Judecorp.

Tukey's first birthday party is tomorrow. I have been cleaning like a MoFo all day. Punk has been at a friend's house for most of the day (since about 11am) and I will be returning the favor by watching that friend this evening. Well, Jen will. Because I have to brave the mall. I want to pick up our Holiday Photo Cards and check out a couple of deals at Target. And later I need to run to the grocery store to pick up the food for the party. I'll be making a lot of chili. I hope all of the party guests like chili.

I am on a purging roll and want to get a lot of baby stuff out of the house. My cousin's girlfriend is pregnant and I'm really hoping they want hand-me-downs (and lots of them!). I want this stuff OUT. I also threw out my living room rug today, and the shelving unit from my bathroom. And replaced the flapper in the toilet. And reorganized the pantry closet. I AM ON FIIIIIIIIIRRRRREEEEE.

When Tukey wakes up I have to whirlwind clean his room before I brave the mall. And I need Punk to go through her room and put aside all of the toys she is going to donate before I will let her write her Christmas list.

First one of the third grades in the school in which I work had lice.
Then a second grade.
And a kindergarten.

And then a lice note went through Punk's school. The lice was in one of the elementary classrooms but they sent the note to everyone.

And then lice was back in the kindergarten at work.

All of this lice talk makes me itchy all the freaking time! MAKE IT STOP, PEOPLE.

Itch.
Itch.
Itch.

Hello, friends.

These days I "journal" so infrequently that it doesn't feel at all like journaling - more like a letter to some friends. So hello there, friends. I hope you are all well.

The kids and I just came back from 11 days in South Carolina visiting my brother, sister in law, and my mom and her husband. We stayed with my brother and SIL and it's almost like culture shock to be back here. Although I do love it here. It is familiar and comforting and full of hippies.

I kind of had an unplugged vacation. I did not bring a computer, only my iPod Touch, so aside from Facebook I spent very little time on the Internet. It was just too tiny to manage. I didn't check LJ at all. Did I miss anything? I also did not bring a camera. I didn't want to bring my huge DSLR because I couldn't fathom carrying it AND a baby AND wrangling a 4 year old. So, no pictures. It is like the un-vacation!

There was a big heat wave in the South so we didn't do as much as usual (stayed inside a lot) and I also tried to be accommodating to Tukey's naps because he slept like C R A P the whole time. Jen joined us for the last 4 days of the trip and thank God for that because I actually got 5 hours of straight sleep a couple of nights. And it was good.

We had a blast, though. We went to the beach once with my mom and her husband and Punk got to make sand castles and look for sea shells and pick up seaweed and all of that good stuff, and got hit by waves and laughed and danced on the shore and it was ace. We also took her to an amusement park that was more like a seaside carnival where she went on a bazillion kiddie rides and got to stay up late (til after 9) and even had her first taste of bumper cars (with my brother) where she shouted, "We are going to hit you, Mama!" about a gazillion times. Thank you, ride operator, for letting her on even though she's half an inch shy of 42". She went to Chuck E Cheese and I have continued my lie about how we don't have Chuck E near our house, only at Uncle Rick's. She had a great time there, too. She saw the Winnie the Pooh movie and ate out a bunch of times and had a lot of ice cream, so I'd say it was a total vacation success for her. I love watching her have a good time, even when she gets sad because the fun has to end.

Tukey started trying to pull up while on vacation and also sped up his army crawl so quick that I don't think he'll ever go to hands and knees. He still says "da da da" most of the time but now says "na na na na" when he is sad/tired/hungry. He is curious about life and into EVERYTHING. He is in that crazy alert phase where sleeping is for wimps and he wants to wake at all hours of the night and crawl and climb just because. It is exhausting yet delicious and sometimes I stop and have to catch my breath because he is growing up so fast and I will never have another baby in my belly and watch that baby grow into a person. This afternoon on the plane I got him to fall asleep in my arms and I held him, two arms full of great big baby, and could almost cry at the sheer enormity of my love for him and how we were meant to be together.

Punk is the greatest big sister ever, so attentive to her brother and concerned about him. She gets jealous when he gets attention but instead of acting out toward him or others, she gets jealous about people messing with HER baby and she has to go over and give him attention too. "That's my bruvvuh" is a common sentence for strangers. She also talks to him, which is deleriously funny. Today she told him, "Let's play a game called 'Baby Gets Nothing.' Tukey, you get nothing." Where does she get this stuff? I freaking love it.

She is four years old and he is eight months old and time is just flying, flying, flying.

I hope you are all well and enjoying your summer.

I haven't written here in a million years. In my head I am this regular, witty blogger. I have all of these clever things to say and even cleverer ways to say them. It just never happens, because by the time I get to a computer I am wiped. out.

I only work 3 days a week but it feels like 7. And I don't even really work full days some of the time. But it feels like it. I hardly sleep and I subsist on coffee. Good thing I love coffee, and I have an amazing cousin in Seattle who sends me beans from her favorite shops. Yum.

This coming week is school vacation week and I am doing a little babysitting (to make a little money) and my sister-in-law is visiting. I love when my brother visits too but sometimes it's nice to just have Gretchen over (just like sometimes it's nice to have just Rick). She is staying through Easter and it will be nice to a) have a week home with my kids and b) have some company while I do that. We can go on adventures and just in general chill with two kids.

Two kids. Woah. Two kids is a lot of work, and at the same time it isn't. Extra stuff to remember before you head out the door. Extra chaos in the mornings. Really needing a second set of hands at nighttime (they go to bed at the same time pretty much). He sleeps pretty well but still is up twice to eat and I don't go to bed as early as I should so I am always in a fog of coffee-hyperactivity.

Ideally I would go to bed around 9pm but there is so much to do in the evenings like pack the day care back, make sure Punk has a lunch for the next day, run the dishwasher so there are clean bottles, thaw milk for the next day, run laundry, etc. Since the kids go to bed at 7, all of those jobs get done after that. Thankfully they both go to bed pretty easily and (usually) stay asleep for a while so the stuff can get done.

In sum: Life is busy but awesome.

(I feel dirty using a PC.)

So we all survived my first week of work. I can't really call it a "week of work" when I only worked three days, but whatever. I'm looking forward to hanging out with my little man tomorrow and smelling his cute widdle head. He really is the cutest thing ever, of course. Punk calls him "Tukey," and I'm not really sure what that means except that it is an adjective: "that tukey, tukey baby." She also calls him "tuke tuke." She is very protective of him and takes her job as a big sister very seriously. If I call him "my baby," she lets me know that he is HER baby.

He is a pretty laid back guy and it is such a different experience than with Punk, through and through. He hardly ever cries or screams. He has reflux but is mostly fine with it - he spits up a lot but it doesn't really bother him now that he's on meds. He puts himself to sleep and is only up a few times in the night. But with Punk I was able to be home for nearly 10 months before returning to work. Tuke has had his first week of day care at three months old. Poor guy.

Jen has to do the drop offs and she hates handing him over, and I can't say I blame her. They take care of him fine but it's not mama. And Jen goes to work super early so he's actually there a lot longer than I would like, but it wasn't feasible for me to drop him off and then take Punk to school in a different town. Too much hassle.

But I am just so totally in love with that little guy and can't wait to smoosh all over him tomorrow!

Punk has been possessed by demons. Demons of the table manners variety.

She has never been a particularly clean eater (she is a small child), but I have always expected decent table manners and to be honest, table behavior is a hot button for me. I can't stand bad table behavior. It crawls up my spine like an electrical current and sits there vibrating at the base of my skull. I hate it.

She has been playing with her fork and plate, insisting on eating with her fingers, mashing food into the sides of her mouth with her fingers, wiping her mouth/face with her sleeve, putting crumbs and food into her drink, trying to hold her drink cup with two fingers (one on each hand) so that it dumps everywhere and then watches it wherever it has spilled, not moving the cup or anything. It is infuriating. I want to just stuff her back into a high chair with a sippy cup, because she's acting like a baby.

It is driving. me. insane. She acted better at the table at two years old. So annoying.

Merry Christmas, y'all.



I have two kids.

I haven't posted here in a million years. Don't worry, no baby yet.

Things are chugging along. Yesterday was my last day of work until March 1st. I bet that will come around quickly. I am trying not to think about it. Or about not getting paid until March. (Whoops.) It will be a lean Christmas around here, which is probably for the best since I don't like all of the commercialism anyway.

Things are moving smoothly through this pregnancy. 38w now, haven't had a speck of a complication, knock on wood. BP is fantastic, weight is up to a scary number but in reality is only 20lbs up. I've just never been this heavy before. Looking for a milk donor, hoarding formula checks and samples. There is a crib in our house again. That's weird. Kid has been riding the 55th percentile forever, so I'm guessing he's set to be Joe Average Baby. It still seems big to me though because Punk was always teeny, in the 20s as a fetus and newborn. She had cord and placenta stuff though. Who knows?

Punk is a very big girl who is excited to be a big sister and is more excited to go to preschool. She loves school, loves the kids at school, and has made some friends. She has picked up some annoying 3 year old habits and I'm sure it's extra hard for her these days because my mobility is non-existent and my patience (and energy) is thin. This too shall pass.

We have bits and pieces of baby stuff in the house now - a swing is set up in the living room, the crib is in the baby/guest room, and we are collecting stuff. We'll set up the PnP in the bedroom soon, I'd imagine, and then we'll be done for a while. We should probably get some newborn/size 1 diapers because the pockets will be too big and bulky. Last time we borrowed a lot of infant prefolds which were a godsend, but we lost our hookup. :) Gotta wash bottles and get those ready also. There's gonna be a baby up in here!

Happy Halloween, everyone. Punk and Jen are trick-or-treating at the library right now and then we will run a bajillion errands. Can't wait to see all the kiddies in their costumes tomorrow. :) Have a great one!

This is my last weekend of freedom before I return to work on Tuesday. It's nice to have a holiday to ease into the week. It is going to be a challenge to be up and running early in the morning when I am used to having a slow start to the day if I so choose - hanging around, lounging, watching some cartoons with Punk, then eating some breakfast... those days are over.

Things are kind of up in the air at work because of my impending leave. The original plan as I understood it was that everything would be business as usual with my clients/schools, but then last week they decided maybe it was better if I didn't go to the schools and just did intakes in the office. I was concerned about this plan from a productivity standpoint (there's no way I could do the amount of billing I was used to doing office intakes) and from a client standpoint (some of my clients would have no one seeing them until work could find someone else). So we went back and forth about it and some of my clients are transferring to other clinicians now, some will stick with me until a new clinician is hired, and I will also do some office intakes if some office space is available to me. Hopefully it will all work out.

My mother is in town visiting us and will be taking care of Punk while I am at work this week and preschool is in the transition week. We have been doing a lot of fun things like going out to lunch. We also took a trip to Ikea to buy new furniture for Punk's room (so the baby can get the changing table dresser and matching stuff). Last night my mother hung out with Punk so Jen and I could go to a friend's wedding. Today my mother is visiting a friend, so we went to breakfast, then hit the 3 County Fair. I am EXHAUSTED.

I haven't had a pay check since mid June and we are really feeling the crunch right now. We had some extra money stocked up at the beginning of the summer, and we had banked some money to cover the summer also but we are trying not to use all of it in case we need it later. So right now we're really strapped and feeling it. Of course, going to Ikea to buy furniture was probably not the smartest plan and obviously neither was the fair, but sometimes you just have to blow it and take your kid to the fair to eat overpriced snacks, play stupid fair games, ride an overpriced ride, and see all of the cute animals. So whatever.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to take it somewhat easy, although there are groceries to procure (ch-ching again), laundry to do, lunch to pack for work, work clothes to uncover, etc. We're hoping to move the furniture from Punk's room to the baby's room next weekend so we can assemble Punk's new furniture, but that involves finding a local strong person to help Jen move the guest room furniture into the basement so we can get that done. Takers?

We have about 9 weeks of pregnancy left at a maximum and dang, that's not much. Crap!

I hate when I have to follow up on a consequence for my kid that hurts me. Punk is not allowed to go to see a friend's newborn baby tonight because she didn't nap today and was acting horridly. But that means I don't get to see the newborn baby, either.

SUCK.