Ktjrdn and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I woke up in the morning to the sound of Anya yelling. She had woken up and wanted to be fed. It was 5:20 which is the time I was supposed to get in the shower. She wouldn't go back to sleep. I could tell then that is was going to be a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Rob took her upstairs so I could take a shower. I stripped down and stepped on the scale. I hate scales.  I think I'll stop eating.

Anya and I woke Ally up and got ready to leave. Anya wouldn't lie still for a diaper change. Ally tried to help and almost dropped her toy on Anya's head. I started off the morning yelling at the kids. It would definitely be a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Maybe I should send them to Austrailia.

I spent the whole day blowing my nose and coughing so hard my lungs hurt. I had a doctor's appointment at 1:30. it's a pain in the ass to get across town, so I left early. Even if I got there too early, I could work on my crocheting. I sat in the wating room for 30 minutes crocheting. Then I sat in the dr office for 15 more. just before the dr actually finally decided to see me, I realized I had made a mistake in the crocheted name and had to rip out 6 rows.

The dr gave me a prescription for antibiotic for my bronchitits and Nasonex nasal spray. He told me to keep taking the Claritin like I have been. Uh? It hasn't been working, obviously. I asked him to refer me to an allergist. My doctor is an idiot. Maybe I should send him to Austrailia.

When we picked the kids up, I found Anya already whining. Their lunch sucked, so she was hungry. My head hurt. This was the last thing I needed. If Anya didn't eat lunch, odds are very good Ally had less. Great. Can I go to sleep yet?

Had to pick up our prescriptions at Walgreens. Rob parked the truck. I told him I had already dropped them off, so they'd be ready - we could use the drive thru. My Nasonex rang up at $110. What?! why? the lady was an idiot. She didn't know. gave a couple reasons before finally figuring out that he wrote it for 3 months at a time and they filled all three. Still. It cost too much. While I was trying to process it all Rob was trying to talk to me and complain about how it would've been simpler to go in than to try to do this through the drive-thru. Thanks, hon. Your bitching is making it even easier. Not. Finally had them not fill it and called the dr to have him write something less expensive. Argued with husband all the way home about how I "made him" drive thru. Uh, I made a suggestion. He was free to say no if he had a better idea.

Maybe I'll send him to Australia.

It's dance night. Crap. Rob asked me if it were possible to leave Ally for class and go back to pick her up. He didn't want to listen to Anya cry all night. Me either, dear. but Ally's not old enough for that yet, and she's certainly not well-behaved wnough. So Rob decided to take Anya shopping instead to shut her up. shopping for fishing stuff. Great. Just what we need. Another $45.61 worth of fishing crap. Stop spending money already!! Anya screamed the whole time. Serves him right. He never remembers that he's doing something specifically to keep her occupied. If it's not working, quit and do something else. He went shopping so she wouldn't be bored at home. It obviously wan't working, but now he was committed to shopping. That wasn't the original point of the excursion. So Rob was in a crappy mood. It was almost the end of a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Thank God.

I had to put Ally in time-out twice during dance. It could have been more but my head hurt too much. I wanted to go to bed.

I met him at the dealership to drop off the truck, whose alarm system has been screwing up. On the way over, my contacts decided they don't like me and tried to make me crash. Ow. My eyes hurt. "Ally, stop talking for 5 seconds please" Why can the kid not shut her mouth? When I got there, Rob wasn't there. He went to the wrong dealership. He called me and asked where I was. I explained and he argued with me a bit then figured I was right, but did he tell me that? no. Bastard. He can join everyone else in Australia.

Ally wouldn't shut up. She had to go straight to bed with a spanking. Anya went to bed too. I sat on the couch and tried to make my brain stop. Oh sweet blessed sleep. Thank god the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day was over.

So what did I do first thing this morning? Slammed my thumb in the car door. Fuck. This better not be another one.

What the hell was I thinking?

Last week, Rob told me his section was having a treat day. They do this often. Too often actually. I think the only reason they come to work is so that they can eat*. but I digress... So, no big deal. I usually bring breakfast. If I don't, the only thing available for breakfast is donuts, which gets old after a while. Last time I brought biscuits and gravy. It was yummy. There are only about 20 people in his section, so it wasn't that big of a deal to make a bigger batch. They were asking me to do it again. So I said yes.

And then.

The treat day became a division-wide affair. Someone is being deployed, so we're throwing a party for him. Rob's unit has breakfast, another has snacks, another has lunch, etc. We went from 20 people to 120. And I agreed to still make b+g. So I'm now committed to make roughly 16 quarts - enough to fill my roaster. Why? I don't know. Other people are giving us money, so it's probably not going to cost us anything, but still. What was I thinking?

 *Yes, I alwasy eat with them too. (Hello, Pot! My name is Kettle.)

Confucius say

 

 

 

 

Check out my fortune. Ha. I find this very humerous. I'm not very good at putting things like this into words, but I'll take a stab at it.

I find it amusing that some people assume that money/success and principles are mutally exclusive.

I find it amusing that most people would read the fortune as a compliment.

I find it amusing that I don't take it that way.

And actually, I realize while trying to articulate it, it's really the final thing that is the amusing part. Most of the time the first 2 just piss me off.

1 year photos
Anya's 1 year pictures are up. I know I've been heavy on the pictures lately, but I've got a massive head cold (and bronchitits?) and actual work to at work. Will be back stronger soon.

not to jinx anything
but I just wanted to share that Anya has slept 10.5 hours straight for the last 4 nights. She has lain done to go sleep without crying. The first 2, she fussed for a minute or two around 4:30 am, but required no intervention from me before going back to sleep. I'm re-energized.

new scrapbook page
(click picture to view designer credits)

The difference is not only 26 years

My mom had a picture of me that was ruined. It had gotten stuck to the photo album page and part of the top layer was ripped. Luckily it was on the background rather than my face. i told her I'd scan it in and see if I could fix it. I don't think I did a bad job at all. Looking at that picture, I was able to see the amazing similarity between Ally and me. I've seen it before, and when you compare it to her 3 year old pictures (which is the age of mine) there is no doubt that she's my child.

But.

She's not me. Her lips are different. Her face is a little bit rounder. Her hair is lighter and thinner. Her eyes are a lighter shade of blue. She is a person separate from me. She has her own thoughts and feelings. Her own life. She's becoming less reliant on me every day (She even wiped her own butt yesterday). She's not my baby anymore. So, looking at these pictures has made me stop and remember that this time we have together is fleeting. She won't always need me so much. She won't always be begging me to sit down and read her a story. I need to take advantage of it while I can. I want to laugh and play with her and make wonderful memories. With both my kids. So last night, we went outside and went puddle-stomping. I highly recommend it. 

top-left = after PaintShop
top-right = before PaintShop
bottom = Ally's 3 year pictures

Come on down!

You're the next contestant on "What's wrong with that toy?"

Once again, I find myself wondering WTF? while comtemplating the kids toys. The culprit this time is that Little People chicken. Do you see what's wrong with it? (besides the lighting in the picture making it look blue)

Rock and Roll

anya discovered Ally's Rock and Roll Elmo last night. We were cleaning out Ally's stuffed toy bin. Ally was doing a great job "picking out toys to give to some kids who don't have many" and keeping the ones she really liked. We got a pretty good pile going.

And then we ran into the Elmos. The Chicken Dance Elmo, The E-L-M-O Elmo, The Shout! Elmo, The Alphabet Elmo, The Tickle-Me Elmo (that is actually mine from long ago), and of course the Rock and Roll Elmo. I think he is the loudest. So of course he's the one we listened to over and over.

the first time Ally pushed the button Anya immediately started bobbing her kness dancing. She shook her butt. She waved her hands around. She twisted her hips. She really liked the music. So now, it seems I'm doomed to live through another Elmo era. Not that the Elmo part of it is so bad. He a cute little monster. But the toys are so dang loud.

Go check out youTube to see the cuteness of the dancing for yourself. (oh, and I just put gobs of pictures form April out on Flickr today.)

Bits and peices - Part discontinued

I'm so far behind, I don't even know what I've talked about and what I haven't. So, here's the short story of the last - oh whenever

1. Anya's still sleeping better. We had some rough nights, but last night was wonderful. Of cuorse, she was run ragged yesterday, but we'll see.

2. We went fishing last Sunday. Ally even caught a fish. Sadly, I was chasing Anya and didn't get to see the fish, but I was told it was a magnificint one. Giant at the size of about 4 inches. She refused to touch it. But she had a blast.

3. Tuesday was pajama day at day care. I set 3 or 4 sets of summer weight pjs out to let Ally pick from, and She got distracted and wouldn't pick, so I grabbed a pair and started putting the top on her. As soon as she realized what I was doing, she started yelling. "I don't WANT to wear pajamas! i wnt to wear real clothes"I told her that all her friends would be wearing them and it was silly, but she couldn't be swayed. She told me she didn't want to be like all her friends. Who can argue with that?

4. I'm thirsty.

5. I got my first crocheted name framed. Check it out. (That link dones't work at the mmoent, because I haven't uploaded the picture, but it will work soon. What are you doing reading this so fast? I think it looks great. Rick did a good job framing it and he did it within a day of me sticking it in the mail. Wow.

6. We did nothing for most of the weekend. We sent the kids outside to play and slathered them up with sunblock (Do you call it sunblock or sunscreen? just curious) Ally came back with sand stuck to her everywhere. So I threw her in the bathtub and hosed her off before dinner after which she went back outside for more playing. Rob and I read a lot this weekend. It seems like when we get started reading, it takes over for a while. When we run out of books, it's over and we go back to normal life.

7. Sunday we went to my grandma's (Yes, grandpa too, but really it's her house. It's his pond) house. We stoped at my mom's and picked up Naomi and Marisa (my nieces) to go with us. We went back to grandpa's pond and fishe3d a little, but the gnats were out in full force, and we didn't stay for long. Marisa, Grandma, Ally, Anya, and I all headed back while Rob and naomi toughed it out a little while longer. Ally got a bite, but she was too busy finding rocks to throw to notice. I was chasing Anya. She really wanted to jump in the pond and was also very interested in the rocks. tasty. And Rob was helping with the other girls' worms. So, we caught nothing. But we got some fresh air and sunshine. And had a nice walk with grandma. I'll upload gobs of pictures today. (It's the last day of the month and I haven't met the limit for April yet, so might as well try it today, huh?)

8. Today is the last week of my class. I have 1 more program to write and 1 test to take. Which is good. I'm really slacking off. I'm not all that interested in Cobol. This is my second semester of it. yuck. I'm ready to be done. I might even take the summer off. I'm tired of classes again.

9. I'm pretty sure we're going to pull Anya out of the day care soon. Her teacher is wanting to stay home after she has her baby, so she might watch her for us. It would be cheaper and Rob could quit Memorial if we sent Ally too. But we're still undecided about that. if Ally could get into pre-school we'd do it definitely, but I think Ally needs the interaction of learning with more kids around.

10. I don't really have anything else to say, but can't leave this list at only 9.

Sneaky like a fox

Ally told me the other day that Maggie was acting like a fox. um, ok? what? Apparently, she was swiping things. Swiper is a fox, therefore, all foxes swipe things. The logic of a 3 year old...

Ally is quite sneaky herself. the other day, she wanted to bring her dog upstairs with her, but she wanted to hold my hand, so she asked me to carry it. Later when it was time to clean up I told her she needed to take it downstairs. Her reply? "But Mommy, I didn't bring it up. You did. You need to take it down."

"His name is Robert Paulsen"

Ally's friends at day care have long called me "Ally's mom." As in "Hey, Ally's Mom! Look at my new shoes" I've learned to respond to it.

Ally's stufffed puppy* just called me "Ally's mom" He was tattling on Anya for climbing on him.

This is getting ridiculus. :)

 

 

*Oddly, he sounds just like Ally.

The Interview Thing

Amy W sent me some interview questions. I'm supposed to answer her questions, and then invite anyone to play. If you want to join in (with all the cool kids :) Just -

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” If I don’t have your email address, leave it for me in the comments.

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

So, here are my questions (And yes, I know that they are out of order. I thought it much better to leave on the book question that the death one. I depressed myself with that one) 

1.  Do you ever wonder what it would be like to have
two sons instead of two daughters?

I can't even imagine it. When I first got pregnant, I thought it would be neat to have a boy, but didn't really expect one. All the girls in my family end up having girls, and I think we're biologically set up that way. I know, I know. They all say that's up the the guy's biology, but I don't think so. The guy determines if there are any little y's there. I think my family's bodies kill those little y's (if present) before they have a chance. I have no scientific evidence of this, but regardless, I'm convinced. Therefore, the only time I've really thought about having boys was theoretically. And I can't wrap my mind around it. I don't know what I'd do with one. I'm sure I'd figure it out, but haven't had to yet (and most likely won't)

2.  What is your earliest childhood memory?

I've mentioned before that I don't have a good memory. Most of the things I try to remember, are really hazy. I'm left with general impressions. I know these were before my mom and dad split up which was the year I turned five, but that's as much as I can pin it down. Some other memories, I don't really have a time frame for.

I remember

• The police lights flashing in the driveway when they brought my brother home after someone backed into him on his bike while leaving their driveway. He was fine. I saw them through the basement window.
• There was a place that sold flavored popcorn nearby the office where my parents worked. (I don't really care for it that much now, though)
• A bunch of plastic hanging in the office building where maybe they were doing some construction? It was like a maze.
• Our neighbor's little grandson(?) sleeping on a lounge chair outside with his pacifier in his mouth even though he was too old to have one.
• Rolling down the hill in the back of our house with our neighbors.
• My sister standing on the bed with her friend (and neighbor) Amanda singing into a microphone "Maneater"
• Hockey games in Peoria. We had seasno tickets and would go watch The Rivermen play.

4.  If there is one thing you could change about your
husband, what would it be?

I'd love to be able to say "Nothing, He's perfect" but it's just not true. He does lots of things that most women complain their husbands don't. He cleans, does laundry, cooks and all that stuff. But he doesn't communicate well. He thinks you should only have to talk to convey information. I wish he had the capacity to listen without action. To say "I know" and then shut up and listen some more.

5.  If there is someone you could bring back from the
dead, who would it be and why?

I am lucky in that there aren't a lot of people close to me that I've lost. Most of my family is still living, and I'm so thankful for that. Also, I'm pretty self-centered and hate history, so historical figures are out. Honestly, the first person to pop into mind was Tim. We weren't really that close. We were just friends. But we had a connection. His death made a huge impact on me. Possibly because it was so pointless. He didn't have to be out that night. He didn't have to feel so alone. growing up sucks, but if you can just get past that, it can get better. And it would have for him. If only he had that chance.

3.  What is your favorite book you read to your kids?

Sandra Boynton's Birthday Monsters.

"You're not awake.
It's 6 o'clock.
You hear a ring.
You hear KNOCK, KNOCK.
You hear the door come crashing down.
The Birthday Monsters are in town.

They rush you down before you're ready
and use your breakfast as confetti.

OH LOOK! They shout.
It's 6:08!
You're present opening can't wait!

They've brought the gifts that they like best.
You get the wrap.
They keep the rest.

And now they say,
It's HIDE-AND-SEEK
you go hide and we won't peek.

You find a hiding place that's great.
And wait and wait and wait and wait.

You realize twenty minutes later,
they're raiding the refrigerator.

It's time for cake, the monsters shout.
hurry blow your candles out.

You close your eyes and make a wish
And blow upon an empty dish.

And now GOOD-BYE
it's been a thrill.
And out they go.
The house is still.

They took your gifts,
They ate your cake.
They made the mess that monsters make.
there's nothing more that could go wrong.

And then KNOCK, KNOCK
And then DING DONG.

One last surprise is here for you -
The BIRTHDAY MONSTER cleaning crew.

They fix they sweep,
They scrub the floor.

(something missing??)

And on the kitchen shelf you find
The birthday things they've left behind"

Maybe I don't actually read it anymore, though. I love this book mostly because it's one of the first ones Ally read to me. Plus, it's was just the cutest frickin thing in the world to hear her say "raiding the refrigerator"

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday Anya! Today you're 1 year old. At this time last year, you were laying under the warming light, only 3 hours old. You had crinkled up little ears that have since straightened out. I knew they were going to, and I made sure to take pictures. I loved those little crinkly ears. Everyone says that baby pictures all start to look the same as the years pass, but I can definitely tell the difference between your hospital pictures and Ally's. I see the same expressions on your face now. (especially the ear picture and this one) You look so much like your dad. I don't know yet whether that will be an asset or not. ;)

You've had quite a year, and I'm so happy to have shared it with you. I'm looking forward to many more.

Love you babe!

Little Bits Part 2

Uncle Rick and Aunt Cara arrived on time around 1:30 (Thanks, guys). You may not know how remarkable that is, but they are my family - not Rob's. My family NEVER arrives on time. Example: My mom* arrived around 2:30 as did my grandma. The party started at 1:30. Rob's family was there on time.

 A good time was had by all. Anya loved her cake icing. (Yum, Walmart cake is delicious) We let her dig in and she made a large satisfying mess. She even managed to get her foot on top of the table into her plate a couple times. (I was such a mean mom. I didn't even give Ally cake for her first birthday. Anyway...) We got her all cleaned upand changed clothes. She ran around visiting everyone. We just left the door to the back deck open and she ran in and out and laughed the whole time.

She was running around with her little bitty blanket and chewing on it. Rick asked her for it and she ran over with her arm outstretched to give it to him until the last minute when she whirled around and ran away laughing her head off. He "chased" her and she ran into Grandma's arms for safety. 30 seconds later, when he asked about her blanket again, she started the game over. They were cracking us all up. She had a giant smile on her face.

We opened presents and I am happy to report that the general level of junk in our house didn't go up very much. She got some toys, but mostly clothes and some money for her piggy bank. The toys she did get, she was thrilled with. Rob's dad got her a ball (and other things) She loves balls above everything! Darra got a Little Poeple castle that she sat and played with for quite a while. She doesn't usually sit that long. We got a little learning thingy from rick and Cara. Plus, lots of clothes. I got her a couple of soft cars, because I've seen her driving things at day care. Ally never really did that, so we didn't have any to hand down to Anya.

Ally played outside for the greater portion of the day. Most of the time, she and her cousins were all in the massive sandbox playing together. They ran around with balls and bubbles just like kids should in the springtime. She came in and helped with the present opening and didnt' et very possessive. She called Anya "birthday girl" and loved on her. She did good.

Anya's afternoon nap was greatly delayed, and she finally fell asleep around 5:30 or so. I was worried about her sleep, but she didn't sleep too long and was still tired for bedtime. All in all, it was a great day.

Sunday couldn't get better, but it sure wasn't worse...

 

*to be fair, she did tell me that she wouldn't be there way ahead of time.

completely off-topic

This has absolutely nothing to do with what I was just saying, but I thought I'd share with you another reason I'm a little happier lately. (And also you can get a glimpse into just how obsessive and anal I am) Rob agreed to let me try to sleep train Anya again. His idea of me going in to comfort her immediately EVERY time she woke up was NOT working. in fact, I can safely say it was a total disaster (as I'm sure all of you could have guessed) She's not having seperation issues. She just doesn't know how to go to sleep on her own.

So I'm trying to teach her again. It's getting better already. We started on Thursday (Friday didn't really count, because I wasn't there to put her to bed and get accurate times). She screamed her head off forever. Last night? I nursed her. laid her down. patted her back for a minute and walked out. 3 minutes later, she was alseep. Only 3 minutes of half-hearted crying. followed by 7 hours and 26 minutes of quietly sleeping. As I said before, I'm trying to lessen the nursing, so I put her off when she woke up and let her go back to sleep. which took 7 minutes. She slept for another 40 before I had to nurse her and went back to sleep without any crying for over an hour after that. this "comfort" time includes my nursing at night and in the day time. So it's grossly overstated. WOOT!!! keep your fingers crossed.

 

 

 

busy busy busy - Little Bits Part 1

The more I stay away from here, the harder it is to get back into writing. Things pile up and I don't know where to start. I'm still working no a project at work. I'm actually in the testing phase, so I get to use my brain to figure things out, and so far, it's not really working well. Kinda dusty from neglect, I'm sure. I'm getting there though. So anyway, since I'm working, I don't have time to kill all day anymore. My blog is suffering. To make up for it, I'm going to post lots of little bits throughout the week and catch up little by little (mostly because I'll only have time to write little bits).  

Lots has been going on, but the most exciting thing for me? I'm finally getting to wear a real non-nursing bra today! Woo-hoo!. I'm so sick of those things. Anya is only nusing a little at night and some in the morning now. Mostly, she's switched over to cow's milk (no comments from the peanut gallery on that one. I mean you - Uncle Rick!) We'll have her switched over entirely soon, and I don't think it'll be long after until she ditches the bottle. She seems like she'll have an easier time than Ally did.

Ok, ok. I'm sure that wasn't the kind of info you wanted to hear about. back to the kids...

Friday night, it was gorgeous weather. I was heading to my mom's house for a stamping party, and needed to get some stuff cleaned up in preparatino for the next day's birthday party, so I sent both kids with Rob on a walk. Darra was coming up to stay that evening. i got a bunch of stuff cleaned up and was getting ready to leave when Rob headed back. Darra and Rob got to the house about the same time, and I left. They were preparing to go to the little pond for Ally's first fishing trip. And I missed it. Boo-hoo. oh well. Darra took a couple pictures with her camera phoen that I'll put up later. I keep forgetting to bring in my camer a to download pictures of this weekend and post them to Flickr. grr. It's because I'm not carrying my pump bag anymore. i used to use that bag for all my stuff, but now I have to remember to gather it up. Not happening. Oh wait... I got back on that subject again somehow. I'm so glad to be done wiht that. anyway...

Saturday, was just wonderful. The kids played outside most of the morning. Darra and I cleaned the house up a little. Thanks Darra! Rob got home from his re-certification for BTLS (Basic Trauma Life Support - do you know how many brain cells are wasted with all those stupid little acronyms? (Warning - tangent coming) The other day when we were sorting through the garage sale clothes, I told Rob to just pile them by sizes, and I would match outfits together, because I remember what shirts have matching pants, etc. He looked at me like I was insane and said "If that's true, that's just sad. Do you realize how many brain cells you're using to store that useless information? No wonder you can't remember anything." Um, yeah. it's true. I dressed those kids in the clothes everyday for 6 months and did all their laundry. I remember. </end tangent>) really early. Much earlier than we thought he would, so he even had toime to clean the bathroom. I went to Walmart for the cake and some other party stuff without the kids. (Oh so good. I love Wal-mart cakes) When i got back, I saw Bill (Darra's husband) out at the park with Ally wakling around, so I drove over to say hi. Ally wanted a ride back. I think she saw the cake in the front seat and decided that she wanted to stick with the cake. Takes after me she does.

We were originally worried about the weather for the party. It's been so cold, we had considered having it somewhere else where we could be inside (I have a small house). No worries. It was a breezy 75 degrees. Kids got all lathered up with sunblock and had a blast outside. Anya wouldn't cooperate with an early nap. we threw her in the swing and she had a relazing time until the party started. She started out a little cranky, but settled down when people started getting there to play with.

...later

random kid stuff

Anya has learned to blow kisses. She sticks her hand over her mouth and slobbers on it before extending it to you. She must not believe that kisses can be blown, because she insists on touching her kissed upon hand to yours much like a high-five.

Ally has learned her birthday. She's kinda obsessed with ages right now. She's been talking about what will happen when she's 4 and not 3 anymore and how she'll go to preschool when she's 5 (uh, I don't know about that one) and how Anya's zero but she'll be one soon (next week!). She's also learning about the days of the week. Every morning we have to talk about what day it is and what day it was yesterday. And the plans for the upcoming days. The day care taught her the days of the week using a song, so everytime you ask her what day comes next, she has to sing the song to run through them all. It's to the tune of "Oh my Darling, Clementine" it gets stck in your head all day if you hear it early in the morning.

"There are seven days
There are seven days
There are sev
ven days in the week.
There are seven days
There are seven days
There are seven days in the week.

Sunday Monday
Tuesday Wednesday
Thursday, Fri
day, Saturday
There are seven days
There are seven days
There are seven days in the week."

This morning I found 2 little toy stuffed chicks that Ally had been playing with carefully arranged on the floor. on plates. hmmm... very odd. I don't know what that was about. It's especially interesting to note that there was only 1 plates upstairs at last count. She had to make a special trip down to her room to get the second one.

Anya fell on the patio last night and scarped her head. She got bruises on her shins. She had a big scratch on her cheek that is just starting to fade. people are going to think we actually beat her (instead of just thinking about it), but  I swear, she's just very active and clumsy still. She's walking better in shoes though. Almost got it mastered. We only put them on her outside still though until she gets really good at walking.

Ally uses the term "yesteryear" to refer to almost anything in the past. I try not to laugh, but I love it when they interpret language and make up things like that. It's always a little sad when they figure out the right way to say stuff like that.

I started letting Anya cry again last night. I'm going to keep better records of our progress this time, so that I can prove to Rob that things are getting better. Last night we spent a total of 1 hour comforting/nursing (in small increments) 2 and a half hours screaming and 6 and a half hours sleepiing. She was tired this morning when I had to wake her for day care. Keep you fingers crossed that things improve.

Ally is getting really good at reading certain words. When we read stories, we usually pick a little word and ask her to find it on all the pages. you know, something like "in" or "is" or "the". she knows mom and dad and drip and worm and zoo. She can even read very simple sentances if I spell them out with her magnetic letters. I put "The dog is big" up there the other day. Unfortunately, Anya is bound and determined to remove any magnets within reach, so Ally didn't get to see it there very long. But, it really makes her smile to be able to read a whole sentance like that.

Anya has started picking up stuffed animals and grunting. it's like she's trying to woof or quack, etc. it all sounds the same though. She hasn't developed any attachments to animals like Ally did at this age. Yet. But she loves her blankets. This kid IS Linus. She sucks her thumb with the ltitle corner of the blanket in her hand and half in her mouth. the corners to her blankets get nasty and crusty really quick too since she's had a runny nose a lot lately. yuck. So anyway, I had grandma sew the edges of a little 15 in. by 12 in. fabric blanket that she can carry around if needed and not have to trip over her big one. We only get it out for her when she's really cranky, but it's not bedtime yet. I'm proud to say she actually likes it. usually ideas like that i like they should work, but fail miserably when I try them out.

And the winner is...

For any of you who were wondering how I figured the winner (I'm sure none of you are, but I'm going to post this anyway) this is my tiny little program that picked it. It's Java if you cared. it took me a whole 45 seconds to write (if that). The problem was getting time to actually sit down and do it.

public class random
{
  public static void main(String args[])
  {
    Random random = new Random();
    System.out.println(random.nextInt(37));
  }
}

And irony of ironies, guess which comment won? The one from my Uncle Roger asking not to be included in the contest:

"(cough *no thanks* uncough)

 But that's really nice of you."

I found that pretty amusing. So I ran the thing again and it picked Erin whom I have yet to notify, but I know she'll be happy when I send her the email. Congrats Erin! I'll make sure to post a picture when I get the thing done and before I mail it. Now, the question is whether she'll want her last name, or the first name of one of the kids done...

**But, if you would like a crocheted name for yourself, email me. They are for sale too!

oh, yeah
somebody did win the contest. I just don't know who yet. I'll get right on that. Hopefully tomorrow, I can squeeze it in there somewhere.