Judecorp.

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.

Punk and I are in South Carolina and have been since last Thursday. We are visiting my brother and SIL, and my mother and her husband are close by as well. Days and evenings have been packed with exciting preschool-friendly activities such as miniature golf, indoor bounce house place, Chuck E Cheese, the beach, the library, etc. It is very fun and very, very tiring. We are eating out a lot and I haven't been making the healthiest choices and I wouldn't be surprised if I gained 10 lbs here. We head home tomorrow.

Jen joined us for the first three days of our trip but returned to work so as not to use up vacation time. It is apparently still very hot in our house and I'm not looking forward to that after 10 days in central air. :)

Senor Cupcakey seems to be chugging along and we are 23 weeks pregnant at this point, very visible. Haven't taken a single belly picture which I'm sure is setting him up for lots of therapy when he gets older. That, and being called Cupcakey. But aside from some pelvic grouchiness all seems to be well on that front. I have another midwife appointment on Monday.

Punk had a rash last week and the pediatrician thought it was folliculitis and gave us an antibiotic ointment before we left on vacation. It has continued to get worse and worse, and my fear is that it is molloscum contagiosum, which - as its name suggests - is super contagious and takes a long time to go away. Sigh.

We have a busy week coming up. Jen's parents are coming to our house today (I'm sure they'll love the heat and humidity in the house) and staying until Tuesday morning. Punk has an appointment at 9am on Monday for the rash and I see the midwife later that afternoon. Punk has an appointment with an allergist later in the week, and also 3 year old portraits. We arrive after Punk's bedtime Sunday night so I'm sure Monday will be full of tired crankiness.

I am not in a great headspace which is not really a good place to be when a full-time mama on vacation and looking down the barrel of expecting #2. But I guess that's just sort of how it goes.

Niagara Falls, Sept. 14, 2008

When did I get such a BIG GIRL?





(Okay, I get it. She looks like me in that bottom picture.)

Yesterday I did about a bazillion loads of laundry while entertaining an infant. At one point I even carried one of the overflowing laundry hampers down into the basement while wearing said infant in front of me with her legs "sitting" on the mound of laundry. I feel accomplished for doing that, but it was largely unsafe and I will never do that again. However, it did get more laundry done. I also washed all of the dishes, picked up the living room, and had a little playdate/coffee date with another mama. Phew.

Today I hit the mall to pick up Punk's 6 month pictures that we got at Target because Target portraits are cheap and you can send lots of wallets to the grandparents. So I fetched pictures, got a bunch of Valentines for said grandparents, restocked our ibuprofen and diaper cream, got stamps at the post office, and scored a major find at BRU - I found one of those gigantic "weekender" diaper bags on clearance, with an additional 20% off, and the total was less than a merchandise credit I had in my wallet. So I got this huge bag for free, which will be vital when we go to Florida. When we went to SC, we had to try to stuff everything into one of our every day diaper bags which was a huge PITA because if we wanted something, we had to pretty much unpack the whole thing. This thing is like the size of a luggage carryon, has an insulated pocket for two bottles, has sections for things like keys and cell phone - it's awesome. And it was FREE.

Speaking of Florida, Jen was confirming plans with her mother about the trip and said something like, "Your granddaughter wants you to take her to Disney." (Jen's mom is a major Disney nut.) The next day, Jen got an e-mail about a hotel reservation for two nights at Disney's All-Star Music Resort. !!! So I guess Jen's parents are taking us all to Disney for a couple of days. I am more than a little nervous about how that will go. Punk usually has a two hour maximum at any one place. Hopefully by the time we go she will learn how to fall asleep in the stroller or the wrap. (Currently both are a no. She will sleep in her crib, in a bed, and in the car seat.)

~//~

Valentine's Day is in two days and I am just not feeling it. Usually it's one of my favorite holidays but I just can't hack it this year. Someday maybe I will write a big melodramatic post about how love hasn't been going at all the way I'd like it to. Someday. Maybe.

And now with face!

We tried to fly to Florida this morning to go visit Jen's parents for a couple of days. Here is a brief synopsis of our "travel" experience:

1. Wake up at 3:30am.
2. Leave for airport just before 4:00am.
3. Arrive at airport at 4:35am.
4. Pull into long-term parking lot. Get ticket. Realize that they plowed all of the cars in on Saturday and that we will have to snowcrash into parking spot.
5. Try spot #1. Get stuck. Spin out. Back out.
6. Try spot #2. Get stuck. Spin out. Almost can't back out. Parking shuttle looks annoyed. Feel like crying.
7. Try spot #3. Jen gets out and kicks at ice for a couple of minutes. Pull into spot. Shuttle has left.
8. While Jen is kicking ice, Orbitz calls. Flight is cancelled. They have courtesy rebooked us on a flight leaving Tuesday. I tell Orbitz Lady that we are supposed to be returning on Wednesday. She tells us to talk to someone at ticket counter.
9. Give Jen bad news. Get on new shuttle.
10. Get off shuttle. Man getting on shuttle says a plane to DC is cancelled. We were going to Charlotte. That's 2.
11. 4:50am - walk into terminal. Look for end of US Airways line. Find it in another section near Delta counters. Notice that all other airlines running on schedule.
12. Dial US Airways 800 number. Wait on hold for 1 hour, 10 minutes. Hang up.
13. 6:20am - dying of hunger, try to forage for breakfast. All real food is inside security gates. End up with blueberry muffin and milk.
14. Alternate between standing with Jen and sitting in chair in another area because pelvis hurts.
15. 11am - Witness screaming match between disgruntled customer and disgruntled ticket counter worker. DC is upset because she has waited two hours for a delayed flight. DTCW tells her to shut up because people have been waiting since 5am. I love her. She walks out.
16. 11:30am - Jen and I reach the ticket counter and are determined to be as nice as possible. (Me: I guess it's not a good day to work at the airport...)
17. We get rebooked to our satisfaction, though it's annoying. We're going to try again in a couple of days, had to shift days off and stuff, but hopefully have good flights AND our ticket counter worker was very kind and helpful.
18. Our rebook is on another airline, so we walk to the Delta counter to get seat assignments.
19. 12pm - Get back on parking shuttle, go back to car.
20. Get charged full day's parking rate. $7. Suck.
21. 12:20pm - Find Ruby Tuesday's on road to highway. Eat.
22. 2pm - Pull into driveway. Home sweet home after 10 hours.
23. 5pm - Wake up from nap. Feel very disoriented.

Dear God, this had better be the best trip ever... eventually.

Returned from Maine yesterday afternoon. The car held up well, which was pleasant. Today we drive to RI, to central MA, and back home, all in the name of family - claiming the rest of dad's items, hitting up a cook-out with the fam, then bringing the dad stuff home. Thank goodness I had the foresight to take Monday off as well - I need a chill day just thinking about all of this driving.

Soaked in the pool and enjoyed the cool occasion of Kriss and Jon's party. Gosh, they are Good People. After some pool soaking, some hot tub soaking, and some quorn eating, I just needed some time to crash and enjoy the feeling of being in my own house. There's just something about your own shower, your own bed, your own non-travel-size bath products, your own cats. Travel is nice, and Jodie was a wonderful host and a good (though probably bored stiff) listening ear, but sometimes you just need the comfort of your own crazy neighborhood sounds. (Fireworks, that is. All night.)

I have made progress in my goal of getting one of my Sims (Holly Homewrecker) to break up the Goth family. Buying Bella Goth some red roses seems to have done the trick. Move out, Mortimer!

Another cycle started. It's weird to start a brand new cycle and know that it's guaranteed to not get us knocked up. It's almost like, what's the point?

I convinced Coworker Funk to come play with me and she wanted to see a movie. We went to see Superman Returns and it was so cheesy but also enjoyable. The whole time, I just felt like I was 5 years old again. It was so true to the old movies, down to the cheesy opening credits and of course the John Williams Superman Theme. It was a good time.

My "stay home all day" day didn't really happen. I went to Trader Joe's after some cleaning in the morning, then went to get the car inspected. Then went to the movie, which was long (2.5 hours). Then offered to pick Jen up from work, which was a mistake since there's a Sox game today and it took me 30 minutes to get around the corner. Argh! But I'm home now, even if I never got to pack (yet) or clean the bathroom. Jeff and Melissa should be here shortly. Yay!

Sometimes it's good to see a cheesy movie in the middle of the afternoon.

Haven't had a lot of time to update on the rest of our trip, which has really been beaucoup fun.

Some of the things we've done are: a "Haunted History" tour that we both really liked a lot, a quick casino trip to play some nickel slots in which Jen netted us $50, another trip to Cafe Du Monde for some more delicious beignets, and a teeny bit of souvenir shopping where I bought a ringer tee that says "I [heart] nerds".

Some of the places we've eaten are: Muriel's for a three-course prix fixe wonder, Red Fish for some yummy seafood, Petunia's for brunch this morning, Cafe Beignet for greasy breakfast yesterday, a stop at Haagen Dazs for ice cream, and a stop at a "to go" stand to get Jen a Hurricane.

We took a little walk on the mostly-closed Riverwalk which was really nice, and rode the streetcar again after a quick chat with hopemcg. We spent a little time sitting in the Place d'Armes as well and, of course, did a lot of walking. We took a little walk down Bourbon Street on Saturday night after a late dinner and it was pretty yucky - some drunk dude decided he would be "funny" and put his arms around us and laugh. I hate that crap. I also hate drunken yelling and idiot fratboy types. Not to mention the lingering smell of piss, sick, and garbage that we were inundated with early Sunday morning when we were trying to catch an early breakfast. Ew.

I'm much more enamoured of New Orleans after Day One. Outside of the looted sports stores near our hotel, all of the touristy stuff is mostly unchanged and open for business. It has actually been incredibly nice to have smaller numbers of people. I like crowds just fine, but I don't think I could handle the craziness of Mardi Gras.

( Fertility stuff: )