A Good Friend

I always hear, "If you want to have a good friend then you need to be a good friend." I have found that to be true more and more as I'm experiencing life. Mostly I realize that if I want to have social interaction I need to invite, I need to contact, and I need to go out of my way to meet with people. Most people don't really want to be the ones to do that. To be honest, I don't really want to be the one to do it either. In a perfect (read lazy) world everyone would call me up and invite me over. Turns out that would be pretty lame for everyone else.

Confession: I'm super slow at making friends. I feel like I've started my little group of close friends since we moved here. I have a few that I feel comfortable just calling up and asking what they're doing, but, honestly not many. Don't misunderstand, I love my little circle of close friends. And I'm super happy to know that they're there, but more to the point the women I feel closest to are the ones that really truly did call me up! My friend Mindy is awesome at this. Totally 100% awesome at being there for people. She has tons of friends. Perhaps I should be more like her. More giving, more willing to reach out. I decided this past week that I need to go beyond my comfort zone. Events at our last med wives lady's night were sort of.....illuminating as to my situation here. Really most of the women that I meet are pretty much in my same position. They are wives and they've moved away from their family and old support system. They need a new one just as much as I do. But in the back of my mind I'm thinking to myself, "But really, do they? Haven't most of them already found close friends? Would they really like it if I called and invited them over just to play scrabble? They're probably too busy."

If I want to be a good friend I have to go out of my comfort zone. Who really wants to do that? I sure don't. But what I don't want even more is to feel like there's nobody I could call just to say, "I have to escape my house! Can I come over there for a while?" Currently it would take a whole lot of courage to do that. No, not courage. Just a comfort level that I don't yet have. Comfortable knowing that the impostion I would have on the other person would be overlooked. I'd also really, really like to have a friend that would feel comfortable doing that with me. Come, invite yourself over. I'll make room. I'd love it. I promise.

Don't Ever Grow Up

A few days ago I took Charlotte to the park. She was so cute I couldn't believe it! I was taking photos of her while she tried to climb the steps of the big toy. There were two older girls on the big toy. My guess is they were probably in the 7-8 range. One girl was clearly the leader of the two. Right in front of me she asked the other girl, "Do you think that baby's cute?" Typed out that seems like a very innocent question, but let me tell you that girl was just inviting the other one to say, "No she's totally ugly." I was instantly furious! I just waited to see what would be said. The other girl was in a jam. She knew I could hear her, but I could also tell she didn't want the other girl to think badly of her. I wanted to say to the girls, "Of course she's cute! She's the cutest little girl that you'll ever see and don't you go saying otherwise!" I didn't. The second little girl decided that since none of the answers she could think of would be good she would just say nothing. Then the leader girl asked the other one, "Do you think her shoes are cute?" (The expected response was a resounding, "No.") Again no response. The leader girl finally said to the other, "You should go spy on them." This the follower obediently tried to do. It was at that moment I decided that we should just move. Charlotte is only one so she doesn't care what other little girls say about her, but I sure do. I got mad when I realized that the mom there watching the girls was just sitting there on her cell phone not even paying attention to what they were doing.

I don't want my precious little baby girl who is smart and beautiful and funny and awesome to go outside of our house. Inevitably she's going to run into this type of situation again and then she might be old enough to really understand what's being said. And then I might not be there to protect her. It makes me so sad and so mad at the same time. I can't wait to see her ride her first bike, or drive, or go on her first date, but then again, maybe I can.

Decisions, Decisions

Which class would you rather take?

The Art of Fresh Flower Arranging

or

Woodworking for Women

Carnivore

Today Charlotte had her iron tested. Surprisingly the most traumatic part of the whole ordeal for her was having to keep the Dora Bandaid on after the poke. Once I took it off she was fine. She was also mad that a stranger actually had to touch her to do the thing, but that's a whole different story. The results came back that she has GREAT iron levels. Then we were talking about her eating habits and what she will and wont eat. She's not a picky eater at all, so I'm especially grateful for that. (Now that I say this, she wont eat anything but graham crackers for a week.) Anyway, I realized that the reason her iron levels are so high is that she has not run into any type of meat that she doesn't like. In fact for most dishes she'll root around all the other stuff just to find the meat. Don't get me wrong, she eats a fair share of everything else, but her clear favorite in the food category is meat. Does anyone else think that's 100% strange?

A Great Weekend

Friday night Dan and I went out on a date. We went to Charlie Gitto's On the Hill. It's AWESOME! I loved the entire experience. I wore my new dress that I just received in the mail a few days ago and did my hair and make-up and felt really girly and pretty. Did I have to dress up? No. Did I enjoy every minute of it? Yes. Since we are swapping babysitting with another couple we decided we didn't have to rush home. To do something entertaining that didn't cost money we decided to go "window shopping" at the Home Depot. (You can all see which half of the night was for me and which half was for Dan, but I still enjoyed it.) It was kinda funny to walk through Home Depot all dressed up.

Saturday was the Grand South Grand home tour that we wanted to go to. Unfortunately we didn't go. Fortunately Dan did spend the day at school preparing for his test this coming weekend. Charlotte and I ran away from home, to our two doors down neighbors to sit and chat. Also, because Charlotte has been desperately wanting to meet their three dogs. She absolutely loves dogs. They have two little dogs and one big one. As soon as the dogs calmed down she got off my lap and started petting them. Sometimes whit her hands, sometimes with her head. It was super funny. Dan came home and we went to Lowe's to see about getting an estimate for the kitchen cabinets. Turns out the guy from Lowe's was inept. It took him almost 2 hours to get the cabinetry up on the computer and then the quote that he gave us was, oh, a good 4K higher than it should have been. We decided to give up on Lowe's and went to Home Depot, where the excellent service was done in about a half hour and the quote was 6K lower for the same merchandise. (I think we might be spending a lot of time at the Home Depot store in the next three years.)

Then Sunday was a glorious day! Sunny, warm, beautiful. After church we walked from our apartment to the house and looked around. Then we walked back. It was a great day for being outside, but I forgot sunscreen. Good thing it was in the late afternoon. You can be sure I didn't forget it today.

Big News

We got the house. Dan didn't go to bed last night until 1 AM. (He blamed it on the Dr. Pepper he drank, but I didn't mention to him that I drank about 1/4 of that Dr. Pepper in between all his sipping and I was out by 9:30.) He was thinking and planning and improvising how our kitchen would work best. I think he came up with a superb layout that I think will work really well. It's a whole lot of problem solving when you have a small space to work with, but I think his plan really maximized the space.

Now I can't wait until Dan's parents come out! It's gonna be so much fun to show them the new house. Also, Dan's sister is going to drop of his nephew for wrestling camp this early summer so she'll get to see it too! Plus, my dad's already starting to plan his trip out here.

Yesterday Charlotte recieved "Christmas in April" from Grandma Denise. She got new books, which she loves, a new dress, and most of all, a new dancing duck and a little tykes piano. Guess which two she loves the most? You guessed it, the two that make sound. Right now they're both still pretty cute, but I can see that these two presents will be both a blessing and a way to teach me patience. Thanks mom!

PS. We had an earthquake here early this morning. Here's how it went in our house:

Me: Is that storm shaking the bed? (There was a pretty big storm going outside. It was rattling the windows.)

Dan: No, go back to bed.

Jump to breakfast:

Me: Did our bed shake in the night?

Dan: No.

Turns out there was a 5.2 earthquake in southern Illinois.

Delayed Response

Sorry for the no posts lately. There were a number of factors why. The first being that Dan and I are trying to buy a house that we're really excited about. We put the offer in and I was going to wait until the offer came back to post anything (I don't want to jinx it), but the bank hasn't said anything about it yet. We're buying a house that was foreclosed on and apparently it isn't the bank's top priority. Go figure. Anyway, the house is awesome and a fun project for the next three years. The only big things that need to be done can get done during Dan's down time this summer. Plus, my dad and mom are so excited to come out and help. And Dan's parents are coming out for Memorial Day and they'll see the place. It's great to have such awesome support. Other than the biggies all the stuff is totally do-able projects that can be spread out over the next three years here. We're both pretty excited about the whole thing. (Dan keeps getting out his orange Home 1-2-3 book from Home Depot just to peruse.) I wish I had news to tell right now, but I don't. We put the offer in and now we just have to wait.

The other reason is that Charlotte was pretty sick last weekend and it scared the crap out of me. She had a fever that came in the afternoon every day for about three days. Then she was pretty dehydrated and would not eat or drink anything. We were super worried that we would have to take her to the hospital, but the amount of fluids we forced into her kept her at home. We were just both really worried about her and I didn't really have anything to say except, "My baby's sick and I'm so worried I might throw up."

And the last reason I didn't realize until a few days ago. For about two weeks I was walking around being totally angry at Dan and totally sad and frustrated. Dan is an amazing husband and he didn't do anything wrong so I never brought it up because I knew that it was unfair to be mad at him. Whenever he asked, "Are you OK?" I just said, "I'm super tired," which isn't a lie because I was also super tired. It wasn't until I was talking with my mom about it that she asked if I felt a little overwhelmed with everything and I just started to break down and cry. So I guess that was the answer to everything, feeling overwhelmed. After thinking about it all the rest of the day I figured it wasn't fair of me to walk around feeling this way without telling Dan. Plus, I figured I was in a situation that needed fixing, and he happens to be pretty good at fixing things. Turns out that was the best thing I could have done. It was hard to tell him because I feel very responsible about everything that happens in our home. He has never acted like the running of the house and the raising of our daughter is my responsibility alone, but that's how I felt. (Why do I take on more responsibility than I need to? Something to answer someday.) After I told him this he asked what exactly made me feel overwhelmed to see if that was a task that he could take from me. Turns out that there is no one task he can take completely away from me. What he did say he wanted to do was take some tasks away from me partially. So our new plan: when Dan comes home from school, after he unwinds a bit, he and Charlotte have time just the two of them where they go for a walk or go to Home Depot, or go, well, I guess it really doesn't matter where they go. I then will be home. Alone. For half an hour. We've done this the past two days and it has been amazing how much better I feel. I don't have to get anything done when they're gone, but if I want to I can be that much more productive.

And also, he's taking me out to dinner tomorrow night! We've got reservations, and someone to watch Charlotte and we're going to use the gift card my sister and brother-in-law got us for Christmas. I can't wait! I've already planned what I'm gonna wear. (I've also planned what Dan's gonna wear, but don't tell him that.)

Spoiled

I started yesterday. When it didn't happen yesterday I knew I needed to start earlier in the day. So today I started the moment he got home from school.

Right after he kisses Charlotte and me: "Brownies would be great."

Just before dinner: "There's not very much milk. You need to go get some."

After putting Charlotte to bed: "How about some chocolate cake?"

Sitting on the couch while watching TV: "Don't you think some goodies would be nice?"

And then came the rather unexpected clincher: "I need the ward phone directory. Would you get it from the car for me?"

The golden response: "Well, since I'll be in the car anyway I might as well go get us some goodies. You wanted chocolate cake right?"

He is so awesome.

The Up-shot

I feel like I've been complaining about my baby a lot this past week and it's really not giving the whole picture. I LOVE how much she's learning right now. She seems to have exploded in the growth and development this past week. Here are somethings she's learned:

• If you ask for a kiss she will lean in and say, "Mmmmmm-wah" right along with you. It started with her leaning in with a fully opened mouth, but then she figured out that we're not doing that so she adapted.
• She blows on her own hot food. It's so cute because she hasn't quite figured out the direction of her blowing. She'll do it just above the food. But she knows to test the food with her fingers and if it's too hot she'll blow on it.
• She knows jokes, well, toddler jokes. She thinks it's so funny to do something unusual with the items we use in our house every day. She uses the hamper and puts it over her head. Then we put it over both our heads and laugh and laugh.
• She understands pretty much everything we tell her. She doesn't always pay attention, but she understands what we're saying and that's so fun.
• She's figured out how to flush the toilet, which is pretty funny. She will walk up and just flush the toilet and then walk away.
• When I say, "Do you want to help me with the laundry?" She'll run to the door to the basement and wait for me to take her down. Then she'll help me turn on the light in the basement by pulling the string. She's also learned to shut the dryer door for me.

So I have actually been having loads of fun with my toddler too!

Hip and Urban

Today I had errands to run. Instead of going out of the city limits to a big shopping area I decided to see if I could get everything done in my own neighborhood/area. I totally got everything done without once going on the interstate! I felt so hip and urban walking down the busy road to get my stuff done. What's even better is that one of the houses we're looking at to buy is only a block and a half away from the street where I did all my errands today. I wouldn't even have to drive if I didn't want to. That's kinda cool.

Grawwwh!

Translation:

Charlotte is now off the pacifier. (For two whole days now) She's teething. She's got a cold. She wants things that she has no words to tell me. She's very VERY busy. She thinks she runs our house. (She so doesn't.) My brain might implode.

That's my excuse for posting photos only of our California trip.

There's loads more, but I'm not putting them on here (see above excuse).

FOR SALE

Have you ever thought, "I'm just way too productive. I need something that will help me work harder and also slow down and lower my productivity." If you have, well, then I have just the thing for you! In a one time offer I am willing to practically give away the

UNDO-ER 1.0f

This creative product will both push you to do more and work harder while simultaneously slowing down your productivity! I know what you're saying, "Maggie! That can't possibly be true! That's the product of my dreams! How does it work?" First it pushes you to work harder and faster because it follows you around the house and as soon as you slow down it will attach itself to your leg and WILL NOT LET GO. If you want to be free from the amazing Undo-er 1.0f you must keep working. Another great feature to the 1.0f version is it's ability to walk behind you and say , "me me me me me me me me..." This will push you to work harder and faster. If you don't believe me, just give it a try.

So now you're saying, "I can see how that would make me work harder and faster, but how would this creative product possibly slow down my ability to get things done?" Well, I'll let you in on a little secret that's built right into the name. The Undo-er 1.0f will follow behind you and actually undo all the work that you're doing. For example, let's say you wanted to put the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. You would rinse each dish and then place it in the washer and then reach for the second one. As you rinse the second dish the amazing Undo-er 1.0f will take the first dish out of the dishwasher and put it on the floor.

What if you're trying to put away the clothing. In this instance not only will the Undo-er 1.0f take out the clothing you're putting in the drawer, but it will also take out all the clothing already in the drawer. Amazing right? There are two special features to this particular model. The first feature to special to the 1.0f version is it's ability to open the little girl hair bands and throw them all over the floor so you have to clean them up. Multiple times. The second feature is that when you have a special day that you would particularly want to have the house clean it is smart enough to know that and will work twice as fast as regularly. That way you will have to work much harder on those special days.

Finally, I know you're saying, "How can I get my hands on that?" Well, I'm selling it very cheaply. All you have to give me is your sanity. I seem to have lost mine.

Blowing It

My spending money philosophy makes me feel like a tiny mouse that searches and stores up all the seeds it finds all summer. Then went I feel like I have enough I will spend it all at once. I've been saving since before Christmas. Yesterday I decided it was time to let the money flow. Those few days of guilt free spending are such a delight I will be saving for months in order to have them. Today I went shopping with two friends and I purchased:
These jeans (from gap) are super cute, but no I can't bring myself to wear high heels with jeans. My jeans are for comfort, not dress up.

These pants (also gap) are so cute and perfect for summer! They were the first ones I tried on and they fit perfectly! None of the other white pants I even tried on fit me right. In an unexpected turn of events I'm back down to my pre-baby pant size! I don't really feel like I'm back to my pre baby pant size, but the numbers don't lie. I kept picking out a size bigger for myself, but then they didn't fit and I had to go down a size.

So I still have money to spend after that! I'm thinking of getting new undershirts from Shade clothing and perhaps a new spring dress. I love when it comes time to blow my spending money! It feels good to get something for myself without worry about bills, my daughter, or, well, food. After today I'll be back to my regular thriftiness, but today felt oh so good.

Happy Birthday

Charlotte is one year old today! Hip-hip-hooray! Am I a bad mom because I'm not planning on doing a big party for her? I was going to make her a cake yesterday, but since were were both sick and I'm not totally 100% yet, I didn't and I don't think she'll worry. In fact she didn't even open any presents today (she's already received TONS of gifts from grandparents, aunts/uncles, and other family). I think I might invite some of our friends over for dessert Saturday, but nothing big. We spent about 45 minutes today reading ALL her books because we were just going to read her new books from both grandmas (THANKS! We both love them!) and then she kept bringing me all her old books too. We ended up reading all her board books and she was in heaven. Charlotte really likes her new Spot's First Easter book. And, I'll admit it, I cried while reading her I Love You, Little One. Luckily I'll get over that before she remembers anything. I think when she gets up it would be fun to make homemade thank you notes with her. She likes crayons, markers, and anything she can make marks with.

In other news I just wanted to tell everyone how awesome it is to have good friends here in St. Louis. I was so sick and we had no food yesterday. I knew it would be a good idea if I had 7up and soda crackers. I just couldn't think of getting myself off the floor (that's where I was laying so Charlotte wouldn't think she needed me to pick her up on the sofa) and dressed to take the little one to the grocery store to get it. In comes my guardian angel! I called Mindy and she went and picked it up for me and delivered it. That was all I ate yesterday and it saved me. She is such an awesome friend. I hope that I can help her when she needs it in the future.

Also, Daniel came home at 3 yesterday! Isn't he so awesome! He knew I was sick and since it was the first day of classes for this term (pharmacology and pathology) he knew he could take an afternoon off. He went to the grocery store to pick up a few essentials (milk, bread, dinner for himself) and helped me with Charlotte. Isn't he great? Also, by that time I was starting to feel a little better so when he asked, if I wanted to go out with him and Charlotte for a while I said yes. Turns out that was a good idea, but I pushed it a little too far. We went to look at a house we want to buy and Dan is all fire up about it. We went to go see inside it and at first I was fine, but then as we kept moving around I got all sick again so we didn't get to see the detached garage/carriage house in the back. Anyway, before we looked at it he liked the idea of buying a house, but after looking at it he got super excited. He spent 6 hours looking things up on the computer last night after we put Charlotte to bed. That's right. He was so excited he couldn't sleep until 2 AM. I woke up around 1:30 to go to the bathroom and saw the light on in our front room. In my clouded state I figured we had forgotten to turn it off when we went to bed. So I walked to the front and turned it off and walked back to bed. After crawling in bed I saw a person move out in the hall. That completely woke me up and I reached for Dan to wake him up and realized that Dan was the person in the hall. I had turned the light in the front room off on him while he was reading his home improvement encyclopedia! He was still so excited about this new house he was up in the front room reading his home improvement book! Isn't he cute?!

Saturday afternoon we were in Grand Junction, CO. My daughter woke up from her nap by barfing all over herself and filling her diaper with watery poop. Then we drove to Denver. She had the stinkiest farts the whole way there. Then yesterday she had diarrhea for the 14 hour trip home from Denver to St. Louis. She was so happy the whole time though. We gave her tons of water and juice and tried to help her as much as possible. She didn't really want to eat anything though, and I didn't blame her. She's not up yet today, but hopefully she's better. If not, I'd better call her doctor.



Turns out that a lot of whatever she has I eventually get. This is no exception. As Dan was heading off for class today he said that it's probably viral or some toxin we ate working it's way through so there's nothing we can do but wait it out. Then he left. Now I've got to get it together to take care of myself and my baby. Man, being a mom sometimes stinks!

I'm Ba-ack

Well, Charlotte and I made it back from vacation! It sure was fun. (And also the longest and hardest week I've had yet with the baby.) I haven't caught up quite yet and we're leaving Wednesday for Colorado. Dan's Spring Break is this week so I'm spending time with him. Also, his grandma had a stroke so we're going to go see them in the big CO. All this is my excuse for not posting any of the fun stuff that happened as of late. I would just post photos of the trip, but my sister took 169 photos on my camera the first three days of the trip so I've got a LOT of sorting, tossing and editing to do. She's so much better at taking photos than I am. I always enjoy the moments and forget to click the camera. The batteries ran out four days into the trip so the sum total of photos that I took is 3. I wish I had taken our video camera. She did so many funny things on the trip. Then again, I probably wouldn't have wanted to get the video camera out anyway.

Lost

My daughter loves to play with my cell phone. LOVES. She likes to hear the little beeps and see it light up and it gives her pure joy. I only let her play with it supervised so that she doesn't call 911 or something. She does however manage to call anyone on my speed dial. Mostly she loves to call my brother-in-law, the ear doctor. I tried locking the keys but then they don't make noise and beep and it makes her mad.

Then I thought of a genius new solution: put the phone on airplane mode. It's still on and the keys still beep, but it wont call anyone. In fact it cuts of the whole signal. Brilliant. She can play to her hearts content and not call anyone.


Now if I could just find where she dropped it last......

Exciting News

Today I was holding Charlotte on my lap while reading some blogs. I clicked on my friend Heather's blog. Charlotte pointed to the photo of Ezra at the top and said, "Baby?"! Can you believe it! Then I said, "Can you say baby?" and she said it again! Then I showed her pictures of babies in her board books and pointed to them and said baby and she said "baby?" right back to me! Isn't this exciting?!

Poll the Audience

What do you do to get happy when you're sad on a cold rainy day?

A Trend

Question: Why is it that I think two days is enough to establish a new trend?

Answer: I'm crazy.


To clarify, Charlotte is still on the two nap a day schedule. She was just thrown off for a few days. Thanks for the insight on that one. LeAnn was right, she was probably having trouble with teething and all. I'm glad. I like the two nap a day routine. I can tell that she's going to be switching to one nap a day soon though. Her second nap of the day is always a quickie. Plus, if we're out doing something out of the house she's fine skipping a nap and then just taking one long one when we get home. This is super nice.



In other Charlotte news she has decided that the whole world is funny the past two days. After we picked Daniel up from school yesterday we took a walk. As we walked and talked Charlotte sat in the stroller just laughing away. We have no idea why. She kept looking at me and laughing yesterday after I put on my glasses. I guess she thinks they're funny looking. Then this morning I was feeding her baby oatmeal for breakfast and after every bite she took she would laugh. We had tons of fun at breakfast.