Crawling!

I had my scar revision yesterday, so I have a nice little wound on my collarbone. I did it because I was tired of seeing it in the mirror every day, a little reminder of that terrifying experience. I am going to be very careful as it heals this time so hopefully it doesn't stretch out as much. They did the procedure under local anesthetic, so just like you'd get at the dentist office or to have a mole removed, except he dug deep enough that he used internal stitches, too. The worst was when they were cauterizing, cuz I could smell my own skin roasting. And when he sinched up the stitches I could totally feel the pressure and tugging even if it wasn't painful. Really unpleasant, but they couldn't give me any sedative because I'm nursing. But I'm glad I did it. Once this heals, I'll finally be past that stupid accident, even if I do have a lot more scars in places that aren't so noticeable.

Emily is officially on the move now. She crawled from one room to another at daycare on Friday, which was a distance record for her. Apparently she drew applause from all the kids! It's incredible to see her go - and adorable, too. I can't even describe, it's a little teetery and uncertain, but also kind of spirited; maybe she thinks her new trick is pretty awesome and she's just happy to try it out again? who knows. I've been seeing this coming for a couple months, of course, but now I really have to buckle down and pick things up off the floor. That was the plan for the weekend, but it's half over already and we haven't done anything on it.

We've had a pretty nice weekend so far - I love summer! Even though Emily was up at 5:30 this morning, I got to sleep from 6 - 8 because Travis got up with her, and put her down for her first nap at 7. Then he went biking, and when he got home, I went for a run - first time I've done that since February 07! Then we played with Emily for a while, and after she napped we went downtown to the Des Moines Arts Festival. We didn't get anything, but it was fun to take Emily out for a walk, and to look at some beautiful art and talk about what we like or don't. Then we went to my friend's wedding reception (she got married last winter in Prague!), and I came home and put Emily to bed. I doubt Travis will be out that late because he was up so early this morning, so we should have a nice day tomorrow too.

:) I am just crazy about Emily. She is so expressive, and curious, and charming. When I'm rocking her (which sometimes is for very long expanses of time, such as last night), I look at her and wonder what I would ever do without her. Is she really mine to keep? How did I get so lucky?? The other day I put some music on, a little lively piano piece, and she and I danced to it. She had so much fun, she was squealing and laughing, and her little mouth was open the whole time in a huge smile. I think "glee" is the only word for it, just pure and relaxed, complete joy. I love it :)

100th posting!

Wow, I've been a busy blogger!

The weekend has taken its toll on Emily - she has no idea when to nap anymore. She was awake essentially all morning, and finally crashed at 2:00 this afternoon. I assume she'll be asleep for a while, but she's never napped for more than 2 hours at home before so we'll see.

Emily has discovered how much fun splashing in water is. It's made her bathtime so much fun for both of us, which is good because she's such a tremendously messy eater that she needs a dunking nearly every night. Last night she came home from daycare with her hair spiked because she'd "eaten" some watermelon. I have no idea how to get more food into her. Last night she sucked down a huge peach slice, and I found myself afraid that she'd choke on it but it slithered right down, much to her surprise! I still can't put anything in her mouth - she pushes everything away - so I'm just giving her things she can put in her mouth herself.

The other frustration is her sleep "schedule." In addition to her lack of napping, she's been waking up at about 5:00 to eat every day, which is disappointing since she used to sleep through. I think now that she's more mobile she needs more calories, and I'd rather she get them from solid food but, oh well. And I use the word mobile quite loosely, because she hasn't really gone very far but she did get her legs going yesterday. It's creepy to see her go, actually. For the most part, she just wiggles her way around the room. I told Travis that she's like a knight chesspiece - two lunges forward, then backward a bit and off to the side to sit up straight. She really gets around pretty well with that pattern, actually.

OK, I'd better make the most of the remainder of her nap. How on earth do people work from home with small children?!?!

Our weekend up north

As glad as we were when we moved to Iowa, we re-learned this weekend why it was hard to leave Minneapolis. We had such a good time up north - and we didn't even get to see everybody who made it so fun when we lived there! We were traveling on Emily's schedule, and she's a real trooper but it was kinda tricky to make sure she spent most of her car-time asleep. We stayed at a hotel in a 2-bedroom suite, across the hall from friends of ours with two little girls, so Saturday night we put kids in bed, set up the monitors, and relaxed and socialized. It was great - we ate dinner so early that by the time we'd socialized afterwards and had a couple drinks, I was in bed by 10:45! Travis thought my quote the next morning was hilarious/pathetic: "I'm feeling pretty good today, but I probably wouldn't be if I had finished that second beer." Yeah, it's been a while since I was a party animal.

We also took Emily swimming for the first time! She LOVED it. There was an indoor pool at the hotel, which was nice that we didn't have to worry about the sun (beautiful weather this weekend, too, btw). It was so much fun! She's got so much baby fat on her that she's really buoyant, which was so bizarre but a nice break for my arms. It only took about half an hour for her to be completely worn out, so she had a nice long nap in the afternoon to prepare her for an exciting evening out. It was an unexpected highlight for the weekend.

So, friends, thanks for a great time, and I hope to see those of you I missed very soon!

Random stuff

The strangest thing happened to us the other night. I was having a bit of trouble settling down to go to sleep (Travis was out), but at about 11:00 I heard somebody try to open our front door!! It was crazy, I heard it twice, and then I woke Travis up and he heard it a third time!! The knob on the door wasn't locked but the deadbolt was, and we heard the door give until the deadbolt stopped it. I was so insanely freaked out. But, I think it was somebody who had the wrong house, because there was a bunch of teenagers at the next house who were playing basketball in the yard and whoever this was probably went to the wrong door. But, maybe not. I was so freaked. I am absolutely paranoid about throwing the deadbolt on the front door now!

Emily was a real charmer at the grocery store today. I know everyone loves babies, but she really draws in the interaction and has a great time with it. At home, while I put groceries away, she sat on the floor of the kitchen and smacked herself on the head with a wooden spoon. For some reason, she always grabs the very end of it to maximize the moment of the spoon as she smacks herself. But still Big Smiles, so, whatever!

Travis and Emily and I are headed to Minneapolis this coming weekend!! There are babies to meet and friends to see and good times to be had (and gas money to be spent, ugh), though we have yet to set a definite itinerary. Such as - do we travel late Friday night so Emily sleeps longer in the car, or do we travel Saturday morning so it's not so crazy Friday and we are only away from home one night? I'm really asking, since many of my readers are the people I intend to see! What say you, friends?

And, if I haven't done it before, here is a rant in how stupid women's clothing is. I tried to buy some new shirts this weekend, since I am now too chesty for much of my pre-maternity wardrobe, and I think my biggest mistake was shopping with Travis (Emily was at daycare while we both took a vacation day. and wasted it shopping!!!). See, he decided he needed more short-sleeved work shirts, so he found the brand he likes, picked out a few colors he liked and the size he needed, and oh my they're 15% off too, so he's all set. I, on the other hand, couldn't even find the department that carries clothes for someone my age. I am too old to shop at Vanity or Maurices, and too young for Younkers (apparently), so where do I go to get professional, not-churchy, not school-teachery, nice-looking things? things to wear with jeans to a restaurant downtown? pants of any kind that don't gap and show my underwear? I can't believe it's this hard. I have a cute figure (at least I thought a small waist was desirable), I'm a nice size, and I'm the age everybody says they want to be, so why is it so hard to find decent clothing?!?! It's so not fair, because Travis has an eye for what looks right in clothing, and I don't - and yet, all he has to do is pick colors and sizes, and I'm faced with dealing with the absolute fuster cluck that is women's fashion. The next time any of you see me, you'll understand why I look poorly put together - I'll probably be wearing something of mine from college and/or something handed down from my sister (which may actually be something I gave her and she gave back to me).

...I don't even know where to begin to pack for this weekend!

Ahhh, summer!

Travis, Emily and I are all fighting a weird cold. It involves eye boogers, a sore throat, some coughing, mild fever, and a headache. Well, I guess I can't say if Emily has a headache or not, but considering she's been inconsolably cranky at times, I'm assuming she does. And it's too bad, because it's finally time for summer fun! We were going to go camping and canoeing this weekend, but it's just too stressful with a sick infant (and sick parents!). Next weekend is our trip to Minnesota, so hopefully by then we are well and ready to have a good time!

Emily is getting darned close to crawling. Last weekend, we were taunting her with the remote, because it's her favorite forbidden thing, and putting it just out of reach to motivate her to get going. She's plenty motivated now, and getting better at going from sitting to crawling position. If you hold her knees underneath her, she rocks back and forth, though she can't quite get to that position herself. She loves it, though; that, and when you move her hands and knees so she actually goes forward. It's so fun to see her delighted. That's definitely my favorite part of parenting - seeing her excited and happy.

I'm going to be using a lot of vacation in the next year. As a full-time employee with 7 years of service, I get 17 days, so you'd expect that I'd get 8.5 as a part-time, right? Well, it's given out based on what I worked last year, which was nearly all fulltime, so I get 14 days! That's over 5 weeks of part-time work! So, I'm taking Monday afternoon off and still sending Emily to Amanda's because we're paying for that anyway, and this way I can have some time to get real stuff done around the house. It's an awesome situation. Emily really has a good time at Amanda's - whenever I pick her up she's smiley and happy and always looking to see what the big kids are doing, and I couldn't give her that at home so that makes me feel really good.

We think we got nearly 5" of rain Thursday night. there was a huge line of storms that came through, and apparently the tornado sirens went off but I didn't wake up to hear them. The weather we've had this year is insane! We've lost one tree branch but other than that have been very lucky to have only the "usual" amount of water in our basement (so stupid). I don't know when we'll fix that - probably when we run completely out of room down there to store things!