Doing Stuff

I've been meaning to post forever, but I'm never in the mood to write about things. Today I'm on the caffeine/sugar high that can only be achieved through Diet Coke and too much birthday cake. So here we go...

We took the fish to her pediatrician appointment this week and everything looks good. She's getting taller and heavier and developing on schedule. She didn't get her shots because my old pediatrician hadn't sent the shot records yet, but we have to go back and do that soon. I really liked the pediatrician; she was super nice. First we had a resident look her over (it is a teaching hospital) and then the pediatric nurse practitioner who had been recommended. I was very pleased with the visit, but the whole resident thing made me wonder if I'm going to have to have two pelvic exams next week when I have a gyno appointment at the University. It's not a big deal (I mean I had Mony at a teaching hospital and had an entire student NICU team along with the actual NICU team in the room when I pushed her out) but it just makes it take longer. I don't know. We'll see how that goes. It's this coming Wednesday.

I actually read a book this week, so I feel kind of smart again. I'm glad to be back in the land of libraries. The branch we live closest to is the only one that is open on Sundays, so that's convenient. I want to take Mony to the downtown library soon, though, since it has a pretty awesome children's section if I remember correctly. I really do think reading helps keep me sharper because I did way better at my crossword puzzle this week than I usually do. When I start back to school soon, I'll probably feel like a total genius, even if I'm just taking stupid accounting theory classes.

Today we took Ramona to her first party. It was her friend Olivia's first birthday party and it was cute. She had fun eating cake, running around, and even interacting somewhat with other children. Fun times.
Tomorrow I officially join Epworth United Methodist. We met with Pastor Bob on Thursday about Mony's baptism. Everything is set for that on February 20.

I still don't have my W2s for either job. I'm looking forward to my tax return so I can finish getting the living and dining room together. What I have left: curtains & hardware for the living room, pictures/art for the living room and dining room, table cloth/linens for the dining room, and paint for both rooms. So, I'm actually almost done, I'm just wanting to actually be done so I don't think about it anymore and can think about the other rooms. (The bathroom needs some serious organization help.) Also, I can't wait for my couch to come in. I think that will make it feel a lot more done and less flophouse.

Library Baby

The fish went to the library for the first time- she thinks it's a place where you run down the aisles and yell, but that's ok. She's a baby and she had fun. I'm trying to make Joe take her to Baby time at the library since it's when I'm at work. (Stupid day time jobs!)

MLK Yay!

Ramona with her sippy mug

Man, do I love a three day weekend. Mostly because I love spending time with my little family, but also, I enjoy not working. However, I think this is the way everyone feels, so I'm not going to go on about it for long.

Friday we went to Joe's parents' house and had a dinner for Joe's brother Chris. I had a lot of fun talking to Chris's girlfriend and the food was excellent as always. Mony was well behaved and running all over. She has been playing with Joe's brother Ben a lot when we go over there. Ben chases her around and she's at that age where she's just starting to love getting chased. (Run run. Look over shoulder to make sure he's still chasing. Run run more. Laugh hysterically. Repeat.) Fun times.

The next day we actually made it to church on time for the first time. I was incredibly proud of us. Ramona has been doing really well in the nursery. She likes to play and run around. They have different ages in different nurseries and she's usually the oldest one in the 0-18 months nursery, so she amuses the nursery ladies with her abilities to run around and grab other children's things. I had my membership class after church, and after that we went home.

Ramona has been biting a lot the past two weeks and Joe's mom noticed it when we were over there on Saturday. I had been checking to see if she was teething pretty much every day, but nothing was popping through yet (although her gums were starting to look swollen.) Sunday, she was drooling like crazy- WAAAAY more than usual. So I stuck my hand in her mouth, and sure enough, her top cuspids are starting to peek through. She's slept pretty well through this round of teething. I'm guessing the bottoms will bust through pretty soon.

I also got my hair cut on Sunday. I got the length chopped off, which is good, and I think the cut looks nice even though it's totally 90s looking. We'll see what happens when I style it myself.

2011: Off to a great start

This year is already going pretty well. Resolution-wise I've already lost 6 pounds through a lazy "diet" (not constantly eating total crap) and Just Dance 2, and am looking at joining the YMCA this weekend. I've been able to relax and spend a lot of time with people I care about. In a word, I have been HAPPY.

Ramona has been weaned for a week now. On one hand I kind of miss it, and on the other it's awesome to have my body back to myself. Mostly, it makes me feel like she's such a big girl. We were able to wean gradually enough that I haven't had any pain or super engorgement. We were down to just bed time nursings for over a month and she just finally seemed ready to be done altogether. It was a combination of two things- 1) She saw me topless on New Years eve and instead of going "OMGboobiess! Ineedtonursenow!" which was her old mindset, she just poked and played with them (which I can't blame her for. Playing with boobs is fun.) and 2) At bedtime nursing last week she bit me really hard and drew blood, leaving a nasty scab and getting blood all over the white shirt I was wearing. Luckily I was able to get it rinsed in time that the stain didn't set. I think she only bit me because she was super thirsty and there wasn't enough milk coming out fast enough for her. (I base this on the fact that she drank two sippies of milk after the incident.) But I was like "You are done forever, kid!" The scab is still on my nipple. It was quite a bite. All around, I don't regret being done, and she doesn't seem to really notice/care. We're still super cuddle buddies and we're still co-sleeping since I don't want her to associate weaning with me kicking her out of bed. Plus I like having my little cuddle buddy around. But sleeping in her own bed is the next big hurdle we have to jump. I don't think I'm going to start pushing on it until she's 18 months.

No Kissing!

I have really been enjoying Ramona a lot lately. It seems like she became much happier when we moved here, and she really rarely cries anymore. She also sleeps through the night, which makes us all a lot happier. But mostly she's at an age where her personality is more apparent every day. She cracks up at the goofiest stuff. She gets excited about giving fives. She lets us know if we are not doing what she wants up to her standards. (I tried to give her five with only one hand earlier today and she grabbed my other hand and pulled it up to indicate that I was supposed to be giving fives with both hands.) She wants to share her food with us- kind of. She'll put a cheerio near my mouth and if I don't eat it fast enough she just puts it in her mouth and gives me a look like, "You're supposed to eat it like this, idiot." She acts insulted if we won't drink out of her sippy when she offers it. She runs all over the house pushing her baby doll stroller and will sometimes load it up with snacks and her sippy and push them all over the house. She's just so fun. It's pretty much impossible to be in a bad mood around her. When I get home from work, I get a biiiig hug and kisses which makes me smile so hard. She is very affectionate.

However, she does not like it when Joe and I are affectionate towards each other. Whenever Joe and I kiss, hug, or just cuddle Ramona starts squealing and runs over to break it up. I don't know why it upsets her so much but she gets really mad about it. Tonight she was sitting on my lap and Joe walked over and Ramona realized he was going to give me a kiss, so she jumped up and started pretty much making out with me so Joe couldn't get close enough to give me a kiss.

One of my favorite things is how devoted she will get to an idea when she comes up with something. Last night Joe drank a beer out of one of our beer mugs. When it was empty, Ramona grabbed the mug and put her sippy in it and then tried to drink the sippy out of the mug, which she couldn't quite pull off because the mug was too heavy. But she still carried about the sippy in the mug and put it back in every time it fell out the rest of the night. That's dedication.

Memories

I've been looking through old pictures of Mony because I'm thinking about getting a couple blown up to decorate around the house. Here's some cute ones I forgot all about- look how chubby she was!

I loooooove the stuck out tongue. I really like this a lot except the lighting is bad and you can see my bra. But it makes me smile just looking at it.
Yum, tasty toes! I forgot how much easier it was to get cute pictures of her when she didn't move that much. Now it seems like she's running around too much to get any pictures of her that aren't blurry.
I love the stuck out tongue and the Danzig photo bomb.
A Mommy and Mony moment. This one always makes me smile as well. My silly baby. I'm still deciding which ones are blow up worthy (which is dependent on my terrible photography skills as much as the actual content of the photos) but these ones made me happy tonight.

Holy crap

Christening gowns are expensive. Apparently they are like wedding dresses- you specify they are for a special occasion and then charge four times as much.

Baby Baptism

Just an FYI, Ramona is scheduled to get baptized on February 20 at the 9:45am service at Epworth United Methodist 3077 Valley View Drive Ottawa Hills, Ohio 43615. Obviously, it's at church so anyone and everyone is invited. We'll probably go out to eat or have food at our house afterwords, so let me know if you're coming and interested in getting lunch together so we can plan.

The fish has had a nasty cold for a couple of days. She has been pretty resilient through it, but has had a hard time sleeping. Colds are no fun in general, but they are especially crappy for people who don't understand the concept of blowing their noses. Poor baby.

We went to see Joe's extended family in Richmond, Indiana over the weekend and it was a pretty good time. Ramona loved all the attention and did really well, even with the long car ride. She's getting big. I set up her 15 month doctor's appointment today, so we'll see how the new pediatrician is. She was recommended by a family friend, so I'm sure she'll be awesome.

More to report, but I'm not really in the mood to write at this moment. Maybe tomorrow...

Mony Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Well I haven't put up pictures lately, so here's some updates to Baby Fish's life as of late. Here she is looking cute and Christmasy. See that hair I've been talking about?
She enjoyed Christmas and actually opened some of her own presents (as well as some other people's presents.)
All bundled up for zoo lights... you can see how much she enjoyed this.
Hanging out with her new friend Olivia. Mony is going to Olivia's first birthday party at the end of this month. They both like shoes. Besties!
Thanksgiving. I love bad pictures of me and Ramona.

A New Year

Wow, well NYE wasn't too exciting. We took Ramona to see Tauno's mom and brother and then went to Joe's parents' house and rang in the new year with his parents, their friends, and his brother. It was nice, but I didn't take any pictures. I've gotten really bad about taking pictures lately and it makes me sad. I love going back and looking at old ones, so not having them really bums me out. So this brings me to my goals for 2011, which I'm pretty sure will be an awesome year.

1. Take at least one picture every day. It doesn't have to be a good picture or anything time consuming, but just a quick snapshot of Ramona doing something (even just eating lunch or watching TV or playing with her toys.)

2. Get married. We've been talking about it forever. We should probably get around to it at some point. But weddings are annoying. If you have a cheap one, everyone is like, "what a trashy wedding!" but if you have an expensive one it's like, "Oh, what a waste of money!" So, I don't know. I don't really intend to spend much money. I think it will be very Joe and Megan style- fun and happy, with people we love and care about. Basically, if you're going to rain on our parade, you're not invited. We were talking about September, but a friend of ours is planning their wedding for that same weekend, so we'll have to figure something else out. We'll see. No real planning has gone into this at this point.

3. Watch every movie Danny DeVito has ever been in. This one is for fun. It's pretty self explanatory. It's one of those goals that you make just so you can feel good about accomplishing something that wasn't that hard to accomplish in the first place.

4. Work out more. Now that I live somewhere that exercise is more feasible and Ramona is at an age where I can actually be away from her without feeling horrible about it, I should be able to work out more. I definitely will be able to go running in my neighborhood, and am planning on doing the 5k during the Toledo marathon this spring (possibly with Mony in a stroller.) I'd like to do another half at some point this year, but we'll see what happens with Joe finding a job and having money and whatnot. I guess I can always do something close to home, but traveling is part of the fun of running them.

5. Read more. I'm back in the land of libraries! Yay! Also, this is another thing where Ramona is now able to entertain herself enough that I can sit and read while she plays with her toys and not feel guilty about it. I believe in engaging your kids, and spending time with them and playing with them, but I also think kids need time to play by themselves and learn things on their own. I was pretty awesome at entertaining myself as a child and I think it's served me well in life. I also am excited to take Mony to the library and let her pick out books and have story time.

6. Appreciate more and judge less. I constantly remind myself how fortunate I am in life, but I don't always take the time to appreciate all those little things that make my life so awesome. I need to enjoy life more and really soak in the moments of happiness I have. I'm don't really seem that judgmental because my attitude is just eh, that's not my problem, but even though I don't make a big deal out of stuff, it doesn't mean I don't think it. I'd like to train my internal thoughts to be less bitchy.

7. Spend time with friends and family. I love these people, and they make me happy, but I don't always make them a priority. Life is short, I like having fun, why don't I make it my goal to spend as much time as possible with those who make me the happiest? Life will be better.

That's all I've got for now. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a little overflowing with childish optimism this year, but the move I've been waiting so long for has me believing that life can be great and a big part of that isn't just happy coincidences. It's effort. It can be done if you want it to be done. Insert other positive affirmations here. Happy new year!