Thursday, February 26, 2009

i have a bunch of recent pictures on my camera that i need to download onto the laptop. until i get around to doing that, here are a few of rowie when he was a bit younger, from my camera phone. i love looking at these. : )






Wednesday, February 25, 2009

there are way too many sweets in my house right now. it's girl scout cookie season - plus, i made brownies the other night, and there's a whole tupperware full of them leftover in the pantry. and i have a gallon of milk in the fridge. i'm in trooouuuuble...

in other news, tonight josh and i applied to lease that house in west garland that we love. even if we pass the credit check, another tenant might be able to beat us to the punch, because we still can't pay the deposit. but if they approve our credit, that's one step closer to getting the house.

i feel... young. and behind. i think other people our age have stable jobs, or are well on their way to establishing themselves in their desired careers. other people our age have mortgages, not leases.

i feel like i want, all the time. i want a minivan. i want a king-size bed. i want some new clothes and shoes, that fit and that i like. i want to lose weight. i want a new entertainment center. if i acquire all these things, will i just start wanting other things? does this feeling of never having enough ever go away? it makes me feel materialistic and ungrateful - two character traits i would really rather not see in myself.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

micah gave me a scare last night. she had a cold and a cough, and her breathing started to be affected. her chest was retracting just the tiniest bit, and her abdomen and chest looked like rowan's did when he had epiglottitis last year. normally when you breathe, your chest rises and falls. when you're having trouble getting air in, though, with every breath the abdomen protrudes and the chest retracts in an effort to suck more air into the lungs. that's what micah was doing last night, in her sleep. she had a runny nose the past couple of days, and started coughing last night, but right before bed i really noticed her wheezing, and josh pointed out that her chest and abdomen looked funny. needless to say, this made me panic, and i sat up watching and listening to her breath for a while. this morning, she seemed fine, and i put a little dap of vic's vapo-rub in a bowl and poured hot water over it, and had her breathe in the vapors (my dad and grandfather made me do this countless times growing up; i had a little trouble with asthma as a child). immediately afterward, she coughed up and blew a ton of mucus through her nose, so i think it helped. i haven't had her do it again since this morning, because she complained about the "minty taste" in her mouth and her eyes burning from the vic's... but i'm going to have her do it again before bed tonight. i'm also going to have her sleep propped up as much as possible; this is hard because she likes to sleep on her tummy with her arms tucked underneath her body, laying flat on the bed.

rowan's nose is runny today, too. we didn't get to go to the toddler la leche league meeting this morning, which i was looking forward to, since there hasn't been a meeting since november. i also had to reschedule micah's first dental appointment. now i'm stressed out about rowan's teeth. when i took him last week because he tore his gum, the dentist said he had calcification spots on his top two front teeth, which are the beginnings of cavities. now i can see the spots myself... ugh, i just know he's going to have my dental problems, and micah got josh's perfect teeth. he never had a cavity until he was an adult, and i think half my baby teeth were capped.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

here it is, my 100th blog post. : ) don't get excited, it won't be anything too interesting...

rowan can say "micah" now, but doesn't really say it to her or about her. he just says it when he feels like it. the only other things he says with regularity are "dada" and "bye-bye". he doesn't even say "mama" that often. he has this one little series of sounds he makes when he wants something, but i couldn't spell it if i tried. it's just this one phrase of babbling, and it's usually accompanied by hand gestures. i can tell he's talking, in his own language, when he does it. and i try to answer back, and figure out what he's asking for. he has this cute cautiousness about him that i find irresistible. when i offer him a bite of something i'm eating, he reaches for it, then pauses and looks up at me like, "are you sure it's okay?" sometimes he needs lots of reassurance before he'll actually try it... or take the new thing i'm handing him, or walk into the new environment, or whatever the situation is; it's not always about food. he's such a sweet boy. oh, and the piece of gum that he tore by his upper lip and top two front teeth is looking much better already. it's not inflamed and doesn't bleed when i brush his teeth.

micah impressed me by counting to seven in spanish without any prompting or help from me, earlier today. we were reading a book together that we'd read several times before, and when i turned to the page where the numbers one through seven were printed, she just rambled them off in nicely-accented spanish! it must be all that 'dora the explorer' we watch. : )
i really hate it when micah falls asleep in the car, and i try to carry her in to bed, and she wakes up, and she will not go back to sleep, no matter what i do. i feel like the only way to avoid this scenario is to quit going places in the evening. but that pisses me off. i like going places in the evening. i like going out to eat occasionally, i like hanging out with my family. tonight was my dad's birthday party at my grandparents' house, and we stayed until about eight o'clock. micah's been up since nine this morning and hasn't napped, so of course she fell asleep in the car on the way home from the party. i'm thinking, this is great, i'll get to stay up for a while with josh, maybe do some reading, get on the computer, etc. but, no, micah wakes up and won't go back to sleep. i laid in bed with her for an hour, watching mind-numbing dora the explorer, getting more and more annoyed every time i'd glance down and see her, eyes wide open, watching the TV instead of falling asleep. i tried turning the TV off and whispering a story to her, which has worked in the past, but she just cried and said she didn't want to go to sleep, and that she wanted her daddy. so now it's after ten o'clock, she's in josh's lap on the couch, and i'm very grumpy.

i had a fun afternoon, though. katherine (my best friend from church and high school) and i met at panera bread in plano for a late lunch. we ate yummy soup and bread and chatted, and for desert we each had the most delectable, rich, buttery piece of shortbread i've ever tasted. it was heaven. : )

naomi, my sister who lives in austin, surprised me today by showing up at my door after sneakily telling me she wouldn't be able to make it for daddy's birthday because she couldn't get off work. she loves surprising me this way, because it always works. she tried to surprise daddy, too, but he knew she'd be here. i am always gullible. back in may of last year, i was setting up the table at the park for micah's 3rd birthday party, sad because naomi couldn't be there, when i glanced up and saw her jogging across the park towards us! it was awesome. today, i jumped up and shouted and ran to the door, and we laughed and hugged. i think she loves my reactions; maybe that's why she always tricks me.

micah and i are going to go a new church in the morning. my dad and vesta have been attending a church right down the street from our house, trinity fellowship church, and they seem to like it a lot. two of my close friends from church and high school attend there, and they enjoy it too. so micah and i are going to check it out in the morning, while josh and rowan play at home. rowan is too little and too active to sit quietly during service, and too attached to me to stay in the nursery.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

i was getting the kids ready to go to our regular south garland library storytime this morning, and was just helping micah on with her socks and shoes, when rowan tried to scoot out of the office chair and didn't quite land on his feet. instead, he landed hard on his face, with his pacifier in his mouth, and the little plastic knob of his paci that sticks out (where the little handle is) hit the floor, jerking his top lip up hard and tearing the part of his gum that connects to the inside of his upper lip and goes in between his top two front teeth, and connects to the roof of his mouth, behind those top teeth. it bled profusely, and i couldn't tell where the blood was coming from at first. it wasn't until i was showing alison at the library, an hour later, that i could see where his gum had torn. i figured it would heal up nicely on its own, but just to be on the safe side, i took him to a pediatric dentist after storytime. the dentist said his gum would heal in two or three weeks, and he also gave rowan his first dental check-up while we were there. one down, one to go! micah has her first dental appointment next tuesday.

my brother came over tonight to watch a movie with me. it was fun; i love hanging out with him. i love the close relationship i have with my 22-year-old sister, naomi, who lives in austin, and i want the same closeness with caleb, who's 18 and lives here in richardson. so any time i rent a cool movie i think he'd like, i invite him over to watch it with me... but we usually end up talking about other things the whole time. like last night, for the first couple of hours he was over here, he told me all about his new girlfriend; how they met, what their first date was like, the hour-long conversation he had with her mom. by the time we finally got around to putting the movie on, we were both yawning. it was still fun, though. : )

i stayed up way too late last night, chatting with alison on the phone and trying to straighten the house a bit. then, right before bed, i sat down with the last two orange sweet rolls leftover from breakfast, and a glass of ice cold milk. i have the worst habit of snacking on really unhealthy foods right before i go to bed. i have got to stop that. everyone in my family has been commenting on my weight loss lately - even my grandfather, who i was really surprised had noticed - and i know i have lost weight because the pants i bought at christmas time are now falling off of me. i just can't fathom how the weight loss occurred, because i eat horribly. and constantly. the only explanation i can come up with is that i'm chasing two kids around, now that rowan is extremely active and adventurous. i still have a very yucky tummy chub that i would love to make disappear. i know there's not much i can do about the skin in that area bouncing back to its pre-kiddo appearance, but the fat i can do something about.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

delivering meals on wheels this morning with just micah and lina in tow was a breeze. my dad stayed at my house with rowan. i just put lina in the sling and micah walked beside me at the apartment complexes. micah loves to stand in front of the doors and hold the meals while i knock. she hands them to the elderly or invalid people, and they get such a kick out of seeing her and lina. it was dreary and drizzly today, but we had fun anyway. at the houses, the girls just stayed in the car while i ran up to the doors with the meals.

at our first stop today, one of the apartments, we discovered the lady for whom we'd brought the meal had passed away last night. her son and daughter were there in her apartment, taking care of things. a man was bringing all sorts of medical equipment and stuff out into the hallway as we walked up - a wheelchair, mattress, oxygen tank and stand, etc. - but i didn't think anything of it; i just thought it was being sent out to be cleaned or serviced. the daughter invited us inside and told us her mom had died. i hugged her, and i told her i wished her and her family peace today, and that i would take care of notifying the meals on wheels office.

on the way back to the car and to the next apartment complex, micah and i had this conversation:

m: "but i thought we were supposed to give the meal to the lady."
h: "well, she wasn't there. she wasn't in her apartment."
m: "where was she?"
h: (pause while i tried to figure out what to say) "she doesn't live there anymore. now she lives in heaven with the angels."
m: "you mean she died?"
h: "yes, she died."
m: "when's she coming back to her apartment?"
h: "she won't be back there. she doesn't live here on earth with us anymore."
m: "she didn't live with us, at our house."
h: "i mean on earth, with everyone. she lives in heaven now, with God and the angels."
m: "why?"
h: "she had lived a long, long, long time, and her body and her spirit were tired. she was very sick. now, in heaven, her body is perfect, and she can dance and play. she sings all day long."
m: "couldn't she sing in her apartment?"

this calm, matter-of-fact conversation about death with my sweet daughter made me realize what a tremendous responsibility i have to provide her with true, unbiased, unemotional answers to the big questions in life. i don't know if i did it right today. maybe including God and heaven and the angels in my explanation was biased... or maybe it was true. it was certainly emotional, because i was choking back tears as i spoke to her. especially when i explained who the woman in the apartment was, and micah said, "that was the lady's daughter, her little girl?" and i imagined micah, a long time from now, in my apartment, taking care of my affairs... and missing me, her heart aching for me, like i'm sure that woman's heart was aching today, looking at the little cellophane-wrapped chicken and rice we'd brought for her mom to eat off of a tray table, probably, in front of the TV. her mom, who is gone from this earth now.

micah and rowan rely on me and josh for all the answers, all the explanations, all the truth. the information we give them about anything, everything, will form the basis of what they think and feel. one wrong word, one faulty reasoning, and their view may be skewed... and we won't know the ill effects until they're grown, and micah says, "do you remember that time we went to that lady's apartment and she had died? i've been terrified of death since that day."

maybe i'm taking this all a bit too seriously... but it is somewhat overwhelming to me, suddenly, that my children will be so heavily impacted and impressed by me, and my words. it kind of makes me want to get a blank book and write down every heavy question they may ask me during the course of their lives, and practice my answers.

never before have i felt that foreboding sense of, "what if i get it wrong?"

Monday, February 16, 2009

we slept in this morning, till around 11 am. when we got up, we played around the house for a while, had lunch with josh, then at 3 drove to rowlett to visit josh's grandma. it was a nice visit; it was just me, the kids, grandma and pawpaw (josh's dad, who had the day off from work). rowan helped pawpaw sweep the floor while micah and i sat by grandma in her chair and colored and chatted. sometimes micah gets in a mood where she won't say hi or even look at her grandma, but today she was friendly.

we left in time to meet josh coming home from work, then he hopped in the car and we drove to plano to visit his mom at the nursing home. and that was a good visit as well! sometimes it's a little stressful there, because rowan wants to get into everything... but tonight was fun. again, sometimes micah isn't cooperative during these visits, and josh and i worry about her hurting her grandma's feelings. especially since she already doesn't get to do the things a grandmother looks forward to doing with her grandkids, since she is confined to her bed and basically unable to move (for those who don't know, josh's mom, susan, has multiple sclerosis). but tonight micah was happy to sit and visit with her.

tonight josh made the yummiest dinner: pan-seared ribeye with asparagus, mashed potatoes, and sweet corn. the kids had the same, except we swapped chicken nuggets for the steak. everyone was happy. josh made a few notes on how he'll do the steak next time... he's a novice grillman with aspirations of his own grandkids gathering round him at the grill, anxious to learn his tricks.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

josh cooked a yummy breakfast this morning - eggs, bacon & whole wheat pancakes - but after eating it, josh and i both had pounding headaches. it was odd. neither of us have any food allergies that we're aware of, and we weren't nauseated or anything, so i'm pretty sure it was just a coincidence. josh raked a bunch of leaves and worked outside a lot yesterday, so he thinks his headache was due to allergies. i don't know why i got a headache, but it made me miserable all morning and early afternoon. and we both felt tired and sluggish, but i guess that was just a result of eating too much.

at 3:45 we dropped micah and rowan off at my dad and stepmom's house and we went out on our valentine's date. we had such a good time! we saw "seven pounds" (will smith) at the dollar theater in plano (good but terribly sad), then had dinner at amigo's restaurant, which is right down the street from our house. dinner was my dad's treat - a late christmas present - and, of course, they took care of the kids for us, so we owe the fun night out to them. it's so nice to eat dinner with josh and have an uninterrupted conversation with him.

josh had a funny, embarrassing moment at the restaurant. we happened to be seated a table next to a going-away party for the reverend charlotte coyle, who performed our wedding ceremony almost seven years ago, and who is the mother of one of my best friends from high school. she and her husband are moving to paris, tx. they stood up to give us hugs, and after josh hugged jake, my friend and charlotte's son, he turned to a guy standing nearby, and the guy said, "what, no hug?" josh shrugged, said "why not?" and hugged the guy... then looked around and said, "i don't think i know you." the guy wasn't with the going-away party, and didn't have any idea who we were - he was just a guy having a drink at the bar! haha : )

after picking the kids up from my dad's, we went to whole foods market to get some trail mix and other goodies. now we're at home, and in for another late night, because the kids both napped almost the entire time they were with my dad and stepmom. : / oh well! i am truly enjoying playing and pretending with micah lately. she loves to play dolls, so she hands me a doll and we sit down and pretend we're at a la leche league meeting, or at a playdate, and we introduce ourselves (micah always says, "it's such a pleasure to meet you!" now if i can get her to say this to real people, won't she be the well-mannered, polite little lady!) i'm also the way she falls asleep these days. as i've written about before, i've been trying to help her learn how to fall asleep without nursing. now we've gotten into a little routine where she gets a little bit of milk as we're getting snuggled into bed, then she lies down beside me. after i nurse rowan to sleep, roll over and rub her back or snuggle with her... and she just drifts off to sleep. : ) the only thing i still don't like about our sleep routine is that the TV is always on. i don't want my kids to need the TV to be on for them to fall asleep. i want them to learn how to quiet their minds and relax into sleep. maybe that's a little lofty for a toddler and a preschooler, but... still, i think it's important.

i've got no plans for tomorrow, and i like it that way! it's president's day, so i have the day off from babysitting. i plan to spend the day playing with my kids, maybe get outside somewhere if the weather's nice, and maybe phone some friends i haven't spoken to in a while.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

we had a good valentine's day. : ) i don't think we celebrated last year, but this year we decided to get micah a present. last night she picked out a 'dora the explorer' DVD, and today she received a basket with chocolates and jelly beans and cool art supplies, and a play highchair for her babies. it's really cute, and she's been playing with it all day. i had josh keep her busy in the bedroom while i set up her gifts in the living room, then called her in to see them. her face lit up with the sweetest smile, and she said, "happy valentine's day, thank you!" later this evening, she said, "mama, when you give me a cool present, it makes me want to give you a present." what a thoughtful girl. : )

we started out the day by celebrating our friend eli's 3rd birthday at pump it up, jr. in plano. i'd never been there before, and it was a blast! micah wasn't sure about all the ruckus and noise at first, but she warmed up quickly - especially once her friend, isaac, arrived and bounded off to play without a moment's hesitation! rowan dove right in, too; he favored the little ride-on toys in the playroom, but spent time in the bouncehouses too. micah loved the big slides; i so wished i had brought the camera so i could've gotten a picture of her huge smile as she came flying down! in the party room, it was so fun to watch rowan sit at the table and eat pizza and birthday cake with the big kids. : ) as my friend alison and i were saying to each other (her 1-year-old was sitting at the table too), it's incredible that they're toddlers now, and no longer babies. i will always call both micah and rowan my babies, though. : ) we will definitely be going back to pump it up, jr. for their toddler pop-in playtime on thursday mornings. what a fun thing to do with the kids when the weather's not conducive to outdoor play.

this afternoon we just cleaned house and lounged around watching movies. the kiddos took a late nap, so i'm about to get them in the tub now and try to get them settled down for the night...

Friday, February 13, 2009

i've been getting medical bills from rowan's hospitalization last year, totaling over $2k, and i've been really dreading dealing with it... worrying that medicaid was refusing to pay for it for some reason, and i'd have to spend hours arguing and haggling over the phone. so this morning i finally called both collection agencies who've been billing me, and both customer service reps i spoke to were wonderful. i got pretty much the same response from both: "just toss the bills; it's not your problem, it's ours. so sorry!" in one case they had me listed as the patient instead of rowan, and that's why medicaid wasn't paying. so they're just going to re-file under the correct name. in the other case, the billing department had just failed to submit the bill properly, or something. at any rate, i am so relieved!

we just ate a late lunch, and the kids seem bored and restless, so we're off to the park!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

we had a fun, busy day today. this morning, we met with my la leche league friends for an enrichment meeting. the mom who hosted had a big, beautiful back yard full of toys, tricycles, playhouses, sandboxes, etc. and all the kids played nonstop. rowan must've been feeling a little on the sensitive side... he got his fingers closed in the playhouse door at one point, and from then on, every time i would look over to check on him from my seat down on the patio, i would find him standing alone, bawling. i think it was the first time he'd ever felt sadness over being hurt. when he would cry, i would hold and nurse him (after laying the sleeping lina down on the couch just inside the house), then send him off to play again, but minutes later i'd hear him crying again. i was happy that lina was sleeping, so i could give rowan my attention. after a while he settled in and ate some fruit... he's been a little more sensitive and needy in general lately. maybe it's because i'm taking care of lina, and he's telling me he needs a little more from me than he's been getting.

lina's dad, christian, and i talked yesterday when he came to pick her up about her fussiness unless she's being held. he thinks he and his wife, samantha, are holding lina too often. i didn't say it to him, but i don't think there's any such thing as holding a baby too often. especially a babe lina's age (4 months). i think she is just a high-needs baby who likes to move and look and be stimulated all the time. i'll admit, it's tough not being able to put her down without having to listen to her cry (scream is more like it)... it bums me out. but i do need to hold rowan sometimes, or change his diaper, or cook in the kitchen. i think going part-time with lina in a couple of weeks will be good for me and my kids. and i know samantha is going to love spending more time with her daughter. it'll be good all around. and hopefully, by that time, josh will have a second job, so the drop in my income will be balanced out.

let's see, yesterday we also went to a little park in richardson for a valentine's day playdate. it was so fun, and the weather was perfect! the mom who planned the playdate provided little goody bags with temporary tattoos, a pencil, and a lollipop, and everyone brought yummy snacks to share. i pushed rowan in the swing most of the time, while lina slept in the sling and micah ran around with her friends. at one point, i watched micah go down the slide backwards and head first by accident, and when she landed at the bottom, she ran to me as fast as her legs could get her there! she was very startled. she's not the adventurous type on playground equipment.

it was a busy day with lots of activities... which i guess accounted for micah's meltdown an hour after she fell asleep tonight...

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

last night there was a tornado watch in effect for richardson, but all we ended up getting was 15 or so minutes of rain, lightening and thunder. i was disappointed! i'm just kidding... obviously, i was happy a tornado didn't demolish my town. but intense weather situations kind of thrill me, rather than scare me. when micah was a baby, there was a tornado warning and the civil defense alarms actually went off, and we went to the fire station to hide. it was... so... exciting! anyone who has actually lived through a catastrophic weather event and has had their home and belongings destroyed would probably like to punch me right now. i don't mean to belittle the devastation that tornadoes and hurricanes can cause... of course. but since i have never actually experienced one, they still have that adventure allure to me.

micah's leg, where she got her vaccine shots day before yesterday, is still stiff and sore. she is actually limping around, and says she can't really bend that knee. i asked the nurse at their pedi's office if this is normal, and she said, "most likely." whatever that means. i gave them both children's tylenol yesterday (they were both running low-grade fevers, and since i knew it was because of the vaccine and not a virus or something, i didn't hesitate to give them some pain relief), and micah said it helped with her leg pain. i don't think i'm going to give them two shots at once next month, at least not in the same area.

we're going to story time at the south garland library this morning. we had plans to go to library live yesterday morning, but micah and rowan just seemed too out of sorts from their soreness and fevers. besides, i knew the fever was from the shots, but just to be on the extra-safe side, we stayed home. luckily, library live happens several times a month at different branches around dallas, so we'll have the opportunity to go again very soon.

Monday, February 9, 2009

i took micah and rowan to the pediatrician's office this afternoon for a round of immunizations. they each got another dose of the DTaP, IPV and Hib combo shot, and their first dose of the HepB. i hate, hate, hate taking them to get these shots. every time i'm holding them down while they scream bloody murder, and i'm watching the liquid go into their bodies, and i think, "there's formaldahyde in that... and aluminum..." and i go crazy. at the same time, a part of me relaxes knowing that they're that much more protected. all i really have to do when i start doubting the wisdom of vaccinations is look at the pictures i took of rowan in the hospital, on a ventilator, unconscious with a tube down his throat. i know that not vaccinating him didn't cause him to get epiglottitis, but i still blame myself in my heart for not protecting him.

anyway. micah was so wonderful at the doctor's office. she cooperated with the nurse when it was time to take her temp, listen to her breathing, weigh her, measure her, and even give the shots. rowan is always a little more wary of the nurses, maybe because of his experience. he hates being put on the exam table. if i could get the nurses to let me hold him, or even nurse him, while they give him the shot, i know it would go a lot smoother. i don't know if i'll have any luck with that, but i'm going to plead my case next month.

micah weighs 29 lbs. and is 37 in. tall, and rowan weighs 23 lbs... and i don't believe we got his height this time. i'll have to measure him the next time i'm at my dad's... he has a little height chart on the bathroom door for my kids.

i was at my dad's tonight, but without the kiddos. it was my night to watch 24 and enjoy my dad's yummy cooking. : ) tonight he made chicken spaghetti and garlic toast. i brought some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies i'd made for dessert. i got to watch a little of the australian open, too; my dad and brother are obsessed with tennis lately, so they made us watch it for a bit. i learned a lot about the rules, and discovered that it's actually fun to watch.

every night before i fall asleep, i picture us in our new house, the one in west garland that we found. i feel very strongly that it's going to be our home in a couple of months.
rowan has three molars coming in - one on the bottom on each side, and one on the top left. they don't seem to be causing him any discomfort at all. he is recognizing a lot of what we say, too. he knows where his eyes, nose, ears and tummy are, and he'll take something to the trash if we ask him. he waves, kisses us, and says bye-bye whenever he leaves a room. anytime he hears music, he dances - which is especially adorable in the car. and he usually claps when the song is over. i don't know if he's clapping for the song, or for his own dancing! : )

Sunday, February 8, 2009

what a fun night! a friend of mine hosted a sip and see for her 2-week-old daughter in the cool private dining room at ziziki's downtown. we had yummy appetizers, and i drank three glasses of riesling. it was so relaxing, chatting with everyone and enjoying a kid-free evening (josh stayed home with ours, and most everyone else was there sans kids, too). it sounds so odd to say, "gosh, it was so much fun, there were no kids there" when i adore children, especially my own, but... there is something very different and fun about hanging out with adults only. everyone has time to finish a conversation, no one feels left out. my friend alison brought her 1-year-old, but he is such a chill baby, he sat in her lap and munched on food the whole time, and it was as if she was there alone. micah was that way at that age - would've been content to sit in my lap the whole time - but rowan would've been wiggling desperately out of my arms moments after choosing a seat. from there, he would've made a beeline to all the electrical outlets in the room, then headed for the exit, then straight towards the busy street outside. very un-relaxing, for me. he is at a very exploratory age right now, and doesn't take kindly to being confined in new places.

josh and the kids had fun tonight, too; they strolled down to the park and played in their new play tent, teepee and tunnels that josh's sister, kelly, gave them for a late christmas present. they are super cool, and i can't wait to set them up in the backyard at our new house. i'll post a picture of them here soon; i've been so bad about posting pictures, lately...

FYI, we have found a house in west garland that we LOVE and want to rent, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that it's still available in march, when we'll have a deposit and everything. in the meantime, for positive visualization purposes, i am referring to it as "our house."

after i got home from the party, the kids were pretty wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, since they'd had a nap, so we all piled into the car and went to the video store and the grocery store. you'd think josh and i would've learned by now that late-night grocery store runs - whether the kids have napped or not - should be done by one parent, alone. for some reason, when we take our kids to the grocery store at night, they go nuts. tonight, micah was running up and down the aisles knocking stuff off the shelves, and rowan was kicking and screaming because we wouldn't put him down so he could run too. it was not pleasant. i spent the whole time making micah pick up whatever she'd knocked down and talking her ear off about being respectful to the other people in the store, and josh spent the whole time pushing the cart and dancing away from rowan's swift kicks to his groin area. sigh. and after all of that mess, we made it home without the main component to the dinner we'd planned, so we had to make something else. which was just as yummy, but still. i'm hoping i didn't burn up all my "daddy duty" currency with josh tonight, because tomorrow's my night to watch 24 at my dad's. : ) ah, i look forward to it all week!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

the fristers are here! except for jill, josh's twin. she'll be here tomorrow morning, just in time for our family pictures.

last night micah came out of the bedroom to say goodnight to katy, the youngest of josh's sisters, and katy asked why she was wearing a pull-up (we recently started having micah wear pull-ups to bed because she was having accidents one or two nights a week, and her skin was starting to get irritated - not to mention the clean-up at 2 or 3 am was getting old. but what's funny is, she hasn't had one accident since she started sleeping in the pull-ups.) anyway, when katy asked about the pull-up, micah said, "my body doesn't know how to wake me up in the middle of the night when i need to tinkle." i loved hearing her say that. that's what we've taught her, and i worried that, since she's been potty-trained for so long now, that the pull-ups would upset her or make her feel embarrassed or something. but apparently, she understands, and i'm glad.

one of my best friends from high school and her 2-month-old son came over for a playdate yesterday. it was so much fun! we just sat and chatted about baby stuff. micah was in a funky mood when they first got there, and i could tell she was overstimulated from the errands we'd been running all morning and just needed some down-time, so i set her up in the bed with a favorite DVD, and she didn't move for the next hour and a half. baby lina was also a bit cranky, and rowan needed a nap and was sprinkling cracker crumbs all over the carpet, so for a while there, i was having one of those frazzled-overworked-mom moments that i loathe to have in front of other people. but it was quickly resolved. micah settled down, my friend held lina while her son slept in the baby swing, and i got rowan down for a nap. and it must not have been too stressful, because my friend wanted to make it a weekly thing. yay!

tonight i'm going to make southwestern soup and cornbread muffins for dinner. i'm sooooo excited.