peek-a-boo, pjs, and pretty

My daughter has been waking up early as of late. I'm not sure why...maybe she senses the soon coming of her sibling? Maybe her tummy awakens her because of hunger? (She seems to be so hungry lately.) Maybe she just thinks I've had my fair share of sleep and she's going to help me out by waking me up? "C'mon Mom, let's get this day started ~already~!"

Whatever the reason is, it's early and there's no mistaking that.

Although I'm a wee bit disgruntled when I first reach that verticle position out into the chilled house from the toasty warm sheets, my mood seems to quickly lighten while watching my daughter eat her breakfast. All the while I'm making her eggs and toast and pouring her milk, she "Mmmmm!!"s. She giggles with great anticipation of the breakfast masterpiece I'm creating for her. And trust me, at the early hour we're up, it's far from a masterpiece, but she thinks it is - fine.by.me! She smiles and does silly little things that make it impossible to stay cranky.

Yesterday morning, she bit the center out of her toast and when I looked up at her, she was peeking at me through the hole. She melts my heart.



After running errands and nap time and x, y, and z that filled our day to the brim, we had a few minutes to relax at home before we'd head out to pick my husband up from work.

I rushed out the door with the little one and in the process forgot my cell phone. I always call my husband once I get to his work so that he doesn't end up having to wait outside for me. I call - he comes out. It's a good plan for us and it works. But it doesn't work if I forget my cell phone.

Problem was though, that I was in my pajamas. And barefoot. Casual pjs though - tshirt and thin cotton drawstring pants. I sat in the parking lot for awhile kicking myself for forgetting the phone.

"Ok I'm sure he'll just come out...yeah, he'll just come out...yeah..."

I wasn't very good at convincing myself as inside I knew he was not going to come out until I called. And the calling wasn't going to happen because I.forgot.my.phone.at.home.

Sparing my daughter the profanities that were swirling around in my head, I kept my mouth shut. I got out of the car and headed to the cargo area where I remembered I had a pair of grungy, old sneakers. They were dusty and dirty and full of burrs.

I slipped my barefeet into the yucky shoes, laced them up and headed back toward the front of the car to get the munchkin. It was at this point that I remembered just how hideous I looked in my pjs. Not only was it far from the distinguished look of a lady, but my pj bottoms were see through and good gosh, people were going to see my p-i-n-k u-n-d-e-r-w-e-a-r through them!

Idea!! Ah ha!

I'd simply carry my daughter and throw my purse over my shoulder...between the purse and her leg, my bottom would be fairly well covered.

The idea was a good one, except that my little one is at the age of wanting to be ~independent~! She wanted to walk herself into the building. Mommy didn't want that. So there we were - me in my pjs, grungy shoes no socks, VERY pregnant and lucky if my tshirt stayed down as to not expose my massive roundness, carrying a toddler that's squirming and wiggling to try to free herself from Mommy's grasp, while my purse was bouncing behind me with each struggling step toward the building.

We made it to my husband's office - and he.wasn't.there!

And of course the office had people in it. I apologized for my horrendous appearance and they brushed it off as no big deal, but the smirks on their faces said so much more.

Finally, he arrived out of no where. He didn't even notice how I looked - gave me a kiss and picked up our munchkin and asked me where we should pick up dinner.

I turned to the office staff, "See? He doesn't even notice when I look horrendous...I knew there was a reason I married him."

My husband looked at me with a "huh?" expression and we all just chuckled.

As we walked back out to the car I encouraged us to walk just a little.bit.faster.please so that I could keep my pink undies from being discovered. He laughed and apologized for taking so long.

Next time I ~will~ remember my cell phone.

So in the evening I was relaxing and wanted to paint my toenails. I was feeling festive and had picked up Santa Red nailpolish with a slight golden shimmer to it. I'm not quite sure how I finagled it, but I did manage to paint my toes all.by.myself! And I even did nail art with nail gems making it look like I have holly on my two main toes. It must have been a funny sight to see - me on the kitchen floor trying to prevail over the task at hand. I'm not sure you can see the nail art very well in the picture...but I feel festive and pretty - at least my toes do!

Dinner and Doctors

Today was yet another busy day.

I went to the doctor - same ol' same ol' there. Baby and I are doing great! My blood pressure was 120/70. The baby's heart rate was 140. I'm slightly dilated. All is how it's supposed to be. AND we set a date for delivery. December 13.

I still think that I will end up going naturally before that, but we'll see. At any rate, it's just a couple days over two weeks away at the most. Wow! So close!

Then we brought my husband lunch at work and I picked up some yummy desserts for after dinner from a local pastry deli.

I feel like I was running all over the place today, but in reflection I guess I didn't go all that many places.

In addition to all the heres and theres that the little one and I went to, we also squeezed in another fun outting to the bagel cafe this morning. She really loves our time there and the bagel we share. It's our special time away from home.

Dinner tonight sure looked pretty, but it didn't meet up to my dining standards for taste. It was fun making it, but I won't make it again simply for the fact that I could make something better outside of this recipe. Not to mention the crab meat was entirely overpowering I thought. My typical Spring Mix salad with tomatoes and avacados and homemade vinaigrette was a hit as usual though.



But what really put a smile on my face was sitting on the couch with my husband sharing the desserts that I had picked up earlier.

A delicious slice of creamy cheesecake, a raspberry sponge cake with a raspberry mousse filling and blueberries and white chocolate on top, and then some sort of sinful chocolate cake and chocolate mousse filled pyramid of richness.

They all were so yummy, but the cheesecake was definately my favorite!

Sense of Humor

I had a pretty busy day today - Target, Costco, other errands....

On my way home, I called my husband to see if he wanted me to pick him up something to eat. He thought that was a great idea, so I swung through a drive thru.

A woman took my order over the speaker and when I approached the ~first~ window to pay, a man stood before me telling me my total.

Now, quite obviously I knew he wasn't the one who took my order, but I said anyways, "Wow! You sure sound different over the speaker!"

And instead of laughing, he became very concerned. "Oh! That wasn't me!! It was HER!" And he leans out the window to point to the woman standing at the ~second~ drive up window.

I chuckled and despite my obvious joke, I explained it to him anyways. "Yes, I know that wasn't you - I was just kidding."

He is still worried apparently by looking at his face.

Then my little one starts laughing out loud really obnoxiously. She's at the age where she loves to hear her own voice, and she had picked up on me joking around, so when I laugh - she laughs.

The man looks at my daughter and then looks at me and says, "So, is SHE laughing at ME too!?!" He said this seriously.

Again, I explain the situation. "No, I was joking earlier, and she just likes to laugh when anyone else laughs...she's not laughing AT you."

Goodness!

We went for coffee this evening and a nice, little drive. The sunset was gorgeous and I caught a few pictures of it. I couldn't decide which one I liked best, and my husband wasn't any help in deciding either so I put my three favorites up.



~click on the photo to see a better shot of it~

asphalt and fish

Yesterday was the day after Thanksgiving, which means it was the busiest shopping day of the year in the States at least. I really wanted to go zipping about looking for presents for the holidays. I wanted to eat lunch out. I wanted to sit and have a coffee at Starbucks and listen to the holiday music playing overhead and people watch as people came in and out fixating on what caffeine buzz they were going to splurge on.

But after thinking about it in more depth, I realized it probably wouldn't be the best time for me to do such a thing. Being so close to the delivery, and the roads being so trafficy, there really wasn't a reason good enough to risk getting into a car accident or being trampled by the shopping madness.

Not to mention, I was extremely tired.

My darling daughter woke up at 2:30am and decided that she wasn't tired. Despite my efforts to get her back to sleep, by 3:45am she was asking to have her toe nails clipped. By 4am she was hungry and wanting to eat, "eat! eat! pwweeze!". So there I stood in my kitchen making eggs and toast. She wasn't making it up though. She ate all of her breakfast and by 4:40am I got her to go back to sleep for an hour or so.

Starting your day in such a way really throws things off.

My husband and I did decide to go out for a bit. We drove to look at our land, and me and my brilliant ideas - I talked us into going to one of our cell phone provider stores to ~finally~ switch over our cell phone numbers from our old area of residence to our new area of residence. We've really been after getting this done for some time now so my husband agreed to it so we could get it over with.

Long story short about the phone store, the lady working was ~clueless~ and ~misleading~. And just in case any of my readers have forgotten this...I'm VERY pregnant. Which means I don't have a ton of patience and I have a lot of extra hormones cruising through my body. I asked the woman straight up if there was a better cell phone store in the area of our provider to go to to expedite the number changing - because honestly she was slower than molasses on a cold, winter's day.

She tells me no. That it would be JUST THE SAME because all the work has to be done over the phone yadda yadda yadda. Only to find out that this was a privately owned store and not a corporate store. A corporate store was just down the street. And a corporate store would have been MUCH better. Not only would they know what they were doing far better, but they also wouldn't be charging an EXTRA $50 for supplies. Excuse me, but having to spend an extra fifty bucks at YOUR store, makes the OTHER store BETTER. Simple.

I was noticeably irritated and really did my best to bite my tongue and be civil. She wasted over thirty minutes of our time. She should have been straight up with me and not tried to play games.

I grumbled the whole drive home. My husband thought it was pretty good entertainment to listen to me, although he too thought it was ridiculous. I'll go to the corporate store later and get the number switching taken care of properly.

Later in the day, we picked up some groceries for the weekend. The little one got to sit in the grocery cart car and adored her ride. I think she really thinks she is driving. Cracks me up. While we were shopping, it rained outside.

So when we left the store, it just stank. The parking lot smelled like asphalt and fish - and with that I decided we should go home and stay home.

It wasn't a good day to be out.

thank you

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday. Comfy cozy with friends and family - lots of yummy food - endless conversation - the buzzing of the TV in the background and the occassion outburst of cheers or groans from the ups and downs of whatever football game is playing - the clanking of dishes in the kitchen - the delicious smells of cooking food wafting throughout the house...

This year my husband, daughter, and I are having a quiet Thanksgiving. Soon we will have a newborn and a house that's busy trying to transition from one child to two. My husband is going to grill the turkey and I'm going to tend to the side dishes while my daughter probably scurries around the kitchen begging for KEES! ("Cookies" for my readers that missed that word in an earlier post.)

I have so much to be thankful for, and while it would take forever to list them all in their entirety, let me list some until I run out of posting time:

My health.

My family's health.

For the miracle that's growing inside me.

That this little miracle is also healthy, and that she wasn't born early when I passed my kidney stone.

For the memories I hold of happy times with loved ones that have passed who can't spend Thanksgiving with me in a tangible sense.

For my friends and their health.

For knowing that I have my dog in a home that really loves him. It was hard giving him up, but at least I know he's happy.

For being able to have a feast on my dining room table for all my family to enjoy. We are so fortunate.

For coffee. (C'mon, you didn't think I could leave that off my list did you??)

For all the love and kisses that my family gives me.

For Tylenol. And for the fact that it actually alleviates pain for me. (Took some last night when I woke up from being SO achey, and as I laid down in bed again to fall asleep, I could actually feel the pain dissipate.)

For being a bit quirky and keeping life a bit strange and interesting for those around me - makes life more fun.

For having supportive family and friends.

For having a daughter who thinks I'm special.

And that is such a small part of all that I'm thankful for...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ripening

I never did give the news from my doctor's appointment on Monday...

Everything is looking great! My doctor is out of town this week, so I saw the Nurse. She was super busy as she was doing about a million things at once and seeing all the patients for their check ups, but she was still a gem of a person and took her time with me.

Being the curious cat that I am, of course I had a fair amount of questions. None of them were essential, so I did feel a bit bad asking them since I know she was so busy, but she assured me that she didn't mind my questions at all as long as I didn't mind her running warp speed from my exam room after we were done so she wasn't too late getting to the next patient.

I had to give the standard tinkle sample, and I usually have been holding it for awhile so as I'd be sure to be able to go when I get to the doctor's office. But by the time I got to the bathroom, I had to go so bad that I completely forgot I was supposed to go tinkle in the cup until the very end and was able to just catch a drop.

"Oops! Say, you don't need very much ...dooo...you..? Because, I um sorta forgot!"

She said she had enough, but I sure hope she wasn't cursing me under her breath.

The baby's heart rate was 152 or 155 (can't totally recall) which is healthy and strong.

My blood pressure is "good" - didn't get numbers on that this time, however, it's always about the same every time I go in and it's always been really good. So I can let not knowing the #s slide this time - although I'm a #s person... I like knowing specifics.

I had the nurse check my chart, and I've gained 30 pounds this pregnancy. That's a lot better than my first pregnancy!

Still holding to delivery during the second week of December, but no formal date has been set yet and again, because I'm a #s person - this.is.driving.me.nuts! I can't wait to have a solid date set for the inducing.

Seeing as how my sister-in-law had her baby a month early and that the baby was breech, naturally I had some questions about how my body seems to be prepping and how the baby is positioned.

"So, what % can you give me on how sure you are that my baby isn't breech??" (Again, there I go with the #s - I can be such a pain!)

She starts off with telling me what I already knew, "Well, we can't be for sure until we start with the delivery really, and if we have suspicions then we'll do an ultrasound to verify to determine what we need to do..."

But then she cut herself short and even though she was incredibly rushed, she took the time to do an ultrasound for me! I was SO surprised!! She definately didn't need to do that for me, but she did. She wanted to put the worry out of my mind that the baby might be breech, and the baby isn't...WHEW! Head down just like she's supposed to be.

..like SHE'S supposed to be...

That really is something I've been mulling over lately- is the baby REALLY a girl? I'm sure the baby IS! but there's this nagging thought that she's a HE. I know I'll find out soon for sure, but it's frustrating not being settled with the fact that I was told the baby is a girl.

So I asked, "So, can you see privates???"

The nurse said she wasn't any good at that, and reminded me since I don't really have a gender preference what difference does it make? And she's right...and I will know soon enough and I'm quite certain the baby will come out a beautiful, precious GIRL!

Everything is in check and looking how it's supposed to be - my body is properly prepping for the delivery of this little miracle...I just wonder when it will all take place!

Toddler Tuesdays

This morning started off earlier than usual due to the fact that the munchkin didn't nap yesterday for more than 15 minutes because Daddy was home and when Daddy is home she constantly wants to know what he's up to.

So bedtime came 45 minutes earlier than usual and she was out like a light in five minutes.

I fixed my daughter her usual breakfast ("Fast! Fast! Fast!" as she says when she wakes up...), and then we got cleaned up to take my husband to work after a short walk outside in the morning sunshine.

AND! I saw the dog I'm sure that did the lawn dookie in front of my house...he was off leash and running amuck this morning, not to mention definately OVER the 40 pound weight limit rule set here by Management. Anyways...

After we took my husband to work, we stopped by the yummiest bagel place in the area and for the first time in a long time, I actually sat in the cafe there and enjoyed people watching. My daughter was being her typical cheery I-Love-The-World self and doing her best to get eye contact with everyone she could so she could flash her pearly whites at them.

We shared a toasted, plain bagel with fresh, whipped cream cheese and a soda. Of course she stole the hearts of a couple of elderly women who had met up for a good gossip session, coffee, and morning pastry. They also cast a glance of sympathy for me while I carried my daughter on the side of my big pregnant belly, carried my purse, carried the plate with the bagel on it, carried extra napkins, and the highchair. Whew though! We made it to the table without any mishaps.

It was warm in the cafe with the smell of hot coffee, freshly brewed, and baking bread. Mmm. It was fun, even if the only real conversation I held was with my daughter as we exchanged, "MMmm!"s back and forth while we snacked.

Then it was a mission for new shoes, 1/2 a size larger. My daughter is still wearing her go-fasters that she has just fine, but I figured it would just be easier to have the next size up for when they become to small. We first went to Target, but their selection just didn't thrill me, however, I found a couple very cute outfits for my precious munchkin. I also picked up some new bath toys, including a little hose shower spout that hooks on to the tub spout - will make it easier for me to wash my little one's hair - and will make it easier on Grandma when she comes to visit too. Picked up some super gentle baby wash. And. And. And Target is just too easy of a place to find stuff to spend your money at!

But! We didn't leave with shoes, and that's why we went there in the first place. So off we went to Payless Shoe Source. That's a great place to pick up kid shoes. I refuse to spend a fortune on shoes that only last a short while...it's just silly. So we did find some very cute go-fasters that were $9.99. Perfect!

Now we had just.enough.time to get our tooshs over to the book store for Toddler Tuesday!

There were thirteen children in attendance. My little one was so excited and I did give her freedom out of her stroller. I was a little nervous about that at first, because obviously in a store full of beautiful new books, she could cause some serious damage not to mention really rack up a hefty bill for Mommy. But she was great and suprised the socks off me. She minded me really well and all I had to do was remind her that we were there to 'look' not to 'touch'. Then it was read-aloud time. One of the store employees plopped herself up on the neatly decorated kid's stage while all the kids sat themselves down on the benches and floor surrounding the stage. My little one was a bit unsure about sitting and listening at first. It was her first experience with such an event. I sat her down in the second row of seats, and sat myself down on the carpet to the side of the first row bench and the second row bench. Naturally, she didn't want to stay on the bench and she waddled her way over to me and sat next to me on the carpet.

Through half listening and half taking in the scenery of the store, she realized there was just enough space next to another child on the first row bench. Up she went and squished herself on the edge of the bench. Luckily the other child skooted over a bit and wasn't bothered at all by my daughter's friendly nature. And there my daughter sat and listened to the stories being read - and then she'd come back to my lap for a few minutes, and then back to the bench, and then back to my lap, bench, lap, bench...

After the second story, it was snack time. The woman handed out a cookie and apple juice to each child and then continued reading two more stories. After that, it was Coloring Time. There was a nice, wooden, round table with crayons with paper for coloring and then the children were also given permission to sit up on the stage to color if they preferred.

This was great! She socialized with so many of the kids. We started out at the coloring table, and then she moved on to chit-chat and color with a different group of kids with their Moms, and after that she moved on to yet another group of kids and their parents...

By the time we reached the third group and spent a little bit of time coloring there, the Toddler Tuesday time was over and all the crayons needed to be collected. My little munchkin followed the woman all over to try to hand in her crayons and the woman kept on cruising further and further away in a circle. It was really pretty comical, and my daugther was getting somewhat frustrated, but she did track the woman down and turned in her crayons.

I told her it was time to go and back into the stroller we went and she waved bye to everyone and said, "Bye!!"

What a great outting - and they do it every Tuesday for free.

dookie duty please

Someone who walks their dog around the neighborhood let their dog go poopie in our front yard - YUCK. Seeing as how we're renting this house in a large complex of other rental homes, I was not about to pick it up. There are rules about this sort of thing - this poopie business. The manager even has bag stations up around the neighborhood so that dog owners don't even need to worry about carrying a pick-up bag with them on their walks.

For a week. An entire week. That pile of stink sat there on our front lawn. Had it sat there beyond today, I had plans of calling the manager to have her come pick it up, but thank goodness today was 'mowing the lawn' day so the gardners got to it.

It's really a shame they had to pick it up. No one but the owners of the dog that did it should have to do that. I actually had intended on printing out a sign and putting in on the lawn that read, "If your dog did this - PICK IT UP!"

It's just rude and classless. It's part of being a dog owner. Curb your dog!

two miles a go go

The weather was gorgeous this morning.

Chilly but not cold - warm but not hot - sunny, blue skies, no clouds.

The little one and I went for a two mile walk. It was long, for sure, but it felt really great to get some fresh air deep into my lungs and get the blood really circulating through my body.

The first mile went a lot faster than the return mile though! By the end of our walk I was pretty tired and somewhat achey.

I had intended on taking the munchkin to the park and pushing her on the swing, but the sun was so sparkly that we went to a different park with a scenic view.

By the time we got home, it was time to make a pot of coffee for my husband to tote off to work with him and make a couple snacks for myself and my daughter to nibble on. We sat at opposite ends of the dining room table and made faces at each other.

She thinks I'm so funny, and I love that. But then again, I think she's pretty darn funny too, and she loves that.

We spent the rest of the day playing and relaxing around the house.

At some point in the evening, my daughter managed to get ahold of my husband's soda can when he left his PC to use ~the little boy's room~. Of course she spilled a fair amount on her shirt and a fair amount on the carpet (thank goodness it's a caramel color).

And you have to love it when kids put to use new words they've added to their vocabulary...

So she grabs the soaked part of her shirt and slurps out the soda to which she then says, "Mmm SIP!! SIP!"

She's such a crack up.

produce passion

I was recently introduced to the blog On Location With Rick Lee. I had been feeling in a photo schlump as of late, and really needed inspiration. I found it in heaps and gobs at Rick's blog. I can't tell you what a rush it was. His photos are spectacular and yet he really comes across very down to earth and shows his readers that amazing shots can be found most anywhere.

He features a special post every Thursday on produce, because as he says, "Because Thursday night is grocery night!"

This morning I awoke with new found energy, dressed the munchkin, put myself together and off we went to the grocery store. I knew my daughter would be well behaved as long as she could ride in one of those grocery cart cars. And with that, I would be able to peruse the produce as if I was a cat insearch of tasty mouse morsel.

I was having a fantastic time snapping shots. Some duds right off the bat, some duds found later when I got home, but some that turned out - all in all it was so refreshing! Even if they had all turned out crumby, it was the entire experience...the feeling of wanting to find "the shot" again...the union of me and my camera and wherever my scanning eyes took me.

I did however learn two valuable lessons:

1. Make sure you know if the grocery store plays a little tune before they turn on the produce sprinklers. Especially if you've got your camera whipped out and you're trying to take a close up. I found out that this grocery store did not. Poor poor camera. Poor poor me.

2. Expect the produce guy to think you're off your rocker. As I was happily snapping shots, the produce guy became very curious as to what I was up to. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? What do you do with the photos? Really? Really? Seriously? Hmm, you sure? Cool. I felt like he was about ready to handcuff me and drag me into the back to that dim lit room where there's the good cop/bad cop there to interrogate me, "If you cooperate with us this will go a lot smoother, Ms Insanity..." In all seriousness though, he thought me snapping shots of his immaculately aligned fruits and veggies was great - I think he was rather flattered.

But then after I exhausted the produce section, my daughter and I had to walk the Isle of Death in the bakery. Flanked on each side of us were stacks and stacks of cookies. Naturally, that being a word my daughter can say (half way at least), I immediately hear, "KEEEEEEES! KEEEEEEEES! KEEEEEEEES!" (meaning Cookies)

So I caved since she'd been so wonderful during my "produce photoshoot" and began looking at all the different kinds of KEES to find some that would make the least amount of mess. She had been so cute and determined and somewhat LOUD that one of the bakery men came over to chit-chat. I apologized for a) my loud persistant daughter and b) for not having aspirin to hand out. He chuckled and assured me the grocery store had seen far worse than my little toddler cruising around in her grocery cart car.

Even though I had committed to a yummy container of chocolate chip cookies, the nice gentleman opened up some red sugar sprinkle covered sugar cookies and gave one to my daughter. She was delighted beyond comprehension and that satiated any KEES desires for a good ten minutes.

He was thrilled with the fact that I was taking pictures. He encouraged me to chat with one of the bakers in the back about a photography club in the area and how I should join it after I have my second baby. He gave me good insights on other places to go to in town to try to catch some fun shots. It was really kind of him and very informative.

I asked him to please let the Produce Guy know that I'm really not mental if they were to ever have words with each other.

He laughed and assured me that the Produce Guy didn't think I was mental...

I picked up the items I needed, and we went on our way. I left feeling rejuvenated and alive.

What a great feeling.

My grocery store shots can be viewed in my slideshow above or by clicking here.