Friday, December 25, 2009

Baby Jesus and Mama Mary and Daddy Joe-pep

Which is how Cee describes any manger scene she sees. Which is pretty cool. Which also reminds me that once in awhile, I do something right as a Mommy.
When I got out the Christmas decorations this year, Cee saw the wrapping paper and thought it was for a birthday. So I told her, yes, it is, and explained about Baby Jesus, Mama Mary, and Daddy Joe-pep.
We made a birthday cake for Baby Jesus this year. The LT and I are trying to make sure the girls know about Jesus at Christmas before putting too much emphasis on Santa. Also, I had to use up some bananas, so it was a banana cake we made, and then I found some chocolate frosting in my ingredients cupboard and dumped a lot of sprinkles on top. I think Jesus would be pretty pleased by His cake.
I did have to explain to Cee that Jesus would not be coming by for dinner on Christmas Eve, but that we would think of Him when we ate it and remember His birth.
The girls had a very nice Christmas. Their big gift was a toy kitchen and Cee and Lee both loved it. Then there were some little gifts and each got a blanket. Cee's featured Lightning McQueen and Mater, and Lee's had her name and a little puppy embroidered on it.
So Merry Christmas to you all, and Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

I have too many books!

Well, too many books for the available space in my house. I have all the books I've collected since early childhood, with the exception of picture books, which are still at my mom and dad's house, waiting patiently to be read by the grandchildren who are arriving in droves. Plus, since I am an avid bookworm and prefer to own my books than return them to the library, I have continued to acquire more and more books in my adult life.
I also really like rereading my books which is a trait not everyone understands. This is another reason why I prefer to buy books. Many of my childhood books, particularly the Little House on the Prairie books and Betsy-Tacy books, are in atrocious condition because I am not kind to my books. They get carted everywhere, bent up, torn. They're like the blanket a little kid carries around until it's just a rag. But it's a much loved rag.
I did some straightening of the game closet tonight. This is also the closet that houses the vast majority of my books. I say "my" books because I've contributed most of the books in our household library collection. Many of my books beloved in my teens, like Nancy Drew and Babysitters Club, are contained in boxes because there's not room on the shelves.
I'm probably crazy for keeping these hundreds and hundreds of books. If there's ever a fire, I'd be heartbroken at the loss of my collection. But they are part of who I am. As dippy as it sounds, my books are kind of like old friends that I still visit from time to time.
Someday I'll have enough space for all of them to be out, too, I hope.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Back yet again

I know, I know, it's been MONTHS since I've posted. Well, the LT and I had our baby on Mother's Day. I'll call her Lee. She's 3 months old now and she and Cee are so cute. She's a far more mellow baby than Cee was, and a better sleeper too. Just don't make her wait for nursing. And don't delay her bedtime. That's really the only time she gets fussy. It's been crazy going from a family of 3 to a family of 4, but we're pretty much adjusted, at least for now.
We've moved Luna outside. We found a doghouse on Craigslist, and she seems to be pretty happy. Samwise, Freya, and Molly also now spend most of their time outside. It's easier with Cee and Lee to not have the dogs constantly nuts in the house. We leave the dogs outside now when we are gone overnight and have the neighbors come over to feed them and make sure everything's okay, and that's working out really well. We're not quite sure what we're going to do this winter, but we'll figure it out.
The LT's family and all of us took a trip up the North Shore last week. It was Cee's first time up the Shore, and she had a blast throwing rocks into Lake Superior. She's still talking about it. We were all ready to come home, though. A vacation with 8 adults and 6 kids ages 2 months to 16 years gets really crazy.
Hopefully I'll find time to post more often now. My mother blogs more than I do.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

So far, so good

Cee has slept straight through the night for 2 nights in a row. I don't believe this has happened before. Last night she fell asleep around 8:30 and slept until 7:30, and the night before we did the crying thing as I laid her down at about 8:40, but she only cried for about 20 minutes and again, slept until about 7:00. So hopefully, this is a pattern that we can follow for, oh, the next 16 or so years.
And I guess just because you quote the Bible for your Facebook status, it makes all your friends worry about you. Grr. But that's a post for another time. Right now Cee is freaking out about her princess gloves and needing help with them.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Tired

I am tired.
Of course I'm tired. I'm 34 weeks pregnant. I have a 2-year-old. I have four dogs.
For all I swore I wouldn't, I am now letting (if that's the word) Cee cry herself to sleep when she wakes up in the night. I hate it. But she has been waking up again and hollering "Mommy, rock" or "Mommy, bed" or just plain, "Mommy", and when I would pick her up and rock her, I couldn't get her back into her bed. So I put her in our bed. Which meant that no one really got any good sleep. So, since I know there's nothing else she needs (she's not sick, teething, hungry), I've been letting her cry for 4 nights. I think I'm doing the sort-of Ferber method, which is going in at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and so on. The first night, it took 70 minutes. Night #2, 50 minutes. Night #3, 8 minutes (and I was so hopeful) but last night took an hour. So here's hoping that this works in a few more nights. Cee has put herself back to sleep many, many times before, without crying and needing to get up, so I also know that this is in her capacity. But I need her sleeping decently before Little Girl #2 arrives sometime in the next 6 weeks, because I know no one's going to get any sleep for awhile after she's born.
I just wish I wasn't quite so tired now.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

And the fur was flying

Literally!
We have four dogs: a 5-year-old Doberman named Samwise, a 4-year-old chocolate Lab named Freya, a 7-year-old cairn terrier named Molly that we adopted from the LT's parents, and a 6-month-old German Shepherd mix named Luna that someone dumped down the road from us back at the beginning of November.
Samwise is the (usually) undisputed alpha dog. He's the only male and he's lived here the longest. The LT and I adopted him less than a week after we bought our house. The three females are in constant battle to figure out their pecking order. When we adopted Molly from the LT's parents, she ended up being over Freya, since she's older. So okay, we have Samwise, Molly, Freya. Freya was pretty much okay with this.
Then we found Luna. She is a puppy and FAR too big for her britches. She took on Molly about a month ago and it seems like she now outranks Molly, the oldest dog in the house. BUT, she has not overtaken Freya (not for lack of trying). So we have a really bizarre pecking order among the female dogs where Molly outranks Freya, Luna outranks Molly, and Freya outranks Luna.
This morning Cee and I were in the basement (we have a split-level house) with the three girl dogs. The boys (the LT & Samwise) were in bed. All three girl dogs were wrestling, fighting, playing, whatever. Then Luna went after Molly and after an impressive tussle, there were several hunks of Molly's fur on the floor. Cairn terriers are mostly groomed by tugging gently on their hair, not combing or cutting. So it's not too surprising that after a fight with Luna, Molly would have lost some hair.
And then Luna, ever obliging, ate the hair.