Clearly We Have Failed as Parents

Like most toddlers I suspect, Zoe has been having a BLAST playing with the ornaments on our Christmas tree. Needless to say (although I'm obviously saying it) we've made sure to put the most 'child friendly' ornaments near the bottom for her to play with. Although her reach clearly exceeds what we were willing to believe and some of the "indestructible" ones aren't nearly as indestructible as one may think... So let's just say there have been some casualties and I see a lot of gluing in Robb's future.

Now, Robb being the Simpsons fan he is, he's acquired a couple of Homer Simpson ornaments over the years and we designated them as "Zoe friendly"... Cause let's face it, every parent looks forward to the moment when they yell out to their child, "Zoe, stop eating Homer!"

Now behold exhibit A, the Homer Simpson ornament in question...


Being the dutiful parents we like to think we are, we of course refer to the ornament as "Homer" since that is, in fact, who it is a representation of... and being the dutiful toddler learning to speak, Zoe refers to him as such. In fact, she's somewhat obsessed with Homer. Perhaps because of the bright colors, or the incredibly annoying sound file it plays when she hits the button, I don't know... but she adores it none-the-less...

So here is where I believe we have failed as parents (no, oddly enough the failure does not begin with us introducing our 2 year old to Homer Simpson)... Let me set the scene... It's Christmas day. Family is gathered around the child to adore her (of course) and fawn over her every move. My mother is engaging her in a game of "name that picture", which Zoe proudly does as she shouts out every answer in her Klingonesque way... and then it happens. My mother holds up a picture of Santa Claus and says "Zoe, who is that?" to which my daughter proudly exclaims... "Homer!"... The room of course errupts in laughter and all I can think is, "ooops".... Clearly we have failed ;)

Christmas 'Ham'

Our Christmas tradition for many years now has involved the obligatory Christmas ham with usual trimmings... yams, wild rice with dried cranberries, brussel sprouts in a hollandaise sauce, etc... Festive, yummy and relatively simple to prepare (which is one of the things I like best about it, besides the yumminess of course). However, thanks to our darling daughter, there is apparently a new Christmas 'ham' in town... Weighing in at about 28 lbs and 36" no less. Yes, our sweet little girl has proven to be quite the stage ham!

Last week was Zoe's very first Christmas pageant!... I was thrilled at the thought of silly school productions starting already!... After all, she is only two. Now, considering she (and her classmates) are only two, there wasn't a whole lot for them to do other than stand there and look cute, or in many cases, bewildered, scared, hysterical, you know, usual two year old stuff... except of course for our little ham. I think (lord help us) she was born to be on stage!... Her face lit up when she saw all the people there to watch 'her', cause lord knows they were all there to see 'her' and not their own kids, right?... suuuuuuure.

We've never seen anything like it. OK, well, being her first show, we really haven't seen anything like it... but still, it was a riot. There she was all bouncy and happy... gigglefest '09, that's for sure!... She danced and clapped and laughed.. She was, well... a ham... the cutest little ham I ever did see :)

But don't take my word for it.... See for yourself : (Note: Due to compression, it's hard to tell who is who. She's the one in the white top and red Santa hat)

From Videos

And the winner is...

Turns out it's a good thing they let me come home because some of my ideas would definitely not have worked in that room! For the moment, the nursery is actually my room since I'm not allowed to do stairs... which means I've been spending A LOT of time looking at those walls.

It's a decidedly smaller room than Zoe's and as much as I LOVE the idea of the green and chocolate color combo, those colors will be WAAAAAY to overpowering all over the walls. It will make the room feel even smaller and that's not what we want. Yet I still really want to use those colors and keep my jungle theme.... sooooooooo...

Behold, the winning design solution:


It's perfect, I get my colors, my mural and I won't turn my son's room into a tiny cube that will leave us all feeling claustrophobic. We're not going to paint the main walls white like they are in the sample pics, we're going to leave them the 'Haze' color they are now, which personally, I think will work better. We're also going to do different curtains and stick with the wooden blinds, which I think will look awesome. I LOVE the rug in the sample room and I actually found it, but damn, it's expensive!... Ouch!... Still trying to wrap my head around that decision.

I can hardly wait to get started :)

Bed Unrest

Most of you know by now that I'm sentenced to bed "rest" in the hospital, at least for now, while Lucas "cooks" a little longer. Thankfully, he seems to be doing fine and I'm so relieved that he's not the source of the problem. My body just seems to think it can do whatever... stupid body.

They seem to have halted the process for now, but unfortunately, the damage is done, which means I have to be really careful. I'll find out on Friday if the rest is helping and if I'll be allowed to go home, on parole so to speak, or if my sentence will be extended. I'm so torn because I want to make sure we do what's best to keep Lucas safe, but at the same time, I miss my family so much and want more than anything to be with them again.... Not to mention all this "free" time is giving me WAAAAAY too much time to think about things... For example, the nursery.

Prior to my 'incarceration', I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted for the nursery and was quite happy with our choices. The room was my office but conversion plans had already begun. The room is painted a lovely pale beige (Behr: Haze to be exact), and has a chair rail dividing it. A while back, Robb had found an awesome paint swatch (I'm way addicted to paint swatches by the way), called Summer Dragonfly..a BEAUTIFUL pale blue. The exact blue used in this picture actually:

We thought it would be neat to paint just the top half of the room with this cool color (thus saving us 1/2 the work since we weren't painting the whole room), maybe add some clouds and call it a day. Those of you that know me, know I LOVE dragonflies, so the name alone seemed perfect.

We actually bought the bedding and some general room decor a while back on a sojourn to St. Joseph... At the time it seemed like quite the score on Craig's list!... Here's a stock photo of the set: (Not the crib, but the bedding, mobile, a hamper, some wall hangings, frames, a trash can, etc... it really was a good haul).



So it seemed the room was pretty well set. Obviously we needed to get furniture for it, but we were well on our way.

We had started looking at cribs and actually found one we both really liked for a really good price too. Lucas's room is a bit smaller than Zoe's... Not too small, but we definitely had to keep space in mind, so we were excited to find a crib/changer combo that would free up some space in the room for other stuff. Given how long it took to get Zoe's furniture once we ordered it, we decided not to wait... (Guess that was a pretty good decision, huh?!)

Ironically, the crib was delivered the same day I was brought to the hospital. I'm just glad Lucas wasn't delivered that day as well! Here's a pic of the crib we bought...

The changer can be detached and the crib can convert to a toddler bed, then a full sized bed, so we really got an awesome deal!

So we're good, right?... Wrong... stuck in bed with a laptop means lots of time online. Lots of time online means lots of browsing and finding new, fab designs for the room.

It all started with this picture:

I LOVED the idea of the green with the bamboo blinds creating this jungle like room for our little monkey. I started thinking that maybe I just had my heart set on the Summer Dragonfly because of the name and not the color... Of course I was second guessing myself, what else could I do? This was all happening the first couple of days I was here when I couldn't get up at all and I was very heavily medicated, so I couldn't really focus on much... just think and wander aimlessly though cyberspace and my own cloudy mind... It was not pretty.

But I already had the bedding... Granted, it's a jungle theme, but it's somewhat on the pastel side... Suddenly I was sorry I bought stuff so early, but I still really love a lot of what we got (the wall hangings, frames, etc)... And then I found this!

The clouds parted, the heavens shone down and the angels sang as I realized this one simple blanket summed up exactly what I wanted his room to be... and this one simple blanket would bring it all together... With one other small modification... We needed some chocolate. Suddenly, we weren't going to paint just 1/2 the room anymore, were we? Oh no, suddenly, the hunt was on for the perfect green and the perfect shade of chocolate to paint each 1/2 of the room... Poor Robb.

And what's this? I can order the paint swatches online?? They can send them right to me with just a few magical clicks?... Glory, hallelujah!!.. One step closer to making yet another decision. The rich colors mixed with the bamboo blinds and soft bedding topped off with that beautiful blanket?... OK, I think I'm lovin' it...

Then I saw this....

Crap... uses all the colors I want, keeps the theme, is simple and really cool!... What to do, what to do?... If we do incorporate a mural of any kind, definitely something like this! I can almost see it now... Leave the Behr Haze on the top half and paint this mural above the chair rail... then below the chair rail we paint it either chocolate or green... Definitely open to feedback on this one... Cause my brain is starting to hurt with the possibilities!... Hell, just describing the original design and posting the pic of the Summer Dragonfly and all had me pause for a minute to reconsider it... then I said Naaahhhhh... One theme at a time, damn it!... plus I found a super cute monkey clock that will just make the jungle monkey theme for my little monkey...

*sigh*... I'll have to decide soon, damn it... but at least I know whatever we settle on, he'll have a loving place to come home to once he's ready. If he does come early, which the doctors think is likely, he'll most likely end up in the NICU. I just hope he won't have to be there too long. You hear that kiddo?... hit that snooze button!

That's My Kid

It was a dark and stormy night... OK, not really, it was a mildly sunny afternoon, but that doesn't sound quite as spooky. It was another afternoon in the hospital and away from my family... Granted, I have Lucas with me, but he's been doing his own thing, you know, growing and all.

Getting to see my family is definitely the highlight of each day for me, and yesterday was no exception. The first few visits were kind of rough. Zoe had no idea what was going on or why mommy wasn't home with her. The first room I was in was full of monitoring equipment, which clearly looked fun to play with, much to Robb's dismay. My new room however, has less dangerous stuff for her and more room to run around my bed and climb on me. A definite plus.

While yesterday's visit was kind of a zoo... literally, it was so much fun. It was Halloween and I was bummed I was going to miss out on trick-or-treating with them. Plus, it's not like I'm going to WANT to be a large round pumpkin next year when I'm NOT pregnant... *Sigh*

Zoe was dressed as an adorable, sweet little autumn butterfly. She LOVES butterflies and even has a 'friend' butterfly that comes to play with her in the yard. No joking. She's our little butterfly whisperer. There she was, looking all sweet and pure, until she saw it... OMG, what IS that awesome toy mom's been hiding? Yup, it was none other than a remote control zombie... complete with brains. Keep in mind, the 'brain' is the remote control... Zoe would turn it on, let it loose, then hurl the brains across the room and squeal in delight. She would them retrieve the brains, and repeat... See:

Being a zombie lover myself (yes, I heart zombies), I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride that my twisted love for the undead has been passed on genetically to my daughter. That's my kid!

The surrealism of the afternoon continued as our friends Nathan, Christine and Auggie also came by to visit, dressed in safari gear with Auggie the lion. They were all too cute! (Pics of them will have to come later, I only have a few pics that Robb emailed me last night for now). Mom and Robb were also there of course, but the real star of the day was my uncle Barry, who dressed as Elmo much to the delight of every child he passed! I think by the end of the day he was giving out autographs and scheduling interviews, hahaha.

I was sad such a fun visit had to end, but there was some serious trick-or-treating to be done and I certainly didn't want to stand in the way of the candy harvesting!.. And so they were off to raid the neighborhood of it's confections...

Even the cat got in on the festivities...

After the neighborhood stores had been looted, the family retreated home to give a little back to the community, so to speak... I'm not sure if it's because it was a Saturday, or if having our front porch more festively decorated made a difference, but apparently we had a TON of trick-or-treaters this year. Actually went through all the candy we had bought for a change... I'm glad it could be such a special day for them...

Me, I took delight in the time we had here, the awesome pics Robb kept emailing me and the REAL clothes I was finally able to put on. Awesomely comfy new stylin' black PJs and a pedicure were just what the doctor ordered... really, it's on my chart ;)

Hope everyone else had a fun and safe Halloween too!

Random Observations

First, I have to start out by saying I can't believe Zoe is 2 years old already! These last 2 years have just FLOWN by... And we couldn't be more proud of her. She's smart, she's sassy, oh boy is she sassy... and I love it! She's strong and independent. Maybe even too much so.... (Nah!) She can do so much for herself, she doesn't seem to feel the need to learn a lot of words yet, but I know it's coming... then boy howdy, watch out. OK, did I really just say "Boy, Howdy?"... I did, didn't I?... OK, moving on from that.

Anywho... (Not going there), I absolutely love being her mom. Wouldn't trade it for anything. The benefits and joys that I get from my time with her so completely outweigh any possible downsides... And by downsides, I'm not even talking about the obscene amount of money that goes into actually RAISING a child these days, or the middle of the night scream fests she has when she's sick or teething or just had a bad dream. Not my fave, but thankfully those don't happen too often anymore and I figure she's probably just reminding us what it's like so we'll be ready to do it again with Lucas. Isn't she thoughtful?

No, by downsides I'm talking about those insidious children's songs that parents have to endure while watching their child's favorite DVD for the 500 millionth time! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!... Please, for the love of God and all that is holy, get Kenny Loggins and his daughter out of my head!!... (Warning: watch at your own risk) Gone are the days when actual GOOD music would get stuck in my head... So long The D, it was fun while it lasted... You've been replaced with Disney and Little Bear... *Shudder*... And the worst part, I know it will only get worse from here. Lord knows what will replace Hannah Montana by the time Zoe's old enough to get into that stuff?...

Gone too are the days when I would get excited about real concerts. Yes folks, I was actually in a tizzy, yes, a tizzy, over the thought of being late to Mr. Stinky Feet. What the hell?... Turned out she didn't even want to see him when we got there (weird guy singing songs or bounce castle... hmmmm.. let me think). Just as well since apparently he was being an ass and pissing off the local parents. It seems he has songs you 'can' dance to and songs you 'cannot' and if you danced to one of the 'forbidden' dance songs (even if you were a two year old!), he'd stop right in the middle of the song and lecture the child... Then he would keep stopping if anyone danced... WTF?... It's music, let the kids freaking dance. Gez buddy, get over yourself!

I guess I'm just finding myself in that weird place... getting older, being a mom, and wondering, what the hell happened? When did I become this person?... Getting excited when I find a Halloween book that has Elmo in it. Passing by the Guess store and thinking... "I wouldn't be caught dead in those skank clothes". Subscribing to magazines like Parents or Better Homes and Gardens (that really freaks me out)... but the weirdest part is I'm loving it. I'm actually happier than I've ever been. I want to find things that will make her happy, want to watch those stupid shows with her (although seriously, please exorcise the Loggins' from my brain)... I tried on my Halloween costume last night, a big 'ol round stupid pumpkin... and was feeling pretty dorky and frumpy until I saw Zoe's face light up. She thought mommy was the shit and that made every embarrassing inch of that costume worth it...

Ahhh. the things we do for our kids... and love.

'Proud' moments

We all look forward to those moments, you know, where the teacher says your child is awesomely gifted and you gloat for days on end, then buy a bumper sticker to tell the world of your child's amazing accomplishments... "Proud of my honor roll student" or "My child played Carnegie Hall"... And of course, Zoe being the awesomely bright toddler she is, I practically expect that praise every time I pick her up.. (Doesn't every parent?).

And then the magical day came. I was picking Zoe up like any other day and before I knew it, Ms. Rebbeka turned to me and said, "You know, your daughter is the first girl in my class to..." I could hardly wait, the excitement rushed over me for those few moments waiting to hear what awesome thing my child was the first to do!.. How proud I'd be!... And then she finished... "You know, your daughter is the first girl in my class to eat mud!"... I was stunned. Oh yea, my daughter was the first girl in her class to eat mud. How awesome. That's my Zoe! :)

Road Trip

OK, I have to be honest... as a New Yorker, I never imagined I'd be excited about, of all things, a family road trip to Omaha, NE. And yet, I was looking forward to this trip for weeks!.. Last week, it was finally time. I wasn't the only one looking forward to this trip either. Mom, even though she was in the hospital the entire week before, was still super excited to go. Barry & Dale also arranged to meet up with us in Omaha on Friday as well. We were so excited that everyone was going... Which is why despite some difficulties that arose with my pregnancy right before, we were still determined to go.

OK, so what difficulties?... Well, without going into to much detail. One of the lovely screens we had to take due to my "advanced maternal age" (bah!) came back that we were in the high risk group, meaning there 'could' be something wrong with the baby. Needless to say we were completely stressed and anxious to know for sure, so we took a diagnostic test to confirm. The diagnostic tests have some risk, which is why they do the blood test first. I mean, why do a risky test if it's not needed, right? right... made sense to us. Only now we found ourselves in the group that needed it. But after a week of agony, we finally had the results... the baby was fine (Yea!!!) and also confirmed 100% to be a boy (also yea!!!)...

The not so good news was the test had it's own set of complications... Now we know the baby is fine, but we were worried we were going to lose him as a result of the test... (not so yea). The result, rest, and lots of it!... I was in bed for several days after the test and unable to lift anything, including poor Zoe. I haven't picked up my baby in almost 2 weeks, and let me tell you, that sucks! The good news is the rest has paid off and mommy and baby seem to be doing fine. We also made it clear to our baby doctor... NO MORE TESTS. I should be able to ease back into a normal routine this week. I know Robb will be glad, poor thing has been awesome, but his back has definitely been paying the price.

OK, so back to Omaha... Since the plan was to go to the Omaha Zoo, which for months now we've been hearing amazing things about, Robb and I were obviously concerned about the amount of walking that would be involved. Especially since the day before we were to leave I was put back on bed rest... but Barry to the rescue! He had a brilliant plan to bring my grandmother's transport chair so they could haul my sorry butt all over Omaha (poor souls)...


...and so the trip was saved. Off we went on a three hour drive... a three hour drive.

The trip was so worth it!... Zoe slept the first half of the drive up there (brilliantly planned on our art of course) and mom had a blast playing with her the rest of the way. Once we arrived, we headed straight for the Children's Museum so Zoe could run around and burn up the pent up energy she had from being confined in the car for three hours. She LOVED it. That place was AWESOME. She was running, climbing, sliding, hiding, putting baby dolls on stoves, washing the play veggies, you name it, she did it. And what better way to end our time at the Children's museum that with a ride on the carousel with daddy?... She was in heaven!

After the Children's Museum, we met up with Dale at the hotel and checked in... (We met up with Barry later at dinner). We stayed at the Magnolia in downtown Omaha, just outside the historic old market district... It was a beautiful hotel and I LOVED the modern decor! While Zoe loved exploring every, and I mean EVERY new item in the room, I think her favorite part of our stay was the complimentary milk and cookie bar they offered from 8pm to 10pm. They offered a variety of freshly baked cookies as well as assorted 'mixes' for your milk, which was all quite fun and tasty. My one complaint was that it was held in the lounge and the felt the need to light votive candles EVERYWHERE. I mean, come on. I understand it's the lounge and mostly adults are gonna hang out and get liquored up, but if you're going to have a 'kid friendly' event, just a thought, you might want to make the environment, oh, I don't know... kid friendly??? Fortunately we were able to find a nice little corner for ourselves and we proceeded to blow out all the candles within Zoe's immediate range. We figured screw that, they can relight them when we're gone.

After making ourselves sick on milk and cookies (OK, I had tea and cookies), we went back to the room to get our sugared up baby ready for bed (hahahahaha)... Bath time was interesting. While personally I LOVED the bathroom, it too was not exactly baby friendly. Gorgeous shower (loved it) but no tub... So, Zoe got to experience her first shower. Let's just say that surprisingly, it wasn't her fave way to take a bath. She was all into it until the water actually pelted her in the face. Funny, she wasn't to keen on it after that. Overall though, she did WAY better than I ever expected her to. She slept really well for the most part and was just really happy the whole time we were there. I was so proud of her!

Saturday morning started off with her letting us sleep in until 7:30!! [insert hallelujah here]... followed by, of course, a thunderstorm. We still planned to go to the zoo and headed downstairs after getting ready to partake in the extremely bountiful continental breakfast that was included. I have to say I was impressed. They offered quite the spread!... Assorted cereals, bagels, muffins, yogurts, scrambled eggs with peppers & cheese, sausages, assorted juices, coffees, teas, fruit, cream cheeses, WOW... I'm hungry again just thinking about it. By the time we were done gorging ourselves, the rain had pretty much stopped (hooray!)... and off to the Zoo we went.

We were kind of surprised by how many people were there. The lines just to get in were pretty long. If anything, we thought the rain would have helped keep people away, but it also cooled things off, so no such luck. We took WAY too many pics at the zoo to post a lot here, so if you want to see more, you can see them here.

Zoe had a BLAST!... We all did. We spent a good five hours there and still didn't see everything. My favorite part by far was the aquarium with the shark tunnel. That thing was AWESOME!... Zoe loved running around, but she also really enjoyed the penguins, the butterflies and the gorillas. If you've never been there, I HIGHLY recommend going. It was really well laid out, tons to see and do, in fact, we can't wait to go back again! She was having so much fun she wore herself out and fell asleep about half way through. Slept for a good 2 hours!.. Which meant she missed lunch and some of the animals (the giraffes, sea lions, antelopes & spider monkeys) but she woke up just in time to see the elephants, which she really enjoyed. Mom was smart enough to get her a corn dog too, so she'd have some food when she woke up. Zoe's first corn dog, let me tell you, that kid LOVES corn dogs apparently cause she ate almost the whole thing!!... And of course, what better way to end than with another carousel ride? Can I just say my child is a carousel junkie?? She was soooo excited to ride on one again, that she didn't want to leave it! Poor Barry had to be the meanie and pull her away kicking and screaming. Poor Zoe. We'll have to take her on another carousel ride soon.


After an exhausting but fun day, it was time to head home. So much time anticipating the trip and now, not only was it finally here, it was over just like that. I wish we could have stayed longer, but Robb had to work the next day and we were all pretty worn out, so we hit the road. I have to say I was a little nervous about Zoe being awake for the entire three hour car ride. After all, she had quite the nap while at the Zoo. But she did amazing!... Zoe and mom had a blast reading, talking, playing. Mom was a godsend back there with her... and for the last hour when poor mom was worn out, we just popped a DVD in our handy little portable DVD and Little Bear entertained her quite nicely for the last hour. I couldn't have asked for more from her... She was so awesome, I still can't believe it. We truly are blessed with her.

Now, since we knew we'd be tired and getting in kind of late to cook dinner, it made sense to pick something up on the way home and for some odd reason, I found myself craving, of all things, KFC... so yes folks, we actually broke down and decided to try a failure pile in a sadness bowl. For those of you that don't get the reference, I highly suggest clicking that link. You won't regret it... (warning, Patten Oswalt is not for the faint of heart). While it wasn't completely inedible, I do have to say the salt content was off the charts! I mean dear God, I have never had anything that salty in my life... I swear all that salt must have been to help absorb the self loathing you clearly have ordering that (hence the failure pile in a sadness bowl). I'm happy to say that I no longer have any desire to try that again. What were we thinking?... It was a very salty end to a truly amazing family road trip.

Milestones

This has been a weekend for milestones. We've officially begun the second trimester, yeah!.. and while I'm of course excited about it, I'm a little disappointed that I'm not starting to feel better. I realize there isn't a magic switch that gets flipped the day your second trimester begins which makes you feel instantly better (wouldn't that be nice?!), but some improvement would be appreciated... Some sign that there IS a light at the end of the nausea tunnel. But alas, no such luck. Perhaps it's because we've found out we are having a boy? (OK, still just a 90% chance that it's a boy, but those are pretty good odds to me). People have been telling me they always felt sicker when carrying boys. One of those odd pregnancy myths?... Who knows, but it looks pretty good that I'm carrying a boy and I definitely feel sicker, so you tell me.

All the complaining aside though, it was beyond amazing to see the little guy the other day. He was quite active, which kind of surprised me... Active and very cooperative during the ultrasound, which is the exact opposite of Zoe. She liked to sleep during the ultrasounds and NEVER cooperated. This was one of the level 2 ultrasounds to make sure he's developing normally, which they do, apparently, because of my "advanced maternal age"... way to make me feel old guys!. Anyway, so far, so good, little guy was rockin' it!... The detail in these is astounding, you really can see everything!... The beating heart, the spine, even the two hemisphere's of the brain. Then they send you home with pics of your little alien baby to treasure and later torment them with. They really do look like an alien in these!... SEE:





OK, so if that wasn't monumental enough, Zoe had her own milestone this weekend. Due to the fact that she is getting dangerously close to climbing out of the crib on her own, and the increasing difficulty I've been having putting her IN the crib, we picked up and installed the toddler rail on her crib this weekend!... She's such a big girl now. It's hard to believe she's no sleeping in a crib anymore!... SEE:



Last night was her first night in "the big girl bed" and she did awesome!... She was reluctant to go to sleep, but I think that's more because she was having so much fun with us yesterday, so I had to cuddle with her a bit before she'd go to sleep (yeah, torture, right?! ;) She was still awake when I left, but instead of running after me, which she could clearly do now, she went to sleep!...

When I got her this morning, I fully expected to find toys everywhere from a mid-night or early morning play session, but nope, she was still in bed and was super excited when I came in cause she was able to get out and run to me all on her own... It was beyond sweet to see her so excited about her new found independence. Kerouac, our cat, is also a fan since now he can sleep in there too. We can't believe we didn't think about that!... At least he can't get in at night, but he's been in there just about every chance he can get. Silly cat.

The changing of the crib to a daybed also prompted some additional baby proofing in her room, which led to some general furniture moving and overall rearranging of a couple of rooms, which felt good to actually get done. I've been so incredibly useless lately that it felt really good to be productive for a change. Now if only I can keep up the momentum?

Anyway, Zoe's beyond excited with her new big girl room and it's nice that we can do stuff to fix up her room so she doesn't just feel like we're doing stuff for her brother and not her. In fact, yesterday was ALL about her, complete with a new haircut!... She was so great at the salon, not a single tear (although we fear she may have discovered Dora the Explorer since she was pretty much glued to it the entire time)... She looked super cute getting it cut though, SEE:



As usual, we could not be more proud of her, or more excited about the new baby... Things are really coming together and it feels great.

What a difference a day school makes

Many of you, I believe, have heard about the ordeal that was KinderCareless, Zoe's last child care provider (if you can actually call them that). You hear the horror stories that happen at some schools but you never think they will happen to you or your baby. I recognize that in the grand scheme of horror stories, we were relatively lucky, but we also got her out of there as soon as we possibly could and I'm so glad!

Zoe has been at her new day school for almost three months now and OH MY GOD, what a difference! She's started talking, she more interactive with people, she's more communicative in general about her wants and needs, she's happy! I know some of it is probably just the developmental timing, but when I go to pick her up, she's playing with the other kids, she laughing, she's really happy... and I didn't see that when I would pick her up from KinderCareless.

She's also not sick constantly, like she was at the other facility. She missed her entire second week at KinderCareless because she got so sick and it seemed like she stayed sick every other week for the entire time she was there (4 months). She's only been sick once while at Union Hill and it cleared right up with antibiotics. Before, she'd go through 2, 3 even 4 rounds of antibiotics and still be sick! I have one word for you KinderCareless... DISINFECTANT!

Union Hill on the other hand has been awesome!... The rooms are clean, heck, they even have washing machines and CLEAN her clothes if there's an accident or problem. Unlike when she had an accident before and they sealed the pants in a plastic bag all day without even rinsing them!... Can you say way to breed bacteria?!? That was nasty.

This past week was her first week in the toddler class at Union Hill (she's a big girl now) and she's doing great!... She eats lunch at the table in the lunch room with all the other kids (the school even emailed us a picture of her eating there her first day!... Clearly my wild child needs a haircut).





She's not allowed a sippy cup at school anymore because they're teaching her to use a regular cup and utensils... No more pacifier at school either and she's been handling it really well, we're so proud of her! They're even starting to work on potty training and boundries (which she of course loves to test). She's astounding us more and more every day, she really is.

She still doesn't seem to understand that she'll be a big sister yet, but I imagine as my tummy grows, she'll start to figure out something is up.

As for where things are with KinderCareless, we've filed paperwork with the hospital to go after their insurance for the medical bills since we don't really feel we should pay for the stitches she needed as a result of their carelessness, but that's still pending. I'm just so glad that for her, this is behind us and she can continue to blossom the way she has been!... It really is amazing the difference a good school can make.

Kamikaze Bus

OK, so I've decided to go off topic a bit today and not talk about my daughter for once. The reason for this deviation? My crazy new temp bus driver. My regular morning bus driver is apparently on vacation for 2 weeks, which is a shame, cause he's awesome!... Always smiling, very friendly but not all in your business, and doesn't drive like a crazy person. I'm particularly fond of that last quality.

So I've been riding with this new guy all week and have become increasingly surprised by his behavior, and not in a good way. I guess his first day or two, he was getting a feel for the route, the people, etc... cause I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary about him, other than he wasn't particularly friendly, but he wasn't exactly mean either.

Wednesday was the first day he really stood out to me. I decided to wear a skirt that day, which I rarely do for work because of the rather large and somewhat work-inappropriate tattoo on my leg... But whatever, I said screw it that day. It was hot and I wanted to wear one. I got on the bus and out of no where he gave me this weird look and said "hey, nice tat!" while looking me up and down. I was like, ok, creeepy... and sat a little further in that day. He then proceeded to harass every poor old person that got on the bus with a half fare card by making them show ID to prove how old they were. This was just plain mean on two levels. First, some of them were so old they could barely stand, and they had to fumble around looking for their ID. Second, the bus was MOVING and they're trying to hold on for dear life. It was just a sad sight to see. This guys is OBSESSED with staying on schedule to the point where the moment you step on the bus (before you even put you money in, swipe your card, what have you, he's off and running while you bounce around and pray you don't fall on your ass trying to get to a seat...

Yesterday, I think he was a little extra jacked up on the caffeine... he was taking one of his turns so tight, I think the woman in the car he almost sideswiped had a heart attack!.. The look on her face, OK while kind of funny, was an understandable mix of terror and pissed-off. He also continued to "check out" one of the other girls getting off the bus just a few stops before me...

Yet what he did today I thought was REALLY inappropriate. One of the passengers had left her keys at the front of the bus and gone to the back. A passenger called out to her that she forgot her keys, very nice of her. The bus driver then started talking to the woman who had been nice enough to alert the other passenger, saying how she should have given "him" the keys so it would have been harder for the first woman to get them back, yada yada.. I was like "did he really just say that???"... He then continued to make comments about the woman WHO WAS STILL ON THE BUS!!.. Then, when the nice lady was ready to get off the bus, rang the bell and the bus pulled into her stop, he WOULDN'T OPEN THE DOOR UNTIL HE FINISHED TALKING WITH HER! I would have been like oh hell no, you open that door now. What an ass. And yeah, one more week with him, I can hardly wait.

Bus, Bags & Beyond!

Today I picked up Zoe from day care, like I do most everyday. I do have to start by saying the bus route to get her at the new day care is SO MUCH better than it was getting her from the last day care. This school in general has been so much better in so many ways, but that is a topic for another post.

We arrived at the bus stop as usual and sat in the shelter. It was 90 degrees, I was hot, I was tired and I was ready to be home with my baby girl. We waited, we waited and we waited some more. A woman came along and decided to smoke right next to us. I'm a former smoker and I still have to admit I gave her the evil eye for smoking next to my baby, though it clearly did no good as she didn't move an inch.

Finally, the bus arrived almost 10 minutes late, which let me tell you, in the heat with a struggling baby is not a fun wait. Thank gawd the bus was air conditioned, but it was also packed. We sat down next to a very nice lady who didn't seem to mind that Zoe was kicking her repeatedly. Not intentionally mind you, but she was doing it all the same. I was very apologetic.

I have to say, ever since I read my friend's blog about unruly children and the annoyance they can be to other people, I've been acutely aware of Zoe's behavior in public and have come to realize that on occasion, I AM one of those parents with one of those children. Sorry to all you folks out there that find it incredibly irritating when my child insists on staring at you, or banging on the bus seat... But she's a baby, babies do shit like that, deal with it. I do apologize when she crosses over into other people's personal space, like when she would accidentally kicked the woman next to us, or when she opens her sippy cup and it sprays the other passengers, or yes, especially when she threw my travel mug and hit the woman in front of us... for those things I do truly feel bad and as a parent, try my best to keep them from happening, and then I move on...

Speaking of moving on, where was I?... Oh yes, the bus finally arrived, was packed, yada yada... Part of the reason for the tardy arrival and cramped conditions became clear when I boarded, a woman in a wheelchair was on the bus and two rows of seats had to be closed to accommodate the chair... Cool, no problem with that. I, however, did have a problem with the 300+ lb guy that decided he HAD to get one of those seats and parked himself in the aisle right next to us!... We were now sandwiched between the sweet old lady making faces at Zoe and the enormous ASS that was right up against us. The worst part (and ok somewhat funny but mostly gross) was that every time the bus bounced, Zoe's head would bounce off the guys butt. Did that make him move? Of course not! So I just tried to think of it as a giant airbag protecting her and prayed to god he didn't fart.

Within a few stops, the woman in a wheelchair exited the bus, the seats were free and airbag man sat down. We also moved a) to give the sweet old lady more space and b) to give Zoe more freedom. So the rest of the ride was fine, right?... Oh soooo wrong.

Enter the bag lady... And by bag lady, I really do mean bag lady. If you look up the definition, she was it. In fact, I had no idea one tiny lady could carry all those bags!! She really had it down to an art form. However, before her stop, she decided to share with us some fond memories from her childhood. She ripped a page from one of her many magazines and handed it to us exclaiming "I don't need this page and it will be fun for you to do with her"...



I looked at the article she handed me, it described how to make stilts for your kids out of tin cans. She then went on about how fun it was when she was a child, described the various ways in which to decorate the cans and of course, my personal favorite, which tin cans would work the best, (for a toddler, apparently the smaller baked beans cans work the best). While it was sweet that she wanted to share this knowledge with me in hopes of brightening Zoe's childhood, I can't pretend I didn't find it weird. And yet, I think that was the highlight of the ride... Because it only got worse from there....

Next to the bag lady was an older man with a cane. He stood up as we approached his stop and I remember thinking, man this is a big guy!... Easily 6' 5" and a little on the heavy side. He started to slowly shuffle past us and as he turned, I realized his pants were completely off his butt!!!... I'm not talking plumbers crack here, I'm talking full on buttocks right in our faces! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I never imagined that would be the first ass my daughter would see, although thankfully I think I was more traumatized than she was. I'm just incredibly thankful he didn't drop anything! *shudder*

I of course told my husband about this weirder than usual ride when I got home, who by the way is planning on joining me for the bus excursion to get Zoe on Thursday. Bet he can't wait now! *wink*

Granola Water

Yesterday, we went on a family trip to St. Joseph to pick something up (hopefully I can talk about that soon), and decided to make a day of it. Having been fascinated by the Pony Express for a while now, I was excited to go see the museum as well as see the house where Jesse James was shot. We also made sure to scout out a good park for Zoe to get her running around time and brought a little picnic with us. The Pony Express museum was a lot of fun, Zoe's first trip to a museum actually unless you count the gazillion museums we went to in New York when I was pregnant with her... OK, it was only 3 since the Guggenheim was undergoing renovations, but still, she doesn't really have a vivid memory of them, so this was definitely her first. We were excited they actually had stuff for her to see and do, but by the end, she was way too fussy to risk going through the Jesse James house, so we just drove past it on the way to the park.

Once in the park, we were excited and surprised to see they had Oxen!... Go figure, in a fenced in reserve right in the middle of the park. After spending a few minutes with them, we were off in search of the perfect stretch to let our baby run free. A tougher task than expected since there were a lot of hills and sharp drops (some on to concrete!) in this very beautiful but somewhat perilous park. After a couple of circles we finally settled on a spot near the amphitheater that had a pretty good stretch of land for her to frolic.

Then, it was picnic time and oh, how meals have become a fun and interesting venture with our sweet baby girl. Today's poison? Granola Water!... After chewing on a piece of granola bar for what seemed like an eternity, Zoe was obviously thirsty and eager to "share Mommy's water"... I gave her the bottle to take a sip and before I knew it, she'd spit the entire contents of her mouth into the bottle, giggled and proceeded to drink it!... Ick. Needless to say, the water was now hers.

It never ceases to amaze me, the things babies will eat vs. the things they refuse to eat. Let's see, mommy's BBQ meatloaf, won't eat. sidewalk chalk, will eat. Tuna noodle casserole, won't eat. Yard dirt, will eat. Lasagna, won't eat. Her shoe, will eat. It's a mad, mad world inside a baby's brain...

Zoe's First Sentence! (Sort of)

OK, so it's not exactly a run on sentence, but exciting just the same... We went to wake up Robb this morning and as I walked away with Zoe to head back downstairs, she called out "Bye Bye Daddy" as she waved to him!.. It was clear as day and just about the sweetest words I could have heard. It's those moments that make the poop grenades well worth it!

Mother's Day 'Gift'

It was the end of the perfect Mother's Day... Robb had gotten up early to help with Zoe and give me my present (an awesome framed picture of our baby girl) and this was of course after he stayed up the night before cleaning! We spent the morning together as a family, something I'm sad to say we just don't get enough of with Robb working nights... My mother and uncles, Barry and Dale, came over and we had a really nice afternoon on the back deck watching Zoe run around in the gardening hat they got me. It was beyond adorable as you can see. [See more pics here]

Eventually, Zoe took her afternoon nap (How I miss those days when I could do the same)... But it did allow my mother and I to get caught up and rest a bit ourselves. Much to my delight and surprise, Zoe even woke up in an amazing mood! (She's usually a bit cranky when she first wakes up... hmm, wonder where she could have gotten that from? *wink*...)

Then the three generations went out into the garden where we planted sunflowers for my grandmother who passed away last year. Now that we have a garden, it seemed only fitting to plant her favorite flowers in her memory. It was a really special moment... Made all the more special of course when Zoe kept trying to drink from the watering can. It was quite a sight... Although I have to say I'm proud that she poured more water on the ground than she did into her mouth.

I made us all a nice dinner (Sans Lemonup), while Zoe and my mom continued to play and watch Little Bear. I love watching the two of them together... The adoration they both have for each other is such a joy to see. Robb joined us for dinner and our wonderful Mother's Day was coming to a close. It was almost time to put my sweet angel to bed and I would have some much needed quiet time. I started her bath and Robb headed back to work after dropping mom off. It was just the two of us and I couldn't be happier. She was in a great mood and I had her all to myself!...

... And then it happened. She gave me my Mother's Day 'gift'... One she had clearly been saving up for me for a while. In between splashes, she started to make this grunting noise and just as I asked her what she was doing, there it was... A poop nugget floated to the surface of the water like a land mine tossed out to sea! "ZOE!!" I gasped... Not mad, just in shock and of course, disgust!... She then proceeded to stand up only to reveal the MOUND of poop balls neatly settled at the bottle of the tub. Nine of them (yes, I counted in disbelief at the sheer volume of them!)...

Needless to say, her bath and bedtime ritual were cut short. I had her dry and in a diaper faster than you could say diaper and was plopping her into her crib (under protest of course)... I then proceeded to spend my quiet evening time cleaning poop out of the tub. Ahhh, the magic of children. They really know how to say "I love you mom... Happy Mother's Day... I made this just for you"... *sigh*...

The inspiration...

OK, so I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now. After all, I love to write and let's face it, having a 19 month old daughter certainly gives me a lot to write about... But where to begin?... And then it happened, just like that... over dinner one night, Lemonup was born.

This dinner really wasn't different from most other nights. Zoe was being her usual fussy self and didn't want to eat what she loved just a week ago (Fish sticks, tater tots and corn. What kid doesn't love that??... Not to mention the ketchup, lots and lots of ketchup). I had read one of those helpful articles on "how to get your fussy toddler to eat" which stated emphatically, "Everything tastes better with Ketchup!"... And so, like many hopeful moms, I crossed my fingers and squirted more ketchup on the plate. Unfortunately, ketchup was about the only this she WAS eating. Then she spotted the glass of pink lemonade my husband was drinking and she HAD to have some. Not just some in a sippy cup mind you, her very own glass... After all, she'd been practicing and "she's a big girl now". Hoping to have at least 5 minutes where I might actually be able to eat some of my dinner, I gave her her own glass of pink lemonade... which she decided of course, 'would be better with ketchup'.

My husband and I gave each other the look. You know, the one that pretty much says, oh dear god... and yet it's so cute. We thought for sure that would be the end of it, she'd take a sip, spit it out and hopefully go back to trying some food. But no, she actually liked it!... So we've dubbed her new found drink 'Lemonup'. Of course, if we named it after the myriad of other things that eventually wen in there, this blog would probably be called "LemonLimeup sticks". Thankfully, she agreed the fish sticks did not improve the taste!...

And so my blog was born. Unfortunately the unhyphenated version was already taken for the url by a woman in Brazil that apparently doesn't actually blog (quite annoying!), but the logo and name were already created and I wasn't about to change it over a silly thing like it being taken.