How To Put The Child To Bed Without A Battle

The solution to that problem is simply this: have Daddy do it.

Yep, after several bed and naptimes of my will vs. the Boogie's will, DH put her to bed tonight and she didn't cry at all. I've decided that it's his job from here on out. Now, if he were only able to lactate he could take over the entire bedtime routine ...

AT LAST!!

We are ONLINE!!! Verizon came out today (Sunday, of all days) and hooked us up. Apparently they really did have to hook us up, as the Verizon guy said that there wasn't any connection at all coming to the building for this apartment. He said to call them tomorrow and ask for a credit since we'll be billed for a whole month of no service.

We came home from Washington last Wednesday. Unlike the trip out, this flight took off and landed on time. However DH's parents got stuck in traffic on their way to pick us up and instead of them arriving shortly after midnight we waited around for them until about 2 a.m. There was a really horrible motorcycle accident that held them up. Soooo we didn't get home till 3 or into bed until almost 4. Praise the Lord DH had the next day off work. We were sad to leave my folks and end our vacation but it is nice to be home. The Boogie has had a difficult time adjusting to this time zone and since we got home has had to be "helped" to sleep every bed and nap time. Finally this afternoon I made her cry it out. She was so tired she could hardly keep her eyes open, yet she cried and cried for a long time. Eventually I guess she gave up and managed to go to sleep. She's ready for bed now but I'm avoiding it as long as possible ...

Don't Knock It Till You've Tried It

So I tried out Mom's sponge-on-a-handle and it's really cool. I'm totally buying myself one when I get home. I'll confess that I am an obsessive dishwasher too, though in a different way. Someday I'll write about it.

My baby brother graduated from high school on Friday night. I just can't believe he is all finished with school. He's so grown up! At the graduation I got to see my other brother and his wife, B&D, and their two little girls, SL and HL. (Remember my system for keeping the LCs straight?) They were very cute but the family didn't stay too long. I did get some good pics of SL sitting on the piano bench playing the piano, while the Boogie and HL stood at either end of the keyboard and reached over their heads to get to the keyboard. We will see them again tomorrow when we go to the zoo.

Last night my friends the Specktaculars came over with their little girl. They are fun, too. They're coming out to Jersey in the fall to visit us.

I have had mucho coffee since we've been here. I have had iced mochas, iced lattes, iced chai lattes, and cup after cup of regular brewed coffee. It is great. I'm going to go through withdrawals when I go home.

Obsessive Dishwashing

My mother seems to be constantly washing dishes. When I lived at home she always had a little bit of soapy water in the sink and would wash every little dish that got dirty. Now she has one of those sponges on a hollow handle that you can fill up with dishsoap, so she uses that to wash dishes all day long. When the dish drainer is about half-full she dries everything and puts it away. I do not understand this compulsion. In fact I know it's going to make me crazy after a little while so I'm trying to retain my sense of humor about it. I think she's always been like this but it wasn't till I moved out of the house that I realized HOW much like this she is! Ha ha ha ... I'd better watch myself. I continually find myself doing things like she does. The next thing you know I'll be buying one of those sponge thingies too!

I got my hair cut off today. It's shorter than I've ever had it before! I think I like it, but we'll see how the styling goes.

We're having a marvelous time. DH is having fun with my brother, Furry, and the Boogie is loving grandma and grandpa time. I got my iced mocha breve today ... yummmm. No one in Jersey knows how to make them right.

We Made It

We arrived in Washington early this morning. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:30 last night. We got to the airport at 6:00 pm, checked our bags and made it through security quickly, then waited at the gate for 3 hours. They boarded us at 9:00 pm and finally took off a little after 10 ... it was a long night. Thankfully the flight was mostly empty and we were able to really spread out. By the time we actually landed, drove to my parents' house and got to bed it was 3:00 am PST, which was 6:00 am EST. We did manage to get some sleep. I think DH got more than I did. He and the Boogie slept on the plane. I, however, did not, since I was the one taking care of her and it's hard to sleep when there is a toddler sprawled on your lap or the seat next to you. She kept flopping around and I was afraid she would roll off. Then she had a hard time sleeping here so she ended up in our bed for most of what was left of the night, or early morning. Whew, just writing about it makes me tired! It's so good to be here though.

He Is Here

DR is here! 7 lbs 5 oz, much smaller than the OBGYN had guessed. SIL1 was happy with that and I don't blame her. He was born early Wednesday afternoon and they get to come home today. BIL1 took care of the LCs Wednesday night and took them to the hospital for a few hours on Thursday morning. I took over Thursday afternoon and will have them until their parents come home. They have been amazingly good. HJ has been a big help and EK has been kind to the Boogie for the most part. Pretty much the only exception was last night at church when both girls were standing by the door waiting for me, ready to leave, and EK grabbed the Boogie by the hair and yanked her down. EK is usually mild-mannered so I'm not sure what triggered that -- afterwards I did think it was kind of funny that they are so used to each other they just act like sisters! The Boogie did have a major melt-down yesterday afternoon. I think there has been too much change lately. We moved and just as she was getting used to that we starting spending a lot of time at the LCs apartment, even sleeping here. I feel badly for her. We'll go home today and get back into our own routine only to leave for Washington on Monday. Then once she adjusts to being there it will be time to come home ... Poor baby.

Sleeping at BIL1/SIL1's apartment is very interesting because the man who lives upstairs is apparently an insomniac. His tv is on constantly and he walks around ALL NIGHT LONG. The floors in his apartment are even squeakier than ours, I think. Anyway I didn't sleep very well last night. After DH went to work this morning I turned the furnace fan on for some white noise. I conked right out and dreamed about our neighbor from where we used to live. I dreamed that we were walking by and she backed her car up and hit DH on purpose, then drove away. Dreams are crazy things! I'm pretty sure she hated us for real but not enough to hit us with her car. Though she may have wanted to ...

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

SIL1 is doing well, laboring along comfortably (I hope) with her epidural. The LCs are doing pretty well too, though HJ misses her folks and keeps asking when we will go to the hospital. The Boogie is being a booger -- cutting three molars and not sleeping long enough last night have made her a pill this morning. She is down for a morning nap and the LCs are watching "Curious George". I sure am glad I found that dvd at the library ...

Today is much nicer, weather-wise. I think we'll go outside for a bit after naps. Right now I'm going to get a snack for the LCs and balance my checkbook.

New Cousin On the Way

Tonight SIL1 goes to the hospital to begin induction. This is baby #3 for her -- her last labor was 6 hours from start to finish so she's really hoping this one will go even faster! I am staying with the Little Cousins tonight and tomorrow. DH says he's going to sleep at home but I think I might be able to convince him to stay with us. He doesn't like sleeping without me. ;)

The Boogie is going to have so much fun with the LCs. I think I will refer to all of them by their initials which will be the easiest way for me to keep track. There are five (soon to be six) of them. HJ is 4 1/2 and the oldest of them all. EK is almost 2. They are sisters and by tomorrow should have a little brother who will be DR. The other LCs are HE who is 7 months old and belongs to DH's younger brother, BIL2; and SL (2 1/2) and HL (13 months) who belong to my brother. I hope that is sufficiently confusing. The Boogie adores HJ and EK. She follows them around laughing hysterically at everything they do.

Next week we fly to the other side of the country to visit my family. I really can't wait to see them; I can't wait for DH to finally get a real vacation; I can't wait for my family to spend time with DH and the Boogie since they hardly have at all. My youngest brother is graduating from high school and my mom is retiring from homeschooling, her job for the last 22 years. She homeschooled all four of us from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Quite an accomplishment, no? We have a few things planned for her which she knows nothing about. She hates a fuss but that's too bad. This can be for us. Besides I secretly think she likes a fuss. She can't fool me. :)

Freaking Hot

We are not talking Hott. We are talking hot as in sweaty, muggy heat. I just checked weather.com and where we live it is 92 degrees but feels like 103. Very nice. DH managed to mow the church grass without getting heatstroke. He is sunburned on his face, neck, arms, and legs. This afternoon we had a brown-out, probably because of all the people in the borough turning on their A/C for the first time this year. While it was out the only thing that worked was the fan. When I turned it on high it ran more slowly than it normally would on low. I don't think it even moved the air. Poor little Boogie got so hot and miserable. When she's sweaty her hair gets all curly. We were about to pack up and head to air-conditioned Taco Bell when the power came back on. Instead of that or cooking I went to Wawa to get hoagies (I have been informed that what I eat is not a hoagie because I put mayo on it. I'm from the west coast, what can I say? That much meat, cheese, and bread needs some mayo.) The Boogie had chicken strips. Ah, the convenience of Wawa. I don't really know how people survive without them.

I'm still unpacking. My goal is to get everything unpacked this weekend that I have a place for. Some things will have to wait until we get the Boogie's new dresser and toy bins over here (they are being stored at IL's house.) Meanwhile our A/C is running almost non-stop just to keep us at 80 degrees. I'm SO thankful that we moved last weekend instead of this one, and that we have central air!

Finally Online

We are inexplicably able to able to go online tonight. Last night we couldn't. This morning we couldn't. Now we can. Very odd.

I didn't do much today. I went to work. While I worked I let the Boogie watch "Curious George" on dvd. She goes to work with me sometimes, and the only way I can get anything done is to let her watch something on our portable dvd player. This works out fairly well unless she is bored with what she's watching and begins to push buttons. Once that happens it's all downhill. Might as well pack up and go home. And I usually do. After work we went to IL's house to use their internet. They are out of town so we had the whole house to ourselves. The Boogie took a nap and I chatted with my BFF online. Yep, it was a mostly non-profitable day.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a SCORCHER. Dangerously hot. It is DH's turn to mow the church grass. It's his first time to do it this year, and someone told him it takes three hours. He wants to do it in the afternoon, and I want him to wait until early evening. I hope he doesn't get heatstroke ...

A New Hobby

June 5, 2008

I have decided to start blogging. This is because I feel a need for a creative outlet. I don’t scrapbook, stamp, photograph, sew, quilt, crochet, or knit. For years I kept a written journal – I have a plastic shoebox full of journals. Then I started singing and that seemed to take the place of journaling. It’s been a long time since I’ve done either and while I would love to start taking voice again it’s not in the budget. Writing as a creative outlet is free, and if I type an online journal I won’t get writer’s cramp, ha ha. I’m constantly thinking of things that I would like to write about and lately I’ve been enjoying reading the blogs of other moms. Maybe some day other moms might enjoy reading mine.

Last weekend we moved to a new apartment. Now we live in the same building as BIL and SIL1 and their family. (One of the great things about blogging is that I can totally retain my anonymity, but in order to do so all my family must also be anonymous. I don’t really know how I will do this in order to keep everyone straight but for now BIL1 is DH’s older brother and his wife is SIL1. I’m sure I will be referring to them often.) Our phone line is not working so BIL1 gave us the mad hookup to their wireless internet connection. BUT it keeps kicking me off which is frustrating. Why does it do that just when I want to be creative? Meanwhile I’m typing a Word document which I’ll copy and paste to my blogspot tomorrow. Said Word document does not recognize the word “blog” in any form so there are numerous red underlinings throughout.

There is a lot that I want to write about but I don’t want to kill the fun of a new hobby by trying to do it all at once. So I’m just going to write about our new apartment, and what I like and dislike about it.

What I Like About Our New Apartment
-the Boogie has her own room, at last
-it is much bigger than the old apartment
-there are lots of windows, and a nice view out of them
-there are brand-new tile floors, and not the kind with grout, either
-the Boogie has her own room
-it has central air
-it is upstairs from BIL and SIL1 and the cousins who are the Boogie’s favorite small people
-there is a double sink in the kitchen
-the Boogie has her own room
-it is across the street from MIL and FIL who have a backyard with a swing set, and also a washer and dryer that they let us use FOR FREE
-when I don’t feel like walking across the street with my laundry there are two washers and dryers in the basement of this building
-I can walk to the post office, the bank, the park, and Wawa
-did I mention that the Boogie has her own room?

What I Dislike About Our New Apartment
-the floors are very, very creaky
-the kitchen has about 4 square feet of counter space
-there is no pantry in the kitchen
-when our downstairs neighbor listens to music the bass vibrates through the floor and up my legs (a very strange sensation)
-when my next-door neighbor goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night I can hear their equally creaky floors and also their toilet flushing (thankfully that’s all I can hear)
-the toilet is opposite the sink in the bathroom and is so close that when I “take care of business” my knees touch the vanity
-there is no exhaust fan in the bathroom
-there is a window in the shower

We’ve only lived here for five whole days. I’m sure I will come up with more likes and dislikes. Right now I want to elaborate on the very last dislike. Would someone care to explain to me why anyone would design a bathroom with a window in the shower? Perhaps originally it was only a tub, in which case I don’t have a problem with a window above it. But now it is a shower. And it’s not a shower-friendly window. It’s a regular one that opens and closes, with a mini-blind and a wooden frame around it. How am I supposed to keep the wood from mildewing? (Ack. I so hate mildew. It is my enemy. But more on that later.) Right now I have taped a 30-gallon plastic trash bag over most of it. This partially defeats the purpose of a window for ventilation. If I were remodeling this apartment I would drywall over the window and put in an exhaust fan. I would also put in new sub-flooring and carpet since I forgot to mention in my dislikes that despite being shampooed last week the carpet smells faintly of wet animal, namely dog. I would also put in a lot more cabinets and counter space in the kitchen. All in all, however, it is a nice apartment and I’m happy to be here. Now I’m going to put away the clean dishes so that I can put away the dish drainer so that I’ll have room on the counter to make DH’s sandwich for his lunch tomorrow.