Dreaming

Let's just assume that from now on I will mostly be speaking of new baby preparations. Agreed?

Either nesting has kicked in earlier with this baby or this baby is coming much earlier than planned. Even though the last two afternoons I've put cleaning and organizing on hold to spend time with Demand, I somehow found myself completely reorganizing my pantry yesterday. The worst part is that I wasn't satisfied with it. Demand seemed to enjoy it though. I found Christmas M&Ms which she tested for me, she got to rediscover her baby bottles (which she insisted were "Mines".)I hope someday they discover the chemical reaction that occurs in women that stirs up such desires of cleaning. Imagine the price you could put on that bottle of pills!!!

One of my main housekeeping goals before baby comes is to completely clean my kitchen floor. About once a week I clean the area in front of the garage door because I get so sick of stepping on tiny pebbles that are left behind after the muddy snow melts everywhere. The mopping usually stops there though.


I of course have big plans for this afternoon, but I suspect that about twenty-minutes from now my body will get over it's current sugar rush due to the orange pop I just drank and remember it's carry and growing a human child. I will then rush Demand through our nap time routine so I can stumble into our room and crash for a nap myself. I will then spend the next 30-45 minutes, not sleeping, but getting in and out of bed to tell Demand to get BACK into bed and/or change an inevitable poopy diaper that occurs in the middle of nap time almost daily.

IF she falls asleep (Which did not happen yesterday resulting in a very crabby me who decided to deal with exhaustion by telling Demand "No, because you didn't nap" to every single request.)If she falls asleep, I'll then tell myself "Just twenty minutes" at least three times before finally getting up and realizing either everything I planned on doing during nap time would wake Demand or I just don't feel like doing it and choose to eat junk food and watch TV until I finally get the energy and motivation to do something and five minutes into that activity Demand wakes up.

That's actually a pretty good and honest summary of the nap process around here. Once in a while the stars aline and I don't nap but start working right away AND Demand takes an extra long nap, allowing of course for more work to get done, but I usually end up doing too much on those days and realize how tired I am just as Demand is waking up.

So, my big afternoon plans involve cleaning the kitchen (stop me if you've heard this), folding laundry (that I still need to dry), plan meals and groceries for next week using a super tight budget, and if possible to keep both eye lids open, read.

Wish me luck!

Operation Baby

Let's see if I can remember what all has happened during the last week or so.

Demand got a tooth! Crazy huh? I thought I saw two tooth buds a few weeks ago but it was hard to tell and I thought she was done getting teeth. Last Friday morning I was brushing her teeth and realized that there were more teeth than the previous day. That would explain her crabbiness, exhaustion and late night/early morning awakenings. Looks like one on the other side is about ready to surface as well. (Sigh) who needs sleep anyway. It's not like I'm having a baby in a few weeks.

Speaking of which, every day Mr. Sloth and I are more and more convinced that this baby will make an early arrival. Saturday night I had some contractions and such. It was Mr. Sloth who decided they were contractions. Since Demand started her entrance by breaking my water first, I don't recall these early type of contractions (although Mr. Sloth insists that I had them with Demand as well.) With contractions and general uncomfortableness (It's a word) I'm ready for baby to come. The heartburn/ reflux has started, I can't really complain though because I had it the entire time I was pregnant with Demand. Besides, it's making me drink more milk.

Since I waited until after Christmas to prepare for baby the clock is really ticking. Last week I resorted all the baby clothes and pulled out the cloth diapers and neutral baby stuff. He babies bed is already out and set up since I babysat a nine month old two weeks ago. The Sloths made a preliminary trip to TakeYourMoneyRUs (Remember that store?) to decided on a few things. Since this baby is born at the opposite time of year we need a few things to, well, winterize baby.

We decided to try out double strollers while we were there even though I have no plans to buy one until spring (and quite honestly I don't know if one will fit in our lovely Saturn Sedan). We had Demand sit in them while we pushed them around. The one Mr. Sloth and I liked (both price and style) Demand insisted was "too small".Whatever that means. Either way it's the first opinion we've ever heard her express.


Next on my baby to do list is making a bunch of meals for the freezer and washing and putting away baby clothes and diapers. Mr. Sloth and I have decided to get a babysitter the next two Sundays so we can cook and clean. One week we'll do all the freezer cooking and the other week we'll clean the garage. I've already planned the menu and shopping list for cooking so we might do that this Sunday provided we can find a sitter. I decided to clean the garage too because Mr. Sloth grumbles every time we enter or leave the garage. I can partly understand his frustration. It's supposed to be his space, but we don't have a basement and since we'll hopefully be moving within the next year he doesn't want to do any improvements. So I thought at least a good clean up of the garage could make a difference.

Speaking of moving. We've been thinking about it more seriously. Mr. Sloth has made it a goal to be able to move in the spring. We'll be starting a Novena to St. Joseph soon. Since it's going to take a miracle to allow us to move, we figured we start out asking for one before *needing* one. Besides, had we put St. Joe in charge of our home in the first place we wouldn't be needing his help right now, right?

Between baby coming and wanting to move we're working extra hard on our finances. I started reading a personal finance book last night which always motivates me to make better decisions about my money. As far as the average American family goes, we're not doing too bad and there are definitely things we're grateful for. We completely own the one car we have and we have no credit card debt. The only debt we have is college debt and my MRS degree was worth every penny of interest. ;) Every time we make a mortgage payment on time I am extremely grateful. That said, there are still other areas where we could make better decisions.

Well that's about it around here. We're mostly just in 'baby mode and/or money making mode'. I better wrap this up as nap time is quickly approaching and I promised Demand I would play Dora games online with her first.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!!

This morning I woke up to see that it had snowed just a little last night. Not enough to shovel, but enough to make the ground look pretty again (we had patches of grass yet mounds of snow, icky looking!)After getting to bed late and trying to get up early (and failing) I took Demand to gymnastics this morning, again there were some flurries but nothing to get excited about.

After class I had to brush off part of the car,but still nothing exciting. Then I heard the forecast. We could get anywhere from 1-8 inches! It all seemed to stop by the time we came home for lunch but it's definitely a heavy snow now. I'm enjoying the snow much more than I did last week. We left a day early for Christmas travels to try and beat "the big storm". We left Monday night and drove half way no problem. (Mr. Sloth has a different opinion seeing as he was the one driving from 7:30pm-11:30pm) We took our time in the morning. After the worst continental breakfast, Demand and I took a swim at the hotel pool. Now I enjoy swimming but swimming in a hotel pool that is surrounded only by glass during a snowstorm....that's a cold experience, and since I wouldn't have time to dry my hair before hitting the road again, I wasn't about to go all the way in to get warm. Demand had a blast though, and she was very good about getting out of the pool when we were done especially since we weren't in there very long.

It took twice as long to drive the final two hours of the trip than under normal weather conditions, but most of that was our own fault. We took a detour to get the food we wanted and ended up detouring for over an hour. Eh, it was an adventure.


Christmas itself was great. We ended up sitting in the front row at Christmas Eve Mass because the Church was almost full when we got there. I wasn't sure if it was reserved for the handicapped or not, but the way I saw it, no one in their right mind would kick a pregnant woman out of her seat on Christmas Eve. That's just bad taste!!
And get this, Demand fell asleep right as Mass started, and slept the entire time! While we wish she could have enjoyed the Mass more, it was for the best, she hadn't napped all day and we were headed to a party right after Mass that would go late.

Santa Claus of course dropped off gifts for Miss Demand. She was after all a good girl this year. The night before, we kept trying to bribe her into bed, telling her she'd have presents in the morning. Well she already saw a hundred gifts under the tree, (she assumed all of them had her name on them) why couldn't she just have them? Sure enough the first words out of her mouth the next morning were, "Presents?". In all honestly she's quite boring at this gift opening business. It took her over half an hour just to open her stocking. It then took her over an hour to open her gifts from Santa. Sometimes she would get bored trying to open them and just walk away.

There was about a two hour lull before the rest of the family came over to open gifts. We cleaned up the mess and put away most of the toys which didn't matter anyway since Demand had already went back to Grandma and Papas toys. When the rest of the family got there and we started to pass out gifts, Demand got overwhelmed. She truly has Mr. Sloth's personality. Surrounded by gifts and semi-familiar people Demand turned to me and asked, "Dora?". She wanted to watch TV. Mr. Sloth had her rest in the back room and watch TV while the rest of us open gifts. It wasn't until after dinner that we convinced her to open her last few gifts. And I do mean we had to convince her.

We stayed one more day before heading home. Demand seemed surprisingly ready to leave Grandma and Papas. She kept running around the house saying "Road trip! C'mon Momma lets go!" Her only concern was that the new gifts all come home as well.

The weather coming home was actually worse. We thought we'd hit ice the second half of the trip, but as it turns out we had very thick fog the first half of the trip which is really scary. Luckily though we were with a pack of cars most of the time and never had to worry if there was a car we didn't see in front of us or a car behind who didn't see US. When we got to the point where we expected ice we found it was the clearest roads and view we'd had all week! No ice, no fog, nothing. It was smooth sailing.

When we got home we Mr. Sloth unpacked the car right away and I headed to the store to pick up dinner. While I was gone Mr. Sloth unpacked everything. It was so nice. The last few trips I've been taking a trip from FLYlady and the first thing I do, before even taking my shoes off, is completely empty the suitcases and start a load of laundry. I literally walk in the door with dirty laundry in hand (we keep it separate as we go) and start a load of laundry. Half the time Demand isn't even out of the car yet! Well Mr. Sloth caught on to me doing this after the last few trips and loves it. We hate having half empty suitcases laying around for a week. And there's nothing worse than being in the middle of a shower only to realize you haven't unpacked your toiletries yet. Mr. Sloth did a great job unpacking. It was hard to tell with Demands new toys and gifts scattered all throughout the upstairs,but I truly noticed the next day when I realized my black boots were on the shelf in the closet and not in the suitcase. Impressive Mr. Sloth!!


Demand is down for an early nap today. I think she's fighting something. She hasn't been sleeping well and after noticing that she was super crabby at an earlier time than usual I decided to try for an early nap. She fell asleep in record time. Fantastic! Now if she can only stay asleep for a few more hours and get the rest she needs.

More Snow

Today is my morning off. There's a most gorgeous snow fall outside and I have very little planned. As soon as I remove myself from the couch I'm going to start making some fudge and truffles for Christmas. I may read if I have time later, but we'll see.

Mr. Sloth took Demand, first to the Fitness Center, and then to a make-up gymnastics class. She was so cute leaving in her purple sweat suit.

Yesterday, we had a sledding playdate here. Demand had so much fun. She hadn't been too eager to get in the snow before yesterday, but I knew her friend with all her bravery would help Demand get excited. I barely had to do much work. She walked up and down the hill on her own, even slid down on her bottom a few times saying, "Momma, I'm sliding!". She helped her friend build a fort for a while but mostly enjoyed being pulled around in the sled. We only went down the hill three or four times. Which is more than fine by me. Our sled acts as a shovel so by the time we get to the bottom, we're both covered in snow and I can barely muster up enough momentum to get up.

I should go and enjoy the wonders of cooking alone in my kitchen!

In For the Day

Demand and I had the great pleasure of staying indoors all day today. I started by sleeping in since I had no where to go. And by sleeping in I mean I didn't set my alarm but of course woke up at 7:01am. Fifteen minutes later Demand joined us in bed and fell right back to sleep. A nice change of pace for us. Eventually Demand slunk out of our bed and I was forced to follow her.

I decided that since we'd be home all day it was the perfect time to really work on potty training. I put her on the potty right away but she insisted she didn't have to go. One minute later she peed on the step stool while brushing her teeth. The day did not seem promising. Into her second pair of underwear she went before we headed to the kitchen to make Mr. Sloth some coffee. I stayed in my pajamas most of the morning, partly because I felt like it and partly because it's all I can really wear right now.

Mr. Sloth got off to a slow start as well, leaving for work around 8:40am. Shortly there after I convinced Demand to try sitting on the potty again. Remembering how she had peed while sipping water earlier, I thought I would give it a try. Sure enough 15 seconds after giving her a drink of water she peed on the potty!! She peed three times today, which I think is a record. She never wet her second pair of underwear, she was switched to a pull-up however in the late afternoon as an attempt to have her nap.

Our afternoon was special because I got to babysit a nine month old. It was only for two hours, but it was exciting enough for Demand and I. The first twenty minutes he just cried, which made me remember how draining children under the age of one are and what I was in store for soon enough. He warmed up for about forty-five minutes though, eating and watching Demand. Demand is so ready to be a big sister. She read him stories, played peek-a-boo, sat on the blanket with him, and ran "errands" for me when needed. With an hour left I actually got him to fall asleep which, if you recall, NEVER happened with Demand. Demand never slept without nursing until she was two years old. Now, this little guy would have *liked* to nurse, but I had nothing to offer and he wasn't interested.

He napped in Demands old travel crib which *Valentine* will be sleeping in soon enough. When I came downstairs and Demand found out the little guy was sleeping in her room she wanted to nap. (Yeah, right! Sure you do! )After he left she was still insisted on napping....in the travel crib. Now she grew out of that thing when she was 7 months old, so you can only imagine how ridiculous she looks in there now.

So Demand never napped which showed by the time Mr. Sloth came home. I managed to entertain her with snow for the third time today while I made dinner. As soon as she was done eating she was just *done*. I didn't get a chance to finish my fourth taco because Demand was crying for me upstairs (and she never cries for us by name). She was having problems getting her notebook to stand up like an easel, which of course is worthy of crying over. We've learned that a tell-tale sign that Demand is overtired is when she starts crying over coloring. Very bizarre.

Mr. Sloth went to the gym while I bathed Demand and put her to bed. She even seemed unusually interested in sleeping because she asked to be done with her bath and get clothes on. Midway through dressing her I realized that she wanted to sleep in the "green crib" (travel crib for babies). When she realized that wasn't an option, it was all over.

Demand is asleep now, and Mr. Sloth is still at the gym, and I have eaten my fair share of chocolate coated things for one day, but I still have a dirty kitchen. It's the last room to be cleaned today. I was able to clean upstairs during bath time which is awesome. Including putting fresh sheets on our bed and putting away all the clean laundry. I'd like to have the kitchen done before Mr. Sloth gets home but I feel I'm running out of time.

To wrap things up, here are some lessons for the day.

1) Snow indoors is natures best activity for toddlers. Any mess it makes is well worth it.

2) Drinking water can make you pee. (Didn't know that.)

3) And bathtub soap-paints are priceless since they entertain toddlers, encourage creativity, and wiping it off cleans your tub.

Fan-tastic!

The problems with snow

First things first. Butternut squash,ginger, carrot soup is the best soup on earth.

Now that I've cleared that up, let's move on.

When I last posted I had big plans for the afternoon. Well a good number of those plans were crushed. I attempted to seal the living room window but was met with a number of obstacles. I couldn't figure out why the tape wouldn't stick until I realized that the window was open a crack at the top causing a cold (-23 degree) draft and moisture to come in. I of course didn't discover this to be the problem until I completely lost my patience and was on the verge of tears.

Since I had completely trashed the living room trying to finish the window, I tried to make myself feel better by at least vacuuming. It was then I realized my vacuum wasn't vacuuming AT ALL. Fantastic!!! Grrrr! I took apart the vacuum to find not one, but two pens stuck in the hose along with about 9 inches of clog. Even after removing all that, the vacuum still doesn't work that well.

By the time Mr. Sloth came home I had cleaned up and found a less than stressful mood to present. I'd hate to be "that wife" who attacks her husband with problems from the second he walks in the door. That said, I did IM him while I was working on the window and said things like "I'm not dealing with this anymore, you'll have to do it", but Mr. Sloth knows I was just having crazy time.


So. Today. I've been trying to be the first one up in the morning but Demand has some sort of internal device in which she knows when I'm planning on getting up. She then wakes up 15-30 minutes prior. Yesterday she woke up early enough to come to bed with us so when I got up she jumped out of bed right behind me with a laundry list of needs, which in the morning always starts with "oatmeal". On any given day I would bet money that the first words out of her mouth will be "I want oatmeal".

Anyway, this morning she woke up at 6:45am exactly 15 minutes before my alarm was to go off. We let her cry hoping she'd go back to sleep. She did quite down. When I slunk past her bedroom at 7:07am she wasn't in the doorway so I bolted downstairs. I had a very brief period of time to myself before I heard her at the gate in her doorway. Today the first words out of her mouth were, "I big chocolate". Which, as most parents know, is not a stocking stuffer. I changed her diaper and clothes before we headed downstairs for, you guessed it, oatmeal.

Since she and I were both dressed and ready to go at 7:20 (ish) I thought I would try and head to 8am Mass. Mr. Sloth offered to watch her while I went. I bundled up, prayed I had enough gas, and slowly drove through the snowy roads to the Church only to remember that there is no 8am Mass on Wednesdays. I decided to do Mr. Sloth a favor and fill the car with gas but just as I neared our home I heard on the radio there was an accident right next to the gas station. Forget that, I'm heading home.

Mr. Sloth decided to work from home for the morning so I had to pack up Demand and head to gas station anyway. I made the mistake of taking a shortcut involving a hill and got stuck just behind the gas station. I had to back up and go around the block. All the pumps were taken so I parked behind the only car facing the right direction for me. The person was inside the store...for ten minutes. Finally I took my chances and moved to another pump.

After many prayers for patience, I was ready to hit the road. I barely had enough momentum to get through the intersection, but long story short, we made it to my appointment and back without incident, although we saw enough of them.

As soon as we got home Demand I started to make a candy house. It's as lovely as a you would expect a two year old to make, except I made it and let a two year old decorate it. You have to work fast with toddlers or they will (a) help in their own unique way or (b) get bored. I frosted an oatmeal box and covered it with graham crackers as quickly as possible. Then let her do as she wished. She was really excited about putting frosting, "snow" as she called it and M&Ms on it. Of course more frosting and candy went in her mouth than on the house but she did eat a good lunch afterwards so I don't care.

As soon as she lays down for her nap I have to finish planning class for CCD tonight and wrapped up a few household chores. If I get all my work done I can take Demand out to play in the snow after her nap. I'll get to use my new super warm snow gloves and hat.


But who are we kidding, I'll probably just nap the whole time.

Day in the Life

Today was the first day in a long time I was able to be the first one up. I managed to get to bed before 11pm last night which has been rather difficult to do these days. The extra sleep helped tremendously.

So I woke up and stumbled downstairs, straight to the fireplace and grabbed a blanket. It was at that point, standing barefoot and freezing in my living room I failed to remember *why* I wanted to get up first. "Ah, yes!", I thought. I wanted time to get ready and prepare for the day before Demand wakes up. I grabbed my Bible for some morning prayer. I decided that in the spirit of Christmas I would begin to read the book of Isaiah. After realizing there were more than 60 chapters in Isaiah, I moved to the book of Luke.

That done, I tried to decide what to do next. Putting on real clothes sounded like too much work, and besides the clothes I was wearing were remotely warm and I knew the clothes I had laid out the night before were sitting near the window in our room, brrr!

Which brings me to my next segment. I started to heat some water for tea, grabbed a banana that I would never get to finish, and sat down at the computer. It was then that I realized it was -2 outside, but felt like -23. That would explain the chill in the air. Nutcracker! That's cold!!!!

I finally decided to get dressed, but when I reached the top of the stairs. Demand was standing in her doorway, calm and quiet as could be waiting for someone to free her. She was in a delightful mood which was nice. We both went to wake up Mr. Sloth. I had the unfortunate task of not only waking him up, but waking him to tell him it was -23 degree wind chill and I needed the driveway shoveled so I could make my doctors appointment. He slunk back into the covered till I could only see one of his eyes staring back at me with an evil glare saying "I don't want to".

While Demand ate "cake-cakes" (Pancakes) and half of my banana. (See I told you I would never get to eat it), I warmed our clothes in the dryer and got dressed myself. Mr. Sloth had cleared the driveway, and wisely decided to work from home by the time we had to leave. The roads were yucky. They weren't wet, or slushy, they were frozen. You never knew what was safe to drive on. Scary.

The doctors appointment went well (and fast) and Demand and I stopped at Target to pick up a few things like hats and gloves that fit Mr. Sloth and I. Demand defined the words baby steps as we slowly moved across the indescribably cold parking lot. Man do I love places that have "Expectant Mothers and Parents with young children parking"...this Target did not.


So that was our morning. Demand is in her room *not* napping right now. She'll be in there until 3pm at least, unless she sleeps, which would be great. In that time I hope to finish cleaning the bathroom, switch the laundry, start dinner, and start sealing the windows for winter. Better late, than never, eh? When she wakes up I hope to vacuum, although my vacuum has been less than cooperative lately, and possibly make a candy house with Demand. All the while I need to be praying that Mr. Sloth can make enough money so that we can pay the mortgage next month. Don't be too concerned, it's just the way things work when you run your own business. Every month is a toss up!

I better get cracking. Perhaps I'll warm up a bit by scrubbing my shower. Hmmm, maybe I should just shower....