Off the Hamster Wheel?


First, as this post is (somewhat) about breastfeeding, it occurred to me that you might look at this photo and think that this is baby at boob … while there's nothing wrong with that, per se, that is not what this is … this is Ben on my mom's shoulder.

Today I felt like we turned a corner. I had a second appointment with the lactation consultant which was great. I feel like we are finally getting things on track and doing better. It is so much a relief to be able to just FEED him instead of this try to nurse, give up in frustration and pain and end up pumping and then bottle feeding. I was about to give it up as a bad job and go with the bottle because I could not figure out how I could manage all of that plus Tabby on my own. Matt goes back to work tomorrow, so this was not a moment too soon!

What else has been going on around here? Matt is trying to get the garden ready. I have been watching copious amounts of TV (am liking Healthy Decadences and check out this awesome Yo Gabba Gabba clip with the Happy Birthday song from Sixteen Candles) but also managed to clean up the kitchen properly (not just shove crap in the dishwasher) and coach Tabby into picking up toys. We had lunch with my mom and a coworker of ours and later my mom came over to hang out and we even went for a walk (hellooooo sun!). Of couse everything could be completely impossible tomorrow, but here's hoping!

Waiting for Inspiration

Me and the blogging aren't doing so well lately. I keep thinking I'll get on it and tell y'all what's going on but the problem is …. none of it is very interesting.

• Still pregnant. 5 more days.
• House is a mess, but projects are slowly getting done … pack 'n' play has been set up, other baby paraphanelia has made its way up from dusty basement … still needs to be vacuumed.
• Drawers for bed almost finished but one is not fitting (this can/will be fixed) and still need to be poly'd and sanded.
• Took Tabby to the aquarium on Saturday … she was absolutely enthralled.
• Weather here has been insane … blizzard like on Friday, rained all day Saturday, got to almost 60 today.
• Went to the OB on Friday … no news is good news. Measuring right on schedule.
• Toured a GOOD preschool on Friday.
• Laundry and housework seem neverending at the moment.
• Only 3.5 days of work left.
• Had a ton of one-on-one time with Tabby this weekend since Mat has been in the shop … she has been an absolute joy.
• Can't wait to meet this kid!!

A Link a Day

Just a few links I've collected recently that I had to share. Enjoy!

the case against breastfeeding is a great read for any parent
• stroller + bicycle = the Taga … and I want one!
• got a web cam? you can see if anyone's accessing your computer without your knowledge using ugolog
DIY self-watering planters … my herbs need these
• I finally found a reason to buy a Mac
• just in case you want time lapse photography of your garden, though I think it would be even cooler to set this up in your playroom
• love these lamps made from plumbing parts
geek pranks for next April Fools' Day
• these Sigg lunchboxes are pretty … but maybe just a tad boring … do they have compartments inside, I wonder?
• make gift bags from envelopes
• move over cupcakes! I pink-puffy ♥ cakesicles … wouldn't these be awesome for a b'day party??
• TLC's spring cleaning guide with cute graphics almost makes me want to clean my house … almost
• really enjoyed this article on marriage
• stop the presses! this very hungry caterpillar cupcake cake may have won my affections again
• I like the idea of sewing a new camera strap, but I'll probably just be lazy and buy one on Etsy
• now I know what to do just in case I need to develop film in an emergency … valuable life skill, that
• these sound wave-form bracelets are delightfully geeky
• I think master woodworker hubby could whip me up one of these rotating canned-good storage shelves
• next time I'm in The Netherlands, I'm totally sleeping in a wine cask
a lovely post on perspective and attitude

MishMash

My thoughts are so disjointed and random right now. Perfect for … bullets!

• My manical decluttering is really paying off. Picking up for or cleaning lady took us less than 30 minutes tonight.
• Tomorrow is Friday (yay!). 36 weeks (yay!), hanging out with Tabby and my mom (yay!).
• Saturday it is supposed to snow again. Possibly a lot. I am sick of this winter in spring crap. Bring on the rain … do you have any idea how hard it is to put on snowboots when your belly is this large?
• My belly is quite large.
• Tabby's new bed is almost done. We are having a finishing party on Sunday (BYO paint brush) and once it is really done, we can get the nursery ready for two.
• We ordered her some bedding … this one and this one. They should be here soon.
• I am making the Berry French Toast again on Sunday. YUM.
• There may also be bacon involved. Wait, what am I saying? Of COURSE there will be bacon involved. I don't want to be kicked out of my own house!!
• I am being a very good wife and waiting until Matt can join me to watch this week's ep of Bones. VERY VERY good because NOTHING ELSE IS ON.
• I should really go to bed. Good night!

Nesting with a Captial N

Ahhhhhh… I am taking good advantage of my nesting instincts. Look at my pantry, people. It is a thing of beauty. After my success on Friday, we kept it up on Saturday by attacking the kitchen. The pantry is a deep dark hole and it needs a good cleaning every couple of months because it's hard to maintain. So we drag out everything and wipe down the shelves and toss old stuff and put it back together. I had a great time using scrapbook paper to label our jars of bulk ingredients (dried fruits, nuts, pasta, grains). The fridge came next.

Then Tabby and Matt went off for a nap and I deep-cleaned the rest of the kitchen. We had tracked in loads of road dust with the snow and I swept up all of that and scrubbed down the whole kitchen.

After putting away a ton of Tabby's toys, I vacuumed up the whole main floor, working especially on the edges that our cleaning lady seems to miss, and the couches. Lastly I used up a whole Mr. Clean Eraser cleaning off scuff marks on our walls (how do they get there??). My back and feet hurt like mad, but the main floor of our house looks awesome. I still want to clean out a few corners, most notably our DVD closet. We have a whole closet full of DVDs that we want to put into a couple of binders. Then we plan to use the leftover space in the closet to put some more of Tabby's stuff.

After the marathon of cleaning, we completed another race to get Tabby ready to go off to my parents' house and then get myself cleaned up for Mom's Night Out. So while I was hanging out with the girls, Matt was down in his shop working on Tabby's bed. It's getting very close to being done.

Unfortunately, all my hard work came back to bite me in the butt. I went to bed as planned but was sore and restless all night, more so than normal. I never woke up enough to realize why and take a Tylenol, I didn't get great sleep. But luckily, today was pretty low-key. We had my parents and sister over for brunch and then met our friends in Boulder to walk around the town and hang out. The ped mall there is great for the kids to play in when it's still mucky elsewhere outside.

We spent the balance of the day hanging around the house, doing laundry, cooking and napping. All in all a great weekend.

Snow Days

So I got to work AOK on Thursday. It was snowing a bit at our house but nothing when I got to work around 6:30. A couple hours later, my boss came in and (sweetie that he is) sent me home, saying it was getting nasty out and I should work from home. So I headed home. It was pretty bad out, and I was hugely glad once again for my 4WD. Little cars were all over the roads, especially on hills. I ended up giving a mom and her son a ride home. Their car had gone into a ditch and they were trying to walk back home. Anyhoo, my normal 25 minute drive was closer to an hour. Not the worst ever, but not fun.

We had decided to keep Tabby at home, so she and I worked and played together all day. She was in a great mood and we had a wonderful time. We watched movies in bed. We made tea. We made snowfall ice cream. We drew pictures. Today, happily, was more of the same. I also introduced Tabby to the world of organization. My CD pages showed up around noon and we spent a happy couple of hours putting CDs into sleeves. This was after an unhappy first hour when she kept knocking over my categorized stacks of CDs before I realized I had to involve her in the process. I think I may have a future organization junkie on my hands. Yay!

While I am not in a great position to take her out to play in the snow, she and Daddy and Loki got a couple of sessions in. Tabby had quite a good time and was very reluctant to come in … even though she was freezing cold.

So I'm pretty sure I'll have a lot of work come Monday, but I had a really nice couple of days with my baby girl.

PS: To follow up on the whole fifths disease thing, I, like 50% of adults, was already immune.

Umm.. Yea

Not doing so well with the posting this week. I'm just kind of … uninspired and, frankly, busy. Not even the interesting kind of busy. Just busy.

We've more or less decided to not remodel our basement. It would be expensive and the $$ would be hard to recoup in the awesome market we're in and we figure that we could better use the $$ to put towards a down payment. So we're crossing our fingers that the economy recovers enough in the next year or so that we can get a reasonable price out of our house and move. So I am going crazy trying to get as much excess junk cleared out of our house as possible mainly because it seems like a better idea to do it now than later. And it's going pretty well … we cleared a ton of crap out of Matt's office on Tuesday night and I've got designs on our pantry for this evening. I definitely know how to have a good time.

This has also been the week of dealing with obnoxious little junk. Like the extended warranty we were supposed to get a refund on after my car was totaled by never did. That's been a multi-day fun fest with faxes and emails flying back and forth (and getting lost). And having our taxes adjusted so that we stop loaning the government so much $$ every year (let's face it, they're not great credit risks at the moment). So it's been that sort of “musical-hold” style week. Yay.

We're also supposed to get a devil of a snow storm today. The word “blizzard” is being batted around. I will probably be taking a vacation day tomorrow if we get too much because it's just such a pain in the butt right now to maneuver through the snow. And logistics would be particularly annoying since we have a preschool tour for Tabby lined up at 9:30. Much easier to just skip work altogether and wait for most of the traffic to clear off the roads.

For having nothing to say, I managed quite well. Over and out.