Trailer trash

We all know I'm dumpster diver (no new treasures lately, but just wait until college gets out!) but lately I've really been getting into our trailer - bike trailer, that is. Patrick LOVES it and wants to ride in it every day, rain or shine (or SNOW, which will definitely not fly), which has turned out to be great exercise for me*. Right now we only have one hook-up for it, so it stays permanently hooked up to my bike since Joe only comes along on weekends or night he gets off work early (sooooo... back to weekends), but this seems pretty darn unfair when Joe, the big strong male, is pedaling along on his merry way while his pregnant wife tows their other child in a trailer behind her. We're gonna need another hook-up, I say. I purposely did not include pictures of myself, since I'm wearing a bike helmet, which does not mesh well with bangs.

Enjoying the shade, holding the snack dispenser, which he REFUSES to let go of, and it's not even ours! I'd better buy one quick before I see the girl and have to give it back...

Hooray! At the park! ...Again! Third bike ride today!

*This is all part of Kirsta's Accidental Weight-Loss Plan. Apparently, all you have to do is get pregnant (seems counter-productive, but stay with me) and then nurse when you have the baby! It's like all those celebrities claim! It's really helpful if your baby inflicts gross dietary restrictions upon you, forcing you to eat brown rice and chicken breasts with green beans instead of the chocolate ice cream and cheese you so desperately crave; then your baby should be extra-clingy, causing you to get away the cheapest way you know how - $2 babysitting at the gym for 2 hours (you'll burn calories no matter how slow you go if you walk for 2 whole hours); then, clingy baby should chunk up and demand to be carried around, giving you not only buff arms but also some weird lower-arm stretch marks (why am I the only person in the world who has these?). When that baby gets older, you can then cart him around on your own horsepower and keep those maternity jeans at bay. You'll lose weight like MAD, and when your next pregnancy causes you to crave fresh fruit and vegetables, be prepared to walk into the doctor's office a few pounds even lighter. So do like me: get pregnant to lose weight!** ...or something like that.

**I'm not bragging, I swear! Did you notice the diet plan name? ACCIDENT? You can't brag about an accident.

Just keeping you over-updated

So it's just me who can't cut-n-paste here? While creating a post, I highlight what I want to cut or copy, then right click (normal, right?). FIRST it un-highlights everything, and then cut or copy aren't even options! Even if things would have stayed highlighted (which the DO NOT)! I swear I'm not retarded, but if someone could come over here and SHOW ME WHY I SEEM TO BE, that would be greatly appreciated. I can, however, cut/copy and paste on already posted blogs, so if THAT'S what you were thinking... well, that's a different ball of wax.

Also, I've been wondering - when do I have to morph into "Mom Mode" where I set an alarm to getup before the kids? Right now I just get up when Patrick gets up, but I know that sooner or later I'll have to get up earlier. Does this happen when baby #2 comes around? 6 weeks after baby #2 when I become a more normal, functioning human? Do I wait until baby #3? Does this happen by necessity when Patrick starts going to school in the mornings, or will I already be up early from attending baby #3? Are there over-achieving moms out there who already do this with only one child? I love me my sleep, so if the kids aren't up, I don't want to be, either! So I was just curious.

I wanted to spread the word that I am officially a GARDNER! I GARDEN! I bought a couple seed packets a while ago, then procrastinated planting them for about 2 months, and when I finally DID plant them I pretty much doomed them to failure by putting them under my care. I can't seem to grow anything, except for my one houseplant that is 7 years old that I can't seem to manage to KILL (talk about hearty!) Anyway, I had resigned myself to gardening failure, though I kept on watering my dirt pots, until two morning ago - a sprout! Then two sprouts! And this morning I woke up to 4 tomato sprouts and 3 zucchini sprouts, and I am OUTRAGEOUSLY proud. They're tiny, so I still have lots of time and opportunity to kill them, but I am crossing my fingers that before the summer is through I'll have fresh BLTs and yummy zucchini bread.

Ameteur

I've always liked scrapbooking, but I hated taking photos, so I had to beg, borrow, and steal to have anything to work with. Over time I realised this was due in large part to hating the pictures my cameras took - they were fuzzy, overexposed, underexposed, or just plain bad (because of the camera, not me! I swear!). I began relying heavily on people with GOOD cameras to allow me to beg or borrow (they obviously don't give me permission to steal, otherwise it would be called giving) so I could get these great photos that my camera could never take. When I noticed my sister's iPhone took better shots than my digital camera, the light bulb went off - maybe IIIIIIIIIII should just go get one of those awesome cameras! Joe agreed, and since he's more easily talked into large purchases than should be allowed, we quickly acquired a mid-grade bit of awesomeness. I've since checked out a few basic "Taking Good Family Photos" books from the library and this morning, while Joe slept in (I get Saturdays, he gets Sundays), Patrick and I took our new camera and new knowledge out for a spin. I think the results are... amateur... but decent. And also a little photo-shopped. The important thing was, we had fun! If anyone knows why photos posted on blogs do or do not produce an enlarged version when you double-click on them, speak now!

Life's little pet peeves

As a list maker, I (of course) keep a little running list of things that drive me insane. I'm not even writing because I'm currently in a bad mood, I just think of things during the day and think it's kinda funny to put them down. You're welcome :)

- When I miss a call, and that caller leaves a voicemail, it will tell me I have a voicemail but I have to bypass the voicemail screen to see who called so I know if I even want to LISTEN to the message, THEN I have to rummage around through various menus to re-find my voicemail and listen to it or delete it. If I'm lazy and figure "eh, I'll just hear what it is," my phone still says I have a missed call, even though I just listened to that caller's voicemail! DUH. How bout putting the cart before the horse, verizon? You lose, in my book.

- Some websites (like blogger.com) require you to enter their squiggly-lettered word so they know you're a person, not a machine (or something like that). Fine, whatever. What gets me is when the word is SO squiggly and fuzzy and cAPItoLiZEd and bold and m-a-r-k-e-d-t-h-r-o-u-g-h that even I, an intelligent human being, cannot decipher it. SERIOUSLY, your security system stinks!

- Over-zealous appliances that feel the need the alert you at top volume. Really, I HEAR YOU. There should really be volume controls you can program in - soft, for when your baby's sleeping and you just want to microwave a freaking hot pocket without the timer blasting them awake, regular for those regular days, and top volume for those 65 and older, who forgot they put a hot pocket in there in the first place.

- Overdone exclamation points!!!!!!!!!! I hate these!!!! Especially when the sentence isn't even exciting!!!!!! Did some amiss English teacher tell kids that extreme exclamation points is OK? Multiple periods doesn't make the sentence any more over, multiple commas does't create a larger pause... so why should we accept multiple exclamation points? I will accept the double-point, simply out of common usage (like how slang gets into the dictionary, I suppose) but NO MORE. Period period period period period.

- When girls flush the toilet while doing their business in a public bathroom. First, you're in a bathroom, in a stall - I'm guessing you're not just checking your hair. Don't think a flush makes you any more innocent; whether or not people can hear it, we still know what you're doing. Second, you're only making thing worse for yourself since flushing inevitably produces a cold spray of public-toilet water on your bare bum - yuck!! So now we know what you're doing AAAAAAND you have a cold, soggy bottom! And now you're all that AND you're annoying - at least in my book.

-Blogger not letting you cut-n-paste in your posts. How could you possibly NOT HAVE THIS? It doesn't make sense. Cut-n-paste is BASIC, they teach it in Kindergarten with safety scissors, surely we should be able to use it here.

I'll be sure to add again when life presents more of these little irratations, I KNOW you're on the edge of your seats just waiting to hear things that irk me :) So, what bugs YOU?

Meow... I mean, RAAAAAAAAR!

Patrick is quite the imitator so Joe thought it would be funny to teach him that his little housecat figurine is a mountain lion, and that it attacks poor horses by taking them down by the neck. Violent? Yes. But also? FUNNY! Also funny: the no-shirt-with-a-bib-on look. He'd been eating easter candy, so to avoid a sticky tummy and one less outfit in the laundry we opted for this fine ensemble. Later on we went to some sports stores and every stuffed animal we saw (mountain lions, yes, but also deer, elk, fish... you get the picture) apparantly also makes the same "raaaaaaaar!" So much entertinment from such a little person :)

Driver's Ed

Joe didn't teach Patrick how to rock out, and neither did I - crazy man just likes to turn it up and sway to the tunes!

Be kind, rewind

After three horribly sleep-deprived nights and nap-deprived days we're rewinding and putting Patrick's bed back to a cage.. I mean, crib. For reasons A, B, C, or all of the above, he's decided he simply can't sleep unless we are sleeping with him. We know that though it will get us through the night, we will most certainly regret the decision 6 months down the road when yet another baby requires our midnight attentions. Since he not-so-cutely discovered he can (and should!) climb out if we aren't with him, we fixed that problem - now he simply can't get out. His solution? Simply sleep standing up as close as he can get to us.

You won't see Easter pics like these anywhere else!

When I think of growing up, all the holidays were so magical - our home was always decorated in the appropriate theme (thanks, mom!), we had great outfits to wear (thanks, dad, for the funds!), and there was always candy and gifts galore. Now, I know I'm still pretty new at this parenting thing, but even I admit that an easter egg hunt with sweatpants and no shirt is pretty ghetto... but we're pretty relaxed around here in the morning, to say the least, so it's not like Joe and I were dressed up and poor Patrick got the shaft - we, too, were rockin' the easter sweats. We just know better than to take pictures of ourselves looking like that. We did eventually all look awesome for church, but of course we didn't take photos of THAT (sorry, Debbie!).

Our *awesome* hiding spots. We still had to point them out to Patrick!

Found one!

Found another!

After pointing out the eggs, he also needed us to open them for him. But see my bright pink sweats?

Enjoying (aka making a slobbery mess of) the candy inside.

YUMMMMMM

Patrick regularly (like, twice a day every day) enjoys fruit smoothies, and last week Joe came home with a particularly large box of strawberries for these smoothies. After a nice, clean bath Patrick helped himself with the double-fist. YUMMMM!

Home, Home on the Front Range

Many of you know Joe and I are looking for a house here on the Front Range, and we recently took some tours and found a few we REALLY like down in Thornton! So we have offers down on two homes and are crossing our fingers that either of them fall into place, since they are both kind of ridiculous situations. The first is a HUD home and we put in our ridiculously low-bid offer, knowing we would probably never get it, but hey - we also buy lottery tickets sometimes. We got KINDA lucky and got the second-highest bid, so if the first bidders fall through, it's OURS, baby! But probably things will go smoothly and we won't get our dream-price home complete with hardwood floors, so that's why we put in a SECOND offer on another home - more expensive, but still well within our humble price range (certainly well within what the first pushy real estate agent thought should be our price range!) and in a better neighborhood with better schools. Not that schools will matter, most likely, since it'll be a while.... but who knows? Anyway, our bid just got accepted by the seller, but it's a bank-owned forclosure, so we have to see what the bank says, and that's where the waiting com es in :( We're crossing our fingers, though, and letting you know you should cross yours, too! We could use some extra luck! Here's a little photo of the house from the front yard

Hahahaha! We'll actually post some pictures if we get the house. 'Til then, a girl can dream, right?

We have a weaner!

A weaner, not a wiener. Patrick is finally being weaned from nursing! My feelings for nursing have run hot, cold, and lukewarm during pregnancy and, of course, after, when nursing actually happens. You can feel so strongly on something, but it's much different when you actually experience it... like how the people with the most parenting advice are often not parents. Parents, on the other hand, realise advice is not really helpful - HELP is helpful! So get there in the trenches with me! But I digress.... while I was pregnant I really felt strongly that I would like to nurse for at LEAST a year; all the studies are there about the benefits! I should definitely give my child the leg-up. Then, once Patrick was born and the breast-fest began I though he would be SO lucky if I managed to survive three months before cutting him off! What painful, never-ending personal jail you are put in! But eve then I felt simultaneously hot and cold on the topic! I hated that I never got time off from nursing, and even if I DID (like we have some spare formula and my fabulous husbands cut me a few hours to go finish my capstone project) I was still stuck pumping away at the computer lab because of being painfully engorged, meanwhile wondering what harm I was inflicting on my child by abandoning them for 3 solid hours with dreaded formula*, but also hoping he wouldn't get a taste for the stuff and enjoy the ease of the bottle because I am going to force those breastmilk benefits on him, by golly!

*I really don't hate formula. Babies thrive on it just fine! Parents who use formula aren't bad parents! Parents who breastfeed aren't always good parents! But while you're in the trenches, your mind is a little wacky, and if you're taking the time and effort to breastfeed, you'd better believe that Breast is Best!! Or else why are you doing this??

So I survived the first three months, and by the end things were falling into place, my milk regulated so I wasn't a walking water-fountain at the slightest provocation, and Patrick wasn't eating so often so I wasn't quite so resentful of my couch time. So I figured we'd keep going, maybe til 6 months. By 6 months, 9 months of nursing was looking do-able. By 9 months, though, I was positive we would have Patrick weaned at a year, now that he was turned on to big-boy food. But a year came and went and though I continued to be blase on the subject, Patrick was still quite infatuated with nursing and attacked me whenever my shirt was off, or simply licked my shirt if it was still on. At 14 months, though, I found out Baby #2 was preparing for it's grand entrance later this year, so I really started thinking about getting this weaning thing off the ground. Nothing fancy, just cutting out a nursing session here and there and pretending I don't know what he wants when he licks my shirt. I'm happy to report, its working! He's 99% off The Juice, and the last 1% is because I'M lazy and try to stretch out our mornings in bed as long a possible. But that'll stop soon, too. He loves his milk from a sippy cup, and the funny side-effect of nursing now is that when he wants his sippy cup, he points to my chest like "milk!" Haha! Very subtle, Patrick.

Along with weaning we are working on other big-boy things right now, like his bed! And his potty! Joe just wanted to see how he'd do if we switched his make-shift crib into a make-shift bed, and he's been great so far! He still gets sad sometimes at bedtime or nap time, but he doesn't climb out of bed - he just walks to the foot board and holds on while he cries for us! Silly boy. As for the potty, we know it's a little too early to actually train but he has some predictable bathroom schedules, like he doesn't wet his diaper at night - ALL NIGHT! - but then he soaks through about three in a row in the morning... or he always goes pee (or poo, as you all saw) in or immediately after getting out of the tub. So instead of soaking a diaper or pooing in the tub, why not use a potty? SURE ENOUGH - it worked! So we'll be working on that for a long time to come, but we thought the pictures were pretty cute. There it is - our big guy, getting big in so many new ways. *sniff!*

Ah, yes, he also likes to sit and computer and type. Soon he'll be posting blogs, too.

Daddy helps read a few books to keep him occupied. I'm sure he would be even more successful if he would sit down for more than 30 seconds!

Too cute, naked man. Too cute.

Nice bed! We took down our homemade top rails, but the bottom rails (used to hold up the mattress at standard height - the matress is in the trundle box at the moment) handily work to prevent roll-outs.

Poop happens

What else could I title this post?

During post-bath naked time, Patrick was playing in the kitchen unloading his box of fruit snacks. When he got up, here's what I found:

A man-sized turd in the middle of he floor! It's just to the right of the wipes box, which came into play after he left his little gift, but before I cleaned it up. We don't normally keep wipes in the kitchen, as you might suspect. I got a close-up on it, even, but I'll spare you. You can just enjoy from here, and notice how it's almost as big as a fruit snack pack.

Totally unashamed.

Wanna play Doctor?

I had my first pregnancy appointment today (already been to a few doctors for other things, but not specifically about my "delicate condition") and it was WONDERFUL! Out of 3 doctors' appointments last week I had 3 bad experiences, so I was going to be REALLY ticked off if this one went poorly, too - fortunately for everyone involved, it went swimmingly. I'm seeing Dr. Hoffman of the Keift, Cloyd, Hoffman and Hayes practice - I got to see pretty much everyone from their practice last time because of complications, but Dr. Hoffman was the one to actually do my C-section and even then he was very vocally supportive of me trying for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarian) the next time around... plus, I thought he was the friendliest of the bunch!

I don't think it's too much to ask that a doctor read your chart before they come chatting you up in the room (hey, you're already waiting, what's 2 more minutes?) but I seem to be wrong on this subject, since every time I go to ANY doctor they know absolutely nothing about my history and proceed to ask me stupid questions, like, "so, what are you in for?" and I say things like, "I'm pregnant, you fool!" or "a blood clot, you fool!" or "I'm in labor, you fool!!" Even the hemotologist, the SAME hemotologist who treated me every week for 5 months during and after The Clot, only 12 months ago, asked, "so remind me, you did NOT have a blood clot before, correct?" I will remind you upside the head you outrageous non-chart-reader! At least pretend you remember me! "How old is your son? He's big, he must be about 3, right?" Seriously, you saw me 12 months ago with a 2-month - I know kids sprout like weeds, but this is RIDICULOUS. READ MY CHART, there's gotta be more than my name on there!

So I was MAJORLY pleased when I walked into Dr. Hoffman's office and he said, "Great to see you again! So soon, too - your son must be what, 15 months old?" (so close! You remember!! [or you're a Chart Reader, yay!]) and then we reminesced about ALL THE DETAILS of my last labor, including how long it was (and I don't even think that's in their chart!). We had a nice long chat about how things are going, what to expect this time around, what to expect from him as a doctor, etc etc - point being, I felt like a person and not a patient. A person with a history thank you very much! So if you're having a baby anywhere near Fort Collins, go see Dr. Hoffman!! And, happily, they did a quickie ultrasound to make sure everything's going OK with the pregnancy, and it IS. That's our little Bean, head on the right, and there's happy little heartbeat thudding away in there, even if you can't see it in the picture :)

Fun with our Son

Joe came home yesterday evening to find that we had dressed him and his mini-me almost like twins! I hadn't seen Joe before he left for work so we thought it was just too cute! Patrick didn't want to cooperate in the photos until Joe put him in a head-to-head-stand. Then there's a photo of him walking, I realised while I was working on his baby book that although he's been walking for months, I don't have any photos of it - he's usually with one of us instead (like the first two photos!). It's funny how toddlers graduate from walking with both arms waving in the air to both arms simply outstretched to finally both arms down like gownups. Silly walkers :)