Things I don't want to forget

The way Sophie says, "No," with her lips pursed.

How absolutely adorable Sophie is these days. Everything she does is just so cute, and Aaron and I aren't the only ones that think this. Everyone who spends time with her comments on how adorable/cute she is these days. It's pretty amazing. I was joking with my sister that Soph has my looks and Aaron's charisma, so she's going to be unstoppable.

Sophie also thinks that Gabbie is the best, coolest person in the whole wide world and wants to be exactly like her and do everything that Gabbie does. Aaron and I joke that we just have to do a good job raising Gabbie, and Sophie will follow suit.

Gabbie has had a rough month, getting anxious about leaving her daycare and heading to school at the beginning of September. Some of her friends are headed to the year-round school we have in our district, and so their last day is today. She is so, so much like me it's scary sometimes: equally excited and worried about every change. She's also home sick for the second day in a row, and so she's missing her best friend's last day, and I am broken hearted about this. So many changes are happening so quickly for her, and she's really starting on her school journey and leaving behind all thing toddler. How did this happen already?!?

We had an absolutely excellent day at the lake with my family this weekend, and were all sad to leave on Sunday afternoon. (Gabbie cried quite a bit when we had to go, because she was just having so! much! fun!)

Some pictures of our fun:

Gabbie and I, waking up in the cabin under an open window, with the sun rising and the birds singing.

Our early-morning view from the porch swing (moments before Gabbie bit it and started crying, and I was afraid she was going to wake up everyone).

In the water. Gabbie was a little tentative at first, while Sophie is a total fish and loved the water.

 The next day, at about 12:00. I tried to keep her awake, and it was literally not possible. Also, hilarious.

Memories

Right next to my parent's house, where I grew up, is a large park. During the summers especially, I spent a lot of time playing in the park, on each and every piece of play equipment that was there. One of the best things in the park is a giant metal slide.

My mom emailed my brother, sister, and I early last month to let us know that they had started to take out the old, metal, apparently dangerous (although we all survived childhood just fine), equipment, and the slide wasn't long for the world. Right before we got there on Easter weekend, they had taken out the swings! Seriously, right before Easter, on a spring break weekend, they took all of the swings out of a park.

We decided that Gabbie had to try out the slide just once before it was gone. It's pretty tall and intimidating, and she had never even gone near it before (there's some newer, plastic play equipment that she uses). I tagged along, with the camera to capture a few images for posterity.



She had a great time! Sophie even tried it once or twice from a third of the way up.

A quick slide story:

When we were little, and feeling pretty daring, we three kids would each take a piece of wax paper with us to the park. We then would proceed to go down the slide, sitting on the wax paper. And when I say, "go down the slide," I really mean, "fly down the slide with increasing speed each time." Waxing up the slide was so much fun! For us, at least. Now I kind of feel sorry for the next, unsuspecting kids who would likely fly off the end of the slide when they thought they'd just slip down at it's usual, leisurely pace (it was typically covered with sap from the tree right above, so it sometimes took a little effort to get down).

Daydreaming

Whenever I have something I want to avoid doing, I come up with some Big Project I would like to do. Now, I'm not quite sure what I'm avoiding right now, but I have several Big Projects on which I'm ruminating.

One is a redo of our downstairs half bath.

We already have a white medicine cabinet to hang up in there, so I thought this vanity would go nicely:

Along with this faucet (except for less money if I can find something similar):

I really like the squared-off look of this one. It makes it a little different than the others, and I prefer straight lines whenever possible. Although, if I'm going be honest, I really, really want this faucet, but can also think of better ways to spend over $900 (!).

Also, does anyone really still buy faucets like this one?

I mean, if you purposely went out and bought this faucet, I'm sure it's beautiful and you obviously have wonderful taste. It's just not for me. It looks dated and reminds me of my grandma's house. Also I have these on every bathroom sink in my house right now, so, you know, I'm in no place to judge.

(Side note - I'm at least going to make Aaron go out and buy and replace the half bath faucet this week. His parents are coming in just over a week and they've never been to our house before and my nesting is worse now than it ever was when I was pregnant.)

Of course, if I'm going to replace everything else in the bathroom, I will also have to paint. So far we have painted one room on our main floor and I'm trying to make the colors flow nicely from one room to the next, so - the family room is this color:

 I kind of like yellow and blue or grey together, so this color might work well:

Although, if I'm honest, I also like this color, with a white bead board on the bottom half of the wall:

However, like hell is Aaron ever going to let me paint any walls any color even resembling pink. He also doesn't understand my love of florals and botanicals. I say they remind me of my grandmother (who had excellent taste), and he says EXACTLY.

Anyway, that's probably enough daydreaming for right now. I just have one more thing to share. So, let's say your husband came home with a new video game last night, and felt guilty about spending the money on it, and so he said you were also free to go out and buy something of your choosing, whatever you want. How sad would it be if the thing you wanted was a new mopping system? Yeah. I thought so.

Our Girls' First Camping Trip

This weekend we continued our string of great-camping-trips-cancelled-prematurely-due-to-the-sky-opening-up-and-flooding-us-out. Meaning, we were having a good time and then it rained about an inch and a half in fifteen minutes. So we packed up a night early and headed to my parents' house (halfway between the campsite and home) arriving at 11:00 at night. (As an aside, I haven't been in bed before 11:00 pm in over a week, and oh my goodness am I EXHAUSTED).

But, before the deluge we had a fabulous time. On Saturday morning at 5:30 the girls got to experience one "fun" facet of sleeping outside: birds. It started with crows that I swear were sitting on top of our tent, and then proceeded to all sorts of different birds calling out and singing and generally celebrating day-break. It was loud and sudden, and even though the noise died down after only about ten minutes, we were up for good. Gabbie's eyes got great big, and I could just see her brain going behind them. I know that she might not remember this camping trip when she's older, but it was so much fun to get to watch her experience all these things for the first time. (Including s'mores - she thought they were okay, but in true Gabbie fashion, eschewed the s'more as a package deal, and was perfectly happy dining on marshmallows and chocolate bars. Also, a sugar detox is happening for the child this week, because we totally sugared her up all weekend.)

We were in the absolute minority at the campground in that we camped in a tent and cooked all of our food over the campfire. Aaron and I are both of the mindset that staying in a camper or RV that is equipped with a full kitchen or at least a grill, a tv, a bed, and air conditioning is not "camping." It is simply moving your comfortable living situation to a more nature-filled place. So, we went with our tent, a few sleeping mats and sleeping bags (and a pack and play for Sophie so she had a safe place to sleep), and a grill grate to put atop the campfire pit. It was awesome fun. We didn't do pretty much anything we had planned to do (another trend in our vacations), but we still had a great time. We took a couple of walks, watched the sun set over the bay, sat in chairs around the campsite and read books while holding napping babies, and ate our fair share of junk food (candy, chips, s'mores, etc. - also a camping tradition).

Unfortunately, we have the girls completely off schedule, and they both seem to think that 10:00 pm is a perfectly acceptable bedtime, so this week will be spent getting them back to sleeping at a more reasonable hour. However, the camping trip was so much fun I kind of want to head out again this weekend. We won't, but it will be happening again sometime soon.

Here are a couple pictures of the girls in the (orange, so that's the cause of the pictures' tint) tent.

Early morning portrait of a girl who just spent her first night in a tent and loved it.  

Ditto.

This is why I have a category called "Random Randomness"

I'm pretty sure I just burned my butt when I got into my car, simply by sitting down on the seat. It has been (as with pretty  much everywhere else) ridiculously hot lately, and I am looking forward to the cool-down promised for tomorrow. Highs in the mid-70s? Yes, please! That sounds like perfection.

I have been sick for about a week now, and my biggest issue right now is that it feels like my ears need to pop and I can't get them to do it. Thankfully I feel approximately 95% better than I did just a few days ago. Stupid allergies plus a sinus infection. Summer colds are the worst!

I hesitate posting this next part, because I'm not completely, 100% sold on the idea that it's purposeful, but Sophie has been saying "mama" for a while now, and on Sunday, when the girls and I got home from visiting my parents over the weekend, she looked at Aaron and said "dada." Several times, in fact, and she has been saying both regularly ever since, and sometimes it really seems like she's using it correctly. If she is, in fact, using the sounds as words, she has Gabbie beat on a first word by about six months. Craziness.

Sophie has never been quite as good at keeping herself entertained as Gabbie was, so we have had to be creative in ways to keep her occupied so we can get something (anything) done around the house. One surefire thing that buys us a good ten minutes? Ice cubes. We put them in either the mesh feeder or a sippy cup. One day last week I needed about twenty minutes to get dinner together, so I gave her two ice cubes, one in the mesh feeder (which she will then eat) and one in the sippy cup (which she can't quite figure out, so she shakes it to make noise and then pours out the water as it melts, and then splashes in the water (I taught her how to splash and so now if she sees liquid, it's splash city!)), and you would have thought I gave her a diamond-encrusted puppy for how excited she was. So, of course, I had to take a picture (see the cuteness above).

Over the long weekend two weekens ago now, we decided to go out to dinner one night. While waiting for our food to arrive, we were looking for ways to keep Sophie entertained (this is what takes up the majority of my time and energy when I'm not at work lately; I'm totally blaming her for the fact that it has been nearly a month since my last blog post. I'm brain-dead because of my adorable (time consuming) baby!), and Aaron thought he would try to see what she could do with a straw. So he put his water near her, and she grasped the straw, put it in her mouth, and started drinking his water. She's a straw savant!

While she will drink pretty much anything, this girl will not eat food (hey! There's a thing she has in common with her sister (grumble, grumble)). We've tried rice cereal (she will eat it for the daycare ladies, but not me), sweet potatoes (gag city) and pears (four bites then gag city), and she's not much of a fan of any of them. I'm going to keep on keeping on, though. Tonight? Bananas! (I'm guessing it will be Banana Gag City!) She remains a huge fan of nursing and would nurse 24-7 if I let her (I don't let her (don't worry, I'm not starving her, but I'm also not letting her use me as a human pacifier)).

Despite the fact that neither of my daughters will give me the satisfaction of eating one damn bite of real food (okay, Gabbie will take "a couple more bites", but that's it), both have been doing some major growing lately. One weekend a few weeks ago, Gabbie's shoes fit on Friday, but not on Monday. Needless to say, Gabbie has new shoes. We went for her 3-year appointment the following week and she had grown an inch and a pound in a little less than a month. Craziness. She's been complaining of growing pains lately, and I swear she wakes up noticibly taller than she goes to sleep some days. Sophie's 6 months size clothes are starting to get tight - Gabbie never got into a size until she was at least that age, and Sophie is growing out of things at approximately the age listed on the label. Despite all of Gabbie's growing, it has, as usual, gone to getting taller, not wider, and she can still comfortably wear size 24 month shorts (and does - I'm not spending money if I don't need to). I'm not looking forward to winter, when I have to make sure her pants are long enough, and will probably be shoping for tiny, pink belts.

Speaking of my girls getting bigger, we are almost completely done getting Sophie's room together. We just have to remove the blue tape from the trim and arrange the furniture, and she'll be sleeping in her own room. We painted the walls a pale green ("Celery"), and painted the trim a cream color (creatively titled, "Creamy" (Aaron says he hopes I like the trim in the rest of the house, because never again! (I say I hope he forgets soon because he is SO painting the trim in the family room))). I'm hoping to get some Beatrix Potter wall stickers or posters for decorations and then her room will be complete (and I'll post pictures!).

He also painted the family room over the past weekend. We chose "Afternoon," which is gorgeous in person, but looks really bright in pictures. I will try to take some good pictures soon, when we have everything more assembled. Aaron had been complaining that because we still had the same furniture and hadn't really done any decorating, he still felt like we were living in an apartment. Decorate away, I told him, and he is. We've actually let Gabbie pick out every paint color we've used so far, except the color we used in our bedroom, and she has done a great job! (We have not, and need to repaint the bedroom, because it's not great.)

Lessons from my Weekend

We had one heck of a busy and wonderful weekend; I'm still kind of recovering from all the (good) craziness. I also learned several things this weekend that I thought I should share:

1. Jamie Oliver's basic pizza recipe is fan-damn-tastic. Especially if you bake it on a pizza stone. It's the best pizza I've ever made at home and much better than any of the delivery places we have in town. Now I just have to find an equally delicious deep-dish recipe and I'll be all set.

2. It is not wise to take two kids, one of whom is (mostly) non-mobile, by yourself to go strawberry picking. For several reasons, the least of which is that you may still be sore in the thighs and rear three days later because of the child juggling and bending down and the awkwardness of it all.

3. Telling Gabbie something is dirty is the quickest way to get her to leave it alone. All the other children at the strawberry patch came out very berry-stained around the mouth and hands. Gabbie however? Only ate one berry because I told her it was okay. She's a good kid, that one.


4. Also related to strawberry picking - don't pick more than you can process the same day. I was very sad to have to throw out more than a pound of what we had picked.

5. If you set my youngest child on the floor these days, it is not unlike you have placed a child on a hill - she rolls and rolls and picks up speed. Then she gets stuck under the couch or the entertainment center and yells. It's adorable but also makes me even more busy than I was before!


6. If, in one single weekend, you: make pizza, pick strawberries, go to a jazz fest, run a million little errands, go to the zoo, cook three meals a day, parent your children, make and can strawberry jam, make a strawberry lemonade icebox pie, and read an entire book? You may end up crying from exhaustion at around 7 pm on a Sunday night.

There were some other lessons I had in mind, but then I got busy and forgot them. Also? I'm still exhausted.

Nice 'Stache

We had a very 'stache-tastic birthday party for Aaron this weekend, and some more photos and details are coming soon, but I couldn't resist posting these really quick while I had almost one second:

Yeah. We had fun.

Week 39

I cannot believe that I'm here already. There are less than two weeks until my due date and I'm sort of freaking out. Of course, the doctor told me again last week that I'll probably be late again. As a "hey, maybe this will make you feel better about that" kind of gesture, she told me that for babies born the week of Christmas there are special receiving blankets and they get Santa hats. I? Really don't care about blankets and hats. I just want to meet my baby!

I turned 31 last week, which was pretty much a non-event. Aaron and Gabbie got me a beautiful pair of diamond earrings and Gabbie also gave me her cold, which I have been battling ever since. I must note that coughing while having the entirety of a small person's weight on your bladder is not a gambling game I like to play. Also, pregnancy is super sexy. Obviously.

As a birthday present to myself, I scheduled a massage which ended up happening on Friday evening. In addition to being a fabulous way to end a long week, it alleviated the sciatic pain I had been dealing with for a couple of weeks. That itself was worth probably triple what the massage costs. I will be going back again.

This weekend we relaxed, which was sorely needed. My mom and sister stopped by and brought me some new comfy pajama pants and a robe, some completely adorable sweater/leggings sets for Gabbie, and a bunch of candy for Aaron. We got started on decorating the house for Christmas, and bought all but the last couple of things we need for the baby (we still just need burp cloths and about 12 more cloth diapers), and assembled the crib.

I rounded out the weekend by organizing my underwear/sock drawer and going through all of Gabbie's clothes to weed out those that don't fit her anymore. Can you say nesting? I also rounded out the weekend by daydreaming about hiring a housekeeper to do a top to bottom clean of the house. As I said to Aaron, that's how you know you're nesting but are also too sick to do anything that requires much energy.

Ways in Which my Weekend Sucked

1. Experiencing pregnancy hormones that make me weepy at the drop of a hat
2. Carrying a baby that likes to bounce on my bladder making running errands quite interesting.
3. Wanting to eat out on Saturday night but being thwarted by the large crowds brought into town by the MSU/Purdue game (GO STATE!) causing hour plus waits at every restaurant in town.
4. Dealing with the worst heartburn I've ever had.
5. Aaron having an issue that makes it hard for him to move/lift things and causes him a lot of pain, but also having him not listen to me and do three hours plus of yard work that just made things worse.
6. Gabbie not using her listening ears. At all.
7. Burning the batch of granola I made that I had been looking forward to all week.
8. Not having ingredients I needed to make dinner yesterday (I fudged the recipe and it still turned out pretty darn delicious)
9. Slicing through my fingernail (near the cuticle) with a sharp serrated knife while trying to slice bread. (OUCH!)
10. Having my back go out last night.

However, my weekend was spent hanging out with my family, engaging in lots of cuddling and smiling a lot despite all the suckage, and really, no amount of suckage outweighs those things.

Updates of the Random Variety

Gabbie actually ate food last week! Real food! Without really any battles. It's amazing how much better my week goes when I don't have to fight with my child several times a day in order to get her to ingest a few calories. She even ate turkey pineapple chili and chicken spaghetti without a fight. It was amazing! Yesterday I was making pulled pork nachos for lunch (delicious!) and I knew she wouldn't eat those, but I gave her a plate with separate piles of chips, pork, cole slaw, and cheese sauce and she dug right in. There was a little bit of a battle to get her to try the cheese sauce, but once she did she loved it (who wouldn't?). Then she kept quoting Yo Gabba Gabba over and over again: "I tried it and I liked it!"

Of course, all of this eating doesn't come without consequence, and of course the pants that fit last week are flood pants this week.

As a reward for being so good last week, we took a family outing to local kids' science museum on Saturday morning, and she loved it. It was a blast, and we went early enough that we beat out the crowds, which were starting to get massive by the time we left. She, of course, loved it. (Especially the Bubble Room.)

Baby #2 provided all kinds of good news this morning at my OB appointment. My blood pressure was good, I didn't gain any weight since my last appointment (we've been eating healthy and avoiding take out as much as possible), Baby's heart rate was the same as always (it has been at 158 at every appointment), and the best news of all: she's head down! Now as long as she stays that way we're in business. I'm still not at the point where I'm uncomfortable all day (although I know that's not too far off), and I definitely have some limitations on what I can do, but I really can't complain all that much, which is awesome.

Lastly, I know it's only Monday, but I really can't wait until this weekend. Aaron is headed off to Beer Camp (aka Deer Camp, even though he doesn't hunt, he goes to hang out, eat fattening food, and drink good beer), and wanted to make sure someone was with me in case anything baby related went down, so my sister is spending the weekend with Gabbie and me. I'm especially excited, because I'm soaking in as much sister time as possible these days. Right now she lives with my parents (she works 60+ hours a week, and therefore would never see an apartment if she rented one) just 90 minutes away, but come March she's moving across the country to live with her boyfriend of five years (who is working on his PhD so is unable to move back here for another five years or so). I can't blame her, but I am going to miss her horribly. A girls' weekend with her sounds great right about now.

My Family is Nuts

This week all my whole family has wanted to do is stay in bed and cuddle all day. None of us has wanted to go to work or daycare, or spend time apart from one another.

Of course, now that the weekend is here, Aaron and I have made all kinds of plans that will keep us from doing that much, if at all. We're planning on breakfast out, a trip to a museum and local city market, a couple of shopping trips for things for the house, and various other items on our to-do list. I don't know what it is about the weekends, but we seem to fit in as much as humanly possible and then spend the days we need to be out of the house craving to do the opposite. We're obviously nuts.

Still, it has been a fantastic (if not quick enough) week, and it's nice when we're not all sick of each other. I mean, really, how could I ever be sick of spending time these two goofballs?

I can't wait until I have three of these nuts to deal with!

Lazy Weekend

Following a weekend away and a hellishly busy work week during which I worked both my former and new jobs, our house looks not unlike a small tornado had gone through. Aaron and I were both looking forward to the weekend in order to get the place back into shape.

Then Saturday morning happened, when we all lazed around in bed until a time we haven't woken up to see in quite some time, then decided to head out for a day of family fun and togetherness. Nearly ten hours later we made it back home, having eaten breakfast, seen some ballet dancers, bought paint, gone for a walk, and then out to dinner. Then we all fell into bed.

Sunday was going to be it. We were going to get things done! We made a long list of everything we needed to accomplish and set out to get it done. Gabbie I made banana muffins while Aaron did some yard work. Then Aaron came in to check out something on the computer, which turned into a quick round of our new favorite computer game (Ticket to Ride, and yes I'm aware of what huge dorks we are). While Gabbie colored and played with her babies (and may have watched a movie - mama needed a nap), Aaron and I switched off playing our game until dinner time. This is not to say that we didn't get anything done - I framed some pictures and Aaron cleaned the kitchen and, um, that might have been it. However, those were just a very few of the things on our very long to-do list.

There was one thing about this weekend that we did accomplish, though. We all spent the weekend happy, which was a distinctly different mood from how we came into the weekend - exhausted and crabby at the world. So far the happiness has held, which makes me realize that I don't care if my house is in need of a little tidying up, what matters much more to me is that I have a house full of a happy family who had a great time hanging out together all weekend. That lazy weekend was just exactly what we all needed.

Snippets of the past two plus weeks

• On Friday the 23rd, we had our middle-of-the-pregnancy ultrasound. It went well, the baby looks healthy, but was also pretty uncooperative. We are fairly sure we're having another girl (!!!), but we will get another look to make sure (along with a better look at her heart, diaphragm, and her profile, as she was hiding these things too) on August 20th. I can't wait to get another peek in there at this little baby who insists on kicking me pretty much continuously these days! (I absolutely love that she kicks me pretty much continuously these days!)

• Last Thursday I finally got word that I got the promotion I had applied for last month! Which is totally awesome, but also comes with a buttload more work, because I still have to keep on doing some of my former position duties. All in all though, this promotion is a great thing. I'm excited to go to work again! My days have flown by lately, and before I know it it's time to go home, and once I get home, I blink and it's time to go to bed. This is why I've sucked at blogging lately (among other lazy reasons). 

• Aaron and I escaped for a weekend up north on Friday. We took Gabbie to my parents' house and then headed up to our favorite place in the state - Traverse City. We stayed in a really, incredibly lovely bed and breakfast, and spent the whole weekend eating and sleeping and enjoying being together. It was wonderful, and I'm really glad we took the chance to get away just the two of us. We really needed it.

• Weird pregnancy factoid - I have never in my life liked any kind of olives. I have tried to like them, but I just can't. Until lately, that is, because now I want sliced black olives on everything. So weird!

• Weird pregnancy factoid #2 - Not that I've tested this out *ahem*, but this pregnancy has made fantastic changes to my hair, including the ability to go at least 3 days without showering and it still looks fresh. One of those pregnancy things I wish would stay around forever.

• I found myself wishing today that I could vote a split ticket in the state's primaries. We have crap choices for our next governor, especially on the democrat side. I care much more about which republican candidates don't make it past the primary (there are some seriously shady and way-too-conservative choices over there), but I chose the most ethical choice and stuck to the democratic candidate who has better records and policy toward women and the environment. I still wish I could have played spoiler on the republican side though. Michigan polictics are such a mess (*ahem*Kwame*ahem*)!

• Speaking of polictics, if you made it past that last painfully boring bullet point, there's something that has been cracking me up lately. I listen to NPR in the car (another weird pregnancy thing - I have a hard time listening to music or being around loud noise, it's just too much to handle), and they are frequently interviewing republican politicians who spend the whole interview complaining about Obama and the other democrats playing politics. I'm sorry, isn't that kind of their whole job as politicians? There are quite a few lawmakers over there that need to stop whining and actually do their jobs. (Okay, I'll step off my soapbox now.)

• Okay, I'll end with something fun. (At least it's fun for people other than me.) Lately, when Gabbie doesn't want to do something she lets us know by saying, "No thank you," which yes, is polite. Until you hear it a million times or have it screamed in your face. Then it becomes less funny and polite. My family thought it was hilarious until they heard it a million times this past weekend. A couple of weeks ago, we were home in the afternoon, and Gabbie really needed to take a nap. She had refused to clean up her toys (instead kicking them under the couch), screamed at me for a treat (she is so two these days), and was throwing a huge tantrum. So, I picked her up and took her upstairs to her crib. She spent the next 30 minutes, laying down, kicking the matress and slats, and screaming, "NO THANK YOU" at the top of her lungs. I finally couldn't take it anymore (see the above weird noise thing) and took her downstairs and plopped her in front of a movie. But, even though it's annoying, I chuckled a little bit at her using politeness during a tantrum and I'm sure we'll look back at this a few years from now and think that it was all very adorable.

Right Now

Right now, Gabbie is singing her favorite song (the Bumblebee song). She and I just finished up mixing together some banana bread because we had a whole bunch of bananas I let get overripe just for that very reason.

Baby J has been moving around all day, but right now he or she is quiet, probably because I've been up and around and rocking the baby to sleep. We bought a sleeper for the baby yesterday, the first thing we have ready for baby number two. It's really starting to hit us - we have just over five months left. We have about four weeks until we find out if this little one is a boy or a girl. We are starting to get even more excited.

Aaron is lounging, reading his latest Wired magazine, one of his birthday gifts from me. He loves it, and I just knew he would.

The evening sun is shining on the vegetable garden my mom and dad helped me plant last week. As of right now we have: 6 tomato plants, 3 sweet pepper plants, 4 jalepeno plants, 1 cayenne pepper plant, 1 basil plant, and two cucumber plants. I plan on adding in some additional herbs: parsley, cilantro, and chives, plus maybe a heirloom tomato plant or two. Come the end of next month and through August, I'm going to have more tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers than I know what to do with, except I will know what to do with them - canning ahoy!

Right now I'm blissfully content, sitting at my desk in our family room. I have a roof over my head, a full stomach, a loving husband and daughter, and another baby growing. I have everything I've ever wanted, and I couldn't be happier.

We are such suckers for a good deal!

This weekend Aaron and I reclaimed our titles as King and Queen of Major Appliance Impulse Buys, when we came upon a killer deal on a new (slightly scratched) washer and drier at Lowes. We were just there to buy some tools to work on the yard and a few flowers to plant, but were also trying to wear Gabbie out so she would sleep when we got home and we could work outside without worrying about entertaining her as well. Our method involves running her around Lowes a couple of times while daydreaming about all of the things we could do to our house. As we approached the appliance section, they were bringing out a washing machine that we had admired several times before. Then we noticed that it had a big 1/2 price sticker on it. When we saw them also bring out the drier we were sold. The guy working back there said that either we should buy it, or he was going to on his break in a little while, because it was such a great deal. We beat him to it, and are very happy to be replacing the current pair we use that is 20+ years old. It's especially nice because in just six short months we'll be doing a lot of extra laundry, and this way we can do it with less worrying about how much water and electricity we're using.

Other weekend highlights included finally taking Gabbie to see the new Shrek movie (we all loved it), working on our front yard so that the annoying guy down the block can finally stop whining about us (long story, he's a douche, although not the only reason we finally put some extra effort into the yard), feeling much less of the first trimester yuckiness I had been experiencing, hanging out with friends on our deck, and finding out that the new mosquito bite remedy I read about (put a little anti-persperant on the bite) actually seems to work!

Weekends are no where near as relaxing now that we're parents and home owners, but I have to say, this one was definitely not too shabby. The only problem I have is that it was a few days too short, but that's always the case.

(Post-Script: I just wrote cakes instead of case in that last sentence. Can you tell where my brain is this morning?)

What is it with old men at Lowe's?

Several things that are too short for their own entry:

1. Many of my family members have been teasing me lately for something really weird - the amount of toilet paper I use. Apparently I go through it much faster than the average woman, even though I think I'm using a completely normal amount. The whole thing came about because we went through an entire roll of toilet paper one weekend when I was visiting, and they say that it takes them about a week to go through a roll on a normal basis. So I'm curious. How much toilet paper does a regular person use then, per visit to the throne? I'd say I use about 10 squares. Is that a ridiculous amount? Am I using way too much? I guess I just want to gauge whether I'm the weird one or if they're abnormal.

2. I am very excited about the 3-day-weekend coming up. We have a party on Friday night and then nothing else planned for the entire weekend, save for daily family naps. Seeing as how we've all been going about a hundred miles an hour for the entire month of May, I'm more than happy that we're ending it by relaxing.

3. Tomorrow morning we have what is, hopefully, Gabbie's last appointment with an orthopedist about her hips. She has to get an x-ray and then see the doctor, and if all is well we won't have to see the doctor again. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed on this one. We haven't seen any problems - she's walking, running, jumping, riding a bike, and dancing just fine. In fact, she never really stops moving. Still, I can't help but worry a little bit. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it goes as well as we expect it will.

4. If I have to watch Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs one more time in the near future, I may scream. Gabbie wakes up requesting, "Ice Age?" We indulged her on vacation and were very thankful the movie kept her busy while we were working on refinishing our deck last week (expect a post on that soon), but now she expects to watch television, and especially that movie, whenever she wants. I'm sure all the spoiling she received over the weekend didn't help my cause, but seriously. It was on our tv about 10 times last week, and I'm thinking that's about 8 times too many.

5. There's something exciting happening next Tuesday that I can't wait to tell you all about after the fact, and it has both Aaron and I up at night with anticipation. This is why we're looking forward to the family naps this weekend so much. Between croup and anxiety, we're quite the sleepless bunch.

6. So, the title. Several months ago we were at our local Lowe's and an old man stopped us to give Gabbie a dollar coin. A little weird, but we said thank you and were on our way. Then two weekends ago when we were there picking up deck supplies, another old man stopped us. This time, without asking us, he handed a sucker directly to Gabbie. Well, we said thank you, and again headed on our way. Since Gabbie has never before had a sucker and had basically no idea what it was, plus we wanted to avoid a meltdown in the middle of Lowe's that would most likely occur if we took it away from her, we let her hold it. She just held it and looked around and we figured we'd take it away when we were leaving and it would be no big deal.

At one point Aaron and Gabbie took off to find brushes while I was waiting for the paint guy to mix up a color sample of paint for Gabbie's room. Apparently Aaron was looking at the shelf, then looked back down and Gabbie had the sucker unwrapped and in her mouth. When they got back, I freaked a little (on the inside; I still didn't want to cause a fit), but I guess if anything bad were going to happen it would be too late - she had already had it in her mouth. Thankfully, she's just fine and the guy apparently had no bad intent (we didn't think he did, but you can never be too sure), but I still worried a little the rest of the afternoon.

Seriously, old guys at Lowe's, what's up? Why must you give candy and other goodies to strangers' kids? Is it just me or is this weird?

Getting Bigger Every Day

Oh, man, last week got away from me. I kept thinking, oh, I'll just blog tomorrow, but then tomorrow would be gone and I don't know. The past few weeks have flown by and I don't know how they went so fast.

So, anyway, there was the trip to Kansas City, which went very, very well, and was very, very fun. Gabbie was a champ and did better in the car than I did even. I was ready to get the heck out. She just wanted to play some more. Here she is watching a movie, holding the iPad all by herself:

Everything on the way there went swimmingly until we offered her some licorice and then about 40 minutes later, and with approximately 40 minutes left on our drive she got car sick. It was, well, a less than pleasant experience. She would retch and then cry, "Yucky!" and then repeat the cycle. We got her all cleaned up at a gas station but she threw up a couple more times during the remainder of the drive. I have to say, nothing cements the fact that you are a parent quite like catching vomit in your hands and not flinching. Not to say that I didn't pull a Lady Macbeth the rest of the night, feeling like I just couldn't get my hands clean enough.

Anyway, sorry about that grossness.

We all had a great time at the parties (there were two) and Gabbie had a blast playing with my aunt's small dog. Gabbie put her on the leash and walked her around the house, and also gave her lots of hugs. Gabbie was a much bigger fan of the dog than the dog was of her, but the dog is also very patient and deserves a medal for putting up with a toddler for two days straight.

Since we've been home Gabbie has been a major daddy's girl. Aaron didn't go with us and she obviously missed him a lot. She started calling him Dad instead of Dada this weekend (she's been calling me Mommy instead of Mama for a while now). It's adorable and incredibly sad all at the same time. My baby is getting so big! She'll be two years old in just over three weeks? How did this happen?!?

Just to illustrate how big she's getting, look what she helped me make yesterday:

They're mint chocolate cupcakes, and she helped me count out the cups, pour liquids into the bowl, and stir the batter together. She also put all the liners into the cupcake pan all by herself. I'm really in disbelief of how big she is getting these days. My baby isn't so much of a baby any more!
This week she goes on her first airplane trip. We're headed to Florida to visit my inlaws. I'm even more nervous for this (including for my own issues with regards to air travel) than I was for our long car trip. It should be interesting to say the least. We bought her a seat and are taking her carseat with us, so hopefully that will make her more comfortable. Now we just have to figure out how to keep her awake until flight time so she naps the whole way there. It will be a challenge, that's for sure!

I totally suck at this

I forgot to post on Friday night, and chose to sleep instead. So, I'm out of the running for NaBloPoMo. I really do suck at remembering to post every day in November. Of course, it doesn't help that November is typically one of my busiest months.

This weekend was wonderful though; busy, but it also seemed to take it's time. It was a nice, long weekend full of fun things. Like my new shiny birthday present from Aaron - an iPhone. I love it, and it is distinctly possible that my thumbs ache from overuse of the phone this weekend.

In addition to the iPhone excitement, I went to see New Moon with a friend last night (SPOILERS AHEAD), and we both agreed that it was much better than the first Twilight movie, but also that people are way more into the Twilight thing than we are. People gasped the first time Jacob took off his shirt, cheered when Bella stopped Edward from stepping into the sun, and were in tears at the end when Edward proposed. When the Jacob-related gasping happened my friends and I burst out laughing, and may have gotten evil glares from a few Twi-hards around us. And, perhaps not surprisingly, there were as many middle-aged women as teenagers doing the gasping. Not that I can talk, I mean, I did pay cash money to go see the movie on opening weekend, and was really excited to do so.

Overall, it was a great weekend and a great start to my birthday week (yes, I get a week, what of it? I turn 30 this year!). Even though I'm hella busy this week, I'm happy that this particular week is finally here. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Perfection

Aaron's college roommate and his wife came for a visit today. Not only was it a lot of fun, but it also pressed us to clean up, and we got one more room unpacked and put together. Now we just have the basement that's full of boxes and empty of furniture, and we'll finally be officially settled in!

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and it makes me realize how much I miss having good friends that live nearby. We are definitely going to have to remedy that somehow.

So, yes. Fun day, clean house, and I've got a nice buzz going from some delicious margaritas we had with dinner. All in all it was a pretty perfect day. In addition, it's going to be sunny and warm tomorrow. I really couldn't ask for a better weekend.

What is normal anyway?

As evidence of how off I am these days, I accidentally just posted this on my cooking website. I think I need another nap.

This weekend was a fairly quiet one. We only left the house twice - once to Target for a winter coat for the Gabbster and once to go out to dinner - and spent the entirety of yesterday in our pajamas. While it sounds nice, this was all because we were each feeling under the weather in some way or another. I've got the ankle thing going on (still hurts a lot, probably because I keep doing stuff I shouldn't), Aaron's had a bad cold for over a week now (and won't go to the doctor like I keep asking him to), and Gabbie got two molars. Since we were all pretty crabby due to not feeling good, we didn't talk much either. Mostly just napped and watched movies on TV.

In other news, it seems as if Gabbie is trying to edge Aaron out of our bed, and she's the only one that's particularly happy about it. Don't get me wrong, I love the cuddles, but I don't love being kicked in the face, having someone's rear end in my face, or waking up at 5 a.m. to someone (cutely, yes) saying, "HI MAMA" loudly in my ear. I also miss Aaron. He hasn't had more than a couple of hours in our bed since Thursday night.

This is going to have to stop soon, although I think it might be related to the teeth, so hopefully it will stop when the teeth are in. She sleeps in her own bed until about 3 a.m., but after that she's done sleeping unless one of us is cuddling with her.

So, yes. It's been a long week or so. I'm ready for things to go back to normal, but I have a feeling that "normal" is still a ways off.