YellowJeepGirl

I’m still going batshit crazy, but Violet is sleeping and Piper has been lazily watching princess movies with her feet up in my lap, so I have a few precious free minutes. We pretty much have “Cindabrella” memorized, so I know when she is about to loose interest.

Things are good here. Violet, all 9 months of her, has 2 ear infections, 3 teeth, and hasn’t gained a lb since her last checkup at 6m, but otherwise she’s doing great. She’s getting brave now with the walking, and will attempt a step, if, and only if, we aren’t close enough to catch her. She enjoys jumping while holding the side of something, and crawling at top speed for whatever Piper’s got. She’s getting more courageous in what she’ll attempt to eat too - power cords, cookies, remote controls, stickers, rice puffs, seaweed, potato bits, shampoo containers… You name it, she’s probably attempted to eat it. Quite the oral fixation on that one. Plus the yelling. She’s started clapping and yelling. Nothing in particular, just freaking yelling to yell. Fun. Especially at 6:30 will G1 is trying to sleep too.

Piper is calming on the tantrum front. That or we’re doing a teensy better in anticipating a screaming crying throwing things breakdown by trying to gauge the hungry/tired/frutstrated crank-o-meter. We’re trying to use words that are more positive than negative. Instead of, “No, you cant have more milk”, we’ll lie - “I know you want some more milk, but we are out of milk right now” “No, I know you think the store has more milk, but I promise, all the cows in the world spontaneously stopped producing milk today, and there wont be anymore milk until tomorrow.” (or at least till i can get to the store after they are both in bed) We’ve had to establish that nice girls get things they want, and mean girls don’t. That’s helped a lot, along with setting up some basic rules… No Yelling at Anyone, Asking Nicely for Things, and Listening to Mommy and Daddy. Or as she’s started calling me, much to my hearts chagrin, Mom. I hate MOM. It’s too mature for her. Especially at 3.

We’re having a small party for her this weekend. Because we are retardedly insane, we’ve invited a bunch of her “friends” over to eat cake and play with paint on the deck. I’ve got no idea what we’ll do with a bunch of 3 year olds, but we’ll see. Updates and pictures to follow, I’m sure.

Things otherwise are pretty much the same. House still needs work, but now we are being bombarded by carpenter bees and a squirrel fell into the chimney the other day. Hopefully he got out, after Isi drilled a hole in the side of it. I managed to get a ton of laundry done, and Isi spent two days cleaning the garage, so thats a bonus.

Running is going well, and I’m pretty positive that I’ll be able to run the 5k this fall with no issues. Hopefully I’ll be able to do it in 30 minutes. Thats the goal, we’ll see. I had been contemplating the Nike+ Ipod sports kit, but thats quite the outlay of cash, when we’ve got much better things to spend it on. I’ve already got some shoes that will last a while longer, and a shuffle that I love. I dont necessarily want a nano, since I dont think I’ll make use of the video. A garmin forerunner or a Polar would be nice, but again, I’m looking at 300 bucks gone like that.
So in the place of all of that, I’m considering the Nike+ Sportband. Its only 60$, and is basically a glorified pedometer without the benefit of counting steps. It measures pace, distance and elapsed time. I think its a good balance of the huge outset of the Nike+ Ipod system or a Forerunner for what I need now. Not that I need anything, but since I will eventually want to know pace, and run outside, it will be helpful. We’ll see…

Yes. Batshit crazy. The house is driving me crazy, the weather is driving me crazy, the kids are driving me (mostly) crazy, the job is (definitely) driving me crazy!

The house: We’re never done working on it. Ever. Ive decided we are houseworky people. Even before we finish a project, I’m picking us a new one. Gah! We’re still a few details from done in the kitchen, we’ve ripped out a cabinet we need to finish in the basement, we have a closet and bathroom to spackle and paint, carpets that need cleaned and drapes that need finishing touches, yet I am still mentally re-doing Pipers bedroom, the basement, the downstairs bath and picking out flowerbed plans for the yard! Not to even mention the high dollar items that we need in the future: roof, driveway repair, new furnace in the upstairs, a playable yard for piper. I’ll never learn.

The weather: Its April. In 2 weeks its May. Stop being 40 fucking degrees outside! This is Atlanta, stupid asshole weather! 40 and sunny, then 85 and rainy, 60 and tornadoes, then 75 and windy. I went running the other night and it was 33 and bone chilling cold. Get on with real weather!

The kids: Alltogether not bad, but remember when I said Piper doesn’t really throw tantrums or have attitude? I should go back and smack myself in the face for saying that. Oh my good lord, I want to just walk away and scream because of her some days. Most days in fact. Eternal terror, where did you come from? I asked her today when we picked her up at daycare, if I was bringing home Nice Piper or Mean Piper. She said nice Piper, but that little liar pulled a fast one. Violet, still mostly an angel, but with double ear infections, 3 teeth coming in, and learning to WALK all before 9 months, we have a screamin’ nonsleepin’ demon on our hands. I still love them, but they are cementing our decision to stop at 2 kids.

The job: Holy cow of all sacred cows. I bow before this holy cow, because it has laid down some deep bullshit, and its way uphill of me. I’m now oncall every other week, the workload is heavy and completely thankless. Im constantly feeling drained, and genuinely wondering if this is the best place for me. I still love it, and love the people I work with, but I’m concerned that this wont pass. It has to, for all things eventually do, but how to deal in the meantime.

I go Batshit crazy. Thats how. Then I rant. Then its all good again.

(and yes, i know I shoudn’t complain because yes, we were smart enough to buy a house we can afford and we’re not being foreclosed on and buried in debt/homeless, we’re not flooded or currently experiencing wildfires or tsunamis, both kids are happy and healthy and alive, and, despite it being hugely ungratifying, I have a somewhat decent paying job. I’m aware there are those less fortunate, but its my blog and I’ll whine if I want to.)

I took Piper to see the Little Mermaid at the Ballet today. I thought she would enjoy it, but was worried, since it was non-speaking, at a large auditorium, and 2 hours long. She’s got a pretty short attention span, and bores quickly. Not that she’s attention deficit or anything, but she is only 2. Since tickets were only 15$ each, i decided to go for it, and figured if she misbehaved, we’d just leave.

I have to say, I had my doubts about her enjoying it, or even sitting still through it, and I was pleasantly surprised. She sat still, on my lap for both hour long segments. Isi and I had sold it big, telling her she was going with mommy to see the princesses dance on stage a couple days before. She’s into full on pricess-o-rama mode, (when she’s not building train tracks or playing with her dinosaurs) and I knew this would get her excited. Needless to say, it worked.

She was pretty entranced by the ballerinas, booed at the witch, and clapped at the appropriate parts. I’m excited to take her to the Nutcracker this year now!

I am obsessed with them. They mask the smell of diaper and dog food in our house. Not that our home is a massive pile of diapers, wipes, and dog treats. At least not on most days. But, I really like the smell of these new ones I have. They are the Yankee Candle aroma therapy new age-y smell. One is called “Bliss” which is an orange vanilla smell, and another is “Sensual”, or as I like to call it, “Get it on”, which is jasmine and sandalwood. In Love with them.

We’re in playground equipment hell right now. Both Isi and I want to get a yuppie playground deal for Piper and Violet, well mostly for Piper right now, to play on. So. Many. Options. Yet. So. Damned. Expensive. We cant decide between building our own from scratch, buying a pre-made and letting someone else deal with it, or getting a kit. We’ll see. Prepare yourself for pictures and cussing - I’m sure its coming.

We had the chili cookoff today, and I came in fourth, but who gives a crap, there was a ton of awesome chili! I think I ate chili until it is going to ooze from my ears later today. I love my own recipe, but holy cow, there were some really really good ones there.

In other news, I am in love with a big hunk of steel. Isi got me 2 new knives for Christmas, super nice Wusthof knives. Neither of which I have used, because I have no place to store them, because I want a magnetic knife rack over the stovetop, but I dont have one yet, so I wont put them in a drawer to get all nicked up and potentially cut myself digging in a drawer, wow long run-on sentence.

So I used this knife, a santoku (fancy word for “general”) knife, to slice some raw beef. Oh my god, the term “hot knife through totally melted liquid butter” came to mind, and yet could not describe how well this thing cuts. I am pretty damn positive I could take a finger off with little to no effort. Why oh why have I waited so long to buy good knives?

Oh. You know what? I didn’t know Andromeda was crashing towards us. Did you? That would be pretty freakin awesome to see. You know, before it killed us and all….

Violet has a tiny fever tonight, and Piper had a number 2 accident at school today. Thrill of thrills, this is the exciting life I lead. She (Piper) actually felt really upset about it, crying at school when it happened, and telling me “tomorrow I’ll tell Miss Tammy, and go poopy in the potty, not in my underpants”. Poor kid.

She’s really into stamping lately, so I took her to Hobby Lobby to pick out some stamps and some colored stamp pads. She’s had this Charlie and Lola foam stamp set with a small red pad for a month, and about has it worn out. She was so thrilled with the new stamps, she spent the entire night playing with them.

We’re doing the birthday party debate right now. We cant decide whether to have a party, or just have some kids over at the house. We’re both on the low key side right now since we have a trip to florida, her birthday, the house party, memorial day, a camping trip or two, 4th of July and Violets birthday, all right after each other. Spring/Summer are just a busy time of year for us.

I spent the day at home today, cleaning after our mass exodus from gaming this weekend. It took me 2 full hours to clean the kitchen and basement. Graah! Then I started prepping my chili for the cookoff tomorrow. Used the same recipe I usually use, but for some reason, it seems soupy this time. Hopefully it still tastes great. Hell, hopefully I win.

We’re going to go see a ballet performance of Alice in Wonderland this weekend, assuming we can get a sitter. Isi has never even seen the cartoon. Crazy, I cant get over that. I loved Alice as a kid. I’m excited to go see it.

I just watched my 487 billionth “How its Made”, which is like crack for Isi and I. They were showing miniature silver sculptures for dollhouses, hot air balloon baskets, and curved wood furniture. Okay. Must go take a shower now. I smell.

Took the dog running with me tonight. John was along as usual, we had been discussing the possibility of taking the dog with us when we run. I used to walk with Uno all the time, up until I got pregnant with Piper and we joined a gym. I started taking him again in December, and for some reason I stopped. He usually did pretty decently, with only minor corrections needed.

I decided to bring him along again tonight, and since we no longer run in our neighborhood, it was going to be an experiment. Uno long ago outgrew his need for a harness, and I’ve walked him in a simple nylon collar since he was about 3.

He did pretty decently, save for trying to figure out where to run him at. John and I usually run side by side, and it was a bit of a juggle trying to keep all of us on the sidewalk at the same time. Uno usually trots along by my side, but the prissy thing insists on being on the sidewalk. He has a mud/grass aversion. This would have been ok, but John and I barely fit on this sidewalk ourselves, and Uno was doing his part to force us off. Eventually he got the hang of running up in front of us, with only minor correction needed for wandering from the center, and a little prodding when it was time to switch from a walk to a run.

Hopefully he picks up the “in front” concept and I can continue to bring him along. He definitely needs it, after 7 years, he’s not quite so lean anymore.

Do they make reflective doggy vests?

Piper has announced that she is Daddy’s Retirement. Shortly after this announcement we asked if she would like boobies or brains. She states Brains. I’m still holding out hope that we can convince her she wants both.

I would really enjoy a piece of Oreo Cookie Cake from Publix right now.

We (isi, the kids and the guys) all went out for lunch at Mambo Italiano right around the corner from us today. It was very so-so. Normally its great, but everyone felt very blah about thier food today. I think it will probably be a while before we go back.

I have to orchestrate a chili cook-off at work on Wednesday. I need to get out my recipes and start looking for key ingredients for something fresh. We’ll see how it goes. I love chili. Meat! Beans! Meat! Yum!

Alrighty, I lied. Piper decided to hit her what we’ll call a “lapse in being a good child”. Not that she’s being bad, just bratty. Talking back, yelling and screaming at us, generally pushing her limits. And granted, its her job, thats what she’s supposed to be doing at his age is testing us, but dear god, its frickin annoying.
And, I am sure only because I mentioned it, Violet got the creeping crud giving her vomiting and diarrhea, and subsequently - waking her ass up all night long when she poos.

We watched Boy from Mars or something like that, Alien Child, or some other title like that. It had John and Joan Cusak and some kid. Decent movie. Best part of it was when he said that baseball is the only time in your life when you can fail 70% of the time and still be a superstar. Awesome quote.

Work is kinda sucky lately, its been really busy and quite a drag to go in. The best part of the day is leaving to go get the girls.

Not doing much this weekend. Gaming with the guys, and hanging out with the girls. Should be uneventful.

Piper is almost 3. Its amazing how she grows and changes with each day. We never really hit what I would call the terrible twos, and hopefully it wont happen at 3 either. She has her whineyness like any kid, and general hungry/tired induced crabbiness which usually hits at about 7 pm, but thank god, bedtime is at 8!

She’s still little, but can totally choose her own clothing, is totally potty trained, dresses herself, and to top it all off, has the most amazing manners. She can read all of her numbers, and has an incredible vocabulary. Her observational skills are ever increasing, and she’s certain to let us know what she’s perceving. This week she’s announced that I was playing music too loudly, its no longer raining outside, Violet is happy or sad, Isi is driving too fast or too slow, he was going in circles with our red car, and that his underpants were too tight.

She’s become very affectionate with Violet, and its starting to play out with her babydolls, something she has never shown an interest in before. She pretends to feed, cuddle, hold and drive them around in strollers now. She likes me to go check on her (violet) when she is napping, and makes sure Violet has her bottles and pacifier and her OWN toys. With Violet becoming ever more mobile, she’s been on the hunt for whatever it is Piper’s playing with, something Piper has been desperately trying to block. About every 20 minutes or so we hear shrieks of “She’s putting her mouth on my train!”, “Violet is eating my book”, or “Violet is chewing my dolls!”. But, all in all, I really am very pleased with how Piper is with Violet, I couldnt ask for more out of her, or for a better big sister for my baby.

Violet is 7.5 months now. Of course, I’ve been back to work for four and a half of those months, which, to be honest, sucks in general, but I am really really pleased with the care she gets at daycare. She LOVES her “teachers” and they really love her too. She totally has them fooled though. At home she sits unattended, rolls all over the house, eats a megaton, and scoots/almost crawls to eat whatever it is Piper has. At school, they have to carry her everywhere, or she lies on the ground on her back and giggles at them. To that note, she has to be the funniest happiest baby I have ever seen. She is constantly smiling or cooing or laughing at us, and its a rare day in the house if she cries. We comment constantly on how different the two kids were at the same stages in their lives. Piper’s reflux really made her a moody child and while we of course thought she was happy, (and its not like she was a screaming monster) its very evident how much of an impact it made on her, and our lives at the time. Violet is the total opposite, but has her own tummy troubles with a worrisome allergy to both dairy and soy that I am praying she outgrows.

She just recently, at 7 months started sleeping 12 HOURS straight at night, which I have to say, Isi and I were grateful for. Sleep deprivation was really starting to take its toll on both of us. She also is down to two naps a day, for an hour or so in the am, and about 2 in the afternoon. She’s incredibly easy to put down. Wait till she rubs her eyes, and you can lay her down wide awake and she’ll roll over and go to sleep. (usually) She has two chompers now, and gleefully chews her hands and anything else in sight with them while babbling happily at us. She is totally enamored with Isi, Piper and of course, Uno. Uno is center stage in Violets eyes, followed with whatever Piper has, Piper, Isi, then me. Its amazing how they’ve changed our lives.

And to top it off, I have tard-mom matching outfits and naked bath pictures with my two girls.

Ski Trip: Isi and I and a bunch of friends headed out to Utah sans kids about 2 weeks ago for a MUCH needed vacation in Park City. Holy bananas I love Utah - I dont love the asinine blue laws, but its an outdoor gals paradise. Of the 5 days we were there, I skied all 5. Isi and I brought our own skis, which actually much less of a hassle than I thought it would be. The place we stayed was beautifully decorated, wonderfully appointed, and way too small for 6 adults. The resort was great. Having only skied here in the east, and being very confident on the blue slush here, I was in for a world of awakening on the green powders there! I’m in love with the Wasatch Mountains now. Greens out west are blues here, blues there, blacks here. I did pick up pretty quickly for not having skied in almost 4 years, and only one time at that. The last full day I was really confident at high speed down steep groomed blues, and getting comfortable in the non-groomed. Our last runs were down the top of the slopes at 10,500 feet on double blues. Amazing. I was simply in awe and humbled by the views, and how insignificant our daily troubles are when in the shadow of those mountains. Isi, Chris and Shawn are much much better skiers than I am, but I managed to hold my own with one of the other guys on the trip. As the general novice on the trip, I was pretty pleased with myself, and cant wait to go again next year.

Being away from the girls was tough, but now that Piper is conversational on the phone, it was easier to leave her with her grandparents than it usually is. Violet gave me the biggest toothiest grin I ever got when she saw me again, until of course, she saw the dog…

I’ve been running now for the last 2-3 months, trying to train for running a 5-10k by this summer. I remember what I forgot about running when I was in school, and how much I loved it. My friend John runs with me, and its great to have the company, and the motivation for sure. We’ve run in the 5 degree weather, in the snow, in the rain. The snow was the most fun, but I am happy for it to be in the 30s again, since we run at night. Its nice enough for a light jacket and pants, and cool enough that I’m not a sopping mess when we’re finished.

The weight I’ve gained is slowly sliding off, and I’m not trying to rush it. I’m at pre-Piper weight, which I havent seen in 3.5 years now. I’d like to trim up a little more, but its going to require more motivation on my part. I was eating really well and working out pretty steadily pre-ski trip, and since getting back, I’ve slipped a little. Not too badly, but enough that I’ve noticed. Need to do something to get that motivation back. I did a second fast a while back, and it was a great kickstart to being healthier.

Isi and I are doing really well. I’ll be 30 in a couple weeks, which I am happy about. I never really thought I’d be where I am in my life right now, but I couldnt think of anything I’d rather change. Well, less bills, less stress, and less work would be wonderful, but other than that, nothing. Isi and I have both felt the urge to quit our jobs and move to a more spacious, less tied down lifestyle, but with things so good, we’re sticking with reason and staying put for now.

Now I’m off to do a mass flashcard -> flicker transfer. I still just cant believe Piper is going to be 3. Shortly after that Violet will be One, and after that, Isi and I will have been married 10 years. Hopefully we’ll be able to fill the gaps between those events with laughter, smiles, family vacations, good times and happy memories. If I’m lucky, I’ll squeeze in a trip to Disney. *pokes Isi* Its going to be a great year.

Grunty the WonderTroll has been awarding us with some smiles lately. We also think she might be ticklish - when you play with her ribs she coos all over and wriggles all around. I think we’re *thisclose* to getting a giggle out of her. She does it in her sleep already, full out laughs, I just cant wait for her to do it while she’s awake.
I think she’s going to have an affair with glo-worm as well. She loves looking at him. Also - she finally likes the swing - THANK GOD. Now I can give my arms a rest. She needs superswaddled and on the high setting, but she passes right out in it. Its so going with us everywhere we go - its a portable travel style. Good thing we broke down and bought one. It was the only new baby item we got for her!

In Piperland - She ate cous-cous last night, and bourbon chicken. She loved it - and some plain vanilla yogurt. It was a banner food day in our house.

I got to go to the gym yesterday - it was nice and relaxing. I love the treadclimber - definitly gives some resistance. Its going to give my thighs a great workout, which they need.

I have a surgical consult tomorrow to repair a hernia i got from the muscle separation during pregnancy. That should be fun. I’ll update on it tomorrow. Hopefully its nothing major - and I wont actually need surgury. If I do - here’s praying insurance will fix it.

So its been 3 weeks and there have been some changes
Violet is now 6 weeks old (tomorrow). This means I only have 6 weeks of maternity leave left. Waah.

In Violets world - not much is new. She’s still slightly colicky, but less than before. Screaming commences at approximately 7:30 and lasts till about 11:30 or so. At least she’s down to about 2-3 days a week. Still eating good, no semblance of a schedule whatsoever though. I’m finding I cant remember what to do with her when she is awake, or how long she should be awake for at this age. I end up staring at her cuteness and talking to her - but because of Mommy’s ignorance on when to put her down for nap - she really has a hard time falling asleep once she’s reached “that point” and cant settle. So we end up holding her and trying everything we can think of to keep her calm until feeding time again - after which she’ll fall into what should be a 4 hour milk coma. It never lasts long enough in the evenings though, and I think this is in part to the loudfest that Piper brings with her where ever she goes.
She had her 1month checkup last week - the new stats are 22 inches and 10.6 pounds. The little monkey is gaining good. She’s finally stretched out a bit, uncurled from the fetal position she was scrunched into. She’s almost too long now for the 0-3month sleepers now! She’s still almost impossible to burp, but for all the gassyness, shows no signs of reflux so far.
The kid now has a couple nicknames. Kissyface girl, bunches, and lately: Grunty the Wondertroll. She is thusly dubbed because of the constant sleep/gas noises she makes. She’ll grunt for a good hour before she wakes up, but it wakes me up at grunt 1 when its four am.

Elsewhere, in PiperLand - Her poor life has been so wacko. We threw a new body at her who takes up most of Mommy and Daddy’s time. We put her in a toddler bed (more on this in a sec) and put her in a new school and then threw her schedule completely off.
The grandparents were here for a week and she got no school time while they were here- but we managed to have her in bed by 9 most nights. Bedtime is usually 7:30-8:30. She then went to school for a week and a half, but then we took a trip with the girls, a 10 hour car ride, to grama and grampa’s. While we had a great time, she got very little sleep. One night she’d be out for a walk at 10:00 at night, the next day we’d close down the state fair at 12:30 am. Short naps, late bedtimes, lots of visitors and new activities made for a cranky and very needy little girl. I swear I have never heard “Mommy you have help me”, “Mommy you have come wit me”, ” I have go Mommy” or “NOOO!!! MOMMY DO IT!” so much in my life. Even “I HAVE WATCH NICKYNOUSE” was second to mommy. No one could help this kid. No one except Mommy that is. What was supposed to be a nice and relaxing visit with the inlaws became PiperFest 2007.
Coming home, we had visitors from day 1. Isi’s sister and brother-in-law were here, and we almost never see them. Of course Isi and I kept her out of daycare again so they could visit with her. We now know that we made the right choice to keep her in daycare while I am out on maternity leave with Violet. Piper NEEDS structure in her life. She is mean, cranky and needy when she doesnt have it. I feel like a vicious mean mom when I say this, but I am glad she’s going back to day care tomorrow. She needs it as much as I do - I simply cannot properly care for both girls and give them the attention they both need while Violet is still so young and wanting held 24/7- crying, and Piper is “Mommydoit”-ing me. Violet gets put down so I can pick up Piper, and Piper gets totally ignored while Violet is crying. I guess this is the saga of every mom with more than 1.
Something we did right however, is putting her in the toddler bed. She LOVES her big girl bed, and so far has not gotten out of it yet. I am positive I am jinxing myself by saying that. She’s upstairs napping as I write this. We were prepared for a full on battle, but she hasn’t given us one. She seemed a little lost in it at first, trying to sleep between the little rails, but she’s adjusted and now sleeps correctly. I do need to get a comforter on it, something that stays put while my wiggle worm sleeps.

As for Isi and I, not much is new. I had my 6 week checkup and everything seems happy. They recommended weight watchers to help loose the rest of the weight I need to loose to get back to my pre-Piper size. I’ve lost all of Violets pregnancy weight, but never got rid of all of Pipers. I fell into the “Why bother, I’m just going to get pregnant again.” trap. Now I am trying to climb back, so we’ll see how it goes. Now that I’ve been cleared to exercise, hopefully I’ll make some headway.
Oh - I have a surgical consult with a surgeon this week. I have an umbilical hernia, from the muscle separation I got while pregnant. Probably will have to have surgery for it, but I am hoping not. Thanks PiperViolet! I can only hope insurance will pay for it if I need this. We’ll see later this week.
I no longer have pink hair anymore. I’m really sad about it. It was time to change it but i still miss the hell out of it. Its really short and black now. Piper woke up the next morning and announced “Mommy, you have black hair! Pippa has yellow hair!”
I’m sad.

Well Grunty is awake now, so I’m cutting this short. Later!

I just read this quote on my july 2007 babies bulletin board - from a “Confessions of a Mom” thread
“4. I have not showered since Saturday morning…. My oldest daughter only gets a bath when she is so cruddy I cant stand to look at it anymore….”

This truly made me laugh out loud - and makes me feel not so bad. Piper has had several baths since Violet came home. Mickey Mouse might babysit her every once in a while, and I might loose patience with her quicker than before -but at least she’s clean!

Well, the weekend was nice and quiet. We didnt rent any more crappy movies, but we did make a trip to Ikea for what the only purpose appears to have been feeding Violet. We went down because Isi wanted to look for a bed for Piper, and was dissapointed to see shoddy beds for the same price as what we could get for a full size bed in a furniture store. So back to rooms to go - we go.
Anyways, we got there and ended up feeding Violet, changing both girls diapers, and leaving.
Speaking of Violet, she’s doing pretty well. We’re occasionally using the gripe water, and it appears to be helping. She’s going through a sleepy period the last two days. She napped the entire time while we visited a friends house, then on the way to Ikea - while there, and back - most of last evening, all night, and is napping again this morning. BY HERSELF! Yay! I see a growth spurt coming on.
Piper started her new school today - Isi got to do the big drop off. He just called and said it went surprisingly well. We’ll see. I expect a phone call mid day today. Maybe she’ll surprise us though, and I’ll have done all that worrying unnecessarily.

I hate Daisy duck. I swear, each time she shows up on Micky Mouse Clubhouse, she is freaking whining about something.
“I’ll never get my pretend doctors sticker - everyone pretend to be sick so I can pretend cure you!”
“I forgot my retarded dance and now everyone has to help me remember”
“Donald’s stuffed lion made me loose my sunglasses - they flew 400 feet into a pond!”
“I greedily took all the balloons and now I am flying away!”
“I made up these stupid directions to throw a surprise party and Donald is ruining them!”
“Help me I am trapped in a castle and have to sew an ugly 900 mile long scarf for ScaryPete!”

She is totally the Veronica of the old Archie comics. Annoying and bitchy and stuck up. Minnie is definitely Betty. A little stupid, but a complete sweetheart. I swear I get too caught up in this shit.

I took Piper to Mall of Georgia today to get out of the house for 5$ worth of Mommy and Piper time. They have a free little playground in there for the 36 inch and under crowd so we go chill out with the other little people for an hour or so. Then we toss 20 cents in pennies into a fountain with rocks and a waterfall. After saying Ploop as the pennies drop in, we make the massive (for her, and me when I was pregnant) trek back to the center of the mall to ride the carousel (only 1.50 each ride) - we do this twice, and tell the horses they are good, and fast, and talk about the colors of the saddles. Next we walk to Disney store to look at some Mickey Mouse stuff and get a sticker (also free). Finally we top off our day by getting a cheeseburgermilkshake at McDonalds. She loves cheeseburgermilkshake, and its cheap, and a nice treat for her. This whole deal usually takes us about 3 hours with drive time and walking around time. She’s got stubby legs and likes to stop every so often to steal apartment guides, sales flyers, free samples, etc. I love our little routine of this. I cant wait until she is old enough to shop with me for little outfits, or get her nails done, or have a real lunch with Mommy. For now though I’ll savor my 20 cents worth of ploop, exclaiming that “Yes, this pink horsey does go up and down”, and slurping down sips of the milkshake that she offers me. Its nice to slow down and appreciate the small things in life.

Today however, it was 102 degrees outside, AND tax free weekend in Georgia. Every person north of 285 was at the Mall of Ga. I will never make this mistake again. We still had a great time, however: The cute little playground at the mall, usually inhabited by those kids 4 and under, and occasionally the 7 year old well behaved sibling, was overrun by jackass (and I use this term in the nicest possible way) parents who obviously cant read a massive 10 foot sign with rules, and their unruly 12 year old kids with nasty holey socks. It took everything in me not to scream “YOUR 12 YEAR OLD IS NOT UNDER 36 INCHES.” “HE DOESN’T NEED TO CONSUME HIS CHILI DOG ON THE 1 FOOT TALL SLIDE” and most of all “IF YOUR BRAT PUSHES MY KID OUT OF THE WAY ONE MORE TIME, I AM GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS.” “Oh wait, I can’t, because you DUMPED YOUR KID AND WALKED AWAY” I hate parents who can’t, or don’t parent.
1) Take an interest in your child’s manners. Piper is two, and while I push the please and thank you earlier than some parents, thats on me. I don’t expect other peoples kids to speak politely. However I strongly enforce waiting her turn, sharing toys, and being nice in general (no hitting, etc), and if my 2 year old can manage it, your 10 year old son should sure as hell know better than to push and shove a 4 year old little girl to get to a kiddy slide thats 3 feet long.
2) And a parent should be able to see that if their kid is more than triple the average age in a play area, maybe its not the appropriate place to drop him off while you LEAVE TO GO SHOPPING. I don’t get people who don’t even watch their own kids. The manners is one thing, but assuming the responsible parents who are present keeping an eye on their own children to police yours and make sure they are also safe is totally another. I finally had to leave I was so disgusted. I told a security guard that there were unsupervised minors in the play area, and left it to them to track down the parent.

In other news, Isi and I have been video renting fools lately, what with this whole having a 2 year old and a newborn, cant really leave the house stuff we have going on. I swear for 2 people who have probably rented 15 movies in the last month or 2, we suck. I cant name a single movie we’ve seen in the last month that I would actually recommend. Well maybe one. Bridge to Tarabithia was good. The Prestige was good, but that was more than a month ago.

Marie Antoinette - sucked
Shooter - ok, but totally predictable
Basic Insticint 2 - We turned it off after 20 minutes.
Wedding Crashers - would have liked to shoot myself
Pathfinder - ehh
Accepted - again ok - but predictable
Because I Said So - Mandy Moore should quit while she’s ahead
Talladega Nights - I dont think I’ve seen anything so stupid. Oh wait…
Idiocracy - Thank god this was a free rental w/ Blockbuster or I’d be pissed over the money and time wasted
Epic Movie - see above

and the list goes on… We’ve got at least another month or two of being housebound in the evenings. I don’t think I can take any more of this. We need to turn over a new leaf. I guess there could be an upside to the last couple movies amount of suckdom: At this point, if I blindly walk into the video store and randomly pick something off a shelf, it cant possibly be any worse than anything we’ve seen so far. There is hope…

New Photos of the girls - and one of how verypregnant I was the day we delivered:

40 weeks exactly - July 17 2007

“But I dont want to wear my goggles!”

“These are Piper dinosaurs!”

Our first bath for Violet

“Is it over yet?”

Well, we shoved some gripe water into her bottle at 9pm, and she slept - by herself in her pack and play - until we woke her up to eat at 1am. Then she managed to sleep soundly until 6 when she wanted her favorite food again. Formula, formula, formula - this kid has a one track mind…. So either the gripe water put her tummy at ease, or Isi’s soothing presence did. I’ll take whatever I can get
No word from Piperland last night either, so I’m chalking it up to nightmare the night before. I think I did convince Isi to help me look for a bed for her though.
I managed to get a good bit done today - we ventured out of the house again. I made it to the giftbasket store to get (obviously) a gift basket for some friends, the notecard store to get thankyou’s, and CVS for envelopes and stamps and slimfast shakes. Call it a guilty pleasure but I love slimfast shakes - regardless of any weightloss benefits - its like chocolate for breakfast and lunch, and I can eat it while holding or feeding girl. Anyways, I got all this done in one hour. Amazing what you can get done when you have an alarm that might start screaming in 30 minutes or less. I should shop like this more often.

Isi and I last night started looking for lodging for our skitrip in February. Oh my god, how about gang-raping my checkbook? Why the hell is skiing so expensive? I dont understand how they can charge such outrageous prices for rooms and lift tickets. Our AIRFARE is cheaper than the lift tickets. Hotel I kind get, but not the lift price. Regardless - Isi and I are finding ourselves compromising on even hotel price that we would NEVER pay in any other situation. These better be nice ass condos. Thats all I have to say.

I bought some Gripe Water on a babycenter.com recommendation. Anyone ever use this? Isi and I are giving in. She has wanted to be held all day and all night now. I’m thinking about giving this to her when she wakes up to try and combat the inevitable screaming that is about to begin in the next 20 minutes or so. I’m totally against co-sleeping but I might cave on this too if it buys us some sleep tonight.
Piper had a nightmare last night. At least thats what we think it was. Sometime around 3-5 AM, she started crying and asking for mommy repeatedly, something thats only happened once or twice before. Bad timing with the Violet escapade that was going on. I went in and she was shaking and crying. All it took was a couple minutes of hugging, and she went back down, but it was still odd.
Today at bedtime she threw a massive fit, and asked for mommy again, but after a hug went right down and went to sleep. I wonder if she’s having some separation anxiety due to Violet’s intrusion in her life. We’ll see what happens tonight re: nightmares, co-sleeping and gripe water.
In other news, I’m down to the pre-pregnancy weight I started at, I only have about 20 lbs more to go to get to what I’d like to weigh. Also, I managed to mop a floor, clean the dishwasher, clean the downstairs bathroom, cook and clean up dinner, and yes - pee by myself this evening. The announcements are all addressed. Thank god for Isi. I also got to drive to the store and starbucks sans kids. It was wonderful. Here’s hoping to a nice quiet evening. Now I just need to find time to exercise, fold some laundry, and pick up stamps and thankyou notes. And get to bed before 1am.

Ugh, its been a day so far. I’m not even out of my pajamas at 2:30 in the afternoon because *someone* wants to be held full time. I mean, as soon as I set her down in a sound sleep, she grunts and wakes herself up. 14 diapers, 3 bottles, and several hours later, I’m still holding her. Its impossible to get anything done today. I had big plans for cleaning the bathrooms, mopping a floor, and you know, peeing on my own today, but looks like those are shot until Isi gets home.