Time for Bed Sleepyhead

I'm feeling pretty productive tonight, after my evening nap. But I am confining my productivity to one room. It's easier that way.

This morning the double stroller arrived. I was lucky to catch it on sale at Target for about $40 less than the previous retail, and got free shipping. Saved me at least $65... and then MIL agreed to go in halves with us, so that really brought it down. Now I just have to pay her back!

I can't believe that I have had a brand new stroller in the house for 12 hours now and I haven't opened it. I did bring it in from the porch this afternoon, but that's all the farther it got. I put Ardyn's Chicco Stroller for her Travel system together by myself when I was 9 months pregnant, but I haven't decided if I feel like tackling this one, or just how much assembly a double stroller should require.

We had a fairly productive day, despite the rainy gloomy weather. We both slept late, because it was dark out, which was really nice. Ardyn and I got up and dressed and had blueberry pancakes for breakfast. I bought a Krusteaz mix that was the ONLY pancake and waffle mix I found on the shelf that was dairy free. They were good, but not very moist. I think that next time instead of making with water as directions state, I will try with rice milk. Just sounds like it would taste better. I keep saying I am going to just make my own whole wheat mix (I have made it before and LOVED them) but I haven't actually DONE it yet.

We are finding our kitchen to be really annoying these days. Thank GOD for the dishwasher, but Evan commented the other day about our serious lack of counter space. There is almost no counter space in the kitchen. It's very limiting. Each child adds a new challenge. It was not too bad to fit Ardyn's things.... bottles, and then sippy cups, and now regular cups or straw cups.... then add in the different kinds of spoons and toddler forks, and melamine plates, and tiny bowls, and gummy vitamins, and juicy juice and cases of rice milk and dairy free snacks and space just keeps getting more premium. I have made it work... but when we add one more, there will be bringing back out a bottle warmer (babysitters and Daddy can't breastfeed) and bottles and nipples and pacifiers and small bibs again and then add in the nursery sanitizer, and the breast pump parts, and it just is going to be CRAZY. I will make it work. But it won't be pretty. I ran the dishwasher last night, but between the time I loaded it and tonight, I made pancakes, and browned 2 pounds of ground beef. I made 1 pound into BBQ. Then we made lunch. And so by the time I unloaded, it was time to reload again, and so now the dishwasher is running AGAIN.

I have a few things to wash by hand and then I am going to (hopefully) make something sweet. I have Key Lime Bars I keep wanting to make, and now Lisa gave me her Scotcharoo Recipe (and I have all the ingredients ready) and so I am telling myself I should make one of those. And NOW I have a chocolate snack cake recipe that Janice has passed on (THANK YOU!).... and I can't wait to try that too! But I also need to fold a load of diapers in the drier, wash the dirty diaper pail, make about 10 more Valentine Mice for Ardyn's Party on Friday, and pack up her bag for school. I don't HAVE to pack her bag tonight, but I want to do something tomorrow so it would be nice to just have that done. I don't know how realistic it is to wash things by hand, make dessert, make 10 more Valentines, fold dry diapers, wash dirty ones, and pack Ardyn's bag, all starting at 8pm. Oh, it can be done... but is that REALLY what I want to do? Ha.

Ardyn and I spent the afternoon in the basement working in the sewing room. Evan got me another plastic shelf (because he wanted mine!) and we put it together. I needed just a tad bit of shelving to put a few things on, things that had to leave the scrapbook room and just needed a home. Things like my stationary and sticker basket, my embroidery basket, my beading basket, my scrapbooking idea books, my family tree and heritage things, a few photo albums, and then a shelf to get Ardyn's toys in the sewing room up off the floor in case of water. Basically with all the thawing and raining, we decided that today would be a GOOD day to get that done, in case there is water in our future. At this point it looks fine, but you never can tell and we have learned from experience in this town that being proactive is important when it comes to water. So I got everything put up and away, and then I organized the kid table, which had been left a mess since we had 7 year old Hallie over the summer. Then Ardyn decided that she was a big girl and sat at her Little Tykes Desk for the first time and colored while I cleaned off the gift wrap table and organized everything in that area of the room. It was a very productive day.

We ate our late lunch and followed it up with a late nap.

In a couple of days, Marek's hospital bag should arrive. Ardyn has a personalized backpack on wheels that we have used ENDLESSLY. It is wonderful with cloth diapers, because the average diaper bag will never accommodate an overnight trip for that child. The bulk of diapers is just too much. So ever since the beginning of time, if we are going on a day-long trip, or she is going overnight, we pack her backpack. It is SO well made, it's sure to last for a long long time, and many trips to grandmas. I knew immediately that we would need one for Marek too, and because we will be taking cloth diapers to the hospital with us, I knew that I would want it as soon as possible.

I went through the stash and got his cloth diapers picked out for the trip, and have them in my suitcase until his bag arrives. I just got notification that it has shipped, so now I can get that packed with HIS things, and finally finish packing mine with MY things. I have two nursing gowns to wash and pack, and something for me to wear home. Everything else that I can pack ahead of time has been done. The problem is the coming home outfit for ME. With Ardyn, I didn't plan anything for either of us to wear home, and it wasn't a big deal, because no one welcomed us anyway (our choice.) But this time Marek has a cute outfit, and After looking at the pic of me in my outfit last time, I keep telling myself I MUST pay more attention to what I am wearing. But seriously, that's not easy. So I am still mulling that over.

You know you have a toddler when you clean the kitchen and find two combs and a pink mary jane. She is being incredibly self-sufficient tonight, playing on her own in her room. She wanders into the kitchen now and then to check on what I am doing, and I do the same wandering to check on her now and again.... and each time she comes to visit she brings a teacup or a bowl of some fabulous concoction that she is stirring and I must "taste." And then she leaves them on the floor. I am getting allot done in the kitchen, wiping over and under and around everything, but I will pay for it later when I see that every toy has been strewn about every room she can access. Yes, I will pay. But right before bed we will have our "cleanup" time, and sing that silly Barney song that for some reason is so simple it inspires cleaning in even the most unruly of toddlers. It's almost like brainwashing.

I have this new method of blogging. Maybe I should call it "momentus interruptus." I just leave the window open and go about my business at home. As I am doing dishes and cleaning, or changing diapers or whatever, I think of things that continue the post. Then I pop onto the computer and write a paragraph. Then while I am writing, I think of something I was going to do in the house, and I pop off the computer and go do something. It's a very productive cycle. It's interesting to me, because I seem to be the most productive everywhere when I do this. I am not sure if it is due to the mommy brain that seems to make me unable to remember anything longer than say 5 minutes, or if my brain has always worked more efficiently this way and it just took a year or so of constant interruptions to be able to figure that out. Maybe it's my was of Adapting. Like a fish with legs... as Darwin would point out. Of course, there are moments when I come back to the computer to find the wireless mouse missing.... and then spend the next 5 minutes tracking it down.... or when I finally think of what I want to write and the second I sit Ardyn appears at my side and tries to climb onto my lap "Up Mom. Up Mom." or shoves a book in my face (the same one that we have read 500 bazillion times today already) and I feel annoyed, but I tell myself that she won't always be this small and so I should be happy for these moments.

I am trying to convince myself that it's okay to buy more than one bib since I have finally found one that I like. I had tons of different cheap pocket bibs, and NONE of them made me happy. Eventually I just started washing them all in the washing machine, and saw which ones would last. Right now I am just using the same one bib all day, and that's great except that I just washed the same bib for the 3rd time today and the 500 thousandth time this year. Of course because it's a GOOD Bib it cost almost $4. And that makes me cranky. So now I am telling myself that I can get a bit of slack and own like 2-3 of them, right?

Well, I got all the Valentine Mice finished. 18 total. Now that leaves FOUR Teacher Teacups.... with glitter, which I will have to do tomorrow because my lightbox is at mom's and I drew out my pattern but I don't think I want to hand draw it four times and try to make them look identical. Tomorrow. My mom will have a heart attack if I do the glitter part at her house, but I do have glitter glue pens and I think I can use those without putting her over the edge. He he. Since there are only four, there shouldn't be much of an issue transporting them home in the van if they haven't dried yet... I can just put them in a cardboard flat or something.

Ardyn sat next to me while making mice and we did our animal sounds while she ate a sucker (Whoa, messy. First time since we tried at the Halloween party and I almost had an aneurysm over the amount of sticky drool) shaped like a heart. It went well. But once it got dropped on the floor, it was a goner. I distracted her while I got it to the garbage and she *almost* didn't notice. She has a good grasp on the stick, but has a habit of putting her free hand right over the sucker part and squeezing it in sticky delight. She did much better at not constantly drooling, but it was still messy. Poor kid. She is definitely getting a bath tomorrow morning, after a day at the park yesterday, and today in the basement and then eating pancakes with strawberry syrup, and soup, and then the sucker.... she is a sticky little thing. I have been wiping her as much as possible, but there are just crevices that the sticky won't come out of.

On a side note, how cool is this? Salma Hayek nurses her 16 month old daughter, and while on a UNICEF trip to Sierra Leone, she nursed a sick baby there because the mother was unable to produce milk. Holy crap. How many celebrities do you know that would do something so awesome, AND let it be taped? Yeah. I like her. GO HERE to see the article and video. I got goosebumps and tears in my eyes just watching her talk about the experience.

I assembled the stroller. It wasn't bad at all. I took pics too, but will take a few more tomorrow and upload, with the carseat attached and Ardyn in the back seat. Sweet!