NYC day two

We are still in the city hanging out in the hotel and Niamh is napping so I actually have a few minutes to write more then 5 lines.  The other big reason I have time to blog is I FINALLY finished my midterm.  I stayed up to 1am on Tuesday and Wednesday and I finished last night.  I’m pretty happy with the results, all the math made sence and my explanations were complete, I just hope it was what he wanted.  The teacher most definitely wanted us to do the test, even though he gave a paper option, because I think he is backed up with grading.  Since I figured that is the case I kept it to 3 pages and that seemed like a reasonable length to me.  All my spare time has gone toward this paper so sorry if I have not replied to any of your e-mails or facebook posts, the plan is to catch up later…

Today has started off well.  Niamh slept soundly until 7am and then was content to watch her movie until 8am.  Then Josie and I ran in central park but the route we took was not the route we mapped and we ended up on the wrong side and a bit lost.  It is sad that I can navigate better in Shanghai  then NYC.  Our 2.5m run turned into a 5m run at least but is was still pretty fun.  Some of our problems were due to ‘ooh shiny’ syndrome because we both got distracted by random things and ended up going the wrong direction.  The other problem was construction blocking the way we (thought we) needed to go but all in all we found our way back.  The saving grace was knowing that we were across the road from a hooters and that sign is visible for blocks in either direction. 

We had a nice brunch and family time with those who did not choose to go to the circus and now we are waiting on sleeping babies to go out for the afternoon to the met and the park.  Niamh LOVED the natural history museum, I have no idea how she knew those big bones were dinosaurs but she immediately knew and started doing the dinosaurs dance from a video we have.  She dinosaurs  stomped all over the museum, I tried to get it on video and I think I might have but you can’t hear her singing in it.  I guess we are entering the dinosaur phase…  She also really liked the ape/evolution section where they have Lucy’s bones.  I don’t know what she liked about it but she had a good time there too.  We let her and Connor run free in some of the more empty areas and they were tired out nicely.  I hope the met goes as well today and the offical party tonight~

The trip is half over already I need to maximize the time more.

Pictures are up

we took the train into the city, then we walked through the mobs and mobs to the hotel.  Taxi to the museum and then we saw everything fun for a pair of 1 year olds.  Stroll back to the hotel and now we are making dinner plans.  I posted basically unedited photos of the  day on flickr, see you tomorrow!

to the city

we arrived safely and now we are on our way into the city.  Who knows if they have internet in there . 

Pictures later today if I can but we are off to the city!

We are on our way

In the next 15m we will be heading out the door. I’m as packed as I can be and anything I forget I’m sure I can find in NY somewhere. The logistics of this are complicated because I need to navigate the airport, handle the luggage alone, and be able to repack everything for a train ride into the city. I think my carry on in the checked luggage will work so I will have it for the train and I don’t have to haul it through the airport or hoist it into overhead bins.

Next post will be from NY!

I need to pack

This time tomorrow I’ll be half way to NY!

This trip snuck up on me with the Halloween planning and party and school work and I feel a bit unprepared. I’m meeting pretty much my whole family in NYC to celebrate my grandmothers 80th birthday. I’m missing my midterm for class and that really stinks but he offered to let us either write a paper or do the exam so that takes the pressure of somewhat. I have to somehow write a midterm worthy paper while on vacation but there are worse things in life.

I still have a ton to do to be ready to go, good thing I have some time tonight. I’ve written all my to-do and to-pack lists and I got the majority of the clothing done last night but I just got unmotivated to do everything yesterday. I keep wanting to pack Lars’s stuff too but he is not coming since they are neck deep in work this week (and knew they would be) and it being a mid week event is hard to get time off for.

I am looking forward to some fun family time and I have not been in the city for years. I have the Niamh limitations so no opera or night clubs for me but I think that she will do fine with the museums or strolling central park and hanging out in the hotel. My only vague worry is her eating enough but she does eat when she is hungry and she eats enough different things there has to be something she will eat, and, a few days of not so great nutrition won’t kill her either. We will only be in the city for 2 of the 4 days so I can count on decent home cooking the ‘home’ days.

Ok, I must get back to work, trying to predo work really does not work well but I’ll try not to leave myself any lingering problems.

Mohawk update

I’m sure you all have been wondering how the Mohawk  has been doing.  Keeping you up at night I’m sure…  Anyway, it is most definately in need of a mow.  Here is a pic from 5m ago, my model is deep in the war against something in his computer so he would not pose and since the golden two hours of naptime are passing I can understand his desire to try and save the world while he can.  Anyway, here is the update;

It is a bit better in person since many people commented on it yesterday at the event but it has lost the fresh crisp lines it once had.  This goes to show Lars’s hair really grows very fast since his last mow was right before Halloween just 3 weeks ago.

That is it for today, I’m going to spend some time cleaning and packing and if my teacher ever gets it together to send our our exam I’ll be working on that too.

out for the day

I’m at an event today – hopefully having fun.  Lars and Josh will be fighting until they drop, I will be hanging out and watching stuff.  Feel free to come visit me if you are at ToC

Happy Friday

Baby dr apt today and everything checks out fine. I am getting a little belly but I must be loosing from other places because I weighed in at exactly my pre-pregnancy weight from last time and I was wearing jeans and sneakers (and a shirt etc but that is negligible). There was the vague panic moment when they could not find the heartbeat and said, innocently enough, lets go get a sonogram… The little bugger was not only moving around like a nut but the placenta is front and center giving a radio free zone right in the middle. It was cool to see a little skelator stretching and jumping around. I even have 3 more pictures and there was an awesome moment when I could really see the face, not just skull.

So my apt was a tad longer then I expected but still not bad and I don’t think anyone missed me. I’m very lucky the office is really close to work.

This weekend we are going to an event, the first event in 2 years that I am not big pregnant or worried about breast feeding, this opens a whole new segment of my wardrobe. Unfortunately given my school on Tr and visiting on Fr I don’t have any good time to pack so I had to do as much as possible on Wednesday. I still have things to pack so I need to focus when I get home today and try and get it all in the car. The world won’t end if I forget something but it sure is easier to be prepared. We are day tripping so that does make things easier, hopefully Niamh will sleep all the way home if not most of the way there.

Oh, before I forget, happy Friday the 13! So far so good, hope the same for you.

something pink

Today I was running short on inspiration so I went to Google and looked for ‘random question of the day’ and there are a lot of results but this site had a list that triggered a thought right away; “Is there anything pink within 10ft of you”. My first reaction was no since I’m at work but the actual answer is yes, I have my bright pink wallet right on my desk. The reason this is an interesting question is that over the past 19 months virtually every room of our house has gained something child related in it… I don’t think it looks like we live in a daycare, but, a book I read recommended having kid things in every room so when they are in that room they have stuff to play with and less interest in all the stuff they should not be touching. I’m lucky with Niamh, she so far has not been too into everything and she ignores the stuff we tell her not to touch after a warning or two. We try hard to not have things she can’t touch around but there are still plenty of ‘nos’. I’m sure the book meant every major room of the house or most rooms you spend time in, but, there are little touches of pink in pretty much every room.

Upstairs

Livingroom – 3 shelves of our book case are her toys and the coffee table shelf is all her books – organized and not glaring when they are put away but she has a definite presence.

Her room – that’s a given, while she does not play in there often there are books and toys. Ironically the closet does not have many of her things, mostly ours still. Given that her room used to be our closet things have come a long way.

Our Room – all her bedtime theme books, a few toys she actually never plays with so I should put them away, and my dresser is intermingled with her outgrown stuff that I had to get out of her immediate sight but I have not put away yet…

Upstairs Bathroom – bath toys, books, her 55 different lotions and potions. She has more visible stuff in the bathroom then we do.

Kitchen – she has two drawers, one for ‘treasures’ like old spoons and measuring cups and random small boxes and the other for her cups and plates. Somedays she even gets her own cup when she wants something to drink. The kitchen also has the random toys that find their way in plus the paints and crayons. She also has special soap on the counter and magnets on the fridge plus all her food but you can’t see that at first glance. Last but not least the highchair, can’t deny having a child with such a prominent seat with tray hanging out in plain sight.

Down Stairs

Green Room – the window end is semi set up as a playroom so here the toys outnumber any other room. Since Lars works in the other end he can always say he is within 10f of something pink.

Guest Room – I would like to say no but I’m pretty sure her outgrown exersauser is in there, and, the wall art features pictures of her.

Fabric Room – much storage including some clothes for her she has not grown into. This will be her future room so it has the toddler bed too (not set up).

Bathroom – a sit n spin – Lars put it in the shower for her to play on when he is home alone with her. Very fun for our guests to discover.

Down down stairs

Laundry room – more stuff she has outgrown or will grow into or stuff I can’t quite figure out how to wash (her Halloween costume from last year) so it just hangs out there.

Other room – this might be the only Niamh free room, especially since I cleaned for the party nothing is really baby oriented in there.

So 10 out of 11 rooms have something pink directly related to the tiny dictator. Maybe I’m just deluding myself that I don’t live in a daycare, who knows…

11/11

I am booked solid this afternoon so a quick story…

I have been sleeping with a big pillow so I can still simi sleep on my stomach (the bump is growing) and the other night I had a very vivid dream of wiping Niamh’s ever running nose. It was so vivid I got a tissue in my sleep and started cleaning the pillow’s nose… I woke up with it in my hand holding the pillow like a baby. I’m sure I’m not the first but it was pretty funny too.

Yesterday we finished the garage cleaning, it isn’t perfect but it is pretty good. We set Niamh up in her highchair with paint while we finished and she had a ball painting the paper and herself. Good thing the paints are only a dollar, she has used up most of her favorite colors already. I used to think her favorite color was red but now I’m thinking yellow. At least yellow is her favorite to say J Her appetite is not 100% yet but I don’t think she is starving either, otherwise she was just about back to normal yesterday.

Ok, back to work, happy Wednesday

Sick day

Yesterday Niamh succumed to the ick.  I know it was not H1N1 because she got the vaccine and I know its not a side effect because she got it 10 days ago.

All weekend she had symptoms but nothing really lasting until last night when she woke up every hour and in the morning she only wanted to cling to me.  We called in sick to work and daycare and waited for the dr to open to get an apt.  Niamh slept on me or on the couch all morning through all my conf calls and I put clothes on over her PJ’s to go to her 10am appointment.  We were worried about a UTI for some fairly graphic reason I need not tell the internet but in the end she was deemed clean of all really bad things but she has a bad cold or a mild flu.  The rest of the day she slept and I got her to eat some lunch and that perked her up and then she took another nap and by 4pm she was mostly fine.  I’m glad she is better because she is just so sad and small in this picture from Monday morning.

By the evening she was painting and playing.  I told her not to put her fingers in the paint and she got arround that rather creatively (see my flickr video).  I was glad to have the day too.  Not that I got a nap or anything but I could be more restful then at the office plus I was pinned by a sleeping baby so that does slow the pace down on the day.

little weekend recap

So I found out who the troll’s are.  The part that is really bad is I considered them both friends, actually friends not just facebook ‘friends’ or a person I knew.  Both of them had half a dozen ways they could have come to me first with their concern and they did not.  I suppose it could be worse, my suspicious mind raced with all the possibilities, basically except for a very very small group I had to suspect everyone.  It ate away at me all weekend to the point where I figured if I can’t trust anyone then I can’t really participate in the SCA and so finding out the two trolls clears the remainder of Northshield.  Anyway, I’ll deal with them at some point and until then they are blocked from what I can block them from.

 

Other then that bit of distasteful business the weekend was really nice.  Lars and I went to dinner at Max’s downtown and I had a fantastic lamb and he had rabbit and we got appetizers that were done so perfectly it should be a crime.  I know a little about wine but I was clueless with what to pair with lamb especially since there may be a sauce I don’t know the ingredients of, so I asked the waiter to recommend something.  He was thinking hard and I said he could go ask the sommelier and he said ‘that’s a good idea we have a great wino on staff’  I kid you not, he said wino. (Lars wondered if they have a foodie or a chef)  The ‘wino’ was right the paring was perfect and it was a nice wine (once it breathed) in general.  We asked for the name and they peeled the label off for us, well, most of the label…  enough that we can find it again.  I was glad that I ordered the wine at the beginning of the meal since it needed the entire time to breathe because it was on the nasty side to start with, a lot like licking an oak cask.  By the end of the meal I was too full to take another bite much less get a dessert so we left to try and catch a movie.  We had a sitter until 10:30 but there was basically no way we could get a movie in that time since dinner took longer then we thought so we drove home, went to the grocery store and got a few little things and two tasty desserts and we were home by 9:30.  The sitter didn’t mind at all, she said Niamh was good and went to bed no problem.

 

Sunday we did end up getting a bunch of the garage clean.  Not 100% but we moved some stuff around so it is easier to get to the things we need.  We also walked to the park and played outside.  Most of our outside is winterized now, ironic on a 60 degree day, I was on the deck with no place to sit.  I’m sure the nice weather won’t last long.  Oh well, on with Monday, hope everyone had a good weekend too.

Sunday

just in case I can’t write a good post today here is what I’m doing;

Enjoying the great warm weather
putting away all the halloween stuff
celaning the garage (maybe)
and tonight we are watching all the tv we saved up this week because we have been watching the Doll House (very good)

Last night we had a great anniversary dinner – more on all later.

Sorry not SCA people and nice SCA people but there is a troll among us.

5 Years ago right now

At 10:37 eastern time I was getting makeup done for my wedding. I had woken up, fed my crying nephew, taken a jog, taken a water pill to shrink me so my dress would fit because the crazy seamstress didn’t just take in the bust area that needed it, she took in the entire bodice… (I was later sewed into the dress by my sister because I was afraid of popping the zipper). I believe Lars was still sleeping having stayed up 99% of the night and winning $100 or so in a hotel poker game.

So far today I have gotten a gorgeous gift from Lars, cuddled in bed for 20m with Niamh (that’s the rosy reflection of her being up at 6:45 rather then sleeping to 7), got dressed in jeans that still fit (for the moment) went to work where it is a ghost town today (deer opener) so I can quietly do my work in peace. I also just had that great first sip of coffee.

It’s a toss up, I really liked my wedding day but today is shaping up well too

I know I have done this before, the then and now comparisons around events, but I just can’t help it! Lars and I have come so far in the last 5 years; in our wedding picture I have contacts and Lars has glasses, now we both have perfect vision. Lars was also 30 pounds heavier and now he has a Mohawk (lets not discuss my weight compared to my wedding day). We still live in MN but now we are in a house rather then apartments. We both have different jobs, we gained 1.5 children. We have purchased furniture at a store other then Ikea and a lawnmower.

Plenty is more or less the same, but, I feel like most things are just better. I hope I always feel this way.

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Minor Gevalia rant…

I like Gevalia coffee, I really like their pumpkin spice and their blueberry coffee and when I got the offer for their Seasonal Flavors (please remember this name, its important) I thought it was a good idea. The other two seasons are German Chocolate for winter and Pecan torte for spring. I’m not a fan of the Pecan but 3 out of 4 isn’t bad and I could cancel before spring. I sign up in mid September and blueberry coffee arrives shortly, so far very pleased. Then the leaves begin to turn and we are planning pumpkin picking and Halloween parties and I start to wonder where is my pumpkin coffee? I checked the website and apparently they were planning on sending it on November 30. Does that make sense? Here in MN I don’t expect the ground to be snow free by then and according to WalMart it is Christmas already so why send pumpkin coffee so long after all the pumpkins have been bought, carved, displayed, rotted, and tossed?

I called in mid October to fix this obvious system error and find out it is the policy to send the seasonal coffees 3 months apart regardless of the actual season. I believe my point was lost on the nice call center people in India but they could not, would not, move up my order, but, they would have someone call me in the next two days who may be able to help. ( To further the stupidity of mis match seasons; my winter blend was due late February and my spring would arrive late May). I wait and wait and nobody calls, Halloween weekend I kept wishing I had the pumpkin coffee and while I totally realize this is a first world problem I decided it was time to call again. The message was the same, they looked in the system and nobody even tried to call so I canceled the Seasonal Flavors and if their regular coffee was not so good I would have canceled the whole thing! I will buy my pumpkin individually and maybe some German chocolate, I can buy both right now no waiting, and I need to figure out if it is worth telling them in some other way that their ‘seasonal’ selection logistically stinks.

So google searches who land here, the Gevalia Seasonal Flavors is not worth the trouble or the dollar you save.

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ABC costing

Today most of my writing energy went to writing a short essay on the ABC costing method v traditional Predetermined Overhead Cost Distribution in regard to setting product price.  Please feel free to read and even edit if you feel like it.  This is a masters level managerial accounting course so it needs to be good but it always bothers me that these text books act like all you need in business is to master their ’stuff’.

This is due on Thursday.

Nov 3

Hummmm…. What to write about today. By writing every day I can’t just do a big summation of the week past or the week to come, I need to have content or something. Not that my daily life is not stimulating and exciting, yesterday was full of exciting work, tv, then sleep. Actually Niamh did do something very cool, it was dinner time and I said lets go get dinner intending to give her left over steak and sweet potato and broccoli but she gestured to the big cabinet that has a lot of her snacks in it so I humored her and helped her open it. She moved a few things until she found the single serving chef-boy-r-de and she grabbed it and ran to the microwave, pushed over a chair, climbed up, opened the microwave and put the can in. It seriously disturbed her that I took it out again so I could remove the metal top and find the recommended cooking time in the itty bitty fine print, then the 40 seconds it took to cook killed her but she ran to her chair, climbed in and demanded a bib. I don’t know if this is normal but it is kinda cool. She will probably eat steak tonight, I really don’t want her doing her own meal planning since her preferences are not exactly healthy, but it was fun to see her copy exactly what I did last week. I bet if she knew how to work the microwave she could be self sufficient

Niamh also has continued her obsession with cleaning. She says ‘napkin’ (more like napin) mid meal and she cleans her hands and face. Maybe if she didn’t eat with her hands she would be less messy but she is on the right path. Last week Lars dripped some yogurt on the floor and she asked (demanded?) a napkin and cleaned it right up. She also likes to have a baby wipe of her own when we change her diaper and she will clean her face and then hang on to it and ‘clean’ many other household objects. Her daycare says she does it there too, cleaning random things with a wipe, sometimes she makes them cleaner, sometimes less clean but I like the instinct.

She has also developed an obsession with a particular purple blanket. It was a gift from either Greta or April but it is silky on one side and satin on the other and she brings it everywhere with her now. She is not quite a Linas because we can get her to put it aside to eat or play but she really does like having it with her. Sometimes her obsession object count grows, thank goodness not permanently, but unless it is a knife I’m pretty fine letting her hang on to whatever. So far she has attached at one point or another to; baby wipes, napkin, dish towel, the kitchen sponge, her baby doll, the red measuring cup, any ball she sees, many different books, and a pizza crust. Sometimes she is trying to carry around 4 or 5 things at a time and is constantly dropping something. I’m not worried because most of the loves fade in 15 min but the blanket and baby are fairly consistent. The pizza crust was the best because she took it into the bath and when it got all soggy she made the cutest puzzled face. She is a very interesting being and it is fun to watch the lightbulb turn on J

Well, it seems I found inspiration for the day, good thing my inspiration monkey is constantly evolving. Time to get back to my day, hope yours are all going well, see you tomorrow!

Halloween

Halloween day was a blur of busy, I’m so glad we had help!  As always I over fussed about the party but it was a reason to really clean and declutter.  Any by declutter I mean all the stuff I didn’t get to got shoved in the back room.  I do intend to go through everything as it comes back out and this is reason 2463 why having a party is better then spring cleaning.

We were on the fence about actually taking Niamh out to trick or treat but we forgot the camera on Friday so we had to get her dressed up anyway, so why not go out and get more candy she is not allowed to eat. The weather was also great, not too cold at all and no rain or snow even though it threatened early in the day.  I think she had a good time and she even said trick-or-treat a time or two.  She likes taking the candy in and out of her bucket and it kept her busy for a long time Sunday morning so I, who stayed up until 2am, could drink my coffee in peace.

The party itself was good, we had quite a few people but our guest list was hit hard by the flu and I’m very greatful nobody sick came to spread their germs.  We had a party in shifts, the early shift left about 10 min before the late shift began so the house was never over stuffed but plesently full.  We had way too much food and drinks but everyone loved Lars’s mulled wine cider.  Cleaning up on Sunday was not too bad, undecorating is faster then decorating and nobody really made a mess.  My photo booth camera ran out of juice so we switched to Jon’s so only half the guests are up on Flicker but I’m sure he will send me the others.  I think the photobooth went over well, it is a really fun thing especally at a costume party.

The rest of Sunday we just chilled out, nice after a hectic day.  The clock change thing is on the annoying side for naps but it will be ok in the long run, we just kinda split the difference for nap time.

1B, or maybe 1A2

Most of my family should know by the title I have some news.  My grandfather used to code all of us by an alphanumeric scheme where the first number denoted his childs birth order and the second denoted their child’s birth order.  I was a  1A being the first child of his first child, I’m not sure how he would number great grandchildren and I am in a toss up between 1B for my second child, or, 1A2…  I guess the bottom line big news  is that we are having another baby!

At this moment I am 11 weeks along and the projected due date is May 20th.  That means Nimah will be 2 years 1m old when she becomes a big sister.  I think she will be a good helper, and, I’m really happy that she seems on her way to potty trained because it would be awesome to only have one person requiring $40 to poop in per month.

So far I am feeling good and I’m getting a little bit of a belly already.  The dr is pleased with everything so far and we had a sonogram where the baby obliged us with a big stretch and wiggle.  Lars is excited and so am I, more later including pictures and a rundown of Halloween but I want this announcement to stand-alone for the first day of Nablomo (National Blog Posting Month).

Halloween day 2 of 3

Halloween is keeping me busy busy busy and of all things work decided to be busy this week too! Not to mention class – oh, great victory on the class front – I have to give a full report of my superior skilz in getting what I want. Anyway, Halloween has spread out all week. We started with daycare costume parade on Wednesday so the cow costume made it début but no pictures because the reason she is in daycare is because I work all day! I heard they took pictures so hopefully there are a few good ones. Today Halloween continues with trick or treating in my building so Niamh is supposed to arrive around noon. Then it further continues tomorrow for the real Halloween and our party! If you are not busy and want to come to a costume party at my house you are invited! Lars needs to take Niamh out tomorrow for a good while so I can do the cleaning and last min stuff. I am hoping that we can get everything done in good time so we can relax and do our costumes and have fun.

Oh, and next month, meaning November, I’m doing the post every day in November challenge again so lots of reading material for the next month!

Time to try and cram a full days work into half a day….

I Boo you too!

Booing – I read about this cute fun Halloween tradition on Sundry.com who got it from someone else but she gets credit for me because I read it there first. Anyway, the idea is to fill a little bag with Halloween stuff, I did candy, a few silly spider rings, a cute pencil, a few Halloween foam stickers and a note that explains what just happened and what to do. The note say that now the recipient needs to Boo two other people and post the sign that says they have already been Booed. I decided to do two in my neighborhood and two at work – get a little Halloween spirit going since it is only a week away.

Last night we choose two neighbors and left the bags and I drove past one today and it had been taken in. Work is a bit harder since I can’t (ok, don’t want to) get here too early so I think I’ll do it at lunch or if I notice my marks away from their desks. With only a week left who knows how well it will spread but I picked people that will hopefully find the fun in it and pass it on.

Other Halloween prep in the house is going well thanks to Karen. We have spider webbed our entry way and all over the kitchen. This weekend I need to do some more and get the house clean as well as finish Niamh’s costume and start the food we are making ahead. I only think about 15 people, maybe 20, are coming but it will be a fun crowd anyway. I need to take pictures, hopefully this weekend, because it is looking pretty cool/creepy.

Sleep training/Weaning phase II

Phase one of sleep training stunk, multiple nights of her screams and whimpers to go check on her sleeping later crumpled in the corner of her crib… However, it is very very very worth it that she goes to bed at 7 and does not wake up until ‘morning’ other then the occasional bad dream. ‘Morning’ is around 5:30 ish and she joins us in our bed for her only feeding of the day. At one time she went back to sleep within 10 min and so did I but recently she has taken the formally peaceful hour and a half and turned it into beating up her parents. I don’t know who has it worse; I have the mouth end that will move from side to side (there is really not much milk) and occasionally head butt me, not to mention the claws that follow the head around. Lars gets the foot end and he gets kicked and used as leverage as she stretches out sideways between us. Not that I don’t want to cuddle her, but, morning mosh pit is not fun.

So last night, with no real planning behind it, Lars and I decided that we were going to start keeping her in the crib until 7. Today was a day she choose 4:30 to wake up and Lars went in there to comfort her and tell her it was still sleeping time. She went back to sleep for 5 min, just enough time for him to get back into bed. To his credit he stayed with her patting her and just ‘being there’ for the next 2.5 hours semi sleeping on her floor. At 6:50 she popped out of bed and cutely said “Hi!” “Hi dada!” like it was a great treat, and surprise, to find him there. It is a huge difference to wake up chipper v screaming so I figured that was a good thing to reinforce. I went in with bright and cheerful ‘good morning!’ (even though sleeping through 2.5h of her is not easy) and we got ready for school. She clung to me like a baby monkey so since we were up early we sat and watched 10min of Dora after we were all dressed and ready to go. I did the drop off because Lars looked like a zombie shambling back to bed, but, he can sleep until 9:45 and he didn’t get kicked much today so he should be good to go by work time.

I guess we are in for 3 days of this and then maybe she will sleep 7-7? I’m trying not to think about the nursing phase being over, it is so nice to solve the problems of the world so easily. I don’t know if the ‘last time’ was yesterday morning’s mosh pit but if she didn’t remember Lars being with her for the 2.5 hours this morning I bet she does not know that she is nursing in the mornings anymore either. Anyway, as of now it has been more then 24h since she has nursed so we will see….

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More potty talk

and not in the funny way that 90% of comedian’s make their money but in the odd cheerleader like way I am way too excited about someones bodily waste.  I tweeted on the 11th that there was pee in the potty and it was not just a drop, it was really pee.  I think Niamh even surprised herself but she was very happy to get her chip reward.  Since then we have been as consistent as possible with her sitting on the potty while not over doing it.  Over the weekend she said potty and we went and sat and she went and pointed right at the chips.  Today she even went at daycare in their tiny little child sized real potty and Friday she went at Kathy’s house.  I’m going to have to start carrying chips with me so she never goes without reward (no fear, Kathy had chips too).

A friends mom who runs a daycare told my mom that there is a small window around 18m where potty training is possible and if you miss it or it does not work out you need to wait until they are almost 3 and you can bribe them into using the potty.  I’m hoping this window works for us because in the last 10 days or so she seems to be really getting the concept.

Any training advice for the next step?

A week away

Well sorry for leaving a sweetie sweet note to Niamh on the top for so long!  I had an exam last week that the professor gave us a practice exam for and I spent most nonworking, nonNiamh hours working on it.  In the end there was tradgedy since first the teacher a few hours before the exam sent out a note saying ‘oh by the way…’ and detailing that he would be adding major things to the test that are things I didn’t really know.  The other issue was that he made two questions, out of 17, worth 50% of the exam.  Those two questions were on the newest material that he hardly tought and all the other chapters had 4 questions each so I didn’t super study those.  Don’t fear, the teacher knows the full extent of my displeasure.  The fact that the average (and mode) grade was a 70 speaks to the fact that maybe he should not have done that.  He replied well to my crique and is giving us all 15 extra points due to the last min add.  I’m still not very happy I spent so much time actually studying but atleast I’m good at that stuff now (too bad it was only 35% of what he tested…).

So in happier news, Lars got a mowhawk! We saw it on a tv show and they are getting pretty mainstream and since he works from home, works out as a hobby, and still has the hair to support it we figured why not!  It looks really cute in person although I think people may think he is a bit more dangerous.  So far the mohawk has equaled free stuff, he got free cheese curds at the pumpkin patch and free wine sample at the liquor store.  He figures it is because people want to talk to him and then feel like they should give him something.  Or maybe they are scared of him  He can’t wait to see what daycare thinks – I think he will be disappointed and they won’t say anything but maybe they will.  The best part about it is that when people ask why he did it he says ‘because my hot wife asked me to’  I find that a very good answer.

We also when to the pumpkin farm – much cuteness on flickr.

18 months

Niamh turned 18 months old yesterday.  I missed doing a long, tribute esc, note on other milestone months but I think she is fairy well recorded given the nearly 10,000 pictures I have (only a 10^th get to flickr) and all the posts over the past 18 months included her a little bit.  Anyway, this one is entirely dedicated to Niamh.

 

At 18 months old you have mastered a lot of physical things, you walk, run, climb and even balance pretty well.  Fortunately you have kept your monkey climbing to times we are around playground equipment except for the few times you have climbed out of your crib.  You stand on your toes and stretch to reach things and don’t fall over for no reason all that often anymore.  You love to slide, even the biggest slides, and you love to swing.  You also love balls and can throw them pretty well now.  

 

You are slowly learning how to speak but you definitely know how to communicate.  Your favorite word right now is a tie between ‘no’ and ‘baby’.  For the record you declined a BMW and a million dollars.  We are hopefully you learn the word yes soon but when you want something you either repeat it, make happy noises or you make the noise associated with the action. If I ask if you want a drink you make a sipping/slurping sound and if I ask if you want hot or cold and you want hot you make a blowing noise.  I have to listen carefully sometimes because if I’m drinking a glass of water and you make sipping noises and I don’t notice you get unhappy.  You are still using your signs too, please, more, thank you, fish etc  it makes it a lot easier to keep you happy when you can let us know what you want.  You understand a lot of what we say and can follow directions pretty well.  You surprise us with your knowledge of what something must mean given its context like scooch forward must mean move forward and you do it.  Pretty soon we need to start being careful about talking too much in front of you.

 

You have a lot of favorite activities these days.  Anything to do with art you like, coloring, painting, and playdough are all big hits.  You also like to help me cook and clean and are even helpful now when you help.  You really like the bath, especially bubbles, but you still hate having your hair washed, but that does not stop you from running to the tub yelling ‘bubbles’ every night.  To keep you busy while the tub fills I ask you to bring your dirty clothing to the laundry basket and in the past week you have been doing it before I say anything.  I have no idea how long this will last but it is a nice help.  You also put away toys and crayons when we ask (most of the time).  You love outside and walks and the park and just running around on the deck.  We play games and race and you have fun playing with us, and sometimes, you have fun playing without us!  You love all music, even heavy metal, but you love the song ‘move it move it’ most.  You like to push all the music toys on the fridge together to make a really big noise but then you dance to it and have a great time.

 

Sleeping and eating are some of the things that matter most for growing past 2 feet tall and you are doing pretty well on both.  Yesterday you slept from 7pm to 7am without a peep.  Usually you only make it to 5:30 or 6 but maybe this is a new trend.  You go to sleep with a minimal routine of washing, then changing, then a book, then goodnights, then bed.  You have started to give up the nummies on your own and only really eat first thing in the morning.  Over the past few weeks you have given up on the after school snack and the big change is weekends, where you used to want more just because I was around now you are ok with just once.  You still insist sometimes when you are feeling sick or tired but 90% of the time now you will pass it up for real food.  You eat basically anything we give you.  You love humus and guacamole and salsa and ketchup.  You love your baby food puffs and yogurt bites and especially the baby cheese puffs and you love goldfish crackers and granola bars.  You will always eat pizza, any pasta, red sauce, or hotdog and depending on mood many other meats.  You like cheese and broccoli and you love peas and actually request them.  You can keep most of your food on your tray and we are working on keeping it on a plate on your tray.  You have mastered the spoon and the sippy and are actually very good with a cup or a straw except when you get tired of a drink you are still likely to pitch it overboard so we mostly stick with lids.    You do ok eating out with us even though you tend to end up sitting on my lap eating off my plate but you don’t misbehave otherwise.  There are too many foods you eat that I can’t list them all and I can’t think of many things you don’t like although sometimes you won’t eat something you liked another time but that is pretty normal.

 

The last think I will mention is your sense of humor.  You are getting very good at making jokes and acting silly.  You love to pretend to give us something then take it away at the last second.  You laugh like crazy when you find us when we play hide and seek.  Your not great at looking but you are great at remembering all the places we hid in the past and just look in each spot until you find us.  You know how to get away with stuff with both of us, we need to compare notes so we stay consistent because you can get your dad to give you way more fruit or cookies then I ever give you, he also lets you watch ultimate fighting.  You are finally getting over your fear of all new people but it is still best for strangers to treat you like a cat, let you come to them.

 

I suppose that is the best I can do to describe you at 18months, does not seem like enough really, but the 10,000 pictures and all the video should also help J

Single parenthood

I think Lars leaves every so often just so I value him more when he is here!  I know there are millions of real single moms and my sister played one for months when she was in TX but having nobody to talk to but a 17 month old is hard.  Managing her is alot easier then I thought, she is at a fun age and she still mostly listens to me.  She is getting better about amusing herself for short stretches of time and she believes me when I say ‘I’ll be right back’ so I can run to the bathroom or to switch the laundry.  Today we played hide and seek for a long time, she loved it and kept signing more as she hysterically laughed when she found me.  She didn’t really get the whole concept, I mostly ran from hiding spot to hiding spot while she was laughing but she would not close her eye and mostly just followed me.  It sounds silly but it was fun.

Lars is in NJ bonding with his guy friends.  I stayed home this weekend in order to go to NY to see family in November, I think I won because I did not have alot of desire to go this weekend and he is super sad he can’t come in Nov because of work.  Reason number 99 I’m glad I didn’t go this weekend would be that we have been away the last two weekends straight and even if this isn’t exactly a sleep in relax weekend it is nice to be home. 

I wrote a list of stuff to do and my top two items were go to bed early and read my book.  In an effort to maximize the hours Lars and I have together I stay up way too late most days and I don’t get alot of time to read.  Last night it was great to cuddle into bed with my book at 10pm.  I have a dozen other things on the list and I got a bunch of them done.  One of them was to get to costco, it is the time of month to spend $40 for Niamh to poop in, so we braved the saturday crowds.  The trip was made infinitely better by meeting a friend there and shopping with her.  One of us could stay with the cart/baby and the other could attempt to squirm through the crowds of people to get to the food.  I know samples are tasty, but, please people don’t block every single meat counter, some of us are there to get food to bring home not just a snack!  Anyway, it was a success on all counts except for apples and blackberries.  I suppose blackberries are just out of season because the last few grocery store ones we got were moldy within 2 days but they are Niamh’s favorite fruit.  I wanted a big bag of apples to do this for our Halloween party.  Maybe next weekend applepicking? 

I tweeted this already, but, what are people doing driving motorcycles to costco?  There were atleast 3 in the parking lot today.  Mom guesses they were there for lunch and I could see that.  Someone else said maybe there were just picking up a DVD or something and maybe that is true but they must have good will power (or no willpower?) to not leave with 15 other things then what they came for.  Another reply was maybe this was how they kept to a budget and I can see that but it still seems like a silly place to take a vehicle that can’t transport more then a can of tuna.

Now a note for my future self, and for anyone keeping track of the breast feeding score.  As of last week I cut out the bed time feeding so now we are down to 2 feedings a day.  We cut the bedtime rather then the after work/daycare one because I’m not home every bedtime because of school, I don’t want it to be a part of the routine because that would preclude babysitters being able to do the bedtime thing, and finally, because I think she was only doing it to stall.  I cut it out by moving quickly from book reading to into bed and not allowing an oppertunity.  She was not really eating much and aweek later and she does not even ask.   I think the next one will be the 5pm one.  She only eats a medium amount and sometimes is just playing, but, she also asks for it immediately when we get home.  I think I can substitute a snack and cuddles pretty easily, I’ll probably start next week sometime.  I WISH I could get out of the 5am one but that is when she eats the most and it tends to put her back to sleep.  If I could get her to just stay asleep that would be great but I don’t want to have her be up for the day at 5am demanding waffles or something.  My weaning goal is christmas,if not before,so it will have to happen one of these days.

In keeping with my weekend list item, time to get ready for bed

September is half over already

September is starting to be distinctly fall like in the morning but keeps hanging on to summer in the afternoons.  I have been very happy to run at lunch and I think that I’m getting better at it overall.  I know though that running is not the only way to stay in shape because two weeks ago I played soccer for the first time in 10 years and while it was really fun and I think I did pretty well (at least not embarrassing) the next day all sorts of muscles hurt like crazy!  Running muscles and sprint/kicking muscles are not the same.  It was flattering to be asked to play, it isn’t a league or anything and I think they wanted me because they are always short on players.  We play 4 v 4 and that means unless you are goalie you are offence and defence at all times.  I think I’ll limit the soccer to Fridays because it takes a whole hour plus shower and the other days of the week are too hectic to make that work.  Running+soccer should keep me in good shape until it is too cold.

The past two weekends we have been at events.  Last weekend we went down to Vermillion SD, about 5h away, on a virtual day trip.  We left after practice on Friday around 9 and stayed in Sioux falls (4h away) and did the last hour in the morning.  The hour took a bit longer because SD is razing their highways to bare dirt and our exit was completely unreachable.  Turning around was not an easy task either because random sections of the road are gone.  You can go either north or south but you can’t exit!  The event itself was pleasant and I passed it hanging out with people who live within 30min of home but it was still a sunny nice day to sit and chat.  The guys enjoyed the fighting and we took off around dinner time so we could take advantage of the Niamh sleeping hours to get home.  She does pretty well sleeping in the car but on the way home something was hurting her stomach (olive garden) and it was a bit hard on us all.  She also holds in all her poop for the day.  I suspected this last week but I’m sure of it now, for a girl who fills the diaper 2x’s a day or more, holding it all day must be hard.  We got mucho mucho poops on sunday to balance it out but funny how those little habits start so young.  speaking of poop (sorry all people who are not interested) we got a potty chair on Sunday.  It is nice and light and pink and has a squishy seat.  Niamh was very happy about it and she sits on it often.  Nothing has been deposited but at this point I’m just glad she is getting familiar with it.  I think the big toilet was just too big for her but daycare mentioned that she has woken up dry a few times and I know she knows when she is going because she goes away from us a bit (not like the stench of the weapons grade poo can be hidden) so we are on the potty training path.  This will be long and slow I’m sure because she really is on the young side for starting but hey, you have to start somewhere.  (and my mother was apparently trained at 18m so it is possible in theory).

Other then the exciting prospect of potty training not much more to talk about.  We are planning a big Halloween party so it is a fun pastime to find cool things we can do.  Basically everyone is invited so let me know if you are coming – getting invites out via facebook only gets so many people!  This weekend Lars is going to an event in the east and I’m staying home with Niamh so I’m not sure what we will do but it will be fun mother daughter time.  Lars is home so I’m going to wrap up my rambling, hopefully he has something in mind for dinner….

So last weeks post was rather a bust.  I was annoyed about that…  Anyway the weekend was nice and fun and even relaxing at times.  I started the weekend with a long overdue dentist apt but it really was not all that bad and seriously, after three hours at the dentist the weekend can’t help but get better!

Over the past two… three (20?) weeks I find myself wondering in all seriousness what day it is.  I don’t know if I’m loosing it but I keep mixing around my schedule and confusing myself.  The newest twist is that I’m moving the day I work at the plant from Wednesday to Tuesday and my class this semester is on Thursday rather than Tuesday.  Monday, Wednsday, Friday are mostly unchanged but with vacations the last two weeks my monday and friday got lost into weekend.  Oh well, I usually end up at the right place on the right day and nobody else has noticed my confusion!

Last weekend we went to Coronation and it was nice.  It was 4 hours away so we day tripped it and that worked out pretty well.  The only icky thing was Niamh puking an entire McDonalds hash brown all over herself about 5 min away from the site.  It didn’t freak her out and I kept calm so it was more or less a non event but it really was all over her.  The event went fine, it is a little odd getting back in the swing of things since we have been SCA idle since Pennsic but it was fun seeing who I saw.  Next weekend we are going to another event, this time in Vermillion SD and we are driving Friday night there and Sat night home so hopefully the entire trip Niamh will sleep.

Speaking of sleeping…. not that I want to jinx myself but we are doing pretty well with the sleeping all night.  The current routine is bed at 7, a squeek or two around two am but nothing anyone needs to get up for, and awake at 5 or 6am.  I would really like 6:30 but hey, that is a solid 10 hours of sleep.  Now all I need to do is go to bed a bit earlier myself and I may be what they call well rested someday.  I’m sure we will have nights that are not perfect but we are getting closer at least.

School started last week and I really like this teacher.  I think I like the subject, Managerial Accounting (as much as one can like accounting) but the teacher run the class really well and the class size is just right, not too big not too small.  I only know two people in it but thats ok, I’m over being shy at school.  I don’t really like that he has in class closed book exams (3!) and quizzes (5+!!) but maybe they will be ok.  The other perk is that the chapters have audio components so I can listen to my chapter while I run.  I’ll still look at the book for the cases and the questions and visual examples but its nice to be able to hear it too.

Ok, Lars is ready to do dinner so I’m off to do some cleaning while he cooks.  Grilled tuna tonight!

Labor day weekend

I had just typed over 1000 words about the weekend etc and then I toggled to fullscreen to spellcheck and it all got eaten.  I am not rewriting it at this point….

the Night Drama

Another thing we have been hard at work at is winning back our night from the ‘all night buffet’ that we somehow let take over our bed/evening/chance of sleep.  We started two weeks ago telling her at 3am that there were ‘no nummies’ and she was MAD.  She screamed for the next 15 min but we held out.  She was up again at 4 and 5 and at 5 we (meaning me) fed her.  Subsequent nights have been better, sometimes she is good from midnight until 6 sometimes 5 and there is still the occasional 3am summons but she seems pretty resigned that there are no nummies at night now.  This brings us down to 3 feedings a day and two of them tend to be on the lite side.  She wants some right when we get home but that one is only sometimes substantial, it is mostly a small snack and cuddles.  I originally thought about keeping the midnight feeding but I really like to go to sleep at 11 so I started giving her a fair nurse right at bedtime (7pm) and that seems to tide her over.  The biggest of the day now is the early morning where she really gets a full meal.

I know anyone who has weaned a baby knows the thoughts I’m having; it is really hard to purposely take away the thing that makes her so happy and so comfortable.  I’m ok with the night weaning because it has been soooooo long since I felt truly rested but I don’t know when I’ll ax the other ones.  I am hopeful that soon she will not need nummies to overcome her stranger anxiety, or, deal with every bump or fall but it is nice to be able to solve all her problems so easily.

I’m hopeful that within the next week or two she will sleep all night.

Happy September

Fall is in the air.  Someone seriously flipped a switch here and we are now cool and crisp with the smell of leaves.  There was even a frost warning (up north).  August was a good month overall, we had plenty of fun at Pennsic and then hanging out at home with various friends but September, as I say yearly, always feels like the beginning of something.

The past two weeks of next to  nil blogging were full of random life stuff.  I drove to a supplier and back in one day so Lars (who begged) would not have to do a solo night.  I’m sure he really could but since I could physically make the trip I did.  I totally paid for it the next day when my knees and ankles really didn’t feel like being in a position other then drive.  I noticed most keenly when I tried to run, I’m running 2 days a week at lunch and it is pretty successful.  I attracted a running buddy and while we actually only ran once together so far it is nice to know there is someone else running the risk (ha ha) of looking sweaty and disheveled at work.  She got another guy to run so now there are 3 of us traipsing up and down the trails.  I figure there is a shower and a nice trail so why not, plus, at lunch I don’t have to worry about the hundred variables of attempting to run at home… not least of all is the lure of my couch not to mention the opinionated child who does not always want to be strapped in a jogging stroller and propelled at a rapid rate down the road.  I listen to an audio book while running, so far I enjoyed Grave Surprise by Charline Harris and I’m suffering through The Sugar Cookie murder.  I say suffer because the book is good enough but the reader is really really annoying.  She makes everyone sound both whiny, wheedling, or naive and I have actually rolled my eyes at sentences she has read purely because of the tone and intonation she gave the poor story.  Anyway, I only have about an hour and a half left so I can stick it out.  I like running to books because they distract me from the running and they have even tempo.

oh! Lars just said dinner is ready so it is time to eat- more another day

ps. new pictures

weekend review

Weekend review

 

This past weekend was full of family fun.  Well, mostly fun, I did make Lars help me clean but that was not too much time.  We started out the weekend with plans to go to an airshow.  It was pretty small and very close and we met our friend Amber (mother to Niamh’s daycare bf) and we hung out watching biplanes and Cessna land and take off.  It was only a grass track but we were allowed to be really close.  I remember my dire warnings about FOD (foreign object debris) and we took no hats or anything that could blow away and that was a good thing because it gets windy on a runway.  We only stayed for an hour or so because I am trying to keep to the nap schedule as laid out by daycare but it was a fun hour.  Unfortunately I left my camera in the car so all the cuteness was not captureable.  The most cute thing we did was loop the sling around Niamh and her BF with a twist in the middle so both had a side.  We completely expected them to fall over or pull each other over but they actually adjusted nicely and ran off together.  They kinda took turns leading but they were really pretty fast.  There was a fall in the end but given that she sometimes falls for no reason at all I count it as a win.  

 

Our early leave was not for nothing because she took a nice nap and woke up happy and during her nap we got to relax a bit.  Saturday night we were invited to a luau themed party at a friends house.  We got all dressed and sadly, Niamh had the most Hawaiian outfit – I had to really make due with a tankini top that is floral/Hawaiian/abstract and a skirt and Lars has the most conservative olive green and dark green Hawaiian shirt it hardly counts.  It was fun to dress up and see everyone and party a bit.  The rain kept chasing us inside but it didn’t ruin anything and nicely put out the bonfire for us around 11.  Niamh fought sleep a little but gave in and so we had a few nice hours of adult party time (not that type of adult!) and we left later then I would have liked but we had fun up to the end.  The next day was my day to sleep in and there were no head splitting emergencies and it was great to sleep extra and not be a buffet.  (yes… she is STILL eating at 3am most nights and then again around 6am and/or any time she feels like it inbetween).  In the afternoon we met up with Amber and Jon and we took the kids to the fun set of parks in town and I think Lars and Jon had as much fun as the kids.  I did manage to take a bunch of good pictures of this adventure and I think they turned out nicely.  

 

The week so far has been busy again.  I’m still a little bit in catch up from Pennsic, taking care of all the little things.  I’m done with all the Pennsic laundry at least but all the clean garb is dumped on the guest bed.  We decided to go to the local fight practice on Tuesday since I’m off school and its been a while and it was nice to see everyone and be involved on a local level.  The downside is I lost a day where we usually got stuff done, and, Niamh was up way past her bedtime.  We had to skip the social dinner section because she was getting squirrely but maybe next time.  Lars wants to go more often… I’m of two minds on that.  Yes we can go because I have class on Thursday’s next semester but that means we have zero days together during the week but it would be nice to be a bit more involved.  

 

Oh well, the rest of the week looms… later

Back to the mundane world

Here we are, gone and back from Pennsic already.  Every year it is the ‘big thing’ to look forward to and it inevetably comes to an end.  I was so wrapped up in it that I didn’t even notice the time pass and suddenly it was Thursday already!  There have been years that were not the best and plenty of the 24 other pennsics I’ve been to blend together but this one was very nice.

We ‘cheated’ a tiny bit and flew this year.  Flying is way easier and comparably priced when you consider hotel and gas and tolls but not exactly in the spirit of of ‘Pennsic Day’ (the day you road trip to Pennsic).  There is a big difference between an 8h road trip and a 15h trip though and last year with the carpet lump was bad enough, this year she would have needed sedatives or something to last all that way in her carseat.  So southwest took us in good order and we were collected and dropped off easily and the trip was very simple compared to a road trip of semi-epic proportions.  We even have enough stuff at pennsic that we were reasonably set up even.  I miss the ‘furnature’ we bring in the car but we did ok with what we had.

Niamh really liked it too.  She adores outside so a whole week outside is great fun for her.  She is still on the super shy side and very few people got to hold her this year but she would talk to lots of people (and accept cookies from anyone!).  She was on the verge of being spoiled with all the treats different people were giving her I should have put a sign on her ‘please do not feed the Niamh, she is on a special diet’  … a diet that does not include marshmallows at 9am  No harm done and she was 90% well behaved, only one flop around on the floor and cry because I didn’t let her eat a bug or something.  She also loved the parade of people and places.  Pennsic is very colorful both metaphorically and litteraly and she viewed most of it from her stroller.  Unlike Lillies, she loved the stroller and voluntarily climbed into it lots of times.  One night she even escaped the tent at bedtime and ran for the stroller in her PJ’s.  She also got some quality naked baby time, Pennsic has plenty of naked people but none as cute as her, and there is no stigma to a little streaker in camp.

The only really weird thing was the daily military flyovers.  We usually get a few planes, and they even fly low to check us out, but one day there was a pair of Apache helicopters that really freaked our camp out.  They flew in really low and zipped all over our general area.  I hear them clear gunports and the did virtual strafing runs.  For the first min or two it was cool enough to see the show but after 5 or 6 min you get the creepy feeling that they are looking for someone and plan to shoot them down – collateral damage be darned – and I was standing there in an open field with no cover more substntial then canvas with my 15 month old baby.  Even if they didn’t plan on opening fire, they were flying dangerously and very low and I could really see an accident happen and that would be as bad as them actually shooting people.  Fire and tents do not mix!  They hovered over a camp a block away and then left – I heard an explanation that there was a commander from the air national guard on site and he had the ‘find me’ button and he was the target but I hope he and the morons in the helicopters get in big trouble for this because I was not the only one disturbed by the situation.  I’m of reasonable sound mind, I feel for the many many vets who really have seen enemy helicopters… fortunately it was the day of the woods battle so the majority of the guys were about 5 miles away and they say they only saw a brief fly over (lucky them).

Otherwise it was a beautiful weather pennsic, not to hot, not humid, rained only at night and a nice breaze most days.  The meal plan this year was yummy and my Dad found a cider I really liked alot, I vote he is in charge of the beer run next year too.  I gave myself a pass on sewing new stuff and while it worked out fine I have a mental list of a few things I really should make for next year just to be a bit more comfortable.  I also want to upgrade some of what I have, add some more accessories, and generally enhance what we have rather then mass produce more mediocre stuff~

Sunday we lounged and dwelled in post pennsic laundry and a bit of the its-over-blues and today I was kinda happy to be back at work where I could be back to my routine.  I didn’t actually miss work but I was glad to be back.

In related(ish) news my home desktop has issues so my pictures are not posted yet but I hope to load them onto the upstairs computer and then to flickr soon.  My dad also took a ton of pictures with his fancy new camera so hopefully he can post them to flicker too since he still has my login etc.

weekend update

So a few people may have noticed my tweet on ‘babies first head wound’. It was not all that bad but really not the way I wanted to spend my Sunday. The weekend in general was mellow, we did some pennsic packing and some prep work and Sunday was my day to sleep late BUT I was waiting on an e-mail so I got up early anyway to check on it. I used the ‘my day’ card to go back to bed at 9 looking for a nice morning nap and I drifted to sleep hearing giggles trough the window as Lars and Niamh played. At 9:45 I wake up to tragic wail and Lars depositing a bleeding crying baby on me in bed. A few min with magic boobs and she was calm and drifting off to sleep so we could get a good peek at what was causing all the blood. Lars saw her trip off the step and knock her head on the planter but when we got her mellow we were able to really look and unfortunately the cut had a real gap between each side of the skin. If this was on her elbow we would have taped it up but it was on her forehead and we were hoping to avoid scars for just a little longer. The emergency room remains impressive, we were seen quickly and out the door by noon with her skin glued together. I love the skin glue stuff, I need some for home! It is in a little roll on bottle and you just hold the wound together and glue on top and 30 seconds later it is all done, no need for even a bandaid.

In other news, Niamh is getting pretty good at the communication thing and is actually saying more words in ‘English’ and uses her signs pretty well too. Yesterday we ran across babies first homophone; she is using the sign for more to mean ‘I want’ as well as ‘more’ so I was trying to teach her the actual sign for ‘I want’ and any time I said it she would point to her eye. It took me a second but I realized she did not see a difference between I and eye! Try to explain that one… She is very proud that she can point to her eye and will do so repeatedly. So the ‘I want’ sign may wait a bit, I think I’ll re-do it as just ‘want’.

Last night was my last class night, my journal is due Friday and 40 pages are underway. I decided not to post them all because I ended up using a lot of work specific references and work and internet don’t mix. I’m glad the class is over because the teacher was pretty pompous and annoying but I really liked the people I was in a group with. The work went really fast and we all had good input so it was balanced. I hope to get as lucky next semester but this group will be hard to top. Next semester starts in Sept so I’ll have a nice Aug break but I’m taking another finance class so that is not something I’m looking forward too.

Ok, back to work, I have a lot to get done before I’m gone next week for pennsic!

Ny Part II

Before I continue, one note about current events… today I finished my last group assignment for my summer class and I’m half done with the final paper.  Hopefully by the end of the weekend I’ll be done with all the work and the last class is next Tuesday.  Summer classes do go by quickly…

So we left off with everyone sleeping post wedding.  Saturday we had a very big day planned, Niamh’s first sailing trip!

The day was perfect, bright and sunny and we finally got everyone onto the boat around noon.  Niamh was not really a fan of sailing but the rest of us liked it and Dad got to show off  his skills getting us across the bay and then maneuvering all along the shore dodging little boats at anchor.  Konrad and Heather joined us so now we have tested that the flying scott can easily handle 6 adults and one baby.  We ate lunch at the ocean and watched the waves for a while.  Niamh ate sand and fed the seagulls.  The seagulls were very bold, the one I took a picture of reminded me of a very good waiter, always ready to swoop in and clear your plate.  I think they know that toddlers are worth camping out near, there is inevitably something sandy that needs to be ‘cleared’.  We all headed back across the island and then downwind across the bay.  Niamh finally seemed to be enjoying herself so we got a few pictures.  Lars and Konrad left for a party and Mom and Dad and Heather and I relaxed and enjoyed a beer at the club and then a nice dinner at home.

The next day we wanted to do something so we all decided to go see the Roosevelt house and take the tour.  The newspaper had a little typo, they said tours 1 to 3 and in reality the tours were 1 and 3 so getting there at 1:30 they would not let us join the tour in process.  We wandered down the road to the winery and

sampled some wine and watched the grapes grow.  Then we hung out on the porch and finally it was our turn for the tour.  The guide was a little cheezie and didn’t seem to know all that much but it was a cool old house to poke around.  We finished the day with pizza and a game of Mexican train dominoes where Josie had a very bad string of luck so we let her burn off points by changing the kitty litter.  Lars and Konrad arrived really late that night (morning?) so Lars could join  us for a little local beach trip on Monday.  Niamh ate more sand but had fun playing and we got to spend a little time with Miss Math.  Later we met up with April and all too soon it was time to go  We were very lucky with the weather, it was not overly hot but it was sunny every day.

Ny trip part 1

I’m not sure why but we always need a ‘reason’ to go to NY to visit everyone but this time it was my cousin’s wedding.  My cousins and I grew up pretty close, geographically we were all within 5 miles of each other and we all went to the same schools.  We  had all the benefits of a big family but since we don’t all have the same last names (our moms are all sisters) we never dominated the school with an endless line of xyz family.  Anyway, we were all very happy to see our cousin get married especially because we like the guy and he is a welcome addition to Christmas dinner conversation.

Back to the trip – we traveled on Thursday very very early morning, so early Lars considered just staying up from the night before.  The positive of being in NY by lunch overshadowed the negative of getting up at 4:30am.  Niamh was very good all the way through and southwest airlines ran nicely on time – landing a half hour early even.  The other good parts about the SW trips are free luggage and it flys to the close airport to my parents.  We were able to bring a whole bag of garb for Mom to bring to pennsic for us  I do wish they flew direct, the landing in Chicago is a bit annoying but we will deal with it for the perks.

Once in Sayville it was down to the business of re-introducing Niamh to grandparents.  I wish she was a bit more social, maybe its a phase or a girl thing but she is just really hesitant around new people.  She waves at strangers but only on her terms, I think the key is she needs to initiate.  Who knows… I just hope she grows out of it because constant clinging is not all that fun for the one she is clinging to.  By the end of the trip she was much better so I have hope for the future.  This trip she is much more adventurous then Easter, she was all over the house and up the stairs and, once she felt comfortable, played in completely different rooms then the one I was in.

The wedding itself was on Friday so most of Friday was in prep for the

wedding.  Our segment of the family didn’t need to do much for the event but I did have a list of errands like ‘buy gift’ and ‘get nails done’ so mom and I achieved my list and hers in the morning and we were all ready for the afternoon wedding.  Niamh has a thing now about insisting on nursing during weddings/church.  I do not know if she is ‘playing’ the system knowing I’ll give in so she stays quiet, or, she is nervous in the new place but the entire ceremony was an exercise in attempting to not expose myself to the Church.  I believe my poor sisters BF saw more then he wanted to see but he seems to have survived.  Boob monster aside, the ceremony itself was good (what I could hear) and the bride and groom both looked very happy.  There were apparently a few snafus like when someone decided to hijack the podium and recite a poem at the end of the ceremony but from the outside everything seemed to be per plan.

The reception was blessed with perfect weather.  It was not too hot, not buggy, not windy and all these were very important factors because it was all outside.  Niamh spent the majority of the time attached to me in some way but Lars and I just danced with her in the middle (sometimes awake, sometimes asleep).  By the next cousins wedding I bet she will want to dance all on her own!  Everyone seemed to have a good time and the organic/local theme was there but not overwhelming.  The theme was most noticeable in the local wine and the local foods and everything was very tasty.

The night ended at 10 and we all were suitably partied.  Niamh needed her own bed so we skipped the after parties and its a good thing because Lars was asleep on the couch virtually instantly.  The rest of the weekend stretched out ahead of us and was just as jam packed as part 1.

4th of July

Is it too late?  I mean it is 2 weeks later…  I feel like it was last year in alot of ways because so much has happened!

So, the glorious fourth is hard to be super glamorous when you have a 1 year old that goes to bed at 7:30 but we really had a fun time anyway.  We went to a friends house for a mini event where Lars had fun fighting and Niamh and I visited the chickens, horse, huge dogs, and even the coi pond (in process).  We left before the BBQ because we didn’t want to mess up the schedule too much and we had nice steaks in the fridge.  We had a bit of a social circus because we invited one couple over and they never answered and then we invited another (and were prepared for both to come actually) but they had to cancel last min and then we had SCA friends who were going to come over but then they had other mundane friends in town and it was their turn so for a min we were going to enjoy our steaks alone but we decided to give the first couple another call and they were up for it.  We had a lovely little BBQ and some nice dessert and then we wandered down to the lake to watch the fireworks.  Niamh slept through the entire thing but those of us who were awake were treated to a good show.

The 5th was another great day.  We did some shopping and then a bike ride to the park and lake and enjoyed family time in general.  It was hard to think about work after a 4 day weekend but  it was another short week for me because we were heading to NY for my cousin Antonia’s wedding on Thursday.  That would be followed by ANOTHER short week because we were still in NY for Monday and Wednesday I had an all day meeting at work.  So, as always, my reason for not posting is insane busy at work and spending time with family with no handy computer.

Anyway, I’m back and I’m writing up the many events of the past two weeks

Day of sew

Well, I did get one project 100% completed and fabric washed for a few others.  I made a summer Mei Tai with long enough straps for Lars.  I accidentally made the body section in scale with the extra long straps but that was easily fixed.  So far Niamh has been in a good humor, I hope to get some spring cleaning done and finally put away all the little little baby stuff.  Plans for the rest of the weekend still in progress…

poor deer

So, I forgot to mention that the epic adventure mobile has had a few bumps in the past few weeks.  Two are very embarrassing and include me hitting stationary objects but the damage from those was very very minor and we don’t need to talk about those.  Tuesday Lars decided to show me up by picking a fight with a deer.  We very much won since the deer (as Lars puts it) was liquefied but the Odyssey is at the car Dr getting a nose job.

I have not seen the damage but I don’t think I want to either.  We are viewing this as an oppertunity to test drive a fore runner~

ps. nobody except the deer was hurt at all.