Home Again

Martin is finally back home after the nine days at Boys State. His boys won Honor City! I guess that means they were pretty much the best group there. He was very proud of them. And I'm happy to have him home. We celebrated by getting chocolate cokes from the custard on the way into town.


I went garage sale-ing this morning with Mrs. Schap. The first place we went had oodles of kids clothes and they were all fifty cents!! Talk about a bargain! I came away with about a thousand adorable dresses for Anja, two adorable dresses for Bella (too cute to pass up, but too small for Anja) two Sandra Boynton books and "What to Expect the First Year" for a couple of bucks. I'd like to have that around in case I ever come up with some random question about babies, or if I ever freak out and want to look at the infant CPR information. I'm glad I have it on hand now. It's funny I thought I'd be a complete first-baby freak when it came to the baby book, and professional photos and keeping up with milestones... haha, yeah right. Her babybook is practically empty. BUT, there is a milestone today to talk about, that might actually make it in!

Anja has her first tooth!!!! I discovered it when she was eating my face like she always does, and suddenly she bit down and it really hurt! So I stuck my finger down there on the bottom gum, and sure enough there was a little sharp thing coming through. She doesn't make it easy to pull back her bottom lip to see anything, but I did get one quick peek, and it's a very cute little white shard. Not very toothy yet, but plenty sharp! I guess it's time to think about weaning.... hahaha.

So life in the Big Back Bedroom is not working out. We're going to move back upstairs today. It's a lot of work, but it's more work to get any sort of substantial sleep down here. The first step in moving back upstairs though is Martin getting on the roof and figuring out once and for all how to get that blasted screen out of the window so we can put the window air conditioning up there. If that doesn't get put in the window the only kind of sleep we'll be getting up there is the eternal kind.

Poor Anja has a cold. Or maybe it's just dry air bugging her. She's all snotty and has a dry cough. Right now she's rolling around on our bed pulling her pajamas off by one sleeve. It's really cute.

Last night Joannie came over! She wanted to watch the Taste fireworks, but it was a difficult plan to make with Anja in the picture, so we ended up just LISTENING to the fireworks, drinking some beers and eating some flat beans that I picked FROM MY GARDEN!!!!!! I sauteed them with butter and BASIL FROM MY GARDEN!!!! The depressing thing about my garden is that some of the tomato plants are dying. Or should I say dead? Anyway.... one end of my garden is absolutely thriving. The other end is a very sad sight.

I'm going to see if I can get Anja to take a nap. We all woke up at 6:00 thanks to the dog but I have no idea when we'll actually make it to church.... Martin is asleep on the couch up in the front room now. I'd like to go to 9:30 so we can walk, but we'll see if we can make it. This weekend has been nutty with Martin coming home.

But it's great to have him back!

Almost Over!

Well, the first part of Martin's absence is almost over. I'll drive down to Terre Haute in the morning to pick him up for his police interview, then drive him back later in the afternoon. After that, it's only Friday that he'll be gone and he'll be home early Saturday afternoon. Saturday can't come fast enough. I've had about enough of this single-mom thing. But if we're being honest, it's only the dog that causes trouble. She makes it pretty much impossible to ever get Anja to sleep... or to stay asleep. Ugh.

Here's something funny: Today Anja and I were walking home from Rubia and we saw Laura Smith! She was having lunch with her dad and it made me think, "Hm, I should call my dad and set up a lunch date with him." I'd actually been thinking of it earlier in the day too, but this made me think of it again. So anyway, later that day I called my dad with a question concerning a broken paving stone, and he said he'd sent me an email today inviting me out to lunch at Basil Thai! HOW FUN!! I hadn't gotten the email... um... I'm reeeeaaallly bad at the whole email thing. In fact, correspondence in general isn't really my thing. But anyway, so we're going to lunch on Friday. I like meeting up with him for lunch because Anja and I can walk just about anywhere he likes to go.

The other night Theodore got out. It was really sad. I'm not sure when he got out, but I didn't notice until it was time to lock him in the bathroom and I couldn't find him. I called out the front door and the kitchen door and when I finally went to the back door, all I did was open it and he came running across the yard to get inside. The poor guy!! I snuggled him for a long time and he purred and purred. He must've been so scared. He's too fat and spoiled to be an outside cat. I like outside cats because they're tough, yet sensitive, and you don't have to worry about them so much. Theodore isn't so much that type.

This morning I played some kids songs for a class of 4 year olds over at the Purdue daycare. There was one really cute little boy whose name might have been Ewan but when he said it it sounded like Hewan. Either way, it was the absolute perfect name for him. He was so cute and friendly. But he had fallen on the carpet and gotten a bad rug burn, so he had a bandaid on his knee.

Today I made cookies. Lots of cookies. They are for Martin to take back with him tomorrow. I hope he doesn't share them with too many people though because I didn't taste any, but I don't think any of them turned out very yummy. Oh well.

Anja is such an awesome baby. I can seriously take her anywhere and she is great. Today on our walk to Rubia we used our Didymos wrap for the first time, in the hip cross carry. She loved it!!! I think she liked being able to snuggle me and see so much at the same time. It's the perfect carry position for her, and sooooooo comfortable. I tried to take pictures of us, but it never works very well in the mirror, so I'll have to wait till the weekend when Martin can take one of us. Anyway, if you'll remember, it's the same wrap that I modeled with Theodore inside back last summer when I was pregnant. It's very pretty and a gift from my sister-in-law AnnLaura.

I've been wanting to make this post all day, but now reading back I'm not sure if it was really worth staying up till midnight to write!

Is This a Trick Question?

If you were asked which breed of insect you'd rather have breeding in your bathroom: Cluster Flies or Mosquitoes? what would be your answer? It looks as if I complained for so long about the flies that I was sent a replacement pest.

Martin blames that pesky bucket of dirty mop water that sat stagnant for two weeks. I bet he's right! One summer my brother-in-law, Andrew, thought he was hatching tadpoles in a fishtank full of stagnant rain water. He was really excited. Then he went to some information booth at a festival and saw that he was actually hatching his very own mosquitoes. Oops!

Unfortunately (but not surprisingly,) this weekend has crept by. It's not as if I haven't had plenty to do though. Friday night I had shrimp scampi up at my parents' house. Poor Anja... I'm not kidding when I say that I think having Martin gone is freaking her out. She only wanted me on Friday night, and she cried and cried when either of my parents tried to hold her. I was just beginning to think something was wrong with her, but as soon as we got home (and my dad can testify) she was back to her normal self! Poor little thing. On Saturday morning I went with Joannie to the Farmers Market and to a couple of downtown antique shops. We saw Laura and Dan! I filled up the afternoon with a walk down to Artists Own and a trip out to Lowe's where I bought a Serpent Plant. It's very cute. It might be called a Snake Plant, I can't really remember. It was only about $3.00. There's another plant out there that I'm going to buy that starts with a C and is billed as the Oldest Known Plant. So I'm going to have The Oldest Plant in the World right in my very own living room!

For dinner I was invited out to La Scala with my family, who were going to the Bach Chorale Singers concert afterward. I forgot to ask for no cheese on my dinner, and I picked the big globs off, but I took a chance and ate the rest--no screaming!! She must be really nearing the end. I had heard it starts to get better around 7 months, and boy was that right on. I'm still not going to eat a cheese wheel for breakfast, but it's nice to know that little bits won't hurt.

It ended up being kind of a busy evening then. On the way home from La Scala (they all left their leftovers in my fridge while they went to the show) we ran into the entire Loew family! How funny. Shortly after I got home, Mrs. Schap called and she and John Mooney came over to see Anja and to gaze in amazement and wonder at our wood floors. John even took Karenin on a walk for me. What a guy! TusaRebecca was on her way home and saw her mom's car parked at my house, so she stopped in too. It was quite the family gathering at the Schap House last night. By the time they left, it wasn't much longer before I put Anja down for the night and my family came back for their food.

This morning Karenin woke me up at the usual early time and I thought it'd be a good thing because we could get to 7:30 mass if Anja woke up in time. And she did! But her waking up early made me more unable to get ready quickly, and at 7:40 when we were on the way out the door and she was acting like she was too hungry to make it to church without a meltdown, I said "forget it" and we stayed home. She got a short nap between then and woke up right at 9:30, so we hurried over to St. Boniface for that mass and were only a few minutes late. We sat in the back by Denver. And this really cute little girl behind us loved Anja. It was sweet.

Today I made some Oatmeal Fruit Cookies with Craisins. Yummmm yum. They are delicious little treats and so incredibly easy, and I only burned one pan of them (And, Clare! They are a recipe from Simply in Season!)

Anja has started falling off the bed. This morning when she woke up I heard her talking and I waited a few minutes before getting her because she didn't sound upset. When I went into the room, the bottom half of her body was on the pillows below her bed and her head and shoulders were on the floor! And she was smiling so big!!! She thought it was pretty hilarious that she was on the floor, looking at me upside down. Later on she rolled off the bed again and missed the pillows, and she didn't think that was so funny.

Happy Fathers Day to all those dads reading this... which is maybe only mine... so happy fathers day to all your husbands!

The Curse of the Mop Water

About a week and a half or so ago, I mopped the kitchen floor. I felt pretty good about myself for doing that and saved the mop water in the bathroom, vowing to mop the bathroom floors the next day. Well, the next day came and went and I didn't mop the floors. In fact, I never mopped the floors, but I never emptied the bucket of dirty water either.

The day before yesterday when I was getting ready for my day, I dropped my bra in the dirty mop water. "Arg!!" I said, with great frustration. I hung it to dry out before putting it in the wash, and had to wear a different bra that day. Did I empty the bucket of dirty mop water then? No. I didn't. I left it sitting there in the bathroom, begging for something even more annoying to happen with it.

And then something did!

This morning as I was getting ready for my day (in a hurry to get ready before Anja woke up, and as always battling the dog and cat) I dropped my cell phone in the bucket of dirty mop water. This time I said nothing because I was speechless. I got the phone out immediately, took it apart and wiped it down with a towel. When I put it back together it was making this weird noise, and the battery symbol was going up and down like it was charging. I called Martin to tell him what happened and why I might be unavailable today, and I called Joannie to tell her the same because we are supposed to meet up to go to the Farmers Market. Then I took it apart again and stuck it in rice, in hopes that the thing will dry out.

The million dollar question: Did I empty the bucket of dirty mop water? No. I didn't. And when it finally occurred to me that that might be a good idea, I came in and made this post instead.

I'll go do it now.

Over the Edge

So I don't know if it can quite be considered "crawling" but Anja is definitely moving forward. And in straight lines! Her method is kind of inefficient, but she gets there. She just kind of pushes herself along with her face on the ground. It's really silly looking.

I've found that when I make the beds, it makes the big room (our new bedroom) look slightly less like a pile of junk and slightly more like a place where decent people live. The biggest problem so far with moving downstairs is the animals. As of now, we have no door to close off this room from the rest of the house, which means the animals are free to come and go as they please. This means that Karenin wants to be on the beds at all times, and Theodore wants to sleep on Anja's face. As a result, Theodore gets locked in the upstairs bathroom nightly, and Karenin is within an inch of her life at any given time. I'm going to ask my mom today if we can borrow their baby gate. We are going to build a half-door when Martin gets back from Terre Haute; we were going to do it before he left, but we decided to scrap that idea and be lazy on his last day home instead.

The End of Vacation... *sniff*

Well, vacation is coming to an end. Depressingly enough. And I have a lot of pictures to post as a result. Today has been kind of a bust; Martin woke up not feeling great. We drove to Vienna for coffee, and then wanted to go to the ReStore afterward, but we could never find it. We even came home and looked at a google map and tried again, and STILL didn't find it! Then we ate eggs and toast and all three took a nap, and now it's mid-afternoon and Martin just left to get a haircut. Maybe eventually we'll get some work done, or do something fun, or accomplish something, but I'm not sure. For now: Pictures! Anja looking silly at Sarah's house after Bella's baptism.

Theodore and Anja

This is Anja's dragon face. She blows out her nose and looks like this, and sometimes we can get her to do it by blowing out our noses... except this morning Martin was doing it with such gusto that he gave himself a bloody nose.

Our floors!

Anja.

Bella being baptized. I never figured out why Martin held her the whole time, but we are proud godparents!

The Gang after Bella's baptism.

Anja chomping on a cold carrot. Yum.

Anja and Raggedy Ann.

Aaaahhh!!! A sunny breakfast on the Vienna patio.

Anja in her highchair after dinner.

Anja and me camping out.

Playing with spoons at Vienna.

On our bed, today.

It was a good vacation. Yesterday we made the move from our bedroom down to the Big Room, and now Martin has his very own weight room!! Under the carpet in the old junk room is cement, so he ripped it up and put down horse stall mats and now he's got his own room for all of his stuff. Our bedroom will be nice, with time, but it's taking awhile to get everything in order. The junk room is now upstairs in what will someday be a playroom. For now it is a much more organized storage room though. I'm really happy with the changes we've made. And my garden is looking terrific these days!

So I guess today is the end of morning walks to Vienna, long days of productivity, patio meals at home, sun tea, and evening beers on the porch. Tomorrow Martin leaves for Boys State and will be gone for nine days. Boooo. But at least when he gets home it'll be almost time for the Fiddler's Gathering, and THAT will be a fun weekend, to say the least!

Another exciting thing is that I've been reintroducing milk into my diet. So far so good! I've been having half and half in my coffee in the mornings and today I had a little bit of Martin's chai. There's been no negative reaction from Anja, and in fact today her whining is less, so maybe yesterday was just a difficult day of teething.

Little Miss Whiny Pants

Anja has discovered an unfortunate new sound: whining. It's reeeeeeeaaaaallllly horrible, and we're hoping she outgrows it soon. REALLY soon. We're pretty sure she's just doing it because it's something new she's learned, because it has replaced all other sounds. She makes it when she's upset, she makes it when she's happy. She is constantly whining. It's what we wake up to in the morning and what we listen to all day long. Even when she's smiling.

Speaking of smiling though, she's very happy right now (as she whines) -- I introduced her to her Raggedy Ann doll!! I didn't realize how good that might be for a baby with all the reds, whites and blacks, the bright dress and all the textures. But she was playing in her crib and I saw her peeking at it from underneath the crib bumpers, as it was in her toy basket below. She seemed really fixed on it, so I gave it to her and she loves it!

Other than this, vacation is going splendidly. I still haven't found the time to upload any pictures though. Yesterday we took a break from real work. In the morning we walked over to Vienna for coffee, meeting up there with our friend Matt. On the way over, we stopped at the Farmers Market and got some peaches to eat on our walk. We washed off our stickiness at the plaza water fountain. On the way home from Vienna we stopped at Rubia and bought 1/2 price flowers. Yay! I can't really remember what we did with the rest of our day, but we ate all our meals outside and took a lot of walks. We each went to the library a couple of times. In the evening we walked down to the Plaza to hear the dulcimers practice. Anja was tired and cranky so we didn't stay long.

I've been reading Dr. Sears' Baby Sleep Book, which is already very useful and I'm only on the first chapter. It tells you about the 1/2 hour sleep window a baby has, and that if you miss it, he'll catch his second wind and getting him to sleep will not be easy anymore. It suggests you log your baby's "sleepy times" for a week, and then plan accordingly your bedtime routine. Anja's sleepy times seem to be between 6:30 and 7:30--MUCH earlier than we've always been putting her to bed. No wonder it's been so difficult!!! So I've really tried to crack down and give her a bath every night before bed. It seems to really help in getting her down, although she's not waking up any less during the night. (Except for last night, she only woke up twice, but we missed her sleepy time and she didn't go to bed until after 10.)

Oh, Martin is home from walking the dog so it's time for breakfast! I LOVE VACATION!!!!