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!
Getting a little twitchy
Jun 25th
I think I heard on the radio yesterday that we have had a total of 5 days in June without measurable precipitation. That is sad. It also has been making it hard to get our walking in. The past few days we haven’t been able to go. The first day we got a few blocks away and it started raining so we turned around; then the last few days there have been severe weather alerts that have made us afraid to get stuck out somewhere when it starts hailing. It hasn’t hailed yet, but it has rained pretty heavy every day. Like I said; not conducive to walking. So that sucks.
Work is stressful. Summer is traditionally our busiest time of year. Usually we try to get ahead in the spring so that we don’t fall behind during the summer. This spring I was out on maternity leave, a coworker severly broke her ankle, causing her to be out for a month, and another coworker got pretty severly sick, so she was out for 2 weeks. Combined with your normal vacations and such, that means that this summer has been pretty hecktic. And then you can add in that we switched our customer management system, which left us with a month of “down time” and has been a headache and a half trying to get it up and running properly, and now we switched some other computer stuff that caused another few days of down time…well, I’m sure you can see where this is going. We are swamped and behind (although not as bad as we could be) and everyone is stressed trying to figure out all the details of our new system. So yah…a little twitchy. Theoretically it should be getting better soon, but they’ve been saying that since before I went on leave, so we’ll see what happens.
In non-twitchy news, James and I are going to a 1 year birthday tomorrow, and I am so excited. Several friends that I haven’t seen since before James was born will be there, one of whom has a new baby. There will be babies everywhere! Or not. But kind of. hehehe. Anyway, I will try to get a picture of all the kids together and permission to post it on the interwebs. That’s a lot to remember, though, so no promises. Ryan jokingly suggested that we hire a personal assistant for me because I have completely lost my mind. It’s so true. I can’t remember anything. I’ve been assured that this comes and goes, so there might be a time later when I can remember what happened yesterday and whether or not I’ve eaten or taken a shower today. Amazing how you just take that kind of thing for granted; knowing whether or not you’ve showered.
And on that note, I will get back to work.
Fog, fog, go away!
Jun 16th
Duluth has officially had no days that are “mostly sunny” since May. It is now halfway through June. This is unacceptable. However, this weekend is supposed to be warm and at least partly sunny. Heating up just in time for Grandma’s Marathon. Of course. hahaha. Those poor marathon runners.
My sister and 3 of her children are coming to visit us this weekend. They are camping just outside of Duluth (which is good, because inside Duluth is going to be CRAZY). I’m so excited to see them. We plan on checking out the Children’s Museum and the Depot, and going on a scenic train ride. I think they’ll love it. I haven’t seen them in ages, and they haven’t met James, so it should be a great weekend. Photos will follow, I’m sure.
Other than that, there’s not much going on. We are keeping busy with James. He gets more and more animated and funny. He’s really getting the grabbing stuff skills down; he can even reach for specific parts of something hanging in front of him and usually get it. He smiles a lot, and charms people wherever we go. He still spits up quite a bit, but we are used to it and know to expect it (although he does still get each of us good at least once a week when we aren’t prepared). He likes to suck on his fingers, although sometimes when he’s tired he’ll suck on his thumb. It is cute. He’s also been chewing on anything he can get his hands on.
Ryan and I have a goal of walking 52.4 miles before July 6th. So far we’ve gone 21 miles. We have a little bit of catching up to do, since it’s been raining so much. Yesterday we took off on a walk because we knew we needed to get one in. It had been foggy and sprinkling off and on all day, but it didn’t really look any worse than it had, so we just went. And then it rained the whole 3.5 miles back to the house. Whoops. Here we are after getting back:
A bit blurry, but you get the picture.
James stayed nice and dry in his carseat/stroller combo. We opened it up once we got in the house (just brought the whole thing in with us) and he was looking around like “What the heck is going on!?” It was funny. We actually enjoyed being out in the rain. It was relatively warm, and we knew we were going back to a warm, dry house. And leftover chili. That always helps. Yum.
Anyway, time to get back to work. Have you taken a walk in the rain lately? I would highly recommend it.
It’s June! And my baby is 3 1/2 months old already!
Jun 3rd
When did all that happen? Yikes!
He’s so cute. Have I mentioned that? And he’s pretty much the best baby ever. My sister and her fiance were in town last weekend, and he had never been to Duluth before, so we were tourists all weekend. We toured Glensheen (the historic & haunted mansion!); we walked down by the canal and the lake, and went for dinner in Canal Park; we drove up Seven Bridges Road (and Bill got carsick. Whoops!); we toured the William A Irvin ore boat, and a friend took us out on his boat on Lake Superior; and we ate at Betty’s Pies on the North Shore. We took James with us for all of this, and he didn’t make a peep of complaint.
I was telling my sister that our lives would be very different if we had a baby with a different temperament. James is so easy-going. We take him everywhere with us, and as long as he is fed and changed he doesn’t care. He takes it all in. I can only imagine how hard it is for parents of other kids. And we are definitely spoiled and will probably have a rude awakening when we have another child who is not so even-keeled. But for now we are enjoying our happy baby, and our freedom. Although he did put a bit of cramp in our style, since we couldn’t take him to our favorite bar in Wisconsin (the Anchor). We draw the line at a bar; especially one where they still allow smoking (only until July 1!). ;-)
It is Ryan and my 2nd anniversary next Monday, and so we are both taking the day off work. His parents are coming up Sunday and we will probably go up the shore and do some light hiking on Monday. A fitting thing, since we spent our honeymoon up the shore hiking. I hope the weather cooperates.
In completely different news, I recently deleted everything in my Google Reader. It was constantly at 1000+ items unread, and it was stressing me out. Instead, I marked them all as read and am manually going back to the blogs that I want to catch up on and reading back. And of course trying to keep up with the new stuff in my reader. I may have to remove a couple things from it. Lifehacker, I love you, but your 20 updates every 2 days is killing me!
Anyway, that’s where life is at right now. Busy, especially gearing up for summer, but a lot of fun with this adorable baby around. Hopefully it stays that way!
Jeebus.
May 20th
You would think a person could take a second to write something on this little website once in a while. Other parents do it. But apparently my mind is elsewhere lately. Possibly because I have the cutest baby in the world (not that I’m biased). See:
So sleepy on our walk!
Or maybe this:
Hanging out after his bath
Plus we’ve had gorgeous weather (other than that snow storm). See:
The sailboat races are on Wednesday night in Lake Superior. An awesome sight.
So you see, we’ve been busy!
I do promise to try to make it back more often, though. And to try to start commenting on other people’s blogs again. I miss them!
One of these days I’ll get back on track
May 2nd
I start work again tomorrow. When I talked about my 10 weeks of maternity leave, it sounded so long. I thought for sure that I would be very ready to go back to work at the end of it; that I would have gotten bored staying home all day with a baby. But I discovered that when it’s YOUR baby it’s different. I love being home with James. He’s so sweet, and I love to just watch him and hold him. I think about how much I will be missing when I go back to work and it breaks my heart. He is doing more and more. Finally discovering his hands, and grabbing on to things purposefully. He smiles, and is on the verge of laughing. He loves to look you in the eye, and he will “pet” a soft blanket or his own clothes when he’s tired.
Tomorrow I will drop him off with a stranger. Sure, I’ve met her, and we’ve talked several times and I’m comfortable that she’ll do a good job as a day care provider, but she’s still a stranger. And instead of getting to feed my baby face to face, I’ll be pumping milk in an empty office. It will make our time in the evenings more precious; those few hours before he goes to sleep for the night. I will finally know how Ryan has felt these past couple months.
Thankfully, Ryan uploaded a couple videos to YouTube of James just hanging out in his pack-n-play. I will be able to watch them when I just need to see and hear him for a moment. And as soon as work is done I will be racing to be with him again.
