Friday Photos: 5th Week of May

Almost every Memorial Day weekend we travel up North to visit family. It's sort of a family tradition to do that for Memorial day and Labor Day weekend. We bbq, go to the powwow, visit, burn some wood, pick ticks off of us, relax and catch up. It was the first time that Morella was able to meet my Dad and his wife, my Mom, Stepdad, and brothers. We also made time to stop over and visit my friend Jessie. Overall it was a whirlwind weekend -- and our little trooper made it through great even though she had her first cold. :(

Click here to see the complete set of Memorial Day pictures.

Morella and her Choka

Me, Morella and her maternal Grandmother

Morella rides Buster the Donkey with no hands! (Notice two heads aren't in the photo...whoops!)

One my favorite Morella faces

Me, Emmalyne, Jess and Morella
Jess is my old grade school chum whom I met on the first day of 5th grade at a new school (for me). She was kind enough to let me sit by her on the bus -- enthusiastic about it even!

Morella and her Degas Shane and Andrew

"Talk to me Dega. Tell me. It's okay...you can tell me."

Morella was just fascinated by her Dega Andrew and would stare at him intensely. When she got him to look at her she would reach out in all seriousness to get him to...I don't know. Talk.

Real quickly.

Morella had her six month doctor checkup yesterday. She weighed in at 13 pounds and 12 ounces and was 26 inches long. She is doing well, got her shots and is therefore spending a good portion of today sleeping. I am okay with that. She had to get over that cold and having me suction out boogers like it was a hobby....

Tim is back at work, and hopefully feeling better. Having a sick husband AND baby is the pits. Pluto is at the vet right now and getting a teeth cleaning today. His breath was pretty foul and I just couldn't take it anymore.

I finally got the furniture rearranged in the bedroom and Morella's room. Now to clean up and make everything look nice. Next big task is to clean the L desk off in the office so that it can go to the curb on Monday.

These two videos are from a visit with my friend Kathleen last week. For the record, Morella is usually more animated by the singing frog...but that was her third or fourth time watching it.

In one word - sick.

Morella didn't have allergies...it was a cold a cold that spread to both me and Tim. In fact, Tim stayed home today and pretty much slept all day. Morella spent most of today having her nose suctioned out and sleeping. Last night was rough because she woke up screaming and inconsolable. We brought her out, tried to offer a bottle since she had only four bottles (same again today), but she didn't want anything to do with it. Finally, I put her on the glider ottoman and she started rocking herself and eventually fell asleep doing it. I tried to put her to bed again and she cried -- finally we decided it was time for some tylenol and after that she slept through the night.

Anyway, I have a sore throat and headache and overall tiredness. Morella slept a TON today which was nice. I hope she is on her way to feeling better tomorrow. The snot has started to turn a different color and thickening up today, which I always take a sign that she's turned a corner. I'm glad that I bought Vick's baby rub last Saturday on our way out of town 'just in case.' Tonight in particular, she called down and was relaxed as I gobbed the stuff on her chest and back. Tim said that he felt soothed by the stuff when he was a kid. I always felt like yucky stuff was being gobbed all over me. Maybe that is because my Mom always did it -- and that was right in the beginning of my bronchitis that turned to asthma years.

I should go to bed now. I took a nap when she crashed but had to get up to pump.

I guess going six months before the first cold was pretty good right?

This weekend was good. I'll write more later, but Morella was able to finally meet my side of the family and good times were had by all. We also were able to squeeze in a visit to my old grade school chum and see her new baby, kids and donkey. In fact, I think she really liked everyone!

Oh and guess what tomorrow holds? The six month checkup and shots. :( Why does she go on these eating strikes right before doctor appointments?! It's not fair. And shots...great. Just great.

I also decided that we are going to use bumpers for the crib. Morella is so active that she gets a arm or leg stuck in the slats within minutes of me putting her in there. The smart thing would be for me to find a pattern online and figure out how to sew these things myself. The realistic part of me says to look someplace to buy them because really, when am I going to do this? Have you seen this house? It's a freaking disaster and it's really starting to depress me.

Go to bed Laura. You are just doing the classic sick babble when everything is dark just like before dawn.

Uh oh -- I think Morella is getting a cold. She was up six times last night -- I thought it was because she is obsessively rolling over, and you know they say that babies will compulsively do things over and over, but today while we were dropping off Pluto I saw a river of snot coming out of her nose. I thought it might have been a dog allergy, however Tim pointed out that she has been around plenty of dogs with no reaction and that he has seen the snot this morning in her meltdown.

Why does her first cold have to coincide with a big out of town trip?

I guess I need to remember to bring the tylenol. :( And nose suction thing -- she is not a fan of that! Actually neither is Tim. Every time I pull it out he says something to the effect "Aww, why do you gotta ruin a good thing?" Sheesh. I should be praised for attacking the slimey boogers. PRAISED!

So, as of right now I have nothing packed. We need to stop at Target to buy some disposable diapers, a playard sheet for the pack n play and batteries for the pump. I need to try and call my younger brother James since he never responded to my facebook message about hosting a visit at his place. I need to pack clothes for all of us, a box of stuff for my friend Jessie and my Mom. Wash pumping stuff and bottles, figure out how to transport the simply thick (we use big dispenser bottles now) -- sigh so much to do. I guess I should get off the computer and do some of it. At least I got a stress free pumping session in. That's always nice.

Oh one more thing -- we learned a new technique to make Morella laugh uncontrollably that requires a little girl doing pratfalls, and another baby to mirror her movements. I couldn't believe how much she was laughing and having a good time. I can't wait to try it out with Morella's boyfriend Cullen next week.

Friday Photos: 4th Week of May

BRATFEST!

Every year Madison holds the biggest brat festival in the nation -- and every year thousands of innocent bratwurst are consumed in a four day festival an an ongoing quest to break it's on record. We were no exception. Morella and I headed downtown to meet up with Tim and his coworkers for a couple brats, some loud music and friendly conversation.

Like pigs at a trough....

We all clamored for condiments -- pretty garments to dress up our sausage.

All dressed up.

Three sausages smiling for the camera -- say "Brats!"

"Baby want a brat?"

Yes, apparently we need shuttles to ferry us from the parking lot (a mere 200 feet) from the festival. It's ridiculous I know, but there is such a thing as brat overload you know.

Fairy in the Playground

Breakfast with Kathleen

Kathleen came back to Madison for a brief visit. We met up with her for breakfast this morning at Monty's Blue Plate. It was Morella's first time in a restaurant high chair! She lasted a long time before getting tuckered out and needed to sit on my lap and try to grab everything that came near her. Incidentally, we are visiting Kathleen in Baton Rouge for our vacation this summer. I am desperating trying to convince myself that the end of July really won't be THAT hot in the deep south...it'll be fun! Right?

This photo just cracks me up. I don't think I need to say more.

Sorry it was late, but it was one heck of a busy day, and I have an even busier weekend coming up. I am SO not prepared for it.

Before this nap expires:

Today is MUCH better than yesterday. She was up and at em at 5:30 this morning, but was cool until 6:00 when she got up to eat. I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but 6:00AM is my first pump of the day. Tim and I set it up awhile back that I would pump at this time and if she woke up during that time he would take her while I finished pumping and making bottles (the morning pump yields two bottles). Well Tim had it easy for a few weeks there until she started to get up at 6 consistently...and while I am tad nervous about this 5:30 wake up time -- at least she has the decency to keep it to herself until a little later. So, now the morning routine is I get up, warm up her bottle and get her medicine ready, start coffee sometimes and start pumping. Then Tim gets Morella up, changes her diaper and feeds her, has breakfast together, chills for awhile and then ends up back in bed because she gets sleepy! Quality Daddy/Daughter time...aww.

So she used to sleep a long time in the morning -- not so anymore. Now I get a half an hour nap after the first bottle, MAYBE 45 minutes and then she is up up up. The upside is that she takes a longer nap during the day, which is nice because then I can get stuff done -- like my midday pump and lunch.

Oh lunch was great today. I got these chicken nugget strips awhile back and microwaved a few of them, put them on a tortilla with some spinach, grated cheese and ranch dressing and voila -- my OWN chicken wrap! It was so delicious. I finished it off with a handful of jalapeno potato chips and a Jazz Diet Pepsi (black cherry and french vanilla flavored). The sucky thing is that I followed the stupid directions on the back and blindly microwaved the first batch of stripes for 4 minutes, which was the low end of the range they gave. When I went to retrieve them the nugget stripes were shriveled up and rock hard. The plate was hot too -- so put it over to the side on top of a plastic plate. Whoops!

What if it melts the plastic tupperware plate? Thinking quick, I decided to add some water under the plate to cool it off in case it decided to melt the plastic plate. Um. Hey I said thinking quick NOT thinking smart. Of course the plate cracked and had to be thrown out as soon it was cool enough. I guess it's a good thing that we don't care that much about matching dishes, because between our goof ups, hand washing dishes and the cats knocking stuff over and eventually with Morella -- well dishes just don't last all that long around here. The upside to this is that they sell them all over the place in the summer for garage sales. :D

This mornings walk was nice. Yesterday I had made spicy oatmeal cookies (with cranberries instead of raisins...oh that's a tidbit...hold on). I packed up a whipped topping container with them and wrote on card "Welcome to the neighborhood" and went over across the street to give it to the neighbors. You see, the woman who lives there over the course of the winter had her sister and her family moved in with her. They have two little kids, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to get to know more of the folks on our block. There is another woman up the block who has two young kids -- one a baby only a few months older than Morella that I have been eying up too. But one house at a time..right? I already have altered our morning walk to pass their house every day in the off chance that they are outside and I can say hi.

Do I sound pathetic? No, it's not that...I am a leader! A determined, get something done sort of person. Yeah!

Okay. So the walk went well though I missed seeing Morella kick off one of her socks somewhere from the school to my house. Nutz. I wasn't about to go and look for it so I just threw away the other sock once I got inside. If I find it tomorrow I'll retrieve it, as it's in the living room garbage which isn't nasty like the kitchen one is. BIL Phil was at the house doing some awesome lawn stuff to make the grass greener and the weeds gone.

So I told Phil that he should take some cookies with him and mentioned they were made with cranberries instead of raisins. He said "Oh good, I HATE raisins in food."

Huh? So does Tim! I mean likes it as much as I like seabugs---er shrimp. Oh man, I hope this doesn't mean that Morella is going to turn into a raisin hating person too. I LOVE raisins in food.

Okay. Today's goal in Operation House Overhaul is the tea/coffee cupboard. I should try to do that while I still have time. We have to go grocery shopping and make a trip to the bank later to get a cashier's check to pay for the DNA testing that we all need. Getting Morella onto the tribal roll isn't an endeavor for the faint of heart.

I'm not having a good morning at all.

Morella has been ... I don't know. She woke up. Ate five ounces. Went down for her nap. Got up a half an hour later. Played, talked in the cosleeper for a half an hour then she melted down and started bawling. I got her up after that. Changed her diaper and into an outfit for the day. Warmed a bottle, but the whole time she was on the edge of crying....tried to feed it to her and then started bawlfest part two.

Nothing I did would stop it. No jiggling. No rocking. No singing. No music. I tried again and she just throws her head back and screams. Finally I put her back in the cosleeper and she stopped crying. But then she rolls onto her back and starts talking, blowing raspberries, playing for awhile before the meltdown begins again. I flip her. Repeat. I take her out to offer a bottle again. Repeat. Put her back down...

There, she might finally be taking a nap.

Is this normal? Why is she doing this?! Do other babies do this for no viable reason?

I really need coffee.

So my brother Josh is home from the hospital yesterday. I called today to wish him a happy birthday and see how my Mom is doing. She said she was really sick yesterday and was almost admitted to the hospital but she refused. They think she might have pneumonia too. She is going to see a doctor again today at four to see how things are going.

I called the doctor at Tim's request to get their advice on whether not we should take Morella to visit them this weekend. They said that if they are not showing any of the obvious signs of being sick with vomiting, sneezing, coughing, high fever -- then the risk is the same as leaving the house to go to the grocery store. But that said, my Mom doesn't want to risk it and doesn't want me to visit her in the trailer because she can't clean it this week. :(

I am still visiting my friend Jessie who just has a baby girl, and then afterward I think we will stop by and they will have to come outside and look at her and make it a small and brief visit. This is SO disappointing to me. I hate poverty. I wish that my family was normal and could drive and had a car that could make it to Madison and could have visited her sooner or anytime she wants. Now the burden is back on my shoulders, in that if I want Morella to ever see her grandmother or uncles then I have to figure out a trip up north so it can happen.

This day needs to turn itself around. I feel so bummed.

Weekend was good. Friday we ordered in Domino's and watched Battlestar Gallatica and actually enjoyed an episode where stuff happened (unlike the last couple of shows).

Saturday Morella and I went garage sailing while Tim slept in. I filled up the gas tank for the second time ever and actually succeeded! I got Morella more books, a stainless six shooter muffin pan to replace the icky Teflon one that I have (when Pam with Flour exists, you don't need Teflon), and I got an adorable big sleeping teddies cross-stitch project that I am working on for Morella's room. It's a big project -- the biggest cross-stitch I'll have attempted...but I have learned from my mistakes and started it last night. It's coming along well...now I'm gonna be looking for time for work on it. It can be an heirloom -- :)

Sunday Morella was crabby and my day to sleep in. Tim took her on a morning walk and then later on we all went to the Dog Park. It was windy and Tim and I weren't that into it. We left after two laps -- because Pluto wasn't into it either. It was the walk in the morning that destroyed his energy. We blamed our lack of energy on our hippy lunch of (burning) Nettle Soup and Burdock root chips.

Yeah, we ate that.

Okay, gotta get the bottles started for the day and eat some oatmeal and an egg maybe. I'm hungry! And breastfast is a meal that you can pig out on...right?

Oh and my brother has pneumonia. The flu and pneumonia are two different things right? The flu is a super bad cold...and it cause pneumonia in the chest? I was thinking about that too late last night.

Friday Photos: Third Week of May

It was a big week for pictures. I have three separate albums inside May 2008 Photos that you might want to check out with more pictures. There are a TON of photos...here are some of my favorites.

Edit: I don't think some of you realize that when you click on that link you are taken to a gallery that has three separate albums in it. You have to click on those albums to be taken to the collection of pictures. To make it clear for now:
-->Jammers Birthday Party
--> Ruth's Birthday Party
--> Visit with Aunt Kandace

First is a photo from the Dog Park last Saturday -- we went to attend Jammer's 13th Birthday party.




After the doggie party, we headed out to visit my friend Sarah and attend her daughter's first birthday party.


Me, Morella, Sarah and Ruth

Morella smiles big with one of her many fans

Standing tall in the grass

After the two parties, we went to Tim's parents and she spent some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa

Morella today, showing off how much her Daddy loves her

Fill in caption "_________"


In a field of dandelions

Small dogs = funny

Whatever it is, I like it! Morella doesn't take a long nap in the morning anymore -- just a short 30-45 minute one. Which means she is up from 9.30 to ... about 1:00 when she goes down it's for 3 hours! Okay, well it has definitely been three hours yesterday and today which is awesome because I can pump, and get some chores done around the house. Today I got the dishes done and mostly put a way (there was alot), I swept the floor, washed a rug, put all the diapers away, took a shower, got dressed, talk to my Mom -- my younger brother Josh had to go to the hospital today. I suspect he has a severe lung infection...but he needs more tests, and look now I am posting and catching up with my internets. It's great!

Can you imagine would it be like if she were to take a three hour nap in the afternoon consistently? The stuff I would get done?

There is a bit of cost to this though, she has been waking up at 5:30 every morning, but we let her amuse herself until after six, then she eats like a rabid baby.

I am now on the lookout for that crib. I realized last night that I might have a harder time with this than Morella. I LIKE having her next to me within reach to see if she okay. I suggested to Tim that we just put the crib where the cosleeper is right now but he thinks she should go into her room. He's right you know. She should get used to sleeping in her own room, and she should do the the whole crib/room transition at the same time. How do you do it though?

I mean, put her in the room when it's bedtime and shut the door and that's it? We have monitors...but if I wear ear plugs then what good is that? Admittedly, what good is having her next to me when I am wearing them ... but I like to imagine that I would have a 6th sense if anything is amiss IF she were right next to me. The reality is that is just fantasy. Sigh. So do I use the monitor until I am more at ease that she is okay? Do people still do that after they are six months old? I just don't know... I can't believe that almost six months have passed already and she is ready to be in her own room. I remember the first day we put our little burrito to bed in the cosleeper, and now...*sniff*

Do people open the room door when they go to bed? Should I still use a nightlight? Won't she be lonely?!

---

Yesterday after getting her prescription refilled we stopped at Woodman's for a few things I needed for dinner (that sucked by the way! I hate poorly written directions that take forever for a subpar meal). I didn't bring the Moby with me and she's too active now to stand staying in the carseat, which leaves me to carry. So I carried her in and ... on a whim decided to try the cart seat. I mean she has been sitting indepently a for a little bit at a time this week, and I propped my coat around her and she held onto the bars.

She had the biggest grin ever. I would look at her and she would just smile at me and look around happy as the happiest clam that ever lived. I told Tim it looked like she was extremely proud of herself but he said babies don't have pride. Maybe. I think she sat up a little straighter and smiled a little harder when I gushed about what a strong sitting girl she was. She did get tired near the end and started to slump and I carried her then. But she did so well...!

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I had one more thing I was going to say but I forgot what it was. So I'll tell you that we finally saw I Am Legend last night and was disappointed. There was SO much that movie had to offer and yet even Will Smith couldn't save it. :( We also saw The Mist the other night and that was actually better...

Oh I hear bells tingling from the bedroom. My sweetheart is awake!

I know it's been forever since I have posted. As my friend Hilary said, sometimes so much stuff happens that you have so much to post...that you don't end up posting because you get overwhelmed.

I will say this for spring -- Morella and I are a lot more busy than we used to be! Most days we have no set plans or if we do it's a little thing. But somehow the days are just flying by and jampacked with stuff.

Right now she is napping. I finally had to put her down at 1:00 because that is the end of my limit for the noon day pump. She went down with a little chatter -- I have a feeling she rolled over onto her back. All this rolling over and now sitting!! (she sat unassisted for several minutes over at her Aunt Kandance's house yesterday) has me on the look out for a crib. Hear that folks? We need a crib. I have been looking at craigslist, but now my fried Laima telling me that she saw cribs at a garage sales for less than $20 makes me think I could do better than 75$ ... hm. Well see. I'll keep an eye and in the meantime I guess watch Craigslist in case Morella suddenly learns to pull herself up. For some reason a crib is just not something I can see wanting to pay full price for. I mean, we put it off for what? Almost six months? That's pretty darn good!

Soon she will be in her own room...which means i need to start clearning it out. I have already started by organizing things...and I can't move the desk with my sewing machine until the cosleeper is out of the bedroom.

IT's been two weeks since we ordered our couch. I wonder if it will come in the 4 or the 6 range that the salesperson mentioned. How ready do I need to be? I think I have another two weeks for sure to slack on the office spring cleaning.

The leftover for lunch today was pitiful. You hear me darling?! Pitiful. It was barely a cup. Why even bother?

This past weekend was so busy with a doggie birthday party, a one year old birthday party and dinner with the grandparents. I have a ton of pictures from that and from yesterday which was Morella's first hike. It's picture overload! Morella had her first time in the grass (thanks to Sarah's suggestion), she got to meet some of her biggest fans and had a great time doing so!

Oh she stirs. I need to still get dressed, put in my contacts, do something with my hair and think about whether or not I should call the pharmacy to see if her prescription is filled and get it today followed by a quick grocery shopping trip. Let's see...she ate at 12.30...she won't be hungry again until 3.30 or 4....so that should give us enough time. I also want to check out the Restore for curtain rods...but that is the sort of thing I could walk over and do and make it a stroller/exercise outing sans Pluto. I could do that tomorrow. You know, I still gotta spread the good stuff out during the days. Though it is supposed to rain. I am not rambling.

I am so hungry. I ate a big apple after that and it was ... meh. I guess it held me over an extra hour.

We are about to reach critical mass in our freezer with milk. I did some math and figured out that I only have enough space in our freezer for maybe a month a half to two months of frozen milk. I had entertained thought of stopping pumping before we went on vacation at the end of July in which Morella would be 8 months old. I thought maybe we would have enough milk to get us by until she was 12 but that won't work. I guess I am still going to have to bring it with us and pump and dump. I am sort of worried about bringing the pump. It's not something I trust to pack with our baggage...what if it gets lost? This is the kind of thing that I need to have with me. I tried manually pumping once and it was such a pain in the butt and took forever! Anyway. So I am going to have to bring the pump as my carry on which prompted a lengthy discussion with Tim about how many carry on's are allowed. I thought it was just one, but does a backpack (the pump) AND purse? I mean does a purse count as a carry on?

I decided to look into seeing what can be done about donating milk. I left a message with the milk people and am waiting to hear back. I have a feeling I shouldn't have declined that HIV test way back when because I won't really be saving myself from a needle if they require it. I was just so angry about the quad testing at the time that I wanted to refuse SOME test.

Okay for reals I am going now. Now that I unplugged the drain maybe I can post some more.

Week in Photos: Second Week of May

Crabby girl needs nap.

Thumb sucker!

The ever changing picture on the wall. I have windblown hair and the mirror is totally crooked (something I don't normally stand for, let alone advertise) but Morella's smile made me keep it. :)

Leta the Baby Whisperer really wanted to hold Morella. She was super good about washing her hands beforehand and so I said okay. She sat down and I put Morella on her lap. It struck me then how big Morella is getting! Incidentally she is wearing this adorable blue outfit I had gotten at a garage sale this week for only a buck! I LOVE garage sales and baby clothes.

Here they are smiling! And yes, I do believe that thumb made it's way back into Morella's mouth.

Hilary held Morella while I ran out to the car to get a straw for a McDonald's iced coffee that I had gotten us. Morella is still wearing her sun hat from looking at the garage sale from across the street. I just walked us since it was such a short distance.

Here you can see that Hilary really does do it all on a regular basis. While I am out having iced coffee and perusing lost treasures, she is busting her butt to clean the house and prepare for a weekend of guests, all while holding my floppy little penguin in a sun hat.

Here I am after walk one of the day. I am beginning to think I should probably start wearing make up....after all I am past 30. *sigh*

Then again, I think I looked better than Morella did after the walk.

-----

Morella had a rough day today in which she did NOT want to nap. When she doesn't nap like that it makes it super hard for me pump....tonight after she didn't go down for 45 minutes we finally gave her some tylenol hoping that would help whatever was wrong with her. We both held her afterward and she was so content to just sit with us and not make a peep. I felt so bad for her! When Tim finally put her down after a yawn AND an eye rub we heard not a sound. Tomorrow she has a big day, two birthday parties, a trip out of town and over the the river and through the wood to her Grandmother's house we go.

I noticed tonight that when I was holding her and waiting for the medicine to kick in that she was looking at me. Like...at me and really studying my face. She doesn't do that often and when she does it makes me go week in the knees. Does she know how much I love her? I hope so.

Cloth Diapering

To answer Carla's question -- we never actually did use a diaper service. See, what happened was my friend Sarah had all these great diapers she was going to use and in the end decided it wasn't for her. So she passed them on to my friend Hilary who doesn't mind doing laundry and was going to give this whole cloth diapering thing a shot. She used them...and then graduated to more fancy diapers and gave me the whole bag. I was going to eventually give them back to Sarah -- but in the meantime they sat right next to the diaper station. Well, Morella pees a lot in between diaper changes and I started to use them as catch clothes. Then after another week or so, I started to wonder..."why not just try it..." and so I would use one or two..and then eventually most of the day...to finally the whole day. It got a ton a easier when Carla told me to use fleece liners because then her bottom wasn't red and the poop is easier to clean off.

Since then I discovered that washing them really isn't that bad. I wash them about twice a week with unscented, powder detergent and then dry them. Now that it's summer I can dry them on the line, get rid of any stains and save the environment. Eventually we decided that this wasn't no big thing at all, and since Sarah has the size 2 diapers too...I asked her if I could borrow them and now here we are. Morella is still fitting size 1....though that might change in a month.

So, yes I would love girlie covers! Especially since it's summer now Morella will spend a lot more time wearing just a diaper. I do have a question thought -- how do you know when the rinse is running and isn't it a pain in the ass to run downstairs and dump vinegar in there? Should I set a timer? Hm. That's not a bad idea.

How much vinegar?

And wouldn't putting the diapers in the dryer with a tennis ball sort of defeat the whole purpose of drying them out in the sun instead of using more electricity? Actually, I found that if I crumple them up a bit before putting them on that softens then enough. Anyway, these are just thoughts I was wondering about.

Okay, I am finished pumping and Morella is getting mighty tired of the exersaucer.

One more thing -- garage sale season and a baby girl are going to be a difficult combination for me. Already today I got Morella three adorable little outfits for 3 bucks...in great condition and that was just on the morning walk. I am going to look around in Hilary's hood this afternoon...

I think Hilary may be onto something with her post here.

I don't think that Morella has a case of the Mommie's like she used too...it's more like now she has a case of "pay attention to me all the time!" But really it's only when she wants attention and it's not there then she goes from Happy to Very Angry in a matter of seconds. Seriously she has pulled out the waterworks lately for small things like: me taking a shower, going to into the bedroom for any reason, taking a nap (since our bedroom is where she naps...that makes sense). But why the nap hating all of a sudden? She needs those naps! She gets mad when I put her in the high chair to do something in the kitchen that cannot be done one handed. When she is in the exersaucer for too long (which can be 2 minutes or 20). She cries when I turn on the vacuum cleaner. When she has to get dressed. When her diaper is changed. When she doesn't want to play little bunny fo fo anymore. Gah, it's for the slightest of reasons it's seems! She is definitely going through a sensitive stage right now. She startles easily and doesn't seem quite as sure as she once was about everything.

Thankfully as I type this, she is napping. When does finally go down for her afternoon nap they tend to be about 1.5-2 hours. It's a nice change, but it also means I have to be go go go in the morning. It's also a little harder to get the early evening pump in because she'll be awake and I can't exactly hold her..and sigh.

One other Morella note before I move on -- she started sucking her thumb! It's been alternating between just a finger and the thumb but apparently the thumb is easier to do. I wonder if it will stick around.

I have been taking walks in the morning at around 11:00. I am going to have to move that earlier when summer really hits to avoid the noonday sun, but for now it's a start. Pluto gets all excited now when he sees me pull out the stroller because that means he is going to get a walk too. I don't think Morella has quite made the connection between the appearance of the stroller and a walk. I bet it's coming soon since she is making other connections (like the bedroom and naps). What I don't like is that Pluto is now taking a big dump on this walk. I HATE picking up dog poop. Hate it.

I managed to clean the living room today...ahh thank goodness. I bit the bullet and vacuumed as she was going down her nap. I figured since she was going to cry anyway about taking a nap might as well make it about two things. Operation dejunkify and clean house is still well under way. I finished up cleaning up the front entranceway this weekend. Right now we are working on the office in preparation of the new sofa. I took a picture once of the office so that it can be ready for a really good "now and then" later on. Trust me when I tell you it was a disaster. Oh that reminds me to take a photo of the living room before the couch gets here. I can't wait. I would like to have folks over to play a board game or something when it happens.

Today was the first day that I was able to dry Morella's diapers on the clothesline. I had to take her out with me while I hung them. I put her on a soft blanket under some shade and let her do some tummy time -- which never lasts long anymore before she flips herself. She seems to really enjoy being outside. They dried pretty quick and now are all sort of stiff. I hope that doesn't translate to being uncomfortable. You aren't supposed to add softener to diapers otherwise it messes with the absorbency. One cool thing is that the sun did get rid of the stains that had accumulated on some of them from poopsplosions. The power of the sun is amazing!

Oh the neighbor boy across the street is throwing a tantrum. He's hopping around crying and says ... "I want...blah blah" WHINE .... "I want ...." WHINE! I think he's about ... no wait that was the little girl. I think she is 2 or 3. Just wait until Morella does that! I can't wait!! I hope it happens in public places, and cramp quarters where I can't do anything about it. Oh I am just kidding.

Last night Hilary and I went out for a fancy drink at Jade Monkey. I had a Mai Tai for the first time and it was pretty tasty! I started to feel bad for being a boring stick in the mud after awhile and got to reminiscing about being in Chicago and going to play pool on Wednesday's with Eric (and later on) Kate. Those were good times! I wish I had the zest for going out and doing things like that now. To be fair, I now have the wide open world of "day time" to go out and explore the city and do stuff. I really want to meet some other Mom's for activity partners ... but I am just so unsure about how to go about it. It seems like every other Mom I see looks perfectly happy and content already. I noticed that there is a woman who lives a few houses up from with me a baby that is a few months older than Morella and a small boy. I think she is a stay home Mom...I should work up the guts to bake something and go over there and introduce myself.

What's the worst that could happen? They would think I am crazy.

Hilary has it so easy she lives in a neighborhood choke full of kids and only has to go the park to meet folks. Living in a mixed age neighborhood like mine makes that a little harder. Oh listen to me go on, the grass is always greener when you are a scardy cat like myself looking for reasons to not take the plunge and take a risk.

Alright, I should figure out what we are having for dinner before Morella wakes up. Last night we had sandwiches and salad because fancy bread was in the discount bakery section. We still have bread and sandwich stuff...maybe we should do that again except this time have soup. No wait, I think I need to make something with leftovers for tomorrow's lunch. Boo!

One more thing -- I took my friends Sarah's lead about losing some weight by dropping snacking, second lunches or breakfast and extra desserts last week and am already down two pounds! Just gotta keep it up and figure out more ways to work in exercise. You know like lunges with Morella, more dancing time, 10 situps before getting out of bed, 10 mini-push ups off the bathroom counter every time I use the bathroom...that sort of thing.

Alright, alright dinner isn't gonna make itself.

PS: And to answer your question Laura -- I use photoshop to make the collages.

There is a new Ace Hardware store that opened up down the road. The flyer said that they were giving away free buckets and 25% off whatever you can fit inside it. I was going to wait until 5:00 but my stomach was telling me I should go sooner so I could get the soda and hotdog for a buck. Luckily, there was a break in the rain and I took the opportunity to walk Pluto and Morella. On the way back we ran into a neighbor of mine who likes to collect junk and then have garage sales. Anyway, his name is Bear.

Bear was sitting on one of the benches in front of his house enjoying a beer. He's retired you know, and when I commented on the beer at this time of the day he said "I have to get my vitamins!"

So he pointed out two ducks that had taken to living in his yard. He said he feeds them in the morning and then in the afternoon they like to come and sit near him while he sits in his garage and watches the world go by. He then pointed out a huge bird's nest two blocks down and said that two hawks were building it. Cool. I told him that Ace was having their grand opening and our plans of going there at 5:00 and he said he was already there! Huh?

"I went this morning. Go and get your bucket. Buy something and then get the hotdog and soda," he ordered.

"Yes sir!"

Off Morella and I went to to Ace and true enough, the 5:00 start time was discarded. I decided to carry Morella around with me since she has just spent an hour in the stroller and you know she isn't that heavy yet and it's still pretty easy to do. Besides she's so much more interactive then and looks around and everyone loves to talk to her then. :) I got a bucket, a leveler, some seeds, 25 cent paper towels and some twine. I am looking forward to dinner tonight -- I am going to order in something delicious. I don't know what yet...

In other news, so we got our stimulus check direct deposited today and it was only $1200. We should have gotten $1500 because of the 300 dollar credit for Morella. I decided it wouldn't hurt to call and see what I could do about it. You see, I did our taxes wrong one aspect this year -- I entered Morella's social security number wrong...two numbers were inverted. Oops. It was enough for them to say that she wasn't real and they "fixed" it for us and gave us $510 less. I called them, figured out the problem and they fixed it and two weeks later they deposited the remainder.

WELL...the stimulus check is based on the first tax return --- regardless of any changes later on. One check. We might have a chance of getting that money on next year's return.

I said "So we are SOL?" and the lady said "Yep."
"That isn't fair!" I cried.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better there are tons of people who have more than one kid missing from their return," she offered.

It did make me feel better, that is until I told Tim and he said "That was a costly mistake."

Friday Photos: Last Week of April and 1st Week of May

This past week Morella has really gotten into her toes, playing on the ground, and one of her favorite games is to put stuff over her face and wiggle and kick until you "find her." I decided to carry my camera and take photos of the stuff she hides behind. Click on that photo - "stuff on Morella" and then when it comes up in a new window, click it again to get the big picture.





Lastly, Tim lost the car keys and we spent pretty much the whole morning looking for them. I finally found them later that afternoon...

Tim informed me that:

1. Swear words never fall out of his lips

and

2. I had the wrong couch. I mean this one:I thought that other one looked a little funny.