On this my last day ...

This is what I did:

• got up at the same time that my husband went to work, and cleaned the house. Again.
• finished my thank you notes (no, I didn't get them mailed)
• had lunch with my husband (and his work friends)
• bought Spencer a couple pairs of jeans because he's been wearing 18mo jeans which appear to look like floods.
• sat outside at the mall and enjoyed a Bacia gelato and read.
• picked Spencer up early from daycare and let him play outside and in the sprinkler.
• cleaned the garage.
• took a shower and dried my hair so as to be generally ready for tomorrow
• took a sleeping pill (an hour ago, not kicking in yet)

I think I got the most out of the day. I hope, anyhow. I'm exhausted, so there's nothing more I can do anyhow.

So this is my last List update before going back:

Books read:
1-2-3 Magic - plot: count to three, put your child in timeout, be consistent. I mostly did this before, minus the consistency. I might still go out and buy this book (borrowed from the library and since there's a hold on it I'm not allowed to renew. Could not actively read, had to skim for the bigger picture.

The Maze Runner - very interesting plot, bare bones uninteresting prose. The author didn't try hard enough to make me believe the out-of-the-ordinary. I didn't learn to love the characters. I had to push myself through to find out what happened, and I was a bit disappointed in the ending. I hate when books rely too heavily on there being a sequel. I don't think I'll be reading the sequel. Was all that vague enough for you?

Crush - I have no idea why I heard of this book, but it ended up in my hold items at the library so I took it home and read it in 20 minutes. Sweet little book. Not badly written - would have appreciated a longer book by the author.

Harry Potter book 1: I'm one of the 3 people left in the universe who haven't read this series yet, and so I'm starting. I've seen pieces of all the movies so I know generally what I'm getting into. It's okay. There are a million better books but I'm going to stick it out.

During my maternity leave, I read 33 books.

Movies:
The Ramen Girl (Brittany Murphy). Hmmm. Cute, I guess. Hard to watch while cleaning since you have to read subtitles.
The Initiation of Sarah - pretty dark for an ABC Family movie, but Jennifer Tilly ruins it for me. I haven't liked a single role of hers since Vicki in Let It Ride

That's a total of 19 movies.

I feel like I ran out of time during my leave - I wanted to be able to hang out with MamaFuss and the kids one more time, and see Jonah again (he appears to be thriving right now), have more playdates/winedates with Suz and Jamie and take more walks and play more. Not yell as much. We got so good at it toward the end of leave, and I hope I can carry the attitude on during nights and weekends. We'll see - wish me luck!

Brain rot

I obviously am having a hard time blogging lately. I keep staring at the screen, thinking about what I want to say and then it doesn't happen. Yesterday I started Ten on Tuesday but I just couldn't finish. I'm going to go ahead and blame it on the fact that I have ONE WEEK LEFT BEFORE GOING BACK TO WORK. I just can't concentrate.

So here's what I've done since my last list update:

Watched movies -
Good Dick - listed as a comedy. NOT a comedy. Should have been a comedy. Someone give the script to Kevin Smith and have him make this thing funny.
I'll Be There - much better as What A Girl Wants with Amanda Bines.
Lost In Austen - I wasn't expecting much from this, so it was cute.
Forever Strong - have I told you about my serious love for sports movies? Even sports that I don't care about. Love them. Loved this.
Remember Me - good, received by accident by not keeping track of my Netflix queue
I Hate Valentine's Day - Oh. M. G. I know that my husband thinks Amy Pohler is the worst actress on the face of this earth, but he's never seen Nia Vardoles "act". She really is the worst ever.
Did you Hear about the Morgans - eh, cute
Leap Year - obviously predictable but sweet and ahh, sexy Irish accents.

Reading books:
I am Number Four - fan-freaking-tastic. I loved it. I assume there's a sequel and I can't wait to read it.
My Name is Memory - fascinating look at reincarnation. I loved it, but there's a subplot that is weaved in at the end that I wasn't fond of that lends itself to a transparent plan for a sequel. I would have much rather it been the straight story without out that subplot.
Life as We knew it - I didn't like the format (written in diary form) and it was depressing - sort of a cross between War of the Worlds and The Road written from the POV of a 16- year old girl.

Other things done:
-- Cut out all recipes that looked good from my two years back issues of Rachael Ray, Bon Appetit, and random other cooking magazines and recycled the rest
-- Took Spencer to the Children's Museum, Chuck E Cheese, and the playground.
-- played many hours of Fallout: New Vegas (but not nearly as much as my fair husband, who has been attached to the computer almost every night)
-- slept in until 9:30 two days in a row! And Spencer didn't tear the house apart!!
-- took good pictures of the boys
-- am on day 3 of keeping Spencer home from daycare and don't want to tear my hair out. yet. (We get one free week a year, and since Henry won't be eligible this year and I'm not taking any of the holidays off, I thought I'd keep him home for my last full week before going back to work)

I have officially done everything on my list except the working out and I've come up with a plan to start working out when I go back to work. I work on the third floor, and the coffee machine is on the sixth floor. I plan on doing stairs to get to my desk and to get to the coffee. I need to get a pair of flats that I can stick in my purse for this use (I'm thinking of getting a pair of City Flats). Once I start getting use to all those stairs, I'll work on adding to my regiment.

Other quick things:
We went to a Halloween party on Saturday, and this year I was the one that got sick. Before that, so much fun! Evidently taking jello shots every time the tray was passed was not such a good idea. But my hubby got me home in one piece, and I woke up on Sunday sans hangover.

Here's us before drunkenness set in:


I don't have any plans for the rest of the week except to maybe bust out the Wii with Spencer and see if he likes it, enjoy every smile and laugh the Henry graces me with and try to speak in normal volumes and lengthen my fuse. And maybe I'll blog.

Killing time

Books read:
Catching Fire excellent, makes me long to read Mockingjay, which I'm number 116 for from the library (down from 261 originally)
Hide in Plain Sight free on Kindle, light and breezy Christian mystery. Did I mention free? not bad.
One for the Money
Two for the Dough
Three to get Deadly

I got sucked into the Stephanie Plum series. It's not really my type of reading; or rather, it's the type of book I would have read 10 years ago except that I hate those kitschy title tie-ins so I never did. They are enjoyable and quick reads, and I think I'll continue the series as in-between books while I'm not reading other things. I finally just took back Shutter Island, because I obviously wasn't going to read it right now. Also around and waiting to be read: I am Number Four, My Name is Memory, Life as We Knew It, So Much For That, and The Maze Runner.

I also have 1-2-3 Magic, The Baby Whisperer for toddlers, and The Baby Whisperer on DVD. Noticing a discipline-issue trend?

Movies Watched:
The Lovely Bones very good - it had been long enough since I had read the book last, so any differences didn't bother me.
Fame cute, and Spencer sat still for at least half of it, which is better than any animated movie thus far.
You're So Cupid hideously bad
The Break-up Artist innocuous and cute
When in Rome innocuous and cute
Halloweentown ABC Family ... cute :)
I Want to Marry Ryan Banks also ABC Family - did you know they play these movies on Lifetime Movie Network? Thank you, LMN.

I also watched another ABC Family movie, but I can't remember the name at all. I'm sure it will come back to me, or else I'll remember when I try to watch it again.

I finally paid off all of the bills related to labor and delivery. I was going to set up a payment plan for the one large bill from the hospital, but I was afraid I wouldn't remember, so I just paid it all outright. It killed me to spend all that money (and not even on shoes!) but it needed to be done, and I feel better now that I don't have any Henry-related debt. I can't imagine what it would have been without insurance, but I saw the EOBs. Ick.

I still haven't started working out, but I did strap Henry to me yesterday in the carrier and took a walk around the neighborhood with Spencer. Evidently "toddler pace" is not an acceptable rate of speed for the cardiotrainer app on my phone because it kept pausing my workout and I finally turned it off (I really was just interested in how far we went) but we were out for about an hour, and then came back to play outside for a bit (I read).

Henry had his two-month appointment yesterday, and he's 12lbs 1 oz (60%), 22 3/4" long (45%). He seems more proportional than that, but he has a lot of muscle on his legs since he's always trying to scoot himself across the floor or kick his bouncy chair so the lights turn on. We've switched him to sensitive stomach formula because he wasn't sleeping very well, and he rewarded us by sleeping for 36 hours almost straight. Now he's back on a more normal sleep schedule but I think he still sleeps a little more than the average 2-month old. Maybe he's just catching up? I got both kids the flu vaccine and still had to hold Spencer down even though his was only up the nose. Because of that, he actual napped which he doesn't do anymore, but he then woke up hysterical and I threw him in the shower to stop the crying. He does this every time he takes a nap and I don't know what to do about it. Sometimes he just needs to sleep, you know? Do I have to have 30 minutes of screaming after he wakes up? He's such an amazingly happy child when he wakes up from overnight (even though he's sleeps terribly). I wish he would be like that every time he slept.

Checking in on my list

I've been doing a LOT of reading. Read: Hunger Games (loved). Glass Houses (too young, too shallow). Forest of Hands and Teeth (meh). Still working on Shutter Island (very good but I keep finding myself straying to greener pastures). Blood Omen (totally different from the usual vamp fiction, not bad - good departure for me). Shiver (delightful). Fire (loved once I realized there was a corresponding character with Graceling, which I also loved).

I also watched a couple movies that Hubs would never watch: Love Happens with Aaron Eckhart (cute) and Play the Game (meh). I think my hormones have permanently changed me, because I seriously cried at the end of Love Happens (movies normally never make me cry) and then I got choked up watching the end of 10 Things I Hate About You (during her poem ... WTF?) which I've seen eight million times. We also watched Up In The Air, which I quite enjoyed.

I finished the boys' room (including finding and installing the perfect shelf:


The potty training is going relatively well. I'm not pushing it; I bought more pullups. They aren't much more than regular diapers, so at this point I'm just going to leave him in them and move on with my life. He's a boy; he's only 2 1/2. In the grand scheme of things, he's early for potty training and I should be happy with whatever I can get. He pees in the potty about half the time and poops about 90% of the time. There haven't been any more smears of poop all over my bathroom, so that's a plus.

I still haven't taken great pictures of the boys, but I'm thinking of taking them to a beach or park or something like that to see what I can do, maybe on Friday. I did take this picture, which melts my heart:


I think I've decided against a Kindle or Nook for the time being. I have apps for both on my phone and I've read several (free) books on that, and I'm pretty happy with it except that it eats battery life.

I'm currently addicted to Wordfeud on my Android (are you on it? What's your user name? Let's scrabble!)

One thing I have not done is start exercising. I still haven't pulled out the Wii Fit, and I've taken a couple walks but nothing significant. I just can't seem to get myself to get in a habit. I know it's up to me to get motivated, and I think I will, I just can't seem to do it yet.

AND I have managed to take Spencer to do at least one fun thing every week. We've been to playgrounds, we've played in the sprinklers, we've been to Ikea (don't knock it, he's enjoyed it). Ice cream, play places, visiting with other kids. We've generally had a good time. Two days in a row is a little much for us and we fight a lot on the second day, but somehow even though it seems like I want to kill him then, when I look back it's not so bad. Mommy amnesia is almost as powerful as labor amnesia.

Another week summary - making these things count!

This week I finished reading Stormchasers (well written, but I would have liked more. Not longer, just more, deeper, you understand?) by Jenna Blum, and downloaded the Kindle and Nook apps for my phone and read a couple free books there: Compromising Positions (don't bother), Elvis Takes a Backseat (surprisingly not bad, although predictable and a little preachy), Guns Will Keep Us Together (don't bother). I've downloaded all the free books that look mildly interesting, although I'm not sure if I'll like them (free, who cares?) and I don't know HOW TO DELETE THEM which bothers me.

I also read Fire by Kristin Cashore, and I actually did enjoy it as much as Graceling; it just took me 13 pages to get hooked, and then I stayed up all night to read.

I watched An Education (fantastic), but mostly it's premiere week for the thousands of television shows that I shouldn't be watching but am, so I haven't been watching movies (besides a couple of TeenNick movies ... Spectacular, which is Nick's version of Glee, and School Gyrls which is quite possibly the worst movie ever made ... EVER. I would have turned it off but it was only about 50 minutes long so by the time I realized I couldn't possibly stand another minute, it was over.) I also watched the second half of The Bodyguard and The Bachelor, and one of my favorite movies - The Thing Called Love with (swoon) River Phoenix. Oh, and I watched most of a movie called Good Dick, which would have been so much more successful as a comedy. I guess I did end up watching some movies ...

Turtle had his one-month doctor's appointment on Thursday, and he's gained 2.5 lbs and 2.5 inches since birth! Holy growth spurt! He's now 9lbs 3.3oz (25%) and over 21 inches long (50%).

I still haven't finished the boys' room, but I'm inching ever closer. I might have pictures by next week!

I cleaned both bathrooms with an exception on mopping/swiffering the floors which aren't dirty but a little hairy along the baseboards. It appears that now that The Boy will be having his paws all over the toilets, I will need to keep them cleaner than I have in the past. That will take some getting used to.

The Boy is working diligently on his potty training. When I expected to go on leave, this was one of the main goals I had - to potty train him. BUT somehow I forgot to expect my sacrifice in doing so - the staying home, the extra arguments over toilet paper and hands in the toilet and washing hands ... it's been frustrating and it has shown me that I'm still not quite adjusted to having two children and I'm still very short tempered. God help me to have a milder manner.

And then he comes up on my bed after his nap and cuddles up against me with his (clean) hand on my belly and his head on my chest while he watches baseball and who is this marvelous boy? I do love him so much.

One week in

I feel that at this point I should chronicle some of the work I've done toward my list, if for no other reason than I will forget otherwise. However, it's slightly embarrassing to admit to the world that I voluntarily watched movies like Dadnapped and Camp Rock. I also watched Whip It and Last Song. I have a friend who would not feel it was a compliment that I think of her every time I see Miley Cyrus.

I also read My Fair Lazy by Jenn Lancaster (hated Pretty in Plaid, but MFL was effing hilarious) and True Colors by Kristin Hannah. I'm reading Stormchasers by Jenna Blum, and it's some kind of awesome although I'm only 25 pages in. Love it.

Last week I did some work on the room, and made more decisions on what I want it to look like.

Tuesday Spencer and I played in the sprinkler and Monday we went to the library and the playground (more on that one when I'm better ... I'm still traumatized about that).

So I think I'm off to a good start. This week we might mess with the Wii Fit and go for a walk (where there are no cars ... bah for toddlers who try to run out into traffic). Verizon is supposed to come out and fix whatever is wrong with my cable (which they warn, they may have to charge us for - and I'm arming myself for a fight because I DID NOT MESS UP MY OWN CABLE, VERIZON) on Tuesday, so I'm definitely stuck home for the majority of the day then.

Eight weeks left! I'm going to make them count!

To-dos for the next nine weeks

My husband has been home for the last 2 1/2 weeks.

This would normally be a wonderful thing, except that while he's here I feel like we're on vacation and so I haven't been doing much of anything. I don't think I'm supposed to do anything for a few weeks while I'm recovering, but I hate sitting around being idle. One or two days - lovely. Three weeks makes me feel like a slovenly sloth.

While I'm home, I'd like to:

• clean both bathrooms well


• finish the boys' room (and take pictures)


• take The Boy to the playground or to do something fun at least once a week


• attempt to potty-train The Boy


• take good pictures of Turtle and Turtle and The Boy


• find a place that sells the Kindle and can give me a demonstration so I can think hard about whether I want one


• read one book a week (average - I usually read more than that in a week, but then I'll go a week without reading at all)


• watch five movies total that I want to see that Hubby doesn't


• start working out on the Wii Fit a few times a week (and maybe see if The Boy wants to join in)


• go for a walk at least three times a week

This list might be a little overboard, but I'd rather have it out there and hopefully finish than just sit around for the next two months aimlessly.