Hodge Podge

Not much exciting is going on around here. So just a quick little hodge podge of news for you...

Ben is good. He takes a 3-4 hr nap every day, which allows me to either be hyper-productive or anti-productive (sadly, I've been choosing the latter recently). He's been sleeping pretty well at night. Not all the way through, but just waking once to eat and going back to sleep right away. Once he starts "snacking" vs. eating, we'll try to wean him off of waking up altogether. Although I'm hoping he'll just do that on his own :) We've set a goal to get him to drink from a bottle once a day for these next few weeks because he starts daycare on the 5th and he's not so much loving the bottle. We're working on the details (like a date!) for Ben's baptism. That's my goal before maternity leave is up--to get that on the calendar and the people in place for it.

Colin is good. He's had jumping beans in his pants the last few days. Cabin fever or something. We're struggling with him getting down from the table and jumping around rather than eating. We've threatened to get the booster seat back out and strap him in it during supper time.

I'm good. My maternity leave is coming to a close quickly. I go back the 5th (less than 2 weeks away!) and I'll do a "reverse shadow" for 2 days. It will help me ease back into it, Since, you know, I can't just leave 20 6 and 7 year olds unattended to pump for 15 minutes! It might be rough those first few days having to hold out until lunch or prep, so if I need to leave my long term sub will be there for back up. Whew! Spring break starts the 12th so working just 1 week will be good way to ease into it again. I'm ready to go back. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is being so goshdarn tired and working through it and pretending to not be tired. Not that I nap a whole lot at home anyway. Ben will do great at daycare, Colin will enjoy having him there, and I know he'll be in good hands.
My decluttering frenzy has died down a bit because I decluttered a lot already! Right now I'm working on the basement storage room. My mom came up over the weekend and helped me get rid of some stuff. I need to find the right organizers for some things, and then I'll be ready to tell you about it.
I'm going to hold another introductory session to recruit one more class of piano students. Hopefully I'll get a few more kids. I'd love to have 3-5 more.

Kevin is good. He's starting up a blog :) No, it's not about his adventures in fatherhood, although that might be...entertaining. It's work-related. When it's up and running I'll share the url with you and you can visit him.

Rocket's good. I think he's ready for spring. He misses lying in the grass basking in the warm sunshine. Aren't we all?

We're all good.

You good?

New Years Resolutions

First, let's see what resolutions I stuck to in 2011.

1. Run/"do" 3 races. One I have in mind is the Root River Triathlon, which includes 6.5 miles of canoeing instead of swimming. Also, 8 miles of biking and a 3 mile run.
*Did this race whilst 11 weeks pregnant. Haven't run since. It's all good though. A triathlon is like 3 races all rolled into one, right? I will get back on the running bandwagon in 2012, and perhaps run a 5k. I'm not going to worry about running too much this year because breastfeeding is a bigger priority in 2012.

2. Pay off a large chunk of debt. I'd like to say half of what we owe. Seems like a lofty goal, but perhaps we can do it barring no financial obstacles getting in our way.
*We did pay off a large chunk, but not half of what we owe. All together, we've paid off about $12,000 since June 2009 :) And that's about a third better than where we started from. Bottom line is, the numbers are getting smaller and we are making headway.

3. Leave work at the end of the day with a clean(er) desk. The least I can do is put the papers in one nice, neat stack, right? Really, I'm going to try hard to get better at this.
*Yeah, this didn't happen. Except for the 2 weeks before Ben was born when I cleaned it off every single day just in case I wasn't back the next day.

4. Get Colin potty trained for good (I know, I keep saying that. 2011 is the year baby!).
*Totally conquered this one so long ago.

5. Re-start "date nights" on the 7th(ish) of every month. Kev and I have been slacking. With a fresh batch of gift cards in-hand, we're ready!
*We didn't go out every month...just a few scattered here and there, and they were more like lunch dates, which is fine and dandy too. Usually the 7th would come and go and we wouldn't even think about it.


So maybe I didn't do so well. Let's see what 2012 will bring:

1. Pay off more debt. Losing salary due to 6 weeks of non-paid maternity leave will put a damper on that, but starting in September (when my paychecks go back to normal) hopefully we'll be able to put all of the money I make teaching piano lessons towards it.

2. Declutter. Dudes, I found this decluttering calendar and I'm going to declutter in 2012. It's going to be dorky but it's going to be awesome. I invite you to join me. I have even gotten an early start and will post about it soon.

3. Survive the "Terrible 2s" and the first 8 months of the "Trying 3s": Round 1 (Colin). I hope to come back unscathed.

4. Be more generous. Not necessarily with money because we can't offer more right now. I'm talking about being more generous with my time, my love, and my heart. I often find myself selfish when others are so generous to me. I want to be more giving. There will be a time when I can also afford to be generous with my money, which I also will enjoy.

5. Make time for Rocket. I hate to admit it, but there are many days when I go to bed and realize that I haven't given the pooch very many pets or belly rubs or ear scratches or ball tosses or chases around the yard. He's my "first born" and I don't like knowing he's been put on the back burner that's behind another back burner.

30 weeks: Squash/Cabbage

75% done baking, Raina is the size of a squash or a head of cabbage. She's about 15.7 inches and weighs almost 3 pounds. A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that will decrease as she gets bigger. White fat deposits under her skin are forming, giving her a surge of energy. During this month, all five of her senses become fully functional.

I will post belly pics here this afternoon.

I notice that my balance has been off recently. Especially when it's dark, like when I get out of bed and can't walk in a straight line right away. Call me a drunken sailor! And my energy *may* be decreasing. We'll have to see what the following week or so brings and see if it increases again.

On Friday, we "celebrated" Rocket's 2nd birthday. My poochie pie is growing up :( Here are some pictures.
A mandatory party hat picture:

Birthday treat--Frosty Paws!


This past weekend, I spent the weekend in EC with four of my bestest friends: Brooke, Kristin, Laura, and Steph. It was very fun. I bought a onesie I couldn't resist from Baby GAP. It's light blue-green and it has a picture of a chicken on it. And what does it say? "Spring Chicken" !! Way too cute to not buy. No picture to be found on gap.com though...sorry. :( The girls and I went to the mall, made upside down pizza, and just hung out and relaxed. I let them feel and see Raina moving around. That's something I always wanted to feel/see before I was pregnant, and never got a chance to. Can't wait for next year when we get together again!

23 weeks: Merry Christmas

My primary source of produce-comparisons slacks when it gets this late. A papaya=weeks 22-24. Thus, I rely on my secondary source for a few weeks. A little overlap here, with an adjective placed in front of it. This week, Rain is a large mango. He's just over 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound. His sense of movement is well developed now, and if I dance around, he can feel it. Guess I'll have to hit the nightclub this weekend and shake my groove thing. Blood vessels in his lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that he's hearing are preparing him for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now--me yelling at students :), Rocket barking, loud piano music--probably won't faze him when he hears them when he's out here with us.

No belly pic available. Kev's camera is not dans la maison. It's not here to capture memories of my girth, nor memories of Rocket opening his Christmas presents this morning. We got him a stuffed animal dog wrapped with a treat to coax him to tear open the wrapping paper. It didn't exactly work. We're interested to see whether he'll rip the dog to shreds like he did with his elephant when he was a pup:

Or be nice to him and keep him in one piece. And he also got a new tennis ball. Traditionally (and by tradition, I mean the last 2 Christmases because that is the extent of his existence), we get him a can of 3 tennis balls on Christmas, and give him 1. When he bites a hole in it, we throw it away and give him the next, and then the next. Then he doesn't get another can until next Christmas.

What did I get for Christmas? 1 of 2 things I asked for. I got Kevin's completed baby name list! We compared name lists today. There was 1 common boy name and 3 common girl names. From there, we came up with a list of 6 boy names and 5 girl names. Now we need to try them out and see which ones we love and which ones we don't. Wanna know what the names are? Too bad. We're not telling. You'll know in April, though. Muhahahaha! And what did I not get? My fixed Escape. The auto body shop said perhaps by the new year. Good gravy, I hope so.

And can't forget Kevin. What did he get? He gets the privilege of not having to carry his child. And a happy wife. A happy wife is a happy life, so that's a perfect give in and of itself.

I've been tagged

I was getting kind of jealous of all of the blogs I read and people were getting tagged except me. I wanted to have a little bit of fun! Now a high school friend, Jen E. let me in on the action. Thanks Jen!

Here are the Rules: go to Your Pictures file go to the 5th folder open up the 5th picture and post it then tag 5 people when you are done.



This was Rocket's first birthday. I bought him a party hat and put it on him, because I'm cruel like that. Here he is trying to get it off. Two more pictures into this file (the 2008 file), and he's happily enjoying his Frosty Paws ice cream WITH his hat back on, so he found out that wearing the hat wasn't so bad if you get a treat for doing so.

Now I'm tagging: Kristin S., Liz S., Laura D., Leah F., and sweetpea.