Cheerier posts

Not sure if "cheerier" is actually a word. *shrug* Anyway - I'll try to have more uplifting posts from now on. I really wasn't in a depressed mood yesterday, I swear.

On a good note - I can't remember having a bad dream last night. But then again, I didn't sleep very well, so maybe that's why. I remember having strange dreams - like one where a former co-worker now has her own massage business and comes back to the office to do massages in conference rooms. But a "big-wig" in the department I used to work in frowns upon it, so everyone has to be sneaky about getting massages at work and make sure that there is nothing scheduled to be in the conference room at the time they want to get their massage. Oh, and I was in a fashion show in my house with all of these skinny models. Tyra Banks brought us the clothes to wear, and she got them from Macy's. Hmm. Perhaps I watch too much television. :)

Give your kids a hug

This story really moved me. Please take a minute to read. If you're from the Cities area, you may have already read a story or heard a news segment about this family. Take a moment to read this, say a prayer, think a kind thought, make a donation, whatever you want. But most of all, be grateful for what you have and the time you've been given.

Poor kids

You know who I feel sorry for? Kids who have a home address in Albuquerque while they are learning to spell and write and type. I just had to type - that city - about 5 times, and I tell ya, it's not easy. :)

Disturbing

I've been bugged the last couple of days by the disturbing nature of the dreams I've been having. Since getting pregnant again, I've been dreaming a lot, but lately, the dreams have been more vivid, more violent and more detailed than I've had before.

I'll highlight the last 3 nights for you. A couple of nights ago I dreamed of getting stabbed in the throat and seeing every detail of what was going on around me in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. The ambulance had see-through sides, and we were making our way through downtown St. Paul, and I could see all the people staring in at me. The next night - without going into too much detail because this one was gross and gory, I dreamed I was about as far along in my pregnancy as I currently am and that I went to the bathroom and there was blood and "stuff" everywhere, and basically, by the end of the dream, I had lost the baby. Last night I dreamed that I borrowed the SUV of a guy I went to high school with (and wasn't even friends with, by the way) so that I could make it to one of my good high school friend's house because she lived way down in this weird valley with a really winding, curvy, twisting, bumpy road. On the way down, I flipped the SUV and had all kinds of bruises and cuts all over my face.

I'm getting a little paranoid that something horrible is going to happen to me! It seems like I dream all night, granted, who really knows how much we actually dream, and not all of the dreams are horrible. I wake up remembering one yucky dream every morning. I'm already starting to get uncomfortable at night without having these nightmares to look forward to, as well. Anyone have any insights?

"O"

Do me a favor. Open your eyes really wide. Now form a perfect little "o" with your mouth. Hold it...

There. That's Josie's new favorite face to make. This face can be used in a variety of situations. For example - "whoa, Brewster almost knocked me over!" or "I think Daddy tooted!" or "I just tooted!" or "I just threw my cup on the floor!" or "where did that darn cat go?" or "I'm feeling sleepy. I must stay awake!" or "Daddy's driving too fast!" However, this face is difficult to form while crying, but she still tries. Feel free to use this face if you encounter any of the above situations, or apply it to any scenario you find it useful for. Try it - you'll like it!

We have no bananas.

I am 21 weeks pregnant today. I eagerly opened my email this morning awaiting the news of which fruit or veggie is now in my uterus. But babycenter.com has let me down! All I get is "your baby is now three-quarters of a pound and approximately 10 1/2 inches long." Are you telling me there are no foods of this size to reference any longer? What will I do?! If you know of an appropriately sized edible object I can visualize in my womb, please share.

So I was discussing my work situation with Pat the other day when he pointed out something disturbing. Not that there's anything interesting going on - we were just talking about how there was a time a few weeks ago when I kept getting shuffled around to different desks while they figured out where I could sit and not take up a desk for a newly-hired associate. It was mildly annoying to come in on a Monday morning after schlepping all of my stuff to a different cube only to be told that oh, yeah - I guess you can't sit there after all. No biggie. Anyway - Pat pointed out that perhaps, I am the Milton of Securian. (If you haven't seen Office Space, don't worry, you aren't going to get it.) I was laughing so hard I thought I might pee my pants. Which doesn't take much anymore. I really need to get a red Swingline stapler. And I was told I could listen to my radio at a reasonable volume from nine to eleven. If I come in on Monday and find I've been moved to the basement, then I know I'm in trouble. :)

New pix

Drat

I had a bunch of pictures edited and ready to post (I burned them onto a CD and was going to do it from work... soooooo much faster,) but apparently the ones I had ready to go are not on the CD. Shoot. Guess I didn't transfer those from the Kodak program to the computer. Alright, I'll try again tonight to post from home. Sorry.

Can you believe Josie is 14 months old already?? I can't! Happy Monday - more to come...
csd

Miscellaneous stuff on a Friday afternoon

Happy St. Patty's Day! Josie and I went downtown to meet up with Pat and some of his new co-workers (funny, because they're some of my "old" co-workers) at lunch today to take in the annual parade in St. Paul. Basically a bunch of Irish families, social groups and bagpipers walking in groups up 4th street, along with a LOT of drunken parade-watchers and those who wish they were partaking of the drinking but are merely on break from work. It's a good time that brings back a lot of memories of younger, more care-free, pre-kid and pre-pregnancy days!

Um - let's see. I had my 20 week appointment yesterday. Dr. Rolando said that the ultrasound pix from last week looked good. But. They are a little concerned about the size of baby's kidneys. So I'm scheduled for a follow-up ultrasound in 3 weeks. Dr. R is sure everything is fine, some babies just have bigger kidneys, but wants to stay on top of the situation in case there could be something wrong. If this u/s shows similar results, then they may request another, more specialized u/s that can look specifically at particular regions. Otherwise, everything was normal - my bp was 120/76, weight up 1 lb from previous visit (yahoo!,) tummy measuring at 21 cm, and baby heartbeat right on 150. Oh - and babycenter.com says baby is the size of a large sweet potato. I know you all are dying for those wonderful fruit and veggie updates!

Josie is a tornado. She is in to everything from the various garbage cans around the house to the books on the shelves in her room. Her job is not complete until everything within reach is strewn all over the floor. Then she is satisfied and can move on to the next project! She is getting good at also putting things back... but that's not nearly as fun. :(

She is loving her books right now. And mommy is loving that she's loving her books! She will often scoot away from us and crawl (not walk, yet, you'll notice) into her room and just sit for quite a long time on the floor looking at her books. Her favorite is "Good Morning, Good Night." A touch and feel bedtime book. Illustrated by Melanie Mitchell. You'll probably notice that we read this one a lot. A. Lot.

Patrick's new job is going great. So far, he is really enjoying it. I think he'll be a wonderful fit for his position and is going to get along fabulously with his new co-workers. Oh - funny story. His first day was Wednesday. Someone walked around asking who wanted to put in a dollar to play the Daily 3. He said sure and put in his numbers. Well - I guess they've never really won much before, but on Mr. DALY'S first day playing the DAILY 3, they won $500!! There were 10 people in the pool, so each got a lovely $50. Hope that's a sign of the good luck he's going to have from now on!

Pictures to come soon. I promise. Maybe tonight after Josie goes to bed or tomorrow when Pat's around. Darn dial-up stinks for posting pix from home. Gotta go. Toddler getting very impatient at the lack of attention!

Potty Mouth

Apparently we already have to start watching our language around Josie. Granted, this would be a good habit to start regardless of having a toddler, but I didn't think that we'd need to worry about it quite yet. Boy - am I going to be in trouble. ** *Note to self--- don't ever agree to start one of those "mommy will put money in a jar every time she swears" deals.***

Anyway - on Sunday, Patrick was making an attempt to get the Desitin out of the rug in Josie's room. If you don't know the story, read the earlier post named "Just TRY to tell me things don't happen for a reason." We have a lovely steam cleaner which we thought would do the trick. We were wrong. If anyone has tips for getting Desitin out of a rug, PLEASE let us know. Josie and I were sitting in the room watching the fun, when Pat decided to give up the fight. He was rolling the cleaner out of the room, and I guess the part that holds the water wasn't quite latched in correctly, and when he lifted it to help it over the runner in the hallway, the water tank fell out. As you can guess, water spilled all over the hallway. Pat proceeded to give his best sailor impression and throw out a few choice expletives. Keep in mind, Josie is sitting on my lap, taking in all the fun. For the next 20 minutes, with the same tone and volume in her voice that daddy just used, she yells out what I swear (no pun intended) was "dammit." Over, and over, and over.

She definitely doesn't miss a thing. When the dog has tripped me in the kitchen for the 10th time and I yell at him to get out of my way or he slobbers all over Pat's pants and he yells at him to go lay down, pretty soon Josie is "yelling" at him, too. Yet another thing we'd better try to curb. Or when we visit Meg and Joel, and Meg gently reprimands Joel for setting the television he's moving temporarily in a rubbermaid container not designed to hold televisions, then soon Josie is "reprimanding" Joel, too. I think we're going to have a bossy girl on our hands!

Other than the potty mouth, which actually was pretty hilarious, we had yet another lovely weekend. Taxes are done, and we're getting a dandy of a refund- thank you very much Miss Josie! Laundry is done, the house is "somewhat" clean, and we got to play and play all weekend long. Jo kept daddy busy toodling around the house - she now sits on the floor and holds up both arms while opening and closing her hands signaling whoever is "driving" that she's ready to go. I really hope she takes those first steps soon! Oh - and now she won't walk unless she has your thumbs. I guess the thickness of the thumb is the most conducive for toodling. She jabbers and jabbers all day long, loves to chase the cats around the house, and is more and more animated and vocal every day. We're starting to see the mood swings, hitting and kicking mommy and daddy when she's tired or not getting her way, then the tears flow when we tell her "no" and she seeks out the other, nicer parent for comfort. The fun is just beginning!

IT'S A...

GIRL!!!

At least, that's what the ultrasound tech is going with. Pat made the gametime call and said if she could see well enough to hazard a guess, to go ahead and tell us. She said she would never say 100% either way, but she looked a couple different times from different angles, and is thinking girl. So knowing that anything can happen, we won't actually believe it until we see it - or don't see "it," in this case. Figures - we were pretty set on boy names. :)

Based on the measurements taken today, we're staying with August 2nd for the due date (I know I had been saying August 3rd... but close enough.) Baby was moving around a lot the longer the ultrasound lasted. Hope she's not quite the kicker that her sister was!

2 girls. Yikes! I'll see my doc again next Thursday and we'll be able to go over the ultrasound at that time to make sure everything looks like it's progressing well.

Make sure to vote again in our girl name poll. Choices have changed. Middle names to be determined. We're open to suggestions!

Ultrasound day is here

The big day has arrived. Well, I guess I still don't know for sure how big of a day since Pat and I have not come to a decision yet as to whether we will find out if it's a boy or girl. He keeps saying we should flip a coin for it. Phooey. Guess it will be a game time decision. 3:00 appointment - we'll keep you posted.

Oh - I'm 19 weeks and baby is the length of a small zucchini.

I have nothing to say about that.

Congrats to the Gronau family and new baby Edward! We were so happy to finally meet him! Check out Pants Central for pictures and the birth story.

Delightful

We had a lovely weekend at the Daly house. Friday, Josie and I picked up Pat at lunch and went to finish up some paperwork for the van, then after we dropped him off, we went to Toys-R-Us and did a little shopping. I got an activity walker to help Josie along - she's very close to taking those first steps on her own. We also picked up some of those fridge magnets in alphabet shapes - both purchases were a big hit. That evening we met Pat's brother at Green Mill for dinner, then Josie and I headed home while Pat and Brian went to a high school hockey game.

Saturday we got to spend some time with some relatives we don't get to see very often, the Meyer family from Grove City and the Olsons from Omaha. All were in town for the high school state wrestling tournament at the Xcel Energy Center as my cousin Greg's 10th grader, Ben, was competing in the 112 lb weight class. He ended up taking 4th, while his team took 3rd place. It was a fun day, and Miss Josie enjoyed all of the yelling and clapping very much - she clapped and yelled right along with everyone!

Josie let us sleep in until 8:00 on Sunday - always appreciated! She and daddy went to mass while mommy finished up some laundry. She took a 2 hour nap for us, which allowed mommy to also catch a little nap. She was just a delight - so happy and funny, she had us cracking up all weekend long. Her favorite things to do right now are to climb on the dog when he's laying down - then give him hugs, to play telephone with whatever object happens to be close - including graham crackers, which apparently work nicely as phones, and to "help" mommy fold laundry by taking clothes in and out of the basket and then climbing in the basket when the clothes are all inside. Socks are the best - she'll play and play for hours with a few socks, which also do double duty as kleenex if need be. Needless to say, I end up washing some clothes a couple of times before they get put away!

It's About Time

I like to be on time. I've always liked to be on time. I used to pride myself on being prompt. In fact, I was always early.

This, of course, changed once I had a child.

Gone are the days of grabbing my keys and running out the door with nary a care in the world except my own being. Now it's hats, coats, bags and belongings of that sort for multiple beings. Tracking down these various items invariably leads to time slipping away, and *gasp*, being LATE. Granted, looking back, I did seem to be a "hurry up and wait" kind of person. Arriving 10 minutes early to classes just for the sake of having that safety bubble, being able to grab a seat in the back and watch others arrive, not wanting those others to get there before me and look at my butt as I took a late-comers seat in the front. Having a cushion of time to get my refreshments, go to the bathroom, check my e-mail or just stare into space for 5 minutes while not "on-the-clock" at work used to seem so important.

That luxury is gone. These things are now getting done "on-the-clock," and that's just the way it has to be. We now sometimes arrive for appointments, work and social gatherings LATE, and that's just the way it has to be.

Now each minute of the morning at home is preciously allotted to the needs of someone else before my own. I hurriedly get showered and dressed before everyone else because if I fall behind schedule, then the morning is shot, and *gasp*, I'm LATE. Of course, I'm not in this alone. My husband often sacrifices breakfast in order make sure our child is dressed and gets her milk in the morning or ends up wearing a wrinkled shirt because he didn't have time to check it as he was chasing the little one through the kitchen to make sure she doesn't head for the basement stairs. If I look at the clock and it's 6:15 instead of 6:10 when I'm feeding the dog, then I know for certain that I'm going to be LATE for work because now the whole morning is off schedule and we're going to be leaving the house at 7:10 instead of 7:05, and crap! it's recycling day and we didn't put ours out last week and it has to go out today and where is the lunch container, oh- never mind we don't have time to make lunch, get Josie's coat we have to go, wait- you're wearing white socks with black shoes - go change, hurry up, where are Josie's mittens, did the dog get let out? stop staring at the cat - we have to go, we're LATE!

Yes, I COULD get up 10 minutes earlier. But I refuse. I already get up at 5:30 and just. can't. get. up. earlier.

I admit to having a mild panic attack at the thought of adding another being and another being's belongings to this chaotic mix. I know at first it will be hairy, but just as everything worked out the first time, it undoubtedly will again. We fall into a comfortable routine, disrupt the routine with a life changing event, struggle, adjust and fall into a different comfortable routine, only to do it all over again.

I realized this morning when I got to work (only 3 minutes LATE, mind you) that not only am I obsessed with watching the clock, but I'm now obsessed with watching the calendar, as well. I turned on my computer, pulled up my Lotus Notes, checked my calendar (why, I'm not sure as I never have much going on!) for today's schedule, opened my desk calendar to March, tore off yesterday's Dilbert cartoon on my daily calendar, and made sure the Avon calendar on my cube wall was, in fact, turned to March. Of course, it was.

Why the calendar obsession? Pregnancy. We count down time before baby arrives while counting up how many weeks along we are. 18 weeks today, by the way. Baby is the length of a large sweet potato. We count and count until we reach that magical 40 weeks - well usually, unless baby decides to come out at 36 weeks and 3 days, or as is the case for some of us, we hit 40 weeks and just keep right on going. But it's all about time. Because that's what we were given when we were born. Minutes in an hour, days in a week, years in a lifetime to fill with loved ones, hobbies, friends, and in my case, calendars.

Perhaps my preoccupation with time is an unhealthy obsession that leads to premature gray in my hair or ulcers in my stomach, but it's my obsession to have and I know I can't give it up.

I don't have time.

Let's Give the Boy a Hand!

A Big Congratulations to Patrick for being offered and accepting a job in the Agricultural and Association Sales Department! After toiling away in the Life and Health Sales Center for almost 6 1/2 years, he decided to venture out and move on up to the penthouse of the 401 Building, the 13th floor... where he'll join the likes of esteemed colleagues such as one Mr. Joel Gronau (although, they will be in different departments, which is probably a good thing!) This could be dangerous - I don't know if the 13th floor knows what's in store for them! Way to go, hon - I'm very proud of you!