Bed head

Her dad caught this photo of the smiling girl this morning. Well, actually it may have been Saturday morning. Ah, all the days are running together. Anyhow, you can probably make out the shinyness under her nose that speaks volumes, yet another cold, yet another 100 attempts to wipe and 100 attempts to avoid the tissue! And I get the ones with lotion! Ah well, such is my daily life.

The weekend was a good one although I am ashamed to say that I missed my caucus because my child was sleeping and my husband was working. I wanted to go, I just didn't want it to be on Saturday! At 1pm! Fortunately, the outcome was good for me and my friend called to tell me about it. I figure the next time, I will be prepared by knowing exactly what it entails.

I did hit the gym twice this weekend, yay me, and I somehow managed to drop a pound even though it was a rough week involving travel. I just have to keep it up. The jeans are baggier but needless to say, I tend to lose it all on top first before the child bearing hips even THINK about making an exit (I don't think I've ever gotten to that part, actually). We spent Sunday looking at houses again - fun stuff after the kid wakes up from her nap and realizes that she is stuck in the carseat AGAIN and cries and shouts and generally drives mama bonkers until we finally go home. Actually we got out and looked at a couple houses and she enjoyed that. It was just getting back in the car that was no fun. Who knows, maybe she gets carsick or car nauseous?

Anyhoo, that's it for now. I have to go and pick up the little punkin in a few minutes. I didn't see her smiling face this morning since I got home from the gym late, so I'm dying to nibble on her cheek and get my hug. :)

Rain, rain GO AWAY!

Well we got the new battery charger and at this point, I have taken a really lovely photo of E's forehead. It seems like I actually get smiles from the girl if I hold the camera away from me while I'm taking the photo but at the same time, it's not one of those that displays the image you are shooting until after you've taken it (and cut off the lower half of your child's face and all of her body). Needless to say, it'll be a few days before I post with photos.


I can't remember what I posted about last time, chances are I will repeat myself. I apologize.


Last week we went looking at houses in an area east and south of us. The 'burbs really, whereas right now we almost live in the City. I've always had a thing about not living in a neighborhood where the houses are cookie cutter and the yards are a postage stamp size. I haven't really wanted either. BUT. There is something really dreamy to me about living in a brand spanking new house with all new stuff and loads of SPACE. God. We found a house with 2800 square feet out in a neighborhood where all the houses look the same and we.fell.in.love.
Maybe it's because we are tired of our little work-in-progress or the fact that it's tiny, I don't know. But we are hooked now and I don't know if we can go back. Sigh.


I've had a tougher than normal week after my weight loss last week. It's funny how once you lose 10 pounds, your mind seems to think it's okay to eat a bit more or splurge a bit more and pretty soon you've gained back the weight. I haven't weighed myself this week and the pants are getting baggier but I don't feel I've had a good week. I traveled to CA for 2 days, like I do, and I managed to get to the gym on one day and the evening that I usually spend out for dinner and too many glasses of wine/beer with a good friend was spent at her place eating less and talking about weight loss plans. So all in all it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Probably the traveling just throws me off anyway. No doubt things will be back to normal next week. And then we'll fly to Denver to visit friends and that will be tough!


Today I dropped E off at daycare and I had to run to the store to get her some diapers because she was out. When I came back, she was hanging out with 2 girls, they were sitting in these little chairs they have acting like they were reading. It was hilarious. She didn't even run over to me, just kept playing. It warms my heart to see her with her little friends and being independent of me. It rocks. I hope I think that later.. that I remind myself that that is our goal, even though we miss the little peanut that is our baby... even when she's 20! lol



Have a great weekend!

Anyone out there?

...was a song from Duran Duran's first album, I just remembered. I am probably dating myself but I was a huge fan and still would sit down and watch them on On Demand if only my child would stop shrieking to herself and drowning out Simon and the boys.

So, I'm finally taking a moment to write, it's been more than a month so I won't be surprised if no one's reading. Like I mentioned earlier, our battery charger died for the camera and then, well, I had to work during the day so I couldn't write on this blog as much as I used to. On top of that, add a 15-month old girl who wants to be on mamama's lap while mamama's looking at the laptop and then proceed to pound mamama's work-owned laptop really hard with her little paws. So we just don't get online too much. :)

Having said that, all is well and life is good. I started up at the gym after the new year as well as a no-drinking month (almost over, thank god!) in an attempt to take off a few pounds. It seems to have worked as I am on my way to 6 pounds lost this month (I know, that's too much but I had been eating/drinking a LOT). I finally feel good at the gym, instead of like I'm dying, and I can get up to get there at 6am just like the old days. E's all excited to see me when I come back from the gym even though I am sweaty and gross. It's the best kind of hug to get. She's truly a pet.

We are trudging through the finishing bits of the basement. M is tiling the bathroom this week and I can definitely see the end in sight, thankfully. I know he'll be glad to be done and I know I will be glad to see him done. So we can move. lol Actually, I'm not kidding. Most likely we will put this house up for sale in the summer. Where our future lies, at this point, I don't know. As long as we're all together, who really cares? :))

Happy Christmas!

It's not a great photo but it'll do. We've lost the charger for the battery for our nice camera, so we had to have a phone photo but it's okay. Needless to say, we only subjected E to this once and since we were in the photo with her, at least she's not crying like all 1 yr old babies do when subjected to a large, white-bearded man in red. We spared her having to do it alone.

It's been craziness lately, starting first with Thanksgiving, then a struggle with finding someone to put up drywall in the basement to my parents visiting for Christmas. They are gone now and a calm has finally descended upon our lives. M has finally stopped living in the basement 24/7 and although E has a lingering cough, she's not had to stay out of daycare for over a month (knocking on wood now).

Thanks to my mom, M and I had a lovely morning/afternoon together Christmas shopping and having lunch out on the Saturday before the day. We were able to finish it all and we both commented that daytime dates seemed like a good idea. We were actually awake, as opposed to our anniversary dinner when we went out for dinner and wanted to go be home at 8:30pm. We'd told the sitter 10 though and we stayed out til 10! But I think it might be daytime from now on.

I realize looking at this photo just how much I've let myself go. It's been a challenge that I haven't been willing to take on. I just haven't been interested in waking up early to go to the gym so I haven't. I haven't said no to ice cream or beer or wine or dinner. I've just gone with the flow. It's so much easier. I don't have the energy. But we all know how to get the energy. go.to.the gym. lol So I am starting next week, with the masses, at the gym. M gave me some personal training sessions which is great but I know myself and therefore will start working out on my own before I call upon the services of another. I have worked out enough to know that, upon starting after a time off, I will get sick after the first or second week and need to take a break to get well. I figure February is a good time to start with the trainer. The hardest part will be eating well. Living with a person who doesn't need to lose weight and does the majority of the cooking. Well, somehow, I'll have to make it work for me.

Anyhow, that's what's been happening to us lately. E is as cute as ever and walking like a mad thing. I'm so happy and blessed!

I'm too sexy for my clothes

God what a week last week was! Don't get me wrong, I love the munchkin to death but she was home a lot! The pink eye kept her out half of Wednesday and all day Thursday, then the daycare had Monday off for the holiday. That's a lot of time with the girl these days. I needed the break when she left for daycare today. I'm not ashamed to say it. Babies are a lot of work!

She's going through a really snuggly stage right now which is nice because she's never been really snuggly. But on the flip side of that coin, she's also very clingy - if i walk into the kitchen, the whining starts, even though i might be talking to her the whole time. This whole mom thing can be a challenge! I don't honestly know how people have more than one kid! lol

Sometimes I make myself feel better by watching Jon & Kate plus 8 (I think it's on TLC). They were the couple who had IVF and had twins. Then wanted another child (think ONE) and had sextuplets!!! OH.MY.GOD.NO. God obviously gave them to people who could handle them but I just could.not.do.it. They're amazing. Although I do feel a bit sorry for Jon because he can be quite hen pecked.

Ok, now that I'm talking about TV shows in my blog, I better go because it's only going downhill from here!

Too tired and worn out to blog

I don't know what it is about this time of the year but I started to get tired and "ho-hum"-ish.. I can't return calls, I can't get organized, I can barely stay awake until 9pm. i thought it would change with the time change but even now I can't rally. Poor E, after having a cold, then a yeast infection, then 1 yr shots and hearing test, now has pink eye. I hated pink eye, it was impossible to keep my eyes open when I had it and seemed to take forever to go away. Chances are, I will get it. Although, since I've had the eye surgery, I probably don't touch my eyes as much as I used to. So maybe we'll be okay. E will be home the next few days until she's no longer contagious. Sigh. Poor pet. It took two of us to give her the eye drops - one to hold her down, the other to open her eye and drop. Now I guess it's fortunate that I had contacts because I'm pretty good with the drops! :))

Anyhow, that's all. That's where I've been and what I've been doing. I haven't even been reading. I need a vacation already! And I just had one. More later..... Hope you all are well....

Halloweeny

Before: After:



I don't know... I think she liked it. The true test was when we went to our friends house and their dogs sniffed her butt!

I have more photos to post from vacation so I'll write more then.

BUH BYE

I will be out of the office from ....

yep, we are going on vacation. I wish I could say we were going somewhere exotic and tropical or even new and exciting, but we're not. We're going to see my folks, meet up with my brother and his family (who haven't seen E yet) and attend the wedding of a dear friend whose marrying her own irish lad. I'm thrilled for her!

I may or may not get photos uploaded to journal our trip but I will definitely post when I am home. That gives you about 10 days to read one less blog! (Or maybe find one more interesting one...)

Ciao

Where in the heck has she been??

...you might be asking yerself if you are one of the 6 people who read my blog. I don't even know the last time I wrote but it's been awhile. We've had a trip to California, in which we became those people - you know the ones whose child is crying during the first 15 minutes of your flight.... We didn't book a seat - midday on a Sunday I thought we'd be safe to get a seat but NO! the flight was full. We had a squirmy, tired 11 mo old on our laps, literally on our laps as she finally fell asleep with her head on my leg and her feet splayed across her dad. It didn't look comfortable but it lasted for the remaining 1 3/4 hours of the flight. I had big wet patches on the leg of my jeans when it was over because we seemingly have the most drooly baby ever. Cute, but drooly. (Having said that, she DOES have 7 teeth where most of her peers have 4 or less) So yeah, that's what I was doing.

Since we returned, we (the girl and I) have had colds (mine's mostly gone but hers is lingering) that laid me out for a few days. Work has been exceptionally busy because my co-worker was on vacation, prompting me to learn what she does in the favored form of trial-by-fire or 'putting Anne in the hot seat'. Although she did *try* to teach me all she could before she went, there was inevitably some things that came up that were 'surprises'. Anyhow, I learned a lot that week and that's good.

The big news is that our little bundle of joy has started taking her first unaided steps (to be honest, she was never really "aided" with stepping because we weren't sure we wanted her to walk any time soon). She actually walked over to her dad to say hi in that photo above. It's absolutely precious because when she starts walking, she gets quite excited and the arms go into 'windmill' action (or wax on/wax off mode) and she sits down. She'd probably get a lot farther if she didn't flap. lol Interestingly, since she started walking, she also started crawling in turbo speed. I was out with a couple moms/babies from my childbirth ed class and E would start crawling away from us and out the door with a speed I hadn't seen previously. I actually think there was smoke behind her when she took off but maybe she farted and was trying to get away! Anyway, I spent a lot of that hour following her our to the sidewalk, or into the kitchen of the cafe, or over to strangers where she'd still down and charm them all. I'd eventually pick her up and bring her back, she would take off again. She had no interest in hanging out with us. So there you go, she's only 11 months old and already I am getting a glimpse of my future with a teenager.

Happy days

We just sent our friends from London on their way south. They arrived to us Saturday and the last few days have been an alcohol-induced fog. The Orbit gum must do a trick because no one asked me if I'd been swimming in a vat of red wine when I dropped E off to daycare. Whew! lol

The few days involved us hiring a babysitter (the girl at the daycare) and enjoying an adult-only drinks and appetizers fest at the Matador in our 'hood. It also involved us both calling in "well" on Monday and heading into downtown for a day of sightseeing (and more beer, for them. I chose to be DD since someone had to pick up the child) on the most beautiful day this week. They went Pike Place and picked up some of the biggest halibut steaks I've ever seen (if only I had a photo) and made us dinner that night. Needless to say, I did not finish mine!

Last night we met up for drinks with some other friends at a small park in our 'hood to watch the sunset. It was another decadent night of indulging and staying up too late and with the dreary cloudy weather today, it's a wonder if I will ever wake up. I think I better go to the gym because if I don't, E and I will be heading to bed at the same time tonight.

Camping this weekend! We are going to Deception Pass State Park and we can't wait.

A lesson

Can I tell you how hard it is to get a close up (and a smile) of this one? She's always grabbing at the camera and I have to use one hand and hold it away from myself, hence that her head is cut-off. Ah well. She's still a cutie. lol

Yesterday I picked her up at daycare which is maybe 3 miles from our shed (that would be our "wee" house) and I had to stop for gas and she was happy as a clam. As soon as we pulled back on the road, the wild crying baby started in and after a while, it was all I could do to get home. You know, you stop saying 'what is it, pet?' because frankly, she ain't able to tell you, she just cries harder. I could've stopped but I wanted to get home because I knew once out of her carseat, she'd be okay again. And she was.

So, I plop her down on the floor like I usually do and I'm going to run back out to the car to get all my stuff from the day and she starts crying hysterically like 'don't leave me!' So, I sigh, and do not go out to the car but decide to try and clean up so I'm to and fro-ing and she's crying and I'm starting to get a little pissy because I need to get sh!t done. You know how you need to get sh!t done. So, although I was frustrated and grouchy by this point, I decide to lift up my little punkin and sit on the couch with her and she smiles and my blood pressure goes down considerably and what I realized is sometimes you just have to chill out. What sh!t needs to get done that badly?

Did I mention I think she's getting at least two more teeth? Yep, that's the fussy behavior. Poor thing. By the way, we got over our woe-is-me thing. Thanks to everyone's responses. Lori, we'd love to hang out with you guys anytime, we aren't age elitists (regardless of how my post may have seemed. :))! Hello insomnia, maybe we'll see you at the park again sometime.

Our new latest fun thing

I love this jumper thingy. It tires out a very active 10-month old baby even easier than she normally tires out herself. She can jump in this thing endlessly. And she's smilin' the whole time. It's awesome!

M and I are going through our woe-is-me, why-don't-we-have-friends stage again. I mean, we DO have friends. We have a few super nice people we see regularly, a few wonderful people we see less regularly and some we see because we invite them over and they never, ever, ever invite us over again. We both have smelled ourselves and think we smell fine. We have other friends so we know it's not "us" per se. We absolutely cannot for the life of us find other like minded parent types that just need a little adult conversation while their children poke each others eyes out and bonk each other over the head with toys (fortunately soft toys at this age!). Excuse me, let me re-phrase that, we can FIND those people but unless we invite them to do something, we would never see them again. Ever.

How hard can it be to meet 30 something people with babies who want to make the acquaintance with other 30 something people with babies? As much as I love M and he's my best friend and I his, we do spend 24/7 with each other and so sometimes finding new things to talk about can get difficult. Sometimes M might like to find someone to discuss his house remodeling stuff with who actually understands what he's talking about and I like to talk about what E's doing now and whether it's normal or whacky or just plain odd. I know people move in and out of Seattle and I'm sure that not all the people here already have friends and family that occupy their whole weekend but where ARE these people? Where are the people who have a couple hours to spare with friends - to make friends? How do I do this? I've done it a lot as a single and I know it's hard. I know meeting people you connect with is as hard as finding a pair of shorts to fit this post pregnancy body (is that a good one? I couldn't decide... maybe I'll think of something better as I type along) but I keep trying. I don't try TOO hard but I try..

I know these people are out there. I've seen them at Easy Street having breakfast too early like we are (although why we continue to eat there is beyond me as it is not.that.good), I've seen them walking at Alki and at Lincoln Park. I've seen them. Maybe some day, they'll see us too.

Good taste

So needless to say, the girl has started crawling around the place like it's the Indy 500. If you leave a green beer bottle on the floor, or heaven forbid, your morning coffee cup, her head goes down and she's got the bottle in her mouth or her hand in your cup before you can say Boo. You've got to be quick and worse yet, you've got to be AWARE. There is no relaxing with a baby on the prowl. Every scrap of paper (you know how you used to rip open the mail and maybe a stray bit falls to the floor every now and then?) will find it's way to her mouth. I have to physically go outside and dump the recycling (paper) every day. Can't just leave it on the couch until you FEEL like bringing it outside. Oh no. The problem is.. some of the stuff you spot as.she's.putting.it.in.her.mouth and it's too late then. You're like "uh, what was that?" as you try to pry open her mouth. It's hard to get past those 4 little razor teeth. I just let her eat it now. Eventually, it seems to come back out.

I don't know if I mentioned that the daycare was kind of nazi-ish in it's need to have E eating chunkier foods. They don't want anything mushy because I guess they have to feed her then. So, she's been getting chunkier foods. And to be honest, she's come a long way and can/will actually pick things up and eat them fairly dexterously. Especially if I walk away when I've fed her, she tends to clean the highchair like a little vacuum. She particular likes this breaded chicken from Costco (when you find something she likes, you go with it), sweet potatoes (I have noticed an orangish tint to her skin tone), green beans (finally), pears and apples. She doesn't so much like red meat (I haven't given it to her enough days in a row yet) and I've yet to try tofu and fish. That's next. I just can't believe how much she's changed (yes, I know they are supposed to change but I'm always surprised! :))...

The last couple days she has started opening the cupboards. I don't know if you can see our TV stand in the back ground of the photo but she's started opening the glass doors (rather than looking at herself and/or smacking them with her hands) and the other day, she went through all the DVDs and decided on Monty Python's The Life of Brian. Of course. My baby rocks!

At the beach

I don't have much to say these days. No reason in particular, just not feeling it. Plus I broke the nail of my right pointer finger to the quick and it's painful to type (yep, I'm one of those geeks that types with two hands!).. But I wanted to post a photo of the girl during our recent trip to the Oregon coast.

I didn't think it was possible to love someone so much... I think you're meant to get sucked in when they are this age so you don't throw them out when they get to be two and beyond. Your brain goes mush and somehow you put up with all those awful years. :) Anyhow, right now, she amazes me every day.

Thinking on this

Oh, I've already noticed that this keyboard is typing what I have to say quite a bit later than I want. Needless to say, that means lots of typos. And going back, and re-typing, etc.

Yesterday was my birthday, the big three-nine. I don't feel 39. I can't believe I have a baby and I'm 39. I always thought I would've done things much earlier. I don't really mean anything by that - it's more of an observation of myself - but I just thought I would've. I also would've thought that I'd learned not to say hurtful things to people, even if they are truthful. Or maybe I would know how to say truthful things that might be hurtful more diplomatically, so they aren't hurtful. Either way, it seems I have not learned it and I said something stupid to a dear friend. I am debating with myself about writing it here - writing it, telling people, makes me take accountability again (I've told M and he was not happy with me) but it also gives people the opportunity to make me feel better and I don't necessarily think I should. My friend and I worked through it and hopefully, she will take what I said as constructive criticism and try to ignore the fact that I was so thoughtless. Sigh. It's weighed heavily on my mind since it happened Thursday and I don't know if I should bring it up again with an "I'm sorry I hurt you"-type card or let us move on? Any suggestions?

I don't have any photos to post today, even though we took some cute ones this weekend. I haven't done any downloading since then. I did get to the gym however, so that's a plus in my favor! And it's a short week, as I'm taking Friday off since my boss gives us a day off for our birthdays! Should be nice!

Summertime fun

I'm not thrilled about this photo of me looking so white in the middle of summer but I do like the two of us together. We were camping last weekend, it was hot and muggy and somehow we still had smiles on our faces.

Daycare is working out well. Some days are better than others for the girl. I think she just needs to get used to the fact that even though we leave her, we will be coming back for her. I can't say enough about what a good idea I think it is for her to be around other kids, even other people. We might have even left it a bit long, she'll have a harder time adjusting that she might have if we left her in earlier. But she will adjust! When she gets home, I make sure I give her lots of love and full attention if she wants it. But she's becoming independent and sometimes just wants to do her own thing. I took her to a local park, on the water, and we sat on the beach for a good half an hour getting sand in every crevice, as you do. I kept thinking of how a lot of times I find myself trying to keep her clean (more my issue than anything else) when being dirty is what it's about to be a kid. So the hand goes in the mouth, sand and all, and I try not to think of the dogs that might have peed on it! lol I know too many people who are trying to keep their kids clean all the time and then they get a little anal about it (the kids) and I certainly don't want that. She's going to get anal about enough things in her life, eventually!

Last night we took an infant CPR class. It was literally the first time we had left her with anyone other than relatives (aside from daycare). I think we did okay. We were only gone for an hour and a half but it was good. She was good (or so they said!) which is really the biggest relief. We might even be able to leave her with other people someday so we can go to dinner! lol

Well, I guess that's it for now. I uploaded that photo rather than use photobucket and I am typing WAY faster than it's showing on the screen. I don't think I'll try that again! For now, I'm going to sign off. I'll write more soon.....

Two posts for the price of one!

I can't help but post cute photos of E whenever I get a chance. Finding daycare for an infant, I've discovered, is like buying a house in the Bay Area. If you see it and you like it, you better make an offer that second or you'll lose out. At least, that's what it used to be like. I don't know where I'd left it with our nanny whose been watching E for a couple weeks. She got a job at Alaska Airlines and her last day was going to be the 6th. In our scramble to get something else setup, we did something odd. We consulted the P-H-O-N-E-B-O-O-K. You've heard of these things. They came around before the days of computers. Before you could just go on c-----list and click the link that says Childcar3. I don't know why we didn't go to the Yellow Pages before. I've been doing a gazillon searches on the web and came up with little. We found a place about 3 miles away, they just happened to have an infant opening, we went to see it and agreed it would do and she starts next week! Our little girl, heading out in the world. We're going to lose it on Monday, I'm sure. Maybe we'll just register, go for coffee, and then go back and pick her up. We may have to ease into it. For our own sakes, not hers! lol

Finally making a house a home

Our new garden:


A different angle:



Thanks to a lot of hard work on M's part and a bit on his dad and our neighbor, our garden finally has something to it. There's still a lot of work to be done but we have a little space to sit back and enjoy on a daily basis. Now, as long as none of the plants die, we'll be happy. :)

Dirt is good food

So..uh yeah...I was out helping dad with the garden today..Can you tell?

Learning something new everyday

We took our first ride on the swing last week. We also experienced the top of a slide but that photo is on my phone and I don't know how to get it here. I think she kind of liked it. M's convinced she's going to be a daredevil like her mom and I hope that's true. I hope she's adventurous (in the legal way, anyhow) because it makes life more interesting.

We've had a pretty busy few weeks. After M's parents left (did I mention they were here?), we went camping for the first time with the girl. Actually, it was the first time he and I went too - I don't know why we've never camped together because we both like it. We drove west until we found dry weather. (We found it.) We tested out our new tent, our new air mattress, etc, etc. We found out that our lovely car, advertised as a sports utility type vehicle and one of the most popular vehicles in the northwest, barely fit all our camping gear. So what happens if we get a dog or if we want to take someone with us?! They have to sit on the roof, I'm afraid!

We experienced E's first cold too, right after the camping trip. We got to see firsthand what it was like to have a baby that woke up in the middle of the night. It's hard and I'm glad it's over.
She's still a little snotty, we call it, but thankfully, she's sleeping during the night. Naps are harder, she definitely doesn't want to be asleep. Too much fun stuff to learn about, I guess. At least at night, we go to sleep too, so it's not such a big deal. lol

Last weekend, we went out with a couple from our Peps group. It's a parenting group that we had joined when E was born. We did it for 12 weeks and then everyone fell off the face of the planet. Except the ones who are our neighbors, who we've seen once a week, whether they are just passing by on a walk or what. These people we actually made plans with and we all went on a hike! It was a really good time and M and I talked afterward about how much we like them and hope they liked us. It's like interviewing for friends or something. We wonder if they liked us as much and whether we'll get together again! lol Sounds like junior high, doesn't it?

One thing we've experienced since living in Seattle is that the majority of people are friendly on the surface but when you want to get to know them better, they definitely disappear. We've decided to make more of an effort to "put ourselves out there" because without family around, friends become really important. I would say 90 percent of the people we meet have family around or were from here, and they just don't have time to fit you in. That's just our observation. Believe me, I know we have a lot to do with it which is why we are going to work harder. But you can only ask so many times when people don't reciprocate. Eventually you give up.