Breaking up with summer

In my last post, nearly a month ago, I posted pictures of Summer. Or atleast what I THOUGHT was Summer. But little did I know, apparently that was just pre-Summer. Not REAL Summer. Real Summer is a mean little bitch that taunts us with her extreme heat, drought and general HELL-ish weather.

If I was to create a “Summer is…” post with ALL pictures now, it would look like this:

Zoey is making and serving her lunch. Oh these girls! <3

Love this baby girl to pieces! 18 months already.

Popsicles in the bath tub! Because it's 897,000° outside

The common theme here? INSIDE. Always inside. We haven’t put on a bathing suit in over a month. Our yard is crispy fried. With daily temperatures ranging from 106-114°, it just isn’t SAFE to be outside with the girls. We did get a membership to the botanical garden downtown Oklahoma City, so we plan to visit there (it’s indoors AND cooled). They have a gigantic yellow fan that feels AMAZEBALLS if you stand in front of it for a long time.

gigantic fan #okc #igersokc

GO AWAY SUMMER. I’m ready for fall. or Post-Summer. Then Fall. We need some Post-Summer so that my girls can swim and play in the water a little more.

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What the WHAT?

The weather here this year has been insane. I hear it has been insane ALL OVER THE PLACE, too. Last year we were in the middle of a crazy 12″ of snow blizzard right now. This year? 66° and sunny, every single day. The night time temps are still in the 30s/40s, just to remind us that it isn’t QUITE spring yet. Sinuses, however, are all IT’S SPRING, LET’S MAKE EVERYONE MISERABLE.

So, the ONLY snow we got was early January. Malinda and I ran into Sam’s Club to buy some party stuff for Kiera’s birthday party and when we walked out, it was FULL ON BLIZZARD CONDITIONS. Sideways blowing snow, TONS of it. Huge puffy flakes. There was just enough of this 2 hour snow to cover the ground and by the next morning there was nothing left. THAT was our Winter. Right there, one evening, for two hours. Winter over. The end. Here comes spring.

So anyway, since we have had such wonderful temperatures, Zoey has been able to play outside for extended amounts of time lately and she is LOVING it. The girl will wander the back yard for hours, as if she has never been out there. Pulling hand fulls of grass, playing with wood chips left over by a tree stump we had ground up last summer, going down the slide, playing with toys, chasing the dog. She loves the outdoors and is very Tom Boyish when it comes to that.

Kiera, however, is still not walking and I can’t let her outside. The backyard has rocks, dog poop, dirt, WOOD CHIPS.. All things she would LOVE to add to her list of Things I Will Eat. She stands at the window, watching Zoey play outside, yearning to be out there. Hurry up and walk kid and you can go out there!

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added a new category

I hate it when I think of something FANTASTICALLY AWESOMELY BRILLIANT to tweet about and it is more than 140 characters. I know Twitter is supposed to be for “micro-blogging” but what about every day brilliance that lands between regular blogging and micro-blogging? Well, my solution is the “Too Long To Tweet” category on my regular blog.

And yes, I totally just wasted your time by posting on my blog about a new category that I added. Like anyone gives a you-know-what.

Oh I also wanted to say that if you don’t hear from me in a while, please come looking for me. I know Oklahoma is all about Wind and Sweeping Down The Planes and all but SERIOUSLY? The cover on my grill has blown off twice. Like, completely UP and OVER the grill! Oh and they said the winds will be WORSE tomorrow. Not gonna hang my panties on the clothesline tomorrow, that’s for damn sure!

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Zoey’s Firsts: Diaper Rash

Being Swallowed By The Cloth Dipes

I’ve been trying to write a blog entry about my little angel baby all day but I can’t seem to ever sit down and get one written. By time I check my Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader it is time to feed her again. We’ll get a routine down eventually, I know it.

Zoey is doing well. She was up a lot last night so I think her nights and days are messed up already. She is starting to wake up every 2-3 hours on her own and ready to eat so we didn’t set the timer at all last night or today. We also stopped writing down how much / when she was eating because I think she is now eating on demand and we aren’t having to wake her up as much to eat. It’s a lot easier not worrying about time like that but boy when she wakes up hungry she wants to eat right then. At least before we had time to make the bottle and have it ready before she could start screaming her little head off. But I am really thankful that she is eating so much better now. She is eating a good 1 3/4 to 2 oz per feeding now. Grow baby grow!

She has also been battling some pretty icky diaper rash. We were using the Method brand diaper cream but that has proven to be a big waste. I think her diaper rash only got WORSE while we were using it so I am not using it anymore. We’re back to using Desitin and I think Gene is going to pick up some Butt Paste next time he is at the store. It seems like it might be getting slightly better but it just looks so painful. She screams her head of when we wipe over that area with a wipe. So we’ve had her in cloth diapers today, regardless of how big they are on her. I’m using a wipe solution of water, baby wash and tea tree oil and we’re using super soft flannel wipes to wipe her bottom. She doesn’t cry or anything when I wipe her with those. I probably wont keep her in the cloth diapers for a while because they just swallow her but we’ll keep using the flannel wipes for the time being because they are good for her sore bottom.

I did really bad with keeping up with pumping today. There is always tomorrow right? Ugh. I just know I should have been better. Today has been a real “off” day. Didn’t pump regularly, never even got out of my pajamas. Gene changed into clothes so he could run a DVD back to the library and pick up our Chinese food for dinner and he is back in his jammies already. We’ve been total slobs today! I am gonna get a shower in a little while because tomorrow morning we’re going to try to make it up to his work, if the weather permits.

The weather here has been a real downer lately. It has been storming and raining and cloudy just about every day this week and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get much better anytime soon. Actually, we’re getting a cold front this weekend and it’s going to be in the 50s and 60s for the highs. In MAY! Ugh. I am so ready for this crap to be over. I need some sunshine in my life (besides my little princess baby, of course)!

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Thunderstorms

Going in for the kiss

We’ve got a pretty “busy” night ahead of us as far as the weather goes. It looks like some pretty bad storms are heading this way. I’m really just crossing my fingers that they tucker out before they reach us. I’ve always loved a good summer or spring evening thunderstorm, however Tornadoes just freak me out! Now that we have a little munchkin under our roof, it is making me on edge even worse.

We’ve already got a plan of action that if there is a tornado we’ll put her in her car seat and put it in the bath tub and then take a ton of pillows in there with us. I’m really hoping it doesn’t come to that. I have a feeling we are going to be up all night tonight and not just because we have a 2 week old baby, but because they are saying these storms wont be gone until after 3 AM.

Please just keep us in your thoughts or prayers or whatever it is that you do. I am going to be staring at the news on TV for the next 6 or so hours.

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Seasonal Blues

I’m in a funk. I think it started on Sunday and has lasted through all of this week. This entire week has felt like a huge blur to me. Between feeling sad about gaining weight (my OBGYN told me not to gain ANY weight during this pregnancy), the cold temperatures outside and feeling tired all week it has been really hard to pick myself up off of the floor.

The good news is that tomorrow we have a high of 70° and on Saturday there is a high of 74°. I can’t even describe how excited I am about this! Saturday we are going to take our cars to the car wash (the one you do yourself) and get them all spiffed up. And I might trim a bush in our front yard. And I might try some new recipes. And seriously, just KNOWING the temperatures are going to be that lovely has already given me a huge boost of energy.

I hate Winter. Well, let me rephrase that: I hate extensive Winters. I like them until January 1st and then I’m done. I want it to end on January 1st. Why is it that the two loveliest seasons (Spring & Fall) are the shortest? I’m actually looking forward to the Summer this year. Not only will I have a brand new baby to take care of but I’ll be at home with her to go outside and enjoy the warm air and go on walks and all of those fun things. Just the thought of it fills me with so much happiness.

I’ve noticed the last couple of years I’ve come down with the “Winter blues” and it seems to take a big toll on me. I wouldn’t exactly label myself as having seasonal depression.. but I have noticed a profound difference in how I feel during the Winter months. They tend to drag on and take it’s toll by February or March.

Things I am looking forward to right now:

  • Our next Ultrasound (4D!) around 28-30 weeks
  • Picking out the paint colors for our nursery
  • Buying a crib and buying the crib bedding
  • Romantic get away with my hubby from Feb 14th to 18th.
  • Warm temperatures this weekend!
  • Wearing capri pants and flip flops this weekend

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Randomness, because it’s easier that way

I really want to change my layout to something more cheerful and bright and sunshiney. The winter weather is dark and gloomy and I need something to get me through these last few winter months. I’m crossing my fingers that they don’t drag on like they usually do. Two friends are expecting babies this month and I’m so excited!

Right now I’m trying to decide between a waffle cone with soft serve twist ice cream or cereal for dinner. Maybe I could do both? I’m so bad. Nothing else sounds good. Real food sounds barf-worthy at the moment. My appetite has been going through some serious identity crisis lately. Some days all I want to eat is cheeseburgers and then others I just want to munch on some cookies and cake.

The sweet little munchkin has been laying on my bladder for a good week now. It’s slowly getting worse, I guess as she grows. I have to get up and pee about once every 30 minutes. It is quite possibly one of the most annoying things ever. I already have a huge aversion to the bathroom as it is (as in: I hate going to the bathroom. It seems like a HUGE waste of time and I try to get in and out as quickly as possible so as to not waste any precious time) and the fact that I am going about four times more than usual is about to drive me batty. Probably the only pregnancy side effect I’ve disliked thus far. But I still have 3 more months, so bring it on!

Tomorrow night is our last Baby Basics class. We’re going to bathe, diaper, swaddle, clip [fake] nails, etc. on plastic baby dolls! I can’t even BEGIN to tell you how excited I am about this last class! We’ll have breastfeeding and birthing classes in the first couple of weeks of April.

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