Stack

Here's the stack of articles I'm reading this weekend (or until they are done).

(File this under more excuses!)

Pregnancy induces craziness

or at least it did in me. When I was pregnant, I didn't like to put gas in my car. (I usually talked MWH into doing it for me. As you can imagine, this was a giant pain!)

Sent from my iPhone

Growing up?

Up until now, oNe only wanted to wear "comfy" pants. Comfy pants are soft pants, like leggings or yoga pants. Before kindergarten, I tried to get her some jeans and she wasn't interested. I tried again before first grade. Again, no interest on her part. This past weekend, she decided she wanted jeans. I ordered some for her. They arrived yesterday (not even special shipping just regular--that was fast!). She put them on this morning and suddenly she looked so much older.

I swear her legs are longer! The jeans look so big! When I took them out of the package, even she said, "Those are TOO big." They weren't. They are slightly long, but not too bad. They'll last for a while. But, oh my! She's growing so big and so fast.

I ordered a pair of jeans for twoK too. twoK has oNe's hand-me-downs and twoK is shaped slightly differently than oNe was so the jeans don't fit well. Now twoK has her own jeans that look good, and twoK looks older in them. Yikes! My little girls are getting bigger!

If I teach a certain class again...

(It's unlikely, but not impossible, that I will teach that class again) I will want to remember this web site. Even though I teach at the college level, this will help my students. They may hate me for it, but it will help.

Excuses...

I'm writing a paper at work, or at least TRYING to, and I'm finding myself a bit tapped out for writing here.

In the meantime, here are some photos of............ my eyelashes. The first is PRE eyelash tinting and the second is POST. Look how many gray light eyelashes I have in the PRE photo. They look longer and obviously darker after the process. No lengthening involved, just darkening. It lasts well for 3-4 weeks. The PRE photo was 8 weeks after the last tinting. Eight weeks is a little too long (in my opinion).

PRE
POST

(If you're new to my blog, or can't remember every detail about my life, (HEH!) Here's the reason why I tint my eyelashes.)

Mondays

I'm thinking Mondays are going to end up being hard-to-blog days. I hang with the little ones (twoK and Three-a) in the morning, then I work all afternoon, then I got to aerobics (45 minutes), then dance class (1 hour 15), then prepare for teaching dance in oNe's class. Did I not tell you all about that? I wrote a post, or most of one, about teaching dance to first-graders, but then never finished it. I'll try to put up some information about it soon.

Today's subject.... Three-a's feet. (You can scroll back a few posts to see how cute they are with red toenail polish. However, we're not going to discuss toenail polish today.) Today, we're going to talk about Three-a's tendency to toe-in. (Warning: This post may be a little dull, but I needed to record the information.)

First, some background. When I was a kid, I was labeled "pigeon-toed" and had to wear HORRIBLE BRACES for several years. Then, all through elementary school, I had to wear "prescription" shoes. The prescription shoes had to be made from a certain kind of shoe, and boy, were they ugly. I hated them. I was teased by the other kids. (I am mostly over it.)

When Three-a and I went to visit my Mom, two of my family members pointed out how Three-a "toes-in".

Um, okay.

My family has thought each of the girls was pigeon-toed.* Apparently, they expected me to pass on this horrible deformity. The result of the comments resulted in me monitoring Three-a and how she walks. After observation, I have concluded she does have a slight tendency to toe in, but it's not too bad. It seems to be exacerbated when she wears some very inexpensive shoes from P*ayless. They are super cute, and she loves them, but I think it's probably not a good idea to let her wear them any more.

Saturday, I did some googling. I had googled this in the past, and I didn't learn much new but just so you know, and so it's recorded for posterity, I don't think her case is bad enough to warrant treatment. In addition, Three-a doesn't look like either of the pictures really. As I said above, I think it's more lack of support (arch support) in her cheap shoes that is causing her to walk on the inside of her foot and making it look more toed-in than it really is. (Also, from the pictures and the description, I am pretty sure that I had excess femoral anteversion. Note, for most causes, doctor's don't do anything any more. (Think of all the trauma I suffered, and it was probably needless.))

I'll discuss Three-a's feet and how she walks with her doctor at her 4-year-old well-kid check (but that's not until August). In the meantime, as I said above, she won't wear her cheap shoes any more. No sense in having her wear shoes that make the problem worse (or even just look worse). Maybe Three-a's been walking toed-in because she just wanted new shoes. Saturday, we went shoe shopping. I got her some shoes that have better support. She does walk "better" in them--much less toed-in-y.

Because of the "issue," we went to the really expensive shoe store. The place I never go and buy shoes unless they are on sale.... (Actually, I bought all of the "first shoes" there. It seemed important to have a little ritual for our new walker, but otherwise, sales ONLY there.)

So we went there and I checked out all the shoes. I found some I thought would be good. The very knowledgeable owner was there. He's a really nice guy, has kids of his own, and LOVES shoes for kids. He spotted what I was doing, and offered some suggestions. He helped us pick out a pair of shoes that do what I want them to do. (BONUS, I don't think they were THE MOST expensive shoes in the store.)

So there you go... The story of Three-a's feet and her new shoes.



*Yes, my family made me paranoid about twoK and oNe as well. I monitored both twoK and oNe for this and never saw pigeon-toed walking from them.

In the morning

On the weekends, the little girls tend to get up before MWH and me. When we wake up, it's usually to the sounds of little girls giggling and playing. It's very sweet and cute. They get up, do art, play pretend, and maybe play on the computer. The pretend play generally starts as soon as they open their eyes. Right now, they've just discovered this series of books. Fairies are all the rage! The other morning, MWH heard twoK say, "I invoke the power of the rainbow." It really doesn't get much cuter.

Well, another cute thing is, oNe is teaching twoK to play DDR. This morning, oNe came in to ask if they could start dancing. oNe helps twoK by hitting the dance pad with her hand so twoK gets decent scores. This makes twoK want to continue to play because she's doing well. Yippee!

Oh, this isn't in the morning, but it looks like Three-a is moving in with her sisters (same room). I am thrilled. Now I'll be able to get into the playroom ('cause that's where Three-a has slept for the last 2 years) at night after they are asleep and organize (and get rid of) some of the old (baby-ish) toys. Woo!

Not going to send it

I just found out a friend lost his father. I am so sad for his loss. I started writing an email to him about the last months with my father and then realized, I should just send good thoughts to my friend and not use his loss as a chance for my own catharsis, but I started writing and decided to publish it here 'cause this is the place for me.



In August/September/October, we honestly thought he'd get better. In November, we realized his kidneys were indeed failing and the chances he would get better were very slim. My brothers remained convinced that he would have a lot more time--like 6-9 months. I was guessing 3-4 weeks. In the end, it was about 6-7 weeks.

I visited in November and spent a week, said my goodbyes (it sucked), and I didn't think I would get to see him again. Saying goodbye was horrible. I wish I'd given him one more hug. But no matter how many I had given, I would always wish that. I spoke to him via phone a few times, but he couldn't really hear me and it was awful, so mostly I would tell Mom to tell him I loved him and talk to him through her.

It sounds awful to say, but I didn't want him to live for very long in the state I knew he'd be in if his kidneys were as bad as they appeared to be from the blood tests. I hoped for a miracle, or some recovery, but when it didn't happen, I knew he didn't want to live like that. I knew he wanted to live, and I wanted him to live, but not bed-bound and throwing-up all the time.

It was awful to watch him not able to eat. Absolutely awful. He'd say he wanted to eat something, and we'd get it, then he'd take one bite and say, "This is horrible." That wasn't my Dad. My Dad loved food. My Dad was strong. Watching him get weak was horrible. I am thankful that it wasn't that long of a horrible illness... I mean, it was 5 months of hospital, rehab, hospital, rehab, hospital, nursing home, but only one month and 1/2 of him "dying." Ugh though.

Little toes!

One of the fun things about little girls! Three-a chose red (pictured), twoK chose hot pink and oNe chose blue.

grumpy

I am grumpy. I don't have a good reason to be grumpy, but I am. I think it's partially the weather. I am DELIGHTED that we are getting much needed rain, but I think it is messing with my already somewhat fragile head. (Note to self, must get over your self. Life is good.)

I will record as wonderful as N3nny is, I will be glad to be done with having a nanny.

I will also record that I'm glad I didn't share my blog with a new-ish friend. I really like her, but she asks a lot of questions about how I am feeling. I often am annoyed at very situational things, but it's NOT DEEP PSYCHOLOGICAL and really not worth considering any length, and she wants to consider the situations. I kind of feel the longer I consider the not good stuff, the more I dwell on it and the bigger and uglier it gets. If she knew about this blog, she'd have a field day with it.

Um, what else can I not complain about here? (Heh)

---

Despite this post, I'm trying to focus on this. I am still grateful today, but I am grumpy. It's okay to be a little grumpy every now and then. I'll go do some DDR with oNe and I'll be happier. Go exercise endorphins!

Also, remind me to tell you how helpful oNe was when we made soup tonight! Woo! Seven-year-olds are super!

quote of the day (a few days ago)

Three-a: I said "whatever" with my eyes.


(She does a mean eye roll. We are so in trouble when they are teenagers.)

where to sleep

Back in November, I wrote that Three-a was starting to sleep with twoK. I don't really remember what happened in December or January, but they didn't make it to sleeping together all the time. After Three-a and I went to visit my Mom, Three-a decided she wanted to sleep with her sisters. She's slept with them most nights since the trip. Errr, well, she's slept with them some, and wanted more, but we don't let her if she was going to disrupt school night sleep.

Now, it's winter break so we're going to try letting Three-a sleep with her sisters this week. Who knows, maybe this will be the week. I'm not good with saying, "THIS IS IT... From this day forth we will ALWAYS do XXXXXXX." Some people are, but I'm not. I find slow little baby-steps work for significant change. That's just me.

ARRRRGGHH!!

It was such a nice and productive day. Then I looked at my calendar and realized I'd forgotten to take oNe to the dentist.

Indian Food

I just found this site.

I'm going to try this and this.

Yum! I'll let you know how they are.

This just in...

Dance Dance Revolution saves on heating bills!

When I do DDR, I turn OFF the heat.

ruh-oh

There is a leak in our bedroom. It seems to be coming from our house fan, so hopefully, it's not a bad place in the roof. MWH is investigating in the attic.

Use #4,982 for the iPhone

Taking pictures of the cat's hairball on the bed and sending to husband.

Heh.

A new inspiration

She's 87.

Amazing.

If you start to watch and get bored, make sure to jump up to about 1 minute 35 seconds and then watch. It's worth it! There are some great moves at the end too.

B-cat

That's what I call oNe's kitty. My favorite thing about B-cat is when you go to pet him he JUMPS up to meet your hand. Sometimes he falls over in his excitement to get petted. He's a silly kitty who seems part dog.

The other thing, he seems to be calming down a little. He's not quite as spazzy as he was a year ago. He'll be two in May.

on our way

Yesterday, I enrolled twoK in kindergarten. Whoa. Coming this fall, I'll have 2 little girls in "real" school. (Kindergarten is optional in our state, but I still consider it real.)

lots

We have lots to do at work. It's good. We have some folks on the team who are CRANKING and they are making the rest of us look bad. I am thrilled with what they are doing and it's super exciting. I wish I could think as fast as they are working. I'm working on it.

One of my colleagues got a new project.... It was supposed to start in October, but didn't get all set until NOW. She's got something planned for April and is slightly panicked.... I would be too. With only a two-month lead, she can't expect to be able to do the same thing as if she'd gotten to start in October (6-month lead). We spoke about this today and she agreed. I hope she remembers this as she goes forward and doesn't get too stressed. I hope to work with her on this project in April.

My friend (PS) is taking a dance class tonight. I can't wait to hear about it! I love to dance!

Oh! Did I tell you we got a Wii? MWH got us one for my birthday. Wheeeee! (Sorry... Had to do that.) He also got us Dance Dance Revolution. On Sunday, he, oNe and I played on and off for about 4-5 hours. I think I did it for about 2-2.5 hours.

I love that MWH dances. When we met, I learned he 1) didn't like coffee, and 2) didn't really want a dog. I decided I'd be okay with these two issues because everything else about him was wonderful. Now, after 12 years of hanging out, I am so thrilled that he dances that I'll take his dancing over drinking coffee... I really hope he comes back to Zumba again!

oNe is really getting into dancing too. She loves to do Zumba with me. She's working on learning salsa. She's getting better at moving and groovin'. She's also made a lot of progress on Dance Dance Revolution this week.

twoK had a HARD day yesterday. I'm not sure what caused her emotional state, but she screamed, slammed doors and cried. Part of me wonders if she's a little out of sorts because Three-a went with me to visit Grandma last week. Part of me thinks it was just a bad day. twoK is definitely less difficult than she used to be. The frequency of these outbursts is less. I do think she has some middle child syndrome though. I think I probably need to do something special with JUST her soon.

Three-a can bowl on the Wii. She had to teach me how yesterday. I love it! Wheeee!

Green Moms

Green Moms dot com. A friend just sent me the link. There's some nice tips. I may/may not have time to go to any meetings or be part of their work but knowing about the organization and their web site is a good.

aw.

oNe says she has a best friend at school. Her best friend is S______. S______ was in oNe's kindergarten class. S_______ is gone this week (out of town) and missing the valentine party. oNe is sad because she was going to make her a really special valentine. I told her she still could.

He was GREAT!

MWH was great in Zumba. And I'm not just saying that so he'll come back. He was good! I do hope he comes back.

Zumba!

Today, MWH is coming to my Zumba class! I asked him to attend class as a birthday present. I don't think he'll like Zumba as much as I do, but I really wanted him to come to class. He's being a good sport and coming. He does dance (well) so it won't be awful for him, but it will be different. Maybe he'll leave a comment here after the experience.

On another Zumba note, when Three-a and I were visiting my Mom, and I'd take her to the bathroom, and she'd take forever, I'd do Zumba in the bathroom to amuse myself while waiting. (What, you don't do Zumba in the bathroom when you're bored? You haven't lived!) Anyway, she started calling me "Zumba Girl." It is very cute. She also calls people (me included) "silly goose."

The End?

http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm

re-united*

When MWH and oNe and twoK picked us up last night, the 3 little girls at the airport were so cute! oNe was picking Three-a up and swinging her around. twoK was so excited too. (MWH and I were pretty happy to see each other too!)

The trip was emotionally exhausting for me**, and I am so glad Three-a was there to be her silly 3-year-old self. I feel like I owe her something big. (I guess her presence on the trip makes up for all some of the nights I had to get up in the middle of the night.) Three-a was a super good traveler. Super. oNe and twoK were happy to see me, but they really MISSED Three-a. I am so glad they are so close.

Today I woke up in the 7 o'clock (am) hour and started working to catch up a little from the week. Little girls are awake now and I think I only get a few more minutes.


*You can thank me (or curse me) if you have the Peaches and Herb song running through your head for the rest of the day. (heh)

**I have written about it, but I don't know if I'll publish it. Despite how much I post, I don't actually publish everything I write here.

Trip Report

Three-a is an amazing 3-year-old. I wore her out yesterday, and she lost it last night at bedtime, but other than that, she's been a little dream companion. Yesterday, because all we had done the day before was errands and boring stuff, I took her swimming, to the park, and then we walked to a store (only a block from my Mom's house). She didn't get a nap. I *should* have gotten her to bed by 9 pm, but I didn't. It wasn't pretty.

One cute thing.... Three-a learned the name of the city where we live, C_________, and she keeps telling everyone here in my Mom's state that we're from C_________. They have no clue what she's saying. She leaves off the state name, but tells them the city.

Three-a talks in her sleep and she likes HER OWN SPACE when she's sleeping. TwoK would snuggle, but Three-a doesn't want to be touched at all. She's woken up several times saying, "You're SQUISHING ME." Um, no, you rolled into me. I'm not sure if it will work for twoK and Three-a to share a bed after all. We'll have to see.

Today, we interview someone to help my Mom around the house and with errands, we go to the cemetery (1-hour drive each way), and more errands.

Talking

Just for the record, Three-a talks in her sleep.

Sent from my iPhone

Travel companion

Three-a and I are visiting my Mom. I'm glad we're here for my Mom's sake, but it's hard. Three-a is such a trooper and she's JUST FUNNY.

I think I owe you all stories about my Birthday, but I'll have to wait and share those when I'm not so tired. Being emotionally overwhelmed makes me TIRED. I just found my Dad's leg brace in a bag and it made me sad that he wasn't sitting in "his chair" watching television with it wasn't attached to him. I don't know how my Mom does it.

BIIIIIIIIIG!

It's a big birthday for me soon.

Leave me comment-y love please! I will need them to help me through this birthday.

Be anonymous or tell me who you are. I would love to know who all is out there!

Thanks in advance!




(xoxoxo to those of you who want them.)



p.s. this post is dated in the future so it will stay at the top for a few days... scroll down for newer entries.