Silly musings of a bored brat

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:25:53 GMT

Current physical and emotional status of my family:

Husband: Sleep deprived due to persistent insomnia and down about, oh, you know, other things that are way, way, way down these days.
First-born: Slowly recovering from a nasty infection of the coxsackie virus
Second-born: Refusing to nurse for two days and completely inconsolable, but from an undetermined cause. Most likely culprits: above mentioned coxsackie virus or a first tooth.
Me: Sick with a sore throat (coxsackie virus striking again?) but so overwhelmed with taking care of miserable children that I don't even notice it until they are both napping!

Good times!

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:01:17 GMT

I'm supposed to start cutting back on my coffee starting today. Does that mean that I should cut out the third large mug that I only sometimes have? Or I should actually start cutting out one of the two large mugs that I always have? (Each mug equals half a pot of coffee.)

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:30:08 GMT

I keep spying ants all over our living room. I don't like this . . .

Tue, 06 May 2008 17:50:00 GMT

The dimples were finally caught on film!

They are even more noticeable than that normally, though.

Thu, 01 May 2008 18:50:38 GMT

Benjamin woke up very early this morning (around six) and played in his room for a long time. When it was time for me to come in and get him (about quarter to eight), he was pretty much ready to go back to bed. But I made him get up and decided that we were going to go ahead and go to his playgroup this morning, despite his tiredness. Mostly I did this because if we had stayed at home, he would have wanted to go down for his nap about ten and that would have thrown off his whole schedule.

But since he was so tired, I thought that we'd take a comfort object to his playgroup. Usually his comfort objects--his blankie, his soother, and his Blue--stay in his room. Sometimes blankie and Blue come downstairs for quiet times, like when he's watching TV, and they always go on long car rides, but other than that, he doesn't take them many places.

However, as I said, I thought taking Blue to his playgroup would help. So I ran upstairs and grabbed Blue and brought her down to him. He was playing with his cars on the window ledge--driving them up and down, having them talk to each other (they say "please" to each other!) and giving the cars hugs if he accidentally dropped one. It was such sweet play. Anyway, I gave him Blue and he took her and carried her to the front door, where we have a towel on the floor for shoes. He took the shoes off the towel, laid Blue on the floor and covered her with the towel. Then he went to the couch and got a pillow and put that under her head. Then he got two of his favourite cars and put one on each side of her face. He named each object as he got it. Then he had Blue all ready for bed and he told me that.

At that point I think the temptation was just too great. Even though blankie wasn't there, this is what Benjamin did.

That boy is such a cutie pie!

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:13:48 GMT

Well, the sun is shining, it is reasonably warm today, and most of the snow has melted. I suppose it's time to start picking up the five months' worth of doggie crap in our backyard.

Big Day

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:52:34 GMT

The dude peed in the potty twice today! And twice in his pants on our leather chair, too!

The dudette got her tongue tie cut! (Poor little kid. She was very brave, though.)

In other news, I got four hours sleep total last night. Not in one stretch. Not by a long shot.

And the bear wants to know when we should have a third kid.

Sweet innocence

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:13:09 GMT

That little boy. He melts my heart. This morning we went to Gymboree. His teacher gave each of the kids a Valentine. One of those folded paper Valentines that kids give and get at school. His had Snoopy and hearts on it. She handed him that card and he held it like a little treasure. He turned to me with his eyes wide and pointed to Snoopy and said "daw" and then held on to the card with both of his hands. He carried it around for the rest of class touching Snoopy and even giving the card one of his funny little kisses at one point. He absolutely loved the card, and it made him so happy. My eyes were teary the whole time. Why, why can't we keep that kind of innocence, sweetness, and sense of delight in the simplest things for all of our life?

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:19:22 GMT

Out, child, out!!!! That's all I have to say.

Okay, please . . .

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:44:25 GMT

I feel bored and restless. I don't want to do anything that requires thinking, including reading. I've browsed my favourite internet sites and checked my email five times and now I have nothing left to do that I want to do.

This must be when normal people watch television. Too bad we don't get any channels other than a fuzzy CBC. Oh, well. Herbal tea and jacuzzi it is, then!

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:42:59 GMT

I've upped my casserole total to twelve. Plus we have a ridiculous stash of frozen pizzas because the bear and I keep finding different kinds on sale. I've also made another huge batch of cookies, because we polished off the first batch.

I'M DONE. Unless I make banana bread in the next couple days, which I probably will. But other than that, I'm DONE. My goal was twelve casseroles. Since I've made that many plus the four pasta sauces and the roast beef and the baked goods, I've exceeded my goal! And there's not really a lot more room in my ginormous freezer anyway.

Whew. I might be ready to take it easy for a bit now before this kid comes along.

Super Tuesday

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:55:12 GMT

The way I feel today must be the way some people feel about the Super Bowl. What an exciting day!!! Who's going to win?

I'm mad at myself because I didn't realize that as Democrats abroad the bear and I both were eligible to vote today! I thought we were supposed to vote in the Texas primary. Anyway, we have to join Democrats abroad. Ah, well. Next time I guess. I really don't know which of the two I like better any way. I think I lean more towards Clinton for president because I think she might ask Obama to be her running mate, and I think they would make a fantastic joint ticket. The bear and I are less sure that Obama would ask Clinton to be his running mate, or that she would accept if he did ask. I really do like them both, for different reasons. What strong candidates this year.

I was feeling a bit relaxed about the Republican side, since it looks like McCain may get the nomination. I'm used to thinking that McCain isn't such a bad guy. After all, he opposed Bush's tax cuts, right? He had issues about the way Iraq was handled, right? He cares about the environment, right? THEN I read an article about his radical about-faces during this campaign. Of course he's trying to appeal to the conservative voters, but he's warmongering as well. He appears to be itching for a war with Iran (he sang, "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" to the tune of "Barbara Ann" as a joke?) and feels that we need to maintain a military presence in Iraq for a hundred years? Plus he seems to changed his stand on the environment and on taxes? Well, I'm going to start paying more attention to the Republican side of things too, because the blinders are off now.

Okay, I have to go get work done and stop thinking about politics.

Nesting update

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:29:42 GMT

Current (homemade) frozen food count:

Nine casseroles
Four types of pasta sauces
Half a chocolate cake
One and a half loaves of peach bread
A few dozen cookies, rapidly diminishing in number since I've discovered that you can eat them straight out of the freezer and they are just as delicious as when they have defrosted.

Not too bad, huh? I need to make more casseroles especially, but I am running out of recipes that don't involve Velveeta cheese and about two dozen cans of various stuff. I found one cookbook that had several casserole recipes with primarily fresh ingredients, but I've made the most appealing of those. So now I have to do some more searching.

We also are working on stocking the freezer with frozen veggies and meals that the bear can make--frozen pizza and perogies, mostly. He gets to choose those things. I'm not going to freeze soups, because most of the soups I make nowadays are slow cooker recipes, and I think I'll still be able to put those together over the course of a morning and start the slow cooker by noon.

Evie's been bathed and groomed, and we have a cleaner starting tomorrow who will be coming on a weekly basis for the first few months. (I love my husband so much.) As of this time tomorrow (I hope), my house will feel a lot better.

The nursery's almost done. We just need to hang the pictures and readjust the crib mattress to the highest setting. Not that all that matters too much, as baby will sleep in a cradle in our room for the first couple months. But still, we will get that done before baby comes.

Baby's head is down but not yet low enough to cause my OB to think that birth is imminent, despite the insane Braxton-Hicks contractions I get on a daily basis. Hip and knee pain is nearing unbearable levels, making me wish this kid would come sooner rather than later, despite the fact that I know that I'm getting more sleep now than I will once the little dude comes.

Big dude is as cute as a bug these days. It's going to be interesting to see how he reacts to this new sibling . . . . I'm nervous, I have to say.

Still not 100% on the boy name. The bear is getting tired of my wavering. I should just let him decide, like last time. Of course, the bear doesn't think it matters because he thinks baby is a girl, but I'm so certain that it's a boy. This name indecision just makes me more certain for some reason.

Saturday my mother-in-law returns to Canada from the US, and I'll breathe easier knowing that she's close by to come take care of B-man should I go into labour. That's the update with my life these days.

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:17:43 GMT

The bear called me from work this morning to ask me if he could play poker tomorrow night with his work buddies. Of course, I said yes (because I am a sweet wife), and we were about to say good-bye when suddenly an extremely loud noise, exactly like a power saw, came from his end of the phone. So I asked if that was a saw that I was hearing, and he said it was.

The thing is, he's not working at a construction site. At least, not building construction. Lovely.

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 02:23:43 GMT

My OB doesn't think that New Baby will be as big as the dude was. I'm glad to hear that. I was pushing for quite a while with the dude . . .

Get your bets in now on baby's sex, birth date, and weight.

Mine: Boy, 8 lb. 5 oz., February 29th. (Why not?)

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:06:30 GMT

The bear and I had a lovely date on Friday night. We went out for hamburgers at a local pub and then saw a movie. (Oh, yeah, and we went to Home Depot between dinner and the movie.) We saw Juno, which we both thoroughly enjoyed. It was such a feel-good movie. We discussed it on the ride home, and we both realized that we had never before seen a movie that promotes adoption and that it was really nice to see that. At any rate, it is a sweet story and has an incredibly well-written and original screenplay.

That night, I had the most realistic labour dream imaginable. I woke up unable to believe for a moment that it wasn't real and that I was still pregnant. The aching pain in my hips brought me back to reality pretty quickly, though.

Oops

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:45:02 GMT

I needed to clean house a bit today, and Tim was post-call, so he was home. I asked him if he would take the dude and go fill up the car with gas and get us some coffee at Tim Hortons, so that I could do the mopping and bathroom cleaning dude-free.

So my two men headed off. Lately, when we go to Tim Hortons, we've been getting the dude a Timbit (a donut hole, for those of you who haven't experienced one of the most important elements of Canadian culture). Sometimes, when we have a nice server, he gets a free Timbit, but otherwise, we buy him one. Today, Tim decided to get twenty Timbits so that he could bring some home to his hard-working wife.

So Tim filled up the car and got the coffee and the box of Timbits. He ate one Timbit himself, gave one to the dude, and then put the dude in his carseat and headed ack home. It was a pretty day and Tim had the music on. He was enjoying the drive so much that he missed the turn and ended up getting on the Expressway. Since it was around four in the afternoon, he naturally got stuck in traffic. But, as I said, he was enjoying the drive and the dude was being sweet in the backseat, so Tim didn't mind the long drive home.

He got home and looked at Benjamin for the first time. And that's when he discovered why Benjamin had been so very sweet. In his lap was the box of Timbits (I have to assume Tim put it down on the back seat originally). In one hand was a whole Timbit. With the other hand, he was shoving a half-eaten one into his mouth. He looked as if he was about to barf. In the box was one Timbit. The dude ate sixteen and a half Timbits on the drive home.

Sigh . . .

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:17:24 GMT

Definate, consistant words that the dude says: "dada" for daddy; "daw" for dog (all dogs, including Evie); "googa" for cookie (occasionally also used for other foods that are very yummy to him, but always his word for cookie, whether his own or Evie's); "dow" for down; "eeh" for up; "gah" for car; "dee" for done; and "hi" for both hi and highchair. Once he said "mumma" and meant me, but that hasn't been repeated. Every day I discover a new word!!!

So I guess he does have between five and ten words at eighteen months, after all. (o:

Plus, he uses the signs for food, milk, more, and all done. And after he makes the food sign, sometimes he says "mmmm". He's so cute!

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 01:05:43 GMT

Today was a bleh and not good day.

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:26:50 GMT

The bear and I made steamed mussels in an oregano cream sauce for dinner tonight. We ate them with crusty sourdough bread and roasted asparagus, and it was a fantastic meal. This has been my second great success lately with seafood. For some reason, I've always shied away from seafood, but fresh mussels are very easy to cook and extremely yummy.

I made the bear do the actual killing of the mussels. Poor critters.

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 13:34:03 GMT

Burma. Darfur.

Sometimes the basic blessings in my life, granted to me because of where I was born and where I live now, overwhelm me. Then pile on the other blessings--my incredible husband, my loving family, my healthy and fun son, the new baby on the way, our new home--and I am something beyond overwhelmed. How can I be adequately grateful for all that?

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 00:54:16 GMT

So I said that I want to post about our new neighbourhood. Yeah, well, we live in the ghetto. A few nights ago, our neighbour's garage doors got "tagged". (That means someone spray painted graffiti on them, for you people who don't know our ghetto terms.)

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:04:28 GMT

I've decided I would like to buy the Magna Carta that will be auctioned this fall by Sotheby's. I think it would look great in the bear's office. Now I need to get my hands on $30 million before December. Hmmmm . . .

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:10:37 GMT

One day I want to post about my new house and neighbourhood, but I never have time because every day I have unpacking goals that keep me busy for fourteen hours.

I love living in a house. Evie is back with us and doing great. Times are busy, financially stressful, but good right now. I am finally 100% over the awful morning sickness of my first trimester (plus)!

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:24:00 GMT

I really hate packing.

Have I said that before?