I Have to Share It Because I Love It

Prudes at Dinner, Gluttons in Bed by George Will

I Swear We're Still Alive

We're all still alive. We've just been seriously busy in the last week. We had a big meeting for work last Wednesday, and I had a lot of work to do for that. We got to drive home from it in an awesome blizzard (not), and that was a wee bit scary.

All three of us were sick last week (and still are) with some sort of evil cold. We're on the mend, though.

Nora's practically running now. So, there's that. She's still stinkin' sweet and hilarious.

It keeps snowing over here. I'm about done with that. I've always hated February. Even though it's the shortest month of the whole year, it's always the longest month of my whole life.

I swear I feel baby number two moving around in my belly even though I'm only, like, twelve weeks. Anything I read tells me that it's not possible, but I swear I feel it now and then.

Nora got a tutu in the mail from Aunt Marlene and Uncle Jerm, and I'm SO stoked to use it in her upcoming photo shoot with Maggie. I am seriously excited about that. (Nora didn't have a tutu before.)

I'm wishing it were spring and warm outside today so I could walk Nora over to the library or something. I'm about ready to start getting outdoors.

My belly's getting big already, by the way. It's still at that weird stage where nobody in their right mind would assume that I'm pregnant, but I'm working on it.

Now you're informed. Catch you kids later!

Baby Number Two

I had an OB appointment for baby number two today. Everything is good and normal except that I've lost five pounds since I was last there. I'm not sure what's up with that since I eat constantly (and I'm starving constantly). I'm just glad they said I can eat more, though. I think I'm going to go do just that right now, actually.

Our Kid

                      

She's still growin'. That's for sure.

Husband Questionnaire

I saw this husband questionnaire floating around Facebook, and I thought I'd fill it out in a place that I knew my husband would actually look. Hopefully, I won't embarrass him too much here. It's a, "how well do you know your husband," sort of thing.

Enjoy! (Muuahahahahaa, Willis!)

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?

It depends on the time of year. If it's football season, it's any game that involves any of his fantasy football players. If it's election season, it's mostly news channels. If it's right now, it's anything remotely good that's on (Family Guy, good movies, etc.).

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?

He usually gets ranch, but sometimes he goes all out (he gets all adventurous or something) and gets, like, blue cheese or something.

3. What's one food he doesn't like?

Oranges. I just learned this the other day, actually.

4. You go out to eat and have a drink. What does he order with dinner?

Usually, it's Killians, but that's only because that's what's on tap that's tasty where we like to go. I think his favorite beer is Newcastle, but he never has any.

5. Where did he go to high school?

Lafayette Jefferson.

6. What size shoe does he wear?

10.5, I think. Sometimes, it might be 11.

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be?

He's not much of a collector kind-of guy, but I bet he'd like to collect more munchkins like Nora.

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich?

Grilled ham and swiss on rye.

9. What would this person eat every day if he could?

Bologna and cheese. Seriously. That and the previous. It would help, of course, to include a delicious, fresh-out-of-the garden, sliced tomato.

10. What is his favorite cereal?

I don't know if he has ever eaten cereal.

11. What would he never wear?

He hates neck ties, so he'd love to never wear those if possible.

12. What is his favorite sports team?

Colts and Boilermakers.

13. Who did he vote for?

The other guy.

14. Who is his best friend?

I know he's still pretty fond of Christopher. (And he's known him the longest of all his friends, if I am not mistaken.)

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do?

I'm sure he wishes that I had some sort of regard for time. I'm working on it.

16. What is his heritage?

Scottish and German, I believe.

17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake?

I don't think I did this on his birthday (whoops), but if I were to bake one, it'd probably have to be white cake with white icing. He seems to like that.

18. Did he play sports in high school?

Wrestling. He wore a unitard (teehehehehehehe). Okay. He has corrected me a million times on this one. It's a singlet. Still funny, though.

I'm sure if I'd seen the look on his face while he was wrestling, I probably wouldn't be laughing.

19. What could he spend hours doing?

Playing Age of Empires on the computer, reading articles on the computer, grilling, cooking, working in the garden, fishing (doesn't happen often), or watching movies at home with me.

20. What is one unique talent he has?

He can whistle through his teeth somehow (his lips stick out really far when he does it, which is hilarious), and it's the loudest thing I've ever heard. Seriously.

Oh, and he can manage to keep Nora still while he changes her diaper.

How'd I do, Willi?

An Article I Found Amusing

I already posted this link on Facebook, but it can't hurt to put it here, too. Enjoy!

Hapless have hands out - BostonHerald.com

I Know I'm Boring, and I'm Okay With That

As usual, I'm waiting for my work computer to load. It's taking for-stinking-ever, for some reason. In fact, my personal computer is taking for-stinking-ever today, too. I'm not sure what's up with that. I'm not a fan.

In other news, I did another stint of single parenting over the weekend. Willi had to go to the Annual Sales Meeting for work, and he had to stay overnight in Merrillville. Nora and I went to church without him on Sunday, and he didn't get home until about 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. I'm about done with all this nonsense. He's only got one more evening of serious time consumption, and then that should be it for awhile. Thank God.

On Sunday after church, Nora took a good nap for me, and I got a chance to sit around and watch all kinds of movies that were on AMC. I caught the entirety of Mystic River. Holy crap. Have you seen that movie? It's rather depressing. It's particularly hard to watch if you have at least one kid. Other than that, I was flipping through some other movies from time to time. Those movies were The Family Stone, Wedding Crashers, Apollo 13, Working Girl, some Richard Gere movie, and The Object of My Affection. I might have caught some of these on Saturday night or Sunday morning, too. Those two days are kind-of blending together now. It was sweet, though. I haven't vegged out like that in a long time.

Here are some recent photos of the rascal.

      

This kid took almost a four-hour nap this afternoon. Now, she's all cranky. She just woke up. She is typically cranky for a little while when she wakes up from her nap. It's pretty sad. I'm not sure why that is. She just always wakes up crying, and then nothing I can do will cheer her up (except for maybe getting her some juice).

 

It got fairly warm on Saturday. All the giant icicles melted off all the houses around here, and a large portion of the snow is gone. There's still snow covering most of the ground, which is unfortunate. I expect that most of it will be gone after Tuesday (it's supposed to get rather warm tomorrow). We actually had our windows open for part of the day, and Willis and I even sat on the front porch for awhile when Nora was napping. (I would equate us to turtles sitting on a log at a pond or something. We had to get out and feel the sun, man.) I wasn't even chilled! It's days like that one that make me really yearn for spring. I have a feeling that tomorrow's going to be a lot like that, too.

 

In other news, my hair is looking absolutely fabulous lately. I could totally be in a Pantene commercial or something. It's almost ridiculous how thick and luscious it is. Unfortunately, I'd be disqualified from any commercials right now because my skin is breaking out like I'm fourteen again. I guess we can't have it all at the same time, can we?

 

I've really not got much else to report. I've been keeping busy with this little, walking rascal and work. Baby number two is still on the way, and he/she is fairly soft-spoken so far. Don't hold me to my word or anything, but I'm kind-of getting a boy vibe this time. I say this because I'm much less emotional than I was when I was pregnant with Nora. In fact, I'm much less emotional right now than I am when I'm not pregnant. So, that's why I'm thinking this one could be a boy. We'll see. I think I was thinking that Nora was a boy near the end of my pregnancy, though, so I don't think I'm very good at this game.

 

Nora's still cranking out on me at the moment, and my work computer stuff finally loaded. So, now I can go downstairs and try to enjoy the evening for a bit before Willi comes home and lets me go to yoga.

 

Dilly out!

She Just Wanted Some Juice

Nora woke up from her nap at about a quarter to three, and she was just irreconcilable. Nothing I could do would make her happy. I did do some deep squats with her in my arms, and I guess she chuckled at those, but only briefly. If I put her down or did anything else, she was back to screaming. After about ten minutes of trying to cheer her up, I finally realized that she was saying, "Juice."

So, I went downstairs, got her some juice (while she waited at my feet), and I cut up half of a banana and put it in a little bowl for her. Now, she's sitting in the hallway by the mirror, and she's happily watching herself eat and drink. She occasionally stops to giggle and talk to her reflection. She flashed me a good smile a few moments ago as well.

Oh! And now, she's wearing her bowl as a hat. She's gotten into putting her plates and bowls on her head lately. This means that I'm going to have to bathe her every day, most likely. I definitely smelled strawberry jelly in her hair earlier today (and she's got a great, stiff-looking do).

I wasn't kidding when I said this kid is growing up. It's all happening right now.

Nora's Walkin' Now

It's kind-of strange. She didn't just all-of-a-sudden start walking. She basically just eased into it. She'd take a step now and then, and she'd sink down to her bum. Then, sometimes she'd take two or three steps from one place to another. Now, in the last two days, I'm pretty sure I've caught her walking from room to room without any help. I think she walked from the hallway into my office yesterday, and then today, I'm pretty sure I just watched her walk from the bathroom to her bedroom and then back out to the hallway. I'm actually blogging right now just to make sure that this isn't a dream or something that I've imagined. I've had dreams where she's walked before, and I just kind-of thought that when she really started walking, there'd be, like, some sort of fanfare that says, "Hey! She's walking now!"

I can't actually mark the day that she started walking. Isn't that kind-of sad? She just eased into it, and she continues to do so. If there ever were a gray area for walking, we're kind of coming out of it.

She still wants me to grab her hands and walk her around (she demands it, actually), but I think she's about to do it all solo very soon.

Check this out (this just happened):

And this one is from yesterday. I thought I was going to catch her walking back out of my office (I had caught her walking into the office just before I started recording):

Here are just a couple of cute pics from this morning. She was playing so well by herself.

She's growin' up on us.

Little Rat

Don't have your volume up to max on these. My stupid laugh might just blow your speakers.

 

She just kept climbing on this thing to get my attention all morning. We've got to find a new "hiding place" for that sort of business.

Baked Ziti

Willis made some baked ziti last night (with Italian sausage). It looked (and smelled) very labor-intensive. Nora and I just had the leftovers for lunch, and I must say, it was stinking scrumptrilescent. The guy likes to cook, and I'm probably not going to stop him from doing that. Ever.

Single Parenting and Groundhog Day

Willi left this morning to go to Pittsburgh for work. He won't be back until late tomorrow night. This kind-of thing always bums me out a bit because I actually do like having the guy around as much as possible. The next couple weeks are going to be similar to this one, unfortunately. For some reason, the month of February is always a busy month for work (big sales meeting, big dealer meeting, and some other random stuff gets thrown in there, too). I used to be involved with a lot of that before I had a kid, but since Nora's been born, I've not had to do all that stuff. It's kind-of funny, too, 'cause when I did have to deal with that stuff, Willis never had to go to it. Now, he has to go to it, and I don't. We just couldn't both have to go at the same time, I guess. Maybe someday.

 

So, I'm doing some single parenting for today and tomorrow. I'm really hoping that Groundhog Day is on TV at some point. I really like to watch that movie this time every year. I really like to watch it with Willis, too. We both enjoy that movie quite a bit.

 

Here are some photos and a cute video from yesterday.

             

 

I can't believe how grown up this kid is getting to be. It's kind-of freaking me out. It's going just a little too fast, I think.

 

I've had a sore throat since the middle of last week, and I'd really like for it to go away. I think both Nora and I have been fighting off something. I think Nora's got it tackled, but for some reason, I'm not having the same luck that she is. I hope she doesn't wear me out while Willi is gone. This could be interesting.

 

Alright. I've got lots to do. Catch you kids later.

40 Years Is a Good Run

Happy 40th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

I have to get that out there first.

I also have to throw out some new Nora updates.

• If I didn't mention this before, Nora says, "cookie."
• She also has to have one if she sees one. It's a problem.
• She used a napkin to wipe her own mouth this morning. She found one on the table, and she picked it up (all proper-like) and wiped her mouth with it. It was such a sight!
• She brushes her hair with any sort of brush or comb she finds.
• She also holds phones (play or real) up to her ear and "talks."
• She is taking a few steps, but she's not running around yet!

That is all!