Last weekend we went metal detecting. It was a lot more fun that I thought it would be and it kept us busy. Lauren really enjoyed crawling all over the playgrounds at the schools we went to. I forgot the camera on Saturday, but took these Sunday.

Okay, I'm goona go down now!

This is so fun!

Gotta get down now!

Hey! Mom, where'd ya go?


Man, these rocks are AWESOME!


Okay, time to swing now!


Or maybe I'll just bite the swing...whatever works.

Gotta stop for a picture with mommy.

All that playing made me hungry!
So hungry I'm eating the bottle! I might wither away if you don't hurry up and give me some food, woman!

To wean....or not

Lauren is a boobie-baby. When I started breastfeeding, my goal was to make it a year. Hooray! Almost there. I decided that after a year, we'd play it by ear, and wean when when we were both ready. Lauren is no where near ready. I, on the other hand, could be ready to at least wean from daytime nursing.

The kid loves her num-nums. She nurses now probably as much as she did when she was a newborn - at least 7-8 times a day. A few of those times are only for a minute or two, probably just for security reasons. She's not really into solids too much. I don't know if this is because she's nursing so much that she's not hungry, or if the opposite is true. Mabye she doesn't like solids, so she's nursing more. Either way, we offer solids at least four times a day, and most of the time everything ends up on the floor (she does this weird flicking thing with her food - flick! on the floor). She does eat a good dinner with us at night, but then she usually wants to nurse right away afterward, too.

Breastfeeding has been wonderful for us, but at this point it is getting a bit limiting. I need to work in the evenings, and I would love to go into the spare room, lock the door and stay in there for a few hours without being interrupted. Hell, even wearing a shirt during the day wouldn't be so bad (*knock knock* Crap someone's at the door, where's my shirt? I swear one of these days I'm going to answer the door without one on).

I'm not adverse to extended breastfeeding, and wouldn't mind continuing with the morning/night nursing sessions. I don't know. I know that nursing can be a great benefit during the toddler years, so part of me just wants to keep on keeping on. And then there's the whole sleep issue. How, exactly, do you get a kid to go to sleep without nursing them?

I guess at this point we're going to keep going, at least until Lauren starts to let up on the num-nums a little. At the same time, I'm going to try to start giving her milk in a cup during the day, and hope that helps lessen the frequency. We'll see!

Okay, so Peeler and I went to the mall today to do a Godiva shop, among other things, and every other person I saw was wearing mini skirts, leggings, and big belts. I feel like I've just stepped out of the 80s. There are some fashions that should just NOT come back. I'll admit that Peeler has a pair of leg warmers, but they were just too darn cute to pass up. I dunno, I guess Santa's gift of choice this year was 80s duds.

On another note, I'm totally loving Freecycle. In the past few weeks, I've gotten rid of so much clutter - the crib, ExerSaucer, old stroller, other random baby stuff....I love it! A lady is supposed to be coming tonight to pick up some more stuff. I really thought I'd be sad about seeing all the baby stuff go, but I'm not. I'm so ready to be past the baby stage.

Speaking of baby stuff - how exactly does one go about entertaining an almost-one-year old for long periods of time? Maybe this is bad - but I get so bored trying to entertain her all the time. Well, not all the time, because she's pretty good about playing by herself, but of course I need to play with her sometimes. After we do the ball rolling thing, ring stacking, reading a book or two, playing with the cat....I'm just out of ideas. I tried giving her markers today, but she was more into eating them than drawing with them. Any suggestions?

We've been swimming the last two nights. There are three very good reasons for this:

1. Swimming at night = No bath for Peeler. Yes, we're lazy.

2. Swimming at night = Very tired Peeler when we get done.

3. We are very boring people and sitting in the house sucks.

We finally got smart tonight and brough P's pajamas with us to the pool so that when we were done we could just change her right out of her suit into the pj's. Worked well. Smart mommy.

We have to go to Hooter's tonight to do a mystery shop. When I got offered the assignment, I asked Donald (because he's the resident Hooter's expert, lol), if we could do it since Peeler will have to be with us. He assured me that kids go there all the time, so we'll see. Peeler'll probably be looking at all the "hooters" and thinking, "Man, that's a lot of milk!" We'll see how it goes. I can't say I'm thrilled about it, but hey, it's $20 plus a free meal. I've only been to Hooter's once, and I swear it was just to play trivia.

Peeler's in a crappy mood today. I think she's getting ready to conquer another developmental milestone, because she's just been restless the past few days. She's really on the brink of talking, I think. My girl is growing up so fast!

How Lauren became Peeler

Donald is big on nicknames. I can't tell you the last time he called me "Katie". Our cats, officially Sammie and Zowie, and known as "Choopie" and "Co-pee". I guess he has a thing for p's. So, it should come as no suprise that our little girl was called "Lauren" for all of about an hour. He first started calling her "Lilo", then that gave way to "Pilo" which eventually became "Peeler". And Peeler has stuck. Sometimes we just call her "P"; I usually call her Peanut, monkey, roo, or rooster. The poor kid probably doesn't know her real name. I'm sure she'll hate us someday for all these weird nicknames, but oh well. Every kid hates their parents for something. Heh.

Monday was the last day of Peeler's swim lessons before Christmas. I did not know this because we missed the previous week because the kid was sick. We knew that the swim school had a big Christmas party on the last day of class, and Donald had intended on taking the afternoon off to come. I thought it was next week. So, we got to class yesterday and everyone's parents and grandparents and third cousins were there, and I felt like a jackass because it was just me and P. Needless to say, I also didn't bring the teacher's Christmas gift. Oh well. Classes start again Jan. 3, and P got to move up to Waterbaby 2! She loves the water so much and lessons are so much fun for both of us. She's learned to go underwater completely, swim alone about 1-2 feet, and can splash and kick on command. Well worth it.

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I think I've talked before about how much of a pain it is to find somewhat healthy food on a buffet for Peeler to eat. At Pearl River Monday night we had the same problem. The only vegetable on the buffet that wasn't soaked in butter was lima beans. I scooped some up on my plate, but wasn't too optimistic about P eating them. Boy, was I wrong! The kid devoured them. Honestly, she's really not into solids too much as she's still a boobie baby, but man she liked limas. I'm going to have to go buy some now. The only thing she liked better than the limas was Donald's ice cream. Heh. Figures.

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We did have a nice time at PRR. It's always nice to just get away for a couple days. Monday night we just kinda hung out in the room.
A funny side story that I must add: When we got home from swim school Monday night, I got P's clothes ready for her to wear that night. I put them on the couch and then asked Donald to get her dressed. I went in the bedroom to get myself dressed and came back out to the living room a few minutes later. Donald was getting some stuff ready to pack, and I went in the living room to work on the suitcase. I saw P's pants still on the couch, and told Donald that he forgot to put the kid's pants on. He said that he did put them on...... He had put her pajama pants back on her, thinking they were her real pants! Boys. Good thing I usually do the dressing...the child would be scarred for life. Heh.

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Tuesday we had nothing to do, so we decided to drive to Meridian just for the fun of it. Yeah, there wasn't much fun. Two good things did come of it, though. First, we got to eat lunch at A&W, which we haven't done since we left Wisconsin. They even had cheese curds!!!! They weren't nearly as good as Culver's, but they were cheese curds nevertheless. Second, we stopped at Big Lots, and I bought a Venus Fly Trap plant!

Now, I think this thing is freakin' cool, and I don't want to kill it, but I have no idea what to do with it. The instructions say to keep it at 40 degrees Nov-Feb, because that is when it is dormant, but the darn thing doesn't look too dormant to me. So, I guess to get it to go dormant, I have to put in the cold, but where exactly am I supposed to put it that's 40 degrees? The fridge? And should I just stick it in there and leave it, or gradually get it used to the cold? Or should I just forget about making it dormant, an keep in the warm for the winter? Gah I'm so confused!

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Because I am a mean and horrible person, I made Donald pose with Peeler for some Christmas-y pictures. He'll forgive me someday :o)

Why I am a Horrible Mother Part I (Because I'm sure there will be more)

So, yeah Peeler "helped" me bake Chistmas cookies. After I had finished mixing the dough, her little spider arms grabbed the spatula from the counter, and she started licking the dough off. At first I didn't really think anything of it - I figured I'd let the kid have some fun. Haha. Then I realized there were raw eggs in the dough. Yeah. Yummy salmonella. Well, she hasn't gotten sick yet, so I'm assuming it'll be fine.....

Mother Shock

A few months before Lauren was born, I read this post on Tertia's blog. I sort of forgot about it until tonight. Tonight Donald and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings with the crew from his office, and as we were leaving he said something to the effect of Peeler ruins lots of things and that he kinda misses our old life. Peeler actually had done pretty well - we'd went to the boat parade at six, and then we went straight to Wild Wings and we were there until nine. She started getting antsy about 8:45, so we decided it was time to go. But for those almost-three-hours, she sat in her high chair, watching and listening to all the big people, smiling when necessary.

When you're pregnant, everyone tells you how much having a baby will change your life. I always just sort-of believed them. How much different could it be, really? Even the first few weeks of Peeler's life, I remember thinking, "Oh, this isn't so bad....I don't know what everyone was talking about". And then, slowly, you start to learn that you're not in charge anymore, a tiny baby is, and that whether you like it or not, she will control your life for the near future.

Sure, Donald is right in a way. Having a baby has "ruined" some parts of our life. We can't go out with our friends whenever we want and stay out until dawn. We don't get to go to the movies, or to the gym, or even to the grocery store in peace. But I don't like to think of those parts as "ruined"....just different. Someday we will be able to do all those things again, without a baby. But for now, we're living in a different country, and need to speak the language of the locals. This new country has lots of parks, lots of laundry, and tons of hugs.

Finally, after almost a year, I'm becoming fluent in this new language. Mothering is coming more naturally and it's hard to imagine going back to my "old" life. Donald's getting there - some people just need more time to adjust than others. Driving home from Wild Wings, the Mother Shock concept just kinda popped back in my head, and it makes so much more sense now than it did before.

First, I have all of my baking and decorating supplies ready to go for tomorrow. Tomorrow night I'm baking and cooking till the cows come home. I'm sending goodies to some of my teacher friends at the church, my mom, and my dad in California. I think it's so sad that we're not going to get to be with any of our family this year, so I guess I'm providing myself with sweets for therapy. Hum.


Second, Donald and I bought Peeler a set of Mega Blocks for Christmas, but we couldn't contain ourselves and had to get them out to play with last night. We made some robot-looking guy, which Peeler promptly destroyed. We also came to understand why the Mega Bloks were so cheap and the Legos were so expensive: the Mega Bloks suck. They don't stay together for anything! Guess we should have spent the extra $20 for the real thing. Oh well, I doubt Peeler will care. Anyway, I forgot to take a pic of the robot guy, so here we are cleaning up. Note Donald's reach-y thing....since I bought him that, he won't bend over to pick anything up, not even toys. Lazy man.

Finally, I had to entertain myself for a while today by decorating Peeler with a bow. She didn't like it.

I'm sad to say that my special delivery did not arrive today. Instead, the UPS man brought one of Donald's Christmas gifts. Darn UPS man. Bring my goodies soon!!!

Turns out that all the antibiotics Peeler's been taking has given her diarreha. That's just wonderful. Let's just say that we're not using cloth this week. Bleh.

Catching Up

We ended up taking Peeler to the Dr. yesterday afternoon. Turns out she has bronchitis and an ear infection. They gave her a shot of Rocephin in the office and a prescription for Omincef for the next 10 days. I'm not usually a big fan of antibiotics because I generally think they're overused, but honestly, I don't have the energy right now to care. Sounds bad, I know, but I'm wiped. The good news is she seems to be feeling better today and actually slept from 9:30 last night till 8:00 this morning.

It seems now though that Donald and I are getting sick. I'm all coughy and stuffy this morning, and Donald says he is stuffy, too. And that's just terriffic. HAHA.

I did pass my test last Wednesday. Seems like a month ago already, but I guess it wasn't. Heh. My new term started Dec. 1, but I'm taking it easy for now.

I'm shopping for good, affordable health insurance for Peeler and I (Donald gets his free from work). Any suggestions? Donald can add us to his policy at work for about $280 a month, but that seems like an awful lot.

Okay, guess that's it. If I've promised you anything in the last week or so, I'm sorry. I'm sooo backed up in all areas right now. I REALLY need to go to the Post Office today - I have about 10 packages and all my Christmas cards to mail. So if you're expecting a package from me - with any luck at all you'll have it soon. Heh.

Sick baby

Poor baby girl has been sick since Wednesday. It started with a simple runny nose, but by Thursday morning she was really stuffy. This is the first time she's been sick, and I'm blaming it on that dumb airplane. I just feel so bad for her because there's really nothing that I can do. I'm sure she'd feel much better if she could just figure out how to blow her nose, but unfortunately that's a few years off yet.

She's on the mend, now though, I think. She was happy playing this evening and didn't want to go to bed, unlike past nights where she's passed out at any chance. She's still having trouble nursing though, because she's so stuffed up, so I have to attack her every so often with the snot sucker (professional term). She hates that thing, and cries every time she sees it. Poor thing.

I started to feel like crap yesterday with a headache and sore lymph nodes. Today the headache is gone but the lymph nodes are still swollen, so I'm hoping I've escaped illness. We'll see though.

The thing that really blows about all this is that Donald and I actually had a babysitter for last night and had to cancel because Peeler was sick! Grrrrr. Oh yeah, last night around seven one of Donald's friends called and wanted him to go out and play pool. He then asked me if it was okay, and I told him it was up to him and his conscience (hehe). He told his friend he'd call him back later and let him know if he'd be out. After he got off the phone, he asked me again if he could go and I told him that I'd really rather he not go out. I mean, come on....kid's sick, wife feels like crap and has been taking care of sick kid the past three days by herself....give a girl a break here and stay home!!! Oy vey! MEN!

We're baaaaack!

We're baaaack! We ended up staying a week longer than planned, but hey, we were having a good time.

We left Monday moring. I took this pic before we left and its just about the cutest thing I've ever seen.



The drive up wasn't too bad. We stopped at a lot of rest areas to play in the grass. Lauren slept most of the way until evening when she decided she wanted no more of the car seat. Can't say I blame her, so we stopped just north of St. Louis for the night.

Tuesday afternoon we finally arrived in Janesville. After making a brief stop at my mom's we crashed. Thursday was Lexy's graduation. Even though there was some drama (expected, of course), it turned out to be a nice day. Here's a pic of the grad and Lil.



And here's my brother, Jake, (who's growing up WAY TOO FAST), with Lil. I think he likes being an uncle :o) I couldn't resist the shades.



We spent our trip mainly just hanging out with our families. Oh yeah, and shopping. Lots of shopping. But I'll tell you about that later. Now, just pictures.

Here's Lauren trying to eat a grape stem. It just wasn't what she was hoping for.



And here's my very good friend Erin with Lil. I miss her :o(



Oh yes. From the depths of Donald's parents' basement, is the outfit that Donald had made for him when he was a baby. I had to put it on Lil, just because. She'll kill me when she's older.




We also spent time at the pool. I love Janesville for their FREE!! wading pools.



Lounging in the sun is so much fun! Lauren loves to chew on her duck.



We took some pictures in the grass at the park. I love these shots.






Here's my mom and Lauren with Addy the dog. A little blurry, tho.

Off to Wisco I go

Lilo and I are leaving for Wisconsin Monday morning. My sister is graduating high school on Thursday evening, and I promised her a long time ago that I'd be there. So, the pickle and I are packing up the car and going.

Donald can't come because he's too chicken to ask for the time off at work :o) Needless to say, I'm not overly thrilled about driving 800 miles alone with Lil, but we'll survive. We're taking our time, staying over night in St. Louis on the way up.

I'm not sure when we'll be coming home, probably in a week or two, depending on how soon I get sick of my family and how much school work I have. I'm really excited about seeing my sister, though, and I've gotten her the best graduation gift (can't tell you, I think she reads this, hehe). I'm hoping she has some days off work to go thrifing with me (hint, hint). So anyways, we'll be back in a few weeks with lots of new pictures!!

It's goona be a looong day....

Oh, it is not going to be a good day.

I didn't get to bed last night until 4:30 a.m. Donald worked at the bowling alley last night, and I can never get to sleep until he's home, and he got home reeeeaaally late last night. And, don't you know, the night I stay up late is the night Lilo sleeps for crap. She woke up three times between 4:30 and 7:30 wanting to nurse, two of those times crying. I think she might be going through a growth spurt, but she picked a real bad night to do it! So, 7:45 Lilo woke up again, but this time there was no putting her back to sleep because she was all sweaty and warm. Up we go, and on the way to her bedroom to change her diaper, she puked all over me. Puke on 3 hours of sleep is bad. Now she's playing on her blanket and is all smiles, but I can't wait for her morning nap. Mama needs a a nap, too.

If I don't get some sleep today I'm going to be forced to do some serious shopping therapy. And nobody wants to see that happen.

Updated to Add: She puked again. All over her play mat, all over herself. When I took her to the bedroom to clean her up, I discovered a dirty diaper straight from hades. This resulted in the crib sheets becoming infested with poo, even though I had put down a waterproof pad. 10 wet wipes and a new outfit later, I discovered she had puke in her hair too. Chunky puke. Ahhh.....too many bodily functions too early causes insanity.

Nothing too much

Donald finally got a full-time job *whew*. I was starting to panic...the balance in our savings account was getting sadly low. So he's working at Dyatech
doing some accounting crap that goes WAY over my head. Whatever...it pays the bills :o) He's going to keep working at his beloved bowling alley, too...plus he's looking for a third shift job. You'd think he *likes* working or something. Nah, we're just trying to pay off some bills so we can buy a house.

Why didn't anyone tell me that Sonic's limeades were so freakin' good? I've been going to Sonic for years and years and had never tried a limeade till the other day. And now I'm hooked. Lilo and I go the park everyday, and on our way home we stop at Sonic. Evil I tell you.

Speaking of Lilo, she has a doctor's appointment tomorrow for her shots. *tear* I think it will be more traumatic for me than her. Her pediatrician is in Hattiesburg, and Donald wants to go for Mexican when we're done at the doc, but I have a feeling lil Lilo is going to be too cranky to hush in a restaraunt. We shall see.

When the girl cries, I can't think. About anything. The girl cries a lot. I've never had a baby before, so I don't know how much babies are supposed to cry, but this girl definately knows how to use her lungs. This situation leaves me braindead much of the time. I go to Target, list prepapred, Lauren in tow, ready to conquer the store, yet I fumble around like a madwoman, talking to myself all the while, trying desperately to first find my list, then remember where things are located in the store, and then trying to remember what I've already shopped for so I can mark them off the list. I'm a disaster.

I've come to the conclusion that it is a pretty good thing that I get to stay home with the girl. I don't think I'd have the mental capacity to do anything else that was remotely meaningful. I'd crack. I contemplated subbing a few days a week just to make some extra cash, but I really don't think I could do it. The first teenage jackass that opened his mouth would feel the wrath of an overtired mother who hears screaming in her head, even when the girl is sleeping.

Notes

We're finally (almost) settled in to our new place. The apartment is fine, expect that there is a funky smell in one of the bathrooms that I can't seem to pinpoint. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the place. Donald did a great job moving us...I can't take much of the credit because he did 90% of the work. Sure, I hung the curtains and unpacked the kitchen, but that's about it. I don't know what I'd do without that man!

Lauren is doing well. We've taking to calling her Lilo; I'm not sure why. She's getting so big! She's so good when we go to the store; she especially likes Target -- can't say I blame her! We've decorated her room with my frog collection. It sure is cute! Donald has to go to Lowe's tomorrow to get a few shelves, but then her room will be finished. I hope she likes frogs when she gets older!

Well, I'm off to bed. It's been a long day, but I just wanted to update.