Thursday?

I broke another glass today. When I say another, I haven't really broken once since.... this summer. But I have broken more glasses or glass things while pregnant than I have in the remaining "un-pregnant" years of my 30 year life. Damn. Klutz.

Today Ardyn and I went swimming. It was fun. But I need about 8 more arms and about 2 less bags to carry. Would it seriously be strange if I had like a pull behind cart with me everywhere. Hitch me up like a horse. I mean, I had both our swimsuits and her swim diaper, then two clean diapers for her, and wipes, and then towels for when we got out of the pool, and two more towels for when we got out of the shower. A small ziploc with baby wash and shampoo. Deoderant. A hair brush, and the hairdryer (you just don't take a toddler and pregnant mom into 30 degree weather with wet hair) and then I had some pool toys for the toddler pool and my camera. And my purse, because I had to pay to get in. Ugh. Seriously I didn't have enough arms to carry everything and my daughter, or even to properly hold her hand. Everything swim wise went really well. Of course now that she is WALKING (which she wasn't doing when she was 6 months and taking swim lessons) she was sure that she needed to investigate every inch of the locker room. The hard thing is trying to get your own swimsuit on in record time while your child is trying to run out into the hall or into the showers or towards the pool. Seriously. Why hasn't someone installed seats with restraints in the locker room that I can strap her down in. The last thing I want to do is have to run naked after my child out of the locker room.

Well, anyway, we finally got ourselves unloaded, paid, down the two flights of steps (WHY do I not take the elevator? Well next time I WILL) with our two bags, purse, self and stair challenged toddler. Then undressed, re-dressed, everything in lockers, lockers locked, and to the pool. We swam in the big pool first, and then I decided we would try out the baby pool. Unfortunately it was just a TAD too deep for her. It's a nice little pool, but it was just a little deeper than the bathtub. She kept thinking that she would just sit in the water and play with the toys, but when she would sit, her mouth and nose would just be covered with water, bringing on the gasping, stuttering, shock that was "mom rescue me!" and this happened over. And Over. Because the pool is shallower on the edges by a couple of inches, she thought she was all good and then would get to the center and fall over. I let her play there for a while, but she wasn't really doing much besides walking in circles. Then we went back to the big pool and swam around some more. She did really well with floating on her back, and I got her kicking a few times. She hasn't lost it, but I just want to be sure that she doesn't forget how much she likes the water and gain some fear before next summer. We had the whole pool to ourselves, and I have discovered that the time to go on the weekdays is after lunch and before school gets out. Perfect!

After swimming we took a shower, and she was PO'd about that because the water pressure in that place is about to tear off adult skin. If the shower even threatened to make direct contact with any extremity of her body, she screamed like a banshee. And she even got upsed when I put MY head under the shower stream, and would scream "no!" and grab my cheeks with her hands and try to pull my head out. She was afraid for my safety. LOL. Tooooo cute. And then of course she had to do her "teeth chattering" after the shower that made everyone feel bad for her (me too) and so I had to try to sit on the floor and dress her without showing anyone any naked parts through my towel, and finally got her dressed. She didn't do too bad through the hair drying, just sat on the floor in front of the mirror on my lap while I dried my hair and hers. The hardest part was keeping her in one place in the locker room, especially when school let out and all the teenage girls showed up with their sparkly iphones and earbuds. They would leave them on the bench and it was *temptation* to little hands. Nothing like trying to get your bra on while telling your toddler not to touch someone else's unattended ipod 1 foot from her.

I think we will go again. But next time we won't take any pool toys (they had some there! YAY!) and we won't take a camera. And we will see about taking a shower. I think it would be SUPER COOL if they had like a towel service there. As in, don't bring a towel, we have a zillion of them and we wash them like a hotel or health club. Ahhh. How cool would it be to not have to tote home wet towels and carry in 500 of them to use while you are there? I think as long as we go at the quiet time and as long as we pare down what we take, it's not a big deal. And I think that we will certainly make sure that we have NOWHERE to go. Because it took forever. To do everything. But still. Ardyn is free to get in, so it was nice.

Yesterday I had a midwife appointment, and Evan and Ardyn and I all went. It went well, but I do have an ultrasound tomorrow to check the baby's size and the amniotic fluid, as well as my cervix length, since I have had two weeks of Braxton Hicks and we want to see if they are doing anything. With Ardyn they spent my entire pregnancy assuring me that she was HUGE and that it would be at least a 10 pound baby, and even the ultrasound confirmed that. But when my water was broke, the midwife instantly changed her mind to a 6-7 pound baby because I had so much water. And Ardyn was 6lbs 10oz. So this time around the baby has just started measuring big, and so the ultrasound will check weight and amount of fluid, but I will take it with a grain of salt because the same thing happened last time. I hope to get in and out of there quickly, as I had wanted to have it done yesterday while I was there but they were too busy, so I already sat there once this week, and had labs once this week, and went to the dr. once this week. I'd like to get it all over with and come home to a night of Grey's Anatomy with my mom and sister.

What else is new. Not much that I can think of. Ardyn and I are about to start working on Valentine's. I have some supplies but haven't decided what kind we will be making yet. She's playing in her room and being very busy while I pick up the living room and dining room and let the Roomba vacuum away. I desperately need to clean the kitchen floor, but I am waiting for the Monster Steam Cleaner to arrive, so that I can clean the floor without the evil mop and bucket, and without using chemicals and toss out pads like Swiffer Wet Jet. I hope I adore it as much as other people do who have one. It can be used on the hardwood as well as the tile and congoleum, and even on carpet, although I have none. It has reusable and washable microfiber cleaning pads, and it also uses only water, no chemicals, and the steam sterilizes the floors and gets into the pits of evil floors like the one in my kitchen. I HATE Mops and buckets, I feel like I am just pushing filth around on the floor.

Ardyn's poor little nose. It's endless. A faucet of snot. We wipe. We are out of kleenex. We had been alternating kleenex with boogie wipes (saline wet wipes for noses) and now I am alternating boogie wipes with wet cloth wipes. Her poor nose is so red and dry. I try to put lotion on it several times a day. She hates that. She can barely breathe through her nose, but the booger sucker seems to help now and then, and as long as she is sitting up while I do it, it makes her laugh. I think it's about time that I suck her out again. When she wakes up she is crusted with snot dried all over her face, and her hair plastered in it. Great for her. So cute. Hopefully she kicks it sooner than later.

I am tempted to go somewhere tonight. We need milk. Badly. And we need Kleenex. And I would love to get some refills for the plug in vaproizer, because they would probably do a world of good for Ardyn's overnight breathing. Although, they are SO expensive, and I grease her up with Vicks each night anyway, so It's probably not a big deal. My sister was supposed to come over tonight and hang out with us, but she called and has too much laundry to do, so I will see her tomorrow night instead. In some ways I wish I had someone to just run over and stay with her while I run to town and grab what I need, but I suppose taking her with isn't a big issue. She goes everywhere with me anyway. I also have two totes that I bought at Wal-Mart that for some reason the lids don't fit. Of course I didn't KNOW the lids didn't fit until I packed the totes completely full and tried to put the lids on. I don't know what the deal is, because the they are SO CLOSE to fitting that I almost get that "bad day at the factory" feeling. I called the store to see if I have to bring back the whole tote or just the lid, and they said I can bring the lids but I have to have my receipt. Which of course I have no idea where it is, because receipts always seem to elude me. This isn't the receipt that I chased across the parking lot. But still. I don't know where it is. I know what day I bought them. And I know how much the damn debit was for, but I don't know where the receipt is. Of course. So TWO $15 totes that are worth nothing without their lids. And I can't find the receipt. And they aren't even 7 days old.

Oh wait! HERE is the receipt! Thank GOD! The smart part of my brain tells me that I should stay home where it is warm tonight and go run around at Wal-Mart tomorrow when I have a babysitter and it will take me half the time. By then I will probably have lost the receipt again. I had better tape it to the lids. Now to find the tape.....

I also have to call the library to renew a book, because we planned on going yesterday after the Dr... but then Ardyn was having a FIT and her motrin was worn off and she was tired, so we just dropped the books in the book drop outside and I FORGOT to call them to renew it yesterday when it was due. Ack. I can't wait for February to get here so I can change my wipe-off calendar board. I have nothing on January worth looking forward to and February is all written in the margins because there is enough stuff that I am sure to forget if I don't write it down. I would probably be better off to just write in February and put the remaining couple of January things in the margins.

Tonight Ardyn was so cute. She is always getting into stuff in the nursery, and she opens the drawer with marek's shoes and slippers in it ALL. THE. TIME. and drags them around. I always say "No, those are brother's shoes!" and tonight she closed the drawer, turned around, and said "Brothers Shoos!" and walked away. i am forever trying to get her to say "brother" or "baby brother" and this is the first time. She will say Marek, but it's kinda silly.... like Aaarek or sometimes Nick or Ick. He he.

I'm a list person. But nowadays I can make lists all I want, and it doesn't matter because I can't ever find them. So now I have a designated "list notebook." I have to tell you, I am addicted to my Mead notebook that has the soft cover and is like a flexible 3-ring binder. Ohhhh. I have had it for probably two years now, and they still sell them, and I keep wanting another one (for no reason besides to have one) but they are like $8-10 each! I think now they call them a "flex hybrid notebinder." I have sectioned mine off with different types of "to-do lists" including some for before the baby, some for around the house, some for Scrapbooking, etc. It was originally what I used to take to school when I went to New Horizons and took classes through work. I never took notes until I started to take Programming classes through anytime learning, and so there was no teacher, and I had to teach myself based on video and computer lessons. But since I don't need that anymore, it was a cinch to repurpose it and still have that "new notebook" good vibe that you get when you are a freak for fresh paper and pens, much like myself (and my husband... there's a reason we got married you know! Any guy who thinks a hot date is browsing through the art supplies at Hobby Lobby is RIGHT up my alley.)

So every time I think "I should make a list" i just put it in the notebinder. But this doesn't work for grocery lists. I used to do those in outlook and then sync them to my phone, but ever since I upgraded to outlook 2007, it screws up all the times in my phone calendar and nearly gives me a heart attach when I sync. So. It seems that a sticky note is more my speed. But I lose it at least 5 times before I actually get INTO a store to get things. It's a bad bad deal.

I got Ardyn her own Microfiber duster. She was addicted to mine and not only wanted to DUST with it, but CUDDLE with it (yuck). I just found hers and took it into her room, and she gave it a biiiiig hug and said "Awwww. So Cute!" She's warped.

Her new thing is "Mommy. Mommy? Mommy?!" over and over and over all day. Even if she really has nothing to say but Mommy. She just loves to say it. Over and Over. And I have to admit, I love to hear it! She says "Mommy" and I say "Ardyn" and it can go on like that FOREVER if I don't stop.

Our local scrapbook store closed. It kinda disappointed me. And it kinda didn't. Lots of us saw it coming. There are lots of sketchy details as to exactly what happened, but I saw the eviction notice myself posted on the door by the sherrif's department, so it's kinda hard to deny that they owed some people some money, for whatever reason. I have a few layouts all ready to make and a few more that I need to buy paper for. I was planning on stopping in to grab paper when I heard the rumors and checked out the store myself. I guess I will have to make a trip to Hobby Lobby, although deep down I crave a reason to go to Archivers.... although that's a drive! I guess I could buy paper online, but that does sorta defeat the purpose of matching the paper to the pictures as part of the grand master plan! Guess it will have to be a road trip sometime! If I can convince some friends and pick a date in February, that will give me some time to get MORE pages planned and more pictures sorted so I can get MORE coordinating papers. LOL.

Well, this is probably long enough. Have a great night!