tumbling
Last night, Rob had to work, so I decided to try out a place I heard of that has a toddler tumbling class. I didn't know if it will be worth going every week, since Rob doesn't get to see her all that much when he's in school, but thought it worth checking out.

Ally loved it!!!!! it was not really very structured or anything. First we (the parents did it too. You can't really get toddlers to follow directions except by demonstrating) all did some stretches. You try touching your toes when you are 6 months pregnant. I didn't manage it. Ally wasn't much interested to start, but then...then we got to run ni circles around the room. It's a HUGE room with mirrors all on one wall and a thick pad floor. (over ecment. It was kinda cold) The pads have a joint between them, that we all walked up and down the lines with, and then hopped up and down them. Then they got a couple big cushy things out. One was a big wedge to run up and jump off of. One was a big hexagon - the kids stood with their backs to it, and the teacher helped them roll over backwards and kick off like a backwards somersault. One was a 18 inch balance beam thingy shaped like a crayon. And they had a little trampoline! Ally ran and ran and ran. There were 4 other kids there too. The class lasted 45 minutes, and ended with everyone going into another room where they have this thing like a bouncy road. I don't know what it's called but it was really long, and the kids climbed up onto it, and it was all trampoline-y. Ally had a great time running all the way down it. She even started to yell at me if I came near here. "Ally Do It!!" I think we might be going back if Rob doesn't put up too much of a fight.

cleaning, Chucky Cheese, and visit with Grandma
So we finally got all the crap put away this weekend. I spent Saturday morning organizing and finding places for a bunch of the stuff that got displaced last weekend. We went for a drive around 2 to give Ally a chance to sleep, and return the flooring samples we looked at. The stupid store closed at 2 though, and we didn't make it, so I have to do that today still.

When we got home, Rob did some homework, and we finally got our car ad written up and put on CarSoup. Cross your fingers for me. Ally woke up kinda cranky, so I took her upstairs and held her a bit. She seemed to want to go back to sleep, so I tried to lay her down a bazillion different ways, but every time she lost contact with me, she'd start fussing again. Finally, I gave her to Rob the hold and went back downstairs for something. When I came back up a half hour later, they were both sleeping together on the couch. It was so cute. I took pictures, but since the USB ports on the computer still aren't working, I can't download them yet.

Marley's 4th birthday party was at 6 at Chucky Cheese's. What a crazy time it was. People everywhere and kids running around. They were packed. Ally refused to sit still. She followed the girls into the shoeless kid-tunnels, but they didn't stay there long, so she went on to something new. She found out that she could put tokens ("tickets") into the rides and games ALL BY HERSELF and was thrilled. She rode a couple of the little cars and played the little kids version of whack-a-mole and just generally had a great time. We kept trying to get her back to the table occasionally so we could eat, but she was having none of that. We had to take shifts. Rob took most of them. He's always so helpful when family is around. I think it's to that he doesn't have to socialize.

Ally went home with Mom afterward. She went to church* with her Sunday, and I picked her up from there to take her to my nieces baby shower after. Mom says that she never shut up all the way home for the 40 minute drive. Within 5 minutes, Bamako had fallen asleep. That's my daughter. Takes after me. I remember wondering if she was ever going to talk and being worried. but, as soon as she got those tubes, it all went quick. She could talk your ears off.

Ruth sent home 3 big bags of clothes Marley has outgrown that Ally will grow into soon. So Sunday morning, I went through them all and sorted them by season. I love having Marley at Ruth's. Ruth is a shop-a-holic, and buys nice clothes. She has great taste, which I don't. This means Ally gets nice clothes, and I don't have to buy them, which means the next kid will have 2x hand-me-downs. The greatest part is that there are so many clothes, Ally doesn't even wear them out. She probably has 10 pair of jeans, alone - not to mention all the other outfits and such. We don't use the pajamas though. Ally has decided that she only really likes to sleep in flannel pants and a onsie.**

She did lots of cute things, but this has gone on long enough, and I'm tired. I'll come back later and finish up. Here's a sneak preview.

Ally needs permission to fall asleep

Ally has too many grandmas

Ally plays with Lane

"Life jackets" and socks are fun

* Yes, we let the kid go to church. This was a huge issue between Rob and I once upon a time. Rob thinks that sending kids to Sunday school is akin to indoctrinating them in the church/religion before they have a chance to make their own decisions and therefore a form of brainwashing. (Yes, he's a little psychotic over dramatic extreme.) He's very against it. I'm fine with that. Whatever makes him happy. But while I was pregnant, we discussed it occasionally, and he didn't even ever want to let Ally go to Mom's house on a Saturday night to avoid the issue with her. I don't think playing in the church nursery or Sunday school or whatever is going to scar the child at the rate she's going (once in over 2 years). We butted heads. I got him to grudgingly admit that he overreacted based on the fact that he was dragged to church all the time growing up (??? His mom and dad say this wasn't so. Rob has a horrible memory, so I'm betting on them. The only ones that went to church all the time were the grandparents, and so it couldn't have been more than the summers that Rob was forced to go. But I can't argue with him). he still isn't thrilled with the idea, but we tabled the discussion. So when I agreed to let Ally go to Mom's I conveniently left that little detail out of the picture. Rob happily didn't think about it, and life was grand. Then Christy brought it up in front of Rob at the party. Rat-fink sister! She didn't even take a hint and shut up about it when I gave her "the look". He didn't get upset by it though. We both would have been happier if he hadn't had to know, (He said this himself) but oh well. Ally had a good time and it won't happen again for a couple months most likely. Rob can put his head back in the sand by then.

**exception to this rule is another story for later.

(I remembered )

Barefoot and Pregnant part 1
The first time was pregnant, I was absolutely obsessed with my baby. I still am. I'm not really obsessed with this one though. I've been there before. I've thumbed through all The books that I read The first time, and find myself thinking "What The fuck?" These are The books that I consulted for everything. I read and re-read them, and made notes and remembered what week The baby got hair, and fingernails, and so and and so forth. Most of what they tell you is useless if you have a "normal" pregnancy with no complications. Why does it matter when The baby gets eyelashes? They'll be there at 40 weeks, right? Anyway, here are some of MY observations about being pregnant that The books really don't tell you about enough.

1. Heartburn is not just a minor inconvenience. Sometimes it's going to feel as if you're trying to digest your tonsils. Your husband isn't going to understand. The phrase "It's just heartburn" might be mentioned. If so, The best thing to do is NOT to follow your first impulse and pour acid down his throat, but instead to smile sweetly and tell him to "Fuck off" and have some heartburn medicine washed down with a glass of milk. Milk helps. And if, your happen to go into labor while you still have heartburn, whatever you do, don't let him convince you not to take anything because you're in labor. Labor doesn't make The heartburn any better.

2. The baby doesn't understand that sometimes, you need your lungs to breathe with. So instead of waiting for her to figure it out and move on her own, push, prod, jiggle, and poke her out of The way. She's just a fetus. She doesn't know that if you don't get enough oxygen, she won't either. No matter what your husband says, she won't hold this against you. She doesn't care if you poke your belly and make her move. What better way has she got to spend The day? Jump up and down for that matter. Wake her up. God knows she'll be rudely waking you up for The rest of her life until she learns to sleep through The night. This is The only time in The baby's life that you can mess with her without having The possibility that she'll scream at you. Take advantage of it.

3. Leg cramps suck ass. Eat lots of bananas. Even if your baby doesn't like them. The baby isn't going to like a lot of things in The future, but right now, she doesn't have much chance of screaming at you, so eat away.

4. Before you start to get a big belly, sleep on your stomach as much as possible. You don't know how much you miss it until it's impossible to do. It's going to be a long time until you're able to do it again, especially if you have a c-section.

5. Ditto for sex. Well, not exactly ditto - don't sleep through it on your stomach, but some positions get, um... tricky after a while. Make The most of it before this happens.

6. Be as lazy as possible. You've got years of headaches coming up. Rest now. You'll need it.

7. Try not to get a headache, cause ibuprofen is verboten and Tylenol sucks ass.

8. There is no "good time" to be pregnant. People that tell you they got pregnant "in May so that they wouldn't have to be huge during The summer" or "in September, so I could be home for maternity leave during The summer" etc are asses. Tell them to "Fuck off" unless they are congratulating you on your great planning or something. Then feel free to take credit. But, rest assured, at some point, your pregnancy is going to suck. It's all worth it, and that can make you feel a little better, but it's still going to suck. No matter what season.

9. Feel free to tell anyone and everyone around you to "Fuck off" it's your best chance ever to be cantankerous and blame The hormones. If someone pisses you off, you don't have to take it - You're pregnant.

10. Stay in The hospital as long as possible after giving birth. It may be boring, but it's not real life. You need a rest before starting "real life". For god sakes you just had a baby! See if you can stay a month.

P.S. Part 2 will be coming next week. There are a lot of good things about being pregnant that no one mentions too.

(I remembered )

okay, so this was mmy weekend
Thursday night, Darra came up to stay, I felt like crap. She gave Ally a bath for me. Yay. we talked a while, and everyone went to bed. She had to go to a nearby hospital for work the next day, and planned on soming back and spending the evening with Ally and I (even though Rob was at work. I'm so glad I don't have one of the annoying as hell mother-in-laws that some people have. I actually like mine. I did have to tell her not to fold dirty clothes though. She's at the house often enought that I couldn't let it go anymore. Darra I love you, but dirty clothes get wadded up and thrown in the dirty clothes pile or basket or something. Every time you leave, I have to wander around the house trying to figure out what's clean and what's not. (She says they take up less space in the laundry basket if they're folded.) I'm not a super-house-cleaner, and laundry sometimes sits around for a week. I'm pregnant, and can't remember what we've all worn since the last time I did laundry. She took it well, and I hope I didn't offend her and she's not telling me, but I really couldn't take it anymore) Anyway... (Have any of you seen that episode of Friends where Phoebe goes off on this long crazy tangent and everyone looks at her like she's crazy, and then she gets done and Rachel is trying to find something to say. Then Ross says "I believe the word you're looking for is 'Anyway...'? Rob uses that around the house a lot. I go off on tangents a lot. Now where was I?)

Anyway... Friday morning, Darra convinced me to go in late. She didn't have to leave for work until 10, so she played with Ally and let me go back to sleep. I slept too late and forgot to call in, so everyone at work was worried about me, and caled me at home. Really, I'm just pregnant. Nothing is likely to go wrong. I've done this before. They thought I was lying in a puddle of blood on the floor dying or something. I don't at all remember what we did Friday night. I think we just sat around and played and talked. It was uneventful.

Saturday, Darra was planning on leaving around 5 or so, and let Rob and I run around without the baby in the morning. We went looking at floors. Aren't we pathetic? We get a babysitter, and we go look at laminate floors. (God, I don't even want to be our friend.) Remind me to tell you about the floors some time. It'll be nice and boring just like the rest of my life. Then we all decided to go shopping. Darra was looking for something - I just can't remember what. Have I mentioned my memory is shot? I can't recall - and we were gonig to look at dressers to replace the one that used to be in Ally's room. It was much larger than was needed. And, Darra wanted to get some paint at Walmart to paint the letters that she bought for Ally's room (A-L-L-Y) and buy us a fake tree to put in the "money" area of our house. She's wants to fung-shway-ing the house (I know that's spelled wrong. Whatever) and we would like to have a tree so it works out great. The trip out took much longer than planned, and took a very different course. We ended up buying 3 dressers (little 3-drawer one) and they are in our room. And a corner computer desk. We'll probably go back and get 2 more of the dressers (1 for each kid) but they were all out. So we got home about 7 and it was too late for Darra to go home, so we plopped Ally down in front of the Dora videos and went to the garage to put everything together. Every time a Dora would end, Ally would yell "Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy" and we would say "Another Dora is coming on" and she'd be wonderfully happy and repeat that to herself until the next episode started. Poor kid. But we got stuff put together, and the next morning, we got stuff moved out and the new stuff moved in, and then we went bad to the evil Walmart and bought 2 small filing cabinets, and a shelf, and had to put them together too. My god it was tiring.

Here's the amazing part. (At least I think it was Sunday night. Have I mentioned my memory is shot?)

Rob gave Ally a bath that night

This is only news becuase I can count on one hand how may times he's done that (or at least I could if I kept track of such things so exactly. Does anyone know how to count to a miniscule amount?) Granted, I did have to go in and piss her off wash her hair, but since I was in charge of putting things back together in the disaster that is now our room, I had other things to do during the rest of bath time. I'm not even going to complain that he didn't bother to wash thte bath crayon off the bathtub before he got her out. Not very much at least, because that is a very small price to pay for having him help with bath time.

Anyway, that was our weekend. Here comes another one

P.S. I forgot to tell you. Ally's sleep schedule was so screwy that she slept in until 9:15 Saturday morning, and 8:20 Sunday (And we were making a lot of noise that probably woke her up Sunday) No nap Saturday, and a 3 hour nap Sunday. Weird. She has never slept that late in her life!

computer
PC's piss me off sometimes. Mostly, though, it's my husband that does the pissing off, and the computer that's just an Innocent bystander. yesterday, I get this phone call at work. Now, keep in mind that I actually have work to do, and know barely anything about the operating system functions and hardware stuff. What I know is limited. The conversation goes something like this:

Me: Hello
Rob: Hi, what's up?
Me: Not much
Rob: Well, the computer is broken.
m: what do you mean?
r: I tried to plug in my jump-drive, and the USB ports aren't working
m: okay...?
r: So I did this and this and this and this and spent a half hour on the phone with tech support, and it still doesn't work.
m: okay...?
r: Well, I thought that since you work with a bunch of computer geeks, you would be able to talk to people and see if they know what's wrong.
m: I haven't even looked at it and don't know anything about it. I'm not going to be able to give them enough information to fix it, especially if tech support couldn't even help you. If you or I can't fix it, we'll have to have someone look at it. And, I am currently at work, and can't do anything about it.
r: well, you're the one who broke it.
m: .......
r: Don't get pissy, I'm just saying
m: I didn't do anything except put it back together after we moved it.
r: I'm not blaming you. But you took it apart, and you put it back together, and now it doesn't work. You broke it. It's a side-effect of what you did.
m: what do you want me to do about it from here.
r: I said, tell one of your computer friends, and see if they have any ideas.
m: okay.
r: You don't have to be pissy about it.


GRRRRRRR

Does that sound to anyone else, like he's blaming me? 'Cos it sure sounded like it to me. This is why I hesitate to do anything like that around the house. He assures me that he thinks I'm capable of doing something, but god forbid, something goes wrong! Even if it's easily fixable. Like the other day when we put those dressers together we bought. (Did I tell you about that? I'll have to check) I put the tracks on upside down. All it took to correct that was unscrewing them (with the electric drill) and switching the sides and screwing them back down. Added maybe 5 minutes to the process. I just feel like I'm not allowed to make an honest mistake. And I have no idea what happened to the USB ports. I did nothing that I haven't don't 100 times before.

I hate school. he's so much more irritable when he's in school.

(I remembered )

sneezing
This weekend, Ally almost made Rob aspirate grape juice. She sneezed, and thought it was funny. She told me to "do it again" I told her she's the one who sneezed, she had to do it again. So she stood there, trying so hard to sneeze. She got that far-off look in her eyes, and let her mouth hang slack, and everything. Then she looked at us and said - in the most confused tone - I can't. Maybe you just had to be there, but it was freakin hilarious.

Let the weirdness be exposed
OK, I've been too busy reading other blogs to update mine yet this week, but ran into something interesting that will let me tie the two together. MFA Mama has asked everyone to write 5 weird things about themselves. (Yes, I know that subject/verb tense was wrong. Bite me. This is my blog, and I can do what I want) I left some in the comments there, but the idea intrigued me. So I decided to continue on that theme here instead of hi-jacking her comments section anymore. It took me a while to get started, but now I'm thinking of weird things left and right. This one is wedding themed. I'll probably do more later.

1. At our wedding, we each had three people standing with us. 1 relative, and 2 of the other person's friends. Rob's groomsman were my friends and my bridesmaids were his.
2. I had slept with one of the groomsmen in the past and Rob had slept with one of the bridesmaids. Yes, we grew up in small towns.
3. Neither of us thought this was weird, but everyone else that I tell seems to.
4. We served hamburgers and brats for our reception dinner.
5. We went bowling with our friends after the reception.
6. I found our clergy person in the Shopper (a free Classifieds paper). He was an idiot, but said what we told him to. He said he was non-denominational, but I think he was just in it for the money.
7. His wife was scheduled for a c-section the day before the wedding (I think. It might have been the day of.)
8. That's the 3rd sentence I've ended in a preposition so far.
9. Rob never asked me to marry him. We kinda just decided to set a date. When we got back together that time (We broke up umpteen million times in our "courtship") we just decided it was forever, or nothing. We now own guns. No divorce allowed. We've made a pact: If it's bad enough to get a divorce, it's bad enough to die for.*
10. The first date we picked for our wedding was a week after the final one. We had to change it because my 2 groomsmen were already scheduled to be groomsmen in another wedding that day. (That marriage lasted about 9 months. We ran into a bunch of our friends at McDonalds about 2 years later killing time before the guy's second wedding.)

okay, that's it for now. more weirdness to come.


*That sounds kinda extreme, but it is. Both our parents got married and divorced enough that we just don't want to do it to the kids. Now, if either of us believe that the kids are being harmed by us being together, that falls under the "it bad enough to die for" category, 'cos we'd do anything for our kids. It is just so miniscule a possibility that it's not worth tihnking about.

trivia thing
Okay, so I saw this on someone else's blog, and thought it was funny. Here's what I got back

And he's not even pregnant!
i just had to make a quick trip across town to rescue my husband. He locked himself out of his car at BestBuy. Haha. he gives me such crap because I do it all the time. I think it's just freaking hilarious. Even though I have to work through part of my lunch tomorrow now. I'm going to have to bring this up whenever he makes fun of me now.

Too much poop I guess
You know how I mentioned before that I think the ads at the top of the page are based on the content of my posts? What do you make of this?

stage two has begun
Stage 2 of the Great Toddler Bamboozle has begun. Sunday afternoon we moved her bed to the toy room. it seems to be going pretty well so far, but I expect that to come to a crashing halt soon. It always does.

Haha, I just re-read that post I linked to above. "Ally stays in her bed." Heeheehaha. While she was getting her canines in (She has 2 coming in and they're not all the way in, but they seem to not bother her as much as they did before) I couldn't keep her in bed. We went through about 2 or 3 weeks of constant wakings and screaming at night. For some reason, she wanted to sleep with me. She's never wanted that before. I have no idea why it stopped (now that I'm writing about it though, I'm fucked, cause it'll start up again) unless it's her teeth that have stopped hurting so much but things have gone back to normal. Which means I only have to wake up for 1 or 2 times in the night, and tell her to lay down and put her mobile on and she does. She's awake about 30 seconds, but I have to try to go back to sleep after that...

Darra is coming up tonight though, and her bed is kinda hidden under a mound of crap. I either have to clean it up tonight, or she has to sleep on the couch. Oops

Oh my aching back
How is it that kids know when to kick you when you're down? My back hurt so bad last night for some reason. Ally wouldn't stop climbing on me and wanted me to sit on the floor with her. I mostly curled up in a ball on the floor and waited for her to get tired of it. Rob tried to convince her that he was hurting me and making me sad. Then she came over and said "I'm sorry" and hugged me about 50 times and made me feel guilty.

I just wanted to stretch out on my belly and pop my back, but I can't because my belly is the currnet home of baby #2, and I don't want to crush her. So instead iI just suffered in silence bitched all night. Rob was finally able to pop it a little for me, and that felt so good, but then I had to sit hunched over Ally's bed to read to her and tightened up again. It's better this morning Thank God.

Anyone want to buy a car?
We got a VERY nice Christmas present from Rob's sister. It's a chance to not have a car payment. This is what happened.

For a long time, Rob's dad has been worried about Rob's Bonneville (green). It's old, but still runs. It has 170K miles on it, and may die tomorrow, but may run another year or two. Rob has taken good care of it. Rob's dad has also been worried about Jennifer's (Rob's sister) car. It's a Bonneville (white) with 120K miles on it. She hasn't done as many things maintenance-wise on it, because she's not as car-savy as Rob. It has a small antifreeze leak and everyone says it's going to die soon without some work. She got a chance to buy a new car, and did. Now, Rob's dad wants us to sell Rob's car cause it's older, and drive Jenn's, because it's in better condition. (I drive a 2002 Buick Regal. I get the good car 'cause I have the baby) No one really knows if it really IS in better condition or not, but everyone knows that Rob is hard on cars and expects his to die any day.

So Rob took the train up to Chicago and picked it up and said it does run better than his. he checked the leak, and says it's not important - not hurting anything. I hate Rob's car. It has leather bucket seats, and I can't see over the dash. I feel like I'm drowning in the seat. Jenn's has a cloth bench seat. I can drive it. So I convinced everyone to let me drive it. The beauty of it all is that Rob is happy, 1- because he LOVES Bonnevilles 2- because he knows that he'll still get to drive a Bonneville when one of them dies and I get a new car (van) and 3- it allows us to sell the Regal and get his dad's name off the loan ('cos he had to co-sign for it). I'm happy because I get to save around $250 a month, and it has more room in the backseat for two kids. Rob's dad is happy because he gets his name off the loan but still worried that one will break down. We've convinced him that if that happens, he can co-sign another loan for us and we can get a better car - or - better yet, if we don't have a car payment for long enough, maybe he won't have to co-sign anything.

Anyway, we got a free car. All we had to do was title and insure it. So, does anyone want to buy a Regal?

stayed up past my bedtime
am now very tired. But happy. Rob and I stayed up last night looking at bills, and such, and found out we are in a better place than I thought. Most semesters, when student loan money comes in, we already have it spent. This year though we finally managed to get it almost all directed toward our huge mound of debt instead of new purchases like a laptop or something equally expensive. Yay for us. Only problem is that it's Rob's last semester, and we'll probably have to start paying on it before he gets back to school since he's taking a year off at least. oh well. We're making progress.

terrible twos
OH MY GOD. I think I've gone round the bend. I've officially lost my mind. I can't take anymore. Why did I ever want another kid? (Ok, I know the answer to that one) I think there's a certain pitch that only your own child can reach with her screaming. When they hit that pitch, it makes you want to do anything possible to shut them up. Then reason sets in and tells you that you can't give in, or she is in charge, and instead, it makes you want to do anything possible to rip out your own eardrums, and scream Please God make it quit!

It all started over supper. I made her chickens. She likes chickens. I also got her out some oranges. She loves oranges. But, she's been stuck on this green applesauce kick lately, and I thought it was time for a little variety in her diet, (Hah, like a choice of 7 things she eats is variety. anyway...)She threw a fit yelling for green applesauce. Then she yelled for fish sticks, then she yelled that she doesn't like orange juice (which is a lie!!!!!) then she yelled I want Mommy, but she didn't really. She just wanted picked up so that she would be closer to the cabinets that hold the food. She yelled for muffins (which we're out of). She yelled for smiles (those little off-brand fruit snacks) I calmly ate my dinner and told her that she could have anything she wanted AFTER she ate some chickens. She screamed for 40 minutes. That's way too long for my sanity. I'm not holding on too tightly these days anyway. She finally distracted herself with some stuffed puppies, and promptly forgot we were fighting. That was at 6 - 6:45

8:15 rolled around, and I needed some peace and quiet, so I turned on Dora to let her calm down for the evening. Ok, just because I wanted her to leave me alone. I'm a horrible person. I asked her if she wanted to eat some chickens, and she said "Yeah" and climbed up nito her chair and ate them. She had finished off 2 already before my head threatened to explode, and I had to come downstairs to get away. WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH THE CHICKENS 2 HOURS AGO???????? ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

update: I just checked on her, and she has eaten all 5 of the chickens. The child will kill me yet. You just wait and see

visit with grandma
I forgot to tell everyone that I had a night off last week. Rob was at work, and Ally went to my mom's and stayed the night. Hooray for me. I went out to dinner with a friend and spent way too much time on the internet, and went to bed late and got up late and used up all the hot water in the shower I was in there so long, and I still made it to work early and felt refreshed. I love her to death, but boy, it was good to have a night off. She, of course, had a great time.

brain-sucker
Anyone who hasn't ever been pregnant just can't appreciate the sheer mindlessness of it. By this, I mean that the baby sucks out your mind. It's not there anymore. I was talking to someone the other day about it, and said that I need to make a list to go to the bathroom. She laughed, but I wasn't joking. At work, the bathroom is next to the vending machine with water bottles. I sit at my desk and think, "I'm thirsty." So I get out my $.65 and stand up. Inevitably, when I stand up, I think, "I have to pee." So off I head to the bathroom with money in hand. In hand because 99% of maternity pants don't have pockets in them. So, I shuffle the change around or leave it on the counter until I'm done washing my hands, pick it up and walk out of the bathroom with it. Where do I go? back to my desk of course. Then I sit down and put the money on the desk. I look at it and a light bulb goes on, and I walk back to the vending machines. This happens ALL. THE. TIME.

I make lists constantly. Only problem is that I can never remember to take the lists with me when I need them.

Twice this year I've loocked myself out of my car. It's only January 17th! See, what happens is this: We're too cheap to buy extra ignition keys for our car. They have that anti-theft thing on them, that makes them cost like $70 each. No thanks. So what we do is... Rob and I both have door keys. We keep the ignition key in the car. Rob has forced me to start the car and let it warm up before driving to work in the morning, so... I go outside, unlock the doors, start the car, go back in and finish getting ready, have 5 fights with Ally trying to get her dressed and her hair brushed, feel proud for getting her in the car, hit the button on the garage door remote, and drive to work. Throughout this, I have usually forgotten that either I took the door key back inside, or that it's laying on the seat, because I have no pockets (see above). When I get out I lock the doors, and have no keys to get back in. The first time I had to call a locksmith (which my insurance has reimbursed me for. YAY). The second time, I had a back-up plan in place. (I say first and second meaning this year. This has happened to me many times before, and Rob has always bailed me out, but he isn't always in town to do that) I copied the keys to the house and car and put a set in my desk at work. They are now accessible 24 hours a day. I also put a car key in Ally's cubby at day care, so if I lock myself out while picking her up, she doesn't have to wait for me to catch a cab to work and back. How pathetic is that?

my god, I've been lazy over here, haven't I
I actually had work to do at my job last week. I'm not exactly happy about it though. It's work that shouldn't have needed done. Let me bore you to death tell you about it.

First, I coded (I'm a programmer) something according to the way the (l)users told me. Now, they're in testing and say "Well, that's not the way we wanted it to work". So, now it's got to be changed.

Second they say "Well, such and such wasn't supposed to happen" Well, did you tell me that in the first place? No.

These 2 things wouldn't really be that much work, they are just annoying, because had I been informed, I could have done it in the first place.

The Third thing though... oh, that kinda drove me insane (and is what I'm supposed to be working on now, but hey, my server is booting up, so I've got a minute). They told us to delete one little line out of the instructions. Not a big deal? That one little line put a restriction on who was eligible to file. If that restriction is no longer there, quite a few of our edit checks are no longer supposed to be there too, and it completely changes the way we allow people to login to the form!!! GRRR. When this was brought up, the lady in charge of the (l)users says "Did I not tell you taht before?" This is supposed to done and tested and deployed in 2 1/2 weeks. Grrr. Now, I have to get back to work.

CRAP
Well, I haven't talked about poop for at least a week, so I thought that it was safe to share this with you. No doubt you will find it funnier than I did.

I just came downstairs to use the bathroom, and had to rush back upstairs to the sounds of oh no, and anhhhh. i got there and saw the baby with her panties at her ankles, and a big blob of poop behind her. It seems that she pooped in her panties and then didn't liek the feeling much, so tried to take them off. She was very disturbed by the poop on the floor. Me too. I have to go do some laundry now

going bananas
Even if I hadn't seen the new baby's little (lack of a) pee-pee in the sonogram, I would know it's a girl. We're already having issues. She doesn't like bananas or something.

Every time I eat a banana, I get terrible heartburn. Now, bananas are supposed to be bland enough that they don't cause much problem. HA. My baby doesn't like them. The banana hits her system, and she immediately starts rolling around swimming toward my stomach, so she can squeeze it and try to make the banana leave the hard way. Well, I'm not letting her win! I will eat the bananas anyway! I won't win any fights with her after she's born, so I'm determined to win this one.

Because I have started getting leg cramps already. Oh my god, they hurt. Potassium helps avoid that, thus the bananas. I woke up the other night at 2:30 am almost screaming in pain. I couldn't even move my toes. I had to walk around for 20 minutes before I could go back to sleep, and still had residual pain left in the morning. Some things about pregnancy suck!