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It was another busy weekend. Two more of them coming up and then we are done for awhile for the summer? Maybe?

Tim got his mojo back last week. He totally killed the final two tests on his 2005 SQL certification tests, without even studying or worrying about it. I remember the first test he took (1 of 4), we had spent months studying and getting ready for it, and he was so worried and now look. He rolls out of bed, staggers to the test site and is home earlier than expected having passed. Sheesh.

Then, he competed in the Badger State Games inline 1/2 marathon on Sunday near Appleton. We drove up to his parents on Saturday night after finding a dog sitter for Pluto and … I don’t know what else we did on Saturday. Uh. Oh I got up early with Morella on Saturday so he could sleep in, did breakfast and then took her to storytime at Barnes and Nobles to see Spot the dog followed by a trip to Borders so I could get snack and buy a baby book for Crouton. Morella’s mood turned foul at some point in Borders and we left. Came home and she took a nap while Tim and I napped, putzed and got ready. I picked up vegetables, went online to talk to my little brother about my Mom (she is in the hospital currently) and then cooked a bunch of food. Tim mowed the lawn, weeded and did some laundry.

We got to Tim’s parents late, but it was a super easy transition for Morella because they got a crib! She is so at home in cribs. I hope that doesn’t say anything for a future behind bars…

Anyway. Tim went out to buy soymilk and look at the course with his Dad after she went down and I stayed up making some cookies for my friend Sarah who just had a baby. After that Tim and I screwed around on the Wii fit, which declared me to be obese. Tim is looking forward to the result after Crouton. Ha ha. I am too.

Sunday Tim did his race and got 7th – middle of the pack, along with a score of 1 hour and 1 min or something. Pretty good considering he didn’t train obsessively for that like he had with previous races. Again, just him knocking out goals one after the other! While waiting Morella mysteriously melted down and threw one of the biggest tantrums to date … my goodness. Where are they coming from? Why are they happening? She’s on so many eating strikes lately that we can only assume it’s from teeth. I cannot wait until those blasted teeth are in. Sigh.

After the race, we went back to his parents and had lunch with amazing jello (Morella scarfed that down) and took long naps. It was so nice. Upon waking Morella was beastly, so we gave her some Motrin and took her outside to play with a plastic car that you can ride in for an hour or so before packing up and heading out to visit Sarah. It took us a while to find her place — lots of driving around sleuthing it out, but we eventually found it.

Of course Sarah doesn’t look like she just had a baby, and what’s even more amazing is that BOTH of her kids were sleeping! Yeah, she said that happens a lot. Man, everyone has assured me that Crouton and Morella will not sleep at the same time. Wouldn’t it be a nice surprise if that wasn’t the case? In any case, it was nice to visit with Sarah, Dave and her Mom with just Morella playing with Ruth’s toys. We only lasted about 50 minute before Morella started melting down again. Sarah brought out her new son and he looked just like a little Harrison Ford! Adorable!

They suggested Mary’s family restaurant for dinner and we hit it before heading out of town. Morella didn’t eat a thing, spilled her apple juice and started chatting wiht the patrons on either side of us. Ugh, this girl was barely containable. She didn’t sleep most of the ride home, we picked up Pluto and then made it home before the fireworks started. I was able to put Morella to bed without a problem and then after a little internet time went to bed myself.

Gah. Another night of sleeping propped up because of this cold and Crouton. It just feels so creepy to me to sleep sitting up. When I got up this morning I actually thought to myself “It’s okay, we are in the final countdown to having to do this…” Really? Am I starting to think of Crouton as in the final countdown? It seems a little early still to do that. It’s only a little over 35 weeks…there are still plenty more … I mean if you went by how Morella did then it could be another 7 weeks. That’s like TWO MORE MONTHS! Lots of people have said that super active babies tend to be born earlier, but this kid is super active (kicking as I type this now) and I don’t know. I just don’t believe it. I guess we’ll just have to see.

This morning we did playgroup at the park and Morella opted to swing for most of it. Crabby once again. Came home in time to vacuum before Lowen and Sigrid showed up to look through oodles of jewelery and help themselves. Ate lunch and then put Morella down for a nap around 12. She has been sleeping since then…I hope it’s a solid three hour nap. That girl needs it!

Speaking of needs, I need some more tylenol. It feels like a headache day to me. But I love the cooler, windy weather. It’s a nice break from the heat.

Okay back to the grind.

Friday Photo: The Fashion Diva

My old college friend Karen sent us a box of her daughter’s outgrown clothes which we received this afternoon. Morella helped me open the package and then take out each item of clothing exclaiming over every piece. When we had finished looking at all the wonderful items of clothing she picked out the pink tutu and teal tank top to wear…as in she tried to put them on. I helped her a bit, and here we have the end result.

Those who have known me the longest know that Michael Jackson was once a big part of my life. Not because I had a huge crush on him or thought he was the bees knees, but because my Mother did. She had posters everywhere, listened to his tapes constantly over and over, watched Moonwalker a thousand times, quoted facts about his life to us on a daily basis, and make scuplutres of him out of any median she could get her hands on. One the most memorable sculptures was made out of newspaper, tape, paint, porceline finish (found at a craft store) and … well anything else she thought would help. I wonder what ever happpened to that bust. Hm. Anyway. So to have my Mom lose her BFF and now first iconic crush must really be depressing her. I can just imagine that this is one of those things that she would have called Carla and talked hours about. Instead who is left but me? I can’t talk tonight. I need to go to bed. I had Tim take the day off from work and call in sick to help me. He ended up with a compromise of working from home.

Sigh. Okay. To bed with me. I have to feel better. I just have too!

This night’s “sleep” really sucks, but the kicker is that tomorrow (today?) is going to suck even more.

This has to be about the worst day of this entire pregnancy, right next to the norovirus birthday party. But no, I had help that day. Today was just … awful. This cold is just wrecking me. I have had a pounding headache all day, my nose won’t stop dripping, my throat was so unbelieavably sore. Last night was super sucky because I couldn’t breath both because of the cold and Crouton’s moving is so uncomfortable.

I really wanted to call in sick. To take a break. Except I couldn’t do that. I could barely take a stupid nap this afternoon because of the breathing and nose running issue. Thank god So you Think You Can Dance was on to help keep my mind off the my next tylenol dosage.

Now watch. Morella, who barely at 400 calories today is going to get it. For a moment, I almost wished I had my Mom help…except you know not the Mom I have now. The Mom from when I was 10.

I feel very lonely today.

Oh my. I think I am sick!! Like a cold or something. It started with a few sneezes and now I have a runny nose and that extra fluid is making my throat hurt a bit, plus I am tired. It could also be coincidental to turning on the AC. I really hope that is it. I don’t want to be sick! More importantly, I don’t want Morella to get sick.

I bought a kiddie pool today and bottoms to a maternity swim top lent to my by my friend Rachel. I thought I would never wear it…now look I went out and got brown bottoms to go with it. Sheesh. It’s because Thursday we are planning on the Monona Community pool. I also got Morella a new swimsuit from Old Navy. It’s a full on shirt and bottom…I like that it’s good sun coverage to my pale little flower. Though to be honest, I don’t think she burns easily. She maybe fair but she can handle the sun pretty well.

Tim and I watched Bedtime Stories tonight while I sorted through more jewelry. It was an okay movie. I mean, better than anything else on TV right now that is for sure.

Okay. Going to bed early for a change and hoping that by tomorrow I will be as right as rain. My friend Sigrid is going to baby sit Morella for an hour or so tomorrow morning while I go to my doctor’s appointment. I think she might be nervous. I am hoping that Morella’s reunion with Zilla the deaf bulldog will ease her seperation anxiety.

Tim was a dearheart and made brownies for me tonight. It’s awesome because I am going to give some to Sigrid for watching Morella. Plus I had a brownie sundae tonight just awhile ago and it was delicious! For dinner I made a spin on spaghetti carbonera — I sauteed broccoli, some kind of green, garlic scrapes, and shrimp with oven cooked bacon (I just drained the fat straight into the sauce pan), then mixed it with a jar of alfredo and the spaghetti and voila! Fantastic dinner! I was even able to eat the sea bugs — probably because they were sauteed with bacon. Bacon makes everything good.

I turned on the air conditioner today, except I didn’t. You see Morella was up howling at 6:00AM this morning. We gave her Motrin and after that she seemed a bit better. Around 9:30 she took a lie down, in which I just left her door open and went and laid down in my bed to rest. I was really tired because yesterday my cousin had come into town and we had a big day on State Street (Memorial Union Terrace, State Street walk, dinner at the Old Fashioned and mocha’s from Michaelangelo’s) and the coffee had made it so that Tim and I were up until 12:30. I also think the heat has something to do with it…a little summer insomnia and daylight infusion.

Anyway. So I laid down for about 1/2 an hour before she wanted out. She didn’t really sleep, she rested, as I had done. I figured there was still plenty of time to head to the play group meeting at Walter so I asked her if she wanted to go to the park and of course she said yes. We headed out. It wasn’t too bad. I took it slow. We got there and chatted with others … turns out the boy with the possible swine flu did NOT have it. Whew!!! Still Morella is not coming with me on Wednesday to my doctor appointment. I pushed Morella in the swing for a long time and then eventually she moved to the slide where standing 4 minutes in the sun made me feel desperately sick and I wanted to go home.

We went home. It was a long, long walk. I closed the windows. Turned on the AC and after a while the house got nice and cool. The day wore on and around 10:30 I get up to get a drink of water and notice “hey it’s kind of warm in here!” I check the thermostat and it says 81. Huh?! Tim then asked me if I turned it on outside and I said no.

So you see, I turned only the air on. The house was kept cool from the basement. That was nice, but now that the cool air is shooting through the vents I appreciate that much more.

When we put Morella to bed, she cried that painful cry and we got her out to give her motrin and time for it to kick in. Let’s just say that 1/2 hour of past bedtime she had, was the most fun she had all day. Geez! I felt mean putting her back to bed when clearly could have gone on for a lot longer. But toddlers need sleep, whether they know it not! She went to sleep after 5 minutes and we haven’t heard a peep since. I hope she gets a good night’s sleep and that those stupid teeth come in soon.

So Byron dropped off a bunch of jewelry, some of his old baby clothes and toys. Morella has been playing with those toys all day. One of them I suspect might have led painting on it, so she hasn’t played with that one. The rest are plastic or unpainted wood. One of them is this little grasshopper that you pull around on a string. I put a string on it and pulled it to show Morella how it worked and I swear when the leg broke (a nail fell out, I hammered it back into a new place) she fought me tooth and nail over it! She loves it! It’s so cute that she likes it. Awww.

My aunt had a ridiculous collection of watches. What should I do with them? Buy batteries and regift them? Find a friend who is interested in clock art? Hm. I was really pleased to find some old Ho Chunk regalia things liked a beaded belt, a three tier necklace and a hair ribbon. So cool. There was also a really, really old handmade indian doll there. I really wish I knew the story to it. Who made it, etc. Alas that information is forever gone. I’ll take some photos of them later this week.

Here are some pictures from yesterday, I gotta get to bed before midnight tonight.

34 Weeks with Crouton!

For fun I decided to wear the same outfit I did the last time. I think I’ll do it for the last one too…I wish I had done it all the way though, but that would have been impossible as I didn’t get the yellow shirt until last month at a garage sale.

For extra credit — I went and compiled them all so far. Please click on the photo to bring up the larger image.

Kind of a bummer to the day. I found out that my Mom’s best friend passed away on Wednesday by reading it in the online obits. I called my Mom to see how she was doing and she had just found out a 1/2 hour before I called. I ended up talking with her a little over an hour. If you know me, then you should know that is an epic amount of time I spent on the phone.

In other non bummery news, I conqured my fear of driving to the west side and did just that with Morella today to get Tim’s father’s day present. While we were there we spent a little time at the play area in the mall — what a madhouse. She had fun but after 10-15 minutes had enough. I quick counted 25-30 children in a small enclosed space just while we were there. Nuts I tell you.

Morella took a long nap. I took a little nap. It was so muggy today! I let her go without a shirt all afternoon with the exception of the park outing. I asked her if she wanted to go outside and she said yes. But when I headed to the back door she threw a huge fit and pointed to her stroller. She wanted to go for a walk. So we walked to the park at the of our street and she went on the swings for 25 solid minutes. Then we were done and came home.

She’s a swing junkie!

I’m still glad it’s summer though, even if it is super humid.

Morella has gone to the bathroom, closed the door and was relatively quiet (talking to herself) for a few minutes. I went in there to investigate and found this. She was sitting on the back of the toilet, washing her hands in the cat water. How did she get up there? Sheesh. She was quite proud of herself and very, very chatty. She had a full on conversation with me about … something. One day her words will make sense, right?

Anyway. It was a busy day. I am sitting on my bed right now with my feet up, utilizing the many pillows I have and resting. I would be on the desktop computer looking at the better pictures and stuff but my feet can’t totally handle that right now. Plus, I am kind of crampy tonight. Maybe it’s the heat or the long day. Who can say, but I do know that general advice is to put your feet up, drink water and relax.

This morning started off with me wanting to put the cats into a soundproof box and setting them outside in the middle of the yard so that they would let us sleep. They were at it a 1/2 an hour earlier than normal and employing all the annoying tactics I hate. 1. Jumping off the window onto one of us (for me they seem to aim for the belly). 2. Jumping off me into the window (one of then stepped on my face). 3. Fighting with each other, 4. Meowling loudly in the hallway outside Morella’s door, 5. Sharpening their claws on the side of our bed and 6. Batting our faces with their paws. Finally I was mad enough to get up, go to the bathroom (and pee while I was there…) and fill up one of the squirt guns I bought for this very purpose. I came out with water blazing and squirted every single on of the furry brats and went back to bed. It actually stopped them! Now the gun is by my bedside, fully loaded waiting until tomorrow morning.

At about 8:00 Tim came into the room telling me to get out of bed and that he needed help. Totally cracking the whip.

Today we went to Woodman’s to get the ingredients for the dish I was going to bring to the East Side Mom’s club picnic. I had said I would be “nacho wheels” — and no I had no real good idea how to make them. I just figured they would be like all pinwheels –add enough cream cheese and you got an appetizer. Here is my recipe:

2 packages of cream cheese
1 container sour cream (16oz)
1 package of taco seasoning (I used 1/2 the package because my target audience was kids and you know they don’t like things TOO spicy)
1 bunch green onions
1 package of shredded cheese (I used preshredded as I had to make it as fast as possible)
1 can black refried beans
10 burrito size tortillas

Mix the first three ingredients, then spread beans on tortilla, cover with layer of cheese stuff, sprinkle a few green cut up onions on it, and top with shredded cheese, roll up, slice, and then arrange and voila! Instant hit at potluck. They were all gone except the “polite two”. You know, the last two no one wants to take because they don’t want to appear greedy?

Sadly, the potluck suffered from the “too many treats” syndrome. There were no main dishes, only four appetizers and the rest were sweets. I was a little disappointed and even more so when Morella didn’t want to eat any of it. Later on near the end pigs in a blanket showed up and I was able to feed her two cocktail weenies before giving up altogether. For this reason, Tim and I have decided that we usually will bring savory dishes to potlucks. I think the reason people don’t do that is because it doesn’t seem very special — but moreover because making sweet things is easier.

Also, I didn’t really like the location. The shelter and tables were far away from the playground equipment and there wasn’t much for the kids to play with at the picnic. Morella got a huge scrape on her leg from climbing decorative blocks of concrete, and since it was in a new development there wasn’t much in the way of trees and everything looked like a lego playland.

Morella feel asleep on the drive home for about 5-10 minutes. I had changed her diaper right before leaving so I was able to put her right to bed. I felt sick from eating too many sweets, standing, chasing after Morella and so I gratefully laid down for a nap. Except… “ticka ticka ticka blah blah ga ga da doo” going on through the baby monitor for the next hour. Ugh. Man kid, go to sleep! Except she wouldn’t because she was having fun just hanging out in her crib so and I finally had to get her up because it was clear she wasn’t going to sleep.

I fed her lunch. She ate two bites and declared herself done. She barely ate anything today except for drinking milk.

Then we decided to talk a walk. There was a garage sale going on a couple blocks away so I figured we could check it out. I didn’t see anything I wanted and the whole sale looked a little *too* thrown together. You know, I can tell professional garage sales when I see them, and by professional I mean they do the same one over and over and over…with lots of collectibles. We kept walking and ended up at the Eastmoreland Park where Morella swung on the baby swing for a small eternity and nearly falling asleep several times. After about 25 minutes I packed her up and made the long trek home. Did she want to eat then? Take a nap? Oh heavens no.

Outside we went. Oh crap…that reminds me that stuff is still out there! I didn’t put anything away. Whoops! Tim can do it when he gets home. Yeah…

Anyway. So I filled up some water stuff for her, opened the sandbox, and laid out a blanket. She likes to lay on blankets … it’s really cute. We are currently dog sitting right now, so that dog wanted to come out. It immediately took a huge pee in front of Morella’s side, in our play area. It’s also pooped several times in places that I deem to be too close to civilization but the poop is so runny I am not sure it’s even possible to pick up. I am hoping that we do get rain eventually and it will wash it away. As for the pee, I hosed the area down, moved her slide and sent the dog back in.

You know. I don’t know if this is a big secret. But I am really not a dog person…at least right now at this point in my life. Cats are creatures of indifference, they don’t need as much affection and care as dogs do. Before having a baby I could handle it and enjoyed doing it. Now I just see it as another needy thing needing my attention and making things harder. Harder as in, I have to make sure our delicate dog doesn’t get near our rambunctious daughter or any of her little friends. And you know he constantly wants attention, and is whiney and blah blah blah. I’m just burnt out by the end of the day. Maybe dogs will be more fun when the kids are older, and the dog doesn’t need to be handled with such fine kid gloves. You know? Or maybe it’s the whole being pregnant, caring for a toddler and not having the extra energy that is it. I don’t know.

FINALLY, at 4:30 I had enough. I changed Morella’s very wet diaper and her filthy onesie and put her down for a nap. I needed to lay down myself and did so. Tim eventually came home and got his stuff for his game and left. He asked me if I was doing okay and I had said I didn’t feel good. I was feeling crampy and sort of sick again. I think it might be related to the heat…and all that activity I did today. He left before 6. I microwaved some frozen brats leftover from the Memorial Day BBQ we had, cooked some fries and ate a piece of pie before turning on the TV. Morella eventually got up at 6:35.

I fed her dinner, we chatted, and watched a little TV. I decided that she didn’t need to see the full episode of Bones, and turned it off to read books. We did that for a while and then wanted to go back to bed at 8:00. Since then I have been on the computer looking around, and now writing.

I am act
ually feeling sort of tired now. Like, maybe I should use the bathroom, take out my contacts and fill my water bottle for the night and go to bed early. Why not? Maybe Crouton will stop having the hiccups and settle down for a nap.

Sarah is having her baby today … or had it … or will have it soon. That’s like just 38 weeks. I have to admit to being a teeny bit jealous. I just haven’t met that many women in real life who were as overdue as I was with Morella. I just hope that Crouton decides to not be *that* late and doesn’t need a police escort to show her the door…heck a few days before due date would be kind of fun. Anyway, I am thinking of Sarah and her family and hoping all is going well and looking forward to hearing all about the birth story.

Okay. Time to clean the clean laundry that didn’t get put away, off the bed and get ready for some sleep. Tomorrow is Friday…hurray! I should do my belly shot then too since weekends are always so busy.