Archive for July, 2010
Really, Facebook? You think?
Jul 30th
I know we have all seen the funny things Facebook recommends that we will like because we like something else (apparently because I like Stephen King I should like Country Music; who knew one had to do with the other!?). This one, though, I found a little bizarre:
Really Facebook? Because I like The Princess Bride, I might like The Princess Bride? You are so smart!
Ryan says I’m overthinking it; of COURSE you would like The Princess Bride if you like The Princess Bride. Duh!
By the way, in case you missed it, I do like The Princess Bride. The movie is great, but the book is even better.
Stuff (and an update about daycare)
Jul 27th
James and I attended the baby shower of a good friend of ours this past Saturday, and it was so much fun. Her family seems really nice, and it was fun to see all the little baby stuff. We all decorated onesies; that baby will have plenty of those for a while. :) James was a big hit, of course. He was his smiley, charming self. And he’s at such a fun age – he’s interactive in that he looks at you and smiles and laughs and plays. But he’s not mobile yet, so he isn’t as much work to look after.
There was another baby there that was 3 months old. He was a cutie too. It’s weird to think that was how James was just a couple months ago; kind of floppy and little and not so interested in whatever else is going on. The other little boy’s mom described time as a mother as passing quickly, but when you think back on things since he was born, it all seems so long ago. It seems like he’s always been able to do whatever he does now. I completely agree. It seems like forever ago that James was so little that he could fit in the crook of my arm, or all curled up on my chest. Now he stretches down to my lap when I hold him sitting down, and I have to make sure to lift him up when I put him in the crib so his little feet don’t get caught between the crib and my stomach. When I walk around with him he sits on my arm, holding himself up and looking around. And yet he’s only 5 months old! He hasn’t even been around for half a year. It’s just crazy. I just scheduled his 6 month checkup for next month. I can’t believe he’ll be 6 months already…time really does fly.
I wonder if my mom feels that way about us; that it was just yesterday that we were little babies? Being a mom really gives me a much better perspective on how parents feel about their kids. I never could have imagined it…it is so hard to describe. Someone I read once said that having kids feels like a little piece of your heart out walking around. I feel more like James has a string or tentacle or something attached to my heart. Like where ever he is, we are connected, and he can tug at it whenever he needs something. When he’s upset, it’s tight and tense. When he’s happy it’s relaxed, with lots of give. I don’t know how else to describe the feeling.
I didn’t know how much I would love being a mother when I was pregnant. I thought I would like it, and I knew I would love my baby. But I had no idea how much I would love him, or how much I would love being a mom. Or how much I would love watching Ryan as a dad. He’s awesome, and James adores him. The grins for Daddy; they kill me.
Anyway, I know all that has been said by other people, and much more elegantly than I could ever say it. But part of having this blog is being able to look back and see how I felt at certain times of my life, and that is how I feel now. Constantly connected to this other little person, who amazes me more and more every day.
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Daycare update:
We found a new daycare. I love her. It is the place that we were going to take James temporarily while we found something permanent (she usually just does drop-in care), but she said she’d be willing to try out a permanent spot. So we are trying it out. So far, so good. She does cloth diapering too, and is about our age. She went to school and knows some good friends of ours, and came pretty highly recommended. The only downside is that it now takes us about 40 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes after work to do drop-off/pick-up. Ick. That will improve, though, once all the road construction is finished.
We also got a letter about our old daycare, saying that the person’s license was suspended for 90 days due to “imminent harm” to the children. I don’t know if things were more serious than she lead us to believe, or if that’s just the wording the county always uses, or what. But I’m glad we are done with her.
She returned our money, which is great. She returned most of our bottles (there are a few parts missing), but as Ryan pointed out when I started to get angry about it – it’s not worth it. It’s not worth the effort to try to call her and figure out where things are and pick them up. Talking to her makes me so frustrated (she wants us to feel sorry for her! ACK!), and so it is worth whatever small cost it will be to get replacement parts for the bottles just to be done with it.
Speaking of done with it; it’s time for me to be done with the internet for tonight.
Quote of the day:
Jul 21st
“Not all Democrats are evil. And not all Republicans are good guys.” -spoken during the legislative update portion of my continuing ed class today.
Thanks for exposing your bias. FYI not all insurance agents are Republicans.
Testing
Jul 20th
Testing out the new WordPress app for android.
The pic is James after the parade we were at this past weekend. It wore him right out!
Random
Jul 20th
Some random thoughts
A bunch of tall ships are coming to town at the end of this month. All summer I thought they were coming at the end of August, when we’ll be out of town for my sister’s wedding. As a friend pointed out, if I have to be wrong at least it’s something I WANT to be wrong about. Some friends who are moving back to MN right around that time are going to be coming up to see the ships, so we’ll get to see them too. Awesome!
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I just saw a headline in the local paper saying that they are going to have a hunting season for Sandhill Cranes this year. Um…ok. They are pretty birds to watch, but what do you do with them? Will this be just trophy hunting? Will people eat them? I’m not a fan of trophy hunting, but I can’t imagine that they would be good to eat. Maybe I’m wrong.
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Ryan and I have been dealing with some drama surrounding our daycare. Short version: a neighbor called the police because there was an “unattended child” outside the yard of our daycare. The daycare lady says the kid wasn’t out long and the parents didn’t think a report needed to be filed, but I think the police have to do one anyway. The county is investigating and might temporarily suspend her license while they do so. She doesn’t want to deal with that, so is going back to school to pursue a different career, and her last day will be Friday (that doesn’t make sense to me either). Also she’s taking today (Tuesday) as a personal day (apparently it couldn’t wait till next week). And we found all this out on Sunday afternoon while we were out of town. I took yesterday off to try to start the search for a new place (based on recommendations from people I know rather than just trying to guess this time), and Ryan has today off. I think we’ll start the new place tomorrow, even though technically we could probably bring him back to the old place. But who knows about this possible suspension (no one could tell us how likely it is to happen), and we just don’t want to deal with it any more. We think we’ve found a new place, and I really like the guys that run it. The only down side is that it’s about a 20 minute drive one-way. Usually going to work takes us about 7 minutes. I’m not looking forward to that. Ryan is calling a couple other places today to check them out because they were closer, but we are thinking we’ll go with the further away place. I keep telling him to win the lottery so that I don’t have to work, but so far that’s a no-go.
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Work has been crazy lately. We have had a lot of down-time with the computers or our management system and that’s created a backlog. I’m also struggling with whether or not to talk to my boss about how the person who is supposed to be assisting our department is really only assisting one person. I know I need to do it (it’ll be obvious when I bring him some stuff that should have been done a while ago), but I don’t like getting other people in trouble. On the other hand, he’s been saying for years that she should be providing more help for us, but the amount actually seems to be less every year. So yah…fun.
That’s all I’ve got.
:Edited to add:
I called our current daycare lady this afternoon because the places Ryan was trying to get ahold of hadn’t called him back yet, and we didn’t want to start a new place if we were going to switch right away. The daycare lady says, “OK. Is it ok if you pick him up a little early?” I’m thinking she means like 3:30 or 4. “Because I have an appointment at 1:30 and I need to leave by 1.” Oh.My.God. You are kidding, right? Ryan called a drop in center that was recommended to us, and we will be bringing James there until we figure something else out.
Also, I edited the first sentence of the first paragraph because it was very poorly worded.
Dream
Jul 15th
I was at some sort of event with Ryan. It kind of felt like a high school gymnasium, but I’m not sure. There was a panel of people on stage (my high school had a stage in the gym) and they were asking them questions. Ryan wanted me to hold the microphone, so I was on stage and he was in the audience. We were all dressed up.
They then had me come down off the stage, and the panel left and there were all these couples, some of which I knew from high school. They were sitting on the edge of the stage, and Ryan and I were sitting to the side down by the front (not where he had been sitting before). They randomly chose someone to come be the MC, and it was a blogger that I read (Temerity Jane- who I do not know other than reading her blog). She went up there, and didn’t seem to know what she was doing, and then music started, and she was singing a song about the show. It was obvious that it was all part of the act – she DID know what she was doing. She was wearing some leotard with a skirt thing (like a swimsuit with a ruffle), and had green underwear showing underneath it when she bent over to flash it during the show. She ripped off the swim suit thing and showed us the joke underwear, but she was wearing more clothes underneath-like military camo pants and a t-shirt. I don’t know how that worked, but it did. She started doing a bunch of pushups. It was very impressive. Then she walked over, and grabbed the arm of a huge guy coming on stage. then I woke up.
Talk about wierd. I don’t even know what to say about this one. It’s much less clear than the dream I had the other night where I was putting on high heels to wear with a bridesmaid dress while I went to work, and was complaining to Ryan about how they were too tight. And then I told him that they were going to be changing shoe sizes so that men’s and women’s shoes were the same size. But I was upset because, ” We can’t afford to buy all new shoes!” Um…because apparently in my dream we couldn’t continue wearing the shoes that did fit because they weren’t the “right size???”
What dreams have you had lately?
It’s Friday! Do a happy dance!
Jul 2nd
It is Friday, and this is a long weekend. I’m so ready for it I can’t even tell you. Work has been good, but busy and stressful. And I’m ready to get out there and enjoy some sunshine. Plus, we are going down to see Ryan’s family, and some of his aunts and uncles haven’t met James yet. I love introducing him to new people.
Speaking of James; Ryan and I are so so lucky. He’s such a good baby – almost always happy. And even when he’s “fussy” he’s not bad – he doesn’t scream and wail, he just gets grunty and whiney. And he sleeps so well. He slept entirely through the night again last night, and when he woke up this morning he was content to just lay in his crib and talk and smile at us while we got things ready before we picked him up. He makes my heart melt. That’s such a cliche, but it’s so true. I love that little guy.
And for your viewing pleasure; pictures from the birthday party last weekend. All photos were taken by my friend Adrienne.
Who are you? Can I eat your face?
Buddies! My friend Sarah's sweetheart. These cuties are just 5 weeks apart (James is older).
Friends and babies! A one-year old (the birthday girl), a 3 month old, and my 4 month old.
The boys! (The two on the left are brothers)
HAAA! I love to smile with my mouth wide open!!
So basically, it was a fabulous time (and HOLY COW were the decorations awesome!). I had so much fun visiting with my friends and seeing their kids. Now just to figure out how to do that on a more regular basis!
Happy 4th of July, folks!
