hanging on by a thread

By March I'm getting desperate for some sunshine and fresh air.   I do not enjoy a snowstorm that was supposed to be 6 inches turning into 48 hours of non stop snow that dumped 2 feet on the ground.   On the bright side,  it was close to 45 degrees once it stopped snowing and I got both sunshine and fresh air this weekend.  At least snow doesn't stay on the ground too long in March!

My brother and I The kids made a giant snowman on Saturday.   We They are so talented!

He's an Irish snowman,  natch.  There's actually quite a lot of Irishness in that picture.   I'm not sure how much Irish blood my niece and nephew have in them but they are at least half Irish and my Baby Girl is also half Irish.   So among the three kids at least 1.5 of them is Irish.  There's an interesting fact for you.

Also, by "Irish",  I do mean "American whose ancestors hailed from the Emerald Isle".   I'm not sure any of them know what or where Ireland is.   Though their grandfather is an Irish citizen who has been to Ireland exactly once.   Who knew that was even possible? 

And on that topic,  if someone says "top of the morning to you" on March 17,  please respond  "and the rest of the day to yourself".   Drives me crazy that no one ever responds appropriately.

lousy Smarch weather

 It snowed on Saturday and it was 75 degrees on Monday.   Only in New England. 

Baby Girl and I went to the park today but I wouldn't let her go on the swings because I didn't want to make small talk with the other mother who was also there last night.   DON'T TALK TO ME!  Two days in to a warm spell (which I do believes ends tomorrow) and I'm already sick of the park.  No, I don't want to push you in the swing for 25 minutes.   I do, since I'm the Best Mother In the World,  but I'm grumpy about it.  Kid needs to learn how to pump.

Spring!

It was in the 60's today and will be tomorrow.  It is going back down to the 40's on Friday,  but the seeds of spring are here. SOON I WILL BE WEARING FLIP FLOPS AGAIN!!!

 

Daylight savings starts this weekend.  Life is good. 

how many flip flops can I put in one blog post?

3.  (I totes just pinned that necklace too.   My birthday is coming!)

Then again,  Baby Girl doesn't quite understand daylight savings time.  She wakes up anytime between 5:45 and 6:15 these days.... which means on Sunday we could very well be greeted at 4:45 in the morning.  And when I say "we" I do mean "Andrew" because I will totally use the pregnancy card and stay in bed longer.  I will use any tricks in my bag to not have to deal with a toddler and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse before 5am.

Can I still call her a toddler?  She moves up to the pre-school room on Monday.  Is she officially a pre-schooler now? 

We signed up for Netflix again to catch up on the first season of Downton Abbey.  I really like it,  but I was bummed to find out the entire first season is like 7 episodes.    Lame. 

Hey Hey we're the Monkees!

Oh Davy,  so sad.  I know technically I am too young to remember the Monkee's,  but my brother and I watched repeats of the TV show in the early 80's and we loved it.   And who doesn't love Day Dream Believer? I actually saw him perform live at Saint A's during parents weekend.   We'll always have the Dana Center, Davy.


We haven't had any sort of accumulation since October 2011.  Today is March 1, 2012 and as you can see, Andrew had to clean off the car this morning before he left to drop off Baby Girl at school.  There may be an inch out there!  Oh, this horrible New England winter!  

I shouldn't make fun of the winter,  New England winters really are awful but we somehow lucked out this year.  Last year was brutal and next year could be too.    Baby Girl was SO excited to bring her snow suit to school today,  and I put her snow boots on to walk to the car... that wasn't quite necessary as the inch of snow had been shoveled,  but who am I to interfere with a 2.5 year old's love of the snow? 

So, it's March 1st.   Spring is almost here,  though you would never know from the weather outside.   Realistically when you live as far north as I do we don't get actual spring weather until May,  but March 1 is a little bit closer to that! 

Question for the moms of younger kids:   Shohuld I get a Rock and Play?  They didn't exist when Baby Girl was a baby so I obviously didn't have one with her.   But it just looks so convenient... and people rave about them.   I've heard one complaint:  it can be hard to transition the babies to a crib or basinett because they aren't used to sleeping on flat surfaces.  I was thinking it would be good to bring to the cape as well, to give me (hopefully) a better place to put him while I'm running around after his sister.   So what do we think?  yes?  no?  

almost here...

It's coming,  I can feel it.   I can tell by the fact that it's 5:15 and it's still light out.  Spring is just around the corner!   It's dusk,  which is not daylight but neither is it darkness.   We've gotten through the worst and darkest part of the winter.   And yes,  this winter has been so mild that I almost feel I am tempting fate by looking forward to warmer weather,  but even a mild winter is still winter.   It's still cold, dark, boring, and long.  In a few short weeks daylight savings will come and it will be light out until 6:30.   Andrew will start training for the road race (I'll be back in 2013!) soon,  we'll  be taking Baby Girl back to the park (she doesn't even need the little kid section of the parks anymore!  tear!) and I can go back to getting my vitamin D naturally.   I'm really excited,  as though that isn't evident. 

In other news,  I'm halfway through this pregnancy.   In 20ish more weeks the Little Guy will be here!  I wouldn't mind if it was closer to 18... or 17....  I can take him coming early.   The sooner those hellish magical infant weeks start, the sooner they will end and I can get my sanity back.   I am not looking forward to those first 6ish weeks.   I wasn't sure I was going to make it through them last time, and I signed up to do it again?  I'll be packing my 881SF of hell muttering to myself "this to shall pass" for hours on end in the middle of the night.   But it will pass.  Without fail, infancy leads to babyhood.  Though then babyhood leads to toddlers, which lead to preschoolers and preschoolers are a different breed of human...

Speaking of preschoolers,  Baby Girl moves up to the preschool room in a few weeks!  Where does the time go? 

cold

As a result of some less than stellar behavior this morning,  Baby Girl lost TV privileges for the rest of the day.  That's really more of a punishment for her parents than it is for her,  but we are quickly running out of effective punishments for her.   So no TV it is.

Which means when she woke up from her nap,  we were looking at almost 5 hours of entertaining a 2.5 year old.   Shoot me.  I made the executive decision to go for a family walk.  Baby Girl requested this walk involve the park,  but it was 40 degrees out which is NOT swinging weather.  We dressed up for a jaunty walk through the arctic and out we went.   It was cold, but it felt so good to be outside - and in a few short weeks (6? 7?) it will be warm enough to actually be outside without snowsuits!  I'm so excited for spring!  Too bad it's still January,  but it's coming.  I can feel it.  Those daffodils and crocuses are just itching to poke through the frozen tundra! 

And no,  we didn't give in on the TV.   Aside from asking for it once,  I don't think Baby Girl realized she was being punished.   Time Outs don't work anymore (she actually requests them now) and I can't think of anything else that is age appropriate.   Teaching a toddler appropriate behavior is proving to be an impossible task.  At least we haven't experienced a toddler sized public temper tantrum yet!

patience young Padawan

OH MY GOD IN HEAVEN, HOW IS IT ONLY WEDNESDAY???

Did my impatience with this week come through? Do you need me to say it again? I am so done with this week. I want it to be the weekend, because Sunday is Mother's Day, and that means brunch at the yacht club!!! WHOOO!!! Andrew and I went last year and the food was so good that we talked about it for weeks. Think of your favorite brunch food - they have it. Eggs (Eggs Benny which are my FAV!), pancakes, danish, fruit, roast beef, asparagus, cereal, etc etc etc. There is so much food and you get a "complimentary" glass of champagne, and the mimosas keep coming!

It may just be my favorite day of the year.

We sang its praises so much that my mother decided she wanted to go this year, so now me and Andrew, my parents, and my grandmother are all going. FABULOUS - that means we can make more trips to the food because someone will always be at the table to watch my baby girl!
You can see why I'm so over this week.

But I do have an issue - last year there was so much Lily Pulitzer and Vineyard Vines clothing that it was seriously like a preppy whale threw up on a palm tree in there. So what do I wear? Baby Girl has a Lily dress that actually looks more like Vineyard Vines, so she's covered. Andrew has a navy blue (natch) VV polo. I don't have any appropriate clothing from either brand. Will I be ostracized? I will have to hide behind my family and pray no one notices I'm rocking Kohl's Apt 9 clothing!

2 down... a lot more to go

Alright! I completed W1D2 and it was easier than the first day (granted I didn't eat Easter dinner yesterday, so that may have helped) and so far the recovery has been easier too.

Now I'm looking at a different problem. C25k is designed for the user to do 3 workouts a week. I did it on Sunday and Tuesday, and now what? If I go on Thursday and keep with my normal schedule, then I don't run again till Sunday. Or would it be bad to start week 2 on Saturday? I know that I will eventually hit a week that gets the best of me and I won't be able to move on to the following week until I'm ready. So I guess it will all even out in the end? I'm not sure. I do know that I am ready to do it again tomorrow. So I guess I'll just have to take this one day at a time and see how my runs and my recoveries go.

In other news - the Broonz play Game 7 in Montreal tonight. If they could win, I'd really appreciate it. As much as I hate that my TV gets taken away from me during the playoffs, it would make my husband so much happier if they could just make it into the 2nd round. So please - why don't you try to put the puck IN the net tonight, mmkay?

Also - it was 80 degrees when I left work yesterday. By the time I got home (60 miles away) it was 65 degrees. Meh. I like the 80 better. WHEN WILL IT BE SPRING IN MY LITTLE CORNER OF THE WORLD?

rainy day

Today is such a dark dismal dreary day. If it was a weekend, it would totally be a stay in your pajamas all day and watch movies day. That is, if you don't have an almost-two year old who is insane and would never dream of sitting still for more than 5 seconds.

As dark and depressing as this weather is, at least it is seasonally appropriate. April showers bring May flowers and all that jazz (and May flowers bring Pilgrims! HA!). It's not snowing anymore - and I'm almost ready to say we won't see any more snow. Well - we won't see any more NEW snow, we do still have the dirty, sandy, icy, nasty remnants of 8 feet tall mounds of snow.

Hopefully this rain will bring on some more green. Our grass is actually green now, but all the buds and flowers seem to be late this year - probably because of the insanely cold March we had, but what do I know about such things!

If you happen to live in New England, or any other place that's rainy and dark and dreary today, here's a little bit of color to cheer you up:

getting there...

We went down the cape today, just for something to do. It felt so nice just to be down there and see the water and drive by the beach. We're almost there; it's almost summer time!

I haven't been on my A game today. I went to go food shopping, got all the way to Stop & Shop, and realized I didn't have my pocketbook. Then I drove all the way home and got my pocketbook and decided I didn't want to go back to S&S, so to Shaw's I went.

Apparently Shaw's doesn't carry blueberries. Or sliced mushrooms. Or organic meat. To say that I had a shopping fail is an understatement. And yet I still spent $130.

But on a good note, my Tupperware came in! I'm extremely excited about that :)

Spring! kind of....

It was in the 50's today! Who cares if it is going to snow on Friday, today it was sunny and not freezing! I have been promising Baby Girl that we could play outside when it's warm again. So today we took the bubbles (see April's picture) and ball outside and had some fun.



And I also confirmed that I am the dorkiest mom on the block. Literally. After we played with the bubbles, I took Baby Girl for a walk. While we were getting the stroller out of the trunk of the car, and little girl who seemed to live in our complex came running over to say hi to BG. Her mother followed. What do you think I did? Strike up a conversation with a woman around my age who also had a daughter only slighter older than my girl? Make friends that live in the same complex as me? Find a new playdate for BG? HELLS NO! I said hi to the little girl and booked it as fast as I could in the other direction. DON'T TALK TO ME, OTHER MOM! I'M BAD AT SMALL TALK!!! STAY AWAY SO I DON'T HAVE TO TALK TO ANYONE ABOUT ANYTHING!!!

I'm a dweeb.

brrr

It's almost April! Why is it still SO COLD? My poor kid got a taste of playing outside after a very long, cold, and snowy winter, and now all she wants to do is play outside. But today it was 30 degrees outside - not really appropriate weather for frolicking in the park.

"Mama! Go outside!"
"Sorry Baby Girl, it's too cold"
"too cold?"
"yup, it's too cold. Maybe next week will be warmer"
"next week"
"yup"
"NO NEXT WEEK MAMA! OUTSIIIIIIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!"

We all wish we could go out Baby Girl. Unfortunately, I'm not down with turning into an icicle.

When is it going to be spring weather!!! Also, when am I supposed to start running if I can't get outside without the fear of frostbite? I can do a dance to the sun god if that will help. I'm really good at the short uncoordinated white girl dance.

Spring ahead!

Daylight savings is this weekend!! Wooo!!!

I'm actually not thrilled to be driving to work in the dark (again), but I'm loving that extra hour of daylight at the end of the day! I'd really love to take walks with BG at night before she really gets too old for the stroller and fights us on it. But, we have no room for the jogging stroller here, so we keep it at my parents house for walks around Marina Bay and then the cape during the summer. Our Maclaren is a fabulous umbrella stroller, but it just wasn't designed for bumpy suburban sidewalks. Hopefully we can get outside somehow - it still needs to warm up though, it's only been in the 30's this week. Above freezing, yes - but still really cold!

Andrew and I were watching an old episode of 30 Rock last night (which was new to us, as we only starting catching up on it on Netflix this year) and there was a comment about Tupac being alive. Sure, it was meant to be funny, but I have firmly believed that Tupac is alive since the day that he "died". I scoff at every other conspiracy theory out there, but I'm telling you, Tupac is alive!!

- he was cremated the day after he was "murdered". Since when do murder victims not have autopsies? "

- he has released countless new songs after his death. I'm sure any artist who is "killed" in his prime has unreleased recorded songs, but Tupac seems to have a million of them

- in two of his videos that were not released until AFTER he "died", he is wearing shoes that were not available until after his death.

- Tupac vehicle was shot 12 times and Suge didn't get hit once, He was 'grazed' by a bullet, Why did Tupac get shot all those times and Suge not get hit?

I'm telling you, the man is alive.

Okay, so I wouldn't gamble my life savings on it, but if it ever came out that he didn't really die from that altercation, I will NOT be surprised!

It's coming... I know it

Spring has to come around again, right? I mean at some point during the calendar year of 2011 it WILL be warmer - at least I think this is the case. In the middle of winter it's so hard to comprehend the thermometer hitting anything about 40. But I think we're getting there... there hasn't been any real accumulation with snow in eight days (EIGHT DAYS! That's longer than a week!), it's still light out till 5:15ish, daylight savings is less than 2 months away.

I just don't know how much longer I can deal with this. This is usually the time of year I start perusing real estate listings in North Carolina and dreaming of ways of getting jobs in Charlotte.

I just want Spring. I want 50-60 degree weather, I want to be able to take a walk after dinner, I want to take Baby Girl to the park, I want to see the grass, not 3 feet of snow, I want leaves on the trees and birds chirping!

Last year we had this freakish heat wave in March. It was around 90 degrees for a few days and then dropped down to the 80's for a few more days. It was a nice break, but the best part about it was the trees bloomed early because of it. We had trees with actual leaves on them in early April. That generally doesn't happen until May around here. Fingers crossed it can happen again!!

rain = evil?

This rain has got to stop. While no one in my immediate family is in danger of flooding I'm still so done with this rain. It's terrible and so depressing. At least this time around, I slept through most of the bad weather. It just makes everyone tired and grumpy. I'm so done!

Next topic. I do not currently own a jogging stroller (through I frequently search Craig's List for one). My brother does have one. For some reason I cannot convince him to let me have it this summer. He claims he "needs" it and will be "using it himself". I say those excuses are not good enough. I NEED one and he HAS one. So why can't his be mine? Because he has a child of his own? (and will have a second this summer?). Because he wants it at his own house? Crap, I say. crap!

Okay, so he might have valid points. That, however, does not put a jogging stroller in my parents garage in Falmouth! I'm thinking I may need to step up the Craig's List search. East Falmouth is not known for its smooth sidewalks and I need a jogging stroller down there to go for any type of walk.

And it WILL stop raining at some point this year. I can feel it. We will go outside again!

such a tease

Last Saturday when it was in the 70's was so unfair. We all knew it was unseasonably warm (hello, upper 70's in MARCH? This is still New England, which is Native American for "land so far north, no one should ever live there), but it was so easy to get used to the weather and being outside and airing out the house after a winter of stuffy germ ridden closed up air. It was fabulous. But it's going to be in the 30's on Friday, so we've been knocked down a few pegs. Good for us.

I hear Spring will be coming for real in a bout 8 weeks. I'm pretty excited about that.

My baby was 9 months old yesterday. She celebrated by being diagnosed with a double ear infection. I'm sure you'll be glad to know that amoxocillian tastes the same as it did 30 years ago.

Happy 9 months to my baby girl!

Soul Food

The beginning of Spring is no picnic. You get your hopes up because it's no longer cold enough to snow, and the heavy winter coats can be put away, but it's not warm yet either. It's that chilly in between weather, usually accompanied by cold winds. This past week has been in the mid 40's. A good 10 degrees above freezing which is good, but also a good 20 degrees too cold. The past week we've also been blessed with grey overcast skies and rain. Rain for 5 days straight can mess with your head. It's put me into a depressed and sluggish slump, and I know the only cure for it is some sunshine.

Luckily, we are getting a 10 reprieve from the 40 degree weather and rain. Today is supposed to be in the low 50's with partly sunny skies. I'm hoping to get out for a walk to get my vitamin D intake for the month, but I also have about 78 hours of homework to do, so we'll see.

The rainy chilly weather has also left me desperate to get to the cape. Not that the weather will be any better down there - in fact it will be worse, but something inside me needs to go. I think Andrew has been wanting to go too. We've been trying to plan out a Sunday where we can go down to Betsey's for breakfast Unfortunately today Andrew has class and I have homework, next Sunday is Easter, and the Sunday after that we will be in Niagara Falls, CA (if I ever get proper documentation proving I am a US citizen!). So for the foreseeable future, I have no time. I'll make it down there eventually though... I may a limpid, lethargic, lump of goo by the time I make it over the bridge - but I'll get there.

And then I'll have a kid and my time will be limited again. Oh yay.

sucked in

In case you are either A) a boy or B) The Gap, Inc doesn't have your email address, and you didn't know that this weekend was 30% off your entire order at Old Navy, Gap, Piperlime, and Banana Republic, let me bring you up to speed: This weekend is 30% off weekend. I had been attempting to avoid the temptation. 30% off is not really that good of a sale, especially for Old Navy, when you can get a much better deal off their clearance racks. But this morning when I logged into my email and I got the reminder that TODAY IS THE LAST DAY!!! I had to at least check. Especially since I need maternity yoga pants - as the weather gets nicer and I walk outside more often, I will need something to wear. The only thing I have now is a very old pair of grey sweatpants, that while they still do fit around the gigantic stomach, no longer have any drawstring on them, and I am very afraid they will fall down.

So I check out the site, find some maternity yoga pants... and a skirt.... and a tank top.... and I did find ONE pair of capris that actually were maternity (they are trying to pass off pants without any sort of panel as maternity. Yeah, my desire to wear "real waist" pants left me somewhere before Christmas, thank you very much! I'll have to go to Target to find some capris that are actually maternity!). But I found them at the Gap and not Old Navy, which means they were $20 more than they would have been at Old Navy. Normally I'm a Gap girl myself, as Old Navy stuff only tends to last a season or two and Gap will last longer, but right now I only need the clothes to last one season, and I am not paying $54 for a pair of capris! So I didn't end up getting them. And I did end up, with the sale price, paying $43 for my new clothes.

After all that, I saved..... $15. When if I hadn't bought anything I wouldn't have spent anything! Damn email marketing!!!

But I really did need the yoga pants! And I paid with my own "play" money, so I don't even need to hear the lecture from Andrew. HA!

Speaking of walking outside, yesterday hit about 50 degrees and Andrew and I walked Wollaston Beach. Well, Andrew walked and I wobbled. But it was quite enjoyable and the salty air did us both some good. I'm so excited that we can do that more and more often, the closer we get to Spring! (though your calendar might say spring will be here next week, here in New England we're still a solid month away from it).

change of pace

It's amazing what a little change of scenery and fresh air can do for you. It was 60º this weekend, and I actually got outside. Courtney and I walked around Castle Island today and it completely turned me into a different and happier person. A little fresh salty air today and now I don't even care that it's Sunday night and I have to go back to work tomorrow. Oh, the joys of spring!

Daylight savings started at 2am this morning. And though I hate getting up to go to work when it is still dark, I love having that extra hour of light at the end of the day. It's still too cold to do anything with that extra hour, but at least it is there. Spring is so close, the snow is practically melted, I might be able to open a window in my house soon... this is the start of good things to come. I am going to ignore the fact that it's supposed to be cold and snowy tomorrow. Those days are going to be few and far between for right now.

With the arrival of spring, my pregnancy is winding down. I still have 15 and a half weeks left until my due date (like that means anything!) but seeing as 24 and a half weeks are behind me, I'm sliding towards the finish. I can see the baby move from the outside now. That is freaky. To be honest, the fact that being pregnant means a living thing is growing inside of you has always freaked me out. And it still does - thinking about it makes me somewhat queasy. But when you can see something punching you from the inside... there's no denying it. I told Andrew yesterday that mammals are gross. This is no way to procreate - I think whatever supreme force created mammals was actually having a joke at our expense.

Spring also means that school is winding down. I have nothing good to say about school other than the fact that it is almost over. I'm trying not to let things get to me this semester because it is almost over, so I will just leave it at that. May 29 is going to be a happy day for me for more than one reason.