Finally Home.....

and back at work today. It's good to be home and sleep in my own bed, you know?

I have an appointment tomorrow morning. I think it will be the only one that my husband will miss. He's been to all of them, and he's off for the rest of them, but this one had to be rescheduled, so he won't be there.

My daughter is back a daycare. I hope she's being good. I don't want to sign anything about her biting. It's been 5 weeks now. Surely, she can make it to the end of the year, right? Hahahahahaha. I wish. But she's doing well.

Baby is killing my ribs on my right side. She's just getting so big. I'm starting to get scared. What am I going to do with two? Oh, well, can't turn back now! I think it's because so much will be changing when she gets here. We'll be moving, I'll be looking for a new job, have a new baby, etc., etc., etc. It's just a lot to think about and worry about. And I am very good at worrying.

But, for now, I'm planning on enjoying the Christmas season. It's my favorite time of year. I need to call and get my daughter an appointment for her Christmas pictures. Then I have to pray that she doesn't break out or fall or anything like that this week. I better call before I forget.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving and eat lots and lots of good food! I know I will!

What is it....

about being around family that always puts me in a fowl mood? I love my family, and I can't imagine spending Thanksgiving any other way than with them, but it always puts me on edge and ups my stress level.

That and the fact that my brilliant daughter can open the front door. As in, unlock it. When did she learn how to unlock doors? So, now I have to keep an extra close eye on her because she likes to go outside, and there's nothing to really stop her except for her fear of mommy. And that's a healthy fear.

She also knows where her timeout corner is at her great-grandparents house. That didn't take long to learn.

Most of my relatives aren't even here yet, but arriving today, so part of me is just on edge. I feel like I want to cry. Must be hormonal.

My grandparents house is a great house, but for some reason, I always feel a little anxious in it. Like I'm on the verge of a panic attack. Weird, huh? I can't explain it. Maybe it's because I first figured out what I was having when I had a panic attack at their house. So, now there's an association. I can't help but feel a little panicky.

And my main concern is the sleeping arrangements. I want the couch. My grandparents have this awesome couch that is so very comfortable. But my cousin likes to sleep on it. Well, he's not considerate enough to think of the pregnant insomniac who might want to sleep there and watch TV in the middle of the night. The computer room will have someone in it as well as the other TV room. Therefore, guess how much I can do when I wake up at 3AM unable to sleep. That's right. Nothing. Except lie in bed listening to the clock tick wishing I could go back to sleep.

So, tell me, if my cousin insists on sleeping on the couch in the living room, is it okay to wake my daughter up at 7:00AM and parade her through the living room making as much noise as possible? He's not really a morning person, so I'm thinking he wouldn't want to sleep on the couch the next night knowing that my precious daughter might get up early again. Is that wrong? My brain tells me no, but that could be the hormones talking. There's still a little common sense left that's saying that would be really mean and cruel, but the hormones are beating that part into submission.

I know, I know....

I have a tendency to disappear for a while. Sorry.

Last week was very, very busy at work. And just long in general because I have all of this week off! Yay!

I'm visiting family for Thanksgiving, so my computer time is when I can catch a turn. Fortunately, I have become a pregnancy insomniac, so since no one wants a turn in the middle of the night, I shouldn't have any problem updating at that time if nothing else.

Thanks to everyone who checked on me to make sure I was alright. I really appreciate it.

Okay, seriously....

If my nose doesn't quit running, I'm going to go crazy. But, other than that, I'm feeling alright. I would be able to sleep better if my nose would quit running, though.

I get the impression that my daughter's not the only one in the class who's biting. The director had told me that when they have a lot of scratches showing up, they send home a note to all the parents asking them to trim their child's fingernail. That way the problem gets handled, but they aren't singling anyone out.

Well, when I got there yesterday, all the parents got a handout on biting. And how it's common at this age and not to worry. Is this for the parents of the biter? Or the parents of the children getting bitten? Probably for both. Fortunately, my child is neither the biter nor the bitee. I feel certain that I just jinxed myself by saying that, but it's been almost 3 entire weeks (will be 3 weeks Monday) since my little one attacked one of her classmates. At least she's not getting bitten.

Actually, I know who the other biter is. I hope her mother had to meet with the director. I'd hate to think that we're the only ones.

My daughter is definitely being a pill. I keep trying to remind myself that she's only 2. What can I realistically expect from her? Of course, the other night, my husband was lying on the couch and I was sitting on the floor. My daughter was starting to misbehave. I told her, "Come here!" in my best mommy voice. She walked up in front of me with a very mischievious look on her face. She then shuffled her feet and got closer. I was just about to talk to her when she got about an inch from my face. I looked a little puzzled and was about to launch into my speech on why we don't kick legos all around the living room (mainly becuase Mommy is the only one who manages to step on them) when she stuck her tongue out and started licking my nose. Just a couple of times like a little lizard. My husband had to put a pillow over his face to keep her from seeing how hard he was laughing. I was tempted to go and make sure it stayed there.

I do have to say that timeout is becoming a little more effective. It just frustrates me to no end when she thinks the point of timeout is to play with her shoes, hair, clothes, etc. If that's not an option, she sings songs. How is that a punishment? All is does is make Mommy mad. I'm trying to be more patient and selective in what is a timeout offense. I don't want her to spend her entire evening in timeout. However, I do want her to listen to me. I know, everyone who had older children is laughing at the fact that I want my 2 year old to listen.

At least it's Friday. Last weekend I made my daughter a no-sew fleece blanket with Nemo fleece. It was a big hit. We're going to the fabric store tomorrow to pick out fleece to make one for her baby sister. I'm going to let help my daughter pick the fabric. This could be interesting.

Still sick....

I hate being sick. I'm not lie in bed all day sick. Just stuff nose, feel like shit sick. Therefore, I'm at work. I figure that's where I got it anyway, so I might as well continue to spread it around.

My daughter's still being a pill. I don't know how, but she knows exactly what buttons to push and the exact WRONG time to push them. Mommy is losing patience.

What's worse....

than being sick?

Being sick and pregnant. I swear, if it can hurt, it does. I hate sleeping on my side. I'm a stomach sleeper by nature. I can't wait until I can sleep on my stomach again. For some reason, sleeping on my side gives me a dull ache between my shoulder blades. It goes away as the day progresses, but every morning when I wake up, there it is again. Ugh!

And why is it when I'm sick, my daughter is particularly trying? She is pushing all my buttons. And then she pushes all of her daddy's buttons. Just to make sure that no one in the house is in a good mood.

I hope I'm all better soon. I have no patience when I'm sick.

Is This Day Over Yet?

I'm so tired. I just want to go home and go to sleep!

After my husband left for work, my daughter woke up. I knew it wasn't a good sign when she said, "I wake up, Mama. Hold you (she means me, but always says you)."

We made a big pallet in the living room floor. After it became really clear that there was no way she was going back to sleep with the TV on (big surprise there), I had to turn it off. She went back to sleep. Guess who didn't.

Oh, well. The day is almost over, so then I can go home. Surely she'll be tired tonight. Surely.

And tomorrow's Friday. Can't beat that (unless tomorrow was Saturday).

She Understands.....

Since I've been pregnant, I'm very curious (rather than worried) about how my daughter will react to her new baby sister. She'll be about 2 years and 4 months old when Baby Bugger gets here. She seems to understand that Mommy's going to have a baby. However, I don't know if she actually knows the concept of baby and what that means for her.

Yesterday at daycare, they did an art project. The kids are "studying" families and everyone's unique family. So, their project was to take these paper cutouts of a woman, a man, a little boy, and a little girl and create their family. So 90% of the paper families were a woman, a man, and one child. There were about 2 with siblings and one single-parent family.

When the teacher was helping my daughter, she chose a mommy, a daddy, and a little girl. They were gluing (glueing -- how the hell do you spell that) attaching the figures with glue, but my daughter was adament that her family wasn't complete. She kept patting her tummy and saying, "Baby." They know I'm pregnant, so they asked her if Mommy was going to have another baby. She told them, "Baby sister in mama's tummy." So, they wrote "+baby" on the mommy figure (who was nice and slender -- ha!).

I was shocked that she realized that baby sister was part of her family, and that it was important to include her. She wanted to make sure that her baby sister was considered part of her family. I thought it was so sweet. She's more perceptive than I thought. We'll see what she thinks in a few weeks when baby sister is no longer in Mama's tummy and is out in the real world.

My daughter also has another new trick. She insists on chocolate milk. This was meant to be a temporary fix when she wasn't drinking milk very well. We added chocolate syrup to it, and she loves it that way. I've tried to wean her off the chocolate since then, but if I put less in it, she can taste it and asks that I add more chocolate.

When I hand it to her, I ask her, "Now what do we do?"
She replies, "Shake it up."

As a joke, I started singing to her, "Shake, shake, shake; Shake, shake, shake; Shake your booty." Yeah. Not smart on my part.

She now sings along, but has changed the words to, "Shakin' my booty," while she literally does just that. It's hilarious. But I can't stop. Whenever I hand her the milk, I start the song for her. It always bring a smile to my face.

So, would it be wrong to capture this on video to torture her with in about 20 years or so? She can use it as a way to show others how her parents messed her up from a young age.

It's November....

I know, two posts in a row. Starting a crazy trend here. My ivillage pregnancy calendar has this to say about today:

"Bloated. If your blood pressure is normal, and you don't have protein in your urine, your puffy face, hands, legs, and feet are probably normal.
Tired. If you are working, you probably keep a secret calendar in your desk that counts the days, hours, and minutes until your maternity leave starts. "

Not bloated (knock on wood). Tired. Well, duh! What's this about a secret calendar? Who keeps those? According to the ticker I just created, it is just 1 month, 3 weeks, and 1 day until my last day of work. Or 7 weeks and 4 days. It depends on the ticker. But, who's counting?

I'm hungry. Baby Bugger must be going through a growth spurt. I can't get enough to eat. Even with the heartburn and nausea (which has made a remarkable 3rd trimester return -- lucky me), I still can't get enough to eat.

I'm almost afraid to mention that we've gone an amazing 5 entire days without a report from daycare about biting. However, I expect this to change soon since Miss Nicole (the teacher I love at my daughter's daycare) is leaving. Her last day is Friday. She's starting back to school in January and is taking a little time to be with her family. The nerve. Can't she stay through December 23rd?

I did meet her replacement. Elizabeth. I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Our first meeting wasn't encouraging.

It was the day after I got to her daycare and the kids (and their teachers) were on the playground. My daughter was on the tire swing (her favorite place to be). She was about to start swinging when Andrew (the child she "targets" with her biting) came up and put his foot in. He wanted to swing too. I didn't know if the kids often share the swing, so I was watching to see what happened. There were 2 teachers at the other end of the playground chit-chatting. My daughter tells Andrew no and to stop. This was something we discussed as important with the director. She needed to learn to use her words and as she got better about it, the biting would get better. That only works if the teachers are paying attention. If I hadn't walked up, and Andrew had persisted in getting in the swing, well, there would have been a biting incident. So, it was averted. While I was signing her out on the clipboard that her teacher handed me, the teacher was still chit-chatting with the other teacher. Neither of them noticed when my daughter walked to the baby gate to get into the classroom waiting for me. And neither of them noticed the other little boy who walked up next to her. Right next to her. In her personal space. Again, telling him to move and trying to move away from him got her nowhere, so she finally hit him. Both teachers were smart enough not to say anything to my child. That would have started a fight. I am a non-confrontational person (despite the things I think in my head and would love to say aloud), but mess with my child, and I will start a confrontation. I decided not to do anything (as far as speaking with the director), but I was not happy. I wrote everything down and documented all I saw so that it can be addressed if the director sees the need to meet again. At least I can defend my daughter. She's trying. She's only 2.

The next day, I met Elizabeth. I got there, and my daughter was playing in the dirt (near the swings). The 3 teachers were again at the other end of the playground watching the 4 kids in that vicinity. Not a good start. My daughter's other teacher, Jessica, saw me and came to give me the sign out sheet and a note from Nicole explaining why she was leaving. Seriously, I almost cried. Must be the hormones. She told me that Nicole's replacement was sitting under the tree. I walked down to meet her. Now, someone please tell me if I'm being unreasonable or if I was just raised differently than Elizabeth. She was sitting on the edge of a table (easy to get up or down). As I walked toward her to shake her hand (my hand was extended), she just waved and said, "I'm Elizabeth." Is that how you would greet someone you were meeting? She doesn't have to gush about how great she thinks my child is (although that would be a great meeting), but is it too much to ask that she stand up? Or shake my hand? I know that some people don't really shake hands for various reasons, so I'm willing to let that one go, but stand up, it's nice to meet you, something? I can't base my entire judgement of Elizabeth on one incident, but first impressions are important. It left me feeling awkward.

Elizabeth has been in the class learning the ropes for about a week now, and I haven't decided about her yet. Jessica seems nice enough, but she tends to notice only what is in front of her, so if she's playing with one child, all the others are free to do what they want (which is fine if the one child is my child). I don't want the biting to start back up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. I hope I didn't jinx myself by writing about it.