A Better Post Than Yesterday's

It seems like all the blog moms are counting their blessings these days while they are shoveling laundry, struggling to keep their houses from falling from the "untidy" level into the "squalor" level of cleanliness and never sleeping more than an hour at a time night after night after night. Everyone seems to be saying how they're really savoring the baby-ness of their babies, despite the chaos that rules their households. I think it's funny that I just read all those blogs--because I've been feeling the exact same way!!!!

It's partly sad that Anja is not a baby anymore, although I would never wish for her newborn days to return. Whenever I start to get nostalgic about her newborn days, Martin is quick to remind me of how awful they were and then I remember, and then I'm glad she's turned out to be the perfect little toddler she is. I'm excited to have another go-around with this new baby. I'm excited to be able to enjoy the newborn phase, partly because I now know what to expect, and partly because I'll be able to recognize what's normal newborn behavior and what isn't, and be able to do something about any abnormalities. I'm excited that it's going to be a little person who ISN'T Anja... it's someone entirely new! Weird!!! And I'm glad that I still get to keep Anja as her funny little toddler being and still get the snuggliness of a newborn. I'm excited to see the baby phases again and not be so eager for them to evolve. I think I did a pretty good job of savoring the moment with Anja, but it'll be easier with this next one, I'm sure.

Yesterday in the late afternoon Martin's mom came over and kept Anja again while we went out for another date. We are seriously getting spoiled by all this practice! We started walking downtown before we realized that nothing would be open, so we walked back home and drove over to Vienna. We just hung out for awhile and left, but it was a nice treat. When we got back, Anja had had a wonderful time, but the cutest part was that she was SO excited to see us!!!! She does this little thing where she scrunches up her face and clasps her hands together and kind of wiggles all over, and she did that when we came in and I loved it. She is so funny! Also, she was wearing the most adorable dress in the universe and some very adorable bloomers as well, so that kind of enhanced her cuteness.

I've been very productive today. It was supposed to be a day full of errands, which would also be productive, but I then Martin ended up taking the car to work this morning, and I'm really glad he did because I've gotten so much done around the house! I have a pot of beef-vegetable stew on the stove, I've gotten laundry washed, dried, and folded, Anja had a bath, I've worked on my knitting (each project has a time limit which is drawing near, so knitting these days counts as productivity) and the day has just been generally good. Anja slept in until almost 9:00 this morning which gave me a wonderfully relaxing start to my day. Since Martin took the car to work he got to stay home a little longer and we had our coffee together on the couch. I thought Anja might not want to nap until later in the afternoon since she'd slept in, but surprise--she went down right at noon! Lucky me! So I got a surprise morning to myself AND our routine for the day hasn't been thrown off at all. How nice!

We were supposed to work on getting our back room organized this weekend, but we didn't lift a finger toward that cause. However, Martin did get our taxes done, which is a huge load off our minds. I can totally see us putting it off, and then having a baby and completely forgetting about taxes, then being tracked down by the IRS and publicly hanged or something. Also, it'll be nice to get the tax return a little earlier than usual.

Last night my neighbor Tara came over for a little bit. Martin was out with our friend Matt so Tara just came over to hang out for awhile. It was so nice! We don't see as much of each other in the winters; when it's warm out we sit on our porches together and I miss it!

I don't usually look forward to spring, but I am this year. Come to think of it, I did last year too. I just think Anja is going to have SO MUCH FUN this summer. When I think of all the things we can do that she'll now appreciate and really enjoy, it makes me excited. Playing in the Plaza fountain, going to the petting zoo, seeing the animals at Prophetstown... I can't wait!

I don't know how my garden will do this summer, but I have high hopes for it, and I intend to do most of my produce shopping at the Farmers Market now that our budget is more suitable for that. I'm hoping to get a lot of use out of my Simply in Seasons cookbook.

Happy Groundhog Day to everyone! It's also the two year anniversary of us being in this house, which is a happy thing to think of. Martin and I agreed this morning--it's been a good two years!