The Diniwilks

11 Questions

2012-03-02T10:44:00.007-05:00

Ooh, Suzanne of Bebehblog tagged me in a survey/meme thing! I am one of the cool kids now!!!

Post a picture of yourself, tell us 11 things we might not know about you, answer the 11 questions asked of you, then write 11 new questions and tag some friends to play along (let them know you tagged them!)

I took this pic in the pumping room mirror (and approximately 18 others that were less satisfactory, but who's counting). Note my giant nerd glasses. I only paid shipping, so I wanted something fun, but neglected to consider that my face is way too long and narrow for frames this large. When I sent a pic of me in the glasses to Justin, he totally made fun of me. A lot. I was going to send them back, but that requires actual effort on my part. I busted them out again this morning, and Justin said they were "actually kinda cute", which is insane because he has been mocking my large sunglasses for many, many years. I'm still looking for less giant nerd glasses (preferably ones that also don't have a multiplication and division sign on them, WTF), so hit me up if you have any recommendations!

Okay, now for 11 things you might not know...hmmmmmmmmmm...

1) Pre-kids, I was crazy flexible - I could put my legs behind my head and twist both arms around in a full circle. I really want to start doing pilates again to get some of my flexibility back. I am old and creaky now.

2) I once made out with the lead singer of the eels.

3) I have always been the dumper, never the dumpee. Now that I'm married, I get to keep my perfect record forever (divorce is totally out of the question, we would probably stay together out of spite if things ever went south).

4) I love to talk smack, irrespective of whether or not I have the skills to back it up.

5) Both sets of my grandparents owned pizza shops when I was a kid.

6) I still own every Christopher Pike book, and enjoy them just as much as I did when I was ACTUALLY a young adult.

7) I used to have asthma and cat/dog allergies, but I have outgrown it.

8) I am left handed (and will be SO SAD if Lucia is a righty like Adriana and Justin).

9) The only way my hair takes dye is to completely bleach it first. In college, I would bleach out the front and go to town with all colors of manic panic. Some day I will find and post these pictures.

10) Related-ish, I have a tragus piercing and one tattoo.

11) I am going through a midlife crisis or something, I am seriously considering a) laser treatment for my rosacea, b) laser hair removal for several areas, starting with my super dark Italian armpit hair, and c) doing one of those crazy cleanses once I'm done breastfeeding. WHO AM I?

Suzanne's questions:

1. What is your favorite color and has it changed over the years?
I just answered this here! The answer is black, and no, it hasn't really changed over the years. However, I used to HATE pink and now I lerve it.

2. How well do you remember your first kiss? Details, please.
HEH. Adam Boswell, freshman year of high school (he was an 8th grader, I have ALWAYS liked 'em young). He lived next door to my best friend, and I pestered her FOREVER to set up a double date. We made out in a bean bag chair with our braces clinking together, it was all very romantic.

3. Where is your favorite vacation spot?
National parks - I want to visit all of them some day.

4. How many siblings do you have and are they older or younger?
I am the middle child and the only girl.

5. What are the baby names you used to LOVE but haven’t/wouldn’t ever use?
My only real naming regret is that I don't have a Gemma - LOVED this name but Justin wouldn't even let me put it on the list for Adriana. I was going to revisit it for Lucia but we found out our neighbors across the street have a little Gemma. Which was actually nice, because I didn't have to fight the fight - having a neighborhood Gemma automatically disqualifies the name.

6. What was your first car?
A 2000 Chevy Prism. Black, like every car since.

7. How do you feel about trivia games?
I LOVE them and I will beat you.

8. What is the worst job you’ve ever had?
I pretty much like every job I've had, even McDonald's.

9. What movie do you watch every time it’s on TV (even though you probably own it)?
Mean Girls!

10. Do you collect anything?
Random crap bins? And nail polish.

11. What color is your house and would you change it if you could?
Brick front, white siding, black door and shutters. I would change the style of my house - there are tons of gorgeous tudors on my street.

Questions for you - feel free to play along in the comments even if I don't tag you. If I do tag you and you participate, link in the comment section! I tag Saly, Shalini, Lacey, Heather, Laura, Megan, annnnd...Elise!

1) What are your top five all-time favorite bands?

2) What are your top five all-time favorite books?

3) What is the craziest thing you have ever done?

4) What is your favorite treat?

5) What are you the proudest of?

6) What are you the most ashamed of?

7) What is your guilty pleasure?

8) What are you really, really good at?

9) What does your handwriting look like? (post a pic!!!)

10) Which chores do you refuse to do (or do your best to get out of)?

11) Do you have any tattoos, body piercings, etc.?

Reader Question: Favorites

2012-02-28T12:34:00.006-05:00

Today's question is brought to you by Deja (@PinkieBling), who seems so cute and fun on Twitter that I'm still bummed she was too sick to attend PJs @ TJ's. A recent tweet of Deja's that is SO VERY TRUE:

Deja wants to know about my favorite pastime, food, movie, and color...you'd think these would be simple to answer, but I am rambly, and a non-committer.

Would it be superlame if I were to say that my favorite pastime is blogging, and reading blogs? More so the reading, than the writing, as evidenced by the fact that I am delinquent on many, MANY posts (including, but not limited to quarterly updates for both kids, birth stories, a home tour, a 101 in 1001 update, a MIL update, more random crap bins, my breastfeeding journey, a crocheting post, and so on, ad nauseum - it's all coming eventually, I swear!). Twitter and pinterest fall under this general category as well. Ultimately, "stuff I can do on my phone" gets more time than "stuff that I have to do on my laptop". Sigh.

Other activities I enjoy include reading, drinking wine with my book club ladies, crocheting, watching lots of BAD reality tv, napping, taking bubble baths, playing with makeup and nail polish, taking the kiddos to the zoo, aquarium, museum, etc. Writing this list is making me realize that the stuff I enjoy the most does not equal the stuff I devote the most time to. I probably need to reprioritize my free time.

Favorite food is definitely some sort of Indian food. My coworker and I go to Indian lunch buffet at least twice a week, and it is amazing. I love all of it, but if I had to pick just one thing, probably mutter paneer. I have done two stints of vegetarianism (five years total - I will go back to it for good some day), and Indian food definitely got me through them. YUM.

I always find favorite movie to be nearly impossible to answer. My standby is always Princess Bride because it never gets old, but I'm sure there other movies I enjoy more. My Facebook profile (filled out a million years ago, but still indicative of my favorite type of movies) says Nightwatch, Winter Passing, Away We Go, Shopgirl, Garden State, Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Mean Girls.

I don't really know if I have a favorite color per se, but my wardrobe has been 95% black since about 1993. I also only buy black cars. I also like all shades of gray, mustardy yellow, plummy purple, teal, and raspberry.

How about you - what is your favorite 1) pastime; 2) food; 3) movie; and 4) color?

Contest Winner!

2012-02-25T18:54:00.004-05:00

Our internet is down, so I'm blogging from my phone. Just wanted to let you guys know that 1) I suck at writing contests such that there is a clear, transparent, easy way to determine a winner, and 2) You guys suck at reading my mind and commenting the way I want you to. I will simplify things next time :)

Whenever I am in doubt, I err on the side of more entries rather than less. That means people who sent 3 questions get 3 entries, and I threw a pity entry to Jessica, who missed being able to tweet about the contest.

I came up with 33 entries, and random.org chose #13. Laura from Navigating the Mothership has fantastic luck over here!!!

Congrats, Laura!

Reader Question: What things helped you get through those first few weeks with a baby?

2012-02-24T08:39:00.004-05:00

This question is brought to you by Linnea, or LE Bean, which is actually pronounced Ellie (L.E.) Bean and not Le Bean (WHO KNEW?!!). The damn hippo on her blog, while adorable, breaks my work computer on the regular, or I would have fun blog factoids here. In real life, she is hilarious, dramatic (in a good, theatrical kind of way, not in an angsty teen kind of way), and lots of fun. Go offer her words of encouragement, as she is expecting a baby bean in a couple of months!

Oh, Linnea. Linnea, Linnea, Linnea. Are you SURE you want to ask this question? REALLY SURE??? There is nothing, I repeat, NOTHING that a mommyblogger (or a blogger who also happens to be a mommy, if you find that label revolting) likes more than to word vomit assvice all over you mothers to be. And I am, quite possibly, the WORST at this. I have baby gear lists, hospital packing lists, second baby lists, required reading lists, tips for birthing, tips for your hospital stay, tips for shit to steal DURING your hospital stay, tips for your maternity leave, breastfeeding tips, solid feeding tips, floor feeding tips, THE LIST GOES ON AND ON. And you barely have to prompt me and I will EXPLODE from the excitement of being able to impart all of this knowledge on you.

But you’re not here to stop me, so HERE I GO. This is shit that worked for me, it might not work for you, we are all special and unique mothers with special and unique babies, blah de blah de blah.

In order to show some restraint, I am going to limit my response to five pieces of assvice and five things to purchase. This is me SHOWING RESTRAINT, Jesus.

Assvice:

1) Make sure you understand your hospital’s policy (and have thought through your position) on things like rooming in with baby bean, where your hub sleeps, whether or not he can shower there, how long they let you keep your preshus newborn and snuggle and nurse or whatever before stealing her away for HOURS for that first never-ending nursery trip, how long and how often they will continue to steal her away during your stay. These are all things that I wouldn’t have known to ask on the tour, but it would have made my first couple of days with the baby much more enjoyable if I had known all of the expectations going in.

2) Watch (borrow or get from library, do not buy) Happiest Baby on the Block, and make sure you include J. It may or may not work with your child, but if it does? Totally worth your 20 minute time investment. I am not even joking, Justin’s eyes welled up with tears after we watched it, and he said something to the effect of “This is the first time I feel like I will know what to do with the baby.” Also, it seems like a lot of dudes get into the whole swaddling thing, especially if you are the sole milk provider and they are looking for ways to help. I think it appeals to their MacGuyver instinct or something, as most of the swaddles are overly complicated. We swaddled the shit out of both girls, but the 5 S’s in general worked best on Adriana.

3) Making babies makes you hungry (especially if you are breastfeeding, you will want to eat ALL THE THINGS), and hospital food sucks. A well fed mama is a happy mama, so make sure someone is in charge of bringing you something delicious to eat after birthin’. My brother and SIL have brought me fried chicken for both babies, and those meals will be the ones I remember when I am on my deathbed. Relatedly, the best present I got when I was in the hospital was a GIANT ziplock bag full of homemade cookies (if you are visiting a new mom in the hospital? DO THIS). Yum. If you can coerce someone to be the cookie-bringer, that’s awesome too. Finally, I put my mom in charge of stocking my house upon my arrival with stuff like fruit and veggie platters, lunch meat platters, etc. You want tons of healthyish stuff that’s easy to eat one-handed while snuggling or nursing a baby, and if you aren’t the one who has to procure or prepare it, even better.

4) I feel like this might be too late for you, but maybe not? The best thing I did on my registry was include all of my car seat needs. We registered for 2 bases, the infant seat, AND 2 of the next car seat up. Excessive? Maybe. Did people think I was an asshole? Probably. But people pooled together on items we ACTUALLY NEEDED, no matter what. Your kid is allowed to leave the hospital stark naked, but is not allowed to leave without a carseat.

5) Do whatever you need to do to maximize sleep. You and your significant other are much better parents if you are well rested! For us, this means co-sleeping for mom and baby (something I never thought I’d do), with dad in a different room (also something I never thought I’d agree to, but it's not like he lactates), a white noise machine, and lots of sleeping when the baby sleeps. The girls also spent a lot of time sleeping in the swing with me sleeping on the couch.

Things, things, and more things:

1) Arm’s Reach Co-Sleeper, for reason #5 listed above. And because Megan’s post from a funeral director’s standpoint is scary. All the convenience of co-sleeping without having to actually, you know, share your bed. Although there is some snoozing during side-lying nursing time (BEST POSITION EVER)(especially now that I figured out I can nurse the baby from both boobs without flipping sides)(genius!)

2) Swaddle Me for when the baby is little, Miracle Blanket for when they are bigger and can bust through the velcro like a baby Houdini, for reason #2 above. 2 of each, in case of poops.

3) For a first time baby, I definitely recommend the ItzBeen Timer or some sort of smart phone app that does the same thing. Also, did you know there are apps to time your contractions? Yay, technology! Anyway, the ItzBeen was never far from our reach when Adriana was a wee one. We were so dang TIRED we couldn’t remember exactly when she last ate, slept, or was changed, or what side I last nursed her on (although, some people use hair bands on the wrist of that side, which is also genius). The ItzBeen took the guessing out of parenting for us. Kid cries…Which timer has the biggest number? Start there. Works best for people who suck at tracking things on pen and paper and just want to know the most recent information. Parenting by triage.

4) Definitely a swing. I know some babies don’t like them, but it was a LIFESAVER for us. We had the Fisher Price My Little Lamb swing. I say had because Lucy’s chubby butt (16.5 pounds) actually burnt out the motor this week, so it’s dunzo. It SAYS it’s good up to 25 lbs, but one year of frequent use between both girls was too much. I’d recommend the My Little Lamb for maximum cuteness, but one with a wall adapter is probably much more practical. It uses D batteries like gangbusters.

5) I was trying to think of things that are essential for those first few weeks, as the question stated, and the only thing we haven’t covered is stuff for your lady bits. Tucks pads, giant maxi pads, dermoplast, stool softeners, breast pads, nipple cream, black underwear and black yoga pants. Not sure why you need those things? Google is your friend. Or email me. Procure all of this in advance of childbirth, so no one is running around at the last minute.

Note that I have not posted about breastfeeding assvice, as I can’t remember if it applies to Linnea. I have SO MUCH SHIT to say about that, I’m saving it for its own post. That way I can totally break my own rule about 5 things.

Here is a picture of me and Adriana, camped out on the couch in a mound of pillows and blankets with tons of baby paraphernalia all the fuck over the place. Consider getting a little caddy to take stuff from room to room. Or a wheelbarrow.

I would also be lying if I didn’t mention that I got lots of help in the form of one husband. My FAVORITE, FAVORITE thing about our marriage is that we agreed from the get go that it was important to us, no matter the financial consequences, to do this baby thing together. Justin took off 6 weeks with Adriana, and 2 months with Lucia. SO HELPFUL. Even if that help sometimes looked like this:

Look at Adriana's dark hair!!! Thought for sure she had my hair, but alas, it all fell out and (sloooooooowly) grew back in a golden brown color. Weird.

THE END.

Go ahead and populate the comment section with your own assvice and product recommendations for Linnea. SHE ASKED FOR IT!

Reader Question: What Made You Start Blogging?

2012-02-23T09:41:00.004-05:00

This question is brought to you by the lovely Shauna, whose blog features the best mastheads ever, hilarious whiteboard messages from her dog, and ALLEGEDLY a disturbing number of bacon references (but none since 2009 - what's up with that???)

Okay, so I kinda talked about this a little bit over here, but you probably shouldn't click on that link, since it lists four blogging goals that I have made ZERO PROGRESS ON WHATSOEVER. Oops.

Basically, I was a big old lurker for many, many years. I stumbled onto the little blogging world when I googled makeup tips for rosacea and found a post Sundry did on the now defunct Sundry Buzz (RIP). I read that entire site, and fell in love with Sundry and Swistle, and then proceeded to read every last thing either one of them ever wrote. Which I don't think you can actually do anymore, at least for Sundry. You can go here or here, but not her current website. It's really too bad, because her oldest stuff is the best stuff. Let us pause a moment to mourn the loss of both Sundry Buzz and old Sundry.* Let's also pause a moment to thank Swistle for being consistently awesome since September of 2006, because really, that's amazing.

I probably would have been content to just lurk around Swistle and friends of Swistle forever, but then Google reader suggested I check out Saly's blog. I also stalked her archives, and what really struck me was that she had managed to find this core group of awesome readers, who were always there to cheer her on and give advice and INTERACT, which was something that was missing from my bloggy experience. Coincidentally, this is also how I found Shauna - I decided that these people were so awesome that I wanted to follow them too.

The final kicker was finding other Laura.** Every time I'd read her posts, I would think of what an amazing record of her daughter's (and now son's) childhood she was creating. Her blog is so funny and informative and beautifully written and relevant to my own experiences, that I stalked her too, even breaking out of my lurker shell and emailing her a bit. She was very nice and responsive that it gave me the confidence to branch out on my own.

So there you have it! If you are currently on the verge of making the transition from lurker to commenter or lurker to blogger, DO IT! I have so much fun interacting with people on Twitter and Instagram, and I've even made an e-BFF and gone to the best slumber party evah! It's just so much BETTER, not carrying on completely one-sided relationships with amazing women.

* In the completely, totally, absolutely, ridiculously unlikely event that Linda ever sees this, it's not that I don't like you anymore. I just feel like you are too busy to really focus on your blog, and your posts don't make me spit diet coke on my screen on a regular basis like they used to. I miss that.

** In linking this, I realize that I missed YET ANOTHER day in the life posting session. STUPID STUPID BROKEN GOOGLE READER. I am SO BEHIND on everyone's blogs! And I PROMISED myself I would participate every quarter this year. If you aren't familiar and have some time, go check Laura's out, and then stalk all of the participants too (that's what I did)(I think Laura thinks it's super creepy when Heather or Mama Tully show up here)(but I loved their day in the life posts, and every post since!)(ZOMG BABY SNOWPEA IS HERE GOD I'M SO BEHIND!!!)

Reader / Follower Appreciation Giveaway

2012-02-21T14:48:00.005-05:00

I somehow completely missed my blogiversary earlier this month, and I missed taking a screenshot of my 100th Twitter follower by a fraction of a second (I was literally SNAPPING THE DAMN PICTURE when it refreshed to 101 followers). In honor of those milestones, I am hosting a little giveaway to say thank you to everyone who reads this little blog o' mine or follows me on Twitter. I truly appreciate every last one of you - your comments, tweets, emails, texts, etc. make my life a million times better.

You can get up to three entries as follows - please leave one comment for each, and make sure to include an email address so I know how to contact you.

1) Leave a comment in which you ask me a question (anything you want to know!)
2) Leave a comment in which you tell me something you want to see more of in year 2 of The Diniwilks.
3) Leave a comment letting me know you blogged or tweeted about the giveaway (make sure you leave a link or @lauradiniwilk)

The winner will be randomly selected at 5pm Ohio time on Friday, February 24.

The prize?

A package full of goodies I hand selected just for you! It will be similar to a CDP, but you get to open it all at once (unless, of course, you WANT to save it for a crappy day). I will ship to the U.S. and Canada, but there might be a few less goodies for a Canadian winner to offset shipping costs :(

Good luck!

Contest closed - I will announce a winner tomorrow (Saturday)

Panic! At My Body - Part 2

2012-02-20T08:56:00.002-05:00

Please excuse my little intermission - I intended to write all of this at once, but then I ran out of time and knew that if I saved it as a draft I would never, ever hit publish.

Okay, so I left off at my little post-baby breakdown. That was definitely more intense than my previous episodes, and for a couple of weeks afterwards I'd occasionally wake up from a dead sleep to find my heart racing and arms tingling. I decided it was time to find a family physician I actually liked and have her run the bloodwork they recommeded at my last ER visit (an entire year earlier). My new doctor was nice enough, but she also thought anxiety was the most likely culprit for someone my age, family history of heart and autoimmune disease notwithstanding. Then again, she also freaked out over my cholesterol levels despite the fact that I was holding a 2 week old baby and was still breastfeeding, so she clearly didn't know what she was talking about. I made a mental note to look for a more competent doctor, and went back to normal life.

At that point, when I was being completely honest with myself, I was about 50-50 as to whether it was anxiety or heart issues (which is about 50% more than I was after the first two episodes). I couldn't really ignore the fact that there was now a mental freakout component to my symptoms, which had been completely absent before.

Cut to 6 months later, as I was getting ready for PJs @ TJ's. I am always a bit of a stressball when I am about to go on a trip. I go into full Type A mode, and am unable to rest until my bags are packed, the house is clean, outfits are laid out, bills are paid, etc. etc. etc. This time was no different, but I was running WAY behind because Lucy had been sick all week and I am insanely sleep deprived. I decided to take a little sleep break and finish up in the morning before my flight. Almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, adrenaline started coursing through my veins. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't just relax and go to sleep. I knew that no matter how tired I was, the only way to make my heart stop racing and my body stop fidgeting was to just get up and finish packing.

After I packed, I was able to fall asleep while watching TV. I thought everything was normal again until I was on the runway, about to take off. HMMMMM. Heart racing, fidgety body, feelings of panic...fuck.

And repeat for the next 3 flights. Heart problems don't really save themselves for specific situations like being on an airplane.

The weirdest part about this panic / anxiety business, for me, is that I STILL don't consider myself an anxious person, at least not in my head. It's purely physiological, for the most part. I'm not afraid of flying - I have flown lots of times before and am usually super excited to go on my trip. But, for whatever reason, my body has decided that it is now super sensitive to adrenaline, and randomly clicks into full on fight or flight mode at the slightest provocation. So I'm sitting there, minding my own business, and then my body experiences this rush of chemicals and starts freaking out. And only then does my mind start to join in - the only thing that really makes me anxious is my anxiety itself. SO WEIRD.

But check this out - I am not a unique and beautiful panicky snowflake. 6 million Americans suffer from panic disorder (a type of anxiety disorder that describes my symptoms to a scary degree):

Panic disorder is a real illness that can be successfully treated. It is characterized by sudden attacks of terror, usually accompanied by a pounding heart, sweatiness, weakness, faintness, or dizziness. During these attacks, people with panic disorder may flush or feel chilled; their hands may tingle or feel numb; and they may experience nausea, chest pain, or smothering sensations. Panic attacks usually produce a sense of unreality, a fear of impending doom, or a fear of losing control.

A fear of one’s own unexplained physical symptoms is also a symptom of panic disorder. People having panic attacks sometimes believe they are having heart attacks, losing their minds, or on the verge of death. They can’t predict when or where an attack will occur, and between episodes many worry intensely and dread the next attack.

Panic attacks can occur at any time, even during sleep. An attack usually peaks within 10 minutes, but some symptoms may last much longer.

Since getting back from my trip, I went back to my doctor (who actually acknowledged her mistake about the cholesterol, so I guess she's a keeper). She was all ready to give me something to take all of the time, but then I mentioned that I normally go at least 3-4 months with no issues at all. So now I have medication I can take on an as-needed basis.

It was IMMENSELY helpful talking to other people about anxiety. Their experiences were definitely completely different than mine, but the similarities really helped me get to the place where I needed to be to ask for help. I think just knowing that I have something I can take if I want to will help me chill out. I also think that I will feel infinitely better if a certain baby will start SLEEPING THROUGH THE DAMN NIGHT, but that is neither here nor there.

You may be wondering where the whole "anxiety = weak" attitude came from. First, let me clarify that it's not like I would ever hear that someone else has anxiety and instantly judge them or feel superior or think of them any differently than I did before I knew they had anxiety. However, I will say that it's hard for me to not judge myself as being weak for having anxiety. In fact, if you have been reading carefully, you may notice that I had to kind of rewrite my definition of anxiety for me to accept this truth about myself. I am still not an anxious person, it's just that I experience these physiological reactions that I couldn't control any more than, say, the color of my hair (without hair dye, that is). I guess I'm still working on accepting things.

I think a lot of this has to do with my family. We are all very, VERY good at keeping up appearances. It's kind of like my random crap bins - if you must be messy or imperfect, compartmentalize / containerize it so that no one else knows. No one else can ever see that your life is anything less than perfect.

Needless to say, it's been very hard for me to talk about this here. However, I think that it's SO MUCH BETTER than keeping it all in. I don't really have anyone outside of family to talk to about this, but the internet is full of awesome people who are open about their experiences and it makes me feel NORMAL, and like I am still STRONG, I just have a new quirk that makes me me.

To everyone who has left supportive comments or sent nice emails, it really means a lot to me. Thank you!!!

Panic! At My Body - Part 1

2012-02-17T15:59:00.004-05:00

If you are super duper observant, you may have noticed that Sunday was missing from my PJs @ TJ's recap. This is not because I didn't make it back to Kelly's for breakfast (donuts! and bagels!), it's because I wasn't entirely sure what, if anything, I was going to say about that part of the trip. After having some time to process things, it turns out that it's SO MUCH BETTER for my mental well being to share things than to keep it in, so here we go.

Sunday morning, I had the awesome opportunity to talk to people about my anxiety. To the four ladies who listened to me and gave me thoughtful, non-judgy words of wisdom, I am forever in debt to your priceless advice.

I have alluded to my anxiety issues here before, but I usually just laugh it off or totally gloss over it. I have never even come close to explaining the extent of it, or how freaking scary it really is, or any of my own personal hangups about it.

The first time I ever had an "episode" I was sitting in class, just minding my own business and trying not to fall asleep during a movie. Granted, it was the first day of my MBA program (so...fall 2008) and we had all stood up and introduced ourselves earlier in the evening, but I had been doing the school thing for many, MANY years and it shouldn't have caused any stress.
But there I was, with my heart racing so fast it felt like it was going to explode. I got up, went outside, and called my parents, who suggested that I call 911 ASAP and have an ambulance take me to the nearest hospital. I remember my blood pressure was super high, like high 150's over high 90's compared to its usual low 110's over low 70's. They hooked me up to an EKG in the ER, but basically said that at my age, it was most likely anxiety.

I told the doctors that I am not even remotely an anxious person. I have no fears whatsoever, except a slight dislike of public speaking (insert nagging voice in back of head, pointing out that I had to talk in front of people earlier that night), and was no more stressed that day than any other day of my life (nagging voice now pointing out that my baseline level of stressful activities is 10 times more than any normal person considers taking on). I not only smacked down the nagging voice, but I was actually OFFENDED and IRRITATED that the doctors were brushing my HEART PROBLEMS off as anxiety. Anxiety is for WEAK PEOPLE, and I am STRONG.

I was sent home with a clear EKG and instructions to chill out.

Over the next couple of months I had maybe 5 more episodes (way less intense than the first day, but scary nonetheless), and each time I just sucked it up and powered through it, because whatever was wrong with my heart wasn't going to show up on an EKG.

In October 2010, I was sitting at work and I had another episode intense enough to send me to the ER. After another clear EKG, the possible explanations were anxiety (weak!), caffeine (maybe, but I've been downing 3-5 Diet Cokes a day since I was like 15), and some sort of autoimmune issue, since I have a family history. I was instructed to follow up with my family doctor for bloodwork to see if I needed to see a specialist.

But I was too BUSY for that shit! I was planning a party for my 1 year old! I was doubling up on classes so I could graduate from my MBA program in December! I was killing it at work! (A physiological reaction to stress? NOT ME!!! I'M FIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!) Just like last time, I had 5-6 more less intense episodes afterwards, which I could ignore fairly easily now that I had TWO clear EKGs.

Then I got knocked up, and preggorexia, fatigue, and other adventures in pregnancy took over. My blood pressure is awesome when I'm pregnant, so I basically ignored my issues for the next 9 months.

Have you ever noticed that I never got around to talking about Lucy's birth story on here? You're about to find out why.

So. I did my birthing thing in which I get some pitocin, but skip out on the pain meds because I'm AWESOME! And STRONG! I was riding high from the post-birth endorphins so I jumped at the chance to be released after 24 hours. Hospital stays are for WIMPS! I am a birthing GODDESS! My vagina is better than yours!

Then karma bitchslapped that smug smile right off my face.

We got out of the car as a family of four for the first time. Justin got Adriana out of her carseat, so I grabbed Lucia's carrier. I had to twist a little funny to make it through the breezeway, which made my insides feel a little funky. And then I lost my shit.

Over the next 3-4 hours, I experienced a full blown panic attack. This was way more intense than the heart palpitations and weird rushing sensations of ER visits past. I was POSITIVE that I had messed up my insides by trying to carry Lucy. My whole body felt so weird that I started googling stuff like "insides falling out after birth" and "uterine vaginal prolapse" (seriously). My brother and SIL stopped by with a gift shortly after we got home and I had Justin send them away because I was still freaking out. Then my parents came by with food and I was WIGGING OUT but I completely faked it and acted like I was just a little tired so they would go away. I was dizzy and shaky and panicky and seriously considering going back to the hospital. I'd lay down and then pop back up and then lay down and pop back up - I couldn't get comfortable, and no matter which way I arranged myself I couldn't stop feeling like my kidneys were detaching and getting stabbed by my ribs. And, of course, my heart was racing and my fingers were tingling the whole time.

I simply COULD NOT DEAL with Adriana, so I took Lucy upstairs and had Justin and Adriana stay downstairs. I was able to talk myself down by focusing on Lucy and blocking everything else out. She saved me, for real. In fact, for the next day or three she was the only thing that kept me calm.

Would you believe that even after that happened, I was still not 100% convinced it was anxiety?

To be continued...

PJs @ TJ's

2012-02-16T04:16:00.004-05:00

OH, HI! It is now THURSDAY, and I am finally caught up on sleep enough to write my PJ's @ TJ'srecap. Oh my gosh, you guys, it was SO MUCH fun. If you are on the fence about attending a blogger gathering, DO IT. Internet ladies are just as awesome in real life as they are in your computer.

Last week was kind of a crazy week because Lucy caught the daycare death plague twice. As in, she had a one day recovery from barfing and diarrhea and then promptly began barfing again. So I left for Kelly's a) completely worried that Justin was going to fail at parenting a sick baby (irrational - he's a great dad), and b) even more sleep deprived than usual. I thought I could sleep on the plane, but I started getting all panicky, tipping my years long internal debate of Name That Attack from "Heart" to "Panic" for good. So I solved that mystery, but I was tired as hell when I finally made it to Arizona. Oh, and there is a 2 hour time difference, which did not help the situation.

Anyway, I made it to the airport and over to Megan's terminal (we had similar flights so we decided to split a car). We went to the hotel, but I couldn't check in because my roommate Jess was having a Planes, Trains, and Automobiles experience, and everything was in her name. We ran into Stephanie in the lobby, and decided to wander over to a local shopping area to get some grub (and laugh at the worst waitress in the history of the universe) while Kelly dealt with a sick Penny and issues with getting everyone passes to get on base. Brooke and Elise came by to pick us up, and we all piled into Brooke's car. The weekend had finally begun!!!

Once we got to Kelly's, I decided to plant myself on the couch with Noemi and Diane, because I recognized them from their accent vlogs and they are pretty much exactly the same in real life as you would expect them to be. The rest of Friday night mostly involved surreptitiously glancing at everyone's nametags while cramming sandwiches in my face and trying not to fall asleep on Kelly's couch. I was essentially a zombie, so that was seriously the best I could do. If I had known that I wouldn't get much of a chance to talk to Diane for the rest of the weekend, I would have done jumping jacks or something to stay awake and keep the conversation going. That was the biggest problem with a weekend like this - there are SO MANY awesome people, and SO LITTLE time to really connect with all of them. If you're reading this, Diane, I think you are hilarious and I really, really, really want to get to know you better!!!

Friday night just happened to be self portrait day in the #febphotoaday challenge, so this is what I wore:

Top: Converse (Target)

Jeans: Mossimo (also Target)

Shoes: Unlisted (Macy's)

Ring: Not sure of the brand, but I'm pretty sure it came from Macy's

And I have some of those Goody hair band / bracelet combo deal thingies on my wrist.

I could have totally wore sweatpants all weekend and not felt out of place though. Yay for laid back ladies!

I woke up Saturday morning at 9am Arizona time, which was 11am Ohio time. ELEVEN!!!! I haven't slept that long in...hmm...at least 3 years. I felt like a completely new person. We carpooled over to the base and basically hung out, getting to know each other better and squeezing babies all day. The best part of the second morning was bonding with the internet babies. Penny still wasn't feeling well, but Jess's Callum, Erin's Lorelai, and Andrea's Alli were hamming it up. All of the babies are about a thousand times more adorable than you can imagine. At that point, I was kinda sad I decided to leave Lucy at home, but I ended up being glad later (foreshadowing!!)

Oh, and I DID wear sweatpants and a t-shirt the second day:

Once we were kicked out so Kelly could decorate, a group of us went to get mani/pedis:

Then, it was finally time for the PJ party!!! It was everything a PJ party should be, and more. There were cute jammies (Jess on the left, Lara on the right):

Matching jammies (Noemi on the left, Diane on the right):

Tons of pizza, pop, ice cream (including root beer floats, because Diane is a genius!), and dip that pretty much consisted of crack, rainbows, and butterflies. This picture isn't just intended to capture Phil's pizza-carrying skills though. Do you see it? THERE WAS A BED RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LIVING ROOM!!!! Kelly's vision = full of awesome.

Me, Kammah, a root beer float, and Dirty Dancing:

Okay, quick takes on everyone, since that is probably what you came here for if you are still reading:

Kelly (or TJ, if you prefer) is just as funny in real life as she is on her blog. She never once made me (or anyone else) feel like an outsider for being a newer blogger or having no blog. I would LOVE to spend more time with her, gossiping and swapping in-law and other obnoxious family member stories. Thank you for inviting us, Kelly!

My car buddy Megan was amazing and pretty much single-handedly made the entire trip worthwhile. I suspect we will be friends for a long time. She's normal and funny and interesting and I am ANXIOUSLY AWAITING the day she will stop reading our blogs and start one of her own (as you should be too).

Jesabes Jess (my roommate) was one of the people I was most excited to meet, as we read each other's blogs. We spent some quality time pumping together and had some nice moments in the room, but I feel like I didn't get to know her as well as I wanted to because we were always rushing to get ready or sleeping. Jess - we WILL fix this at the Blathering!!!

Brooke, Noemi, and Lara are all beautiful and would be the most fun people ever for a girls' night with lots of wine and gossip. Also, Lara mentioned being nervous about her age, and DUDE. If I look HALF as young and vibrant in my 40's as she does, I will consider my entire life a success. Noemi, Kelly, and Diane would be my ideal people for a girls' night with lots of bad reality tv, ice cream, and snark.

Du Wax Loolu Jess is very down to earth, warm, and friendly, just as you would expect from reading her blog. I want to go get coffee with her. Erin is fun and friendly and also has MIL stories, so she should come too.

Linnea is freaking hilarious and I could just listen to her for hours. She is the best person to have around when you need to break the ice.

Elise is so cute and entertaining, and seems a lot more mature than her age. I want to sit and offer big sisterly advice to her and Kammah while we crochet and eat bagels (or things that are not bagels).

Stephanie is laid back and on the quiet side (not in a shy way, more like in a "taking it all in" way). When she does talk, she is always super nice and very interesting. She also has lots of good blog recommendations.

I didn't get to know Andrea, Kara, or Phil's aunts as well as everyone else, but the conversations we did have were always pleasant. I wish Andrea and Kara didn't have other obligations that weekend, because they both seem like awesome people. Perhaps they will also start blogging or tweeting more? The world could use lots of cute Alli pictures :)

And we all totally missed Deja, who couldn't be there due to illness. Boooooo!

[DEAR GOD I HOPE I DIDN'T FORGET ANYONE]

One last pic of me and a cactus, since I risked being shot down by large guns to take it:

Also of note...I had my own planes, trains, and automobiles experience trying to get back home (thank god I didn't have Lucy). I won't bore you with the details since I did enough of that on Twitter, but this totally happened when I asked for "stuck in an airport indefinitely reading material":

Thanks to everyone for a great time, and to my hubs for taking care of the girls so I could go (even if it meant the sacrifice of a onesie)(HE CUT IT OFF LUCY BECAUSE SHE POOPED AND HE DIDN'T WANT TO GET IT IN HER HAIR!!!)(Men.)

Pump the Wiggles Out

2012-02-15T20:48:00.001-05:00

Pump the Wiggles Out a video by lauradiniwilk on Flickr.

I about died laughing when Justin sent me this video...too funny to keep to myself.

Daycare Don't Care

2012-02-08T15:58:00.002-05:00

In my last post, which I'm not going to link to because it's just SAD and DEPRESSING (sorry to keep it at the top for so long), I alluded to the fact that we were having some issues with daycare.

Adriana started daycare a year ago, when my parents took a month-long trip to Florida. We needed someone who was okay with taking her on short notice for just a month, with no commitment to continue once my parents came back. We basically ended up with the only daycare that was willing to accept her, so I pretty much overlooked issues I blogged about waaaaaaaay back here and here. When my parents got back, it was decided that she would stay in daycare once a week. I called around to find a place closer to work, but no one was willing to take her just one day, and to be flexible if we had to change the schedule depending on what was going on with my parents. And they all had RIDICULOUS waiting lists.

Overall, I've been pretty happy with the place. It's definitely clean, and they seem to follow all of the ratios closely. Adriana was quickly moved to the 18 month room, where she had a teacher that we both LOVED (and who paid attention to my concerns about the fluids and the unhealthy menu choices). Around the time Lucy was born, Adriana moved to the 2 year old room, and started going to daycare 2 days a week. Her teacher is super shy so I never felt very informed about how it was going, but Adriana started talking enough that I was getting a pretty decent idea of what her day was like.

However, all of that talking was almost a bit too much. Adriana started practically abusing her doll, laying it face down, putting the blanket over her head, and "patting" (beating!) her while yelling at her to go to sleep. At first it was kind of cute, but then some of the things she was saying made me think that some of the teachers there are mean to the kids.

Then, just in time for my parents to leave on their second month-long trip (meaning, now BOTH girls are in daycare full time, which breaks my heart for Lucy), two things happened in the same day. First, I went in and talked to Adriana's teacher about her binky. I told her that she hadn't used it at night for a few days, and asked how they normally transition them off for naps. She said she had no idea Adriana even had one, and that she never used one.

This pissed me off for several reasons. First, Adriana sleeps like shit at daycare, frequently skipping naps entirely and then acting like a holy terror at night. NO WONDER - they weren't giving her a binky! And I'm SURE that she asked for it. There were TWO in her cubby, both of which I made a big production about because her original one got lost when she moved into this room. There is NO WAY the teacher didn't know she had them. So basically daycare has been fucking with her nap schedule since August, likely because the teacher chooses to transition kids off them without parental consent so she doesn't have to deal with it.

I was running late to work, so I just sighed and left. I thought about calling and talking about it, but at the same time, the damage has already been done. I wanted her transitioned off, and she was transitioned off.

That night, I was driving Adriana home and we were going through our nightly ritual of talking about her day. She told me about how she went to the office with Miss Megan, and she played with Kate and Noah, and Miss Kyra pinched her. Insert record screeching noise here. Miss Kyra [a floater, not her actual teacher] did what now? She pinched me. In my back and I cried. I called the daycare immediately and reported the incident to the assistant director, who said she would confront the teacher about it. I was so mad I didn't even think to talk about the stupid binky.

We went home and started to eat, and I made a video of Adriana talking about how she was pinched and pointing to the area. I didn't check to see if there was a mark, because it didn't occur to me that there would be one. My parents told me to look when I talked to them on the phone about it, and I said I would when I changed her into her jammies later. But then we got the call about my uncle, and Justin ended up being the one who put her to bed.

The next week was all crazy and sad and I had other things to deal with. I spoke to the assistant director when I had to arrange extra care for the girls so my parents could attend the funeral, but it was kind of a quick talk. There was so much other stuff going on that I decided to drop it and assume that Adriana was either exaggerating or was handled a little roughly and it made her eczema sore.

THEN, the saturday after it happened (which was a Monday), I was making a video of Adriana complaining about the eczema her back to show her dermatologist in case it wasn't flaring up when we go. With the iPhone light shining directly on the area, I saw she had a yellowish bruise RIGHT FUCKING WHERE she said the lady had pinched her.

I went in during my lunch the following Monday, and talked about the incident with both the director and the assistant director. I made it clear that it was absolutely not acceptable to me, and that I 100% believed Adriana and felt like I failed her by letting everything else that was going on that week trump getting the issue resolved. The director basically made everything worse by saying all the wrong things. She was so quick to jump in and say she believed it happened, that I kept thinking "then WHY did you hire her???" AND she totally outed herself as a racist, implying that skin color has anything to do with whether or not your the kind of person who would pinch a two year old hard enough to bruise them. Jesus.

Anyway, I ended up deciding that the girls would stay as long as this particular teacher was never alone with either one of them. They readily agreed to this, and I am pretty confident that they are holding up their end of the agreement. They also said that she would lose her job if anyone ever reported anything like this again.

I had another long talk with the assistant director [who I REALLY like], who told me that she looked the teacher right in the eye and truly believes she didn't do it. She was SUPER upset when she told me this, practically crying, so I just told her that it was okay that we believe different things about what happened.

OH and, as if all that wasn't enough, some moron parents were smoking pot in the parking lot last week. We walked out, and Adriana was like "I smell something. What's that smell?" What, indeed. I complained, and the daycare didn't hesitate to call the cops. At least they handled THAT right.

Meanwhile, I LOVE the new lady in the infant room. They have maybe 3 babies in there at any time, and Lucy is getting tons of attention. Adriana is getting moved to the 3 year old room early because she's such a good talker, and I like that lady so far. A friend of mine has been looking at daycares, and she said that ours is WAY nicer and WAY cleaner than all of the ones she looked at.

So.

Once my parents are back in town, I think I am going to at least make the rounds in all of the other daycares to see if I can find one that would be a better option. But for now, they are staying put. It feels wrong, keeping them there after this happened, but I don't think that anywhere will ever feel right. God, I even have issues with the way my own PARENTS take care of the girls. And how can you ever know if someone is the kind of person who would pinch a kid? Why does it have to be SO HARD to get quality care for my babies? I have never wished harder for a daycare at work.

Sad News

2012-01-30T10:30:00.003-05:00

Ugh, this has been a tough week. Last Monday was already a shitty day for daycare-related reasons (more on this later), then we got one of those awful late night calls that turns your world upside down. My aunt came home from work and found my uncle laying on the floor, dead from a massive heart attack. He was 56 years old.

When I first got the call, the cause of death was still unclear. My mind raced through the possibilities...drugs? Suicide? Pretty much every option except a heart attack, because that just hits too close to home. My grandpa had a heart attack at 58, and spent 8 months in the hospital trying to recover before he passed away. My dad is the oldest of his five sons, and is on blood pressure medication and probably would have had a heart attack by now if he hadn't retired when he did. The next oldest son had a mild heart attack just before Christmas (he's doing fine). I have been suffering from episodes of heart palpitations and weird tingling sensations off and on for three years. I was JUST ready to decide that maybe it IS anxiety and not my heart, then two family heart attacks in a row. Bleh.

I am barely prepared to handle my grandparents' deaths, much less the next generation. I can't even begin to fathom what it would be like to lose my dad. It's just...unthinkable. I didn't want to believe that another uncle had a heart attack because then it's a pattern, not just some awful thing that happened to my grandpa when I was 3 years old.

I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but Uncle Joe was mine. He lived in Atlanta, and it was always SO EXCITING when he came up for a visit. He was an artist, so he'd entertain us for hours and hours drawing funny little cartoons and telling us stories about the characters. He was so great with us kids, it really is a shame he never had his own. I remember my older brother and cousin and I sitting in the tree in my grandma's back yard, raptly listening to a horror story about a big worm. When Uncle Joe saw I was getting scared, he quickly switched up the story so the worm didn't eat people, he ate peanut butter. The rest of the story had us all practically falling out of the tree, we were laughing so hard. I'm really going to miss Uncle Joe and his crazy stories.

Hug your loved ones extra tight today - life is way too freaking short.

Crafty Pants

2012-01-21T22:13:00.010-05:00

It may surprise some of you to hear this, as I never, ever talk about crafts, but I can actually be pretty crafty. I just don't make time anymore, what with the always being pregnant / having wee ones thing. My grandma taught me to crochet when I was a kid, so I was psyched when Stitch n' Bitch came out and my dorky pastime was suddenly hip. I even joined a local Stitch n' Bitch chapter for a while there, but I quit when I moved to Cincinnati for med school and never rejoined when I came back. [Mental note to check up on this, even though it's super unlikely that it's still going on]. Anyway, yes. Capable of crafting, I just don't often implement.

Thanks to the scarf swap, I have already completed two of my five required crafty projects for 2012. Have we finally found a goal I might actually achieve? Stay tuned.

I was serendipitously matched with Jennifer from Jayesel, who is not only also going to the Blathering, but has two adorable girls as well. Every time I see pictures of them, it's like looking into our future when my girlies get older. I immediately started pinning scarves like crazy, so WOULDN'T YOU KNOW she started following me on Pinterest about 10 seconds after I finished. I am sure she was not remotely surprised by my choices, but what can you do?

The first scarf that really struck my fancy was this braided jersey scarf. The only catch, of course, is that I don't sew. However, my mom does, so we made a craft date. We pretty much followed the tutorial to the T, but we are apparently more OCD than Keight, as I spent 10 zillion years carefully pinning the jersey lengthwise at exactly 7 inches to ensure that both colors were the same size and the seams were straight.

I chose Steelers colors for Jen since she is from Pittsburgh and had some Steelers stuff pinned. I also got some extra of the yellow as well as a light gray to make one later for me, since I loved the combo on the store-bought scarf that inspired it all. Here is how Jen's turned out:

Not pictured: My terrible, not so "blind" stitching on the part that needed to be sewn by hand. Still! Not bad for our first effort. Also, I totally want a sewing machine now. A cheap one, not my mom's complicated, expensive, crazy one. The whole project took a little over two hours (maybe more if you count getting the sewing machine properly threaded and working right), but that could be cut down significantly if you are less anal about the pinning and measuring and whatnot.

Since that scarf was so dang cheap (maybe $10?) I wanted to make another for the swap. I thought Mama Bub's finger knit scarves were super cute, so I bought some chunky yarn and went to town. It was a little hard (for me, anyway) to follow the handwritten instructions. I was going to make a video for anyone who needs to see it being done, but alas, I am not a unique and beautiful snowflake and it has already been done. Shoulda googled that shit BEFORE I spent an embarrassing about of time fiddling around with it.

Once I got going it was very easy, and I was able to whip this out in about an hour. I just did one whole skein of yarn, but I would maybe (I think?) do more and loop one more time next time (Lion Brand Yarn in Dallas Gray, super bulky (6) for those of you playing at home).

Megan gussied hers up with felt flowers, but I wanted to bust out my crochet skillz. I used the pattern here to make these:

There are also 9 million crocheted flower videos out there, but if anyone is interested in making these particular roses and wants to see a video, I'd do it. I did better with this pattern than the finger knitting instructions, but I've also been crocheting for 20 years (OMFG). It's probably a little confusing if you're new, but they are still surprisingly easy to make. I just sewed a pin to a circle of felt and stitched it to the flower when I was done. Easy peasy! It takes me about an hour and 15 minutes per flower, from start to finish.

You can see Jen modeling both scarves over in the Scarf Swap Pool. I will add pictures of me wearing the ones she sent me once I'm actually, like, showered and stuff. In the meantime, you can see my dining room table sporting them:

I love them both because they a) are super cute and b) aren't something I'd pick out myself. To me, that is the best part about joining something like this - branching out. I have like 18 black scarves with some sort of print, and if I wanted another, I could easily buy it myself (and probably will). I NEED a pop of pink or a flash of silver in my life, hand selected by someone more fashionable than I am. Raven also does a flip flop swap in June, which I will be participating in because, you guessed it, I own like 18 pairs of black flip flops.

Thanks, Jen and Raven, this was fun!!!

Diniwilk Stew, Dorking Out Version

2012-01-18T14:17:00.005-05:00

Hey, ladies! And gents, if you're out there! I have been so flipping busy lately it's ridiculous. Let's catch up...

Adriana suddenly decided that it's time to be potty trained. She has only pooped once, but she pees regularly. It was definitely a good choice to stop forcing her to sit on it when she clearly didn't want to, and to just wait for her to decide it was something she wanted to do.
Around Christmas, Adriana went back to being my sweet little girl, ending her 5 month long reign of terror. That was a tough stage, glad to be out of it!
Lucy has always been a happy girl. I finally got a decent video of her laughing, which can be seen here.
Non-child things taking up my free time: work, a HUGE craftypants kick (more on this soon), trying to finish my book club book, the bachelor, twitter, pinterest, the instagram january photo a day challenge, a scarf swap, another CDP exchange. Things NOT taking up my free time: blogging, reading your blogs, cleaning, exercising. Things I intend to change about this arrangement: more blogging and reading your blogs. Sorry, kitchen (and ass)!
Speaking of my ass, I joined weight watchers, which is a very, VERY un-Lauralike thing to do. I just feel like SO MANY of you are successful on it (Devan, Saly, and Suzanne come to mind), that it seemed stupid not to try. Plus, I have been taking pics of outfits as Shalini requested in a recent comment. Seeing myself from multiple angles is VERY MOTIVATING.
Speaking of outfit pictures...Ugh, I can't believe I am doing this. Let's be clear - when I said I want to care more about my appearance, cute outfits are not at the top of my list. This is because I am so slovenly that I have like 18 other things to take care of first. I have been calling it a success if I don't go to work with wet hair and if my rosacea is covered up properly. I need to add "brows are under control" to that list next, because I look like Frida Kahlo right about now. Anyway, I may periodically post pics of my outfits so we can decide if my style progresses throughout the year (and feel free to give advice!!!)

Hey, look! I'm wearing makeup! I want to master bronzer and blush at some point (have shied away due to rosacea), but this is acceptable to me for normal daily wear. I'm sporting Clinique Even Better foundation and powder, Smashbox eyeliner, Lash Blast mascara, Burt's bees lip balm, and the tiredest eyes I've ever seen.

Whew, no more extreme close-up. The scarf is from Target, the sweater is Old Navy (last year)(too tight).

No wet hair! I'm waiting til closer to PJs @ TJ's to dye it, since I don't like to do that more than a couple of times a year.

Let's be honest, even when I take a few seconds to do my hair, it ends up like this most of the day anyway. Dorky expression = tired of taking pics of myself in the bathroom. Oh, I'm sorry, personal pumping room IN the bathroom.

This was Friday's outfit, so I'm wearing jeans. They are the curvy fit 4 Mossimo skinny jeans from Target. I KNOW, skinny jeans! WTF. Those Bearpaw boots are not remotely work appropriate, yet I wear them all winter. I have shoes under my desk in case I need to seem like I care. Whatever, they are warm. I should probably add "proper footwear" to my list of things to work on.

I hope this was not horrifically disappointing, especially since the request came from Ms. Poufy Skirt herself. I don't have a shred of your adorable fashion sense, Shalini!

CDP Exchange Update

2012-01-05T20:57:00.005-05:00

Hey, remember this? I was going to wait until I opened all of my CDPs to update, but it turns out that I am having a rather good month. My package went to Carmen (@S_cerevisiae), and a package came in the mail from...Lacey! I actually squeed (loudly) when I saw who it was from, because I knew my sister from another mister would send awesome stuff.

And she did! Look at all of the pretty packages! I so loved her ribbon presentation that I stole the idea for some of my Christmas presents. And how cute are her labels? She thoughtfully sent gifts for every occasion - for the girls, a friend, and the cats, as well as for my hands, lips, feet, and stomach (and Justin if I wanted to share)(hahahaha screw that). Plus there is another mystery present that didn't make it in the first package, which is fun because now I get double the package excitement.

I told Lacey that I was sad it wasn't a crappy day, so she called me a meanie head to get me started. Of course, I went right for the stomach. Have you ever had the Archer Farms trail mix from Target? They are SO GOOD. Lacey sent one of my favorites, the Monster mix. There is also one with chocolate covered caramel balls and one with bananas chips and dried cherries that are both equally amazing. Try it, you'll like it! (Yo Gabba Gabba, anyone?)

The next crappy day to come around was when Adriana was on the verge of getting sick. She was whiny and crying and just miserable, so I thought a present would be a good distraction.

What happened next is a good example of what life is like with a toddler, for those of you who haven't experienced the joy yet.

A: Ooh, a blue present!

B: YAY, crayons!!!

C: I don't WANT to open another present!

D: Okay, if I must.

E: YAY, a kitty cat!!! (I just missed a huge smile)

F: I want to open it ALL BY MYSELF! I CAN'T! Mama, help! NO, don't help, I do it MYSELF!!!

G: I did it!

H: An orange one!

I: I don't WANT AN ORANGE ONE!!!

Don't worry, Lacey, all was well the next day. She proceeded to color every. single. cat's eyeballs purple.

The final present I opened the Friday before Christmas, after MIL was pulling her usual holiday bullshit and trying to switch up plans at the last minute (spoiler alert - we STILL haven't exchanged gifts! I'm gonna mail them this year). It was PERFECT timing, as the nail polish was Glitter In My Stocking, and was a beautiful blingy holiday color.

Thanks, Lacey!!! I can't wait to open the rest!

UPDATE: I'm a ding dong! I completely forgot to mention that Rachel is hosting another CDP Exchange RIGHT NOW, so if you want to join in the fun, go here!

Compromise

2012-01-05T14:22:00.004-05:00

This will come to no surprise to anyone who knows me in real life, but I wear the pants in the family. I am, shall we say, opinionated, whereas Justin generally doesn't care about the details and trusts that I will make good decisions for our family. We are also usually so in sync it's scary. For example, we agreed to make an offer on the one and only house we ever looked at, and we both have no desire to ever move again.

There have only been three areas where we have been in complete disagreement.

Disagreement #1 involves the cats. Well, really just one of the cats, as I don't think Justin would mind Leo much if he was the only pet we had to deal with. It's much easier to clean up after a cat who barfs a lot than one who pees on things. That's right, Mohinder, I'm looking at you.

Justin bought Mohinder as a Valentine's present for me in...2008? 2009? I don't know, my brain is mushy. Anyway, it was 100% his decision to go from a 1 cat to a 2 cat household. Momo is the sweetest cat ever, so I was instantly on board. However, no amount of sweetness can counteract the fact that this cat has been trouble from day one. First, whatever shelter cat disease he brought into our home nearly killed Leo. He went from being almost 13 pounds to 9 pounds, and it took something like 2 years before he regained his muscle and stopped looking haggard. It was crazy (and really scary).

And I know I've talked about the peeing on here before. These days, Momo pees on things maybe 3 times a year, and usually it's because Justin missed a day cleaning the litter box to Momo's standards (but once it was over a week of peeing due to a UTI - it SUCKED). It's not the worst thing in the world when it's on a pile of laundry - it's a pain in the ass, but it's doable. However, Momo picks one big ticket, hard to clean item to pee on each year as well, and that's what really drives Justin over the edge. 2009 it was mattress, 2010 was a couch, and 2011 it was the carpet under the Christmas tree (I'm STILL not convinced I have gotten the smell 100% out, and we are in no position to replace the carpet right now). Justin VERY MUCH wants to get rid of Mohinder, whereas (while I have NO DESIRE WHATSOEVER to have a house that smells like cat pee), I feel that it's our responsibility to give him a good home, as we promised to do when we rescued him from the shelter. If I knew for certain that we could find someone else to give him a good home, I would be okay with that. However, I don't think anyone would take a pee-er, and I'm not going to lie just to pass him on. He really is a great cat. Anyway, I wear the pants, so I am winning this one so far. Laura: 1, Justin: 0

I didn't really realize we were having Disagreement #2 until it was kind of too late to do anything about it. When we first got married, I wanted 3 kids and Justin wanted 2. Then we had Adriana, and we realized how exhausting kids could be. I admitted I'd be willing to have 2. Justin, who is not a fan of the newborn stage AT ALL said that he would be okay with just Adriana, and that he'd prefer close spacing if we had a second to get out of the baby years sooner. My vagina was not so much a fan of that idea, so I calculated which month's nookie would result in 2 year spacing (the EARLIEST I was willing to be pregnant again), thinking that if we didn't get pregnant that month, we would try for a spring 2012 baby (a little over 2 1/2 year spacing, and with a much better maternity leave).

I then completely put it out of my mind, and didn't really pay much attention when Justin continued to state he was happy with one kid. Justin was an only child, so he didn't really get why it was so important to me for Adriana to have a sibling. And I was never going to agree to have just one, which might be why it really wasn't registering with me when he kept saying that's what he wanted. Either way, it didn't matter because we are super fertile and super awful at using birth control. I honestly didn't know how strongly he felt about it until after I was pregnant with Lucy (22 month spacing). It turns out that he was serious, he really did not want another baby.* I am SO, SO glad we got pregnant when we did, so it didn't have to be a huge, stressful issue. And, obviously, Justin loves Lucy, so we both win. I'm still giving myself the point though. Laura: 2, Justin: 0

And now we come to Disagreement #3, which was (much to my dismay) resolved last night. You guys, I LOST ONE. And it's a biggie.

I think I have mentioned before that Justin was a security guard when we met. He had originally wanted to go into law enforcement, but his bad knees were keeping him from taking the test. Anyway, he is really big on security, protection, etc. This includes guns.

I, on the other hand, fucking hate guns. I am not comfortable with them ONE BIT. When I am around them, the hairs on my neck stand on end and I'm constantly alert, unable to relax. I have an uncle who carries a gun on his person at all times, and I'm always moving the girls into whatever room he's not in when we are at family gatherings. I don't think people should be allowed to have them, period. I HATE GUNS.

Not long after we started dating, I found out that Justin owned a Glock. It had chemical burns on it from a past life in a meth lab, which did not really help his argument that only wholesome individuals exercising their constitutional right to bear arms own guns. I made him get rid of it before he moved in with me, because there is no way I was sleeping in the same house as a gun. And he did.

But then my dad got a gun, and it really made Justin miss having one. We don't live in the best neighborhood in the universe, and it's not enough for him that we have an alarm system (if the alarm goes off, it's too late). Ever since Justin bought my dad a laser sight for his gun for Christmas, he has been CONSTANTLY HOUNDING ME to reconsider my position.

At first, I genuinely thought it was more about the fact that he thinks guns are cool and that some extra money was burning a hole in his pocket. After much discussion, I came to realize that wasn't the case. He was as firm in his stance that we need a gun for protection as I am in mine that no good ever comes from owning a gun. We were at an impasse (inconceivable!!!)

I guess the biggest reason I caved was that I not only win our major Disagreements, but I also win a million tiny ones every day, as the pants-wearer. Marriage is supposed to be a compromise, and compromise isn't really my strong suit. I like to win, to be right, to have things my way. Justin presented a strong case for purchasing a gun. He put a lot of effort into researching gun and safe options** that would (theoretically) put me at ease. He thought out where we would keep it, and what we would tell the girls. He showed how passionate he was about it, and that he really did think it was 100% necessary to protect his family.

Ugh.

So, yeah. I have a gun. Laura: 2, Justin: Infinity

*If you ever read this, future Lucy, he TOTALLY would have been on board if he knew how awesome you'd be. He just didn't want to listen to you cry or clean your poop.

**UPDATE: He apparently also researched ballistics, as in "hollow point bullets and gunpowder amounts so bullets won't travel through walls and hit the kids" if it ever WERE fired in the house. The man does his homework.

2012 Resolutions and To Do List

2012-01-03T09:51:00.002-05:00

I will keep a cleaner house.

I will be a better wife, mom, daughter, and friend.

I will be more thoughtful.

I will care more about my appearance.

Learn how to use my Nikon D-90 and Photoshop Elements 10.

Acknowledge every person’s birthday on my 2012 birthday list.

Send thank you letters for every gift received in 2012.

Read 50 books.

Go on 5 dates with Justin.

Take kids on 10 trips to the zoo, museum, etc.

Complete a couch to 5K program and run an official 5K.

Complete 30 day shred.

Eat less, exercise more.

Cook dinner 3 times per week (on average).

Make a recipe book.

Get shelves for basement.

Make significant progress in decluttering and dehoarding.

Make significant progress in paying off credit cards.

Donate blood 3 times.

Complete 5 crafty projects.

Complete 5 home improvement projects.

Complete a 365 day photo challenge.

Potty-train and de-binky Adriana.

Make it to one year breastfeeding Lucia.

Christmas 2011 Recap

2012-01-02T17:53:00.007-05:00

I don't feel right getting into my 2012 resolutions/to do list before I've even talked about Christmas, so here we go (better late than never, right?)

First, the photos:

I got the girls bathed and dressed in their matching Christmas jammies. Then Adriana and I put out cookies and milk for Santa and reindeer food for Rudolph. Which happened to be Nilla Wafers, since that was the first thing I saw when I went into the kitchen.

Adriana got a mischievous look before we put the dish outside and popped one in her mouth.

Justin and I wrapped / assembled gifts by the fire while we drank wine and listened to Christmas music.

All Adriana wanted from Santa was "a blue present". He brought her a kitchen and a Mommy and Me set for her dolls (one of those crib/stroller/diaper bag/feeding set deals). The rest of the presents are from Mama and Dada, who may have gone overboard this year. In my defense, lots of it was stuff they needed anyway, like shoes, boots, clothes, bathing suits, sheets, etc. Most of the toys were Melissa and Doug stuff from their one day sale earlier in December. The wooden play food and sticker sets were a huge hit.

Santa left Adriana a letter! And Rudolph ate all of his Nilla Wafers, too!

I made the girls pose for some pics in front of the tree, because I am a mean mom. My thumb made a special appearance in the only one where Adriana is smiling, because I am a shitty photographer.

Adriana ran right for the kitchen.

And her blue present.

We did the stockings next, since I realized I forgot to do them first.

Lucy dug into her stocking all by herself.

Justin wore his festive Mario jammies and looked very enthused.

Santa brought Lucy a doll of her very own.

Some Adriana quotes (so glad I wrote them down):

[Before going downstairs, when I asked if she thought Santa ate his cookies] "I don't want Santa to eat the cookie. Can I have a cookie?"
[Also before we went down, I exclaimed "SANTA!" trying to get her pumped up. She cocked her head, listening to the banging downstairs, and said...] "That's not Santa, that's DADA!!!"
"A kitchen for me?!!!"
"Look out Lucia, I'm trying to open my present. Grab it, Lucia!"
"Look at what Santa brought for me!"
"That's for Lucy, the hello kitty socks." [Trying to share the stuff in her stocking. She then modeled both pairs of socks while we watched.]
"Can I give it to Lucia?" [Trying to share again - it was really cute!]
"Winnie the Pooh FOR ME!!!"
"Dress!" [After every article of clothing, none of which were dresses.]
"My matching shoes are flopping over, mama help!" [She tried on all of the shoes, too.]
"I'm gonna get some more sheets." [Before opening a second pack of sheets, haha.]
"You've gotta scissor these." [Handing me a box to open.]
"Extercise boots!" [Snow boots.]
"Whoa, can you take these tags off? I don't like boots on my tags."
"Frosting!" [It was fake canned tuna.]
[After I asked if she wanted to see what else she got...] "No, I'm making food."
[To Justin, after he tried to help her open a gift...] "You messed up my present!"

It was so much fun opening presents and starting traditions at our house. The past 2 years Adriana has been too little to really know what was going on, so we just did a few gifts for her at my parents'. She was so excited about everything, I just can't wait to do this every year.

Reverse BDD

2011-12-30T14:26:00.003-05:00

Before we get started – this is not an invitation to be an asshole. Thank you in advance for either being respectful or being quiet.

Okay, so I think we have all heard of body dysmorphic disorder…you know, that thing that some people accuse skinny chicks of when they talk about being fat too much? A comment from one of my twitter friends about needing to lose baby weight got me started on a train of thought. Do you think it’s possible to have REVERSE BDD? Like, if people with BDD have an “excessive concern about and preoccupation with a perceived defect of their physical features”, reverse BDDers would have no concern whatsoever about an actual defect of their physical features. Except, in this case, I’m talking about weight, so let’s not call it a defect (hells no). I’m replacing “defect” with “characteristic” since I’m talking as a matter of fact with no negative or positive connotations whatsoever.

What I’m trying to say (poorly) is that I think that part of the reason I have been carrying around 35-55 pounds of extra weight since 2006 is that, when I look in the mirror, I don’t see those 35-55 pounds. For the most part, I think I look pretty average, despite the fact that I AM overweight (5 out of 5 doctors agree). Every once in a while I will catch a glimpse in a mirror or see an especially unflattering picture and I am genuinely shocked by my appearance. I think it’s really easy for me to write it off as bad lighting or a weird angle and just delete the picture and move on. I carefully edit the image of myself in my head the same way I carefully select which pictures I will actually post on my blog or on Facebook.

I think some of the contributing factors to my reverse BDDism are:
1) I gained 60 pounds over the space of a year and a half, which is pretty darn quick (caused by change in activity and stress levels and lots of pizza, not some medical condition your father's brother’s nephew’s cousin's former roommate had).
2) I’m still a skinny chick in my head, just like I’m still only 28 years old.
3) At 5’8”, I can carry extra weight better than someone who is shorter.
4) I’ve never been one to be overly concerned about any aspect of my physical appearance, so why should weight be any different?
5) I’ve been pregnant twice since I gained the weight, and all pregnancy long people tell me how great I look (I lose weight when pregnant thanks to the 9 months of barfing).

The friend who got me thinking about this said something to the effect of “four years is probably long enough”. As we are entering 2012, it’s SIX years for me. Six years is a long time to have no urgency whatsoever to lose weight, especially when considering how much I would have to lose to get back to my starting place. It’s a long time to be in denial about the fact that my weight is causing my knees to hurt, my heart to race, my clothes to not fit right, etc. etc.

I have no interest in going on a diet – I love food and don’t think you need to completely deprive yourself of the things you love to be a healthier person. There is, however, lots of room to make better food-related decisions, so I am going to start taking (baby) steps in that direction.

I do have an interest in exercising, but not necessarily the motivation - you saw how quickly I jumped on an excuse to quit 30 day shred. I know for a fact that I feel significantly better when I work out regularly, so I’m not really sure why it is so hard to get the kick in the pants to just DO IT. I think I need to lose the reverse BDD, gain a realistic perspective of what my body looks like, and add the desire to LOOK better to the desire to FEEL better. That’s kind of backwards and screwy, isn’t it?

So, 2012. Eat less, exercise more = goal #1. HOW VERY ORIGINAL.

2011 Recap

2011-12-29T17:17:00.004-05:00

So, Sundry changed up the yearly meme this year. Even though she deleted all of the questions I super hate, I needed to keep the old version for consistency. Enjoy!

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?

This is the first year I blogged, tweeted, or pinned anything. Also the first time I ventured into making internet friends beyond the occasional email or comment. I hosted my first giveaway and participated in my first CDP exchange. I have very much enjoyed putting myself out there, and I can’t wait to take it one step further in 2012 by attending PJs@TJ’s and the Blathering.
This is also the first (and, thank fucking god, last) year that I ever had two kids under two years old.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don’t believe I made any new year’s resolutions this year. My grandma passed away the same day I found out we were pregnant with Lucia last December, and I think I was too busy with grieving, barfing, and the holidays to really set any goals. I am definitely planning on making both general resolutions and a firm to do list for 2012 (coming soonish!)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Besides me? My childhood friend C had adorable twin boys in July, my coworkers/friends A and B had perfect little babies in October, and my friend/family member N had a beautiful baby girl last week. Tons and tons of lovely ladies on the internet made cute babies this year – too many to link!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Nope.

5. What countries did you visit?

Nowhere, we are lame. The only (non-work) trip we took all year was to Surfside Beach.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

More sleep and a clean house, definitely. And I’d always LIKE to have more money, but we are doing okay. Honestly, we really are very lucky. It’s hard to feel like I “lack” anything after everyone has been so generous with us and our girls.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

This year has been pretty much a blur – the only date that stands out to me is Lucia’s birthday, August 14, 2011.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I wouldn’t really say I “achieved” anything this year, unless you count the Beautification Award that we got for our landscaping (they must have thrown pity votes my way after watching my 8 month pregnant ass do hours of weeding). I am, however, proud that Justin and I had a record low number of fights this year, so I’m going to call that an achievement.

9. What was your biggest failure?

No matter how many to do lists I make or stuff I get done around the house, it’s still kind of a mess. I need to remember this when I make my resolutions for 2012 – I want to have a house that is organized enough that it’s not a big deal when people drop in unannounced (but please don’t do that, call first!!!)

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Does 9 months of barfing count as illness? Lots of crappy coughs/colds thanks to mutant toddler germs, and the birth related injuries – second degree tear, thrushy boobs, months of traumatic pooping. GOOD TIMES.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Definitely my Macbook Pro. I can’t believe I went so long without one. Honorable mention goes to the Arms Reach Cosleeper, which is so much better than sleeping for months on end with a newborn in the bed.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Hubs, for sure. Even though he is not a fan of the newborn stage (to put it lightly), he has been SO GOOD with Adriana and has really made an effort to help more around the house.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

MIL, obviously. Go read the 11 jillion posts about it if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Where DIDN’T most of my money go? (Wait – I know that one – my savings account!) Besides all of the normal expenses for a family of four, most of it went towards stuff for the house, our unpaid maternity/paternity leaves, and Lucy-related medical bills.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Completing our family, obviously. Meeting Lucy. Anything cute that Adriana said/did all year. Getting comments on the blog / making bloggy friends. Book club / drinking wine with my friend N.

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?

Despite not having a real blog before this year, this is the 4th year I’ve filled out this damn survey (2008 and 2009 here; no idea what happened to 2010), and I can NEVER think of an answer to this one.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder? Happier
– thinner or fatter? I weigh less, yet I’m somehow fatter
– richer or poorer? Poorer, FOR SURE

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Cleaning, exercising, bubble baths, massages, pedicures. The usual.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? 

Cleaning, watching tv, yelling at Adriana (so, so, so sad that being pregnant and tired and stressed makes me lose my patience with her).

20. How did you spend Christmas?

I’m going to post about this soon, I swear! In a nutshell, opened presents with the girls at our house Christmas eve morning, Justin’s dad’s side Christmas eve afternoon, spent the night at my parents, then presents with my side Christmas morning and bummed around over there all day.

21. Did you fall in love in 2011?

Yes, with my new baby girl.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

New to me this year (thanks, Netflix!) were Glee, Life Unexpected, 30 Rock, and The New Girl. Always love all things reality, How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, Modern Family.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

No. It really takes a lot for me to hate anyone.

24. What was the best book you read?

I very much enjoyed Citrus County, the Hunger Games trilogy, Divergent, Bossypants, and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? The very best was probably the first Hunger Games.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Ugh, I don’t even know if I listened to a SINGLE NEW THING this year.

26. What did you want and get?

Lucia. A promotion. Macbook Pro. Birchbox subscription.

27. What did you want and not get?

It didn’t work out with the housecleaner. I’d love to be able to afford the more expensive cleaning service (they were efficient, didn’t chat, and cleaned instead of organized – loved them).

28. What was your favorite film this year?

I didn’t see too many new ones. Bridesmaids and Crazy, Stupid, Love. come to mind.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 32. Not only did I have to think about how old I am, I have no recollection whatsoever of what we did for my birthday. At all.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

A clean house. I am a broken record!

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

No concept of fashion.”

32. What kept you sane?

Blogging and Justin. In that order (haha).

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I KNOW there is someone who I keep trying to remember in the event that anyone asks me for my top 5 list or whatever, but I CANNOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME remember who. Will update if this amnesia ever ends.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

This is the least stirred I have ever been in my life. Occupy what?

35. Who did you miss?

This is super cheesy and embarrassing - I miss having a best female friend. I haven’t had one since, like, 2005ish? And for some reason this has been on my mind a lot lately.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

Lucia, duh. And Adriana is becoming such a little person, she ties for first place as well.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011. 

I learned that it’s WAY BETTER to just stop nagging Justin and to just do whatever I want done myself. Nagging only makes me feel crappy about my marriage, and the longer it doesn’t get done, the crappier I feel. If I just DO whatever I want done, I am way happier, and I can focus on the tons of good things he DOES do for our family instead of the few things he DOESN’T.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

No.

There you have it! If you also do this meme, link to your post in the comments!

CDP Day!!!

2011-12-09T02:00:00.003-05:00

I am so excited for CDP day! For those of you who are not familiar, a CDP is a Crappy Day Present, as coined by the lovely Rachel from Doing My Best. She is full of awesome, so she agreed to host a Crappy Day Present Exchange. I had nothing else to do this holiday season (hahahakillmenowplease), so I agreed to participate. I had so much fun shopping for my person! In fact, I think I may have gone a teeny bit overboard:

Now if only I could apply the same enthusiasm to shopping for people I know in real life, I'd be set.

I Think We Just Set Back Potty Training 10 Years

2011-12-05T09:02:00.003-05:00

My parents never really had rules about what I could watch on tv or how long I could watch it, so it's never really been a hot issue for me. I do feel a teeny bit guilty when I read a blog post by someone who never lets their kid veg out in front of the tube, but I don't feel strongly enough about it to change my position. However, a couple of things happened this weekend that made me rethink things. (What? This is about tv, not potty training?)(Just wait for it.)

First, Adriana has been increasingly demanding about wanting to watch tv, specifically Caillou, and to a lesser extent Dora and Yo Gabba Gabba. She loooooooooooves her some Caillou. If she could hang out with him and kiss his inexplicably bald* head, she would. The only two things in the world that she loves better than Caillou are her binky and her blanket (the PINK one, Mama). She loves these three things so much, that, at two years of age, she has developed a very sneaky way to manipulate me into letting her have them all at the same time.

Right when she wakes up, she looks at me with her big brown eyes and says "Mama! I want to cuddle on the couch and watch Glee with you!!!"

She knows this will get me, because cuddling and Glee are MY favorite things in the world. I say "OKAY!!" and scoop her up, and she specifies that she wants "to cuddle on the COUCH, with my BINKY and BLANKET and watch GLEE with you". I am so psyched that she wants to do this, that I agree (much to Justin's dismay - he is so ready to be done with the binky).

I fire up netflix and arrange the blankets on the couch so that the DARK PINK side of her blanket is facing up (lest I be subjected to TODDLER WRATH by putting up the light pink side). We get all comfy, I find the right episode, and then...

"I want CAILLOU, not GLEE!!! Caillou, Caillou, Caillou!!!" Adriana pulls the switcheroo and threatens to stop cuddling if she doesn't get Caillou. And I am a sucker so I put it on and continue to cuddle while I fantasize about traveling to Canada with a roll of duct tape for that little creep's whiny mouth.

Yesterday, I was at my Caillou limit, so I made a mistake. I told Adriana that I don't like episodes with Sara because she is mean. She shot me a dirty look, and said "SHE IS NOT!!" I laughed at her defense of even the most minor Caillou character, and decided to up the ante. "Also, Caillou is annoying." Quick as lightning, Adriana turned around and BITCHSLAPPED ME IN THE FACE, while shouting "Caillou is NOT NOYING!!!!"

So I think we might need a little break from Caillou.

The second thing that happened might be the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life, but it was SO BAD, you guys. SO BAD.

Not long before bedtime, I was sitting on the couch playing with my iPhone, and Justin was flipping around Netflix. Adriana had been pushing around her baby stroller and playing with the other 9 million toys all over the floor. Justin put on Wadzilla, which (wikipedia tells me) is about "a guy that goes to get his sperm count raised, and it creates one big sperm that attacks New York City". I looked up and was like "Oh, that's appropriate" but didn't think twice about it, because I'm sure a two year old doesn't know what sperm is.

However, at one point there were some screams and Adriana and I both looked up from our respective activties. This creature that looked like the demon baby of Jaws, and...well...sperm was racing down the hallway and then chomped on a screaming chick's lady bits.

Adriana started off quietly saying "oh no!", and then with more urgency and volume "OH NO! OH NO!" Justin quickly grabbed the remote and flipped it off, and I picked her up and put her in my lap. Her eyes were glistening with tears, and she just couldn't get the words out fast enough.

A: "that fishie came out of the toilet and he went under her pretty dress and he bit her and she was cryin'!!! he was in the toilet and it's yucky and if you go pee pee in the potty chair you get an m&m and he came out of the toilet and OH NO!!!"

Me: "Yeah, that was SILLY, wasn't it! Fishies aren't in the TOILET, they are in the ocean or in a fishtank!"

A: "yeah it was silly he was in the toilet!" (Thank GOD she started laughing a little, but was clearly still distressed)

Me: "It's okay, baby, it wasn't scary, it was just a silly joke!"

A: "it was a JOKE, he was in the toilet it's yucky in there!"

So eventually I think I got her to forget about the sperm monster biting the girl, and convinced her it was just a SILLY FISHIE playing in the toilet, but omg. I'm more than a little worried about what she is going to say to her daycare teacher when she sits on the potty today.

I think WE might need a break from the tv as well, at least when the girls are still awake.

* I am working on a theory that Caillou is bald because he is inbred. His grandpa looks JUST LIKE his dad, and his grandma looks JUST LIKE his mom, but they are married and live in the same house. Just saying.

Wanna Hang Out?

2011-12-02T11:27:00.003-05:00

Yes, I am officially going to The Blathering 2012, and most likely PJs @ TJs as well. Am I crazy? Quite possibly.

My pregnancies are pretty tough, what with the 9 months straight of vomiting and the falling asleep on the couch by 7 pm. Then I'm the primary food source until I start supplementing. We already ask SO MUCH of my parents, since they babysit the girls while I work, FIL and SMIL have their own kid, and MIL is not an option. So we pretty much have no babysitters whatsoever (I'm not comfortable with hiring a random stranger or a teenager - it BLOWS MY MIND that people used to trust me to babysit their newborns when I was TEN YEARS OLD).

Any time Justin and I get invited somewhere, I usually let him go out while I stay home. It works out splendidly when I'm pregnant, since I'm too tired to do anything anyway, but it kind of sucks beyond that. Not that I don't love spending time with the girls, I just miss adult conversation.

Add in the fact that most of my high school friends live out of state, I am only friends with my college friends via facebook, and I don't have much in common with my grad school friends anymore (they still party all night, every night)...my social life is pretty lame. Not too many people stick around after you have blown them off for a year to have a kid and raise a newborn.

So, I am branching out. I'm tired of not doing anything for myself, so I'm going to change it. Although I'm definitely nervous about going to both events, I'm not super shy or bad at making friends. But I would SO MUCH RATHER do this with people who know who I am. So here I am, begging you to come hang out! It will be so much fun! Doooooooooo itttt......

November Goal Recap

2011-12-01T17:15:00.000-05:00

Hey, remember this?

Well...I started the month strong but ran out of steam entirely by the 15th or so. After 3 months of doing reasonably well with interrupted sleep courtesy of Lucy, I just crashed completely. Even though I failed to complete most of my goals, I am pretty proud of myself for a successful transition to work, clearing out Adriana's big girl room, making dinner every single night (!!!), pretty-ing up the blog and making new e-friends, and cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner.

Report Card:

I quit 30 Day Shred because my knees weren't ready. I lost 4 pounds but gained back 3 due to Thanksgiving. I was supposed to replace it with pilates but that hasn't so much happened yet. D-

I missed some NaBloPoMo days, but it was a record posting month and I had fun, so that counts for something, right? B

I worked on potty training Adriana consistently right up until the holidays. She really isn't ready yet - she will agree to sit but won't stay on the potty, and has only actually gone once (at daycare, and I think they just caught her at the right time). I am probably going to let her have a break next month and then try again in January (and repeat until she's ready). A-

I still suck at thank you cards. There are just not enough hours in the day. F

The girls are now in their proper rooms, but I still have to paint. I'm putting that off til spring now, in favor of more pressing household issues. I am grading myself high anyway, because Adriana's room was a dump. A-

I got the electrician's phone number, haven't made the call yet. F+

I got a bunch of clothes washed, but still haven't gotten everything put away or donated. C-

The gutters are clean, the leaves are raked, and a winterizing fertilizer has been put down. A+

Hmm, turns out that posting my goals on here does not actually make me any more likely to accomplish them. That's okay, now that I have some kid-free time over lunch and after work (Justin works near my parents, so he's the transporter), things will slowly shape back up.

Thanksgiving 2011, With a Side of MIL Saga: Part 8

2011-11-28T06:25:00.002-05:00

As you may already know via Twitter, I found out two fridays ago that MIL was no longer having us over to her house for Thanksgiving, and instead wanted to come over to our house. Through a string of miscommunications, it initially seemed like this was typical MIL shenanigans, but I think it was actually legit.

First of all, other than a brief mention in October, we were apparently never formally invited to Thanksgiving at her place to begin with - hubs just assumed that we were, since it has been a tradition to go over to MIL's the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and split the actual holiday between my family and Justin's dad's side. Secondly, when she texted him about Thanksgiving, it did not say anything about making arrangements to go over there, it just said "I need to talk to you about Thanksgiving", so again, we were just assuming it was to cement a time to go over there like we usually do.

When Justin did finally get ahold of her (after MANY, MANY tries, which again seemed like she was ditching us), she gave some weird story that they had to repair the roof and therefore couldn't afford to replace their dining room table and chairs, so there would be nowhere to sit.

(Let's pause to consider if there is any world in which this makes actual sense)...

I instantly thought she just didn't want to see us, and then later thought that maybe they couldn't afford to do a big Thanksgiving (which would mean I'm just a jerk), so I offered to cook. After all, cooking a Thanksgiving IS on my 101 in 1001 list, so it's not like it's something completely out of the question. And I think it would have been super rude to have them over Thanksgiving weekend and NOT cook, so whatever. I didn't really particularly WANT to, but I was going to cook a full Thanksgiving meal.

Jumping ahead, to tie up the MIL portion of the story...Several times throughout the meal, she mentioned that she had made a 25 pound turkey, so it wasn't the being able to afford it thing. And she came, so it wasn't the not wanting to see us thing. So...she really got rid of her table and chairs and there would be nowhere to sit. No shenanigans, but definitely weird. It shouldn't be ENTIRELY shocking, seeing as how she ripped out the carpet and has been living off plywood for the last 2 years without any plan to replace the flooring (assuming it's still not fixed, I didn't ask). And last Thanksgiving, her couch was mysteriously gone so we had to sit at the table the entire time. And their room only had mattresses on the floor, as they had ditched the bed frame. Is there some kind of obvious explanation here, that I am too dense to see? Bedbugs? Termites? Some weird anti-hoarding disease that causes you to get rid of all of your basic furniture without replacing it first? I AM SO CONFUSED.

Moving on.

I didn't grab my nice camera because I was super tired from Lucy not sleeping all week and because I didn't want to explain to MIL that I needed fancy photos for my blog in which she is heavily featured, so iPhone pics it is.

For the table, I was going for "casual, but nice". Molly from My Happy House had posted a tablescape that a) was pretty and b) featured a wooden pumpkin I already had, so I went for a less fancy version of that. Our Target has a whole section of porcelain goodies, so I picked up a cake stand, butter dish, sugar bowl (the creamer was out of stock), spoon rest, and a couple of platters. The table cloth and napkins were also reasonably priced, so I grabbed those too. I now own stuff to entertain that is less fancy than our wedding china, yay!

For the appetizer, I made the Pumpkin Pie Fruit Dip from Smashed Peas and Carrots. It was pretty yummy, but everyone except Adriana pretty much ignored it (and then Justin cut her off so she wouldn't spoil her appetite).

For the entire rest of the meal, I went back to Life of a Doctor's Wife's awesome Fakesgiving posts. I totally replicated her entire meal (aside from subbing my garlic mashed potatoes for hers). When I first read those posts last year, I contacted her and got her OCD-friendly meal prep timeline, which was also a huge help.

The best part by far was her Totally Untested Marshmallow-Topped Sweet Potatoes. These were AMAZING and way better than throwing some marshmallows on canned yams and calling it a day. I couldn't convince Justin to even try them (rude!) but whatever, more for me!

Instead of doing smaller breasts, thighs and legs, or a whole turkey, we took the middle road and got a 10 pound breast. This made for some interesting improvising with thawing and with the recipe itself. It needed to cook for a good two hours longer than I expected before it hit the required internal temperature. Also, I kind of winged it with the gravy since that recipe only yielded two cups, and I wanted way more than that. I think I won without sacrificing much taste.

The end result:

And of course, the best part of doing it myself, is that we get to keep all of the leftovers!

This is probably silly to those of you who have been cooking your own Thanksgiving meal for years, but this was a HUGE accomplishment for me. My mom is a Supermom, and will never give up control of Thanksgiving. If I wanted to, I could literally go for years without cooking a turkey dinner. However, this is one of those things where I wasn't going to feel like a Real Mom until I knew I was capable of doing it myself. And now I know I can!

A big thank you to all of the bloggers who tested everything out first, so I could succeed without putting much effort in myself :)

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho

2011-11-23T07:29:00.002-05:00

So, I am now a money making member of the workforce again. I am not thrilled with going back, but being able to afford groceries is always nice.

The bad news:

I miss little miss squishy cheeks and her silly sister :(
I only get to work from home one day a week, not to exceed three months. They waited until the friday before I got back to tell me. There really isn't any reason they said no, or any reason they couldn't have said yes. It also really sucks that they capped it at three months, without even giving it a chance to see if it was working. The Office just isn't a very flexible workplace, especially when it comes to working moms.
To make up for the fact that they were giving me the shaft, they offered to let me have my own pumping room that would have a lock on the door (from the outside, so I'm the only one who used it) and a fridge. When I got there on monday, there was no special room, just the same old "personal room" INSIDE THE BATHROOM, that locked from the inside, and had a locked fridge. Last time, people would just HANG OUT in this room all hours of the day, napping, reading, and doing their makeup, so it was never free for the one or two people who needed to use it for its intended purpose. And these people are SLOBS, leaving mineral makeup all over the counters. And it's a room IN THE BATHROOM, so there are BATHROOM GERMS where I am making food for my BABY. If I really wanted to be a jerk, I could refer them to the law that says "the employer must also provide a place, other than a bathroom, for the employee to express breast milk." But then they would argue that a room in a bathroom is not a bathroom. SIGH. Here are some pics of the room...it would be fine if it weren't IN A BATHROOM and was just used for pumping. Oh and I was forced to be the Fridge Note Person, as people were sticking their crap in the fridge during the 20 minutes between when it appeared and the lock was installed, so I had to move it.

Our group moved to a different part of the building while I was gone. The closest entrance is on the side that has ELEVENTY JILLION spaces that are reserved for carpool vehicles. I get that we wanted to make the point that we are a green building, but dude. NO ONE USES THE CARPOOL SPACES. There is also a row for hybrid vehicles nearby, but I have less beef with those since people use (some of) them. Excessive:

The good news:

I still get to work from home one day a week, which was one more day than they could have given me.
I don't have to keep breast milk in the community fridge (unlike last time).
My pumping situation is still better than what a lot of people have to deal with.
Without going into too much detail about what I do, I missed two of the biggest, craziest cases of the year, and they are neatly wrapping up just as I'm getting back. So I don't have to jump into the middle of anything, and I'm not really behind. Yay.
As part of the move, I somehow not only got one of the awesome desk chairs that you have to special order, and I got a cube with a "view". Sort of. Our company does this weird thing where even if you are right by a window, they don't take down the cube walls unless you are a supervisor. Also, these windows are like half the size of the ones where we used to sit. Bit whatever, I get to sit by them! I have seniority!

I can stand up and look at transformers whenever I want!

Or cars!

So that's my week. I can not thank you all enough for all of your kind comments, emails, tweets, texts, etc. You have no idea how much that brightened my day and made the whole crappy going back to work situation a little easier. I love you all!

NaBlew it

2011-11-20T07:03:00.003-05:00

Shit, I missed another day! I was just going to pretend like the first time didn't happen, since I double posted the next day, but now I have to officially place NaBloPoMo in the fail bucket, right next to 30 Day Shred, and a placeholder for painting the girls' rooms and probably getting the electrician's estimate.

However, I am SO GLAD I at least tried to participate. I wanted to tell our backstory for a long time, and I am still planning on adding both girls' birth stories and how we bought our house to complete all of our "major life events". I am still going to try to post every day for the rest of the month (and beyond?!) because I still have tons of semi-composed posts taking up brain space.

While I didn't post yesterday, I spent a ton of time giving my blog a new look, figuring out how to add tabs, and tagging old posts. I didn't really put a lot of thought into picking out a template when I first started posting, and the one I slapped up there was NOT ME and also FUGLY. I also plan to design a header myself, and I figured out exactly what I want it to look like. Between that and learning how to do those little photo collages in Photoshop Elements 10, I am pretty darn pleased with myself this month, despite my NaBloPoMo fail. Click on through to check out the new look! It's probably still FUGLY, but at least it's PURPOSEFUL FUG.

While we are talking about bloggy stuff, I want to let everyone know that when I go back to work on Monday, you might see less of me as far as commenting on your blogs, twitter, and pinterest go. It's not that I won't be reading, I just can't comment on most blogs from work (only on approved breaks, of course) and will be busy with Lucy and Adriana and dinner and housework and (hopefully) sleep at night. But please know that I'm still there, cheering you on and thinking about how cute your kids are or how funny your drawings are or how amazing your crafts and recipes are or how smart and funny and interesting you are. I promise!

...Then Comes Marriage...

2011-11-18T03:16:00.006-05:00

First Comes Love

(Then Comes Unplanned Pregnancy)

Then Comes (a really, really long post about) Marriage!

Even though it was fun planning a more traditional wedding, I was pretty relieved once we decided to abandon the big wedding in favor of a shotgun wedding in Niagara Falls. Big crowds are NOT MY THING, and I REALLY did not want to stand up and get all emotional in front of eleventy jillion people. Our intimate wedding was SO PERFECT - our entire wedding party included my parents, my brothers and their wives, my nephew, my cousin (maid of honor), Justin's cousin (best man) and his wife, FIL and SMIL, and MIL and SFIL. Including us, that's just 16 people.

I googled "Niagara Falls Weddings" and quickly decided on a ceremony at what was then called the Konica Minolta Tower, on the Canadian side. Now it's just called The Tower and it looks like they redid the inside. They have also changed up the wedding packages - I am fairly certain that the packages used to be Gold, Silver, and Bronze, and the Silver (now "Classic") package was a good $1000 cheaper for all of the same services except the tour and maybe the welcome package, but I could be wrong.

Here is my quick take on all of the services:

Personal Wedding Consultant: Her name was Jane and she was nice. I let her (and my mom) do everything, since I was NOT REMOTELY interested in planning a single detail. I just wanted to show up and get married.
Chapel: The "chapel" was just the observation deck of the hotel. It had really ugly carpet and tacky fake decorations, but the view is nice (assuming you get a clear day, which we did not).
Officiant: We had a tiny lady who sounded like a Canadian muppet. We had asked Jane to get us a copy of the vows (we selected "non-religious") in advance, and she never did. Weird vows in a muppet voice led to some unintentional humor at various parts of the wedding. It was kind of fun not knowing what we were going to be saying, and the wedding video always makes me laugh.
Music: I let Jane play all of the traditional wedding stuff. I alway imagined picking some quirky indie music for my wedding day, but when it came down to it, I just wanted to enjoy the ride without planning anything. I don't regret this at all - my only music-related regret is that I didn't get to dance with my dad since we didn't have a reception, just dinner.
Flowers: I didn't want a silk bouquet, and got a little specific on this one. I told them I wanted a monochromatic pink arrangement, listed some flowers that I wanted included, and maybe even sent a sample picture or two. They didn't really get the "monochromatic" part right, but my flowers were GORGEOUS. This was by far the best thing they did.
Photography: I was horribly disappointed by the "professional" wedding pics, which is probably why it has been over 2 years and I still haven't selected the shots for my little album. All of the pictures you see here were taken by my little brother, and my older brother did our wedding video. They are the best.
Accommodations: The rooms were TINY - pretty much a bed, a bathroom, and a closet. The windows were huge so you could see the falls, and seemed like they would break if you leaned up against them.
Dinner: The dinner afterwards seemed really nice. All of the staff were pleasant and basically let us do whatever we wanted.

All in all, it was much less cheesy than expected, and whenever there was cheese, it was welcome. We figured it came with the deal, kinda like getting married by Elvis in Vegas.

The only thing I really had to do was get a dress - no small feat when you are 24 weeks preggo on the big day. I actually just bought the dress I wanted before I found out I was pregnant (Nordstroms, $200ish), and had a tailor add some panels on the sides (which explains any funky beading you see in some of the profile shots). I LOVE my dress and wish it hadn't been altered, but Adriana didn't want to be squished in the name of fashion.

We drove up on a Thursday night, because you have to be in the country for 24 hours before getting married in order to get your license. We went to the city hall the next morning, and didn't have any trouble. The whole shebang took maybe an hour?

By that time, our families were rolling in. A bunch of us took the trip down to the falls to take pictures and check out the view. Crazy mist + maternity top = unattractive cling.

Since there was no need for a rehearsal dinner, we all had a relaxing dinner at Outback. The two things I remember most about this are the ridiculous prices (for a minute you think that it's not that expensive and just SEEMS expensive due to conversion from US to Canadian, then you do the math and realize that they are INSANE) and my cousin falling asleep at the table after three sips of her alcoholic beverage.

We were married on Saturday, June 20, 2009. I met up with Jane that morning to go over things - maybe like 2 hours before the wedding? The observation deck was split into two parts, the area where we would have the ceremony, and a little area for the bride to get ready. Jane had arranged for someone to come do my hair, which was an add-on option to the wedding package. In the spirit of winging it, I let her do whatever she wanted, as long as it was half up, half down (a compromise between me and FutureHubs).
Once my hair was done, there was a lot of sitting around and taking tons of pictures. I got a little snippy snappy at the photographer because he must have taken 150 shots of me and various people standing in front of this stupid plastic plant (Jane was quick to interject that it was SILK, not plastic). Part of the reason all of our professional shots were so bad was that everything was overexposed since it was rainy and all you could see out the windows was a huge mist cloud. The other problem was that this dude had NO IMAGINATION, and didn't change up any poses or adjust the zoom even once the whole time. (Bitter much?)

My brother got a lot of really nice moments though. I love how cute and happy Justin and his dad look here:

Wedding time! My dad and I are both giant saps, so OF COURSE we both burst into tears right before walking down the aisle. I turned to him and said "I love you, dad", and he said something like "dammit, I knew I'd be okay as long as you didn't talk to me", and then it was all mush from there. Oddly, after watching the wedding video, it didn't look like we were as crazy emotional as we felt, but trust me, we were barely holding it together.

I remained choked up for the first part of my vows. At one point, Justin squeezed my hands (we were holding hand the whole time), looked me in the eyes, and said "You can do it, babe", which really helped. I'll never forget the way he looked at me throughout the entire ceremony. We were both so happy. In fact, I would venture to say that this was the happiest day of my life, including when the girls were born. Births are stressful and just plain crazy, so there are tons of other emotions going on. Our wedding day was so simple and easy and fun and non-stressy, that it was just pure happiness.

Remember how I said our officiant sounded like a muppet? One of our cheesy vows was about being "LOVAHS" and I totally laughed out loud, like a 4th grader.

Canadians also have this weird thing where they make a really big deal about signing the license. I felt like we spent FOREVER at that little table with the big fancy quill. At one point the photographer joked that it was our maid of honor and best man's turn to kiss, which cracked us all up and won him back some points with me. I'm sure he always makes that same joke but whatever, it was funny.
We took another million pictures after signing the license, and then were released to the lobby since another couple needed to get hitched. The woman was actually getting her hair done in our little dressing area before the ceremony, which I thought was weird.

They weren't ready for us in the dining room, so we went to the lobby, opened some gifts, drank some champagne (just a sip for me!) and ate some cookies. My parents come prepared!
We had our little "reception" in the hotel restaurant. They had set up a little head table for the wedding party, which was a nice touch. I honestly don't remember what we ate...chicken? This is why I always take pictures of food when I'm in charge of the camera.

My dad tried to give a speech and choked up too much to get the words out. He is so cute. He was trying to say something to the effect of "When you were little and were misbehaving, we always used to threaten that we hoped some day you'd have a daughter JUST LIKE YOU. Now that you are going to have a daughter, we really do hope that she is just like you." I'm sure if he could have gotten it out it would have been much more eloquent (communications background!) but you get the gist. It was really sweet.

I love this picture, but it took me SO LONG to figure out that my cousin's shadow is what makes me look dirty.
Kissies!
Cake cutting time! This seems like a good time to talk about how amazing my mom is. She made sure she got the most beautiful cake from a local bakery, and hauled it all the way to Canada without so much as a smudge. This is just one of MANY, MANY examples of how she always makes sure that everything is perfect. She and my dad also hosted an amazing reception in their back yard after we got back, and I know that her planning is what made it such a success. I wish I had pictures to share, but I spent the whole time talking to the guests, and never got to take any. They had freaking valet service and a bartender! It was crazy. They both really went out of their way to make everything special, and I hope I can do the same for my daughters some day (OMG two weddings - PLEASE HELP ME, MOM). Anyway, best mom ever.
After dessert we changed and went gambling. The perfect end to the perfect day.

That's all, folks!

UPDATE:I forgot to ask you to link to your wedding story in the comment section, if you've posted about it. Swistle already commented, so I will link for her - it's one of my favorite bloggy wedding stories ever. If you've never posted, please, tell me the highlights! I love this stuff!

Lucia: 3 Months

2011-11-17T21:49:00.007-05:00

Lucia,

I can't believe it's already been three months since you joined our family! The day you were born was easily one of the happiest days in my life.

You were born with a thick head of hair and beautiful blue eyes - and you still have both! You also have a sassy personality - we knew you would fit in with our family right away.

You have had a very busy three months. When you were three weeks old, we took you to Surfside Beach. You slept and ate pretty much the whole time, but I'm so glad we decided to go. I will never forget our quiet moments on the beach, listening to the ocean while I cuddled you in my arms (or on my boob, haha).

You lost your belly button at just five days, and it took a long time to heal. You were a month old before you had your first real bath! Your big sister helped - that's her head in the bottom left corner. She still assists during all of your baths, testing the water and telling me if it's too cold or too hot.

You are a very healthy girl - you weighed 12.34 pounds at your two month appointment! Your only problem has been an ongoing battle with thrush. At least you look good in purple!

You learned from an early age that your sister should not be trifled with. Although she can be rough, she can also be very sweet. She always makes sure you have your binky and your blanket, and you are the first person she wants to see in the morning and the last person she wants to kiss before bed.

You have traveled all over the place in your baby bjorn - the zoo, the park, the pumpkin patch, the museum, trick-or-treating, the grocery store, you name it. You have also been to a few movies and restaurants. You are a good little companion!

You are different from your sister in that you cry more and you smile more. You had the best cry when you were born - like a tiny squealy scream. I wish we would have captured it before you stopped crying like that! As awesome as your cry was, your smile is a million times better. Your whole face lights up. You started smiling real smiles when you were just two weeks old. I was holding you, and Dada popped his head next to mine. You looked at us both with the most adorable smile I have ever seen - all gums and eye crinkles. Any time you are awake, you are quick to return our smiles, and today, you had your first real laugh. I hope you are always as happy as you are right now.

You also don't seem to mind tummy time as much as Adriana did. You can make it 5-10 minutes before crying, which is about 5-10 minutes longer than she did. You both were early to roll over from tummy to back - you did it around 7 weeks.

You are your father's child, through and through. Would it kill you to look a TINY bit like me? I will forgive you if you are left handed, so keep that in mind.

You have discovered your hands and the art of blowing bubbles and raspberries. You also "talk" to me, taking turns cooing and grunting. I know you have so many more milestones to experience, but I have enjoyed all of these little achievements, because YOU are the one who is doing them.

I am so sad that I have to go back to work on Monday and won't be able to kiss your squishy cheeks and tiny toes all day long. Hopefully I will get official permission to work from home two days a week so we can keep having fun together. I love you so much, baby girl!

Love, Mama

Diniwilk Stew

2011-11-15T23:57:00.002-05:00

GAH, Swistle is right! Blogger is randomly publishing posts if you accidentally hit enter after the title. Stupid blogger.
After three months of being relatively okay with interrupted sleep, it's finally caught up with me. I have felt AWFUL the past few days, and no amount of napping is fixing it. OF COURSE this happens right when I'm going back to work.
Also in time for work, the great postpartum hair shedding has begun. I pulled out two large fistfuls today. I know from last time that the little baby hairs that come in to replace the hair loss drive me nuts, and I will have to cut some bangs in another 4-5 months. I think after THAT I might chop it all off and go short, which excites me to no end.
I have finally joined both twitter and pinterest. It's been fun playing around on both, but I have no idea how I'm going to have time for all of this stuff now, and it's making me sad!
I am so not ready to go back to work next week. I thought I would be, during my peak frustration with Adriana, but we have settled into a nice groove at home, and I'm going to miss my silly little girl SO MUCH. The other day, she walked up to me and said "Mama, I'm CONFUSED." I laughed, because I was pretty sure she had no idea what confused meant. "Why are you confused, baby?" "I don't KNOW! Because...because...because I CRYIN!" (She wasn't crying, so obviously she WAS confused!)
I'm also going to miss being able to kiss Lucy's chubby little cheeks on demand. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITHOUT THOSE CHEEKS???

2011 Holiday Card Update

2011-11-14T13:19:00.004-05:00

Subtitle 1: "Still too busy/lazy/overwhelmed to write my wedding post"

Subtitle 2: "NaBloPoMo 2011: Phoning it in"

Guess what? I am one of those people who asks for advice only to ignore the overwhelming majority! I hate those people! But I hate my wonky eye even more. I'll look at the camera next year, when I'm (hopefully, OMG) getting more sleep.

I decided to go with the Fantasy Snowflake from Tiny Prints. Also of note: I signed the card with Justin and the girls' last name. Seemed like the thing to do, now that there's 3 of them and one of me. Sigh.

2011 Holiday Photos

2011-11-13T13:38:00.005-05:00

You might have noticed that I am addicted to getting our pictures taken. I actually have to pat myself on the back, because I realized that I could knock out Adriana's 2 year photos, Lucia's 3 month photos, and our holiday pictures all at the same time (since we had both maternity, hospital newborn, and 2 week / newborn photos, I decided not to do 2 month and 4 month pictures for Lucy, and to just do 3 month pictures). See, I can show restraint!

Question re: holiday cards. Would you use the second picture or the third? I like to show the whole family, but I think I look both tired and insane in the second one. When I'm sleepy, my wonky eye gets a lot worse, and it's all bad. But I think the reading one might be too cheesy? I don't know.

Intermission (Adriana's Room Update)

2011-11-12T22:13:00.006-05:00

We went a little overboard with wedding pictures, and choosing which ones are going into my epic wedding post is taking forever. I'm going to give a little update on Adriana's room situation instead, lest NaBloPoMo suffer the same fate as 30 Day Shred (FAILBOAT!)

I believe I had mentioned before that Adriana's new room has basically served as a storage space since we moved here in March of 2010. I probably neglected to mention that I would also just throw crap in here at the last minute any time we were having guests over.

Adriana's room on November 1:

Adriana's room on November 10:

I have been busting my butt, yes? We also installed the railing for the twin, and she is sleeping in there as we speak (as you read? whatever). I'm kind of at a standstill because I don't really want to buy new furniture, and have no idea how to get the room to be less traditional/country feeling. The bedding isn't helping, but I fell in love with it when I was planning the nursery and decided to wait til I got the big girl bed and I'm going to make it work, dammit! Here's the long term plan for the room:

Paint the walls. I want to do something fun like stripes or a stencil, but I need to rethink colors now that I've seen the bedding on the bed. I was originally thinking a pretty gray with bright stripes, but the bedding is too pastel. Bleh.
Order shams and owls that go with the Pottery Barn Kids Hayley bedding. Or skip it and so something to make it less matchy? I don't know.
Paint the bed frame and dresser white
Change out hardware on dresser (something girly like crystal knobs)
Get a nightstand - I love this glass accent table from Target, but it's probably inappropriate for a 2 year old
Move the chest to our bedroom or the living room
Get the 9 cube storage set from Target in white or a dark chocolate with bright, girly colored bins
Switch out the ceiling fan to match the Minka Aire's in the rest of the house
Replace the blinds with roman shades
Patch and repaint the trim and doors
Paint hardware

Adriana is a super girly girl, and I want the room to reflect that without making me gag. Hopefully I will get it all figured out soon, seeing as how she has already made the switch. If you have posted pictures of your kids' rooms, link to them in the comments section - I love looking at pictures and planning (more than implementing).

(...Then Comes Unplanned Pregnancy...)

2011-11-11T13:17:00.009-05:00

In First Comes Love, I told you how I got this sweet bling in October of 2008 (the ring, not the amazingly awesome Kaleidoscope nail polish):

Now I get to the part you requested - scandal time!

Around Christmas of 2008, we were happily wearing matching jammies and planning a picture perfect wedding:

We set the date for September 19, 2009, sent out save the date cards, hired a photographer and a DJ, and rented a hall. Early January, I took my future bridesmaids dress shopping. I should mention (lest you think I have no taste whatsoever) that the dresses below were the style I liked, but not those colors. For the record, I was planning on black dresses with super bright multicolored bouquets.

At some point during the dress shopping craziness, I made the fatal mistake of joking about which one of the ladies below would be a pregnant bridesmaid. DO NOT EVER JOKE ABOUT FERTILITY, OR IT WILL COME BACK TO BITE YOU IN THE ASS.

The Friday before Valentine's day, I was sitting in my cube after work, reading through Swistle'sarchives while I waited for Justin to get off work so we could go to dinner. I was reading a post about morning sickness, and all of a sudden, I got really hot and dizzy, and thought I might throw up. Am I...Could I be???

I quickly brushed it off as sympathetic barfiness, and went to the restaurant. However, Justin was running a bit late and I started doing the math on my fingertips. Fuuuuuuuuuck...

This is where I would show you my positive pregnancy test, but I can't find the picture anywhere! Let's just pretend that I'm skipping it to spare you from seeing something I peed on.

Justin and I realized that we would have to tell the family right away, since some decisions would have to be made quickly regarding the wedding. Despite the fact that I was 29 years old, financially stable, and engaged to be married, this was one of the most terrifying things that I have ever had to do in my life. I felt SO STUPID. I went to a year of medical school! I have a Master of Science degree! I specialized in REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY, FTLOG!!! I KNOW exactly how and when you get pregnant. I KNOW that antibiotics make your birth control pill less effective. But, uh. Yeah. Pregnant.

I was also SO ASHAMED. Which was weird, seeing as how my grandma and my mom both did the exact same thing. That's right, folks, three generations of pre-wedding pregnancies! We are fertile! But my mom had always tried to hide this nugget of information from us, and it's still something we've never had a lengthy conversation about.

Anyway, I sucked it up and told my parents in the most super awkward fashion I possible could have. My mom seemed briefly pissed, but my dad smiled right away and you could tell he was really happy. That quickly made my mom jump on board as well, and we got hugs and kisses and congratulations. With that massive weight off my chest, I could finally start to get excited about the pregnancy.

Funny story...We were planning on waiting to tell people outside our immediate family until I was 12 weeks along. We were at a party one night, and I was all worried that our friends were going to notice that I wasn't drinking. Somehow I managed to not get called out, but Justin got EXTREMELY drunk. Our friend decided that he would try to mess with Justin so he would lose at poker. He said "Hey, I hear Laura is pregnant." Instead of denying it, drunk Justin immediately said "How did you know that???" And that's how some of our friends found out, weeks ahead of schedule.

Justin is going to be annoyed that I included this picture - it's not my fault you throw up gang signs and stick out your tongue when you are drunk, honey! And that's what you get for spilling the beans!

Not that it really mattered - I get very pregnant looking very fast. Work people were asking me about my awesome new belly before I announced anything. Nosy bastards.
At my 20 week ultrasound, we found out that we were having a baby girl. I was SURE we were having a boy, and I immediately burst into tears. (Note: I did the exact same thing when I found out Lucia was a girl, which was what we wanted, so I have this reaction no matter what).

I instantly fell in love with the idea of having a sweet baby girl, and began planning the nursery and registering for eleventy jillion pink and purple things:

I had decided shortly after finding out I was pregnant that it made more sense to use any money that would have gone towards the wedding on mounds and mounds of baby stuff. My parents are amazing and extremely generous, so they agreed to this plan. The fancy wedding was aborted (with almost all of our deposits returned!), and the shotgun Niagara Falls wedding planning began.

I took this picture to document the size of my baby bump right before we got married:

This is post wedding, but I just wanted to show you that I also did the henna belly for Adriana:
Wedding post tomorrow!

First Comes Love...

2011-11-10T07:50:00.006-05:00

I was most certainly not looking for a relationship when I met Justin. I had just dropped out of med school and broken up with the guy I had dated for the past two years (we will call him Comic Book Ex, because he did not think having a paying job to cover silly things like rent or groceries was more important than drawing comic books). I was interning at The Office and on the verge of taking a job there. Basically, my whole life had completely changed course over a 5 week period of soul searching / finding myself / whatever you want to call it. Even though today I can safely say that med school was Not For Me and I never should have gone in the first place, back then I was a little worried that some of the decisions I made with respect to med school were due to Comic Book Ex. I was not about to make any other life decisions based on some dude. I just wanted to pay off some bills with my fancy new job, then figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

Well, you know what they say about making plans.

At the time, Justin was a security guard at The Office. He and I always said hi to each other, but I never really thought about him one way or another until I twisted my ankle and was on crutches. He pulled me aside and said "Hey...I'm not really supposed to do this, but since you are on crutches, I strongly suggest you come downstairs and get coffee at 2:25." Never one to turn down a coffeeportunity, I did as I was told. Seconds later, the fire alarm went off. Justin had just saved me from hobbling down 16 flights of stairs on my crutches.

Since I thought he was a nice guy, we started talking a bit via The Office's internal instant messaging program. I love to talk smack, and we quickly ended up in a situation in which one of us was about to lose at pool and owe the other a drink. First date in a bar, klassy!

We really didn't have one of those long, drawn out, "is he my boyfriend or are we dating or what" things. We were a couple from day one.

Secret (young! OMG!) lovahs:

The reason I say "secret" lovahs is that my father worked at The Office. What, did you really think someone with a medical background (and who had taken 0 business classes in her entire life) can just walk into a business setting and get a job? Whatever, I have since gotten my MBA and I kick ass at my job.

Our first date was September 19, 2006. We realized around Halloween that we would have to meet the parents if we wanted to spend the holidays together. Cue a bunch of family drama that I'm not really going to get into here, because it's all in the past and my parents love Justin now. Let's just say that there were some concerns as to whether or not he was good enough for Daddy's little girl. He is, I swear!

I am pretty sure that this is our first Christmas together. So young! And skinny!

Now, through the magic of the internets, we will skip a year to the following Christmas. We didn't really take a lot of pictures that first year, we were too busy playing video games and eating lots and lots of Barberton chicken.

Remember these dorks?

We were getting chubby at an alarming rate, but we were happy:

We rang in 2008 in Vegas, our first trip together:

We were no longer hanging out at Justin's eating chicken. We had moved on to playing lots of poker and drinking lots of beer:

That Valentine's day, Justin surprised me with a kitten, which we named Mohinder (and he has regretted it ever since). We now co-owned a pet, which is pretty much a precursor to marriage. And I say co-owned because, even though we technically lived in separate apartments, we were pretty much co-habitating by that point. [note: I already had Leo, got him in 2001].

Summer of 2008, Justin and I went on the annual family vacation together. My brothers couldn't go, so it was just us and my parents. Awkward! But not as awkward as it could have been. I'd officially say this is the point he was accepted into the fam. The family that tans together, stays together:

I should also mention that Justin would have gotten married within, like, a month of us dating. I was NOT a committer, and had strictly forbidden him from proposing before June of 2008. Here we are at 4th of July, and he still hadn't put a ring on it. I wasn't stressing one way or the other. (Not that I didn't want to marry him, but I was cool with "eventually" or "some day", and was not in any particular rush).

In fall of 2008, it was pretty clear that my days as a single lady were coming to an end. Around the end of September, Justin started ~~being a dick~~ teasing me, doing things like putting the ring box on top of the fan and looking up until I noticed it, only to climb up and retrieve...an empty box. He was totally doing this just to ~~cover his ass~~ make sure that I was going to say yes and not freak out when he asked.

Unbeknownst to me, Justin had brought the ring over to my parents and gotten their blessing, which was a nice touch. They planned a surprise for us, arranging to have champagne sent over to us at our table at Ken Stewart's after he popped the question.

We were engaged October 3, 2008. Little did we know, Miss Adriana would be there to join us a little over a year later!

Right after the official engagement:

Stay tuned...

Rosacea Face + Full Body Melanoma Check

2011-11-10T04:00:00.004-05:00

You guys came here to see if I was going to elaborate on the shotgun wedding comment, and instead I'm going to thrill you with my adventures in dermatology. Lame! No worries though, my scandalous past will be coming soon. Spoiler: I was pregnant when we got married, but I did it without a shotgun to my back (I just like to joke about it).

Another unrelated topic before we get to the point of this post: I quit 30 Day Shred (for now)(fail). I think it was a bad move to jump into it after not exercising since the pre-Adriana days - it is SO HARD on my knees and they were hurting to the point that I was worried I was going to injure them. I'll be replacing it with pilates, and revisit the Shred after I build up some strength and flexibility.

So. Adventures in dermatology. First, I have to tell you about why this was my first trip to the dermatologist since 2008, despite the fact that I have some serious rosacea. I had a dermatologist that was okay, and was covered by my insurance and all that. However, one day a coworker and I were sharing random stories over lunch, and he told me about his friend's dad who had anger management issues. Like, to the point that the kids misbehaved so he BLUDGEONED THEIR PET HAMSTER TO DEATH right in front of them. With a hockey stick. As my friend is telling the story, he was like "Really, Dr. [I wouldn't change his name but I don't want to get my coworker in trouble]? Really?" And I was like "Dr. [Seriously, I don't think mean girls or hamster killers should get a name change]? Is he a dermatologist???" And it turns out that YES, MY dermatologist was Dr. Hamster Killer.

I decided not to go back, because ew. I would have made an appointment with someone else, but then I got pregnant and couldn't take the daily doxycycline anyway. And oh, hi, I just tied into my shotgun wedding story! Daily antibiotics = ineffective birth control! But more on that later.

Would you like to see my non-makeup-ed rosacea face?

It's actually worse than this normally - a few more bumps, a little redder. I think the lighting plus the fact that I hardly wear makeup on maternity leave plus lingering pregnancy hormones (???) are working in my favor. My haggard eyes are actually bothering me more in this shot than my skin. Thanks, Lucy!

Skip this paragraph if you don't have rosacea and therefore don't care:

The new dermatologist was awesome - if you are in my area and want her name, email me. Last time, I was given a prescription for Metrogel, which I didn't fill because it was too expensive. That was replaced by clindamycin solution, which didn't do anything, and the doxycycline, which got rid of the bumps but did nothing for the redness. This time, I was given a prescription for Finacea, which was just as expensive as the Metrogel (roughly $100 for a tube that lasts a month, assuming you have better grooming habits than I do), but I can (with some budget magic) afford it now. I also got a prescription for Sumadan wash, and some samples of over the counter CeraVe wash and CeraVe AM and PM moisturizers. I will give a skin update in a month or so to let you know what works.

She also gave me two nuggets of information that I am super excited about. First, there is a new pill on the market that is supposed to be amazing. I can get a prescription for it when I go back next year (assuming I'll be done breastfeeding by then). She also said that a few sessions of laser treatment should get rid of my redness. HELLS YEAH. It's cosmetic, so not covered by insurance, but roughly $1000 to not have bright red skin (by far, the thing I am the most self conscious about)? SIGN ME UP. I'll do it in March with my bonus check.

I also had a full body check to make sure none of my moles were cancerous. I am not a mole-y person, but I have had at least two serious (to the point of blistering) sunburns in my life, so I'm at risk.

Skip this paragraph if you've already had a full body check and therefore already know what it's like:

I had to get naked, except for my underwear. They gave me three paper items: a paper mat for the floor to set my feet on, a little paper top that opened in the back, and a big paper sheet to cover my lap. She wanted to start with any moles that concerned me, so I showed her this weird one on my chest. She didn't think it was cancerous, but biopsied it anyway with a little wink wink. Bye bye, ugly chest mole! Thanks, insurance! First, she injected it with some sort of numbing solution. Then she sliced it off even with my skin, which leaves the root but makes for a smaller scar. Finally, she cauterized it, which smells like burning flesh (yum). I then pointed out any of the other moles I had that I didn't want her to miss. They all were fine. Then she lifted up the various paper sheets and checked the front of my body (peeking in my undies, which I thought was unnecessary - couldn't I have just TOLD HER if I had a vag mole?) Next, I had to stand up on the paper mat and she checked out the back of my body, again peeking in my undies for butt moles. Awkward.

Anyway, please, for the love of god, go get this done if you haven't already. Melanoma is easy to treat if you catch it early!

/end boring skin post

Dehoarding: Random Crap Bin #2

2011-11-09T13:48:00.009-05:00

Are you ready for another random crap bin?

Mohinder isn't. He likes his new throne.

Hmm, this one looks promising.

There were a ton of papers, so I decided to tackle those first. I know from past experience that if I don't deal with paperwork first, I will end up stuffing everything back in the box when it comes time to deal with them. Avoidance!

Awww, ticket stub for New Moon. Justin and I took Adriana to Olive Garden and then New Moon when she was 6 weeks old - our first family outing. She slept the whole time and it was awesome [unlike Lucia when we went to Longhorn and Crazy Stupid Love - we had to leave halfway through. Also, I googled Bradley Cooper and Emily Blunt because I couldn't remember the name of the movie. I meant Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Do I have any functional brain cells left?]

I pulled out all of the junk mail, old bills and receipts, and assorted other crap and tossed it. I was left with a pile of paperwork related to Adriana's birth and subsequent hospital visits, and a pile of cards congratulating us on our wedding, baby shower, new baby, and new home. All of that happened in the same 9 month period. Crazy.

Niagara Falls adventure passes from the weekend we were married. I HIGHLY recommend a shotgun wedding in the falls - it was intimate and fun and perfect for us (and FutureAdriana).

A bag of BB's (Justin's). I'm pretty sure we got rid of his gun, so we will likely get rid of these too. I set it aside just to make sure.

Big score #1: All of my turbo jam and pilates DVDs. Note that there are also two pregnancy-related workout DVDs, which I enthusiastically ordered during the week between finding out I was pregnant and the onset of my debilitating "morning" sickness which lasted for 9 months. The CDs were set aside until I figure out what is on them, the game and the VHS tapes (except Empire Records, which they will have to pry out of my cold dead hands) were put in the donate/garage sale pile, and the DVDs were shelved.

Some grad school crap, which was thrown out, except for the owl notebook, because, you know. Owls.

Ugh, I need to get all of my Adriana pics in one place. Also - my bayyybeeee is growing up too fast :(

Uno put in our game drawer. Magic cards in the Justin pile. BB's, nintendo games, and magic cards, what is he, 12?

I have no idea where any of these things came from (or what the plug and that thing on the right are for). Trash, trash, Justin pile, Justin pile.

Hair stuff taken to the bathroom, earrings and night cream to my nightstand, pen and jump drive to my laptop bag, lint roller under the sink, zippo to the Justin pile, disc thing to Adriana's room (it goes to her sound spa), credit card to the shredder. Yay, earrings!

Big score #2: $185 worth of gift cards! The Dave & Buster's cards are from my FIL and SMIL, from the Christmas after Adriana was born. We moved when she was 5 months old, and never had the chance to use the cards before they went to bin hell. I hope they still work - it's a tradition to go to Red Lobster (gross) and D&B (fun) for Justin's birthday.

That was a fun haul, it feels like Christmas. If you just found a $10 iTunes card, what would you buy?

100th Post & Fall 2011 Photo Dump

2011-11-08T02:23:00.006-05:00

Welcome to my 100th post, y'all! I wish I had something profound to say, but I really just want to share a bunch of fall photos. I couldn't bring myself to upload these in a timely manner, since I was Halloweened out after Boo at the Zoo, a daycare Halloween party, trick or treating at our house, a neighborhood Halloween party, then trick or treating at my parents'.

Adriana and her daddy at the zoo:

Adriana at the park. She kept screaming "Stop it, mama! No pictures!":

Drini at the pumpkin patch:

It's too heavy, mama! Love her expression on this one:

I hate asking strangers to take our picture (because they SUCK at it), but a "family on the hayride" shot is becoming an annual tradition:

Close up:

This is where I'm glad that I'm the photo-taker and Lucy-keeper. I haaaaate leaves, this is making me sneeze just looking at it:

Mama, Lucia, and a pumpkin:

My little chicken. And yes, I know it's technically a rooster costume. Shhhhhhh!

Heading out for some candy. Adriana was a butterfly:

In the wagon with her cousin:

Fancy neighborhood = big candy bars (for me, obvs). We (Justin) forgot to pack Adriana's pants, but she was conveniently wearing cute tights that worked with her costume:

Dead chicken (sorry if this triggers PTSD, Shalini! R.I.P., Franny, Casey, and Dale!):

I am so grateful for each and every one of you. All of your lovely comments over the past 100 posts were so funny, helpful, and kind. Thanks for reading!

Halloween Giveaway #2 Winner

2011-11-08T00:22:00.004-05:00

You guys are AMAZING!!! When I went to list all of the entries for my second Halloween giveaway, I had 26 entries. 26! And I didn't read a single one of them and think "ew, that sounds nasty". You are the best!

I am psyched that Courtney from Metzger Family Love won the giveaway. I have been stealing her delicious recipes for a while now, and she went out of her way to link to options that I hadn't tried. Both her Chicken Pot Pie and Chicken and Dumplings have been in heavy rotation around la casa Diniwilk. I think Justin rated the pie an 8 (but only because it was a touch watery - I think I need to add some corn starch?) and the dumplings a 9. WIN!

Congrats, Courtney! I will be e-mailing you soon!

Dehoarding: Random Crap Bin #1

2011-11-07T13:46:00.008-05:00

The long standing joke in my family is that I am one snuggie and a pack of adult diapers away from being a hoarder (it probably only makes sense if you have seen that episode).

Part of the problem is that I hate throwing anything away if I spent money on it, whether I use it or not. A bigger part of the problem is that I moved a whole bunch of times in a row - like 8 times in 6 years. Many of these moves had to be completed in a very short time, so 65% of my stuff would get packed in an organized fashion, and the remaining 35% would be tossed into random bins. That would be fine and dandy if I then UNPACKED the bins, but that's not what actually happens. Each move I'd end up with 10 or so bins of junk that remained untouched until the next move, when they would get tossed on the truck with the new bins of junk.

One of my 101 in 1001 goals is to cut the number of these storage bins in half. I haven't counted them yet - I'm kind of scared. These bins are currently occupying the garage, the basement, and Adriana's future room. I'm tackling the ones in Adriana's room first since we need to move her into that room to free up the nursery for Lucia.

I thought it might be kinda fun to explore some of the bins together. The first bin I unpacked wasn't a random crap bin - it was full of books, which were carted down to the built in bookshelves in the basement and given a home. The organized bins are boring, so I'm not showing those here. The random crap bins might be boring or super entertaining - it's all a mystery! Like a Russell Stover Bloopers Box but with useless crap instead of deliciousness!

Mohinder is skeptical of the process.

Hmm, not too much in here. Not one, but TWO unopened packages. Let's start with those.

The fedex package mysteriously contained some paperwork from verizon and what appears to be a replacement for my old phone, sans battery. I have absolutely no idea why I never opened the box, or why I needed a new phone. The paperwork tells me that this bin is from a 2007 move. I set the phone aside to recycle.

The second unopened package contained saddle shoes. I remember ordering these for Justin's office christmas party (they didn't arrive on time, and I apparently never returned them). The party was a "50's Christmas Sock Hop". I set the shoes aside to donate or save for a future garage sale.

Who are these dorks?

The brown box in front of the packages had a chain with no charm. The chain was cheap and discolored, so I tossed it.

Hey, I remember that purse! I bought it in 2005 or so, back when I could still fit in Express clothing and therefore had a reason to set foot in the store. Old gum, bandaid, Little Miss Sunshine stub, and koosh ball thingie in the trash, pen in the pen drawer, and purse in the keep pile. The tape is probably Justin's, I never had a camcorder. How it ended up in my purse will remain an unsolved mystery (OH NOES, now the Unsolved Mysteries creepy ass theme song is in my head. GAH. Also, the phone number is still taking up brain space: 1-800-876-5353).

I remember this bag - I used it to haul my lunch, water bottle, 9 million research papers, purse, etc. back in the grad school days (the first time I went to grad school). Keep pile.

Ohhhh, so that's where my blood pressure machine went. Bought it after having weird heart palpitations and realizing my flexible spending account had a bunch of extra money that was going to go to waste. It's been in the bin ever since.

Some Estee Lauder cream (trash) and neutrogena face wash wipes (taken up to bathroom - I can't imagine that they go bad)(at least I hope not). I also put some of those ReBags and a fridge magnet away in the kitchen, and the Don't Quote me game in the basement while I was up.

An unopened Owl book light, which I clipped to my next read - how cute is Mindy Kaling?)

Trash! Leaving the house!

The keep pile.

Well...that was random. Am I the only one who likes to containerize clutter, like a true closet hoarder?

Kid Clutter

2011-11-06T17:41:00.007-05:00

A while back, Lacey documented the state of her pre-baby home, and boldly announced her plans to keep it as kid clutter-free as possible. I had to laugh, because our house is absolutely crammed with Adriana and Lucia's junk. I am very impressed by people who can keep their kid stuff in designated kid zones and completely out of the adult spaces.

I thought I would just document ONE room, to show you the extent to which we let our kids take over our house.

First, we always have a blanket down on the floor for Lucy. I just pulled some of Adriana's old toys out of storage since she is more alert and pays attention to them now.

The vibrating chair is not normally in this room, but I haven't taken it back upstairs since our playdate with the twins. It is usually in our upstairs bathroom or bedroom or hallway, begging to be tripped over.

The swing is so valuable that I don't even care that it takes up so much space. Do you like the poo stain on the right strap? If anyone knows how to get poo out of whatever material straps are generally made out of (nylon?) please share. I have tried everything and it still looks gross.

Next up is the diaper pail, laundry basket, and diaper basket. We do so many clothing changes in the living room that keeping a laundry basket here seems to be the easiest way to keep the mess under control. I am not a changing table person, so all diapers and related supplies go in a basket and we change the kiddos in front of the fireplace, on the floor.

Our mantle houses everything we use a lot but don't want Adriana to mess with...kleenex, lotion, vitamins, medicine, etc. We also set glasses and pop cans up here, but lately I've been pretty good about taking them to the kitchen every time I get up. The booties are up there to prevent the evil cat from making them his pets and hiding them in weird places around the house. The DVDs are of the fairy or princess variety.

The bottom shelf of our built in is devoted to Adriana's books and crayons, for easy access. It's really convenient, right up until she decides to knock all of the contents onto the floor. The water bottle is a permanent resident of the living room since breastfeeding makes me crazy thirsty.

Here is where it gets ridiculous. There was a time when everything was nice and organized on this shelf, but yeah. We need to weed out the toys she actually plays with and put everything else in storage until it's Lucy's turn. I've also thought about putting 98% of the toys in the girls' rooms once we make the switcheroo and everything is organized, but then I'd feel like we would have to play up there. I like that we pretty much only use our upstairs for bathing and sleeping.

Here's a shot of the whole room, on a daycare day. If Adriana was home, the contents of the toy shelf would be strewn all the fuck over the place.

Not pictured:

The numerous stains from Adriana's inability to put her snacks/drinks in her mouth instead of on the carpet
The numerous spots on the couch containing remnants of toddler drool/boogies and newborn barf
The coffee table drawer full of more stuff we don't want Adriana to mess with and other kid crap

Does anyone have any toy storage solutions that they love? How do you keep your kid clutter in check?

Dreams

2011-11-05T23:16:00.004-04:00

After a busy day of the Children's Museum and Outback Steakhouse with my dad and brothers, I closed my eyes for ONE SECOND and next thing I know, Lucia was crying and it was 11:10. She clearly wanted to warn me to get my ass up and write today's NaBloPoMo post. I am so sleepy, I'm sure whatever comes out right now is not exactly what they had in mind when they created this exercise. Oops.

I was in the midst of this really disturbing dream. The Office must have been going through another reorg or something, because for whatever reason, I didn't have a job. We were at some sort of offsite, team building type activity at a baseball field. I was forced to go around to all of the different VPs and basically beg for a job. I ended up stopping over at one manager who I LOATHE and asking if he still had any open marketing positions. As I went past the VP of marketing, he was surprised that I was even considering marketing (I wasn't, but I hadn't had any luck with the other VPs). I said something to the effect of "I'll go wherever the love is" (gross), and then he made me write some weird thank you letter for some project I was on, because that was supposed to demonstrate that I was using some sort of grant money (???) effectively, and was a really valuable member of the company.

I think this means that 1) I am feeling insecure about my position when I go back to work in a few weeks, and 2) I really need to finish up my (non work related) thank you letters.

Do you ever try to figure out what your dreams are telling you? These days, I'm usually so tired that I only remember them for a couple of seconds before I go back to sleep or am forced to deal with the kiddos. This one would have suffered the same fate if it weren't for sheer will (I'm not failing at NaBloPoMo, dammit! At least not the first week. This isn't 30 Day Shred!)

Just What I Needed

2011-11-04T22:35:00.005-04:00

Today was just what I needed, in so many ways.

Adriana was in daycare, after a long week of many, many, many activities
I went grocery shopping at 8:00 am, and Lucy slept the whole time. Nobody touched her or coughed on her or creepily told me that they "wouldn't steal a baby, but if they did, they'd steal one like her" while taking 15 seconds per item to scan my food.
I successfully cleaned my house and prepared a meal and baked goods for an afternoon playdate.
I got to see one of my oldest friends, and her adorable twin boys (born one month before Lucia...my baby is huuuuuge!)(they were preemies, but still...)

I got to spend some talky time with Adriana. She is in a stage where every single thing that comes out of her mouth delights me to no end, because I'm her mother.

Me: You need to brush your hair out of your eyes

Adriana: Okay, mama. I need a blue hair clip.

Me: You really like blue, huh?

Adriana: Yeah!!!

Me: Do you want me to paint your walls blue?

Adriana: No, mama. I want ALL THE COLORS! [She really said that - all the colors. I don't know why I thought it was so funny, but I did]

Justin agreed to watch the kids solo so I could go to my first book club meeting.
I got some much needed social interaction and drank way too much wine. It was the perfect mix of talking about the books and which random actors we thought were hot (oddly, the ONLY person of the 20 or so we mentioned that we all agreed on was Joel McHale. WEIRD). Most of my close friends either live out of state or are guys, so it was the kind of mindless fun I NEVER get to have, especially since I started popping out kiddos.

It's weird how such a random mix of things can turn into a perfect day. I suspect I have been super lonely and didn't realize it. I tend to go into hermit mode when I'm pregnant because I am so so so sick my first two trimesters, and then have so so so much to catch up on my last trimester.

What do you need in your life right now?

The Grass is the Exact Same Color?

2011-11-03T19:13:00.006-04:00

One of my first posts talks about how I am not (and will never be, thanks to my student loans) in the financial position to be a stay at home mom. I re-read the post today, and was surprised to see that I took more of an "it is what it is" tone, rather than admitting how much I really would have loved to be at home with Adriana (the post was written before Lucia was born). It's not like I hated my job or anything, it's just that, if given the choice, I would have (strongly) preferred to be at home.

I think there are three main reasons I was looking at being a stay at home mom through rose colored glasses:

First, I HATE missing out on milestones and other fun stuff. This one is fairly obvious. I mean, no one wants to see their kid crawl for the first time via a series of iPhone pics their parents snapped.

I also HATE giving up control, which is pretty much necessary when you work most of the hours your kid is awake. Everything from daycare making Adriana nap too early and making choices about how she is disciplined to my parents pumping her full of sugary snacks and letting her have her binky or blanket outside of her bed drives me batshit insane. I spent about a million hours reading all of the parenting books, figuring out what was right for me and my family, but I have zero control over whether or not my plans get implemented. It's very frustrating, and hard to maintain any consistency.

And finally, up until a few months ago, my only experience with it was when Adriana was a newborn, and I love the newborn stage. Don't get me wrong - each girl came with their own set of newborn issues. Adriana woke up every hour and a half for 5 months, and gnawed off my nipples until they were bloody stumps, which contributed to some serious mastitis. Lucy frequently screams from 7 pm to midnight, and is on round 3 of the thrush from hell. But that's not what I focus on when I think about the newborn stage. I remember the quiet nights rocking Adriana with my nose buried in her Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo scented hair. I remember nursing Lucy on the deserted beach at 6am when she was 3 weeks old, thinking that it really doesn't get better than this. My dad always jokes that my girls are "going to get worms" because I hold them too much (whatever that is supposed to mean). I could hold a newborn all day long, every day.

Over the past two and a half months, I've gotten a taste of what it's like to be a REAL stay at home mom. One who is trying to clean and organize a house, make dinner every day, make sure the kids are clothed and fed and well rested and mentally stimulated by something other than Dora or Caillou. One who is not just responsible for a tiny newborn, but has a crazy ass, temper tantrum-y toddler who is prone to sitting on / pinching / kicking her sister thrown into the mix. It's physically and emotionally exhausting.

The other day, I had the chills and an awful headache (a sure sign my body was thinking about developing mastitis), my muscles were sore from the Shred, and both girls were screaming. I sat down on the couch and cried (first time since a couple of weeks after Lucy was born, not too shabby). Adriana instantly stopped her (fake) crying, and said "Why are you crying, mama? I'll take care of you. I'll kiss your tears. I'll keep you safe". She proceeded to kiss my tears and give me a big hug.

Parenthood is so crazy because the highs are SO HIGH and the lows are SO LOW. I went from having the worst day ever to the best day ever in half a second. I feel like being a stay at home parent to a toddler and a newborn is probably like that on the regular. I honestly don't know if I would have it in me to deal with such emotional instability day in and day out. Not to mention that every day is sooooooooo long. I have found myself checking the clock and being like "Ohhh, 9:17 am. Nine more hours til Justin gets home."

I guess where I'm going with all of this is that I have a greater appreciation for the hand I've been dealt (dealt myself). I think when I go back to work later this month, I will be sad to leave my girls, but a teeny part of me will also be ready to get back to my version of normal.

Halloween Giveaway #1 Winner and #2 Update

2011-11-03T19:02:00.005-04:00

First, I would like to congratulate Laura from Navigating the Mothership for winning the $15 or $25 Target gift card (I am 90% sure it's the $25 one) that is currently in my wallet and restoring my bloggy karma. I had to take a picture of the random number generator because I still don't know how to take a freaking screen shot on a Mac.

Next, I just wanted to make sure you all caught that you are allowed to submit 3 recipes in the second giveaway. I didn't update the page after the rules changed, so I'm not going to choose a winner until Monday night (plus I'm hoping for more recipes - you guys have submitted some yummy stuff so far!)

Good luck!

November Goals, Contest Reminder

2011-11-02T12:13:00.007-04:00

In addition to 30 Day Shredding it, I'm also going to participate in NaBloPoMo. Blogging is much more fun than cleaning my house or showering, and it's something I can do while feeding Lucia and letting Adriana ~~rip out~~ play with my hair.

As if that's not enough, I am trying to accomplish a few other goals this month:

1) Work on potty training Adriana (be consistent - make her wear pull-ups and sit on the potty every day, DO NOT skip days just because it's a colossal pain in the ass)

2) Finish up remaining thank you cards

3) Get the girls' rooms switched around and painted

4) Have an electrician do an estimate; plan out next steps

5) Get rid of 10 bags of clothes and have all other clothes in the house washed, folded, stored, or put away

6) Clean out gutters, rake all leaves, and put down crab grass preventer before it snows

My to do list is a lot longer than that, but I think I can realistically accomplish everything I have written here. Probably. I hope. Anyway, you might see little updates on any of the above items tacked to the bottom of my daily posts this month.

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Make sure you enter my Halloween giveaways, if you haven't done so already! Giveaway #1 ends at midnight, and I have decided to allow up to three entries/recipes per person for Giveaway #2, which ends at midnight on Friday.

30 Days Hath November

2011-11-01T19:51:00.005-04:00

Ugh, this month is going to suck. I have decided that there is no better time to bite the bullet and start 30 Day Shred. This is one of the items on my 101 in 1001 list, and I figure I'm more likely to be able to knock it out this month because I don't go back to work until the 21st. Plus it would be nice to be able to actually fit into my (non-maternity) work clothes.

I was all excited when I weighed 10 pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight within a week of having Lucy (thanks, preggorexia!), but I have pumpkin muffined* my way almost back to where I started. Except instead of the extra weight being spread evenly around my body, it's all concentrated in my midsection, and I have no muscle tone whatsoever. Good times.

To ensure that I actually stick with this and give it my best effort, I'm going to post my measurements here. How embarrassing would it be to put that out into the world and then come back in a month with no progress?

I followed the instructions on some random youtube video for taking the measurements. I'm a little annoyed that they made me include my love handles in my waist measurement. Also, maybe it's just me, but my belly button and my love handles don't line up the way that chick's did, so the tape ended up just below my belly button. Which makes it not so much a waist measurement.

Now I'm just stalling. Do I really want to do this?

Okay, here goes nothing:

weight: 185 pounds (mid day, so it might be a couple of pounds high)

biceps (measure at peak of bicep): 12.5 inches

chest (plus sports bra - measure across nips): 41 inches

waist (measure across belly button, including love handles): 42 inches (35 inches if you measure at the actual waist, like a sane person)(which is still not ideal, but it's better than 42)

hips (measure at peak of butt): 44 inches

thighs (measure halfway between inseam and knee): 22 inches

calves (meaure at peak of calf): 15.25 inches

I am not planning on changing my diet yet - one step at a time! Breastfeeding makes me beast hungry, and comfort food is the best part about the weather getting colder. Maybe we'll talk in the spring.

Oh, and I will consider this a success even if I stay on Level 1 the whole month, and if I skip 3 days or less. Just trying to be realistic.

Shred Day 1 Thoughts:

Not as bad as I expected, actually. There was a time right at the end of Circuit 1 where I wanted to stop and breathe, but it passed and I was able to keep moving the whole time. I have no upper body strength whatsoever (as evidenced by my inability to do even the modified version of the pushups), my flexibility is gone, my knees are creaky, and the butt kicks were annoying thanks to my new boob and butt jiggle, but I actually kind of want to do it again. This all might change tomorrow.

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*Does anyone remember the awesomeness that was Sundry Buzz? You wouldn't be reading this if I had never stumbled onto it after a google search for the best makeup for rosacea. I read through the archives, then Sundry's and Swistle's archives, and life will never be the same. Anyway, I've been making Sundry's Insanely Good Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins every fall since then, and I begged her to repost the recipe for them (and the squash soup) after I realized she stopped paying to host Sundry Buzz. She did. Make them, you won't regret it!

Halloween Giveaway #2, In Which I Solicit Recipe Ideas

2011-10-31T10:32:00.004-04:00

I'm going to ask you for something in return for this one. I am getting bored with all of my standard recipes, and also need some quick and easy ideas for after I go back to work. Post a comment with your favorite fall recipe, and the randomly selected winner will get a $15 Starbucks gift card. I'm going to let this one go until end of day Friday (November 4), in the hopes that I get more entries. Easy stuff like casseroles and crock pot recipes are preferred, since a diaper needs changed every 6 minutes around here. Make sure you include your email address if it's not on your blog or in your profile!

***UPDATE: I forgot to add that I have since changed the rules - you may submit up to three recipes to get a max of three entries in the giveaway. Due to this error, I am extending the contest until Monday night (midnight Ohio time). Feel free to link to other blogs if it's a tried and true recipe, and to submit more than three if you are feeling generous!

Halloween Giveaway #1, In Which I Confess How Much I Suck

2011-10-31T09:55:00.005-04:00

Okay, so I have a confession. Remember back when I had a contest for guessing Lucy's birthday? Well, due to a number of circumstances totally within my control (procrastination, losing her address, forgetting which gift card was for $15 and which was $25, having a newborn, etc.) I am only just freaking now sending the gift card to Lacey. I bumped up the amount and included some bonus goodies, but I still feel like such a jerk, especially since I feel like part of the reason I let it go on for as long as I did is that Lacey has become a friend and I knew/hoped she would understand. So basically, not only am I a crappy blogger, I am a crappy friend. NICE WORK!

Since this isn't the way I want to roll, I am going to have a giveaway for one of the target gift cards I bought and then couldn't remember the amount of (it's either $15 or $25). All you have to do is comment by end of day Wednesday, November 2 (make sure you include an email address if it's not on your blog or profile), and I will mail it out as soon as I get the randomly selected winner's address in an attempt to restore my bloggy karma.

Adriana Milestones: Emotions, Lying, First Haircut

2011-10-31T08:43:00.004-04:00

Lawyerish's post about the adorable Felicity's first haircut made me realize I left a few milestones out of Adriana's two year letter. I blame sleep deprivation.

Has anyone ever seen the movie Kicking and Screaming? I don't mean the Will Farrell one, I'm talking about the good one. One of my favorite quotes from the movie is "I can't wait until I'm old enough to feel ways about things." The other day, Justin told Adriana his back hurt so she would have to walk down the stairs. She started crying, and when she reached the bottom, she shouted "I'm mad at you, dada!" When he asked why, she said "because I'm cryin'!" It was too cute for words. She has also let us know when she is sad and when she is happy. My baby is old enough to feel ways about things!

She has also started lying, but she pretty much sucks at it. This picture was snapped right after I asked her if she snuck some pumpkin muffin batter, and she replied "nooooo...." We get the same response if we ask if she pooped.

Finally, about a week after Lucy was born, we took Adriana in to get her first haircut. It was LONG overdue, but I wanted to grow out her bangs as much as I could before she got the chop. She was actually really well behaved, thanks to the rocking horse, Blue's Clues, and sucker hat trick.

The sweet before mullet:

During:

After:

These pics were a couple of months ago now, and looking back at them is making me realize that a) Adriana is due for another trim, and b) her hair is cute short. I'm loving the little flips in the back. Perhaps I should abandon my plan to grow her hair long, and keep it short for a while?

Adriana: Two Years

2011-10-28T03:54:00.004-04:00

Drini Bean,

You're TWO! How is it possible that I have such a beautiful, big girl???

There have been so many changes since you were 21 months old. You're a big sister!!! Although the transition was tough at first, you have handled it like a champ. You have yet to master the art of being gentle, but you are no longer actively trying to hurt Lucy. In fact, you are surprisingly sweet and nurturing. You are constantly handing Lucy her binky or covering her up if her blanket falls off. You stress out if you don't know where she is, and you light up as soon as you see her in the mornings. I hope this is a sign of things to come, and the two of you grow closer every year.

You don't just save your love for your little sister. You are FINALLY a cuddler, which delights your father and I to no end. We have spent many hours of our maternity/paternity leave cuddling with you on the couch or taking naps with you in "Dada's bed". You love your grandparents, aunts and uncles, your cousin, and all of your little buddies in daycare. You also make sure you let me know that you love your milk, your shoes, Dora, Brobee, crayons, blue cars, yellow trucks, legos, the zoo, or a million other things each day.

You are an outgoing little chatterbox who can charm her way into strangers' hearts. People at the grocery store, restaurants, and doctors offices are always entertained by your antics. You have even mastered the art of making friends your own age, which blows me away. This is a picture of a little girl you met at the park the other day. She was shy at first, but you were persistent. Before I knew it, the two of you were holding hands and hugging each other like you were BFFs for life. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Speaking of the park, you could spend hours there, "fwinging" or sliding. You like to kick the leaves around, search for acorns, and approach strange dogs. You get upset when you it's raining and you can't play outside, but...

You loooove watching tv. You would watch Caillou, Dora, and Yo Gabba Gabba all day, if we let you. We don't (usually, ha!), which causes some fun temper tantrums. Your favorite episodes are YGG's "Ride" and Dora's "Choo Choo", both of which you request repeatedly.

Your language development continues to amaze me (it must be all that tv). You string together 9 or 10 word sentences like it's no big deal. You use past and present tense. You love a good adverb, often telling me to "go slowly" as we walk down the stairs. You randomly attach the word "either" to the end of sentences, whether it's appropriate or not ("I don't want my diaper changed either"). You are starting to understand time, complaining that Baby Lucy has been crying "for hours", asking me to hold you "real quick" or "for a minute", and even asking (repeatedly) what time it is. I'm not really sure what you do with that information, but I answer you every time.

Happy birthday, Adriana! I hope all of your wishes come true.

Parenting Confession #2: Sometimes I'm Tempted to Leave my Kid in the Car

2011-10-26T15:22:00.003-04:00

Okay, now before this post title brings out the crazies, let me first disclaim that in my two years of parenting, I have never once left either child unattended in the car. Not even for two seconds in my parents' driveway in the safest neighborhood in the universe. I am merely putting this out there in the world because I have absolutely no idea where my stance on this falls on the parenting spectrum, and I'm curious about what other normal, sane parents do. Random peeps looking to stir up some internet drama need not apply.

I never really entertained the idea of leaving Adriana in the car when she was the only kid. One of me, one of her...no reason to not take her wherever I was going. However, I must admit, now that Justin is back to work and I'm the one taking Adriana to daycare twice a week, I have briefly considered leaving my sleeping two month old in the car while I run inside for two minutes (at the most) to drop off the two year old.

Now, remember...even if 100% of you say that you would totally leave your kid in the car, I'm not sure if I would/could ACTUALLY do it.

I just really, really want to know if this is a thing that people do, or if it's universally considered a huge no-no.

I have a feeling that it's kinda like car seats - all of our parents left us in the car and wouldn't think twice about it, but our generation would be about as likely to leave a kid in the car as they would pull a Britney and drive around with the kid on their lap.

I have distinct memories of spending what felt like HOURS in the backseat of my mom's Chrysler Horizon, my sweaty face glued to the vinyl while I tried to nap while sitting on the hump in the middle. My parents, OF COURSE, claim that I am completely fabricating this memory, but my brothers agree that, while it likely wasn't as long as we think, we definitely spent our fair share stuck in the car while my parents went furniture shopping.

So what do you say, internet? Have you ever left your kid in the car while you run inside for a minute?

Smokin' Hot

2011-10-25T14:02:00.005-04:00

So, we had some unexpected visitors today...

That's right, folks. I almost burned la casa Diniwilk down to the ground. The culprit?

Apparently I knocked some french fries off the pan when I slammed the oven closed before Adriana could reach in and burn her fingers. I was nursing Lucy in the living room and had no idea anything was burning until the fire alarm went off. I ran into the kitchen to find smoke pouring out of the oven. There weren't any flames, just some burning french fry embers. I turned off the oven and threw a glass of water inside, which (of course) did not help the smoke situation.

Once I was fairly certain there was no danger of fire, I ran through the house opening windows and turning on fans, and then I got the girls outside so they didn't inhale any more smoke. It was only then that I realized that the alarm company probably called me (and the fire department). I ran back in to get my phone, but the fire truck was already coming down the street.

At least they were nice about it, even posing for some pictures with an awestruck Adriana.

It's also good to know that both the upstairs and downstairs smoke detector and our alarm system all work properly. I just hope none of the neighbors were home to witness my dumbassery (and embarrassing outfit - I looked like a total scrub).

Adriana Does the Accent Vlog

2011-10-25T12:07:00.003-04:00

Adriana wanted to take a crack at the accent vlog in preparation for The Blathering 2040 (I told her she would get a reputation as a gunner, but she said there is no such thing as bad press)...it's in two parts because she hit the stop button halfway through. Please excuse Dora and Lucy in the background, they have no respect for the toddler vlog.

Enjoy!

Accent Vlog

2011-10-20T12:41:00.008-04:00

I decided to jump on the accent vlog bandwagon, since Adriana is at daycare today and I wanted to try out the camera on my Macbook. Sorry about the sniffling (me) and the crying (Lucia) - I was determined to only do one take since I wanted to "keep it real" and not edit myself. Enjoy!

Here are the rules (as if you don't already know):

Say the following words:
Aunt, route, wash, oil, theatre, iron, salmon, caramel, fire, water, sure, data, ruin, crayon, toilet, New Orleans, pecan, both, again, probably, spitting image, Alabama, lawyer, coupon, mayonnaise, syrup, pajamas, caught

And answer these questions:
What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that curls into a ball when you touch it?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you use to change the TV channel?

*Update: I tried twice to get the video to upload without syncing problems (or the end being cut off) to no avail, sorry!

**Update: I also tried to upload it to flickr, only to realize hours later that only half uploaded. The internet hates me today.