Cool Site

So, I was writing a post about the tunes on my i-pod and how those are very personal; I like my tunes and really don't care for anyone else's tunes and correspondingly, other folks think my tunes suck. Anyway, in trying to find a link to a Jay-Z site for the song that Doug has on his list (99 Problems) that I don't like, I found a site that shows the lyrics to songs and translates them from slang. FUN! It appears to be done by someone who has English as their second language because the translation is odd. Plus, even I know that "hollaback girl" means the repeaters of the song in the "call and repeat" genre. Still fun, though.

Above is a gratuitous photo of my cousin Katie and Annika at Grammy's swim meet.

24:27 today. Doug is catching up fast.

News Flash

Many ladies wear clips in their hair (to twist it up) at the office so it's not just me being a slacker because I forgot to brush my hair or find a barrette before I left this morning.

Thank goodness. . . . blow-drying is still beyond my powers. And straightening, forget about it.

Tuesday

- Gratuitous photo of Dagny, apropos of nothing. It is proof, however, that she does have a neck under there somewhere.

Today was the last day of Annika's sports class. They played a soccer game, during which Annika had at least three temper tantrums because she didn't score a goal and her attempts at dribbling the ball were thwarted by the faster and more skillful kids in her class. She doesn't understand the concept of making a goal or going to the ball.

So, while Dagny was napping this afternoon, we busted out the ball and goal and practiced our soccer skills. I thought we were doing OK until Annika told me that she would rather play "roll" than soccer. Roll is the game where we both sit on the ground and roll or bounce the ball to each other. It took me a few minutes, but I finally understood that I'm not going to teach her a whole sport in one day and that maybe she isn't ready to learn it. For now, roll is better.

That doesn't mean that we won't practice our soccer skills (or t-ball or basketball or golf or whatever), just not so much at once or with pressure. It's supposed to be fun, after all. I was just so retarded at all sports that I wanted her to learn them early so she won't feel as uncomfortable/awkward/stupid doing them as I always did.

Better news - 24:24 around the loop this morning (good music today), that's 8.71 minute miles. : )

Team Z

This is my Grammy (in the lower lane at left) in her very first swim meet yesterday. She kicks ass. She went out too fast in her first race and got her breathing messed up (it was freestyle, which means the crawl) and then panicked and turned back but she would have finished second if she hadn't turned back. The lady who won was 89 and she was really fast. In Grammy's second race (finish shown below), she did a modified backstroke and came in second. She was quite upset about the disqualification - thinking about what she should have done differently and what she will do differently when she goes to the state meet in Warner Robins in September. She's quite a competitor, that Grammy.
She has hooked up with a great coach (Gil) who races in the 60-69 age group. He and his wife pick Grammy up and take her to the practices twice a week. Mr. and Mrs. Gil are apparently experienced senior competitors because they gave me the skinny on all of the swimmers and the shuffleboarders too. They are also encouraging Grammy to eat better and consume more protein, which is very cool. She likes to joke that she had to cut out the drinking and smoking because she's in training. When she told another swimmer this, the lady (a widow, she told me) quipped, "and sex too!"

Also in today's post are some photos of my girls from the post-dinner, dog-has-to-pee, let's-check-on-the-tomatoes tour of the yard. Doug is expanding the bed I made around the drainage ditch so that is why the grass is dead in one big place.
They were so cute out there - my little family, that I was trying to get a photo of Doug, Annika and Dagny all at once but was not able to capture them without a big blur. Apparently my hands are not so steady anymore.

In other news, I had a MUCH better run yesterday. It was still slow - 26:15 (9.375 minute miles), but I had my tunes. However, since the whole run wasn't painful and I didn't have to listen to my tortured gasping, it was a great improvement.

Slooooow Feeeeeeeet

Today I had the day off. My sitter is available on Mondays and Wednesdays, which are the days I go to the office. Since I went on the road trip on Monday, I have too many hours for this week so my boss (budget conscious, don't you know) said to take today off. Annika had her Mother's tea at school this morning. We went to that together and then I was free. Free to do what? The eye doctor, haircut and car repair appointments I needed were unavailable today so I dropped some old clothes at Goodwill, filled the car with gas, went to the dry cleaners, recycled the grocery bags and left Cole's bike helmet at his house. That took exactly 1/2 an hour so I was free to run. Unfortunately, it began to rain so I went to the clubhouse to do the treadmill.

As Natalie says, the treadmill is unsatisfying. After plodding for five minutes, I noticed that the sidewalk outside the window was not wet - HOORAY! I busted out of the building and went for a run around the block. It may have been the weather (very humid today), or my allergies, or the forgotten i-pod, or the partial muffin I ate at the tea - excuses, excuses. I'm just plain out of shape. This was the worst run I've had since before I had Dagny. There was no channeling Natalie; no runner's high. I slogged my 2.8 miles in 26:35 (9.59 minute miles).

Lessons from Abroad

OK, not really abroad, or afar - but lessons from my trip with the consultant yesterday:

1. People are easier to misunderstand and misread and misjudge on the phone or email. The consultant was perfectly nice and sucked up to all of my business folks (even the one who doesn't care for me).

2. It was a GREAT idea to have the car cleaned with my Christmas gift certificate. Two different folks came over to inspect it because they were thinking about getting one.

3. I should have removed the car seat. It was pure laziness to leave Dagny's seat in the car, but I should have known that the consultant would be taller than me and therefore unable to fold comfortably into the front seat with it so far forward.

4. My husband rocks. Not only did he take morning and evening duty with the girls and interface with the sitter (I was gone from 6am-7:45pm), he loaded the Wall Street Journal and a book onto my i-pod and charged it up so that I would have something to listen to on the road.

5. Moms and Dads who have to pack up for daycare every day are superparents. It took me all of Sunday evening to get the lunches, breakfasts and bottles made and to pack all of the bags.

6. Packing my own cooler with water, poptart and apple was genius.

7. Never forget your photos of the kids. Two separate folks (not the same as the car folks) asked to see photos and I wasn't able to log onto my computer so I couldn't show them.

8. Phone charger would have been a good addition to my bag. When you are out of range, the phone searches for a signal a lot, which wears the battery down.

9. Maalox. Nerves + stress + road food = bad.

Measuring

This morning, Annika and Doug were preparing to leave the house to go to Home Depot for some screws. Our back windows keep flexing when it is windy and bursting the locks open so Doug is going to screw them closed so that the rain stays outside. That will be fine until I fill the kitchen with smoke (again) and need to open the windows to let it out - HA!

Anyway, Doug was helping Annika unlock the door and turn the knob to leave and I noticed that Annika's head is just a bit taller than the door knob. Turn now, and look at your door knob and imagine the top of her head being just taller than the top of the knob. She is really tall - it is simply amazing to me to think that the little bundle who moved in here with us is now that big.

Tomorrow I'm going to a rural location for work (all day trip - 6am until about 8pm) with the consultant, who, when I explained that I could not make his preferred time for the Thursday meeting because I am going to see my grandmother swim in the senior olympics, said "at least you have your priorities." Damn straight, asshole.

Miscellany

This is Dagny, in mid-bounce on her exer-saucer. It isn't the best photo of her, but I posted it because she looks suspiciously similar to photos of me when I was this age. Bald, big forehead, vacant expression . . . just kidding. It's funny how you can see flashes of me or Doug or my sister or Doug's mom in our girls. But only flashes and then they are just themselves again. Dagny is a lover. She likes to give hugs and big open-mouthed "kisses". She is sleeping better now that we've moved to the bottle though some nights she wants to get up at 2 or 3.

Below, Annika is riding the police motorcycle at the City of Alpharetta "Touch a Truck" event. Imagine a zillion kids and every kind of truck all parked together for the kids to look at, touch, pretend to drive, etc. It was very fun, but Aunt Jennie and Aunt Sara and I decided that there should be a "no honking or sirens" rule. Too loud. Annika was scared of the bigger trucks in person and refused to get on them for a photo. I think they were too tall for her. If I'd not had Dagny with us I could have jumped up there with her, but not this year. Please also note that I've learned to part Annika's hair before doing her braids. No small feat, with that many curls, but it looks much cuter than the usual jumbly division between the sides.

Aunt Jennie and cousin Sophie joined us (and Sara and Eve) for touching the trucks. Jennie is not loving her hair right now, but I think it is cute. Soph was a bit overwhelmed by all of the truck mayhem (who wasn't?) and kept her smiles hidden from us. What I didn't manage to get a photo of was Jennie enticing (all it took was "wanna race?") Annika to race her on the football field. The park has a killer synthetic field. It feels like real grass, only cushier. Anyway, Jen and Annika would get on the line in the runners crouch and "on your mark, get set, go!" and Annika would run all the way to the goal line and back. Of course, sometimes Annika left before "go" and frequently she was the only one running, but it was hilarious. She is going to be our runner. I have to brag that she was the only kid in her sports class that managed to run the bases at the tee-ball demonstration (where the parents get to watch) without help from the teacher. Naturally, the teacher told me after class that she was running around like a wild woman and not staying on task during the class. Oops. There are no photos of this event because I've learned that Annika fades under the pressure of a camera or video camera. You will just have to take my word for the fact that she kicks ass.

Appreciation

It's funny how the working outside the home really makes me appreciate not working outside the home.

No Tunes or Tucking

So, our new plan is to get up early a couple of mornings a week and let me run while Doug showers. Doug conveniently wakes me up as he is leaving for his run. Today I did the loop in 26:03 (9.3 minute miles), which is not bad considering that the lights went out as I was leaving and it was too dark to see to turn on my i-pod. Funny how the music keeps you on a good pace. The neighborhood was eerily dark and quiet - electricity seems to create a hum that you don't notice when you go about your business but is quite apparent when it is missing. We had been sharing the lone remaining pair of earbuds (out of 4 known pairs) but wearing sweaty buds grossed me out so bad that Doug hasn't been using his tunes. I was able to get two prospective replacement pairs at Target today so we will see if they are OK. The sweaty reflective vest is also gross but we both still wear that so that we don't get run over.

When I dressed for work on Monday, I could not find any pants that fit well enough to tuck my shirt in. I thought that weaning would cause my remaining baby/get pregnant weight to go away - not so! The boobs are gone, but apparently they have just migrated to my waist. After trying on all possible pants in my closet, I decided to go untucked (horrors!). I steeled myself for the "oh, she's such a slob" and "hmm, not a serious employee" looks as I went into the office. Imagine my surprise upon noticing that NO ONE at the office was tucked except for one really skinny lady. Furthermore, I just noticed that the model in the shirt photo in the link above is also untucked. Maybe tucking is out.

Good Morning

Doug got up at some point during the night and went downstairs because he was afraid his coughing would keep me up. So, he was up extra early and woke me at 5:23 to say that he was going for a run and that I could go while he was showering if I wanted to.

Would I ever! It was a lovely morning - we are low in elevation so I got to run through a cloud. I didn't get to do a warm up or cool down, but I did the loop in 24:42 (that's 8.82 minute miles), exactly one second slower than on Saturday.

And, Dagny slept from 8:30-7:30 and just rolled over ALL BY HERSELF without screaming or vomiting. It's a whole new world here.

Drama

Last night we went to see our favorite high school freshman's last home lacrosse match. No one (including the other folks in the stands, who presumably would have been to more games than us) understood the rules of the game, but we cheered for Megan and Roswell won so all was good . . .

until we got home after dinner and realized that Dogarita (shown at left) was missing. Doug jumped back in the car and drove back to the school to see if she was in the bleachers, but was foiled by the locked gates and the security guard shooing everyone away because of the thunder and lightning.

So, this morning, we loaded up the car and went to search. No Dogarita in the bleachers. The ladies in the office didn't laugh at us, but we had to sit and wait for a custodian to show up. This made me nervous because Dagny was asleep in the car (yes, I know, call DFCS - but it was overcast and the windows and roof were cracked and she was fast asleep until we got back in the car) but eventually a nice woman came and trekked back to the field with us to check inside the concession stand. No Dogarita.

Defeated, we thanked her profusely and copied down the website of the lacrosse boosters to see if anyone found her and took her home. Then, as we were nearly back to the car (passing a place we had passed twice on our visits to the field and concession stand), Annika said "there she is!" and there she was, wet and bedraggled but still wearing her pink pajamas. She has had her bath now (in pillowcase with the white clothes) and is asleep with her mommy, safe and sound.

The End of the Boob As We Know It

Before Dagny was born, I said that I would breastfeed for six months since that is how long Annika did it before she decided she was done. That was always the plan. I really was looking forward to having my boobs back and stopping the weird menopausal symptoms that occur when I am breastfeeding. Doug was also looking forward to the end for obvious reasons and also because there is only so much of me whipping it out in public that anyone wants to see. Dagny didn't really care - once she learned to drink from a bottle, as long as the food comes, she does not care about the delivery method or contents.

So, last week Dagny was six months and since I was starting the job, I started weaning. Granted, the hormone shift when ceasing breastfeeding is huge, but it's really upsetting me. I know that my milk production is not a measure of my worth as a mother, and that Dagny would be stopping in the near future anyway as she learned to drink from a cup, but MAN - this is hard. It doesn't help that the stopping coincides with the beginning of working or that the ladies on my moms board gave me disapproval about it (I am hypersensitive, obviously). I thought I would just postpone getting rid of the nighttime and morning feedings because I really like that time with Dagny. It's hard not to be filled with love for her when she is cradled in my arms and I'm filling her full of the good stuff. Well, apparently, my body had other plans and there wasn't enough supply to keep Dagny asleep all night last night so we were up several times to feed and then to make a bottle. It sucked.

Too bad I didn't take more time to appreciate the joy of being able to do the feeding while it was happening. I'm bad about that - rushing though everything to get to the next thing. Doug always says that I should stop and enjoy stuff - I wish I would just listen to him sometimes.

Happy Easter

Dagny and Papa enjoying the pretty day. Dagny loves Papa's beard - she stares at any man with a beard as if she expects him to play with her.







Annika and Dagny playing on the swing. It's hard to catch both of them looking at the camera at the same time - forget about smiling.







Dagny and cousin Sophie watching the Masters with their moms last weekend. You can tell from the blurs that it is hard to catch them both while they aren't moving.




Annika in her Easter dress and headband that Nana bought her. In the background, from the left are Papa Fogle, Grampa Bachman, Grammie Bachman and Dad's torso. Dagny was trying to nap at this point, so she isn't in the photo.

Share the Load

So, I know that every stupid chain email in the world says this, (but I'm hormonal - what with the weaning and all) and I'm really thankful for my girlfriends (and friends who are not girls) today. Several of my friends are going through rough patches right now and it made me sad to hear of it. OK, it made me cry, but I'm hormonal.

Anyway, whenever I have a crappy day or something bad happens, I know that I can call a friend, or my sisters, or my Mom, or Doug and they will help me feel better about it. Sometimes men are more interested in "solving" than in the "talking me down" but sometimes that perspective is just as necessary - at least to me. And, if I just need the talking, I call a girlfriend and that works. They help me see the bright side and sympathize with me on the bad stuff.

So, anyway, my point is that I'm glad to share the load, whatever it is. You guys are valuable to me and whatever comes up, I'll do what I can to help out.

Shopping Hell

Since I start the new job tomorrow and haven't bought any professional clothes since 2001 or 2002, I went to several stores yesterday. It SUCKED. I'm just no good at shopping.

As I put on the clothes and tried to make mental notes of which sizes fit and which necklines were too revealing, I thought to myself, "this shouldn't be so hard - plenty of folks love to shop and would trade places with me in a heartbeat." My body is not an unusual size and I wasn't going anywhere pricey, so why couldn't I find anything to buy? I think that some people are gifted with the ability to shop and pick outfits, but I'm not - it was much easier when I wore a dark suit to work every day and simply rotated the blouse or shirt underneath and the jaunty scarf (it was the late 90s). A suit is like a uniform - takes all of the guesswork out of the equation. However, now that the world is business casual (and all blouses are slutty-looking), fashion retards like me are adrift.

I fell back on the old standby of khakis + button down shirt or sweater set , but I did get one skirt. We will see how much that gets worn. My friend Tina said that I could wear open-toed shoes with a skirt, but I'm still not sure. I'm the girl who wore camisoles under her blouses until 2000.

She Rolls!

Dagny rolled over (back to front) on Sunday! Hooray!

Penance

Today was Palm Sunday and in keeping with my Lenten promise to make it to Mass each week, I took both girls and went to Mass. Doug missed golf yesterday, so he was playing today and didn't get to join us. We missed the 9am Mass because Annika slept until 8:30, so you'd think I would have had plenty of time to make it to the 10:45 one. I would have had this time if I hadn't stopped at the ATM to get money for the second collection, because the cash I thought I had in my purse was missing (turns out I gave it to the babysitter on Friday).

Anyway, we made it to the church with about 5 minutes to spare. This is ordinarily plenty of time, but there were lots of Palm Sunday activities, so today was not an ordinary day. Dagny had fallen asleep in the car on the way to the church, so I thought she would sleep for a good part of the Mass and might wake about communion time. Since she was asleep, I thought we could sit in the sanctuary so that Annika could hear the music and see what was going on (and because it's a free-for-all of unrestrained screaming children in the cry room). A very nice and well-meaning usher sat us in the middle of a back row after the millions of folks who had been outside for the parade and palm demonstration came back in and filed past us. "Whew", I said to myself as we settled in, "we did it". The church was packed and there were people standing behind us and also against the wall behind them. It is at this point that if my life were a movie, an audience would have screamed "NO - Get Out of There!" or the evil stepmother would have cackled "FOOLS! Now I've got you! Ha, Ha, Ha!"

Annika could not sit still, but she was quiet so I thought we were OK. Then, midway through the first reading I noticed that Dagny was awake. Gulp. I let her relax in the carseat and concentrated on Annika because she was getting rowdy. Finally, I was able to occupy Annika with a pen and my notebook (for writing the things I'm supposed to remember) out of my purse, but Dagny was angry. So, I figured that I could just hold her - she is heavy, but Mass is only an hour. That worked for most of the second reading, but then she was hungry. Of course she was hungry - we follow the "Eat, Activity, Sleep, You" schedule from Babywise, so after Sleeping (even if it is only 15 minutes), there must be Eating. Knowing that my hooter-hider was not in the diaper bag, I whipped out the boob and tried to cover myself with Dagny's blanket. Dagny doesn't like to be covered while she eats, but I did the best I could with the blanket and my hand. Yes, my boobs are so small that I can cover most of them with the hand, so that worked reasonably well until it was time for the congregation to kneel.

In case you didn't know, in Christianity, Palm Sunday is the day you talk about the Passion (crucifixion) of Jesus. Accordingly, the reading of the Gospel on this day is a BIG DEAL. The one our priest chose to read called for the congregation to read parts out loud, while kneeling. This is a very moving way to read this particular passage from the Bible, and it would have been marvelous, except that kneeling individuals are approximately as tall as the back of the chair in front of them, affording them a bird's eye view of anything going on in any such chair, including breast-feeding, which is what I was attempting to do, discreetly, during this time. I tried to relax enough to allow the milk to flow and fed both sides until Dagny twisted away from the feeding. On a usual day, a period of "happy time" would have ensued. After eating, Dagny is usually chatty and pleasant for about an hour and a half. Unfortunately, today was not a usual day and she might not have eaten enough and she was hot (because of the million folks in church), so Dagny was ANGRY. Midway through the (very short) homily, she started to yell. I tried to bounce and shush her, but eventually gave up - put my huge diaper bag and carseat on our chairs and began to shove out of the row, intending to come back and retrieve the bag and seat from the chairs on the way towards the door. The same nice usher came to help escort us out (bless him) and we spent the rest of the Mass in the narthex (lobby). I had to discipline Annika while we were in the lobby, but Dagny was much happier in my arms out there and Mass went fine. I occupied Annika with returning to the sanctuary for both collections and communion and looking at the cool stuff in the narthex and the bag of cereal I keep for emergencies.

Now I am home and have fed us all, Annika is at the park with Doug, Dagny is asleep and I'm exhausted. I guess I could look at this morning in two ways. One way, I made a lot of stupid mistakes and should have gone to the cry room from the beginning. The other way - payback for forgetting it was Friday and having Steak Taco Paco at Mexican last week.

In other news, I did the 2.8 mile loop this morning (pre-dawn) in 25.02 minutes - 8.9 minute miles. I thought that I was running super-fast because I was channeling Natalie and good music kept coming up on my i-pod, but the time was not so great. Next week I'll do better.

Slow Day

Both girls are sleeping at the same time, so I have time to upload some photos. The first is Annika speeding around the cul-de-sac at Tara's house on the scooter. She and Charla (the blonde on the left) were fighting HARD over that scooter. As you can see, Annika thinks she won and is doing her Gene Simmons impression. Her new favorite hairstyle is braids and her hair is so curly that the braids themselves actually curl up at the bottom - a little bit like Pippi Longstocking.


In the past two weeks, Dagny has learned to sit in the high chair/booster seat and begun to eat solid food. Her current menu is rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, squash, sweet potatoes and bananas. The peas were too fibrous, so we've had to put them in the back of the cabinet for later. Maybe they would be OK if I mixed them with the bananas, which have an opposite effect, if you know what I mean. Dagny is thrilled to eat the solids and seems to like the chair. A water bottle is also great fun.











I swear that this photo was not sideways when I uploaded it. Anyway, it is Annika and she is saying "not me" to my question about who woke the baby. You may notice that she is standing in the doorway of the room that connects with Dagny's room. "Not me" - yeah, right.











After Annika's second haircut, we paused for a moment on the bench. Annika savored her mint and Dagny laughed at me.











Dagny wakes up happy. My photo composition and lighting are not awesome, but at least I've captured her mood.

Last night, Dagny slept from 9pm to 7am. As if that were not gift enough, she was babbling quietly in her crib at 7, so I snuck into the bathroom for a quick shower. When I emerged, she was back asleep and stayed that way until nearly 9am. HOLY COW! She could have been sleeping 12 hours a night for months now if I'd only have let her! Not really, because we have to get up and moving before 8 most mornings anyway so she would have been awakened (see above) regardless, but imagine the possibilities.

In other news, I am employed, temporarily and part-time. It will be interesting to see how we weather the change. I'm sure it will bring new appreciation for my current position. It's funny how moms who work outside the home can't wait to get home to see their kids and moms who don't work outside the home can't wait for time away. Maybe we should all be a little more thankful for the time we share with those kids. They sure are fun.

Not So Fast

On Monday, Doug's mom took Annika for lunch and decided to keep her all afternoon. It was found time for me! Dagny and I went for a run around the loop - 28.01 minutes (10 minute miles). We didn't set any speed records, but it was a lovely day and we got to wave to lots of neighbors who were also out enjoying the sunshine.

Yesterday, playgroup at Tara's house - you can see photos here and here. It's amazing how chaotic a group of toddlers can be!

In other news, the dog is sick again and I was up at 3:30am cleaning #1 and #2 out of the hallway.