Judecorp.

So if you somehow missed the news of the world, there was a big early snow storm in the Northeast. The snow was very wet, and very heavy, and we got nearly a foot of it. It fell onto trees that still had their leaves, weighing everything down further. Every tree in our yard broke. We have six. Two maples, four oaks. The maples are in the back yard and now our back yard is full of limbs. Less of a big deal than our front yard, which has huge limbs blocking the driveway and the front door. Some fell on our new car and it has some dents on the roof but thankfully nothing worse than that.

We lost power on Saturday night and actually our entire town and the town beside us have no power. 100% of customers. The town north of us has partial power, but really, there are power outages halfway across the state. On Sunday we left our cold house (it was 59 when we left) and went to stay with a friend in Boston through to tomorrow morning. We wanted to trick or treat here because all of the ToT in our area has been cancelled or postponed. Normally I would suck up the cold but it's near impossible with a baby because you can only bundle him up so much and you can't really stick him under a bunch of down blankets.

Now that some local folks have power, Tuke and I will likely sleep with a local heat-having friend and Punk and Jen will hang out in the cold house. We will be in the cold house during the day though. That should be interesting.

They are expecting we will be out of power for at least a week. Since our power lines got ripped both out from the main wire AND out of our house, we could be longer. It's bad news.

Sucks.

I'm sure you know by now that it is hot outside. Quite hot indeed. When I'm not complaining about the hotness of my house, I love the heat and would take it over cold any day.

It has been a very busy time around here. Punk turned three (how is that possible?) on the 1st and we celebrated a little bit with the little family (just dinner and a princess cupcake). My brother and SIL arrived late Thursday night and stayed through Sunday. Friday we all (minus Jen, who had to work) took Punk to the zoo and to lunch and just had lots of fun in general. Saturday morning was Punk's huge birthday party at the children's museum, which was a smashing success. Then lunch out. Then crash and burn. Sunday we went to my grandmother's house for a cookout to celebrate Punk's birthday. Then Ralph and Lori came to spend the night and see some fireworks for the 4th. It was like Birthday-O-Rama around here. I am TIRED.

I wasn't thinking and got Punk's varicella vaccine last week so she would be set for preschool in the fall. It's at a real school (a Montessori school) and goes up to 6th grade and they are much more stickler-y about vaccines than the home day cares, so I needed to get it done. I neglected to think about the fact that a lot of kids end up with a mild chicken pox rash around the injection site and can theoretically be contagious and pass around pox. Awesome timing with a pregnant lady and a non-chicken-pox having person in the house, and a birthday party scheduled. She did get this ambiguous and mysterious welt that did not look like chicken pox but was close enough to the injection site that we covered it with a band-aid and have been praying for the best. Whoops.

We are heading to South Carolina soon to visit with my brother, SIL, mom, and her husband. Good times. Part of the vacation will be just Punker and me. I have never had to take her on a plane by myself before. Thank goodness she is old and self-sufficient. Pretty soon I will be putting her to work.

She is so big and grown up and amazing and I adore her. She is pretty much the best child ever, even when she is testing my patience. She is so bright and creative and hysterical. She tells me I'm cute or beautiful pretty much every day. ("Oh Mama, you're so beautiful!") See, I told you she was SMART. :)

BOGO baby is nearly 22 weeks cooked and is growing accordingly. Punk has named him Cupcakey, which is fine because we haven't named him anything. My grandmother recently presented me a list of about 30 names, including ALFRED and CODY. Where is she getting these names? Still, it's cute that she is so involved. So far, everyone is happy and healthy and that is what is important to me. We will see the midwife again after Punk and I return from SC. Then Jen's parents will be visiting. This is a busy summer. I've forgotten what it's like to work, like that part of my brain is off and disengaged. I can't believe I ever had a job.

I have started babysitting my friend's baby on Thursdays. He is 8 months old and umm, hanging out with two kids all day is HARD. Especially when one doesn't want to share any of the baby toys. (Hint, it's not the baby.) Punk is adorable with Braedan, though, which warms my heart and makes me think it will all be worth it in the end.

I have no idea how I can conceivably plan and prepare dinner in a kitchen that is currently (3 hours before dinner prep at the hottest time of day) 85 degrees.

We have had some amazing weather lately. Really amazing. Yesterday it was 90°! Oh my goodness, it was glorious. Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler and rainy, of course, because I am not working.

On the plus side, I'm not working next Tuesday either because day care is closed. And then I'm off the following week for April Vacation. Woot woot!

I made some complaints about our Merry Maids cleaning the other weekend. Basically, they rushed like woah and because they left in 2 hours instead of the 4 I was told, that really raised the per-hour rate to an obscene amount... and they skipped a bunch of stuff. I wasn't going to complain, really, but I filled out their online survey to say I would not recommend to others, and of course they followed up. I don't know if it was the part where they didn't clean my tub, or nearly lost my wedding ring because she "flicked it away and was so busy I didn't really care where I flicked it," or perhaps the part where one of them in my kitchen kept saying it was filthy (which umm, if you know me you know it is not), probably because of the cat fur. I felt super awkward making the complaints but now the branch manager is giving me a replacement cleaning. On Tuesday, actually - so right in time for my mother and her husband to visit. SCORE.

Hopefully the weather is bad because I don't want to be trapped in the house all day Tuesday. Although I guess we can play in the yard while they are in the house. And the gas company is already coming on Tuesday to replace the gas meter.

Boy, that last paragraph makes my life look REALLY exciting, doesn't it?

Also, first prenatal appointment is on the 21st and my first trimester screening (which I didn't do with Punk) is on the 22nd. Fingers crossed. I always get so nervous.

I just made a meatloaf. Me! A meatloaf. My girls are at the store fetching cat litter and god knows what else (they have been gone a while) which has given me enough time to craft a meatloaf. Not sure if it will be done in time for Punk to eat dinner but I gave it the old college try.

This weekend has been positively gorgeous and I hope the beautiful weather continues. It is a true taste of spring and I know that in typical New England fashion, winter will return with a vengeance before we are done with it, but for now I will enjoy it. This morning we didn't go to church since Jen was sick in bed, so Punk and I went to an elementary school that has a really nice playground and we had a great time for about an hour. That playground gets a lot of sun so it was snow-free (unlike my backyard) and since it is covered in wood chips, it was pretty dry. Ideal conditions, really. Towards the end, Punk befriended a 3.5 year old named Zoe and the two happily made "cakes" together out of mulch and sand. I really really love watching Punk play with other kids. It was adorable when I told her to go ask the girl if she could play with her and she said, "Can I come and make some cakes with you?" I almost died.

I need to do about 347984379843 loads of laundry tonight and at some point I really need to get off my arse and do the taxes so we can get some money back. At least I got some time to pay the bills online this afternoon because Punk actually took an hour nap. I had to practically hold her down while she screamed at me, but by golly, the kid napped!

(I should have napped, too.)

I have been reluctant to post because I liked keeping the Iran post on top. But I suppose it's time for a little update since Punk /finally/ went down for a nap. Mad nap-fighting day today, yo!

We have had a full house this weekend! carina_s and the girls arrived on Thursday evening and are leaving tomorrow. Today they are out east visiting relatives and I am trying to catch up on tidying and assorted things. I am enjoying the calm quiet of nap time.

I think we are probably boring the twins to death with our lame boringness. It's kind of hard with a toddler because the day tends to get broken down into chunks (pre-nap, nap, post-nap, bedtime) so it's hard to make big plans. And, umm, if you live anywhere near New England right now, you know that our weather has pretty much sucked the entire month of June. It has rained pretty much every day. Bleh. So the girls are always asking what we're going to do at any given time, or what we would be doing if they weren't visiting, and I don't think our answers of "chores" or "errands" or "you're looking at it" are quite what they had in mind. ;)

We have done a lot of eating out and a lot of hanging out. The girls enjoyed learning to play Bohnanza, and I took them all to eat wings and play trivia last night which was a good time. We went up to the Book Mill in Montague on Saturday for a little while, too.

It's times like this, with a house full of guests, that I really take notice of and appreciate the little family life I have with My Jennifer. (Even though it is boring to tweens!!) I suppose I don't take notice of it, and take it for granted a bit, until something shakes it up. Things are mostly seamless in our house and that sense of stability feels very nice.

It has been really good to see Carina and the girls. I've really missed them. The kids have grown up so freaking much.

I set Punk in the snow so I could shovel the walk really quickly. She was playing in the snow and then I saw her sucking on her mitten. She would rub her hand in the snow, take a quick taste, and then smile.

18 months, and she quickly realized that snow tastes GOOD.

It has snowed pretty much nonstop since Friday afternoon. It is sheer craziness! We got about a foot of snow on Friday and then it was all flurries and small showers through Saturday with very little accumulation. Now it is snowing harder again and seems to be wetter snow - the kind that packs and crunches under your feet. Bleh.

I cleaned off the car and packed Punk in so we could go to church this morning. I have a wicked sore throat but she is going really stir-crazy in the house and I thought the time in the church nursery would be good for her. She loves it there. I guess I should have called or checked or something because... it was closed. I am not used to things closing, I suppose. When I lived in Maine, it snowed all the time and the only thing that ever closed were the schools. *shrug* It never occurred to me that church would close! So we drove past and saw that there were no lights on and no people inside, and just drove back home. Whoops. We took her out to lunch at the diner just to get her out of the house. Mmm, greasy goodness.

She is starting to become a demanding little sprite and always wants "dip" or "chup" with everything. I guess she is becoming a real kid. She will also say "juice" if she doesn't want milk, and today just kept asking for "coffee." (Heck no, kid, that's mine!) I am embarrassed to say that she also has been asking for "tee-bee? tee-bee?" (TV) a lot lately, too. Whoops. At least she doesn't know that the "music choice" stations are not real television. ;)

Maybe my boss will cancel work tomorrow! She seems a lot more cautious about weather than I am. Then again, I think pretty much everyone is more cautious about weather driving than I am.

Oh, what glorious weather we had today. Seriously fantastic. Lower 70s, brilliant sun, not a cloud in the sky. Luka and I went to UMass for the Queerfest Week Lawn Day, to walk around in the sunshine, see some of the kids I used to work with, and eat sno-cones and cotton candy. It was perfect spring weather, especially with sno-cones involved. I even sneaked a little ice into Punk's mouth. Mmm, baby's first Red Dye #40!

Punk had a bit of a crazy day today because she didn't have any of her typical naps. I'm kind of a stickler for the nap schedule and napping in the crib, so that's unusual for me. But she had her 9 month check-up during her morning nap and had a nap in the car on the way home, and then didn't nap until we were home from Queerfest which was around 4:15pm... I woke her up at 5:30 because I didn't want her to be up all night and she was SO grumpy. Poor little Punkin!

I hope tomorrow is just as nice. We have swim therapy tomorrow so the morning nap is cheesed again, but hopefully I can work the afternoon out and get back into our little routine. She starts a little child care next week (*sob sob sob*) so we really have to get into it.

I need more weather like this!

1. I am so thoroughly tired of one-way friends. I'm done with them. I am tired of being the person who always has to go to the other person's place. The ONLY people who can get away with that (making me go there without ever coming here) are my grandparents. Because they're freaking old.

2. I am so thoroughly tired of my stupid left tonsil. It is inflamed AGAIN after being big as a house in October. I went in to the doctor today, the useless PCP that I desperately need to get rid of, and she just kept saying, "It's bizarre, I don't understand, it's just bizarre," and I said, "Okay, just give me a referral to an ENT, lady." But apparently it was so bizarre (not to me, I've been dealing with it for 6 years) that I am going to the ENT tomorrow. Which means two days in a row of dragging Punk to a doctor appointment during what would be her morning nap. Sigh.

3. I have no idea how much freaking stuff I have to pack to bring an infant on a trip. We rented a crib on the other side but I am freaking out about making sure we have enough formula, bottles, diapers, toys, clothes, etc. AND how we're going to maneuver the suitcases, the stroller, the car seat... oy.

4. I would like to get an actual night's sleep, please. I am not picky and am not looking for more than 5.5 hours or so. Punk would gladly offer this (she gets up to eat at midnight and then wakes up for the day a little after 6, nothing in between) but lately my stupid-ass tonsil has been waking me up in the middle of the night with pain as soon as the advil wears off. Argh argh argh!

5. There is a lot of frickin' snow outside. One more storm and our mailbox is going to disappear.

I spent about 2.5 hours at the mall today, for no real purpose but to get out of the house. (It's raining, so no long walk outside.) I feel like one of those Mall Mamas. Weird. There I was, with my kid in the mei tai while I pushed the stroller, walking the mall with a friend, her baby, and her stroller. Mall Mamas.

Aside from the "getting out of the rain and the house" thing, ostensibly I was also looking for a Christmasy outfit for Punk to wear for perhaps some holiday photos. Instead, I got an anniversary card for my grandparents and one for my aunt and uncle, a winter baby hat at H&M (with ears! little ears!), a Subway sub (mmmmm), and a cow costume size 18-24 months that was on clearance at Baby Gap for $2.97! $2.97, people!!

Punk still isn't the greatest napper but was content most of the time to toodle around the mall, and then she got hungry so we ducked into the Mother's Room at BRU. She is currently sleeping in her car seat on the couch. I'm just glad she's sleeping. She took a 20 minute catnap at the mall in the mei tai while I ate my sub and got lettuce in her hair. Oops.

I had a bit of a revelation today. We were walking around the mall which was PACKED with strollers and babies, and all I could think about was how chill and mellow all of the babies are, and what the heck was wrong with my kid who screams most of the time and refuses to nap and is generally a mess. And I thought about how those stroller mamas were probably looking our way and thinking about how chill and mellow Punk and her friend Anna looked in their mei tais, and were also probably thinking about how crazy their own babies are.

I think it's the world's best kept secret.