Been awhile.

I'm sitting here with my daughter asleep on my legs. She wanted cuddles and zonked out in a few minutes. It is the perfect time to update the dusty old blog.
I was not up to the challenges of posting daily photos, as evidenced by the lack of them.
Fall is making it's windy way here in a lazy way. We've had some cooler days and the leaf colors are changing. Soybeans have been harvested and the corn will be done this month.
I found a couple of project toys at a garage sale and am working on them. There is a wooden bench/toy chest, a little tikes brand vanity, and some wooden blocks form 1960 something. They are bound to have lead paint on them, so they are getting lots of safe fresh paint on them.
 Minion 1 has a birthday in a few weeks. We are going to have a small cake, and dinner at home and that weekend we will go to children's museum.
Halloween will be fun I hope. We are having a Harry Potter marathon and  am going to be doing themed snacks. I think Minion 1 will love it while Minion 2 will drool and babble appropriately.
That's all for now, I'm going to sit and enjoy the weight of a 30 pound nearly 3 year old snuggled up with me and watch something on the idiot box.

30 days, failed.

I haven't picked up my camera or blogged in days. Too rainy, too cool and too happy to pick up the camera for pics that are not of my family and I don't like showing their faces, so those are out. The result is a failed first attempt at 30 days of blogging, even without counting the other days I have missed this month.

The girls are in bed, my Mr K is out on business, and I am playing an online game with him while watching the newly regenerated tenth Doctor. Good time for the tired mommy.

30 days, days thirteen and fourteen

This was supposed to have been posted last night but i fell asleep before I could finish writing it.

Day 13

Daddy got Berry and Bear a surprise. Berry was so excited, she seemed to think Purple deserved the inaugural ride.

Day 14

Berry managed to get my phone while we were speaking with a realtor and snapped this funky angled piece and I just love it.

30 days, day twelve combined with Theme Thursday.

This week's theme is text. I really like the variety of text, or fonts, used on this photo frame.

This was precious. She was an amazing dog and my best friend for every one of them. She kept me company, slept at my side every night I was home, and was intuitive to when I need cuddles. I miss her still, years after her death.Head over to Clan Donaldson for wonderful pictures on this lovely Thursday

30 days, day 11, and some seriousness followed by fun.

Today was a hard day when I awoke and realized it has been twelve years.

No matter how old I get I will remember the utter despair, the helplessness and the fear from that horrid day. From hearing my teachers talk about it, to walking in my front door to see my parents sitting on the sofa and seeing the first images from that morning at 4 in the afternoon as I stepped through the door. My heart broke all over again, remembering telling a good friend as we walked together to English class "We're at war. There is no way we are NOT at war now...." Then the crying. Not sobbing but the whole "tears welling, throat swelling shut silent crying."

Chris gave me a one armed hug and agreed quietly.

The years passed, the images showed up less and less each anniversary, and here, twelve years later, it still hurts as much as it did when I was in high school and learned how truly horrific foreign terrorism can be. This, following April 19, 1995 and how domestic terrorism already made me feel helpless and angry.

I have no answers, no wise words for the masses, just heartache over the hatred, ignorance, fear, and senseless tragedies that I have witnessed thus far in my life.

On to the happier part of this post.

   Today was busy and hot. We hired a local tree service to come remove two dead trees for us. It is NOT in our budget, but we both agree that the cost of cutting them down far outweighs the risk of them coming down in parts during winter storms, potentially causing damage to our home, requiring us to pay a hefty deductible to have insurance pay for home repairs. In winter. With snowfall and freezing temperatures. Yeah, paying to prevent those makes me feel a quite a bit better.
   The tree guy showed up, and Zee ran off. Again. She pulled this running off thing back during a thunderstorm in early spring. Eleven days later, she showed up 3 miles away, skinnier than a bean pole, bedraggled and scarred up but alive and well. Then today, the guys showed up earlier than expected so Zee took off. She was gone about four hours. Around the time K was coming home from work she trotted back into the yard like nothing was the matter. Knucklehead!
   After the tree guys left, i realized that in my exhausted state of little sleep, after my shower this morning, I forgot to put my pump back on, so I went hours with no insulin >.< Not good. I put if back on and spent the remainder of the afternoon until K arrived recovering from spiking a high blood sugar. K used his awesome power tool to work on the old pile of trees left by the previous owner. Good times were had by all.

My manly and lovely Mr K.

There is something simply yummy about a man properly using a chainsaw.

30 days of pictures, day 10

I picked up this small table today, super cheap, real wood, with a massively messed up surface. I was debating turning it into a side table or something when Berry chose to make it her own art desk.

30 days, day 9

Berry bids bye-bye to the bug.

Help! I need somebody....

Not exactly but I do love the Beatles.
   I need patience. When it was just the Berry girl and I here at home, it was so very easy. I wasn't outnumbered, I had enough in me to set her in a safe place and go take a two minute breather if things got to be too intense. It felt like I had life mostly under control.
   Then Bear came along. Even in my pregnancy with her, I was the embodiment of emotional overload. That chocolate bar I had craved and eaten was already gone? Beware, let loose the waterworks and stand back while insane woman rages over the injustices of a chocolate treat gone too soon. And even now, when Bear is edging closer to the four month old mark, I am still overly emotional.

   I lose my cool and my temper way too often. Things with Berry get out of hand and she is sent to her room so *I* can have a time out while Bear is vocalizing her extreme displeasure at being anywhere other than my arms.
   These occurrences are not constant but they happen too often. I feel like the world's biggest failure when I make my toddler cry because I don't have patience with her, or when I have let my infant scream because I let things get to me that probably shouldn't matter that much and she feeds off my tension and screams more instead of calming down. I am trying to find a balance between raising children who listen to me and who have the confidence to try new things; and letting them explore while having them trust me to be there when they fall.

   If you have a moment, can you pray for me please? I'm trying to have more patience and I need all the help I can get.
 

30 Days, day 8. Barely getting in here in time!

I was in bed, about to turn off the light when I realized I hadn't posted a picture today. I am digging through the archives to find a great picture.

This was taken in April 2013.
This is the view from my dining room.

I absolutely love living where I do, because in the winter, when there are no leaves, this is the view of sunsets we see almost every evening. Such beauty.

30 days, days 6 and 7

   As I sit here, Thomas the Train is softly chatting in the background, and Berry is finding a shirt to wear I didn't want to put one on her first thing this morning; after discovered she had wet through her diaper and needed a bath then breakfast and *then* she could be clothed. Bear is blissfully sleeping to the soothing tones of the Rainforest swing. Heck I'll be back later, I'm going to clean.
I'm back. Sorry it was too awesome to have happy and quiet offspring to just sit here, so I cleaned up the kitchen. I'm now awaiting an awesome friend to come over so we can make a northern style jambalaya. It's northern style because we don't have Bryan Smoky Hollow Cajun Sausage up here in the Midwest, so we are substituting Polish sausage and hoping for the best.
   After reading a fun blog post about using a stand mixer in a science experiment while teaching her children, I now want one. I want either espresso brown or bright red. However, we don't have a spare 300-500 dollars laying around so I have to rely on my trusty hand held mixer. for now.


This was started yesterday. Then my friend showed up and didn't leave til after 2, when her designated ride showed up as none of us were sober enough for driving at all.
I awoke early to bright sunlight in my eyes, my Mr K's voice telling me the coffee was brewing, and rain. yes, rain. It lasted approximately 45 seconds and upped the humidity to 980000000%. Yay.
Alas, I got up and decided it was time to run to the store for a cheap stand mixer which had the "sure, honey" from the Mister. Suh-weet! Well, on the way to the store, my van started acting up and i had to swing by previously mentioned friend's place to pick her up to get her car from our house. Once we got to the store, no mixer was in stock. Drat. I picked up the heavy cream, and we came back here. Friend left, and I made butter with the Berry. All in all, it was a fun morning.
Day 6 picture:

Day 7 picture:  Top is butter, middle is whipped cream, and bottom is buttermilk. 

30 days, day 5

This is what happens when Daddy forgets to put away his computer before leaving for work, and Mommy is still half asleep and forgets as well.

 Notice the native minion, making use of the unused-for-the-intended-purpose potty as a chair.
Notice the scraggly locks of un-brushed hair.
That would be the Berry, in all her mischievous glory, trying to Skype Mimi, or become president...who knows?

30 days, day 4?

An interesting smell lingers around this log.

The very best Berry, ever.

She really is the best Berry ever. After a rough night with bear, where I accidentally woke Mr K with my pleas for the wee one to go to sleep, for the love of all that is holy, I had my Berry. She has given me countless hugs, "I love you" proclamations, and so many simple laughs today that I feel much better.
Here is a pic of a younger Berry for your trouble in visiting here:

Does the dog's face scream "Please get her off me" or what?

A decent day.

Today was decent. Not good nor bad, but decent.
I had grand plans to wake early, dress the girls and take them to the library. But then Baby Bear woke at 4 and demanded food, then proceeded to fight the food, me, and sleep. She was ticked, people. She screamed, until Mr K woke up and took over while I crawled into bed, buried my head under my pillow and begged the Lord for patience. K got Bear back to sleep, dressed and left for work. i dragged myself out of bed to care for the minions. I got Berry fed, and worked on Bear. Berry spilled half her breakfast on the table. I said a prayer of thanks that I stuck to my "breakfast eaten AT the table" rule this morning. Bear chose to eat, then scream for over an hour. She calmed down when Berry got the tablet out and began madly dancing to Michael Jackson while screaming for me and her little sister to dance. Great fun was had by all.

Bear finally zonked out long enough for me to pick up tree garbage while Berry ruled over her play area.
 Mr  arrived home in time to eat dinner. we had the tree guy come out and give us an estimate on the removal of two dead trees. Yay. The good news is, he is giving us a great discount thanks to the help of a wonderful friend, and we are saving a good third of the total estimate by not having them remove the tree or the stumps.  K has a chainsaw, and we have an amazing fire-pit thanks to my Mr K's awesomeness.
And as a bonus, here is another pic from today:

This is one of the two trees to be removed by the end of next week.

30 days, day 3. poison!

This:

is a poke-berry plant, it seems. At least, according to my lackadaisical Google searching it is. Those dark berries are quite juicy, smell fresh when you squeeze them, and likely stain things a purple/blue color. Unfortunately they are poisonous to humans.
I ***will*** fins something edible and yummy in my foraging attempts, or I will plant something edible and pray the critters we share the woods with leave some for us mere humans.
Pretty but poisonous, don't you just love nature?

30 days, day 2

This is Baby bear, doing her best to hold down that absorbent pad. (That pad is under her so that when she spits up, it doesn't flood her bed like the Mississippi floods the plains when the levees fail.) Also, daytime sleeping, yes I know the dangers of sleeping on the belly but I also know my child and I'll be darned if the little tyrant downs't put herself in that position. She rolls people, she rolls really fast. I put her on her back and this is how she is found the moment I turn her on her back.
Yes, her sleeper is blue, and yes it is meant for a little girl. There are purple and pink bugs on the front.
This was posted about an hour later than what I thought the time was. Minions one and two are finally tucked into bed, not in a swing or on the race-car rug in the room, but in their beds. I'm going to attempt to sleep until Bear wakes up, demanding sustenance and affection, which i will happily give. Middle of the night cuddles with a baby are precious and awesome and even though I lose sleep, they are perfect for one on one bonding that is harder to come by with additional kids than they are with a first or only child.
Ok, so I am hearing the neighbor'c cow and she has not stopped mooing in over 18 hours. She was doing this since about 6am on the second.

Thirty day picture challenge?

Sure but we won't take off points for starting on day two, okay?

Day One:
This was taken from a bridge over a gorgeous little section of either river with a low water table at the moment, a creek, or a stream. You decide. Mr k and I took the girls to a state park and hiked a bit. We found this little bit of breathtaking woodland beauty near the end.


Day Two:

will be done later, after i have taken a picture.

Blog Title Change

Since there are two minions now, I thought this random bit of the internet needed an updated name.
   Berrygirl is our first, our amazingly funny, sweet, energetic, defiant, helpful, and insistent two-almost-three year old girl.
   Bear is our second, our three month old and oh-so-different than big sister girl. She is ahead of where Berry was at her age. B1 wouldn't tolerate her belly at all, while B2 hates her back. Bear pushes up and has since she was 2 months old. She holds her head high and looks so interested in everything. B1 was more laid back, more easy-going and was on a set schedule for a long, long time. Bear, not so much.
   Bear is inconsistent. She can sleep through the night, or be up every hour. She will eat 8 ounces in ten minutes or nibble on 4 ounces over the course of an hour. Sometimes she tolerates her carseat, other times it is a nonstop scream session from the moment we sit her in it until the moment we take her out. Makes for interesting drives longer than ten minutes.

   We still have not done anything new in regards to our dogs. I emailed one lady about an elderly Yorkshire terrier but nothing came of it Our tentative plan is to get a larger breed rescue after our old house sells. I'm not going into that mess, just keep praying we get an offer, soon and adequate, so we can sell.

   I'm at pre-Bear weight but still have the excess ten pounds to go until I'm pre-Berry weight. I don't know if I will ever get there but it is a goal to focus on when I want to be healthier and eat better.

We had a small garden that failed. The only thing that didn't die immediately was carrots and corn. The carrots became home to bugs and the deer ate the corn before we had a chance to build a fence around it. Alas we shall try again next year. I envision preschool lessons with Berry while Bear eats bugs, dirt, and grass next to us.

Introducing...

Well, March seems so long ago.
I don't remember all I last told you about but here is what is going on in this crazy world of mine.
The good:
 MayBerry arrived at the end of May, a healthy seven pounds, three ounces, twenty inches long, with a full head of soft dark hair, and healthy! We named her when we saw her, and due to privacy reasons we shall forever call her L. The first of my daughters is A, she is L, and I will continue this naming system unless I go bonkers or forget >.<
 She is now three weeks and counting, her days and nights are mixed up, and she sleeps more than big sister A did at this age, just not at night...when we want her to sleep! LOL
 Big Sister is amazing. She is helpful, oh so very helpful, to the point where we have to tell her not to try to force a soothie (aka pacifier) on her sleeping sibling, not to shove a bottle down the wee one's throat, and no, sweetie, we don't need to suffocate L with the bib when wiping her face off. L tolerates the loving sisterly abuse affection quite well. Let's hope this continues for the next twenty or thirty years, shall we? My mother came to stay with us for a few weeks, but will be going home the first week in July. I will dearly miss her since she lives so far away but for now I am thankful and savoring every minute my awesome mommy is here to help me.

The bad:
 I am still a good twenty pounds overweight, and am not yet ready to exercise to get rid of the last of the chub that came because of my penchant for greasy fast food and candy that still has not left me. Drat, L, you made me want that crap that I avoided since your sister was born.

The ugly:
 There has been death in my life. Death and loss. It is quite sad. First, a good friend was told she was losing her foster-but-hoped-to-adopt-child due to the way the law was written regarding custody for our state. The child's only living biological parent lost all rights as a parent because the parent kept making bad choice after bad choice. Instead of my sweet friend getting to adopt this chilld, the child was removed to the custody of a biological grandparent, despite everyone involved saying and knowing my friend had the better home, the best interests of the child, and stability, security, and siblings. It has been a hard few months for her. After the courts ruled against my friend keeping the child she already loved as one of her own, her mother passed away very unexpectedly. This woman was a foster parents, and she inspired my friend to be a foster mother and to adopt her children from the system. She was a good hard working woman and will be missed.

In the days following the birth of my second daughter, we were adjusting well to life with a newborn. My three dogs were still being kept separated from the baby so they could adjust to her sounds and smells slowly. I let my girls out one morning after a small tiff with the hubs. After I was done chatting with him, I went to get the dogs back in from their morning potty break, but I heard a very bad sound. I thought the truck going by my house blew a tire, and I looked to the road to see if he needed assistance. As I looked up, I heard tires locked up skidding on the gravel. That wasn't a tire in the road. I screamed my dog's name and ran. With a Cesarean section incision only healed for nine days, I ignored the pain and ran to her. She was still alive but non-responsive. The neighbor stopped and tried to apologize and help. We apologized back for not having her leashed, and we left, we grabbed my beloved Tink, piled into my car and drove to the vet. My mom stayed with the girls and we drove quickly to the vet to try to save my Tink. According to the vet, she lasted long enough for x-rays, and coded three times. She came back twice, but not that last time. She had a severe hernia in her abdomen, a broken leg, and suffered shock. I am still quite broken and cry over this. Partly from the hormones but mostly from grief and guilt. If only, all of the "if only" thoughts... no matter who says what, this is my fault. My Tink died alone at the vet on a cold table as I sat crying in the waiting area. All that is left of my girl is a collar, ashes in a wooden box, and paw prints in clay. Had I kept up with keeping my dogs leashed every time they went out, she would be alive. There is no way around the cold hard facts. So, while I celebrate every moment of my life with my newest child, I am grieving over my first rescue, my Tinkerbell.
That is the cold, ugly truth. My lax practices of leashing my dogs resulted in the horrific death of a very beloved family member.

Now here I sit. I will forever remember and love my Tink.

Slowly getting closer

My last trimester is going slowly it seems.
In less than ten weeks, MayBerry will be here.
This past weekend, we got some things done that were needed, but it still is not close to being ready for a new life here.
Spring is still forever away based on the snowfall I woke up to this morning. I miss green things. I want to do a garden this year, but how the hack am I supposed to waddle around making sure no critters get to the things I want to grow? Also, how am I supposed to go out and weed a veggie garden when I have a newborn to tend to?
So many thoughts flying through my head, so much left to do, and yet I feel stuck.
I opened my mail to find a questionnaire from federal court. I served for jury last year right before I lost JellyBean. It was a full service, we did the trial, deliberations and verdict and all that jazz.
I loved being able to serve but so much has changed since then. My only contact for childcare has moved and I will have two kids, not one to deal with. If they do not excuse me based on serving within the last two years, then I will be hauling a two year old and a newborn to a federal courthouse to illustrate my inability to serve as juror. Think the judge would throw me in lockup for contempt??? Hope not :-(

So far for the MB, we have the bassinet ready, the changing table re-assembled, some diapers found, some cloth diapers folded and ready to go, the clothes washed and sorted, the carseat washed and prepped.
We will still need to get a second base for Mr K's vehicle, we need to get a more firm date for the arrival of my mom and whether it will be for a visit or a move in date, we need to see if any other family plans to drive the 16 plus hours to come visit us, we need to sell the old house! Gah, brain = fried.

Sleepy and can't sleep!

There are times where I feel like I'm on autopilot, just trying to make it through the day because I'm so darned exhausted.
Today was one of those days.
Half an hour ago, I was barely able to sit up on the sofa with Mr K and remain awake. Now, I cannot for the life of me fall asleep. Ack!
I shall rant now.
   Before I met my Mr K, I loved all animals. We had numerous dogs when I was growing up, and I loved every one of them, from Spunky and Blackie to Lazy and Precious. We had many semiferal cats thanks to ignorance and lack of funds for a simple spay procedure on the feral girl that showed up when we moved in. Anyhow this feral cat, Pookie, was a wild Calico girl. She was an avid hunter of field mice, moles, and other small varmints. We knew this because their corpses were often gifts at our doorstep. She loved us humans that she adopted, but hid from everyone else who ever came near our house. Pookie got sick when she was about 13 years old. She had gotten hurt by something and never healed well. We had a wonderful mail carrier who offered us help by rehoming her in a rescue that could afford the veterinarian bills that were likely extensive. After the hard choice was made to rehome Pookie, we were given a few updates about her from the mail carrier. She lived another six months with a whole pack of other semiferal cats rescued in our area. She died peacefully in her sleep one night. It broke my heart that I realized we were unable to care for her properly because of lack of finances on our part, but it also mad me swear to never get another cat as long as I lived because of how much losing Pookie (first to a rehome, then when she died) hurt me.
Then I met Mr K.
He has a cat.
   I have tried to like this cat, but have failed. We have been together for over four years now. This cat went from being left alone for days on end without Mr K due to business travel, to being here with me, every single day. I mentioned we had Pookie for YEARS earlier. Pookie was an outside only cat. I grew up in the south, so she only ever came inside on the rare winter nights that it froze outside. This was a handful of nights in the thirteen years she lived with us.
   Back to Scooter. Scooter was neutered and declawed in the front because Mr K didn't know better at the time, if he had known better, the surgery would have only been a neuter, no declawing done, period as told to me by the mister himself.
   Scooter cannot be an outdoor cat because he is defenseless without those front claws. This makes for a very frustrating life. Scooter also bites because Mr K thought it was cute when he would bite as a kitten. Scooter grew, as did his teeth. You see where this is going don't you? Scooter was never trained on proper play and behaviour. He thinks biting is the only way to show affection, playfulness, and aggression. This makes me not want to interact with Scooter as I am not fond of being bitten. This keeps Scooter locked away from me and our daughter since I will not risk bites to my child. It is not fair to the cat that my two year old chases him, his only recourse is to bite as a defense. I will not let him bite her so I keep them separated.
   I cannot and will not spend my entire day following my daughter around while she tries to play with Scooter. There are things like cooking, cleaning, practicing letters and numbers, and cuddle times that need to be attended to during the day. So, Scooter has his bed, food, water, and litter all within the confines of one room. When Tyrant is awake, Scooter is put up. When she is in bed for naps or for the night, or we are gone for an appointment, he can be loose. Scooter has no manners. He still tries to jump up on the counters and dining table (EW! Cat fur and litter on his paws from burying his excrement, freaking disgusting) I do not allow pets on surfaces where food is handled. That is not okay in our home. Scooter was allowed run of the house for the two or so years he lived with Mr K in the bachelor pad, so he got set in his ways. It has taken a lot of time, energy and water squirts to get him to behave while we are home.
   Anyhow, my point after all that rambling is this: Scooter and I do not like one another. We tolerate each other. Him because he knows where his food comes from, and me because i cannot be cruel. He loves K, and K loves him. I swore to my Mr K that I would never ask him to get rid of Scooter, as I could not handle it if he asked me to get rid of any of my three dogs. He tolerates the dogs just as I tolerate the cat. I would love nothing more than to hand Scooter off to someone who adores overweight orange tabby cats with no front claws, a fondness for biting, and a deep seated love of splashing all his water out of his bowl. But I cannot. I cannot give up my three rescue dogs. My Tink, who has a Chihuahua body and a Great Dane sized ego, my Zee, who is so timid she is afraid of her own shadow but loves to hunt small game like squirrels and mice, or even my Little Foot, whom Mr K and I rescued together during a family member's divorce or else she would have been euthanized.
   I cannot give up my dogs, so I cannot ask him to give up his cat.
   I can say, however, that I would happily say no to a new cat unless it was to be an outside only, semiferal but spayed Calico that would hunt all the snakes and other nuisance critters like our cat Pookie used to do for us.
 
   I'm going to sign off now, attempt sleep yet again, and pray that the demon spawn kitty does not bat at a door, jump on a counter, or attack a sleeping human foot tonight.

Taking breaks?

Some days I feel like I need an evening break. Just a small break where I can sit and read, sip a warm drink, and relax for an hour without guilt.
Mr K is amazing. If I need time to myself, he gladly goes solo on parenting the Tyrant so I can rest, but the guilt is there. It feels like I am being selfish by being alone in our room while my sweet girl is is playing with her daddy and every few minutes saying "mommy"  amidst her toddler babble or directly calling for me in such a lonely sad voice. I don't get it, K is on the floor playing cars, dolls, or reading to her, and she still calls for me. She knows I am in the house, as she doesn't do it when I go to run errands and she doesn't do it when K is at work.

How am I supposed to relax for a little bit when I feel extreme guilt for taking time alone?

  Tonight, the tyrant decided to go to bed early. Our routine consists of brushing teeth, changing into a fresh diaper, and getting pjs on. We give kisses and hugs, place her in bed with her dog and her soothie, turn on her night light, shut off the light, close the door, and we are done.
  We usually do bedtime at nine pm. I need to sleep at some point, and my insomnia-type sleep patterns keep me awake until the early morning hours. Since my sweet girl gets good time with us in the evening, we have her bedtime at nine pm, and she usually awakens by nine am. Tonight at twenty past eight, Little Miss chose to go to bed early. She grabbed her daddy's foot, then my hand and tugged. She ran to her bathroom to wait for us to brush teeth. Her daddy and I were more than happy to oblige.
   Here it is at ten past nine, Little Miss is asleep, we are on our electronic gadgets watching dvr tv shows, and having quiet adult time. Yes!
   My pregnancy is going well. I am showing symptoms of symphysis pubis dysfunction, minor pain compared to what Doctor Google has taught me, but still some pretty intense pains at night. My next appointment is at the beginning of March. It will be a busy day with a fetal echo to check the baby's heart for any changes in the tricuspid regurgitation that was seen in the previous scan. I will also have a growth scan ultrasound. I will be making certain to ask the tech for a print of the scan to have for the baby book. That reminds me, I need to make a baby book collection!

My tablet is warning me of a low battery so I'm off for now.

Valentine's Day

Yesterday was a good, quiet day.
   I was smacked, kicked, beaned in the head, sneezed on, coughed on, screamed at, cuddled with, kissed, smiled at, and hugged, all before 5pm. I love being a mother.
After A had her busy day of terrorizing our home and myself along with the dogs and cat, she loudly squealed "DADDY!!!" as he walked in the front door. He told our sweet girl "Give this to Mommy!" I heard a rustling of a grocery sack then the slapping of feet as she ran towards out kitchen. I get to the gate to discover a bright red envelope held outstretched towards me, a big grin on my little girl's face. I told her thank you and took the card. I opened it to read a funny message form my husband and giggled. As he stepped over the gate to unload his lunchbox from the day, I gave him a warm hug and a thank you kiss. He surprised me with a large pack of Reese's Cups. My husband knows what to get me, what can I say?

   I was about the check dinner, so I playfully made the excuse of my ever expanding belly being in the way, and asked him to get the pan out the oven for me. He did then checked the chicken I was baking inside. It wasn't done yet. Drat! I put the bird in for another hour, finished up the side dish, and K surprised me again with an offer to get frozen yogurt. Awwwww. The man spent all day at work and on week nights he only wants to rest, not drive into town for anything. He prefers comfy clothes, a beer, and dinner. Dinner wasn't ready and we had been dying to try out our favorite frozen yogurt place at their new location, so off we went. It was delicious! As we were leaving, I spied warm brownies and a display of chips. We got them both and came home to the fully cooked bird. After a bit, we had dinner and some family time. We put the Tyrant to bed and watched some Friends on dvd. As soon as K began snoozing, it was bedtime.

   As soon as we were in bed, my sweet husband was asleep. I tossed and turned and gave up on sleep. My incubating fetus had decided to wake up and proceeded to do a one-person version of the summer Olympics in my uterus, thereby rendering me sleepless. It's all good, I caught up on my shows I had missed the night before. As one am arrived, I had had enough and told my baby to be I was done and going to sleep whether or not they wanted me to do so.
   It was a great day with my family, depsite the seeming abuse from my toddler and my baby to be.

It's been interesting since I was last here!

Miss A is in her room, playing quietly. Luckily it is the safest room in the house for her (meaning there is nothing my monkey girl can climb on or pull onto herself), and she enjoys destroying the order playing.
Updates:
Miss A is two years old, loves to climb, and run after the dogs and cat.
Her likes:

• any type of car or truck, be it toy or real; 
• animals, she can spend hours watching critters in the yard and playing with our furry family members; 
• eating, she likes to snack on chips and salsa, and will willingly dip anything into anything which makes for some interesting flavor combinations at mealtime; 
• Daddy, he is still her favorite person in the whole world.
• Mommy's iPad, which stays put away to prevent rough and tumble A from doing too much damage in her rigorous play
• books, while we are not given too much opportunity to read more than a page at a time before she takes the books to read by herself, we enjoy trying every day. she loves to look at the pictures and will have entire conversations in toddler babble about what is going on in each page.

News about us as a family:
    We have since moved. We bought two acres south of the town we were in, and we are in the middle of a bunch of farmland and wooded areas. We see deer regularly and I have spotted a fox, an owl, and a hawk, along with the scurry of squirrels and flocks of small birds. We love it out here. When we lost power at night once, we could see so many stars in the sky, it was absolutely mesmerizing. We went from our 1950s two bedroom starter home to a gorgeous three bed, two bath home all on one level (no more basement, wahoo!) and my kitchen is three times as large, with a separate dining room off the kitchen. We moved at the start of 2013 (that story is deserving of a whole blog post all in it's own right).

    A will be  big sister this Spring! We are expecting our second baby in May and we could not be more excited. I will reveal the sex in a later post, maybe...    ;-)

More about A. She is two years and three months old. She began walking at 14 months, she has said dada and mum for a long time, and switched to mama at some point. She has slowly added to her vocabulary but has trouble pronouncing sounds and words. I have started the process of a speech evaluation this week. Her hearing screen was normal, so we wait for the referral to reach the speech evaluation people. She has some words that are perfect and clear like "daddy" "mama" bye-bye" and "I/eye" however, most words are not completed, like book (boo), bite (bi), and many other words. When we say her ABCs, she will try but many sound the same, such as C, D, and E all sound like "dee"
I work with her daily and we do not many baby talk to her, but she is still not picking it up, so I am going with the speech eval. to see if she needs more than what I am offering currently and to see what else I can do for her.

I'm a big fan of car seat safety. I learned more and more about proper car seat use after A arrived and her daddy and I chose to rear face her in her seat past the law's minimum of 1 year and twenty pounds. She is now 28 pounds and rides rear facing in a Britax Boulevard 70. I love it because she is safer this way. Had we forward faced her at a year and twenty pound, when we totalled our van while heading on vacation during the Christmas of 2011, she could have suffered a very serious and life threatening neck injury. Thankfully, she was still in her infant carrier and riding asleep rear facing. She didn't wake up until we came to a complete stop and the road noise and movement were gone. We are lucky that no one else was involved in the wreck, just my beloved minivan Bonnie, and the deer who decided leaping at us from the median at that precise time was a good thing. I knew immediately that we had to replace A's car seat. In the event of a high speed collision (deer vs van at 55mph) all car seats MUST be replaced, no matter how well everyone weathered the wreck. Micro fractures can occur and the seat is no longer considered safe or usable. I eventually settled on the Britax and have loved it ever since. If you want more information of car seat safety, visit www.carseat.org A will remain rearfaicng to the limits of her seat.
I must go for now, A is wanting a snack, or as she says "nat"