I'm thankful.

Today I am thankful for the Thomas the Train table at Toys R Us which gave Daniel some excitement and a brief respit from his cranky mommy. I am not thankful for the train table at the front of the Toys R Us where the train cars were glued down so that nobody would steal them. "Stuck! Stuck!" Luckily, we discovered the Thomas table in the back of the store before we had a complete toddler meltdown.

I was also thankful that I was able to extract Daniel from the Thomas the Train table without too much drama. I told him a couple of time that we had to leave soon, then I told him that I would count to ten and we had to leave when I got to ten. He counted with me because he loves counting, but wasn't happy about what happened when we got to ten. He did his usual slide out of mommy's arms. I picked him up and told him that we could say "bye-bye" to Thomas. He didn't actually say bye-bye, but he stopped crying and appeared to be thinking about it. And we were able to pay for our stuff and leave the store without further drama. Wow.

Poor little bugaboo has a cold now. But he's still amazingly smiley. He's my little sweetheart. I'm thankful everyday for that sweet little face.

I'm thankful for a good conversation with my mother. Yes, that's what I said. We've finally found a good time to chat on the phone. Around 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon. I'm usually bored and ready for some adult conversation.

Can you teach kids "Come!" or "Heel!"?

I'm beginning to think that when you don't hear from me for a few days, it's because things are starting to veer of course a little bit around here. I've been trying to go to bed early to catch up on sleep since last Friday night, but I'm addicted to
this right now. Plus, the usual other stuff that I like to do after the kiddos are sleeping.

Well, I officially became the mom who chases her toddler around the park yelling at him today. Heh. We had playgroup at a park this morning, which is admittedly not my favorite place to have a playgroup for just this reason.

The park that we went to is brand new and has a great area for the little guys and one for bigger kids. We went early because the baby had fallen asleep and I was hoping that maybe he'd stay asleep through most of the time we were there. That didn't happen, but whatever. He's finally got the cold that we've all had for the past bazillion weeks.

We get to this beautiful play area specifically for toddlers and what does my favorite toddler want to do? Anything BUT play there. Running out of the play area, running out of the park altogether, splashing in the puddles, and playing in the big kids play area with its 10 foot high,leg-breaking slides (I'm a little paranoid about this at the moment because a two-year-old in our other playgroup just broke his leg while sliding -- a two-year-old, in a leg cast -- is that sad, or what?)and the menacing giganto-kids.

So, yep, that was me, the exasperated mom, trying to hold onto her crying baby and catch her escaping toddler at the same time. The toddler who has now learned to sit down as an effective tactic to keep from going where he doesn't want to go. And there was much raising of the voice.

Mmmm, yogurt. 

Were you cool in high school?

Cheers, everyone. Not much to report. Hope everyone had a good Easter. It's been cold and damp here this weekend, so not too much outside fun to be had. Spent yesterday afternoon watching the Coolest Years on VH1. The thing is, I don't think I have ever had any cool years, much less in high school. J considered himself in the "hippie" crowd. He went to a Grateful Dead show. He had a couple tie-dyes. And partook of some extracurricular activities. I was pretty much in the geek crowd in high school. We were the ones who enjoyed a good trip to Denny's at 11:30 at night. If I aspired to be in any crowd, it was the cool, artsy-fartsy one. I have to say that I kind of liked high school, at least the last couple of years. I liked those years more than college.

For college, I went to a small, prestigious liberal arts college. I got a great education, but man, what a bunch of snotty rich kids. Plus, everybody was smart there, so I didn't have the "geek" thing going for me too much anymore. I tried to go the artsy route there -- I majored in art history. Ask me how much I remember of it now. Not a strong history student. Period. And my grades reflected that. Not sure where I'm going with this. But that was a little more about me. :D

We substituted for somebody in the church nursery this morning, so we didn't get to go into the worship service, which was kind of disappointing. Nothing like capping off a week of wiping butts and noses to wiping other peoples' kids' butt and noses. It would have been nice if more than one out of the four paid staff people had shown up.

Anyway, good news on the "Suze needs a break" front. I put an ad in a local college paper for a babysitter and have a couple of people coming over for interviews this week. Yay! Maybe I can catch up on doctor and dentist appointments. I haven't been to the dentist in a long, long, time. We finally have dental insurance and I really, really need to go. I'm afraid that I have a bazillion cavities, though.

We did, however, have a delicious lamb dinner with friends.

Thursday's Threesome on Friday

::Wine, women and song::

Onesome: Wine- or beer? Or do you prefer your beverages non-alcoholic?

Wine. Currently liking a cheap shiraz by Little Penguin.

Twosome: Women- and men. We're entirely different creatures. What do you think makes the opposite sex tick? Or do you consider their behaviour a complete mystery?

What makes guys tick? Hmmm. Food. Beer. Booty.

Threesome: and Song- What's your favorite song? Your favorite band/ musician?

Favorite song is Roxanne by the Police, my favorite band.

bitching ahead

I'm. so. tired.

We all seem to have colds. Again. Throat scratchy. Nose stuffed up. The baby likes to nurse to help himself to feel better. Daniel has a hard time napping because all that snot doesn't drain. Ugh. He hates, hates, hates having his nose wiped. It's like torture to him. Before I had kids, when I'd see a kid in the public with a dirty now, I was all like, why don't their mom or dad clean their nose before taking them out into public. Now I know why. Because they scream bloody murder and fight you tooth and nail every time you try. He's getting strong, too.

His cold hasn't seemed to diminish his obsession with trucks though. His current favorite book is the yellow pages. He's looking at it now, as a matter of fact. Searching for pictures of cars and trucks and vans and whatever vehicles he can find.

He's also discovered bugs. Yesterday, he found an ant crawling around the kitchen floor and yelled, "Bug!" Then laid down and watched it move along. He was very excited.

Connected.

As I was sitting here on the sofa a few minutes ago, hoping for a few minutes to myself, I had in my lap, my laptop computer with it's wireless internet connection, the baby monitor with its invisible portal to the toddler's room (where he has NOT been asleep for the last hour), the cordless phone, and the remote control. Pretty amazing, this technology is. It works, but you can't see it. It's invisible. I wonder if you can see it would you see rays shooting in all directions. Do they go around our bodies or through them? That can't be good for them to go through them. Hmmm. I don't really understand how radio waves, etc. work except in the most basic sense. My only exposure to physics was an Introductory Physical Science class in 9th grade and a boyfriend in college who'd explain the physics of things around us. Anyway, the fact that I don't know how this stuff works reminds me of something I was reading yesterday. It was talking about how we live in this illusion of independence from others. We think we're independent and self-reliant. We live in a time where we can make use of lots of amazing technology and not have a clue how it works or where things come from. The example used in the book I was reading talks about getting one's food at a grocery store. Think how many people it took to get a particular food item to our table. Say we're talking about tortilla chips, for example. There are the people who grow the corn, the people who pick the corn, the people who make the pesticides or fertilizers for the corn stalks, the people who sell the fertilizers and pesticides, the people who transport the corn to the factory, all the people who are responsible for assembling the other ingredients that go into making tortilla chips, the people who mine salt, for example. Then, there's the processing of the salt, and the transporting of the salt, etc. etc. At the tortilla chips factory, there are the people who mix the ingredients together, the people who run the ovens to bake the chips. Oh, and don't forget all the people it takes to feed all the people who do these things. And the people who clean the tortilla chip plant and the people who run the cafeteria in the tortilla chip plant and the people who clean the restrooms in the tortilla chip plant. And then the people who make the toilets or the ovens or other fixtures in the tortilla chip plant. And then the people who make the bags that the chips go into. The people make the ink that goes on the bags. The ad people who designed the look of the bags. Then, the packing of the bags of chips to transport to stores. Then the stocking of the chips. The cashier who checks out your groceries. The people who make the cash registers. The store manager who manages the grocery store staff. And on and on. You get my point. (You probably got it a while ago. Heh.) Anyway, my point is that despite how independent we think we are, our lives are totally interconnected with those around us. It's so easy not to give one single thought about the people around us who keep society humming along. Our trash gets picked up. Our grocery stores get stocked. The bathrooms at our offices get cleaned. Then, there's the stuff like all our technology which I can hardly even begin to understand what went into making it. All I know is that it works and I like it that way. Wireless or not, though, we are all connected.

That's what JoJo learned today!

Where's the remote?

DH left the room to go work on a paper he's writing. He left the TV on Con Air. What a bad movie, but with a pretty good cast, Nicholas Cage not being one of the "good" ones.

the Schiavo case

Amen.

The grown-up party spread. Yum, cheese. 

snarfing some grapes before the party. 

The whole gang. 

anyone following the NCAA tournament?

So, we live smack dab (how's that for a good southern expression) in the middle of big-time college basketball territory. And since our whole life is financed by one particular academic institution, we have no choice but to root for this particular team. Plus, they are the better team anyway. :)

I've never been a big fan of watching basketball on TV, but living in NC is curing me of that. You can't live here and not have an opinion about college hoops. We start the little ones early around here. Daniel got a kiddie basketball hoop for his birthday. When he's not trying to sit on the basketball like its an exercise ball (he watched momma do her labor preparation exercises a little too often), he'll put the ball in the basket from time to time. He's pretty non-plussed about it though like he's not sure what the point is. He's got a few years, though. He's definitely got height in the genes -- I'm 5'11" -- his dad's 6'2" -- my brother is 6'6" and one of his dad's sisters is 5'9" or so. What we're not sure that he's going to have is the coordination. We are not the most athletically inclined people on the planet, to say the least. We'll see what happens.

Isn't it fun watching your kids grow and become these little people with certain quirks and proclivities and likes and dislikes? Sometimes, they are really puzzling. For example, Daniel hates it when cars or trucks or trains are battery operated and move on their own. He fusses and cries. He acts like he's scared. We can't figure it out. And then there's his love of canned green beans. He'll eat a whole plate of them. Go figure. We'll remind him of this later. Heh.

Anyway, I've rambled enough for tonight and should have gone to bed about two hours ago. I did get our taxes done tonight finally. Nice fat refunds coming our way. Yippee!

I do however have one more thing to say though before I sign off: Dook sucks. :D

The cake! 

My favorite picture. 

Daniel's birthday party

We survived Daniel's 2nd b-day party yesterday. It was pretty fun to put together actually and I think he enjoyed it. Because of illness and people being out of town and interfering nap times, we only ended up with three guests. But it was fine. We had a firetruck theme. I found firetruck party favors at Party City -- fire chief hats, firetruck stickers, and those party favors that you blow out. Firetruck napkins, too. Red and yellow plate, cups, spoons. We said no gifts, but a couple people brought them. He scored a play*do set and a dumptruck. He's getting this birthday thing down, too. We decorated while he was napping and then brought him down to check things out before the party. He kept pointing to the cake and asking what it was. He knew what it was, but it was like he couldn't believe his eyes and had to keep getting it confirmed. He chowed on the cake, and had fun drinking everyone else's juice boxes. We played outside on the playset for a little while before it got too chilly. The whole affair lasted about 1 1/2 hours.

Pics to follow.

Let's try a meme.

Came across this meme the other day and liked it. It's called Thursday Threesome (link over in my blogroll -- I'm too lazy to put it in here. :D)

Onesome: Happy-- No matter what's going on in your life, what always makes you smile?

a tiny little face looking up at me and breaking into a grin.

Twosome: St. Patrick's-- St. Patrick's Day is March 17th. Do you celebrate and wear green? Drink Green Beer? Ignore it?

No celebrating here. I'm Scottish, not Irish. We lived in Boston for five years and you wouldn't dare admit that you don't celebrate it there. It's a big deal.

Threesome: Day-- What day of the week is your busiest?Tell us about your schedule...

Monday or Wednesday or Sunday. They are all about the same. Monday is probably the toughest, just because it's Monday, and we go to playgroup in the morning. Getting out of the house in the morning with a 2 1/2 month old, a two year old and a not-a-morning-person mom is a feat any day, but especially on Mondays. Wednesday is another playgroup, but it's usually closer than Monday's playgroup. Sunday is church. It's hectic, but I've gotten some help getting everybody ready.

Where's the milk, mom?

 


This little guy can spot me from across the room. He keeps an eye on his food supply at all times. :)

coaxing out the poo

The little one poos about every other day. On pooing days, I spend a fair amount of time holding an uncomfortable baby while he wriggles around to find the right position for his intestines to work the poo out. Sometimes, I can let the bouncy seat do the work. Its pretty effective in shaking out the poo. Some days, we really have to work at it though. Like when I've eaten broccoli slaw the night before. It takes the better part of the day, many position changes and several bouts of pooing to find relief at last. After long sessions of wriggling, I find myself talking to the poo, cheering it on. Come on poo. Come on out. Get on out here. Let's go, poo. Hurry it up. I am the cheerleader of the poo.

And on the birthday party front.

Daniel's 2nd birthday party is on Saturday. I'm so wound up about it. We were invited to one of his friend's 2nd b-day party which was last week. I was gonna check out all the little details of throwing a party for 2 year olds. What works. What doesn't. But alas, Daniel was sick, so we couldn't make it. So I'm flying blind on the whole 2 year old birthday party thing. (Don't you like how I can turn anything into a huge production. Heh.)

It looks like we'll have 8 kids, including Daniel, not including baby siblings and parents. I'll have snacks for the adults and maybe some adult beverages as well. We'll have some snacks for the kids, too, plus birthday cake and ice cream. Not sure what I'll do for drinks for them. Probably juice boxes.

I was going to make a fire truck cake, but I bagged that idea. It just seemed like too much this time around. I've ordered a firetruck cake from Harris Teeter.

I think it's going to be cold here, so it will be an inside affair. I'm not sure that I'm going to plan any activities. 2 year olds and organized activities don't really go together. We'll have toys around to play with and maybe a table with some crafty stuff for those who are so inclined -- firetrucks to color, stickers, maybe foamies with glue.

Decorations -- lots of balloons. A Happy Birthday sign. That's probably about it.

Sound good?

:)

OK, I've come back out of my dark place.

At least for now. Heh. Of course, it could have to do with the fact that the toddler is asleep right now.

No, seriously. It's finally dawning on me that Daniel is just getting to a difficult stage. It happens to correspond with having a new baby in the house, but it probably would have been happening all the same. The whining. The not-listening. Etc.

Another point of insight. Somebody told DH that when you have kids, at different stages of their development, you have strong and sometimes confusing reactions to them and their behavior. This happens because things resonate with you from your own upbringing and quite often, it catches you off guard. For example, when Daniel just wanders around aimlessly acting like he's bored, looking for mischief when I'm nursing Andrew or trying to do something else, it makes me beserk, I can't tell you. Growing up, I was quite often bored out of my mind. I loved going to school. I hated the summer. My mother (yes, it always goes back to my mother) never wanted to drive me anywhere. Day after day, she stuck to her routine and I just had to play along. I loved it when I was old enough to babysit in the summer, because I could get out of the house and play. Anyway, so when Daniel's acting all bored (yes, I know, he's only two -- but this goes to the "catching you off guard" part), it's proof that I'm failing, failing to entertain him, failing to stimulate his little mind, failing to make sure each moment is packed with fun and excitement. Oh, the standards we set for ourselves.

Mommy needs a break.

Some days I don't think I can do this mom-thing anymore. It's too hard. I'm just not equipped with enough patience or whatever it is that makes one a good parent. I think that I've probably already screwed up my toddler. I'm so short-tempered with him. Some days, it seems that he can't do anything right. Right now, he's watching TV. We watch a lot of TV. If we aren't watching TV, I'm probably pissed off about something. But I feel guilty about all of the TV-watching we do. I feel like I should be able to cope better so that we don't have to rely on TV. What did moms do before TV? He's probably going to end up with ADD or a short attention span or not able to interact with people. So he's screwed no matter what we do. Angry mom vs. too much TV.

I hate that I feel guilty cooing and smiling at the baby. I'm not doing much cooing at the toddler these days. What's the equivalent to cooing anyway? No matter how much attention I give him when I can, it's never enough. It's never enough. So how much is enough? I don't know. It never feels OK to disappoint him. I hate it when he starts acting out. Maybe I feel guilty for bringing in another person into his world. He's still a baby himself. And since the baby was born, it's like I expect him to do more, behave like an older kid or something. If you want to go outside, then don't run away from me when I'm trying to put your shoes and coat on. I try to reason with him like he's capable of logic. Heh. Two year old logic -- whatever that is.

I hate that whenever I sit down, I have to get up two seconds later because somebody needs something, including myself. I hate that whenever I sit down, he wants me to read books to him. Enough with the truck book already. Stop whacking the baby in the head with it. What happened to the little guy who could entertain himself for several minutes at a time?

I hate that when I'm not paying attention to him, he wanders around like he's bored or that I'm depriving him of something. I deserve a few minutes to myself, too, don't I? Or am I supposed to get those when everyone's sleeping? With enough wandering, he eventually gets into something he's not supposed to, something that gets me out of my seat, which is his ultimate goal, I think.

He's been sick with something or other off and on over the last month. So we haven't been in our usual playgroup / Parents Morning Out / storytime routine. I think that's taken its toll on him and me. We both need to get out.

Oops, gotta go. He's about to pull something off the counter onto his head.

Looking for new neighbors.

I don't like my neighbor.

He's a perfectly nice guy. Works for UPS. Divorced. Has two daughters who are around 7 and 10. Keeps his yard nice. So what's the deal? Nobody's ever there. Unless his girls are with him, he stays at his girlfriend's place. What a waste of prime good-neighbor space. There could be a nice young family with a couple of small kids. The mom and I would become friends. Chat over the fence. We could take turns watching the kids play in one backyard or the other. Hang out inside on cold, rainy days. Or, it could be a retired couple. The husband keeps an eye on our house and yard for us. Advises us about home repair decisions. Wave at each other when going to get the mail. It would be like having our parents next door except better.

I don't really like our neighbor's daughters either. I used to be more tolerant of kids. Heh. They came to our house on a couple of morning for me to drive them to school when their dad had to be at work early. The older one is perfectly fine, smart, well-behaved, etc. But she doesn't like Daniel. She doesn't like him drooling on her or trying to crawl in her lap. But he really likes her. The younger daughter is totally wild. She came to our house once with her dad, ran upstairs after one of our cats and locked herself in the bonus room with the cat so that she could play with him. She's one of those kids who asks about and comments on the exact things you don't want her too. "What's that red mark on your face?" Uhhh. It's a zit.

Favorite baby body parts, I

toesies! 

Favorite baby, well, toddler, really, body parts, II

check out these lashes! 

Squishy little knees. 

"back & forth, I sway with the wind; resolution slips away again . . . droplets of yes & no in an ocean of maybe"

(remember that song? sophomore year in college. Faith No More.)

The internet is not always a good thing. I am a very indecisive person. And I'm not just talking about big decisions either such as which house or car to buy. I agonize over decisions about the smallest of things on a daily basis. What should I do today? Should I do a load of laundry? If so, colors or darks? Daniel's or Andrew's? Or towels? Or sheets? Or maybe I should go to the mall instead -- Daniel needs to get out anyway. But then there'd be the whole packing snacks and diapers and changes of clothes and when did Andrew nurse last? Will I have to nurse him? Where will I nurse him if I need to? What will I do with Daniel if I'm nursing Andrew? Will I put him in the stroller? He porbably won't like that. Maybe he could run around in the play area while I'd nurse. But I may have to get up and help him or keep him from running out of the play area. Can't exactly jump up with my boob hanging out. I mean, I could, if I were super-breastfeeder-mom, but I'm not. OK, so maybe going to the mall isn't the best idea. But I want to. I need to get out. But it's the mall, it's not like you'll be talking to people. You should call somebody up for a playdate. Ugh. I don't feel like it. It's kind of last minute and maybe they won't want to do something that will be easy for us. I guess I'll just stay home. I could do some scrapbooking or something. Who am I kidding? I can't work on the scrapbook while Daniel's awake. I could work on the kitchen table maybe. But then I'd have to clean it off. There's no more room on the counter to put the stuff from the table. The dishwasher is full of clean dishes, so I can't load it up. I can't unload it because Daniel will be trying to help me unload it, by trying to close it the whole time I'm trying to unload. Maybe I could unload it while he's sitting in his seat eating or taking a nap. OK, but that's at least an hour from now. What should we do until then. We should go somewhere. But where? I don't know. We could go for a walk. That's boring, though. Nobody for me to talk to. Maybe it would be better to stay home. The laundry is kind of piling up. OK, maybe we'll stay home and I'll put some laundry in. Oops, Andrew's crying. He probably needs to eat again.

So that's how my day goes. Every day. I drive myself crazy, you see.

so, what part does the internet play in this? It only enhances my indecisive nature. You have access to an infinite amount of information on virtually any topic you could ever imagine, right at your fingertips. What beach to go to for vacation? Let's look on the internet. Hey, there are lots of beach house rental web sites. We could look at this one. There's some cool stuff here. But lets check out this one, too. Oh, and we shouldn't skip this site either. Maybe the perfect place is on this other site. We've covered a lot of territory now. Might as well go to these sites as well for completeness' sake. Will find just the perfect place if we look at this site too. It's good to see it all just to make a thorough comparison of all possibilities. Of course, there are 762 available rentals. Hmmm, which one will suit us the best? If I look just a little bit more, I'll find THE one. (What do I think I'm going to find -- something that says J & S, YOU MUST GO HERE. YOU WILL HAVE THE BEST VACATION. 100% GUARANTEED. TRUST US. WE KNOW WHAT YOU WANT. AND ALL FOR A GOOD PRICE. IN FACT, YOU TELL US HOW MUCH YOU WANT TO PAY. . . )

See what happens? The internet perpetuates the myth (in my head) that there is some perfect answer out there to every question no matter how small. If I make a decision and it doesn't work out well, then it's just because I didn't gather enough info or the right info. All the info you need to make the perfect decision is out there. Crazy, hunh? Yep. So, I don't make decisions. Meanwhile, three weeks later, I'll still be trying to decide which beach rental to go for, but I'll only get to that after spending my day trying to decide whether to do a load of laundry or not or go to the mall or to call a friend or go for a walk . . .

etc.
etc.
etc.

well, the whole "free-time" thing didn't pan out for very long. The baby woke up shortly thereafter and wouldn't go back to sleep until, well, tonight. Meanwhile, Daniel's been spiking a 102 1/2 degree fever throughout the afternoon. At least the throwing up is gone, but what's up with this fever? I hesitate to actually type this for fear that I'll jinx it, but it looks like the rest of us have escaped whatever Daniel's got.

free time? what's that?

Both of my babies are asleep right now at the SAME time. I don't know what to do with myself. It's funny -- when one or both of them are awake, I have a running tally in the back of my head of the things that I would be doing if they were only asleep, but now that they are, I don't know what to do. Silly, hunh? Of course, there are always things to do on the internet. :)

using adjectives

yes, another post today --

Like most toddlers, Daniel enjoys naming objects around him and has for a while. Over and over again. Car. Digger. Firetruck. Outside. etc. Early baby books are mostly pictures of things with the name of the object underneath.

Next, he started using some verbs and making short phrases. "Go outside?" "Go night-night." "Pants on." "Want?"

Well, now, he's learning to use adjectives. I gave him Spaghettios a couple of days ago. He took a few spoonfuls. "Yummy," he says matter-of-factly. Tonight, we gave him a banana popsicle. He sucked on it for a while. "Good," he announced as if he'd been saying it for years. It was very funny.

Geez, I hope I don't get this.

Even though Daniel was in true form last evening (see previous post), there haven't been too many hijinks around here today. Daniel woke up throwing up in the middle of the night. How can you throw up and roll around in it spreading it from one end of the crib to the other before you realize it and wake up? Poor little guy -- he hasn't moved off the couch today and hasn't kept anything down either. And of course, Andrew is having a fussy day and hasn't conked out all day until about fifteen minutes ago. I hope that he doesn't get this stomach bug.

Whenever one of us gets sick, we always have to speculate about where we got it and who's fault it is that we are sick. Do you do that? Daniel could have gotten this bug any number of places. He was in the church nursery on Sunday. On Monday, we were at the germ-breeder, I mean, pediatrician's office. Then, we went to the mall play area and touched a bunch of plastic climbing apparati, probably licking some of them, too. Wednesday we were at playgroup, which was at the house of a little girl that had a bad stomach bug a couple of weeks ago. Maybe the germs were still residing on the furniture or the toys or something. Who knows?

Update: looks like Daniel is feeling better. He ate a banana popsicle and drink a little bit of water and Powerade. He saw the pizza we were eating for dinner and wanted some. And the most telling indication that he's feeling better, he started hitting the cat again, saying, "Nice kitty" all the while.

firetrucks, oh my!

We were at church last night for a Bible study. The building was recently renovated and a new fire alarm system was installed. The fire alarms were lowered so that they would be accessible to handicapped people. It turns out that this also makes them accessible to two-year-olds. Yep, Daniel pulled the fire alarm. *faint* The minister was there and a couple of other staff people, but since it's a new system,they couldn't figure out how to turn it off, so the fire department had to come to help out. Despite Daniel's current obsession with fire trucks, he was kind of freaked out by it. So big, with all those flashing lights. Most of the other people there have kids Daniel's age and everyone figured it would just be a matter of time before that happened. It was kind of funny, actually. What can ya do?

schooling the med students

Well, it looks like everyone's favorite monthly cycle is returning already, which seems really early. Daniel was born in March and by September (or was it August), I still didn't have it. I remember this well because I got my appendix out then. Nothing like an emergency trip to the hospital in the middle of the night with a 6 month old. Anyway, it must have been a slow night because there seemed to be a lot of med students or residents gathered around. I had already answered this a couple of times, but one of them asked me when the last time I had gotten my period was. "June 2002," I said. I could see a puzzled look in their faces. I guess they hadn't gotten to the part about breastfeeding suppressing menstruation. So, I explained that I'd had a baby in March and was still nursing him. Another highlight of that night was when they were examining me and at that point I was throwing up and hadn't had any pain medication yet. They wanted to rule out ovarian torsion or something like that, so they wanted to do an internal exam. The med student/ resident was explaining this to me and said, "So, do you mind if we do a va*ginal exam?" Uhm, yes I mind. That's about the last thing I want right now. I said no, but was overruled.

hunting & gathering

The other day, we went out into the backyard to play. Daniel went over by the swingset and was playing with this long, thin, light-colored stick. "This?" he asks, his abbreviated version of "what's this?" It's a stick, I say as I try to settle the baby in the Bjo*rn. A few seconds later,as I look up, I notice that Daniel is pulling on this "stick" and that it's actually sticking up from the ground. As I look closer, I realize that this "stick" is an arrow. An ARROW. In our backyard. It had a metal tip and seemed to be one that was probably used as a toy, but what did I know. I had never seen an arrow close-up. So, we decided to play out in the front yard. J went and looked at it when he got home and confirmed that it was most likely a toy one.

Today was one of those days, one of those days where I feel like I've gotten nothing done. That I've gotten nothing done isn't objectively true, of course. But that dosen't really matter. I even started exercising again to a DVR-ed Denise Austin Fit & Lite episode. Gotta start somewhere.

This feeling is probably left over from yesterday. I hate not being able to finish things. This is a problem because being flexible is totally what you have to be able to do with kids. Chances are, there are many things that you won't be able to finish and you just have to move on. Anyway, we were at the mall yesterday. I wanted to take Daniel to get his feet measured at Stride Rite and to play in the play area, but frankly, what I really wanted to do was get some new shirts for myself. I'm sick of wearing maternity stuff and feeling crappy about what I look like. Alas, after making two trips to Stride Rite (it took times to get a clerk to help us :/ ) and doing a stint in the play area, Andrew had had enough and was ready to eat and be in mommy's arms for a while and Daniel was sick of the stroller. So, no new clothes for me.

I was hoping to maybe get back there today, but knew I was not going to be able to handle a repeat of yesterday, should that happen. Daniel wasn't going to be too excited about riding around in the stroller again for me to pick clothes out.

It's probably not really about the clothes even. I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed, kinda' down and very irritable. Blah. Blah. Blah. When I feel like this, I love getting out and going shopping. It makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something -- I can check something off my list, so to speak. Maybe it's the ancient "gathering" impulse. Heh.

this is the article on blogetiquette that I was referring to

Eats, Blogs & Leaves

What do you think?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. PIGGGGGGIES.

Daniel's going to be 2 tomorrow. I can't believe it. I was so emotional last year for his first birthday -- less so this year. I'm more into making it fun for him. I'm totally obsessed with planning his party. He'll get to open presents from us and the family tomorrow, and I think we'll get some cupcakes from the grocery store to celebrate. We'll have his actual party in a couple of weeks. We're having a fire truck theme. If it's warm enough, we'll probably play outside in the back yard for the party. I'm making a firetruck cake. Wish me luck -- I've never really iced a cake like this before.

I'm really tired so I apologize if this is a bit disjointed and kind of aimless, but I wanted to write something since I haven't put anything up on the blog for a few days. I was reading something about blogetiquette lately that has made me even more self-conscious about writing. Oh well. Read if you want. I have an (almost) two year old and a two month and I'm not getting lots of sleep. I'm tired and cranky, so I'm sure the blog material is not at its best.

Inspired by an entry in another blog I read, I was thinking about some of the cute things that Daniel says that will change. We eat a lot of grilled sandwiches off of the George Foreman grill around here. Somehow long ago his grilled cheese became a "hot, hot". The aquaphor we put on his face is "feel better." Daniel's toes are now his "piggies". The other night we were trying to cut his finger- and toe-nails which truly is a team effort. He really hates it and when we were trying to cut his toe-nails, he was crying and started saying "Nooooooo. Piggies." It would break. your. heart. Daniel's not too happy with the whole personal hygiene thing, except for tooth brushing and hand washing. He likes them, but hair cuts and nose wiping/blowing and nail-clipping, not so much.

OK, there's more I wanted to say, but it's late and time to go to bed. We've got a big day tomorrow. My baby's turning 2.