March

February has come and gone, with it tons and tons and feet of snow, most of which has now melted. Our tiny little yard looked like a battleground after the snow disappeared... big tree branches all over the place, a thousand little piles of dog turds, not to mention all the pine needles and leaves that we never raked up in the fall... Nate and I spent all this past weekend (which was GORGEOUS) outside raking and raking and bagging and it looks so much better now, even if there still isn't any grass...

Last week we also had an interesting couple of days when our fridge decided, after months of making this really annoying loud clonking noise, to die completely. Of course, I didn't realize it until it had been dead for so long that all the frozen food was totally defrosted...thank goodness for friends with deep freezers with space. All the fridge food was loaded into coolers with bags and bags of ice... this was Thursday. They finally delivered our new fridge yesterday, and it's so shiny and clean and new and COLD and it's just fantastic.

This morning Nate took off work and the three of us went to a Rocknoceros concert at Jammin' Java. Sounds kinda lame, but it's actually a really good time. Babygirl is slow to warm up to the idea of concert, staying close to Mama and Daddy at first, but after a while she enjoys getting up there and being part of the action.






Fi wasn't SO much into the dancing while I was shooting this little video, she was a bit more intent on sticking her hand inside the back of her diaper. Which was actually kind of embarassing. She has become kinda fascinated with that lately. In the past couple weeks, we've had three instances of "I'm done napping and now I think it would be fun to reach into my dirty diaper and make a poop painting on the sheets of my crib..wheeee Mama isn't this fun!??!?!" Yesterday she tried it at the end of her morning nap, but was thwarted by the zip-up footie pajamas. Although she made a valiant effort and managed to get one arm outside of jammies. She is too much.



In completely unrelated news, I haven't given any updates regarding baby numero dos recently... that's probably because everything is progressing just fine, no issues beyond the fact that I'm a little anemic and tend to be a bit hypoglycemic. Neither of which is surprising, I've always tended that way. Just means I need to eat frequent small meals and take an iron pill. I'm also supposed to take it easy on things like sugar and white flour and simple carbs... all those things that make up delicious snacks. Instead I have to do proteiny complex carb things. Like wheat pitas and hummus. And hardboiled eggs. Which isn't as delicious as bagels or candy, but still pretty good. I'm 30 weeks along now, so we have entered the final stretch, the final 10 weeks. I'm actually counting down using LOST episodes, because there are only 10 left till the end... the final episode is slated to air May 23rd, and I'm slated to have this kid May 18th. We'll just have to wait and see which finishes first- this pregnancy, or a show that we belatedly only got into last summer and has sucked us in like none other. I've got my next appt in a week, I'll od my best to update again at that point, maybe even including a how much have a gained type update?

I've also decided to become better about cooking dinner again. I was doing so well back in the fall, and then it fell away to NOTHING. I saw this cookbook in the checkout aisle at the grocery store (I fall for that stuff Every. Time.) and it caught my eye. "Fix It and Forget It. 200 Slowcooker recipes using 5 ingredients or less." The way I see it- I have both energy and time in the mornings. In the evenings I've got time, but I'm also usually beat. Getting up the energy to make dinner just seems like a monumentous effort. So if I slowcooker it, I can prepare dinner earlier in the day when I've still got some get up and go and then I can still be tired and blargh in the late afternoon and yet manage to get some actual dinner on the table. I went through the book and marked a bunch of recipes that looked tasty, added the ingredients to my shopping list, so we'll see how it all turns out... I'm hopeful.

On that note, I need to go get a little snack and then maybe a bit of a nap while Fi is still sleeping... here's hoping.

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Snow. and Snow.

Yesterday Nate left at 5am to catch a cab. A cab to the airport. To catch a plane to SanFran and then on to Shanghai. This morning at 10am we videochatted with that fool who'd stayed up until 11pm after traveling halfway around the world, just to say good morning to us. He'll be gone a week, and we already miss him around here, but it sounds like he is going to have a really great trip, and we should be able to talk a few more times throughout the week. Thank goodness for Google videochat.

Also this morning at 9am, it started snowing. Just flurries at first, I thought it wouldn't add up to much of anything. Then it picked up, and kept snowing the whole entire day long. After lunch I took the little one outside to play. We walked down to the mailbox, picked up the mail and stuck it in the back of babygirl's sled. Her gorgeous little wooden sled on metal runners that her Great-Grandpa Troutman made. Made from a sled that was Grandma's when she was a little girl. So it's a pretty special sled. And she absolutely loves it. Sitting in the sled, walking in the snow, eating the snow... she seems to be a cold weather girl.

Catching snowflakes on her tongue.

Now she's down for the count and I've cozied myself up on the couch for another evening of solo TV watching. Though I've cut myself off from doing anything like watching 4 episodes of Criminal Minds right before going to bed... I couldn't fall asleep for anything last night. Every little noise I would open my eyes, all "oh NO! It's an intruder! A rapist! A murderer! A kidnapper!" Normally I can watch things that freak me out, and then later when I start to get all pathetic and creeped out I just scoot over to Nate's side of the bed and while he doesn't wake up, he's still enough to reassure me that I just have an overactive imagination, and that everything is normal and fine and okay and it's just the wind, for crying out loud. But not last night. I was all on my own. So tonight it's just straight home renovation shows. Maybe a little Hoarders. Those will let me sleep.

And now, even though it's kind of chilly in here, I've got a hankering for some ice cream. So I am about to go serve up some mint chocolate chip and I will leave you with some comparison pictures.

Making a snow angel on patio table last March.

Making a snow angel today... though I did still have to move her arms and legs.

Last year she wasn't so sure about the whole idea of snow.

This year she looooooves it.

Oh, and PS? The girl is 15 months old today. 15 whole months. She's got her checkup on Monday, so be prepared to be regaled with all sorts of stats and percentiles as to just how tiny she still is.

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Hurray! Yay!

Baby is 10 months old today. Ten months. Holy crap.

And yesterday she finally learned how to clap. I think it's the Rocknocerous shows we've been going to.

Not much to report- it's been a quiet weekend. We finally got into watching LOST, and that's basically all we did all weekend. We borrowed the first season from a guy Nate works with like a YEAR ago and we finally watched it. Now we have to wait for him to lend us season two...

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Thursday morning.

I forgot how much of a morning person I am. After I left my job last summer, I have been pretty much reveling in sleeping late whenever I can. Which happens more than you would think. People always were telling me how early babies get up in the morning, how horrific it is when they wake for the day at 5am, blah blah. Of course, I half don't want to say this out loud, but my baby is actually rather considerate when it comes to the mornings. Sure, she's still waking up twice a night on average, but in the mornings? 8 o'clock is early. Yesterday we all slept until 9:15. (Nate is also able to sleep late, since he doesn't have to be at work until 10)

But last night baby was pretty cranky and fussy and tiredish, so I put her down a smidge earlier than normal. 7:30 instead of 8:00. Which meant that by 7:00 this morning, she was awake and ready to start the day. I was not so keen on he idea, because I stayed up stupidly late, as usual, doing what I don't know (ok, yes I do know. I was folding laundry and browsing the interwebs and watching Stewart/Colbert and Michael and Michael Have Issues which is actually a pretty funny show and also flipping through porn my Ikea catalog) but ANYWAYS I was up until like 1:30, so suffice it to say that I was not actually all that interested in getting up at 7am, especially since I knew that I had finished all the coffee two days ago and hadn't bought more because I developed some sort of weird grocery store aversion since the baby was born. But that kid was in there crying, so I got up and was surprised to find that I was actually okay with being awake and out of my bed. So I nursed her, changed her, brought her downstairs for her second and third courses of breakfast (ahhh yes, I'll start with an order of the mother's milk, then for the main course I'll take a tray full of cheerios, and then let's see, I guess I'll finish with some of your finest canned peaches, cut up into very small bits.)

By the time Fiona had finished her breakfast (No breakfast for me at this point in the story, stupid thyroid meds. Making me wait an hour before eating anything.), I had made up my mind to run to the grocery store for a. Coffee, and b. Lunchmeat. Because poor Nathan has peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch way more often than any 27-year-old man should.

I could have thrown on some sweatpants and run out the door. But I did not. Thanks to countless hours spent watching WNTW (That's What Not to Wear, for those of you who aren't in the know) I am very cognizant of the fact that you are supposed to wear actual clothes when you leave the house. Even to the grocery store. So not only did I get dressed (in a skirt, no less), I did one better. I also did my makeup. That's right. By 8am I was dressed and accessorized and out the door with makeup on, feeling fabulous. Thank you, Stacy and Clinton. It's my very own "Chic mom-on-the-go" look.

So out the door, trashcan dragged to the curb, baby in carseat, and go.

And you know what? I don't actually mind grocery shopping at this time of day. There are a thousand open parking spaces, there was nobody in line at the deli, all the employees were friendly and nice and not at all frazzled and annoyed and world-hatey yet (I'm looking at you, employee of the month), there was no line at checkout. Only two people gushed over the baby, instead of the usual 4 hundred. (I'm not going to go into it, but that's pretty much why I avoid the grocery store. I can't handle all the attention I get because of the insane cuteness of my child. I know, I know. I'm all kinds of messed up.)

Did my grocery shopping, got home, brought the trashcan back in from the curb (good thing I didn't leave it for Nate to do, cause our trashman comes way earlier here than at our old place, and they're weird about not letting you put the trash out the night before), put away groceries, put the baby down for a nap, made lunch for the boy, ground coffee, brewed coffee, made out with the boy, set out doughnuts, cleaned up from making lunch and the baby's breakfast, said goodbye to the boy, poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down to blog about all of that.

So. I believe that that answers, once and for all, the question of whether or not I am a morning person. I am. Could you imagine the things I could accomplish if I got up this early every day?!!?!?

Fun dangly earrings, huge cup of coffee, apple cinnamon donut.
It's a good day already.

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Let's hear it for employment!

Tonight's top story- I got a job! Just a couple hours every afternoon, making sure a 10-yr-old boy does his homework, gets to football practice, and then I start dinner. And then I go home and start my own dinner. I'm excited. It's gonna be great. More funds=awesome.

In other news, our basement is quickly becoming the hottest new photo studio this side of... the tracks? Anyways, it's going to be awesome. Spent some time at Ikea today, getting things like new flooring and a footstool.

Also got one of those rollercoaster toys (you know, the ones with the beads) for Fiona, and a wok (for to cook stir-fry. Yay!), and some of those awesome cookies from Ikea, with the chocolate in the middle...mmmm so good. All awesome things.

In sports news- my fantasy baseball team was in first place until the all-star break and now they are slipppppppping into a distant second just like the Red Sox. I am not happy about either of those. Not awesome.

In closing, today was stellar. Three out of four things I am thinking of as I head to bed are awesome. Which makes it a good day.

Plus, there is this-

I don't think I need to say any more.


Oh! But I will. Say more, I mean. This morning we were watching Sesame Street, and I hear "duh nuh nuh nuh...duh nuh nuh nuh nuh...The Final Countdown" and then who is there but GOB BLUTH but he was playing "Max the Magician" but he was GOB! On Sesame Street! And it was awesome and I must say, I enjoyed it immensly. And I very excitedly texted Nate to tell him. Plus tivoed it so he could watch it when he came home from work. That too, was awesome.

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Saturday the 14th

So yesterday was Valentines day. We don't overdo Valentine's day here. We say "I love you" and we plan to make a nice romantic dinner but then we end up eating quesadillas at 4:30pm because we skipped lunch and then we're really not hungry for dinner and so we just skip dinner until we're really hungry at like 11pm and then just make some noodles. Then we eat ice cream and watch all the shows we tivoed during the week.

Actually, there WAS a bit of excitement last night. As we sat there watching Thursday's episode of Kath & Kim, we heard this BANG! come from the general area of the kitchen. "What in the hell was that?", Nate asked. I did not know. I said it sounded like a bird flew into a window or something. We dismissed it with a "That was weird." and kept watching TV. A bit later we decided to have some ice cream. So we paused the show (God, I'm spoiled with this DVR business. Can you believe I actually grew up with no TV? And now I get all pissed if I have to watch something live and sit through the commercials) and Nate went over to serve up the ice cream. I stayed on the couch, because well somebody had to keep the couch warm. And from the kitchen I hear a "What the...oh man."

When I went over to survey the scene, this is what I saw-

Yeah, that's an exploded can of Coke. In the freezer.

When I was making the quesadillas that afternoon at around 4:30, I decided I wanted a Coke with mine. And since we didn't have any refrigerated, I grabbed one out of the drawer and stuck it in the freezer to cool it down real quick while my quesadilla cooked. But then I forgot about it. And I grabbed a Sam Light. And drank THAT with my quesadilla. While I was eating, a friend called with some very exciting news, and so by the time I'd finished eating, I'd just completely forgotten about the Coke.

So that explains the bang of when turned out NOT to be a bird flying into a window. And the really funny thing is, this isn't the first time I've exploded a can of Coke. Except the first time it was in my car, and it was because it got too hot. And let me tell you. A car full of exploded coke that is left to bake in the North Carolina sun in an area thats known to be full of those tiny little ants? Not so much fun when you come back to it three days later. Very full of tiny ants, and stickiness everywhere. This is gonna be a cakwalke to clean up, comparatively.

But we had last Thursday's episode of The Office to get back to, so we just served up the ice cream, left the freezer full of coke slushie, and settled back on the couch.

Fiona slept through it all. She fell asleep at like 9pm last night, and slept in her little bouncy chair till like 2am when we finally moved her. Poor little sickie.

Valentine's day is over-rated, y'all.

French Silk ice cream, however- is amazing.

On our first Valentine's day together, Nate staged an elaborate setup with roses, and Hershey's kisses, and a teddy bear, and blah blah... I later made fun of the teddy bear and now on our 4th Valentine's day all I get is ice cream, tv shows, and exploding coke. I think I lucked out.

Better than a teddy bear, any day.

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