Over it.

***and, no, I'm not talking about YOU***

Its pretty easy as a mom to suffer from the mommy guilt. You hear about kiddos who can correctly identify all their letters, can count to 100, do neato crafts and activities every. damn. day. I see blogs and think I should do that with Beanie. I used to think it a lot. I had a lot of guilt that Beanie loves to watch Spongebob. But, you know what, we do lots of fun things too. And I'm not going to beat myself up because I'm not the craftiest (or even really very crafty at all) mama in the world. Hell, I'm so sick with morning sickness right now I don't even really care that she watched 2 1/2 hours of Spongebob while I was barely awake on the couch next to her.

We paint. We go to the park. We read. We dance. We do tons of fun things and Beanie always has a blast. Could we incorporate some more, um, educational activities into her day? Sure. But, you know what, I'm not going to feel bad about what we do (or don't do) on a daily basis. I'm not going to read other people's blogs and see what they're doing and feel like less of a mom because I can't get it together enough to do all that stuff. Helll, lately I've barely been able to get it together enough to not have a counter full of dirty dishes.

So, there. I'm officially abolishing my mommy guilt. At least for today. I'm a good mom. And so are you.

Presenting Baby 2.0

I know you're on the edge of your seats here, so here's Baby 2.0's very first picture. (sorry itw blurry, the scanner still isn't really unpacked so its a picture of the u/s)




We had out first appt on Thursday and I let out the biggest sigh of relief EVER when there was only one little baby in there. I mean I've been so sick and I already feel HUGE so the thought kept crossing my mind that there could be two little babies in there. Which, I think, seriously would've given me (and Glenn) a heart attack. Everything looks good. 2.0 was measuring at 7weeks 5 days where I was 7w6d by LMP (last menstrual period for those of you who aren't too hip on the ttc/pg/etc lingo...LOL). Our due date is April 2 which makes me very happy that they are calling for an El Nino winter. I mean what would freak out a laboring woman more than trying to get to the hospital in the snow? Especially when we live on top of the hugest hill ever (slight exaggeration) now. So, a warm and wet winter sounds absolutely divine to me.

I'm super excited to have another baby. I had a relatively easy pregnancy with Beanie and an amazing labor and delivery experience. Seriously...amazing. I hope this time around goes just as well. We could subtract out the back labor part and I'd be fine though :). Speaking of, I should post my birth story with Beanie here...I don't think I ever have.

I'm nervous as all get out too. How will Beanie respond to being a big sister? How will I ever have the time to devote to breastfeeding a newborn while I have an on-the-go toddler tearing through the house all day? I'm sure things will settle down after awhile, but I am nervous about all that. Not too nervous though, I know we'll make due.

So, that's that. We're pregnant!

The real reason I haven't been blogging

Is that I'm growing a human.

And horribly nauseous.

And tired beyond belief.

And most everything that's been on my mind has been related to Baby 2.0 and we didn't tell anyone until after our first appt. Which was last Thursday. And its hard to blog when you can't really write about what you're thinking about.

But I promise there is more to come soon :)

Right now I need to drink about a gallon of water as I am so thirsty! Probably because I ate waaaay too many breadsticks and pizza slices at Round Table today. But I've been craving it for quite a few days so it was time to give in.

******

And, in other non-Beanie or Baby 2.0 news Glenn and I have decided to go in and see how much it would cost to go back and train at kung fu. He really wants to. I'd like to (maybe) after I have the baby. I just hope Master J isn't a big old asshole when we go in there. Glenn was sort of (okay, really) made out to be the bad guy when we left. I'm interested to see how it goes. I'll let you know...

Weaned.

Well, Beanie hasn't nursed in sometime over a week. It actually went really well. She didn't even ask night before last or for naptime yesterday & I think she only asked last night because she was so upset and throwing a tantrum, that she couldn't have another M&M after going pee pee on the potty and brushing our teeth.

See, I've been noticing that right before she falls asleep she pees in her diaper. Like she's almost out so I really don't want to get her up and change her. I don't really want her having a full diaper all night you know. So night before last I asked her if she wanted to go potty with mommy before bed. She did and promptly wanted a M&M. We had already brushed teeth and I felt guilty about her going to bed with M&M on her teeth..lol. So last night I made her brush her teeth again after her M&M. And she was so upset afterwards! Like literally sprawled out on the kitchen floor saying her first complete sentence..."I WANT MORE M&M'S!!!!" After that bedtime was sort of a battle.

Anyway, off that tangent. She's weaned. Its bittersweet. I know its great that we nursed for 25 1/2 months. Quite an achievement and I am very proud of that. She's getting to be such a big girl. I love every minute of it.

A few new blogs.

I added a few new blogs to my list so make sure and check them out :).

Twinkle of Starlight

Danielle's Bloggity Blog

Sarah Chambers

Tales from Labor and Delivery

I also added a private blogs list -- not for you, but more for me since I have 3 google accounts and stupidly told people to sign me up for their blogs under all 3 different accounts. Anyways, I forget to check the private ones a lot of the time if I'm not logged in so I'm hoping this will help!

Have a great Monday.

The get-my-house-clean plan.

Haha. Seeing as how I'm not really over-the-top happy with my new home (far from it...was lying awake again the other night thinking about all this crap) I decided I need to do something about it. Sure, I hate that the sellers didn't do all the work they said they would, that the realtor pretty much screwed us over, and that the seller didn't disclose problems with the house they must've known about but, really, I can't do anything about any of that. We bought it. Its ours.

What I can do is clean it up a bit so it looks nice. And I can finish the painting and etc. Well, Glenn can finish the painting (lol) but I can get it ready for him. But, before I tackle all the lets-beautify-this-place-and-make-it-our-own stuff I need to tackle the clutter. So, my plan is to do a room a day. Then throughout the course of the week I just need to maintain. Here's the plan...

SUNDAY -- 3/4 bath
MONDAY -- Beanie's room & office (when its done)
TUESDAY -- Dining and living rooms
WEDNESDAY -- Playroom & workout room (when its done)
THURSDAY -- Main bathroom
FRIDAY -- Master bedroom
SATURDAY -- Kitchen

See??? How is that not do-able? I really think I can do it and I know it will make me a lot happier in this place....

Well hello there....

Huh, seems I've gone from having the inspiration to write every day to having just about no inspiration at all. I've been doing lots of writing in a journal, something I haven't done for years. Anyway, I promise I'll get a kick of inspiration soon enough ;)

It has cooled down about 40 degrees here. It was 105-110 out last week and this week it isn't supposed to escape the upper 60's. Feels downright cold. We're all wearing long sleeves! Crazy. Its funny because 70 would be normal summer weather here, but now it feels like its October!

I've been reading The No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers be Elizabeth Pantley. I really like it. I read her sleep book for babies when Beanie was younger, but never really implemented the ideas. So, I'm developing our sleep plan right now and working on getting Beanie to sleep all night in her own bed. We've sort of forgone any attempts on potty training in order to focus on weaning and independent sleep. Gosh, we can't work on too many things at once!

So, I'm here. And I'll probably start crazy blogging again soon but, for now, I'm just here.

The trip -- Chapter Two.

So, its Friday. If you remember from this post we were woken up by a 19month old banging ever so loudly on the bathroom cupboards in the adjacent room. Shortly after waking (but still not dragging my behind out of bed) I heard that my brother-in-law and his girlfriend had arrived. They had taken a red eye flight into Atlanta and father-in-law had turned around, after getting back after midnight, and went back to the airport at 5 in the morning. Beanie woke up and was very excited when I told her that AJ and Nacho had arrived.

So, we drag our butts downstairs and fill up on some coffee. Beanie is a little overwhelmed by the number of people downstairs (let's see there were ten of us), but did pretty well. She was excited to play with her (super sick) cousin. After showers and etc were orchestrated Nacho and AJ decide to take a nap. They weren't going to be staying at the house, but somehow they ended up sleeping in the room we had been staying in. Glenn and I went in and grabbed our suitcase and bathroom stuff so we could get ready while they were sleeping. They had been up for over 24 hours between working all day before the flight, some serious turbulence and thunder storms, and a gassy passenger (eeewww) next to them. So, they go nap and everyone else starts getting ready for the day.

We all wanted to go to the Georgia Aquarium so we started trying to coordinate a trip. I emphasize the word "try" because coordinating nine adults and two toddlers is difficult! It was decided that mother-in-law, Glenn's sister and her son, and Beanie and I would all walk down to the community park and let the kids play, hopefully wearing them out so they would nap. Glenn and his older brother were going to go to the store and pick up a few things. Well, a few things quickly turned into a big ol' list which was funny because I'm pretty sure older brother only offered to go to the store to show off his fancy pants Mercedes or whatever-the-hell-it-is sports car. Glenn's sister has a ton of allergies so, obviously, she needed some special things from the store. Well, a lot of special things. She must've asked me 3 times "how I fed Beanie." Um, hello, we were going to be there for 2 days, I'm pretty sure Beanie would eat something in the house and I wasn't about to go out and buy a bunch of stuff for her. She emphasized how she made sure her child got 2 veggies a day (and, okay, I try but Beanie isn't too into veggies right now and I'm really not going to stress over it). She told me about Dr. So and So and how she's "really into him." Whatever, its two days! I should mention that sister-in-law is very competitive about all things kiddo-related & I was pretty much done with it. So, she writes a big ol' list of stuff for the guys to pick up at the store, which left Glenn wondering why she wasn't just going to pick it up herself. Oh yea, the sports car *rolling eyes*

So, we're almost all ready to head out to the park when I realize my shoes are in the room where AJ and Nacho are sleeping. We had hastily grabbed our suitcase and other stuff, but hadn't thought to grab the shoes that I tossed off somewhere at 1am. Mother-in-law encourages me to go commando style into the bedroom and grab my shoes. Um, my brother-in-law and his pregnant girlfriend are sleeping in there!! No thanks. Luckily, sister-in-law has an extra pair of shoes that I can borrow. So we're about to head out the door when I realize that Beanie's shoes are also MIA. Once again, mother-in-law encourages some super secret stealth action to retrieve the shoes. I once again decline. So she pressures Glenn to do it. The look on Glenn's face was like are you fucking kidding me??? Like I said before, the shoes were sort of thrown off in a sleepy stupor and I didn't even really know where they were in the room. But, not surprisingly, mother-in-law took it upon herself to up her ninja status and find Beanie's shoes. Mission accomplished. Glenn is convinced that AJ and Nacho weren't really even asleep (since both kiddos had been so loud all morning) and just pretended they were while MIL tiptoed through the room.

Okay, finally. Off to the park. It is hot and its only 9 or 10am probably (yes, it took that long to get out of the house). As soon as I start walking in my borrowed sandals I can feel a blister forming on my toe. Yikes. Not fun. It was going to be a looong walk to the park. Glenn's older brother revs his engine and drives off through the neighborhood like a bat out of hell. Just one thing, um, pleaes don't kill my husband with your crazy driving.

We go to the park and the kids play. Glenn's mom manages to call or text them about 4 or 5 times while they're at the store. Just to tell them this or that. And then to call them back and tell them again. It was so hot the kiddos didn't last long at the park. Both of them were getting smooshy-faced. So we head back to the house. And Glenn gets another text saying not to even bother coming to the park because we were headed back. Glenn was bummed. It was so hot; I was so sweaty. Like, seriously, I sweated through my underwear and pants. Yuck. Time to do some laundry too.

So we get back to the house. I can't remember if Beanie's cousin napped or not, but Beanie didn't. First off, AJ and Nacho were still sleeping in our room so there wasn't a bed to lie her down on. I tried laying her down on a blanket on the floor in a room and she was (maybe) almost out when FIL returned from picking up Glenn's younger sister (she was staying at another house). Yea, so the front door opened and Beanie was done for. Mother-in-law had decided that we should go the aquarium the next day (of course on a Saturday when it would be like a gazillion times busier and when we also had to deal with the surprise party she didn't know about). So, we're just sitting around doing absolutely freaking NOTHING. All day. Glenn and I decided to borrow one of the cars and drive Beanie around to get her to nap. His younger sister came with us because she was just about bored up to her ears as well. We drive forever trying to find some Starbucks. You know, when you live where there's a coffee shop on every corner (or sometimes 3 on 3 of the 4 corners...lol) it is pretty weird to have to drive for over a 1/2 hour just to get a latte. So, we all get our caffeine fix and a break from the insane boring-ness of just sitting around the house. And Beanie napped for a good long while.

Father-in-law has a lot of family in Georgia so Friday night we call went to a dinner at his cousin's (?) house. The house was immaculate and museum-like. The first thing I thought was Great, I'm going to be carrying Beanie around all night long. MIL says, "Oh its okay she can run around wherever. She just can't touch anything. And especially not the tea cups." Okay, there were tea cups everywhere. And letting a 2 year old run around in a novel environment where she can't touch anything??? Not going to happen. So it sort of happened that Glenn and I just passed her back and forth over the evening. After awhile there was another 4 year old (who was so short Beanie was taller than her!) who Beanie got to play with. The 4 year old (Emily??? can't remember her name since I met about 50 people that day!!) was hilarious! Glenn had taken Beanie outside to play. They were playing with big old sticks, more like sword fighting...accident waiting to happen...haha. Glenn said maybe they could build a pile of pinecones. If you know Beanie, she loves pinecones. Silly kid could be surrounded by toys but she's happier playing with pinecones, rocks and dirt. As they were gathering pinecones and starting their pile, Emily (we'll just call her that, okay) said "This is the most brilliant idea ever!!!" Later we were all on the back covered porch and Beanie was blabbering around, talking but not really using her words. Emily grabs her hands and says "Beanie, what are you trying to say? Use your words so I can understand. Are you trying to say that the bird is beautiful?"

There were family members who just reinforced Glenn's stereotypes of Southern folk (his words). Like the guy who, when referrring to Nacho, said "oh yea, she belongs to that guy in the ACDC (it was really an ADHD) shirt." Belongs to?? Or Emily's dad who commented how his daughter was going to be small and smart and his son big and dumb. And that his son couldn't play with dolls, and was shocked that Beanie wanted to play football. The BBQ was delicious though! ***And I should add, that I loved everyone we met; they were all very nice and welcoming! It was just funny when they said things like "belongs to" or almost passed out when Glenn's younger sister dropped the F bomb***

The mosquitos were bad so we didn't stay out on the porch too long. Also, Beanie was trying to eat this fake plastic fruit that they had on the porch. Then she picked up the plate it was on and MIL told her "No!" Glenn took Beanie inside for some totally unrelated reason and then MIL started freaking out that we were offended she told Beanie no. Um, she was picking up a breakable plate...by all means tell her no!! Then MIL started showing us 3 week old mosquito bites on her legs so we really did hightail it inside.

We left pretty early on because Beanie wasn't on her best behavior and we were exhausted. I coudln't blame her though...it wasn't exactly a toddler friendly environment. With that in mind she did pretty darn good!

I can't remember what we did that night...I think just headed to bed. Ugh, I guess that's what I get for taking so long to get this written.

Okay, time to make some breakfast...I'll write about Saturday later!