still here
No, I haven't gone into labor early. I think that's how I'm going to answer my phone. "Hello - Yes, I'm still huge and not in labor yet, How are you?" I seem to have forgotten how this went last time. I can't really believe that, because it was really annoying last time, but there you have it. It was hidden from memory by the little gnomes in my head. Anyway, when I call anyone in my family, this is how the conversation goes:

"Hello"
"Hey, whatcha doin?"
"Why are you in labor?"
"No"
"oh, what did you want then?"

Or, if I call a cell phone, it doesn't even go that far. They all have caller id. We skip right to the labor question.

Anyway. I'm still pregnant. Am likely to be for another 8 days. Am very large, and very tired, mostly grumpy, and a little sickly (stupid weather). And VERY impatient. I want to hold my little baby with my arms instead of with my ribs.

keys
"I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle" My keys in particular. This morning I managed to lock myself out of my car and Rob had to come back home (he had already left for work and let me in. Then, when I went to Walmart to pick up the tv, I did it again. This time a co-worker was there to help with the tv, and I had to do something I swore I would never do. Rob would KILL me if he found out. I put Ally in the backseat without a car-seat so Darren could drive me to work so I could get my extra keys, so I could get into my car, so I could get into my house, so I could get the tv out of his car without letting Rob know I bought him the TV until he gets home tomorrow. I'm a horrible mother. But all is okay. No one is dead. As long as none of you tell Rob about it. Deal? Deal.

Twice in one day. Duh.

PS. Anyone who can identify that quote (without google) wins a cookie.

4 years
Rob and I have been married for 4 years. WOW. I love him to death. I hate him pretty often too. But this week has been pretty good, and I decided to get him something for our anniversary. Now, we are not present people. I can't be sure, but I don't think either one of us has erally even gotten birthday presents since we've been married. (the year we got back together, I got tons of presents, but that was different. He was sucking up, so he could keep me forever) Now, there are 2 things that I know he'd LOVE to have. Neither one of them is small. I can't buy them myself. Besides being pregnant, I have no way of transporting them home. One is a tv that actually fits the entertainment center hole. The other is a new mattress. Now, the tv would fit in the car if I didn't have a car seat, but when does that ever happen? The mattress - not so much. So, he's getting a tv. But wait, you say... You're 8+ months pregnant, you can't pick up a big heavy tv. I know. So I've conned a couple guys from work to help me out. Rob's working today, and won't he be surprised tomorrow when he gets homeand sees it all wrapped up in a big bow. The best part is that it'll have a new remote. Ours is wrapped in black duct tape to keep the batteries from falling out. Yes, we might be rednecks.



**Yes, I'm feeling a little bit guilty about the dog thing. But mostly, I'm just glad he changed his mind, and love him. If I wasn't 8+ months pregnant, I'd put a bow on myself instead. But that ain't happening.

In which I gloat with no shame...
We don't have a puppy anymore. I'm so happy. Rob is not so much. I can't be demonstratively happy about it at home, so I come here - to the internet - so say this.. Yippee! Yahoo! I'm doing the happy dance, you'll just have to use your imagination.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm an animal person. More of a cat person than a dog person, but I love animals. I think kids deserve to have pets. The only problem is that Ally is not old enough for a puppy. She's not old enough for any animal. THat means the animal is mine (not Rob's, because he's done every 3rd day). I didn't want a puppy. Let me refresh your memory. It seemed like it was going to work out. That was for a couple days. Then all hell broke loose. I had a horrible terrible week. It seemed like everytime I opened my mouth, I was yelling at ALly or the dog, and was constantly picking things up so she wouldn't chew on them. Some of it was my hormones, but some of it was just that having a puppy around (and we found out she was even younger than we had thought) was just adding to my already overwhelming (to me - maybe not anyone else...) stress levels.

Rob and I talked about it, and he convinced me to give it some time, and let him train her a little. I still had many reservations, but agreed. For one thing, the dog chewed on everything! How was I going to have an infant in the house when I couldn't even set her down anywhere but the crib? They need time to play on the floor. They need to be able to have toys around. I need to be able to put her in her swing for f seconds occasionally. Unfortunately, the swing sits on the floor, and I was afraid to put it together because the dog would chew on it. For another, the dog overstimulated Ally. A two year old just can't handle that much attention without going crazy and dragging everyone else with her. At least not in my house.

The other day Rob must have gotten tired of my endless bitching. He was doing the dishes, and the dog was bothering Ally, and I refused to intervene. He got pissed, and decided to give Sandy back to the lady that he got her from. Hallelujah!!

I won! I never win. Rob always logicaly shoots down every one of my arguments. I have no idea what happened, and I don't care. I'm thrilled. Here's a list of things that I no longer have to do:

close the gate to the stairs all the time so Sandy doesn't go downstairs and eat anything

tell Ally to pick up her toys or Sandy will eat them

tell Ally that she can't sit at her picnic table because Sandy can reach her food there and will eat it

look around the room every 5 minutes to see if there's anything that inadvertantly got left on the floor where Sandy could eat it.

spend the first 5 minutes upon returning home to pick up the things that Sandy has destroyed while we were gone.

worry about oh so many things

smell like dog

yell at Ally not to lay on the dog

get the dog off the kitchen table

Here's the damage:

All three of our kitchen chairs (admittadly not family heirlooms or anything like that) have been chewed up.

countless papers that Ally has colored on and left on her desk have been destryoed.

Ally's potty seat has had to be sanded down because the dog chewed on it making it all scratchy.

many of our bushes we bought last year have no wood remaining above ground. Hopefully they will grow back anyway?

the support poles for Ally's play house have been chewed.

One book has had to be replaced, and others have been chewed

Much laundry (mostly socks) has required re-washing. The dog liked to grab it and take it outside to chew on it.

I figure we got off lucky. I wasn't ready for a puppy.

Rob wasn't so thrilled. I have had to be very quiet about my gloating. In fact, I can't really say anything. I get ready to - oh just about anything, but here's one example - go to bed, and I think, "Oh, I don't have to find the remote because Sandy isn't going to eat it" or "Ah, Ally's shoes can stay on the floor. Sandy won't eat them."


PS. I wrote this post once before, but Tripod ate it. It was a lot more gloating, but time has worn away a tiny bit of the victory. But, I WON! No more dog!

Posted by ktjrdn at 10:58 CDT

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read this
http://finslippy.typepad.com/finslippy/2006/01/speaking_of_ban.html

Now pretend that I wrote it about Ally. It's so true (Well, except for the chicken nugget part)

help
Can anyone help me remember what I wanted to say here? I started a new entry for a reason, but can't for life of me remember why.

My train of thought seems to have been de-railed. (Stupid pregnancy brain)

potty training
Twice yesterday Ally and I had the same conversation. She said "I want some candy". I tell her she only gets candy if she pees in the potty. I ask if she needs to pee. She says "Yes" and she sits and pees. Then she gets candy. It's actually been working out okay. If I could just get her to say "I need to potty" instead of asking for candy...

leftovers
I threw the last piece of pizza in the microwave for Ally last night, and she threw a fit. She was screaming "I don't want it hot!" So, Rob stopped the microwave and gave the pizza to her. He told her he doesn't like it hot either. It had been warmed up for about 10 seconds. She ate the whole freaking thing (Well, except for about 2 adult bites) and was happy. She also ate a Pop Tart and some strawberry yogurt. How's that for healthy? She didn't eat anything for lunch at day care yesterday again. They're having hot dogs today, so I'm not expecting her to eat today either. Maybe we can get a habit of eating supper started? As long as the day care keeps having things she doesn't like for lunch...

sleeping
Remember how I was just going on and on about how well Ally has been sleeping lately? How she's been going to bed with a minimun of hassle and not waking up until we're ready to leave in the morning? How great Rob and I have felt when we wake up in the morning and realize that we didn't have to drag our butts (haha - my butt) out of bed in the middle of the night to attend to her? How much in a better mood it has left her? What!?! You don't?? Well, that must be because I didn't write about it since I knew it was doomed to stop at any time. That time is here once again.

Ally has developed a snotty nose and cough again. Which means she's not sleeping again. Which means I'm not sleeping again. I've pretty much gotten used to it. It has happened so many times before, but there's a monkey-wrench been thrown into the mix this time. I lay down and go to sleep. I get up at 12:30 to go put her back to sleep. She goes to sleep for 15 minutes, I go to bed, and can't get back to sleep because I have heartburn from getting up and sitting by her bed. Then, I get comfortable. then she wakes up and I have to do it again. Then I feel like puking, because the heartburn is worse. If I go upstairs to get a glass of milk, I wake up the dog, who wakes up Ally. If I don't, I might wake up Ally if I puke since the bathroom is right across the hall from her room. So I just try to get as comfortable as possible on a huge stack of pillows I prop myself up with. Heartburn sucks.

Anyway, I have hope. She has slept before. She will sleep again. I just have given up on expecting it to happen more than a week in a row.

update on the car conversation
It's entirely possible that Aden did throw a ball at Ally. Ally went to a teacher complaining that Aden hurt her fellings, so they told him to say sorry and all was forgiven. Nobody saw anything. Sammy, however, was not even there yesterday. He's innocent. Maybe he pulled her hair another day, and she's still holding a grudge? Maybe she made it up. We'll never know...

the countdown
The countdown to the c-section is currently 20 days. I am not going to update my ticker though, because that's not really when she's due, per se. The development stuff is still based on the first due date they gave me which is April 29th. And it's just too much trouble to change it to May 1st, which is my actual due date. It's close enough.

APRIL 25th here I come!

Perhaps starving the kid was a good idea
OH MY GOD!!! I can't believe it. You've got to see this! Okay, go look. I'll wait.
It's a video, so be patient and let it load.

la de da, la de da.

You back?

My daughter ate pizza last night. Almost a whole piece! I gave her a piece. She said she didn't like it. I turned it over so she could see the "bread" (crust) and she picked it up and ate it. Then she even ate the part with sauce on it. Almost a whole piece!!!

Conversations from the car
We talk a lot on the way home from day care. I try to ask her about her day. She sometimes tells me things that I wouldn't know otherwise and sometimes we talk about things I know she did. Yesterday, our conversation went something like this

A: Where are my guys? I don't see them?
M: I don't know honey, where are they?
A: At school.
A: Singing songs
A: by the door.
M: Yep, that's where they were when we left.
A: What's that Aden doing?
M: I don't know. What was he doing?
A: He hurt me.
M: He did? What did he do to you?
A: He hurt me.
M: Did he say he was sorry?
A: Yeah. He hurt my feelings
M: Did he push you?
A: nope
M: did he pull your hair?
A: nope.
A: Sammy did.
M: Sammy pulled your hair?
A: Yeah
M: Did he say he was sorry?
A: Yeah.
M: It's not nice to pull hair is it?
A: My guys hurt me.
M: They did?
A: 2 of them.
A: Sammy and Aden.
M: What did Aden do?
A: He threw a ball at me.
A: He said "Watch out"
M: Oh yeah? (giggling)
A: He hurt my feelings.
A: My 2 guys hurt my feelings.
M: well, that's probably going to happen again. You'll have to get used to it
A: Yeah
(I wonder how much of what she told me is true. She has a pretty vivid imagination sometimes)

A: How's a gonna find my Daddy?
M: He's home. We're going to go home right now and see him.
A: How many daddy's does Ally have?
M: Just 1 Daddy.
A: I have 6 grandmas.
M: yes. that's a lot
A: Yeah, and 6 grandpas too.
M: How many baby sisters do you have?
A: 1 IN. YOUR. BELLY.
M: that's right.
(She's gonig to be confused when the baby leaves my belly and comes into the world)

The fine line between...
...raspberries and spitting is lost on my daughter. Where exactly is that line anyway? It's really hard to see. I blew on her belly the other day, and she told me "You don't spit on me, Mom!" I told her I was blowing raspberries. She started spitting another time, and I told her not to. She told me she was blowing raspberries. I stopped her anyway. She was just spitting.

So I guess the line is all in the intent. It's just a matter of time before she starts telling me "It's not fair"

Mom
Let me introduce myself. My name is Mom. I thought it was Mommy, but I have been renamed. I thought it was a phase, but for the past week, Ally has been pretty determined to change my name. I guess I have to accept it. But I don't have to like it. at least it's not just me. Daddy is now Dad too. (Sometimes Puppy is even Pup) She's insisting on growing up, and I don't like it one bit. I had a baby, and now she's not anymore. Good thing I'm having another one. Haha, just (mostly) kidding.

She's going to learn...I'm just not sure what
Last night, I decided that Ally MUST try 1 bite of something new before getting her usual supper. I ate a ham and cheese sandwich, so I gave her a little bitty piece of ham to try. She didn't want it. She wouldn't eat it. She's stubborn. So am I. It was a battle of wills. Rob was at school, so we had the house to ourselves, and I stood my ground. She didn't have to eat it. But, she wasn't getting anything else until she did.

She tried many different gambits. She wanted a plate. I gave her one. She told me she needed food. I gave her the ham. She gave it back. She played with the dog for a while. She jumped around the living room for a while. She wanted to potty, but her potty seat was too rough to sit on. (Stupid dog is teething) So we went downstairs and she peed. I gave her a tootsie roll. That's our deal. (I'm more interested in potty training than starving my kid after all). She helped me sand the rough edges off her potty seat so she could sit on it next time. She told me it was supper time. I told her to eat her ham. She told me that I should put it on my sandwich. She didn't like it. I told her to try it. She decided she needed a different plate. She threw hers on the floor. She got in trouble. She played a while. She thought she could outlast me. I wasn't going to let her.

Rob came home. he played with her a while, and I went down to the bathroom. As soon as I went down there, I heard her telling him that it was supper time. I had to rush out and yell upstairs for him not to feed her. (That just sounds horrible) I said "She can't have anything to eat until after she eats 1 bite of ham." He was amused. He said "How's that working out for you?" and had a good laugh. Then he asked if he could eat the garlic cheese bread that was sitting on the stove getting cold. I wouldn't let him. I made it because Ally loves it, and thought maybe it would entice her to relent. Nope.

Ally said she wanted some candy. I reminded her that she doesn't get candy until after she pees in the potty. So, she went over to her potty and waited for me to pull her pants down. She peed. I gave her a caramel. She loves them.

Bedtime came. She got her vitamins and went to bed.

Rob pointed something out to me that I had not yet considered before implementing this plan. What if the kid just learns to pee for food?

When she peed the first time, I had to decide what to do pretty quick. Candy is our standard "reward" for using the potty, but we were in the middle of a standoff. I decided that I don't care. Either she learns to eat new foods, or she gets potty trained, either way, I win. Rob agrees (or at least, he's not going to oppose me). Besides, when using bribes positive reinforcement for potty training, you gradually have to up the stakes anyway. (first candy for peeing, then candy only if they stay dry and pee, then only for poops, etc)

She woke up this morning, sat up in bed, and said "It's eating time." I gave her some Cheerios.

Spring forward
Screw this 1 hour at a time crap. I want to spring forward a couple weeks. Do you know how hard it is to manage a wiggly 2 year old, when you can't pick her up and carry her much, because it makes your right leg go numb?

ohm, ohm, 23 days, 23 days, 23 days, 23 days, ohm, ohm

Braxton-Hicks
I'm pretty sure that I was having contractions with Ally before I knew what they were. When I got to the hospital and had the real ones, I thought "Oh, duh. Maybe I was having these before" My stomach was always tight, but I just thought it was because the baby ran out of room in there. Now that I know a little better, I'm pretty sure I'm having contractions with this baby too. Very weird.

The Mommy Wars
Everyone has been talking about the Mommy Wars on the internet lately, so here's my thoughts, in case you cared:

It's none of your freaking business how other people live their lives. Who are you to pass judgement? I truly admire anyone who is able to stay at home with their little snot-monsters/darlings (depending on the day). Not just for the time they spend together, but also the fact that they stay sane. I'm not sure I could do it. However, I also am glad to be able to send my daughter to day care. They give her much more variety day-to day than I ever could. They have more resources, and kids to play with. So - Everyone has different lifestyles, and different personalities, and if you don't agree with someone else's choices - don't butt in. It's none of your business.

I know that the Mommy Wars aren't just about SAHM vs working women. Any "Mommy" choice is under fire from someone who has a dissenting view. No one is wrong, though as long as everyone is healthy and being taken care of. I firmly believe this. I rarely comment on other people's blogs about issues like this because, frankly, they don't need my advice, and probably don't want it.

That said: It's hard to reconcile my feelings with a scheduled c-section. I know that it won't make me any less of a mother, or anything like that. The end result is all the same. But there's this little nagging voice - maybe not even a voice, because I can't put into words what it says - in my head that makes me hope I go into labor earlier and don't need surgery. Is that weird?

girly stuff
I got a manicure last night. from my daughter. I've been painting her fingernails occasionally for a couple weeks, and she's getting pretty good at painting mine too. For some reason, she likes blue though. Not on her fingers, but on mine. Oh well. I go through a lot of polish remover. I'm glad I have a little girl. I can let her paint my fingernails and make let her brush my hair. She kind of likes to play dress up too. We don't have much of it at home yet, but they say she likes it at day care.