Random

Tuesday's Randoms

1.  I have been sick for over 8 weeks straight now.  There was a brief respite of about two days when I was finally getting better and only had a sore throat, but that was just the segue into yet another cold.  8 weeks, people.  I think I've forgotten what it's like to be healthy.  I know my co-workers are loving all my germs but they can take it up with my two year old and his insane need to touch everything in a 10 foot vicinity.

2.  I just remembered that we have two boxes of Girl Scout cookies still in our pantry, hidden behind the bags of chips at the very top.  I hope I forget again so they can stay there a little longer. 

3.  Speaking of #2, Barrett has a very lively sweet tooth and Tim likes to blame me.  I did eat a lot of oreos while I was pregnant with him but that was only to encourage me to drink milk.  It was for his own health.  I deny that it's my fault he loves sweets but let's face it, it probably is.  He looked at me Saturday morning when I asked if he wanted eggs or cereal and said with a straight face "jellybeans." Yeah right, coming right up. 

4.  Yesterday Payton was sniffing around Audrey's seat while I was buckling her in and Barrett points at him and says "No Payton!  Dat's B-Audee's.  Walk away!"  It cracked me up.  Daycare tells the kids to walk away when they come around looking to get into trouble.  I am guessing he hears that said to him more than once or twice a day.

5.  I finally got the Pottery Barn kids chairs that I've been eying for a year now. I got an email that they were $20 off on Saturday so ordered one for each of the kids.  They are so cute and I know Barrett will like it, so I finally bit the bullet. I am excited to see how he reacts to a chair his size just for him.  Here's the chair, minus the name obviously:

6.  Tim and I had an actual date night Saturday night.  It was pretty great - we had a dinner where we both were seated at the same time, didn't involve food being thrown on the floor, forks being banged on the table and didn't end in tears. Then we went to see Hunger Games.  Loved it!  It was our the 3rd movie we've seen in the theaters in the last 3 years.  Of course once you added up the cost of dinner + movie + babysitter ($$$!!!), we might as well have just gone on a cruise. 

Those are my randoms for today.  Clearly it's not all fireworks and parades in our lives these days, this is all I've got. 

Looking forward to seeing my sister and her family this weekend!

Tidbits

I keep thinking about this poor little blog and all the things I want to write about and just can't seem to find the time or energy to write.  I wrote Audrey's 3 month post on her 3 month birthday and then didn't upload her pictures until 2 1/2 weeks later so I could post it.  Bad blogger!

1.  We are experiencing the greatest spring Chicago may have ever seen.  It's so unseasonably warm!  We're on something like a week straight of temps into the 80s.  It's so nice!  Which brings me to #2...

2.  My office is currently without air.  It is miserably hot.  I'd rather be in a bathing suit at a pool in temps like this.  It's been into the 80s inside my office every day.  Yuck!  Which brings me to #3....

3.  I have nothing to wear!  I have spent 2 of the last 3 summers pregnant so I have no clothes to wear for spring/summertime.  I already warned Tim that I will have to be going on a shopping spree to avoid going to work naked.  I pretty much need it all - shorts, tops, work clothes, a bathing suit, summer shoes, the entire bit.

4.  Barrett surprises us every day with new words and things he knows.  This weekend he pointed and said "moto-cyca!"  That was astonishing enough but then the next day he heard the sound of one and said it again.  Crazy kid!  I already instructed him though that he is not allowed to go on one until he's 80 and I'm dead.

Tidbits

1.  It was absolutely gorgeous yesterday.  55 and sunny!  We went to the park, sans jackets, and had a great time on the playset, which we hadn't visited in several months.  Almost easy to forget it was January...until today.  Snowy and 31 right now.  boo!

2.  Yesterday's conversation at Target, as I'm pushing a grocery cart with a 2 year old and newborn:

Idiot woman:  Can I ask you a question?  Are you pregnant?
Me, with confused look on my face:  No
Idiot woman:  Oh.  Well your kids are so cute, keep having more!
Me:  Well she's only 5 1/2 weeks old!
Idiot woman:  I didn't want to ask if you were pregnant, since that would be awful if you weren't!
Me, thinking, well then why did you??:  Huh.   

Seriously?? 

3.  This has been the month of doctors' visits.  Within a month we have:
   1 general pediatrician appointments for Barrett & Audrey (2 years and 1 month)
   1 dentist appointment for me
   1 cardiologist appointment for Barrett
   1 obgyn appointment for me
   2 specialists appointments for Audrey
   2 endodontist appointment for me (dental specialist)
Audrey is also going to be getting tubes put in the end of next month.
It's a good thing I'm not working right now!  It's crazy.

4.  We've been waking up Audrey at night to eat.  I'm just not confident she's eating enough during the day, even though she's growing and well past her birth weight, I'm sure.  Last night I didn't wake her and she slept 9 hours straight!  The girl loves her sleep!  I am thrilled about that but it makes me nervous!

This and That

Happy Friday!

I am so glad that it's Friday!  We don't have too much planned for the weekend, Tim is gone all day Saturday so we are on our own for the day.  One thing on the schedule is naps for both of us!  I also have some Gymboree credit that expires tomorrow so I may run to the mall to see if anything catches my eye.  These children do NOT need any more clothes (maybe just pjs), but who am I to turn down store credit, right?

I had to go to the mall Wednesday night this week to return a few things and found some great sale prices at Gap Maternity.  I'm so happy that our mall got a maternity section in the Gap last year.  I have found such great prices the few times I've gone!  I hate buying more clothes this late in the pregnancy, but I have been feeling so blah lately so I was excited to have a few additional tops.  Here's what I got (trust me though, I look much larger in them than the "pregnant" women below!):

some great sleeveless blouses to wear under cardigans

 this super-soft blouse

Plus another blouse and a few simple t-shirts and tank tops for wearing around the house or for layering.  I think I counted 9 pieces I picked up.  And all for the low price of $35!  Well, really it totaled $45 but I had a $10 credit so the average price for each was under $4.  Not bad!  I guess I can justify that kind of spending with only 8 weeks left. 

Yep, 8 weeks left of this pregnancy until my due date.  I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and everything  is continuing to progress nicely.  I had a very frank discussion with the doctor about my VBAC.  I think he's the most VBAC-friendly doctor in the practice of 5 and he was a little more pessimistic than I would have liked to hear.  He basically discourages going past 40 weeks because he says he believes it decreases the success rates.  I respect that, but have to consider the history of women in my family and the fact the we have late babies.  So I'm more open to going "past due" than the doctors will probably be.  He would also like internal monitoring, which I'm opposed to, but did say no IV would be fine with him, so I liked that.  He also said if I did have a repeat c/s, that we could find a way to make it more mom/baby-friendly, like placing the baby directly on me, so that I wouldn't feel so out of the process.

The funny thing he said, when I asked about anything that he's found in his experience that can help jump-start labor is castor oil!  That is the one thing I didn't try the first go-round.  He said he can't encourage it but that his wife did it and it worked.  I am hoping I don't have to resort to that, but I'll be willing to this time!

I looked at the calendar this morning and saw that it is my little boy's 21 month birthday today!  So I'll have to add a post catching up on that. 

Happy Friday to all!

this week's randomness

1. I took the day off work yesterday and spent the entire day running errands - Payton to the vet, drop offs and pickups at the library, returns at Kohls (love their return policy btw) and Joann Fabrics, groceries at Target, bedding shopping at the Land of Nod outlet, etc. I went to 11 places. Whew! By the end of the day, the bottoms of my feet were burning and I was exhausted and sore. You'd think I'd run a marathon. And this is someone who usually is able to shop all day. This pregnancy is definitely starting to wear me down a lot more. I came home and slept from 4-5:30pm. I woke up panicked that I slept so long, threw together dinner and was nervous about tossing and turning that night from such a long, late nap. Nope, didn't have a hint of trouble, I fell asleep very easily that night!

2. I bought Barrett a potty chair. I know he's not even remotely close to being ready, but I figured I should have one on hand for when he is. It's very strange to acknowledge that he could possibly be getting to that point in the next few months and isn't such a baby anymore! The other little girl in his daycare his age is already showing a lot of interest in it and is starting. I know boys take a lot longer, but hopefully the peer pressure of daycare helps the process go a little smoother when we start.

3. I made a pasta dinner on Thurs night using cilantro, zucchini and squash from the garden. I got the recipe from Better Homes and Gardens magazine. It was kind of a disappointment. Bummer. Their recipes have been kind of hit-or-miss for me. I like cilantro in small doses but it leaves my hands smelling cilantro-y the rest of the day - yuck. And no, Barrett still won't have anything to do with 90% of what I make. Picky child, that one. Because I've heard that babies can taste everything that their moms eat while pregnant, I wonder if I was too limited in my diet while I was pregnant. He did inherit my sweet tooth. He likes to point at the pantry while eating breakfast and say "cookie," as if he thinks we'll fall for that.

4. I have been scouring craigslist to find fun and cheap toys that we can use in a basement playroom. This week, I bought this one:It's the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn kitchen. I was a little disappointed when I picked it up to find that the shapes/balls that went with it were missing. I went ahead and got it, but that bummed me out. I guess that's the risk you take when buying used. Fortunately we have the Laugh & Learn House so we can use the same shapes with the kitchen. B made an immediate beeline for it and spent the rest of the night playing with it. These toy manufacturers really know how to suck kids in. The coolest thing is that when the kids crawl through the doorway, it somehow senses it and plays music. High tech toys the kids have these days, huh?

Well imagine my surprise when I made a quick trip to Goodwill during my Thursday marathon errand-running and found this:It's the Laugh & Learn farm. And for the low price of $0.99, it made its way home with me. That's right, a dollar. It worked, had all the pieces and is pretty darn cute so I'm pretty impressed with the deal I got on it. These aren't small toys though, so definitely will need to find their way to the basement to be played with. Yes, our house has become a plastic, garishly colored wonderland of musical noise. What can ya do?

I'm not sure yet what the plans are for Barrett while I'm on maternity leave, so I want to have plenty of things to keep him entertained in case he's home much more with me during the winter. Bored Barrett= unhappiness for everyone so I'm trying to prepare with fun things to play with just in case!

Tidbits

1. Thanks for your recent comments everyone. I managed to get 3 comments on my Atlanta post and I have to say, I love getting comments! A main reason I do this blog is just because it's a good way to journal what is going on in our lives, but also to keep our close friends and family updated on our goings-on so it's always nice to know that people are actually looking at this little thing I do! I love reading other people's blogs but I need to be better about commenting because it is always so nice to hear people's responses.

2. Barrett is officially weaned. That is sad to say, but he's ready. He was down to just one feeding a day anyway for the last few months and in the past 2 weeks he was showing less and less interest until it just finished. It is sad for me to know that this era is over, but I'm happy he was the one to make the decision and I feel incredibly proud that we were able to nurse for as long as we did. It is one of the things I am most proud of in my life, that I stuck with it, during the beginning when I cried in pain nearly every time and it was truly awful and during the 9 months that I worked full-time and had to pump and it sucked. I grew to really enjoy our quiet time together and while I'm sad it's come to an end, I am so proud of us for having done it for 16+ months. That little boy didn't have one single ounce of formula and I love that I can say that!

3. Speaking of his eating, Barrett is the pickiest eater in the world. I am seriously running out of ideas for what to do about it. He wants the same things all the time: yogurt, applesauce, cheerios or muffins, bread with hummus on it and cheese. That's it. He'll sometimes cave and agree to mix it up with some blueberries or strawberries, grilled cheese or rice and beans, but then if I try again a few days later, it all ends up on the floor. I know he's doing okay because he does have a chubby little belly, but I am out of ideas!

I tricked him into eating some sweet potatoes through this recipe: http://weelicious.com/2011/03/16/mini-sweet-potato-muffins/
and I also made these recently: http://weelicious.com/2010/06/17/apple-banana-muffins/. These are nice for breakfast because I can make a bunch of mini muffins and freeze them to thaw for breakfasts.

It drives me crazy to resort to applesauce and cheese every night for dinner as a backup. What do I do? Do I only give him what we're having even though I know he won't eat it, in the hopes that eventually he will once he's starving or should I be satisfied with the fact that at least he's eating something, even if it's the same 5 things all the time?

4. It was such a cold and rainy weekend. After a few days in the 90s last week (loved it!), it was back in the 40s this weekend. I commented to Tim that that added one point to the Atlanta column this weekend!

Tidbits

Random ongoings of the week:

1. Barrett is sick. Poor baby, he has a yucky nose and a persistent cough. We've been battling this cough since his RSV episode in early January. I am hoping it's just a cold and will go away soon. He's been in good spirits though, so I am glad I at least have my baby.

2. Tim also seems to be getting this cold. I, so far, have just seemed to get my cough back again but no cold yet (knock on wood!) I think I deserve a passover on this one, considering how many colds I have gotten in the last few months. This sickness means that he sleeps badly though meaning I sleep badly. He spent the last few nights in our guest room. And we both slept amazingly well. We better get healthy before we get too used to sleeping apart and start to enjoy it too much!

3. The weather here was amazing the last week or so but is back to nasty rain and cold today. Where, oh where, is spring? My poor tulips have already poked through the ground and I just know that they're going to be covered in snow again before March is out. This always seems to happen!

4. Tim was officially promoted at work this week. I am incredibly proud of him. He definitely deserves this and I'm glad to see him getting well-deserved recognition!

5. Baby Barrett is growing into a full-fledged toddler. This means opinions. He has got a rebellious side and has started testing our rules. Don't get me wrong - he's still the sweetest and happiest little thing, but I see the wheels turning in his head as he does something he knows is naughty and watches for our reaction. Last night it was splashing his sippy cup around in the dog's water bowl.

This is all of the goings-on of our week so far. We have a fun weekend ahead! I hope everyone has a good weekend too!