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.

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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

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.