9

• So my last post was a little... hmmm... harsh... Sorry about that. I guess it's just the motherly rage that sets in when someone's not being nice to your baby.
• Hubby is watching District 9 right now. I started watching it with him, but it sucks! So here I am.
• Both E's birthday and Christmas were wonderful days. I just truly enjoyed watching E experience it all. I feel like I should be writing so much about it, but I don't really know what to write, it's more of just this really nice feeling about how well things went and how much I love my little family that's still bubbling inside of me. No words for that I guess.
• I started packing my bag for the hospital today. I never got to do that the last time. I realized that I can't pack it all b/c I still need some of the stuff. Hopefully I'll have time to just throw it in there when the time comes. Otherwise C can bring it later.
• My belly feels like it's about to explode! It's so tight.
• Oh, my word did I make a lot of Christmas candy this year. I am definitely sending a bunch of it to C's work Monday. We have to get it out of the house!
• I can't wait to start taking down the Christmas decorations. Normally I want to wait until 20 days after Christmas (Jan. 13th). It's a Swedish tradition to "dance out" Christmas that day. But this year, even though it looks so beautiful, I just want to get everything ready for the baby.
• E has been doing a little better at bedtime with her big girl bed. She still gets up once or twice, but then she falls asleep. It doesn't take an hour anymore. But maybe that's b/c she no longer gets real naps. I let her sleep if she falls asleep in the car, but for the past few days I haven't tried to put her down for naptime. Now I just got to figure out what to do with her in the middle of the day, b/c we both still need that time of peace and quiet even if she doesn't sleep.
• It's getting late so I'm going to get something to drink, get ready for bed and snuggle a little with my hubby on the couch, even if it means watching the end of a very weird movie.

you suck!!!!!!!!!!! Grow up!!!!!!!!!!!!

So you're still mad at me, fine. But what did she ever do to you? You can't wish her a happy birthday just b/c you don't want anything to do with me? Immature jerk!

(Sorry everyone else, just needed to vent.)

Happy Birthday E!

I couldn't go back to sleep after C's alarm went off this morning so instead of tossing and turning I decided to get up and enjoy the peace and quiet. It's Christmas eve today and back home everyone is celebrating Christmas. We will be celebrating E's birthday today. She's turning three. Such a big girl. I love her so much! C is working until lunch today and then he'll be home and she gets to open up her gifts. I doubt there will be a nap today. "Here are your gifts, now go to sleep." Somehow I don't think that's going to fly. I finished her cake yesterday. It's a toffee ice-cream cake. I hope she'll like it.

Lately, when E picks out her bedtime story it's the same book every night. "Flip and Flop". They play this game called Boomba and she really likes it. But yesterday she picked a book called "I know it's autumn". Not the book for this season, but it was what she wanted me to read and anything but Boomba sounded great to me =). The book talked about different things that happens during fall and when we got to the apple picking page she started describing exactly what she wore this year when we went. How does she remember? Well, I guess she's seen the pics from it a few times. I still thought it was pretty funny.

Oh, shoot, I just remembered one gift I forgot to wrap... got to go!!!!!!

miscellaneous dots again

• The big girl bed thing is definitely a battle every day. E keeps climbing out. It takes about an hour for her to settle in and go to sleep, both at naptime and at bedtime. Some nights she sleeps in her bed all night without waking up, some nights we wake up from her trying to squeeze in between us.
  
• It's Monday today, the only day of the week when I actually feel like cleaning. So except for the counter top in the kitchen my house is sparkling clean.
• E and I made some gingerbread cookies today. Yum! And a lot of fun!
• My lower back is killing me from scrubbing the tub.
• I found some Christmas cards in my purse today that I thought I had put in the mail. Oops! They might show up a little late.
• It's my brother's birthday today. Happy birthday!
  
• Tomorrows plans include grocery shopping and making Swedish meatballs.
  
• Wednesday we'll make some Christmas candy.
• Thursday is E's birthday.
• Friday is CHRISTmas!
  

Big girl bed - round 3

Last night went so much better than the night before. She didn't fight it at all. She stayed in her bed (except for one time when she came up and needed us to change a stinky diaper) until she fell asleep. It's now 7:15am and she is still sleeping. She woke up once at 5:20am, but went right back to sleep after I went in and tucked her in again. Hopefully this is it and she's accepted her big girl bed.

As far as the crib goes it's in the nursery and she loves to climb in and out of it all day long. We'll have to put an end to that when baby H comes!

I have another NST today before my regular check up. But C is home from work today so I get to go alone. It's pretty hard to keep an eye on E while being strapped in so I'm thankful she won't be there.

I just heard a door open... time to go!

Big girl bed - round 2

So who was right, realistic me or hopeful me?
It took her about half an hour to fall asleep. Which isn't too bad. That's normally what it takes her to go down for a nap. She always fights it a bit. I told her I would take away her Teddy if she got up one more time. So, still laying down, I could see her inching her way down the bed. She was staying down... Darn smart kid! Anyways, she slept for little less than an hour, then she woke up crying, all freaked out, just like in the middle of the night. She would not lay back down, so I brought her out on the couch with me where she fell asleep in my arms and slept for another hour until I woke her up. I didn't get much done, but it was cozy to hold my sleeping "baby" in my arms. (And to be honest a bit uncomfortable too. I kept falling asleep and didn't have any support for my head so it kept falling to the side. But mostly cozy.)

Well, I'm not looking forward to round 3, but it's coming in about 3 hours. Now it's time for dinner. I'm just frying up leftover Kielbasa stew tonight. Easy and yummy!

Big girl bed - round 1

The first night in the big girl bed is over. Not that she spent too much time actually IN it. She was so excited when C put it together. She kept bringing him all these tools that he didn't need and was constantly in the way trying to help. Then she got to pick what bedding she wanted. She climbed up in her bed and said over and over again "I like it. I like it, mamma!" We even found her just sitting in her bed reading her Bible at one point. But I guess that's where the cute part ends. When bedtime came along she had a really hard time going to sleep. She stayed in the crib, except for when she had to use the bathroom. But towards the end she "had to" use the bathroom a lot! She has always had a hard time going to sleep anywhere but in her crib so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it was 11:15pm when she finally passed out. A couple of hours later I woke up to a crying kid. I laid down with her for a little bit until she went back to sleep. Then I went back to bed. The second time she woke up crying I was in too much pain to crawl down between her and the safety railing so I just told her to go back to sleep and went back to the bedroom. Not what she wanted to hear. She came into our room, crawled up and over me and then she proceeded to the bottom of the bed and I remember my last thought being something like "Maybe she's going back to her bed again..." The next thing I remember was not being able to stretch my legs out because she was sleeping down by our feet. So I carried her in to her bed, she woke up and flipped out. C woke up and we were so tired that we brought her back with us. At 4am she kicked C out of bed and I didn't have much room either because she was laying sideways. I turned her around and we went back to sleep. At 7am I heard a wide awake kid saying that daddy is gone! 7am!!! That's earlier than after a good nights sleep. I'm so tired right now. The TV is babysitting her. I'm dreading naptime! My only hope right now though is that maybe she will fall asleep since she barely slept last night. But I seriously doubt it. Realistic me says she'll fight it and win, hopeful me says she might go to sleep. I'll keep you updated on the progress. Right now I need to go splash some cold water on my face, grab a couple of Tylenol and pray I will stay patient enough not to hurt her today! (No worries, I wouldn't actually hurt her.)

four

• I'm on a roll. Third day in a row that I'm blogging. E is sleeping in her crib for the last time. Tonight we're putting the big girl bed together. It's very exciting, but also a bit nerve wrecking. I wonder what it will be like putting her down for the night and for naptime. If you have any tricks up your sleeve please share. I have a feeling that we'll be hearing a lot of little feet on the floor past night time /naptime from now on.
• C just got home. He got out early b/c he had a dr's appointment today with his allergist. He had to stop to pick up a prescription too so he bought me a york. Yum!
• I sent out the gifts for Sweden today. They will most likely not make it there before Christmas. I am so bad at getting things in the mail on time. Seriously, I can't remember the last time I sent something on time. I am the same way when it comes to RSVPing for something. Today I RSVP'd for a party that is tomorrow. I was supposed to get back to them by the 13th I think. *sigh*
• Well, my York is in my tummy and I have a couple of phone calls to make so I should probably sign off. Not that that means I will make the phone calls. I'm thinking that since C is home that makes for a pretty good excuse to put it off until tomorrow. Oh, my twisted mind... Can someone say Procrastinator!

Progress

Yesterday C finished the patching/painting in E's room and the nursery. He also bought a bed rail for E. Tonight he will be picking up her mattress, but depending on how late he gets home I don't know if we'll get the bed assembled tonight or tomorrow. I washed all of E's bedding yesterday so that's all done.

Like I mentioned yesterday... I am more pregnant today than I have ever been! And I'm in pain! No contractions or anything. It reminds me more of the cramp you get in your side when you're running. (Well, I get it anyways since I rarely run.) So that + backpain made for a funny story earlier today. I was sitting on the floor, doing a puzzle with E. When we were done I tried to explain to her that I had to get up b/c my side and back were hurting. She walks over to me, kisses my side and back, looks at me and says: "Kiss and make it better. Now you can stay down." So, still in pain, I stayed on the floor. I didn't have the heart to tell her that kisses aren't really enough.

35!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm 35 weeks pregnant today. That's exactly how far along I was when I had E. Which means tomorrow I'll be more pregnant than I'd ever been before. We are working hard to get the nursery done. Well, right now C is working hard to get it done. I can't do my part until he is done with his. Here are the things we need to get done...

• Finish fixing the ceiling in E's room so that we can put her big girl bed in. We had to remove a pipe (that did nothing) because it was placed in the only corner where a bed would fit. That left us with a hole in the ceiling and the floor.
  
• Finish patching up the holes in the nursery. C put in a ceiling fan and ran into some problems.
• Move the futon out of the nursery and finding a spot for it.
  
• Move the crib and changing table from E's room to the nursery.
• Assemble E's big girl bed, buy a safety railing and put that on, wash her bedding (in progress right now, I guess I'm doing something too).
• Wash the crib bedding.
  
• Buy and assemble a wardrobe for H.
• Go through and wash E's baby clothes and put them away.

I think that is pretty much it as far as getting the girls rooms done. We also have to find all of the baby gear, clean that off and set it up and pack my hospital bag and E's bag for wherever she'll be going. What do you put in those bags?
You'd think we'd be done with this already considering E was early so we'd want to be prepared. We do want to be prepared, but being landlords you can't always take care of your own stuff first (it often has to be put aside) plus there are birthdays and Christmas to plan for too. After all it is a pretty busy season. But I'm not stressing out about it. God is in control. He was last time and made us realize all you need for a baby in the beginning are diapers, some clothes and a pack n play. And we got that covered! =)

Seven

• We had a birthday party for E two days ago. She was so excited and she had so much fun. I didn't want to do a Christmas themed birthday. I figured just b/c she is a Christmas kid doesn't mean she can't have a backyard party. So we decorated the church café with flowers, butterflies and other bugs and brought in backyard equipment (houses, slides and a climber) for the kids to play on. We also had a craft corner and dad did some face painting.
  As we were leaving it had started to snow and E ran around trying to catch snow flakes on her tongue. A perfect ending! Well, E crashing in her crib when we got home was pretty perfect too. =)
• All the preparing and the party itself made me really sore. I didn't get to take as many breaks during the day as my body requires right now and so I was in a lot of pain all Saturday night. But it was all worth is, seeing E have so much fun. And the pain is mostly gone by now.
• Yesterday we got to see baby BAM. Congrats to the M's! E got to hold him. Well, I helped her hold him while she was sitting down. When we got home she kept bringing me baby dolls to hold, but she had to help me hold them. I think she will be quite possessive of baby H when she arrives.
• Today is cleaning day and the vacuuming, sweeping and mopping is done. I will dust later. Yes, I know, dusting should be done before vacuuming and mopping, but I didn't feel like it. Cleaning is a lot more fun when you don't have rules to follow.
  
• C went away on a business trip yesterday. I don't like it when he's away. First of all I miss him. And so does E. It also means less breaks for me. And harder to leave the couch to go to bed. And harder to fall asleep. But we're blessed that he has a job and this means some overtime, which is great right before Christmas.
  
• I'm 34 weeks pregnant right now. I had E at 35 weeks. Hopefully baby H will let us celebrate Christmas before she shows up. I would really like to make it to January and then she can come whenever she wants to. C is hoping for end of December. Tax return, ya know!
• It's time for lunch. There is plenty of leftover pizza from the party so that's what we'll have today.
  

holidays and birthdays

What did you do with your leftovers from Thanksgiving? We got three dinners out of it, which all had leftovers:

• Mashed potato soup with rolls and salad (see pic)
• Stuffed pork chops with sweet potato casserole
• Turkey pot pie (using the turkey, of course, and the gravy)
  

I also found a recipe for butternut squash muffins.

Well, that holiday came and went and now we're preparing for Christmas. But first we're getting ready for E's birthday. She has her party for her little friends this weekend. She is really looking forward to it, asking about it several times a day. She keeps saying "party on 5". She is counting down the days using her advent calendar.

Patience

I went to the grocery store today to pick up a few things. I was prepared to be patient, knowing that the store would be packed this close to Thanksgiving. I did really good if I may say so myself. I was friendly and smiling at people, letting them take their time... and then it was time to pay. I looked at the lines and picked the shortest one. But as 4 people in the line next to me unpacked their groceries, payed and left, my patience left too. The lady in front of me had a lot of coupons. I don't mind coupons. I use them sometimes. But she had to tell the cashier the story about each and every item she had coupons for. She actually swore as she explained that she had to buy cookies from the bakery since she had a coupon. "No", I thought, "you didn't have to buy them. You chose to". And then some of her coupons didn't work so we had to wait for some other lady to come and explain to her that she needed to buy the brand that was mentioned on the coupon. Which made her confused she said... I don't think it was patience she saw in my face as she looked up at me as I was secretly wishing that my very patient child would scream bloody murder for once so that they would hurry up.
Well, I've learned from previous years to expect a crowded store before Thanksgiving and not to be upset because of it. Maybe next year I will smile at the lady in front of me taking her sweet time...

Family Fun food, I'm not laughing

I've never made chicken and dumplings. I've never eaten chicken and dumplings. But I've heard of it so I decided to give it a shot. I found a recipe online at the Family Fun site, a site I've found a lot of recipes on before. Lately, I've had a problem though. The ingredient list and the instructions don't line up. It has happen to me twice in 2 days now! I start cooking and all of a sudden it asks me to add an ingredient that isn't on the list. And it doesn't say how much of it. So I've had to improvise. The food turned out ok though and chicken and dumplings will probably go on the menu again sometime. From a different recipe though.

I guess now's the time for it

Is it really supposed to be this easy? We didn't really have a plan for how and when we would take the pacifier away from E. We just knew we wanted to do it while she was still in her crib so it would have to happen this month. I was planning on doing it in October, but then she started potty training and we didn't want to have more than one big transition going on at a time. So we decided to hold off on the paci thing. She only wears a diaper when she sleeps now so I knew it was time for it, but I was dreading taking it away. But then yesterday it sort of just happened. We had a paci that needed to be thrown out b/c it had some cracks in it from her biting it so much. So I had her throw it out. And when bedtime came I hid the other one. She asked for her paci and I told her we threw it out. She asked for the other one and I showed her the empty basket where we used to store them and I told her it wasn't there. She didn't cry for it at all. And again at naptime today she asked for it. I reminded her that we threw out the broken one and I had to show her the basket a couple of times but she didn't cry for it. Sure, it takes her a little longer to fall asleep, but she'll get used to not having it soon enough. I just keep holding my breath, waiting for that "crying for an hour until she falls asleep exhausted" thing I've heard about. I am nervously waiting for it to come and praying and hoping that it won't. So far it is going great and I keep thanking God for it and also praying that she won't miss her "napp" too much. (B/c I must admit too that it is breaking my heart in a small way that I have to take away something she is so attached to. But I know it's what's best for her.)

food and family

Isn't it great when dinner is cheap, healthy and yummy all at the same time? Today's dinner was. We had butternut squash soup and pesto grilled cheese.
Soup: Sauté onions and garlic (I used half of a big onion and 2 small cloves of garlic) in EVOO. Add a chopped up butternut squash (3 cups according to the recipe), 3 cups of water and 2 cups of apple cider, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for about 30 min. Use an immersion blender to make the soup smooth. Serve with some croutons (be careful of how many if you want to keep it healthy).
Sandwich: Well, it's like a regular grilled cheese, but you put pesto on the inside of the slices and tomato slices in between the cheese. I made my own pesto with parsley and almonds (b/c of tree nut allergies), parmesan cheese and EVOO. I skipped the garlic. And I used Arnold's whole wheat bread (no enriched flour). Again, the amount of cheese and butter can make or break the health factor.

E is playing in the background with her Little People. It's fun to listen to her make conversation between the dolls.
C is down in the basement prepping cabinet doors to paint.
H is sleeping I think, b/c she's not moving right now. That's right, H. I am pretty sure I'm letting C name the baby. Now we just need a middle name.

Well, I got to go. E didn't take a nap today so we're starting the night time routine a bit early tonight. But first I'm going to let her share something too. She is climbing all over me saying "letters, letters".

je7aabcdefghijklmnopqrstuuuuvwxyzabqrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
b++++++++++++++++++++++++1111111111111111111111111111§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§
§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§bbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyybbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

hey, did you see that she squeezed in the alphabet there all by herself!

Urgh!

I want to blog about something, but it's something I can't share in a blog. I am so thankful that I have God to lean on in a situation like this and that I have a wonderful husband who listens and comforts me.
Someone has treated me very badly these past couple of days. It started with an argument and I know that when two people argue it is rarely just ones fault. So I apologized. But this person told me that the apology wasn't accepted and refuses to take any responsibility in this thing at all. This is a person who is suppose to love me! Who claims to love me. I tried to explain my behavior. It might not have been the best. I know that. But it was a reaction to being hurt. And I said I was sorry. I don't even know where to go from here.
I guess the "love" that this person has for me is based upon the condition that I have to be who I'm expected to be by this person, not who I am. At least I know the truth. Real LOVE is unconditional.
Well, this is all that I can write here. I don't want to share to much about it here. And I know that this is my side of the story. There is another side too. But this is my blog and my place to vent.
Sorry to be such a downer today.

TMI

I don't know if this falls under the category for too much information, but at least you've been warned... =)
I am going to blame this one on pregnancy brain. When I got out of the shower I realized that I had shaved one leg, but not the other. C laughed pretty hard at that one! I did however scrub the shelves in the shower while I was in there since it's easier to reach them while I'm actually in the tub now that this belly is getting so big.

Autumn Harvest Chili

So I made Rachael Ray's Autumn Harvest Chili last night. E helped. She always wants to help cook nowadays. It's fun! She washed veggies, peeled the onion (I sent her to wash her hands afterward and as I was drying my face off this morning I noticed that my towel smelled like onions), mixed spices, stirred, poured stuff etc. I probably wouldn't eat the veggie chili by itself. I prefer the meat kind. But served on top of the roasted butternut squash it was actually really good. I didn't put as much of the ancho chili stock in as the recipe calls for b/c of E and also b/c I get a wicked heartburn very easily right now. I also made sure to boil the chili at the end and not just simmer it for a little bit. I wanted to make sure the alcohol was completely gone. Well, if you clicked the link you probably saw a picture of what it was supposed to look like. Here is my picture - overflowing a little bit... =)

What do you write for a title when your post is just a bunch of random info?

So I was going to write a new post but then E came up to me with a book and I got distracted. Can't really remember what I wanted to write. We read The Alphabet Book. She's doing so good. I think there was one or maybe two letters she didn't know the sound of. She even knows when they have more than one sound.

Potty training is also going well. She rarely has an accident anymore. She's in underwear all day long except for naps/bedtime and when we go out. Half the time the diaper is dry after naptime or when we come back inside so I should probably start skipping the diaper at those times too.

I really hope we found new tenants yesterday. They seemed nice and very interested and we could really use the rent money.

I am 28 weeks pregnant now and have my next doctor's appointment Thursday. The biweekly appointments start after that and they told me that around week 30/32 they will start the weekly ones since E was a preemie. I am hoping to make it past all of the holidays this time. E was 5 weeks early and if that happens again this baby will be here mid December.

I don't know where I stand when it comes to the flu vaccines. I know it's really hard to get hold of the swine flu vaccine here so I don't have to make up my mind about that one just yet. But what about the regular flu vaccine... they said that the people who got it last year are more likely to get the swine flu than the people who didn't get it. What?! And all of a sudden you start hearing about all these people around you who are starting to feel sick or knows someone with the flu (one or the other). It makes me want to hibernate!

Last night I made Pasta Fagioli but I read the recipe wrong and added twice the amount of pasta, lol. It was more of a stoup than a soup. Still ok though. Tonight I think I'm making a harvest chili. It's vegetarian and it's served on oven roasted butternut squash. I hope it's as delicious as it sounds. I'll let you know.

We are slowly getting the kitchen cabinet doors painted and put up and everytime E sees a new door she goes: "Look, doors! It's beautiful!" I must agree. C is doing a wonderful job and I am really enjoying my new, brighter kitchen.

E's first "huvudfoting"

Yesterday E woke up from her nap being all cranky. She didn't know what she wanted. "Let me down!", "No, not down, up!" She whined and cried about everything, until we brought the paint out. After she was done painting she wanted markers. I had my back to her as she was drawing but I could hear her talk. She was mentioning body parts so I turned around and she had made her very first "huvudfoting"! I don't know what you call it in English but if I direct translate it, it would be a "head footer". You know, where they draw a head and attach the hands and feet to it. I got so excited I took it away from her so she wouldn't color over it. (Yes, she got a new piece of paper and she made a frog, she said.) Here's her "head footer".

Potty Training

Potty training is actually going better than expected. She goes on the potty more times than she has accidents. Yesterday she only had one accident, well two, if you count the one in the tub. Today we put her in a diaper as we headed over to dad's fire department for some fun and when we got back home it was still dry. I put her on the potty just before putting her down for a nap and she went right away.

E and #2 to do list

Potty training... I wish I had better news. E is still not interested. We tried no diaper a couple of days ago. She had 4 accidents in an hour! I would ask if she needed to go on the potty. She would say no and 2 seconds later cry b/c she just peed her pants. We are giving it another try today.

Another thing we need to do is getting rid of the pacifier. Not looking forward to the process, but I want it done by the end of this month. Next month I want to get her a big girl bed and I would rather deal with the screaming when she's still stuck in her crib.

Coming up with a name... she's still a nameless little girl. It might be a B or another E. Maybe a P. A, C, H and S are on the list too. It's just harder this time.

Getting the nursery together. But this won't happen until we get E her big girl bed. Does anybody know how to make a stepped down crib bumper look like new again?

Should we get a sit and stand stroller or not? The only one that will work with or car seat is the Joovy and I would like the ultra light if we get one (preferably the orange one) but it's a bit expensive. I keep checking craigslist everyday for different baby items. Mainly for the stroller and bed, but who knows what else might show up as a good deal there.

another little update

I am tired today! Last night, as C and I were watching TV, the doorbell rang. It must have been 10:30pm at least. It was one of our tenants. She was heading to work, but could not get out of the driveway b/c someone had parked on the street right in front of it. We had to call the cops who had to call the tow truck. And even though the car alarm went off no one came to claim their car. I bet they were confused this morning when they came to get their car! After being out in the cold air we weren't that sleepy anymore, and there was a trowdown on the food network that made us hungry so we grabbed something to eat. And then we watched some more TV and fell asleep on the couch.

Today E and I went on the nature walk I talked about last time I was on here. J and her boys came too. It was such a beautiful day! E was very fascinated with the leaves that were falling off the trees. While we were away C and his dad started putting the shed together. It's almost done now.

Dinner tonight will probably be tuna noodle casserole, since I forgot to defrost any meat today.

Nature Walk

I'm taking E for a nature walk next week. My goal is to talk about creation and then let her discover a bunch of the things God created. We will bring homemade binoculars on the expedition. We will also bring a snack or lunch depending on what time we're going and some tape. The tape will be taped onto our arms as a bracelet, but inside out. Then we can stick small objects to it and make a nature bracelet. Other things we might do there, or another day at home are:

• falling like leaves, blow in the wind etc
• leaf hunt (find a yellow leaf, a small leaf etc)
• collect leaves and sort them by color, size and shape
• rake leaves (definitely at home)
• play in the leaves
• make a leaf mobile, leaf place mats (with contact paper), leaf wreath, dry leaf collage
  
• paint with objects we find outside (instead of using regular paintbrushes)

It should be a fun week.

10/6

Today

• we bought a birthday gift for L and shipped it.
• we shipped a magazine and some paintings from E to my mom and A on their birthdays. (They will arrive a little late.)
• I showed the apartment to a lady who has 3 kids under 5. She seemed nice though and she really liked the place.
• we took a bunch of silly pictures.
• we made chicken tortilla stew and are waiting for C to bring home some limes that I forgot I needed.
  
• E stuck a sticky lollipop in my hair.
  

Apples.........................

I think our apple week officially started yesterday as we went apple picking. We picked some Empire apples for eating and some Macintosh and Cortland for baking with. We also bought some apple cider and cider doughnuts, of course. Today E and I sat down and looked through the pictures we took at the apple orchard and then we read "A Day at the Apple Orchard". After that we ate one of our Empire apples. We also did some apple stamping, where you cut the apples in half and paint them and then stamp with them. I realized I'm not very good at cutting straight, which you need to be to make a good stamp. We still had fun!

here's a quicky...

This morning I got a txt from one of our tenants saying that their thermostat sparked and smoked when they turned it on. N came over to check it out (thanks!!!) and it turns out that the oh, so incompetent former owners had made another mistake when they hooked it up. C and N will fix the problem tomorrow morning. Tonight we have a wedding to go to. Congratulations, J & C!
I bought a pair of shoes to match my dress and a pair of thigh highs. I couldn't find any maternity nylons and my legs definitely need to be covered with something. I have to go put on my make-up now, before E wakes up so this will be a short post.

ramblings...

We're almost back on schedule now. It's still hard to stay up past 10 at night (or even 9) but 10 is a pretty good time to go to bed so maybe we should just land here.

We went to Target yesterday. I spent a little more than I thought I would, but they had so much cheap stuff so I got a bunch of fall clothes for E. I think we might be all set for this season now. They had pants and shirts for $3-5! So I guess in the end I saved b/c now I don't have to spend twice as much or more at other stores.

We went to Walmart today to pick up some art supplies for the curriculum we're starting, probably next week. I also bought a birthday or Christmas gift for E. I have been doing that all year long. Last year was so hard coming up with everything all at once, and I'm not talking money wise really, more like ideas. I also have a list where I write down any gift ideas that pop into my head.

We have a wedding to go to tomorrow. I bought a dress yesterday. It makes me look huge! But then again I'm not one of those people who get a tiny little bump when they're pregnant. Nope! I get big!!! Just ask the doctor. I gained 8 lbs in 4 weeks. She was a little concerned. I blamed it on my Sweden trip, that I was eating all my good food. But my mom told me she didn't think I ate that much. And the same thing actually happened with my last pregnancy too. All of a sudden I just started to gain a ton of weight. So I guess that's me... I get fat when pregnant. Oh, well. Nursing will take that off again I hope. It worked the last time.

We still don't have a name for the next kid. I wonder if we ever will..... Is #2 a name? I suggested several Swedish names, but C didn't like any of them. I don't think he will agree with anything that doesn't sound American. In fact he keeps clinging to this unisex name I really liked for a boy...

Naptime is almost over. I cleaned out the misc. toy drawer. Only half of those toys made it back. I hope E won't miss the rest.

Well, #2 is resting comfortably on my bladder so I have to go...

Trip home

It's 6am and, thanks to my daughter, I've been awake for 2 hours now. I already started a load of laundry and finished my menu for the next 2 weeks. I definitely need a nap today!

Yesterday I started processing all of the pictures I took in Sweden and will post them on FB shortly. We had such a wonderful trip. I blogged a little bit about it before and now I want to tell you about the flight back. During take off we played with stickers. And then E asked to go to sleep. I gave her some Zantac and milk first, then made it comfortable for her with pillows and blankets and she was out. For 2 hours. I thanked God the whole time for such a wonderful beginning of the flight. I got to watch most of a movie! (I missed the beginning and the very end, oh, well.) I also got to eat my dinner in peace. It was really good. We got bbq chicken and potato wedges. And a red currant/rose hip dessert. So yummy! When E woke up she asked for food and she got pasta with a meat sauce. She ate a lot! Then the activities began... I normally love flying. Just sitting there watching movies and getting waited on. I guess that won't happen again for a few more years. Now I have to entertain the whole time. It's quite exhausting actually. But at least it makes for a happy kid. Here are some of the things we did:

• sticker books
• cling ons (the stickers you can move)
• lego
• play dough
• coloring
• peeling crayons (kept her attention for a long time)
  
• books
• a variety of small toys
• going for walks
• a few pieces of chocolate (not too much candy. you don't want a sugared up kid on a plane)
• dvd's

Towards the end she wanted to rest again. And then it was time to land. We had to circle around for a little bit b/c there was a lot of traffic in the air. This is when the turbulence started. And it kept going as we went down for landing. It normally doesn't bother me, but this time it was no fun! It made E throw up a bunch and we couldn't get any help from the flight attendants b/c we were landing and then everybody got up and we were stuck in our seats. The kind people in front and back of me handed me tissues and napkins so that I could wipe my hands (I tried to catch the puke as it came out, didn't work) and get the wet wipes out. I wiped up what I could and got E undressed. Then we just had to wait for everyone to get off the plane so we could get new clothes out and bag everything. We were the last ones off the plane, walking with the flight attendants and the pilot. I was sure we would have to wait for a long time in passport control, but I guess most people already went through by the time we got there so we only had 2 people in front of us. Nice.

When we got home E got ALL of her toys out. I guess it was exciting to see them again after so long. I got to see my new kitchen. I love it! C did such a wonderful job. I used to be so frustrated with it, but now I smile every time I enter it.

Now all that is left to do is wash a lot of laundry and get back on eastern time. I wonder what will get done first...

yesterday

I just put E down for an early nap and my mom is resting too so I have a few minutes to write about yesterday. We went to IKEA and E loved playing in the children's department. She tried all the toddler beds and then she found a bunch of stuffed animals to tuck in. She put out little plates and silverware on all the tables and we sat down to "eat". There was a slide too where she met a 4 year oldgirl. The girl informed us that she could speak English. We told her that E could too. She replied that she could speak better English than E. =) She didn't want to prove it though and looked quite shocked when E started speaking since most of her words are actually English. Qiute a funny moment.
Btw, does anybody know how we can get an IKEA to the capital region? I think they would do great there. The only bad thing is that I would probably spend way too much money there. But seriously, I think we should get one!

We spent yesterday afternoon in the forest. We went for a walk and E led us on this tiny little trail. She had so much fun climbing and jumping off rocks. Just being able to go for a walk anywhere is something I miss. We can't just go outside and 2 minutes later we are surrounded by trees at home (US home that is). Sure, there are parks, but it's not the same thing.
As we were walking we met some people walking the other way. My polite little daughter said "excuse me", which lead to smiles from the others. People here always smile when she opens her mouth. I guess they're not used to a 2½ year old speaking English.

I have to tell you about my latest find. It's a black broom with purple polka dots. Cleaning should be fun, right? (I also bought a matching dish brush.) Now I just have to fit it into the suitcase...

We're going swimming today. I'm excited for E since it'll be her first time on a waterslide. (Not so excited about fitting this constantly growing belly inte my regular bikini, but I refuse to buy a new swimsuit now that the swim season is pretty much over. I'll just put a tank top over it.)

A few things from our trip

It's hard to take time to blog. I'd rather just hang out with my family and friends than sit here by the laptop, but I have a few minutes to myself right now before my brother shows up so I thought I'd update you all.

The flight wet well. E was a bit cranky around bedtime b/c she couldn't get comfortable, but eventually she crashed. I was just about to fall asleep when the lghts went on and it was time for breakfast. Oh, well.

We spent a week and a half hanging out with my dad and his family. We went to playgrounds, to the zoo, to a playland, we went out on a boat trip, E went horseback riding, we went to a fair, we went to an old castle to have "fika". America needs fika! I got to see my grandmother. She got old!

E and I went to my old church where she decided in the middle of service to get up and play the piano. Fun stuff! It was nice to see my old churchpeeps again though. Even if I think the church has gone backwards in a few areas. Or maybe I have taken a few steps forward. I don't know.

We are at my mom's now. We are going on a moose safari tomorrow and to an indoor swimplace Wednesday. Believe me I'm glad it's indoors. Fall is definitely here! We're also planning a train trip, a children's museum and more playgrounds.

We are having a great time, but here are a few not so great things... E's legs are covered in bruises and she has a scrape on her forehead from running down a steep ramp (ramps should be longer than the stairs, my opinion) and her legs couldn't keep up so she fell hands and face forward into the concrete. She had calmed down before I got the neo to go out of my purse and wanted to go back to playing again. She's a tough kid. (She went down the reallllllllllllllly long slide at the play land all by herself over and over again.) Another thing that happened was after we were done boating was that she summersaulted of the dock. I don't know who was more scared, me or her. But she came up right next to the dock and I was able to just reach in and pull her out. We were able to tell the fire department that we borrowed the lifevest from that it worked really well.

Well, my brother just showed up so I'm gonna chat with him now. Just one more thing to say... dinner for tonight is kebabpizza! YUM!!!

I'll be back

Oh, how I wish I could sit here and blog about everything that's on my mind. But my neck has been hurting for a few days now, typing for a long time makes it worse, and I should really get back to packing. I don't know what my schedule will look like in Sweden and I don't know if I'll have time to blog or not so I wanted to at least sign in to say hi and explain my absence. But keep checking. I'll be back sooner or later.

just a few things from today

I took E out in the pool today again. I love having a pool! Then we had leftover pizza for lunch. E has been asking for "ananas" (pineapple) all day long today. We don't have any at home. =(

I started thinking about what to pack for our trip next week and it's so hard. I guess we will bring some summer clothes, but not the spaghetti strap ones. I think we will need the short sleeves at least. We will also bring some early fall clothes. Not that we have a lot of that, but we can always go shopping once we get there. =) I only wish the dollar was worth more!!!

Shoes... hmm... all we have are sandals and flip flops. Should we buy some here or there?

C started cleaning out the room that will be the new nursery. (Mostly his stuff that was left in there.) We will use it as a guestroom one last time though, while I'm away. C asked me to move all of my folders out of the filing cabinet so he can move it out of there. That's done. Now I have to go put away some clothes before my little girl wakes up. But first I need some tums to get rid of this heartburn I got from eating Dakota bread (it has onions in it, which gives me heartburn every time). The bread is so good it's worth it though.

get off!

I must have peed at least 20 times today. I feel like screaming "get off of my bladder!!!!!" but I don't think it will help and people would probably look at me weird if I did so I won't. But seriously... I can't move without having to go. And peeing is not a fun thing to do when you're pregnant. Not so sure it's fun otherwise either, but I normally don't mind it. Now, however, emptying your bladder is not an easy task. So... GET OFF OF MY BLADDER!!!!!!!!!!!

Apples

So here are a few ideas I found for my first week of my fall curriculum. We will discuss apples and creation.

Yummy: apples raw, apple sauce, make fruit leather from the apple sauce, pie, juice...
Crafts: Cutting an apple in half (both ways) stamping with yellow, red and green (these will be the colors we work on this week), finger painting with apple sauce, finger painting with red, green and yellow on a paper plate, adding a stem and leaf (and possibly a worm) to make an apple, glue paper apples to a paper tree
Activities: read apple books, nursery rhymes, field trip to the apple orchard, sorting our apples by color, count them, plant seeds, A is for Apple, crawling like a worm, shape this week: circle
Bible: read about creation from a kids bible, verse of the week: John 1:3 "God created all things", walk outside and name different things God created

There are so many things to do, but I think this will be plenty for us.

These are not all my ideas. Most of them I
found by googling apple activities for toddlers.

planning again

Yes, I love to plan! I usually post things like meal plans or cleaning lists or such. And right now I should probably be planning a packing list for Sweden since we leave in less than 2 weeks. I actually have to plan a shopping list too since we need fall clothes when we go and all we have are summer clothes. But that actually made me think about when we come back. Summer here will be coming to an end and my favorite time of year, fall, will be on it's way. Which means no more "all morning long" in the pool and that means we have to come up with other ways to fill our days. Sure, we will still have cleaning (unfortunately), play dates, some running around to do and other outings, but I want to plan a weekly theme curriculum + a daily schedule for the days we spend at home. So far I've done a lot of online research and I want our daily routine to include:

calendar, weather, songs/nursery rhymes, story/Bible story, Bible verse
art project
theme related activities
letter/number activities
outdoor time (or music-movement when we can't go outside)
and of course free play

I'm not sure when exactly we will start this. We get back at the end of September and will need a few days to unpack and deal with jet lag. But as far as themes go I'm thinking fall ones to start with... apples, leaves, pumpkins and once we hit November we will work on Thanksgiving obviously, but also family. I will probably try and tie this together with Creation, throw in a few numbers, letters, shapes and colors and then blog about how much harder it is to follow a schedule at home with just one child than having a room full of children at school or daycare. =)

splish splash

This morning was a nice one. The sun was shining (and will continue to shine for days, yay!). C is doing yardwork today with the help of his dad and our friend F. Thank you both! I took E out in the backyard and filled up her water table with water and then I set the hose up so it turned into a sprinkler. We both got pretty wet. C and F were away unloading brush and dad came to join us. I had to use the bathroom so I asked him to watch E for a sec. When I came back out he had put E (who was wearing regular clothes and a regular diaper) in the water table. She was sitting in there pretending she was a fountain. So I went back inside again and got her swim stuff. Before I took her inside for naptime I dipped her in the big pool. C is fixing the pump now so we can all go swimming tomorrow. I should probably invest in a preggo swimsuit soon, b/c I probably gross people out in my regular bikini, but for just in the backyard it works fine.

it goes together like...

How would you finish that sentence? If you're an American my guess is "... peas and carrots". Although I found a few more when I googled it online. One of them being "... chalk and cheese", I'm a little curious as to how that one came about. Anyways, I have a new one. Actually, E has a new one. She gets milk everyday before naptime and bedtime. But before we give her milk she gets a dose of Zantac b/c she has a reflux problem. A couple of weeks ago we were down in TX visiting family and E was getting tired. So as usual when that happens she asked for Zantac and milk. We've never thought anything of it, but my SIL reacted and laughed at it. I guess most kids don't ask for Zantac and if you're not used to it, it sound funny coming from the mouth of a 2½ year old. So I told C that when E grows up she won't say that things go together like peas and carrots. She will say they go together like Zantac and milk.

too late

I don't blog as much as I used to do. But I don't have a lot to write about. After we got back from TX I got sick and then E got sick so we've just been home except for running a few errands here and there. E is still coughing and wakes up too early in the morning. And I go to bed too late at night so I'm usually really tired during the day. Too tired to figure out something to write here. I've also been too tired to clean the house so yesterday was the first time I cleaned it since we got back. Much needed!

A couple of weeks before we left E and I went to the library and borrowed some books for her. We didn't return them before we left b/c we would have plenty of time to do that when we got back. But with all the sickness around here I totally forgot. So I'm going to try to return them today.

I'm also too late, way too late with my allergy shots. Last time I got them was in June. I get them every 3-4 weeks and was going to get them before we left, but forgot. So then I was going to get them when we got back but you can't get them when you are sick so...
So now they have to cut me back a lot and they can't up me again until I'm done with this pregnancy. Oh, well. Nothing I can really do about that.

Ok, so E has been bugging me this whole time b/c she wants a turn so I'm handing it over to her...

vhhhhhhhhhhhhhhbbbtttttljjjjjkoäluyt lllkkkjjjjjjj mmnb bbbbbbffdsa

So here's how that went... "Wanna push button v" She pushes it and looks at the screen. "There's a v there." And so on for all the letters.

no photo

Here's why I don't put close up pics on my blog. If you're a fellow blogger, please be careful!

wroom wroom

C was mowing the front lawn and E heard the noise from the lawn mower. She looked out the window and realized that daddy was out there without her! "E outside, E's wroom wroom." She wanted to go outside to mow with her little mower. I told her it was almost naptime and we could watch daddy from the window. "Nooooooooooo, E's wroom wroom!" So I said first nap then wroom wroom. She repeated that and walked away. A couple of minutes later I thought she was really quiet so I looked for her and found her in her crib with a bunch of blankets on top of her. I asked if she wanted to take her nap and she answered with "wroom wroom".

(C and E will mow the backyard later.)

I'm back!

We got back from TX a couple of days ago. We had a great time visiting with friends and family. I took a lot of pictures and posted them on FB. Check them out!

E is still on TX time. I must say it's nice to get to sleep in a little, but I should probably try to work on getting her back to NY time since it's almost time for Sweden and TX time is even further away from SE time than NY time is.

I caught a cold on the day we were going home and it always seems to get worse when you're on a plane. My ears are still plugged, my eyelids hurt, my throat is sore, I keep blowing my nose... are you feeling sorry for me yet? =) oh, one more... Since I'm pregnant I can't really take anything for it. OK, done venting!

I'm almost done with all the laundry from the trip. But as I was moving E's clothes to the dryer this morning I found a bug, ALIVE, in the washer. And it smelled! Bad! So I killed the bug (how could it be alive after being washed?) and rewashed all the clothes. I have one more question though... How come my heart beats so fast for so long just b/c of a tiny little beetle?

E asked for a specific Dora episode today. She said "Dora, castle, clean up". I'm not sure what episode that could be. If you think you know, please leave a comment.

She makes me smile, she makes me laugh =)

Yesterday I was giving E a bath, but remembered that 'So You Think You Can Dance' was on and I went out to record it. E was coloring the tub walls with a bath crayon. She calls on me "Mamma, color picture truck". I went back to the bathroom and she explained to me that she had drawn a picture of a truck. I took a picture of it since and will put it on FB later. This was the first time she told me exactly what she was coloring.

We went to the post office today and she was drawing on a form there and told me again she was coloring a picture of a truck. This time she told me it was up in the sky.

We also went to the OBGYN today to make sure everything is ok before our trip. On our way there we drive over a bridge. "A boat" she calls out. "Yes", I answered. "There's a boat in the water." "Boat thirsty" she says. =)

We get to the OBGYN and I have to give a urin sample. And I have to bring E with me in to the bathroom. I try to distract her by having her look at different things while I pee in the cup, but of course she looks right at me as I pull it out. She looks at it, smiles and says "Thirsty". Yeah, pretty gross!

The doctor had a hard time finding the heartbeat so I got to do a quick ultra sound. E is sitting next to me, looking at the screen. She points to it and says "fish". How do you explain to a 2 year old that that's the baby?

Good Morning!

It's a little after 7 and a truck has been backing up in the neighborhood a couple of times, waking us up with its beeping. I hope E goes back to sleep for a little while. She probably won't since I can hear her talking in her crib.
Yesterday we stopped by Family Day. E wanted to go down a big slide. C went with her. They charged $3 per person. And yes, We had to pay for C too even though he was just there to keep E safe. That's $6 for going down a slide once! And of course she wanted to go again. We did not want to pay for that so we had to deal with a temper tantrum, which led to us leaving. We felt a little bad b/c we kind of dangled all this fun in front of her and then we didn't do much. So we took her to C park after her nap where she got to ride the carousel 4 times (which only cost us a total of $2). And she enjoyed that a lot more than the slide. And no temper tantrum when we left b/c there were plenty of ducks to look at.
Well, I guess I should go get her out of her crib now. She keeps calling me.

Menu

I'm off to do some grocery shopping soon. Here is my menu this time...

Kebab plate (My mom sent me the kebab spice mix. Can't wait to make it. Well, can't wait to eat it!)
Tortellini, spaghetti sauce and salad (I'm preggo tired. Don't have much energy for cooking.)
Crock pot pork with veggie rice
Chicken salad in pita bread
Tuna sauce over rice, peas
Kassler with pineapple and cheese, mac and cheese (Swedish meal again, so happy when I found the meat here since it's prepared in a special way.)
Pouch steamed fish with tomatoes and parsley, pressed potatoes
Kielbasa pot
Frozen pizza =), no mayo cole slaw
Thickened chicken noodle (no soup, a RR recipe)

To do list for today

Empty dishwasher and clean up the kitchen sink and counter top (Done)

Try on some maternity clothes my friend J let me borrow (Sort of done)
I tried them on, but I'm in that horrible stage where regular clothes are too small and maternity clothes are too big. And as usual I realized that I don't have an American body shape. And I need longer pants. At least I can roll them up for the summer and pretend I'm wearing capris. I did find a few pieces that might work, and I will give the others another try when I get bigger.

Run to the credit union to deposit some money (Done)

Stop by CVS to buy a magazine I can read while E plays in the back yard (Done)
Well, I bought a book instead. And a candy bar. And some mentos.

Lunch (Done)
E got chicken nuggets, green beans and water melon. I had WASA crisp bread with cheese and strawberry fruit spread.

Put E down for a nap (soon)
But first she needs zantac and milk. I really hope she goes down today even though I let her sleep in this morning.

Plan meals and make a grocery list (not done)
But I'm looking forward to it. If you have some great ideas for summer meals please post a comment.

Tidy up a bit
If I can find more energy.

Read
Got to start reading my new book.

Make dinner
Tonight we'll have English muffin pizza. I'll make 'em in the toaster oven so the kitchen won't get so warm.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

I was playing with E on the floor. I laid down and she went to get all of her blankets, her Teddy and Ginger. She tucked me in and I actually fell asleep for a little bit.

(Sorry, B, it's another short one.)

my last 5 status updates

I enjoy reading other peoples blogs. I have a list (my "check it out-list" to the right) that I check every day, sometimes several times a day to see if someone updated their blog. Some people don't update their blogs very often. Not nice, when people like me are eagerly waiting to read what's going on. =) So I figured I should try to avoid becoming one of the bloggers who rarely blog. But I haven't had something I really felt like blogging about in a few days. So I decided to blog about my last 5 status updates from FB.

PB & B for lunch today

One of the few things I actually enjoy about pregnancy is that I can eat PB without breaking out as much as I do when I'm not pregnant. This day we made Peanut butter banana sandwiches, yum!

pool day turned into fort day

I had planned to go in the pool with E, but the rain made me change those plans. We made a fort instead, which E played in for about 10 minutes. I just took it down b/c she hasn't shown any interest in it since.

is eating crushed ice

Drinking water makes me nauseous. Not good since you have to drink a lot of water when pregnant. So I am eating a lot of ice.

E just started skipping. So cute!

It is very cute to watch her skip. It is not so cute to hear "mamma try stip". Skipping is not for pregnant people. She disagrees.

heading out to by some pool toys

Well, not much to say about this one. We bought some pool toys.

Waiting

I'm waiting for E to finish her frozen gogurt and then we're heading out to Toys R Us to buy some pool toys. Fun! We also have to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things. Less fun, but I'm sure we will appreciate the A/C today.

Sometime soon I will have to dig through the basement to try to find my preggers clothes. Not that I need them just yet. Right now I don't look pregnant. I'm in that awful fat stage. Everything is tight and uncomfortable. And it doesn't look to pretty either...

Well, it's time to leave. The gogurt melted and E came over to me, leaving a trail of yogurt on the carpet, asking for help and putting her yogurt covered hands all over my pants. Let's hope the baby wipes can take care of that mess b/c I don't have many pants that fit...

who needs a vacuum?

For about 10 minutes now E has been asking me for things to throw out in the garbage. When I couldn't find anything else I showed her all the little things on the carpet (it needs to be vacuumed) and she is now sitting down, picking at the carpet like a monkey looking for fleas, just so she can push the garbage "button" and throw something out.

video

if you are my friend on FB, check out my new video!

Shower

I went to a bridal shower in S yesterday. I left 45 min. before it started, thinking that would be plenty of time. Well, it wasn't. The main road was closed off due to a parade, no detour signs, there was a festival going on so tons of cars. My plan was to find a parking spot near the restaurant since I had a pretty big load of presents for the bride-to-be and for her sister-in-law who just had a baby. Well, I realized that it wasn't about finding a parking spot close by. It was about finding a parking spot. I actually found one in the second parking lot I tried. A car was leaving as we pulled in. I had no idea where we were, but it turned out to be not to far away from the restaurant. God is good! I loaded the stroller full with gifts and bags, the diaper bag didn't fit so I had to carry that. I put a monkey harness on E and we started walking. On our way to the restaurant we passed the bride-to-be. Oh, no! It said on the invitation that the shower was a surprise. I looked away, hoping she wouldn't recognize me and then I called her mom saying I might have blown the surprise. Luckily she already knew about it. And when we got to the restaurant she said, I thought it was you.
Ella did really good. She cried twice. Once b/c she fell and once b/c I tried to put her in a high chair when she was perfectly happy in my lap. Other than that she did fine and was really cute in her new dress.
I left the party early, but later than I had planned, 10 minutes after E's naptime. And as we left the parade ended so we had to fight all the people walking and traffic leaving at the same time as us. It took a while to get home. E got her milk and then she fell asleep. I went out to the pool to walk aroud in it as it was filling up. There's a lot more to say about that pool. But that's a story for another time.

*sigh*

I am a little bit frustrated right now that something I thought wouldn't be a big deal might be a big deal after all. And it really shouldn't be. And now I'm gonna feel awkward about it and probably lose sleep over it.

(no title)

I couldn't stop nibbling on the leftovers tonight. I really like oven roasted veggies. Yum! I can't wait for lunch tomorrow...

We visited dad yesterday. E smelled all the flowers. We had pizza (can't wait for kebabpizza in three months) and we went for a walk. E rode her tricycle, but her tires got dirty from the dirt on the ground and she flipped out. And today she flipped out b/c her pantlegs wern't down all the way and she was stuck in her carseat so she couldn't correct them. And when she was throwing a ball with dad yesterday she stopped everytime she got the ball to clean it off. When she puts away her pacifier after naptime she always puts it on top of a small jar in a basket and the basket has to go back in the right spot. Can you say OCD? Where did she get that from?

Well, it's time for milk and bath and bedtime.

Jag Älskar Sverige!!!!

Happy "6th of June", Sweden!

If you want to see my beautiful Sweden... just click.

phone problems and more

My cellphone stopped working today. I could hear everyone just fine, but they could not hear me at all. So I went to Verizon and they gave me a new phone. They transferred my contacts and my pictures and videos were saved on my memory card. But I forgot to save my sounds there and I had a recording of E saying 'mamma' as my ringtone and it didn't transfer. Boohoo! Well, I wanted it back so I tried to get E to say it again. It's really hard to get her to say it right on time though. I kept getting "....ma". Finally I got it, and I also got her to say 'daddy' so I saved that as a special ringtone for when C calls. Maybe I will tackle other names after her nap.

After we were done at Verizon we walked over to Kmart and E got to ride on some coin operated horses. At first they didn't work and as I was calling the number on the coin box an old man came over and unplugged his machine and plugged the ride back in. That's why it wasn't working! So I hung up. Good thing b/c I was getting pretty annoyed with the option menu.

I felt really good this morning b/c I dusted and vacuumed everywhere and was done by 10am. But right now I feel lazy again. I should prepare dinner, but I might take a nap instead. I am normally not a nap person, but last night was a really late night. C and H were working on electrical stuff upstairs. Their goal was to be done by 9pm. At 10pm C told me he'd be done by 10:30. He came back down at 11:21. And then he had to treat his poison ivy and prepare for the morning. And I have a hard time falling asleep w/o him. So I'm tired today!

A little while ago M knocked on our door and borrowed my handmixer. I like our new tenants! Yesterday I got my allegy shots and then I went grocery shopping. I got a cart that kept turning to the right so it was really hard to stear. Not good when you just had a bunch of stuff you're allergic to injected in your arms. They were hurting so bad. When I got home M came home at the same time and he helped me carry my bags. So nice of him!

I am smarter... ;-)

This is an update to my previous post...

Yes, I was pretty upset when I wrote it, as you probably can tell from the title. But it did feel good to write it (and I didn't say it to her). I didn't want to waste the apple, so I washed off any PB she missed, cut it up into chunks and made apple sauce. When she woke up I served it as her pm snack. Did she eat it? No! So I gave her some crackers and told her that the apple sauce was dip. Did she eat it? Of course. My kid eats anything as long as you say dip!

Eat your freakin' apple!!!!!!!!!

I meant to sit down and write about a couple of cute things E did yesterday, but I'm pretty frustrated with her right now so I will vent first and then I might write about yesterday.

A few minutes ago E tried to open the fridge, saying "apple, apple". I took out an apple and asked if she wanted it. She said yes. I asked if she wanted me to peel it. She said yes. I asked if she wanted me to cut it into wedges. She said yes. When I handed her the wedges she said NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Sigh! I asked if she wanted dip. She said yes. I gave her some PB and she licked it all up, ate no apples and is now sitting in her chair saying "all done". So frustrating!

I still don't feel like writing about the cute stuff from yesterday. But I'm going to anyways (b/c that way she can sit in her chair until I'm done. Very mature of me, right? ;) )

Every time we go outside E always brings me my shoes. She normally grabs the ones I use the most, or had on last time we went out, asks me if I want them or another pair and hands me what I want. So nice of her. Yesterday I had on a pair of gray pants. She grabs my brown flip flops (that I wear a lot) looks over at me as if to check out what I'm wearing, puts them back and reaches for a black pair (that I rarely use) and comes over with them. Did she know they would match?

When we got back she asked for milk. As I was preparing it (she will only drink it warm with a hint of chocolate) I heard her saying "städa" over and over again. (It means 'cleaning up'.) I walked into the playroom and she was picking up every toy, putting it back where it belongs. I didn't even ask her to do it. So sweet!

Ok, I guess I have to wipe of the PB she smeared all over and let her down. Even though she still didn't touch her apples. Hrmph!

Good Morning!

Oh, how nice it is to sit here and enjoy the morning before the routine has to start.

Memorial Day

Yesterday was a fabulous day! Here is a little glimpse of my favorite part...
She had so much fun and I could have watched her play forever! Well, for a really long time...

for the record...

I do not like 100% polyester!

Potty Talk

Thursdays are my scrubbing days. I scrub the bathroom and the kitchen. (I'm done with the bathroom, haven't started with the kitchen yet - but I've played a lot with E.) Every Thursday when I'm on my knees on the bathroom floor, scrubbing the toilet I have the same thought. Who made this dumb design?! I'm talking about the toilet base. Why do you have to see on the outside how the pipe go? It makes for a lot of crevices (sp?) where dust ends up. Why not just make it a smooth surface, ready to be wiped down? It's not like you go looking for a toilet thinking "I really like the pipe-design, that would look good in my bathroom". I'm all for practical, easy to clean things. Just a thought for all of you toilet designers out there. =)

Sweet prayer

I just put E down for the night. Every night after I say Amen at the end of the prayer she starts praying. Normally it's all babbling and then an Amen, but tonight there were real words mixed in too. She prayed about "slide, skor (shoes), E, mamma" and one more thing that I can't remember. It was so sweet!

Bye bye Bubbles

E has been on Pulmicort since she was just a little baby. It started with four times a day + Xopenex twice a day. That's a lot of nebulizer for a baby. She has not needed the Xopenex (her emergency medicine) in a long time, and she has only gotten Pulmicort in the morning so the doctor suggested that we (or asked if I wanted to) try to take her off the Pulmicort. Yay! It would be great if she doesn't need it every day. A huge blessing. But I must admit that I am nervous. I am nervous for three reasons and I have to write them down or I will just keep thinking about them (my main reason for blogging).

1. What if her asthma gets worse? What if she really needs the Pulmicort? I don't want her to need the Xopenex a lot. (I know, this is why we're trying it. Still makes me nervous.)
2. Both C and I have really bad seasonal allergies. E hasn't shown any symptoms of that. I really hope that she won't develop allergies, but the active ingredient in Pulmicort is the same one that is in my allergy medicine so she has been protected up until now.
   
3. It's part of our morning routine. A ridiculous reason compared to the others, but this is the morning routine she's known most of her life, all of what she can remember. When she wakes up in the morning she asks for a diaper change and for Bubbles (the name of the nebulizer mask). What am I supposed to do now? Give her breakfast right away? (Don't laugh at me. I don't know.) I was able to distract her from Bubbles this morning with the promise of going to the slide, and I gave her breakfast right away. It took forever to get her to start eating.

I will keep you updated on this. Please pray for no allergies, no asthma attacks and finding a new morning routine.

Mwah!

For some reason E woke up at 2:45 am and could not go back to sleep. She tried, she really did. She laid down for a while several times, but could not go back to sleep. So we decided she could snuggle with us for a little bit. She did good, she laid down between us and tried to get comfortable. Every once in a while she sat up, but laid down again. All of a sudden I felt something wet on my lips. I opened my eyes and she was holding her pacifier in her hand while giving me a kiss, saying "mwah". It was really sweet. Then I got a hug and another kiss. I asked if she was ready to go to sleep now. She said "yes", I carried her in to her bed and she fell asleep.

This morning I slept through three alarms and E slept an hour longer than usual.

Yummmmmmmmm!

I planned meals for a week this time. It usually lasts longer, with leftovers that can be used in different ways. Here it is...

1. Lemon Angel Hair w/ Balsamic Chicken
2. Fish Finger, Tartar Sauce, Potato Wedges, Veggies 'n dip
3. Tex-Mex Marinated Chicken with Tex-Mex Salad, Corn Bread
4. Chilequiles
5. Spaghetti & Meatballs, Salad
6. Sesame Chicken Nuggets, Fried Rice (with plenty of veggies in it)
7. Key West Ribs, Corn on the Cob, Asparagus

I found a lot of recipes HERE this time. It's a fun page that changes every month. I always tweak recipes, and sometimes (like in #3) I just use part of it, like the marinade.

Shopping & eating

Today:
I went to the mall and bought three tops, one zippered hoodie and a pair of shorts. If you have or used to have a two year old you know it's not fun to stroll around in stores, looking for something you want to buy for yourself and then spend time in the fitting room trying to decide if you like it. But today I was alone. ALONE! Say it with me... alooooooone! C has every other Friday off so he took her to Home Depot while I went on my little shopping spree. Shopping hasn't been this fun in a long time. Later we met up at a cozy coffee shop where I had an apple danish and an Italian soda. Yum! (I realized when I got back home that that was my breakfast. I must have been so exited about my alone time this morning that I forgot to eat. And I NEVER miss my breakfast.) I remember thinking, while we were at the coffee shop, that it was so nice and relaxing to sit there with my little family that I wished someone would take a picture of us so I could put that moment in a scrapbook. When we got home E and I spent some time drawing with sidewalk chalk in the carport. I had a perfect morning!


Yesterday:
I just have to mention something about dinner last night. I wanted to make something quick and easy and decided to make hot dogs and mac & cheese from a box. C looked at the mac & cheese and asked me what it was. I told him, and had to add, "It's whole wheat". "What's wrong with processed food", he asked with a smile? I must admit I normally enjoy whole wheat pasta and so does he but this wasn't very good. Or as C said: "It's not Kraft". Then he took a bite of the hot dog and asked what kind it was. I told him it was organic. (I figured I could at least try to make this meal healthy.) He said it was chewy. At least he didn't mind the whole wheat rolls. They were pretty good. I told him that the broccoli was just regular broccoli, not organic or anything special. He could have some of that. His reply... "At my age you don't have to eat broccoli". Guess what we're having for dinner tonight... leftovers! =) Hey, there's plenty left and I'm not throwing it out. I'm Swedish - just add ketchup!

Note to self

Remind teenage E that 2-year-old E loved to take over cleaning projects!

Splash

E has always been afraid of the shower so today, after rubbing the gritty poison ivy cream on and rinsing it off (with a small bucket) I decided it was time to change that. She was in the mood for playing in the tub. I put the shower head up-side-down and turned it on and she, carefully at first, started playing with the little "fountain". Then I showed her how to hold it and spray her tummy. She was sold. She played in the tub, with the shower and I was able to clean the bathroom sink and toilet. Then... she was all done and I didn't respond right away... so she took the shower and sprayed down the entire bathroom! And then she pointed to my pants and told me that they were wet. Thanks for the information, kid!

We now have a very clean (and dry) bathroom.

4 (I know my titles lack fantasy lately)

• I started cleaning up after our old tenants. I'm starting to realize that not all people share my obsession for leaving things the way you would like to find it. Why won't they clean up after themselves? We spent 10 hours scrubbing our old apartment the day after we moved out. Our tenants... they didn't even clean out all of their stuff. So of course they didn't scrub anything.

• E's poison ivy rash is getting smaller and she no longer cries when I rinse off the ointment.

• Next week we'll have health insurance. Yay! No need to avoid people or playgrounds for the risk of getting sick or hurt.

• I bought E some barrettes yesterday. The bendy clip kind. And today she wanted to wear them all at the same time. There's 12 of them!

6 things on my mind

• E has poison ivy. At least that's what we think it is. C has it too and he gave her a bath the other night (dumb, I know, but we didn't think) and now she has a rash on her torso and stomach. She is doing so well when I rub the gritty cream on. She just sits there in my lap. But then I have to rinse it off and I can't use warm water. She freaks out. Her cry is so sad. It breaks my heart. Hopefully it will go away soon. Of course something was going to happen just as we are in between health insurances (which we wouldn't be if SS would have just kept their promise instead of breaking the rules, yeah, I'm upset with them!).

• Our non-paying tenants moved out. Or, really-late-paying-after-tons-of-nagging tenants would be more correct. So far they payed almost 1/6 of Aprils rent. And of course they didn't show up again to get their stuff. Not too happy with them either!

• Our new tenants want to move in ASAP and has offered to help getting the place ready so it will happen faster. One of them is working with C right now, doing some electrical work. They have also offered to paint which is so awesome. I am very happy with them! =)

• E has been behaving so well lately. She listens, says "tack tack" (thank you) every time you hand her something, she says "äska dig" (älskar dig - love you) spontaneously and gives us lots of hugs and kisses. I love her so much!

• She is treating her dolls the same way we treat her. Which hasn't been scary yet =). She did put one of them in time out once about a week ago though.

• Tonight after dinner she wanted to blow bubbles. I told her no b/c the bubble solution gives her a rash and she has enough of that right now. I had to use the bathroom, and I told her and she said no and pointed to the bubbles again. And as I went she looked at me and then she calmly, but firmly said " I said no. No kissa." (kissa = pee)