We did it. Last night, I decided that we needed to go and buy the sofa. The price wasn't gonna get any better and realistically we already lost our chance at getting the best deal because the salesperson was a total n00b and didn't tell us at the time that the price of the sofa we wanted would never go on sale -- except for the employee discount days. The last time we were there (when we learned this) we were also told that the despite the rough economy the prices were going to up starting in May. I was nervous, so off we went.

Imagine our horror when we walked up to the couch, prepared to pay the 2K only to see that prices had already gone up ... wait for it....$500! We both stood there, speechless. Morella whimpered and Tim said "Well, we fucked up. We might as well go to Slumberland and get more couch for the same price." He picked up Morella and started to leave. I remained fixed to my spot, deep in thought. "What are you gonna do?" he asked. "I am going to plead my case," I said, and set off towards the belly of the beast while he stayed behind.

I went and found myself a nice middle aged lady and well, long story short -- I got my couch at the original price. Thank god! She was super nice about it and felt sorry for us and all the misinformation we got from previous salespeople. We ordered this couch in Olive green, with orange throw pillows and merlot feet. She said that this company is great about delivering fast and that instead of the 8-10 weeks that they have to tell us for estimated delivery time that it will actually be more like 4-6 weeks. So my friends, in a month and half we will finally have the couch of our dreams. It will make the living room like 87% more baby friendly, and there will finally be enough room for me, Tim, baby, the cats AND the dog to all lounge in perfect ease. The bonus is that the futon is going to the office where we will get rid of the L desk that we have had for 10 years. Not only will Pluto be able to sit by Tim when he's in there playing video games or reading political or economic blogs but he can do so in absolute comfort. It's like his dream come true! Another great thing about that is that the office will now be able to double as a guest room. :D I can't wait! A real couch! And yes, we did get the stain guard protection because well, we have a baby and a dog. The nice thing I hear about microfiber is that that cats can't rip it up either. Awesome!


On an unrelated note, I had to order more Simply Thick for Morella's bottles and this time instead of getting the individual packets of goo, I got the bulk bottle with pump dispenser. Now instead of spending 41 cents per bottle we spend 30 cents. That makes it a little easier on the old pocket book when she doesn't want to finish a whole bottle in a sitting or will only do 3 ounces...hm. I just hope that it gets us through to the next testing date...which it should...

What am I still doing up? She has been a super crappy napper the last couple of days and no longer gives me a nice long nap in the morning. Instead now I get an hour...and then it's up and at 'em!

Lastly, being down to 4 pumps doesn't necessarily mean I have a lot of extra time. Each pumping session now has to be 30 minutes...so that is still 2 hours. I might have shaved an extra 15 minutes off tops.

Ever since I had Morella I have the most vivid dreams. Last week, I dreamed about an Earl Grey Tea Cake, and upon waking I thought 'I must make this cake!' I looked it up on Friday and sure enough such a thing exists. I went out and bought the ingredients and then today made it. It's a rich chocolate with orange earl grey cake that we cannot possibly eat by ourselves if we know what's good for us. So I thought, if I make it on Sunday then I can bring some over to my friends Lowen and Jason who are closing on a house in our neck of the woods tomorrow. I am also planning on bringing some to Laima and Hilary but Laima has been MIA online this week so I wonder if she is even in town.

Anyway. The cake is now cooling while I finish pumping. I have yet to make the chocolate icing for it and then I can go to bed. I am SO looking forward to having a taste of this dream cake.

Speaking of dreams, I had the "uh oh, I left Morella home alone" dream again this morning but with a twist. I had finally got the guts to go one of those Mom groups and was in the bathroom desperately trying to relate to them and said "Don't you hate it when you suddenly realize that you have left your baby home alone?"

The women looked at me like I was crazy and filed out of the room without a word. At first I thought "Gah, it's not like anyone actually does that...it only happens in dreams." Then I realized...I had left Morella home alone! I rushed out of the school where the meeting was taking place and started to run for home to get her, except of course I got lost and then woke up.

I suppose this is the updated version of the "Oh crap, I registered for a class and never went to it and now I have to take the final exam!" dream. Still, I can't help but to wonder if I am secretly afraid that I will forget her to do something terribly reckless and dumb. Maybe they are cautionary dreams to keep me on my toes.

***

I am super happy to report that I have successfully transitioned to four pumps a day without losing any production. I now pump at 6:00, 12:00, 5:00 and 10:00. I can now get to bed at a decent hour, not have to stress in the morning about pumping, and I can get the early evening pump out of the way before the hectic dinner time rolls around. I can't believe how much easier it is now. It boggles my mind to think that I went through the first mandatory three month 10 pumps a day business...how did I get anything done? Oh wait, I didn't. :P

***

Morella went to the dog park for the first time today. It was Pluto's second time this year and our friends Sigrid and Matt's dog - Morbo's first time. I think we are going to do a standing arrangement where if we have no plans then it's Sunday dog park time where we meet up and do a few laps with the dogs. They love it and it's good exercise. I noticed that my back didn't hurt carrying Morella after the first lap. The most annoying aspect of it was that she kept loosing a sock. Thank goodness Matt retrieved them for her!

***

Morella spoke her first words today! It was .... wait for it.... da da da da da da da da da ...followed by na na na na ...da da da...ba ba ba ba...and the occasional ya ya ya. Our little girl is doing some real, honest to goodness babble! I have been giving Tim a hard time all day about her only wanting Da da. Ha ha ha. Really though, she's a chatter box.

***

Last Morella tidbit, I swear. Tim and I both noticed that her thighs had gotten 'chunky' overnight. You know, as chunky as our lean bean ever gets. Whenever her thighs get a little chunky it's only a week or two before we notice they are chickeny again and her clothes no longer fit.

***

Okay time to go ice that cake, make some bottles and get myself to bed. My big goal this week is to write a short story for my writing group. The theme this month is: Why do crows hassle hawks?

It's been awhile since I have dusted off the old creative writing hat. We had a bit of a hiatus because three of the members (myself included) all had babies this past year.

Friday Photos: 4th Week of April

Today was a busy day and Morella has been shifting her nap schedule so I didn't have much time to post today. I did however, make sure to take photos and I was able to at least edit them so I could upload them tonight so that it's still technically Friday. This evening we all went to Glass Nickel to meet up and have dinner with Oliver and his friend who is moving to Poland in three weehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif
Add Imageks. She was great the whole dinner and I stuffed myself on pizza to the point of feeling sort of eh for most of the rest of the evening. I'm feeling much better now! She ended up staying to the limit of her bedtime which is 9:00 and when I put her down she feel right asleep without a peep. She was 100% minutes before that. I can't believe how much energy she has, she is constantly on the go.

I have a lot of photos for today. Let's start with the pictures I have been collecting over the week for Part 1, and then for Part II it's more like Day in the Life.

Part I



Monday SUCH a beautiful day, the first of many and I woke up feeling inspired and like I had to do something noteworthy. On a whim, I decided to call my coworker Janet and see if she wanted company on her lunchtime walk. As luck would have she and my other other old coworkers were all in the office that day! It was really cool to go back and visit for them, I can't believe it's been almost six months since I have been there. Of course I did work there for three year and if Morella hadn't had come along would probably still be there. It's also strange how I don't have time to miss it.





Here she is on Wednesday enjoying some "laying on magazine because it crinkles" time. She has this goofy face that I just had to capture. Sure she isn't 100% typically cute, but I like that she has such different looks to her. I want to capture every single one!



Tim needed a little help reading and sorting through all those political blogs he has been reading. It's good thing he got a little perspective on his side assisting him.

Part II:




The thunderstorms rolled in last night around 2:30AM. Tim woke me up with wide eyes and said "That was close!" It took me several seconds before I realized what he was talking about and that a raging thunderstorm had reached our fair city. I quickly looked over to check on Morella to make sure she was still sleeping. She laid there peacefully unaware of the excitement outside the window. Assured that she was okay I quickly feel back asleep. The thunderstorms continued on and off all day.



The rain was so heavy at time the gutter couldn't take it and would just pour water everywhere. Our basement is also not handling this well and is seeping like an infected wound. We really need to get the side of the house regraded this year. Really. The dehumidifier is working overtime.



The first of several bright spots in this day was a parcel! I was pumping when the mailman arrived and fussed out of sight with the mailbox for a few minutes. I couldn't do anything until I was done pumping and even then Morella had just woken up so I had to get her. It was after she had her lunch bottle that I was finally able to check the mail and found a box perched on top of our mailbox. Inside was this treasure. Thanks Sarah! I really enjoyed reading the letter later when Morella FINALLY took another mini-snooze (again, just enough time for me to pump and do nothing much else).

But the rain stopped for awhile. I debated...should I go for a walk or go and visit Hilary? I decided a visit was in order.



Here is Morella's BFF just up from a nap. He wasn't too happy to see me upon waking, but Morella's charms worked their magic to at least make him stop crying. He's such a shy, sensitive type. Perfect to offset Morella. :D



Here is the resident Baby Whisperer. She has a real knack for making Morella smile, and we played a game of "Get her!" in which Morella creeps behind someone and then laughs uncontrollably when the person turns around quickly to look at her.



They both had some tummy time, and I took this opportunity to flip Morella so I could take a picture of her in her French Onsie. The size is six months and the arms a bit long but the rest of it fits perfectly! I have realized that I am going to need to buy some onsie extenders. Morella is long and outgrowing the current ones but at the same time the next size up are too big on top. Extenders should solve this problem beautifully. I can't believe she is on the end of the 3-6 month clothing now, and actually able to start wearing the 6 month stuff. I guess, she is five months now...and her head did seem to get pretty big all of a sudden.



Here she is in the full outfit. I just realized last week that sleepers are pajamas! I guess I just thought they were baby outfits. We were putting Morella in sleep sacks with just a onsie because I thought those were jammies. Now that I know these sleepers are more ... uh jamming and lounge wear, I have made a concentrated effort to dress Morella up in proper clothes after getting up for the day, and especially when we leave the house.



Here I think she looks like the classic picture of a baby. Look at the size of that head! Tell me it hasn't grown to gigantic proportions overnight.





I thought it would be fun to try and imitate the babies face...I got Hilary to join in the fun. The result are hilarious pictures if you ask me.



After the play date and on the way home I was hoping that a bit of an extended car ride would put Morella to sleep. She really, really needed a nap. The thing is Hilary only lives about a 7 minute drive away from me, which isn't quite enough time to put her to sleep. So, since it's Friday, I decided to give myself a little treat. I took this picture while I was waiting for my order.



Ahh, here it is now!



What else? Cheese curds!! The battered kind, not the stupid breaded kind. Aww hot, cheesy goodness. You know it's spring and summer when it's curd time.



I was in luck today. I got back in time to see that Voyager was two episodes that where new to me! I was pretty happy to see that, and standing in front of the living room window looking out and holding a cranky baby is easy to do when you can listen/watch a new show.



We were doing just this, when Phil stopped by to say hello. I think it was to say hello, because honestly now that I think about it I was a bit distracted by listening to the TV. Hm. In any case, I mentioned that we might stop by this weekend for a visit. I guess we'll see how it goes. So far we have no plans for the weekend.

Whoa, I only have seven minutes left to post before I miss my deadline!

This was ONE heck of a mega post!! I hope you enjoyed it.

On Borrowed Time

Baby is still napping but since she has been napping for an hour and half I don't think it will last much longer.

Yesterday while I was holding her after a feeding I had the foresight to jot down a few things I wanted to blog about. Okay, here we go!

• Babies are like burrs. They sort of stick out their hands and grab onto anything that is withing range.
  
• We walked to the library and Walgreens yesterday after the morning rain. Morella was asleep by the time we got to the library so I was able to peruse in peace. I got three books and two CD and when I checked out the stern librarian asked me if I wanted to renew a book. "But I returned that!" I protested.

Do you want me to go and check?" she asked.
"Yes," I said, quite certain I had returned it. A few minutes pass and she came around the corner shaking her head.
"Well, I guess I could look around when I get home," I offered. "Uh could you renew it just in case?"
"Yes," she said "And you won't get charged anymore if you are late," and handed me my books back while pointing out the name of the book was on my book receipt.

Of course when I got home I DID find it buried under some clothes on top of Pluto's crate. Whoops! Hilary told me later that they don't charge fees for children's books. Boy I hope that is the case. Maybe that is why she didn't want me to fork over some money when I was checking my books out.

• The last couple of days, in the afternoon and evening when Morella eats she will eat a little bit and then pull away and cry, eat a little bit more and then pull away and cry -- repeat. Hilary thinks it might be a teething thing since Cullen is doing the same thing, I guess I was chalking it up to reflux flare up. In any case, I hope it goes away soon. I don't like seeing her cry like that.
• I had a Diet Coke Plus with vitamins and minerals. It was OK.
• I bought some Zout stain removal/pretreater for Morella's clothes because my own idea of pretreating them with a concentrated laundry detergent spray didn't work. A lot of folks recommended Shout..and one person said Zout (which I thought was a misspelling at first). Why didn't I buy the Shout? Because the Zout was one dollar MORE expensive and listed three stain fighting actions on the cover and sometimes I am a sucker for "Hey if it's more expensive and it has all that stuff listed on the front then it must be better!" I bet the next time I get a stain pretreater then I'll get Shout -- you know so I can compare.
  
• I also got some new dish soap and am looking forward to using it. It's Honeysuckle and rain scented.

Okay, so that was yesterday. Today I have added these things:

• Morella was fussy after her second breakfast, so I thought I would try the idea of putting her in the exersaucer while I took a shower. I dragged the plastic beast to the door and plopped her inside while I turned on the water. "Ahh this will be soothing for her!" I thought, as I got some towels and some clothes to wear. When I looked at her again after a minute she was looking up at me with red rimmed eyes (like a raccoon) and a trembling lower lip. I guess it wasn't soothing at all! I picked her up and held her while figuring out what I was going to do. She started to mash her face against my chest and I decided I would just lay her down for a minute while I took a shower. She seemed like she needed a nap, and I would take a quick 5 minute shower. By the time I was done, she was sound asleep and has been since then -- it's now two hours!
  
• I brought up some summer clothes from the basement and it's like I went shopping! Look at all these clothing options! I forgot about most of these clothes. Tim thinks that we should have a garage sale this year...I said okay but now that I am thinking about it, I think it's Laima's turn to have a garage sale and I get to bring stuff over. Right Liama? Wasn't this the deal?
• Or maybe we should get Hilary to have the sale..
• Morella is FIVE MONTHS old today!
  
• I have been pumping for FIVE MONTHS! I deserve a medal or something.
  

This weekend was pretty good. On Saturday it was supposed to rain, but it didn't. It was just cloudy. So I took the opportunity to go for a long walk with Morella and Pluto and ended up over at Amy's house where we sat on her porch, drank a coke and visited. She game a box of Candy Cane Lane tea which is only sold at Christmas time and we LOVE that tea, a lamb burb cloth, and a lovely little girlie journal that I am going to use to record Morella's nap and eating times. Yes I still keep track of that. It just helps me to know how much she had in one day so I don't overreact when I think she is having a low eating day. Plus it helps remind me when she got up and how long the naps are so I can see trends and what not. I might like keeping track of this stuff a little too much, I was even starting to think of graphs to see over all trends...but I might hold off on that. ;)

After the walk we went to a shot clinic for greyhounds at our Vet. They had cookies and minicupcakes and some soda...all of which I had too many of. Gah, never go to these things hungry! We ran into some other greyhound people that we know, one of which is a new Mom that had her baby in the beginning of January. She mentioned that she is going to be a SAHM starting in 7 weeks because the school she works for declined her idea of jobsharing with another teacher. I offered to be an activity partner for them when summer comes. It would be nice to have another Mom to go out and explore all the child friendly activities that Madison has to offer. I am really lucky to have my friend Hilary but, you know, she has two other kids and busy schedule. Besides I don't want to appear desperate...

I forgot to mention that on Thursday or Wednesday night I went to see the Manheim Steamrollers at the Overture Center with Laima, Ryan and Birke. It was great! It was so nice to get out midweek and listen some new agey music. I got a slice of weird crab rangoon pizza at Ian's afterward, and while it seemed like a good idea at the time...crab pizza isn't that good.

Saturday night ended with Tim and I playing Halo 3 online just doing the campaign story and I got some points which was later noticed by my older brother when he got online. I guess it's something to work towards. I haven't played video games in awhile.

Today was sunny and 70 and wonderful! I suggested that we walk to Woodman's to pick up a few items so I could try to work on cooking more than one meal at a time so that we have more fast and ready meals later in the week or even the next day when I can't think of anything to eat. On Saturday night I made meatloaf and bangers and mash. The meatloaf we ate today with a fruit salad, couscous, and steamed asparagus with Tim's parents who came in town to visit with Morella while we took Pluto to the dog park.

I also got some Goo Gone that came highly recommended as a way to take the gunk off the tile floor from me using double sided tape to hold down the front entry rug. I also found some rug/carpet tape that I am going to try. I look forward to trying them both out tomorrow. But I also have to pay bills. They got away from me this month...and I hate it when that happens. I won't be late on anything but it will be cutting it close on somethings. I am getting more and more to the point where I think about doing online payments to get it out of the way and so I won't be late. Online payments like automatically pay things. I already do that for the car and for our savings every month.

We booked our tickets for our big vacation down South this summer. The difference between looking at the prices last month to this month is a hundred dollars! We were afraid to wait and longer to see how much more they would go up. So we are locked in. Tim's parents already have enough frozen milk for Morella to last a week, so that is taken care of. It's going to be hard to be away from my sweet little girl for a week, but in the end it will be good for all of us.

Oh Morella. I love her. I feel like I am living a dream come true having her in my life. She hasn't been that great of a laugher, but on Saturday it was like a dam broke loose and suddenly she was a giggle queen! She was cracking up over almost everything but especially over an empty shampoo bottle in the bathroom that I was going to recycle. She loves to knock it over and just laugh. I was laughing so hard with her that my face hurt. She had been eating and sleeping a lot, now I know where that energy went -- into developing a sense of humor.

I look forward to seeing what tomorrow holds with her and so, I will go to bed now so I am awake enough to enjoy every minute of it.

Morella and Cullen Hold hands...aww!



See plenty more pictures over at Hilary's website.

Friday Photos: 3rd Week of April


Here is Morella getting settled down for nap after going to the Open House play date at Hilary's. She is combo sucking her fist and tongue, as her self soothing techniques. I forgot to bring my camera to that, but Hilary got some great photos of Cullen and Morella playing together and holding hands!


"Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest..."


Look at this old disgusting stove. The back left burner hardly worked, the oven door didn't close all the way, it had years and accumulated grease merged in with the face plate to the oven controls, and just look at it! It's totally ugly!



Here is the new and improved stove! Notice the sleek design, the smooth edges -- the cutting edge on stove fashions everywhere, complete with working features in every aspect! **


Morella's eating sweet potatoes.


Of course she had to help me along the way. She totally prefers sweet potatoes to sweet peas any day. I have yet to see how this all washes out of her clothes. I have been pre-treating them with some concentrated detergent/water spray that I made, I wonder if that will work.


In a rare moment, Arkham and Pluto were THIS close to each other. It was made possible because Pluto was getting pets and attention from Jen and Arkham was howling at me to feed him.

**Yes, I realize the stoves look almost exactly the same. We didn't want one of those ceramic flat top ones, and since the world of stoves has gone in that direction this was pretty much our only choice, plus we wanted it in bisque which narrowed our selections even further. Really though, we just wanted a stove that works, and it was a double bonus that the price was right too. Now a couch on the other hand...that has to be awesome.

Whew! First off, another new to me Voyager episode. Cool. Plus baby is still taking a nap from her busy so far day, so I can have a few minutes to post.

This weekend was busy! Friday Morella and I went to the Mall for the first time. Then Saturday we had a visitor! Jen stopped by in the evening and met Morella. We had some homemade cherry coffee cake and she watched without batting an eye when Morella threw a fit about going to bed. Boy was she mad! She would howl in the room for her 10 minutes and then when we would bring her out she'd blink a few times, eyes rimmed with red and then look at Jen and bust out a big ol' raspberry and smile. Eventually she did go to sleep and we were left with what to do with the evening. Suddenly we has the last minute idea to go to the Inferno!

I haven't been there in ages. I only went once last year for one day of Reverence and before that it was the previous year before New Year's. Jen hadn't planned on going so we needed to go shopping to find something for her to wear. It was glorious to wander around Target and Kohl's looking at clothes, drinking a half caf and overall take my time just perusing. Ultimately I didn't find anything I liked clothes wise and almost walked out empty handed but then remembered -- underwear. Friends, I discovered last year when I was looking for a new bra to wear during the pregnancy that there are modern day girdles! I stood in the aisle of JC Penny at the time and lifted my jaw off the ground in fascination and excitement. No more big old lady panties hiked up to chin in order to smooth out the bulges, I could just slip on one of these little beauties and enjoy looking 15 pounds slimmer without all the discomfort and constant adjusting. Now was my chance to finally make a dream come true!

I splurged and bought two pieces. One is a slimming tank with built in bra that is perfect for controlling the back fat. The other is a classic girdle that slims and holds from the top of my hips to my rib cage letting me wear my own underwear (which is totally worth it for the sake of using the John). I thought it was funny later on at the club because several of the women there were wearing corsets on the outside. Ahh, it's it great getting old? Those young whippersnappers with their underoos out for the whole world to see and then there is me preferring to look thinner without having the whole world see how it's done. ;) Now the hard part is going to be resisting the temptation to find reasons to wear either of them on a daily basis.

I ended up staying until bar time and gave Jen and her husband a ride back to the their hotel afterwards. They stayed at the Holiday Inn over by the clinic I take Morella and so I decided to be brave and take the fast way home since it was 2.45 in the morning. It didn't turn out quite the way I thought it would, I did find my way home and I was struck by what a lonely sensation it was to drive in a car out in the middle of night by myself. Anyway, Tim told me the next day that I was on the right track except I should have turned towards the Rockford exit on to the interenstate or whatever. At the time I thought "I don't want to go to Rockford." Tim later said "It's not a wormhole Laura. It doesn't take you right there."

Ha ha whoops.

Sunday was rough because I didn't get enough sleep and was just overtired. When I don't have enough sleep I get cranky and irritable. We decided to go and buy a stove and then do some more couch shopping. At the end of the day we got the stove but no couch, at least not yet. We decided to employ the haggling tactics of a master -- Laima before moving ahead with anything. That evening I took a nap, and woke up to hearing Tim visit in the living room with Christian who is in town looking for apartments because he and the lady friend are moving back come this fall! Cool. That two hour nap I took was heavenly! I felt SO much better and was able to function completely again. It really puts into question how much I really want to have late nights while I am still pumping.

Monday, my friend Lowen came over and met Morella for the first time. She brought her an adorable plush froggie that Morella buried her head in right away. It's super soft and and cuddely! After Morella got up from her nap and had something to eat we headed over to Java Cat for some grown up lunch. I had never had lunch there and was surprised by how reasonably priced their lunch special was! It sure beats the pants off Cool Beans. Morella had a great time and was good for most of the time we were there. She got a little cranky an hour and half later but I think that was because she needed a diaper change. But we were done by then anyway.

Today, I needed to go the post office to send a package to my friend who is having a baby next month. It was a rather large box so I was really torn about how I was going to do this. If I wait until Tim got home and drove there I risked not having it done because I was lazy. There was no way I could have carried the box and the baby carrier. What I ended up doing was wearing Morella in the infantino carrier (cooler temperature wise and it sort of has a wind block than the moby) and then carried the box in. Man was it packed there! I had completely forgotten that it was tax day and that that many people really did wait until the last minute. Morella charmed everyone though with her bright open eyes and smile. She was just drinking it all in. A woman with a baby was behind me and I peeked over to see what looked like a premie. I mean this babies face was skeletal! I asked her how much he weighed at birth and she said 8 pounds 6 ounces...I was shocked! Morella never looked that corpse like...and the kicker was this baby was two months old! Maybe I've already forgotten how small 8 week old babies are. I mean Morella seemed huge to me after that.

After we left the post office I popped over to Woodman's to do some grocery shopping. I put Morella in the carrier again and wore her as we did our shopping. I can't tell you how many people stopped to smile or say hello to Morella while we were shopping. She talked a few times and overall was much better behaved than just being in the car seat carrier. When I was done she was clearly tired though. I checked out, pampered myself with two magazines and got drive up. We came home I gave her a bottle that she sucked down and put her in the bedroom for a nap. She cried for about 5 - 7 minutes and then crashed.

Oh I forgot the most important part about today! We got our new stove! It's installed and beautiful. I can't wait to try it out. I even bought a chicken today so I could roast it...but I forgot that Tim had dinner plans with Christian today so I guess it will have to wait until tomorrow. When the took the old stove out to the truck the dude has pulled the door and it came right off. He told the woman help that and she said "Yeah that was one of their complaints." You see, now we have a stove with a door that closes! There have been several close calls where I almost got burned just by getting to close to the oven when it was on.

Uh. This is pretty long and not very witty. I had envisioned several bits of this post over the past few days and crafted much funnier versions in my head. Too bad I waited too long to write it down, because now it's one long blah blah blah.

Friday Photos

Not much to offer this time around, this is what I could scrounge up off the camera. We had a great day today! We took our first trip to the Mall and Morella loved it. I ended up getting sensible, durable and comfortable shoes ordered and will pick them up next week. No more Target or cheap shoes for me, they never work out. There sure are a lot of Mom's and babies at the mall....I have to admit though I had fun talking to one other Mom in the shoe store. There were also a lot of Mom and their Mom's walking around with baby. For awhile there I felt sort of out of place, but then I got over it.

Today I am full of love for this little girl. She makes me so happy.


We returned the swing that only two months ago we wondered how we would live without. Tim is happy she is outgrowing this stuff and growing up and so am I, yet at the same time there is a teeny bit of *sniff* my girl is getting so big. :)


I vow to NEVER make fried breaded fish again. It always ends up like this.


This is what she looked like right before she tried her first food.


I had her practice with a spoon for about a week before we started her. I read it in a book somewhere, it seemed to work. Or maybe she was just ready.



Saucy!


In a bit of a food coma, about 20 minutes ago. She is wearing skull and cross bones pirate socks! I couldn't get a clear picture though so I settled for this before my memory card was full.

Update: We saw a prime opening for Morella to eat tonight and we snatched it. Her first food ended up being squash! She ate it like a pro with no gag reflex and obvious interest. She really was ready for solids! It occurs to me that I might not have a picture because I recorded it on my camera. So I do have a probably incredibly boring first eating video I could upload. Who wants to see that though?

I also vow to never try and make breaded fried fish again. It always ends up a soggy mess. So we had a salad too and right now I am hungry again, even after eating a piece of fry bread. I should go and drink more water, try to forget about it and go to bed after I make Morella's morning bottle and wash stuff.

I am trying to go through and use bath stuff so tonight I took a bath with sea salt that I got from Jen last year or even two years ago, with the rest of the lavender shower gel I got from Kate and Eric for my birthday. It was VERY nice, though I wish I had made the bath hotter. Ahh well. I washed my hair with Morella's Burt Bee Shampoo bar because I wanted to see what will happen.

It's a very wet blustery day today. I am still in my pajamas, wearing glasses and my hair has not seen a brush. I could also probably use a face wash. Morella has changed the morning schedule in that she gets up at 6:00AM goes to sleep at like 7:00 and gets up again at 9:00 and then goes down again an hour or two later and ... repeat. I made her take a longer nap midafternoon in part because I needed a nap too. She got up after a 1/2 an hour but since I didn't get her up and she wasn't crying a lot she ended up going back down for another hour and a half. That was nice, though I had some nightmares because it was uneven napping.

The one big theme of the nightmares is that I am doing something (today it was attending a party across the street) and I realize that she is left alone in the house. I rush back to her thinking "How could I have possibly thought it was okay to leave her alone?!" A few other times it's has been me going to work, or running an errand. Each time I realize that she is alone I get this sense of dread. I wonder what it all means?

The second part of the nightmare was about a cat. I had just returned to Morella after leaving her and was holding her when we noticed a cat a the front door. Our hippie neighbor's used to have this black and white cat named Oliver. Well in the dream, this cat was Schnookie - a long haired white tabby that a roommate had back in college, but in the dream I associated it as Oliver. It came to the front door and wanted to be let in. I knew that the hippie neighbor's had moved a year ago so it sort of felt like Pet Cemetery. I quickly closed the door and held Morella tighter as this cat looked for a way inside and woke up just as it had went under the floor boards.

Yikes!

I do not know what is for dinner tonight. Last night Tim made Indian food, the night before we had fry bread tacos, the day before that it was stuffed sausage, and the day before that was Monday...and no wait it was Sunday. I don't remember ... I think we might have just scavenged. I still think that one of the hardest parts about being a SAHM or housewife is constantly thinking of what is for dinner. Sure I could do menus and in fact, have done that in the past but that takes a lot of sitting down to plan it and that is time that I just don't have, nor do I have the gump to do it because it still comes back to -- what's for dinner. A few times I have taken to looking up school or old folks centers to see what their menu items are just to get ideas. I would do that again tonight but for some reason finding a good online menu directory is hard.

Tim is home. He is reading. He has been getting into these reading phases where is more impossible to talk to him than when he is watching TV -- which we don't do a lot of anymore because of Morella. We usually turn it on after she is going to bed or try to situate it so that she isn't watching it. Yes, we still believe that babies shouldn't be watching TV, if anything because it's overstimulation especially after 6:00PM. She'll have her whole life to veg out in front of the TV after she is older.

Um what else. I guess I should look for something to eat. :(

Oh and Sarah: That was the first time I let her have naked time because of the same reasons! I think it's just too cold. We let her do it again for a while yesterday and she rolled over and started to creep, so naked time definitely has some benefits. Maybe it's because they can feel their body parts move? I don't know. I'm looking forward to when it's warmer so that she can have as much naked and just onsie time as she wants. Until then, since *I* am always cold I assume she is too. On the other hand Tim is always hot so maybe she would take after him? I dunno.

Uh crap my phone needs recharging...must remember to do that after this quickie post.

Right now I am in the middle of making Carla's fry bread recipe. I had messed up and added the yeast to the warm milk to dissolve instead of the warm water...but added the warm water to the milk stuff about 5 minutes later. I hope it still works. I guess I'll let you know. I am excited about having some decent fry bread to eat...I was thinking of even making fry bread tacos for dinner but I don't have lettuce. Meh, who needs lettuce...I have some salad mix I could chop up and I think there is a tomato somewhere in there. I'll have to whip up the taco seasoning myself, but that's no big deal because we have sour cream and that is all that really matters now doesn't it?

Today is a rainy day. The first of several. My plan this morning was to go for a walk before the rain started, but after Morella ate, I decided to eat a quick lunch and halfway through it the rain started. Oh well. I guess it's a good thing I wasn't caught in it. So we have just sort of bummed around the house today. I let her have some naked time on a towel this afternoon and wouldn't you know it! She rolled over both ways from her tummy! I was so proud of her. What is it about being naked that makes a baby so footloose and fancy free?

Tim is working late tonight. I have to go the library to return some books and renew some. It is a Tuesday, I wonder if the cute library boy brigade is there...

But if I can fry up the bread by then I'll drop some off to my pals in the hood. The library is open until 9:00PM, and hopefully the Bit won't take TOO long of an afternoon nap so she won't still be up after 8:30. Right now she is clocking an hour. I could easily sleep late if I was comforted by the sounds of the rain on the roof and a guardian grey cat watching over me.

Voyager episodes were new to me today, so that was nice. I was also thinking about watching the other episode of Carnivale that I have later on with the new dvd player. The last episode I watched took me two hours because I had to keep fixing the dvd player before it finally konked out. The really cool thing about the new dvd player is that you can hook your mp3 player up to it and play music! Oh the selection I have now, that isn't just limited to CD's. :D

One thing with this rain, is that the grass around our house is already starting to green up. I can also see buds on the tree across the street.

There was a crow tearing up a bird's nest in the backyard today. I watched as two little birds sat on a nearby tree branch looked on helplessly. What is about crows that makes them such bullies?

This photo was taken by my friends daughter who is a budding photographer. I think she clearly captured Morella redhanded looking like she had a rough night out.

I probably have the rules all wrong, but I decided to go with a theme for photos which is 'Sunday.' That said, here are some pictures from my day. I would like to point out that is hard to not want to go into detail about EVERY picture. But doing so would lose some of the charm right?


Duo Napping


Snowdrops


Orange


Out for a Stroll


Birthday Greetings



Anticipation


1800's Housewife


Discarded Dressings

Sorry I didn't do Friday photos...I'll make up for it later. The day just sort of got away from me. It's weird how the days go by so fast, then all of a sudden it's night time and I think "Maybe I should watch a movie, or catch up on the internet, or clean or something." Sure it would be a good time to post pictures but Tim usually has commandeered the office computer and that has the USB cable and software to fix photos. I guess I could do it know, but I don't think I have that many awesome photos from this last week. It was just too full of doctor appointments and cranky baby from a messed up schedule. She still is in the middle of a "not eating that great" episode.

Tim's parents watched her this evening while Tim and I headed over to attend the Wunk Sheek Powwow. I go every year, but this is the first time that Tim has in a while. I think that as long as I am in Madison it will be something I go to every year even if I end up talking to no one. The people that I know who show up are becoming less and less...but they are still there. :) I ran into an old friend tonight that I haven't talked to in years. She gave me her card and I suggested we meet up for lunch sometime next month (she is a high powered lawyer) and she agreed! I feel like going was worth the effort in that I am trying to get out there and make new friends or strengthen old ones. i think I finally might even be up for going to one of those Mom's with babies social activities.

It occurred to me, that because Morella is so fair that her dancing outfits are going to have to super well made. Yes, people are that judgmental. Heck, even I am -- when I see a Caucasian looking person in a poorly made outfit I think ... they are probably from the Wannabe tribe. Sure I am ashamed of these thoughts and try to not to judge by the cover. It's probably that they just don't have anyone to show them how but their heart is in the right place! Then again there are plenty of enthusiasts that don't quite take all the effort they should before jumping in. In any case...I look forward to the challenge of making her outfits and even outfits for myself! I can't subject my little girl to going to dance by herself without a little moral support. I mean, I don't know that many indians that like to dance or do the powwow circuit. I would LOVE to know someone or have a buddy, but that isn't likely to happen because...well it hasn't happened yet.

The other thing I wanted to note, was that Tim and Morella had their first Daddy and Daughter date last Friday. I wanted to attend this meet and greet for new indian students because these events are usually so poorly attended. Sure I am not a student, faculty or staff anymore but I am alumni and I used to harp and still believe in the importance of an active community. Anyway, while I was there for only a half an hour I had Tim take Morella for a walk on State Street. You see, this stroller has been used every day since we have gotten it! He walked her up to the MadCity Crabhouse, went in and he ordered oysters and a beer while she had her bottle. He sat her on his knee while they enjoyed a special first date. Tim finally got his dream of having someone to eat oysters with on a Friday night. *sniff*

Lastly, I need to through out all of my make up and buy some new stuff. I mean I only wear mascara, eyeliner and lipstick -- sometimes I wear some eye shadow. The stuff I have now is over two years old (bad I know!) and wearing it for more than few hours makes my eyes feel gunky. I am really going through and doing some major spring cleaning around here and trying to get of stuff that I don't use anymore.

Blech, I just changed my shirt into a t-shirt I found in the bedroom and it stinks! I think it was Tim's night shirt for awhile there. Gotta go and change again.

"And the littlest one said.."

"I'm crowded...roll over!"

It's like she was thinking "Sorry I couldn't pull through on that stupid test this morning. Here why don't I roll over for the first time instead! Will that make you happy?" The catch, of course, she did it when I put her down for nap. I heard her yammering up a storm so I went into to check and there she was on her back yakking to her feet and having a grand old time. After calling Tim to tell him the news and assuring him that I did NOT put her down on her back (she is particularly refluxy today) I flipped her again to see if she would repeat it. Of course she didn't, but I had a nice time quietly filing my nails and listening to her talk and try again.

But she rolled over!! Cool. :)

I was going to make a macro of Morella eating a bottle with the words FAIL on it...but that's too much work right now. :P

I guess praying and not praying have the same effect. Well maybe God could only do one favor at a time and hopefully he picked the request for my friend Talena to conceive at her IUI today. I would take that over this.

Things stay the same. The only difference is that this time she had delayed coughing to the aspiration, which I suppose is improvement. She goes back again in another three months. Until then, she still gets honey consistency bottles. She did say that those cheap generic bottles will fit the nipple -- so I am going to look for that next time I am Target so I can increase her bottle size. She is surpassing 6 ounces every once in awhile. She can also use a sippy cup when she is old enough but only with thickened milk. She has to have the straight slit, so no spill proof for us! Though really this stuff is thick enough that it shouldn't fall out by itself.

She can also start solids. But I think I'll still wait until she is at least five months or showing more interest in eating. I mean, she is at an increased risk for a corn allergy with the thickener...so lets keep things status quo.

She was a happy, babbly baby who wasn't very much hungry. Tim was right. She should have gone in a desperate starvin' Marvin and I shouldn't have given her food at 5:00. I thought that four hours would be plenty of time for her to be hungry but I guess it wasn't enough to offset all the interesting things that were happening around her. Oh well, next time. Live and learn.

Sigh.

On another note, her babble has changed! She is adding consonants and it sounds like it's actually some kind of language and no just her usual coo. This started two days ago. It's sort of funny because she really gets into it. We also bought a stroller last night so that we can take full advantage of the 50+ weather! Hurray!

We had a really busy evening. First of all when Tim came home and after eating dinner we woke Morella up from her long afternoon nap we voted. Man shots really make her sleepy. We carried her in the Moby and the ladies at the polling place cooed at her and gave her lots of attention. She loved it. The one weird thing about that was one old lady said to an older man "We won't be around to see these babies grow up."

Uh.

Anyway. After that I have Morella her last bottle and she drank a good five ounces bringing her total for today up to 27.5 which is a good thing because she had been down around 24 for almost a week. Then we packed her up and went to BRU to buy a stroller. I had a coupon for 15% off which was awesome because got a stroller, a all weather cover for it and a clip on cup holder. I am SO ready for the 50+ degree weather coming our way. Aside from the coupon, the other reason I wanted a stroller was so I could focus on something other than her swallow study tomorrow.

Okay. Let's be reasonable here. We are not going to find out of she is going to live or die. We are not going to find out if we get to keep her not. Realistically, if she fails then what happens? Nothing. Status quo -- at least for now. Is now that bad? No, not really. She is happy. She is gaining. We have a system and for now that works. Of course it will change as she gets older but we can ease into that and we aren't going to be going in blind. Well have some answers and game plan from the specialist tomorrow. So I should really just knock it off and expect the best.

That said, we are going to wake her up at 5:00AM to eat a bottle and then hopefully she will go back to sleep. She need to be hungry enough to want to eat at 9:00ish and I think 4 hours is good. I can't imagine a morning with her starving ... well she is really desperately hungry in the morning, and that is at 7:00!

The big news though, is that after BRU and her going down at 9:00, I went grocery shopping. I came back to find that she had gotten up after a little nap and was wide awake and hungry! She ended up eating another 4 ounces for a total of 31.5 ounces today! That just blows my mind. That is the most she has ever eaten! She did also take three big poops today, which is a side effect of the rotovirus immunization she had taken. Make clearing out all that space made her extra hungry. I can imagine that the Simply Thick probably constipates her to some degree.

Anyway. Bed time, we have a big morning ahead of us, and I gotta get up early.