Posts tagged ‘ginny’

May 20th, 2013

A peek of Maine

We’ve been visiting Maine for the last week. We arrived Wednesday at about 4 am, as the sun was rising.

That first day was a blur, Ginny didn’t want to sleep, since it was daylight outside, despite the lack of sleep she stayed up all day and made every one miserable. lol. Sleep has definitely been the biggest challenege of this trip, as the room doesn’t have curtains, so Ginny rises with the sun… at 5 am.  We visited several different places, but for now I’ll just share a few pictures.

 

 

A panorama of the view from the house at sunset.

B-man and I at Mackworth Island. He skipped rocks into the water while Ginny tried to copy him.

 

Ginny getting some energy out at Portland Headlight, in South Portland.

And one last sunset.

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May 10th, 2013

It’s been a while…

I’ve been doing lots of things. Nothing too “new”, and nothing really exciting. Just lots of things. Thankfully I’m getting the into the swing of managing all these things, and am going to get back to blogging. A two year hiatus was all it took! Go figure! I’ve got a busy weekend ahead: movie night with B-man, Richmond in the morning, and then I’ll need to get on the ball with Mother’s Day, but in the mean time I just wanted two post a picture. Ginny will be two in almost exactly two months. So… she’s considerably bigger.

 

 

And that is it. :)

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September 26th, 2012

i’m starting to get depressed again

my neighbor came over today. She played with Ginny while I did the dishes, then helped me clean of my patio that was covered in leaves, pine needles and tiny acorns. She talked about the funk. Ya know, that point in life where nothing is going right. In her case it’s an empty nest, in my case it’s a lot of different things.

my dog is dying. Gretel had been throwing up for several days in a row. So I took her to the vet and they did a blood test and found that her liver enzymes are low and her blood isn’t clotting. She has liver disease. The only way to find out how bad it is would be to spend $500, at which point they say “she’s going to die soon, just enjoy her” or they could say “she is going to die soon unless you spend $100+/month on doggy medicine, at which point she may live a few years more.”

boo.

either way she is going to die, I’ll just be lonely, and more poor if I choose the second option.

so we’ve decided to wait it out. she is still happy. she has stopped vomiting, and we are encouraging her to eat a little bit more.

the saddest part to me is that Ginny will not remember this sweet dog of mine. Gretel has so patiently put up with all of the ear pulling, crawling over and hang on that a dog with a baby around unfortunately deals with. Gretel has added so much love to our lives, and has been such a sweet companion to Ginny – and Ginny won’t remember. it breaks my heart.

this issue alone has had me bawling since last Friday. we are literally just waiting for her to show signs of discomfort. then we’ll be paying some one to kill our dog.

in other news: I’m having a hard time making new friends. I only live about 45 minutes north of my old stomping ground, but it seems like getting together with old friends is getting more and more complicated. people are busy, and moving on. while i am desperately clinging to my past. 45 minutes of driving each way makes short trips for walking about stores or a 30 minute play date all but impractical.

on top of this, I have been throwing myself out there left and right. I am friendly to strangers at target, I attend several different group play dates, and have been trying to hang out with people that I wouldn’t normally consider building relationships with. ya know, keeping an open mind.

but two months into this effort I am exhausted, and still feeling very lonely.

through no fault of his own, my hubs has been very busy at work, which often results in him being very tired at home. he gets up late, goes to work, gets home late, we eat dinner later, then he falls asleep while we’re hanging out in the living room. add this to my lack of social interactions with people I feel connected to and I’m a few drops closer to a bucket full of crazy.

I’ve been busy  focusing on other people. I feel like all of my spare time has been dictated by what other people want me to do, and I’m kind of sick of it. half of this problem is related to having a toddler who is dependent on me for her life. I get it. Okay.

unfortunately I have found myself being taken advantage of lately. they are quick to ask for and accept my help and time, but stingy when it comes to returning the favor.

boo.

in other news, I have started attending a water aerobics class twice a week. it is very nice to have the 2 hours twice a week to work out, relax, shower, listen to loud music in the car. it’s very nice.

and in closing, I bought this little shirt at H&M for Ginny. I went in there and rememebered it is a lot more expensive in the US than it is in Germany. note taken, again.

she’s getting too big. it breaks my heart more and more. thankfully she heals it with his cute giggles, new words, and desire to climb on bigger and taller things.

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September 15th, 2012

Organizing: toys (15 months)

When you have a baby, you are going to end up with things in your house that you didn’t ask for, and often times they are things you wouldn’t have purchased to begin with. Thankfully we often get more clothing as gifts than toys, since there is so much out there in the “cute girl clothes” section! I’d imagine if Ginny had been a boy we would have less clothing and a lot more gender themed toys. While a lot of her toys do end up being pink and purple, it is okay because when I purchase something I choose the gender neutral option.

Now, if I lived in a log cabin in the middle of a large plot of land far from neighborhoods that don’t want you to hang up a clothesline, I would probably not have any toys in my house. There is enough for Ginny to do with out me spending money. She loves moving the laundry with me, helping out with the dishes, and I’m sure a set of measuring cups is just as fun as the stacking cups we got her. In fact, I would estimate that she spend less than an hour each day actually playing with toys.

So, with that in mind… I have been trying to par down. Earlier this week I was at a friend’s house, sitting in their kids’ room while Ginny and I joined in a lovely game of house. I was the Mom. Just in case you wondering. No – I didn’t pick that. As I looked around it felt so clean. There was a kitchen set with a managable amount of play food and plates, and then the older girl had a doll house with miniature furniture. There was also a bag of stuffed animals in the closet. It made me think about my own collection of toys, and I admitted that I often have a hard time getting with of things, which is very very true.

So yesterday, finally gathering up the convictions to go through and store/donate/organize the ever growing collection of toys, I blitzed the living room.

Yes, we keep the toys in the living room. It looks a lot like this:

When my (future) children are older I may have a play room in the basement, or more toys in their rooms, but currently all of the “playing” is done on the main floor. The entire floor is baby proofed, so I feel comfortable leaving Ginny to play in the living room while I work in the kitchen.

You can see the play kitchen all the way on the left, a small chair/table combo, and then the white shelving unit that the TV sits on. In our apartment we had an entertainment center and this shelf was off to the side to house toys and baby stuff. The Ginny started walking and the entertainment center no longer sufficed. Too short. So we moved up to this.

I went through all of her toys and sectioned them off into “keep for the future”, “throw-away”, “donate”, and  ”available”.

Of course… turns out B-man is very attached to things too. So currently… nothing is being donated. Instead everything that isn’t on the “available” list of toys went into this toy box:

This includes but is not limited to:

  • baby toys – Ginny is now a toddler and not interested in these toys, but I am saving them for future children to use.
  • older kid toys – things we’ve been given that are too advanced for her as of yet.
  • Extra stuffed animals – we have about 5 in the living room, and 5 in her bedroom. All the rest get to hang out in the basement.
  • Duplicate concepts – how many shape sorters does a girl need? I chose to keep out the one that has two of each shape because it allows for mimicking work. I put a purple star in the box, she puts a purple star in the box. The other two we were given are a little above her right now.
  • Saving for late – Ginny recieved several nice sets of play dishes for her birthday. Instead of opening all of them up right now we have tucked some away for future use. We kept out the metal pots and pans – because they make great noises – and a set of dishes made from recycled plastic. I questioned this choice, since these are the only plastic plates she now comes into contact with – making it not very true to life – but decided that since other children often play with her toys it was the right choice.
  • Anything she has gotten bored of recently. I rotate her toys often enough that tucking these away for a little while will make them more interesting later.

We had considered removing the play kitchen from our living room. Ginny isn’t really interested in it yet, but decided to keep it upstairs a little bit longer because it is often used by older kids when we have play dates.

So are you wondering which toys made the cut? Well, this is by no means scientific, but I try to present a wide variety of toys that touch on different concepts. If I hadn’t been given most of these I probably would’ve come up with a cheaper/at-home version to do the same thing.

Accessible, Top Row, starting on the left:

  • a fabric bag with wooden block in it. I bought the blocks at the grocery store for $5.
  • Ginny’s dump truck. Now that I think about it this toy should probably go into hiding and reappear later, because she isn’t really into it right now.
  • This rattle/manipulative.  Ginny still enjoys moving the various “arms” around and shaking it for the rattling sound.
  • This wooden teether/manipulative. We got this through a secret santa at our Baby group. She has been using it a lot as her molars come in.
  • The afore mentioned friend had this musical cube at her house, and Ginny seemed intrigued. It had been away in the box for a while so when Ginny found it this morning she was very interested. She is old enough now to push the different buttons, adding and removing instruments to the classical song that is playing. This was by far the favorite today.
  • Ginny recieved this set of puzzles made by Lakeshore  from her Aunt, Uncle and Cousins for her birthday. As you can see one is on the shelf, always available, and the rest are tucked into the “big kid” drawer on the far right.
  • Behind the puzzle is this shape sorter. As I mentioned earlier it has two of each shape, which makes it easier for me to model the toy for her. She also enjoys just dumping out and collecting all 10 of the pieces.

Not Accessible, Bottom Row, starting from left:

  • You can easily see Sophie, and a nursery rhyme ”book” that sings the songs and has interactive buttons. There are also a few wooden toys, and little baby toys, for when we have younger babies over. Ginny isn’t really into these any more, but it’s nice to have them on hand. We also have this toy phone, which Ginny still loves to play with when she finds it.
  • The next bin has 3 beanie babies (perfect for little hands to carry), a baby doll, a stuffed hello kitty my neighbor brought over (“Vintage!” because it was from her daughter’s who is a little older than I am.), and a folding cube set that my mother made for Ginny. We usually take a beanie baby on trips to the store to minimize her desire to grab things from the shelves.
  • The next box is the play kitchen box. It includes the afore mentioned dishes, pots and pans, and then a smaller tub of fake food. Most of the fake food is felt. 2/3′s of it is from Ikea (we have the fruit set and the veggie set), while the rest of it is either from this set (also from the cousins, made by Lakeshore), and then a few plastic things that came with her little grocery cart.
  • In the last box are the “big kid toys”. This is mostly toys that Ginny could play with, but only if I was sitting right there to prevent mass scattering of pieces (hence the extra puzzles). It includes several Melissa and Doug toy sets that I was given second hand. We have the pizza set, the sandwhich set, the cake set, the cupcake set, and a lacing set (this isn’t the one we have – just a concept link).

Not pictured, because they don’t reside in the living room, is our collection of musical instruments: a small drum, a recorder that Ginny likes to blow on, a whale shaped tambourine from the thrift store, a shaker, and some bells. And of course Ginny’s books.

Having the toys out like this may not be for every one. I don’t mind seeing them, because in fact, a baby lives in my house. Having less than 10 toys available at one time makes cleaning up a breeze, and because I have carefully chosen age appropriate toys I don’t see many tantrums related to frustration. I still rotate the little things (like changing the puzzle, or putting different balls out), but for the most part these toys will be it for about a month. Then I will re-evaluate.

Over thinking much? Probably. But it makes me feel good.

So tell me, do you over think toys? Do you donate/re-gift toys you are given but don’t want your children to have?

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August 31st, 2012

mornings with ginny

I have been reading a few different books. Some talk about the Montessori method of teaching children, and some that focus on the Waldorf methods. Having attended Montessori schools as a child I have a few memories of those systems, and I like that the Waldorf methods make me feel a little more connected to the earth.

If I were going to rename my blog I would be the accidental hippy. Just roll with it. that’s what I do.

So these Waldorf books both talk about instilling a rhythm in your daily life. Time flows in rhythms, whether it is the way Christmas comes every year, or the way the weather cycles between the seasons. As adults we have names or our weekly cycles. Monday, Tuesday… these days mean things to us. But as names they are pretty abstract. Young children have a hard time grasping concepts of time. It’s still relatively new to them. Tomorrow and next week seem like one in the same. So Waldorf suggests adding a physical element to your daily and weekly rhythms, instead of just abstract names. So we have church day, vacuuming days, washing day, etc. Hopefully I’ll be able to come up with distinct activies for the rest of the days of the week. lol.

I also have tried to implement a daily rhythm. So when we get up in the morning we do the same things every day.

We start out on the potty. By “we” I mean Ginny. I usually end up holding it. Forever.

But I didn’t get a picture of her on the potty. Instead I got a picture of her in the potty.

Once that is done we get dressed, and then get breakfast.

This morning she had about 1 cup of cottage cheese.

And while that may seem like a lot of cottage cheese, I just keep offering it until she pushes it away. I guess she’s growing though, because when I sat down with my breakfast:

Well… she ate almost all of this too. I got about 3 bites in.

Of course, she really only eats breakfast, because for dinner she wanted a few graham crackers and a couple dried cranberries. Is it too early to have “fend for yourself” dinners? lol.

And then we had cup practice:

Every morning I give her a *tiny* bit of milk in the cup. Once she drinks it I add more to the cup, until she’s had enough. this practice is leading up to her getting to use her own glass cups, which is actually just around the corner, but I’ll talk more about that some other time.

After the cup practice we do the dishes. Ginny helps me put plates in the dishwasher, and then she loves lifting the door and pushing on it to close it. Then she claps.

The TV stays off during the day. I don’t know how I used to watch so much TV. I guess I was just nursing, and sitting, sooo much. Now the only time it comes on before bedtime is for the music channels.

I’ve been listening to the Soundscapes channel because it has very calming music on it.

The calming music is good, because I use listen to it while I do yoga.

As soon as I spread the mat out Ginny likes to walk on it, which I understand, because it feels neat under her feet.

Then she will take off running to play behind the curtains or chase the dog a little bit. She usually gives me enough time to do two sun salutations.

I am really enjoying this little addition to our mornings, because it really does help me feel centered. I turn off the lights, open all of the blinds and let the morning sun fill the living room while I breath through each movement.

It feels good.

Once breakfast, dishes, and yoga are done, we move on to other household chores that need attending to. This morning it was washing the bed linens and airing out our feather duvet.

This only lasted about 2 minutes. 1. Because it was hot and the air was stagnet, lacking any wind at all. And 2. Because after I got B-man to hang the line so I could put the blanket up, I pulled out the HOA book and realized that clotheslines were against the rules.

So we took it down and threw the duvet in the dryer on the fluff cycle. When Fall comes around I may be tempted to break the rules again for a few minutes.

After this point things vary from day to day. Some days we go to the library, some days we go hang out with friends, and some days we just stay home and play. But adding this little “rhythm” has definitely helped me feel a little bit more peace in my hectic day, so hopefully it is helping Ginny start her day off well too.

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August 1st, 2012

First big boo boo.

Since Ginny has started walking she feels like she should be able to walk everywhere. I try to support this desire as much as possible but some times its just not practical. For example, near roads or in  certain stores. Leaving our house she likes to walk the side walk back and forth several times before getting in the car, unfortunately this morning I couldn’t find both of her good walking shoes (after 20 minutes of looking) so I put her in some little flip flops and we were off. On the third lap in front od the house she tripped on the edge of the side walk (there is grass on both sides) and she cried a little bit. I stood her up and we continued on our walking way. As I picked her up to put her in the car I saw this:

image

So we went back inside so that I could clean it up a bit. We didn’t have any easily  accessible band aids, but I doubt she would’ve left the bandaid on any way.

Plus… like a good Mommy I told her to wait a minute so I could take a picture. Naturally.

image

She fell asleep as soon as we got in the car, so now she’s sleeping it off.

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July 25th, 2012

A new phone

I got a new phone yesterday. It is a motorola atrix. It works kind of like the iphone and has a voice recognition program. It’s kind of a pain to try and type on this tiny keyboard, so instead I have been talking at my phone. It does a pretty good job guessing the right words the first time, and encouraging me to speak more clearly.

I specifically chose to buy an android phone because I like the instagram app a lot. Before the application existed I used in action in photoshop to achieve a similar look. hopefully I will post more pictures now.

the last pictures I posted where from virginia’s birthday party. I still have not found the charging cord for my camera, which is a big bummer, but at least I can still take decent pictures with my phone.

Ginny  really has a thing for the dogs water bowl. If she walks into the kitchen and I do not follow her immediately the entire bowl will be all over the floor. Today I decided to fill up her little pool on the back porch and go outside to play. It was in the mid eighty’s today and although it was warm it was not too hot. even the dogs wanted to come hang out.

image

At first I left her in her clothes because she was just splashing. Then she decided to climb into the pool so I pulled out the swimsuit that aunt Jody gave her for her birthday. Since we were in the shade I did not put a hat on her, I did have to pull out the bug spray though.

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I love that Ginny can safely explore our backyard. She loves picking up stickd and crunching leaves in her hand.

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I don’t have big plans for the rest of the day. I am hoping to get my sewing machine out so that I can sew a bag that I have been thinking about. I searched all over to try and find one that I could buy but had very little luck. Two weeks ago I was at ikea and down the perfect fabric. Every time I am in the store I examine how the bags are made so hopefully I’ll be able to make a sturdy bag and not just waste fabric. I will definitely post pictures once I’ve finished it. Also need to post pictures of the things that I bought at the flea market while we were in maine. I can’t wait to show you the things that I got!

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July 16th, 2012

1 year older

I wanted to eat cake for breakfast but since Ginny and I got to sleep in today we woke up at lunch time and had leftover party food (hot dogs with macaroni and cheese). Then I ate cake. It’s kind of my weakness. Mostly the buttercream frosting. But… also the cake.

On Friday my baby turned one. She is still a tiny bean at 18.8 pounds, but she is walking like a pro and babbling up a storm. I knew I was making a compromise when we decided to have a party. Jenna, over at That Wife, had a baby centered first birthday. I’ve always thought that was sweet and perfect. Right up my alley. While Ginny was definitely the reason for our partying, it was much more “family” centered than “baby” centered.

Since her party was yesterday, a lot of Friday was spent prepping. But between dipping cake pops in chocolate and decorating cookies I spent my time cuddling my baby, taking a nap with her, and eating strawberries for breakfast lunch and dinner. Can you guess her favorite food?

Saturday was spent cleaning and prepping the rest of the food. We invited all of the local family over, plus my best friend’s family and my sweet neighbor who lives behind us. I did invite the rest of the neighbors (as this was originally a homewarming/birthday party), but only one came. But that’s okay.

One my think that with such a “short”‘ list it would be a small party, but the blessings of living so close to all of our extended family is that… no parties are small. Family alone accounted for 15 of the 20 guests.

Also… I recently moved. And… in the move I lost the charging cord for my camera. So… it’s dead. It died the last day we were in Maine. So… I couldn’t take any pictures, so I borrowed my Mom’s iPhone and grabbed some pictures thataway. Forgive me for the blurriness you are about to witness.

The main course was hotdogs (and soy-dogs for all of my vegan/vegetarian friends and family). Spiral hotdogs. This was B-man’s idea. He spent two weeks telling me about them, and why they are so cool. The week before the party I hadn’t decided on a “main course” so… I decided to placate my hubby and use his idea. For information on how and why to spiral cut your hot dogs go here. I think it’s silly.

I didn’t get a picture of the hot dogs though… they weren’t ready yet when I was taking pictures. So… pretend there were hotdogs, and they were delicious.

Then there was macaroni and cheese. One of Ginny’s favorite foods.

I used the Pioneer Woman’s recipe here, and I added jalapenos to one of them. This was the first pioneer woman recipe I have ever made, and I am going to be honest… I wasn’t very impressed. It tasted a lot like buffet style macaroni and cheese. I didn’t try to jalapeno version, but I hear it tasted like regular macaroni and cheese with jalapenos in it. I don’t know that I would use this recipe again.

Then there was fruit salad. Aside from strawberries, watermelon is probably one of Ginny’s all time favorite foods. She spent the majority of the eating time walking from person to person stealing bites of their watermelon.

Lastly there was veggie stick “shots” and vegan pasta salad (basically sans cheese). I ate the pasta salad for lunch today and it was yummy. :)

Then came the desserts… and there was plenty to go around!

First I made sugar cookies with the number “1″ on them. I had originally toyed with putting either a “V” or a “G” but consensus let me to just put a “1″. Every time I sit down to make these cookies I start out thinking “This is so much fun! I could do this and make money selling them!” And then I finish, my kitchen is covered in frosting, my hands and clothing are all sticky and my cookies look crappy. And that is the moment I remember why I don’t get paid to make cookies.

Then I also made cake pops. I have a similar feeling before I start making them… the “I could make money doing this” feeling… then I remember what a PITA they are and I go back to wishing I was frivilous enough to pay some one else to make them.

So these are “Watermelon” cake pops. Inside they have red cake with chocolate chips as the “seeds”. I didn’t eat any of them as I am still on cake-pop overload from the 2 I ate at B-man’s birthday party last October.

The cake comes later, but there was definitely cake as well.

I spent months collecting these frappacino bottles. Months. I wouldn’t recommend it, but the final product was pretty cute. Pink lemonade, slice of lemon, paper straw from Target.

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, but we also did bottled soda. Much more expensive, but it feels special, and makes people more aware of how many sodas they have had – at least… in my mind. We did have several left over though, so maybe my theory was right?

The lone party decorations: a “Happy Birthday” banner I borrowed from a friend and some balloons. The party entertainment was watching the balloons be blown in circles by the fan. A good time was had by all.

Ginny was a big fan of the bows and ribbons on the packages, but despite my best efforts she was unwilling to rip the paper on her own. For a girl who eats paper every day this was kind of a surprise. Guess I should’ve been practicing with her. lol.

Easily distracted baby is easily distracted.

Once I figured out she was into the tissue paper I handed her the bags with tissue paper so she could be a little bit more involved.

She got several nice little  board books – which she loves. She is a big fan of turning the pages before any one can read the words. Also, those are Ginny’s great grandparents sitting in the background, and our spoiled puppy dog who thinks he belongs on the couch. :)

She got the hungry catapillar book twice, once in board book form  (which will fit nicely in my baby bag!), and then the full size book and the stuffed animal to go along with it.

After presents we did cake. I made two, a small one for Ginny to smash and a bigger one for those who didn’t fill up on cakepops and cookies (mostly… me. I love the frosting. Did I say that already?).

These are the first cakes I have ever decorated before. Usually I just spread the frosting smooth and write on the top. The small pink cake was having issues (the ruffles kept falling off the sides of the cake) but I think it was because of the heat and perhaps my frosting was a bit too thin.

For size comparison. The bigger cake is two 9 inch side cakes, and the smaller cake is probably about 4 inches. I made a sheet cake and then took a bowl and cut around the board with a knife to get several layers for Ginny’s cake. No one got to appreciate that it was a 4 layer cake so because Ginny didn’t really go past the frosting.

“Happy Birthday” was sung, the candle blown out (we did practice that one before the party), and then the cake was placed in front of the baby.

This is the “after” picture… and as you can see… she didn’t do much damage. She kept putting her face up to the cake and sucking the frosting off. Finally I cut a “slice” from the cake at which point she daintily picked up a few bites of cake and ate them. Then she said her version of “all done”… which sounds more like “all dooo, all dooo, all doo.”

Trying to get Ginny to smile for the camera is quite the chore, but I really like this picture of her!

And then one of every one looking in the appropriate direction! Win!

 

After the cake people started to leave, and by 11 o’clock we had our party covered house all to ourselves. After a quick collection of empty bottles and making sure there was no food left out we headed up to bed. I went into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth and while I was in there I heard my hubby singing Happy Birthday to our sweet baby. It was probably the best moment of the entire day.

I am

…glad to be done with all of the cooking and preparing.

…thankful for all of the help from my family and sweet neighbor.

… sad to see my little girl growing so quickly.

…excited that Ginny learned to walk before her party – it was a hope of mine for the last few months and she learned just in time!

…almost done with all of the leftover dishes.

…going to go put my dining room back together after I finish this blog post.

… bummed that the weekend went by so quickly.

 

So tell me, how was your weekend?

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June 29th, 2012

hanging out

Recently I read a statistic that only 20% of moms are full-time SAHMs. This surprised me, but I think it is mostly because my Mom was a stay at home mom, so growing up I kind of assumed most people were the same as me. A dangerous thing to do. Regardless, I really love staying home with Ginny. I know a lot of people do better with the structure of work, or with the house of “adult” contact… but despite Ginny’s unwillingness to nap, we have a pretty good time together.

This is the pram I bought when I was pregnant. I love it! Ginny and I will go on walks in the morning some times, or in the afternoon with the neighbor lady behind our house, or sometimes just in the evening when B-man gets home from work. One of the best features of our neighborhood is that there are sidewalks every where, so each walk is a little different. We turn down new roads and walk until we hit a cul-de-sac, and then turn around a head home.

This move has definitely been a positive thing for B-man. He is only about 25 minutes from work, and zero of those minutes are spent just sitting in traffic. He has also worked from home with some frequency in the last few weeks – which has been  awesome in my opinion. I do tend to bother him a lot when he’s working, which may or may not annoy him… but then… if I didn’t annoy him I wouldn’t have cute pictures like this one!

And then lastly, our new house has a fire place.

And the explora-baby has been, well… she’s exploring. And then getting stuck on the hearth. She spends a lot of time climbing up and then kind of yelling at me, then she’ll scoot around and try to get down. I usually stay about a foot away. Close enough to catch her, but too far for her to grab. She’s gotta work these things out on her own. If she can get up, she can get down.

She knows how to get off of her big girl bed. She does a 20-point turn until her feet hang off of the mattress and then she scoots backwards. I guess there isn’t enough room to do this on the hearth, so instead she spend a lot of time looking at the floor, and possibly regretting climbing up there.

And then she gives me this look… with her hand on her hip (sassy already!) which kind of says “Just get me down from here you silly Mommy!”. To which I respond “nevaaaaar!”

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June 18th, 2012

8 teeth

The last few days have been a blur. On Saturday my middle sister graduated. She is in the middle of the 5 of us kids, and it’s kind of a strange feeling. Growing up it was the three older girls, and the 2 little kids. So… all of the big girls have graduated high school and gone off the college. As a parent now I try to imagine how my own parents are feeling. Over half of their children are technically “adults”.

Sunday we did a little bit of sleeping in, but then we had to get up and take Ginny down to her Aunt Twila’s house. Every one else in B-man’s family was going on a kayaking trip! We drove about an hour north to Pascataway Creek and took advantage of a groupon all of us had purchased. I ended up going in a double Kayak with one of my sister-in-laws… and it was a lot fun. Probably  more fun than I would’ve had if I had been in a single kayak.

When we were on our way home from kayaking my Dad called me. We had invited every one over for Father’s Day dinner – and he and my two youngest siblings had gotten to our house early, found a door unlocked (oops!) and set off our alarm. The local police called and we were easily able to cancel the alarm. Glad to know it works!

Aaaand… our first house party was a success! I bought B-man a nice charcoal grill for Father’s Day, and we made grilled chicken sandwiches for all of our 15 guests. Then… we had chicken for dinner again tonight… and will probably have it again tomorrow! Thankfully there were only 2 chicken breasts left over or we would probably get sick of it.

Ginny is now 11 months old. She has, as mentioned above, 8 teeth, though two of them are still working their way in. She is also almost walking. She has taken some steps on her own, but seems to prefer crawling much more. I had kind of hoped she would be walking by her first birthday, so that she didn’t have to spend the entire time in some one’s arms/potentially being trampled, but we’ll see. Still have a month to go. There are a lot of clothes that are almost her size, but I haven’t put her in them because they would make crawling really difficult (most dresses), so that is another reason it would be great if she started walking… she won’t be in size 9-12 months forever!

And that about covers everything. We are still unpacking, still decorating, and still just putting along!

Just enjoying the summer weather!

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