Sunday was Ride the Drive (the 3rd so far in Madison).

East Wash is shut down for bikers only

Waiting for Lance Armstrong to show up

Morella and Neeners making themselves comfortable

Bad ass Ann acting all biker casual

Look at those hipster tots in the Kid’s area

Morella getting some kitty pigment

Neeners first shiner

My second failed attempt at 1940’s hair. I’m running out of time people!

If only I looked like this all time — no one can see the double chin growing at this angle.

My camera is old and beat up and likes to shift into different camera modes at a moment’s notice. I kind of liked the yellow of it.

There you go!

We had a nice day. Had breakfast with out friend Lowen, got a new bike helmet and looked at balance bikes for Morella (and eventually Neeners), picked up a few things from Target (winnie the pooh coloring books in the dollar bin). Then, when it was clear no one was taking a nap, I finally tackled sending a very large package to my pal Jess. I wore Athena in the sling, Morella in the stroller and carried the heavy box in an oversized Ikea bag — and almost tipped Morella on the ground. A very helpful old lady watched on and then commented “You almost knocked her over!” Thanks lady. Thanks. After that I picked up photos from Walgreens, and then went home where Neeners took a nap, but Morella didn’t. Sigh. Again with the no naps. Yesterday was her first after a three day strike. Later on Tim came home, I found some hamburgers in the freezer and made them — and gave them to the dog and made grilled cheese and a frozen pizza instead. Then Tim left for his game and I cleaned up Morella’s room with Morella and Athena.

After they went to bed, I enjoyed my mandatory computer time (Tim takes the Ipad with him) and caught on some emails. If I do this every week, I’ll be one step closer getting back to my old internetting self. That would be nice. I like getting real emails and whatnot once in awhile.

We filled the plastic pool in the back with water from the outside faucet bucket by bucket (too lazy to hook up the hose) and then added a few buckets of hot water from the kitchen to take the chill off. I then held him and told the girls to pour water over him, making sure to get him good and wet. We all took a handful of soap and scrubbed him really good, followed by rinsing him off. Just as we were about to finish I told the girls to back up as soon as I let go of him. Mina asked why, and I said “You’ll see.”

I let go of Falkor and called out “okay now! Back away!” and everyone did. Mina, Morella and I all stepped back to watch Falkor. He jumped out of the pool and ran instantly toward the backdoor, where Leta ran. She stood behind the closed door and watched as he shook himself off. Mina, Morella and I all watched as he stood there dripped wet while Leta started to open the door.

“No, no!” we all said. “Don’t open the door. Don’t let him in!”
“I won’t let him in,” she quavered, and opened it a crack. “Falkor … ” she hesitated.

Falkor took his chance and I watched in horror as one really wet dog slunk into the house. I ran after him and saw him crash into all sides of the kitchen. Water everywhere. I yelled at him to go back out side and he ran into the living room. I slide across the floor after him, straining unused thigh muscles and got him out of the living room. He got him through the kitchen but the stinker ran around to the back of Morella’s room and headed back into the living room and jumped up on the couch.

Oh man. Water, water everywhere. On he couch I was able to grab his collar and lead him outside where ran off to hide under a lawn chair. Then I turned around to face Leta. I was proud of myself for not yelling, but I did tell her we asked her to not open the door, and that she needed to clean up the mess. I gave her a towel and walked out to let her clean up a bit. I gave her a few minutes of solitary cleaning before we all went in and helped her.

Well, all I can say is, “At least he was clean.”

I was going to watch my friends daughter’s today, but the six year old is sick, so they aren’t coming over. Last night I went to book club and was asked if I was going to go to the Red Park playdate (I sort of started it awhile back and haven’t been in a few weeks). I should have gone to that this morning since I had the opportunity to go. I just couldn’t do it. Both of the girls were crabby, the house is a mess and I wanted to put laundry away, clear dishes and pick up all in the comfort of my house clothes. I guess I just wanted some me time. By that, I have also been letting Morella find ways of entertaining herself, as well as Neeners this morning. They don’t always need me to entertain them. Sometimes Mom is preoccupied, thinking of other things and doing the classic “Uh huh honey….sure.”

Later this afternoon, hopefully after Morella takes a nap, I am going over to a friends house to learn how to do a 1940’s hairstyle. I found the perfect dress for the occasion at Burlington on Saturday (after putting together a suit outfit at Goodwill right before it). All I need now is a facinator or a hat — both of which I can’t seem to find. There are a few more places I can look, maybe I’ll stop by do one this afternoon.

Morella is extremely excited about the wedding in two weeks. It’s all she talks about it and this morning I was awoken by her standing next to my bed showing me the two dresses she is going to wear.

Yesterday we did Ride the Drive with the girls and a couple friend (with kid). It’s when downtown Madison closes off most of the big streets and opens it up to bikes. The June ride attracted over 30K people — I can only guess at how popular this one was because Lance Armstrong was here to ride the drive too. It was fun, but by the time we got home I realized I had gotten a bit heatsick. The temperature was sneaky. We didn’t realize it was going to get so hot. Thankfully I felt better after a couple of hours and some ibuprofen, just in time for my Book Club meeting at the Great Dane in their outside, secret garden. It was wonderful — I had bangers and mash and chatted for good two hours about things that weren’t necessarily kid related.

One thing about the ride is that it got me interested and excited again about getting back to a good fitness level. But gosh darn it, I just don’t know how to go about it. I think I am going to write a separate post on that. For now, it’s something I am thinking about — among the hundred of other things going through my head today.

Last night I had a poor night’s sleep because I woke up several times having … not nightmares, but really sad, depressing dreams about life after zombies. A sure sign that I had played a little too much of Plants VS Zombies. When I woke up at 5 for Neeners’ early morning feed, I remember telling myself, “Think of happy things, like nursing your baby, or cuddling, or playing in the backyard.”

I watched two strange movies this weekend – The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnuss. Both were…well strange. Worth watching, but I don’t know if I need a second viewing of them. I have the Book of Eli left to get too. My own little movie festival.

Okay, I should go and think of something for lunch.

Athena at 12 Months – It is getting increasingly harder to get her to stay still…

Morella at 33 Months

Sisters

Somebody wants out (notice Athena signing down)

Dangit Mom, I said I wanted out!

Detail of the photo above the crib — Ned, Tim and Chad

Hambone goes for the camera

Pretending to sleep, as opposed to the 4 month old Morella sleeping…

Athena had her 12 month well baby check up today. She weighs 20 lbs and 5 oz (31%) and is 30.25″ (78%) inches long. Long and lean, that’s how we like our girls to be. Athena was a total ham at the office, crawling around, standing, walking and charming anyone who looked her way with a happy screech. She even let a nurse take her away to get measured and weighed while I talked to another nurse about routine well baby stuff. I was super impressed she didn’t howl when she left sight of me. It’s a well known fact that Athena is first and utmost a “Momma’s Girl.” She was all smiles until those shots. Afterward, I nursed her and she fell asleep. Imagine her dismay when she awoke to having her ring finger pricked being squeezed to death to get blood for her iron and lead counts. Poor baby. After that, I signed some forms to get medical records transferred to the new clinic, got a few questions answered and then stopped at Subway to get lunch for all of us (Lowen, who graciously watched Morella and the girls I am watching while we were at this appointment, Neeners and myself). Then she took a nap, and I tried to get Morella to take a nap…to no avail. So we ended up going outside to blow bubbles — where, get this…Morella can finally blow bubbles by herself! Woo hoo! Another friend of mine had recently mentioned how great it was for your kid to learn how to blow them by themselves, and I have to agree…).

That reminds me, Morella did another first this past week and that was ask “why?”. Sure she has asked it on other roundabout ways, but this was the first time I got a real “Why” in response to something I said. Tonight we started reading short fairy tale stories from My Giant Story Book, I got at a garage sale after Athena went to bed early (with a little tylenol to help with the sore thighs). At first I was a little surprised that she was able to pay attention, ask questions and finish hearing the first story — and then the following three stories (The Three Pigs, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Shoemaker and the Elves), but then I realized “She is not just two, she is an old two — almost three”. She is getting to the age where she can listen to longer stories and more complicated stories. It’s finally happening! I have been looking forward to this stage of having kids since before I had kids. The nightly reading of stories. Oh I have stories and fairy tales, fables, novels, etc galore to read to them! I have been collecting since Morella was in the womb — before I even bought her first outfit. It’s something I had always wished my Mom had done for me and envied those who were privileged to nightly stories.

I had my friends two girls over today. It went really well. We played outside a lot, they worried about the dog too much, Morella flitted among them — this diminutive little princess in a very fluffy, lacy dress. Athena took a nap, but Morella didn’t. Who could blame her? She had older girls around to admire. We even went out and tried to fly a kite in the school greens but the wind wasn’t gusty enough, and the kite I have is for a slightly more advanced kite flyer. I might have gotten it up, but not without more wind and a baby pulling at my pant legs. Morella then said she wanted to go home. She was clearly exhausted. We came home and I put a movie on – Stuart Little that I got a garage sale a week or two ago. They all watched it, and Morella devolved even further to the point where she wanted to just play by herself in her room. At that point the girl’s Mom came to pick them up and took them off. Within five minutes we all crashed. Athena and I in my room and Morella in her. We slept for a good hour and 1/2 at which point Morella woke up crying hysterically. I went in and no matter what I did she just cried and screamed more. I finally just left her alone with a little bit of milk and made dinner with Neeners. She went back to sleep after a 1/2 hour of it. She awoke when Tim came home and cried and wanted to be held for about 45 minutes before she finally shook it off, ate dinner, had a second ice cream cone and then opted out of walking the dog to stay home and color with me. Athena went to bed like an angel — in fact, Tim put her down. He has a new system where he’ll lay with her bed and let her flop on him until she goes to sleep. This works best, of course, if she has had dinner and nursed afterward.

I think she was just overtired from all the excitement. Tomorrow I am going to make a concentrated effort to have her take a nap. Maybe I’ll tell the girls to play in the backyard, or with electronic games while she goes down. Of course it doesn’t help that Athena was up for the rest of the day (well despite that other nap) and need to be played with and entertained.

Tomorrow is Athena’s 12 month appointment. It’s been pushed back because of the new doctor and health care that we have. I am planning on taking her alone because she most assuredly will be getting shots. I should dig up the health summary from her last appointment and bring them with me. Though Dean as mychart too, I don’t think the records crossed over. That would have just been too easy. I had gotten a letter from GHC (previous health care) a couple weeks ago at Athena’s old appointment with a new patient form — it almost made me cry to look at it and read the kinds of questions they were asking about a baby that was born under their care and with them for most of the first year of her life. I shredded the form so I wouldn’t come across it again.

And, at publish time of this post I hear singing in Morella’s room.

–Because Athena was sick I wasn’t able to watch my friends two daughters on Monday and Tuesday. They are coming tomorrow, Thursday and next Monday and Tuesday. Though I am excited to have them visit and see how other people live, I am a little nervous to see how it will go. I know my house is a mess, but I am hoping that the weather and being outside and the newness of a different place will keep them occupied. I can’t help but to think of the few times that I stayed at someone else’s house when I was a kid. The handful of sleepovers, the time we stayed with a woman with a big sunny yard when my younger brother was being born, and visits to my Gaga’s and Dad’s.

–On Saturday night Tim and I put together the monstrosity of a cube bookshelf we had gotten from Ikea the previous Monday. After we were done we started to put together the new computer desk when we realized we were missing a vital piece. After some time we decided one of us had to go back. Athena was sick so it wasn’t going to be me. Since Tim was going to go back for a the metal desk frame, we figured he might as well get the big ticket item we had set our hearts on during the last visit — an entertainment center with sliding doors. This means we need to get a new TV to fit in it, but considering how old and feeble our current TV is, I guess it’s about time. It’s a lot of money to spend in a month, but we didn’t go on vacation this year, and we spent so much more time at home that we want to make the most of it. Plus, you know it’s from Ikea, so it’s not like that it’s an obscene amount of money. I have to remind myself that this is why one has savings, so that they can do periodic spending sprees such as this.

–I have been working on cleaning up and reorganizing the office since them. I only today managed to uncover the floor and vacuum it, which is a relief because there were lots of chokeable type things that Athena could put in her mouth. That girl. She is always putting something that doesn’t belong in there. I have started to play the game “say ahh!” with her several times throughout the day just to make sure there is nothing that should be there, and keep it fun. I am looking forward to the day when it’s really done in there…but of course that isn’t going to be for many weeks. The very least we can put it all away and take in it bite sized pieces. I have thought of several decorating things that I can do later on when it’s fall — like stain the little wood ikea cabinets, and decoupage filing bins.

–Morella is maturing at an astounding rate. I can’t believe how quick she is to thoughtfully ask questions, listen to me, look at books and ask questions, name things, try to count and write and yet still play with her dresses, her babies, and various other things. Today she was consumed with not letting Neeners play with or be around any of what she was playing with, at all. She’ll start screaming shrilly “No Neeners play with my toys!” when of course, Athena is no where near her toys. But since she called attention to them…hey that looks like a good idea. I can’t tell you how many times I suggest to Morella “If you don’t want Athena playing with ____ then take _____ to your room and shut the door so that you can play with them by yourself.” And she’ll do it.

–I am reading A Thousand Splendid Suns for the bookclub meeting on Sunday. It’s going to be a busy weekend here in Madison. Lance Armstrong is rumored to come and Ride the Drive, as well as it being move in weekend for the University.

–Today I had a moment of utter bliss when both girls took a dual nap, the window were open and the weather great, and me being able to sit on the couch with the dog and read.

Something is making noise in the dishwasher. Gotta go.

Oh nuts, there is Neeners crying. I am ready for bed, I thought I would just do a quick post marking this great day where I actually DID something, unlike last night where I picked up the living room, looked at the internet and played Plants VS Zombies.

Quick notes: Laima came over for a visit this afternoon with brownies and magazines, I went to the park (where there is sometimes broken glass in the rocks because it’s behind Woodman’s and stupid teenagers frequent it) and met up with Alex, Caleb and Auggie and Athena had to wear shoes for the first time in her life (she hated it) — but if you are gonna walk, you gots to wear shoes baby. Emily and Leo stopped by around noon to pick up garage sale stuff and Morella kept saying “Come on Leo, come on Leo!” She is so excited by playing with him and actually having him ‘listen’ to her and follow her around. I did some great work on cleaning up the living room and undigging ourselves from the busy month we have had neglecting everything. Tomorrow is the Sun Prairie wide garage sales … looking forward to it.

Today, as of an hour ago, both girls are asleep for early naps. There was no TV this morning and I let them just play around in the house and on me while I looked at the Ipad — of all us still in our jammies. It’s one of those quiet days at home where you recover from all the activity. Eventually I did get dressed, only as a by product of putting away laundry and after I put Athena down for her nap, Morella laid down too and both are now sleeping. I played some zombies vs plants on the ipad (a garage sale reward to myself), and then threw on my anthropologie birthday apron from Hilary and made “hearty chicken cheese soup” as per the recipe on the canned chicken package. I was going to make some kind of chicken dumpling bake, but thought I had all the ingredients for this soup. I didn’t have cheddar cheese, but I did have cheese curds. Same thing right?

Now I thought I would put in a little post before someone woke up. I sort of wish I could take a shower, but I don’t want to chance the noise waking anyone up. Sometimes it sucks having the bathroom so close to the bedrooms, though that was a blessing when I was pregnant.

We are in the process of redoing the office. Getting rid of this old desk (anyone want it?), moving stuff around and organizing it. Tim wants it to be a magazine spread type office. He’s sick of the slap dash, garage sale crap we have thrown together over the years. No, I did not get offended. He’s just eager for the next step in house decorating and living. I know that the reason it is all like this is because we rarely get new and nice things because we have the old stuff that serves a purpose. At some point in time you trade in and move up. Right?

The trip to Ikea and Rainforest Cafe would have been better if Athena hadn’t been such a beast. Crying, arching back, screaming — all because she wanted to crawl around, away from us, as fast as she could. Ugh! Great, her nose must have been twitching, because she is awake now. We would like to go back to IKEA to get a entertainment center with sliding doors, but that would be so much better without the kids. They just don’t like IKEA. Also, I think I might entertaining the “can’t go out because of a mobile, stubborn baby” phase again. Just in time for winter.

Suck. It’s only 1:00 — Neener’s won’t take another nap for the rest of the day.

I also only got 6 hours of sleep last night, no naps today and I can’t go to bed early because Morella is *still* up. She’s been terrible about going to bed at night. Lately, she’ll stay in her room and read books by her nightlight and then complain about Migo going in to lay next to her. Her favorite book right now is Cinderella’s “My Dream Wedding” — not because of Cinderella and her wedding, but because of the little dressed up mice in it. She now has an imaginary friend – her mouse. She’ll call her mouse up on the phone and tell her to come and have a tea party with her, to come over and visit, to come and eat the dinner she made for it. Interestingly enough the mouse never actually comes into the house. She’ll stand by the door and pretend she is waiting for the mouse to come in, or look out the window, or make more phone calls detailing plans. “Mouse, come over and have tea? Okay.” She will make us sit down on the couch with her and look at the pages over and over about how the mouse is wearing a pink dress with a bow and a pink bow on her tail. “Look Mommy! Look!”

We made a total of about $80 bucks today – divided up it ranges between 10-18. We also made 6 bucks in our kids bake sale. It’s just this heat is so oppressive. It also doesn’t help that there are heat advisory’s out telling everyone to take it easy and stay cool. Perusing clothes and used treasures in a hot driveway isn’t exactly conducive to a successful garage sale. Why couldn’t we have next week’s weather of “autumn like temperatures?” Sigh. At least we didn’t have this weather last week for Neener’s Birthday party…still. I am only a little tempted to keep the stuff in the garage for another sale, but it’s just so much to do it. Putting up signs, getting the stuff laid out and the help. I kept waiting for it to cool off today, for the big outside fan to blow all that soupiness away.

So after the day was done and I sat in our mess of a living room playing with the girls and coming to terms with being a little heat sick, I wanted out. I don’t want to do it tomorrow. I am only going to have one person all day helping and even that is partial because she has a 2 1/2 year old too. I asked my neighbor who has stuff in the sale to come by for 20 minutes to help take tables out, but she waffled because she has trouble getting going in the morning and leaves at 8:30. I could tell that she didn’t want too, but I can tell you that I didn’t want to do it all myself, even less — for one I can’t. I need another person to lift the tables with me to get them out. I guess I could get Tim to help me but then that means getting all that stuff out there by 6:30. Ugh. And it’s going to be hot and muggy again tomorrow, with a chance of rain later on. The weather says it’s supposed to be a smidgen cooler…I hope to god that it is, and that if it’s cloudy it will make things more bearable.

So here I am waiting for Morella to go to sleep, or for Tim to come home from his 1st of two nights out drinking (to help Morella if she needs it) so I can go to bed.

Dangit. My camera is in the bedroom. I just tried to sneak in there to get it but as soon as I opened the door she stirred.

Here are some vintage pictures from the past three Augusts.

Me in Maine on vacation, 7 months pregnant with Morella

Tim and I on the bow of a whale watching boat off of Maine.

My dear friend Myrna and I in front of our house.

One of my younger brother’s wedding reception at his house. From left: Josh, James, Theresa, Shane, Me, Mom and Frank

August 2008

Morella and I at Tenny Park.

Morella laughing at the leaves tickling her head.

On the picnic blanket, Tim, Morella, Leta, Cullen and Hilary

Morella and Tim at the Annual Greyhound picnic (I was sorry I forgot my camera for this year’s picnic)

August 2009

Just born Athena Madeline – 8lbs 8oz of fury.

Morella meeting Athena for the first time and being relatively unimpressed with her new baby sister.

Tim and Athena

I just don’t get it. Well, maybe tonight I figured it out. Maybe. She wasn’t going to sleep again, despite being exhausted, cranky and not herself. I went in there for the umpteenth time to turn her noise machine to the lowest setting and noticed that her nightlight wasn’t blocked anymore. It was giving off enough light to read by (which she was doing) and playing with her friends (stuffies). I blocked off most of the light and eventually she settled.

Anyway. It was long day, but I did accomplish making new again parents some dinner, vacuuming, grocery shopping, and a little straightening up around the house. I just wish they would take naps during the day every day until they were 4.

Well, I am gonna wind down by watching a movie – 9. So far it’s great!