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I started a new thing this week where every day I would try to do three …new things. But that really isn’t it, they aren’t “new”, they are just things that I don’t do everyday. So it’s really more like “do 3 things you don’t normally do.” It’s been working pretty good. For example,

Yesterday I: mowed the front and back lawn, took boxes of garage sale stuff from last year to Goodwill (I have another load to do), and sent an email to my playgroup about making plans for the weekend.
Another day I: sent back Netflix movies (two were seven months old), wrote post cards and made a difficult phone call.

Anyway, it’s been cool to feel like I am making some progress on things. I decided to try this because I am tired of measuring my levels of success against household chores — things that reset themselves sometimes five minutes after I do it. I wasn’t making any progress in the extra things I want to do with my life, and honestly cleaning the dishes, picking up toys or putting away laundry can all wait a few minutes/hours … oh heck, days. If it means I can send a package to someone, or write some postcards, or clean out the garage — then by gum, I am doing it!

I know, updating my blog should be considered a special thing for today since it’s been so long. But they have been busy times, a wedding this past weekend, soccer games, all day Monday visit with an out of town friend. I had to recover from that visit, I didn’t realize how hard it is to stay engaged and watch children for more than 4 or 5 hours at a time. I guess that is why visiting on vacation is difficult, especially if you are staying with people. I like visits where the hosts understand that I want to do my own thing for several hours during the day, even if it is just sitting in my room reading or writing.

Today I have: send an email about the two month neglected BookClub, ordered a very expensive thing for the girls — and three is yet unnamed/finished.

So that very expensive thing is The Naturally Playful Welcome Home Playhouse

I have been thinking about this for a couple of weeks after going to some garage sales where they had playhouses (not for sale) and dragging the girls out of them. It then occurred to me that wherever we go, if they have a play house, then the girls are playing it. I tried to swap kid toys with a fellow Mom who had one but she said no because her two boys are constantly playing in theres. These things are never for sale at garage sales and I hate shopping on craigslist, so I started to do some researching. This particular playhouse has all my requirements: doors and windows that can open and close, and walls — plus it is big enough for them to use until they are teenagers, should they want a private place outside to read or something. We had $215 dollars in Amazon points which I thought would totally knock down the price — except that I did not factor in shipping and handling. I guess when the object is this large they can’t make it free. Before I placed the order I quick checked toys r us to see if I could do a pick up from the store and skip the extra $230 SH fee, but it was not the case. So essentially, my rewards points went for free shipping. Ugh.

Anyway, so now it is set to be delivered between September 1st and 7th — which kind of sucks because I was planning on visiting my bro for two days. I guess I can tell my neighbors, some of them are always home and could come over and put it away or sign for it, or something. Hopefully that won’t be the case and it will be delivered sooner rather than later.

Oh, Soren is here now. I should go and figure out what that third thing is going to be — oh wait I know, photo ordering. And what we are going to tell the kids to justify this massive purchase. Early Christmas present?

Unisaurs Soccer League

Morella and her fellow ballerinas

Showing off some technique. I signed her up for more preballet classes for Fall since she loved it so much. They are 9:00 on Monday mornings — and since parents and siblings aren’t allowed and it is at the Goodman Center with their coffee house, we are all excited.

Cousins – Zeland in the back, and then Moslee, Neeners and Morella in the front. Too bad they didn’t find any matching jammies in Z’s size.

New nephew Oberlin

Funny Morella expression

Oberlin’s family, plus Morella

All family in attendance for the baptism

Neeners coming out of the green bean teepee at the Children’s Garden at Olbrich

Tim looking rather dapper

Neeners cleaning up her chalk mess — when I caught her she dropped the chalk like a lead weight

This morning at the new dream park in Cottage Grove

Let’s see …

–Morella was ultra crabby today
–Neeners was too when Morella was
–However they played together beautifully for 50% of the time
–Got puked on a bunch of times (okay okay, spit up, but puking sounds more dramatic)
–Walked to the grocery store and spent time at the park
–Made a good dinner
–Went to Memorial Union Terrace for a pitcher followed by a walk on Lakeshore in the dark with Ann, sat on a bench looking at the lake and stars and had a great visit. I saw a falling star!
–Mom is in the hospital at Lutheran because of a bladder infection gone too far (she didn’t want to see a particular doctor)
–Spent time reading, cooking, playing with the girls, picking up (for what purpose, I can’t fathom) and enjoying the beautiful day
–We kept asking Neeners if she had a poopy diaper (she went three times today) and she got mad at us for asking and said “Stop seppa seppa!” Tim and I both figured out immediately that she said “Stop saying that!”

Neeners started teasing me last week. We were outside and she was being a little cranky, even sitting in my lap, and I asked her if shenwanted some medicine. Then she grew quiet, tucked her chin in and lowered her voice and gravely said “medicine.”. She did it two more times before breaking into giggles and laughter. Then she repeated the whole thing, at which point I caught onto her teasing.

Then tonight before bed, I asked her if she needed a new diaper and she dropped her voice and said “diaper,” followed by laughing.

Everybody teases me on the way I talk, I just never expected my two year old to start so early!

It was a good day. Neeners went to the doctor for her two year check up and got her last shot until she is five (not including flu shots). She weighs 26 pounds and is 34 inches long. Long and lean and the doctor said she is doing great. Whoo hoo!

After she yelled “ouchie” to the nurse who administered the shot, I nursed her until she was calm and we went home. Then she took a massive 4 hour nap while Morella and I cut out pictures to decorate their cardboard pony house, picked up garbage outside, made banana bread, packed up two boxes and went to the post office to mail them and worked on cleaning out the crib in our room. It is now ready to take down. Just have to figure out what to do with it after that. I will take pictures, there might be a conversion set that one could order online so I might be able to sell it. I wish I could give it to someone that I knew though.

Then I made an early dinner and after that we went to Olbrich Gardens for a walk, followed by a visit to Noah’s house to use the bathroom (Morella), and got a bonus popsicle and beer out of the deal followed by some time playing at the park and checking out the children’s garden. Came home, the kids went to bed right away, I did some more cleaning and then Tim and I played some Borderlands before now..bedtime. I have a stupid dentist appointment tomorrow that I am not looking forward to.

Neeners is teething furiously — as the doctor pointed out and said to just do whatever we could to help her through it. I guess that means weaning some nursing is out until those blasted teeth pop though. She is so miserable and unhappy. He guessed that she had 4-5 in active teething mode. Yuck.

I missed yesterday. Sorry, I guess this means I gotta try again for another week.

Yesterday we had a rainy soccer practice. The kids that showed up loved it. The gentle rain eventually stopped and we played around the field some more enjoying being outside. Then we went home and everyone took a long noontime nap. It was heavenly. After that I packed some things, Tim fed the kids and we headed up north to the Grandparents for new nephew Oberlin’s baptism, which we got back from a few hours ago.

Upon returning home, I cleaned up the kitchen and then went to KFC to get dinner. When you are out of bread, milk, eggs and cheese and it is 7:17, and Morella is asking where dinner is, then it’s time for desperate measures. I need to go to the grocery store tonight, which sucks because I just cracked open a spotted cow, have a slight headache and am tired. Maybe Tim will go, he is so much better at sticking to the list. Yeah….I will make an emergency food list and give it to him. He can be home in less than a 1/2 hour! Me? I am more like an hour and half.

So Tim is off playing board games tonight with his friend and a few of his friends. It is good for him to get out and do that (aside from his weekly game on Thursday). Since he works at home full time now his main companionship is me and the girls and baby every once in awhile. I tried to watch a movie on streaming Netflix with the girls but there really isn’t that much there that isn’t terrifying to Morella. I should really send back those three movies and get some better options…we have only had them for like 4 or 5 months now. (ugh!)

After putting the girls to bed and insisting that Morella isn’t sick — when she actually is since she has said several times “my boogers are coming in” with a three foot long piece of toilet paper clutched to her nose accompanied by a couple of sneezes, I called my brother to have an hour long chat. Then I screwed around on the internet for awhile before remembering that I should probably go and work on Dance with Dragons. I guess that says something about the book, being that I can let it sit for days at a time without cracking it open. Sigh. We all hope that this isn’t turning into a Robert Jordan fiasco. Then I remember — oh wait you have to post!

Here I am posting. Today was okay. I watered the rhubarb plant. I took the kids to the park and they didn’t seem to really enjoy it that much. We went to a garage sale and I got another princess scooter for Morella for a buck … great condition and now Neeners gets her “old” one. I told Tim he was on the spot for dinner and he got take out chinese which we ate. I vacuumed. Chatted with my friend Lowen who came by to nurse Soren since she had a few cancellations and made her watch and episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Tim took Morella with him to drop off Falkor to the Doggie Hotel where she saw a real cowboy ride a horse and a pet kangaroo named Captain.

It feels weird to not have Falkor around. Though I generally ignore him much of the day, I do miss not telling him to move, get down or get out of there.

I have a headache. I just spent some time reading Damn You Auto Correct and laughing so hard I cried (seriously, I only read it every couple of months and still it has the power to bring me to tears). But I still have a headache. Boo.

Today was okay. I went to the eye doctor and got a clean bill of same as ever and some information on lasik. I am thinking about taking the plunge next year, but maybe it’s just wishful thinking. Apparently you have to wear glasses for 3 weeks before the surgery — ugh, glasses all the time? Maybe it’s sort of like a reminder of why you are doing it and making you excited for it.

Other than that I hung around the house and tried to clean it. I know, futile — but I do have that goal of cleaning my room and taking down the crib, even though the idea of really taking it down and putting away forever is a little sad. Then again I will have so much more space in my room…

Last night I went to target to return some dresses I had gotten online because I love them so. Sadly the ones that arrived on my doorstep were NOT the ones I thought they were and so I had to return them and a bunch of fabric bins that Tim deemed to not fit in with the color decor we are trying to attempt. He said “Have you absolutely no color sense?” To which I replied “No, I did not have the good fortune to study under a boss who was obsessed with color schemes and how they change your life.” [He once had a crazy boss who thought her 16 year old idiot son, whom she did did homework for, was a an artistic genius and believed that colors could change lives.] So yeah, I don’t understand color very well. Maybe I should read a book on it, but I can’t help but to feel on some level that it should be elementary and that it should just …happen. I mean, my Mom and brother are fantastic artists…I should have inherited this.

What was my point about Target? I forget. But when I was checking out I had picked up a pack of gum and the clerk asked me if I wanted it right away. I said “Yes, I am thirsty.” To which he, and the lady behind me stopped in their tracks and stared at me. Suddenly I was on the spot, with silent judgement of “stupid lady get something to drink.” Except, I had been drinking water all day — it was just one of those weird cotton mouth things that happen. No I don’t have diabetes (I hope). Plus I didn’t want to spent a $1.50 on a soda or whatever when I would be home in 15 minutes. A pack of gum at least, lasts for weeks, and it is apple pie flavored. I did manage to tell the clerk that sucking on candy or chewing gums relieves symptoms of thirst before hustling out of there.

Oh my god, there is a commercial for Colon Flow …. it just told me that I might have up to 5 pounds of “fecal matter” in my system. My goodness. Why aren’t I on the phone right now?

Both Neeners and Soren are sleeping. Tim is off to pick up Morella in Fond Du Lac and I have just folded a pile of laundry, wrote in my journal, wrote some thank you cards and my Mom and ate some lasagna. It is weird to have all this time to myself. Not that I can be loud or do noisy things and I don’t quite know what to do with it, but it is a happy problem.

I took Neeners and Soren to story time at the library this morning. My first in a very long time and once again it was lame. Not because Neeners or Soren was bad but because a day care had showed up and swelled the crowd of kids to 50 in a small room. Neeners and I stood in the way back with another Mom I know and her baby, while her 3 year old was way up front. Neeners mostly just ate snacks and pretended nothing was going on. I could have been standing in the aisle of a grocery store. I am looking forward to when school is back in session and I can have another year of the city all to ourselves. I don’t want to sound snotty or anything, but bus loads of day care kids are getting on my nerves. Every where we go, there they are — swarms of them. The zoo, olbrich, freaking story time at the library … I don’t remember this many of them in public locations last year. Ha, listen to me. I sound like I think they should stay confined to their playschool or whatever, and that isn’t fair. I would be happy to know my kids are getting out and about if I was sending them to day care — just gotta wait until school starts and that will cut them down drastically.

After that we came home and Neeners and Soren crashed down for naps. Neeners had a rough night of sleep — giving me one too. I swear the kid was up at least 15 times. And this morning before heading out, we were treated to no less than 4 tantrums, who of which got time outs. I know that being two is something that we all had to go through, and learning how to effectively communicate CAN be frustrating, but oh that pain is spread. I know that all we can do is weather the storm, I just wish I knew when this storm will pass.

One thing about having only two little ones is that the day seems to go by much slower. I sometimes get a little sad thinking about the distance future when they will be gone and living their own lives, how slow it will seem then.

Also I have been starting to feel like I look old. You know I can’t remember the last time I was carded. I had always wondered at what age I would be when that happened and I guess the answer is somewhere between 34 and 35.

Whoa, I almost forgot today. I have been luxuriating in the glory of bed time. I mean seriously, Neeners has now gone to bed and stayed there before 7:00 the last three days and it is just amazing. That is one thing that is easier about having one kid than two. When you have two, then you have double the chance that they won’t go to bed on time, and get up multiple times. I watched a movie tonight for heaven’s sakes and was done by 9:00. Normally if I want to watch a movie I don’t get to finish it until midnight, which is a big part of the reason I haven’t been watching movies lately. Though I did manage to watch Scott Pilgrim VS the World. Wait, let me rephrase that, I mean I got to finish watching it. We have technically been watching it for about 3 or 4 weeks now. Anyway, we liked it. It made us feel young and hip again.

Grandma called yesterday and told us that Morella was crying and wanted to go home — after she had gotten up from a late nap. We advised them to give her ice cream and let her watch TV. Ha ha, that is just so funny to me. I don’t actually know what they did but whatever it was it worked. She was fine after that, ate a great dinner and then even went to bed and I assume, slept though the night. No one has called us to frantically go and get her, so I guess it worked out. It turns out that she will not be returning with her Grandma after ballet tomorrow and instead be staying home with us. Her boring old folks and annoying little sister. But we all head back up there on Saturday for nephew Oberlin’s baptism on Sunday.

I took Neeners to the zoo and ran into my neighbor and Stephanie, who just had a baby in June. I have been so lack on getting to her, making her anything or even sending a stupid card. It was one of those cases, where the longer time went on between the event, the more I felt bad about not doing anything. You know how that goes. We wandered around a bit but Neeners was cranky, again. It was crazy busy there being a cool day and summer time, and after we left to just walk on a bike path I noticed her mood improved considerably. I occurred to me, that perhaps Neeners doesn’t like crowds.

Really? Wow. I wonder what aspect of crowds in particular? Or maybe it is just a continuation of whatever it is that 2 year olds go though. She has been in the terrible twos for months now. I remember Morella was pretty crabby around then but sometime past 2 1/2 she has been a dreamboat. I look forward to having her back. She is always willing to go out and do something or play, unless it is soccer.

The rest of the day was me fighting taking a nap because it’s that wretched time of the month, and playing with a volatile Neen Bean. After she crashed at 6:00. She had taken a 10 minute car nap home from the zoo and trader joe’s where I got food for a picnic we were going to do. I told her she couldn’t sleep but if she did she had to promise to take a nap at home. As soon as we got home she was fresh as a daisy and then told me over and over “broke deal Mommy.” No kidding. Tim made lasagna for dinner which was done at 8:00 and has us feeling like a childless couple again. Movie and a late dinner? Wow. I went and voted and took the long way home enjoying the crisp weather.

I know it’s not quite 10 yet, but I am tired and don’t feel good. I ate too much crap today, I feel like crap and probably look like it. I don’t have any motivation to fight the good fight of maintaining the house. A blogger friend has commented that so many days are filled with just doing mundane cleaning where no actual progress is made, and it is so very true with kids. I reminds me of that quote “cleaning the house before the kids are gone is like … oh I forget but it’s pointless. Another night of not studying Ho-Chunk (it’s hard when you have no one except ourselves to talk to or be motivated), I didn’t write my Mom today, I didn’t take that shower and instead dumped colored cornstarch on my hair to absorb the grease, I didn’t read more of my book…but hey I did take the kid to the zoo and I posted here. Right? Oh and I started the dishwasher.

Neeners is crying. Time for bed.