« October 2009 | Main | December 2009 »
...be taking a nap before Henry gets home, but I can't stop shopping for tall boots and cute skirts and black turtlenecks.
My new computer came. It's got a Magic Mouse. It's awesome. I feel very sci-fi when I use it.
This was on the fail blog last week. It's hilarious. Marijuana brownies!
We headed out to the mall this afternoon in the hopes of crossing some people off of our Christmas list. I'm not a Black Friday shopper, I'm a day-after-Black-Friday-only-if-the-parking-lots-don't-look-too-full shopper. We were surprisingly successful. That trip, combined with the frenzied hour spent online right before we hit the road, resulted in some serious progress made. Now we only have a couple of things left to get, and then we can sit back and hope and pray that people like what we got them.
After the mall we headed over to a friend's house for dinner. I found out she was thinking about making meatballs and so I sort of hinted around us maybe going over. She's one of the few people I know whose head wouldn't go spinning completely out of orbit at the last minute-ness of it all. We had a great time. Good food, good conversation, and Henry was psyched to be able to run around with their kids and raise a ruckus.
Meanwhile, what's up with Tiger Woods?
There's not much posting going on because I'm too busy eating. This afternoon I had a turkey/stuffing/cranberry/gravy wrap. Right now I'm having a post-dinner, pre-pie snack of leftover stuffing. I'd say something about my expanding waistline, but that's so cliché.
...get the pumpkin pie going. I love Thanksgiving!
...about paper turkey's they made at school:
me: Wow! This is such a cool turkey! Did you cut out all the different pieces?
H: No, someone else did.
me: Did you draw the face on?
H: No, I don't think so.
me: Did you color any of the feathers?
H: No, someone else did.
me: Did you glue the pieces on?
H: No, someone else did.
me: Did you make any part of this turkey?
H: No, I don't think so. My turkey's all black.
me: So who made this one?
H: I think Isabella did.
me: We should probably bring it back to school tomorrow so she can
have her turkey and you can have yours.
H: I think she made it for me.
me: Did she say she did?
H: No, I don't think so.
So, the thing that's keeping Dave from losing his mind lately, given the strenuous nature of this semester, is the fail blog. He checks it often throughout the day so he can have a laugh. Naturally his current life's ambition is actually being on the fail blog, so he's submitted this picture: http://cheezburger.com/View.aspx?aid=2874103808
I think you're supposed to be able to vote, the more thumbsdown the better.
Dave's at a conference in Wilkes-Barre so I've spent the day being the sole responsible adult in the household. I've gotten very used to Henry going to pre-school four days out of the week, so Fridays are interesting because I have to entertain a four year old while keeping Holly on some sort of schedule FOR THE WHOLE DAY. Oh, the humanity. We usually have a great time, but apparently one day is my limit because yesterday was all about cupcakes, whereas today...well, let me just say I'm sort of phoning it in. It reminds me how much I look forward to the weekends when Dave is also kicking around the house. The other day we were laughing over the fact that our definition of a relaxing outing is now going out with only one kid in tow. What the frak were we thinking? Two kids. Gah.
It hasn't helped that Holly's got some sort of something going on, something which I think can be defined as gas thanks to something I ate, whatever that was. She had a great nap this morning, two hours, and then after that, nothing. Well, she slept in my arms for ~20 minutes while I was soaking up the glory that is the two hour Khloe Kardashian wedding special on E!. This is interesting for two reasons: 1) she doesn't sleep in people's arms anymore, she'd prefer to be in bed and 2) how could she sleep through the suspense of wondering if Khloe would come to her senses and ask Bruce to walk her down the aisle, anyway? Holly obviously takes after her dad. I'm pretty sure at this point we've headed into the realm of being so over-tired that we're going to have a rough time sleeping tonight. The poor kid. She's got a nice, relaxing pre-bedtime bath in her future. Although I don't have soothing lavender scents, I'll be willing them into the air anyway.
How glad am I that I didn't marry Nicolas Cage like I had planned when I was a teenager? (C'mon, he was totally adorable in Wild at Heart.) On the other hand, I'm pretty good at balancing checkbooks, so apparently it's his loss.
Speaking of money, I watched a little TV today while the kids were napping. 20,000 Christmas commercials later, I'm now officially offended by how money-grubbing corporations have become. I propose we all boycott corporate stores and just donate to charities.
Holly spent all of last night rolling over, then crying because she doesn't like being on her tummy. It was the worst night of sleep I've gotten since I had to make a 3AM trip to Walmart for Claritin a few years ago. Tonight, she will be swaddled instead of sleep-sacked. Maybe that will help. Now for the good news: while I was reloading her gdiapers for tomorrow, I realized today was the first day I didn't have to rinse poop out of any of the liners. Bonus!
Holly just rolled over from her back to her stomach. Seven times. Then? She rolled from her stomach to her back.
I took a video. Naturally. Actually, not so naturally; Dave had to tell me to do it. Once he comes home with the computer that can actually handle a newer version of Quicktime than this one can, I'll upload it.
Right now Holly's upstairs sleeping off all of the excitement.
Two weeks ago I bought a hair coloring kit because it was getting to be about that time, judging by the state of my roots. Plus, I was about to run out of the special conditioner that comes with the blondifying potions I purchase, which work the best at hydrating my lightened hair. The kit I bought is supposed to get you *really* blonde. I've picked up that kind before, from different brands, and they never really do what they say they're going to do so I figured this one would be the same. Then I read the instructions this morning, thinking I'd take care of hair business while Holly was napping. And? They scared me. The list of "DO NOT"'s was huge. So I stuffed everything back in the box and decided that unless you're really tall and can see the top of my head, my hair doesn't look too bad.
I'm thinking of challenging Mel to dying our hair pink because we've both said in the past that we really want to. Except there's a high probability she'd totally take me up on it, so I have to think about it very seriously. Plus, with my coloring, I should go with more of a plum or a lavender.
I guess this wasn't a very miscellaneous post after all. It was, however, a totally mindless post about hair. I'm going to change the title.
A couple of friends lent me their Moses baskets to use after Holly arrived and my parents, Dave, and I were all blown away by how totally awesome they are. We used a pack n' play bassinet for Henry and it was totally not awesome.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago my mom and I were watching a "Newhart" rerun. It was one of the episodes following the birth of Stephanie and Michael's daughter.
mom: Look! They're using a Moses basket!
me: Yeah!
mom: That's so cool! I'd never seen one before Holly was born. I wonder how long they've been around.
me: Well, they are called Moses baskets...
mom: Yeah, but like that means anything...
me: I'm totally putting this up on the blog.
Then she hit me.
The Leonid meteor shower is reaching its peak tonight. When we lived in Salem, Dave and I would get up in the middle of the night during the Leonids, fill a couple of go-cups with hot chocolate, then walk over to Derby Wharf where we'd lay in the grass, bundled up against the cold weather to watch the show. We also had a tradition of not going home after walking Flash each night until one of us spotted a satellite going by. Usually we'd hang out on the Wharf until we'd seen three or four. I really miss living there.
Another fun fact about today: it's my Dad's birthday! Happy Birthday!!!
Dave and Henry are in the living room fighting over the TV. Henry wants to watch SpongeBob and Dave wants to watch the Pats. Maybe I'll steal the remote and put something really girly like Gilmore Girls on and drive them both out of the room. Actually, Gilmore Girls would probably drive them right out of the house.
Today I'm roasting a chicken for dinner, complete with stuffing, acorn squash, and mashed potatoes. My main motivation is to make chicken soup with dumplings tomorrow. I haven't made it since last winter, so I'm really looking forward to it. Nothing like a good hearty soup to cure what ails you. Cupcakes, specifically these, work well too, but I don't have any.
It's starting to smell good in here!
Also, SpongeBob just beat out the Pats.
Dave and Henry are heading out for a "Men only" breakfast. They're going to stop by another cafe to bring me back Huevos Rancheros, one of my favorite meals ever, one which I haven't had since last December when I ate it while in the early stages of morning sickness. Now that I've gotten over associating it with feeling bad, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy it. I might even make little oinking sounds while I'm tossing it down.
The other night I had a dream that my mom, Henry, Holly, and I came home and discovered that our house had been broken into. Thieves had taken our washer, dryer, refrigerator, and had expressed interest in our TV but had decided to leave it behind because it was apparently too heavy. Just after we walked in, Dave came home from work. I told him what had happened and he said "Actually, they broke in last night while we were sleeping." Somehow we had managed to sleep through people stealing three major appliances. That's when I started to panic about them coming back for the TV. Meanwhile, my mom couldn't stop laughing over the fact that we were such sound sleepers.
I really hope no one takes our new washer. They can have the refrigerator, though.
This is a dangerous thing to put out into the universe because it increases the likelihood that it will all go to pot, but while my parents were here we seem to have managed to get Holly on a pretty reliable schedule. The problem leading up to this point was that I didn't have the gumption to keep her up a little bit longer between naps than I normally would, what with the active four year old and the general desire to dive into bed any chance I could get, and also craziness of the growth spurt she just went through. Now that she's settled back down into a normal eating routine as opposed to the insane, non-stop gnoshing that was last week, and with the added bonus of having three of us there to keep her occupied, it was a snap. Right now she takes three naps, two long ones during the morning and early afternoon, and a short evening nap. It's fantastic. When Henry was Holly's age, his sleeping habits were all over the place: not much napping, especially not in his bed, and getting up every one to two hours at night. In fact, that's exactly why it took us so long to decide to have another kid; we had no desire to go through that again.
Anyway, the universe can go ahead and kick me in the butt now.
*SOB*
Meanwhile, we're trying to figure out what to get everyone for Christmas, which is always an interesting exercise. It was easier when we lived in Boston and were inspired while out and about. Dave and I usually hammer out a tentative list while driving back home from our annual Fall trip to my parents house, but this year we forgot. It's somehow very difficult for us to find a significant chunk of time where we're in the same place (and not sleeping) so we'll see how we handle it this year.
You know who's turned out to be a difficult person to buy for? Henry. Go figure. Half of the toys we've purchased for him over the last few years he doesn't play with at all. Right now, it's all about music. And stuffed animals. And sometimes bubbles and marbles. He likes bouncy houses, so we're thinking about getting him a Jumpolene. He'd be thrilled and it is Christmas. It'd sort of be the equivalent of a Red Ryder BB gun if he knew he could ask for one. I hope Holly's easier to please. I don't need double the gift angst.
We spent the better part of yesterday and today sealing our new fence. I'm certain I lost a fair amount of brain cells inhaling those delicious fumes hour after hour. While we were doing it, I was cursing the fence. Now, I think it looks great. Next time, however, we're duping a bunch of friends into coming over so they can share in the fun.
I totally forgot to post yesterday. I remembered at 12:03AM this morning, so I didn't have a chance to post even a sad, one word post just to have something up there. So much for NaBloPoMo. I'll keep carrying on, even though I'm no longer legitimate.
While I was pregnant with Henry, I had fantasies of making sugar cookies with my kid, colored sugars flying and dough taking the shape of pumpkins, santa claus, and turkeys. The reality is, there are few things I enjoy less than messing with sugar cookie dough. It always sticks to the rolling pin and the table no matter how much flour I dust onto everything, and by the time I transport whatever shape we've decided on to the cookie sheet, it's somehow transformed into a shapeless blob. By the time I've got a sheet full of cookies, I'm ready to throw the rolling pin out the window. Nothing puts the love in like a long string of obscenities.
A couple of weeks ago Henry made sugar cookies at preschool. They were really good, so I asked for the recipe. His teacher told me it was great because everything goes into the bowl at once and the dough is really easy to work. Since my mom is here today to help alleviate the tension that always comes when I make sugar cookies, I decided to give them a shot. And they *were* really easy. Henry said they "rolled" the dough out at school by mashing it down with their hands so we quickly eschewed the rolling pin and I have to say, that is definitely the way to go. So! If you're looking for a good, easy sugar cookie recipe, I definitely recommend this one:Great Grams Sugar Cookies. I should tell you about how I turned my back for three seconds and when I turned back around, Henry had his tongue in the cup of orange colored sugar. When he came up his whole mouth was orange and he looked very happy. Until he got into big trouble over it. One of childhood's fleeting moments of joy.
HOORAY! As Dave said on Wednesday: Saturday can't get here fast enough.
Also, at school yesterday Henry kept saying to me and one of his teachers: "But I really want to play with the memory game!" It took us five minutes before we figured out he meant "boomerang". Still pretty impressed that it got figured out at all.
...he said I should write about whatever moves me. The thought of going to bed moves me. A hot bubble bath does, too. Today was a bit exhausting, which is ironic because around 4 o'clock I woke up from a nap, noted that both kids were still sleeping, and thought "Wow, this has been such a quiet afternoon." Sometimes it feels like I have to maintain a manic pace to keep from falling over, and that once I slow down, I just want to stop completely. I guess I've always been an all or nothing kind of girl. Just ask that empty box of Lorna Doone's over there.
Today there were gray skies and the threat of rain/snow showers. I was inspired to make some comfort food for dinner. Over the summer, we got a lot of swiss chard from the CSA we joined. I'm not a huge fan, but managed to work out a recipe that is so good, I actually bought some chard from the grocery store. I layer thin slices of uncooked potato (home grown, amazingly), season them with salt/pepper/garlic/pats of butter, add a layer of sliced tomatoes, a layer of sauteed swiss chard, a layer of burger, and finally a generous sprinkling of mozzarella. Then I do it all again. Cover and bake in the oven at 350 for about an hour, removing the lid for the last 15 minutes to brown the cheese. It's yummy. Unless you're Henry, in which case you'll treat each bite as if is killing you slowly and painfully.
Henry refers to a nearby amusement park as the Special Park. Two years ago, we rolled out of bed one day and decided what the heck, let's head over to Knoebel's to see if Henry would be interested in riding the rides. This was at a stage where all he wanted to do was "go to that park that has the pool", and let me tell you, that gets old fast. So when he asked if we were going to the park, we told him that we *were* going to a park, a SPECIAL park, thereby upping the intrigue factor and sparing us from what would have been a very long car ride that would no doubt have featured lots of arguing for the park that has the pool. Since then, the three of us have always referred to it as the Special Park.
In order to ride the rides, you either get a hand-stamp that's an all-day pass, or you can buy books of tickets. We go the ticket route because Henry's still confined to the little kid section, both because of his height and because of his sense of self-preservation. This year was the first year that he worked up the courage to present the tickets to the operators all by himself. He's very pleased with himself, and sometimes he likes to reenact that part of things here at home. So, without further ado, I present to you the second leaf pile of the season:
When I walked out our front door this morning I saw a big pile of leaves partly in the street and partly shoved up all over our sidewalk. I have no idea where they came from. Briefly I thought someone had taken pity on us and raked our front yard out of the goodness of their heart, but one glance at our leaf-covered yard killed that theory. Then, because, oddly enough, I noticed it looked like they'd been gathered with a snow plow, I thought maybe someone had plowed the leaves together from up the street, except the street in both directions was a mess of leaves, and also, who would do that? So it remains a mystery. It did motivate me to actually get out and do some raking in our oft neglected front yard. Since we generally go in and out through the kitchen door, sometimes we don't see the front for weeks, except for when we happen to drive by. It still looks messy, but at least now there are a lot fewer leaves.
I know you all have been breathlessly awaiting an update on Holly. The poor little girl has been having a tough couple of days. She's been pretty restless during her naps, although she does okay at night. I suspect a whole bunch of things are coming to a head all at once: she's nearing the 3-month growth spurt; I'm pretty sure she's teething; she's outgrown the Moses basket she's been sleeping in since she was born and is now in a crib. Yesterday instead of her usual morning, afternoon, and early evening naps, she had a string of naps that each lasted approximately an hour. Once she powers through whatever it is that's causing her distress, I bet she'll have a day or two where she completely crashes out and catches up on all the lost sleep. Something similar happened the last time we were in Boston. We disrupted her nap schedule so much over the course of two days because we were out and about, that on the third day, she was up for about forty minutes to an hour before she needed to be put back down for another nap, each of which lasted about two-and-a-half hours. After the kids were in bed for the night, my mom said she felt like we hadn't seen Holly at all that day.
At her two month checkup she was above the 95th percentile for weight, and 75th for height. (She was 22" long at that appt, which was Henry's height when he was born. Crazy.) The doctor thinks she's going to keep her blue eyes, confirming what my mom and I both have been saying for a while now. Dave still doesn't buy it. She looks a lot like Henry did when he was her age, so I've been spending some of my time imagining Henry with long flowing locks.
We stopped by my Grandmother's house at the end of both trips to Boston. Four generations of women. It kind of rocks a girl's world.
...which is NaBloPoMo, which means posting every day. I should probably do it just to get back in the habit of posting more often. This all sounds vaguely familiar. Do I say this every November?
Part of the reason the postings have been so light lately is I killed our computer. It's totally gone, kaput, forever a black screen. I've been having to wait until Dave gets home in the evening so I can check my email with his laptop. By the time I have a moment to update the blog, usually after the kids are in bed, I prefer to pass out head first into a cupcake. Not that I ever do, usually I veg out in front of the TV and then drag my sorry butt upstairs and wait (With my eyes closed. And probably snoring.) for Holly's 3AM wake-up call.
We had a good Halloween. I took lots of pictures. I'll post them soon.
Until tomorrow.
Maybe.