Post Christmas Wrap-Up

Howdy friends. Now that Christmas has passed - the cookies have been eaten, presents unwrapped, the tots have already broken their new toys (kidding!) - I am back. I think. I am still planning on limiting my computer time - especially in the mornings, but I am hoping that overall I'm on course to managing my time better.

It's been great this last month - I have been dedicated to getting up each morning (preferably before the kids, but that doesn't always happen), getting dressed and cleaned up right away, going downstairs and making breakfast for the family (Mr. D has been in hog heaven - he loves breakfast, even if its pretty basic as I've been doing). But the key has been I've been sitting down with Grace (and Mr. D if he's home and awake), and we spend breakfast together. (Before, this is typically where the tv came on and I would do other things while Grace ate breakfast with Dora). Its really made a world of difference in how the day proceeds. We eat breakfast and I've been reading to Grace a little from the Bible. She nods and looks like she understands. I figured its never too early to get the Word straight from the source.

So as much as I love the holidays, I am excited to get into "regular" life. That sounds strange, but I haven't really gotten to get into a routine with Grace and Paul. Mr. D was home for so long and then the holidays came and changed things up. And anyone who really knows me, knows I love things organized and scheduled. I like my routines.

But I digress. Our Christmas was great. We were able to spend time just the four of us in the morning and relax over breakfast and open our gifts before going my brother's house for see my family. Grace was OVERWHELMED with gifts. My family was very generous, and she not only got to open her gifts, but Paul's as well. It was cute - she would open up something for Paul and hold it up to him as if he cared. (As demonstrated as she opened his stocking Christmas morning).








Paul was a doll baby and was so content being passed around from grandma to great grandma to auntie and back again.



But of course they say that you don't need to worry about gifts with kids when you have boxes. So true, so true.

Electronic Restriction

So I've been MIA in the virtual world lately. As I tell my hubby, I put myself on "electronic restriction".





In an effort to focus on getting into a routine with the young-uns, keep the house in order, and prepare for Christmas - I made a new rule: no television or computer until 3pm. I know that the computer is a stealthy time-waster during the day. I leave it up and running and then during the day, I'll just "pop on" to check my email, message boards, or blogs which then leads to 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there.

As for the television - that is mostly for Grace's benefit. I had been feeling "mommy guilt" that I was using the tv too often to keep her distracted. She likes it - I got things done - it seemed like a win-win, except for the nagging in the back of my mind that there's a reason I am staying at home with the kids... and its not to make sure that the kitchen is spotless (or my email is up-to-date!). Also, now that I'm back to the nursing routine with Paul - its so easy to turn on the tv and zone out. And often, get caught up watching something after Paul has finished and is snoozing away. So now, while I'm nursing, I've been including Grace by reading or coloring with her. Now, I would call that a better win-win for us.

All in all, my rules have been working out pretty good. I actually thought it would be a little harder to keep the tv off, but Grace has really only asked for it once or twice and then was easily distracted when I said no.



So between my "restriction" and Christmas planning, shopping, wrapping and baking - I've been neglectful in my updates.

However, baby Paul is doing great. He will be two months this Sunday. Its gone by so fast. He's started smiling and cooing. It's so much fun. I find myself relishing so much more than I did with Grace. With her I was so nervous, was trying to balance work and motherhood, and was so anxious to get to the next milestone - I missed a lot. But Paul is pretty laid back, so he lets me enjoy things much more.




So that's the rock under which I've been hiding. We're looking forward to Christmas around here. Grace loves the tree, the lights, the goodies, and knows who all the gifts are for under the tree - especially the ones for "Gee" (that's what she calls herself).



Well off to clean up my mess from baking Chocolate Toffee Bars - and I think they need a taste-test as well!

Just One More Week

Mr. D's five weeks of vacation from work (yes, five weeks, I've been a lucky and spoiled new mama) is coming to a close. He has to go back next Monday. It has been great having him home to help with the kids and to just hang out. I've been able to stop and relax and let the house get dirty lived in and just enjoy this time. It's been worth it too.

So today we enjoyed a fun day at the park feeding the ducks at the park, the "ucks" as Grace calls them. Our neighbor came along with her four kids (which include 3-month-old twins). The "ucks" enjoyed some PB&J, the kids had fun at the playground, and the moms enjoyed some sun on the park benches with the babies while Mr. D helped herd the three older kids.

We then enjoyed lunch at Chipotle. Yum!

Tonight, after dinner, the kids had bathtime. Long overdue bathtime.

It's embarrassing to admit, but Grace didn't get a bath all weekend! We were out late both Saturday and Sunday evening, so when we got home, Grace went straight to bed each night. Eh - she's a kid. They don't need a bath EVERY night, right!? I know we used that rationale growing up - especially if we happened to go swimming during the summer. That easily replaced bathtime.

After baths, both kids went to sleep at decent hours, and Mr. D and I enjoyed frozen yogurt. It's been a nice day. I'm going to wrap this up and pray that Paul lets me have a nice night's sleep too!

Goodness, Gracious

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!!!

Wow - what a weekend - Southern California was on fire. Literally.

With the Santa Ana winds and hot, dry weather, we are used being on "fire watch" around here and seeing the latest blazes on the evening news, however, it is a whole different thing when it's at your back door.

I was enjoying a lazy Saturday morning - baby on my lap, talking on the phone with my mom, when Mr. D comes in from the backyard. "Get off the phone and go get dressed. You've gotta get out of here. There's a fire."

I dash upstairs and while pulling on my jeans, peek out the window. OH.MY.WORD. The hill behind our house is on fire. I could feel the heat on the window pane. I dash downstairs grabbing things here and there as I go... the pile of clean laundry on the bed, a pair of tennis shoes, diapers, my hairbrush. It was a pretty interesting pile of things that accumulated by our front door.

I look outside again and the flames are licking the top of our concrete block wall (Thank God it's a concrete wall!). Mr. D is pulling the dogs inside. I'm getting ready to leave, then, almost as quickly as it came on us, the fire ate up everything in its path and moved eastward along the row of houses. There wasn't even time for the firefighters to show up and put out the flames. So the fire moved along the perimeter of our neighborhood community. Some of the houses on the other side weren't as fortunate as us and our neighbors. There are about 16 burned and/or damaged homes.

This clip shows some of the damage to the homes. It's devastating - especially when they are our neighbors. I may not know them personally, but there's a connection. It could have been me.


Anyone local knows that this fire, which started in a tree less than a 1/2 mile from our home, then traveled to numerous cities and destroyed hundreds of homes, evacuated thousands. It was a crazy couple days watching the news and following the fires. I am so thankful for all the friends and family who called to check up on us and offer any help we needed. Again, I have to thank God that we didn't need any help.

This is our backyard, showing the smoldering hill behind the fence. In retrospect it would have been cool to get a picture of the flames, but you know, priorities - had to prepare to flee for safety!

This is our backyard from yesterday. The smoldering is gone, but the layer of ash is still back there.

Bring on the Vermonster

Mr. D and I have officially started our post-partum diets. Unfortunately my body doesn't follow the "you can eat whatever you want and lose your baby weight as long as you're breastfeeding" motto that I hear some mamas claim, so its back to Points we go.

So what better way to have fun while dieting, but watch this. (World's Best Places to Pig Out). Thanks to the Travel Channel for sharing this valuable information to two hungry folks.

We learned about where to go to eat a 3-pound hamburger paired with 5 pounds of french fries; gagged while watching patrons inhale hundreds of oysters in one sitting; and found out when we travel up to Northern California, we can stop in and indulge in a stack of 5 pound pancakes.

Mr. D's personal favorite on the list was Beth's Cafe, which serves 12 egg omelets.

Meanwhile, my sweet tooth was wooed by Ben & Jerry's Vermonster. This is what we are talking about:

For those who take their passion for ice cream to staggering extremes, participating Ben and Jerry's scoop shops have an ice cream container more their size. Served in a plastic bucket, the Vermonster sundae is big enough to give even Godzilla an ice cream headache. It takes 20 scoops of ice cream, four bananas, one fudge brownie, three chocolate chip cookies, four ladles of hot fudge, 18 scoops of toppings and loads of whipped cream to create this sinful concoction.

Yes! I seriously would give this a try. Of course, I don't think I could eat it all, but boy, does it sound good right now.

Wow - three days of dieting and I'm already drooling over a monster size bucket of ice cream.

From the Homefront

Week two and everything's still a-okay on the homefront.

Mr. D is still fulfilling his role as wonder-husband/father and taking care of things while I enjoy some downtime to recover and relax.

As I just mentioned, I am actually taking it easy and trying not to fulfill the role of super-mom. Instead, I've been enjoying lazy mornings in bed that I have missed for the past two years.

Grace loves her new little brother in her sweet, slightly rough two-year old way. She loves to kiss on him and hold him, and keeps us on our toes watching out for baby Paul.

Paul is still a doll-baby. He's been such a good baby so far - doing what babies do best: eating, sleeping and dirtying diapers. He hardly cries or fusses. Now, while this all sounds like mama bragging - what it really is is mama relief. I kept telling Mr D that not all babies are a challenge, but he didn't believe me.

So that's been our house lately - pretty lazy. For example, today, Grace hung out in pjs all day; I didn't put on make-up (gasp!); and my big accomplishment was cleaning the downstairs bath and doing some laundry.

Oh, and wait: speaking of laundry - one little baby causes a whole lot more! We've yet to master diapering a baby boy without having the occasional (frequent) accident on clothes, blankets, bedsheets, etc.

Oh, and I must share some cutie-patootie pictures from Halloween. As a rule, I am not a fan of October 31st, except for the fun on dressing up. So, dress-up we did and we took Paul on his first big outing to our church Hallelujah party. He wasn't too impressed as he slept through the whole event snuggled up in my wrap.

Baby Announcement

Introducing Paul Henry




Born October 21, 2008 at 9:32am. He weighed in at 9lbs and was 21 inches long.

Our baby boy has arrived. We're home and getting settled.

So now, the scoop - how it all went down.
Here's the nitty-gritty details.

So people aren't kidding when they say the second labor can go quicker. From the very first contraction to that last final push, it took 6 hours. Compared to the 18 hours it took with Grace, I would say I improved my birthing performance.

I woke up at 3:30am with contractions - I stayed in bed timing them out to see if they were real and regular. They were - already about 6-7 minutes apart. I figured sleep was no longer an option, so I got up around 4:30am and went downstairs. I decided to use this time to finish up my ironing and write some thank-you cards for baby gifts. I found I could write a card, get up, have a contraction, and then write another. How much sense they made, I can't guarantee. Fortunately, I only had about 7 to write. I called my mom to let her know that today was the day, and then realized that I should probably get Mr. D going and get ready myself.

6am - I wake up Mr. D. He gets moving. Contractions are starting to come closer - about 5 minutes apart. Starting to get more serious too. The back labor starts. I sigh. Not a good sign - Grace was a posterior baby, and the back labor was insane, as was the pushing. Every contraction after that, I tried to lean forward and roll on my ball or bed as my midwife instructed, and I prayed that the baby would turn if he needed to.

7am - My mom shows up to pick up Grace. I am finishing getting my bag ready, combing my hair, and of course putting on some make-up. Can't go into delivery without a little mascara. Starting to struggle a little more through contractions. Definitely in "laborland" - rather spacey and having trouble concentrating. I'm still rambling through the house getting Grace ready and throwing random things in her bag and my hospital bag.

8am - We are finally getting on the road. I dread the car ride. Fortunately its not too bad and thank God we didn't hit too much traffic. We arrive and check in at the hospital at 8:30am.

8:30am - We arrive to check-in. They send us to the first room to get an initial check. I know, to make sure I am truly in labor and ready to head to delivery. I could have told them that was the case, but we wait. And wait. A nurse comes in to take vitals and asks me way too many questions. I try to be chatty, but its hard. I do remember actually apologizing for not being more chatty. The nurse leaves to get the midwife. Finally. We wait a while longer, and I start feeling pressure. I tell Mr. D - he goes out and tells one of the nurses. All of a sudden the midwife is in my room and finds that I'm 9 cm and my water is ready to break. I then got to ride up to delivery on a gurney - first time rider. Wheee.

In delivery, they check me again. My water breaks and they find that little Paul made early bowel movement - there was meconium in the water. They had to call Newborn Intensive Care staff to be on site for the delivery to clean him out after birth to make sure he didn't get sick from swallowing any of the polluted water. The staff arrives - I'm ready to push. It took about 5 pushes and baby was out in the world. To say I was a bit dazed at the speed of everything is an understatement.








So that's the birth part of it all. I couldn't have asked for a smoother delivery. Recovery, however, was a different story.

In brief - as if I'm making any of this brief, I experienced post-partum hemorrhaging about 4 hours after delivery. When I got up to use the facilities in my room, I experience some intense bleeding and blood clots. As I remember it all, I sat there sweating from head to toe, staring at a blood splattered wall, as the nurse asked me somewhere faintly in the background if I was okay. All I could answer was No. No, not at all. I can't get up. The room started to blur. Then there were all these hands and voices telling me to keep my eyes open, to smell this, to sit here. Then over it all, I would hear Mr. D's voice repeating the instructions. He told me later that I was only responding to his voice.

So I was rushed back to bed, hooked up to an IV, and pumped full of pitocin to start uterine contractions. Really? Again? I remember telling the doctor that this was all supposed to be over already. I had contracted, pushed, and been stitched up again. I wasn't supposed to have a doctor all up there again. I think I got a chuckle. Or maybe I thought I did.

Well by this point, my hair and make-up I did that morning were shot.




I spent the night being pumped full of pitocin and saline, but I did stop bleeding. It was quite the experience. By the next morning, I felt much better. I was able to stand and not feel faint. Mr. D said he knew I was back to myself when I got up to comb my hair, put on a little mascara and straighten up the hospital room.

We left that afternoon to come home. Since being home, we've been relaxing and adjusting to our new family. Paul is doing fantastic. Right now I just need to switch his nights and days. He thinks its party time at 1am. I am blessed beyond words by my husband. He's been great - helping out with Grace and getting me to lay down and relax. That alone is a tough challenge.




So that's the story of how Paul arrived. He's such a sweet baby, but of course aren't all babies sweet miracles.

Update

Quick update.

Still pregnant.
Very pregnant.
38 weeks, 5 days.

Countdown: 10 days til due date.

I've been busy getting ready for baby. The nursery is pretty much ready for him. Clothes have been washed. I'm working on packing bags for me and Grace. I would like to clean the house one more time. We'll see how that goes.

Oh, and while trying to finish this to-do list, I'm battling a cold. So hopefully I'll be able to shake that before I have to try to shake out this baby. My dear, sweet baby who is probably going to weigh 10 lbs!

So that's what's going on. Grace and I have had some fun adventures lately and I wanted to post pictures, but it just haven't made it to the top of the to-do list.

Maybe sometimes this week.

Or maybe not. Maybe I'll be having a baby!

All Gone... They Are in the Trash!

Grace made a big decision this weekend. She threw her pacifiers in the trash. She's a big girl now.

She's a big girl now who has had a hard time sleeping the last few nights.

Mr. D has been telling me for the last few weeks that we should take the pacifiers away. She was only using them at naptime and bedtime, so I wasn't as worried. But then again, you're talking to a girl who sucked her thumb until she was 10! So Grace with her pacci addiction had my sympathies.

But I agreed - the longer we waited, the harder it would be, especially with the new baby coming. But I kept putting it off. I told him I wasn't ready for this decision.

So he made it for me. The sneaky Mr. D. Saturday afternoon he and Grace come bounding upstairs with big news. Grace threw away her pacifiers.

Say what?

They had been watching Nanny 911 and it was an episode where the nanny had the kids throw their pacifiers away. Mr. D asserts that Grace was intently watching this happen, so he asked her if she wanted to throw hers away. Supposedly she went up to her bed herself, got them out, came down and threw them away. So that's the story.

Really?

I believe him. I don't think Grace would go along with the story if it wasn't the case. She was quite proud of herself too. For a while. As bedtime came closer, I think she began to rethink her actions. By the time we put her in bed, she realized she had been influenced by the evils of television.

She went to bed relatively easy, but the middle of the night lasted forever. I was up with her for about two hours trying to get her to go back to sleep. Then Mr. D took over for an hour or so and finally got her to sleep.

Surprisingly though, Sunday night went much better. Last night she woke up once, calling for me. I went in to comfort her, and her water cup was almost empty. I told her I would go fill it up... took my time, and by the time I went back, she was asleep again. Yay!

I had a friend tell me that it is usually harder on the parent to take them away then it actually is on the child. I proved her right.

Quick Update

I figured I should check in and prove I'm still around and full of baby! This past week was a doozy. Grace had a cold which she passed on to me as if I haven't had enough difficulty breathing lately. So between feeling worn down with the cold and suffering a few mini-meltdowns of feeling unprepared for baby, I didn't get to play online.

However we are getting are ducks in a row now, or rather our diapers and onsies in a row. After scouring Craigslist for days, we have picked up a changing table, a glider with ottoman, and a Moby wrap (always wanted to try one with Grace) all for under $100. Love it.

We also bought the bedding for the nursery. Take a peak - I know you want to. Of course, I didn't buy ALL the accessories to make it look like little animals have overrun the room. But, Mr. D did insist we order the little rocking chair so Grace has a place to sit while I'm with the baby. It was our splurge purchase for the room. It all arrives Friday. I can't wait.

Today we are going to do some major reshifting in the nursery. I have a truckload of books that I need to move. Currently, there is a bookshelf in the room, as well as a bookshelf in the closet - both full of books. The plan is to move the larger bookshelf into the closet, and move the smaller one out of the closet into Grace's closet. I'm going to fill the larger one as full as I can get it with books, but the one in Grace's room I need to use at least one of the shelves for her stuff. And I see the time coming all too quickly when both little ones will need their closets for themselves... I'll just worry about that when the time comes. So I'm off to shuffle around books - the goal is also to thin out... but I don't know how successful I will be at that.

Cookies and Cards

Baby demanded cookies today. Demanded. Stuck his little foot out against my tummy and said "give me cookies."

Specifically pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.




So you know, I had to listen.

And I had to indulge. To satisfy the baby that is.

But they are whole wheat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. You see, the whole wheat makes them okay - nevermind the sugar and chocolate.

In other happenings I finished my baby thank-you cards. The lovely women of my bible study threw me a little shower and blessed me with some adorable outfits.



I've been on a card making kick lately - not that I know what I'm doing. I wing it as I go.

The problem with being crafty is that I find myself working at night after Grace goes to bed and I stay up too late. I need to be more disciplined and get myself to bed on time. Its tough though because after spending all day with Grace, I relish my "me" time. I really know that I should be seizing any sleep I can get these last few (six!) weeks before I'm on newborn schedule again. So, now that it is 10:45pm - I guess I should heed my advice and head to bed.

Pooltime Moment

I had a "Sara" moment yesterday. One of my moments when it feels like my world is just falling apart and I forget how to cope. I felt tired down to my bones, the house needed to be cleaned, and I had promised Grace that we would play in her inflatable pool after nap and lunch - and she wasn't going to let me forget it. I sat outside with her trying to be patient as she asked me to wind up one of her pool toys for the hundredth time and fighting back yawns and tears.

Thank God for my husband. I called him at the office.

"Do you have a minute?"

"Are you having a moment?"

Pause.

Sob. "Yes."

He talked me through it. The world isn't falling apart. The house isn't that dirty. It all doesn't need to be done right.this.minute.

Again, God knew what He was doing when he gave me Mr. D.

I was also able to enjoy my favorite part of pooltime with Grace.

When she's all finished, I hold up a big beach towel and she steps to me. I wrap the towel all around her and pull her to my lap. She lets me cuddle and love on her without a squirm. We sit and watch the trees, airplanes, and birds. I tell her she's going to be my little girl forever and how much I love her. She grins at me and laughs when I kiss her. We sit there and I realize how precious these times are and file them back into my memory. This is what should make up my "Sara" moments.

Hi-Ho Hi-Ho A Painting We Did Go

WHEW!

We definitely labored this Labor Day weekend. We spent all three days painting and painting... and painting. My poor husband who hates painting was a trooper and helped me out tremendously and little Grace was very well behaved as well which helped. It just took one incident of sticking her hand on the wet wall to learn that when Mama says, "wet, no touch" she means it. We didn't even have to discipline her for not listening - her distaste of all things dirty did the job for us - she then stayed clear of all the walls.

So we tackled the family room. I liked the color, but felt that just that room wasn't enough.



Mr. D sighed... but knew deep down I was right. Really - he knew.

We continued to the front of the attached wetbar.



But I felt that I still needed to continue the color somewhere else. The front door entry was a good spot - nevermind the challenge of painting the vaulted ceilings. Mr D pretended he could no longer hear me at this point.

Actually, to my credit, I told Mr. D that we didn't have to do it in this round of painting, but he was on a painting mission and wanted his preggie wife (and her preggie emotions) satisfied. I really would have been happy even if we didn't paint the entry.... but we he did.

So its done.... in a way. I think bringing the color to one of the walls in our dining room would really tie the downstairs together. Mr. D says I can think all I want cause he's not painting again for a good few months.

I count the weekend as a success. The computer is downstairs (which I love) - the nursery-to-be is still a mess, but I can tackle that next weekend.

Still Preparing

We have a game plan for this weekend. A game plan that includes baby preparations! Yay! I need this game plan to take action so I can stop feeling completely unprepared for baby boy's arrival in less than two months.

So here's the plan. It starts with painting the den on Saturday. This is what its looked like for the past two weeks.





So how does that figure into baby preparation? No, baby isn't going to be sleeping in the den. Nor do I believe he will care what color the walls are, but it is a chain of occurrences.

The den gets painted Saturday.
Then, on Sunday we can move the computer desk downstairs. It will be replacing the small corner table.
Once the desk is downstairs, obviously, the computer and all its fun accessories will follow.
This will open up the upstairs room for the nursery.
And it comes back to the baby!

Once we get that desk out, I can clean out the closet. Move the cat - somewhere. Where? We haven't decided yet. Fortunately the room doesn't need to be painted. We can hopefully find a cheap dresser/changing table on Craigslist and I plan to peruse some baby stores on Monday for a bedding set.

There, done.

Sounds easy, right?

Park Fun

Contemplating the ducks

We had a park-filled weekend. Friday, we visited the park along with my friend and her husband who were in-town visiting. We figured if Grace was cute enough they'll have kids soon too. I think she passed the cute-test.

Then today we went to the big park for a birthday party. This park not only has ducks, but horses and a train! Grace went on her first pony ride. She was a little intimidated (okay, cried and yelled) at first, but once the pony started walking along she thought it was pretty neat. She doesn't say "horse", but the whole way home she made her horse-noises to tell us about her adventure.

Then we rode the train too. Its a good 15 minute ride around the park and even goes through a tunnel. It was fun.

The not-so-quite fun part of our day was the temperature. These days its doesn't take much for me to glisten (sweat like a pig), and I was hot today. I'm not talking HOT like "oh look at that hottie", but more like, "oh that poor lady is having a hot flash". I managed though. On the plus side, even with all the heat, I didn't experience much swelling. Yay!

So here's Grace's first pony ride, and yes, the round, pink, glistening lady is my 7-month pregnant self.

Domestic Day

I felt so domestic today. I got up this morning - washed, dried and folded a load of diapers, did the ironing and cooked up fun stuff in the kitchen. I made Crunchy Granola (from this site) - I am officially hooked on it. I also baked some whole wheat bread - which finally came out soft and oh, so yummy. In addition, I made a batch of lentil soup to have in the fridge for the week.

I think I figured out what I need to do with my bread. Since I couldn't manage to work with yeast the old-fashioned way, I bought a breadmaker a while back. The bread came out much better, but not fabulous like I envisioned. Doing some online reading, I found quite a few people let the machine do all the dirty work (kneading) but then do the final rise and bake the bread in their ovens. It made a huge difference in the way the bread baked. So that's that.

Oh, and in a completely unrelated subject that I can't even segue to - I can't wait for Grace to get a little bigger so we can play dress-up. I was doing some more cleaning out today and found a bunch of items that I would have been bonkers over if my mom had them for me when I was a little girl. A few of the items in this eclectic collection include: my purple 8th grade promotion dress complete with flowers and tulle under the skirt; a green velvet formal from Homecoming; a couple 60's dresses from vintage shops, reminiscent of Marsha Brady; a large girl's Hawaiian mumu; a pair of flats that have been spray-painted gold and covered in glitter; and several 40's era dresses. I hope that Grace enjoys playing dress-up as much as I do did. I'm seriously going to win some cool points there.

Nesting Continues

Not to speak for all pregnant women, but there is a reason that I shouldn't be making decisions while gestating - they aren't always the best choices.

Tonight - 7:30pm



This was Grace's room. After spending the afternoon baking cookies for Mr. D, I decided around 5pm that I would go clean out Grace's closet. Really? 5pm? You think that's a good time to start a major cleaning project.

Yes, it won't take me long. I'll get dinner around 6pm.

Really? 6pm?

And I was right. It didn't take me long. Not long to take everything out of the closet and make a mess.

At 6pm, I left the room along with my child who had stripped down to a diaper (it was hot upstairs), was wearing bunny ears from Easter and chewing on an empty bottle that was supposed to be in the Goodwill bag.

We had dinner by 6:20pm. But then instead of our evening walk, I had to go back upstairs and figure out what to do with the mess.

Some of it went back into the closet to be dealt with at a later date (hopefully tomorrow), some of it went into the office - soon-to-be nursery (mostly baby stuff that I wanted out of Grace's closet), and the rest is sitting in the hallway waiting to go downstairs into the Goodwill pile.

So I made some progress - just probably wasn't the best timing in the world. But again, let me remind you - pregnant. Pregnant and starting to worry that new baby boy is going to be sleeping in an office in pink pajamas because I wasn't ready in time!

Oh, and this was Grace's room at 8:30pm before bedtime. See, I pulled it back together.

A Hair-Raising Experience

Or should I say, a hair-ERASING experience.

Grace received her first haircut today. I know, she didn't have a whole lot of hair to begin with, but it was getting quite scruffy looking, and well, to coin a phrase, mulletey. (mullet-y). I couldn't let her continue to make that fashion faux-pas, so we pulled out the scissors this afternoon.

Before pictures. Show us that mullet baby!

So here's the thing that I should mention about me and using scissors. I really shouldn't be allowed to. I am left-handed, but I can't cut left-handed. Having grown up through public schools that only offered right-handed scissors, I learned to adapt to cut right handed. However, these cutting skills get me by, but I don't boast of my scissor wielding expertise. I still can't get over when I took Home Ec in jr. high, and my teacher had to help me cut the fabric straight.

So today I came out armed with sharp scissors (in my right hand) aimed at my precious little baby in her chair. Oh, and Mr. D videotaped the whole experience - that didn't help my nerves.

I go for the bangs first. I have experience cutting bangs at least - I've trimmed my own many a time.

I get through the bangs okay. Next, the back.

What I am hoping to do is even it off on the bottom and give her more of a level bob. I go for the first cut (which has to be saved for the baby book of course). Oops. According to the videotape playback the quote goes, "(nervous giggle), I think I took off too much".

So Grace's bob is a little shorter than I planned, but I have to admit, it looks much better than the scraggly mullet.

After pictures.

Not too bad, but I don't think I'll be opening up Salon Sara anytime soon however.