Sunny 9 for 2007 January

Fri Jan 05 2007 21:01 A moment's peace: Wow, it doesn't feel like it has been over two weeks since I updated. I guess I will begin at the top. For Christmas David and Ashley came in town as well as Julie and Chuck. For an activity, Lorna volunteered to baby-sit for us while Aaron and I went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Concert compliments of Ben. It was a pretty amazing show and perfect music for the holiday season. It was my first time leaving Gunnar, so I was apprehensive but once I was there I knew everything would be fine.

I still haven't ventured out in the real world with both kids by myself. I doubt I will for another month or so and only if it is an emergency I imagine. Lily is just to vivacious for me to take on another.

Christmas was great. We got lots of goodies: $, a deep fryer, tools, new silverware, gift cert, my salad spinner finally!, jewelry, nice grill, clothes, and Lily got her first tricycle and some other toys and clothes. Alyson and the boys came into town the next day. Aaron was great about letting me step out for a couple hours at a time to go shopping and even once to the movies. I saw The Holiday with David, Ashley, and Michelle and it was pretty good minus some casual sex. It was a little misleading and irresponsible I think to portray relationships like that.

Aaron and I even went to see Night at the Museum together with some family. I really liked the show and thought it was funny. Gunnar was pretty good for it too, and Michelle and Lorna took Lily shopping for us so we could go. I was sad to see the out of towners go. New Year's was non-memorable. We watched fireworks again this year from our bedroom window this time with Lily. She was scared of them and reminds me everyday that fireworks are "scary". Speaking of Lily talking, she will not be quiet for a second. She is starting to boss which is laughable to see a tiny thing like that do, but it is also irritating. She says things like "No dinner, want it...I want candy". I still feel sad for her that she is not the only apple of Aaron and my eye anymore. It must be hard for her to deal with. Luckily, she is being pretty loving to Gunnar. She always wants to hug and kiss him.

Aaron returned back at school on Wed, and I was bummed about that. It was nice to have his help. Two kids are hard. I feel like I never get a moment to myself let alone to clean the house up. Hopefully things will get better as Gunnar eats less frequently and is on a more permanent schedule. I also dove head first into my "lose the baby fat" diet. Hopefully I can take it off faster than I put it on. It kinda sucks not being able to eat what you want, but at least I didn't have that to worry about when I was pregnant.

I almost forgot; Aaron and I bought a new truck. We got a good deal on grey Ford 2007 Ranger. Aaron insisted that he get a truck for his projects. It is nice to have I admit, and driving it takes me back to high school when I drove a truck similar to it, standard and all. I like being higher on the road, but it is not so huge that it is scary to park. It is a pretty car I think, and am relieved that I don't have to drive for an hour to pick Aaron up at school with two grumpy kids in the back. I don't love another car payment but fortunately our other car will be paid off in Feb. It feels pretty good finishing up those payments I took on over 5 years ago. I own a car and I paid for it all. That's a good feeling.

Well, back to folding laundry. My life is so exciting!

(1) Mon Jan 08 2007 12:49: I only have one goal for this week. That is to have Gunnar on a schedule by Sat. Shouldn't be too hard, right?!

Wed Jan 10 2007 10:00 Where did December go?: Even though I have no desire to get out all my Christmas decorations again or see them for another year, I kinda miss Christmas and the holiday season. It seems like it went by so fast, but this year was a really good one for me. We didn't have to travel and I still got to see all my family. I still feel like saying "Merry Christmas". And Lily still wants to sing Jingle Bells (another thing she must have picked up in nursery).

Also, Gunnar is turning 6 weeks old tomorrow. Six weeks really is a magical number. It really is about the amount of time you need to actually begin to start feeling somewhat normal. I noticed I am not sore really anymore. Lily is being pretty good around Gunnar and is pretty used to him being around. I am not as neurotic about keeping Gunnar away from germs. Like I don't flinch after the thought of bringing him into Wal-Mart in his car seat with a blanket over the seat anymore. And although I don't feel capable at all juggling two kids just maybe Gunnar is picking up on this schedule thing and I can feel some sort of semblance to my day.

I was able to get Gunnar's portraits taken too at one month. The earliest I have of Lily is 4 1/2 months and I regret that. I wanted to get hers done of her in her blessing dress but by the time I actually felt comfortable leaving the house with her other than being forced (Dr. appts, church, quick trips to the store) she didn't really fit well in her dress. The difference between Gunnar and Lily is that so far. Lily started to grow out of her clothes way after the norm and Gunnar is already growing out of his clothes. He weighs a little over 11 pounds as far as I can measure and I remember it taking Lily forever to hit the 10 pound mark. Both cute in their own way.

(4) Sun Jan 14 2007 15:54 Some things never change: Today was my first official day back at church after "maternity leave". Maybe I have just gotten to be a better mom or maybe Gunnar is sooo different than Lily. He was so clam today at church. No going in the hall (okay, we were late so we were sitting out in the foyer) but not a peep really the whole 2 hours I had him. I teach the third hour so Aaron had him and he said he was good.

When Gunnar was tired, well he just went to sleep then. Lily at church was a nightmare. She was and is a very social person so of course with all these new faces to look at there was no way she was going to tear her eyes away for a second to go to sleep. No way. How boring?! Unfortunately, Lily was the type of baby that had a schedule of napping and if she missed a nap she remind us that she was still awake and not sleeping by making life miserable for Aaron and me. Not so for Gunnar. He could care less about looking around. As long and he was snug in my arms he slept or laid there quietly.

Now you may be saying to yourself, "that's because he is only six weeks old." This might be true, but for Lily she was the way she was at six weeks old. Wide awake all through church. Never able to sleep unless she was snug in her crib belly down and no one in there to make a noise. She could hear someone lick their lips and wake up, that girl.

So I am not really surprised that lately Lily has been having issues with going to sleep. I mean with all the excitement of having a baby brother, and knowing he is still in the room with mom and dad and she is all alone in her room. She wants to be part of the action. It takes her forever to go to sleep now. Plus kids won't go to sleep with a dirty diaper. Well, Lily calculates when bedtime is and I swear saves it until we leave the room and then lets it all out as punishment to us. We hear her playing, climbing, talking, and singing for half an hour to an hour and finally Aaron or I will go and check on her to smell that indeed, she has a dirty diaper. Her best payback is when she gets naked, diaper and all, and gets poop all over her carpet and wall. Yes, that did happen. A disgusting and horrifying story for another day. Usually though, her diaper is just wet, thank goodness.

Part of the tricks we play to get her to sleep is that we tell her that we are going to sleep to. So as we get up to leave the room she says, "Papa nigh-night too, Mama nigh-night too, Gunnar nigh-night too, Lily nigh-night too, animals nigh-night too". She has a basket full of animals that she sleeps with, and on some nights she makes me kiss every one goodnight including her sippy cup. Anything to get out of going to sleep.

Gunnar is getting the hang of a schedule thank goodness, and hopefully after this week he will be predictable and happy because I will know what he wants. You know what is sad is for the holiday tomorrow, I made Aaron promise me to watch both kids as if I am not home so that I can shut myself in my room and clean it top to bottom. For once and for all, including the bathroom. I have not been able to get at it with Gunnar still in there afraid that if I do anything in there too long while he is sleeping I will lose my precious hands free time. So my life has come to this. Being excited about cleaning by myself with no one to attend to or interrupt me. How sad is that?

24 season 6 is on tonight!! Can't wait.

(1) Fri Jan 19 2007 22:17 Happy Anniversary...: to Aaron and me! I can't believe it has been 5 years.

(2) Sat Jan 20 2007 22:59 Busy Little Bees: My, this has been quite a week. In the beginning, we like the rest of the country had freezing weather. So bad that in addition to Aaron getting Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr day, he also didn't have to go to school Tues and Wed because the roads had iced over. It was fun having him around and so nice since I was able to do some damage control and clean for extended periods of time since Gunnar was born. What a relief to be able to walk on the floor in my room without clothes there. You would not believe how many loads of laundry that have been done the past week.

This week Lily has decided she no longer wants to sleep during her nap time. She really has only slept a total of an hour and a half this whole week while being in her room for naps. I would prefer her to get her rest (she has been incredibly full of naughty energy this week) but if not I am still determined to keep her in her room for at least 2 hours each day for quiet time. Still kinda likes it anyway. Every time I check on her she has a new outfit on. Which brings me to another bane. Lily is very good at dress up these days. She wears mismatched outfits all day long. If I don't like the dreadful one she has on...not to worry. It will be something different in half an hour. I don't even bother dressing her for the day anymore until we are two seconds from leaving.

The poor little troubled girl has also been doing something very worrisome to me. For fun she pulls out her own hair and chews on it and swallows it too. Sometimes 5-6 strands at a time, usually just one. She is going to go bald, I swear. I mean the poor girl has pathetic excuse for hair anyway with how stringy it is, it has just been getting worse. At least in nursery when they complain about her pulling out girls' hair I can tell them at least she doesn't discriminate. She pulls out fistfuls of her own too.

Friday was Aaron and my anniversary. Jake and Erin so graciously offered to tend the kids. I don't think they knew what they got themselves into. Nonetheless, everything seemed to go well. Aaron took me downtown to eat at a nice fine cuisine restaurant called Oro. I took the night off of my "diet" and had amazing food. I ordered the lamb sirloin that had the most tasty sauce reductions. It was very satisfactory, and Aaron had the boar chops which were equally yummy. For dessert we spilt the chocolate volcano cake. Writing it now makes me want more so bad. It was very rich though, so I am glad we split it because if you over did it you could feel ill. Oh, it was so good though.

That's about the extent of my week. It went by so fast. I guess one more thing happened this week. I started to let Gunnar cry himself to sleep for naps. It is not something I like to talk about or do. It was time for me though, and I hope not too early for him. Poor little guy. It breaks my heart, but it came down to that or my sanity this week. At least he has done well since. He doesn't carry on for more than 15 minutes and usually just like 10. I hate thinking about it though.

Thu Jan 25 2007 23:24 Hello Tax Return: I love you.

Fri Jan 26 2007 13:59 Say click, take a pic: I have finally done it. I have wanted to post pictures, but didn't want to bother my cousin Leonard every time I wanted it done on my blog. So I came up with a way I could. I created a picture blog here: http://4yourconsideration.blogspot.com/

Here is a direct link.

So there you go. If you want to see my cute babies grow or understand the "see it to believe it stories" that I might talk about with Lily, then go there every so often and see. Yay! Pictures!

(1) Sat Jan 27 2007 22:04 Brain food: Two shows I have seen recently have given me cause to internalize. The first one is An Inconvenient Truth. I really wanted to see this film to judge for myself and be informed. The judgment is I liked it. Al Gore was even human-like in it. I enjoyed it so much I keep giving Aaron subtle hints to watch it so that we can talk about it together. He has no interest to do so, but I would love to talk about it with anyone who has seen it to get their perspective because I don't know very much about global warming. I would recommend this film to anyone.

Secondly, I just saw Freedom Writers tonight. I thoroughly enjoyed that too. It is nice to be reminded of why it is important to be compassionate especially for me when I can get totally consumed with my life and me. If anything see it for the good acting and fast moving storyline. I don't think you would be disappointed.