Thinking about how hard it would be to switch to wordpress.
A few quickies from my phone. Morella is in the living room playing with some of her Christmas gifts — a baby laptop right now while I am in the office stealing a few minutes to try and catch up. I am really happy to be home and even happier that Christmas is done with! I guess there was some holiday stress that built up. I am now proclaiming this next week to be “The Week of Putz.”
Hm. I can’t seem to get my pictures to load to my website — I guess it might be my ftp server in general….as this isn’t going to post either.
Checking a few hours later….
Three times a charm…..
It occurred to me that I hadn’t written in awhile tonight while wondering where everyone else’s good posts were tonight. Morella is on the floor next to Tim climbing all over him, playing music and dancing. She’s hit her head several times today, once she was ran over by a 4 year old girl (that was a big boom!), the second time when she was using her walker, she slipped and fell back, and the third time she hit the coffee table. All in the span of like three hours. Poor kid. I wonder if she has a headache. I know I would.
I made dinner for lunch today and we had leftovers for dinner! Opposite day! I was in the bathroom looking at a magazine and saw a picture of a hearty chicken noodle casserole and that struck me as something good to make to offset Tim’s gigantic batch of soup that he made on Sunday. Or was it Saturday. Hm.
Hilary baby sat Morella while I had to run a few unbaby friendly errands. It was her first time being babysat by someone who wasn’t a relative *and* away from home. So she had four kids there! What a brave woman. Afterward, they opened their presents while I enjoyed a hot cup of tea and the warm glow of a real Christmas tree.
I am just so pleased that despite the hurdles and obstacles this month I have managed to do almost everything I have set out to do. The Samsa’s xmas stuff. The St. Nicks’ Advents (I made FOUR of them). Ornaments (half done…and I forgot to give Hilary her ornament nutz). Christmas shopping for everyone. The cookie plates this year is (and I wanted to do two more cookies batches — chocolate and linzer but hey we can’t do it all):
peppermint candy fudge
butterscotch milk chocolate fudge
saltine toffee
decorated sugar cookies
decorated gingerbread men
spritz
russian teacakes
peanut brittle
So I guess there is a little something for everyone.
Then to top it off while I was doing that I hosted play group (involved some major cleaning), play dates, Mom’s night out, wickedly cold weather and being housebound…
I need a new book.
I watched Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull the other day and it was okay. I didn’t think it was way worse than the other stories at all. I also watched a documentary on a Man Named Pearl about a black man who has become a world famous topiary sculpturist all from plants that the local nursery throw out and because neighbors were afraid he wouldn’t be able to keep up his yard in South Carolina. It was a cute movie.
I have the whole third season of Dexter that has been collecting this whole season and I can’t wait to start watching it. That feels like a huge Christmas present right there!
I told Tim I wanted a down comforter for my birthday. I rarely ever want anything that … extravagant but I have been itching for one for…years. You just can’t beat the warmth and comfort. I wish I had it now to keep me toasty. Instead, I have been going to bed wearing fleece, and under four blankets — two of which are comforters, and one a heavy, heavy green blanket I got as a gift back in college from my dear friend Storm.
(20 min later — I put Morella to bed and changed into jammies)
Dang it’s cold. I’m glad that tomorrow it’s going to warm up. Though Tim said that the warmth comes with a price — more snow. And unfortunately a lot of it on our travel day for Christmas. We might have to push everything back a day! I guess I’ll call everyone and let them know that this might be the case. I guess it’s a good thing that priceline.com rejected my offer this morning for a hotel. Starting tomorrow evening I have Tim for a whole 12 days!!!! Awesome.
I’m thinking of treating myself to going to bed early, despite my urge to watch Dexter. I don’t want to watch it being tired and wishing for sleep. I would rather watch it all energized and excited.
Oh Morella was a sweetie today. Tim got her a baby doll for Christmas and it’s still in the box and unwrapped, but she has been playing with it constantly. I never thought I would have girl who loved baby dolls.
Friday Photos: State Street Xmas
Ann, Noah, Morella and I went to the Children’s Musuem yesterday — wow. That place is awesome. It’s the PERFECT place to take a kid like Morella in the winter there is so much to it! Sadly, it’s also the first place she ate dirt. 
Ann was kind enough to include us on her extended family membership and so we can go for free! How cool is that?! I think we are going to go once a week this winter — at least Morella and I are. It also means we have free membership to any children’s musuem around the country.
After that we stopped at Michealengo’s for a snack before hitting the Capitol to see the giant Christmas tree decked out in handmade ornaments from school children around the state. We ooh’d and ahhed and watched the train going round and round the bottom of it before going to Capitol Kids to use a gift certificate from our friend Oliver. We spent way too much time there, and I finally got Morella flash/drum thing. It’s cool. SHe likes it…well as much as she likes anything these days.
—-Hours later —-
This post is taking too long to write. Morella is handful.
“Run away! Run away from the ginger bread house Hansel! I got your back!”
Yesterday Morella and I went to our first Mom’s play group. They meet on Tuesday’s I guess. I hadn’t had a chance to go to them because Morella was sick most of November and I didn’t want to jinx anything last week so I keep her home and healthy. Olbrich has a free day (Tuesday) so we got to see the gingerbread houses and trains display, followed by a little walk through the conservatory. We stopped for an iced sugar cookie and cider. Ahh it was a nice little outing, though not that condusive for a playgroup since it was a mad house there. Anyway. We got out of the house.
She has been having trouble going to seleep at night. She keeps waking up and crying, and this morning she slept in until 8:00!!! She has never slept in that late. Wow. Not mention *I* slept in until 8…incredible.
(an hour and half later)
Morella took steps this morning! Well, she took steps with her walker. Tim and I were both there to see it. She walked herself into her bedroom. Hurray! Maybe she is on the path to walking.
I did ten more cards last night….almost done. In the home run. I am to the harder ones that might require packages. Though I realize I am down to the gun as it is. Sheesh. I need to do some baking today. I think we are going to meet up with Noah/Ann sometime today to do something befoe the Great Snowstorm Happens.
But really, I wonder what’s up with Morella. Is she getting a cold or teething? She didn’t eat much this morning. Her nighttime waking and sleeping in. Man, you think we would get better at this the longer we have her around. But no…not so.
I am eating some roasted vegetables leftover from last night. Morella is taking a three hour nap! She hasn’t been sleeping longer than an hour or an hour and half the past week. Everytime she does that I think “Little Ruthie is probably taking a three hour nap…” Ha ha. Why do we do this to ourselves?
She also didn’t go to bed until 9 last night. She is urping a lot more. I have been trying to rack my brains to remember how much the pharmacist said Morella had to weight before she could get her prevacid adjusted. Was it 18 pounds or 20? I don’t remember! If was 18 I can totally see the difference.
Morella has a double chin again, her legs don’t look like baby legs anymore — they are taking on the look of toddler legs. Weird!
Tim just texted me that he expect five inches of snow by tomorrow night.
My play group this morning went well. I made some lousy coffee cake. I think my problem is that the baking mix I have been using is from my Dad’s commodities. I think it’s really old and that nothing is active anymore. I should just throw that one out or at least open the other one and give that one a chance. Yeah. I’ll do that before making my own. Having play group was great because I really needed to spend a little time cleaning up the house. It was the perfect motivation and I did it this morning from 8-10. I wasn’t fanatical about it and just focused on making the visible spots appear clean, like wiping down the counters, sweeping the floors and vacuuming and picking up coats, and clearing away the paper bits that collect on flat surfaces.
It’s really cold out today! We need more milk and I really do not want to bundle up MOrella to go to Woodman’s to get some. It’s like a five minute drive … tops. The car will never warm up and it will be just as icy cold on the way home. Besides she isn’t drinking much of any thing right now, or eating. Maybe she is on the downtrend of all that horse eating she did before.
Last night before the bitter cold front moved in, we all went outside in the pouring rain with umbrellas and Morella in her covered stroller to look at Christmas lights in the hood. I think last night she perfected her “Wow!” Today at play group, she showed off her ‘other word’ which is “DOP DAT!” complete with finger wagging at the cats, Pluto, Tim’s accordion playing and my vacuuming. I also think she tries to say “gentle” in reference to petting Pluto. “dental” is guess how it sounds. Or maybe she thinks Pluto’s name is ‘dental’. Hm. Deep thoughts, my friends, deep thoughts.
Tonight is Mom’s night out rescheduled. I have to bring a wrapped ornament. I made a pretty cool decorated pinecone….I should affix something to it to make it hang and wrap that…yeah!
I can’t believe she is sleeping this long. I almost forget what to do with myself. It’s been so long since I have such a long break. I should see if she is still alive…yep…whew. I must have been all that late night activity.
Saturday I went to a baby shower with some awesome cupcakes for Stephanie, followed by a birthday party for Noah. It was a long day and I was happy to get home and just put on some deliciously warm fleece and cuddle up on the couch with the warm laptop.
