A lot can happen in seven years....

Seven years ago,

Me= somewhat newly single, fresh out of grad school, a few months into my first roommate-less apartment, a few months into my first real job. Life was great, I felt empowered, successful, basically on top of the world. I had been dating here and there, and truly, I was a bit disappointed in the pickings. I had actually just decided not to date for awhile, as it just seemed like more trouble than it was worth. I remember that I was going to visit my one of my old college roommates, she lived about three hours away. She and her boyfriend were having a party and had invited me to stay, so I went. I was supposed to come home early, because my sister was having her second annual pumpkin carving party, and, honestly, I was having such a good time at my friend's house that I almost stayed for one more day. But in the back of my mind I remembered that my sister said that one of my brother-in-law's friends was planning on going to the pumpkin party. I kind of liked him. We hadn't seen each other in several months, but the few times we met had made an impression. At the time, he was also somewhat newly single, we were both several months out of long-term, very serious (as in making plans to take the plunge) relationships, and I just felt it would be a good idea to go and see what happened.

So I went.

The rest is history. The brother-in-law's friend asked me out, and a few days later we had our first date, which was my last first date. Today is the anniversary of our first date, seven years ago.

Happy Dativersary, sweetie!

Domestic bliss... Where?!?!

There's no domestic bliss here today....I'm actually writing this tongue-in-cheek, but how do you convey that with the written word?

Anyway, today a few laughable things happened. I washed a load of the kids' clothes last night, and today, when I went to pull them out of the dryer, I was surprised to find Baby Girl's white tights in the load. I had set them aside to hand wash, or wash separately, whichever I felt more like doing at the time, but I guess they were accidentally mixed in with the rest of the clothes. It wouldn't have been a big deal except that I also had bibs in the wash. You know, bibs with Velcro. The bib Velcro and Baby Girl's thin tights didn't like each other too much. The tights looked like they had been mauled and had to be thrown away. Who knew? There's probably many little things about raising a Baby Girl that I've yet to learn.

Also today, I was mixing the fondant for Baby Girl's birthday cake, her party is this Saturday. This is the cake I've been practicing for, you know the whole reason I learned how to use fondant in the first place. Every cake so far has been in preparation for this cake. Ok, so I'm sounding a bit dramatic, but this is what I'm thinking to myself. So, I'm almost halfway through the process, and suddenly my sifter breaks. Completely breaks, I can't even really knock the sugar through by hitting the side of the sifter with my hand. So I have to make the fondant without sifted sugar. Inside, my OCD is screaming at me, "What if it's messed up? What if it's lumpy? It's supposed to be sifted!!!" I had to have a talk with myself, "Self, it's ok. It's just sugar, and it's just a cake. Seriously, calm down!" It worked, I have to say I've been doing pretty well with the OCD these past few years. (Thank goodness for that, says The Husband!)

In addition to today, a few other mishaps happened earlier this week. A few days ago, I was digging around in my trunk, and suddenly came upon a mysterious plastic grocery bag. "Uh oh," I thought, "what food did I leave in my trunk, and how bad is it going to smell?" Fortunately it wasn't food, but unfortunately it was even worse. Diapers. Cloth diapers to be exact. They were probably left in my trunk for about ten days or so. That's ten days too many, my friends. So I washed an "emergency load" of diapers and stripped the diapers, which means you do an extra, extra thorough wash with a different kind of soap. You only strip your diapers about once a month or so. (At least that's what I do.) So now I've just stripped my diapers. A day or two goes by and I wash another load of diapers. When I pull them out of the dryer I am greeted with a surprise (yes, another one!). This time it's a dryer sheet. Oh no!!! Why is that so bad, you ask? Well, fabric softener, including dryer sheets, leave a residue on the diapers, which keeps the diapers from absorbing liquid, which is what diapers are meant to do. So my diapers now leak. Great. How do you fix this, you ask? Strip your diapers, which I just did two days ago. Aarrrggg!

Somehow, I find all these mishaps to be a bit funny, which is so out of character for me. Having children has taught me a lot, and changed me for the better (I think, oh I hope!). Before kids, I probably would have freaked out at all of these incidents. Now, it's easy to just shrug it off and laugh.

Life is good!

No Jinx!

Today I gave away much of our baby gear. A spare high chair, bouncy seat, exersaucer, baby bjorn, plus some odds and ends are gone.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about it.

No, that's not true, I feel GREAT about it! I mean, with four people and two dogs we have lots of space for unused baby gear in our just over 1700 sq ft house. Yeah, right. I mean, everything was stored away so nicely, the high chair was kept at my mom's house and the exersaucer lived in the whirlpool tub in my master bath.

(I know I'm not the only one who uses the big whirlpool tub for storage, tell me I'm not)

Plus, the gear went to someone who could use it, and that makes me happy.

Nevertheless, it was a bit hard to let it go. I kept thinking, "what if we want another baby," or, "what if we don't plan to have another baby, but one comes along anyway?" (The more likely scenario.)

Oh well, if that happens, it happens. Now my house is a bit less crowded, I have my tub back, and I was able to help someone in the process.

I just hope I didn't jinx myself.

Well, if I did, shopping for baby things is always fun!

Practice makes progress - and thank goodness for that!

Baby Girls practice birthday cake, I only hope the real thing turns out as well!

This and That About the Kids

The kids have been sleeping in the same room lately. Baby Girl goes to bed earlier than Little Man, so when she first goes to sleep it's in the pack n' play in our room. Then when The Husband and I go to bed we move her upstairs to the crib. This gives Little Man a chance to have his bedtime routine with songs and books, and lets him have time to fall asleep without worrying about waking up his sister. We've been doing this for awhile now, and it's going ok, but not great. Baby Girl still wakes up in the night on occasion, as babies often do, and she usually wakes up Little Man in the process. Two kids awake and crying in the middle of the night is NOT fun. We are persevering, however, it is really important for us to get Baby Girl OUT OF OUR ROOM! Can you tell how strongly we feel about that? So last night, as I was giving Little Man his last hugs and kisses before he went to sleep, I said something about bringing Baby Sister (that's what Little Man call her, more often than he uses her real name) up in a little while, and he responded, "Mommy, don't bring Baby Sister up here. She's gonna get me all waked up."

So cute. :)


The kids are being really sweet to each other right now. Oh, how I'm enjoying it! This is an exchange that I overheard a few days ago, when Baby Girl was fussing.

Little Man: "It's ok, Baby Sister, I'm right here. I'm not leaving for school again."

Baby Girl continues to fuss, so Little Man says in the sweetest and most comforting tone he can manage, "It's ok Baby Sister, I'm right here."

Such a good, protective big brother.


One weekend morning recently, Little Man and The Husband were on their way to daddy's office. The Husband just had to stop in for a quick minute to pick up some paperwork he accidentally left the day before. It was early in the morning, so I hurriedly got Little Man dressed and ready, and walked him to the front door. As he was walking out I asked, "Can mama have a hug and kiss?" Little Man: "Oh, yeah, " and he gave me a sweet kiss on the cheek. Then he said, "Ok, I give Mama a hug," and proceeded to give me a great big hug. I walked him to the door, then stood on the front porch and waved as he walked to daddy's car. He turned around and said, "Okay, I see you later! I be back soon!"

When did he get to be so grown up?


Today was a milestone day! When I dropped Little Man off at his parent's day out, (he goes twice a week) he walked into the classroom, ran over to the table where the other children were playing, and started to play! Most days he is very clingy to Mama, and fusses a bit when I leave. He also begs for his paci and lovey when I leave. Now lately, his teacher has been great about distracting him so he doesn't need paci and lovey, for which I am so grateful. Today, as I was about to leave, he ran over to me and he whispered, "I want paci and lovey." I just responded, "You don't need paci and lovey, go play!" And off he went, skipping no less! And no fussing, either, when I left!

11 Months

Baby Girl is at the 11-month mark, and in the final stretch of her first year. It's so bittersweet to watch her grow. On one hand I just love seeing her develop and grow. Each new day brings about some exciting new skill, or shows a bit more of her personality. Every day has the feeling of knowing that you're going to get a present, but of having no idea of what it could be. So thrilling! Like most parents, I'm sure, her growing up is also a bit sad to me. My tiny little newborn is long gone, and each day I realize more and more that her babyhood won't last forever. I know that change is good, growing is definitely good...but I still miss my tiny baby. When Little Man was this age, we were already ready to try for another baby, and it wasn't so hard to let go of his babyhood. I think this will be my last baby, however, and every fleeting second seems so precious to me. Children are such a blessing and a joy!

Here's what sweet Baby Girl is doing these days...

Pulling up on anything and EVERYTHING, a scrap of cloth, a piece of lint (wink), you name it she can pull up on it.

Cruising like a champ

Standing on her own, without holding onto anything, for several seconds

Climbing stairs - she can climb the entire length of our staircase in seconds flat. No more forgetting to put up the baby gate!

Trying to climb other things, the step stool, chairs, the other day I found her in the toy box. She had climbed in and was stuck!

Drinking from a sippy cup, just water, unless we go to grandma's house, then grandma gives her juice. Baby Girl goes insane over it! Crack for babies!

Refusing baby food, or anything pureed. Evey yogurt, which she loves. She's stubborn about it, if she can't pick it up herself, she doesn't want to eat it.

Singing herself to sleep. This is the sweetest thing! Little Man did this when he was a baby, and I've never seen another baby do it, but they hum to themselves when they're falling asleep. It sounds almost like a kitten purring, it is so precious!

Saying several words: Mama, Dada, Baba (brother), dogo (doggie), bye-bye, uh-oh, and a-oo (thank you). The fact that she says thank you at appropriate times is amazing to me, but we really encourage Little Man to use it, and I guess she's been listening.

Baby Girl also gives the best hugs, she's a very cuddly baby, just like she should be!

She still nurses. My goal was to nurse as long as I could, up to her first birthday. However, I decided I didn't want to wean her in the middle of the cold and flu season, especially this cold and flu season, which in September has already been record-breaking. So I hope to continue nursing until the Spring.

Sweet Baby Girl, 11 months old - hard to believe!

Unusually Productive

Things have been going really smoothly around here lately. Maybe it's our reward for the past several weeks when we seemed to have constant chaos for weeks on end.

Little Man and Baby Girl are getting along and even enjoying playing together a bit.

The Husband has returned to a more regular work schedule.

We've all been well lately, what a huge relief!!

I've gotten to tackle a few projects, which has cleared some of the visual (and mental) clutter around here. Thank goodness!

For instance, I have ALL my pictures from 2007 in an album. Yes, in an album. With captions and cute little stickers, almost like a scrapbook. This took about three weeks. Now I'm organizing pictures for 2008. Baby Girl was born in 2008, so we have about... 1,000 pictures. Not kidding a bit. I have most of them printed, and in a crude order, like Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. It's a great start, and after 2008 I'll tackle '04, '05, '06, and '09. Small steps, small steps.

I've also been practicing my cake decorating. Here is a picture of a cake I made for my mom's birthday this week.




She absolutely loved it and felt so special, what a great feeling!

I also tried to make Petit Fours today, I'm hoping to make these for a baby shower I'm throwing next month.

My petit four-making needs some help, these did not turn out the way I had hoped. I did, however, learn a lot from my mistakes and I think I'll have it next time. And they tasted sooo good.

A few cute tidbits about the kids:

When I have several errands to run, or drive the long drive out to my mother-in-law's house, Baby Girl usually falls asleep. This is just too much temptation for Little Man, who then tries to wake her up by repeatedly yelling "HUH" at her. So the other day it was Little Man who fell asleep, and Baby Girl who stayed awake. She was looking over at big brother, and chatting to him a bit. I guess she realized he was asleep, because all of the sudden I hear a "HUH, HUH!" No, it wasn't Little Man, it was Baby Girl, giving payback to brother. She did wake him up, too! Little Man's response, "Mommy, Baby Sister is keeping me awake!"

Little Man's speech continues to crack me up. One of his favorite words right now is "something," only he says "someping." Sometimes it's just too much!

Tonight, as I was organizing the kids' closet with their fall clothes, Baby Girl got into the Aquaphor bottle. She smeared globs of it all over her face, her mouth, her hands, and hair. Oh yeah, and Little Man's bedspread. To top it off, she was MAD when I took it away, she loved it's squishy texture. I was worried about her swallowing all that thick, greasy lotion, but a call to Poison Control calmed my nerves. Tonight, she has the most velvety skin a baby ever had.