Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

In preparation for our upcoming vacation I bought Little a tiny backpack.  She looks adorable walking around with it on her back, and she wants to take it just about everywhere we go.

This morning, we were headed to the park to walk and play on the playground with some friends.  Little wanted to take a couple of things with her (whatever she happened to have in her hand at the moment), so I told her she could pack some toys in her backpack and take them with us.

A few minutes ago I unpacked her bag and found the following:

1 small magna doodle

3 pacifiers (various ones that Boo won’t take)

1 small aluminum tart pan

1 cell phone

3 baby wipes

Everything a girl might need for an outing, but only the necessities.

Sorry for the poor quality of the lighting in these photos; they were taken with Photo Booth since the camera memory card is full we’re too lazy to clean it off. 

This is what I looked like this time last week:

Please note the hair and face.  And yes, that is my new Babyhawk; thanks for asking!

And this is what I look like today:

Oh look, I’m even wearing the same shirt.

I feel like I should post something today, but I really don’t know that I have much to say.  I want to do the “birth story” post for Boo, but I’m not willing to take the time to do it right now.  I want to write a post about what Boo’s been up to these past couple of months (other than the sleeping issues) since I haven’t written much about him lately.  But seemingly, all I can do is tell you what I want to write about instead of actually writing about it.  Maybe next week.

So, I guess I’ll go curl up on the couch read A Wind in the Door until my babes wake up from their naps.

Have a happy weekend!

I saw this meme on my SIL’s blog the other day.  I haven’t yet written out the kids’ birth stories, so I thought this would be a good way to record some of that information.

Were you married at the time? Yes, for 5 years.

What were your reactions when you found out that you were pregnant? We were so excited; we knew we were ready to add a little one to our family.  I was also a bit nervous as I think all first time moms are.

How old were you? 27 when she was born.

How did you find out that you were pregnant? I had been charting my temps (using FAM), so I knew that having a higher temp for more than 16 days probably meant I was pregnant.  I tried to wait 21 days before I took a test but only made it 18.  The first test must have been defective because it only made part of a plus, the second test registered positive almost immediately.  We found out on Nana’s (Matt’s mom) birthday.

Who did you tell first? I called Matt at work and then my best friend, Nicole.

Did you find out the sex? Yes, I think it would have driven both Matt and me crazy not to know.

Due date? August 7.

Did you deliver early or late? a week early.

Did you have morning sickness? that would be a yes.  I threw up every morning and felt terrible the rest of the day for 8 weeks.

What did you crave? pineapple pizza from Papa John’s during the first trimester, anything spicy the rest of the time.  I went through 2-3 jars of salsa per week.  I also had a major aversion to the smell of coffee until about 17 weeks; I almost threw up one night in the cereal/coffee aisle of Target.

Who irritated you most? I can’t recall one person in particular that irritated me, but I’m sure everyone irritated me at one point or another.

What was your first child’s sex? she’s a girl.

How many pounds did you gain throughout your first pregnancy? 24.

Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? not a single one, thank God.  I didn’t even have any swelling until the very end.

Where did you give birth? in a hospital.

How many hours were you in labor? my water broke at 1:45 p.m. and I hadn’t had a noticeable contraction yet.  They started a pitocin drip about 4:00 p.m. and she was born at 10:33 p.m.  So labor was just under 9 hours.

Who drove you to the hospital? Matt.  When I called him at work to tell him my water broke and he needed to come home he didn’t believe me at first; I think he was in shock.

Who watched? Matt was there the whole time and my mom made it into town about the time I started pushing, so she got to see her first granddaughter come into the world.

Was it vaginal or c-section? she came out the old fashioned way.

Did you take medicine to ease the pain? I had an amazing epidural when I got to 7cm; I didn’t feel a thing after that.

How much did your baby weigh? she was 7 pounds 1/2 ounce.

What did you name your first born baby? she has a beautiful name that I love, but we call her Little around here.

How old is your first born today? she’s two years old.

Little was born on her Pops’s birthday.  Matt called Nana and Pops while we drove to the hospital to let them know that Little’s arrival was imminent.  They were at Nana’s college registering for her Fall semester classes, so Pops had to call us back when they got somewhere quieter so he could hear Matt.  I think he thought we were calling to wish him a happy birthday; he was quite surprised to hear that his granddaughter was on her way on his birthday.  It’s pretty neat that she shares a birthday with her Pops.

It is the fourth Tuesday of the month which means it is once again time for “What’s on Your Nightstand?” at 5 Minutes for Books.  Yesterday also marked the first day of Fall and, therefore, the beginning of the 2008 Fall Into Reading Challenge hosted by Katrina at Callapidder Days.  Being the lazy blogger that I am, I decided to kill two birds with one post.

<br>I planned to have a picture for my “What’s on Your Nightstand?” post this month because, really, the number of books that reside on my nightstand is amazing and somewhat frightening.  Fortunately, they are not all in my “to-read” pile, the nightstand is more a gathering place for books that currently have no other home.  But my “to-read” stack is plenty big in its own right.</br>

Remaining in the stack from last month are The Center of Everything, The River Why, and Velvet Elvis; and I’ve just begun reading My Beautiful Idol.  New to the stack are:

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle – I first read A Wrinkle in Time in the fifth grade and wasn’t impressed; I didn’t really get into the fantasy genre as a child.  About a year ago I decided to give it a second reading and picked up a copy at the bookstore.  This time around I really enjoyed the book and decided to read the entire Time Quintet.  I’m just now getting to the second book.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman – After reading Neverwhere last month (see below), I’m really looking forward to this one.  Matt says it is reminiscent of C.S. Lewis and Tolkien.  Apparently I’ve embraced the fantasy genre as an adult.

The Pact and Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult – I’m excited to pick up more of her work since I liked My Sister’s Keeper so much.

Since the August edition of “What’s on Your Nightstand?” I’ve completed three books, all of which I enjoyed. 

The Birth House was an interesting read; the storyline follows a midwife in small town Nova Scotia fighting to keep her place in the birth room as modern medicine moves in and the new doc in town seeks to drive her out of practice.  The underlying story lines revolve around superstition and it’s effect on people, the women’s rights movement, and small town life during World War I.  Overall, I liked the book even though it didn’t flesh out the midwifery vs. modern medicine story in quite the way I had hoped.

Neverwhere was, by far, the favorite of the books I read this month.  This book reminded me of both The Matrix and the Harry Potter series although there is nothing specific I can nail down and say “this is what makes me think of it.”  it is a curious and somewhat disturbing tale of a world existing beneath the streets of London and the people who reside there.  If you enjoy fantasy, I would definitely recommend that you check this one out.

And finally, Chocolate Beach.  There wasn’t anything great about this book, and the constant pop-culture references really annoyed me, but I stuck with it to the end.  The characters are endearing, but it is standard Christian chick-lit which I generally find unappealing.  This is the kind of book that is perfectly suited for a vacation read.

That covers my nightstand and most of my Fall Into Reading list as well.  In addition, I hope to read the following books during the challange.

Non-Fiction
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

Fiction
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Just Jane by Nancy Moser
Mozart’s Sister by Nancy Moser
So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

That should be enough to keep me busy for a while.

If you made it to the end of this post, you are quite the trooper.  Happy Reading!

The day started off like so many others, a walk to the park with friends, some time on the playground, home for lunch and nap.  Little requested a pb&j for lunch, such a benign request…

Pulling the store-bought bread from the top of the fridge I noticed that there were only five slices left, not enough to do Little’s lunch, BLTs for dinner, and sandwiches for Matt’s lunches the rest of the week.  No problem, I’ll pull out the rest of last week’s homemade bread for Little’s lunch, we’ll have BLTs on the store-bought for dinner, and I’ll get a fresh batch of bread baking for Matt’s lunches.  The plan worked so nicely in my head.

The last of the homemade bread was quite hairy.  Okay, back to store-bought for Little’s lunch.  PB&J accomplished and on her plate with a side of mandarin oranges.  Time to start baking.

I pulled up the step stool for Little to stand on so she could watch me mix and knead the dough.  I set Boo up in the exersaucer to jump to his little heart’s content.  I grabbed my recipe (trying a new one this week) and started gathering the ingredients and utensils I would need.

Out of the pantry came the new bag of whole wheat flour.  As I walked past the fridge I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye, but decided that it was just a reflection in the stainless steel on the refrigerator.  About the time I reached to set the flour onto the counter I felt something brush my hand.  Looking down I saw a huge – two inches, I do not exaggerate – roach on the flour bag.  I reflexively shrieked and dropped the flour onto the kitchen floor (fortunately, the bag did not bust).

This, of course, scared the children.  Little stuck her thumb in her mouth and looked at me wide-eyed trying to figure out what was wrong with Momma.  Boo started wailing.

The Bug flew onto the side of the refrigerator and was peering out at me menacingly from the space between the fridge and the cabinets.  I, being the strong and brave woman that I am, picked up the phone and called Matt breathlessly saying, “It’s on the fridge.  What do I do?” Being the wise man that he is, he told me to put the kids in Little’s room and get out the bug spray.

Let the hilarity ensue.

I tried spraying Bug on the side of the fridge and it immediately ran behind the fridge.  Okay, what to do now?  Matt suggested pulling out the fridge so I could see behind it.  He’s smart I tell ya.  While I pulled the fridge Bug decided to get on top of the fridge where we keep the paper plates and plastic eating utensils; yick!  I cautiously began moving things on the top of the fridge scared the entire time that Bug was going to fly at me.  At this point Matt told me he wished the phone was a camera so he could see me and laugh instead of just laughing at me over the phone.

I didn’t find Bug up there.  I climbed down off the stool and continued the search.  There was a rustling noise that seemed to come from beside or behind the fridge; maybe I got it and it is now in the last throes of a painful death.  I started to relax a bit.

Glancing to my right I saw none other than Bug prancing merrily along a plastic grocery bag in the pantry.  Ack!  It flew onto the pantry door where I doused it with liberal amounts of bug spray.  Once it hit the ground I whacked it repeatedly with a shoe.  Victory is mine!

By this time both of the kids have lost it and are boo-hooing in Little’s room; we were all a bit traumatized by the whole experience.  I went in and soothed them then went back to the kitchen to clean up the bug spray.  After clean up was complete I brought both kids back to the kitchen to restart the bread making process.  I opened the bag of flour and found a meal bug crawling down the inside of the bag.

Sorry folks, it’s store-bought bread for this week.  I may never make bread again.

Earlier in the week Matt was giving Little a bath and a conversation something like the one below took place:

Little:  I a lulel gurl. (trans: little girl)

Matt: uh huh

L: Mommy a lulel gurl, too?

M: No, Mommy’s a big girl.  Will you be a big girl like Mommy one day?

L: uh huh

M: What will you do when you’re a big girl?

L: Play

And last night…

She was holding her iMac remote that she likes to use as a phone.

Little: I talk on phone.

Me: Who are you going to call?

L: Jesus

Me: Oh, what are you going to talk to Jesus about?

L: About Jesus loves me.

He does love you sweet girl, and I hope you always remember that.

Last Wednesday, the new year of Bible Study Fellowship began.  This is my second year in the program, and I feel so blessed to be able to participate in such a rich and in-depth study of scripture.  I love the fact that it is based on the Bible and not on a book or commentary that someone has written.  Believe me, I agree that those types of studies do have their place in our lives and I have been richly blessed by studies based on a book or DVD series, but there is just something different about diving straight into the Word of God.

This year we are studying the life of Moses through the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  A portion of Lesson 1 is about God’s Covenant with Abraham and the sealing of that covenant as recorded in Genesis 15.  This excerpt from the notes struck me:

“In a human covenant the two parties exchanged mutual promises.  But in this ceremony Abraham did not take part.  He was on one side, as it were, watching as God…passed between the pieces of the slain animals and made unilateral promises to Abraham.  It was a way of saying that keeping the covenant would not depend on Abraham or his faithfulness but solely on the faithfulness of God.” (emphasis mine)

How blessed are we to serve a God who freely grants us salvation (his covenant with us) through the blood of Jesus?  It is such a relief that my salvation does not rest in my own hands, but in the hands of God.  

God is faithful, as proven over and over in the stories of the Bible and in the story of my life; he is truthful and trustworthy, he will not let us down.  Taking a few minutes every now and then to reflect on God’s constancy in my past and on his faithfulness to keep his promises helps me to re-center and focus on him instead of the worries and concerns of this life.

It is solely about God’s faithfulness, not mine.  Praise God!

Eight weeks ago a friend and I embarked on a journey to improve our eating habits and lose a few pounds.  Although I don’t know that my eating habits have changed significantly, I have lost a few pounds.  

Doing something like this with a good friend is definitely the way to go.  We are walking together five days a week most weeks, but more importantly, we are there to encourage, sympathize, and hold accountable.  I really don’t think I could have done this well if I had tried to do it on my own.

To date my stats are as follows:

Goal – lose 10 pounds – I’ve lost 7.5

Goal – lose 4 inches off measurements of waist, abdomen, and hips – I’ve lost 5 inches off my waist, 6 off my abdomen, and 4.5 off my hips.

I also reached a personal goal (although, not a written one) of doing T-Tapp exercises 14 days in a row as she (the workout creator) recommends.  I’m now on to doing them every other day for the next 5-6 weeks.  I believe this program has really made a huge difference in the inches I’m losing.  And it only takes 15 minutes per day; as a busy momma it’s hard to fit in much more than that some days.

So, all in all things are going well for L and I both.  I hope that I can lose these last couple of pounds before we go on vacation next month.  And maybe, just maybe, I can even lose more than my 10 pounds goal by the end of this fifteen week challenge.  

My good friend L and I get together several times a week to walk, chit-chat, and let our kiddos play.  Her son D is about four months older than Little, so they either play well together or fight like cats and dogs.  They always ask to see each other when they are apart for several days, so at least we know that they really do like each other.

The last couple of days, D has been at our house in the morning while L attended appointments and meetings.  When he and Little are together you can never be certain what imaginative play might take place.  A scene from my house Monday morning…

The kids come into the living room talking about putting their shoes on so they can go to the park.  D grabs his sandals and Little gets her dressier brown shoes.  Amazingly, all four shoes get on the correct feet.

Once shoes are on feet they begin to “get their stuff together.”  D gets the doll stroller and says, “Let’s go to the park.  Gotta ride stroller first.” and off they go to the “park” (Little’s bedroom).

They play contentedly for a few minutes.  As I walk down the hallway I peek into her room and see them sitting in the floor with all of Little’s picnic basket paraphernalia spread out around them.  They are happily “eating their lunch” and talking amongst themselves.

There are moments like these when I just stop in amazement at the little girl that my baby is becoming.

And in other news…right now the Little Tyke’s mailbox is an oven.  Wish my appliances morphed like that.