Happy Birthday Morgan!

(*look closely and compare this cutie to her on her birthday last year, same PJs.)

She's 3 now. That means that instead of two books every night she's decided she should get three because she's three! Three strawberries, three this, three that.

I think she had a great birthday. It started with gifts for breakfast.

Then we moved on to a penguin party with friends after dinner.

Thanks!

If you saw the dogs and told them to come home, Thanks!

They arrived at 6:30 this morning. They're a little smelly and dog tired, but doing well.

If you see them, tell them to come home.

Hyena and Lester have been missing since last night. Basically, it's my fault because I didn't check to be sure the gate was closed when I let them out. I also didn't realize that I hadn't let them back in before I went to bed.

They have still not come home. Lester would run for a week without looking back until he was good and tired and good and hungry, but Hyena is not that type of runner. She's happy to run, but she likes to check back in every so often. That we know of they have not been home (we were at work today, but left the gate and door open for them).

We're heartbroken to think of what has become of our furry friends.

It was bound to happen

I'm sure many of you have done it, though you're likely to willing admit it.

Michael and I both left Morgan and Kenna today! OK, really I lost track of time and didn't go to pick Morgan up from school. Luckily when I called Michael to see if he picked her up he was already on his way home with her. He was planning to pick her up and was not phased by the fact that I did not.

Although he was a bit quick to get off the phone with me, I assumed that was because I told him I had been in a meeting and lost track of time. Later when I talked to him again he revealed the hidden reason for quickly hanging up.

He had been at home this morning working on household projects and when he noticed the time it was 11:25 (5 minutes before time to pick up Morgan). He quickly hightailed it to the truck, drove to school, jumped out of the truck and rushed in the door to Morgan's building. It was about that time that he remember that Kenna was napping in her bed at home! So, when I talked with him on the phone at 11:31, he was hurrying to get back home before Kenna woke up and realized that she was alone.

She was still sleeping peacefully when he got home. Potentially she could live her whole life not knowing that she was left home alone at 13 months old - except that her momma is writing it in the blog for all of the world to read (not that I actually have a readership, but you get the idea)!

500 and 560

These nubers are supposedly the measure of my potential to succeed in graduate school.

I'm fairly certain that I'm not the only one who thinks that my potential to succed is higher than my ability to remember and apply all of those geometry and other random theories from high school math (I didn't have to take anything except statistics in college). Over 6 years ago when I toook the GRE I had a 600 hundred on the math. A full 100 points higher than now.

I do have to agree that verbal ability is an indicator of something academic. Heck, you do have to know words to read millions of obscure articles and then to write an even more obscure dissertation. ;)

I'm not thrilled with the scores, but I'm not so disappointed that I'm going to shell out another $140 to see if I can improve by a few points.

In case you didn't know. I'm applying to a doctoral program in Communications at UK. Should know by the end of February if I am accepted. At that point we'll actually decide if we can make this happen. If I do go, this blog may turn into how to survive grad school while mothering - or something similar.

Maybe she really will ...

be a tatoo artist.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

This is the infamous question that gets asked of kids, probably more than needed.

Morgan's preschool teachers recently asked all of the kids this question and then posted the answers in prominent locations around the school. I scanned the entries looking for Morgan's response knowing that the answer would likely have something to do with what she was doing when they asked her.

I found it. Morgan H. wants to be "an artist." I thought "how sweet; she wants to be like her dad." I was sure to tell Michael that Morgan wanted to be an artist like him, to which he immediately replied that she should reconsider.

Here's the conversation I had with Morgan about her future career plans.

Momma: what do you want to be when you grow up?

Morgan: an artist

Momma: like dadday? what kind of art will you make?

Morgan: the kind where I make art all over me

Momma: you want to make art on your body?

Morgan: on my body (with giggles)....a tatoo artist.

Since this conversation she has added a "nice diver - not a mean diver" and "mommy" to the list of career aspirations.

Morgan's first word!

You're probably thinking that I have a typo in the title, but I don't. Read on to learn more about Morgan's first word.

Several months ago Morgan was very "into" writing things - not drawing. She was "writing." She would write on anything she could get her hands on. She continued that stage for several weeks. Then, suddenly, she wouldn't write anything. When I would ask her to add something to the grocery list (which previously she would jump at), she would say, "momma I don't know how to write."

I knew that we were moving forward in development from knowing what writing is and what it is for, to knowing that the shapes have to be "right." Since the writing phase stopped, she has become more interested in letters, what they look like, what they sound like, etc. She has been asking me to read specific words (i.e. "Momma, what does this say?"). She takes my finger and places it on the word she wants to know. Sometimes, she runs her finger under the (memorized) words and reads them to me, to herself, to her sister, to her dolls, etc.

In the last couple of days she's back to writing things again. She uses left to right scribbles (you know the kind that look like doctor's writing). She usually can tell me what it says - which is probably better than most doctors. Often she writes the names of people at school, or our sitter's kids, etc.. She has an interest in making letters, but her fine motor skills often frustrate her. The activity books that she picked out do not give incentive for writing - just for copying letters (if you see the difference) and that doesn't interest her enough to practice writing.

This evening she told me she wanted to write a letter to Eli (sitter's oldest son). So, we went to the desk to get some paper and a pen. I asked her if she wanted me to show her how to write his name. She said yes. We talked about how it might be spelled (luckily his name pretty much sounds like each letter). I wrote E l i on the paper. Then she said "I will write it." Please see the images below for Morgan Jo's first word. She wrote his name legibly (for a not quite 3 year old) three times.

A day is..

a very long time

when you're

waitin' for

a pumpkin

to grow

Yes I realize that I am horribly late

for Kenna's birthday post. Don't worry I didn't forget her birthday!

Here's to Kenna!!!

We had a quite party at home late in the day, then headed straight to bed for the big trip the next day (read more about Sea World on another post). Here's a cute picture of her playing peek-a-boo with Daddy.

And here we are enjoying the book that Morgan choose for Kenna's birthday gift. I had a bit of a hard time convincing Morgan that she did have to let Kenna sit with us to read the book.

About a week before her birthday, she decided that walking was the way to go. She stopped demanding to be holding a hand at all times and she stopped crawling. Says "Hi," "Hello," (a social butterfly) "Dada," "Go" (means Morgan Jo) and dog (by panting and barking). Notice how there is nothing, and I mean nothing about "momma."

Kenna plays chase!

I wish I had the video camera out tonight. Morgan, Kenna, and I were all out back on the patio playing. Kenna was attempting to climb up the slide and Morgan and I were playing chase, laughing and running around.

When Kenna saw the fun, she wanted to get in on the action. She started chasing Morgan around and giggling like a ...well like a girl! Of course just minutes later she had the grip of death (as in death of me) on my finger again and wouldn't let go, but we're making progress.

I'm not sure when the kid will realize that she can walk. I used to prefer non-walking babies, but now that I've got a half-walker, I'd just rather have a walking one. I can't count the number of times I've paced around in my house with a very small toddler direction my actions and leading the way.

It seems to be a confidence issue with her. When she has a good few minutes and doesn't fall down at all, she will walk more easily than if she's fallen recently. I understand because let me tell you I don't like to fall down either. I guess now I know how Michael feels when I won't just stay on my bike during a rough section of trail riding.

More updates on her walking and cute pictures soon, since her birthday is next week!

All's quite on the home front

It is not even 9 PM yet. I have two sleeping girls, two sleeping dogs, and a husband that is away on a trip. I don't even know what to do with myself.

I have so many things I've been meaning to get done that I can't even think of what they are now that I'm faced with some free time. Going to go do something - or maybe nothing!

Sisters...

I did not grow up with my sister and I feel like we missed out because we lived in separate houses for many of our early years.

Everyday when I watch my girls interact, communicate, play, smile, giggle, and fuss I am grateful that they are getting the full sister experience.

Bored in a hospital? Try this!

Michael doesn't just stand around an visit well. He likes to be moving or doing something. He has an extremely hard time just standing around in hospitals.

Recently when we were in the hospital visiting family Morgan asked him for a "glove person" he obliged her. Then he got a little kooky.

Childcare Happiness

I think we all know by now, that I don't relish the idea of sending my kids off to spend the day with some other person. But, we've found a sitter that makes the leaving a little less traumatic for us all.

A friend of ours with three kids of her own is watching the girls. Can you imagine the looks she must get when she takes my kids and her kids to the park together? 5 kids 5 and under (girl (5), boy (3.5), girl (2.5), boy (18 mos), girl (11 mos) - heck those must be the same looks that Mike's mom was getting when she had her 5 kids that were 5 and under.

The age spacing seems to work well for this mix of kids. The older girl is really quite nice and helpful (as much as 5 year old girls can be). She is also old enough to realize that if a 2 year old yells because you touch their toy that there are plenty of other things to play with and will happily pick something else. I'm not too sure how much the 3 year old boy and Morgan interact and play. I do know the 3 year old boy really likes Kenna and wants to trade his younger brother for her, sweet.

I think the friend and I parent very similarly; so, my kids seem to know where she's coming from and have adapted well. Kenna will even let me walk across the room at their house without crying or crawling straight toward me. She still fusses for about 40 seconds after I leave the house, but that's much better than crying for longer.

They sometimes come to our house and I sometimes take the girls to their house. It seems to be a fair trade for the kids and they all seem to like trading places. They live pretty close to us (not that most things in Richmond are very far apart anyway), so it is a pretty easy to drop-off and pick-up routine.

This arrangement sure makes me less stressed out about going to work. I'm pretty lucky to have it as well since, I just happened to ask this friend if she wanted to watch my kids in a joking way because I figured there was no way she would really want to watch 5 kids all afternoon 3 or 4 days a week. I'm quite happy that I did ask her.

Daily changes

You know you always think that infants grow so fast, and then when they're toddlers you realize that all kids no matter how old really change daily.

Morgan now has empathy - at least for her sister, sometimes. Previously when Kenna was crying Morgan would run to her saying "It's OK Kenna, Morgan's coming." Or some other equally cute words that sound rather like what I say regularly. Or she would ignore it completely.

In the last few days, when Morgan hears Kenna crying, or just fussing a little, she says "Momma pick Kenna up. She's crying; she needs you." Or "Momma, Kenna needs some more milk." She is beginning to realize that Kenna's cries mean something and that Momma can and even more importantly should fix it.

Speaking of daily changes. Kenna now takes about 5 steps before she falls down. She occassionally will walk away from me to some inanimate object, but mostly she's still walking between Mom and Dad. She is pretty darn proud of herself when she does walk between us. Often I think she's even more proud when she walks from the couch to the chaise lounge.

Why oh Why?

Morgan has officially entered into the "why" stage. It has not hit full force yet, but I'm sure we'll see the increase daily.

Mike installed a child carrier on the back of my bicycle. I took Morgan for a ride around the block in it to see how she liked it. Later when we were going on our "Family Ride" from the store, we decided to try Kenna out in the seat to see how she liked it. The trouble was that Morgan wanted to ride there. She also wanted to eat goldfish crackers; so, we told her that if she wanted the goldfish she had to ride in the trailer and not in the seat on my bike.

Mike: Morgan you can't eat the goldfish while you ride on Momma's bike.

Morgan: But why not Daddy?

He did not miss a beat, he just explained why (because if she dropped them they would be lost), she did finally get in the trailer and let her sister ride on my bike.

As soon as she asked the question, I though, "that's a good questions." Then I realized what she had just said. As far as we can remember this is the first time she asked us "Why."

First day of Pre-school

What Morgan had to say about her first day of pre-school (when asked what she'd like to say about it): "Dad took me to school. I will put something on your (undiscernable) [I think this was "back" because that's where they put their name tags]. Paint. Umm Story. I'm \gonna elp ly0ou. There. Story."

She seemed to enjoy it.

New Territory

Kenna has hit a stage that Morgan never went through. I'll give a history of Morgan and then tell you about where Kenna is.

Morgan learned to crawl at 6 months, but she was never really good at it. She only used it as a way to get to something to pull up to stand and cruise around (walk while holding onto things). A couple of days before she turned 10 months old, I was holding her hands and she was walking to her dad. She let go of my hands and walked the rest of the way to him (about 5 steps). Those were her first un-aided steps. On the day she hit 10 months, she stood up and walked around our entire living room - we stopped counting steps at 47! So, she never passed through that take-a-few-steps-and-fall-down learning to walk stage.


Kenna also learned to crawl around 6 months (although it was later in the sixth month than with Morgan). She is better at that than Morgan was, and she just in the last month has started really cruising around the furniture. In the last couple of days she has begun to actively find something to stand and push around the house (specifically a toy I bought at Goodwill for her months ago because Morgan wore the same toy out by 10 months). Did I mention that Kenna is 10 months now. :) We were actually just as pleased to see the 10 month mark come and go without a walking baby. Last night, she actively tried to walk between us. Morgan felt very important to help her little sister by catching her when she fell on us. Kenna took a few steps with assistance, then took a few steps without before falling down (because she reached too far with her hands).

So, we're on the road to another early walker, but I'm hoping that we've got at least another month or so. I'll post a video of it when I catch it.

Back to the grindstone

Just to make sure everyone is clear. I'm back to work. This doesn't have much of an affect on you all, but it does have a great impact on me. Most seriously I will have a lack of time for much other than work, kissing my kids, helping at the store, and occasionally cleaning the house enough to be presentable.

So, don't expect to hear too much from me in the coming weeks/months.

An actual family weekend

While the store was closed on Sunday and Monday this week, our family actually took a couple of days off. It is likely to be the last days off we get as a family for a while; so, we tried to take full advantage of the time.

We took Mike's parents' pontoon boat out to Cave Run Lake for some boating and some camping. It was great. No worries about work, the store, or anything (aside from a couple of motor problems).

Here are a few highlights:




Kenna and Daddy hanging out playing in the lake.










Michael working his magic after a day of boating, swimming, and setting up camp.













After Morgan realized that Hyena couldn't hold onto the Nalgene bottle to bring it back, she took over the job.





Kenna showing off how much she's grown since her first down river experience. She can easily crawl, stand, and sit in the PFD now. This is one of her and her sister sharing a snack.

In case some of you did not believe me...

Here is a video of Morgan swimming. Granted in this video she is in the kiddie pool, but her face is fully submerged and she is swimming from one side of the pool to the other. She jumps off of the wall at the "big pool" and swims to us to the second lane marker. Usually swims about 6 or 7 seconds before coming up for a breath. Our only problem is getting her to put her face back down and her but back up after getting the breath. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Some people may be wondering how Morgan learned to swim so well at such a young age - specifically when many children are afraid of the water and won't put their faces in. I highly recommend to anyone who wants to help their kids become comfortable in the water that they watch Diaper Dolphins videos. They are produced by the Rob McKay Lifestyle Swim School in Florida. We've pretty much approached swimming instruction following his techniques and tips and have had obvious success with it. Some libraries have the series (2 videos) available for check out. We actually found the first one in the bookstore's bargain bin.

Date Night!

Mike and I actually had a date night! One of the moms in the group that I hang out with decided that we all just need some time off from the kids with our husbands; so, date night was instituted.

Basically there are 4 couples that agree to swap baby sitting services. Last night was the first run of it. The kids had a great time hanging out with one family while all of the parents (exept the lucky couple who kept all of the kids) went out on the town.

From what I hear it mostly consisted of dinner and grocery shopping, but still doing those things without kids is priceless.

Check back for more updates because we're the next host family.

Just because I've not posted a pic in a while

Here's one of Morgan at the park recently. There of course are plenty of swings, slides, monkey bars and the like. And of course, Morgan wants to do what she could just as easily do at home - if I'd sit in the front yard with her that long.

Naps take over my mind

With my thoughts turning toward the coming of the new school year, I'm obsessed with figuring out how to get both kids to nap at the same time. So far in my quest I can get them to overlap by 20 minutes to an hour. If I expect to get any work done without having to pay someone to sit at my house every afternoon while I work in my office, I'm going to have to get better at it than this.

Today, my obsession came at the expense of remembering that Morgan had a doctor's appointment set for this afternoon. This morning I reminded Mike that I would bring Kenna (if she were in a good mood) to the shop when I took Morgan to the doctor. Then when lunch was upon us and Kenna was still napping, I was trying to figure out how late I would try to go before putting Morgan down for a nap so that she would wake up on her own in a good mood but early enough to not interfere with our plans to go to the pool or her bed time.

With all of that over exaggerated thinking and planning I completely forgot that she had a doctor's appointment at 2 PM until it was 2:37. It's a bit late at that point to get the kids loaded up to drive over there. I called and they rescheduled me, but dang it. That was one thing we were gonna get done this week.

Ahh, well. I made the next visit for in the morning so it (hopefully) won't foil my attempts to have dual napping kids.

Morgan's most infamous words so far

My husband's best friend is in town. Yesterday when Morgan saw him she very politely said "Hi, Uncle Ben." He greeted her and then she said: "My Momma hatched a baby from her vulva." He has a 2-year old (Happy Birthday yesterday McKenzie) so he handled the news very well.

Ahh, the joys of a little one who knows body parts and what they're for. We're still not sure why she felt the need to tell Ben this, but it gave us enough giggles that we don't mind. I mean heck, we had kids so they would entertain us.

Words of Wisdom from Kenna. This information is for all of those little sisters or brothers out there who have a big sister hanging around. Read it with care.

What big sisters are good for:


1. smacking you on the head, which makes you cry

2. pouring water unexpectedly over your head, which sometimes makes you cry and sometimes makes you giggle

3. biting your fingers, which always makes you cry

4. laying on top of you, which sometimes makes you cry and sometimes makes you giggle

5. climbing in bed next to you to read you books while you're sleeping, which makes you cry and then smile

6. yelling while you're just drifting off to sleep, which makes you wake up crying

7. snatching toys from your hands, which makes you fall over, bonk your head and cry

8. shaking a stuffed animal in your face while making silly noises, which makes you giggle like crazy

9. telling your mom or dad that you're eating something you shouldn't, which makes you cry when they come to take it away from you

10. giving hugs that make you giggle so hard you fall over and bonk your head and cry

Basically, big sisters are good for making you cry and making you laugh.

I felt Morgan's ribs!

Can you believe that? It must really tell you how much my baby has grown up and not out in the past several months. I picked her up today and noticed (through her clothes) that I could feel her ribs. Honestly this is the first time I've noticed this with her.

I think the slimming down has really picked up in the last week or so while she's running around the house screaming like a banshee. For some reason (humm, wonder what it could be, the fact that she's 2.5 can't have anything to do with it), she gets really mad at the drop of a hat. I'm blaming it on that. I'm sure it has nothing to do with her growing up.

Although I don't get excited about fireworks

Morgan sure did. For the 4th we enjoyed a party with plenty of food, swimming, and firework watching at our friends' house.

This was the first time Morgan has seen fireworks (except in books and possibly movies). It was quite a treat for me to watch her as she sat on her dad's shoulders watching. I couldn't see the fireworks from where I was sitting, but I could see the red, white and blue, glow on her face. She was grinning from ear to ear saying "pop" each time one went off (we were pretty far away from them).

In case anyone is wondering what Kenna thought of the fireworks, she conked out just before they started. I don't blame her, she'd been up for an hour and a half past her bed time watching and playing with all of the other babies and children.

Morgan Jo aka the fish

We've been working to help Morgan keep comfortable in the water and to learn to propell herself. We've been going to the "big pool" at least once a week (as I mentioned earlier I think). We were having a really hard time getting her to actually move toward us while swimming.

This week we went to visit a friend with a pool and Morgan wore those swimmy arm things. While wearing those she figured out how to move herself in the water to get to where she wanted to be. She of course was swimming with her head above the water in that instance, but she was moving.

Yesterday we got to test her new forward momentum skills at the pool. The swimmy arm things seemed to have given her just the edge she needed. Now, she can jump off of the wall and swim a foot or two toward us. She also reaches our her arms to grab onto the wall while swimming underwater and kicking hard to get to the wall. I'm hoping to take a camera the next time we go to the pool to give you a real view of how well she is swimming.

I just can't say enough about the Diaper Dolphin swimming video that we have. It has really helped me know what to do to help her keep comfortable and learn to swim. I recommend it to anyone who has a youngster.

12.5 miles

That's how far I biked this morning. At Mike's Hike and Bike we've had a men's riding group leaving the shop a couple of days a week for several weeks now. I've been trying to find a good time to do a women's ride and decided that Saturday mornings are as good a time as any.

This morning was the first of them and I was the only person to show, which is not at all surprising since we did not really advertise this group ride. I did pretty well I think, I completed this ride in just under 1 hour - to make it back in time for the weekly family ride that we've been doing for a while now. No other families showed up for our ride this morning, but Mike and the kids and I had a good ride.

I enjoyed the time to myself and I'm in some selfish ways hoping that others don't show up. Well, that's not true. I want them to show up for that ride, but I want to be sure to have at least one other good ride a week to myself.

I meandered through the countryside, mooed at some cows, and just enjoyed the freedom that a bicycle offers.

Don't read the back of baby food ...

unless you really want to be freaked out by what they put into the food that is supposed to feed babies!

I can tell you (because I have read the back of the packages) that some of the wost processed and man-made ingredients find their way into baby-food. In addition to the huge number of things that you can't pronounce and you're sure you don't want to know what they are are the several kinds of sugary or sugar substitute products. Can some one please tell me why you need to add sugar to fruit? Is it just me or is there something inherently wrong with putting sugar into very naturally sweet food items.

Can you tell I'm smack in the middle of the "what the heck am I gonna feed this kid today" stage? She only has two bottom teeth, but she wants to eat everything in site. She likes me to spoon food into her mouth; she likes to pick up the pieces and eat it herself; mostly she just likes to eat. I just have a hard time figuring out what to fix her to eat everyday. I wish there were a few more good (healthy) options that didn't require prep work on my part. As many of you know I'm the queen of hunger, but the (what is opposite of "queen of something"?) not-queen of preparing meals or figuring out what to prepare. If I have a fixed menu in advance, I do OK, but the whole, walk into the kitchen and whip something up is just not my forte.

I like Morgan's age. She just tells me what she wants. The only problem with this approach is that she occasionally tells me something that we don't have on hand. I usually just find something and figure out a way to make it what she asked for. Although, she's getting wise enough now that if I tell her that we don't have something she tells me to go to the grocery store to buy it. :) I really love the almost 3 stage, really I do. :)

So, here's to hoping I make it through this stage with Kenna and eventually she tells me that she wants a mayonnaise sandwich or something equally appetizing. (If you're kid ever asks for it, don't tell them you'll give them turkey with mayonnaise on it. Just ask if they want turkey or roast beef on their mayonnaise sandwich. This tactic has saved me from several meltdowns.)

Going down river again

We took the girls down (and back up) a short stretch of the Kentucky River again today. Mike's parents have a pontoon boat that we took out with his dad today. While we were going down the river, we realized that this is the first motorized boat ride (excluding the Ferry ride to Granny Nannie's house) that the girls have ever taken. We all enjoyed ourselves.

Kenna much preferred the amount of space offered on the pontoon compared to the canoe on our last trip. Actually, I think the real positive for her is that she has grown enough that the PFD doesn't force her chin up. She was crawling all over the boat and standing looking over the rail.

Morgan's favorite part was when we let her jump off of the back of the boat into the water. She is quite the swimmer, and we're doing everything we can to encourage it. We've been going to the pool at EKU at least once a week to let her swim in the big pool. She is very happy to go underwater to try to swim, she likes blowing bubbles, and she loves jumping off the wall. The biggest problem with the EKU swimming pool is the kiddie pool. When Morgan gets in there and "swims" she ends up putting her feet on the bottom which just encourages the "standing" swim instead of the belly position.

When she does the "standing" kick she just turns circles. Today in the river, she had her PFD on, so it was much more comfortable for her to be on her belly instead of upright. This really helped her get the hang of how to move forward in the water instead of spinning circles. She propelled herself several feet forward a couple of times today. Now, if we can just transfer that skill to the swimming pool without the PFD we'll be "golden" as Michael says.

Kenna also enjoyed swimming in the river. She floated around on her back for most of the time that we were jumping off the boat and swimming around. While doing so, she drank much more of the water than I would like to admit. She had a big smile on her face every time she turned her head to the side and the water just washed right into her mouth.

We had a camera (old style with film, smile) with us today. We actually got some pictures of this river adventure. I'll try to get them developed and scanned in to share here.

11 days

That's how long it's been since I last posted. I even have friends e-mailing me to tell me to get back to it. It is funny how you can post for several days in a row, but if you just miss one then it is sometimes easy to just keep putting it off.

A friend of mine is posting daily until her twin boys turn 2 (just a couple of weeks to go). I was trying to keep pace with her, but as you can see I've fallen way behind. So, I'm committing to at least trying to post more frequently. I won't be here daily I'm sure, but I will try to come more frequently or at least post from my e-mail account.

I think I can do fairly well while I'm "off" for the summer, but I'm afraid once school starts back up again, I'll be dreadfully behind all of the time.

And the race is on

If you remember Kenna learned to crawl about a week ago. She has become amazingly fast in that short amount of time. Check her out moving quickly in the video (it's my first one on-line; so forgive me that it is sideways and forgive me for the file being so large).




Today, we were all outside playing when I remembered that I needed to return a call for an interpreting job. I put Kenna as far away as possible from the little pool we have on the patio and I walked up the steps. I went inside, walked to the dinning room, got the paper with the phone number on it, and dialed the phone number on the phone. Just after dialing the number I stepped back on the porch.

When I looked down to the patio to see what the girls were doing, Kenna was leaning over the side of the baby pool splashing happily. Let's just say I wasn't so happy to see her like that. She was fine in this case, but it really made me think about how quickly she can get into dangerous situtations. Just another vivid reminder to me to "never leave a child unattended near a pool."

On an other note, Morgan amazes me everyday. After making my phone call I put Kenna the rest of the way in the pool and was splashing and playing with her. Morgan was blowing bubbles that she got at a friend's wedding and all in all running around like a heathen on the patio. We don't have much shade out there. At one point Morgan asked me to get something for her. I told her that she could climb up to do it. After investigating the situation further, she walked toward the pool and said "I will put water shoes on." Then she put one foot in the pool reached down and "tied" the laces. Then she switched feet to put the other foot in the pool and tie the laces. Then she got out and walked to where she was reaching for the bubbles. Before she got there she decided she needed more "water shoes." She came over and this time, she put both feet into the pool and tied the laces up really tight (meaning several times of pretend tieing) then walked all the way to what she wanted, got it, and walked back. How did she even think of that? I mean besides the obvious of the water keeps your feet cooler on hot pavement.

The trouble with cars

is that the kids fall asleep in them at the worst times. You may remember a previous post of mine when both of my kids fell asleep in the car when I was making a trip to Lexington specifically to check out a store and to stop at the library to pick up some reserved materials. Mike wasn't with me; so, I ended up coming home without accomplishing much.

Today was a totally different story. Michael and I headed out to the Peddler's Market to look around for a few things. We took the bikes and the trailer with kids in it. When we got to the store the kids were asleep in the trailer. Now, if we'd been in the car one of us would have stayed with the sleeping kids and the other would have gone in to do the looking. Today, we just unhooked the trailer from the bike and both went right in the store. We got most of the looking done before Kenna woke up. Morgan didn't wake up until we had to shove her over so Kenna could get back in the trailer to go home.

All in all, our family had a wonderful relaxing day without the car. Ok, Mike did take the car to go bring his parents' dog here to play with our dogs while they (his parents) were out of town, but other than that it was another car-less day in the Hale household.

Mike's Hike and Bike

Things at the store are moving right along.

We had another family ride this morning (every Saturday morning at 9 AM). Two other families joined us for a few miles around town. It looked like it might rain when we first got started this morning, but the clouds moved on and it was a beautiful morning for a ride.

In addition to family rides we're trying to get a couple of other groups set up. I'm trying to get a Women's ride going. I think it will probably just be one or possibly two times per month. We also have a friend that is hoping to get an evening group ride that will go from the shop.

Mike is also going to be doing a safety and repair clinic the next two Tuesday nights at the Richmond (12th) and Berea (19th) libraries.

We have customers in the store pretty steadily all day on most days. Many of them are buying things so that is a plus. Even if they don't buy something on the first visit, we're getting lots of repeat visitors/customers. We're enjoying getting to know more people in the community through the shop.

Zoo Passes and Vans are great!

We loaded up our van on Thursday for a wild adventure. We had 5 babes in car-seats, 3 mommas, 3 strollers, and enough "gear" to keep all of the mommas and babies happy for the trip. I love the size of this van. I used to think it was overkill, but we've used it to full capacity several times now. I hate driving several cars to go places as a group because much of the group experience is lost in transportation, but this van allowed all three families to ride together and enjoy the full spectacle of my children crying most of the way to Louisville. ;)


I'll also just say that babies in the van should always be buckled into the car seats or they may fall out of a non-moving van. (See my friend Deborah's blog for proof positive that falling out of a stationary van does in fact leave big ugly ouchies). Two of the five kids fell out of the van while we were getting car-seats situated.

After some crying fits by several of the children (two of which were mine - the other had a big ouchie on his head) we finally made it to the Lousivlle Zoo. We are members and we highly recommend becoming a member of your local zoo (or the closest one you have). Our family pass gets us in as often as we want for free, and we frequently get coupons for getting other people in too. For all 8 of us we only paid for one admission. It does help that non of the kids are old enough to be charged admission yet.

Although it was hot, we had a great time looking at the animals, watching the children interact with one another, and talking with other adults.

Here are a few highlights of our day: Kenna's first kiss - well really, this was not the first of the day heck I think Charlie may have even beat Jackson to the "first kiss", but you get the idea.



And for the "after the kiss" picture, you see how much she liked the Weber boys' kisses.

Morgan is hitting the stage where she realizes that she is "big" compared to babies, but that she is actually quite small when compared to adults and some animals. The first exhibit was of the orangutans. It was holding on to something above the glass and it was right up against the glass. When I heard her say "Mommy, get me out of here." I quickly undid the buckle of the stroller and picked her up to walk closer - then she yelled even louder "Mommy, get me outta here!" Ahh, now the dummy momma figures it out - she wants out of the building not out of the stroller.

After we decided to steer clear of exhibits inside of buildings/shelters, she was fine and back to her normal self of enjoying the animals. Just after seeing the giraffes up close and personal Morgan decided to ride this giraffe.

That look of wonder is one of the things I really love about that kid.

Traveling family

We're trying to keep our "weekends" (Sunday and Monday - the store closed days) free to do family things and not much else.

This weekend, we went to Indiana to visit Michael's brother Carroll and his wife Sarah. We had a great visit of bicycling around their nice neighborhood and hanging out on the front porch. The also cooked us a great steak lunch.

Morgan enjoyed the wide open spaces for running around, Kenna enjoyed tasting lots of grass and leaves.

After leaving their place we went to Cliffy Falls State Park to camp. It was a nice, quiet evening. Morgan played in the campfire ring for about 45 minutes straight. And who says that 2-year-olds don't have long attention spans?

Kenna Crawls!

Ok, it is more like a crab walk at this point, but heck she made a good 3 or 4 foot of forward movement today toward an object.

Over the past month I've tried every enticing object I could find to get her to continue moving forward instead of dropping to the belly and doing the fish-swimmy-thing. I put down the beloved-goldfish (you know that yummy, but completely unhealthy eatable things), I put dangerous toys in her path, I put the non-puke-proof camera just out of reach. None of it worked.

Today we stopped by Sportsman's Warehouse (checking out the competition's selection and prices - not shopping) and she crawled directly across the floor to reach the hanger that Morgan had removed from the PFD that she was wearing. I moved the darn hanger and she came after it again without the silly swimming thing!

Ahh, gone are the days of leaving Kenna unattended and unstrapped down. We're firmly into the mobile mania days!

The real reason I hate work

Is because I really love my work. I do love my job at EKU. I also completely enjoy working at Mike's Hike and Bike. When I work, I really want to give full effort and energy to my work. It is very frustrating to me that I can not do that because I have those two cute babies that need and want their momma.

Sometimes I just wish they didn't need their momma so much so I could focus and complete some other tasks. I know this is selfish, but heck I'm human and I am selfish. I just want time to do my own thing and be who I want to be without being relegated to taking care of the whims and needs of a 2-year-old and 7 month-old. Sometimes it's the little one that drives me crazy by being too demanding and sometimes it's the older one.

I think this is just the struggle that many working women feel. We love our kids and want to be with them, and at the same time we love/like our work and feel important there. I guess I'm just not cut out for this full-time split personality thing. I have a really hard time not resenting the job for taking me away from my kids and my kids from taking me away from my work. I'm hoping to eventually be able to convince my supervisors at EKU that I deserve to work part-time, but with benefits. I'm not so sure they're ever going to go for it, but I have to keep hoping that I will be able to have some work that I enjoy (and gives benefits that we need) and have plenty of time with my kids to home school and just in general be a part of their lives.

I can really tell a big difference in my relationship with Morgan since I'm not working this summer (I've been to the office several times already, and to the store at least a couple of days per week). I feel much more connected with her and can avert major tantrums and meltdowns just by knowing what is causing the problem. Of course, sometimes I don't know the problem, or I am busy trying to keep Kenna from eating the power cord to the fan, or I'm just so darn tired of averting the meltdowns that I can't avert the issue with Morgan, but I definitely feel much more connected and like we're back in sync again.

I'm so not looking forward to going back to work full time in the fall.

Going to the Zoo

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Morgan is becoming quite adept at pretending. Earlier today, we pretended to drink the bath water, for example. We pretend quite a few things daily.

This evening she was talking to her Dad about the raisins that she needed to feed her animals at the zoo. We talked about what animals she will feed the raisin to and then she suggested that we actually go to the zoo. So, while I'm prepping my "I'm making plans and we'll be going to the zoo next week" speech, her dad immediately says "Let's get in the car and you drive us to the zoo, Morgan."

To which her reply was "No Daddy, we need the van." So, we changed how we were sitting on the chaise lounge (now it is a van).

She drove us to the zoo, told us what we were seeing as we went. We saw koala bears eating eucalyptus leaves, giraffes with 7 bones in their necks, turtles with hard shells (as opposed to the ones with soft shells), dolphins, monkeys - who eat raisins, as well as others that my Pear Cider brain can't think of at the moment. Sometimes we were the animals, sometimes, she was the animal.

She drove us between each animal area and asked us where we wanted to go/what we wanted to see next. When we told her we were tired and hungry, she said she'd drive us to the aquarium to eat "chicken fries." All in all it was a great fun-filled evening of "going to the zoo."

I was already planning on taking her soon; now I really have to get moving on that plan. We're members so it really only costs gas money to get there. Last year we used the heck out of our membership. We only have to go two times for it to be "worth it." We went to the Louisville zoo at least 4 times, and the Cincinnati Zoo at least 3 times (half off there). So, we for sure got our money's worth out of it. I think we'll probably go every couple of weeks this summer. It is a nice long day of interesting stuff for her to do.

She has been watching some National Geographic video that we got from Mike's sister Laura. She loves it - maybe we should get a membership at the Aquarium as well. Anyway, the video talks about the difference between fish and dolphins/whales. It discusses humans and dolphins being mammals and that fish aren't mammals. Morgan is really trying to figure this mammal/human thing out. Several times a day she talks about that she is a human and that she is a mammal. She knows that dolphins and whales are mammals, but she is still a little confused about the other animals in her life. She's not convinced that Hyena and Lester are mammals - she knows they're animals. She's just not convinced that they are mammals, but not humans.

Really, even though at times I just want to wring her neck (she is 2 and a half, you know) I really enjoy being with her and watching her explore her world. OK, I don't necessarily enjoy watching her explore her world by testing my limits and biting her sister, but in general I do enjoy her.

Another New "Van"

Since opening the cycling store, we've decided to try to bike more frequently. We've taken the bikes and trailer so many places recently that it does seem like we've got a new van.

On Friday, I biked with the kids to the park, then went to Mike's mom's house to drop off Morgan while I went to work in the shop. Then of course, after work, I biked to go pick her up.

On Saturday, we took the bike on the first weekly Mike's Hike and Bike family ride. Then Mike took Morgan and dropped her off at his parent's house for the day while we worked at the store.

Sunday, we took the bikes and the trailer to the grocery store, then later to visit friends, and to Mike's parents house to get a bigger PFD for Morgan.

Today, no - we didn't take them to go canoing we can't carry the canoe on there, we took the bikes to a restaurant for dinner, then to the video store. I'm already noticing the difference in my ability to pull the trailer and in biking with just increading the amount I'm biking in the last week.

River Guides Again

Michael and I got to guide a trip down the Kentucky River today. It was a rather short jaunt – about 5 miles. I think we took our youngest patrons yet. Morgan, 2 and a half, took her first down river canoe trip. And Kenna, 7 months, took her first canoe trip ever. Speaking of firsts, it was our first trip down this section of river as well. We should have done it earlier.

The girls (and their guides) had a delightful day. The weather was perfect. We were on the river before the river became crowded. We did not have any mishaps.

Morgan had a great time leaning over the side of the canoe and running her hands in the water. While “on shore” she had a splendid time swimming. She really was proud of herself for moving so well in the water. We of course are delighted that she still likes it so much. She wasn’t too fond of the craw-dads (crayfish) that she saw in the creek. I think she preferred to think of it as her own little swimming pool – not where the animals live.

Kenna, after become more comfortable in her PFD (personal floatation device), enjoyed the trip. She slept for a good bit of it in my lap while I paddled. I wasn’t much help to Michael during the paddling today though, because she was in my lap the whole time. Because she’s still so small, when she sits with the PFD on, it is just a little longer than her torso; so, it lifts her chin up. That really makes her angry. As long as I was holding her, she was content to look around and watch her sister leaning out of the boat. At rest stops she enjoyed playing in the boat (a good “play pen”) and watching the rest of us swim. At the second stop, we went wading and she enjoyed the ride on Dad’s shoulders.

It really was a great day. A few more weekends like this one and we may just decide we can “get out” around here.

Now Summer!

So many things are happening so quickly these days. First, I am off of work for the summer (sorta, I still have my own projects to work on). It turns out that I don’t have to reapply for my job; so, I’m going to work there next year as well But secondly, and more importantly, our store is now open!

Mike’s Hike and Bike opened last Wednesday. We had a great sales day on Saturday (6 new bikes, 1 used bike, and lots of accessories). I think the community was really ready for what we have to offer.

Now on to info about my darlin’ girls, Kenna has two bottom teeth now. She really likes pears and mixed vegetables – not so happy about bananas or avocado. She still doesn’t know how to crawl forward. I’m starting to feel bad for her because she always gets stuck in a corner and can’t get out; which causes lots of fussing.

Morgan is very “into” pretend right now. She can take absolutely any item and turn it into amazing things. She is becoming a polite little girl (as opposed to a toddler). She knows the name of the store, recognizes the logo, and will tell anyone what the store is called. Say “Mike’s Hike and Bike” as fast as you can, and that ‘bout sounds like what she says. :)

Long Time Gone

Ok, so it has been wwwwaaaaayyyyy too long since I've written here. There have been so manythings going on I don't even know where to start. Humm. The short of it is this:

1. We are opening a bicycle and hiking/camping gear store in Richmond. We will open in a couple of weeks; so, all of our spare time is spent at the store. I'm in charge of data entry and general bookkeeping. Michael is in charge of merchandise, store fixtures/layout, and generally getting the place ready to open.

2. I have only a couple of weeks left of work for this school year. I don't know if I'll be back next year or not yet since I have to reapply for my job and it has not been posted yet.

3. Kenna is sitting up, crawling backwards, and just all around being a cute baby.

4. Morgan is a great child. She is a very kind big sister (still), and she's lots of fun with her immagivitiave/pretend play that she has recently started. Morgan has gone on her first boyscout camping trip. She had a grand time.

Back to work now, and I hope to post more soon.

Home again

We returned from that week-long road trip relatively unscathed. It actually was quite nice to visit new places, old friends, and old places.

While on the road, Kenna manged to (finally) successfully roll from her belly to her back. She had the back to belly thing figured out for a while now. I realize that she did these things in the "incorrect" order, but you can't tell her that. :) Anyway, back to the rolling thing. She managed to pull this feat off while Michael and I were setting up the tent. Let's just say that we put her on the trailer, a nice safe distance from the edge, and within a couple of minutes she was on the ground yelling. Luckily she landed on the freshly placed sand on the tent pad. It was not too firmly packed; so, she was scared, but not injured. Still, not one of my proudest moments.

An item that ranks near the top of our list in usefulness is the little portable potty that we have stashed in the van. Morgan made use of that potty more times than I can remember during our week long trip. It folds up the size of a dinner plate and comes with small disposable bags; so, you can just dump the "stuff" no fuss- no muss at your next pit stop.

One of my favorite memories from the trip involves a trip down a dead-end road. We looked on the map (you know that fairly crappy one that you can pick up at Wal-Mart for about 5 bucks?) and found a campground (as indicated by the little tent on the map) in the general direction that we were headed. Upon driving down several roads we found that what we really had was a place you can pitch a tent and not campground. It was getting late, Morgan was hungry, her parents were hungry, Kenna was over the car seat. So, we decided to go ahead and cook dinner there even though we knew we were not going to camp at the end of the road (that is right at some one's driveway). Michael and I were a bit disappointed at the circumstances, but we were up for making the best of it. Morgan reminded us how good the circumstances were by declaring with glee "We're having a picnic in the dark!"

Road trip

We are currently parked in a shopping center in North
Carolina. The Panera Bread company right outside the
van should open in time for the girls to awaken.

This will give us just the right start to the next leg
of the road trip. Mike will be able to get coffee
without having to get the stove fired up.

We've had a great trip so far. Morgan seems to like
the picnics on the flatbed tailer we are towing.

Although she does get tired of all of the sitting in
the car she is doing well on this long trip.

Everyone enjoyed the visit with our friends in
Maryland. We were sorry to have to leave them. They
were probably glad to see this big noisy clan go.

I'll try to get pictures of Morgan's first ocean
experience posted soon. She wasn't too impressed with
the water or waves, but she did enjoy the sand.

I should know by now

I really should. I should know if I want to actually go to the store and look around/browse and make a couple of other stops along the way that my eldest daughter will decide to nap on the drive.

I should know by now that if I don't think I will have time to crochet or read at all so why take it with me that I should for sure pack those things into the car.

I should know by now that waking Morgan up before she is finished with her nap is just asking for tantrums for pretty much the rest of the day.

I should know by now if Morgan refuses to sit on the potty after a nap that she will end up peeing in some inappropriate place (like the stool at the library).

I should know by now to make sure that the diaper bag has an ample supply of Kenna (cloth)diapers before I leave the house because she will of course need to be changed.

I should know by now that the emergency diapers in the van are pretty much too small for her.

I should know by now to never attempt to change a disposable diaper that is on Kenna any place besides a bathroom because poop will inevitably be all over her entire body.

I should know by now that you can't find parking close to anywhere you want to be in downtown Lexington.

I should know by now that a blue sky and sunshine does not mean that it is warm outside.

I should know by now that my jacket on top of Morgan will not be thick enough to stifle the yells of "It's cold, Momma." (especially after not completing a nap).

I should know by now that the books I'm going all the way to the downtown branch of the library to pick-up will not be there for me to get.

I should know by now if it crosses my mind that I don't really want to try to do my errands by myself because it will not be a relaxing browse that I should ask Michael to go with me or ask him to keep the kids.

I should know by now that Michael is wonderful and loves me because as soon as I walked in the door after this "should-a-known" day he took the girls and left me home alone.

Hit and run, water lines, pneumonia, and other woes

Hit and run...that's what I was almost charged with last week.. I was driving Mike's truck to work because he was going to be doing some work on my van. Let's just say it doesn't drive quite so easily as my van (even though they are the same size and basically have the same controls, engine, etc.). When I realized that his truck was just too big and had too much of a turning radius to easily get into the parking spot, I, like any rational person, decided to back up and go somewhere else. As I backed up, I hit the car next to me! UGGG talk about frustrating since I was running to get to my office to get some things done before my class started. I decided to move the truck to the other parking lot, and walk back over the offer up my insurance info and whatnot for the owner of the other car (who was not around). Well, someone who saw it happen, caught the eye of a cop and told them that it was a hit and run. I passed the cop and heard him saying that on his radio. I immediately told him why I moved the truck (it would have blocked the entire parking lot) and that I was coming back to write down my info. That was quite a mess.

Speaking of wide things, Michael was widening our driveway on Saturday and Sunday. While trying to even out the drive on Sunday, he hit the water line to the house. So, then entire rest of the day on Sunday was spent repairing the damage that the utilities company so eloquently explained as "your problem Bub."

And to top that all off, Michael woke up with an extremely high fever at 3 AM - if it's not one reason to be up in the middle of the night it's another. He went to the doctor today and found out that he has pneumonia. He's beat - especially because before heading to the doctor's office today, he spread a dump-truck full of gravel in the driveway this morning.

To top off that I didn't want Michael around the kids much today because we weren't sure what illness had befallen him, our sitter has strep throat and can't watch the kids for a few days. So, we had to call in the back-up team - my Aunt to sit with the girls this morning. She was not scheduled to arrive until after my classes began. We could have called Michael's mom, but she just got out of the hospital yesterday. The foot she had surgery on has an infection. I ended up taking Kenna to work with me this morning. I wonder if I'm the first woman to give a test with a baby on her hip; I hope not. I will just say that the sling that I use was a perfect way to keep Kenna happy while I was giving the test (American Sign Language, so that means I had to sign the test to them).

It's just been crazy, but hey at least we have health insurance to cover the doctor's visit and chest x-ray today. And, the prescription comes out of my pre-taxed reimbursement account. I reckon there is a silver lining somewhere in all of that.

I love having two kids

There are just some great moments with two kids that I can't even imagine having only one child and missing out on those special treats.

This morning, I took the girls to story time at our local library. We are regulars there. :) This morning, I went into the story time circle to sit next to Morgan for part of the program. Kenna was in my lap during part of that time. I decided to let Kenna practice sitting up by putting her on the floor in a sitting position right next to her sister. Morgan immediately put her arm around Kenna and gave her a kiss. She kept her arm around her for the remainder of the story. She occasionally would look at her or talk to her about the story Ari was reading. It was the greatest feeling to have such a wonderfully sweet daughter. And it was great to see the delight on Kenna's face because her sister was next to her.

You just don't get moments like that with only one child. I am so blessed!

You know you're getting old when

Michael and I went to an Old Crow Medicine Show concert at EKU recently.

We knew we were out of our league and among those of the younger generation when the college students used the glow of their cell phones instead of lighters to sway to the music.

Potty news: "R" says "rrr" for Poop on the potty"

This is one of my favorite new sayings of Morgan's. She has a toy that sings a little song for each letter of the alphabet to help with phonics. "R says "rr" R says rr. Every letter makes a sound. R says "rr." You get the idea.

When my little cutie pie sits on the potty to make a poop she says "rr" (just for fun grunting noises). After she got the idea that R says rr, she just can't help herself but to tell us that "rr" is for poop on the potty! We've tried to convince her that really "P says p. and P is for Pee-pee, poop, potty." But she just doesn't buy that yet.

I'm just wondering what Margaret (our sitter) thinks when she takes Morgan to the potty. :)

On other fun and happy notes about the potty, Morgan has only had one accident (knocking loudly on my wooden desk) in about 3 days. She is going completely by herself. I usually know that she's going potty by the shouts of "Momma, I want nemo treats." or "I want those in the box." She has been happy to perform for the treats for a while now, and she was even self initiating potty breaks frequently. I think the breakthrough came when we were at the park with just underwear (not a Dora underwear diaper) and she peed without telling us or pulling the pants down. When we had to leave the park because it was too cold to run around half naked I think she really got the idea of the real benefit of not peeing in her pants.

I'm a recovering addict

It is true! I have all of the classic symptoms:

1. shaky if I don't get my fix,
2. Irritable,
3. irresistible urge to get the stuff now,
4. Obsessive thoughts about the object of my desire.

Michael and I began phase 1 of the South Beach Diet (again). The diet is really a lifestyle change and we (along with the rest of Mike's family) began following the principles of the diet about a year and a half ago when his mom had a heart attack.

There are three phases of the plan. Phase 1 is the most strict about what you can and can't eat. Basically the goal of phase 1 is to break your addiction to unhealthy carbs (refined processed sugar, white flour, white rice, etc.). We were successful in doing this before and we lived in phase 3 for a long time. In phase 3 you eat pretty much whatever you want, but you pay attention to how much and when you're having carbs so the addictive nature of them doesn't take over.

We hit the point where we weren't watching them so much anymore and they are all over us again. I can tell you that Sunday and Monday were some difficult days around here! I'm feeling much better today.

By the third day of any new venture it starts to become comfortable and routine. Today was my turning point in overcoming the addiction. I attended a training session at work today. When I arrived there were donuts, fruit juice, and pizza available. I was really glad I had my bag of nuts and my water bottle with me. Sitting in the front and opposite side of the room from the food was also helpful. I didn't go near the table with the food. I didn't stare longingly. I didn't even think about the pizza and donuts after the first glance.

Traveling for work

This weekend I took my first business trip for my new job. Luckily the colleague that I share an office and the rental car with really likes babies (that or she fakes it really well). My co-worker was really understanding about Kenna joining us for the trip. She didn't mind the stops to feed Kenna, the (short lived) crying during the middle of her workshop presentation, or the distraction caused by a cute baby in a room full of women.

Kenna was a great traveler. We had to drive 5 hours to get to Paducah. She spent an entire day in a workshop and then spent another 5 hours in the car. All in all it was not much of a baby-fun trip, but she did not complain at all. I think she only cried twice - both involved changing her diaper when she was hungry.

The rest of the family stayed home for this trip since Mike already had a commitment with the Boy Scouts. I hope that they can join me for future trips so we can still have family time.

The job is going well so far. Kenna has gone to work with me almost everyday. I've found a great place to make milk. Instead of taking over the conference room to pump milk, I've found a furnished, but vacant office I can use. I share an office with two other folks; so, finding this office to use has been great. I can continue to check e-mail and work on my projects while making milk.

Morgan seems to really like going to "Ms. Margaret's" house. Margaret watches a couple of other kids and Morgan seems to get along with them and enjoys playing there. She even took a nap there the other day. I basically live in denial that Kenna goes there. I think she is being well cared for, but I still don't like the idea of her being taken car of by someone else (besides me or her dad). I cry about it some days more than others. If this position were a part-time job with the same benefits available (even if I had to pay more for them), I'd be much happier with the situation. As it is, I'm off to bed now so I can go into the office tomorrow morning before taking the girls to the library. I'm still trying to be an "at home" mom while working a full-time job.

The Compact

At my friend Gretchen's blog I learned about something called "The Compact." The basic concept is to take a break from buying new things. Her challenge is for February. I was up for and it and talked to Michael about it. He was willing to try it too. We figured "Why wait" so, we're already starting.

I used to rarely buy new things. Used items were my staples. Since I started earning a decent living for myself, I found myself buying new for most everything. I'm not big on shopping; so, I think I kept the habit of shopping new (evevn though we've been only partially employeed for the last year and a half) because I didn't have to go "digging and scrounging" for what I wanted.

Today we had the first opportunity to put compacting to the test. I was in serious need of some new work clothes. I have not gotten my shape back after having Kenna and I had to start work this week. In addition to clothing for my bottom half not fitting, none of my "professional" shirts fit either. I think since Morgan was still nursing during more than half of my pregnancy with Kenna, the normal gain in bra size when nursing a baby was compounded.

While Morgan was visiting Ms. Margaret (her new childcare provider) Mike and I went to the Salvation Army store in town. We chose that thrift store because we'd never stopped by there before.

It was our lucky day. We went through the blouses and pants racks. Michael is a great helper because he will keep looking and hand me additonal things to try on while I'm in the dressing room. I found about 8 new shirts and 3 pair of pants and a skirt to buy. The shirts were marked $1.99 each. Pants were slightly more expensive. The great news is that they were having a "bag sale." The cashier handed out plastic garbage bags and told us that we could put as many fabric items in the bag as we could fit. The price for the entire bag was $4! I basically got a new wardrobe for $4 and 30 minures of my time.

So far I'm liking the renewal of my more frugal shopping ways. I just wish I had read Gretchen's post before I went to Lexington and bought a new breastpump (thanks Gretchen for the parts, they are for the same brand I bought).

3 Days of work...So far so good

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a new job. I started work on Monday this week. The job is going well so far. I’m meeting the people in nearby offices and getting myself settled. I’ve only cried a couple of times about it in the past week, which is actually fewer than I expected.

Of course I have been in denial about the job for quite some time. Several aspects of it really hit home this week.

First, I really wish that I had been more proactive in pumping milk for Kenna all along. Now, reality hits that she is going to have to take bottles on occasion (more than I’m willing to admit - still) and sometimes we’re gonna need milk when we didn’t expect to need it. Right now, I only have 1 feeding worth of milk in the fridge for her. I already know that she’ll need that on Friday if not before then. It is just so much easier to feed her than to pump. If I could just bring her to all of my meetings we wouldn’t have this problem. The saving grace of the pumping and bottle feeding is that she doesn’t mind the bottle at all, which breaks my heart and makes me relieved at the same time. Read as: major fit of sobbing on my part.

She has gone to work with me everyday this week (not all day everyday – again fits of crying when I left her on my first day). She is a charmer and has caused me to meet people even more quickly than I probably would have without her. No one at the office seems to mind that she’s here with me this week. She will continue to go to work with me when my schedule allows. I just don’t think that college students want to see their teacher’s baby during class time.

Secondly, the nice neat little schedule that Michael and I had worked out for when I would be at the office, when he would be at work/teaching, and when we would have overlaps of schedule to require other childcare coverage was just a pie in the sky dream. From my very first day of work all of that was thrown out the window by the fact that several meetings that I’m required to attend were already planned – one of them during playdate time! The rest of them were during times that I planned to be watching the kids. So, our plan of having my aunt watch the kids one morning a week and Mike’s mom watch them one afternoon a week is just not working out.

This is what has caused the most recent bouts of crying. It is so hard to come to grips with leaving the kids with someone else. We’ve decided on an in-home childcare provider. All of the kids she watches currently have been with her since they were born (2.5 year old twins, 15 month old, 6 year old). This speaks well of her. The only reason she has an opening for our two girls is because she was watching another set of twins that started kindergarten and no longer need her services. Morgan stayed with her for about an hour today just to see how things would go. Morgan had fun playing with the toys. I’m not sure how much she interacted with the other kids there. We’re only paying for part-time care for them; so, they will only be with the woman a maximum of 5 hours on any one day. We don’t expect to take them there 5 days a week, but we do have that option since we have to pay for the full week if we take them or not.

Some other reality checks about the job are actually a good ones. I knew I would like the work, but I am reminded about how much I like going to work and having adults to talk with (I've not worked since the end of September). There is one other person at my office that has a year old baby and others who have children. I’ve enjoyed talking with them about our children, but it is also nice to talk with my colleagues about other topics and to contribute professionally again. All of this doesn’t make it easier to leave the girls, but it does make it bearable and even enjoyable while I’m there.

Some other good news is that my insurance and paychecks start on January 15th! Yipee that's a great perk. I started work this week and will get paid on Monday.

The last perk of starting work is the exercise I'm getting. My office is .5 mile from my house. So, by walking to work and home at least once a day that's a mile of exercise on hills. Plus, I'm usually carrying Kenna or pushing the heavy double stroller while carrying my backpack full of books, snacks, and water. This should help the overly shapely body of mine get back to a more normal shape and back into my pre-pregnancy clothes at some point sooner than if I didn't have to go to work.