Accidents

Martin got home around 4:00 today which was a nice treat! We had time to take a family walk and hang out with our friend Matt for awhile before dinner. Anja had taken a good, solid nap this afternoon (and I happily joined her!) so she was good to go for the evening, though she started acting a little sleepy toward 6:30. I was hoping to get dinner made so that Anja could eat with us, but things just didn't go quickly enough. I ended up taking a few potatoes out of the pot early and mashing them up for her. She wasn't too interested in them anyway. Then Martin drove her to sleep while I stayed home and my sister and her family came over to deliver my birthday present, which is a delicious blueberry cheesecake that I have not yet enjoyed... but believe me, I will!

So anyway, while I was peeling and chopping potatoes, I cut my thumb. Not a rare occurance by any means. I just held a towel on it and kept chopping, telling Martin that the process would be only slightly slowed by my injury. When I was finished chopping, however, I did ask him to put a bandaid on my thumb because I didn't want to get salt in it because that hurts. Okay, this cut was like a paper cut. NOT BAD. Martin put the bandaid over my cut, but misseed a good portion of it so it's still kind of showing. Then he insisted on wrapping my whole thumb with athletic tape. So now I look like I've had some sort of major hand operation when really I've got a very minor cut--which is still visible because it's poking out from underneath the bandaid! It's a good thing he didn't persue medical school. We'd be in real trouble.

My day was uneventful. It's good to have Martin home for the weekend but he'll be leaving early on Sunday to drive to Wisconsin, so that's a little bit poopy. No real plans for the weekend but next week I've got to start putting our Halloween costumes together! It's just around the corner!

Morning Outings

Anja slept incredibly well last night. She only woke up once! Twice if you count waking at 5:00... she eventually went back to sleep at 6:00. Anyway... I could tell that she had slept especially well because she woke up SOOO happy at 8:00 and didn't even act tired until after 11:00. What a difference! I took full advantage of her good mood and we headed out in the rain to do a little post-birthday shopping. We browsed the beads at Von's (I'm planning to get some beads and wire and make some earrings and a necklace for myself. If it turns out, that could make a good Christmas gift for a number of people, but I'm not getting my hopes up since I've never made jewelry before) and got a hot chocolate at Vienna. If I had been thinking clearly we could've walked over with the rain cover on the stroller, but the thought never even crossed my mind. I have gotten SO LAZY with having a car all week during travel season. Anyway, we did park kind of far from Von's so we got a nice rainy walk. Anja used to hate being in the rain (and snow) but she suddenly loves it. And she loves wind, too. It's so much fun. I have a cute green ring sling that my sister-in-law, AnnLaura, gave to me and it's perfect for chilly, damp outings because I can pull the excess fabric up over Anja's shoulders and she can be cozy and dry in her little pouch with just her head poking out. It's really cute and she seemed to really like it!

The first thing I saw when we got to Von's was a book called "When the White House was Ours" by Porter Schreve. I've posted about this before, I know, but I'm SO EXCITED that it's finally out. When we were engaged and I was in school, Martin and I went to a reading over at TAF and Porter Schreve (who may or may not have that C in his name, I'm not sure) did a reading from this book, which he was working on at the time. Martin and I both loved him. He had by far the best stuff there that night. So anyway, I've been waiting for TWO YEARS to read this book so I about wet my pants when I saw it on the shelf.

And I'm sorry to say that I didn't support Von's today by buying that book there. I had a 25% Off coupon for Borders, so I went down there instead. I feel kind of guilty about it, but at the same time, not really. I also kind of splurged and got Anja a book of animals. It's really cute and I realized that she doesn't have any simple animal books. She will love it, I'm sure.

So that's my morning news. I have sooooooo much housework to do today but I'm really feeling unmotivated. I was reading back over my 2007 journal yesterday of around the time Anja was born. Most of the entries were about how much of a whale I was, but then I suddenly started nesting and I was so productive! And reading about it made me remember it, and I really was productive!! I wish I could ration out my nesting instincts so instead of getting them all in March before the baby comes I could use a little each week. Maybe 20 minutes a week or something. That'd be nice.

It seems like so many people are having babies lately, it makes me excited for my own. Haha, I know, I have a loooooooooong wait.

My Barfday!

Well, I had another lovely birthday. And now I'm 25! I felt no sort of emotion or regret yesterday, so maybe when I'm 30 I will. We'll just have to wait and see!

In the morning I was invited down to K.Dee's for a "special birthday special" from Kim and Jerry. On the House, I got a bagel with cream cheese on the side (the cup of cream cheese had a birthday candle in it and they even turned out the lights!) and a hot chocolate. A great way to start the day, especially since Anja was so happy also. Our birthday breakfast made us late for rosary group though, whoops! My day was pretty good. Anja napped well, I got some laundry done and Martin got home from his local-ish travels early in the afternoon!! Anja was SO excited to see him. I sometimes wonder how many irregularities she picks up on. I mean, she does have a pretty solid daily routine, and I wonder if yesterday she could sense that it was weird for her daddy to be coming home from work at 2:30 in the afternoon instead of at dinnertime. I wish I had a camera to her brain! Anyway, that was fun to have him home and we got to have a nice afternoon before going out to dinner together at Roberts Americus. Yum yum! We both got catfish and Anja had a baked potato (but she liked my cottage cheese best of all!) After dinner we went to Borders where Martino bought my birthday present. He knew what he was getting me but hadn't had a chance to go out and get it. Turns out, he had in mind a "Bad Kitties" calendar, filled with hilarious pictures of kittens eating things. I love it! Also he got me the Punch Brothers CD, which is the band of Chris Thile, who used to be the mandolin player for Nickel Creek before they broke up. Hooray! I can't wait to listen to it! I'm planning to make some banana bread this afternoon, so I'll put it on while I'm doing that.

From Borders we walked over to the Silver Dipper and met up with friends and family for a little ice cream birthday party. Very fun! And everyone brought me presents!! I totally wasn't expecting that. Most Thoughtful Gift goes to both my mom and Mrs. Schap for equally thoughtful gift certificates: one for Von's and one for River Knits. My two favorite places EVER!!!!!!!!! I am so excited. Also my mom got me a pair of gorgeous wooden knitting needles and Mrs. Schap got me a book of Robert Frost poems without knowing that Martin had given me the same book of Robert Frost poems a few years ago for Valentine's Day when we were dating. Whoops! She said she'd return it and gave me money to buy myself a book. This is good because I also have my Borders Rewards birthday coupon, so it looks like Anja will be making a trip over to Borders sometime this week!

So that was yesterday. Today Martin is around the Kokomo area and will be stopped by at home before going to Muncie for the next two nights. It's been good to have him home for these two nights! Next week he goes to Wisconsin, then to Evansville the week after that, and that's pretty much the end of the travel season. Yay!

There's Been and Nuclear Spill...

...IN MY NOSE!!!!!!

I've heard that bright green snot means you've got a sinus infection but I've also heard that a sinus infection makes you feel absolutely horrible, and I feel pretty good except for the stuffed up nose, so I'm not going to assume I've got anything like that.

It's going to be kind of a weird/hectic/long-yet-short weekend for us. Today is a normal Saturday but tomorrow Martin goes to Evansville and I have a meeting at TAF in the afternoon. I am worried about what I'll do with Anja! I can't decide if I'm going to just take her with me or see if she'll stay with my mom... I HAVE to go to the meeting though because I skipped all of them last year. I'm such a bad committee member. Then Martin is not traveling far on Monday so he'll spend Sunday night at home and will only be in Clinton County on Monday. He'll be home in time to take me out to dinner for my barfday! We're going to go to Robert's Americus Catfish place. It's a special date spot for us--he took me there the Valentines Day when we were dating. So that should be fun and then we're meeting up with our families for ice cream afterward. Then he'll stay home on Monday night and on Tuesday he'll travel and stay in a hotel for that night and Wednesday. So it'll be kind of a weird week.

This morning we all three snuggled in bed for about an hour. It was adorable... Anja was snuggled down between us and she was wide awake so she just talked and talked, but she must've been so warm and cozy becuase she didn't try to get up for a long time. She woke up a lot last night, which was a bummer. However, at the beginning of the night she actually fell asleep by herself after drinking a bottle. She just turned over and fell asleep. It was so cute. And kind of a miracle.

After we eventually got up (after 8:00!) Anja got dressed in cute clothes while Martin and I looked so scrubby and we went over to Vienna for chai. Who should come in shortly after we sat down but our friend Matt! So that was kind of fun. Now Martin's walking the [horrible] dog and I'm not doing the dishes like I told myself I would. Ugh. Why am I so unmotivated? There aren't even very many.

Last night we went to dinner at the Arni's in Lebanon which is a very cute Arni's. Much less scummy than the ones around Lafayette. Anja had chicken & dumpling soup. I ate one piece of chicken and about three spoonfuls of broth and she ate the whole rest of the bowl. It was amazing. I think Pat and Joe were very impressed by her eating abilities.

Our dog keeps running away now. She used to get out the gate but since I put the log in front of it now she just jumps the fence. It's sooooooo annoying. She doesn't even go anywhere--she just walks across the alley to see the neighbor dog, but she won't come when I call her and when I go to her she runs away. Grrr.... So now we're back to escorting her into the yard and if she still keeps it up we'll be back to leash-bound potty trips.

Okay, this was a pretty worthless post. Time to do the dishes.

Lights Out / Mullet Be Gone

Evidently the downtown area was having a little power outage issue last night. After dinner our lights went off and then came right back on again. Then later in the night before we'd gone to bed the lights all went out and it was soooo dark. We found our flashlights and I went to bed while Martin finished his workout and the lights stayed out for maybe an hour. I still don't know what was going on but it seemed to be something around the hotel. Hm. I should check the JCOnline and see if it says anything.

Anja has gotten into the habit of taking three naps a day: A morning nap shortly after she wakes up, a good afternoon nap like a normal baby, and then another evening nap around 4:00 or 5:00. This means that she's staying up later and staying happier longer. This means that we're able to have a social life again! This means we can spend our evenings together as a family! I'm very happy with this new development and I really think it's helping her to sleep better at night too. Anyway, because of her new nap schedule, she didn't wake up last night until after Martin and I had finished dinner. So we loaded her in the stroller and took a walk over the bridge to Great Clips where I got my mullet chopped off. Hooray! My hair is very short still, but it's a much better style than what it was. And hopefully now it will grow out evenly and cutely. After the haircut we met our friend Matt out for coffee at Starbucks. I got their new Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. It was delicious!! Really salty!! I loved it!! We like to meet Matt at the Levee Starbucks because it's a quick walk for us and during the school year Vienna gets so crowded with students. Also, we sat at the corner table by the window and Anja was happy to play on the floor and yell at the wall the whole time.

This morning I was going to head over to the license branch to get my license renewed but Anja was practicing her Large Prehistoric Animal noises and I didn't feel I could leave the house without people giving us weird looks. She was so happy, but you wouldn't have guessed it by the sounds she was making. It was pretty hilarious, but best to keep it inside. Maybe in the afternoon she will be a little more mellow and we can try again.

My chili turned out great last night, I was so pleased. And my neighbor Tara sent over the delicious cornbread side. Yum!

Tomorrow is the Penn State vs. Purdue game, which means that Joe and Pat Mooney are in town. We're going out to dinner with them tonight. I'm really looking forward to seeing them--they are such nice people.

Hello, Baby!

The ultrasound this morning was great! I think it was done to find out how far along I am because the doctor and I were unsure about it. (I said one thing, he said another.) Now I don't know who was closer to being right, but I'm thinking we were both wrong so it doesn't matter. Anyway, it was great. I had no idea that they do the 3D/4D ultrasounds at the Women's Clinic! They didn't have those at Arnett, and it was a total surprise this morning to get one. IT'S SO COOL!!! I'm only a little more than 15 weeks pregnant but we could see the little dumpling's face perfectly!! EVEN NOSTRILS!!!! My favorite part about ultrasounds is counting the fingers and toes. Somehow it makes me think everything will be fine as long as he's got all his fingers and toes. And he's got all his vital organs too, another somewhat important part.

She asked if I wanted to sneak a peek between the legs, but I told her we'd like to be surprised. With Anja I was much more tempted to find out, I think mostly because I so much wanted her to be a girl. But in the end I'm SO glad I didn't, because that was the best part about her being born. I mean, except for meeting her and all that obvious stuff. So this time I'm looking forward to the moment-of-birth surprise.

Have I mentioned the names we've chosen? If it's a boy we're going to do a cool twist on a few modern names: Shacayden. And if it's a girl we're taking a classic name and turning it modern by using an alternate spelling: Lynnduh. Kind of like the "j" in Anja's name!

Okay, that last paragraph was a joke. We're actually not going modern at all. For a boy there was a debate for awhile between the names John Francis (Anja's boy name) and Edward Martin (Martin's name reversed and a family tradition) but in the end I had no strong opinion so I left it entirely up to Martin and he finally chose to stick with John Francis. Fran! I love it. And a little girl we will call Greta Jane! Not the original name we had chosen for our second daughter but we both kind of fell head-over-heels when we found the name Greta in a baby name book.

I'm making chili today for the first time ever! I think it's a perfect day for it. Martin will be home at his usual time tonight and our neighbor Doug is on a business trip till Saturday so Tara and I are having a collaborative meal: I'm making the chili, she's making the corn bread. I might suggest a chilly picnic on her patio, but it'll depend on how chilly it actually is when dinnertime comes!

Karenin figured out how to open the back gate this afternoon so I had to put a giant log in front of it so she can't get it open anymore. Crazy dog!

I'm turning twenty-five on Monday, which means I have to get a new drivers license. I am completely bummed about this for a number of reasons. First of all, my current license picture is ADORABLE. Second, I remember so well the day we went to get our new licenses shortly after we were married. It was so exciting! And we were using our new house address and I signed my married name for the first time. And aside from those things, I'm horrified that my current haircut is going to be immortalized on my drivers license. YIKES! I'm going to get a trim before I get my license, no matter what, but still. I miss my long hair. I know they usually take your old license but I'm going to ask them if I can keep mine as a souvenier of my honeymoon. They probably won't let me, but it's worth a shot.

Shoes

Can I just say that I love fall? This year I have a whole new appreciation for it too, coming in the form of Anja's shoes. I LOVE putting shoes on Anja. I've heard you're not supposed to put shoes on your babies until after they're a year old--something about their feet not turning out right or something--but I figured the babies in the olden times always wore those high-top lace-ups and they all learned to walk eventually, so it must be okay for Anja to wear shoes now too. And she has some REALLY cute shoes. Oh heck, I love all of her fall clothes, from the toes up. I love planning out what she's going to wear the next day, right down to her socks (or tights, as is the case tomorrow!) In fact, I get so wrapped up in it, that most days I get out of the shower and realize I've forgotten to pick out anything for myself to wear!!!

Anja has been sleeping better at night. She's been waking pretty much three times a night. The downside is that every time she wakes she needs to be driven. I try nursing her back to sleep, which she likes, except it doesn't put her to sleep anymore. I try bottle-feeding her to sleep but in order to that I have to take her down to the kitchen, fix the bottle for her (which usually includes first washing a bottle) go back upstairs, and by that time she's pretty wide awake. So I reeeeaaalllly need to start putting a bottle in the fridge before I go to bed so it's ready and I can just leave her in bed, dash down for the bottle, return and feed her to sleep. Tonight I already have the bottle in the fridge so I will try it. I'm getting reeeaaalllyyyyy sick of driving around town three times a night. HOWEVER, it is definitely better than waking every thirty minutes or hour to nurse.

Tomorrow I have an ultrasound! I'm pretty excited. I don't really feel pregnant yet, just fat. However, today when I was doing dishes I noticed that I do have a distinct, unsquishable bump beneath all those layers of fat. I'm one of those perfectly sized pregnant ladies whose belly is right at counter level. Booo.

My mornings without Martin here are difficult. They are especially difficult when I let myself sleep in, as I did today. I HAVE to get up before Anja if I want to complete my morning routine in time for her to have her morning nap on time. When Martin is home I can be ready for the day in half an hour. Without him it takes about two hours. This morning Anja was extra clingy so it took longer than usual and when I finally tried to put her down for a nap she was too tired and upset. I tried everything, all she did was scream, so finally we went for a walk. She was happy to walk down to K Dee's, upset by the time we left. (All we did was stand in line, get a hot chocolate and leave.) I gave her some of my whipped cream, but when I stopped feeding it to her she got REALLY mad and screamed the whole way home. Now this is the point of my story: Why do people feel compelled to strike up a conversation with me when it is very clear that I'm on my way home with a screaming baby? Here I am, practically running down Main Street and the parking meter man decides this is a good time to talk. He's never talked to me before, but here he is telling me about his own kids' sleep schedules from however-long-ago. Dear Mister Meter Man: Not only do I not care about what you're telling me, but I'M IN A HURRY!! My baby is screaming her head off in the middle of Main Street! I do not want to talk to you! Sheesh. People are so crazy sometimes.

I have more to say but Martin is calling, so I guess I'll have to post the rest tomorrow!