Day #18: Melons

Tonight was beautiful once again, and it was also pay day, which is generally take-out night (celebration!), so we ate Chinese on the patio. The Cupcake didn't get to partake, but she chomped on a frozen teething ring and was riveted the entire time by the neighbor's barking dog (as nutty as Norm is, he actually doesn't bark much, and he's almost completely deaf right now, so the kid hasn't heard much noise out of him). I've never been one to appreciate the great outdoors, but we ate and talked and enjoyed the evening so much we ran out of time for hubby to take TC on her nightly walk. She got her dinner late which somehow revved her all up, so she's in the Jumperoo bouncing and watching the Twins game (kid loves baseball, sports shows, and semi-naughty cartoons like South Park and Family Guy. I blame the bright colors. And find the cartoons to be the least objectionable of the set), and hopefully she's tiring herself out.

So let's recap briefly - good weather, payday, happy baby, good food, relaxing evening...but none of that is what really made me the happiest today. Doesn't even come close. Because today, after 9 months of pregnancy, 6 months (and one week) of pumping, and three weeks of weaning...

THIS IS THE FIRST DAY MY BOOBS DON'T HURT!

Yeah, I said it. And I meant it.

And it is GLORIOUS.

#17 - progress!

I won't claim that I enjoy cleaning, but I have to say that the end result of just an hour or so organizing like mad up in my craft room did bring me joy. It had gotten almost un-navigable, since nothing had been put back in its proper place since Christmas or possibly Halloween...well I now have a path! And after I had just about given up hope, I found the box of placecard holders I had gone up there to look for in the first place...several weeks ago...

I didn't get it cleaned up by any means, it's still pretty embarassing and not very functional, but I did make enough headway in the small amount of time I had to devote to the task to feel like there may be hope for the future!

Weekend Catch Up

I'm Baaaaack! My sense of time is so confused right now, I actually had to sit down for about 20 minutes to remember what we did this weekend, I knew we had a good time, but my short term memory has yet to right itself. In fact, TC was up about a million and a half times last night, so it's a wonder I even remember my name or how to turn on a computer, but somehow I'm up and at work. And after much thought, I've been able to recall some great moments from the weekend, three more days of fun which gets us slightly over halfway to the goal of 30! :)

#14 - GRAMMY IS BACK! Grammycupcakes, AKA my mother/nanny extraordinaire was on a 2 week vacation, but now she's back and we had a DELIGHTFUL reunion on Friday afternoon, with much oohing and aahing over The Cupcake's new tricks (sitting up, rolling over, technicolor vomit...). I never thought I'd say it, but I kinda enjoy the "relaxing" nature of going to my boring job every other day and not having to do anything all that important (like keeping someone from taking a walker down the stairs). Ahh, sweet relief :) Welcome back GC!

#15 - Saturday dinner fun. I have to admit, I love the OCB. I love having a little bite of 100 different foods, I love the bland midwestern cafeteria palate, and I even love the Jerry Springer feel of the place with all the sweatpants and family angst. I absolutely cannot stand screaming kids in restaurants, so I'm a bit of a wimp about taking TC out places (I will not subject others to what I detest so much) but I never really worry about bothering people at OCB. In general, she's been a peach at most restaurants so far, and Saturday night was no exception. She sat in her first restaurant high chair (gross!) and got to try her first mashed potatoes (she warmed up to them eventually), a little more vanilla ice cream (slightly more interested this time around), and a few spoons of cherry ICEE.



The ICEE bowled her over. It was hilarious. She kept demanding more, and I'm pretty sure this created her first sugar high, as she started laughing and smiling at herself like a drunk, got all excited, and had to bounce in her Jumperoo an extra hour past bedtime to "come down" enough to consider sleep. Hmmm. There is probably an important lesson in there somewhere. And a lot of red dye.

#16 - Sunday night malaise + lack of groceries + GORGEOUS night = pizza on the patio! We hauled TC's new high chair outside and she happily sat for almost 3 hours watching the trees and chewing on Sophie's feet as we enjoyed the first non-humid evening in a long time. It was beautiful and relaxing, and a nice way to wind down before jumping back into a big week.

Speaking of big week...got a lot of irons in the fire, including a bridal shower on Sunday! Wish me luck!

Full day = fun day, #13

Though I couldn't for the life of me keep track of which day of the week it was (Grammy Cupcakes is on vacation and this full time stay at home mom thing is completely throwing me off, even beyond the brain mush we discussed yesterday), today was an extremely productive day. I'm still working on the bridal shower for my soon to be sister-in-law, so I can't share what I've been working on, but suffice it to say what brought me joy today (even more than the crafting) was crossing big chunks off my to-do list.

The menu is set and printed, and my order for the caterer is ready to put in once I track down the remaining RSVPs (get them in people!). My shopping list and prep schedule is made. My packing list is detailed, and I've begun gathering my serving pieces, tablecloths, table settings, etc. All of the activities are ready to go, with the exception of the prizes which I'll be getting this week now that their special packaging has arrived (Etsy = Love!). I spent a lot of time working on decor today with my Cricut - I still don't understand it 100%, so I've wasted some time and paper, but once I figure out my settings I can crank out a lot of work in a short amount of time, like the shaped banner (and half of a 2nd one), wall decor, and favor tags I made today.

Most of this was accomplished whilst The Cupcake whirled around the living room in her walker:


She is a maniac in that thing, and it is completely hilarious. Of course, it's also a whole new level of access for her, and a huge learning curve for us as we realize everything she can suddenly get into. She already tried to take it down the stairs (luckily we had a babygate up just to keep Normy upstairs, which served to keep her from a very bumpy ride), and has no trouble maneuvering it through doorways and down the halls. My attempts at crafting are a constant game of moving piles higher and higher, and she is OBSESSED with paper. And I may have given in and just let her chew on some, but I'm reasonable sure I got most of it back. Also, at one point today I turned around and she had rolled up to the chair Norm was sleeping on and was attempting to put his foot in her mouth. Ahhh, babies - now who is acting like a drunken amnesiac?

"Turns the Brain to Mush" - a very encouraging statement...

I know I had fun yesterday, and was even mentally putting together a "brought me joy" post, but I never got around to getting it out and now...I can't remember what I was going to talk about.

I actually can't really remember what I did yesterday.

There are a LOT of things I can't remember. It's frankly starting to freak me out.

My short term memory has gotten progressively worse since The Cupcake's arrival, and I'm assuming (hoping) that it's just hormones or lack of sleep. That sounds probable, and much less expensive than any of the alternatives, especially since we have pretty crappy insurance right now. Did I already talk about the study that found mice who are woken up a lot during the night act like drunken amnesiacs?

(Note: I had to check. I really thought I had written about this. Guess not. Searching "Drunken Amnesiac Mice" returned zero results on my blog - BUT NOT ANYMORE!)

Anyways, Good Morning America or something similar did a tiny little segment recently on a "new study" that found mice who were woken up repeatedly during the night acted all crazy and could not keep their shiz together.

Huh, who knew? Maybe...EVERY MOM EVER? Or maybe it's just me...totally possible...

So this is a very long and rambling way to say TC still wakes up 2-25 times a night, and even when she IS sleeping, I wake up and stare at her, or think about the other 500 things I need to do.

But I keep hearing it all gets better...right?

Also, do you love that I can't remember what day of the week it is, but the phrase "drunken amnesiacs" stuck in my brain clearly? I kind of do too.

As I was trying to remember the point of this post, I googled "sleep study mice drunken amnesiac" and found an article about the study in question. The good news is IT'S NOT JUST ME! At least one Portland mom and a bunch of lab rats have the same problem. However, the article cites no remedies, solutions, or is hazy about whether or not I should hope for sleep ever again.

What were we talking about?

Day 12 - delightfully dirty words from across the pond

I stumbled across this show on Hulu, and I'm hooked. Fun twist on the superhero genre, and excellent British cursing. Misfits:



NSFW! Or kids! Or wankers of any sort! This is actually the 2nd episode of the 2nd season (which I'm just starting to watch as I type this, so it's possible this episode could be awful, who knows), you should really start from the beginning, but I'm too lazy to find that code for you. The theme song is really fun - starts at about 3 minutes in

:)

Eleven - it's a supersized #1...

Go big or go home, that's what I always say!

I don't think I've ever said that, actually.

At least not in the context of planning one excursion after the next and running all weekend long. I'm not even sure how we accomplished it, really, but in the end it was a great weekend.

After our mini vacation Thursday - Saturday, I had planned to use Sunday to catch up on laundry, dishes, sleep (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha)...instead, we decided to do one more family day together, and trekked out to the Mall of America. We did a lot of window shopping, I bought an overpriced but excellent and unique photo display that I promised to use for a million different things (you will definitely see it here as part of the shower I'm throwing in 2 weeks!). The Cupcake fell asleep just long enough for us to have a quick lunch at the Wolfgang Puck Express, followed by a "celebration brownie" at the Tollhouse Cookie/Edy's Ice Cream stand. We browsed all 3 levels of shops, and somehow still had some energy left as the stores were starting to close up, so we headed across the street to IKEA for a little more unintentional shopping.

Oops.

We did a LOT more damage than intended there, but it should be all good choices in the long run. Our current high chair just isn't working out (why do first time moms even try to make registries? WTF did I know about what would be good baby-raising items?), and although she won't be in it for long, feeding takes up such a big chunk of my day now that I'm willing to try something new. Hoping this works a little better:


We got it in red :)

Also, I'd been meaning to pick up a nightlight for TC's room, and I've been smitten with this fixture for a while, so I finally decided to go for it. Turns out it's a little bright, and I might end up going for the smaller one instead, but it sure is FUN! We picked up a few things we've been meaning to get but never seem to get around to - a pizza cutter (ours disappeared about a year ago, no idea where) and a new silverware organizer (it might be the only organizational tool hubby has EVER requested). Then there were a few serving pieces for the shower (TBA!) and of course 3 boxes of swedish cookies...by the time we got home all 3 of us were ready for bed :)