"Summer" Spray Brush and Comb Set

Okay, I admit. This is one of those things that you really don't NEED but I find myself using and being pleased to have. It's the super quick solution to bed head and what Evan and I call "Mad Scientist Hair." Now granted, if your baby is... ummm... not blessed with hair, this might seem like a complete waste. But in our case, Ardyn came out with more hair than some babies have at 1 year old. We love her hair but after a nap, or a while in the sling with mom, or after wearing a stocking cap or cute hat, she gets CRAZY mad scientist hair. And she hates it when I stick her head in the sink to flatten it down. In previous times, I was wetting her baby hairbrush and then brushing her hair down. Not the most convenient when out and about, if you have a vain baby that is. Ha.

Made by Summer Infant Products...This brush has a BUILT IN sprayer! You fill the handle with water or if you have serious tangles, no more tears spray... and then, spritz and brush. I read tons of reviews online, and many moms thought that it didn't spray enough out with each pump. I disagree wholeheartedly... I think it sprays the perfect amount, and I can smooth out her hair in seconds, anytime, anywhere. She doesn't mind it one bit. Quick, Painless, and Convenient enough to toss in the diaper bag. So if your baby brought you lots of pregnancy heartburn... and you turned out to have a head full of hair to deal with, this is a great buy.

Baby Smart Cooshee Tub Guard (Kneeler)

This is one of my favorite products for MOMS! The Baby Smart Cooshee Tub Guard is great for moms and dads who are destined to spend hours kneeled by the bathtub. The price is wonderful, especially considering that I will probably be using it for MANY years to come, and for multiple children.

It is a soft, foamy pad that sits outside the tub to cushion mom's knees, and slips over the edge of the tub for your forearms and elbows. Until this little goodie arrived, I was putting a folded towel on the floor and another over the edge of the tub. And mom's with those annoying shower doors (you know who you are!) this product will work for you too, thanks to a genius little foam piece that you just remove to accommodate shower door rails. The pads can be removed if desired (they aren't stuck down with any type of adhesive) but they don't get in our way, so we tend to leave them where they lie. We just toss our bathroom rug over the top of the blue kneeler when adults take a bath or shower. I like them because it also makes a nice slip free place for little ones to grab and step while exiting the tub.

The only downside that I can see (which isn't really the manufacturer's fault) is that the armrest really needs to be right in the center of the tub to fit properly, because my tub has curved sides, so it's thicker on each end than it is in the center. It works anywhere on the side, but stays put better when centered. This wouldn't be a big deal, except we are using an infant tub right now and I slide the tub close to the front of the adult tub, so that the spigot can pour right into the tub, and the shower hose reaches better.

This is worth the money, and I purchased mine from Leaps and Bounds, I believe for $24.99

Sock Pro Sock Holders

I got a cool new product that I just love. "Sock Pro" Sock holders.

Ardyn's sock drawer was such a mess. I never matched the socks up because then the tops stretch out and they are too big for her and fall off all the time. I needed them to remain in their original non-stretched out state. I saw these in the One Step Ahead catalog, (I love them, and Leaps and Bounds also) and ordered them right away. The order comes with a quantity of 30, that's 3 packs of 10. They sent me red blue and black.

The cool thing is that when you put the socks together you can just toss them in the drawer and always find the match, but the sock thingys also stay on in the washer, and the dryer! Seriously! No more matching socks! None! It's totally awesome. I've put them on from the toes, and from the cuffs, and I think it's easier to put the toes through first. I don't think they are big enough for adult socks, but I haven't tried them. It looks like they use them for adult socks on the package also.... I think for infant and children socks, they are great, but if they are big enough to walk around and get the socks dirty, I would suggest making sure that the sock pro things go around the cuffs and not the feet, to make sure that they come completely clean. Now I know how easy it is to lose little socks in the wash, but I have been using a lingerie bag and putting all her socks in there with my washable breast pads in order to keep them all together in pairs. Otherwise I might end up with a infant sock in one bra cup, and a washable breast pad in the other.

But now I don't even need the lingerie bag for the socks, they are so easily matched. Even with a very full load they don't come apart in the wash. They are inexpensive, and the only thing I can say is that 30 weren't quite enough (Ardyn has lots of socks!) and I need about 10 more. I think it was $9.95 for 30 sock pro holders.

Check out the pictures of her sock drawer BEFORE and AFTER! Neat! Highly recommended.

Mom on the Loose.

Free!! Two hours and 11 minutes! Alone! No car seat to haul. No Diaper Bag! I got to carry a PURSE! LoL. I cranked Pat Benetar about as loud as I could possibly stand it on the way to the meeting and home.

The meeting was great and I didn't even have to skip out early because it only lasted just over an hour. Then I went to Wal-Mart and returned the robe that didn't fit right, and got anotehr two pair of pajamas instead.

When I got home Ardyn was smiling and happy and hanging out with Evan. Ah. Nice. She went right to bed at 9pm and I was able to start a load of laundry, wash breast pump parts and pacifiers, wash all the dishes from today and from making Chex Mix, and sterilize stuff for tomorrow. I also made a cup of mint tea and ate a Johnagold apple. Yum. Watching today's episode of Ellen from Tivo, I was pleased to see Jenny McCarthy. I was never a fan of hers when she was on MTV. Just didn't care for her, but once she got pregnant and became a mom, I read Belly Laughs and Baby Laughs, and really enjoyed them. She seems to have really changed for the better, and I do enjoy her. Her hair is so cute! It's killing me because I keep telling myself I promised.. no cutting my hair after Ardyn was born... and it's so long. I can't imagine cutting it now cuz it's so long.

I checked my email and the weather. It's gonna be 19 degrees tonight. Ack. Tomorrow is a free day, but Thursday are Ardyn's first shots. Advice moms? I have read everywhere that babies who are allowed to breastfeed during their shots don't even cry. But they said that some pediatricians won't allow you to breastfeed during the shots. I wonder why? I think I might ask.
Well, off to change the last load of laundry and go to bed!

Stupid People.

We had a rough weekend. Ardyn was still sick and it peaked on Sunday when she woke up with dry heaves and eventually throwing up. She also had diaper blowouts and was really fussy and upset in general. Today (Tuesday) is the first time she seems to be doing better. Saturday night she was awake every 1-2 hours all night, not feeling good and wanting to be held or nursed for comfort. Sunday night I got her to bed on time but she continued to wake up and want to be fed. Evan then also got sick and it was not pleasant to be the only well one... but I am thankful that I didn't get sick (yet) because who would take care of me if I was taking care of everyone else. I never knew a baby could have dry heaves. It was horrible. I have had some crummy tummy but have just been very careful about what I eat in general. Yesterday I had toast for breakfast, Turkey sandwich for lunch, and Chicken Pot Pie for supper. Today I had toast again (out of milk) and turkey on a croissant with apples dipped in yogurt for lunch. Safe.

Sunday night was the hardest, but luckily I had taken a nap that evening. Ardyn was up and I didn't get to sleep till 2:15, and then it was on the couch with Ardyn's co-sleeper next to me, because Evan was so sick and I had quarantined him in the bedroom and bathroom. Ardyn woke up every hour and ate every hour to two hours... she was fussy and her tummy was upset so she would eat a little bit every hour. By 6:30am I had slept for almost 2 very interrupted hours... but then I got some sleep later that morning, for an hour at a time from 7:45 till 10am. Ack.

Last night I went to mom's and visited her friends who came out to eat supper. My cleaning people came and disinfected our germy house. Thank God. Of course, then today, the day after my house is clean, Hadley peed on the porch and I dropped a whole box of chex upside-down while making Chex mix. I got a hair up my ass and then I had to call Boyd in to eat all the chex off the floor while Ardyn watched amused from her bouncy seat.

So tonight I get to go to my Computer User Group meeting. It's my second "official" time away from her, and I am not counting the hour that Evan took her to his mom and dad's, because it was barely even time away. I am excited, so excited that I think I should be blowing off the meeting and getting some stuff done. Shhh... no one has to know! Just kidding. I will go to the meeting. But I might sneak out early for a pumpkin spice cappuccino all to myself. Drink my latte and pump breastmilk in the car. How romantic!

Ardyn and I went to Wal-Mart today and my main goal was to return a robe that I bought and get a different size, and to get some more milk, bread, etc. $106 and one annoying cashier later, I forgot to even BRING the robe with. Ardyn was getting a little fussy at the end of the trip. I had everything up on the conveyor, although it took the girl FOREVER to clear me off space. Usually I am annoyed because the damn thing is moving too fast... and I can't organize my groceries by size and type (cold, frozen, boxed, bagged, breads and cookies, you know?) and it really pisses me off to have space between my food. (OCD, what can I say) but this time I was constantly standing there trying to have a square inch to put all the crap I was holding in my hands. And she scanned my groceries with the speed of a turtle, I swear she read the label on each freaking item I had, and then would hold it in her hands for 10 seconds before deciding how to put it in the bag. I wanted to strangle her. I was putting bags in my cart twice as fast as she was filling them. Annoying. Then I had already scanned the credit card, put in my pin number, and answered all the questions. I packed it back in my wallet, back in my diaper bag, put the diaper bag UNDER the cart, loaded the cart, put the hat and mittens on ardyn, and was waiting for her to give me my receipt when she goes "scan your card." I said "I did" and she goes "put in your pin" and I said "I did" and she turns around, looks at the receipt printer, gestures to it as though it is god, and OBVIOUSLY if it isn't printing, then I didn't scan my card. If she hadn't been so busy reading every label on every product I bought, she might have SEEN my scan my card. I Said "I already scanned my card, put in my pin, and said NO to cashback. It was approved. I just need a receipt. " She just stared at me. Then she goes "Well what does your screen say?" with a huge attitude. Then I said "It says NOTHING." and she just stood there and stared at me. I wanted to say "YOU are the one who works here, why are you asking me?" She said "scan it again" and I said "I don't want to be charged twice." and she said "scan it again" Oh I was pissed. So I scanned it again, put my pin in again, said NO to cashback AGAIN. I had better not get charged again or it is Cashier Elizabeth's Ass.

Anyway. More later.

Gerber Grins n Giggles Roll On Baby Powder

This morning we tested out our roll on baby powder from the Gerber Grins and Giggles Line. When we took our prepared childbirth class, the instructor (an OB nurse for 23 years and the director of the Women's Health Department) told us that we shouldn't use baby powder for the first year of the baby's life because it poses a respiratory hazard. Interesting. I had seen somewhere previously that they make roll-on baby powder. I was intrigued. I wanted to try it. But once we had the baby (and even before) I couldn't find any, until our Toys R Us trip yesterday.

Last night I had the thought that there would be an issue keeping the roll-on applicator truly "clean" if you were just going to roll it onto her skin. Then I read the packaging (duh) and it recommended rolling it onto the clean diaper to maintain the integrity of the roll-on applicator. Aha! Mom brain!

So this morning I wanted to try some on her first diaper change of the day. I have a routine that every night before bed she gets a coating of A&D Ointment before a clean diaper and her sleep sack. This prevents her from getting any rash or any poo stuck to her little butt from a long night in the same diaper. It makes the morning diaper change much easier, I don't have to rub and scrub her with wipes, it's like a non-stick frying pan in there. So after a greasy wet night, I thought it might be helpful to have a powdery dry morning diaper.

The excitement ended when I opened up the packaging, and screwed off the lid to a dust explosion of baby powder that covered my hands and the changing table. So much for avoiding a respiratory hazard. Overall the roll-on feature worked well. The downside is that you could never carry this in your diaper bag because I am assuming that the transporting to the store and home from the store caused it to leak all over into the cap and when the cap is removed you have about 2 full tablespoons of baby powder that flies all over the place and makes a mess. So this isn't a bad product, if you open it over the garbage and keep it upright on your changing table. But the fact that's it's really just loose powder in a roll-on container, which costs you probably 4 times more than a huge container of baby powder, makes me wonder if this is a product I would recommend to anyone. Packaging improvement is necessary. Perhaps an adhesive seal over the roll-on applicator to prevent leaking before it gets to the consumer. And if it were a perfect world, the ability to unscrew the lid, refill the bottle, and clean the roll-on applicator. But that would probably not happen as that would mean you could refill it with any old cheap baby powder. It makes me wonder if one couldn't find any refillable applicator bottle with a roll-on head, similar to ones used for perfume, and make their own roll-on baby powder.

Would you see this on TV today?

Probably not, and it's a shame!

Tivo Catch-up

Well, today is going well. I am just sitting here in my pajamas catching up on TIVO. I finished Dirty Sexy Money (and can I say I totally knew that Nick and Tripp were conspiring against Simon? The whole time?) and I am watching Men in Trees. Ardyn went to sleep just after 8pm.

I am doing some baby laundry, specifically some sleep sacks that I am doing product testing on for Halo Innovations, the makers of Halo sleep sacks and Swaddle Sleep Sacks. Also bought a Kiddopotamus Swaddle Sack. Just to try it out. She uses the newborn size sleep sacks with swaddle from Halo, but we had two that we bought in August (we bought three total) that I had issues with because they had either NO tabs on the back, or only one tab, and she could pull the swaddle piece up over her face.

So I contacted Halo and got in touch with a marketing rep and she sent me replacements, as well as a proto-type for a size small sleep sack with swaddle that isn't on the market yet. And also a size small sleep sack made of velboa as a gift. So we are getting ready to test the small sleep sack that she sent. Ardyn just in the past week has started to become Houdini and escape all of the swaddle sacks in newborn size, I think because she is too string for the velcro, and because she is too long. They are supposed to fit up to 10 pounds, and she isn't yet, but she is LONG and she is ESCAPING which leads to her waking up about twice a night when she WAS sleeping through the night for a whole week before the escaping started. We MUST get her into the next size! Lucky for me I got to test because they don't even manufacture a smaller size (with a swaddle) by Halo... but they do make them by Kiddopotamus. And their small goes up to 14 pounds... so I bought one for $9.99 at Toys R Us today so that I could see how I like it. What I DID like about the Kiddopotamus ones is that you can wash them without a bunch of exposed velcro, AND the swaddle is attached at the back so it can't be pulled up, AND the diaper changing can be done without unswaddling, AND (one more) they are half the price of Halo's sleep sacks. But we have 7 total Halo sacks. Yeah. So we will have to test and see.

I have the worst luck at Toys R Us. When we went shopping a couple of weeks ago they left the security tag on the Adidas suit and I had to take it back to the store with receipt today to have it removed. What a pain in my ass. I called the store where it happened after calling the Toys R Us Customer service line, and neither one had any real help or even remorse for their screw-up. So also today I went to buy some OxyClean baby and grabbed a spray bottle of stain treatment by OxyClean also, and when we got home it had built up a bunch of pressure and almost exploded, and the bottle had crunched outwards and the bottom pushed out so it wouldn't stand up anymore. What is WITH That? Toys R Us and I don't mix well apparently. And can I just say that they had some "doorbuster" sale today and the customer service desk was SO insane. There were literally only one group of people ahead of me in line and no one behind me, so yeah, two of us, and I waited about 10 minutes before anyone even looked at me. There was one girl working the counter and she apparently had an attitude and was being bitchy to the people she was helping, and never once even acknowledged that I was there. Eventually another woman came up and helped me... but it was rather rude. No one even apologized to me for having to make another trip to the store to have the security tag removed. Whatever.

One good thing I can say about Toys R Us, they have a nice selection of certain baby items that you can't find at stores like Wal-Mart or Target. They carry the Gerber Roll on Baby Powder, and they carry Menthol Baby Bath, which you can't get at Wal-mart here anymore, and also alcohol-free kid safe hand sanitizers. I bought a three pack of travel ones and a two pack of ones for the house.

Well, Ardyn woke up at 10pm and needed to be topped off with some milk. he.
The stupidest commercials. I tell you. How about the one where the woman is at Lowe's acting out all the things she wants to buy as Christmas Decorations. Yeah. Retarded.

Well, this weekend I have people coming to pick up the table from the front porch that I want to get rid of (gonna put the Christmas Tree out there from now on) and a basket full of cans of baby formula that I didn't obviously need to use. The Freecycle network is good for that. Sometimes I know that I am giving away some REALLY good stuff that I could probably make money on, but it's nice to just give it to someone who will enjoy it, and to have it gone fast. The first come first serve nature of freecycle usually ensures that if someone WANTS it then it will be gone right away.

Can I just say that I love on Men in Trees when Annie and Sapphire mud wrestle at the Chieftain? LOL. I am really dying to see if Jack is like LEAVING the show? Hmmm. I mean, going to the Bering Sea, and then next week supposedly getting attacked by a wolf? Dying to know.

Well, that's good for now. Have a great weekend!

Retail Therapy

Well, shopping made me feel better. It always does. Retail Therapy. Even if it's just Wal-Mart I can find shit to buy. We needed toilet paper, and laundry detergent. I needed a tote.

Ardyn was still so fussy... that when I put her in her carseat she was SCREAMING at me no matter if I gave her a pacifier, rocked her, swung her seat around a bit.... nothing. I finally had to get like 1 inch from her face to talk to her because she couldn't even hear me through her screaming. I got her calmed down and then I defrosted 2, 2ounce bottles of breastmilk and fed them to her in the carseat. She was out in an instant. The fastest way to soothe her without taking her out of the carseat, swaddling her, and breastfeeding her. We were on the road by 9:15. spent about an hour in the mart. I bought new super soft pajamas and a new robe. The robe is fitting, but I think I would like it bigger. Must exchange it. I bought brown, tan, and cream socks. All of mine seem to be mismatched now, and even after cleaning the laundry room, I have about 25 tan socks, and only two of them match. Seriously, that is no exaggeration.

Every single time the shopping cart sat still, Ardyn was crying. Cart stops, pacifier goes flying out of her mouth, and screaming ensues. Don't stop to look at anything. I meant to try the robe on before I left the store, but I guess it makes sense that I forgot. I also got a cool thing for the laundry room that I can put each person's foldable laundry and underwear/socks in until I can match them. Or hey, how about husband can match his own socks? Yeah. That's a great idea! So I got to the checkout and had to exit with TWO carts because I had a giant tote that took up one entire cart and another stackable unit that took up another cart. I Was trying to push both carts (with the baby) and a friend Jen (HER husband Evan is friends with MY husband Evan, and she once sold Pampered Chef as one of my recruits) was shopping there and offered to escort me and help by pushing one cart. She did, thankfully, even though I told her no (why do I refuse help? What the fuck is wrong with me? Martyr much?) and then she put the tote and the other stuff IN my car while I got Ardyn snapped in, AND she took both carts back inside the store. Doesn't she deserve like a medal or something?

What I love more than anything is women and moms reaching out to help other women and moms. What I love is when you are shopping and you see another mom and she looks at you with a look of "I've been there!" and it's such a good feeling to know that she understands the exhaustion on your face, or the fact that you are changing a diaper in the backseat of your car, or breastfeeding in the middle of the mall, or trying to contain a tantrum, or anything mom related. I get so sick of moms who compete with everyone. My kid did this and this and this and has this and that and this. It isn't a competition! Everyone is proud of their child. That is natural. But at the same time, be proud of another person's kids. Be happy to help. OFFER to help and I guess sometimes, when I mom refuses or seems overwhelmed or too proud or feels guilty for accepting, insist on helping her. Please. I don't mean overstep your bounds and invade on her privacy, but please offer to help. Two or three times.

Today makes me want to read the book "it takes a village" and Honestly I never even gave a second thought to that phrase or anything in the past. It just made me laugh about all the people that I don't want influencing my kids. But moms have to stick together. And when I think about all the favors that I have done for other moms over the years, before I had kids or realized how much of a big freaking nice deal it was to have someone who gave a crap.... I realize that there are a lot of people out there who owe me. And I mean owe me BIG TIME. And when I also think about it, several of those people have disappeared out of my life. Mostly because we got too busy, sometimes because I get sick of giving giving giving all the time and not getting anything in return. A lot of those people were "users." And I don't do favors to get things in return, but getting respect in return is my number one goal. I think of friends who had kids in high school, and friends who had kids after high school, and I spent lots of my time with those kids. Babysitting for free. Buying BIRTHDAY presents and CHRISTMAS presents! Giving them rides to doctor appointments and family member's houses. Helping decorate for parties and dress up for Halloween. Taking them Trick-or-Treating. Taking them shopping. Taking them to movies. I bought their parents baby shower presents and bridal shower presents and wedding gifts. And those people have taken advantage of me and disappeared. I never saw a shower or wedding gift from them, not even a card. And here I sit with a 2 month old and I can literally count on one hand the people who would do anything for me in return. And two of those people live in Alaska and Chicago respectively. Isn't that crazy? I guess this makes me realize that while it takes a village, I still need to start looking out for my own family. And how lucky I am that some of those people aren't in my life anymore. Because I don't need things from people who aren't truly my friends. I don't need the hassle... and I don't need to be used.

Halloween Rant

Trick or Treat! Okay, honestly... I hated Halloween this year. Hated. Passionately. It sucked. Did I mention that Halloween and Thanksgiving are my favorite holidays? And that fall is my favorite season? And that I am not enjoying fall much at all this year? Sometimes having a new baby can really suck. I am just being honest. I am just telling you the stuff that they don't tell you about having a new baby. For the first time in exactly 28 years, I didn't have a Halloween Costume to wear. I also just didn't have fun. Ardyn was really too small to have a costume, at least that was my opinion, and I am super glad I didn't buy one, because she would have been too pissed to go to the Halloween party, and she would have shit in it. Seriously. And what does my husband do? Leaves me. Home alone. On Halloween. To hand out candy with a baby who was cranky all day long and who was cranky all night too. I think her tummy is upset because in the middle of handing out candy, amidst a crying fit, she pooped Massively and I knew right away that it was a diaper blowout. I had to turn the porch lights off so that trick-or-treaters would stop coming for a while so that I could go change her She pooped right through her black tights and black spider onesie. Poor Kid. I wish I could say she felt better after that, but apparently she just felt hungry, because she cried ferociously until I breastfed her, on the porch, while handing out candy. I covered up with a blanket and everything, but it was at that moment that I was envisioning my husband's balls on a wall plaque. Really. Did it seem like it was okay to leave your wife and almost 2 month old daughter home alone to hand out candy when the baby wasn't feeling well? I guess it's probably MY fault because anyone in their right mind would have not handed out candy at all. But I am not in my right mind. And every time someone said "where's Evan?" I had to breathe deeply before I answered.

And another thing. I hate how Halloween has changed. Firstly, it's a huge deal that everyone can't hand out homemade treats. And I understand. I get it. But instead we have to pay money to the man to buy all this pre-packaged Halloween Candy and no kids of mine will ever know what it's like to go trick-or-treating and come home with taffy apples, popcorn balls, caramel corn, chex mix, and rice krispy squares. And that seems like a huge deal to me. And I really hate that every parent drives along the road in the van and opens the door at each house and lets their kids in and out. When I was little we walked the whole damn town. And if we got tired, well then it was in exact proportion to the amount of candy that we really needed. And we went to the house of people we knew when we were small. We might only go 5 places, but really, how much candy does a 2 year old NEED? It's become more about the parents than the kids. A parental show-off of their costumes in some cases, and a parental "too lazy to walk" in another. I can understand if you have kids of all different ages and you have one that's small and in a car seat. But if they are too little to trick or treat, can't a grandparent come over and watch the smaller one while you take out the older. I don't know. It's not a big deal, but someone else pointed out to me how there were hardly any kids and parents walking.

The highlight of my night was Jamie and Amy with Bryson. They were literally close to the only people I knew who came to my house. I probably scared everyone away as the crazy breastfeeding woman on the corner. I did joke that I would use the boobs to scare away those kids that were too old to Trick Or Treat. And let me clarify that "too old" to me is when you are too damn lazy to get a costume together. I am sick of seeing kids in their basketball uniform from school, or the one kid who just had on a Grey sweatsuit. I was like "mouse?" That's when it's time to stay home. Or get a job.

Well, this ends my bitter Halloween Rant.

I think we are going to run to Wal-Mart to get a couple of plastic totes. Today I went through Ardyn's clothes and split them up by sizes, and I need two more totes to get them all correctly sectioned off. She's finally starting to grow out of some newborn clothes, so I need to get a tote ready for Newborn and 0-3 clothes too.

Gotta go, she's screaming. What else is new, huh? Did I mention that I think that HUSBANDS cause post-partum depression? Oh that's not FAIR... is it???

Down with the Sickness

I should be in bed. I should be in bed.

1am. Told you.

In all fairness, I spent from 8:50 till 9:30 getting Ardyn ready for bed, nursing her to sleep, and putting her in bed. And then I spent 9:30 till 11:45.... putting her to bed. Again. And Again. And Again. Shushing. Nursing. Popping the pacifier back in her mouth. Rocking. Jiggling. Bouncing. Walking. Talking quietly and reassuringly.

Then I drank a cup of tea and finally finished the magazine that I started to flip through at 1:00 this afternoon. And I didn't read anything. Just flipped through it.

Then I went through a bag of clothes that I had bought at a garage sale a while back, all size 3 months to 2T... took off the tags (which they STAPLED to the clothes thanks) and placing them in the hamper along with the tote full of 3-6 months clothes that I went through today that a friend sent me.

I also scrubbed out the car seat and soaked a sleeper that had more poop in it than the diaper did. When grabbing some food at a restaurant this evening, Ardyn had a major blowout in her carseat, leaked out the diaper, through the sleeper, and all over everything, clear down to her little toes. That was a fun cleanup. Wipes head to toe in the bathroom that HAS no changing station. Yep.

Then I went down and did a few loads of laundry, and was down there so long that I literally got three loads done... because I was CLEANING the laundry room that is horribly terrible. I hate the laundry room. No one that lives here ever puts clothes away. Ever. It's a nightmare. We live out of the laundry room. Except Ardyn. I am too particular about her stuff.

Then I refilled my pill case. Then I sterilized breast pump parts, bottles, and pacifiers in the micro-steamer. Then I called my husband, who is so so so so sick that when he went to McDonalds at 11:30pm he never came home. But he is so so so sick that he complains every 4 seconds. And the cold that he has- Ardyn and I had first. And I was operating for a week with the same cold and in addition a sore throat, with an average of 2-4 hours of sleep a night for that entire week, and also taking care of a sick baby who couldn't breathe. And suctioning her nose out while she screamed every single hour during every single night. And that. Sucked. And no one else cared. And he is so so so sick. So sick that he told me he would just have to lay around tonight and be on the couch. And now he's missing. That's how sick he is. Very sick. I feel bad for him. Really bad. So bad that I might wait by the door with a frying pan to put him out of his misery.

The husband and I got flu shots today too. I was a big girl. I got a candy bar from the plastic pumpkin when I was done. I stood still. I didn't cry. It didn't even hurt. I have never had a flu shot in my entire life. I work in healthcare and they offer them free to us each year as employees because we are around sickness and disease and INFLUENZA! I never get one. And this year, even though I hate needles, I got one. For my daughterThe things you do for your kids. Now I know all abut what my mom always told me. But the shot was nothing. Because once you work in a hospital and have blood drawn on a regular basis and then go through labor and childbirth and an epidural and 6 tries to get an IV into your veins and a tear in your undercarriage followed by a postpartum hemorrhoid.... a little flu shot seems awfully petty and small.

Well, if my arms wouldn't just get tired from holding that frying pan over my head in anticipation, I might just stay up even longer. But I am all out of electricity and it's time for this mom to recharge. But by the time I get the dangerously broken out face washed and toned and moisturized with the proactiv trial kit and put some chapstick on and a sleeping bra... I assume that it will be 2am. Another thing I figure. I might not ever sleep without a bra again. As long as I live. When I was little my grandma told me that if I wanted to keep perky breasts I would have to wear a bra every night. I was like "Uh. no." but now it's all about keeping the leaking at bay. Which I almost never leak. But the night I don't wear a bra and breast pads to bed is the night I will wake up swimming in warm milk. And that's just wasteful. By the time I get done nursing babe #1, I am sure to be well on my way to babe #2... and so on, and so forth. Evan says five kids. I say "great. where do we put them and who pays for daycare? And who takes care of them when I go crazy?" He says they are stackable.

Told You So

See, I told you I can't make myself sleep before 1am! Damn! Ardyn went to sleep at 9pm. At 10pm I looked at Evan and said "I am so tired!" at 10:45 I swore I was going to bed in 15 minutes. Now it's quarter till 1. I am really going to bed. I did get 4 ounces pumped and added to the freezer stash. I shopped online and did research on a few kids/baby products that I have been looking at. I restored my laptop to a few weeks ago, before my iTunes decided to give me an error and not open. I did loads of laundry. I drank Tastefully Simple's Chai Tea, setting off the smoke detector when boiling water (yep.)

I looked through two catalogs, but still have 5 new magazines that I haven't cracked the covers on. Martha Stewart Living, Midwest Living, Parents, Mothering, and Baby Talk. Oh make that 6. Brain Child Magazine too. I put away 4 pair of baby tights and all of Ardyn's clean laundry. Why is it that baby laundry is so stinkin fun to wash and fold? I love it. I had a onesie that was soft turquoise and it had a poo stain. I washed it 5 times before I got it to come out. I soaked it twice in OxiClean baby. Spot treated it once with Spray and Wash, Once with a stain stick, and once with color safe Clorox Bleach. I checked it after each wash and never dried it, just kept on washing it in various cycles and with various stain treatments or combinations until FINALLY the stain is gone. Whew! And it was like a $5 onesie, and I probably spent like $12 in stain treatments and time trying to get the stain out. Mom conquers poo stain!

I have really begun to wonder where my exchange order from Motherwear is at. I had Evan mail the return like 3 weeks ago and still haven't seen my exchanged merchandise. I have a sickening feeling that maybe it got lost in the mail? I hope not because there was about $86 in merchandise in that return. I bet Evan didn't insure it because I didn't specify that it needed to BE insured because I never even really thought about it. I hope that they have received it and are just slow in the processing. Ugh. It just makes me sick to think it could be lost! I could use more than the three nursing shirts that I tend to wear everywhere. They came in handy last week when we nursed in the middle of the SouthPark Mall in Moline twice, and in the men's section of Von Maur. They keep everything neatly covered.

Okay, enough freakish brain activity. It's 12:50am. WAY past bedtime!

Blue Balls

Sorry I am a bit behind here! Ardyn is getting better with a schedule... all on her own. Now she has an actual "bedtime" and she is sleeping about 10-11 hours each night, 7-8 hours straight and then eating and sleeping for a few more. That is nice. Now I just need to make myself go to bed before 2am, but I am so excited to have a moment to myself and be able to accomplish something, that I haven't forced myself to bed before 1am yet. Baby steps. She is also taking an afternoon nap that amounts to about 2.5 hours each day, which is nice. If we go somewhere, she sleeps on the road, otherwise I might get some time to do laundry and dishes, etc at home. Also nice. Of course, just when a shedule starts to happen, I will be going back to work. December. That's the target back to work month. Mid December. I am working on freezing 4 ounce bottles of breastmilk and giving up Ardyn in little doses, like when Evan took her with him for an hour yesterday. It was the BEST and strangest feeling! It was only the second time I had ever been away from her in two months. Neat. I did laundry. And Dishes. I vowed to paint my toes, but no such accomplishment happened.

New on the homefront? Boyd has a tumor. Worse this time. If you remember back in 2005 he had a colon polyp that we had surgically removed. Now it's a full blown tumor. Cancerous? We are unsure. We need to have it removed before it blocks him up and he can't poo.... the vet has referred us to a animal surgeon in Rockford who can remove the tumor with laser surgery, because it's now wrapped around his colon. Ugh. Evan took Boyd to the vet Saturday morning and had to tell me the news later that day. I got some serious teary eyes, because it's a difficult decision to determine if you want to treat it, if you want to know if it's cancer, and hoe much money you will spend before you determine that it's better not to spend. It's a bunch of decisions that I never wanted to make. But I knew it was coming. He is almost 11 years old. So this week I make myself a dentist appointment, and reservations for dinner out on my Birthday, and call the vet to see when we can get in up at Rockford to have a consultation. Evan thinks that we should take Ardyn with us. I thought that was a bad idea, but then he commented that it's a long trip, and will be a long day, and she will need to eat, and I realized that and also decided that it might be nice to have someone so small and sweet to take my mind off the fact that my very first baby might be dying of cancer and that I have to make the decision as to whether or not we can afford to deal with it. Honestly, I don't want to know if it's cancer because if it is, we won't treat it. I assume that if we can afford the surgery we will have the tumor removed and see if it grows back or not. Hopefully it won't and he can have another good 5 years of life. The vet in Walnut, who I trust and has tons of experience, tells us that he thinks it isn't cancerous based on the way it feels, which is what he told us about the polyp a couple of years back.

So besides that, let's see... Friday night mom and liz came over and we ate from Main Street BBQ in Wyanet. I love it there, but again (it happened once before) they forgot to include BBQ sauce in any of our meals, tartar sauce for my mom's catfish... etc. So we had to go back up in the rain and get the sauces. While our food sat at home getting cold. That was annoying. Mom brought over cupcakes. I carved a pumpkin that turned out TERRIBLY. Evan brought down fall decorations and I decorated for Thanksgiving. We didn't get Halloween Accomplished this year. Too much going on. Saturday, Evan and I went out for dinner at Red Lobster, and took Ardyn. She was very well behaved. We also went to Bergners where Ardyn got a Thanksgiving Bib and Evan got his winter coat at 50% off. I also got a couple of blazers and a dress off the clearance racks, and I was astounded to see that I am down 1-2 sizes smaller than I was before I got pregnant. That was awesome to try on things and have them all fit instantly. Neat-o.

Sunday we hung out around home. Evan took Ardyn to his parents for a while and I stayed home ALONE! Today Ardyn and I went to Princeton, ate lunch at Quizno's, visited my hairdresser Kelly and made an appointment for December, and washed my car. Then we went to Wal-Mart and bought a birthday gift for one of my co-workers, as I had her name in our yearly drawing. I came home, wrapped it up, and put the load of towels in the dryer with the new dryer balls that I bought at the mart. interested to see how those work. Planning on using them on baby clothes since you can't use fabric softener, and hoping that they help them from sticking together as they do.

So that's really it. I have a ton going on in the next few weeks, everything from a Computer User Group Meeting, Trick or Treat, Flu Shots for Evan and I, A Visit with my Endocrinologist in Peoria, a Dentist Appointment for a routine cleaning, a hair appointment, Ardyn's 2 month vaccinations, Dinner out for my birthday, my work Christmas Party, two days of testing out the daycare we have chosen for Ardyn, Taking all my stuff back to my office (including my mini fridge) in preparation for returning to work, Pictures at Sears on Ardyn's 3 month "birthday" that we will use for Christmas Cards, preparing to host thanksgiving at our house, A Card Making Class, and a Vet Appointment for Boyd. So if you don't see much blogging, apologies, but it's about to get hectic!

Spooky!!

Fuck! Couch!

Well today was a LONG day. We shopped with Evan's mom all day, and I am exhausted. Ardyn just finally went to sleep around midnight and I just finished up a couple of things that I needed to accomplish. I have plenty to write about, but I need SLEEP!

But just a highlight:
1. Cute Clothes for Ardyn from Old Navy, Babies R Us, and The Children's Place
2. A new hairbrush (pink ribbon) from Chi, a headband, and a hair clip for me
3. Lunch at Miss Mamie's Catfish House in Moline
4. Nursing in the middle of the mall twice and in a comfy chair between men's and lingerie in Von Mauer.
5. Tivo-ing Cassanova with Heath Ledger (yum)
6. Proactiv is working. My face is almost clear after 2 weeks of use. I have terrible cystic acne as a side effect of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and apparently it is tons worse after pregnancy and during breastfeeding because my hormones. It spreads to me neck, chest, shoulders and back, and is so painful and widespread that it hurts to wear a bra. Since the proactive is working on my face, I am now buying their body clear kit and starting that ASAP.
7. A strange stranger left me an Anonymous comment on my blog. The moral of the story was that they will never be back here again because I use "filthy language" and that I talk that way because it's the only way I think I can get attention. Ha. Sounds like a catholic grandma is reading my blog now. But we will never know because they made it clear that they won't be back. Ha. Is that a threat? I hate to say it, but my mouth is much filthier when no one is around to hear me. And when it comes to "bad words", I often think of the phrase "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." because no matter which word is deemed to be "bad", that word could just as easily be any other clean word in the english language. I think I am going to take after one of Evan's grandma's and make up my own "clean" words that I intend to use as dirty words. So like, instead of fuck, I will say "couch!" and anyone who knows me will know that's my word for fuck. Or I could just say fuck. It would be easier, wouldn't it? Besides, I only have like 6 months before I can't say fuck in front of my daughter anymore, so shouldn't I enjoy it while it lasts. Fuck Yeah!
8. Reese's makes cookies. Yes it is as good as it sounds. But they are rich. And not like the Darlings (if you get that then you have to comment. I totally love Dirty Sexy Money.)
9. Ardyn got a new toy this week. The "Go Baby Go Kickin' Bobbin' Gym" and she LOVES it.
10. If I win the lottery I will buy a brand new van. And I will still use Michelle's Husband's Discount, and I will buy her a van to thank them. (this is the big lottery I mean. Like millions.)
11. I woke up with a sore throat. I thought that was so over.
12. Carving pumpkins Friday night?
13. Dogs got Rawhide bones. Now they are leaving me alone.
14. Ate four more reese's cookies while typing this. Have to sleep so I will stop!