prairiemama: (numbface)
of course holly wd pick the day of a car trip to wake at 445 :P. (nak) christine is here and she and i are driving the girls down to visit my parents in kansas city. i'm nervous, of course: the longest i've driven with both is 2.5 hrs and that was 3 months ago. this drive is 5 hrs :/. we are going to ignore naptime (at our own peril) and try to get out early(ish -- have some errands) so if we need to take frequent breaks we'll still get there at a decent time, figure out sleeping arrangements (ah, the magical beds of my family follow us wherever we go... i can't bedshare with robin, ideally not roomshare either, and they both need pitch black rooms), and god willing settle robin in. holly is still young enough that she'll sleep wherever... robin notsomuch.

i'm nervous about the usual suspects, but excited at a change of scenery, a yard to play in, good food and conversation, and maybe a trip to the zoo.

brian is going to stay here and do a ton of cleaning and hopefully smoke pot and play guitar and have fun as a manly man, and not mope and be like "i miss you" which of course he will but COME ON, he's getting to be alone for days on end!! OPPORTUNITY!

anyway. holly has fallen back asleep now so...
prairiemama: (Default)
amazing talks w/ b today have me feeling REALLY POSITIVE AND HOPEFUL. maybe some exciting changes soon. more later!!

recent pics

May. 4th, 2010 12:53 pm
prairiemama: (Default)
April flew by.

IMG_2428
I gave Robin her first haircut on Easter Sunday. She had her hair smartly bobbed. I bribed her with TV and a chocolate bunny.

IMG_2439

IMG_2443
Holly's new skills include putting her feet up on the bouncy seat, squealing like crazy, holding her head up really well, allllmost rolling over and alllllmost laughing. She can also hold toys well and is chewing on them (and her thumb!!) madly. This is partly because she is ALREADY TEETHING!! Her bottom 2 teeth are just below the surface.

IMG_2445
Becoming little buddies.

IMG_2457
On a walk with Dada.

IMG_2473
Robin loves painting. Watercolors are pretty clean and easy to clean up.

IMG_2474
Holly displaying an inherited loyalty to the Cubs with the stuff Janine sent both girls!

crazy week

May. 3rd, 2010 02:06 pm
prairiemama: (Default)
I keep intended to update and not having time to process everything before a kid wakes up! It was an intense week sans daycare, and sans Brian for a day, plus a car trip with both girls, plus a Friends of Iowa Midwives steering committee meeting, plus having a friend over for dinner. A hectic, stressful, but overall good week. And it makes my regular daily life seem downright cushy in terms of time and help and whatnot.

ROBINA HAD HER BABY!!!

Ummm... life is good for the time being, and we had a few really good nights of sleep with Robin (last night sucked tho).

More later. Sorry!!
prairiemama: (Default)
I've only had one dream about this baby during the pregnancy, and that was verrrrrry early on when I dreamed it was a little girl. Last night I finally had another birth/baby dream!

In the dream we were at my grandmother's old house, which was really neat. I actually use that as a visualization for labor (early on, anyway), walking through her house and thinking about how I know every detail of it. It's a very comfortable and familiar place for me -- it pretty much captures my sense of home. ANYWAY, I'm in labor, but then I leave the living room where I am laboring and go wait in the kitchen. In some weird way, the baby is born without me being there. I'm in the kitchen with this weird "it's strange to not be birthing my baby" sensation. Then the baby has been born, so Brian and I walk back to the living room, and my midwife hands me the baby. I hold the baby up with a head under his head and his butt so he is face up and I see that it is a long boy with dark brown hair (almost absurd, wig-like brown hair). The baby is completely asleep, not moving at all. In my mind, I say, "aha, it's [boy name]!" and turn to show Brian. Brian sees that it's a boy and says, "Bummer." !!! Then I wake up.

When I told Brian about this he was very offended that my brain would construct him in that way. When I told him I'd dreamed we had a boy, for the record, he said "Yay!"
prairiemama: (numbface)
We are all super tired this morning, which makes no sense! I took a nap at 10 am, and Robin fell asleep at 10:30 (which is like 11:30 "normal" time, which is STILL early). Brian is napping now. I'm worried that this adjustment is going to suck! :P

I'm sitting in stinky pajamas finishing my lunch of Chinese takeout leftovers and muffins (?). I feel like I'm just killing time until we go see 2 potential houses at 2:30. I can't find 2 important books that I need to read THISWEEK and I'm annoyed at Brian for this, because he has moved my school stuff 3 or 4 times this semester. I've checked everywhere reasonable I can think of and am worried I'll have to buy them a second time and fast ship them from Amazon to have them get here LATE. ARGH.

/whining

Fuck

Jun. 12th, 2008 07:34 pm
prairiemama: (iowa)
Today has been the worst day.

Funeral - heartbreaking. Still processing this.

Brian called to tell me that things are "getting grim" and after talking to a few people I decide to drive back immediately with Robin (who, bless her heart, slept almost the entire way home).

I arrive to an empty, dark house, after driving through standing water to get to our street.

Our street has been evacuated and we had to leave the cats there for the time being.

Brian had frantically been trying to reach me but my cell didn't get the calls. He got us a hotel room. He thought we were dead and literally sobbed when we got there. I've never seen him cry.

So here we are -- in a hotel room, without our cats, worried and exhausted and very sad. Things do indeed look grim and I'm not sure what's going to happen.
prairiemama: (Default)
Brian is off work today so I can type two-handed. Wow does it feel amazing. He and Robin are sitting nearby making faces at each other and having a conversation. She's really coming into her own little personality right now, cooing and gurgling and making lots of faces. It's pretty freaking awesome.

So, we still haven't heard from the guy about his condo and whether or not it will be available. And all of a sudden today I got impatient about it and emailed him basically saying "we would vastly prefer to rent from you but if nothing changes by the end of the semester, we're going to look elsewhere." I poked around a bit to see what's available and it looks like we should be ok if we don't dawdle on finding a new place. There were even a few options that looked preferable/nice! The trick is finding places around here that are cat-compatible. We decided that our must-haves are: cat friendly, laundry hook ups (in-unit w/d even better!), dishwasher. (We're looking for 2 bedroom/2 bath.) After that, we'd prefer a first floor place, covered parking, and not an apartment (I'd love a duplex, or something where we don't have to share walls and halls with people).

Usually I'm a complete fucking mess about finding housing, but this time around I'm just trusting that the right place is out there for us. I was encouraged by the stuff I saw just poking around.

I'm trying to focus on getting my homework for my indy study done. Fortunately we set it up so I don't have that much to do (I think about 24 articles to read, grouped into "units" about which I need to do a little write-up, and then a final "essay" that's about theory-into-practice type stuff). I have about four weeks to get it all done, and I'm almost through one unit. The trick has been finding time to write. I can read while nursing but not write a paper - not yet, anyway. At any rate, I think that's achievable. And hopefully I can stay on top of grading. OMG I can't wait for summer. Can't. Wait. So. Ready.

Oh. This is fucked up. Apparently someone somehow got ahold of Brian's debit card number and used it to run up a $600 charge at a gambling site through Ireland. So now he's had to run all over town to the bank and cops and everything to get the money returned. It's a huge pain in the ass -- shouldn't it NOT be? We're not the bad guys here. Why do we have to do so much weird paperwork to get back money we didn't spend?

I've been obsessing over Robin's diaper situation. I so dislike disposables. I'm psyched: [livejournal.com profile] babycatcher33 did a Goodmama lotto and I got one!! The holy grail of cloth diapering and I get to try it out. Brian asked if I was going to sell it :P funny enough that hadn't even occurred to me. I'm excited to try it.

We need to get Robin's birth certificate taken care of. If we do it within the next week, we won't have to go down to the Soc Sec office and get her number. That's our goal: to avoid more hassle. We have to find a notary public. Do you have to make an appointment with a notary, or do they just hang out waiting for people to show up for notarizing purposes?

Robin is getting chunky and strong. She's getting really good at head control - nursing her at night is so much easier now. I think she's almost to where she'll hold her head up. Exciting! I think wearing her will be a lot easier once she can do that.

Sorry I'm just rambling. It's just so amazing to be able to type fast.

Robin is getting hungry but I don't want to have her back. I'm annoyed at how little Brian takes over her care when he's off work. I'd like a little more break time, you know?? I keep thinking that his days off will be days where I can accomplish things I haven't been able to that really require time and two hands, like some serious laundry sorting/putting away, and writing, and shaving my legs. It's not working out that way. I think it will get better. We had some serious talks this week that I think might result in some big changes. More on that later, probably. Yeesh.

OK. She's really getting fussy. I'm off!
prairiemama: (Lauren and Brian Xmas)
A friend of ours who has worked for a few years in the office for international students sent Brian a link to a job there that would be great for him. The salary is reasonable, the hours great, and he'd be doing work he would really enjoy. This friend is also writing him a letter of rec. This is probably the best shot Brian has had since May for a job he might actually like. Please send him prayers, reiki, vibes, energy, whatever you got.

Profile

prairiemama: (Default)
prairiemama

August 2010

S M T W T F S
1234567
89 101112 1314
15161718192021
22 232425262728
293031    

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 7th, 2025 06:48 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios