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Since my last post I've had a job, gotten pregnant with my second girl, took leave, went back, left permamently to become a stay at home mom, celebrated numerous birthdays and gained almost forty pounds.

Nothing to add for now, just getting back in the habit of writing. I will be posting a little more regularly this time-as long as I stop getting distracted by all the Pintrest. Oh, Pintrest.

You are Not a Goat

So, I understand that this world is still very new to toddlers, and they don't know enough about what is a food and what isn't, and it is our job as a parent to monitor that.

but, sheesh, I can't vacuum a room so small I can lay my 5'3' self down and touch each end without having to stop and scoop partially eaten potpourri out of my kid's mouth.

And it's not like I threw it on the floor and said, 'lalalal, I think this yummy smelling fruit husk is safe here." Noo, she moved her stroller over to the table, climbed on it, and grabbed said husk.

My fault for not immediately closing the stroller upon returning from our walk. That thing is the biggest pain in the ass to close, and 98% of the time it pops back up when I let my guard down and THINK I've closed the effing thing securely, but I guess wrestling with it IS better in the end than explaining why my child's vomit has a wonderful ginger-peach scent.

On the bright side, she also went into my shower and got into the sugar scrub...which she used in the correct manner. So I guess keeping her in the bathroom while I bathe paid off in one way.

If she ate her peas with the same energy she puts into gnawing on potpourri, crayone, dust bunnies, leaves, and other flotsam, I'd have one damn healthy kid and a cleaner floor.

New Beginnings

I can't believe that last time I was here we were still living at my parents', working through the deluge of paperwork that is home ownership, and Bella was just starting to walk.

Our belongings were deposited in a garage, a storage space, a warehouse crawlspace, and our bedroom. Now we live in a cute 1971 home with half the garage taken up by boxes, and slowly getting the place in shape.
What excites the the most (and is actually a bit sad), is that I never had a place of my own. Always roommates, always renting from someone, always having half my possessions while storing the other somewhere. and as cool as my landlords were (usually being friends or family), there were always someone else's rules. Some were stricter than others, like the friend/landlord who would bring up if you slept in a lot, or if your room was messy (not filthy-no food or drinks lying around rotting). Others were more lax than I was comfortable with. The point being, I never felt fully secure where I lived, because I was not in charge. No matter how cool you are with someone, if it's not your house, it's not your say.

Now, of course I don't live by myself here; I still have a husband, dog and daughter. HOWEVER, I now have a better feeling of security. I do have a say in who stays here and who doesn't. The kitchen and its' contents are all mine to cook with. If I don't want to tidy a room, i can just close the door. Interestingly enough, now that I don't have the majority of my possessions crammed in one room and half a medicine cabinet, I find I am a LOT neater.

None of this is meant as a hit against anyone I rented from. I did luck out in that I did have friends and family to rent from. I have great memories of my freestyle single gal days. And if I wanted to have a place with no roommates, I should have maintained my credit better and applied that little thing called a budget. But man, it is SOO SWEET not having to hear couples fighting in the next room, or arguing about the dishes (well, that part COULD be distributed more evenly, hahaha) or any of the other myriad roommate deals. and if I want a purple room, or create a mural in the hallway, well, let's go buy some paint.

So, we did not celebrate Thanksgiving here, but we did have AnnaBella's first birthday party here, as well as our first family Christmas, and a small NYE get-together. We finally have internet and cable, which means I can type this up in our guest room/office with no one else hovering over my shoulder or the library computer running on a timeout. When I am finished here , I will start working on the never-ending box mountain in the garage, make Bella's doctor appointments, and see where I can donate goods and money for victims of these recent destructive tornadoes. when Bella wakes up from her nap, we'll have a snack, storytime and possibly build then destroy a block tower thirty times. Later I'll skim the pool, start dinner, and hopefully get my yoga in.

Having constant internet AND our sturdy MAC finally in its rightful place at the desktop also means I can update here on a regular basis. More recipes, tips, rants about TV shows, unchecked babblings, and all other matter of frivolities to come.

The other funny thing is since we didn't have internet for almost three months, ALL the games I have on Facebook are backed up to an intimidatingly large number of requests. I think there's like Thanksgiving and Christmas requests still in here. it's actually startling how many games I used to participate in. And I don't want to stop them because that would just be admitting I wasted my time playing games, so I've probably spent over three house just getting through the REQUESTS, not even playing. How sad is that?

I Love You, Shut Up

So tonight there was a segment on ABC news about Mommy Bloggers, and how awesome it is, and how much free crap they get and blah blah blah, and I get the question from my husband that I loathe so much: "Hey why don't you do that? You could totally do it; that looks easy." Okay, first of all, no it's not easy. These bloggers, and the various other award winning "Mommy Bloggers" are not the only ones out there. For every Heather Armstrong, there's, say, 150 mes that write but do not have that "it" spark that projects a blog from family/friend read to an actual public offering. My attempt at an argument went thus: 1)some bloggers have things like activities, arts and crafts, recipes, decorating, or some such how-to thing that other parents can use for ideas. While I have posted recipes, I just am not creative often enough to have daily or even monthly project postings; 2) some deal with things like specially abled children, post-partum depression, balancing work/school/home/combination of any or all of these (none of which I deal with); or some other topic people can relate to personally; 3) but the most read ones deal not only with a combination of these, but get very close and personal, bringing the reader into intimate details of the writer's life, sex life, relationships with in-laws, neighbors and parents, photos of the kids, etc etc etc, all of which, by the way, he's completely been against in past conversations about Why My Blog Isn't A Money Maker. (Also I don't write in it enough, but this is about him). However, I never got to finish my pints because he said I talked to much and I was ruining the Special News Segment, so now I'm going to be petty and post this haha!! Now I just need to add a picture of my baby Doing Something Precocious and wait for the offers to roll in! Great idea!!

GoGo Barcelo and the Great Escapes

Bella hasn't quite reached the point where she solely walks, but if we lived in a house built by Escher, she'd have no problem getting around. I mean, the girl lives to climb. You could have a totally flat surface with her favorite toys laying about, and tucked far off in the back is one lone ottoman-and she will bypass everything else to climb on that ottoman. She mostly goes for the couch, but yesterday she climbed on my bed without even the slightest grunt or noise. One minute she was on the ground and I was chatting online with a friend's daughter I hadn't talked to in a year, and I turn around to see her sitting on the bed, just playing with my keys as quietly as possible. So now even if she's napping, it's become hard to enjoy a shower without thoughts of her waking up, attempting to climb out of the crib, and falling on her head. Last night she was impossible to put to sleep (that phrase does NOT sound right), so when she finally drifted off I had to risk waking her up by opening the door just to make sure she hadn't secretly gotten out of her crib and was heading toward the puzzles. Of course, this only leads to being more diligent. Like, locking the handle and bolt on the garage door, double-checking that all other doors are closed, and picking up myriad random objects, not just off the floor, but off the couch, any small tabletops, and of course making sure that things aren't hanging over the edges of tables. I have to say, in some ways it's pretty cool to watch. She can climb super fast, and this is also broadening her play area as well as keeping me from slacking off too much in the mom-watching area

The Only Mom Who Didn't Do Halloween

If it wasn't for Bells catching a fever, I'd have absolutely no excuse for why I had no costume and no plan for how to spend this October 31st.


My cousin's daughter, who was born earlier in the month, had a costume. I dug through a box of clothing until I found my niece's from two years ago and slipped it on. Then took it off an hour later when it seemed her fever was spiking, perhaps due to the hot felt costume.

The night was spent in dealing with her either bouncing off the wall (I guess I have the only kid who is more energetic while sick) or crying as I tried desperately to cool her off and calm her down.

finally, at around 4 am, her fever broke. At 7 she woke up crying again and I just brought her to bed with me, where we slept till almost 11.

Today, though, both her cousins came over, and we dressed them up and took them trick-or-treating to various bedroom doors with aunts and grandparents passing out candy. That was pretty cute.

I have twelve months till the next Halloween. Maybe I can get it together then.

This is Lame Even for Me.

Seriously, I haven't updated since August? I missed a whole month? And yet, there were no messages in my Inbox from loyal followers harrassing me for the next update.

Okay, well AnnaBella's taken steps, but not full-on walking. Meanwhile, my sister's best friend's son, who is only one month older, is just stomping away all merry as can be, even though he took his steps later! The nerve! However, she does have two teeth, can do the best dinosaur growl (even though My Darling Husband worries that all our roaring is damaging her vocal cords [it may be, but we have fun]), and can dance and bounce IN RHYTHM to the music, which I can't even do. So, I still hold that she's a genius.

We may have our own place soon if all goes well financially. I don't want to write more as I'm superstitious and may have said too much already.

I cook every night now, yet have finally lost these six pounds that have stuck with me like a bad zit since I lost the general amount of baby weight. Now I have just ten more to reach my first weight goal.

I'm not sure if that metaphor actually worked.

My fall line up shows are: Pan Am, Up All Night, The Playboy Club, Real Housewives of BH, of course the usual sspects of Community, The Office, Always Sunny in Philadelphis, still waiting for 30 Rock to come back, and missed Mad Fashion. So of course Playboy Club gets canceled and I guess I shouldn't be surprised because all the critics kept comparing it unfavorable to Mad Men, but you know what? Some of us didn't have cable when MM came out, and yes we are aware of it, but have seen maybe one episode because our SO doesn't feel like renting that when there's True Blood boobies to be seen instead or awesome It Crowd nerdiness, so we actually just enjoyed PC for itself. And now I guess I'll have to write or actually complete a craft project with this free hour. Or keep practicing walking with Bella.

And I don't really like talking about RHOBH because I realize it's in bad taste to watch a show where someone killed themselves in real life, but honestly I wish I knew someone who did watch it so we could laugh at the ridiculous new one that keeps blabbing about how much she spends ($25,000 sunglasses? WTF?!) And then you find out she's friends with the couple that overextended themselves financially (there's always one at least in each franchise) and you go, OOOOOOhhhhh. birds of a feather.


This is honestly the most I've written in forever. I woke up this morning realizing I dreamt in sentences, as if notating the dream itself, and thought, This is a day for writing! then proceeded to clean and organize the fridge and our closet. Because I get scared. It seems all the sentences that sound great in dreams either fade within thirty seconds of waking up or dumb down to hollow clangs of forced intellectualism the more I rewind them. It's really an awful trait of mine, self-defeat. Quitting before the starting gate opens. It's almost a relief this blog isn't really followed; that means I can run-on my sentences as much as I like and commit as many grammar abortions as I wish and maybe I'll get some Internet fool saying, Kill yourself, or an equally witty statement, and I'll think, I don't believe this person is actually qualified to give advice.

And now it is aftr midnight and I have a full plate tomorrow, but this is the most time I've had alone without anything to distract me. I can't clean, because everyone else is sleeping. I've picked up all the toys, premade all the bottles, and picked out tomorrow's outfit. The tv will wake up Al and since I have Pandora on, I can't play any Facebook games or everything will slow down on my slow, old old computer. We'll see how long I can keep this going. I mean nightly, not in the sense of "Let's see how many hours I can manically type!"


As usual, I can't think of a proper end, so I will just say until next time and hope that maybe I can update in less than a freaking month and a half.