Valentimes Day.

The girls and I had a busy morning.

First up- a doctor appt that I stupidly scheduled for 9:00am. Most days I am just crawling out of bed at 9. (I know, I know. It's just that the baby will usually remain content in her room until then, and the big one usually crawls into our bed at like 8ish and occupies herself with Netflix or Cupcakes! or a downward spiral of random Youtube inappropriateness that always begins to go bad when she clicks on anything Dora-related on my iPhone until I tell her the phone needs a nap and then I begin parenting for the day. I just can't resist the way she asks "Oh, Mama? Do you think you would never mind if I play with your phone?") (Also not on days I run. On days I run the alarm starts going off at 7:15 and I can typically mange to drag myself outside by 7:55.)

But I digress. 9am appt. Which I was very nearly on time for. So close. We finished up there by like 9:30 but we were all dressed and had a full diaper bag packed and I sure as heck wasn't heading home already. Baby's day out! Huzzah!

I had heard on City and Baby's blog about this new café that opened up fairly recently, and had been wanting to check it out. So we headed to the north side of the river (according to their Facebook account, they're actually considered to be in the central-west part of the city) to check out Café Tiramisu.

Love it.

The thing that drew me there was the play room I had heard mention of. It sounded much less crazy than our usual haunts, and I was right. It was actually relaxing. They had this little room off to the side with some blocks, books, a couple random toys, and OH MAMA LOOK BIG IPHONES. (Well, you're close, kid. They're called iPads.) Not a crazy runaround pandemonium center like Cafe O'Play, but my girls were more than engaged. I parked them in there and showed them how to turn on the iPads and then I went outside the room and sat down with a cafe mocha and a scone and ACTUALLY DRANK MY COFFEE WHILE IT WAS STILL HOT. Which is kind of a big deal. I really liked how I was able to sit outside of the kid's room and still monitor the munchkins through a big plate glass window. We'll definitely be going back.







I also caved and let them get pre-lunch cupcakes. It's Valentine's Day! That's a good enough reason, right? Shut up. It is.



My sincerest apologies to the staff of Cafe Tiramisu for the obscene amount of cupcake crumbs my children mashed into your sofa. I really did try to clean up the best I could. Thanks for a lovely morning.

Then we went and met Nate for lunch. Is it a Valentine's Day tradition yet if we have had a Japanese food lunchdate two years in a row? Or do we need a third year to really call it a tradition?

And then we came home. And there was napping throughout the land. Or at the very least, quiet containment while Mama edited a couple images and wrote up a blog post.

Tonight our big Valentine's Day dinner will be... leftovers. Romantic, right? But by God, there will be ice cream for dessert.

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Typical.

Glarghhhhhhh. It's been two days of hibernation, but today we had to go out. Had a doctor appointment this morning, so there was no choice. We were going out.

Of course it took us like 4 times as long to get out the door. I'd boot, hat, mitten, coat, and scarf one child, then turn to the other. The first took this opportunity to de-scarf, de-hat, de-boot, so I'd have to turn again and start over... you get the idea. Once I finally got everyone ready, we get outside, we buckle in, I go to start the car annnnd... welll. It started, but once I pulled my foot off the clutch it stalled out. Multiple times. Apparently cars don't appreciate temperatures of -40 any more than I do.

Finally made it to doctor, appointment done, but then it was time to go and we had to do the whole hat/coat/boot/mitten routine all over again. GAHHHHHHH.

Since we were out, we also decided to meet some friends at the mall for lunch. Of course, once I got there I found that I had left my wallet at home and had no money with which to buy lunch. Luckily a friend spotted me $20, which was good because at this point it was nearly 12:00 and I had eaten exactly nothing yet all day long. Lunch acquired, tray carried one-handed allll the way across a crowded food court, baby on opposite hip. I made it all the way to our table before I spilled the entire contents of my large iced tea onto my tray, table, seat, self, and floor.

Sigh.

But all in all, a nice morning. It was great to get out of my prison home sweet home and see some actual grown-up people and have at least half-conversations between running to stop 1-yr-olds from throwing themselves from the tops of playground structures and 3-yr-olds from running away to go look at whatever it is that grabs the interest of 3-yr-olds. Which is anything and everything.

I even got smoothies from Orange Julius for the girls on our way out of the mall. And don't worry. When Violet dumped the entire contents of hers out the front of the stroller and onto the floor- I told the mall cleanup guy. He didn't seem to mind. Nor was he surprised.

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Mother of the Year, obviously.

Today we had a busy day. We had a doctor appointment for Fiona, I decided that since the office is only like 1.5 miles from our house, I would skip my run this morning and just do a destination run to the doctor's office, and then after that over to playgroup at the rec centre, where we would play and then lunch, then head to the library to return my very overdue, non-renewable items, then back home for naptime. THAT was the plan.

First problem: Stayed in bed too long. Not a problem normally, normally that kind of morning is STELLAR. But on this particular morn, I probably should have gotten out of bed because it threw my whole morning late, which resulted in me leaving only 15 minutes to run the 1.5 miles. Which I can allllmost do, but not so much while pushing a double jogger on a windy day, especially when faced with

Second problem: It's actually like 2 miles to the doctor's office, and not the mere 1.5 that I had guessimated. Thus, we arrived about 10 minutes late. And then she couldn't find us in the appointment book, because apparently

Third problem: Today's doctor appointment wasn't actually today. It was NEXT Thursday at 9:45. Damn. We got in anyways, but as a walk-in, which meant we had to wait like 45 minutes.

So, doctor appt completed, just a bit behind schedule. Run the second leg, get to playgroup, meet a couple new people, sit down for lunch. Discover, while pulling lunchbox from basket under stroller, that

Fourth problem: Left my freaking library stuff on the counter in the kitchen. They're going to revoke my library privileges, I just know it. Eh, whatever. Guess we can go back onto the massive indoor playground for some extra after-lunch playtime.

The girls were thrilled with this turn of events. They love that place. Fiona was running all over everywhere and climbing and sliding and etc etc and so forth. Violet and I were sitting in the bottom part of the play structure, in the designated toddler area. I was sitting there reading an article on my iPhone doing something important that doesn't make me sound like a horribly neglectful parent. Suddenly I realize that

Fifth problem: Violet is no longer sitting there at my feet. Trying to look totally in control, I walk over to where Fiona is playing with a cozy coupe, chat with her a minute, ask her if she knows where her little sister is. I'm not super worried, the playground is completely enclosed, with like 4 levels of buzzer-activated doors to get in and out, I know she is SOMEWHERE IN THIS GENERAL VICINITY, so I casually start glancing around, all "It's cool, but WHERE THE SHIT IS MY BABY?!?!?!?" She's nowhere on the ground. That leaves one option. She climbed up into the big kid play structure that is "designed for children ages 4-10". No, she wouldn't... would she?

click to enlarge, suckahs.

I dive into the structure, around and around and around the spiral staircase at it's center, heart beating a bit faster the higher up I get, until... I hear a giggle. I turn a corner. I see the BIGGEST shit-eating grin.
So darn pleased with her little self. So since I am such a midget a petite woman, and can fully stand up in this structure designed for children one-third of my age, we stayed up there to play for a little while.



Annnd, that's pretty much the day. We did have quite a time once we started on the final leg of the run home, Fiona sort of lost it and sobbed "but Mama, I don't want to go home yet! I want to go to my-kea!" but that's just your garden variety long day/late nap type stuff.

Even with all the problems, I'd say that overall, today was massively successful. If that tells you anything about my "normal".

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Too busy for this.

So I actually don't have time to write up a blog post right now, due to the whole moving to Canada thing... but I'm sitting here watching Violet scoot all over the room, in that "not quite crawling but more than just rolling over" way she has, and realizing that I HAVE to take the time to do at least short posts to track that sort of thing. I just went back and read through a few old posts from when Fiona was that age, and guess what? If I had no written down record of it, I WOULD HAVE NO CLUE when she did things like crawl, or cut teeth (which Violet is also doing right now, actually), or walk, or talk... I really have to be better at keeping track.

So.

Violet is just shy of 6 months old. Fiona just turned two. They had doctor visits last week, they are both TEENSY TINY little girls, Violet is actually smaller than Fiona was at that age, if you can believe that.

Fiona is getting so big, picking out her own outfits (currently she's wearing "cowboots" and jammies with my fashion scarf around her neck, and of course don't forget the "pitty" eye makeup she's got on) and drawing pictures and asking for chicken "nuckets" every day for lunch and dancing and playing (she just yesterday started doing somersaults and the "fips" (splits)) and grabbing her baby sister in a big hug and saying CHEEEEEESE every time she sees a camera, and in general "showing her personality", (which as all the parents know, is code for TANTRUMS GALORE) and she's just so terribly, wonderfully, completely TWO.

Violet is somehow nearly six months old, which is just amazing to me. She is mobile, this one. Creeping all over the room, finding the one little scrap of paper and shoving it in her mouth. Speaking of her mouth, she's got one little tooth poking through her gums (you can't see it, but trust my boob- IT'S THERE. And it's SHARP.), and unfortunately we can't use those teething tablets we used with her big sister because they've been freaking recalled like 97 thousand other things recently. But she's been really happy anyways, she is such a happy baby the majority oof the time. She nearly slept through the night one. time. A nice 7-hour stretch. But that only happened once and now we are back to that waking up about every hour and a half to two hours. Which is fairly exhausting, but at least all she wants is a quick snack and then she's back out. During the day she is smiley, and likes exploring, and talks with her big sis, and has even been behaving better in the car.

The two of them together are just too much. Fiona still holds on to baby sister's carseat when we drive anywhere. Violet cheers up when Fiona sings to her. They even share a room now, which was kind of middle of the night, spur of the moment thing that really took. I was worried that Violet would wake Fiona up and vice versa, but it's been really good for both of them. At 8:00 every night we all go upstairs and change into jammies and brush teeth and read stories and say prayers, and then Violet nurses and both girls get tucked in; we turn on the lullabies and the nightlight and then they both happily fall asleep. When Violet wakes up to eat again a few hours later, Fiona wakes up only enough to feel reassured that we are here and that she can safely stay sleeping in her bed.

Usually by the end of the night I get tired of sitting up to nurse and Violet gets pulled into bed with me, which means that by about 7am there is another little somebody standing next to my bed saying "Hi!". Nate and I are suckers, which means that we normally end up pulling her into bed with us as well. The other day we suggested that she go back to her own bed, but she just cuddled down into the covers and said "No! Suggle!" and really. Are you going to refuse that?

It's going so fast. I can't NOT take time to write things down.

Picking out pumpkins on Fiona's 2nd birthday

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Guess what!

As you may have deduced from the recent lack of "ugh, I'm still pregnant" type posts... I had the baby!

And she is a girl! And pretty flippin sweet!

May I present...

Violet Lousie LaMartina
born May 16th, 2010 at 4:55pm
weighing 8lb, 5oz
20.5 inches long

I am working on getting the birth story all written up, I probably won't post it up publicly here cause you know, tmi and all that, but if you're actually interested in hearing all the gory details, just let me know and I am totally cool with sharing it privately. But I will give the basic gist of how things went down.

Last Friday I was.. ugh. Feeling very ugh. Was supposed to go to this mom's night out thing, and totally ended up bailing cause I was so anti-social. Went to bed crazy early (like, seriously. I was in bed by like 8:45) and woke up Saturday feeling much better. We headed out to Warrenton for the day, for a friend's graduation party. And that was very very nice. It was just family, we all just chilled out for the entire day, it was great. Pregnancy-wise, there was a big ole NOTHING going on. No contractions or anything. Saturday night I decided to continue with the niceness of the day and not get all worked up about "argh when is the baby going to come" and stop browsing the inane STUPIDNESS of pregnancy message boards where people agonize over "is this a contraction?" and "how can I tell if I'm in labor?" and crap like that. Nate and I had a nice relaxing evening- ate some pizza and ice cream, caught up on some tivo'd shows, I even had a small glass of red wine. We went to bed as normal, at a decent hour, even, because we had to get up for church in the morning.
Sunday morning at around 5:15am I woke up to pee (for the fourth time). Noticed some cramping. Noticed that it was coming and going. Considered timing it on my handy dandy contraction timer app that I had downloaded to my phone, but quickly realized that this was most likely the real thing and that I should probably grab a little more sleep if I could. I dozed off and on until I heard Fiona waking up at around 7:30. I brought her into our bed for a little morning cuddle time, and I let Nate know that we were probably going to be seeing this new baby by tonight. We still planned on going to the 10:30 Mass though, cause the contractions, although they were coming at about every 3-4 minutes or so, were fairly mild still. By 8:00 Nate had Fiona downstairs in her highchair eating breakfast, the contractions had gotten a smidgen stronger, and I suggested that maybe we should try and hit the 9:00 Mass instead. So I jumped in the shower real quick. When I got out of the shower at 8:30 and started to get dressed, I decided that maaaaaaybe going to Mass was not in the cards for this morning. I started timing the contractions for real on my phone, and we made heads up calls to our baby/dog watching support team.
For the next two hours I timed contractions while we ate breakfast, started packing up what we needed for the hospital, gathered up Fiona's things, made t-shirts (seriously, I had designed these big sister/little sister/brother tshirts and I had never gotten around to printing them onto the transfer paper and ironing them on, and it became very important to me that I get this done before we leave.), fed the dog, etc. We called the doctor at around 10:30. At this point contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart, lasting 45-60 seconds each. Fiona was just playing with some toys during all this, but she was also interested in what I was doing, and definitely started copying me when I started concentrating and breathing through each contraction. Which was adorable.
We headed for the hospital at around 11:30. We dropped Fiona off with some friends of ours on the way over, and the minute we pulled away from their house I burst into tears because, "The next time I see her she'll be a big sister and she won't be my baaaaaaaaaby anymore..."

At the hospital, the abridged version:
Got to the hospital around noon, got all checked in, got situated in the room by 12:30, and then we did the whole labor/delivery thing for a few hours. Baby was born at 4:55.

Annnd it was great. When she came out, nobody did the whole "It's a girl!" announcement thing, they just sort of slapped her up onto my chest and I was trying to look and check if this child was a boy or a girl... and so I think I was the one that got to announce that it was indeed a girl. I then turned to Nate and said "Oh crap, we haven't agreed on a girl's name!"

As they cleaned her up, we all discussed possible name choices... we really didn't have that moment of "when you see her you'll just know what her name is". It took us maybe a half hour before we decided that she was, in fact, a Violet. And the middle name... well, that one took us two full days to think of and agree on.

On Monday Nate brought Fiona to the hospital to meet her baby sister, and there was some SERIOUS cuteness overload happening. Fiona kept wanting to hold and kiss the baby, and to snuggle with me in my bed, and then we all sat together on the bed and ate dinner from the caf and watched some tv and snuggled some more before Nate brought Fiona back home.

Things got a little tricky towards the end of our hospital stay, as Violet developed a bit of jaundice, which required some phototherapy and supplementing breastfeeding with some formula, all of which was very overwhelming and confusing but which turned out just fine. We had our second follow-up visit at the pediatrician's office yesterday and everything is looking great. She's still looking a tad yellowy, but the doc said that will it should clear up in time.

We are still settling in, Fiona has been super extra clingy for the past few days, and has had some trouble sleeping through the night. But its a big adjustment, learning to share Mama and Daddy with this new little thing that cries. I don't expect it to be easy.

Even with the lack of sleep and the craptasticness of recovery, things are really really great right now. So I'm gonna go enjoy my little girlies. Who would have thought that I, of all people, would have two girls. I was the tomboy, the one who took the babysitting jobs with the crazy boys, NOT the one who dealt with cute little outfits and pigtails and hairbows and all that nonsense. I don't even wear pink! And yet, here I am with two little girls, loving it. Life's funny.

Fiona taking her little sister Violet home from the hospital. She left her hand on the carseat like that the whole ride home. It was way too freaking adorable.

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Non-post.

This is a non-post. It is merely to say that I had my 39-week OB visit, annnnnnd... I may as well not have gone. It was a direct copy of last week's appt. Weight, measurement, blood pressure, baby's heartbeat, all movements toward labor... everything exactly the damn same. We are officially in a holding pattern. But, that's good, I guess.

Last night we had movie night with the sibs that are here visiting. We watched Star Wars, which we had decided on before I even realized that yesterday was some sort of "Star Wars Day"... well, Nate and the kids watched it anyways. I sat down and tried to. We did up the movie night right, got pizza and soda and popcorn and ice cream and everything... but I sat there for like 5 minutes, ate a half a piece of pizza, and then couldn't sit still any. more. I originally was just having a panic attack at how wrecked the living room was, so I real quick picked up all the toys and books and stuff, hoping that would be enough to allow me to sit and enjoy the movie. Buuuuuuut nope. Not even close. Had to move from there into the kitchen, then to bringing the past month's worth of recycling out to the curb, then to bringing all the dirty laundry to the basement, then to the pile of "hand-wash-only" laundry that has been sitting on the basement floor for seriously the last 3 months, and then I was able to sit for a few minutes. But then there were diapers to fix leg elastic on, and emails to send... ended up going to bed around 2am.

Getting up at 6:00 this morning to shower before work was fun, after that... but I had to. Cause had to be at work, and can't go to the doctor appointment all stank smelling. Got out of the shower, did makeup, was about to get dressed and run out the door... and the phone rang. They didn't need me today after all. Well, shoot. Now I'm literally all dressed up with nowhere to go. But I was already awake, like actuall awake, not even close to that groggy "Cool, I'm going back to bed" frame of mind.

So I went downstairs, made a pot of coffee, and attacked a project I've been putting off for weeks- sewing cloth baby wipes. Got a good chunk of it done before I had to leave for the doc.

Now I'm thinking I'll attempt grocery shopping again? Here's hoping it goes better this time. I've got reinforcements to protect me from mean old people this week, so I'm hopeful.

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The number 9

Today's post is brought to you by the number 9.

Also, by other numbers that may or may not be loosely related to the number nine.

Firstly. I am nine months pregnant. That means I am very uncomfortable most of the time. However, I recently have been really trying not to complain so much, I really have. Most of the time that doesn't work so well and I'm still whiny. Buuuuut I'm so close to the end. It's seriously almost here. There are 9 days until my due date. That is a very small number. It is a single digit number counting DAYS and not weeks or months.

Sooooo yeah. Very very close to the end. Very very close to having to do the whole newborn thing again. Oh, and the whole labor and delivery part. Whiiiich was not exactly the funnest thing I've ever done. On account of the lack of pain meds, which apparently means that I was able to fully enjoy my birthing experience? Whatev. Alls I know is, it went pretty well last time (I've been told), and so I plan on doing that again. Cause I hear that 5 and a half hours of labor for your first baby is actually pretty good, and that it will be less this time around? Okay, cool. I can do that. I've been reading up on my birthing techniques. Sitting on my exercise ball. Encouraging this baby to move on down into the birth canal and Get. Things. Going. At my appointment last week, the doc told me that things have started shifting around and preparing to open up in there, but that hey. That means basically nothing. It means I'm pretty pregnant and I'll be having a kid soon, and guess what, doctor? I already knew that! Also at my last appointment- found out I actually LOST a pound between weeks 37 and 38, and she said "oh that can sometimes signal impending labor" and I was all "yeah, my first wasn't born until 41 and a half weeks" and she was all "Oh, okay. Maybe not then." And since it's been 5 days since that doctor appointment and this kid is still in utero, I'd say that the 1lb weight loss was not, in fact, a sign of impending labor.

Another 9. This one is 9x2=18, which is how many months old my little chickadee is. (I told you some of the 9s were a stretch, didn't I?). Fiona had her 18-month checkup today, she's officially a year and half old, and officially still tiny. She measured 30.5inches long (when the hell do they start being "tall" instead of "long?" She definitely stands up most of the time these days.) and weighed in at all of 19.7lbs. (see, another 9!) Sooo that keeps my peanut on the 20% for height, and >5% for weight. I was really rooting for her to hit that 20lb mark at a year and half, but no. Still a bit less that 19 and a half. Which is nice for me, actually, since I am also currently required to tote around 30 pounds of kid and kid habitat in my abdomen. Once again, the doctor assured me that she is totally healthy, we don't need to worry about any special weight-gain diets or anything like that. She's just straight up little and that's okay. Developmentally everything checked out, too. She doesn't have a TON of words yet, but she's coming along. She recently learned the sign for "Please", and how to say "Help" and that has improved my quality of life GREATLY. More on that subject in another post.

That's actually all I wanted to cover tonight. It's 10:59 and I am le tired.

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35 Weeks

It. Is. Hot.

In April. It is nearly 90 degrees, for the third day in a row now! I am miserable with summer heat combined with spring allergies and of course all the fun stuff that come with the whole being pregnant thing... ugh.

Okay. I will try to stop complaining. We're supposed to have some serious rain tomorrow, and that should help with both the allergies and the heat, so I'm looking forward to that.

Had my 35-week checkup today. Everything continues to progress nicely, there's really nothing to report. Heartbeats good, baby is measuring right on the money, I've gained a pound since my last visit, which puts me up to 26 lbs. I'm reallllllly hoping to keep it to 30 lbs total, but we'll see if that works. I think it will just come down to how long I go. They gave me the "here's when to call us and when to go to the hospital blah blah and we won't stop your labor once you hit 36 weeks" paper today at my appointment. So we've got one more week to go, and then baby is welcome to come at ANY POINT. Although, I have no expectations of seeing him/her this month. I think we all remember Miss Fiona and her "I think I'd like to be a week and a half late" attitude. I'm prepared to endure another 5 full weeks of the heartburn and the Braxton-Hicks contractions and the kicks to the lungs and the existing on ice cream and breakfast cereal. Because yes, once again this pregnancy all I want to eat is cereal and ice cream. Somehow it's not working quite as well on the weight control this time though... though that probably has more to do with the fact that I haven't been exercising nearly as much. Last time I was walking for at least an hour, 3 or 4 times a week... this time I'm lucky to get out once a week. Eh. Maybe if I step it up here at the end it will still give me some of the benefits at the end of pregnancy. And since the weather is supposed to cool down and be ACTUALLY SPRING next week, maybe I'll actually be able to get out there.

Well, Finn is currently napping, so I'm gonna end here and try to grab a little sleep myself. If I don't I will be mucho cranky by this afternoon's end.

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Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig!

It's the 17th of March! One of my favorite days of the year! It's St. Patrick's Day!

Talked to my sister in Ireland this morning. It was awesome and I told her that I basically hate her. Well, not really. Really I'm just crazy jealous. I told her I'm thinking of maybe making Shepherd's Pie for dinner, and she said "Sounds good. Irishy. I think we're having ribs, but really whatever we eat is Irish, so it works." Bitch.

Kidding, Kels! Love you!

You know, once I quit a job because they wouldn't give me St. Patrick's day weekend off. I had already planned a trip back home to Boston to watch the parade and I had tickets to see the Dropkick Murphys! It was planned BEFORE I took that stinkin' job at that stinkin' pub! Who woulda thought that an Irish pub wouldn't honor any requests for time off in the entire month of March...

Today though, no need to quit the job. Things are good. Had my OB appt today... he told me I was 32 weeks along, which well, awesome. I thought I was only 31. That NEVER happens to me. Somehow they gave me my old due date back? Now it's the 12th? (Which sort of screws up the whole "counting down the pregnancy with episodes of LOST", but hey. Who the hell knows what's going on in that show anyways. Do I really WANT to associate my pregnancy with that malarky? That's right. I said malarky. Wait, am I still in parentheses?)

So. 32 weeks. And they had to move the big chunk on the bottom of the scale over, which is always a low point for me. I've crossed that 150 threshold and then a little more. I've gained 25lbs so far this pregnancy, which ugh. With Fiona I gained like 27 lbs TOTAL. I'm at 25 and I still have 8 weeks to go? Crippity crap. I'm gonna go over 30. Blargh. My mom was so kind to say to me this morning, "oh wow, I think I only went up over 150 with one of the girls." Uhhhhh thanks but SHUT UP ya SKINNY MINNY CHICKEN LEG WOMAN! One of my calves weighs the same as your whole torso, so can it.

Other than that slightly depressing news, things are looking good. Everything is measuring what it should measure and heartbeats are good and strong and all that stuff.

ALSO, the weather has decided to stop being crappy and finally get nice and springy again. Doing a picnic at the playground with friends for lunch today, and tomorrow as well. This weekend its supposed to be sunny and get into the 70s? Yes please. Wearing my flip-flops today and it was only like 45 degrees this morning.

Well. Baby is down for her nap and I have things to do. Enjoy the day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from my wee Irish lass!

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15 months

Well, little chickie had her 15 month checkup today. The doc was all "Oh wow, she's walking, that's so great!" and I was like "Phsaw. Old news. Her new thing is saying 'Hot! Hot! Hot!' anytime we sit down to eat or when she sees me cooking at the stove or drinking tea." She's not too thrilled this afternoon, she had to have a total of 3 shots- two in her leg and one in her arm. So she's a bit cranky and nap-refusy. Which means there's no time for a lengthy entry here. I just wanted to give the stats from the doc.

15 months old.
29 1/2 inches tall (25%)
18lbs2oz (>5%)

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Lame.

I don't even want to try to make excuses. Two months? Pathetic.

And we've done so much and been so many places, I'm hesitant to even try to write a catch-you-up-on-our-lives entry. Soooo. Let's do a quick recap of the last two months. Thanksgiving in MA. Came home, set up our Christmas tree and did our little Christmas #1 here at home with just the three of us. Went to PA to visit family and have Christmas #2. Then we came home and were here for all of a week before we took off again to visit family in ID, where we stayed for nearly 3 weeks of good times and loads of food. That included Christmas #3. Also New Year's. Also, a ski trip to Montana, during which I left my little chickadee with her grandparents and spent four WHOLE DAYS doing nothing but drinking tea and reading by the fire and not worrying about if the baby was about to wake up from her nap and end my quiet. Finally came home in January and we were here all of what, a week and a half before we took off for the Poconos for a weekend for Christmas #4 with the Grimes side of the family. Ended up taking 2 siblings home to VA with us, Erin and Jonny were here with us all last week, which was really fun. Then this past weekend was the March for Life, which meant various members of the fam were independently coming to DC. Heather came and stayed here for the weekend, and Mickey stopped by for dinner on Saturday. Yesterday after Mass and a lovely coffee date with some Walkers everyone left for their various homes, and we are back down to just the three of us. It is quiet.

So that brings us up to today. Not the most riveting paragraph I've ever written, but it covers the basics of what has happened in the past two months.

Now to begin writing about the banalities of everyday life again. To start with, my child has an inSANE love of bananas these days. I mean, she wakes up and we go down to the kitchen, she just starts in with "Nana? Nana? Nana?! Nana! Nana!" until she's got the banana in her hot little hands. Then she eats the entire thing in like 2 minutes flat and starts asking for more. I think the girl would eat an entire bunch of bananas if I let her. It's fairly hilare.

Also, she has started doing this little fakey cry whenever anybody else is sad... I first noticed it yesterday when we were at Mass. There was a little boy a few pews behind us who was getting kind of cranky, and when he would start to cry, Fiona would glance up at me or Nate and make a little pout face and start to whimper in empathy. Then last night we were playing with a little Fisher Price girl, I would balance her on my knee and Fi would knock her down, I'd say "Oh no, she fell!" and Fi would start to do these fake little sobs until I said "She's okay!" It's so cute.

In baby #2 news, we've had the midwaypoint ultrasound, and everything is looking good. I'm at about 24 weeks now, and starting to really feel pregnant. I've got the obvious pregnant belly now, which makes me happy cause I no longer just look like I'm getting kinda chunky. I've also been having the whole charlie horse thing, which is not so awesome, along with the various aches and pains that are still more annoying than actually painful. BUT I also get to feel the baby move and kick ALL THE TIME, and he/she is still small enough that its not painful yet. So that's awesome.

Annnnnd that's all I've got time for, kids. Backyardigans is over. My blog writing window is closed. Now I've got to get to playing with this little monster, hopefully get some errands done, blah blah etcetera, boring things. Peace out.

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I may be a bit of an alarmist...

So, I may have been a bit premature in the whole "OHMYGAH THE BABY IS ABOUT TO WALK EVERYWHERE!" excitement from about a month and a half ago. She continues to work on those ambulatory skillz, but has yet to manage more than a couple steps at a time. She much prefers to just stand up in one place and pick things up. Like shoes. And stepstools. And entire baskets full of blocks. And tables. I kid you not, we were at a friend's house and she tried to pick up a little nosemakey, lightuppy table and managed to wind up flat on her back with the table upside down on top of her. She did not like. I thought it was hilarious. And then I checked to see if she was okay. Or the other way around. Whichever makes me not a bad mother.

I've started jogging again. Slowly. But I have started. And I've gotten pretty regular with the walking, as well. I'll be in shape eventually. I weirdly weigh less than I have like, ever, and yet somehow I am still far far FAR from being actually fit. Meh. I'll take it.

The child is currently suffering from a cold, which means she has this cough that makes her sound oh so pitiful. I've got a warm steam vaporizer in her room, so its basically a sauna. IT helps her sleep, so I like that.

And speaking of sleep. We have been sleeping through the night these days, probably about 4 out of 7 days a week. Which is fairly fantastic. And even the days she wakes up, its just for a quick snack and then she's back out.

Of course, we're going on vacation next week and that means all her good habits will probably be shot to hell, but hey. That's what vacation is for. And on that note- I'd better go get some laundry done if I want to be able to actually bring clothes to the beach with us...

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Six Months

Babygirl is six months old today.

Which, um... hello? Six months? How did that happen?

We went to the pediatrician today for her 6-month checkup and everything is looking good. Chickie's still holding at the 25th for height and the 10th for weight, so hurrah! She's all of 13lbs.9oz. now. And a whopping 25 inches long. She also had to get three shots, which makes her-


But the even BIGGER news is that last night she slept from 11:15pm until 6:15 this morning WITHOUT WAKING UP!!!!! Which was AMAZING!!!! Or, it would have been an amazing 7 solid hours of sleep if I hadn't woken up like 3 times and felt compelled to go into her room just to check that she was still breathing..which she was. Of course. Buuuuuut yeah. It was still a very good night.

I need good nights.

Other things about today that are awesome-

- I scored tickets to the Sox/Nationals game in June. I actually bought tickets for two nights in a row, because hey! It's Nationals Park and you can get $10 tickets! Whee!! Of course, I had to like enter a lottery to win the chance to purchase tickets (which I think was a crock of crap [see, I can not swear] because they have sent me three different emails, the first one said "sorry, you didnt win the chance to buy tickets. But you could still get tickets to teh game if you buy season passes!" and then the second one was like "oh now you did win the chance to buy them but you only have until tomorrow!" and the third was was basically the same as the second one but they sent it out again.) buuuuuuuuuut anyways I bought tickets and I'm excited and thrilled. Can't wait to take baby to her first Sox game.

-Coffee. I have had some.

-Nate came home for lunch and I made a delicious dish with chicken and spaghetti and cheese...mmm...

-Thats pretty much it.

The half-marathon is this Sunday. I incredibly unprepared, but I think with a combination of slow jogging and walk breaks I should be able to cross the finish line. Thank God they've got an open early-bird start, so theoretically I could be the slowest finisher without being the absolute last person to cross the finish line.

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4 months.

Baby had her 4-month checkup today. At a NEW doctors office, hopefully one where I won't hate all the doctors like I did at our old office. I actually didn't even meet any doctors yet though, cause today we had the nurse practitioner for our visit. And now, the stats-

She's 23.5 inches long. That's 25th percentile for height. (That's what I was as a kid! Hurrah! A shrimp!!!) She's 11lb8oz. That's 10th percentile for weight.

I iz a peanut!

Some babies are 10lbs at birth, some are 11.5lbs when they're 4 months old. What can you do.

But the best part of the doctor visit was the other little baby we saw in the waiting area (during our frickin FORTY-FIVE MINUTE WAIT! Ps. My original appointment was for 9:15 but I got there at like 9:30 so they told me I had to reschedule. So I made a new appt for 12:00 and I got there a few minutes before 12 and then I had to sit there for 45 minutes? Really? 15 minutes and you make me RESCHEDULE but it's expected that I sit there for a year? Argh. I hope that's just cause lots of kids are sick today, not because that's the way this office usually runs...)

Anyways I got lost in those parentheses. What you need to know is that there was this other little baby there, I'm not sure how old, but it didn't look brand brand new, so maybe 2 months? This baby had the most amazing head of hair I have ever seen in my life. Seriously. The kid had like a 4inch mohawk and I am not even exaggerating. I totally snuck a pic with my camera phone because this mohawk was that amazing. I've cropped the photo and blurred out the baby's face so I can show you the hair here.

Have you ever SEEN such fantastic hair on a baby! I only wish the mom was wearing a white coat so you could get the full effect.

Mine is still a bald little baby. But, incredibly cute. Annnnd, pictures.....GO.

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