Ms. Miosie and Madeline had a big smile for her. I put away all of her stuff and Ms. Miosie took down all of her schedule and specifics regarding sleeping and eating. Maddy was put in a swing with some colorful toys and was very happy as I kissed her goodbye.

I know that I will call at least two times today and I may even pick her up early for her first day. I don't know. Josh thinks I am crazy because he will be there about two hours later anyways to pick up Abby. But he is not a worrier like I am. We will see.

Next week...back to work...

2 Months Already

2009-10-16T13:50:00.005-04:00

I am amazed how quickly two months can pass by. I actually am going to be back at work two weeks from this Monday. I don't know if this time things have moved faster or not but it sure seems like it.

The second time around has been easier yet more challenging. With Abigail, Josh was home with me, which was good and bad. Great because I love being with him and we got to share the experience of being first time parents together. Bad because he didn't have a job. All in all, I rather be home alone this time with him gainfully employed.

Madeline has sort of gotten into a bit of a rhythm. Getting her to bed used to take 45-60 minutes. That meant feeding for 15-20 minutes and rocking her for the rest before she would drift off to sleep. Now it is 15-20 minutes to feed her and only 5-10 minutes for her to go to sleep. I like this much better. What was the real tease was that earlier in the week, she slept 8 hours straight! I couldn't believe it. I woke up and bolted upright thinking something was wrong. As I strained to listen to her breathing on the monitor, I lay in bed wondering if I should go in and check on her or not. Of course that happened for 10 minutes until she did start to stir. Whew. Now, that hasn't happened since but I am hopeful.

What is more trying is when I am home with both girls by myself. Since Josh leaves for work at 6 AM, there is no reason for Abby to be at school that early so I take her in later around 8:30 AM. However, I usually have to start my morning around 5 AM when Maddy wakes up and then I put her back to bed so I can get dressed and eat a little breakfast before the 2 year old awakes usually around 7. I know that you are thinking that 5 AM is a little ridiculous but by the time I do all my stuff, I would only get a little nap. I would rather get a longer nap when I return home from my exciting morning of getting Abigail to school and running my exciting errands like Publix and Walmart. You know you are jealous.

Some mornings go without a hitch. Abigail wakes up in a good mood and gets dressed while Madeline is sleeping. I get Abby set up with breakfast and go get Madeline out of her crib. I am able to juggle very successfully and get everyone in the car, fed, teeth brushed and Abigail with her milk and "water juice". Some mornings, they both are crying at the same time and I try not to cry myself or lose my temper. Thankfully it happens very infrequently so I can't complain. This week we had a few bumps. One of the days there was an accident on the way to day care and it took me an extra 30 minutes to get to school. Madeline cried the entire time and I knew it was gas related because she ate just before we left. Unfortunately there was not much I could do for her but let her cry to move the bubbles. Then yesterday I accidentally left my keys in the car and Josh accidentally hit the lock button on the car key before he left for work. It wasn't until I had Abigail in the garage and Madeline in her car seat ready to go into the car that I realized the problem. Josh HAULED back home and even took Abby to school. Thank goodness for first period planning.

So we are just working through the every day challenges of having two kids at home. Josh is wonderful enough to try to give me a break on the weekends by taking the 2 AM feeding. However, I am worried with work starting soon that Madeline will keep the 2 AM feeding. Hopefully she will get back to sleeping 8 hours. The next challenge is going to be getting me and both girls out of the house on time for me to get to work. Wish me luck.

My beautiful babies:

They Call Me Mellow Yellow

2009-09-14T10:28:00.002-04:00

They call me mellow yellow...(Quite rightly)

They call me mellow yellow - Donovan

When Madeline was first born she had a little jaundice. Nothing major and since Abigail was a little yellow when she was first born, we weren't too concerned. Not to mention, my skin has a little yellowish tint in the first place but that just may be the office tan that I normally sport. From everything I have read/seen regarding jaundice is nothing to mess around with but can easily be overcome by making sure the baby eats enough.

In the hospital I wasn't too concerned because all the bilirubin numbers from the hospital came back well within range so we weren't concerned. After being discharged from the hospital, we made a post hospital check up at the pediatrician and noticed that the yellow in Madeline was not going away. Sure enough, the doctor noticed that she was a little yellow and ordered a blood check to make sure that her levels were still within range. Sitting in the waiting room holding my breath, the levels came back and were perfect. We made an appointment for Maddy's two week check up and the doctor expected her to not be yellow by then.

The two week check up came and I was still concerned that she was yellow. The good news was that she was already 8 lbs so she definitely was eating enough. It was a problem that we had at first with Abby and I didn't want a repeat of the doctor having to mention formula, going to the lactation consultant, etc. The bad news was that she was still a little yellow and the whites of her eyes were a little gray. The doctor wasn't too concerned but did make an appointment for a four week check up. By four weeks all yellow should dissipate.

At four weeks we went back to the doctor but I wasn't holding my breath. Madeline was still yellow and I knew that the doctor was going to be concerned. Sure enough, the doctor recommended that we get a blood test to determine if she was just taking a little while to get rid of the yellow or if she had other problems. Lovely. Just what I needed to hear. Since I have nothing better to do with my days, I headed to the hospital to get Madeline's blood drawn after leaving the pediatrician. I was very nervous and was thinking about all of the problems that Madeline could have with prolonged jaundice. The doctor eluded to liver problems, blood problems, etc. but said we don't want to worry about anything until there is something to worry about. Very good advice but easier said than done.

I really didn't think that we would hear back from the doctor until the following week so I didn't think of anything when the phone rang late Friday afternoon. Josh picked it up but didn't tell me who it was at first. As he started to continue the conversation, I stopped what I was doing and gave him a "who the heck is on the phone" look. He looked at me, said it was the doctor but all the blood work came back perfectly. Madeline just has breastfeeding jaundice and while it will take her a little longer to get rid of all the yellow, it is nothing to be concerned about. Whew.

Now we have nothing to worry about until she is a teenager, right? Right?

Mother Is the Necessity of Invention

2009-09-05T16:58:00.002-04:00

I knew that juggling two kids was going to be challenging. Honestly that was what scared me the most about having another baby. We had basically figured Abigail out and easily played two on one with her. However, was she going to see that we have to divide and conquer to get anything done?

Abby has definitely decided that while Josh and I are always on the same side when it comes to parenting, she can push all of my buttons lately. I don't know how much of it is the fact that she knows I usually have Madeline in my arms or that she knows she is two years old. We have had to start hiking up the time outs because she just gives us that "I don't want to listen to you because (fill in the blank)" look. Today we went to Lowes to pick up some mulch for the front yard. Yes, I know you are jealous that we lead such exciting lives. We took separate cars so we could fit as much mulch in the car as possible. Josh had Abby in his car and I had Madeline. I knew that Abby was not going to make it to Lowes without having to stop to go the bathroom because she refused to go before we left. I definitely wasn't going to schlep Abigail, the potty seat, and Madeline to take Abby to the potty. We got to Lowe's with one quick stop to the Publix bathroom and managed to get everything we needed. It was our first outing with just the four of us and felt pretty liberating, as sad as that sounds. I piled the girls with me and Josh had the mulch and the cow manure in his car. Sucker!

On the way home from Lowes, Maddy started to fuss because it was time to eat again. No problem except we were going to be home in 5 minutes. I wasn't going to stop and feed her especially when I knew that she could wait 5 minutes. As soon as I turned into Wedgefield, Abigail asked if we could go to the park. I thought for 2 seconds and said sure! I called Josh behind me and said we should go to the park. It would let her have fun and I could feed Maddy. Josh told me he was stopping at the corner gas station for some drinks since it was getting hot outside but would be there 2 minutes later.

I get everyone out of the car and Abigail heads right for the slide, which she can maneuver herself. I sat on the bench to start to nurse Madeline. No sooner did I start to relax did Abby run over to me saying Potty! Potty!. Great...I asked her if she could wait for Daddy to come and she said no. I called Josh and he was still a few minutes away. I knew that Madeline was going to freak out if I stopped nursing but if I didn't take Abby to the potty, then things were going to get really bad. So I did what any mother would do. Keep nursing Maddy while taking Abby to the potty. I kept Maddy eating while headed for the bathroom. I got out the potty seat with one hand and put Abby on the potty. Success! Madeline only missed one beat but kept eating. I put everything away with my one hand and headed out of the bathroom at the park just as Josh was walking towards the bathroom. I just turned to him and said "I think I get an award for that."

So necessity may be the mother of all inventions but mother is the necessity of invention .

The First Week Home

2009-08-31T11:25:00.002-04:00

Leaving the hospital is always consumed with happiness, fear and a little "what did I get myself into". I had been very nervous about taking home Madeline with Abigail at home. We had such a good rhythm going that I didn't really want to rock it. Abby has been very good on the potty and we truly were enjoying having a two year old at home. While there are always a few bumps in the road with a toddler, Abby is a joy to have. Fairly predictable and we always have fun with her. However, we were throwing a wrench into the mix. How would Abigail take to having Madeline at home? Especially when I was nursing and not able to lift more than Maddy.

Abigail:

In the hospital, Abby was not thrilled the first day that we were staying in the hospital but she had to go home. The second day was better and we were on our way home by the third day. The first thing she wanted was "Mama, up!" (About two weeks ago before Maddy's arrival, she started calling me Mama instead of the usual Mommy. It is very cute so I am sticking with it.) Unfortunately I could not pick up Abby because of my c-section. Even pregnant I wasn't really supposed to be picking her up but it wasn't like I was carrying her around everywhere. So the first real test was sitting down to feed Madeline. At that moment, Abigail decided she would have a meltdown and wanted to snuggle with Mama. I had one hand holding Maddy and the other holding Abby. It sort of worked and Abigail soon figured that she could have the two arms of Daddy. As the week went on, it got better. She understands that I have to feed Madeline and she can "help". As soon as I start breastfeeding, Abby gives me a quick poke in the chest to help. I have also started to get her to help me wipe Madeline down and help with a bath. I figured if she helps with everything then she will realize she is not being put aside, which I fear is what she feels. Except when Daddy arrives on the scene. Then they go play in their own little world. It is very cute to see and I am sure when Madeline gets bigger then she will be invited to play. What has really been a relief is that day care started back up again. It gives Abby some play time with her friends and gives me some time to just concentrate on catching up on sleep between feedings. I know there are women out there who stay at home with more than one baby but I don't know if I could do it sanely.

Madeline:

We were always thankful that even though we had a few crying moments with Abigail when she was a baby, she was pretty easy. We didn't think lightening struck twice so we were prepared that Maddy may be a terror. Thankfully we could not be more wrong. So far, she has been such a mellow baby. She is quite a sleeper and is very mellow. She does not cry a lot and is quite content in her swing or being bounced. The only "problem" we have is that she is a gassy baby who does not burp very well. Hence why she likes to be in her swing. She takes a good nap in the morning and is right now sleeping every 3-3 1/2 hours at night. Of course we are about to go into the three week growth spurt so I am not expecting for that to continue. But that, after all, is what I am here for. Thank goodness for maternity leave.

Meeting Cletus the Girl Fetus

2009-08-24T14:38:00.008-04:00

Wednesday morning started off way before the crack of dawn. With Abigail we had an evening date with the doctor. I was really trying to avoid that again because I had to fast before the operation. Nothing like telling an extremely pregnant woman that she can't eat or drink for 10-12 hours. So at 9:30 the night before I took my last large glasses of water and was prepared. Of course neither Josh nor I slept much. We packed up all of our things to try to tire us out but that didn't work well. I think we got all of 3 or 4 hours of sleep. We woke up around 4 AM to leave the house at 4:45 AM. We had requested (told everyone) that the hospital arrangements would be Josh's parents coming to the hospital with us in our car and then my parents coming to the hospital with Abigail once I was in the postpartum room. I wasn't going to have Abigail sitting in the hospital lobby for hours on end. With her we were delayed by 2 hours. Not to mention the 2 hours we had to be at the hospital before the scheduled surgery.

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 AM and went right up to the waiting room upstairs. This time we were on a different floor from when we had Abigail so it was new but not so new. Very surreal. It honestly didn't hit me that we were here to welcome our baby girl into the world and my pregnancy was coming to an end. Not that I was complaining about the relief that I was going to feel in my legs. I was extremely over that part.

Up to the fourth floor we went (we were on the second last time for those of you who care) and sat in the waiting room for about 10 minutes before we had to do the administrative paperwork. It also allowed us to get directions for Josh's parents so they didn't have to sit there for two plus hours. What was really weird is that we were not the only people in the waiting room. Soon after we sat back down, it was time to go to the back. I was brought into a little room with a very nice nurse, Millie. She asked Josh if he ate breakfast and he stumbled to say no. He didn't want to leave me but had really not eaten. Millie picked up on that right away and told him that we are just going to change and get some lines started. Nothing major so he should go with his parents down to the cafeteria for a bite. Otherwise it was going to be a few hours. We just chatted while she got me hooked up to all the monitors and start my IV. Josh came back about 30 minutes later and soon after Mike, the anesthesiologist (or dope man as Josh called him). He hooked me up with the good stuff and I was on my way. What I wasn't prepared for, because it didn't happen last time, was that I had a lot of trouble keeping my eyes open. I wasn't falling asleep but it was serious work to keep the eyelids up. This was a life changing moment and I wanted to see it!!!

Mike came back to check on me and I was very numb. Josh got his hospital couture on and I was soon rolled back to the operating room.

Don't I look high????

Once on the table, I felt some tugging and pulling but really was just relaxing with my eyes closed. However, the minute I heard the soft cry of Madeline, my eyes shot open! She was here!!! Josh stood up a little to see her and then went over to the warmer table to confirm that her name fit. He said she definitely looked like a Madeline Sara. Good thing because we had NO CLUE what she would be named otherwise. Soon she was brought over to me and I got my first kiss and hug in with my new daughter. She was just so beautiful.

Josh accompanied Madeline out of the operating room for a roll to the nursery for a quick check out and a drive by the awaiting grandparents. I was closed up and wheeled to the recovery room. What was really nice this time was that Madeline was waiting for me there. With Abigail, I didn't get to see her until we were in the postpartum room. I didn't like that and glad that hospital changed things from two years ago. I was able to start nursing right away and we were soon rolled to the room where we would live for the next few days.

Final stats on me: 25 lbs gained. I had gained 32 lbs with Abigail but this time I didn't gain as much weight. I have called this the 2 year old pregnancy diet. Picking up Abby, playing on the floor, going up and down the stairs multiple times a day with her kept the weight off. Not that I was looking to stay skinny pregnant but it makes the afterwards that much easier.

The Days Before D-Day

2009-08-23T20:27:00.004-04:00

I figured the best place to start out would be Friday, August 7. I could go through the last bits of my pregnancy but it isn't all that interesting. What was interesting was how same but different this pregnancy was from Abigail. With Abby, I always had to sit up straight because I constantly had a head in my ribs. Not the most fun with a breach baby. This time I was getting shooting pains down my legs because Madeline was so low. We later found out when she was born that her head was even a little cone shape because she was so ready to come out. Little did she know that heading down was not the way she was going to come out. Naturally, the second one wants to come out the "normal" way and the first one didn't. Whatever. As long as I had my healthy, happy baby, I didn't care which way she came out.

So back to Friday...It was my last day of work. Of course, like last time, work was not too prepared for me to leave. I had only given work 6 week notice of my official last day which meant to them that they found my replacement the week before. Now, that isn't exactly a lot of time to explain everything I have been working on for the last 15 months. But, I wasn't going to lose sleep over it. I had Madeline to lose sleep over soon. HAHAHA.

One thing I wanted to do before Maddy came was to have just a fun day with the three of us. We decided that we would go to the beach. I put on my circus tent (maternity swim suit) and we all braved the beach.

We had such a great time and it was a great way to close out our trio chapter. The next two days Josh and I took advantage of my parents coming in on Monday. We went out on two dates and ran some last minute errands. Everything was now ready. The stage was set, the lights were on...now we just had to leave at 4:45 AM on Wednesday morning to meet our Cletus.

From A Trio to A Quartet

2009-08-20T11:43:00.005-04:00

We have had another life changing experience this past week. We welcomed into the world Madeline Sara Katz.

Isn't she beautiful?

Here are the stats:

Born August 12, 2009

7:49 AM

7 lbs, 11 ozs

19 3/4 inches long

Sorry to disappoint but we didn't stick with the name Cletus. Madeline Sara honors my Papa Mickey and Josh's Grandma Shirley. Unfortunately we lost both of them within the past two years. We are lucky that they got to meet Abigail at least but we decided rather quickly who we were going to name Madeline after. What is really funny (you won't find it funny) was that we had always talked about "the list" that we had for baby names. We had NO intention of sharing them with anyone until we saw our new baby. With Abby we had a list of two girl names and two boy names (since we didn't find out the sex) but we were leaning more towards Abigail. This time we told everyone we have a list but honestly Madeline Sara was the only thing on the list. We are so sneaky.

It is going to take me a few posts to go through everything that has changed in the past week starting the morning of August 12 and even the few days leading up to it.

Good Job, Mommy!

2009-08-04T15:42:00.002-04:00

Often we talk so much in the course of a day that we rarely realize what a toddler will pick up. Sometimes I look at Abigail wondering where she just picked up that one word and realize that I said it two days ago. Even my actions are being mimicked which is why I try to be a little deliberate in what I do. We have worked to take all bad words out of our vocabulary and try not make any actions we don't want repeated with little hands. I guess I didn't realize what we were doing with potty training.

Of course with potty training, like every other activity Abby does, we go with her to ensure her safety. Not to mention she hasn't quite gotten the hang of pulling her pants down to use the potty. So we get her up there, she does her thing (we pray) and we jump up and down, clap hands and exclaim "Good job! You went pee pee in the potty!" Since Abigail has always fed off of positive feedback, we usually get a great big smile. Totally makes my day. Other times we do the pat down like we are searching for contraband to ensure that she has clean panties. Poopy can be very sneaky. Usually we just do a quick pat down and say "Do you have dry panties? Good job!"

So it only makes sense that if I say "Mommy has to go potty" that I get from her "Go watch Mommy go potty." (Sure kid, I would love an audience). But I wasn't prepared for an extended conversation.

Me: "Mommy has to go potty."
Abby: "Watch Mommy go potty!"
Me: "Sure! Come on!"

Sit down to do my business and at the first drop in the pot Abby stands up jumping and clapping exclaiming "Good job, Mommy! Pee pee in the potty!"

Me: "Thanks! I can always use the encouragement!"
Abby: Walks over to me, reaches out for my panties, gives them a pat down and says "Let me check Mommy's panties. All clean. Good job, Mommy."

Good thing I was on the toilet already or I would have peed my pants from laughing so hard. Priceless.

My Kingdom For A Poopy!

2009-08-03T15:30:00.005-04:00

All in all, potty training has been going very well. Peeing in the potty is becoming a regular occurrence and the accidents are down to one or two a day. However, the accidents have all been poop related. She gets number one in the potty, no problem. I have now also visited almost every gas station and or restaurant between home and all of the stores we run errands to check out their facilities. Sometimes there are false alarms, which being only 8 days from the arrival of Cletus is not pleasant. (Josh has even graciously switched cars with me. Getting in and out of the Camry has been a little challenging recently. Well, maybe not challenging but definitely not pretty!)

Now, I am sure you are thinking very gross thoughts on Abigail using any public toilet while we are out. There are a few friends of ours that use a portable potty but since we weren't using anything but a regular toilet with an insert at home, we decided against a portable potty. Instead, we opted for this:

It is a toddler size cut out seat that folds into fourths. You place it on the regular toilet and a toddler size tushy won't fall in. So far, it has been a huge hit. Not to mention, Elmo is on it!

Peeing on the potty has been going well but pooping on the potty, not so much. I know that it is different muscles that are used to control the two functions but I personally think that while peeing can sneak up on you, pooping, not so much. The last week or so has been pretty much accident free for peeing but not for pooping. We go through at least one pair of panties a day for the poop storm. However, there is a positive note about this. Pooping in the pants is a lot less to clean up than peeing in the pants. With pooping there is usually only the panties to clean up. With peeing, there is the panties, shorts, car seat, restaurant chair and then the money to pay off the store manager for leaving a puddle in the middle of aisle 2.

Alas, we just continue on. What is really bugging us is that Abby verbalizes everything and states that poopy goes in the potty, not the panties. However, she just can't get control of it. We have tried different treats, incentives, bribery, shamans and smoke signals to try to entice her onto the potty when she poops. Not too much luck. I think about 5% of all the pooping she has done has made it into the potty. I guess we just have to look at the positive of this. She is getting the hang of potty training.

Things I Never Thought I Would Hear This Week

2009-07-28T12:59:00.005-04:00

As I wind down for work over the next two weeks to start my maternity leave, I am working to spin up my temporary replacement. It has been a bit of a challenge since he knows nothing about my program. I have had three hour meetings every day so far this week and it will continue until I leave (Only 10 more working days. Can I freak out now?). Needless to say I am a little tired but at least work can still entertain me!

So I have this picture on my desktop:

I love this picture. It is the first professional picture that I have purchased and was even more surprised when it came from the photographer at day care. Day care usually has three or four photo opportunities during the year to make a killing on working parents who don't usually have a lot of time to take their kids for professional pictures in the hope that they picked a good day at least a month in advance. Every year they have one black and white photographer, one color one and then usually a class photo. The class photo this year was cute but my kid was the ONLY ONE not smiling. One of the color photos from either this year or last had her hair in her face. Who wouldn't take two seconds to fix that? Last year the black and white photo came back with my child looking like she may have been diagnosed with a severe mental issue. So needless to say, we haven't purchased a photo. This year, I LOVED the photo. I just love looking at that face and especially on my computer every day.

The person I am training to work my program sat down with me today, I bring up my desktop on my computer and he says "What a cute little Chinese boy!" ::Music comes to a screeching halt:: I immediately say "What part of HER looks Chinese?" Now I know that some people who have no Chinese ancestry (or other) often hear that they or their child looks like they are either adopted or must have "fill in the blank" blood in them. I know this is something that my friend over at Sprite's Keeper hears with some of the pictures of her daughter. But this is a first for me so the shock value alone is just blowing my mind. Now I did address the other issue that he called her a boy but I will give him some (very little) slack because Abigail has short hair and you can't quite tell that she is wearing a flower shirt. But if anyone would ever have a doubt as to a child's gender, most people don't just make a guess. Just say something benign like "Oh how cute!" and wait for some confirmation response. Ugh...

The other thing I heard today was from the bank teller. I bank with my work's credit union and I am very lucky that they have a branch at work so I don't have to worry about doing all of my banking activities by taking off of work to go to the bank. We recently refinanced our house to get a much lower interest rate (SCORE!) on our mortgage. I was very pleased and we paid out some money and they paid us some money. Still haven't figured that one out but the check that left my hands was smaller than the one that they gave us so I didn't care. I went down to the credit union to deposit this not so small check. The teller looked at the numbers and then stated that she wants to make sure she inputs the correct figure. Um, yes, thank you for making sure that the number is right. She then tells me how she transposes numbers all the time. My eyes sort of bugged out of my head and I asked her "Are you sure you are in the right line of business then?" I got an uncomfortable laugh back but now I am going to double and triple check all of my bank transactions from now on with this teller. That is like seeing your doctor for major surgery and him saying "I have been having trouble with my glasses lately. I really need to go to the eye doctor to check my eyes."

And it is only Tuesday!

Potty Time!

2009-07-20T13:23:00.004-04:00

Josh and I decided at the beginning of the year that it would be Josh's job during his summer off to potty train Abigail. I had some reservations since it was more up to her than us but I really wanted to try to not have two kids in diapers at the same time.

What I didn't realize is that there are about 30 different potty training methods out there and each one contradicts the other. One will say to use pull ups to transition and one will say quit diapers all together. One will say use a sticker chart and one will say use a different type of reward system. A good friend of mine emailed me her potty training book that touted that it would train in 3 days. I really had my doubts but her 2 year old son was potty trained with this book so it was worth a try. I honestly didn't think it would happen in 3 days but it was just somewhere to start.

Unfortunately, Josh is very mathematical and methodical in his thinking. He believes that if a process is laid out logically, then the end result should happen. While this can happen in his little math world, it does not necessarily happen with humans. Let alone a 2 year old. He just figured if he had something with proven results, he would get the same proven results. Thankfully he doesn't use this thinking all the time or I am sure we would have a lot more stuff in our house from infomercials.

We picked D-Day (done with diaper day. Or should that be D-D-Day? Now I just sound like I have a stutter.) to be the day after swim lessons would end, July 8. Since the book told us that we (Josh) need to basically needed to be home for 3 days straight, we didn't want swimming to interfere. Josh even went out to buy some girly panties and was going to take this head on. I have to say that I give him a lot of credit for this task since I would be able to escape to work. There are not many dads out there that I know who would take on the task of potty training by himself.

Day 1 : Josh and Abigail go through the house "throwing out" all the diapers to start the transition. And no, we didn't really throw them out but to her they were gone. I get a call at work around 10 AM to say that Abby is already on her 9th pair of panties. 9???? She has only been up 3 hours. Good luck! But there is some progress in the afternoon and I get home to a lot of wet towels on the floor.

Day 2: The morning was awesome but the afternoon slowly goes downhill. Abby wets her bed during nap time and a few temper tantrums ensue...but not by Abby. I get home to take the reins for a little and we watch Elmo with a few towels on my lap.

Day 3: The morning starts of very bad and three days at home picking up messes is getting to Josh a little. But who wouldn't start to go insane? The afternoon slowly gets better but there are still a handful of messes. Josh is about to throw the towel in (since there are so many towels downstairs for messes it wasn't hard to find one to throw) but he is already in deep so there is no point in going backwards.

Day 4: Obviously, we are not miraculously potty trained which is not making Josh happy but I keep trying to find the silver lining, which actually isn't hard. It has been four days without diapers and we are only going through 4-5 pairs of underwear a day instead of 10-15. Baby steps.

Day 5: The first real test. My parents in town and we are meeting Adam and Morgan for lunch. Josh needs the space because he has unfortunately been cooped up in the house since Day 1 of potty training. He is getting a well deserved golf outing. I take a bag with me and about 15 changes of clothes. Not only did Abby make it to the restaurant but went TWICE on the potty there. I didn't even need any changes of clothes the whole outing. I think we are finally getting the hang of this!

Stay tuned...

More Time Outs

2009-07-10T13:16:00.002-04:00

The time outs have been going pretty well. I have blogged about the need for time outs and how they are not very often. Sometimes we have to go through time out two or three times in a row because Abigail just doesn't care about the fact that she is sent to time out. She will go in for throwing something, for example, and then when she is done doesn't want to remedy the situation. She will either refuse to pick up what she threw or just throw something again. So back into time out we go. Lately, she is starting to turn the tables on us. The conversation used to be:

Me: "Abby, time to clean up."
Abby: "No."
Me: "Yes. Abigail it is time to clean up so we can go to the car. :
Abby: "Get Dolly?"
Me: "No, we have to go. Last warning. You need to clean up. Do you need a time out?"
Abby: "No." Throws toys across room.
Me: "We do not throw! Time out, now."

Now the conversations are taking a different course:

Me: "Abby, time to clean up."
Abby: "No."
Me: "Yes. Abigail it is time to clean up so we can go to the car.
Abby: "Time Out?"
Me: ::Baffled:: "Um, do you need a time out?"
Abby: "Yes. Sit in time out" And walks over to her time out mat and sits down.
After about a minute passes...
Abby: "All done time out?"
Me: "Sure. All done time out."
Abby then walks over to clean up.

So far we have had about 50% success with this. Sometimes she sits in there for the attitude adjustment and sometimes she just goes back to not doing what I am asking. Then it has to be followed by a real time out.

I don't think she is doing anything that is time out caliber but if she really wants to sit in time out, who am I to argue? Hopefully she will continue to do things like this by herself...like going to the potty. More on that in a future blog. Stay tuned!

I Just Don't Get It

2009-07-10T12:55:00.003-04:00

It has now started to become more of a mission for me. I am actually looking for things that I don't get. I figured if I stick to only three at a time per post, this will actually come pretty quickly.

1. Halloween and Christmas already???? It is only July 10. Fourth of July holiday ended and retails quickly move all of the merchandise from a prominent display in the front of the store to the back clearance bin to prepare for the next holiday shopping. I am used to seeing back to school supplies coming out shortly after Fourth of July. Then it is followed slowly by Halloween items, Thanksgiving and then Christmas (which gets scattered with whatever is blue and white so they can have a Chanukkah display). I was actually at Babies R Us this past weekend to get a baby shower present. As I am walking towards the registers, I see that they already have Halloween costumes for sale. I actually stopped for a second to reflect on the fact that it is JULY!!!! Then yesterday on my way to work I drove by a billboard for a radio station. The advertisement had a sun on it wearing a Santa Claus hat. The tag line below the station identification said "Your holiday music station." I have already resigned myself to the fact that the day after Thanksgiving most radio stations start the Christmas music. But the day after July 4th? I think that is a new record of ridiculous.

2. Candy. I have a candy dish at my desk. My cube mate had it on her desk before she moved to a different cubicle. Since I usually need a chocolate fix, I decided I would invest in a candy dish. The guy who sits in the cubicle next to mine eats a lot of the chocolate but since he contributes to purchase candy, I have no problem with it. What I do have a problem with is when people come by my desk to either say hi or ask me a question and then complain about my candy choices. Seriously, you are complaining because I have candy and not chocolate today that I nice enough share? The other problem I have is that people will stop by my desk to take some candy and I don't even know who they are. Should I follow them to their desk and randomly take things off of their desk? It isn't like the candy is on a table outside of my desk and just for everyone to help themselves. It is on my desk within arm reach for me. What is even funnier is that people I know or who really stop by to discuss work will ask permission for a piece of candy. I usually just laugh and tell them "Any time!" It is nice that they have manners but I do provide candy for those people who stop by to actually get work done. Though I have had to put up the candy dish when I leave the desk because apparently me not sitting here to monitor the candy becomes an open invitation to anyone walking by to have some candy.

3. Maternity Leave. I have only 4 weeks of work left before I go on maternity leave. There still has been no decision on who will be doing my work while I am on leave. I keep having to tell people that this date isn't exactly negotiable nor can I move it out. She is coming whether I am ready or not! (more on the not ready side but I won't go into that.)

The Rule of Three

2009-06-26T09:38:00.004-04:00

After consulting with a friend of mine, Google, I was interested to find this:

"The rule of three is a principle in English writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. From slogans ("Go, fight, win!") to films, many things are structured in threes. There were three musketeers, three little pigs, three billy goats Gruff, Goldilocks and the three bears and the Three Stooges." I know that if I think harder, I can come up with a few more examples like Scrooge was visited by three ghosts. But it is Friday and my brain is not working too well today.

I know that things usually happen in threes and it is pure coincidence but after the death of Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett this week, Josh and I wondered who would be the third Hollywood celebrity to meet some tragedy (I am NOT only talking about death. I am not looking for that but I found an interesting website. http://www.celebrity-deaths.com/) Last night we were all just hanging out at home and found out that Michael Jackson died. MICHAEL JACKSON! Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett had been battling cancer but Michael Jackson just dropped dead. Unreal.

Then I realized we had our own rule of threes this week but thankfully no death or tragedy. Just inconvenience. I was going to mention this earlier in the week but I was dreading what the third thing to go wrong would be catastrophic. I didn't want to jinx anything.

Over the past three weeks, we have had three major house issues: the well, the freezer and the air conditioner.

The Well:

We are on a well on our property. There is a filtration system which makes the water very drinkable from the sink. We don't even need any type of additional filter on our sink or bottled drinking water. (Though if you come to my house and don't like the water, tough. Drink it or bring your own. BYOB.) Recently the water in our house, however, did start to taste a little funny. Josh has been taking care of the well since day one and all it needs is for us to monitor the chlorine and salt levels. Nothing major. We have had minimal problems with this well and since it is our well, we have no water bills. (SCORE!) But after having funny tasting water, we decided to get someone out to take a look at the well. Apparently, we should have been having someone come out to service the well every other year (it has been 4 1/2 years. oops.) to change the filters, carbon, etc. So, a few hundred dollars later, we have our wonderful water back but we are a little lighter in the pockets.

The freezer:

I came home one day to find that our Popsicles were forming beautiful color pools in the bottom of our freezer and our ice cream was a little soupy. (EMERGENCY! Save the ice cream and then yourselves!) Thankfully we have a chest freezer so we were able to move most of the food items that had not completely defrosted to the chest freezer before having to throw them away. But we had no clue what was wrong with the freezer. It was cool in there but not cold enough to freeze. After fiddling with the dials and realizing that wasn't the problem, it was time to call the Maytag repair man. Now, we had just recently replaced the microwave. I wasn't exactly expecting another 4 year old appliance to go. Unlike the microwave, the fridge was quite a bit more money and was going to be worth spending the money to get someone out to look at it. So we called Maytag and they came out the next day. Fridges have a 5 year limited warranty so we didn't expect to pay much (maybe a deductible) if anything at all. At first they stated that our fridge was out of warranty because we didn't have our paperwork to prove the fridge was under 5 years old. Good thing Josh was there to handle the guy because I would have gone hormonal. We didn't even have walls up for our house 5 years ago let alone the fridge...Josh called the Maytag main office, got the correct paperwork for the closing of our house and that proved we didn't have the fridge in our possession before December 2004. Whew!

The repair man determined we had a freon leak and hooked up a contraption to find the leak...and stated he will be back in a week to check it. A WEEK! UGH! Again, not the end of the world but an inconvenience. In the mean time, he believed we had a problem with our evaporator and ordered a new one. He came back a week later and the evaporator was delivered to our house in the mean time. However, when he came back and opened the box, the evaporator was severely bent. He had to order another one and came back in another week.

So two weeks later, we have a working freezer and we were only out $20 for a tip.

The air conditioner:

The day the freezer is fixed, we realized the air conditioner upstairs (we have separate units for each floor) was blowing but not cold. The temperature was already up to 83 degrees since we have been having a heat index of 105 this past week. Thankfully downstairs the air was working but my parents and grandma were in town visiting which just exacerbated the situation since sleeping arrangements were going to have to be altered. Abigail was sound asleep and since it wasn't unbearable upstairs, we left her sleeping. Josh and I decided we could make it through the night and slept in our bed while my grandma had the guest room downstairs and my parents had the couch. While everyone was getting settled, Josh decided to go outside and upstairs to see if he could tell what the problem was with the air conditioner. However, after a lot of sweat and ant bites over the two of us, we couldn't figure out the cause. Good news was that air conditioners are covered under our general house warranty and I called the company to send someone out. Bad news was that they could not send anyone out for 36 hours. We were work order 301 and while they sympathized, they just couldn't get there any sooner. Good thing I was tired because I would have gone hormonal on them. 8 months pregnant, 3 guests, 105 degrees and one working air conditioner...(though it could have been the downstairs one to go so this was definitely the lesser of two evils). The next day it reached 91 on the thermostat upstairs. I decided that Abby was NOT sleeping upstairs and neither was I that night. We put her in her pack n play downstairs in Grammy's room and I slept on the futon mattress on the floor. Josh decided it wasn't that bad and slept upstairs. Fine. More power to him. I called the warranty company again and someone was set to come out to our house between 8 and 9 AM. True to their word, they showed up at 8 AM, fixed the problem rather quickly (some minor part burned out in the compressor) and we had air in the whole house.

I really hope nothing else is set to go wrong so we have to start counting what will be problem two and three. I am done for now with fixing things but think in your life where you have been encountered by the number three. It is scary!

Did You Just Call Me Fat?

2009-06-23T15:50:00.004-04:00

Having gone on the pregnancy ride once already, I thought I would sort of know what I was expecting. I have never really blogged about my weight, getting bigger or people commenting on these before because it didn't really happen when I was pregnant with Abigail. With Cletus, I don't know if people are just getting more brazen or society as a whole figures that when it comes to pregnancy, no topic is taboo. (Minor tangent: I have noticed that since I am pregnant people figure that they are welcome to discuss my belly, body, nipples, cervix, medical decisions, labor, Cesarean sections, and, my favorite, my breasts. These are not topics I like to discuss with most people let alone at work...)

Now, I know that women start showing with second pregnancies earlier than their firsts but some of these comments I can't even immediately comprehend. It is as if I am saying "Did you seriously just say that?" Most of the time the look on my face says just that and I have been witness to some fancy backpedaling. While most of these comments have been made by men, which is expected, most of them have children and I can't imagine what they have said to their poor wives. But I am getting a lot of comments from women too. And of course most of those comments are from women who haven't been pregnant in over 50 years. It is hard for them to understand that things do change over the years.

I am convinced that people are just trying to say I am fat. If I encounter a comment from someone, I usually just have a quick comeback of "Did you just call me fat?" While I know they usually aren't, that comment right there makes them rethink what they just said. So there!

Here is the bottom line...I gained 32 lbs with Abby. I lost it all within the first 6 months (though I actually had a relative argue with me that I didn't lose the weight 2 years later. Ummmm. Yes, I did. She just came back with "Well then you just look like everything shifted." Thanks. I lost the weight but apparently don't look like I did). So far with Cletus, I have gained 20 lbs. I have 7 weeks to go and have gained less weight that last time because I am chasing after a 2 year old. I don't feel that it is a lot or I am doing anything wrong so I am happy to announce that it is just 20 lbs.

In case you are wondering, the average person is recommended to gain 30 lbs during a normal pregnancy.

However, here are the comments I have received:

"Are you sure it isn't twins?" Yes. I have had three ultrasounds and they have only found one baby.
"You are enormous!" Really. Someone decided to use the word enormous to describe me.
"Are you going to make it?" Yes. I have 7 more weeks...not 7 more days.
"At least the weight is all out in front. That will make it easier to lose the weight later." Again. It is only 20 lbs and it is not just 20 lbs of fat.
"You are eating again?" Yes. Pregnant women do have to eat and it is normally recommended for all people. Even animals and insects.
"Make sure you don't gain too much weight." I am not trying or not trying to do anything with my weight. When I am hungry, I eat. When I am full, I don't eat. Very simple.
"You sure are getting bigger." I am incubating a human. Did you expect her to get smaller?

I even have non weight related comments:

"You look so tired." Try working a 40 hour week, being in your 8th month of pregnancy and have a 2 year old at home. Then let do it every day and let me know if you feel awake enough to run a marathon. (Most of these come from men who probably don't even do their own laundry. Of course they have time to sleep.) OR
"Better get your sleep now!" Yes, we can store it up like squirrels for the winter and just pull out a few hours of sleep when we need it.
"Will you be able to travel to Australia for work in July?" I can't even lay flat on my back right now and you want me to sit in a seat to travel for 32 hours?

I am sure I am forgetting a few comments here and there but these are the ones that I get...weekly...Here is a photo from two weeks ago so I will let you be the judge.

And I don't even care what your comments are because, trust me, I have heard them all!

Falling To Pieces

2009-06-18T16:05:00.002-04:00

Josh and I do not always agree with parenting styles of other parents but since it is not our kid, we don't say anything. But it always starts a discussion for us and how we are going to address that issue with Abigail. It can be something like seeing a 4 year old walking around with a pacifier and vowing we will never do that. Thankfully Abby never really liked a pacifier but that is a whole other story. Sometimes Josh and I disagree on how we would handle the same situation. However, we always discuss it and weigh the pros and cons. One thing that we had discussed early on was the fact that when Abby falls down, bumps into something, lands on her tushy or anything minor, we were not going to have a huge reaction. We didn't want to go "OH NO" or run to her side making a huge deal out of the littlest of things. We wanted her to be a tough girl but if she seriously hurts herself, one of us runs to pick her up. Thankfully this doesn't happen too much and she seems to not have inherited my klutziness...yet...

It is amazing how kids really look for your reaction. When Abby was first trying to pull up and walk, she would often fall on her tushy. She almost immediately would look up at us waiting for an "OH NO!" reaction so she knew she could cry and get some sympathy. But we would always clap and just keep it positive. Most of the time it worked well and we have had to modify it as she gets bigger. When Abby finally was walking, she would sometimes fall forward catching herself on her hands. She would look at us, palms up as if to say "There is dirt on my hands, I fell, is this good or bad?" We would just put her hands together, tell her to just dust it off and go back to playing. Other times we would just tell her she is okay and get back to playing. We really were not going to pick her up, coddle her and give her a cookie every time she cried because she fell. It wasn't the message we wanted to get across.

With becoming an extremely verbal 2 year old, reactions are changing. One thing that was picked up from day care was if something hurts you, it is not nice. But a quick kiss makes everything all better. Last week the dialog went like this:

CLUNK!
Abby: ::Sniffle:: "Bumped the head."
Me: "You bumped your head?"
Abby: "Yes, Mommy kiss?"
Me: "Of course!" ::Kiss:: (and checking for bleeding, bruising and then realizing there is nothing within 3 feet of her that could have caused this) "All better?"
Abby: "All better. Not nice, floor."
Me: "The floor hurt you?"
Abby: "Yes. Not nice, floor" As she runs back to playing.

Okay...Floors are not nice. I guess I have to keep a better eye on our floors because they are jumping up and hurting my child...

I came home yesterday to Abigail running around playing and then fell. Of course I was waiting to see what was not nice since she tripped over air. But instead she just got up and announced "Abby okay!" Josh and I exchanged looks and just laughed.

I Just Don't Get It

2009-06-09T11:09:00.007-04:00

I told everyone that I wouldn't be able to do a post like this every week but it looks like I am two weeks in a row. (Go me!) Though I do like setting low expectations so everyone is amazed when I actually make a post instead of people wondering where my post is. Though I think I can count on one hand the amount of people who actually read this. So without further adieu, here are things that I just don't get:

1. Craigslist: I am an avid Craigslist visitor (stalker). I visit that site pretty much every week. You never know what you are going to find on there and if I am looking for something in particular, I may stalk it every day. I have been able to get some great things on there but that is another post for another day. Maybe this week if you are lucky! Anyways, I was on there and someone posted a huge package of Elmo gear. Since Elmo is currently a staple at our house, I decided to read the post. This person had books, toys and even an Elmo potty seat (used? eww)that they were willing to trade items for. Reading further I decided to see what sort of items they wanted to trade for it since my curiosity was peaked. Some items were basic for a kids section of Craigslist: swing set accessories, playground accessories, light toys, gift certificates, items that would interest a 4 year old girl, etc. What totally just made my jaw drop was items like this: new sexy lingerie, gently used costumes from a foreplay catalog, Nextel cell, microdermabrasion, professional teeth whitening, pest control or bedding ("4 my mans hous") and a firearm. I can't even make this up. You can go ahead and pick your jaw off of the floor too.

2. Bluetooth: About 3 years ago, Josh and I got Bluetooth headsets so we could talk on the phone in the car without taking our hands off of the wheel. This was more important when Josh was selling insurance because he was always in his car and his cell phone was his work line. What really amazes me is people who HAVE to have them in their ears at all times. Josh and I will joke that we are "that guy" if we forget to take our Bluetooth out. Our headsets reside in the car, where we use them. I don't need to be walking through Publix with it. I even was in an all day work meeting (10 hour meeting) the other day and this guy in there had his in his ear. And he only answered his phone once...during the whole meeting. Yes, I counted to see if there was a vital reason for this device to be in his ear. Obviously, there wasn't. I just don't get how people think that a Bluetooth in your ear symbolizes that you are THAT important that you can't take the .26 seconds to answer the phone with your hand. What really makes me scratch my head is when I see people talking into their phone WHILE the Bluetooth is in their ear. If your Bluetooth isn't working, take it out. Your ear is not a docking station.

3. Wisdom: I know that we should all respect our elders and take in the sage advice that they bless us with. But boy, do I get it so much more with being pregnant. One of my favorite lines that I just don't get is when someone asks you about something simple, like "Are you putting a pillow in the crib?" When you say no because pediatricians recommend not having anything in the crib because they can pose a suffocation hazard. Inevitably, I get a comment back stating "Well, I did it with my kids and they turned out fine." With that logic, why bother getting a polio vaccine or wear a seat belt in the car. Some people made it through life without a either of these. Maybe I should just run across the interstate and if I make it without getting hit, then everyone should do it. I mean, I would turn out fine so that means everyone who does it will be fine. Right?Anyone is able to do whatever they want. It is their life but if the only justification you have to support your argument is "Well, I did it and nothing happened" then you have other issues.

Some things I just don't get.

No Time Out!

2009-06-01T14:49:00.003-04:00

Before Josh and I decided to have Abigail, we had always talked about things we would or would not do as parents. Often we would see people pushing their infant in a stroller at 11:00 P.M. or sit in a restaurant while a child screams and the parents just sit and scream back and vow we would never do that to our child. One day, Josh brought home a book called Whale Done and suggested we both read it. At first I was skeptical since I was not sure what I could use it for since we had no children yet and I wasn't working with college students like Josh. But since it was a rather short book, we read it quickly. It was amazing how you can apply the concepts of this book to everything. To sum it up, you need to catch people doing things right instead of always punishing them when they do something wrong. This can be easily translated to relationships, work, pets and children.

We have been using the techniques, basically (Oreo is useless), since then and it really makes life more enjoyable. I would rather tell someone they are doing a good job instead of constantly telling them they are doing a terrible job. It may sound selfish but it is much more rewarding to me in addition to them. So we decided since we were both on the same parenting page, we could easily do this for our child once she understood timeouts and consequences for actions. There was no way we were going to be able to do this on an infant.

Recently we have had to start time outs for Abigail. These aren't every day or even every week occurrences. Timeouts are for major offences like hitting, throwing toys, doing anything very dangerous or otherwise not listening when being asked to do something after multiple requests and/or warnings. The last one I gave her was because she decided that instead of cleaning up as I asked her, she would throw her toys across the room. Not acceptable. The time out went like this:

Me: "Abby, time to clean up."
Abby: "No."
Me: "Yes. Abigial it is time to clean up so we can go to the car."
Abby: "Get Dolly?"
Me: "No, we have to go. Last warning. You need to clean up. Do you need a time out?"
Abby: "No." Throws toys across room.
Me: "We do not throw! Time out, now."

Time outs:
After her 2 minute confinement on her time out mat by the door, we go over to her, tell her how much we love her and she needs to not do whatever she was put in time out for.

Lately we have gotten to the "Do you need a time out?" question and since she knows that time out is coming, she will start to do what we ask. When she does that request, we applaud and are generally over complementary that she listened. Abby feeds off of the praise and we want her to know that we are happier when she does something good instead of always worried about when she does something bad. Thus leading to her making better choices.

Lately when we are doing our praise, she asks "No, time out?" We always respond with "No time out! You did a great job." It makes me wonder if we put her in time out too much and are not catching her doing well often enough. The final answer came this weekend. We have not had to put her in a time out for a good two weeks. As she was heading up for a bath, I ran over to get a quick kiss. When I asked if I can have a kiss, she said "No kiss." I stuck out my lower lip and started to pout saying "Mommy wants a kiss." Finally she leaned over and gave me a quick peck. I broke into a huge smile and said "Thank you! Mommy loves your kisses!" She smiled, looked at me and asked "No time out?" Of course I am not going to give you a time out for not giving me a kiss. Are you kidding me????

I guess we have to work more on this whole time out thing...or maybe not. I got my kiss!

I Just Don't Get It

2009-06-01T10:37:00.004-04:00

Jen over at Sprite's Keeper does a post every Tuesday entitled "Random Tuesday Thoughts". I always admired the fact that she blogs every single day. (I have to motivate myself to make my lunch every day let alone blog. Of course the fact that I am frugal means that I will take the time to make my lunch every day.) What I really admire is the fact that she only has random thoughts on Tuesdays only. I have about 30 random thoughts just on the way to work so I don't know that I could even consolidate them to just one day a week and one post. Maybe I just don't want proof when the men in white coats come to take me away.

Therefore, I decided to modify her Tuesday thoughts and just post about things that "I just don't get" with maybe the hopes that someone may enlighten me. Maybe someone will tell me that I have to get on the bandwagon because it will be beneficial to me or someone will just jump on my bandwagon and tell me these things are truly insane. I am really hoping for the latter. Really.

Three things I don't get:

1. Talking on your cell phone while in the bathroom. Especially public bathrooms. Unless someone is picking up the phone for a life saving conversation, I don't see the need to not wait the three minutes it takes someone to use the bathroom. How do I know that their conversation is not life saving? BECAUSE THEY ARE IN A PUBLIC BATHROOM AND EVERYONE HEARS THEIR CONVERSATION. I am not talking about having a quick pick up and a 2 second "I will call you back in three minutes" type of conversation. I am talking about very personal and long conversations. I don't know if people just don't realize the physics of sound bouncing very well off tile bathrooms. Especially when the floors and even walls are tiled like most public bathrooms. You are going to Olive Garden for dinner next week. We get it.

2. Wearing a cowboy hat into work. Anyone who knows where I work and the fact that I live in Orlando, Florida knows this is not something that is normal. If I worked on a cattle ranch in the middle of Texas, that is one thing. But to see someone walking around work with a cowboy hat. I am talking about a very large, white, Stetson. All he was missing was a horse. I guess that would make for problems getting a horse in the office. And it wasn't even Halloween! I have been searching for a reason but have to chalk this up to something I just don't get.

3. People who get irritated when I drive because I let off of the gas pedal while approaching a red light. I even play a game with people who speed past me, mad I am only doing the speed limit, just for me to meet them at the next red light. Do people not realize that speeding to a red light does not make them get to their destination any quicker? If we were on an interstate and I was traveling 70 MPH and the person wanted to go 75 MPH, then they would have ever right to be irritated if I didn't let them pass me. (I do try to drive in the right lane unless I am passing people though I have been passed on the right hand side even in the right lane. Yes, passed on the shoulder.) I understand that in an hour, this person will be 5 miles ahead of me. I will throw a parade for them.

Stay tuned for more of "I just don't get it" coming to a blog near you.

Shampoo

2009-05-12T14:09:00.008-04:00

I have a confession to make. This is very hard for me so I will just blurt it out.

My name is Rebecca and I am a Sea World-holic.

Whew! I feel so much better now. I have been meaning to get that off of my chest for years.

Josh and I have had Sea World passes for years. I actually had one before I met him when I was still in college. They had a promotion offering pay one full day, get the rest of the year free. Pair that with a student discount and two free beers that they gave away, and I was set. Of course over the years they changed their promotions but that didn't dissuade us from getting Sea World passes. It always cost justified itself to get the annual passes and offset it by free beer and entertainment. Especially when I lived about 15 minutes away at the time. Josh and I loved the beer school which eventually morphed into beer tasting in the Brewmaster's Club. I was able to recite the beer school script back to the employees who worked there and it was even funnier if I had a few beers in me.

My best friend, Carri, was my maid of honor at my wedding. For my bachelorette party she even took the party to Sea World's Luau Dinner Show. I got up on stage and danced. I really had a great time. I remember asking Carri how she came up with the idea and she very bluntly put "You love Sea World. It wasn't a very hard decision."

The day before I found out I was pregnant with Abigail, Josh and my family were at Sea World. Josh and I attended a quick beer school, in which I had some of my beers and some of his. Then the next day I got a positive pregnancy test. Good thing I was drinking the day before.

Unfortunately, Sea World/Busch Gardens was bought out by In Bev who decided to stop all free alcohol in the parks. BOO!!! So with the assistance of my brother getting us free passes (since we can't offset the price with free beer. Just kidding. We would still go), we have continued our Sea World traditions with Abigail. Abby has gone to Sea World since she was three months old:

We even were lucky enough to stop by when Uncle Adam was at Sea World with his Busch Gardens animals.

But the real thing we couldn't wait for was until she was big enough to start playing in the kids area since the big kids (Josh and I) have been wanting to go for years.

The best part is definitely the splash pad they have there. While it can be overcome with big kids, we try to go early in the morning so we can play by ourselves.

Because of our love for Sea World, it wasn't a surprise to me that Abigail would recognize Sea World before more known characters like Mickey Mouse. However, when I drove by a Sea World billboard with Shamu on it, I would heard a little voice from the back seat. I expected to hear "whale" or "more Cheerios". However, all I heard was "Shampoo! Shampoo!" After a good laugh, I said "Sweetie, it is Shamu." She quickly corrected herself and said "Shamu. Shamu". Now, she does know what shampoo is because we use it in the bath every day so I wasn't quite expecting to hear a giant killer whale to be called the same thing as the yellow soap in the bathtub.

Unfortunately, now Ms. Smartie Pants knows what exit Sea World is and will ask"Sea World? Shampoo? Big hug for Shampoo?" every time we pass. Yes, dear. We can go to Sea World and give Shamu a big hug.

Oh what monster have we created.

The Mother of All Mother's Days

2009-05-11T10:25:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was my third Mother's Day. While I am not a big fan of the "Hallmark Holidays", I am all about having a "me" day. Usually my day is my birthday. My one day to be spoiled. I get a pedicure, get taken out to dinner and generally refuse to do my normal chores around the house. I mean, it is only one day! For Mother's Day, like Valentine's Day, I always tell Josh do not get me flowers. I do not see the point in getting overpriced flowers under any obligation he may feel. I would rather get flowers on a random day. Much more exciting and you don't have to beat down the crowd for the last stem.

My first Mother's Day was when Abigail was only 5 weeks old. At that point, she was still eating every 2-3 hours and I hadn't been back to my doctor for my 6 week check up yet so I was not feeling 100%. Let alone taking Abby anywhere because of crowds. So we did something very simple and just stayed at home. But Josh and Abby got me a card, which I appreciated.

Last year, we had been planning for 6 months prior to go on a cruise with a close group of friends. There ended up being 12 of us heading for the sunny Bahamas. What none of us realized until about a month before we set sail, was that it was Mother's Day weekend. Since there were three of us who were mothers of little ones at home and left our kids with their grandparents, we were actually giving great Mother's Day presents to our mothers/mothers in law. See how that logic works? Flawless, right? We had a wonderful time on our cruise and actually would love to go on another one very soon but who knows if that will be a reality.

This year, Josh had been asking me for a few weeks "What do you want for Mother's Day???" Since I really had no little trinket I wanted nor wanted Josh to spend a lot of money, I had told him that I all I wanted was to sleep in, be taken out for lunch/dinner and maybe let me have an afternoon nap. That is it. Simple right?

Saturday we went out to the nursery for some plants for the house. By the time we got home to plant them, it was about 95 degrees. Way too hot to be outside digging in the dirt so we decided to put it off until Sunday morning. Even though Josh didn't want me to do any work on Mother's Day, it was more important for us not to be outside planting in the heat. Not to mention, I am 6 months pregnant and there is not a lot of work I would be doing but plenty I could guilt Josh into! HAHAHA (evil laugh). So I slept and awoke to a nice aroma of waffles. I crawled out of bed and put our sheets in the wash. It is my Sunday morning ritual so I wasn't phased that it was Mother's Day. Sheets still have to be clean. I hear a holler from downstairs yelling "Becca???? Get back in bed!!!!" I jump back in bed and Josh greets me with a tray of homemade waffles and a cup of hot tea. (Tangent: We have been married over 6 years now and Josh has never made me breakfast in bed. I am not complaining but just stating a fact. I was blown away by this gesture) Abby joined us on the bed and proceeded to eat half of my waffles with me. I didn't care because they were amazing tasting and eating them in bed with my two favorite people. With such good waffles, who wouldn't want to eat more? I can't blame her.

After breakfast, I came downstairs to a very clean kitchen. I am not used to this after Josh normally does cooking. I didn't even have to spot clean! We proceeded outside to start planting and while it was starting to get hot, it wasn't unreal. Josh started planting while Abby and I played in the dirt. Before long, it got hotter and I pulled out the water mat for Abby to play in. She loved it! We had a great morning and then it was time for lunch and a nap. Josh made Abigail lunch and I gave her a quick rinse off in the bath tub. After she ate lunch and was napping, we showered off and settled in to watch some TV. My stomach started grumbling and Josh jumped up to make me a sandwich. Again I was just wowed. After lunch and a quick cat nap, we all headed for the car to run some errands and go to dinner. We ended up at Sweet Tomatoes because a) I love their salads and b) I figured it wouldn't be packed with mom's which would mean a long wait. I was sort of right. There were a lot of mom's there but it was not crowded. What made it even better was that they had great food and Abby was on her best behavior. She ate everything and even asked for more. It was a fantastic evening.

After a great day, we just got ready for the impending week. Josh sprinkled the day with saying "Happy Mother's Day" and "I love you". I am still smiling from it.

Making Mole Hills Out of Mountains

2009-05-04T13:52:00.005-04:00

I am doing a spin on a spin! Is that allowed or it just makes people more dizzy? As EVERYONE knows, Sprite's Keeper does a weekly spin. About half of the time, I find time to contribute to the topic of the week. I try to get onto the same Sprite wavelength and see if I have something blogworthy that matches the weekly Spin. This week's spin is entitled "Making Mountains Out of Molehills". However, as you noticed by the title, I am making mole hills out of mountains and just letting things that are seriously driving me nuts just slide.

I normally have a few vents here and there but I think I am a pretty low key person. I don't get super upset at the drop of a hat and, as even Josh can attest, I am not even an extremely hormonal pregnant woman. Now, don't get me wrong, I have my moments as every person does. But I figured if I just vent some of my frustration here, then I can just let it go. That way the huge issues become more like mole hills instead of mountains.

Of course Josh may be on the loosing end of this and be the recipient if all of my mole hills build up to one giant Mount Vesuvius. But I will leave that to him to use to make his own mountain...or mole hill.

My mole hills:

Josh insists on bringing home his lunch box and putting it onto the kitchen counter ON TOP of the cutting board. I have tried to move the cutting board to no avail. You would think with a 3,200 square foot house that he would find somewhere on the floor to put it. But no.
Why when I ask a certain family member how they are doing I have to get every detail of how they are doing? I really didn't want to know about the diarrhea you had over the weekend and then hear how you don't think people want to hear about it but you have to rehash it.
A lady at work likes to come into my cubicle and talk about things that are either not my problem or there is nothing I can do to help her. I understand that everyone needs to vent sometimes but she likes to come in here a lot and she smells. Like feet. Old feet.
We have three strollers yet Abby keeps wanting me to hold her. I love holding her but physically it is getting a little hard. This may be more of a mole hill right now until I am in too much pain to pick her up. Then it will be a mountain.
I have a family member who likes to make everything so much harder then it needs to be. A simple task or question turns into months (literally) of phone calls to work out logistics that don't need to be worked out.
A guy at work keeps wanting me to do his work for him. I get paid for my job and you get paid for yours. We aren't sharing a pay check so I don't see why I need to share your work with you. I have plenty of my own, thank you.
I am six months pregnant and getting up and down off of the floor is getting harder. Yet I am still going to go home tonight and clean the bathroom...Kitchen got cleaned last night.
In my spare time, I like to cross stitch. But the major word here is spare time. I honestly can't remember the last time I stitched. Maybe in March?
I have worked my 40 hour week by Thursday the last two weeks. Now you can understand number 8 a little better.
I have a beautiful little girl who just turned two. See last post for more on that.
Work has so much drama. I work with someone who always talks badly about other people. It is hard to listen and not slap them across the face. They will talk with person A, B, and C to talk about person D and if B doesn't show up, they will talk about B too. Very negative.
I love how people regard maternity leave as a vacation. Then the look on my face forces them to blurt out "well, it really isn't a vacation, is it." Hmmm. Sleeping for no more than 2 hours at a time, nursing and cleaning up all sorts of secretions isn't exactly what I call vacation. I don't see me asking Josh to plan our next vacation somewhere poop filled.
I have also gotten people saying recently "Wow! I didn't know you were pregnant!" Seriously people? Do you think I was just getting fat? I don't have any swelling except in my belly so I can't believe you didn't at least think I was pregnant.
People where I work have no idea of professional attire. Thankfully I work in a "business casual" atmosphere so I don't have to wear a business suit but wearing skin tight clothes is not exactly office attire. I work with a lady who likes to wear sleeveless tops and mini skirts then walks around here complaining how cold she is. Yes, you are skinny and weigh 90 lbs. We get it. Go put some clothes on. I also ran into a lady who was wearing a tan suit, white button up shirt and a loose men's tie. Ummm. The 80's called and wants their look back.
Why do people on Facebook keep sending me hugs and causes? It is like virtual chain mail. I do appreciate the thoughts but do I not think that you hate me if you don't send me a virtual hug or flower pot.
We normally get up for work at 5:30 in the morning. It is early but it is far easier for us to get ready before we get Abigail up at 6:15. That way we can devote 100% of our attention to her and it really helps the insanity that is leaving to go to work. So this morning the power decided to cut out...on our block only...from 5:40 to 6:30...Nothing like getting ready by flashlight. Just one more thing we didn't need in our routine.
I had to take a training course online. It had computer generized people talking and hand movements to make them look real. They even blinked! However, their mouths just opened and closed like a muppet. Who paid money to make sure these things look realistic to include eye blinking but their mouths just open and closed while forming words like book. Creeped me out.
I am leaving this one open because I am sure every day I think of more I am going to add to it. Feel free to come back and check up!

I know that most of these things may seem trivial and right now I am treating them as such. They will remain mole hills until I go to bloggy therapy again (aka rant about something in a post).

Whew. Is my time up, doc?

Being Two Years Old

2009-05-04T11:28:00.003-04:00

Oh, to be two years old...It can sometimes be the hardest part of any one's life, or so it seems. Poor Abigail is entering her terrible twos. Though it has been trying, it hasn't been entirely terrible. But we are hoping that we are seeing the worst of it because we have had to play the part of the mean parents. This simply means we are not letting our two year old walk all over us which means time outs. And trust me, we don't dole them out for every little thing because we don't want her to be complacent with them. The time out this weekend went like this:

Me: "Abby time to clean up. Help me pick up the toys."
Abby: "No." As she runs to play with another toy.
Me: "Abigail, you can't play with another toy until you clean this up first".
Abby: "TV?" "Outside?"
Me: "No. Help me pick up the toys. Like this. Help Mommy please" As I show her what she needs to be doing.
Abby: "Play ball?"
Me: "No. Clean up. Do you need a time out?"
Abby: "No."
Me: "Then pick this up or you will have to go into time out. Last time I am asking."
Abby: Picks up her toys and throws them across the room.
Me: "THAT'S IT. TIME OUT."

Being two means that Abby likes to make big details out of the littlest things but in her toddler world, they are the most pressing matters in her life at that moment. Time outs are 2 minutes in length and she sits on her time out mat (a door mat by the garage door where I can still see her but don't interact with her). I usually sit at the kitchen table with my back to her so she knows I am there but I am not going to talk to her while she is in time out. Once time out is over, back to the toys to clean up. Which she did, thankfully, though I had time to carry out another time out if she was being exceedingly stubborn.

But some things are really trying for her and not time out type of things. Like yesterday she took off her shoes in the car. Not really what I wanted her to do but not necessarily a "bad" thing...until she starts crying because she wants her shoes back on and I can't quite do that while driving. She seriously cried most of the way to Sea World. TO SEA WORLD! It wasn't like I was taking her to the doctor for a shot.

Now there are good times like she loves to now play the "Night, night game". Josh and I were traveling to Tampa last weekend and I hear from the back seat:

Abby: "Mommy, night, night"
Me: "You want me to go night, night?"
Abby: "Yeah! Mommy, night, night"
Me: Put my head down, close my eyes and start snoring. I wasn't driving.
Abby: "Daddy, night, night"
Josh: Puts head down, eyes still on the road but starts snoring sounds.
Abby: "GOOD MORNING!"
Me and Josh: "GOOD MORNING!"
Abby: Just explodes in laughter and starts all over.

We are just rolling with these new games. Both the good games and the bad but it is a learning experience for all of us. She has to learn what is acceptable and what is not.

Now, where is my Valium????

From Chaos to Quiet

2009-04-27T09:51:00.004-04:00

"Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days."

Benjamin Franklin

It's mine!!! All mine!!!! We have our house back to ourselves!!!

We have had quite a month in our house. Our guest room has been utilized almost ever day for the past two weeks with family. Now, before you think I am just going to write about how family drove me crazy, you are going to be disappointed (slightly). HAHAHA. Truly it is nice to be blessed with wonderful family and it really is nice that they come to visit. They don't usually stay long, cause too many problems and always help out around the house. But with that being said, out of the past 27 days, we have had guests in our house 17 days. I guess I should be more thankful we don't live in a one bedroom apartment!

It all started with Abby's birthday party. Josh's parents came up the day before the party to help clean the house, put the food out and general toddler watching since our party exploded to 25 people plus kids. It was a great party but a lot of work. Josh's parents left the day after the party and we had a small reprieve to clean the house and get it ready for the 15 people we were having for Passover just a mere 9 days later.

TANGENT: Normally for Passover, we spend the first night with Josh's parents and then go up to my parents for the weekend to see them for Passover. However, this year, Passover coincided with my parent's spring break and they decided that they wanted to drive down to us. Fine with me! Less to schlep and hassle with the airport. My parents and I had been discussing for the past FOUR months when they should come. I had two ground rules. One, I was not taking of the entire week of work (too much hassle to clean up work email when I take vacation...especially when I am still in town and will get on my work computer from home) and two, I was not taking Abigail out of day care all week (I have to pay for it whether she is there or not). So they were between coming as early as Monday or as late at Thursday. Whatever.

So as I worked to clean the house between parties and cook for my part of Passover (matzo ball soup, tsimmes and cake), I still was doing all my normal weekly things of work, day care, and sporting my 20 week belly around. I also was working out seating logistics, dishes, you name it. Josh's parents came up the day before Passover and were working on everything the next day while I went to work. Passover Seder came and everyone had a wonderful time. We had plenty of food, plenty of fun and only had to run the dishwasher 3 times that evening. Josh's parents stayed through the weekend and we got two nights to ourselves (clean the house, do laundry, wash the guest room sheets, etc. before the next crowd came).

Tuesday afternoon my parents came in and we had a nice time. They had a FABULOUS time with Abigail and brought her lots of new toys...including the singing monkeys from their house even though she is petrified of them. My grandma came up on Friday so I had a house full of people! When Cletus the Fetus makes her arrival, we are going to be down one guest room. Now that will make times like these exciting. (Sense the sarcasm?)

My mom and grandma left on Sunday and then my dad on Tuesday since he was attending a conference in town. Finally, we were down to our quiet trio and being able to find which drawers all of our utensils ran off to. Thankfully, we don't have any plans for anyone visiting until my parents return in June so hopefully May will be a little quiet.

I just know that it is going to explode again in August! Hey sanity, come back here! It isn't August yet!

Life Has An End

2009-04-13T07:54:00.005-04:00

Well, I knew it was a matter of time. I tried to shield everyone from it. I tried to send out letters, petitions to city hall and even smoke signals. Normally, I have a very nice drive in the morning with Abigail. We look at the beautiful surroundings that are waking up as we are driving into day care. The birds are chirping, wheels on the bus are going round and round and we are keeping our eyes out for fire trucks (the latest must see). Unfortunately, this morning something was very different. Amongst the morning continuation of Pesach Cheerios and milk I hear:

"I love you,You love me,We're a happy family,with a great big hug,and a kiss from me to you,Won't you say you love me too!"

My beautiful daughter started singing the Barney song. I will give you all a moment to compose yourselves.

While I personally have nothing against this odd shaped purple dinosaur with a nasal voice, he just irks me to tears. Not one book, toy or even TV station in our house has ever featured Barney. We don't even happen upon it while flipping channels. While I know that day care does not have a TV in the classroom, they do have children's music playing constantly. While this can be wonderful (Abby's repertoire of songs has grown immensely thanks to the music in the room), I am also now understanding how it can also be harmful.

I normally will sing any song with her or encourage diverse learning, I am going to have to shelter her from certain things. Especially large, purple dinosaurs.

Okay. I am going to go cry some more now.

Post Posting Note: Josh thinks that this is a great song because his little girl loves it. He wants to support any song she sings so I had to teach him the words to it so they can sing together. I guess he loves her more than I do because I am not going to be facilitating singing of this song as much as I can help it.

Belly, Belly Good

2009-04-07T10:50:00.006-04:00

One of the things that people tell you when you get pregnant for the second time is that you are going to start showing a lot sooner than the first time. While I knew that, I wasn't prepared for the onslaught of the belly.

With Abby, I was actually not into maternity clothes until almost 17 weeks pregnant. It was nice to know a little secret that no one else knew while your pants choices start to dwindle. Thankfully I had a few elastic waist pants so I just looked like I had gained 5 lbs or so. What was even better was that before we told the world, we went on a cruise. So I not only looked like I had gained 5 lbs, I had actually had gained 5 lbs! Here was my first official maternity clothes picture:

This time it was quite different. I actually started to grow out of my clothes around 10 weeks but could still get away with some of my larger size pants. I even invested in a Bella Band. This is basically a pregnancy girdle and while it can be worn with pre-pregnancy clothes unbuttoned at the top, I was just going for a little concealment until I was out of my first trimester and we heard the heartbeat. The band wasn't that bad during the morning but by the time I got home, I had to just get out of all my work clothes and into a nice pair of sweatpants and one of Josh's t-shirts. The Friday before my 12 week appointment, I was running by my director's secretary. She actually asked me if I was pregnant. My face turned bright red and I asked if I was really showing. Thankfully she said I had a pregnant "glow" and she could just tell. But otherwise I didn't look pregnant. (Minor tangent...pregnancy glow? Did that just mean I was sweaty? Did I need a shower? I never understood this term)

By the time I eked my way to my 12 week appointment, my maternity clothes that were sitting patiently in a box on the top shelf of our closet started to call me. I went to my 12 week appointment and everything checked out perfectly. Not to mention the nurse stating "Wow! I can see your uterus when you lay down!" Okay. Random and weird at the same time. Now it was just time to tell everyone else and get into some comfy clothing!

I was able to get out of the Bella Band and just wear the maternity pants with my regular shirt...for a week. Then it was full on. Here is a picture of me this time at 17 weeks:

Bit of a difference...I think women's bodies are like a memory foam mattress. They just spring back into life as if to say "I remember this!" What is even weirder is that when I took this picture, I had only gained 4 lbs. Four little pounds and I am a Goodyear Blimp. I even had a guy stop by my desk today and say "Wow! You are huge!". I think the lashing my glare gave him was enough because he started backpedaling faster than I thought was humanly possible. Men...

X for Exciting

2009-04-07T10:04:00.007-04:00

It doesn't seem that long ago that I actually posted about our blossoming family. With our now two year old little girl, we were set up to find out this time if our baby was going to be a boy or a girl. We headed to the hospital to get the ultrasound done on April 2. I had honestly been so excited but so nervous at the same time. While we knew we had a 50/50 shot of a boy or a girl, we were secretly (maybe not so secretly) hoping for a boy this time. We would have one daddy's girl and one mama's boy. It would be perfect. But, there were pros to having another girl too. First of all, we have EVERYTHING already for a girl. Clothes, bibs, blankets, etc. Not to mention we think we did pretty well with Abby and if we get another girl as cute as her, we are set!

So without further adieu, as I promised in my previous post, I am proud to present pictures of Cletus the Fetus.

Cute little nose, chin and head. In case you have trouble seeing these pictures, It is a profile picture with Cletus is laying down looking to the left.

Little foot. Toes are pointing towards the lower right corner.

This shot is looking directly down at Cletus. Josh affectionately calls this the alien shot.

And finally...drumroll...you ready? You sure?

Really?

HERE SHE IS!!!

Whew! No more secrets. She is a healthy 12 ounces at this point and I am starting to get kicked. Josh even got kicked by her last week! It is the cutest thing for him to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle" to his little baby girl. Our big baby girl is absolutely oblivious even though she sees the ultrasound pictures on the fridge and knows it is a picture of Cletus.

And I know everyone is wondering if we are sticking with Cletus the Fetus until she is born. I haven't come up with anything I want to change it to and Josh loves to call her Cletus. Eh. Whatever. Now on to picking names...At least the choices are down by 50% but before you even ask, we are not deciding or telling until she is born. With Abby, we had two names picked for a girl and two for a boy. We decided on the name the minute she was born. That is how it will be this time.

If you have any name suggestions, they must be submitted IN WRITING to the committee. All verbal entries will be considered null and void. You will not be able to get your money back.

Happy Second Birthday, Abigail

2009-04-06T10:50:00.011-04:00

I keep saying that just because she is two years older does not mean that I feel two years older. If I think hard, I can realize it has been two years and so many milestones have been accomplished. There are so many milestones that have been accomplished in just the last six months let alone two years. Here is just a small comparison:

2 months
2 Years

Since we just had family birthday parties for Abigail's first birthday, we decided to do something a little more for her second birthday. I went through a lot of ideas for a birthday party and ultimately decided to have the party at our house. Since it would be late March, (her birthday actually fell on a Saturday this year! Though it could have been June for all she knew.) we figured we could have a nice outdoor party filled with water excitement. (Okay, I keep saying we but we was really me. Sorry Josh but you know it is true.) We have a water mat and a crazy sprinkler:

I had been planning for almost a month for party times, logistics, food, etc. and finally decided on March 28 at 3:00 PM. That way it will be after nap time, sun should be shining and no one will expect me to feed them a four course dinner. We also decided on a guest list. Part of me felt obligated to invite the day care kids but since I don't even know most of their parents, that obligation whithered quickly. We just invited some of our close friends with kids and some friends who don't mind hanging around with a bunch of kids. We ended up having 25 people plus kids at our party. I don't know if I could have mentally (or physically) handled more people than that at our house.

Josh put up two pop up sun shade tents in our back yard and we purchased two inflatable kiddie pools. We borrowed a lot of tailgating chairs and had cake, snacks, and lots of fun.

Though I think the biggest hit was the bubble machine. For $10, you just had to load the bubbles and let the machine do the work. Of course we have already gone through gallons of bubbles but it is much easier than trying to wrestle a bubble wand from Abby. She is strong!

Unfortunately we did have some uninvited guests. All the ants decided they wanted to join our party. Josh worked hard the day before and put down ant killer on most of the yard, flush out the large hills on Saturday morning and further spot treated. But the smart ants didn't take the bait, went to visit their family in the neighboring yard and headed back for our party on Saturday afternoon. I think we had around 20 bites between the three of us. But at least no one else at the party got bit. I would have felt awful for that.

All in all, I think it was a great party. The only "bad" thing that happened was with the cake. I was going to get a general Publix cake because their cakes are so tasty. Honestly I will not pass up a Publix cake. I didn't think of really getting a specialty cake unless they had something that was entirely Elmo, Abby's favorite. So I looked online and saw this cake:

For those of you are not familiar with Sesame Street today, they have a segment called Elmo's world. It is normally about 35 minutes into the 60 minute show and features Elmo, his pet goldfish named Dorothy and a funny mime named Mr. Noodle (and sometimes Mr. Noodle's brother Mr. Noodle or even Mr. Noodle's sister Ms. Noodle). This has become part of our after school routine and I am fine with it...until it becomes time to turn it off but that is a whole other post. So since it wasn't just Sesame Street but specifically Elmo's World that Publix offered, I decided to splurge and get a character cake. If anything, I just spent $7 for the three little plastic characters on top of the cake. So I ordered the cake three days before the party and sent Josh to pick it up right before the party. This is what I get when it comes home:

Now, I am no cake expert but shouldn't the cake for my 2 year old not look like a 2 year old wrote it? I never asked for her name to be off center or the H in Birthday to not connect. I also would have liked the outside red border to not look like it was rushed. Too picky? Unfortunately, there wasn't time to run back to Publix, have them correct the cake and then come all the way home. Well, technically there was but we live 15 minutes from Publix and I wasn't going to send Josh all the way back out there. I called the bakery manager (who was very apologetic) and told her I would see her tomorrow with the above picture in hand. I took a toothpick and evened out what I could and then put all the candles on the right side to even it out. It ended up being fine and what was better, it was delicious. It disappeared almost instantly. Abigail loved it.

What a party! We thankfully recovered and Publix even refunded my $7 for the botched design portion of the cake. I like them. I will still shop there. Abby has now even taken to having to watch Elmo's show holding all three plastic characters. Very cute.

The Survival of the Girl Scout Cookies

2009-03-09T14:34:00.008-04:00

I have to commend my friend Jen over at the Sprite's Keeper. She knows that I read her daily posts and she does her weekly spin. However, I don't always have the time to spin during the week. This week, she lucked out. Not only do I have a few minutes to blog but it relates to her spin topic of Survival. Double bonus points!!!

Josh and I love Girl Scout cookies. I have been eating them since I can remember and I was never a Girl Scout. Eh. I love cookies, who am I kidding. I remember my mom always put the Thin Mints in the freezer so we can have cold, chocolaty goodness with ice cold milk. YUM!!! When Josh and I got married and were in our apartment together, we would get bombarded with the parents of kids who HAD to sell the cookies to get whatever trinket they get for selling 3,250 boxes of cookies. So we felt great supporting our local community while supporting our waistlines. But we (Josh) have very little self control when it comes to these cookies. We could (have) sat down on the couch and polished off a box of cookies in two sittings. But then we miss the cookies, look for substitutes, find something good like ice cream and then complain that we need to get the goodies out of our house because we don't need the sweets.

I decided this year, I was going to do something a little different. First off, I only bought three boxes of cookies. Second, I decided I am going to be in charge of rationing. And because I am especially mean, I am not sharing with Abigail. She gets cookies at day care and I don't think she needs any additional sugar. So this year I bought the following:

Thin Mints (one of my favorites):
Peanut Butter (Josh's favorite):

Caramel Delights/Samoas (my other favorite):

Now, you are probably thinking "How come you have two favorites but Josh only has one?" Let me quash your fears by telling you that Josh eats plenty of the other ones so don't think I get two boxes and he only gets one. I am an equal opportunity rationer. Is that even a word? No? Now it is!

Since I am in charge of rationing, I can't just leave the cookies in the fridge or pantry and expect them to be there when I go and ration the cookies. I have to be sneaky and hide them. Otherwise, I will come home to an empty box of Girl Scout cookies. So, after carefully thinking, the cookies just disappeared after I brought them home. Josh tried to get me to spill the secret and proceeded to go through the house looking for the cookies. I did ask him if he could clean the house as he was systematically going through everything but it didn't happen. I mean, seriously, how hard is it to take a dust cloth with you as you are going through every kitchen cabinet, the pantry, the fridge, guest bedroom, entertainment unit, front living room and dining room?

It had been almost a month and Josh was playing with Abby in the family room this past Saturday. Her golf ball started rolling past Josh and under the couch...WHERE THE COOKIES WERE HIDDEN. I screamed no in slow motion like I was jumping in front of a bullet to save the intended target. It this case, the cookies. Josh looked under it and just couldn't stop laughing. He couldn't believe that he had been "sitting" on the cookies for a month. This just proved that he didn't even know that there was an underneath to the couch. Like I already said, seriously, how hard is it to run a dust mop around. We have so many different options for cleaning! Vacuum, mop, swiffer, I am open to you using any one of them to clean.

But, the story doesn't end there. We left shortly after the discovery of the cookies for the weekend and came home. Josh started to unload the car and I cleverly took the cookies and hid them in another place in the house (if we didn't live in Florida, I would hide them in the car but who wants melted cookies. It is going to be in the 80's this week). Of course as soon as Josh finished unloading the car, headed right for under the couch and realized...I already moved them.

So the saga continues and the Girl Scout cookies survive for a little longer...

I Married a Five Year Old

2009-03-04T08:30:00.002-05:00

In my infinite wisdom, I decided to take this potty thing one step further. I found an Elmo Potty video at the library. How could I go wrong? Abigail's favorite character teaching her the potty. I am her mother and I know she has no intentions of listening to me. It is one of the relationships all daughters have with their mothers (HEHEHE) Anyways, I figured I would get this video since it was free from the library. If it didn't work, no worries.

Since Abby doesn't have the patience to sit in front of the television for long periods of time, I wanted to watch the video first to see if it was even worth it. It is only a 45 minute video but if it doesn't have Elmo front and center for most of it, I am in trouble.

Minor tangent, we come home every day from school and watch TV. It is my snuggle time with her because she sits on my lap in the recliner and we talk about what is on the show. Animals, shapes, colors, etc. Recently Abby has switched from watching Little Einsteins to requesting Elmo. Now, I can't just turn on Sesame Street and play it for her. I have to fast forward (thank you DVR) to the Elmo's World segment about 35 minutes into the 60 minute show. But that is fine because, like I said, she won't really sit for more than 20-30 minutes at a time anyways and watch. The show is very cute and has a central theme to tie it all together. Once the show is over and dinner is ready, the TV goes off. That is the rule.

So after dinner and bed time the other night, Josh pops the video in. It features Elmo's dad talking about the potty and how Elmo learned to go "pee pee and poo poo" in the potty. I then hear this snickering in the background. Yes, it is Josh laughing.

Me: What is so funny?

Josh: Pee pee...Poo poo

Me: Seriously?

Elmo: Pee pee and poo poo in the potty.

Josh: :: Laughing ::

Me: Are you kidding me?

Josh: Pee pee and poo poo in the potty...::laughing::

Me: Seriously...How old are you?

Josh: Ummm....

Yeah. I am seriously married to a 5 year old. I had a feeling I was already raising two children but this just puts the icing on the cake.

Did You Really Mean To Say That

2009-03-02T10:19:00.005-05:00

People always baffle me. Sometimes what comes out of their mouth just amazes me. I am constantly surprised at how some people have enough brain power to regulate their body temperature. Now, I am convinced that men, in particular, have a filter between their brain and their mouth. However, some men have extremely large holes in their filters. I have often turned to Josh and said "That one slipped through the filter, didn't it?" But to his credit, 95% of what he says is filtered, I am sure.

So now that I am in full time maternity clothes and everyone knows I am pregnant, here are a couple of the comments I have received after announcing I am pregnant and not just happily wearing a new line of circus tents:

"Were you trying?" Yes...and even if I wasn't, what business is that of yours?
"Are you sure there is just one in there?" Yes...it was very apparent during the ultrasound that there was only one in there? Who honestly thinks that is a polite way to say "YOU ARE HUGE!" to a hormonal, pregnant woman?
"Was it planned?" Yes...and even if it wasn't, there isn't much I can do now.
"Are you getting fatter yet?"Ummm, no. I actually lost a pound at my last doctor weigh in. Thank you for thinking that pregnant women aren't growing a baby, they just sit around and get fat.
"What does Abigail think?" She is almost two...we haven't had the birds and bees discussion yet and she hasn't had any discussions with her therapist that worry us. (No, she doesn't see a therapist people...stick with the sarcasm!)
"You are due in August? That is miserable!" Yes, thank you. Welcoming a child into the world is so miserable. It is hot. So what. We live in Florida. Why don't I just tell Cletus to camp out for another 3 months after my due date.

Unfortunately, I am a polite person when these comments come from people who I either don't know well or don't know my sense of humor so I can't make a witty retort. Though if these people don't know me that well in the first place, do they really need to be making comments like this? Boy, it is only week 16...

Family Reaction

2009-02-18T09:37:00.004-05:00

With Ms. Abigail, we got some great reactions to announcing the pregnancy. We didn't do anything fancy to announce it or have any time to plan. It took enough effort for me just to convince Josh that I was pregnant and his "boys can swim"! This time things were a little different. As I mentioned yesterday, we had been trying so it wasn't an accident or failed birth control. However, Josh had to convince me to take the test this time. The week leading up to taking the test, Josh noticed a few things were off. The first one was that I didn't know where the Baby Tylenol was. Now, I don't have the neatest house but I usually know where stuff is or in what general vicinity. I had him upstairs looking for this when Abby had an ear infection only to find that the Tylenol was by our phone chargers. Why, I don't know. STRIKE ONE! Then one night I was cooking pasta for dinner while Josh had Abby upstairs for her bath. I put the pot on the stove as I ran upstairs to finish our nighttime ritual. I told Josh to go downstairs and put the pasta in the water because I am sure it was boiling by now. After I put Abby to bed, I smelled burning something. Well, apparently I put the pot on the stove, put the burner on high...but forgot to put any water in the pot. I was burning the bottom of my pot but Josh got it off the stove in time to do any permanent damage. STRIKE TWO! Then I misplaced our digital camera. Any of you who have seen our photo pages know that we are avid photo takers (and with such a cute person to take pictures of, how can you not?). I love this camera and ALWAYS know where it is. There are only a few places I keep it and if I take it out of the house it is usually in my purse or in the diaper bag. But, more importantly, I know where it is. Well, after Josh searching EVERYWHERE in the house for this little camera...I realized it was in my car. STRIKE THREE!

With three strikes, Josh finally said "You have to be pregnant. Your brain is not out to lunch like this normally". Which I didn't appreciate hearing at first because I don't like feeling like I am incompetent. But I realized that I am very capable and competent and he knows that...he is so sweet. Now I may cry...Stupid hormones. Anyways...I took a test and it said no. But since I wasn't technically "late" I wasn't surprised (but Josh was). I figured it may be so soon that no hormones are in my system to show up on a test. So we decided to wait another week, of which I only made it 5 days, but got a faint line. I decided I am so sick of looking at lines that I need to just get the test I got last time with the PREGNANT or NOT PREGNANT in the window. I went to the store the next day and got a two pack, just in case. I took the first one and NOTHING came up...dud test. UGH. With nothing left in my bladder, I had to wait to take the test the next day and pop! PREGNANT. I showed it to Josh and his reaction..."Told you so!". Yes dear. You are right. It sometimes happens. Be thankful.

So now it came time for the family's reaction. I decided to tell my brother first since he was going to be in town...His reaction to the news? "Really? Again?" No, Adam...this is my first. Where have you been?

Then came time for our parents. We again knew we could only tell one family in person so we decided to tell my parents in person (and grandmas since they would be there) since we had already had tickets to go visit them 2 weeks later. I craftily purchased picture frames with a picture of the pregnancy test stating "PREGNANT". The picture frame said "Grand Kids" on them and I even got picture frames for the grandmas. I mailed it to Josh's parents with big words on it "CALL BEFORE OPENING" and paid for 2 day shipping (on a Thursday night the week of Christmas so it would get there on Monday) to make sure it got there when we were at my parents. Of course the post office decided to be very efficient and get it there Saturday morning. Josh's parents followed directions and called us. Josh and I exchanged looks and just said "OH CRAP". I told Josh. Make something up!!!!! We told them that they can only open in on Monday, which was the first day of Hanukkah. Since it is 12/22 this year, it has a mathematical connotation. So call us at 2:00 PM on 12/22 and try to figure out the math until then. Josh skillfully talked in so many circles about math, they bought it!!!!

We got to my parents on Monday and I gave my parents and Gram the presents. My parents reaction was that my mom screamed for joy and my dad gasped for air. My Gram says "What a nice picture frame!" Gram, look at the picture. "Oh! Is this from when you were pregnant?" No Gram...this is from when I AM pregnant. "Oh...OH!...really?" Nope. Just like to pee on things and take pictures of it...My Grammy came to my parent's house two days later and we gave her a picture frame too. It took her awhile because first she couldn't see because she didn't have her glasses. Then she couldn't see because there wasn't enough light. Finally, she was beside herself happy. Boy, that took a lot of work!

After all that work (and waking up at 4 AM to go to the airport to fly to my parents that day) we took a nap. About an hour later, I hear Josh's phone ringing. I look at my watch and bolt up in bed yelling "JOSH, IT IS 2:00! PICK UP THE PHONE! YOUR PARENT'S ARE CALLING". He picked up on the last ring (I can't imagine what would have happened if it would have gone to voicemail) and his parents opened the package. Josh's dad took the wrapped picture and started opening it while his mom opened the card. Next thing I hear is Josh's dad screaming followed by his mom screaming. Everyone was thrilled to say the least.

So the lesson here is to just not tell anyone ever and save the energy. It can just be too much work to spread good news!

Cletus the Fetus

2009-02-17T11:04:00.006-05:00

I'm coming out, I'm coming, I'm coming out, I'm coming out, I'm coming out,I'm coming out, I'm coming out, I want the world to know, Got to let it show, I'm coming out, I want the world to know I got to let it show...(Diana Ross, 1980)

I have been wanting to write a little blog about this for a few months but I wasn't ready to "come out". No, it isn't that sort of coming out. This is to officially announce that our family trio will be a family quartet around August 20, 2009.

Since we never found out if Abigail was a boy or a girl, we called her Bean. (If you want to know the etymology of that name, please click here. Or here. I like to give you choices.) We had always joked that the next baby was going to be Cletus the Fetus. I saw it somewhere on the Internet and it was just too funny to pass up. Not to mention, it is the hillbilly character in from one of our favorite TV shows, the Simpsons. Here is a picture of Cletus:

Now, of course our baby is NOT going to ever look like this (you hear that little fetus?!??!?!?!) but it is funny to us. Go ahead. Laugh. No one is looking.

Josh and I had always known that Abby was not going to be an only child. We had debated back and forth on when we were going to start trying for number two. Last time I had a few requests on timing of having a baby. I didn't want to be 9 months pregnant in the Florida summer and I didn't want to give birth during football season (Can you imagine me trying to get Josh to the hospital with the Dolphins game on?) This time around, we decided to not be as picky on timing though I would have liked to have the same parameters. But, after hearing stories about how it sometimes takes awhile for a woman's body to get back in gear, we figured that we may as well start trying and see what happens...and what happened...I am going to be extremely pregnant during, what is normally, the hottest month of the year. Not to mention, I am not going to be able to go to any UCF football games this year. (And for any of you who know us very well, you know this is a fall staple in our schedules.) But, I really can't complain.

Sorry, loyal blogging fans that I don't have a picture of Cletus. Well, I have one from my 8 week appointment and all you can see is a glowworm like blob. Yes, I am going to be giving birth to a glowworm. With Abby, I got an ultrasound at my 12 week appointment because they couldn't externally find the heartbeat (which gave me a small internal heart attack but we got a second ultrasound). With Cletus, they found the heartbeat right away. Which was good because I didn't have any heart attack but bad because I didn't get another ultrasound...stupid HMO. I should get an ultrasound every time, regardless! So, I will not have another ultrasound until my 20 week appointment (or around there depending on if I have to go to the hospital to use their machine or if my OB can do it in her office). I will gladly post pictures then. Especially because we are finding out if Cletus is a boy or a girl. If girl, then we are going to have to find another nickname. I can't see calling a girl Cletus.

Needless to say, my blogs will be sort of taking a different angle. Whew. I am glad the news is officially out.

Mommy Piggy

2009-02-09T08:15:00.002-05:00

As we were sitting down last night for a nice family dinner last night, I (very ladylike, I must add) burped. Then this happened:

Me: Excuse me!
Abby: Mommy piggy!
Josh: ::laughter::
Me: I can't believe you taught her that. We really need to watch what we say around her because she is picking up everything.
Abby (clearly enjoying that she had entertained her father): Mommy piggy!
Me: Seriously, what happens if she says that to a kid in day care. I don't want her doing that. It isn't nice.
Josh (continuing to laugh): How about we say "Mommy pretty".
Abby: Mommy pretty.
Me: Thank you. Now say "Daddy in the doghouse!"
Abby: Daddy dog house.
Me: Good girl.

Our little sponge is picking up everything we say and sometimes if we just say something in passing. It is wonderful that she is learning all these new and wonderful words but not at people's expense. Just this past week she has started singing the ABC's and more descriptive labels such as "Mommy's hot tea".

Now if I can just train Josh...

Pee Pee in the Potty

2009-02-04T16:00:00.002-05:00

Friends of ours visited two weeks ago with their adorable 19 month old son, "Epperson" (no, this is not his real name but it is what Abby says) What was really great is that this part of our extended "family" stayed with us and the kids played together pretty well. Of course we are both teaching the kids sharing and while that can be a challenge at this age, all in all, it was a hit. I loved being able to bounce ideas off of them to get differing parenting tips. What I wasn't prepared for was Em's potty seat and how he actually used it. (Just don't ask about the Too Jays experience) I have been reading all the potty books and toilet training tips for kids and constantly wondering if I should start toilet training Ms. Abigail.

One of the major things I have read is that if your child asks you to change them or appears uncomfortable with being wet, then they are ready for the toilet. While I can tell when Abby is stopping to go, I will ask her "Do you have a poopy?" She will just look up and say "No!" and go about playing. Of course I go over to her, confirm my suspicions, and say let's get a clean diaper, she doesn't get the correlation yet. But I figured maybe it was time to start looking into at least getting her to understand what a potty is.

I do have one slight thing working against me. The room that she is currently in at day care (18-24 month old room) does not have a bathroom in it. I feel like I am fighting a battle uphill with only working on toilet training at home for the 2 hours she is home before bed. If the don't reinforce it at day care (they will in the 2 year old room) then are my efforts futile?

I decided to at least get a potty seat so she could see what it was and get used to sitting on it. That would be my first battle. One thing I was adamant about was not having a separate potty seat on the floor. Why get used to something on the floor then have get used to the big toilet. Okay, so my real issue is that I am not cleaning out the potty. I clean enough of that stuff that I don't need a container to clean out too. If you have a little potty, then more power to you. So I got a sit in potty seat and put it in the toilet that is in Abby's bathroom. Since bath time is in that bathroom, I figured it wouldn't be that foreign for her to warm up to the toilet...that just doesn't sound right.

So the other night I put the seat in the toilet and brought her over to meet it. "Abby, Potty...Potty Abby". I asked her if she wanted to sit on it but she wasn't too sure. I figured, no problem, we can work up to it. I did show her the mechanics and even how it flushes. Next night I tried again and this time with luck. I figured if I give her something to do like read a book or brush her teeth, she won't be scared of it. So I sat her down after a few protests and gave her the toothbrush. Of course she started to brush her teeth and then decided to brush everywhere else. Thankfully, I stopped her in time before the brush actually touched anything so don't get grossed out.

Last night I thought we actually had a revelation. I asked her if she wanted to go to the Potty and she said "Pee Pee in the Potty!" Yes! Pee Pee in the potty is exactly what you do. Since it was after dinner, I figured maybe she drank a lot and maybe had to go. Of course we sat on the potty for at least 5 minutes and nothing. I even turned on the bath water to see if that may help move things along...nothing. So finally I gave up and put her in the bathtub for her nightly bath. We played, we sang, and even put the toys away while the water drained. Then Abby stood up in the bathtub waiting for me to dry her off...and peed in the tub.

Guess we will have to try again tonight!

McCoy Residence

2009-01-27T11:28:00.003-05:00

When most people move, they have to make sure that the previous residents of the house disconnect the utilities and then the new tenants have the fun job of reconnecting phone lines, power lines, gas lines, etc.

We thought we were pretty lucky moving into a new construction house. We figured there was going to be no drama and we can hook up everything easily. Of course as soon as I say no drama, lightening strikes and I hear a strong laugh from the heavens above. We actually lived in our house for 3 days without primary power. Our builder had a construction poll which was enough to run the fridge and a few lights in our house. When we called the power company, who will remain nameless) they stated they needed to wait on the certificate of occupancy to put the power lines up. No problem. We had that and provided it to them promptly. Then of course THEN they tell us it would take 7 days to put the power in. Well, we were already out of our apartment and OCCUPYING the house. Thankfully we were able to take cold showers, cook on the grill and get take out for a little. It really wasn't that bad and the power company was nice enough to come after only 3 days, not 7. No big deal.

The next fun item on our list was home phone. I called the phone company (again to remain nameless) and they were able to hook up the phone within a few days since we had an existing account. They gave us our new phone number and we were good to go! Well, we plugged in the phone the next day and got a dial tone!!! But of course when I tried to call the number they gave us, it didn't ring. So we called from the house phone to my cell to get the number...totally different number. But I figured the phone company just screwed up until we also realized we had caller ID, which I hadn't ordered. I decided to call the phone company because I wasn't going to pay for their mistake. They immediately realized their mistake and switched our phone line to the number they had originally gave me. (Yeah, I know. I should have kept my mouth shut and kept the caller ID. But the number they gave our house was actually an active line from our neighborhood. Woops!)

After a few days of memorizing our phone number, we starting getting calls for Gilbert McCoy. I very nicely said wrong number but that didn't stop the calls. We started getting calls from people looking for Gilbert and his wife Diane. I really thought that they didn't recycle numbers that immediately but I just kept telling the callers that we just got this number and the McCoy's have moved. But then things started getting weird. We started to get calls from creditors, cell phone companies and even lawyers.

We figured out that the McCoys had some type of construction business and skipped town. Sometimes people would call and wonder if Gilbert could do work for them. What was really messed up was when Gilbert and Diane's grandkids called looking for them. Who moves and doesn't tell their grandkids??? When we would answer the phone, we had to stop saying wrong number because the people would call back thinking they dialed incorrectly. So we had to tell them that this is our phone number and no one name Gilbert lives here anymore.

Over the years (we have been living in this house for over 4 years now) the calls have dwindled but not stopped completely. Even though the answering machine says "Rebecca and Joshua" people will still ask for Gilbert on their message. But alas, today, I got another call. Since I couldn't remember that Gilbert's wife was Diane, I said wrong number. So, of course, the person called back. I explained that we have been getting wrong calls for them for 4 years. The lady just replied "Thank you. I will call Diane on her cell". Why, if you have her cell, would you try to call her at home when obviously you haven't tried to call her at home for 4 YEARS.

I am just baffled that people are trying to talk to someone who they haven't spoken to in 4 years. Especially when you have their cell number or keep in touch with them any other way. It was very apparent that these people (not the creditors or lawyers) have not had a long relationship with the McCoys or haven't talked to them in YEARS. I swear I am not their personal answering service and actually wished I had a number to refer these people to. Do you have anyone you haven't communicated with in 4 years that you would just pick up the phone and expect that they would still be at the same number? I know that a lot of people have been in their house for more than 4 years but most likely you don't talk to people once every 4 years. I am just baffled.

Maybe I have to just answer the phone "McCoy Residence".

What if...

2009-01-12T10:00:00.004-05:00

I haven't been spinning for awhile. I know, I know and I feel a little guilty about it. I just frankly don't always have time for it. Blogging seriously take me around an hour to do and I do need to work...sometimes. Yes, I could blog at home but the chances of me actually getting to use my laptop (Josh likes to play on it) when I actually have the motivation and the brainpower to blog are right around 0.016 percent. Yes, that is an actual calculation.

I actually got to put Josh's shoes on this weekend (No, not literally. He has big feet!) and play single parent. Josh went to Indianapolis to play fraternity boy at his fraternity's winter educational conference. He was invited to be a facilitator and since they were paying, I had no issues with him going from Thursday to Sunday. I left for Singapore for two weeks...twice. The least I could do was let him go to Indiana for 4 days. So mix that the spin topic of "What if..." and no motivation to work and I am blogging.

So, what if...

What if I was home with Abigail this weekend and I wanted to do something fun like taking my daughter to the park? Abby LOVES the park. We have to literally pass it on our to or from our house every day. Usually when I turn into our community, a little voice in the back seat shouts "Park? Park?" I try to accommodate her when I can because we all have fun at the park. Her playing and Josh and I enjoying her happiness. As we near the park, Abby says "Hi, park!". She is almost giddy as I get her out of the car and let her run. Her favorite thing is the slide and she now can go down all the slides at the park by herself. She will even sometimes say "WEEEE" and "Again!" when she is done. We usually go to the park every Saturday and Sunday.

With Josh gone this weekend, I figured the park would be great on Saturday. But since we were out and about early in the morning, the park was going to get an early morning visit. So we get to the park, get out of the car and Abigail makes her way to the slides. Unfortunately, the entire playground is soaked with morning dew (it was covered in a blanket of water but I know it didn't rain the night before). Puddles at the bottom of all the slides and water everywhere. Sort of like this:

Just kidding. But since I didn't care too much if she gets a little wet, I decided to let her play. She expertly got onto the biggest slide and went down fast since it was almost a water slide. It wasn't that bad. Well, I picked her up and she was soaked. I could have wrung out her pants. I decided this wasn't a good idea after all and we have to go home. Poor Abby did not understand what Mommy was doing and threw a fit. I felt terrible putting her back in the car (pants and shoes removed) and forcing her to go back home. But little did she know, we were heading to the mall later and they have a kids play place outside Macy's. Perfect!

So after her nap and some dry clothes, we headed to the mall. I got my few errands run and headed for the indoor playground. Now, this playground is not the greatest. It has a car and a plane to play in (which can sit two kids at a time) and a little house with a slide that is all of two feet high. It is borderline pathetic to call it a playground but it is enclosed and has kids playing. Not to mention I felt so guilty for her not getting to play in the morning, that she needed some running time. So she headed for the plane first and was in and out having fun. I was trying to observe the other big kids there to make sure they kept their distance. The playground allows for kids under 10 but there is a huge difference between a rowdy 9 year old boy and my sweet little 21 month old girl. But the guilt was keeping me there and she was having fun. Well, she spied the slide and ran over to it. She took her time going up the three stairs to the slide as I waited there to help her. This older boy (around 6 years old) comes up behind her and because she wasn't going fast enough, attempts to push her out of the way so he can get on the slide. I was NOT going to have any of that and just said to him, you can wait your turn as I took Abby's hand to let her get onto the slide (hence why I used the word attempt). What made it worse was that I figured out that his parents were just behind me and didn't say A WORD!!! They just didn't care. So she got down the slide and ran back to try again. This time that kid wasn't there but there was another kid about 5 years old playing around saying "Holy sh*&t" over and over. His dad even said "What did you say?" and when the kid didn't answer, the dad gave up...as the kid went back to saying "Holy sh*&t". And it wasn't just the boys doing stuff like this. There were two girls who were wrestling on the floor while their mom just yelled from her seat that she was going to beat their butts if they didn't stop. Well, that was my final straw and I decided I am not subjecting Abby nor myself to this anymore. Again, she didn't understand why after less than 5 minutes, we had to go. I felt so badly and had to strap her back into the stroller promising to go back to the park near our house which should be dry by now.

On the way back home, I told her that we would stop at the park. There were a couple of big kids there (~8 year old girls) but usually when we are there and other kids join in, they are usually pretty well behaved. We have never had any problems at this park and enjoy going to it. These girls were nice and even when they were horsing around on the slide, they stopped to let Abby have her turn. But soon they realized how cute Abigail was and wanted to play with her like she was a doll. One of the wanted Abby to sit on her lap while she went down the slide. Since I was right there to help and the slide is not that big, I decided that it wasn't going to hurt anyone for her to go down on this little girl's lap. Abigail wanted to and the guilt had been consuming me. I made sure the girl held on tightly and they had fun going down. YEAH! Well, then this little girl wanted to carry her up the stairs...I don't think so. Then she wanted to Abby to follow her...you are ending my patience, kid. They decided that they wanted to go down the slide again. Again, I made all of my checks and they were good to go. I felt like an air traffic controller. Well, this time they came down on their backs and Abby just looked uncomfortable. I decided to be the bad mommy again and leave. Thankfully it was after about 15 minutes so I didn't feel that guilty and she didn't put up that much of a fuss.

So what if I was home with Abigail this weekend and I wanted to do something fun like taking my daughter to the park? I better make sure that I realize I may get more than I bargained. Boy did I need a day off after all of that yesterday. I don't think I am going to be visiting the park anytime soon without Josh...or a shot gun. Just kidding...maybe.

Ode to the Microwave

2009-01-07T11:10:00.017-05:00

The day after my last post, I was given a new topic very quickly regarding our microwave. Of course the holidays came up, I was too busy to download the pictures of the camera, etc, etc...so here I am finally posting.

I love our microwave. It is a warm shade of beige (technically called bisque) and matches our dishwasher, stove and fridge. The microwave is over the stove and while I have never had one like this before, I would never trade it. I love having the extra counter space (even though if you have seen my house you know I have some counter space to spare) and the microwave at eye level.

So let me bring you to a few weeks ago. Josh and I had already put Abby to bed. We had just warmed up some food for her for dinner but I had noticed that our microwave was not making its usual sounds. Usually the light goes on, the turntable turns and the whooshing sound most people would recognize from a microwave starts up. Well, I decided to think nothing of it because her food warmed up on her little plastic plate and she was happy. So dinner time for the adults and Josh put some yummy meatloaf on his glass dish to warm up for one minute and I patiently await my turn. Well, everything starts up fine but again, no whooshing sound. Thinking it was no big deal, the timer counted down to zero, turned off, and then BOOM!!!! The glass plate had shattered in about 4 different pieces. (Minor tangent: I have heavy glass dishes. They are our every day dishes from Crate and Barrel. Approximately half an inch thick and we have not even come close to breaking one of them yet.) Josh and I exchange looks and figured it must have been a fluke or a defect in the glass. The plates aren't that old and while they are microwave and dishwasher safe, maybe we had put a hairline crack in the dish causing a weak spot. We proceeded to clean out the microwave and figured let's try another plate. Well, same thing happened. Rotating plate, timer to zero, turned off, BOOM!!!! Deciding to salvage my remaining plates (if there are parties of more than 10 people, we are screwed), we determined it had to be something wrong with the microwave. No problem, we can call Maytag. I mean the commercials always say the repairman has nothing to do. Well, you can talk with the bored Maytag repairman for $30. And that is just to talk to him! Josh being the fix-it man of the house decides that he can take down the microwave and see if it is a part that can just be switched out. I figure, what is there to lose and let him go for it.

So down came the microwave...

Notice how nicely Josh put the towel down to protect the glass top stove?

Now, you are probably wondering what that cylinder thing is on top of the stove. That is the fan, which Josh believed was part of the problem. And how did he get the fan out you ask...

Yeah. That is our microwave on the kitchen island...don't even get me started. Josh took apart the outer casing and took out the fan. Thinking it was an electrical problem, he decided to call his dad and diagnose.

So with Josh on his Blue Tooth and his dad on the phone, they played electrical Jeopardy. "I'll take things that cause your plate to blow up in your microwave for $400, Alex". After playing around for awhile, someone decided that you can plug the fan into the wall by stripping down an electrical plug to see if the fan works. Josh skillfully plugs one end into the wall and then he starts to slowly go towards the fan. Deciding that I can be funny, before the connection is completed, I poke Josh and go "BUZZZZ!". Well, he didn't think that it was very funny and threw a few choice words my way. It was well worth it. Then the moment of truth came and Josh leaned in an put the wire end to the fan. Except this time, real sparks showered out and I screamed. The result was a burnt connector.

At this point, even if it was the fan, it was fried. So Josh decided to go online and we can research parts to replace it ourselves. Between us we have a math degree, education masters, business degree and a MBA so we are well qualified to repair microwaves, right?

After much searching and frustration, we decided that there was nothing that we could do to repair the microwave. It would cost us $250 for a new one and at least $150 to see if we could fix the new one with no guarantees. So I was on the Home Depot and Lowe's websites to see that we could get one, no problem.

Of course then reality set in. I called all around town and apparently I have no sense of style because they are not carrying bisque appliances anymore. They are so four years ago. Our options now are white, black or stainless steel. I decided to do more research because, as you can tell from the first picture, a different colored microwave above a bisque stove just doesn't go. (Okay, maybe I could get away with it but it would bug me. The fact that our sink is white and doesn't match still bugs me) But I had not resigned myself to color changing my appliances before I exhausted my options.

I come to find out that Lowe's can order it for me but it will take two weeks. TWO WEEKS?!?! We use our microwave multiple times a day and you want me to wait two weeks? You try warming up stuff in an oven for a toddler saying "EAT, EAT, EAT". Not something I really want to do, thank you very much. I decided to call around to every appliance place in the phone book and had our Saturday planned out for going to a scratch and dent place and then one other place that could order it in four days. Four days I could deal with. though I didn't want to go because they kept trying to sell me into the top model of microwave for $500. For $500, it better clean my kitchen while it microwaves.

Saturday morning, we loaded up Abby and knew that we were going to end the day with a microwave on order, one way or the other. We went first to the scratch and dent store. We figured we would have no luck here because we were looking very specifically for a bisque over the range microwave oven. Since it was on the way to the store that could order it for us, we figured we would just pop in. We walked into the store and with the bright spotlight on it, we saw EXACTLY what we wanted. Our bisque microwave was sitting on a shelf calling us. What made this even better was that it had a scratch on the side (which is covered by the cabinet), it was the top model of microwave ($500) and because of the scratch it was 50% off ($250 - our budget). AMEN!

We got the microwave home thinking that since we got another Maytag microwave, the back plate and screw holes would be in the same places. Riiight. Why would the same company that makes the same microwave do something smart like that. So out to Home Depot Josh went to get some more back plate screws (since it was a scratch and dent the screws didn't come with it) and then we can just reuse the screws for the top by drilling a few new holes. Josh got the back plate on and we go to get the microwave up...not realizing that this microwave was about 1 inch higher and the original back plate screw holes wouldn't work...Finally Josh got the back plate in the right place and we go to put the microwave up...not realizing that the top screws will screw in but only 2 revolutions which will not support the weight of the microwave. Josh was forced to go back to Home Depot...and Lowes...and Ace Hardware...to find out that they don't carry that type of screw with that threading we needed. Of course...Which let to Josh having a mini-meltdown.*

Now we have a microwave we can't mount and a mess all over the kitchen.

And of course Abigail didn't want to be left out of the fun so she decided she can make a mess too by throwing Goldfish crackers all over the floor:

But, like her daddy, she cleaned up nicely.

Sorry I don't have a picture of Josh cleaning but she is much cuter with a broom. Josh actually had a bigger cleaning job on his hands because, if you notice, all of my cooking utensils and knife block were just sitting out there waiting to be bathed in sawdust.

But Josh was finally able to locate a store, Tractor Supply Company of all places, and found the screws. Then, voila! we have a beautiful, new microwave.

See how nice it looks? It matches and the everything was cleaned up so nicely. I didn't even have to come back and do a spot clean up! Go Josh.

And what became of the old microwave? It sadly was put out to pasture for the seagulls in the landfill to microwave...or blow things up...

*The mini-meltdown was more like a temper tantrum. Nothing major but not something I like to see in the house and Josh knows that. But I can understand how the screws not working were the final straw. To his credit, nothing was broken, Abigail was taking a nap and he cooled off as he drove to Tractor Supply Company. And more to his credit, he came back with these:

Sorry for the long post but this was a story that was worth telling. And I couldn't do it justice by leaving out any details.

Just Call Me Martha Stewart

2008-12-03T19:42:00.008-05:00

Okay, so I don't have a criminal record, I can't do art crafts that well and I don't cook with fresh herbs. I am not exactly Martha Stewart but I am so proud of how our bedroom redecoration went that I have to brag.

First things first. The only real before picture that I could find was this one from when we first moved into our house.

In the past four years, we did put blinds, curtains and one picture up in our room. The wall that the bed is facing just has one, lonely, used, dresser with a TV on it so I didn't take a picture of that side of the room at the time. So since we had moved into our house in December of 2004, our room has seriously looked like this. Almost all of this furniture is either from college or just after I graduated college. It was sad and a little pathetic but it worked for us. I had even been told that our look was eclectic but far from it. We just weren't decorating the whole house the minute we moved it. It wasn't like we were trying to get our house in the Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Josh and I had been trying to figure out what we wanted to do in our room for awhile but either hadn't agreed on it or didn't want to spend $5,000 on new furniture. It actually wasn't even a high priority after we found out Ms. Abby was on her way. Then enter this past year. Two major things happened. One, we got an Ikea store. I know my last post talked about Ikea but I really do love this store. With the quality that I experienced in in our first Ikea purchase, I love this store. Plus, I found that with Ikea, we could actually afford a bedroom! The second thing that happened, was that I started having back problems. I have no idea where they came from but our bed seemed to be the culprit. I would wake up every morning and have to untwist myself so I wasn't in pain. Now, because my husband doesn't like seeing me in pain, he convinced me that we need to buy a new bed...and of course upgrade to a king size.

So after much shopping, Ikea catalog and website browsing and a lot of phone calls to check measurements, we were ready to go! We decided to do the bedroom in bits so we didn't take the whole financial hit of a new bedroom all at once. But then Ikea called me again...yes I am convinced the store talks to me. To celebrate their first anniversary in Orlando, they decided to have a sale. They had coupons on their website that if you downloaded, you got a $20 gift card when you spent over $100 bucks. With buying things for a new bedroom, easy. (On a side note, they also had a coupon for a free lunch. It was worth the trip right there!) So armed with four different coupons and Josh and I going in different lines, we did very well. Of course it took us about three hours to assemble all of the furniture but it was worth the wait:

Here is the middle:

And the other wall.*

* The dresser with the TV on it is actually the old dresser I was referring to before. They were out of the dresser we wanted so that is the one outstanding piece of furniture we need. We will probably get that over winter break.

Big difference? Now, we did not go from one extreme to the other in one Ikea trip. We had painted the bedroom almost 2 years ago and then we put up the crown molding. Then we got the bed frame, bed, then it just got completed from there. I probably won't take a picture after we get the new dresser because I think that you got the point.

I actually think I hear the bed calling me now. Good night!

See Saw, Applesauce

2008-11-17T10:49:00.003-05:00

Every time I see my little baby, I see the little girl that she is fast becoming. I don't see the months going by quickly but seeing the changes in her makes me realize how fast life is really going. I don't feel like she is almost 20 months old. Do you feel almost 2 years older? Wasn't it just a few days ago that she looked like this:

She has since grown way out of that hat and can't quite sit on my lap the same. I am now getting a little girl running up to me saying "up, up, tv, tv" to sit on my lap and watch cartoons. (Yeah, that became the new thing when I got back from Singapore. Thanks, Josh) But it sure is the most wonderful feeling in the world to have those two little arms wrapped around my neck.

Okay, before I get too sappy, you are probably wondering what this has to do with the title "See Saw, Applesauce". We went to Ikea this weekend which forces me to spend money. They must put something in the air or subliminally in the advertising "Becca, buy me, buy me". Actually we had been planning and saving to finish our bedroom to change the motif from college student to responsible adults with a kid and a mortgage. While the responsible adult part can be debated, the room is definitely looking like a real bedroom. Don't worry my faithful blog readers. I will put a picture up in the near future. So back to the story. At Ikea they have a section with all of the fun kids toys out so kids can play with them and attempt to persuade their parents to buy items. So Abby decided she wanted to play and hopped onto a rocking moose. As she rocked back and forth, she started singing "See Saw, Applesauce". It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. She made up a song! "See Saw, Applesauce". Josh and I were just in awe of this little girl who just made up a great song on the spot. She proceeded to sing the song on the way home and throughout the weekend. "See Saw, Applesauce"

I Missed the Boat to Vote

2008-11-07T06:41:00.003-05:00

Yippee to a Spinarific post. I have been so busy lately that I have missed the past few spins but I am getting in just under the wire for this week's.

My last post stated that I was going to be leaving Singapore this past Tuesday. It is now Friday night and after changing my flight plans four times, I am finally going to get onto the plane tomorrow. YIPPEE!!! I am so ready to go home. Because I had planned on only staying a week, I fully expected to be home in time to cast my ballot in this year's highly debated presidential election. I had, for months, known who I was going to vote for. In the great state of Florida, voters are allowed to vote early. The problem is standing in the lines to vote early. I left work around 2:00 P.M. before I left for Singapore to cast my ballot. The poll worker very politely told me that I could be looking to be in line for 1-2 hours. I figured that I could just vote early on the Tuesday I return and be able to cast my ballot. Leaving Singapore Saturday turned into Monday, Tuesday, Friday and now Saturday. That is 5 days after elections. I have not missed a vote since I was 18 and legally able to vote. It is not just a privilege to vote but a right and duty.

Being stuck in Singapore during the day of elections meant that I was not going to be able to vote. But here is the crazy justification. Because I was extending my trip, two coworkers were also forced to extend their trip and thus they were not able to vote. These two coworkers are staunch Republicans and already stated that they were upset that they were not going to be able to vote for McCain. But since I am a staunch Democrat, I was not going to be able to vote for Obama. So here is the math. By keeping them here, their two would be votes for McCain didn't count and my would be vote for Obama didn't count. Therefore, Obama won out after all. Get it?

Anyways, thankfully Florida's normally a red, Republican state but saw the light and voted blue. What is better is that Orange county voted Democratic. So I guess my "vote" did count after all.

Working Hard in Singapore

2008-11-03T01:40:00.002-05:00

As we speak, I am sitting in Singapore. I know most people think this is the greatest thing but I am here for work. And when I say I am here for work, I work hard. I put in 60 hours this past week and was averaging 5 hours of sleep. There are bonuses to traveling, though. I fly business class (actually flew first class this time because I got a free upgrade! SCORE!) and all my meals, transportation and hotel are paid for by the company. And I am not exactly ruffing it at the Hyatt. Now, the fact that my meals are paid for are both good and bad. I don't have to watch how much I spend (within reason) on my meals. I get a daily allowance for my food that I would have to eat almost double to hit. But that also means, I eat more than I normally do. I eat three meals a day and sometimes a snack here and there. Pair that with working a lot of hours, I am sure I have gained 20 lbs.

There is a flip side to the fact that I am in Singapore. That means Josh and Abigail are home by themselves. My wonderful Josh is wonderfully supportive of me working but I always feel sorry that he has to play the single parent for 1-2 weeks. But he has been pulling it together and doing a great job. I am very proud of him.

When I tell people that I have been to Singapore, most people think that I am in an exotic Asian country. While it is a neat place, Singapore can be described as if Disney ran Manhattan. Singapore is a very small country so most of it is built up with a lot of taxis and a lot of shopping (Manhattan). Singapore is also exceptionally clean and well manicured from the sidewalks and streets to shrubs on the highway (Disney). Some of the other fun things that I have learned here:

Everyone speaks English but it is not usually their first language. The joke is that people here talk Singlish.
Subway subs smells like Subway subs.
You have to drive and even walk on the left side of the street. Though drivers over here are INSANE so I just take taxis.
It is hard to find a place (even a restaurant) that doesn't serve soda with a glass of ice and the can of soda. On a side note, they don't have Diet Coke. It is called Coke Light. On another note, I have not seen a Pepsi in this country. Weird.
They are more interested in our Presidential election than are most Americans. The minute they figure out you are American, they ask you what are your thoughts on the election.
It is regularly 300 degrees here with 200 percent humidity. Yes, I am exaggerating but not by much.
They don't understand two for the price of one. To them, that would mean a total of three because they think that means pay for two and get one free. You have to say one for one meaning buy one get one.
No one is allowed to beg on the street for money. There are street performers (playing guitar) that have to have permits or people who instead of begging for money, have to sell something.
Is it weird that they have a China Town and a Little India?

Well, the plan was for me to leave Saturday. It is now Monday and I am scheduled to leave tomorrow. I hope I can. I am ready to go home!

Confessions of Sliding Down the Nutritional Pyramid

2008-09-22T16:33:00.003-04:00

I know that we have all seen the email justifying that chocolate is a vegetable or the fifth food group. For the most part, I like to eat healthy. I feel better inside and out. Not to mention fit into my pants more easily. I was raised in a home of balanced homemade meals and Kopps ice cream. My mom’s belief was that we can have anything in moderation and taught us what to eat and what not to eat. However, as kids, weight was never a big deal. My brother and I were always actively involved in sports playing soccer in the backyard to team sports in school. I even was an overachiever and ran track in college. With that much calorie burning, I never had a problem fitting into cute clothes while sitting on the couch eating double stuffed Oreo cookies. Boy, I love those cookies. But as I get older, things have started to stay around like the one Oreo cookie I ate last year.

I used to go to the gym with great regularity. I even belonged to a gym that was on my way home from work, which made it so much easier to just go after work and then continue my day. I would go 2-3 times a week and feel great. But then after I became pregnant, I was too tired to go. (My major pregnancy symptom was exhaustion) I would barely make it through my day before coming home and collapsing. Then Ms. Abigail came along and my free time got shorter. (Who am I kidding? My free time got cut down to the three minutes I get to go the bathroom) No longer was I able to get to the gym and therefore discontinued my membership. (Minor tangent: the gym told me that they can transfer my membership to a nearby gym which was only 15 miles away and $1.25 in tolls each way. Yeah, right.) So I figured that I would get some exercise by purchasing a jogging stroller to take Abby around the neighborhood. Well, we live in Florida and this will only work certain times of the year because even at dawn it is 80 degrees with 200% humidity. I just can’t work out in that. I know that I need to get something in the house and I am more than willing to take any donations for our home gym. Just kidding. Or am I? I am. Not really.

As a mom, I want to make sure that Abby was on a good path for nutrition. There are a few aspects to this. One of the first things is for her to eat right. Of course she will be able to have ice cream and pizza but not every night. We do go out to eat once a week and usually fudge our diets during that time but during the week, we try to indulge our sweet tooth with fruit or something healthy. Abby’s deserts are always fruit, which she loves. Our second thing we do is to not watch TV. I know that soon she will want to watch some cartoon and I am fine with that. But not letting her sit for 2 hours on her tush watching TV. She needs to play and run around. Thankfully day care does not have a TV in the room so she is not used to watching TV and therefore, it is not part of her daily routine. Of course a football game is usually on at our house during the weekend but she has limited patience for that. At this point it is just not as exciting as a cartoon to her. Not to mention, I usually take her and run errands while Josh is glued to his Miami Dolphins (Minor tangent again: Miami just SMACKED the Patriots this weekend. Who would have thought? Sorry Jen. GO FINS!)

With that being said, I have to confess that I went for a fast slide down the Pyramid this weekend. We went to North Carolina this weekend and while we were indulged with pot roast for dinner, Abby got meatballs and spaghetti…three nights in a row. I feel so guilty because we had pot roast and then chicken. Neither of which I knew she would eat. But pasta, she loves. Lunch yesterday was really bad. Because lunch was going to be in the airport, I was not able to make the best meal decisions that I could have made. Not to mention, Abby can be picky and eat things one day but not the next. Yesterday’s lunch consisted of pizza and fries, which I know she loves. Breakfast usually is a multi grain waffle or pancake (with nothing on them) because I don’t have time to make something that is kid proof. Oatmeal, most fruits, yogurt, etc. are all so messy. I just don’t have time to give her bath in the morning as I am trying to cram food down her throat and run out the door to beat the building morning traffic. I also don’t want to give cereal because that is the morning snack for the early kids. At least lunch is usually something with veggies but I am often running to the freezer during the week to make sure that she has dinner.

I am going to continue to hang my head in shame as I confess that I am that mom who will feed her kid junk food. I could see the eyes peering at me feeding my little girl pizza and fries…

That is the Impression that I get

2008-09-07T20:46:00.003-04:00

Prosecutor: Doctor, can you give the Court your impression of Mr. Striker?

Dr. Stone: I'm sorry. I don't do impressions. My training is psychiatry. -- Airplane II

I am really liking this whole weekly spin thing. It is making me blog more, which is a good thing. Thanks, Jen! This week's spin cycle subject was impressions. Of course the first thing I thought of was the quote on the top. I love the Airplane movies and can quote a lot from them.

Since my last blog was so long, I figured no one would mind if this one was so short. I figured that I would just tell a good story of the first time that I met Josh's parents and the impression I got from Josh's dad first.

Josh and I were only dating a few weeks when I met his parents. Josh was at his parents during his winter break from grad school. I figured I would go down to South Florida to see Josh and meet his parents. My grandma lives near them (about 30 minutes away) so I figured I would see Josh and my grandma for the weekend.

I got down to Josh's parents house and walked into the door. I was greeted first by Josh's mother who was very sweet. She showed me into the living room to where Josh's dad was sitting watching TV in his recliner. I sat down on the couch with Josh and got introduced to Jerrold, Josh's dad. The conversation went like this:

Josh: Dad, this is Rebecca.
Rebecca: Nice to meet you.
Jerrold (Josh's dad): So, my son tells me I can expect 5 grand kids from you.
(Josh was speechless and just looked at the TV with his eyes bugging out of his head)
Rebecca: We kind of want to date a little first.

This was followed by a few moments of uncomfortable silence and then, thankfully, Josh's mom came into the living room and the visit was otherwise nice.

I am not even exaggerating, elaborating or taking any thing out of context. That statement was the very first thing that Josh's dad ever said to me and thus my first impression of him. We still laugh about it to this day.

Discipline Spin

2008-09-02T08:10:00.006-04:00

You spin me right ‘round, baby
Right ‘round like a record, baby
Right ‘round, ‘round, ‘round,
You spin me right ‘round, baby
Right ‘round like a record, baby
Right ‘round, ‘round, ‘round

Fabulous 80's tune but very applicable to this post. Maybe starting off posts with a song can be my new thing!

My friend Jen over at Sprite's Keeper decided to start a Spin Post to get different views on a topic and see where we go with it. This week the spin is Discipline. I think it is a fabulous idea and if you want to play, you can always join. At the very least this will get me to blog more.

I figured that I am going to take quite an unconventional approach to what is currently on my mind for discipline. I would like to say that even though this may come across as complaining or whining, that is not my intent. I will preface this with the fact that I am very blessed and have wonderful people in my life. I have a beautiful family, good job, nice house, and great friends. This post is no reflection on any one or any thing.

My spin on discipline is to have the discipline not to run away screaming. I have had a very trying week and I am still somewhat sane. I have the discipline to keep at it and not to just walk out of the front door (of my house or my work) and never look back. I know that there are things in my life that I have the ability to change and somethings that I have to accept. But, to discipline myself to not just scream at the top of my lungs and start running in the opposite direction, I believe, is commendable.

My week:

Work - I work with a bunch of 10 year old children some days. The drama and the complaining is enough to just throw up my hands and say "Really? Seriously, how old are you?" I actually had a coworker "A" bring in cookies for coworker "B"'s birthday. Coworker "C" refused to have a cookie because coworker "C" doesn't like coworker "A". I swear I am not even making that up. My other work problem is that I have a customer who is 12 hours ahead. So they work while most of us are sleeping but that means that if I need something immediately, I have to work at night. I worked this weekend on Sunday night and Monday morning. Issues affected my sleep and are still plaguing me this morning. It is going to be a long week even though it is already Tuesday and yesterday was Labor day. I won't even mention the meeting I had to go to last week that was from 7:30 PM to 2:30 AM. Yes, I said AM. I was home by 3:15 AM and yes, I had to go into work the next day. I was there by 9:30 AM. This just shows that I had the discipline to not run away screaming.

Abigail - Her smile can make me melt from across a room. Unfortunately, her crying grates on my last nerve because I hate to hear her cry or be upset. Wednesday afternoon I received a call from day care because Abby had a fever. That means I have to pick her up, deal with sick baby and work from home. (I hate when she is sick. I can't explain to her that everything is alright and it will be better soon. She doesn't like to sit in her car seat, she doesn't want to play much, nor eat. Drives me crazy) Thankfully I can work from home but that means I have to juggle more than usual (FYI, work does not stop if I am not there and if I take the day off, it is actually worse for me when I come back. Working from home usually means that I work off and on from 7 AM to about 9 PM). A fever means that I cannot bring her back to day care for at least 24 hours and she has to come back medication and symptom free. Well, there went my Thursday too. I was hoping that this would be just a 24 hour fever and I could take her back to day care and go to work to salvage what I could of my work week. But I was not that lucky. Thursday night the fever shot up and I decided to take her to the doctor Friday morning. Thankfully, she just had a cold. No ear infection, no strep, and her lungs were clear. Whew! On top of the cold, four teeth are coming in. Abby spent the better part of yesterday whining and crying. The only explanation was her teeth. She kept wanting to be picked up, cuddle for a minute then be put back down. I actually turned on Blue's Clues yesterday to see if she just needed some veg out time. Worked for about 10 minutes (we are not TV watchers with her) and then back to whining. I tried different parts of the house to play in, different toys, outside, inside, everything worked for 10 minutes and then I was just out of ideas. I even went outside to pull weeds to see if she wanted to play in the dirt. Nothing. She was just unhappy and again, nothing (including teething drops, cold drinks and ice cubes that she normally likes) worked. We eked our way to bed time and then I just collapsed on the couch. It is just good that I have the discipline to not run away screaming.

My husband - I love my husband. I often describe him as magical. He has a wonderfully infectious personality and I am constantly reminded how lucky I am to spend my life with him. Except for this week...hehehehehehe. I won't go into a big list of specifics because I know he reads this (and nothing he did was really that big of a deal) but sometimes I really think he just tries to irritate me. For example, I spent time cleaning the kitchen and the sink just to have him walk over and put a dirty dish in the sink. Seriously, you can't put it two feet to the right in the dishwasher? Or the vacuum that was used to clean up the dust from the baseboards is still sitting PLUGGED INTO THE WALL in the family room for over a week. Yes, I know you are going to use it again but it can be put away until that time. I love you, Josh. Really I do. My mother always told me to pick my battles and these aren't ones that I was willing to pick because in the great scheme of things, it isn't that big of a deal. But just know that it drives me crazy and thankfully I have the discipline to not run away screaming.

What is really sad is that last week I said I had a terrible week and won that argument between two friends who had bad weeks. Maybe it isn't the discipline to not run away screaming. Maybe it is the discipline not become a raging alcoholic. Just kidding.

Swimming, Swimming, In the Swimming Pool

2008-08-14T10:32:00.002-04:00

Swimming, swimming, in the swimming pool
When days are hot, when days are cold, in the swimming pool
Breast stroke, side stroke, fancy diving too
Now wouldn't it be nice to have nothing else to do.
- Camp song I learned...I even have hand motions with it!

Swimming lessons have been going, well, swimmingly at the YMCA. Now I can break into a whole other song. Young man, there's no need to feel down I said young man...I will spare you.

We were supposed to be finished with swimming lessons last week, which would have worked out perfectly as Abby has returned to day care this week and Josh to school. But because of our instructor going on vacation and Abby having a quick fever in the middle of summer, we had to extend the swimming lessons. Not that easy when the three of us are in three different locations during the day but we are making it work.

Monday was a hard lesson. She vomited her lunch (which she had eaten 4 hours earlier) and was just having a hard time. Thankfully the instructor was able to take her out of the pool for a little and the give her a later lesson when she was feeling better.

But Tuesday....there was an epiphany. Maybe the stars aligned differently or the moon was in a different phase but Abigail had a FABULOUS time at swimming lessons. She ran right for the pool, laughed, splashed and was just having a good time. If I hadn't been able to make the lesson, I don't know if I would have believed it. She was having so much fun and swimming for the steps. Once on the steps, Abigail would stand up and just look so proud of herself. It was amazing. Josh and I were beside ourselves that she was swimming and having fun. After weeks of crying lessons and then, like a light switch, she was just so happy to be there (WHAT A PUNK!).

Once the lesson was over, we got her changed poolside and then she darted over to get back in the pool. When I explained that we had to go home, then she started crying. Yesterday, we had to wait our turn because we were at lessons a little early. Abby through an absolute fit. Crying, tears, the whole 9 yards because we couldn't get into the pool right away. Finally she got in and was so happy. (Like I said, WHAT A PUNK!). As soon as the lesson was over, she started having a fit again which continued the whole way home. She wanted so much to play in that pool.

So now we are in the last days of swimming lessons and everything is falling in to place. She is happy, cheering and just a waterbug. We are hoping to get to some pools so she can play but we are not discussing getting a pool at home anytime soon other than the $10 version from Walmart.

Punk...

Do Not Contest the Contest

2008-08-13T15:16:00.003-04:00

I said I wasn't going to do any more forwards but this is special. THERE IS MONEY INVOLVED!!!!

Kirsten at My Life for the World to See is having contest to commemorate her 10,000 hit on her website. I can't even imagine having 10,000 hits on mine. Maybe that is why I haven't put a counter on my site.

Anyways, thank you to Jen and Ali for motivating me to "submit".

Are You Seriously That Lazy?

2008-07-30T16:03:00.007-04:00

I am taking a moment from my usual baby blogging to rant for a second. I just started a new job three months ago. Well, same company but different program, different people, and different side of town. But I may as well be working for an entirely different company because this place and the place I used to work at are SO different. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of things I like here a lot better. I have more responsibility, shorter commute and more money, so things aren't that bad.

But they do something here that I just don't get. You know how many doors have buttons on them to assist handicapped people with opening the door? I am not talking about "magic" doors that automatically open when you get within 3 feet of them. I am talking about the sliver disk buttons that have the universal handicapped picture on them like this:

A person who needs assistance opening the door pushes the button and then the door will open automatically. I have used these buttons before when I am trying to push Abby through a door with her stroller. Most of the time people see me struggling trying to push a stroller through doors that are not automatic and readily assist me but other times it is just too hard for me to handle the door, the stroller and my purchase with finesse. (Minor tangent here, why Carter's clothes store does not have stroller friendly doors is beyond me. I mean, come on people! You have kids clothes! Do you not expect people to have kids and strollers when they shop in your store??? Are you kidding me?)

So you are probably thinking right now, what in the world does this have to do with work. Well, I work in an extremely ADA compliant company. So much so that almost every doorway has a silver button that you can push to automatically open the doors. What irks me is that almost EVERYONE here uses it! They all walk up to the door and push the button, wait for the doors to open and then, walk through it. They will walk down the stairs, open the door that doesn't have the button just to get to the next door that has a button and push it. Are you seriously that lazy that you can't open another door!?!??!?!

At first I thought that maybe people just had their hands full (nope, people do it with empty hands) or people have carpal tunnel that makes it hurt to open doors (nope, they will open other doors!) There is one door system (security locked) that work had to put a sign up on the button that said "For Handicapped Use Only" which means everyone was using it. I guess what was the final straw was when I was exiting the cafeteria the other day. There was an unusual amount of people near the exit. I look to see what the hold up was and people were just standing waiting for the doors to open after they pressed the button.

My faith in humanity starts to dwindle when fairly intelligent people don't even have the capacity or possibly ambition to open their own door. Now, the fact that these people are fairly intelligent is just an assumption. I am assuming they at least have the intelligence to open doors though I know everyone has seen that Far Side cartoon:

I just now walk through the halls at work, see people walk up to the door, push the button as I walk through and shake my head. I just want to scream at them "Are you seriously that lazy that you can't even open a door for yourself???"

Baw-ball and Other Fun Things

2008-07-17T14:32:00.006-04:00

Abigail is making a lot of attempts to talk with us. Josh and I never believed in baby talk to her. We never called her bottle a "bah-bah" nor ever said "Ew-shew-bew". (If you did, that is alright. No one will point at you and make faces...except me!)

Abby used to say "da" to everything until she made the discovery of bananas. (If you missed my post on it, you will have to go back and read it. Go on, I know you have nothing better to do) As she has passed the 15 month threshold, words are starting to become more forthcoming. So here is the list of what she has been saying:

Baw-ball -- ball or anything spherical like a balloon or bubbles.
Caahh -- Car. You would think we are in Boston!

Dada/Daddy -- The Dad. Josh melts when he hears either of these.

Dah -- She still points and says this one but not as often as it used to. Usually to the cats!
Iiiiiiii -- Eye. She usually does this while jamming her finger in my eye. Of course if we say "where is Abby's eye, she points to her nose. We are working on that one.
Nanas -- Bananas. Still a favorite and she will point them out in every store, book or even people's shopping carts.
No -- No, Yes, Maybe. She is starting to get the hang of this No thing but it isn't necessarily successful.
Noooooo -- Nose. Again, she will point to our nose but usually put her finger in her mouth

Mama -- Mommy. I love hearing this one.

Mooaa -- More. She is very good with this one.

Shhhhheeeeerrroooooo - Cheerios. It is definitely hard for her to say but distinguishable enough from the next word.

Shhhhhooooossss - Shoes. This one just happened a few days ago but knows exactly what they are. It is the cutest thing!
Up/Dooowww -- Up/Down. She likes to stand up and squat down while saying this. We will play along and say Up! Down!. If she continues with squats like this, we have an Olympic power lifter on our hands!
Wow - Wow! This just started last night! I don't think she was saying it to anything in particular but just walked around and said Wow!

She also has picked up sign language at day care. We try to teach her what we can from our baby signs cheat sheet. Abby successfully "says" Please, More (sort of) and the newest one is Thank you.

What is the most amazing is what she understands. If I ask her to get a book, take a bath or get her shoes, she knows exactly what I am saying and responds. She has a book called Trumpety Humpety. It is blue in the shape of an elephant. It was sitting among some other books and I said "Bring Mommy Trumpety Humpety and we will read it". She walked right over and picked it up! Yesterday I asked her if she was hungry (it was dinner time), dropped what she was doing in the living room and headed for her high chair in the kitchen. I was shocked. I still can't get over the book thing. Amazing!

But with great understanding comes great responsibility. She is understanding that she is in control of her actions. Gone are the days of Josh or I making her do things like get dressed, eat or stay off of the stairs with a closed baby gate. Abigail is a lot more vigilant about saying no or trying to swat/hit at us if we make her do something she doesn't want. We are NOT in the least bit thrilled with the swatting and hitting. We are teaching her "nice" touch but it has been a bit of a battle. Abby is definitely strong willed (where did she get that one from?) and wants to do what she wants to do. Luckily we can usually redirect her or hide what she wants. She forgets about it 30 seconds later.

On a side note, we had her 15 month check up. She is now 20 lbs 14 oz and 32 inches! That is 20th percentile for weight and 90th for height. Of course she is still wearing her 12 month clothes. What do those doctors know?

Tag This!

2008-07-14T08:11:00.002-04:00

I used to love the game of tag. I would chase someone and try to tag them while they contort to stay just out of my reach. Then once I finally caught up to that person, I would hit them (tag is not for the weak) and then it was their turn to tag someone. Then came spin offs like freeze tag and TV tag. But of course like any spin offs, they were fun but just not as good as the original. I don't know if kids are still playing tag. Though I know that with kids having cell phones at the age of 3, they can now play telephone tag. Wow, that is sad.

I have a running email conversation with a blog mommy Sprite's Keeper (AKA Jen). She wrote me an email last week saying how she got tagged. To be honest I had NO clue what she was talking about so I figured maybe just because it was Friday and my brain was fried. I kept her email in my inbox so I could respond with a clearer head. Then I get a blog tag. WTF?!?! So now, because Jen is a great person and I love her, I am writing to this tag. However, since I am much nicer than her (still love ya, Jen!), I am not going to continue this foolery by forwarding it on. I am sure that by not sending this on, some baby bunnies and puppies will now die. If I just would have forwarded it on, I could have saved them.

So here it is:

All Things Eight (Because Eight is Always Enough):
Eight Things I'm Passionate About:
1. Abigail. I really have come to like her.
2. The Dad. Josh is very cute.
3. Family. They drive me crazy but I love them
4. My neurosis. I am neurotic and happy to admit it.
5. Judaism. Always on my mind.
6. My friends. I may just hurt one of them by the end of this.
7. The Environment. I recycle and I am attempting to hypermile.
8. Sarcasm. There is so much more fun in the world with a quip.

Eight Things I'd Like to do Before I die:
1. See my grandchildren happy and Jewish. No pressure, Abby.
2. Travel. I don't have anywhere specific but I love traveling. Josh and I have fun together.
3. Finish our house. We have the structure but a lot of invisible furniture and plants.
4. Write a Book. I have chapters for one but I don't know anyone who would want to read it.
5. Run a marathon. I don't know why but I think this would be an awesome accomplishment.
6. Win the lottery. I am sure if I played this may become more of a possibility.
7. Travel some more. I am sure there are places I would need to revisit from number two.
8. Have the will to stop answering forwards.

Eight Things I Say Often:
1. "Hey." Can be used in so many ways: Hi, wait a minute, stop, what horses eat.
2. "Josh-u-a" When said in three syllables, you know he did something wrong.
3. "Abigail!"
4. "Abby, that's not food!" She is not eating everything as much as she used to but since she can walk, things are more in her reach to put in her mouth.
5. I have a look. It sometimes says a thousand words. Just ask Josh who is more often the recipient of the look.
6. Oreo, no". I swear this was going to be Abigail's first sentence. We say it very often.
7. "Oy vey." I even have some of my non Jewish friends saying it.
8. "I hate when people send me stupid forwards that I am compelled to send on". HEHEHE

Eight Books I've Read Recently:
1. "Pat the Bunny". This was my favorite book and Abby does the speed version of it. (Pat the bunny, peak-a-boo with Paul, smell the flowers, look in the mirror, Daddy's scratchy face, read Judy's book, Mommy's Ring) Yeah, I have read that a few times.
2. "I am America and So Are You" by Stephen Colbert. Hilarious!
3. "7th Heaven" by James Patterson. This is the 7th in his series of books. I liked the first one and kept reading. I didn't care for most of the other ones. But because I am neurotic, I read. Though the 7th one wasn't too bad.
4. -6. More books about colors, animals and sleepy stories.
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. I think I read this one three times. I love the HP series.
8. "Baby 411" by Denise Fields and Dr. Ari Brown. Since I had time during nursing, I think I memorized this one.

Eight Movies I've Watched Eight Times: (This should be "or more")
1. "Young Frankenstein" My favorite movie. Unfortunately Josh and I watch movies until we have some of the lines memorized. I am sure that this means that I have watched them over 8 times. While I was pumping at work, I used to watch my video Ipod. It was awesome! With that being said, I am just going to mention a few of my favorite movies.
2. "Airplane" Surely, you can't be serious. I am serious and stop calling me Shirley.
3. "The Incredibles". Actually any of the Pixar movies with the exception of Cars. I wasn't thrilled with that one.
4. "Aladdin" I think I watched this one every day when I was in high school. I am a sucker for the classic Disney movies.
5. "Blazing Saddles". A Mel Brooks classic. Josh's favorite movie and you can see from number 1 why he liked me instantly.
6. "Sleepless in Seattle". I am not a chick flick kind of girl but I love Tom Hanks and this is another classic.
7. "Harry Potter..." I own all the movies and get them the week they come out. I even watch them on TV even though I have the DVD's. How stupid is that?
8. "Indiana Jones" Something about a guy and a whip. Droool...hehehehe.

Tag 8 People To Do This Meme:
1.-8. Nope. I am being nice. I am mentally tagging people so they don't feel compelled to carry on the insanity. Again, love ya Jen.

Phew! I am glad that is over with.

You want me on that wall...you need me on that wall

2008-07-03T22:23:00.004-04:00

By The Dad

We have enrolled Abigail in swim classes. Now, this isn't your happy-time-splash-in-the-water-with-daddy-and-toys swim classes. This is the we're-here-to-save-your-life-in-case-of-emergency swim classes. We have finished week 1...let me tell you how tough it is.

I have been preparing for this by talking to a couple friends and spending HOURS at http://www.isrswim.com and related links and websites. I have done a LOT of mental preparation: Abigail will cry, she will scream, you will want to hit the teacher, you will want to end the lessons after 2 of them. I've heard it all, so I have prepared myself.

First of all, the YMCA rocks. It's about $100 less than private lessons. I have prepared myself to give other reasons, but really, $100 is a lot of money. That's actually a few rounds of golf for me.

Day 1: I give Abigail to Ms. Jen for lessons. She starts crying immediately (Abigail, not Ms. Jen). All she does is get Abigail to hang on to the pool wall. All goes well, except for the fact that Abigail is crying and screaming throughout the entire lesson.

Day 2: I give Abigail to Ms. Jen. She starts crying immediately. Today, Abigail is training to find the wall, by turning around in the water.

Day 3: Right before I give Abigail to Ms. Jen, she starts crying. The lesson is to begin to kick and maybe propel herself toward the wall.

Day 4: Abigail sees Ms. Jen, waves 'hi', then starts crying. This lesson proves Abigail can kick and propel herself toward the wall.

The Cons: At the same time as this one-on-one class with Abigail, there is a group class going on. This group class just happens to be the happy-time-splash-in-the-water-with-mommy-and-daddy-and-toys swim class. While they are all having fun and their babies are laughing and having a great time, I'm on the side of the pool cheering on and saying "great job" while my daughter is screaming bloody hell and feeling like she is dying. I can only imagine the other parents thinking 'what a monster'. I also remember one of my early memories of swim classes:

I was the swim champ because we all had water wings. With water wings, I could do anything: kick, paddle, you know...well, I guess that WAS everything with water wings. Well, I remember the day we had to prove we could doggy paddle. The teacher took me out to the middle of the pool. "No problem" I thought, "I have my water wings, bring it on!" Well, once I was in the middle of the pool, the teacher took off my water wings. "What the...." I thought. And then I began screaming, crying, and kicking for my life...I was dying out there. What made it worse is that I remember the scene pool-side. Oh yes, the masochistic parents all there smiling and cheering for me as I slowly drowned. And, wait..is that...is that my mom, too? Cheering on my death? Well, it turns out I was actually doggy paddling, but I remember how much it sucked. All I can think of is Abigail having the same memory of me: 'Daddy, why are you cheering and clapping while I am dying??? You suck!!!'

The Pros: After the 10 minute lesson, Abigail needs to lie on her left hand side and relax. I use this time to cuddle with her and tell her how proud I am of her and help her relax. This is one of the best moments I have with her. Here it is: my little girl doing something that is EXTREMELY difficult for her, but she's doing it. She's working very hard in that water, and pushing herself, and she's succeeding. In those few minutes on the towel there, I tell her exactly how I feel and give her kisses, and play peek-a-boo until she's relaxed. Right there is one of the best feelings in the world.

Today, I asked Ms. Jen how Abigail was doing; if she was doing well for her first week. "Oh, she's doing great. She's doing great for a second week student, actually." Wha? For a second week student? "Yes, she's kicking underwater. That's normally something we have to spend time on because you can't just say 'kick' and baby understands."

YOU DAMN RIGHT!!!! THAT'S MY GIRL!!! I am so proud of her. She's pushing herself through screams and crying and she's doing a great job to boot. Just doing it is a testament to how strong she is; but to do it well, now that's awesome. Abigail does mean "my father's joy".

Big, Bad Mommy

2008-07-03T12:38:00.002-04:00

Recently I have become the bad guy. I don’t know when or why but Abigail wants very little to do with me. My friend Jen warned me that this would happen but I thought, nah, not me. I come home to my sweet girl and get so many hugs. Normally I would come in the house, run to the family room and be greeted with a big hug. Abby would sit in my arms and I would get my day’s worth of great hugs. Well, this week things started to change.

Monday I came home from work and found Josh and Abby playing in the family room. My arms were full with my purse, computer bag and lunch bag so I quickly put them down on the floor to get my hug. Josh says “Abigail, go give Mommy a hug.” She turns towards me, says “Mama!” and walks towards my open arms. Then she takes an immediate detour to go through my purse. I turn to get a hug anyways, but I am shooed away. Oh well. Maybe it was just that my purse had some interesting stuff in it.

Tuesday morning Josh brings her down from her room for breakfast, which I have waiting for her. I sit down with her and we make faces over breakfast. I give her some of my Cheerios and figure, I have my girl back. It must have just been an off day. While Josh helps me prepare my lunch while Abigail finishes her breakfast we hear “Mama! Daddy!” We both acknowledge her and say “Hi Abigail!” She waves and says “Hiiiiii!” Josh gets her out of her high chair and I get everything ready to head off to work. I go to get a hug from Abigail and I am “greeted” with “NO!” So I figured she just doesn’t understand what the word no really means. (Small tangent…We try not to use the word no with her. We redirect her, teach her the right way to do something, move her out of the way of danger, etc. instead of just always yelling no at her. For example, if she is hitting instead of petting the cat, we don’t just say no. We take her hand and motion it to pet the cat in the correct way.) So I decide to start of with asking for a kiss. Got one! Yippee! I ask for a hug and she grips onto Josh while saying “NO!” Finally, Josh was able to give her to me and I got half of a hug.

The rest of the week has been more of the same. I am not really getting acknowledged when I get home and in the morning I am still getting no. I even took her out of Josh’s arms so I could walk to my car with her. But instead I was greeted with a huge meltdown that only subsided by being returned to Daddy’s arms.

I know that I am not the one she is having fun with right now. Daddy plays with her all day. They go to the park, playground, swimming, Sea World and story time at the library. She sees me for a little in the morning and then I leave for the day. I only arrive back at home to give her dinner, a bath and put her to bed. I am just no fun!

Grandma and Grandpa are coming this weekend then Grammy and Grandpa are coming in two weeks while Josh and I go on a little vacation. Boy, she really isn’t going to want anything to do with me after that!

I miss my snuggle bunny. I guess I am just the big, bad Mommy who has to go to work.

Perception is Reality

2008-06-24T13:33:00.003-04:00

I have decided that it is time for me to coin a new phrase. I did it a long time ago and it never caught on. So, here I am trying again to get the American public to realize that they cannot live without integrating this new word phrase into their vocabulary. Come on, work with me people.

Perception Eating, verb,
Pronunciation: \pər-'sep-shən 'ēt-iŋ\
Etymology: Jewish mother
Date: 2008
Definition: When a person has a small child and the child wants to eat what is on that person’s plate even though what is on the child’s plate is exactly the same. That person, usually the child’s mother, will skillfully* take their fork and motion as if to take something from her plate and place it on her child’s plate.

*The skill is in that nothing moves plates but the child has the perception that they are eating something new and or different so they start eating again. Please be advised that this action will only last until your child figures out that you are not giving them anything new. Then all bets are off!

Abby has started to realize that our food just looks so much cooler than her food. We usually do not eat at the same time. Josh and I will do some activity, usually cleaning up, that has been temporarily interrupted by Abigail running around at our feet. So with her safely in her high chair, we usually take the time to do whatever we need to do with both hands (Even though it is amazing what you can accomplish with one hand because Abby is in the other either holding on or wanting to be picked up). So Abigail eats and then goes to bed at night. Then we take the time to ourselves and have dinner together. I know that this time is going to soon come to an end and we can eat together as a family but during the week it is almost impossible. She doesn’t have the patience to wait for me to come home and cook dinner and I don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen losing my valuable playing minutes with her.

Weekends are a little different when we, at least, have breakfast together. Of course with her having waffles and me having my bowl of low calorie cereal, she whines that she wants what I am having. Wait a minute…she has waffles. Maybe I should trade! But she isn’t quite up to having a bowl of cereal with a spoon but I am sure that skill is not to far away. So, I am stuck with my mush and she is blessed with warm waffles…I think I need to get some waffles. Anyways, I came up with the “trick” of taking my spoon out of my bowl, tapping it on her plate to draw her attention to her yummy waffles. Most of the time, she will look down, see waffles, and return to eating happily thinking, “Mommy just gave me some of her food!” WHOO HOOO! Crisis averted. Other times I just have to eat quickly and put my bowl in the sink before Mount Abigail erupts.

But more often than not, perception eating saves the day. I give her the perception that she is either eating differently, eating different foods or just getting “Moh” as she likes to say. Think this will work when she is older and asks me for money????