Clean!

For the past few years, we have been cleaning our own house and it seems to go fine albeit in spurts. We did have a company come out when we first moved in to do a thorough cleaning and a few times after as we were doing so much construction, but i thought "Oh, I can clean - I'm home some of the week now and will be here full time when the baby comes". Then reality started to sink in, and I realized it would be a question of how dirty I was comfortable with it being. Well, we decided to give our housecleaners a biweekly gig - just to try it out and see. By the time they were done with the main floor today I was sold. I went to work this morning, came home midday and had a mostly clean house! When I came back from my afternoon appointments, it was spotless - cleaner than I think it has been in months. What an amazing thing - I told Honey it was the best idea we had since getting married and having kids. I felt badly cooking dinner tonight because I didn't want to mess up the kitchen. And I am savoring our stainless appliances without fingerprints!

Oh Happy Day

I keep thinking that this will be the week that everything slows down and I have a minute to catch my breath. I look at the calendar and think "oh good, when that is done, I'll have so much free time" and then something else pops up. Oh well, I guess that is what life is all about.

My wish for Mother's Day was to sleep in and not do any cooking and get to play outside all day. I did "sleep in" but really, how do you do that when you are a mom? Peanut fell out of her bed last night (first time she has done this and it's been a while in the new bed) and we sprang out of bed - I don't think I have moved so fast in months. She was fine, but then woke several times complaining and of course I start to think about concussions and whatnot... so I slept until about 7am and then I was awake for good, but I forced myself to lounge in bed and let Honey get up with Peanut. She got into bed with me while breakfast was made for all of us and then she got her shoes on, brought me my shoes and the dog's leash. The girl had a plan!

We walked the dog, then started building the sandbox that great grandma (Goose) got for Peanut. I did get to be outdoors for much of the day and it was really beautiful today. Perfect weather for working and playing in the yard. Peanut loved her new sandbox and sat right in it to dig. She helped with some raking (I wished I had my camera outside when she picked up the big rake and tried to rake the pine needles all in her little pink outfit with her pink baseball cap on backwards) and weeding, and kicked her ball around the yard.

As I looked at the backyard, I had this realization of how huge of a project this yard will be! I've always had a plan for any house I have lived in and been able to tackle it in a year or two at most. This yard is going to take a long time to plan and pull together. I think that will be fun though since it will change with our family and our needs. It is hard though to stick to basics and not go nuts planting and building patios and all - there is so much potential. So we have our garden plot and our sandbox. Next we need to start lining out planting beds and mulching, but i think we will do these one at a time.

Honey grilled up some filet mignon (from the farm - we are truly spoiled!) and made a salad. I have never seen a little tiny person eat so much steak. She had probably 1/3 of my cut! We all ate well, she is gone to bed, and now I have a moment to relax. Ahhh, maybe Mother's Day should be once a month...

My Big Girl!

As we are hard at work getting our house prepared for this new little one soon to arrive, we have been moving furniture around and getting rid of lots of stuff! This morning, we decided to move one of the twin beds from our guestroom (soon to be baby's room) into Peanut's room so she could get used to the idea of a "big girl bed" just being in her room. We actually planned to keep her in her crib and borrow another crib from a friend once we move the new baby out of the co sleeper. So we had no expectations of Peanut actually using the bed. Well... she saw it, yelled "up, up!" and didn't want to leave it. She took her nap in the bed, and did fine! I was posting on freecycle while she napped (and I checked her a million times to be sure she didn't fall out of bed) and saw a bed rail and snatched that up since we were totally unprepared for our toddler using this bed! This evening, we gave her the option of her crib or the bed to sleep in, and she chose the bed! She settled in without so much as a peep. I am absolutely stunned, and so sappy about my little girl growing up so fast. I just can't believe it - to see her little self in that big bed is too much for my hormonal pregnant crybaby self. Oh she is so sweet!

ICY!

Here's something amusing. We had a huge snowstorm at the beginning of this week. Wind howling, snow falling, freezing temperatures. We actually got enough snow that Peanut was up to her knees in it and could barely walk which is why there are no pictures of her playing in it. I had to hold both hand the whole time we were out there otherwise she was down for the count. Well, we are scheduled to get new windows on the rest of our house, and are patiently awaiting that day. We almost didn't do the window in our downstairs bathroom, but at the last minute we decided to throw it in to the estimate. I'm glad we did, because when I went in there to take a shower on Tuesday, there were icicles coming INSIDE the window! I'm talking inside the shower! I have a distinct feeling that the temperature difference will be significant in that room with the new window. I hope you can see the pictures of our indoor weather!

Woman of the Cloth

OK, so I have used cloth diapers from almost day one (maybe day 14...) with Peanut and am planning to do so with this new little one. We started to go through baby clothes and things and get organized for his/her arrival, and I discovered that we needed to do a little work on our diaper stash. SO, I went to the place I learned so much from last time - diaperswappers.com and immediately got totally sucked in and addicted to all of the new and improved diapers, and the threads in other sections beside the for sale or trade. I remember being on this site a lot before and after Peanut was born, but I forgot the immense hold it can have on me. I did find a bunch of diapers there as well as on craigslist, and am now up to snuff on the newborn/small stash. That baby will be all set! I also looked at one-size and mediums for my Peanut since she IS such a Peanut and has been in her mediums for a year or more now. Of course I did end up buying some more for her, and what does she do? Gets totally into using the potty! I am floored, but I will take what I can get since I know chances are slim that she'll stick with it when the new baby comes.

The funny thing about potty learning or training, is that I find myself saying really funny things. Things I never really considered saying before. "You can poop in your diaper or in the potty - either is fine with me. Which one do you want? Potty or diaper?", "Once something is in the potty it stays in the potty", (she loves to try to get the paper back out - ostensibly to use again) "Only poop, pee, toilet paper and tushes go in the potty" (that's so I don't have to say "no hands in the potty" a catrillion times) , "You pooped on the potty like daddy does!" (I'm sure he loves that one!). I am also spending a really inordinate amount of time in there with her. We sit and she does her thing and then I think she is not sure when she is done, because she gets up and then says "more" and sits back down. Sometimes she is right - there is more. We got a second potty chair for downstairs after several days of climbing steps in a hurry to and anxious "wet, wet" or "poop, poop!". When Peanut saw it this morning, she promptly wanted to take it for a spin and I was again surprised to see her use it like a champ!

Thank goodness I only bought one-size diapers for Peanut. At least i know they will get plenty of use from number two even if she decides that potty is king. The rough part about this addiction to these diaper websites, is that suddenly, I feel that I must have these new things! Fancy eco fabrics, better absorbency, pretty embroidery...when really, I have a fully functional but maybe a little ratty useable diaper stash right now. Oh well. I've still spent way less money than if we used disposables so there.

I do have to admit, that it is really fun to open the mail and have new fluff in there to add to the drawer! OK, I think I really have a problem - is there a CD Anonymous?

More Views!

So we took the plunge and have ordered windows for the rest of our house. We realized based on how nice they looked as they were going in that we would need to do some more - the front windows at least. Over the first week we had them in though, we noticed that Peanut's room is now the same temperature as the rest of the house when we open her door to check on her before bed each night! What a concept! It used to be at least a few degrees colder in there until the air circulated once the door was opened. That was what sold us on all of them.

The measuring guy from Andersen came this morning at a little after 6am. I remember I used to start work that early - I did four days a week from 6-4:30 I think. It is hard to imagine now - I missed my workout and was barely showered by the time the guy got here. How is it possible that I could be clean, dressed and ready AND drive almost an hour and be there by 6???

So, now I am catching up on things since I am up and Peanut is not yet....oh wait - I think I hear a little voice upstairs! Ah, now I hear daddy getting her up and dressed.

I did our hospital registration this morning online - what did we do before everything was online? I just don't even remember it. I was lamenting my size to Honey the other day, and said - "I wasn't this big last time at 4-5 months was I?" and he patiently reminded me that at 24 weeks, I am actually 6 months pregnant. Hmmmmm. Made me feel better, but also made me realize how time is flying!

Oh the Girl Scouts got the best of us!

So we are really trying to take care of ourselves, eat well, and avoid chemicals and processed foods, especially after our forced processed food binge during the kitchen renovation. Honey and I have both been working hard at reading labels and being more cognizant of what we eat. We rid the cabinets of everything with high fructose corn syrup (or the same thing by any other name) a year or so ago at least, and have tried to attack other bad stuff along the way.

Well, after all our hard work, our babysitter brought over the several boxes of girl scout cookies we ordered (and promptly forgot about) several months ago. Every year, I just forget how addictive these things are! One serving becomes one sleeve of cookies in no time flat! And ingredients - who cares???!!!! Those thin mints could be buried so deep in the freezer that we would need an ice pick to get them out and I would drive to the hardware store to buy one for just that purpose.

Every year, I try to buy less of them, but I have a policy that if the Girl Scout herself can sell me on them then I will buy. I don't do the "mom brought the form to work" thing - on no. You, the scout, must tell me why I should buy them, where the money goes, and make recommendations about which are the cookies I should purchase. Isn't that the purpose? Developing responsibility, communication skills, understanding the interconnections between your actions and the end results???? The poor kids who come to my door. They have no idea what they are in for. I know I got this from my dad - he would put every salesman who cold called our house through the paces, even though he was not going to but what they were selling. Then he would critique their performance!

Well, once they are gone they are gone. Like Cadbury creme eggs - which come to think of it - those should be showing up pretty soon too....Oh I need a game plan to deal with those!