Girls Day Out

All week I’ve been looking forward to several things.

Happy Hour on Thursday for my friend Kathryn’s birthday. Dad watched Little S, Mom slammed two drinks and talked to grown-ups.

Sunday’s adventure for my friend Emma’s birthday (that is sure to warrant it’s own entry).

Not having to work (much) today, getting to spend quality time with Little S instead of working, AND hanging out with my friend M and her daughter E.

Of course weeks and weeks of sunshine came to a screeching halt with a windy, overcast day today. M and I planned to go to the park because there just aren’t a lot of options that will entertain a 9 month and a 17 month old at the same time. At least none that came to mind.

But, we wouldn’t be very Oregonian if we let a little weather (did I mention it started raining, too) stop us. So, we loaded up strollers with babies and some liquid “mother’s little helper” and ventured out.

We promptly put the babies behind bars so we could drink without interruption.

 

Little S was not intimidated by crawling on a surface that was bouncy and 4 feet off the ground

Little S showed E her favorite thing to do at the park-swing!

Nothing says Girls Day Out like a night at the Ale House, joined by T, Lisa and honorary girl-Jim. No photos of that because wrangling babies, feeding them and trying to eat AND sample beer for “Beer Brawl II” where you get mystery beers and vote on your favorite. Well, that was pretty much an all hands on deck maneuver. At least Little S can hold her own French Fries now. Because nothing balances a babies diet like fried starches. Yep. Motherhood Hall of Fame-here I come.

me, me, me

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/girl_scouts_adds_cookie_locato.html

Yes kids, that was a front page article in the Oregonian quoting me. If only I could be front page news and not have to work 60 hour weeks for three straight months… at least it puts the strained peas on the table.

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I learned this morning I either need more hands or more brains. Well, I guess part of that statement is obvious.

Running? No problem

Running while pushing stroller? Piece of cake

Running with stroller and dog leash? Mostly mastered

Running with stroller, dog, on a narrow street with a car coming while trying to answer a work call on the “cookie phone?” Ah, no. The poor driver I’m sure figured one, if not all three of the beings he was behind were going to end up in front of him. Nope. The bushes, yes, hit by a car, no. Next time I’ll try it while walking instead.

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One of the most amusing parts of our morning jog is running by a house that has all these things (figurines? toys?) placed around their front yard in various little scenes. A few weeks ago there were some new additions that I thought I would share

 

 

Rats Of Unusual Size (for the Princess Bride fans)

 

 

And this poor guy that made me laugh out loud when I saw it

He’s even got a rose in his hand!

Thus ends all about me day. Back to work for the night.

Living in a van down by the river

So, there’s this van that used to always be parked in the next neighborhood over, by several apartment complexes. It always stood out because it was a cargo van with some crazy message on the back using those stick on letters that I remember seeing at Wagner’s, the office supply place in my little town.

Last week on my walk I noticed it in my neighborhood, a few blocks away. Then, the next night, it drove by and parked another few blocks away. I commented to my sister on the phone about it, because it’s a little odd to move a vehicle a few blocks away for no apparent reason.

So this morning as I pulled back the curtains to greet the day, I was greeted by this

 

The Van. In front of my house. Where it was most definitely not parked last evening. Seeing an opportunity, I of course took my camera on my morning jog so I could share with you the message from it’s owner

Since some of the letters have fallen off, I’ll translate for you.

            Let freedom ring for MLK

Pay Any Price   Oppose any foe

Bear any burden                 For Liberty   JFK

Semper Fi                             Semper Fi

Any ideas on what that is? A quote? A collection of thoughts?

Given our sorry economic state, I suspect it’s probably somebody’s home. I’ll make the leap that maybe they used to live in the apartments nearby where it was parked. Even though they don’t live in the apartment, they had grown used to the area so they keep their home on wheels parked around the area to maintain any sense of familiarity and comfort they can.

The van and it’s occupant (s)? left shortly after I got back home. I wonder if I’ll be able to find it in the morning or ever meet it’s driver.

It makes me extra thankful for everything I have tonight.

9 months

Okay, so technically it was a few (or more) days ago, but, it’s within a month still.

It takes several photos to get to the one we like of our “family portrait” each month. Here are a few of the ones that didn’t make the cut.

It was Furry S’ five year birthday over the weekend. I figured we needed a photo with her too.

Big S sets the camera on the tripod, presses the button for the timer to start and sits down. Then Little S gets very excited to see DADDY as we frantically motion to the camera trying to get her to look at the camera before the shutter clicks

You can see how successful that is.

Then, sometimes we just need a break from it all to stretch our little legs

The winner was a toss-up between these two and if I were an adept photoshopper, I could probably make one perfect photo out of them. But, I’m not, so you’ll have to mentally photoshop it.

 

 

 

 

 

Enough of looking at us. More baby photos!

Baby eating prunes! She likes them.

She got a little obsession with sticking out her tongue for a few days

She’s modeling her Valentine’s Day shirt from Aunt A. It was her third outfit of the day.

From the Lorpi house-we hope everyone had a good Valentine’s and Presidents day!

Babies can sleep with their eyes open, right?

This post will be boring and totally devoid of any pictures. It probably won’t even be well-written, coherent or interesting to anyone else but me in the slightest. But, it will be good for me to look back on someday when I’m wearing my rose-colored glasses about the early years of Little S.

Naptime continues to be a bear, and it’s just getting worse. Last week I spent three hours one afternoon trying to get her to take a nap, to no avail. Today two hours. It’s not that she’s not tired, it’s that she just won’t make the leap to closing her eyes even a little.

It doesn’t help that I created an addict. I was all proud of running and snowshoeing and even snowboarding for much of my pregnancy; well, now Little S needs motion to get to sleep. When she was smaller, it wasn’t a problem, but these last two days have nearly killed me.

Yesterday I spent the day lifting thousands of cases of Girl Scout Cookies, many of them over my head, in a warehouse. Little S spent the day not napping after getting up early so I could get to the warehouse early. So, I knew she was tired and it would be a battle to get her to sleep. I know I’ve caused it myself, but the only way to get her to sleep is jiggling and bouncing and rocking her in my arms. After about 10 minutes of the sleep dance, everything on me was tired and hurt, so I tried to lay her down and get her to sleep.  Nope! After 45 minutes of basically swaddling her with my body, I finally got her to sleep. And that was a good night.

Today she had very short naps and her schedule was a little off from normal. I tried an early nap and she was having none of it, so I put her down again at 3:00, the time Big S puts her down. After a half hour, I thought we were there. Then SPRING! Her eyes open up and it’s time to play. I spend another half hour rocking, bouncing, jiggling, crying, begging, pleading, walking, anything I can to no avail. She’ll lay there very quietly; calm and relaxed, but those beautiful blue eyes just stare, unblinkingly. I’m so frustrated at myself for not having nipped this in the bud months ago, and my arms are hurting so badly that I decide “Cry It Out” doesn’t stress me at all and that’s where she’s headed. I have been reading a good book on babies and naps that points out babies used to sleeping in arms and co-sleeping like to have a cozy little nest, instead of a big open crib. So, I create a little nest using the co-sleeper nest we got a while ago and the super fuzzy, faux-fur blanket that my friend Sunny made us. Usually cry it out for Little S means standing at the end of the crib screaming for at least an hour with no sign of wanting to nap. Today I had planned to just keep laying her down. So, I swaddle her up and put her in the little nest and start shushing and patting her, and wait! The crib mattress is bouncy. Putting a little pressure on the nest make it bounce quite a bit! Hmmmmmm…. While I spent another 20 minutes bouncing her without success, I was closer than I had been the previous half-hour. I finally give up though and let her play while I mix a drink. After any hope of doing anything today was pretty well shot, it’s the least I could do for my sanity.

But, I did formulate a little plan. Between my discovery today and the nap book, I think I have a way to get her napping in the crib and maybe, just maybe, moving her away from needing to give me a cardio and strength workout every time she needs to sleep. While I will miss that, it would be nice to not have to subsist on cheese and crackers, chips and salsa and mozzarella cheese sticks and instead have a real meal occasionally. So, I’ll give little updates on her progress, and will get back to posts with gratuitous photos again soon. Why no post about Valentine’s Day? Ha. That went out the window on the second hour of no naps.  At least it’s a three day weekend. Hooray for Presidents.

Chocolate, the dog and Little S

Clearly, that’s what I write about.

What warrants a second post tonight? My discovery over on The Bloggess about wordle.

It makes nice little pictures of the words used in a blog or on a website, like this:

I can't figure out how to make it bigger, so just squint. Or click on it.

a lovely little Saturday

No work, just getting to actually spend some time with Little S and her anti-napping self. Fortunately one of the things we did on this lovely, sunny Saturday was walk to the library to pick up some sleep and nap books I had on hold. Fingers crossed that Big S and I can turn Little S into an awesome napper!

Of course I learned that one of the keys is not ignoring signs that your baby is tired. Which I totally did because she slept late, the dog needed walking and it was such a beautiful morning we stopped to swing instead of rushing home to nap.

(not the actual picture from this morning, but a fair approximation)

Little Miss Houdini discovered the dog door today. She didn’t attempt to crawl out it yet

But I’m sure that day will come. Fortunately, it’s pretty loud so she can’t sneak out of it.

She’s really starting to do a fair job entertaining herself. Actual photo’s of Dad letting her entertain herself

by chewing on the cast iron wood stove and by doing her best Beaver imitation

 

I’m pleased to report that on my watch, she only chewed on educational materials

And hammed it up for the camera

It was a great day!

 

mmmm……chocolate

Saturday I joined my friend Jacki for our 2nd annual Forest Park exploration followed by Chocolate Fest at the Forestry Center. Last year was an 8 mile run in the snow, this year was a nice hike on at least 5 different trails where we saw some snow, but were much warmer and drier than last year. Last year, I was pregnant. This year, we had another person with us enjoying her first chocolate fest

 

(That’s mostly gummed on shortbread. Very little chocolate was actually involved in the photo) Further demonstrating awesome parenting, I also discovered a few days prior to Chocolate Fest that she likes chocolate ice cream too. Did somebody say “Mommy’s girl”?

Don’t worry though, she gets many quality days with Dad where she gets lots of attention, healthy food, and education

 

Then, she gets days with Mommy where she plays in the recycling and is raised by the dog

 

Daddy gives her age-appropriate toys to help her build motor skills

Mommy lets her play with whatever she can dig out of the Goodwill box

(note how the dog knows that if I’m in charge, she’s actually the one keeping the closest eye on her)

I’m not entirely useless. I at least keep up appearances and most Sundays get her out of the house and to church

 

and I only let her have a little bit of my donut and cookie afterwards.

At least I’m not the one playing Dr. Dre for her…