Let’s take a vote, mmkay? Let’s say you send your child to a sitter during the day. Now this sitter doesn’t make very much an hour, you can cancel on her at any point during the day, you have her do crazy stupid stuff, and always have special instructions. Now, this sitter is taking your child to preschool three times a week. She has to drop the child off and pick her up. This entails loading her own child into a car, shuffling them both around and going to the school. At the school the sitter has to walk your child in the door, which means she has to take her child out of the car too. Remember that winter is approaching fast and that will start to be a royal PITA. So on to the question. Do you pay her $3.50 for the hours that the child is in preschool?

We are leaving this weekend to go visit Erichs family. So, all you experienced traveling Mama’s, what am I going to forget? What won’t I be able to live without for three days?

Go here and tell me what is wrong with this picture.

I really like this picture.  

Woolies! 

I made a pair of wool longies! I have four more pairs to make but I’m so excited. So who wants a pair for Christmas? (Or halloween? heh.)

Lindsey Marie arrived!

I need a chicken farm. I know, that sounds a bit crazy. T’s diet is basically made up of two things: chicken and eggs. She LOVES boiled eggs without the yolk. I HATE boiled eggs, so it is especially tramautic for me to boil the darn things then peel them and dig out the yolk. Yuuuck. She also likes chicken nuggets. This girl gets lots of protein.

I’m thinking that a chicken farm might actually help save me money. Well, maybe it wouldn’t, but it would be nice just to go outside and get the egg instead of having to go to the store. At the beginning of August, I had three dozen eggs in the fridge. T polished those off last week. This week, I bought a dozen eggs on Tuesday. She just finished them off today during lunch. Sheesh.

My BIL sells free range chicken eggs, but they live an hour and half away, and Erich says it isn’t worth it to save 50 cents. heh. We could go visit my inlaws, but then I say that it isn’t worth the 50 cents. We have another baptism class tomorrow morning in an area that has a farmers market. Hopefully I can pick up so eggs there. I’ve never been to a farmers market though, do they sell eggs?

Send good thoughts to Mimi, who is having her baby today!

As you all know, T is the little girl I watch every day. She is, as we call, mother-smother. She bites down her teeth and says to Magdalena ” You are so cute!” and you can tell she just wants to squeeze the life out of her. It has really been driving me batty because she gets in Magdalena’s face, which doesn’t please Magdalena. And she grabs at her hands and is constantly kissing her, which would be okay if she didn’t always have a snotty gross nose. And she just started preschool this week, so I can only imagine the germs that will be entering my house. Ugh. So she now has her own baby. We named her Abby.

Abby is the perfect size for T. We put a size 0 kissaluv on her and T was very very very pleased. I also came up with two receiving blankets and an extra diaper. We put these into T’s backpack and now Abby is ready for a day out.

T and I picked up some fabric today for a sling. It’s strawberry shortcake and it took me all of 15 minutes to make. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it until after T was gone. I’m sure that she will be super pleased in the morning. I stuck the sling in the “diaper bag” so you can see the fabric in the picture.

My Mom came over before work to see some pictures. She asked T, “where are the baby bottles for when Abby gets hungry?” I said, “we don’t have any baby bottles.” T responded by saying, ” that’s okay. **lifts up shirt** Abby can eat from here! **points to breast** ” I tried my hardest not to laugh at her. It was just so funny! I’m so proud of her too. My Mom said, “but you don’t have milk there” and T said “uh, huh. It’s pretend anyways!” I explained to her that I have milk for Magdalena and she has milk for Abby, right? She seemed very satisfied with that. Luckily her Mom didn’t yell at me.

I think it’s great that T put the baby to her breast. I’m pretty sure that Magdalena would do that some day because she will witness me nursing other babies (hopefully) just as T has witnessed me nursing Magdalena. It was very cute.

So now T can smother Abby with her love and affection. In the car, T explained to me that Abby was a lot like Magdalena. They cry at the same time and sleep too. Abby also got sick in the car. I asked T if Abby was carsick. She responded, “no everytime we pass corn she pukes.” Rachel would be glad to hear that Abby is apparently sensitive to corn. Unfortunately we live in Indiana and it is summer, so poor Abby is going to be quite sick for a while.

Abby and diaper bag 

Since August began, I haven’t been to Alicia’s house. Now this is a big thing considering I’d previously been going at least weekly. We had fun. We ran errands and waxed our eyebrows. Waxing eyebrows is very barbaric, but very very worth it. I look like I have woman eyebrows again. Let’s all say “Yay for womanly eyebrows!” I also gave myself (with Alicia’s help) a malibu treatment and a deep conditioning. My hair is silky smooth and soft. Heck, if I get into the shower today I’ll look like a super model.

Alicia had her old toys out while I was there. Now, I grew up in a duplex. We lived on one side and Alicia lived with her sister and dad on the other side. Her old toys are toys that I grew up playing with too. And since they were older, they were always very cool and had neater ideas than I could come up with. We had her cabbage patch kids out and Magdalena was very thrilled with one. When we went to pick up Caleb from school, Magdalena was playing with the CP in the carseat. When I peeked back at her, she had fallen asleep holding the CP hand. How cute is that? So, that’s another reason to buy her her own cabbage patch kid. I could let her play with mine, but then what will I play with? I plan on making her a sling for christmas so she can carry her babies around in it. I should probaby make T a sling too, cause she put on my sling and said “look I could carry the baby!”

I convinced Alicia to let her CP kids take a swim in the washer, and they came out really clean. She was all freaked out thinking that their heads would be full of water.

Another big thing that happened yesterday is that Magdalena moved up to a big girl carseat. She outgrew the infant carrier length wise. She turned 7 months old on Saturday. My girl is growing up. **sniff** She weighs about 15lbs and is awesome. While at Alicias house, she sat up from a lying down position. In church on Sunday, she kept pulling herself up to a standing position on the back of the pew. She also has been rocking on all fours for 3 or 4 minutes at a time. She moves her legs, but can’t figure out the balance of moving her hand forward. Eventually, she just lays down and rolls to the desired object. She gets around pretty well that way, and wouldn’t be surprised if she just skipped the whole actual crawling stuff. She still scoots backwards pretty effectively. She’s wearing 3-6 month clothes now and they fit her well, but she still has a lot of room left in them. She is still exclusivly breastfed and there aren’t any plans in the near future to start the solids.

I have lots of plans today, but mainly we are all going to nap and take it easy. T was sick yesterday and M had crappy nap days both Sunday and Monday. And I’m super tired from our bike ride this morning. My concentration today will be on laundry and SLEEP!

I’m currently exhausted and trying to keep up with my family. I know I know, I say I’m always tired. I’ll stop. No really, I will stop. Erich even commented on how boring my blog is, what can I say? I’m a boring person.

I’m working on a photo gallery thingy. I’m thinking I’m going to need more of Erich’s help then I wanted to ask for. hrmph. It will be password protected, so when I get it done ya’ll can let me know who wants to see my girly. I’ll post occasional pictures here and there, but I’m thinking I should confine it to one space. I’d like to know who’s going there to look around.

Magdalena is saying two words! The first one was, you guessed it, Dada. She says this with a very happy smile on her face when she sees a picture of him, or rolls over in bed and doesn’t see him on his side. Dada!

Her second word is Mama. I had her on the floor the other day and when I came back in the room she was crying saying, “MaaaaMaaaa, MaaaaMaaaa, MaaaMaaa,MMMMM” It’s happened on a couple more occasions so I’m saying it’s official. The sucky part is she says it when she is sad, and Dada when she is happy. Boo. Be happy to see me too little girl!

Magdalena is getting to be such a big girl! (well not in size, but in personality!) Look at how her leg is in the picture! Just cracks me up. Oh, and I’m in the picture too, at least my shadow is!  

It’s been an incredibly long and busy week. Sorry for the lack of posts. The biggest news this last week is that Erich is finished with school! He got two A’s in his last two courses and was already informed he had met all the requirements for graduation! They’ll confirm all of the grades on Sept. 2 and order the diplomas. They are hoping the diplomas will be in by late October! Once they confirm grades, I’ll probably have an open house bbq in honor of my graduate.

The second big thing is that I will be continuing my home care. I’m excited about this because it will bring about extra income that we so desperately need! I already have lots of things lined up to pay such as plates, car insurance, and such things. I also want some new size 2 kissaluvs (well I’ll actually order from the outlet store) but I’m hoping to buy a couple dozen of those. Hopefully we’ll have a nice christmas too.

I’ve been sunning my diapers that are really stained right out of the dryer. It’s been nice to have them taken care of and it’s amazing how quickly the stains dissappear. I’ve also stayed on top of all of the laundry which is so relieving.

I’m sorta staying on top of my house too. It’s hard with everyone coming and going, but I feel like I am getting my act together again. We’ve been enjoying some fresh air outside and have had the window and door open practically all week. I’m loving not running the air conditioner, I can practically feel the money staying in my pocket! ha! We actually had to shut everything a couple times last week because we were cold!

It’s so wild to be so chilly in August. I was thinking back to our wedding day (August 10, 2002). It was about a 100 degrees outside with a heat index of 110 degrees. I was thanking myself that we had found a church and decided against that wedding in the park. My legs were actually sweating underneath my wedding gown IN the air conditioning. I won’t ever forget that.

I must go, the diva is calling. She’s been incredibly clingy this past week or so. I think it is because she is so so so so so close to actually crawling on all fours. She does creep and army crawl backwards. I think she could physically crawl, it’s really just about getting the confidence and the dance of it down. And she doesn’t like staying on her tummy that long so usually just rolls on over to her back etc to get to her destination of choice.

(From an email I received today.)

Definitions of breastfeeding terms:

Boob Lift – The unconscious lifting of one’s breasts to check which isfuller. May be done at any time regardless of where you are or whomyou’re talking to, grocery sackers and priests/rabbis notwithstanding.

Nursing Flip – The action of adjusting you and your baby to make readyfor nursing. This means moving your tee-shirt off your butt, doing the”boob-lift”, putting the baby in the crook of your arm and unlatchingyour bra, all in about 15 seconds, with no attention taken away from yourprevious task.

Wet-Nurse Syndrome – The unconscious urge to nurse any fussy baby youhappen to be holding; you may be engaged in casual conversation whileholding your neighbor’s baby, she fusses and you do the “nursing flip,”your neighbor looks at you shocked, “oh my, she must be hungry,” youmumble as you pass her infant back. *A side-effect of this is the”breastmilk fixes everything” philosophy. Actually pumping your milk forthe stray kitten you found, under the rational that, of course, humanmilk is better than cow milk for a starving kitten. You may also findyourself using breastmilk for your family’s various wounds: “Got a sore, earacheor zit? Put some breastmilk on it, that’ll fix it.” (least that’s whatthey say, can’t hurt)

Boobie Wrangling – The acrobatics your toddler does while nursing,including but not limited to flips, headstands, & taffy pulls, all whilesurrounded by relatives who believe that should have been weaned monthsago. The benefit of this exercise is that you can now nurse your childwhile each of you lie on your backs.

Twiddling – What happens if everyone fails to mention that your babycaressing your other breast while nursing is NOT sweet. Never, neverletyour baby know that you can possibly have two breasts at the same time.Always keep the unused breast covered, lest you want your littlenurslingto use it as her favorite toy. This becomes a habit quick, heed ourwarning.

The Steal – The act of removing your nipple from your already sleepingbaby’s mouth so that you may roll over or sneak out of bed for somemidnight internet use. Typically takes 2 or 3 tries to succeed.

Just a Sip – When your now-walking baby comes to you, lifts your shirt,grabs a drink to refuel him/herself for 10 more minutes of play. Thisactof helping themselves is a show of independence for them, and a show ofbreast for everyone else in the room.

Car Surfing – What you are doing when you strategically hover yourbreastover the baby’s car seat while daddy drives down the interstate,ignoringyour butt in the rearview mirror.

Ecstasy Eyes – Picture this: baby is screaming at your feet while youaretalking on the phone, cooking dinner, and getting a band-aid for yourtoddler. You finally sit and pick up the baby to nurse, and she goesfromscreaming wildly to rolling her eyes to the back of her head in ecstasyinonly a few seconds.

Kneading – The act of dang near maiming your breast tissue while youradorable (and sharp nailed) little one nurses. This can result in yourbreast looking like you’ve just nursed a kitten.

Today is my 2nd anniversary. I didn’t know what life would be like when I approached that alter two years ago. I wondered where we would go together and what obstacles we would face. In that first year, we faced infertility. We worked together to make a baby who is the most beautiful child I have ever seen. During the second year, we celebrated being pregnant, rubbing my belly, and trying to foretell the furture. We welcomed our daughter into this world and rejoiced that we were so lucky. Saturday, we ate dinner as a family at the Cheesecake Factory and smiled at each other and all that we had accomplished. I didn’t know how life would fold out when I stood at that alter two years ago, but I knew I’d be happy… and I was right.