Other stuff

It was too much to include everything in 1 post! Now it looks like you have a special treat - 3 in one day! ;-)

In my very long commute last night, I was able to catch up with Agnes. She and Trampas are doing well. Everything is unpacked in their new house. They were picking up his mom at the train station when I was talking to her. Butch & I are hoping to visit them this summer for a weekend.

I ordered an iPod yesterday! I never thought that I would. Just didn't see the reason for the hype since I'm not a huge music person. But, they are so freakin' cool. You can also put audiobooks on them. And, you can store your digital photos - so I can always have current pics of Lacey when people ask! It's so weird now with digital cameras - I rarely have pictures with me to show people because they are still on Shutterfly. Oh, they also can store your calendar and contacts/address book. So, Marsh has a deal with Apple and I got it for 8% off. I almost forgot - there is a converter to let you listen to anything on it in your car. So, I no longer have to have CDs and audiobooks all over the place. It can all just be on the iPod. I'm hoping the audiobooks are a little cheaper this way, too.

Can't think of anything else at the mo.

Daycare update

The daycare person that I mentioned before - Lisa - won't have an opening until at least June, maybe (most likely) August. I called several other places and only have 1 other possibility so far (Kathy). We are going to meet her today. I didn't ask many questions on the phone, but it sounds like she doesn't have any LITTLE ones, which I don't like. We are trying to make things work with Lisa. We have 7 weeks between the current daycare closing and Butch being off for the summer. Butch's parents have offered to come help some, so we are waiting to hear what dates they would be able to do. And, I think that between Butch & I, we can take about 3 weeks off (alternating, maybe). I've had a couple of other offers for help, too. My cousin, Shelly (thank you) and another cousin's housekeeper has offered. So, I think it might work out. I'm meeting with Lisa on Tuesday next week. She has strep throat right now, so she's not available to talk.

Butch & I have talked about it all so much. Part of me thinks that we should continue looking for a solution that would start earlier. But, we want to do what is really best for Lacey in the long-run, and I believe (from all I've heard) that Lisa's daycare is the best option. When I told her that we are trying to work it out with her, she sounded excited. Even though enough business isn't a problem for her, she knows Kristina and her sister, Karin, so I think she already feels like it could be a good fit.

Butch's (and my) summer will be totally different than we planned. He was planning to spend a good deal of time getting his business moving along. But, Kristina also has the summer off and she might be able to watch Lacey once a week or so, so that he could focus on the business. And, I told him I'd be happy to let him have a couple of evenings per week to himself to work on it, too. I work from home 2 days a week, too, so he certainly won't be by himself 2 days a week.

It helps to write all this out! It's like my little online journal!

Cherry Blossoms, Tourists....and Traffic...Blah!

Butch thinks I'm sort of mean because I think there should be a rule that tourists stay off the road during rush hour! I'm quite serious about it, though. Our metro system is very user friendly, so there is no reason to avoid it!

Of course, the tourist cars aren't the only thing driving my crazy right now! There are a ton of tour buses and tons of pedestrians EVERYWHERE. It doesn't help that my commute takes me right through the WWII memorial, the Mall and the dreaded (but absolutely beautiful) Cherry Blossoms! It was completely insane yesterday. My total drive was 2 hours and 15 minutes. I only go 45 miles. Yes, you read that correctly. It took me an hour just to get out of downtown (only about 3 miles, tops). Now you see my frustration with tourist season. Had I realized how bad it would be, I would have either worked later, gone for a drink, or taken the metro myself! However, Wednesday was nowhere near that bad, so I didn't think it would change so quickly.

The Blossoms are gorgeous, though. If it wasn't such a stressful drive from the traffic, I could probably enjoy staring at them. I'd love to go downtown at some point, but I know this weekend will be nuts and I don't know if it's worth doing.

Daycare Woes

Kim called last night to tell us that she is closing her daycare at the end of April. A friend has offered her an opportunity that she can't pass up (better hours, more money). I can't blame her at all, but of course, all I can think about is what does this mean for us?!

We've been so happy with Kim (and Bernie). Yes, there have been minor issues - as there always will be when someone else is taking care of your child - but nothing big. I have counted our blessings with daycare and now we have to start over. Not only do we have to try to find someone in less than 5 weeks, but, I would imagine Lacey is not going to be happy about the change (to start, anyway). I imagine she will adapt okay, but Lacey goes to Kim with such ease in the mornings. She does NOT like to go to people she doesn't know. In fact, she doesn't much like to go to anyone if she's in mommy's arms. (Good thing Daddy usually takes her.)

I called & left a message at 1 place. She has been recommended by Kristina and also by a neighbor. I know she had an opening in January - she'd called because I was on her waiting list. I can only hope that she has an opening now. She's close by & I've heard that she really teaches the kids quite a bit (including Spanish). I don't want to do a daycare center, unless that is our only alternative. I've heard too many things that I don't like about them. They are really strict with all of their rules. (No more bottles at 1 year old, hard soled shoes are a requirement, etc.)

Blah.

A couple of pics

Okay, here's a pic of the bedroom...newly painted.















Here are pics of the new living room furniture.

Movies, Work, Lacey & Vacation!

It’s been longer since my last post than I thought! Sorry!

Dee, Butch & I went to see Harry Potter a couple weekends ago. It was good, but since I am an avid reader, I was disappointed at how much they cut out! I heard that they were thinking of making this book into 2 movies, but were talked out of it.

That weekend, Butch & I watched Walk the Line (very good) and this past weekend, we watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith. I didn’t want to like that one b/c I am still a weird person that’s mad at Brad & Angelina for their affair and hurting Jennifer Aniston. But, it was a good flick.

I was in Chicago last week for work. Twice a year, all of the Client Execs get together for a 2 day meeting. Blah. All in all, it was an okay meeting. However, I stayed up late with several colleagues on Tues. night and had a bit too much wine….along with everyone else. So, sitting in a meeting for 6 hours on Wed. was not fun.

Friday & Saturday, I painted our bedroom. It’s “stem green” and quite nice. I can’t wait for the furniture to be delivered….in late April or so.

Lacey’s doing really well. She’s saying some new words – baby and pretty. She will also growl when we ask her “what does the bear say”. So freakin’ cute! I just LOVE LOVE LOVE this age! Last night she woke up around midnight crying and since I can see her eye-teeth coming in, we gave her Tylenol. That worked until 4:00 a.m., but she quit pretty quickly. Poor baby. I hope they come through soon.

Oh! We booked our vacation house! I am so excited! We’re going to OBX with some friends (Tonya and family) for a week starting July 14. They have 2 young daughters, so it should work very well. The house is pretty close to the beach, so it shouldn’t be too much of a pain to lug all of our things! (I hope.) It seems like I should still be doing planning – even though it’s 4 months away.

I think we’re starting Lacey in swim lessons next month. With her Pa Pa’s pool, I think it will be worth it! She is totally lovin’ the bath these days, so I’m hoping it will work well.

Stuff

Don't you like how my titles are so boring?

My drive home today was a B*t*h. It took me 1 full hour to go about 8-10 miles. I'm not kidding. Then, on the beltway, I hit some strange piece of metal. It was thin & wide. It covered the width of the lane I was in. I couldn't avoid it b/c there was a car right in front of me, so I didn't see it until.....too late. Then, my car made a strange noise when I was going at low speeds the rest of the way home. Amazingly, Butch fixed it. For those of you that know him, you know he's not a "car guy". I guess the metal thing in the road jammed something and he got it back into place. So glad it wasn't an expensive thing.

I have to go to NY tomorrow for work. (Was kind of hoping the car thing would keep me from having to go. Like maybe, I couldn't drive up to the airport. There are no cabs down here, so that's what would happen if I had a car issue.) Anyway, I'm leaving at my normal time & should be home by my normal time. And, at least the weather will be AWESOME!

For the weekend, plans are still being made. We really want to go see Harry Potter at the Cinema & Draft House. It's playing at noonish both days. Dee wants to come, too, but is all stressed about packing for their Punta Cana trip. But...she had BETTER come to this! ;-) Kristin is hoping to come, too. I'm hoping that Kristina (or Rick, or Jess) can babysit. Mind you, I'll have to reschedule an overdue hair appt. on Saturday if we go then, but I DON'T CARE! HP is more important!

I started doing Weight Watchers Online this week and it is downright scarey how much I'm eating!!! ;-) WW helps you track that...by counting "points" (based on calories, fat and fiber). Chai Lattes and wine KILL me. I'm supposed to have about 20 points a day. If I let myself enjoy wine and chai, I take about 40! If I cut those things out, I'm still at 30. At least I'm thinking about it. I'm only 3 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, but I want to be lower when I see Dr. Aron next month!!!

Well.....I think that's enough. Hope you all are having a great week!

More...

As promised, I thought I’d post some “non-Lacey” stuff. Although, I have to start with Lacey news first! She took steps last night! Very wobbly steps, but she walked about 3-4 steps toward me. So sweet. She did it twice so that her daddy could see, too.

Our furniture for the living room was delivered yesterday! Finally! It only took about 4 months. On top of the length of time, the pillows on the love seat are wrong. The loveseat is floral and the pillows were supposed to be striped. They are floral, too. I’m trying to decide how to handle it. It does look good, so I’m afraid to push for the stripes now. Butch wants to tell them we want the striped pillows and we aren’t giving these back. They took 4 months to get our furniture to us and we had issues throughout the process. I don’t know whether to blame Broyhill or Holladay House (where we ordered from). Holladay House should have checked to make sure all was correct prior to delivering it, so I do believe they are at fault to some extent.

I hope the process for our bedroom furniture goes much more smoothly. We ordered that earlier this week. It’s supposed to be 6-8 weeks. We’ll see. We also have to time things well – we need to paint the bedroom and have new carpet put in before the furniture comes. The carpet is ruined from a water problem that we had a few months ago.

I had lunch yesterday with one of my “online” friends, Danee. For those of you that don’t know, I joined babycenter.com when I was pregnant with Lacey. I found a group of 1st time moms that were all due in February 2005. And, we are still posting together. Most of us, anyway – some dropped off after the babies were born. Anyway, Danee is in town from TX (Dallas area) for work. It was great to meet her! We had very similar labors (extremely long and hard). Both of us had wanted to go naturally (no epidural or meds) and neither of us could because of how long things went. Ours were the 2 babies that didn’t sleep well until 8-9 months, etc., etc. Kieran (her baby) and Lacey are so much alike.

Well, I’d better get some work done. I have a client meeting tomorrow and while the report is done, I still have lots of prep work to do.

Last week….

We had one heck of a week last week! Over that weekend, Lacey had been pulling at her ears and had also gotten a cold. So, on Tuesday when her temperature was a little over 100 on Tuesday, I decided we’d go back to the doctor! I was supposed to take a 1:00 train to NJ that day. And, Butch had a big meeting that morning. So, I decided to change my arrangements and planned to take the 2:00 train. We went to the doctor….and Dr. Mike simply said “just a bad cold and maybe some teething”. So, we left with no prescriptions.

Butch’s parents (Chuck & Nancy) came into town that afternoon. They were coming to celebrate her birthday. Butch said Tuesday night was bad…she cried out numerous times. At some point, he gave her some Tylenol and she finally settled down.

So, Wednesday, she seemed a little bit better. We opened some birthday gifts (a day early) since Butch wouldn’t be around the next night (work). When I picked her up from daycare on Thursday, Kim said (as soon as I walked in), “so glad to see you”. Or something like that. Not what you want to hear. Lacey was sitting on Mr. Bernie’s lap with her binky, just hanging out. When I took her, she just laid her head on my shoulder. So, back to the doctor on Friday (3rd time in 8 days – the 1st was just a recheck from her previous ear infection). Dr. Jill found both ears infected. So, we walked out with the prescription. This is not the way a birthday should be spent.

Anyway, after getting a dose in Fri. night and another one Sat. morning, she was doing so much better and very ready to enjoy her party! I somehow managed to bake her caterpillar cake on Friday night. (I was tired and not really wanting to.) Everyone came over around noon-ish. We had some of Lacey’s favorites – cheese and crackers, spinach dip (she’s not much on veggies, but likes spinach) and pizza. Too much pizza by far, so we have a lot in our freezer now.

We got her a ball pit for her present and she LOVES it. It totally keeps her occupied.

She got lots of other fun things….clothes, toys, books. I think her favorite book is the Teletubby one that Grandma got her. She loves them.

I think you all have probably seen the pictures….and you could see for yourself that she had fun with her cake! Green icing all over her face and in her hair.

She took a good nap after everyone left, but since it was a late nap (she woke at 5:00), she wasn’t ready to go to bed until 9:00. That’s about 1 ½ hours after her normal time! The whole time she played in the ball pit.

She’s doing better now. We went for her well-baby visit on Monday (4th visit in 11 days). She’s 19 lbs., 9.4 ounces (25th percentile) and 30.5 inches (50th percentile). Dr. Jill is very happy with her growth. She’s actually slowed down – used to be 50th percentile for weight – but Dr. Jill likes little babies. She got 2 shots – screamed at first, but was fine after about a minute.

I’ll try to post again within a day or so about some non-Lacey stuff (for those of you that care)!