Sleepy and sleepier

I got back from my jam-packed, seriously busy business trip to Texas last night and basically remained nea-comatose the rest of the night. Today I am still incredibly tired, but I have a metric ton of work to day. Hoo-ray.

I missed Evelyn and Jon so much while I was away, and I'm pretty sure Evelyn grew a good half inch. She also has much more definition in her face now, which is odd. It melted my heart last night when I went into her room, in the dark, to give her a lost pacifier, and she she said, half asleep, "mama, hi." She knew me in the dark. That is love.

The conference was very good with lots of workshops and roundtables and discussions and handing out of business cards. There also was the riding of a mechanical bull. It was Texas, after all. But mostly it was long days and lots of work and not enough rest.

So that is the "Sleepy" part of my post headline. The "Sleepier" part is my sister-in-law, who returned from Bangkok with my two little nieces on Sunday, and has not had a good night's rest since. I think she told me this morning that she has slept three hours in the past 24. Not enough. She and the girls are coming over after I get home from work so we can co-parent/keep her girls awake at least long enough so they might not wake up at 2am. Yay. They will be here for a couple months so I hope Evelyn and her cousins can have lots of fun together.

Wherein I die from the adorableness

It is getting to that time, the time when Evelyn needs to move to a Big Girl bed. She wakes herself up a lot by getting her head jammed against her crib's headboard, and frankly, it is pretty hard to lift her in and out of her crib. She loves her crib, though, so I am worried that moving might cause problems. I guess it will either be now or later, so why not now!

Anyway, we are planning a slow introduction of New Bed Things over the next couple weeks to help her get used to the idea. Since I had to go to Target to look for new bedding for my bed (see: Vaseline incident), I looked in the children's bedding also.

Cutest. Stuff. Earth.



So we are playing with the owl and laying the super adorable quilt on the ground so we can look at the animals and I hope she gets used to it. Change is hard for everyone. My itty bitty baby is now getting a twin size bed! Holy cow! (Also holy cow, is it going to fit in her room?)

And in case you were curious what bedding I got for myself, it was also at Target, from the Liberty of London collection.



Shopping huzzah! As Jon told me, "I'm manly enough to sleep under flowers."

Oh yes, and some good

I forgot to post about the highlight of the weekend: Curling!

Jon and I are in a rookie curling league with our friend Chris. We had our first match on Saturday morning and I must say, between the three of us and the fourth person assigned to our team, we were pretty good! I played Skip, the person who stands at the end of the ice and calls the shots and figures out strategy. I was pretty good. Jon was a master at sweeping and Chris can really aim those stones! We beat our opponents 9-5 in seven ends. We had a lot of fun and I can't wait for next week when we get to curl again.

Go Button Pushers!

Willfull runnin-around baby!

Yesterday was one of those days where if a childless friend had asked me if they should have a baby, I would have yelled "No! No! Run for the hills! Stay free and sane while you still can!"

Sunday was just a downright awful, exhausting day. Evelyn was just in a terrible mood all day.
Cranky. Angry. Willful. NoNoNo! Throwing spaghetti on the floor. Pulling on the window blinds at Village Inn. Spilling baking soda. Pushing on our legs. Mommy, outsiiiiiiide! NoNoNo!

We watched Lady and the Tramp 2 three times. By the third time, Jon and I were done with the peppy message that family is important, so we let Evelyn watch it in our bedroom alone. We would check on her every few minutes, but basically we just let her watch the movie. And then, after 15 minutes of near quiet, we knew something was up. I went in to check on her and --Bam!-- I saw it. Vaseline EVERYWHERE. The floor. The bed. The sheets. The pillows. Evelyn's hair. Evelyn's pajamas. Evelyn's ear. Everywhere.

Now, here is something you might have guessed, but maybe didn't know first-hand. Vaseline does not come out of fabric very well, or possibly at all. Nor does it come out of hair very easily. After "the incident," I stripped Evelyn down and put her in the bath while Jon dealt with the bedding. She was screaming, very unhappy, but I had to wash her hair (her least favorite thing in the world). I got as much soap and warm water on her head as I could before her screams got the best of me, and I pulled her out. All that soap, all the scrubbing, probably 50% of the petroleum jelly came out of her hair.

After her bath, she was rocking a wicked pompador...



I am so glad to be at work today...

More mother's day pics, because my daughter is too cute

More pictures! The first few (in the pink/white/green Easter dress my mom gave Evelyn) are from a week before Mother's day, but Jon was somehow able to catch Evelyn SMILING! Shocking. Her face always gets so stoic as soon as a camera comes out!

Mother's Day 2010

Mother's Day...a day of breakfast in bed, of sappy cards, of lounging around doing nothing at all and definitely not changing any diapers. Yeah, right! Ok, ok, so my mother's day was a lot of that. I am pretty sure I didn't change any diapers, or maybe just one, so that is great. Jon did get me a beautiful card (which is amazing because he always forgets cards), and he did a sweet little drawing inside for me, which was made even better because it turned out vaguely vulgar, and that is hilarious. What mother's day card is complete without an accidental penis drawing?!

The day was lovely. We spent the afternoon in Greeley with Jon's mom and sister, enjoying a delicious frittata and a beautiful sunny day. Carol and Jon took pictures, and here are a few:

Is that dress just the cutest thing you have ever seen? Yes, yes it is. And to think it was $5 on sale at Target! Good find, Jon!

And a wee update on Atkins. It is going well! Five days in and I am NOT hungry all the time, I feel satisfied, I am eating more vegetables than I was before and I am drinking a ton of water. I've lost five pounds, but I'm pretty sure that is because I am peeing non-stop with all this dang water! I do get a little snacky in the evenings and I have to fight the urge to scour the kitchen, but a reasonable low-carb snack usually does the trick. I keep telling myself, "That thing you want, that irresistible [insert food], is what got you here in the first place. You can do this!" So far, it's working.

And because yes, I realize there is little in this world more annoying than listening to someone talk about their diet or exercise routines, I will not post about this often. Just sometimes.

Accountability

This post is about accountability. Holding myself accountable for a decision I am making. And that decision is starting a new diet/exercise/soda-weaning lifestyle change.

Beginning tomorrow, I am embarking on a "controlled carb" diet (i.e. low carb) to see if it will work for me. I am giving it three months (you can do anything for three months, right?) and I hope it is a success.

I've dieted before. Healthy foods, low-calorie, low-fat, more exercise, etc. It worked pretty well, but I hated it. It wasn't that eating healthier foods was hard, really, it was that I was hungry all the time, even after months on the diet, and I obsessed about food. How many points do I have left for the day? How can I eek the absolute most number of calories out of the foods I'm eating to survive the day? How many minutes do I need to ride the eliptical to make up for that popcorn I had at lunch? Food food food food food. That's no way to live.

The worst thing of all was trading in REAL food for fake food-like substitutes. Low-fat potato chips, low-calorie pudding, sugar free candies, super low-fat ground beef, skim milk, reduced calorie cheese, etc. I feel increasingly less interested in eating factory-produced food stuffs. Sure that 100-calorie pack of Pringles was a low-calorie way to satisfy the crunch craving, but what kind of ingredients went into the potato to get it that way? There was a lot of substituting that kind of food for "real" food because I needed the quantity to feel moderately full.

Fast forward to 2008 when Evelyn was born. Joy of joys, my darling child, full of happiness peace. Except, I didn't feel that way. Pregnancy was hard on me. The pregnancy itself was no picnic (whose is? Probably that '18 kids and counting' woman), and the delivery was life-threatening. But afterward my body changed a lot. Not just wider hips and mommy brain, but internal workings. My depression came back about a year after Evelyn's birth. My thyroid was so out of whack that my levels were 25 times the normal range. My allergies got so bad that I was miserable all of last winter (yes, the WINTER). I am on three medications now that I might be on for the rest of my life. Is it all related to the pregnancy? I don't know, but it corresponds.

So I'm on all these medications, one of which was supposed to help regulate my weight, one of which makes it really hard to regulate your weight, and another that has no bearing on weight (I think). I am heavy. Quite possibly the heaviest I have ever been. I am not happy. I am not healthy. I need a change.

So tomorrow is D-day. The impetus to make a change was this professional photo we are taking with my ENTIRE family around the first of September. I don't want to look like I do now in that picture that will probably hang in my mom's house for the rest of eternity. But the larger reason is that I want to have more energy for my child and my husband, I want to feel better when I wake up in the morning and satisfied when I fall asleep at night.

So please understand if you ask me to go grab a slice of pizza and big fruit salad that I will probably decline. I might suggest we go for a chicken and a big veggie salad instead. Thank you in advance.

Adjusting to life as we once knew it

There has been a sudden change in our household, a seismic shift of sorts, and I find myself equal parts happy and sad, free and burdened, relieved and annoyed. What is the change? After nearly nine months of unemployment, Jon has returned to work.

It is wonderfully happy to have Jon working again. It is even better that he was able to open his own tattoo shop and that the shop is doing pretty well for its first month in business. But those nine months we had unemployement we also had a lot more time together. We had dinners as a family. We shared evening parenting duty. We didn't have to send Evelyn to daycare. (I hate sending her to daycare.) We talked more about our days and our dreams and our lives.

Now Jon gets home between 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm, eats dinner, sits down to watch a little TV and decompress from the day, and we're in bed a half hour later. He drifts off to sleep and I watch the news or an infomercial or How The Universe Works, and that is it.

It is kind of nice to have my evenings free again. I can watch embarassing TV shows or work on a knitting project. I can lay around doing nothing at all or wash the dishes or eat potato chips right out of the bag. These are all things I can do with Jon around, of course, but they are things I didn't do with him around. I have started planning an exercise routine for the evenings after Evelyn has gone to bed. These alone-time evenings are nice, but not quite as nice as husband-time evenings.

I suppose it is a good thing that I like to spend time with my husband. I know it is better that he is working and I really wouldn't want it any other way--well, no, I would want him to work normal 9-5 hours if I had my choice--but the readjustment has been a little hard. Come to think of it, when Jon lost his job in the first place, having him around all the time was pretty hard to get used to, too! I guess change is hard no matter what is happening.

We are blessed. We are fortunate. I am not complaining.

Luna Lew and other mean creatures

My mother-in-law has a giant, mean, cranky old cat. So, you know, pretty much like every other cat on earth. But this cat, Luna, is particularly standoffish and all-around anti-social. She has swatted at me when I've tried to pet her and she has hissed at me just for walking nearby. Yep, she's not nice.

Except...she loves Evelyn! Luna goes right up to Evelyn, rubs against her, let's Evelyn pet her and even tolerates a tail tug now and then. She chases a ball that Evelyn throws for her and even *gasp* purrs in Evelyn's presence! It is amazing. It is like Evelyn is the cat whisperer and Luna is under her spell. Magic.

Evelyn is totally in love with Luna, too. At my MIL's house this weekend, Evelyn kept saying "meow" and "Luna" and "cat" anytime the cat was out of view. On the drive to get lunch? "Luna? Luna? Meow!!" "Yes, dear, we'll see the cat right after lunch. Don't worry." At the house, when Luna had gone to the basement to escape all the dogs? "Luuuuuuuna! MEOW!" I am pretty sure my MIL went downstairs with Evelyn 15 times so they could play with the dang cat.

I know Evelyn would love a cat, but it isn't going to happen anytime soon. First, we have two obnoxious dogs already. Second, cats shed (see reason one for why we don't need any more shedding creatures). Third, my mom is allergic and I like her to stay with me when she visits Colorado. And fourth, I am pretty sure I don't need any other creatures whose poop I have to deal with. I'm good on that.

Also this weekend we went to a petting zoo where a baby goat sucked on Evelyn's thumb, a baby duck peed on my hands, and a baby pig slept in a giant pile of hay. There also was an old tractor to climb on and a sandbox, both of which were bit hits with the under-two set.

All in all, a lovely weekend.