pressure drop

I feel a little overwhelmed thinking of the next week. We moved our closing date up to Friday, which means we have now until then to pack. Not a huge deal, except we're going to Sioux Falls Tuesday to Thursday for my company picnic. Luckily (kind of) my parents can't help us move until Sunday, so Saturday we can paint and Mike can run back and forth bringing small stuff, which is the most annoying part anyway. I can at least get the kitchen and bathroom stuff unpacked and put away. Anyway, rambling, rambling.

The good thing I'm realizing about all this craziness is that I'm actually a lot less worried about it then I would have been before baby, because I really haven't had time. Before, it would have been weeks of obsessing about it and planning and making lists. Now we have no choice but just it done. It's actually a relief to have a reason to get out of my head a little.

Ok, back to work. Arghghgh.

nebulize this, diet detective!

I bought a huge jar of peanuts, a 32-ounce Fat Tire and an US Weekly at Safeway tonight. Only walking out did it occur to me that the checkout girl must have thought I was heading home for one hell of a Wednesday night. (Really the peanuts were for Asian chicken salad, the beer is the only size they sell and the magazine, well, ok, that one was mine).

So, we have another first under our belts. First cold. First-time mamma that I am, the baby has been to the doctor twice this week - once for the initial diagnosis of "cough" and again today for "ear wax build-up" (I swear, she was playing with her ear - I thought she had an ear infection!!) It truly is a pretty hearty cough, and the doctor sent us out to buy a nebulizer, which seems to help. That and some full contact action with the booger sucker. We've kind of cobbled together the week with Grandma and working from home to avoid having to put the thrice-daily nebulizing duties on the daycare peeps, so that's been kind of nice. She actually slept A LOT today while I was home, so I was able to finish up a few projects. Unfortunately, I also had this show called I Want to Save Your Life on as background noise, which made me feel awesome. It's kind of like Nanny 911, except the diet detective goes and find a person who wants to lose weight, goes through their cupboards and fridge and throws out all the crappy food they have, takes them grocery shopping for healthy stuff, makes them work out a bunch, etc. He suggests 90 minutes of aerobic exercise a day, 6 or more days a week. (Really Diet Detective Charles? 90 minutes??) I actually made it to the gym this morning, at 5:15 no less, and put in a fabulous 25 minutes. I don't know how I would do an hour six days a week, let alone 90 minutes. Ughgh.

nostalgia

This is one of last Saturday nights in our current house (yes, new house is official!!). It's a little bit sad - we've spent countless Saturday nights grilling on our deck, drinking wine and talking, Cooper eating endless apples under the apple tree next to the deck. Mike is a little more sad than I am (I haven't had time to get sad yet) but I think when we actually get everything moved out and we're not settled at the new house yet, I'll be totally bummed. I'm such a creature of habit and love to have my space settled. Every time we've moved, I always have everything put away within a day or two. I can't relax until I do. So it'll be fine after that, but the interim is going to be weird. It's our first house, you know? We lived in this house when we got married, got our first dog, had Ainsley. I know we need more space, and it will be great, but I appreciate what we've had here.

la musica

We watched Baby Mama for the gazillionth time tonight - man, that movie never gets not funny. If I could have dinner with any person, dead or alive, it would definitely be Tina Fey. Anyway, the credits song is that baby song from Dirty Dancing. That song, and a handful of other songs, will always remind me of becoming a mother, of those first couple hectic, hormonal weeks. When I was exhausted and doubting my abilities and deleriously frustrated, there would be these little moments of dancing the baby around the living room to these songs. Those were little moments of light, where I felt just a hint of what you think having a kid is going to feel like before you have one - all cute outfits and nursery colors and joy. Oh, and how naive you are. But as the weeks stretch into months, I feel the tension and the doubt start to wane, and the joy comes more and more. I mean, even though there are trials, like starting daycare, first shots and busy days, there is always more and more joy. And there is always, and always will be, dancing.

Be My Baby - the Ronettes
Tracks of My Tears - Adam Lambert
Poker Face - Lady GaGa
Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Think About Love - Dolly Parton
Put a Ring on It - Beyonce
1, 2, 3, 4 - Plain White Ts

schedule

So we're only on day two of full daycare, but I think I'm getting a schedule down (ha, ha). Here it is ...

5:10 am - ignore the dog whining to be fed
5:12 am - elbow mike secretly hoping to wake him up so he thinks he's the first to hear the dog whining to be fed (thus getting up and feeding him)
5:14 am - baby starts her usual pre-waking grunting and kicking ruckus - stick pacifier in her mouth, fall back asleep with whole arm in the bassinet
5:20 am - phone alarm rings, contemplate throwing phone
5:22 am - baby not kidding about being awake this time - BIGGEST smile when she notices you notice her awake. Hand her off to husband, who just got back from feeding the dog (the ploy worked!)
5:25 am - put on extremely stylish beanie, sweatshirt and running shoes
5:30 am - "run" in the rain with the dog - see MORE BUNNIES than could possibly exist - get whiplash from the dog every time he spots one
6:00 am - baby hand-off - diaper change, tummy raspberries, more smiles, get her dressed (40 degrees in June??!! none of the baby clothes have SLEEVES!)
6:30 am - baby hand-off - shower very fast
7:00 am - baby hand-off, a few snuggles, commence with the GREAT GATHERING OF THINGS that we both need for the day
7:15 am - Sidearm 90 pound carseat, baby, baby stuff, lunch, coffee, purse and laptop into the car - put dog in front seat because he will lick the baby if he sits in back - look a little ridiculous
7:20 am - drop dog off at grandma and grandpa's farm
7:28 am - start getting sad
7:40 am - daycare drop-off - talk to nice daycare people - feel jealous that they get to spend all day with the baby
7:45 am - commute. cry. listen to public radio. feel a little better.
8:02 am - busy, busy work
1 pm - lose momentum, get bored
2 pm - SERIOUSLY - IT'S ONLY BEEN AN HOUR?
3 pm - Look at baby's pictures on phone, feel like a bad mom
4 pm - oh. my. god. slowest. day. ever.
4:59 pm - bust out of there, determined not to be the last mom to pick up baby
5:17 pm - be second to the last mom to pick up baby - VICTORY! hear she was coughing and crying and didn't sleep all morning - DEFEAT.
5:30 pm - pick up muddy and contented dog from the farm - feel better that he's not the baby any more. Try not to cry in front of mom - not like she doesn't know what's up anyway
6:05 pm - see husband, who brought home Amstel Light, knowing it wasn't the best daycare pickup. Forget to drink one (for the rest of the night actually)
6:15 pm - snuggle times with Ainsley while husband makes dinner - explain to her you have to work because women fought very hard for that right, and so she can have a career someday, too. Get response in drool and smiles - good enough.
7:30 pm - BATHTIME - BEST TIME OF THE DAY! get more smiles and kick splashes - she's getting very good at those
8:00 - baby hand-off - dishes, pack lunches, laundry, lay out clothes for the next day, pay bills, get ready for bed
9:50 - blog
10:10 - bedtime and peace out to all the mamas and papas out there winding down their own busy days

oops

I went to use my debit card at the coffee shop this morning and it was declined. Then I realized I forgot to transfer money from our joint checking to cover the earnest money check I wrote for the new house deal. Fabulous. Motherhood is making me batty. Ah well. No other new news on the house front today.

casa

I don't even know where to start. Ainsley started daycare Monday (half days this week), which was as yucky as expected - although only for brief periods before and after drop-off/pick-up. But we're also in the process of buying a new house, which came up rather unexpectedly, so it's been a totally whacked week and I haven't been dwelling on the baby stuff as much as I thought I would. Which is good and bad, because that stress has been sort of displaced into the house stuff, but it's still there. So I'll just talk about the new house (pending financing stuff, we sort of went backwards). It's a ways out of town, in a development I never particularly loved, but we got a lot more/nicer house out there. It's just a few years old, and totally a boring, suburban mini-mcmansion, which is EXACTLY what I want after having an older home (sprinkler system! air conditioning!!). There are some really nice upgrades, like stainless steel and wood/tile throughout, wet bar in the family room, a nice deck, covered porch and patio. What really sold us is that the kitchen, dining and living room are all one big space, which will be great for the limited time we'll all have to hang at night. Plus there are THREE bathrooms, which is ridiculous, really, but after sharing a bathroom with the square footage of a wheelbarrow for the last four years, I'm rejoicing. And last, and BEST, there's a laundry area with a built-in frontloading washer and dryer. Hallelujah. My sister just got frontloaders, and she said you can stuff like twice a normal load in them. Which I do to our washer and dryer now, which is probably why we just paid 150 bucks to get the dryer fixed. Ah well. Here are a few pics ... again, grain of salt - we still need confirmation on the financing, part of which involves my parents buying our current house to keep as a rental, which is a whole other complicated thing especially because they're on a cruise this week. But we do have an accepted offer, so things are looking good. More later. Peace out.