mmmmmmm.

I'm used to having a fabulous meal every Tuesday night. That's the day my mom takes care of Relia and we always stay for supper when I come to get her (yes, I am very lucky). But tonight they have plans, so I am on my own. (tear)

I got a fantastic night's sleep last night and it was so deliciously cool today, I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and got the fixin's for beef stew. I browned, chopped simmered and stirred, and by the time it was all ready... I had no interest in eating beef stew. I just didn't want it at all.

Stupid hormones.

When FP got home, he dug right in, and I was tempted into having a little. It was pretty okay. Hopefully I'll want some tomorrow for my lunch.

Crazy tired today

Seriously. It takes a minor emergency to get me off the couch. I was so exhausted on our walk today -down the stairs to the bottom of Minnehaha Falls and, upon discovering that the trail to the Mississip from there is closed, right back up the other side and I was DONE. I hate feeling like this.

It doesn't show in the pictures though! There are so few good ones of me and Reila.
Thanks love.



Of course, I'd been resting for the previous 5 minutes while FP chased our girl.

Relia Vignettes II

We met my parents at a sports bar for lunch. Whenever a commercial came on, they switched to music -and Relia would start dancing. she could not resist the rhythm. She got off her chair and danced. While eating, she wiggled in her chair. Relia, never lose your willingness to dance in public whenever the mood strikes you.

Only 14 more years-
Relia's been getting frustrated by our stops at red lights. We tell her we can't go until it is green.
Today, when we took off from a stoplight Relia said "Go green! I love green!"

Don't break my car-
Do you know the song "Build Me Up Buttercup" by the Foundations? (click on the link to see the lyrics and hear an instrumental version) The last line of the chorus is "Don't break my heart" Relia sings "don't break my car" which I might enjoy more. Also featured: her version of the ABC song.

Is this how it's supposed to go?

The potty training has not given us anything to celebrate yet. We all admit we have no idea what we are doing. She is enjoying wearing underware and will spend time on the potty but seems to manage to time things perfectly wrong. She did manage to pee in a plastic container I had sitting out in the front bedroom, but I think that was a happy accident. We had more success when we tried this back in June, more frustration from Relia, but more success.

How is it possible?

I have had a snickers bar in my freezer for over a week now.

Can my pregnancy brain be so bad, that I would forget about as wonderful a treat as frozen snickers. What have I become?

All right moms & dads,

I need some advice.

Relia is taking off her diaper. Unless there is something really fun going on (like grandma D's visit today), She takes off her diaper the second she feels it is "poopy" (her word, whether it is messy, or just wet). Today I tried panties, and she didn't pee at all, all morning. At one point, she brought them to me full of poop though. I was having a rough morning and I'll admit I wasn't my usual matter-of-fact self about that mess.

I'm pretty sure this is another indication that she is ready to potty train, but I need to prepare myself first, by talking to the teachers at daycare -to see what their requirements are, then probably getting a stack of books from the library and, of course, reviewing Micah's blog.

What do we do in the mean time? How do we get her to keep her diaper on at night? Oh my gosh, I need to go buy plastic sheets!

Help. I'm scared!

FP had the great idea to take Relia to the Walker sculpture Garden since every night we are required to read Relia's new book "Goodnight Minnesota" which she calls "cherry book" because the spoon bridge is featured prominently on the back cover. One of the most fun parts of this visit was getting Relia's interpretations of each sculputure:

"Cherry. I eat it."


"I touch it"


"Climbing"


Relia ignored this area in favor of the glass fish, but I really like this photo of all of us for some reason.

"Boat"
As soon as we entered the glass fish area, Relia became fast friends with this little boy as they ran around yelping, and peering into the pond. (of course, she picked out her own outfit for today)



Mid-air photo are fun

"Horsey" It still amazes me when she recognizes abstract versions of real things.


"Where hands?" His hands are in his pockets


We carefully avoided the "no climbing on sculptures" signs.


"Jacket" Haven't we all longed to try on this coat?


I'll bet you didn't know that this is Calder's "Triangle" and someone else's "3 Hot Dogs"


We all liked this one. Whatever it is.

Oooh, pretty

Someone pointed me to this website that creates a visual for elements of a website:

What do the colors mean?
blue: for links (the A tag)
red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
green: for the DIV tag
violet: for images (the IMG tag)
yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
black: the HTML tag, the root node
gray: all other tags

I want to cook. I like to cook.

But for some reason , I just don't.
Last night I roped my mom & dad to come over and help me with a backyard project that I have wanted to complete for years. Mom for her mad Relia watching skills, and dad for his angle grinder-itude. I thought since they are always making me awesome meals, I'd better step it up slightly and make them something yummy. I went with baked mac & cheese and apple crisp. YUM! It is fun to cook when you have a helper like this.

After supper, we all went out and dad & I tackled the back fence. Success. Where there once were 2 trees enmeshed in a 5 foot section of chain link fence, there is now a big hole in the fence and no trees. Yay. Now I have to find a five by 3 foot roll of chain link, or rip out the whole fence and get a new on put in. My bro and I keep talking about renting an auger & doing a whole fence weekend putting wood fences on both of our properties.

Feast of St Muridae comes a bit early

The annual feast began today with a special gift for me in the morning. Yes. That is right, I stepped on a very wet, half of a dead mouse. I could hardly tell what it was, but Relia immediately began bawling with real tears and crying "my mousie, my mousie!"

How on Earth did she know what it was, and what has she been doing with mice that she thinks this one is hers? I went and fished her out a mouse from the cat toy basket and she was satisfied, so that must be it. But, how could she tell that that curled up blob was a mouse?

The Feast of St Muridae is the annual appearance and capture of a mouse in the FP household.

Relia vignettes

Relia was sitting in the backseat when we stopped behind a Ford truck. Relia said "ABCs on that truck." (FORD on the tailgate)

She is obsessed with the old FP play camera lately. She'll tell someone to say cheese, take the picture and then say "Thank you". This afternoon she decided to get a little more artsy, and took a photo of graham crackers and a package of diapers. She thanked the diapers, but not the crackers.

Strange Pregnancy Dreams

I've had one just about every night.

I was on a show on something like the Discovery Channel because I found a bunch of snakes in a hole.

The show's name:

"What's in the Hole?"

Seriously.

Relia, FP and I were hangin out on our bed this morning, and Relia asked me if I was awake.
"Yes, I'm awake."
"Seriously awake."
"Yes, seriously awake."

Rachel

LOL at "never leave your infant in a gas grill"
I soo remember those days when the things that would normally be annoyances, just felt like that end of the world and yet also feel completely ridiculous to cry over.

Relia in the hiz-ouse

The bounce hiz-ouse, that is. And I forgot the camera! We went to FP's work picnic this afternoon and there was, as you'd expect, a bounce house. During the 2 hours we stayed there, I think she spent 15 minutes not bouncing in it. It was wonderful to see her just go, go go, and have incredible fun falling down.

This morning, we hit the annual garage sale in my parents' neighborhood. We didn't get there until about ten, but there was a wide selection of double strollers, and a CUTE bucket car seat I had a hard time ignoring. In the end, all I got was a hot dog and a case of the super tireds. FP got a stack of books, of course. Relia was a trooper through the whole thing, and my mom joined us for the last half of our trip which was helpful and fun.

It was a busy day. I'm hoping Relia sleeps good tonight after all that exercise.javascript:void(0)

Details

Baby is due at the end of April. Which, after last time, means that I expect to deliver a baby in mid May. If all goes well, it is PERFECT timing jobwise. After testing and only a few weeks unpaid from work.

I went to a NMW on Tuesday and all looks fine. I am feeling tired, but otherwise, darn good.

Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!

I got SUCH a deal last weekend. I went to Savers Labor Day 50% off sale. Everything was half off. I scoured the kid's clothes and let's just say I don't think we will need to wash any of Relia's clothes until Christmas. (except maybe her socks, because those vanish in seconds) 8 pairs of pants, 15 shirts, a cute jumper, 3 footed PJs, a coat, and a pretty duvet & pillow shams, that I couldn't resist.

AND I only spent $40. AWESOME!

So much is going on, but

I can't seem to remember any of it when I sit down to type. But then my baby does something really funny and saves the day.

Relia has such great eyesight. My mom took her to the park (giant open field) yesterday and she climbed up one of the hills and spotted a couple walking about a block away. Relia said "Daddy, mommy, baby" (daddy & mommy are her words for man & woman, especially if they are with a child) My mom questioned her because she didn't see any baby. Turns out the daddy had a baby in a sling.

So later, Relia was trying to put her baby in her shirt.

Tonight, FP was talking about our baby in my tummy, and Reila said "I need a baby in there"



Say broccoli!


Imagine FP chanting "push! push!"

If only it were that easy.

Feeling better

I watched The Sound of Music in big wide screen and (they say) HD last night. Fantastic.

I've been watching Planet Earth on Discovery channel today. Amazing.

I'm sold. This is really cool.

Now I'm listening to FP put Relia to bed, and she wanted me to do it. She's always begging for daddy to put her to bed. It's kind of a nice change for me.

Buyer's remorse?

This new TV thing is turning out to be way too complicated for me. Installing of new cable was fraught with miscommunications and frustrations. Our Tivo won't work anymore. Well, it might, but I have to install yet another splitter to our basement maze of co-ax. Finding the "HD" channels is a PITB, and watching regular TV looks blurry.

Now, because the Tivo doesn't work, I have to stay up to watch The Soup with my hubby. I'm just so tired by the end of the day lately. I fell asleep right before the best part of Project Runway. So frustrating. How can one little beebee size baby take up so much energy?

I'm sure you are all crying big, wet tears for me. :)

The good news is, we can see the correct number of ducks while Elmo is counting. That's what's important.

My lower stress level has increased my generosity. I swore up and down that I would never again buy crap that parents and the school system should already be providing, but I have become such a school uniform convert, that tonight I stopped in to Value Village and looked at khaki pants. I found a pair and an official "school uniform" pleated khaki skirt. I couldn't find any navy polos. I started talking with the cashier and we got on the subject of my teaching. I told her I was buying the bottoms for my students and she gave me the "teacher discount". Which, with the other things I was buying, made the clothes free.

Completely negating my sacrifice.
But I will be doing it again.

First day of school

1. I LOVE my new job.
2. I'm going to have to step out of my comfort zone and take on some new leadership roles.
3. The kids look so adorable in their new uniforms.
4. The kids without uniforms really looked out of place.
5. I'm tired, but not nearly as tired as I would be if I'd taught all day.
6. I need a clock for my office. I almost missed dismissal time.
7. The kids are using the balance balls instead of chairs and I love them too. No more leaning back.