Sweet Girl

So, I've got two filing cabinets in my car. I got them at the scratch and dent sale to (hopefully) tame the disasterous filing mess at our house/office. Anyway, when I picked Annika up from school yesterday, we talked about the filing cabinets as they are the largest thing in the car (even larger than pregnant mommy!) and hard to miss. I explained that Dad would need to help me get them out because they are too heavy for me to move by myself. Annika thought for a moment and said "Mommy, I can help you move them, please can I help you?"

Savoring

Annika has had clean underpants all day today (it's 1:36pm) AND has told me that she needed to use the potty. Then, she proceeded to actually USE THE POTTY. Commence the dancing now! We've also completed our errands for the day (Staples, Hallmark, Home Depot, dr visit) so we can both nap this afternoon. What more could a person ask for?

After writing the above, I thought to myself that someone without a toddler would not be so interested in all of this potty talk. Too bad, that is what happens when a person has a toddler - potty talk and compulsive s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g of the n-a-s-t-y-w-o-r-d-s.

No baby yet. The doc doesn't think it will be soon, either. In other news, I kicked ass in our tennis match yesterday - I guess that is a good trade for not being done with pregnancy yet.

Happiness is . . .

sitting on the front porch with your sweet girl eating popsicles after a busy day.

Haircut

Annika had her first haircut today. She sat on my lap in the chair while Miss Jeni wet her hair and trimmed the ends. It was not a big style change, but more of a "clean-up" and introduction to the hair place.

Baby Sister

Annika's baby sister is due in 3 weeks. The doc was worried that she is small, so we had to evaluate her size on the ultrasound yesterday. She looks "unremarkable" and is within the growth curve so she can stay in a bit longer. Lucky for me since Doug is golfing this weekend. The ultrasound tech thinks she will have a tiny pug nose - as if anyone related to Doug or me could possibly have a small nose.

Jealous

My friend Natalie posted on our mommies' forum about an upcoming race in which she is running. There is a 10K race also but Natalie is running the half marathon. I'm so jealous - can't wait until this baby is born and big enough so that I can run again!

The Potty Train

The potty train derailed this week. Annika wanted to wear underpants to school on Wednesday, so I let her. We talked at length about telling her teachers if she needed to use the potty or if her bottom needed to make pee-pee or poo-poo. I got her to repeat the directions back to me. Once at school, she resisted the teacher's attempts to put her on the potty and wet/pooped on BOTH sets of underpants and was in a pull-up when I showed up early to get her.

Given my increasing bulk and disappearing patience, I think we are going to wait on potty training until after the baby comes. I just can't deal with it right now. Yes, our friend's child is potty trained and he will be 2 in October. Yes, I probably should have tried to get Annika trained before she got negative at 2. Yes, I should be able to deal with the nasty public restroom visits, continual hand-washing, picking up the 28 lb child and wet/poopy underpants. But, no, I just can't. The train has left the station. Who knows when it will be back - I didn't get a schedule.

Hormone Central

Yesterday I had a meltdown. I was really thinking that without the stress of the move and first-time parenthood this time, I would be less prone to the post-partum issues that I had with Annika. Wrong - they are already here.

I hosted playgroup at our house yesterday morning/lunch. It was great fun and lovely to see everyone but I guess it was too hot and I got too tired. After I finished cleaning up, got Annika in bed for her nap, showered and put my feet up, Annika woke up (only a 1 1/2 hour nap). The "let's rest on Mommy's bed" plan did NOT work. My patience was gone so even with Mexican for dinner (my favorite night of the week), I snapped at everything Annika did. Granted, she did request the (none too clean) potty three times with no actual USE of the potty, and did stick her hand in the potty on one trip and put this hand in her mouth after I told her not to touch anything with it. When Doug finally told me to relax on the way home when I raised my voice about not throwing Dogarita out the window, I lost it.

I don't know how people have more than two kids. This does not bode well for me post-partum. Oh well, at least this time I won't be so resistant to drugs if the doc suggests them.

The Belly

Here is a photo of me and my friend Michele feeding my belly at my party this weekend. At 36 weeks pregnant and up 20.5 lbs so far, it feels like the belly is taking over.

Testing the photos

Here is a photo of Annika from last summer - she is showing me the ball. Very proud of having found it.

If this works, more photos to come soon.

surprise

On Monday night, Doug took Annika and the dog outside while I cleaned up after dinner. I heard screaming outside and went to make sure that everything was OK. When I got to the door, I found the three of them plus two neighbor girls running screaming through the sprinklers. Priceless.

Taking a moment

Sometimes the best moments in parenting are when you aren't with your kids. Annika started school today. She was very excited, got dressed up, had her picture taken and ran into her new room without a backward glance.

I persuaded her to give me a kiss and went to play golf in the beautiful weather. Nothing like 4 hours of alone time to rejuvenate the soul.

God's Eyes

I was raised in the Catholic faith but my husband and I were married in the Methodist Church. We had a Deacon from the Catholic Church come and bless the wedding so it is a "real" marriage in the eyes of the Catholic Church, and we did the preparation activities of both faiths. We are not big church-goers and did not really have a "church home" until we decided (I decided) it was time for kids.

We visited many churches and decided that the Methodist Church in our town was the place for us. I joined up (Doug was already a member) and we did our version of the church-going lifestyle. Recently, however, we've been discussing Annika's education and how we'd like her to go to a private school. There are many good private schools in our area, but there is one Catholic one that we particularly like (where my sister went). Doug's not been going to church anyway, so we decided that it wouldn't be any big deal to join up with the Catholic Church and go there while continuing to expose Annika to the Methodist Church when we go with Doug's folks. Then, when she (and baby sister) are older, they can decide whether they want to be Catholic or Methodist.

We joined the Catholic Church in our neighborhood, which is a very nice place. It's very interesting to attend mass after having been exposed to protestant services on a regular basis - provides much food for thought. Anyway, I went to church this weekend for mass and to see what donations we could bring/do for the hurricane victims and who should be there but the Deacon who performed our wedding ceremony.

To wed in the Catholic Church, you must promise to raise your children in the faith, which I did promise. I was not going to do it (having decided that it was better for us to be of one faith in the family), but now we are doing it. I think God was just keeping an eye on us the whole time.

God's Ears

After a difficult morning yesterday (child and dog peed on the floor and post office and Staples near the house were incredibly unhelpful), I vented a bit to Annika as I took our packages to the car in a huff. I told her how we would have to go to the other post office because these people were stupid. Granted, they were stupid - and unhelpful and SLOW, but I was out of line to say that to my kid.

So, after procuring lunch and visiting the pool, we got back in the car and went to the "good" post office (if there is such a thing) and got our errand completed, but Annika kept asking me about the stupid people and where they were. I think it was God's way of telling me to keep my trap shut in times of frustration.