just my type

giveaway: desperate much?

Alright people, this blogging every day stuff is getting hard.  I almost threw in the towel last night but managed to drag myself off the couch to post about resolving to work out (hmm... wonder how that will go?  Can't get off couch to blog, yet hoping to get off couch to submit myself to pushups).

So, it's time for a giveaway.  Not to celebrate anything in particular but because I have no good material (unless maybe you're one of my kids' grandmas).  I technically do not even have the material for THIS post, seeing as how I'm totally copying Jen and Libby.  I never claimed to be original.

I'm giving away this lovely ellipse bowl from Crate and Barrel, nice for the holidays:

Pretzels not included.  I'll throw in some chocolate, because I like that better, plus a $10 Starbucks gift card (or, if you are somewhere without Starbucks, I can exchange that for a $10 Target gift card instead.  I too grew up far away from civilization so I am sensitive to your plight).

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post asking me a question.  It could be anything, well, hopefully it's about me and my life so I don't have to do research, but I am almost willing to do research at this point (last time I played this game, my husband left me the comment 'What physics explains the enormous disparity between the gravitational scale and the typical mass scale of the elementary particles?'.  To which I was easily able to answer 'supersymmetry' since it was the first Google result on that exact phrase. :)

Please leave your comment by midnight on Thursday, and I'll randomly select a winner.  And then I should have lots of blog material for the rest of the month.  Thanks readers!

shredding

Today I dropped off almost all of my maternity clothes for Lib and that means it might be time for me to start wearing waistbands that do not involve elastic in some form.  I'm not one of those people that loses weight while breastfeeding; in fact I think I'm one of those people that CAN'T lose the last 10 lbs while breastfeeding.  I obviously can't drastically reduce my diet right now, but I could probably eat less than ten cookies a day and maybe that will make a difference in how I feel.  Because while it will be nice to fit into more of my clothes, mostly I just miss working out and FEELING good.  So: I have decided that I'm going to do the 30 Day Shred.  Starting on Wednesday.  I found this awesome blog which is really motivating.  Hopefully I can stick with it enough to actually move up to Level 2 this time... I've done the DVD before but only ever did Level 1.  So the plan is to actually try to do it every day.  I'm not sure if this is an entirely good idea since I haven't really worked out in probably a year and Jillian Michaels is not messing around and maybe I should start with, say, a walk.  But we'll see what happens.  I'm actually going to weigh and measure myself and take pictures and all that fun stuff so that I can hopefully see SOME progress. 

So excited to start working out again.

Pretty sure I'm gonna die.

big brother

Max turned 2.5 today.  I want to post more about how awesome he is right now, but I'm going to do that later in the week when I have a little more time.  For now, just a few things I want to remember about his first few weeks with a little sister.  Every once in awhile I notice a jealous moment, but that's to be expected (and if anything I think it will only get harder for him as she gets more alert and more obviously takes up our attention rather than just eating and sleeping).  So far he is doing great with the change in our house. 

* When Vivi's awake he's always saying 'Her eyes are open!  Is she looking at you (me)?'

* He is always very concerned when she is crying.  He'll ask me over and over 'is Vivi crying, Mommy?'  And he likes to bring her a pacifier whenever he sees it lying around (because he still loves his pacifier, so figures she must too :).

* Sometimes in the car I'll look in the mirror and catch him looking over and smiling at her when he doesn't know I'm watching.

* He always asks if she can come with us places.  If the whole family is in the car and we're going to dinner, he'll say 'can Vivi come in, too?'

* When she's laying on the floor sometimes he'll go lay down next to her and rub her back or belly.  And if she's crying he says 'Vivi, Vivi'.

* He's started to want to pick her up which is a little scary.  Last week he picked her up by the legs and dragged her halfway across our bedroom before I was able to intervene. :)

* One night last week I was home alone with them and so she joined us for Max's bedtime routine.  I laid her in between us and he held her hand the entire time we read stories.

* We've started giving Vivi her bath right before his, and he loves to help.  This series of pictures warms my heart.  And cracks me up. :)

post-potty training post

We spent the day today trying to get Max to use the potty.  I think we were about 0 for 10.  I don't know if that means we just keep going and expect him to get it at some point, or if it means we wait awhile before trying again.  Honestly, we don't know if he knows until he's going... I would THINK he does, but ??  We'll see what happens tomorrow I guess.  Anyway, Tom and I are now sitting on the couch with episodes of Lost and a big glass of wine for me, and since I don't feel like putting thought into anything, here's the '3 Things' meme that has been going around the blog world today.  Except I'm going to interview my husband.

THREE NAMES I GO BY

1. Tom
2. Tommy
3. Bird

THREE JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE
1. Golf course maintenance
2. Nun computer fixer
3. Web developer

THREE PLACES I HAVE LIVED
1. Willow 302
2. 5D
3. The Wood

THREE TV SHOWS THAT I WATCH
1. Lost
2. The Office
3. Sportscenter

THREE PLACES I HAVE BEEN
1. Omaha (Me: What?  Your first one is Omaha?!)
2. Seattle
3. Negril, Jamaica

THREE PLACES I WANT TO GO
1. Target Field
2. Tahiti
3. D3 College World Series

THREE OF MY FAVORITE FOODS
1. Chips
2. Chipotle Chicken Fajita Burrito
3. Spaghetti

THREE THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO
1. Going to Vegas
2. Squirmy's first real baseball game
3. Going to the D3 World Series

THREE ANIMALS WHO I HAVE BEEN FRIENDS WITH
1. Torii
2. Michael J. Fox (I had to ask for clarification on this one: a fox that lived outside his college apartment)
3. Frisco (his old family dog)

THREE THINGS I AM REALLY SCARED OF
1. Snakes
2. Getting my teeth knocked out
3. The Others

THREE FAVORITE BOOKS
1. Catcher in the Rye
2. Moneyball
3. Angels & Demons

THREE FAVORITE BANDS/SINGERS
1. Pearl Jam
2. Green Day
3. Tom Petty

THREE FAVORITE MOVIES
1. Braveheart
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Friday

THREE FAVORITE DRINKS
1. Water
2. Mountain Dew
3. Beer

THREE THINGS I FIND MOST ATTRACTIVE IN A GUY
1. Knowledge of baseball
2. Golf ability
3. Laid-back

THREE THINGS I COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT
1. My family
2. Competition
3. Food

flashback friday

Looked through old pictures tonight and came across this one... a little late for Halloween, but we actually still have this picture on the board in our kitchen and people always comment on my pumpkin.  Dr. Evil :)

This was in my first apartment after college, in the ghetto of D town.  I still lived with my college roommates; Tom and I had just gotten engaged a couple months ago.  Ahh, the good old days when he would still do nerdy stuff like this with me, and we had limitless time to spend on such things.  This year we cleaned out our pumpkins, baked the seeds, ate the seeds, and then the pumpkins rotted before we actually got around to carving them. :)

tft: baby geniuses

Just a quick Thought for Thursday...

Maybe you have heard that you can now get a refund for Baby Einstein DVDs (there was an article in the NYT here).  If you haven't, it's basically because Disney, who puts out the DVDs, had at some point claimed that they were educational - but this hasn't been proven (and the AAP, as I'm sure we have all heard, recommends no TV for children before age two).  From the news story - 'the Baby Einstein company will refund $15.99 for up to four “Baby Einstein” DVDs per household, bought between June 5, 2004, and Sept. 5, 2009, and returned to the company.'

What do you think about Baby Einstein?  Do you own any DVDs, and if so would you consider sending them back for a refund?  Did your child watch them, and if so did you expect that they were educational or would make your baby any smarter?  Do you think Disney was wrong in labeling them 'educational' and they should pay for it?

smiles

Vivi and I hung out today while Max napped, and I tried to get some pictures of her smiling.  I was never quite fast enough to get one of her hugest grins, but here are the closest I could get.

:)

one month

One month ago today we brought Vivi home from the hospital (this post was supposed to be written on Friday, which was her one month birthday, but that's life around here now, so I'll go with the homecoming angle).  I was wondering how it would go, the whole two kids thing, and the truth is that so far it's been SO MUCH EASIER than I expected it to be.  I think it has a lot to do with my view on things this time around.  After having Max I was pretty depressed starting when he was about two weeks old until he was five or six weeks.  This time I feel so good emotionally it's almost like I feel high sometimes.  Hormones are so weird.  I keep waiting to come crashing down.  Maybe this is just what it feels like when you have a new baby and you don't have the blues - happy.  Strange. :)  I'm also much more aware this time of being easy on myself... of accepting help when people offer it and putting off what can be done later (i.e. this blog post).  Not to mention that I'm a lot more confident this time around.  Poor Vivi has to cry a lot to faze me. :) 

Also: she has been a really easy baby so far, which hasn't hurt.  She likes to be held and cuddled a lot more than Max ever did, but that's kind of nice. :)  Max screamed through his baths for a long time, but she seems to like them.  She's really only cried when hungry and almost every night so far she's gone right back to sleep after eating.  There's been a couple nights where I was up with her for awhile, but for the most part she only gets up once or twice a night, eats, and is back to bed.  I'm still getting pretty dang sick of getting up at night, even though I have it easy.  I shouldn't complain but come on, even when you get up once every night it gets old pretty fast.  She is five weeks old tomorrow and Max was sleeping through until at least 5am by eight weeks, so I'm hopeful that in a couple more weeks I'll be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Friday I took both kids to Vivi's one month checkup.  She weighed 9 lbs 5 oz and was 22.5 inches long... about the 50th percentile for weight and 95th for height.  I'm thinking she's not going to be as tall as Max is though, it looks kind of like she has my legs. :)  Everything looked good except that she has a pretty huge umbilical hernia which we just have to watch until hopefully it heals up on its own.  Max watched like a hawk as they examined her and saw that she didn't cry one bit, which is what I was hoping for; he FREAKS when we bring him to the doctor so I thought maybe taking him there when it wasn't his turn would build his confidence a little bit... probably didn't work but it was worth a try.

The absolute best part of the last week is that she's started smiling.  It's still at the point where it's a little hard to tell if it's real or not, but she's done it often enough when we're talking to her that I think it is.  I just love it. :)

signed up

Well I'm all signed up for NaBloPoMo and BaToBloMo and whatever other things I can't say.  We'll see if I can manage posting once a day for the month of November.  Might be sort of ambitious considering Max was in his PJs until 11am this morning and we never made it to the grocery store as planned. :)

Some random notes from today:

* I keep looking online for inspiration for a new quilting project... which I can't wait to get started on, but am wondering if I shouldn't focus on getting my messy house cleaned and organized before I start that??

* I only have a little bit over a week before my self-imposed deadline of six weeks postpartum, at which point I will finally need to start eating much better and getting back into shape.  2009 has been a great year for food + laziness... but now the fun is over :(  Although I am really looking forward to feeling like I'm halfway in shape.

* Max and I are going to swimming lessons on Wednesday mornings starting this week.  And then hopefully to storytime at the library afterwards, if he'll indulge me?!  Vivi is going to stay with Mary for a couple hours while we have Mommy and Max time.

* I would like to work on getting Vivi into more of a routine this week... or something resembling a routine... something where she's not sleeping all over the house at random times. :)  And I need to figure out a bedtime routine for both kids that I can do all by myself if Tom is gone.  Does such a thing exist?

* Excited to sit on the couch tonight and catch up on some shows!  We still need to watch everything from last week... although I watched Project Runway already since Tom doesn't watch that with me.  Now that I'm on leave I need a show or two of my own to watch on the days I'm home alone feeding Vivi.  So I have added So You Think You Can Dance to my lineup. :)

* Dinner is in the crock pot and smells sooo good.

* I better go wake Max up from his nap!

pitch or treat

A few weeks ago I'd ask Max what he wanted to be for Halloween and without fail, he'd say 'a pumpkin!'  So I was planning on letting him dress up like a pumpkin if he wanted.  Then Tom overheard and every single time since then, when I'd ask the same question instead of 'pumpkin' I'd get 'Scott Baker!'  Hmm.

So shockingly enough, Max was a baseball player for his third Halloween.  I thought maybe I'd be able to put that one off one more year, but it turned out he was pretty dang cute anyway. :)

It ended up being a cheap costume too, which was nice.  He already had his batting helmet and glove, and Target had all their baseball stuff on clearance a couple weeks ago.  I got him pants, socks, a belt and batting gloves for $10, and it's all stuff that he will actually be able to use when he starts playing if he wants to.  I looked EVERYWHERE for a Twins shirt or jersey, but couldn't find anything this time of year, so even though he wanted to be a Twin we went with a Saints shirt that he already had in his closet.  So I guess he was a Saints baseball player... well technically since the shirt had our last name and Tom's number on the back, I guess we could say he was Tom for Halloween?!

I think my fave part was the batting gloves.

 

Vivi was a flower...

... which I whipped up using her regular clothes and leftover felt from her mobile on Friday afternoon while the kids napped... nothing like waiting until the last minute. :)

Friday night we went over to Tom's parents' house to trick or treat and then stopped by a school carnival that the real Saints baseball players were working at.  Max was a little overwhelmed by all the bigger kids and didn't want to do any of the games, but it was fun to see all the kids' costumes and interesting to see what we'll be in for in a few more years.  Craziness.

Yesterday we went up to my parents' house so that he could try trick or treating up there.  They live in a nice neighborhood and actually get trick or treaters... one thing that we don't really get to do very well living in the country is Halloween.  Max skipped his nap and was pretty cranky so we ended up just going over to my Grandma's house and Sandstroms.  After that he'd pretty much had enough so we didn't make it anywhere else... maybe next year he'll be ready.  He did get more than enough candy out of the deal. :)

 

I can't believe Halloween is over, how is it November already?!