Hello from Baton Rouge, LA!

While I am waiting for Tim to get our rental car from Enterprise for our day trip to LaFayette let me give you a bullet version of some things that have been going on.

• Dropped off Morella to spend a week getting spoiled rotten by her grandparents. I call often to get updates on how she is doing. But you know, I try to keep it short and sweet otherwise I'll think about it too much and get all misty eyed.
• Held an alligator
  
• Took a boat ride into the middle of a swamp.
  
• Saw a 1800 year old tree.
• Went to the Baton Rouge Zoo and was very impressed. We got in for free because their electricity was sporadic.
• Visited a long leaf pine Savannah.
• Ate at Jack in the Box, Canes and Sonic (all fast food chains that we don't have up north).
• Played Wii
• Saw the Dark Night and really liked it.
• Visited the Rural Life Museum run by LSU.
• At pizza and drank beer at a place called Schlittz and Giggles.
• Gamboled $4 and got a "free" drink on the Hollywood River Boat casino. I also got to see real live craps and roulette games being played. The floor that these games were on smelled like desperation and false hope. It was kind of depressing and we were bored so we left. It just goes to show how much better Ho-Chunk Casino is, at least they give you some wins to keep you playing.
  
• Ate lunch at Comet Cafe in Milwaukee -- the pie was bad and I sent it back which results in a small tiff with the waitress. I had everyone from the table try it and they all agreed it was crap. The waitress then went on to tell me how it won a ribbon at the state fair and that she had some of it herself earlier in the day. It was a lie because on the way to the bathroom I saw the pie and there was ONE slice missing. Perhaps she had a slice of a different pie but this one particular one sucked ass.
  
• Pumped in in the Milwaukee Airport.
• Flew on planes.
• Relaxed with some TV and cross-stitch (one of my goals for this trip).
  

Photographic Evidence of Busy

I broke my personal rule of no more than 10 photos because I have been a little behind and these are just too good to pass up. That said, let's get started!

Erika, Me, Lowen and Sigrid met up last Thursday at Genna's for an Lady's Coffee night reunion! Back in college we used to meet up once a week at various locales around the city and catch up. It was a great way to hang out and unwind at least once a week and make time in our busy schedules to just chat. I miss those days and the company of great women.

This past Sunday, everyone (with the exception of Morella) woke upon on the wrong side of the bed. We decided to regroup and go out for a fancy brunch at Nau-ti-gal for their infamous spread. We all dressed up including Morella in my favorite dress. Though, you know, she only has two dresses and one isn't really a dress more more like a skort type thing. They sat us in a little room off to the side which I was a little disappointed in because Morella love to look at other people and it's an easy way to keep her occupied. She's a shameless flirt and waves and says hello to anyone that might be looking at her. We discovered that she likes croissants and salmon.

This past Saturday we headed over to Lowen and Jason's housewarming party. Lowen has been waiting to buy a house for a small eternity so it was a pleasure to go and warm the ... outside. I helped to build up a fire to deter the mosquito's while she held Morella for awhile. I was surprised at how well she did considering it was near her bedtime and she was boycotting naps. It was also cool to have Morella wear her Bauhaus onsie in front of an audience that caught the reference and appreciated it. :D

I have been taking daily strolls with Morella. No stroller, no big preparation, just walking out the door carrying Morella and walking around different blocks. One of the trips I convinced Tim to go with us and we went to the park so she could try out a baby swing. The first time I tried her on it was a couple months ago and she hated it. This time, it was a different story.

Look at this face! I love love love how enthusiastic she is about everything life has to offer. If she anything like me, then swinging is sure to become a favorite childhood pasttime. I remember once, my grade school friend Jessica and I pondered heavily on how we could become professional swingers.

At one of the garage sales this weekend, I picked up a bag of wooden blocks. In an attempt to give Morella more floor time to encourage her rolling around and possible doorway to crawling and sitting up, Tim got down on the floor to construct block building for her to knock down. Here she waits patiently while the architech works his magic.

Last Thursday, during the day we met with my old college friend Erika and her Mom at the Memorial Union. Erika did a great job with Morella and even put up with her bouncing on her lap like a maniac. And no, Morella did not have any beer. She did have some watermelon that she didn't care for though.


Then we took a break and went over to Lake Monona so that Morella could get her toes wet. This was her first time wading in a large body of water outside of the home. When I was in college, for one year, I would swim in this lake until it turned too green to see my hands once in the water. I figured wading would be okay for her, and she seemed to like it. I later expanded her swimming experience by filling the tub more and taking a bath with her so that she could really stretch out and splash. I think she a water baby!

Two weeks ago, Tim's old coworker and friend Andrew came for a visit before heading off to Arizona where his wife and kid have already settled in. Tim and Andrew went kayaking, saw a movie and we all ate lunch at Lazy Jane's and went to La Fete de Marquette. The following morning we had all had deluxe McDonald's breakfasts in the comfort of our own home while the sweet baby napped. Over all it was a really good visit and we enjoyed his company a lot. Too bad he's moving far far away.

Andrew bought Morella some awesome bath toys including this inflatable Duckie, which she tried out the following day, and a cow duck. I later found an assortment of rubber duckies at a garage sale so her assortment of ducks now totals 6. My friend Sigrid said she could hook her up with a devil duckie -- I sense a collection starting....

This a picture of Morella NOT taking a nap. How can you resist such cuteness?

And three weeks prior, Tim's hold high school and college chum Mike, wife Rachel and their son Henry came to visit. We checked out this new mexican seafood resturant and let the kiddo's get acqainted with each other. We had a great time -- and I deemed their margaritta's to be too weak. The food however, was excellent.

Lastly, these photos and other photos posted in this blog can be found in the Gallery, or by clicking on the July 2008 link to your left.

Man this summer has been so busy. So so busy.

Okay first things first. Morella learned how to wave hello! It's so cute. She moves her arm back and forth but hasn't quite caught on that she needs to open her hand. So her hand sort of flops back and forth.

Tim is outside mowing the lawn right now. We all took a nap from 2-4 this afternoon after having a luxurious brunch at Nau-Ti-Gal, so I don't think she is tired yet. However I bet she is bored sitting in a big inflated duck. I was thinking of using it as a mini pool in the back yard...we have been in the A/C all day so I don't thinks she's too hot or anything. I wonder if the skeeters would be bad or she would even have fun doing that. Meh. I don't know. I need to pump and I am not sure where to put her while I do that. I did score a bunch of wooden blocks at a garage sale this weekend, so maybe I'll sit her by them and she can go to town taking them out.

Yesterday we went to Lowen's housewarming party. Her backyard is so beautiful and big! The inside of the house isn't bad. I can't wait to see it in another year when she has had more time to really make it her own. It's off to a great start though with eggshell blue walls and white owls, and ... sigh. I wish I had a interior design bone in my body. I guess I just do what I can do...and part of that is to work on cleaning up this house before we go on vacation so that Phil doesn't have to live in a mess and we can come back to to a nice clean place. It always makes it easier to transition that way.

We left the party at 8 becuase Morella needed to go bed after not taking a good afternoon nap. I put her bed and was pleased that she ate well. Hurray! She is also eating really well today. I love these days when I don't have to fight with her to eat anything. I have to store them up and remember them for the days when she is a picky eater. After Morella went to bed, I decided to go to the Inferno with Sigrid for an hour so that I could keep my pumping schedule. I ended up coming back a little later than I wanted and kicked Tim out the door so that he could ride bike over to the housewarming party and enjoy the rest of it sans baby. I pumped and watched Dr. Horrible and loved it! Then I took a shower to get the stinky smokey/bar club smell off and went to bed. v

Okay I should stop right now and take Morella out of the duck before she melts down.

I am pumping now -- late. At least an hour later than I would normally pump and just as I started Morella started her high pitched (but quiet) squealing which means she's pooping. Did I mention she is in the exersaucer? Soon she will start jumping up and down and making sure that poop gets everywhere...hurray! I have to bring the diapers up from the basement, if they are even dry. I am thinking she's going to have to wear a sposie when I am done.

Thank god she didn't poop an hour earlier! We went garage saleing this morning. I left the house with no diaper bag because I figured I was just scouring the neighbhorhood. You know, not going far? Well I found some books for her including Stella Luna and or whatever, a complete old fashioned wooden block set, a bunch of big wooden beads on a shoestring, two old lady dresses, a christmas sweater, an angel for the top of the tree, shelf contact paper, a closet do hickey to "add more space!", rubber duckies including a native american one, and a xmas tree skirt. Overall I did really well! But the baby started to get fussy, it was time to change her diaper, I needed to pump, it was close to eating time for her and her naptime, and I had to pee really bad. I get home, and realize just as I was about to take her out of the carsear "Crap I forgot me keys."

I dumped out my whole bag. Nothing. I searched the car for the extra key that Morella plays with. Not there. Finally I got really mad and called Tim because clearly it is his fault for dissuading me from getting a spare key and hiding it someplace. "Show a little key responsiblity," he preached from his air conditioned cube, with restrooms right down the hall, a snack table with goodies and coworkers who didn't need their diapers changed.

I hung up on his twice. I went to the back and surveyed the house to see if I could break in. Nothing doing. :P Thankfully there was a green blanket out on the porch, so I put Morella in the yard and gave her little naked time. I was happy to see there was no poop. While she was rolling around I went behind the little tree, next to the fences out of view of the neighbors house's as much as I could and went pee. OH that felt so good. But I wouldn't need to water the tree if we just had a stupid key around.

I then turned on the house, rinsed out a liner and used it to wipe Morella and then took the cover, and her back to the car to see if I could make a diaper out of something. Thankfully there was an old fashioned single ply diaper there that I tried to figure out while Morella played a little with her new duckies. Oh and someone gave her a brand new purple care bear! What a lucky girl. Anyway, I forgot to mention I bought her a little baseball hat. It was made out of cotten so I decided it was going to have to be sacrified to become an insert for the diaper for extra absorption. I put it on her, plopped her back in the car seat, gave her the beads to play with, turned on the AC and we were on our way to meet Tim to borrow his keys.

There are a ton of great sales out today. I am almost sorry that Morella finally decided to sleep in this morning a little. I am thinking I want to go tommorrow. Tim can watch Morella in the morning. Though she does love garage sales!

Morale of the story: Have a spare. No matter what your stupid, preachy husband says.

My google reader has been really slow the last couple of days, and I forayed into my website stats and saw that readership is down here too. What's going on folks? Everyone must be on vacation. I find myself searching for more blogs to read. On the other hand, when everyone else isn't posting I find that I end up trying to make up for it. You know instead of complaining about the problem try and do something to remedy it.

Today was okay. Morella was kind of cranky and I heard a lot of low grade "uh uh uh uh uh uh" followed by "AHhhhahhhha hhhh" whenever I walked out of her sight. She didn't take a long nap this morning after her first bottle. I changed her diaper once in the hopes that she would sleep more, but 10 minutes later I heard more "errr errr errr err" on the monitor, gave up all hope of extra sleep and went into find that she had a scrawny little leg sticking through the slats all the way up to her thigh. She didn't seem to thrilled about it but at the same time she wasn't overly upset either. She would just kick her leg and go "ooorrr orr". It was funny.

I guess she was having a whiney day. She ate only 23.5 ounces. We went to the zoo and afterward she cried the whole way back home and kept it up for every little thing. Or at least it seemed like it. Instead of a long walk with the dog, I opted for a long bath time. She got this cow duckie from our friend Andrew this past weekend along with some bath toys that light up. He also gave her a big inflatable rubber duck that she seems to only like when it isn't the bath. I was thinking of maybe using it for a teeny little pool for outside.

I hope she is in a better mood tomorrow. I think I am going to Borders to hear some story man tell some stories.

I turned on the AC this afternoon. I am a sucker for caring about Tim and thinking he would appreciate it when he got back his bike commute from work. I also thought maybe it would help Morella stop being so crabby.

I watched my portions again today and my god it's hard. I mean, by the last pump of the night I feel like I have a headache and all I can think about is food food food. I decided that the headache was real, that I didn't want any more water and that my body was really telling me it needed a snack so I dug out a crappy FiberOne bar from the breakfast bars stash and ate it. I do feel better now.

One other thing, I am going to try and eliminate as much dairy as I can for week, and stop giving Morella any dairy to see if that will help her reflux. I can't help but to think that the introduction of yogurt has coincided with her spitting up now. I guess we'll wait and see. I can't get rid of it all, her formula has a bit of milk in it...but it's so small....I don't know. I wish she would hurry up and outgrow this reflux so I can focus on worrying about her aspirating issues.

Dang it. I had some grand plans to walk to Olbrich Gardens today via Monona Drive, go through the gardens and walk back on the bike path. It was going to be a nice long walk to enjoy the beautiful summer day. Except, Morella just started her afternoon nap at 1:40. I was hoping she would sleep while I was pumping, and then maybe later on take a short evening nap. Sigh. I guess I can use this time to tidy up around the house, wash bottles, freeze milk, make a bottle...do the dishes. Nutz. Why can't someone else do the dishes?

Before her nap and after her bottle I felt like going outside and just walking slowing on the side walk. We walked down to the end of the block and back to up a few houses. I noticed that the Japanese Beetles are back. They must have all emerged over night because there weren't any yesterday or the day before that I noticed. I need to go downstairs and find our bug traps and set it up before our Birch trees get decimated like they did last year. Stupid bugs.

Pluto has an ear infection again. I should have figured that out two days ago when he sat beside me on the couch and he smelled like dog. Stinky dog. Which is unusual, especially since he had a bath less than two weeks ago. Hm maybe that is how he got it - from swimming. In any case, one of his ears looks broken and he shaked it all time. Tim is going to have to take care of that...tonight. I think he also needs to start working on his nails again because the clacking has increased since his last nail trim.

While I am talking about cats -- Migo is now skinnier than ever. But she is still active and looks like she is eating, and pooping and peeing okay and sleeping fine so I guess I shouldn't worry until I can see her entire skeleton. She is such a good kitty. She loves Morella and comes to get pets from her all the time. Today I gave her some kitty treats while we were in the kitchen even though she totally ganked a piece of cataloupe from my bowl this morning -- twice!

This weekend was pretty good, Sunday could have been better as it was the second day in a row that Morella has been boycotting the bottle. Sigh. We stayed around the house most of the day. I took her outside to blow some crappy bubbles for awhile, and then we all took a nap and then headed out to the dog park for a walk. It seems to happen 50% of the time that as soon as I get there, I have to go pee. There isn't a bathroom that is close to the dog park so you pretty much gotta suffer. Sometimes (shh, it's a secret), I run off and do as the roman dogs do behind some shrubbery -- which I HAD to do when I was pregnant) but it was too busy this time for that to happen.

----later-----

Got sidetracked doing the dishes, wiping off the counter, making bottles, cleaning up messes on the floor, doing a load of laundry -- I still have some more thing to do like hang up clothes on the rack, bring up the diapers and sort them, and hang up the bug trap. But I couldn't let this post be abandoned!

Anyway to finish yesterday off, everyone went to bed early but me. I felt like a bad Mom for Morella not eating enough -- feeling like maybe I am not trying hard enough. The pizza I made for dinner sucked (I don't like the bread machines dough recipe, I should find a new one) and I started to feel anxious. Oh I forgot to mention that we bought dog food for Pluto before going to to the dog park. I took Morella in and weighed her again on the pet scale and she registered 15 lbs and 4 oz. That means she only gained two ounces in two weeks or so. An ounce a week! That just threw me for a spin, which of course later devolved into a tornado of anxiety. I feel like I am the only one who is concered about this weight issue and her lack of interest in food. I feel like ... that one actor who I don't like that much who is in Elf, and Blades of Glory -- uh Will Ferrell. Anyway I feel like when he said in Zoolander "I feel like I am taking crazy pills!"

Um. What else. I actually have lots of thoughts rumbling around up there today. One of which is infertility and talking about how a baby was conceived. I guess when I talk about Morella, sometimes I feel compelled to say "We had some help" in getting her -- especially if the conversation is relevant like the person implies it was a shared bottle of wine, an accident while on vacation, or a 'we decided it was time and got lucky on our first try.' However there are a lot of women that don't like to admit this and take offense when someone asks if they had help. I guess that might be more common in cases of multiples and advanced age -- but isn't it better to admit to it? I mean, by not talking about it isn't that perpetuating the feeling that IF (infertility) is something to be ashamed about?

I know I was desperate to hear stories of women who had or needed a little nudge in the right direction to get that bundle of joy. I remember thinking that we were abnormal and somehow failures for not following the happy norm of love, marriage, house, dog and kid. I thought infertility treatments were only for the rich, the old and the biologically handicapped (same sex marriage, cancer survivors, rare cases like missing uterus's etc). I didn't think it could happen to me and I would have loved to have met someone while going through this, in real life, would have meant a lot. I am grateful for the wonderful community of women I have found online who went/are going through the same thing. I don't know what I would have done without them.

Anyway. That's what I was thinking about while doing dishes. I guess, I am also willing to say we needed help because I want to convey just how much this baby was wanted and that she was no mere "accident."

So my little Halo party with my brothers was canceled just now because one of my brothers lost his xbox live ...uh whatever and the other one is tired and the other one is a no show and the other one sold his game because he's a wuss. Sigh.

And Tim made Morella's bottle wrong tonight and when he was feeding her she was choking. I mean it's great that she chokes/coughs now when she aspirates -- but it's quite clear she is not ready to graduate yet from honey consistency. I'm glad I didn't waste my time setting up an appointment for this month. :( Her reflux is terrible the past couple of days too. We are wondering if we should adjust her medicine..but I shrivel at the idea of even giving her more than one shooter of randitine because it's such a pain in the ass to give it to the begin with. I wonder if she could go up on prevacid. My feeling is no. Our pediatrician is such a ... wuss. I guess that's good sometimes.

Sigh. Is it worth fighting for? I don't know. I am beginning to wonder if the reflux is still the cause behind her swallowing issues. I mean there are dozens of babies who have bad reflux that don't have these swallowing issues. Will she ever learn to swallow thin liquids? I thought for sure that we would be done with this problem by the time she was eight months and that's just around the corner with no end in sight.

I want her reflux to stop.
I want her to be able to swallow like a normal baby/kid.

Is that too much to ask?

-------

In other news, Tim's old coworker Andrew came into town today to visit before he moves to Phoenix AZ to join his family. We had lunch at Lazy Jane's and then he and Tim went kayaking on Lake Monona while I stayed home with Morella and worked on cleaning up and organizing the office. I have been meaning to do that for ages and finally did it today! Man having people over is really a good motivator to get stuff done. I wish there was that kind of motivation for crafts, projects or hobbies. Now the office is really cozy and nice. When they got back from kayaking we headed over to La Fete de Marquette and ate some dinner. I had a piece of pizza, some hushpuppies and shared some ice cream and mini pecan pie with Tim. Morella enjoyed the music as always.

Over all it was a good day except the end. Now I have to figure out what to do with my time. Tim and Andrew went out to see Hellboy II.

Photo Catchup

I have pictures to upload before tomorrow's post. So here they are. I hope you don't get sick of them. Let me know if you do and then I will never, ever post them again. *Ever.

BBQ at Sigrid and Matt's

Which one is scarier? The gargoyle ... or

Matt?

Calvin (from Calvin and Hobbes) funny eye squint she got from having leaves touch her head.

Clothing Exchange Party

(Left to Right) Hilary, Lowen, Laima, Sigrid, Amy and myself. There were a lot of clothes, I would have posted a photo of just that but Tim informed me that pictures of piles of clothes is boring and "No one wants to see that."

Door County

Tim imitating the creepy mascot for Not Licked Yet up in Fish Creek, Door County Wisconsin

Visit with Ruth (at Sarah and Dave's)

Our young hostess - Ruth

Morella and Ruth standing -- can you tell who is NOT happy about standing? (She doesn't like to stand unless her belly can lean against something -- like the back of the couch)

Ruth hangs on to Morella's toes while she catches her balance. Meanwhile, Morella is like "Oh goody, fingers!"

Happy babies

Morella in the newly purchased from a garage sale exersaucer that the grandparents bought JUST for her (and future grandbabies). She was watching a riveting game of croquet.

*Just kidding.

Fri..er Mon..er Tuesday Photos: Cousins

I have so many and I had some time today to go through and pick out my favorites for posting. I still have to upload them to kodak and sent invites to those who care and want prints. There are ALOT of pictures. So I am going to just going to group some photos this week and post them. Today's theme is cousins. Here is Morella and her cousin Zeland.

Sidenote: I can't believe how sleepy Morella is today. She's only been up a total of three and half hours so far today! And it's 3:30PM!

Morella takes a moment to tell Zeland that his tempo is a little slow.

Here we see Zeland showing Morella exactly what kind of cheek tuck she needs. "Go for the fish look! Work the pout!"

This picture is cute and all, but the sad (or is it funny?) part of it is Zeland walked around and around the exersaucer holding Morella's kitty above her. She had this look of glee and reached for it several times, following him in his circle until he got bored and just dropped it on the ground out of reach and walked away. Poor Morella! Babies are so gulliable.

Finally, Zeland demonsrates to Morella just exactly where chickens .. er roosters like to roost -- on top of soft little baby heads.

This week I am pretending that my life is a job. You know, no napping in the morning, go to bed at a reasonable time, no using the internet whenever I have a free moment or have to pump -- keep it regulated, get stuff down around the house...maybe. I don't know. I do know I feel like I want some change/order to happen around here. I want to get some projects done that have long been overlooked...

Yeah.

Yesterday Tim had taken a vacation day and spent it getting tons of stuff done around the house. I mean he really went through and licked his to do list! We even had time to eat lunch at Maharaja, and once again they didn't disappoint in the their buffet -- this was the most curries I have ever seen displayed. Morella sat in a high chair, straight as an arrow for the entire time. She played with a spoon, my sunglasses and a straw and sampled some naan, a smidge of mango ice cream and one basmati rice grain. She was so good!

We came back and she and I napped for awhile (I really had a sleep shortage this past weekend), and then played, pumped and then took a walk before the big thunderstorms hit. Since she was warm from the walk, I gave her a bath and she sat up straight again, and played with toys and splashed...and folks I think she is enjoying bath time! It's great! I put her jammies on, gave her a bottle, read a few stories and she was down for the night at 7:50.

Then I was sick of being hungry and not having food around the house so I made some banana bread (using the three very ripe banana's on the table), spaghetti (I had to make my own sauce because we were out), and fruit salad (which sadly tasted a bit oniony because I only rinsed the cutting board in between uses) with whipped topping. We watched Evan Almighty - which was okay and then hit the hay.

I spent way too much time thinking about Dexter and how the season one ended. I proceeded to have dreams about living in a rickety attic where spots on the floor wouldn't support weight and wondering how we were gonna get around that with the baby.

Oh and Laima -- did you get your sail boat yet? And Tim totally looked into how much it would be to buy a kayak. In the end we decided that renting them from rutabaga would be cheaper and more cost effective for the time being. You wanna go Kayak some time?

You know, I never thought I would be happy about pumping. But in this case it's in my own home, sitting in my chair with the pump plugged into the wall. The car adapter works but the suction isn't quite the same so it has to be put on a higher volume which is kind of weird. Plus it's hard to keep the flanges in place when wrangling with a seat belt. Overall, I am glad I bought the adapter. Pumping isn't so bad on vacation when you can do it in the car inbetween things.

We Thursday night we drove up to Tim's parents. Morella did really well transferring from bed to car and slept the whole way with minimal fuss. When we got there though we had a heck of a time setting up the pack and play. The side slats just never want to straighten, and I actually had to cut part of the pack and play outside to try and figure out the mechanism to get it to work. Finally we got it and both told the grandparents that they can't take it down again. After a bottle and a little settling Morella went down okay.

The next day (Friday) she got up with her grandmother, was fed and went down for her nap. While she was napping Tim and I took off for Door County. I wanted to make sure that she would survive a whole day without me. I'm sad to report that she can. :( She totally forgot who I was by the end of the weekend. Mostly. No, the rest of the weekend I was that mean lady to made her drink bottles. :P I guess I am satisfied that she will make it a whole week without me, but I know I am going to miss her so much. I started misting up before I put her down on Thursday night knowing she would have a whole day without seeing me...er vice versa. In the end though, I made it. The key is to keep myself insanely busy so that I don't have to think about it.

Door County was good. We ate breakfast in this little town called Dykesville, which I pronounced Dick's Ville and insisted that Tim had finally returned home. Ha ha ha. The breakfast place made their own bread for the toast and that was just the beginning of all kind of awesome. We both had the stuffed hashbrowns, coffee and were raring to go.

We stopped in Sturgeon Bay to visit their Target because Tim said I did a lousy packing job by forgetting his sandals/or athletic shoes. All he had was his work shoes. To top it off, I only packed short socks (thinking he would wear the Keens). So he bought a new pair of shoes (Chucks), some long socks, a new hat, I got two new hats... I decided I was going to be person who wore hats for the rest of the summer ... a fleece blanket for more diaper liners, some kid bowls (in the dollar bin), sunscreen and a package of animals. We spent at least an hour in Target before I told Tim "We didn't come all the way up to Door County to shop at Target."

There was a 4th of July parade going on in Egg Harbor so we were detoured all the way around it. We drove to Fish Creek and ended up in Ephraim before stopping. We walked into the Visitor's Information center to get some info on the town and what to do and got a brochure on the local kayak rental place. Most of the museums and historical houses were closed so we ended up at the beach and rented two single kayaks. They were out of tandem-- thank god-- because having single boats is really the way to go. No arguments at ALL!. We just wore whatever clothes we had on, a skirt for me and jeans for Tim and just took off our shoes before lathering up in sunscreen and setting out into the water. We were gone for an hour and went around the little bay. I love kayaking. It was such a peaceful thing to do and active. I'm proud to say that the sore I feel today is not from the kayaking but from all the lawn games we played yesterday.

After Kayaking we went to Wilson's Soda Fountain shop (showcased on the travel network) and got a rootbeer float before heading back to Fish Creek to look at some shops. I ran my grubby unwashed hands all over a few $6,000 dollar fur coats before Tim said we should head over to Egg Harbor to cash in our beer coupons that we got at the visitors center for some beer at Shipwreck's brewery. The only operating brewery in Door County. For some reason they are full of wineries. LAME!

After dinner on the way back we stopped to buy $70 dollars worth of fireworks. Then we headed back to Potter (where Tim's parent's live outside of) and almost made Morella an orphan when two miles outside of town a red pickup truck served across the yellow line and almost ran into us at 55 miles an hour. Tim had a feeling that was going to happen so he was ready when it started to happen and swerved out of the way in the nick of time and hit his horn. I looked back and saw that the truck braked slightly and kept going in the wrong lane before realizing their mistake and going back into their lane. I ask you, why in the middle of no where when there are no other cars around did that car pick that one moment to go into the wrong lane? That would have just been perfect for Morella to become an orphan on the one day we leave her for a full day without us.

Thankfully we are still alive, and now we need to think about drawing up wills. :(

We got back, watched the last episode of season one's Dexter and went to bed. Or tried to, it took me a long time because I couldn't (and still can't) get the last episode out of my head. Now that is the sign of a good show.

Saturday we got up and got ready for the family BBQ. Everyone we expected to come came and we ate good food and played yard games all afternoon into the evening. Morella had a sleepy day but when she wasn't conked out she was out socializing and enjoying the great weather with us. We played ladder golf, bean toss, croquet, washer toss, badminton and boccie. You know, it was really cool to play with a bunch of people who didn't need coaxing. I guess it creeps up on me on how sick I get of having to constantly try to convince people to do fun/active stuff. I realized after a day of playing, that I was getting tired of people constantly shooting down my ideas for fun. I have been accused of being a fun nazi on several occasions -- and that doesn't bother me. What does bother me is the real lack of anyone wanting to do something fun outside of their comfort zone. It gets old after awhile and ... well I guess I need to find more active people to play with. Or have more family get togethers with folks who want to get out there and DO something. It's gonna be so much fun when Morella and maybe Crouton are ready for outside fun and games.

The day ended with Tim, Ben, Mark and I shooting off fireworks for the rest of the clan in the church's parking lot. I think next time we aren't going to bother with so many ground fireworks that include jumping jacks and black cats -- those are so boring. The artillery shells and roman candles are where it's at. I think we shot off fireworks for a good two hours and went through many books of matches. Let that be another lesson - bring lots of fire!!

Today, Tim and I overslept until 8.33. As soon as I realized what happened I started pumping while Tim got me some breakfast and started getting ready for church. I can't believe we slept through Morella's morning wake up! To be fair we forgot the monitor and Tim's Mom said she would do the morning routine. Still, I was sure that we would get up. We always do or at least my boobs wake me up. I guess Morella has gotten up, eaten and went back to sleep for her morning nap with little fuss. In any case, we made it time - Morella got freshly blessed, we sang some songs, heard a story about a balloon and met some nice townspeople. Then packed up and headed over to Sarah and Dave's for a late Brunch, which was really breakfast for lunch.

Sarah's house is amazing! It has come along from the last time I was there and from a year ago it would be unrecognizable. It's like the fanciest bed and breakfast we ... no wait we could never afford a bed and breakfast that nice! We had a wonderful meal with little organic strawberries, veggie eggs, freshly baked cinnamon rolls, sausage and awesome coffee. Morella and Ruth spent a good portion of the time playing with each other (with a little help from their Daddy's) and working on their new band while I did my best to keep up with the action with my camera. Gosh I wish I lived closer to Sarah. If Morella could play with Ruth at least once a week she would learn how to crawl, talk, and do interior design (picked up from Ruth's Momma) in to time! Not to mention I would have a walking/crafting/book club partner.

I could have stayed longer but my pump was calling to me and Ruth and Morella needed their afternoon naps. We wanted to utilize Morella's nap for driving time to minimize on car ride fussiness. Not that Morella is really fussy in the car. She likes to go for car rides and see new places. We both ended up sleeping the majority of the car ride home. Ahh sleep. Got home, fed Morella then went for a walk. Tim fetched Pluto while I put Morella down to sleep -- boy was she ready for it! She had a HUGE weekend. Then I spent the remainder of the evening drinking strawberry daiquiris and catching on the internet while Tim did the same thing in the office.

There will be some great pictures to post from this weekend since I was out of town on Friday and it was a holiday I think we can make an exception for Friday photos being posted early this week/late last week. But for now, I want to take the shower I missed out on this morning before bed. Stay tuned!

So we are heading up to visit Tim's parents for the weekend and for them to have trial run of taking care of Morella tomorrow. I am nervous about it all. No, sure they are quiet competent people but you know how it is. It's my baby!

Plus, you know I am so unprepared. I have to go to BRU to buy a car adapter for my pump, and then I would also like to go to Goodman's to pick up my rings. I guess those are are the two things we HAVE to do, in addition to dropping Pluto off at Sigrid and Matt's this evening and packing the car.

Last night we went out to eat at El Pescador. It's a Mexican/South American restaurant that specialized in seafood. It's brilliant really. All of our food was great, it was kid friendly (though no changing in the bathroom), and it was a blast hanging out with Rachel and Mike and watching the babies get to know each other. Henry and Morella are only two weeks apart in age. Morella made poor Henry cry twice with her very enthusiastic talking/shouting/grunting -- I guess I am so used to her style of communication it shocks me whenever another baby is horrified by ... well just wait. Maybe she said something in 'baby' that was really offending.

I have to cut this short. I just had my first case of "why is the baby quiet and making 'mmmmm mmm" munch noises? Crap! She found a piece of paper! I fished it out and all is well. But what a stinker! Okay, off to get dressed and pick my my little trickster from the neglectosaucer.

RIP Koopa
10.10.03 - 7.1.08

The sad thing is, I can't find the one picture I took of her. I think it's on the older computer which isn't hooked up. :( She lived a long and fruitful life. She was really old and frail near the end. Blind in one eye and it was shrunken, she was clumsy and didn't take as good as care of herself as she used too, she didn't use the running wheel as much. I feel bad, I should have cleaned her cage one last time so that she could have died in clean conditions. Sigh.

On to the rat I guess. Who knows when the inlaws will take the rat back. In the meantime we decided to call it Jenner. I bought it a running wheel and it's sort of growing on me. I am trying to think of a place for it upstairs in the office so it doesn't feel so lonely and isolated in the basement. Listen to me. Rat's feel? Come on. There are millions of rats that live happily in sewers. Anyway.

I dropped Tim off at work this morning because he had a lot of crap to bring with him and it's supposed to rain a lot this afternoon and coming home on his bike with that would have been a pain. Plus we are meeting some old friends for dinner -- Tim's bff in high school/early college Mike and his wife Rachel who had a baby boy two weeks before Morella -- on her due date actually. :)

After I dropped him off I stopped at Gotham Bagel to try it out. I got a cuppa joe and a breakfast sandwich. Man, you should see the size of the bagels they sell for a buck. They are like twice the size of Einstein. HUGE as big as your head bagels. All I could think of when I saw them was "That is a week's worth of carb servings in that one bagel." Thankfully the breakfast sandwich I got didn't use one of the monster bagels.

As you can see I am not snoozing while Morella is. I woke up this morning feeling pretty good and awake. I hope to use that during the day to help me get some stuff done. I want to make a rhubarb stir cake at some point so that I can drop some off at Laima's when I return her party dishware. Plus the recipe says it tastes better the next day, so I want to give it time to be tasted tomorrow.

Oh I figured out what the $1.49 was a target -- it was for disposable travel wipes. So I wasn't ripped off after all. ;)

We watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night. What a long movie. It was okay. I remember when I first read Harry Potter I fell in love with the whimsy of it. But OotP made it quite clear that the movie was no longer whimsical. They are going to finish the series out right?

I want to see Hancock or Wall-E this weekend. I am also excited about Batman because it's filled with hotties -- Christian Bale and Heath Ledger is like a hottie sandwich. Oh my!

Funky Dunk. I have been in one. Today I decided to try and take it easy and sleep when the baby sleeps. So I took a nap with her this morning, and afternoon. It was nice. I even had a little extra time to solve the mystery of the missing bottle (again). It wasn't lost, just the nipple was and all it did was fall into a drawer. Whew! I even washed bottles, did my pumping and that was about it.

My Mom sent me a guilt trip letter yesterday. Let me just say that is doesn't really motivate me to finish her overdue birthday present any time soon.

I went to Target this evening full of intentions on buying something for dinner or a snack or something. I never do. I did end up trying on 13 bras in the hope of finding one that fits and is flattering. I walked away with one I didn't really hate. Morella was super good, sitting in her cart like a big girl and even put up with three trips to the fitting room in order to find this bra.

I also looked for bath toys and couldn't find a section for it. I did find two wind up sharks that swim in the water though. I figured they would do. We do have a cup and a bowl and ball, in addition to her rubber ducky but that's it. I was thinking about the total cost of the trip when I was done. It was $53 dollars! I didn't get that much stuff. Let's see.

Formula - $14.89
New Bottle Brushes (2) generic: 1.97
Size 2 Target Brand Diapers (40): $5.74
Playtex Bra: $14.99
Target Brand SOMETHING (I don't have it, whatever it is): $1.49
Wind up Toy: $2.99
Hi Cut Underwear (3 pairs): $6.98
Black Photo Frames: $2.50

Total: $53.57

Gah! I wish I had been paying attention when that random 1.49 thing was rung up. It's hard to do that when you have a small baby who is getting fussy. I could have bought a coffee for that 1.49 plus tax.

At least we only buy one pack of diapers and one can of formula a month. That stuff adds up!

Double Gah I just burned my foot by dropping a piece of pizza hot out of the oven when the tomato sauce splattered. It really really hurts.