Cooking dinner, chicken on the left, mac n cheese on the right. 

The finished product, buffalo chicken breasts and macaroni and cheese. Magdalena had sweet potatoes. 

Magdalena and I sat down for an intellectual conversation today. She thinks I'm quite witty. 

I'm Alive!

I know, I've been absent. So many things going on but I have no clue what! I'm generating a big big post in my head though.

Let's try this meme:

Think of pictures you’d like to see. Leave whatever you’d like to see in the comments. Things around my house, or whatever… something I can take a picture of easily. Once I have enough requests, I’ll start posting them. If I can’t, or won’t, take a picture of something you’ve requested, I’ll let you know.

Nestle Exposed

http://www.babymilkaction.org/press/press16oct04.html

As a side note, every time I hear or say the word nestle I'm reminded of the episode of friends where Phoebes great great grandma Nestle Tollhouse (with a french accent) hands down a recipe for the best cookies Monica has ever eaten. :)

Four little monkeys standing in a row... 

Kiss Me Kate

Magdalena gives kisses. I cash in on my chance to get all the kisses I need to keep going since I know there will come a day when she doesn't want to give me kisses. She leans in and tries to put both her lips to together and kisses you and then giggles. I love it. She doesn't slobber on you either which is always a bonus.

I'm currently working on setting up a new play area in the house. That is keeping me pretty busy around here. My house is essentially in two parts so I'm hoping to finish it late tonight or early tomorrow.

Magdalena is still sick and has a super clogged up nose. It's no fun I tell you . She freaks out when she is asleep and can't breathe. I can't blame her.

Tooth Fairy

As if being in Snotland this week wasn't enough, the Tooth Fairy visited us too. Magdalena now sports two upper teeth and two bottom teeth. They seem to come in pairs, which is nice, because for some reason odd numbers of teeth seem weird to me. :)

Snotland

We are in Snotland. Miss Magdalena has her first upper respiratory infection complete with fever. She went to bed last night fine, she seemed a bit stuffy, but I was thinking that she was allergic to the organic peaches that we gave her for lunch. She was up off and on last night and really just wanted to stay on the breast. At about 5 am she really freaked out, her nose was almost completely plugged. Both Erich and I got up with her and noted she was clammy and feverish. We gave her some tylenol, suctioned her nose (no she didn't like that) and went back to bed. (Actually Erich got up. He's been having problems sleeping through the night. He even got up at 3am the other day and stayed up! He'll sit up and say "I'm up for the day." The single phrase that I think annoys me the most.) Anyways, I made a mental note to call the doctor seeing that it is Friday and T has a snotty green nose too. (grr.) We had an appointment at 2:20 and I spent the morning wiping snotty noses, suctioning them, and being irritated that my poor baby was sick. (And my subconscious blames starting solids and T. My brain keeps saying, " She never got sick when she was EBF." And everytime I see T with a snotty nose it seriously makes me annoyed. Is it just me?) Anywho. She has an upper respiratory infection. I'm about to go pick up some abx and some dimetapp which will hopefully clear the snot so we can all sleep. Her fever is responding well to the motrin and tylenol I've given her.

She also had her blood drawn for a lead level. The renovation we did on the house when I was pregnant and since she was born makes Erich worry constantly. So they are doing the test a bit early. We actually had to go to the hospital since she was under 1 year and it was horrible. We did get all of it done and she seems fine now. T and M walked away with stuffed animals. M for being so brave and T for being such a good girl and sitting still and coloring with the crayons and coloring book they gave her. She also got a scooby doo sticker, I'm telling you that girl cleaned house. :)

The Poop Station

Heh. That title makes me laugh.

Julee and Manda asked me about my minishower. For Manda, you can find installation guidelines here. It was really easy to install, though I did have Erich do the installation. What's the point in having a husband if I have to do those sorts of things myself? :) I'm really loving the minishower though. It is working well and I think it was a good investment. Rinsing diapers off does remind me a lot of my work in nursing homes using hoppers, but the smell is definitely not as bad and there isn't AS MUCH of a mess to clean up, thank goodness.

I've set up what I fondly refer to as "the poop station." Our bathroom downstairs is near the the stairs leading to the laundry room. I chose to place the hopper in this bathroom as it is the nearest to the laundry room and we change most poopy diapers down here. And the occasional poopy diaper upstairs, can easily be transported downstairs. :) I bought a cheap stainless steel trashcan that has the foot push/lid open system to store the diapers in. I'm going to carry wet rinsed off diapers downstairs nightly to keep little kiddies out and such and so there won't be so many. The poop station seems to really be working well. Just rinse of the diapers and then drop in the can. Wash hands. Repeat. It makes me really happy, and I have to say that my life is REALLY sad when a poop station makes me happy.

This is what Magdalena thinks of oatmeal and breastmilk. She thinks it was a waste of breastmilk! 

Catching Up and Stinky Poop

I never told you about the trip to Kansas City. It went well. Magdalena did very well in the car for about 9 hours of the trip and the last hour she was miserable. I think that was great considering both Erich and I were miserable the last hour too. The trip back went the same way, first 9 okay, last hour awful. Erich spent a lot of time in the backseat with Magdalena because I get SO carsick and I still wasn't sure if dramamine was OK. We made it though. It was fun visiting with family. On our full day there we went to Independence Center and did some shopping. We got Magdalena's Halloween costume which I'll have her photographed in probably next week. She's going to be a lady bug. :) We also got her baptism gown, which is very very simple but absolutely gorgeous. Erich's aunt gave me a meat grinder so I'm anxious to take AB's advice and grind my own hamburger and sausage. :)

The festival went well and we are glad it was over. Good food was had by all, we visited with lots o friends, and at one point we had 8 babies in our house!

Last weekend we had T with us. Saturday I spent a long three hours running an IV over at my adult sitting job. Joy. It was really only supposed to take like 1.5 to 2 hours. I'll leave that alone so I don't get so worked up about it again. On Sunday we went to church and then up to my Mom's house. We also did some errands on the way back and hit up Wmart. We hate that place, though it seems we go there often.

I caught Magdalena's scrapbook up. I'm doing the layouts by month. The layouts are complete, I just need to add pictures. There a couple of special layouts like sitting up, teeth, crawling and first solid foods that I need to find something else for. I'll try to get the pictures printed up soon. I've also started albums over at Photobucket. Here is the link for my album, and if you'd like the password please leave your email addy in the comments. :) Sometime this week I'll be adding a permanent link on the website somewhere.

Today we are going to the triplets birthday party! Can you believe that they are already a year old? Remember this picture? I'll get a picture of the four of them today and post tomorrow.

I had my first encounter with Stinky Poop. SP showed up in Magdalena's diaper yesterday. Those darn organic bananas. I was very very very grateful that Mini Shower is in the mail. :)

ETA: MY MINISHOWER IS HERE! MY MINISHOWER IS HERE! I live a sad life when I'm excited over a minishower.

As the Princess of this dwelling, we will watch what I deem appropriate on TV. If you were wondering, this remote will also serve as my wand.  

Banana Fo Fana

True to my word, Magdalena started solids today. She had some organic bananas and loved them. I feel reassured in my decision to delay solids until 8 months. She didn't fuss and she knew what to do. After the first bite, I didn't have to hold her hand out of the way, she just opened wide. :) Daddy was here for her first meal and he fed her a bit too. (I also did this while T was at preschool so that it would be more of a family thing.)

Magdalena's first official taste of solid foods. Organic bananas, yum! 

My cousin Pete in Iraq. 

Iraq Soldier

I found out the other day that my cousin is in Iraq. I'm simply amazed. He has already been wounded twice and has gone back for a third time. It really surprised me because when my mom said "you remember your cousin Pete, right?" I expected her to finish the sentence with... he's in jail. But that didn't happen. I'm super super proud of him, but very very scared. Iraq has always been this scary thing to me, but it has seemed so abstract until now. Now it seems very very real and very close to home. I'll post a picture they sent us.

T-isms

First in a long series.

1) "I'm not a Queen because Queens have servants. God picks the servants to serve the Queen. They come from jail. So when ever the Queen wants something the servant has to get it. Whatever she wants, hot cocoa or some peaches, they have to get it. "

2) "...But the baby drinks from here *points to breast*. So you mean the baby is going to drink from your breast and eat some baby food too? I've never heard of that!"

3) "Did you know I'm smart? I'm smart because I know lots of stuff."

8 months

My baby girl is 8 months old today. **sniff** I can't believe that time has flown by so quickly. I weighed her the 0ther day at an appointment, and she weighs 16lbs 4 oz and is about 26 to 27 inches long (we think). She is still wearing 3-6 months but I'm transitioning a bit into 6-9 month clothes. Though the other day, I did put her in a 0-3 month outfit and it fit perfectly. heh.

She has been saying Mama and Dada. Usually says Dada when she's looking for him, and Mama when she is crying. I noticed yesterday that in chatter when talking to me she says Mama, which warms my little heart.

We'll officially start trying solid foods tomorrow. I had to work this morning and I wanted to do it late morning with Erich. So that adventure will unfold tomorrow, which will most likely bring with it some pictures and another entry.

She's hungry so I need to feed her now and enjoy her last day of being exclusively breastfed. **tear**

IOU

a real post. Yup Yup. But I'm tired to write one. I will tell you that I finished off two books in the last week and a half or so and they were grrreat. Midwives and Trans-sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian. I feel like I've rekindled my love for reading. It's so nice. :) Any suggestions for my next read?

You can do it...

after all you're just a stay at home mom. You have LOTS of time on your hands.

Obviously by the lack of posts, the above is certainly not true. And I swear if ONE more person says that to me, it's POW, right in the kisser.

Tooth Fairy

The tooth fairy has visited us yet again. Magdalenas top left tooth has popped through the gum. She's doing better than me as a child. In my baby book it says I got the two bottom teeth at 6 months and then didn't pop another tooth until 11 months. M's been knawing hardcore these days and last night she was a bit restless. Only one real crying episode at about 1am when she didn't want me to lay and nurse her, she wanted me to sit up in bed and nurse her. And she couldn't make up her mind about which side she wanted to nurse on, though she finally figured it out and promptly fell back asleep. It probably doesn't help that last weekend in Missouri and this weekend with the festival has completely disrupted her nap and bedtime routines and set them at weird wonky hours. So, I'm thinking that in the next few weeks I'll see the right upper tooth just like we saw the two bottom teeth sprout within weeks of each other, but we'll see.

Life can't be that bad when you see this everday, right? 

Preschool Update

So I confronted T's mom about the whole Preschool issues we discussed before and it blew up in my face. She doesn't feel she needs to pay and I feel taken advantage of. I also feel like I hurt a relationship and that is the last thing I wanted to do. I can't stand confrontation and it took a lot of balls for me to even bring it up, and it didn't do anything. I don't make 3.50/hour like most assumed, I make 1.75. And it is sucking hardcare right now.

Quickie

This will be fast. Since being home, I feel like my list of to do things gets longer and I never get anything done. I'm still feeling queasy, but somewhat better. The weird part of this flu is that I'm still very very hungry. Weird, eh? My trips to the bathroom are less but I still frequent that room often. It is really annoying though, considering my daughter doesn't want me to set her down after 6pm. Therefore I have to listen to her scream, or take her with me to the bathroom. And considering that it's the bathroom, I'm puking (gross!), and she is crawling at ever increasing speeds. Right, gross. The latter isn't generally an option. No Andrea I haven't taken a test. It would be nice because I'd like babies close together but I HATE taking tests. I took SO many prior to M that the entire experience puts me on edge. AND the darn fargin things are SO expensive. It's times like these that I am kicking myself for not ordering the batch of tests that are like a quarter a piece online. Maybe I should do that tomorrow (payday!)

Speaking of pay, my cousin rotates the old folks jobs with me. When she doesn't work at her real job, I take care of the couple. Well, she informed me yesterday that she was getting super tired, which means I could take over full time. While this prospect is delightful, because the money would be, well, it would be heaven, the idea is exhausting. I could pay up some bills and burn through my "I want" list pretty quickly though. We shall see.

The local fest is in town and it is already a madhouse. That is the one thing that I hate. Since we live a couple of blocks away from downtown, and the festival is located downtown, our street gets flooded. And half the streets downtown are blocked and the other half are filled with people making it a bit overwhelming and hard to navigate. I do look forward to it every year though.

M is working on a traditional crawl, but with each passing hour it seems she gets faster and faster at the entire army crawl thing that she just forgets about the traditional crawl idea. And now that she is more mobile than before, she wants to stand. The good part of her crawling is that if she is in the middle of the floor and decides she wants me and starts to cry, she also starts crawling towards me. Ya I know I'm lazy blah blah blah.

Speaking of her crawling, she has her first war wound, a splinter. I guess it only to be expected living in such a big, old house with lots of hardwood floors. She doesn't want to stay on the carpet, and I can see that the hardwood is more conducive to sliding your tiny body across. Erich and I are going to have to get down on our hands and knees and scuff across the floor and do a bit of refinishing I think. But I only noticed it this morning when she was nursing, so it must not have hurt that bad or something.

There are other amusing things about this crawling business. Ella, my younger dog, is sincerely freaked out that M can actually get to her now. Gracy, the older dog, lets her crawl towards her until she can touch her once, then politely gets up and leaves. And T, well, T is frustrated. At first she thought it was fun to throw an object out and watch M go for it. That was until she was told that it isn't nice to "tease" her with an object then move it right when she was getting to it and/or taking it away quickly. As I type this, they are on the floor playing. T gave Magdalena some blocks and took some for herself. This would be an ideal scenario, except that M doesn't want the blocks designated for her pleasure, she wants the blocks that T is playing with. Suddenly, I have a very idea of what it is like to be in the Bean household.

Okay so this wasn't such a quickie. But I'm leaving now to take the girls to get some lunch at the fest. I can smell the aromas now and they are quickly calling us.

On The Go

Wanna see a video clip of Magdalena crawling? Go here!

Edited: Can you tell me if that video clip is working for ya'll?

Welcome Home

We're back. There are piles of stuff to do around here, the local festival is rolling into town, and I'm sick. I was kinda sicky feeling over the weekend, but I contributed it to driving so much and not taking any dramamine. But I still feel sick. I've felt that way all day. I'm running to the batheroom a lot for all the various reasons you go to the batheroom including vomiting. Ick. My heads all dizzy feeling and I have a headache. And the last time I ever felt like this was when I was... no, I'm not going to say it. I don't think it could be. Could it? Nah. Ugh.

The trip went well, we had fun, it was to short, and Magdalena is glad to be home and crawling around. I'll go into more detail later.

SHE DID IT!

SHE CRAWLED! MAGDALENA CRAWLED! FORWARD!

She's been army crawling backwards for a while now. I kinda suspected that she could crawl forward by the progress she's made across rooms, but had never witnessed it. I just saw her do a half army crawl half traditional crawl about two feet forward to get to the entertainment center (she loves to play with the handles on the drawers). I watched a few more minutes and she rolls/crawls backwards and forwards to make her way to her destination. Who know I'd be so excited? :)

Not much to say today. Trying to get the house ready for our departure Saturday morning and trying not to forget anything. Do you see those teeth!?? :)

Home

I'm going to play around with my blog for the next few days. Hopefully I won't be pulled away while in the middle of something, but all you Moms know that that isn't always possible. I'm also toying with the possibility of moving my blog to my own server. What do you think? Would you follow me? I'm afraid that if I leave then nobody will come visit my new home (since I'm boring, remember?) Or, I guess I could look at it as people following me because they like me (they really do!). I don't know. I'm torn. Blogger and Blogspot hosting has been good to me. Tell me what you think!

Smorgasbord

In keeping with the theme of all these questions, I have another. At what age did you start your babe on solid food? Just curious. No fights. Good ole fashioned curiosity. :)

Kiss Kiss Darling

Magdalena has learned to kiss. She doesn't do it on command though. For a few weeks she has been smacking or popping her lips. Yesterday, she decided that she could purse her lips together and make the kiss sound. Sitting with her in her swing I got up next to her and "air kissed" several times. She kissed the air and burst out into fits of giggles.

A Vote

Let's take a vote, mmkay? Let's say you send your child to a sitter during the day. Now this sitter doesn't make very much an hour, you can cancel on her at any point during the day, you have her do crazy stupid stuff, and always have special instructions. Now, this sitter is taking your child to preschool three times a week. She has to drop the child off and pick her up. This entails loading her own child into a car, shuffling them both around and going to the school. At the school the sitter has to walk your child in the door, which means she has to take her child out of the car too. Remember that winter is approaching fast and that will start to be a royal PITA. So on to the question. Do you pay her $3.50 for the hours that the child is in preschool?

Leaving on a Jetplane

We are leaving this weekend to go visit Erichs family. So, all you experienced traveling Mama's, what am I going to forget? What won't I be able to live without for three days?

Where's Waldo?

Go here and tell me what is wrong with this picture. :)

I really like this picture.  

Woolies! 

Wooly Mammoth

I made a pair of wool longies! :) I have four more pairs to make but I'm so excited. So who wants a pair for Christmas? (Or halloween? heh.)

Welcome to the World

Lindsey Marie arrived! :)

Old McDonald's Farm

I need a chicken farm. I know, that sounds a bit crazy. T's diet is basically made up of two things: chicken and eggs. She LOVES boiled eggs without the yolk. I HATE boiled eggs, so it is especially tramautic for me to boil the darn things then peel them and dig out the yolk. Yuuuck. She also likes chicken nuggets. This girl gets lots of protein.

I'm thinking that a chicken farm might actually help save me money. Well, maybe it wouldn't, but it would be nice just to go outside and get the egg instead of having to go to the store. At the beginning of August, I had three dozen eggs in the fridge. T polished those off last week. This week, I bought a dozen eggs on Tuesday. She just finished them off today during lunch. Sheesh.

My BIL sells free range chicken eggs, but they live an hour and half away, and Erich says it isn't worth it to save 50 cents. heh. We could go visit my inlaws, but then I say that it isn't worth the 50 cents. :) We have another baptism class tomorrow morning in an area that has a farmers market. Hopefully I can pick up so eggs there. I've never been to a farmers market though, do they sell eggs?

New Baby?

Send good thoughts to Mimi, who is having her baby today! :)

Welcome Abby!

As you all know, T is the little girl I watch every day. She is, as we call, mother-smother. She bites down her teeth and says to Magdalena " You are so cute!" and you can tell she just wants to squeeze the life out of her. It has really been driving me batty because she gets in Magdalena's face, which doesn't please Magdalena. And she grabs at her hands and is constantly kissing her, which would be okay if she didn't always have a snotty gross nose. And she just started preschool this week, so I can only imagine the germs that will be entering my house. Ugh. So she now has her own baby. We named her Abby.

Abby is the perfect size for T. We put a size 0 kissaluv on her and T was very very very pleased. I also came up with two receiving blankets and an extra diaper. We put these into T's backpack and now Abby is ready for a day out.

T and I picked up some fabric today for a sling. It's strawberry shortcake and it took me all of 15 minutes to make. Unfortunately I couldn't make it until after T was gone. I'm sure that she will be super pleased in the morning. I stuck the sling in the "diaper bag" so you can see the fabric in the picture.

My Mom came over before work to see some pictures. She asked T, "where are the baby bottles for when Abby gets hungry?" I said, "we don't have any baby bottles." T responded by saying, " that's okay. **lifts up shirt** Abby can eat from here! **points to breast** " I tried my hardest not to laugh at her. It was just so funny! I'm so proud of her too. My Mom said, "but you don't have milk there" and T said "uh, huh. It's pretend anyways!" I explained to her that I have milk for Magdalena and she has milk for Abby, right? She seemed very satisfied with that. Luckily her Mom didn't yell at me. :)

I think it's great that T put the baby to her breast. I'm pretty sure that Magdalena would do that some day because she will witness me nursing other babies (hopefully) just as T has witnessed me nursing Magdalena. It was very cute.

So now T can smother Abby with her love and affection. :) In the car, T explained to me that Abby was a lot like Magdalena. They cry at the same time and sleep too. Abby also got sick in the car. I asked T if Abby was carsick. She responded, "no everytime we pass corn she pukes." Rachel would be glad to hear that Abby is apparently sensitive to corn. :) Unfortunately we live in Indiana and it is summer, so poor Abby is going to be quite sick for a while. :)

Abby and diaper bag 

Toyland

Since August began, I haven't been to Alicia's house. Now this is a big thing considering I'd previously been going at least weekly. We had fun. We ran errands and waxed our eyebrows. Waxing eyebrows is very barbaric, but very very worth it. I look like I have woman eyebrows again. Let's all say "Yay for womanly eyebrows!" I also gave myself (with Alicia's help) a malibu treatment and a deep conditioning. My hair is silky smooth and soft. Heck, if I get into the shower today I'll look like a super model. :)

Alicia had her old toys out while I was there. Now, I grew up in a duplex. We lived on one side and Alicia lived with her sister and dad on the other side. Her old toys are toys that I grew up playing with too. And since they were older, they were always very cool and had neater ideas than I could come up with. We had her cabbage patch kids out and Magdalena was very thrilled with one. When we went to pick up Caleb from school, Magdalena was playing with the CP in the carseat. When I peeked back at her, she had fallen asleep holding the CP hand. How cute is that? So, that's another reason to buy her her own cabbage patch kid. I could let her play with mine, but then what will I play with? I plan on making her a sling for christmas so she can carry her babies around in it. :) I should probaby make T a sling too, cause she put on my sling and said "look I could carry the baby!"

I convinced Alicia to let her CP kids take a swim in the washer, and they came out really clean. She was all freaked out thinking that their heads would be full of water. :)

Another big thing that happened yesterday is that Magdalena moved up to a big girl carseat. She outgrew the infant carrier length wise. She turned 7 months old on Saturday. My girl is growing up. **sniff** She weighs about 15lbs and is awesome. While at Alicias house, she sat up from a lying down position. In church on Sunday, she kept pulling herself up to a standing position on the back of the pew. She also has been rocking on all fours for 3 or 4 minutes at a time. She moves her legs, but can't figure out the balance of moving her hand forward. Eventually, she just lays down and rolls to the desired object. She gets around pretty well that way, and wouldn't be surprised if she just skipped the whole actual crawling stuff. She still scoots backwards pretty effectively. She's wearing 3-6 month clothes now and they fit her well, but she still has a lot of room left in them. :) She is still exclusivly breastfed and there aren't any plans in the near future to start the solids.

I have lots of plans today, but mainly we are all going to nap and take it easy. T was sick yesterday and M had crappy nap days both Sunday and Monday. And I'm super tired from our bike ride this morning. My concentration today will be on laundry and SLEEP! :)

I'm here!

I'm currently exhausted and trying to keep up with my family. I know I know, I say I'm always tired. I'll stop. No really, I will stop. Erich even commented on how boring my blog is, what can I say? I'm a boring person.

I'm working on a photo gallery thingy. I'm thinking I'm going to need more of Erich's help then I wanted to ask for. hrmph. It will be password protected, so when I get it done ya'll can let me know who wants to see my girly. I'll post occasional pictures here and there, but I'm thinking I should confine it to one space. I'd like to know who's going there to look around.

Magdalena is saying two words! :) The first one was, you guessed it, Dada. She says this with a very happy smile on her face when she sees a picture of him, or rolls over in bed and doesn't see him on his side. Dada! :)

Her second word is Mama. I had her on the floor the other day and when I came back in the room she was crying saying, "MaaaaMaaaa, MaaaaMaaaa, MaaaMaaa,MMMMM" It's happened on a couple more occasions so I'm saying it's official. The sucky part is she says it when she is sad, and Dada when she is happy. Boo. Be happy to see me too little girl! :)

Magdalena is getting to be such a big girl! (well not in size, but in personality!) Look at how her leg is in the picture! Just cracks me up. Oh, and I'm in the picture too, at least my shadow is! :)  

Long Time

It's been an incredibly long and busy week. Sorry for the lack of posts. The biggest news this last week is that Erich is finished with school! He got two A's in his last two courses and was already informed he had met all the requirements for graduation! :) They'll confirm all of the grades on Sept. 2 and order the diplomas. They are hoping the diplomas will be in by late October! Once they confirm grades, I'll probably have an open house bbq in honor of my graduate. :)

The second big thing is that I will be continuing my home care. I'm excited about this because it will bring about extra income that we so desperately need! I already have lots of things lined up to pay such as plates, car insurance, and such things. I also want some new size 2 kissaluvs (well I'll actually order from the outlet store) but I'm hoping to buy a couple dozen of those. Hopefully we'll have a nice christmas too.

I've been sunning my diapers that are really stained right out of the dryer. It's been nice to have them taken care of and it's amazing how quickly the stains dissappear. I've also stayed on top of all of the laundry which is so relieving.

I'm sorta staying on top of my house too. It's hard with everyone coming and going, but I feel like I am getting my act together again. We've been enjoying some fresh air outside and have had the window and door open practically all week. I'm loving not running the air conditioner, I can practically feel the money staying in my pocket! ha! We actually had to shut everything a couple times last week because we were cold!

It's so wild to be so chilly in August. I was thinking back to our wedding day (August 10, 2002). It was about a 100 degrees outside with a heat index of 110 degrees. I was thanking myself that we had found a church and decided against that wedding in the park. My legs were actually sweating underneath my wedding gown IN the air conditioning. I won't ever forget that.

I must go, the diva is calling. She's been incredibly clingy this past week or so. I think it is because she is so so so so so close to actually crawling on all fours. She does creep and army crawl backwards. I think she could physically crawl, it's really just about getting the confidence and the dance of it down. And she doesn't like staying on her tummy that long so usually just rolls on over to her back etc to get to her destination of choice.

Breastfeeding Terms

(From an email I received today.)

Definitions of breastfeeding terms:

Boob Lift - The unconscious lifting of one's breasts to check which isfuller. May be done at any time regardless of where you are or whomyou're talking to, grocery sackers and priests/rabbis notwithstanding.

Nursing Flip - The action of adjusting you and your baby to make readyfor nursing. This means moving your tee-shirt off your butt, doing the"boob-lift", putting the baby in the crook of your arm and unlatchingyour bra, all in about 15 seconds, with no attention taken away from yourprevious task.

Wet-Nurse Syndrome - The unconscious urge to nurse any fussy baby youhappen to be holding; you may be engaged in casual conversation whileholding your neighbor's baby, she fusses and you do the "nursing flip,"your neighbor looks at you shocked, "oh my, she must be hungry," youmumble as you pass her infant back. *A side-effect of this is the"breastmilk fixes everything" philosophy. Actually pumping your milk forthe stray kitten you found, under the rational that, of course, humanmilk is better than cow milk for a starving kitten. You may also findyourself using breastmilk for your family's various wounds: "Got a sore, earacheor zit? Put some breastmilk on it, that'll fix it.'' (least that's whatthey say, can't hurt)

Boobie Wrangling - The acrobatics your toddler does while nursing,including but not limited to flips, headstands, & taffy pulls, all whilesurrounded by relatives who believe that should have been weaned monthsago. The benefit of this exercise is that you can now nurse your childwhile each of you lie on your backs.

Twiddling - What happens if everyone fails to mention that your babycaressing your other breast while nursing is NOT sweet. Never, neverletyour baby know that you can possibly have two breasts at the same time.Always keep the unused breast covered, lest you want your littlenurslingto use it as her favorite toy. This becomes a habit quick, heed ourwarning.

The Steal - The act of removing your nipple from your already sleepingbaby's mouth so that you may roll over or sneak out of bed for somemidnight internet use. Typically takes 2 or 3 tries to succeed.

Just a Sip - When your now-walking baby comes to you, lifts your shirt,grabs a drink to refuel him/herself for 10 more minutes of play. Thisactof helping themselves is a show of independence for them, and a show ofbreast for everyone else in the room.

Car Surfing - What you are doing when you strategically hover yourbreastover the baby's car seat while daddy drives down the interstate,ignoringyour butt in the rearview mirror.

Ecstasy Eyes - Picture this: baby is screaming at your feet while youaretalking on the phone, cooking dinner, and getting a band-aid for yourtoddler. You finally sit and pick up the baby to nurse, and she goesfromscreaming wildly to rolling her eyes to the back of her head in ecstasyinonly a few seconds.

Kneading - The act of dang near maiming your breast tissue while youradorable (and sharp nailed) little one nurses. This can result in yourbreast looking like you've just nursed a kitten.

Con tu adios te llevas mi corazon

Today is my 2nd anniversary. I didn't know what life would be like when I approached that alter two years ago. I wondered where we would go together and what obstacles we would face. In that first year, we faced infertility. We worked together to make a baby who is the most beautiful child I have ever seen. During the second year, we celebrated being pregnant, rubbing my belly, and trying to foretell the furture. We welcomed our daughter into this world and rejoiced that we were so lucky. Saturday, we ate dinner as a family at the Cheesecake Factory and smiled at each other and all that we had accomplished. I didn't know how life would fold out when I stood at that alter two years ago, but I knew I'd be happy... and I was right.

My Favorite Picture 

Sitting Pretty 

Peek-A-Boo, I see you! 

Where's Magdalena? There she is! 

My Lovely Butterfly 

Snooze...

I'm exhausted. I officially have two jobs in addition to the whole Stay At Home Mom business. I went yesterday and today to take care of the couple and it's a lot of work. Nothing I can't handle, but with two kids I'm organized baby. And Alicia would be so proud of me, my laundry is all caught up, the dishes are all done, the LR is picked up, and I've vacuumed just about every day this week. Even got on the floor TWICE this week and vacuumed all the little nooks and cranies with the attachements.

I'm learning the art of traveling with a baby and a monster four year old. I have a bag packed with toys for her and for M, I have diapers, movies, food, sippy cup (for T), cup for me, purse and my sanity all packed in the trunk of the Vibe with the stroller. Taking the stroller in with me gives me a safe place to put M while I do things like shower old people and take them to the bathroom. Throw in a swim lesson for the day and I practically carry the house with me. We get back and everyone goes down for naps, except me. :( I start cleaning my house to make sure I don't get behind. I'm getting used to the schedule though, and I'm thinking that if the 30 day trial goes well and they stay in assisted living that I could probably do this two or three times a week. The $$$ I got today made me feel goooood. Gooood, I tell you.

Tomorrow is a very busy day. LLL meeting, quick run into Walmart for some cheap coke, swim lesson, quick naps, bath for M, and pictures for M. She is so freaking cute these days it makes me want to puke! :) I'm positive that this time around, the pictures are going to be fabulous with her two tooth grin and her little bottom sitting up all by herself. It makes me giddy how cute she's going to be. And Erich let me buy her an outfit over the weekend for pictures, a pair of overalls and a pink polo shirt onesie thing. I also have a sundress for an alternate outfit (must remember to iron that stuff TONIGHT) . I'll have to post a picture. Oh, and I know that I shouldn't be going to Walmart and drinking cheap Sams Choice coke. I know that caffeine is bad for you and it just keeps me fat. But dangit, I'm working 250 plus hours on top of my official job of SAHM. Don't I deserve a little addiction?

Breastfeed Baby!

Go check out these ads for breastfeeding. Some are pretty funny! :)

BABIES ARE BORN TO BE BREASTFED! WOOT! :)

Everybody Poops

As we were drying off after swim lessons today, some teenage girls swarmed around Magdalena (who was sitting in the stroller since I had to get in the pool.) Magdalena loves this since she loves "young" people and she loves attention. She is a diva, remember!? Here is the conversation that followed.

Girls: Oh she's so cute, even though I don't like babies. They poop to much.

Me: Well, she's a breastfed baby, so her poop doesn't stink. It makes it better.

Girls: REALLY? I'm breastfeeding ALL of my babies so their poop won't stink.

**grin** It warmed my heart. Now hopefully they'll remember that 10 years from now when they have babies.

Dreamland

I had a dream last night that as I was walking through a restaurant with Erich, we bumped in to Dani and Dawn. They were with their husbands and Erich stopped to talk to the men, because apparently he knew them. I said hello to the ladies and Dani looked at me as if I were an alien. I said, "I know we've never met in person, but I'm Suzanne from 'happily ever after'" She gave me this half smile like "thats great, but I don't really care." Erich finished his conversation and we moved on. I felt a bit stung. Then I woke up to nurse a baby.

Is this dream weird? Why on Earth did I dream this? The randomness of my dreams lately is really bugging me. I'm wondering if the entire universe is a bit mixed up in some way that my subconscious is responding to. Has anyone else had really weird dreams lately?

Can you see my teeth? 

This is fun! 

Weee! 

A rare occasion-- a picture in which I don't think I look half bad. Magdalena has a weird smile, but overall a cute picture. 

Is It Enough?

No matter how much I do in a day, I never seem to feel like I've done enough. I get the feeling that Erich feels the same way, but never says anything. I like to tell myself that it is all in my head, but it isn't helping.

And I'm tired. I'm more tired now then when I was pregnant. T is really really really wearing me out. Every task is a battle whether it's a meal, putting socks on, or going to the bathroom. She makes me want to stick my head in a pillow and scream. And even if you tell her not to do something, she does it anyways. I'll ask her, " why did you just do x when I told you not to?" Her response, "because I wanted to." AHHHH!

I start my new job next week. Erich is bugging me about going to Missouri to visit family. I don't think we have the cash to do it, nor do I feel like I have the energy to do it. He wants to ride with his brother and SIL. They don't have children. SIL doesn't seem to appreciate having children around. They want to go on Labor Day weekend and I'm not sure how they could deal with a 7 1/2 month old for 6-8 hours each way in a car. There is only so much car time she can handle. And they'd have to stop more than usual because they wouldn't be cool with me bf'ing in the car (and I don't think I'd be comfortable with them too) and she does eat an awful lot. I've postponed starting solids until 7 months and I'll re-evaluate then. So she eats a fair amount during the day. Do they realize what this entails?

Life can be so darn tiring.

Army Moves

While writing that entry, Magdalena army crawled backwards across the room.  Have I mentioned that I'm tired?

Filling In The Blanks

I'm exhausted.  This weekend was pretty good.  Magdalena and I went up to see Grammy (my mom)  and Grampy with Nana and Pa and enjoyed a steak dinner out.  Yum.    Erich went to his brothers house to help him do a landscaping job.  Instead of coming back with cash, he came back with gravel.  Nice gravel though that I think he'll be incorporating into the ongoing driveway project. 

Saturday evening we joined our friends at the driven.  We watched "the Bourne Supremacy" and " Spiderman 2."  Fun fun, though very very late.  We got home around 2am.  Luckily I had given the diva a bath prior to leaving.  She had also had some motrin because I assumed her teeth were bothering her (and she was running a fever of about a 100 or so).  I hate giving her something when I don't really know what is bothering her, but I tried nursing, patting, bouncing, swinging (outside which she loves) and nothing helped.  She even cried a bit in the bathtub which is so not like her.  She slept from about 8 till midnight then woke to nurse. 

Sunday I went to get groceries.  I stopped in at Bed Bath and Beyond and bought a stockpot! yay! I've wanted a stockpot for a while.  It's a small one, 8 quarts, but with the mail in rebate and coupon I had, it only cost me $5.  It's big enough though that I'm having a hard time finding a proper home in the kitchen for it.  I also made a trip to the evil store and Sams Club for some laundry stuff.  Magdalena and I were both exhausted from the numerous in and out of the car routines we had to perform.  We came home and chilled and watched the end of a movie with Erich.  A bit later, Erich and I took the exersaucer out onto the porch and he weed eated the yard while I mowed (we were both watching M).  We then took a gigantic walk on a perfect evening.  The temperatures have cooled off considerably and haven't really gone above 70 since Saturday.  So it was actually cold on our walk.  It was very odd. 

As of Monday, T is back with us fulltime.  Well, 200 plus hours a month.  It's exhausting.  She threw a huge fit in the middle of the library (complete with screaming) and screamed even more when I dragged her out of the library and ended our visit early.  I can not stand a 4 year old child screaming in the middle of a library.  We had a long talk about how you listen when adults ask you to do things and that it isn't appropriate to throw tantrums.  We also talked about how four year old girls getting ready to go to preschool in a few weeks shouldn't throw tantrums and that is unacceptable behaviour at school.  We were supposed to go to swimming lessons after that (they were cancelled because it wasn't 70 degrees outside) and that during swim lessons I didn't want to even see her hesitate when she was asked to do something.  She was perfectly behaved the rest of the day and even asked for seconds at lunch and asked me what kind of macaroni and cheese she was eating because it was deelicious.  She cracks me up.

I also baked some bread over the weekend, cut a cantaloupe, and made PB cookies. I really really need to make some tortillas.  I finished up all the corn tortillas I made last time by making tortilla chips.  I should make the flour tortillas tonight so we can have cheese quesadillas tomorrow for lunch. 

Yesterday I cleaned the LR from top to bottom and dusted lots of stuff that miss the usual go round.  I even climbed on a chair and dusted my fan!  I ran the vacuum, and I swear that there is enough hair in it to make another dog.  I'm seriously going to shave Gracy bald.  It will grow back, I promise.  She looks like an over loved teddy bear.  She really isn't into people lately.  As Erich said, she acts as if she is bitter and hates the world. 

As if I'm not doing enough around my house and watching T, I have a new part time job starting next week.  I'll be doing some adult sitting (with Magdalena and T) about 3 times a week from 7am to noon.  It's going to add about 45 to 50 hours a month to my work schedule and about 400 plus dollars to our income.  We really need this, but I can't figure out how I'm working about 100 hours more a month than when I had an actual job and making half the money.  It's depressing.  Alicia said I need to get super organized which is the polite way of saying that I need to get my act together.  I'm really going to have to focus and not lose track of my time or my house is going to slip more than I feel like it already is.   I thought I was supposed to be a SAHM? 

And here is my other dilemma.  I quit my job to stay home with Magdalena.  I'm worried that all this other activity is taking away from her.  So I need to be super focused on her and make sure she gets 150% of the attention that I wanted her to have so I don't feel like I'm working myself to death and not giving her what she needs. 

So beginning next week I'll be taking care of 5 other people on an almost daily basis.  I'll be working 250 hours or so "outside" my home and have to keep my home together and keep my sanity.  I'm thinking blogging may be a bit crazy while I get into the swing of things. 

Tooth Fairy

You know how I've been telling you that Magdalena has some teeth and haven't really given you proof?  Well, it's been really hard to get her to let us stick a camera in her mouth, but I present for your viewing pleasure, a picture of her teeth.

Magdalena and Daddy play with the gloworm before Daddy leaves for work.  

Magdalena and Daddy