Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Boys Will be Boys

I spent the weekend watching crazy teens and twoppers doing insane shit at the winter X Games. There was Shawn White, winning his 8th straight medal, 6 of them gold, in snowboarding...and he is only 22 years old!! (I guess he has his mom to thank, when he was little, she would take him skiing. He started to go too fast, so she told him to go down backwards. When he got too fast at that, she made him learn snowboarding. And when he got too fast at that, she made him go down backwards. After that, I assume he started jumping over things and doing flips...and then he started getting paid)


I guess the 3 boys were inspired by the snowmobilng portion of the X Games, where some guy did a double flip...on a snowmobile. Who thinks of doing that??? He fell off at the landing, otherwise he might have broken his back because he overshot the landing a bit. But they counted it as the first every double flip ever done on a snow machine.

Anyway, at one point they came home wanting the camera to take pictures of just how awesome they are...that is some sick air!!

Workaholic also likes to just take pictures, randomly, which sometimes exhausts me. Mainly because they are usually of me, in the most unflattering of circumstances. (I won't even show the one of me drinking my first beer...while I just happen to be breastfeeding) (and the only reason I won't show it is because I look like death is beating on my door, pissed that he hasn't been able to take me yet) But sometimes, his complusive picture taking yields pretty good results...like this one. That is his 2 brothers, leaving him in their snowdust, as they take off across the lake. Yep, that's our beloved Indian Lake, frozen as the Alaskan Tundra.



Saturday, January 24, 2009

Two Babies

So everyone asks me how Fonz does with Samantha. And the answer is...I guess fine.

I don't notice big changes in his attitude or behavior. He sulks and pouts just as much as normal when he doesn't get the attention that he feels is due to him. He still gets the zoomies when it snows, still sleeps on the bed with us (when invited) and still begs for your plate when you are done eating dinner. When she cries a lot, he'll give me a look like, "Hello, can't you hear that? Make it stop." The only bit of jealousy I've noticed is when I sweet talk to her, he'll try to get in between us. But I don't let him, and only give him attention when he has backed off. He also tries to steal attention from visitors that are holding Samantha, but that really isn't all that new...he always bugs visitors for attention!!

He isn't real big on Sam being too near him...which is OK that he knows that there should be boundries. When we set her on him, he just gives us that look like, "Please please please let me get up!" You know...like this...


Another question I get a lot is "How does Workaholic do with the baby?" When I was pregnant, by far the most frequently asked question I got from him was, "Can the baby come out and play yet? I'm bored..." Now that she is out, here is how Workaholic and his brothers pass the time.(and yes, that is a snowmobile helmet)
(BTW...I wasn't sure what I was going to call Samantha on this blog, I am not real big on using people's real names. But seeing as how it's pretty much just friends and family that read this, and it isn't going to get much more than that, what's the harm?)




Friday, January 23, 2009

Daddy's Girl





My husband has a few nuances, as I am sure that many husbands do. Workaholic's seem to be more...interesting than other people's spouses though. If he knows if there are milk and cookies in the house, and gets up in the middle of the night to eat them. (However, if there are no milk and cookies in the house, he doesn't wake up.) He can fall asleep mid-sentence. And last night, he fell asleep standing up. Snoring and everything. It's really quite the sight. I would've gotten a picture, but to say that I was thrilled that he fell asleep standing up at 2am when he was supposed to be changing a diaper would be a bit of an overstatement.





Another thing that few people know about him is that he loves to sleep on the bathroom floor. (Here's the thing...way back in the day when we were building our house, he wanted to put ceramic tile in all the bathrooms. I said that he was nuts, we live in Indiana, and doesn't he know how cold ceramic is in the wintertime?? His answer?...heated tile floors, and also a fan that spews heat. Our bathroom can get to about 185 degrees in ten minutes.) He also put in a TV, so he can curl up on the floor with his pillow (or balled up towel, in a pinch) and watch TV in the morning without waking me up. It's quite the sight. One that few people understand, including me. But it doesn't really bother me...in fact, it's pretty awesome that we both get our way in the morning...I get to sleep, and he gets to take his sweet-ass time waking up, by watching TMZ or an infomercial or whatever floats his boat.



Watching Workaholic "bond" with our little girl has been quite intriguing. The one thing that they have in common is sleep. Specifically...sleeping on the bathroom floor.



(If he knew this picture was on the internet, he'd be sooo not happy with me!!)

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Fear and Common Sense???

Last week, Workaholic threw an idea out to me that I immediately shot down in my head. It was crazy. He wanted to go to his parents cottage in Michigan and go snowmobiling with his brother and our friends. What was he thinking?? Our new daughter would be 8 days old. What if the roads were bad? Or worse yet...what if the roads got bad after we got there and we couldn't leave??


And then I got to thinking...we spend a lot of time there. Most weekends in the summer, usually a lot of weekends in the winter, and sporatically throughout the spring. (Not much in the fall because of Purdue football and the holidays.) And we are going to keep going there as long as God keeps us in his good grace to allow us to go. (and my in-laws good grace!) This kid is going to be spending a lot of time at this house, might as well get her used to the car ride. And how cool is it that she can say, "Yeah, I've been coming to the lake since I was 8 days old."??? Why let fear and common sense stop us?


So last Friday, we packed the minivan to the hilt, and set off. (Of course, we had 2 stops to make before we even left town), Once we got on the road, I tried to relax, but there was one little problem. Like a good mom, I was sitting in the back with my daughter, (should she need me for anything I am right there) and I realized that I kind of get carsick! Geez. (I was exhausted from the day, so maybe that played a little part). Needless to say, by the time we got there, I was happy to breathe in that freezing cold subzero air. And the kid?? She traveled like a champ. Slept the whole way there...and back!!
I am attaching the below picture just because I am so proud that I made the trip as soon as I did. (and to document the first time she went to the lake) I hate this picture, I look fat and bloated and (wow...still pregnant!!) and still slightly car sick. And yes, she is in that carseat...isn't that the coolest thing covering her? Who needs a million blankets?? (and yes, there was about 20 inches of snow on the ground...there was more by the time we left)

So we go in, and she is greeted by my in-laws, and swept from my arms, and I think I changed one diaper all weekend. It was great. I slept a lot, drank about one glass of wine, and slept some more. (in explaining why we decided to go last weekend, Workaholic explained to people that his new daughter was stir-crazy and needed to get out of the house)


I am glad that we got that first trip out of the way, under my belt...so to speak. I think that our little girl is going to like car rides, as well she should, only fun and excitement exists at the end of them! And now we won't think twice about packing the minivan to the max and throwing kid and dog in there and setting off for another great weekend!!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

WE DID IT!!!


OMG...we had a kid. A girl. With red hair. Not exactly the boy I was totally expecting (in fact, before the doctor could even announce her arrival, (he was busy with the cord) I looked down and said "Oh my God, it's a girl.") She weighed 6lbs 3oz. and was 19 inches long, born last Thursday. Two and a half years to the day from when Workaholic and I got married.


He lived up to his name in the delivery room, BTW. He was all business, holding my hand (before I got the epidural), laughing at my love of Matt Lauer (after I got my epidural) and cleaning up the things that needed to be cleaned up. He even kept it together enough to cut the cord!! And then he almost passed out...but didn't. I was so proud.


Here is the part where I tell all of you that the epidural is the best thing ever invented. EVER. I had what is called "back labor", and it hurt so bad I couldn't breathe sometimes. Crying was definitely out of the question. And if I hadn't gotten any meds, I most certainly would have passed out. She would've just been stuck in me forever. (and this is what they tell you to do. "Try to relax and breathe through it." You breathe through it you sadistic whore!! Give me MEDS NOW!!!!) Any anesthesiologist who administers epidurals should be knighted. And sainted. And given many gifts, like gold and frankincense. People always will say that you forget the pain of childbirth, and that is why you do it again. I don't think I'll be forgetting any time soon. But I'll do it again. I will just walk into the hospital next time and demand meds. Because this time, I was too polite and not insistent enough, and really? 12 hours of back labor is enough. For a lifetime. The nurse will fear me next time.


Anyway, she is a really cute baby. And I'm not saying that just because I am slightly biased. I am saying it because it is totally true. You know how you can tell if people are telling the truth by the tone of their voice? The 3 nurses that were in my room each saw her and said, "She really is a cute baby"...like they were surprised. And then they repeated it, except with emphasis. So if the nurses who see babies all day long think she is cute, then you know she is.


So now the 4 of us are at home, trying to get good sleep, and trying to eat on a reasonable schedule, and making sure she is clean and fed and happy. Just like her mom, she loves to sleep. One could say that she lives to sleep. Workaholic is snowblowing the driveway of the 8 or 10 inches of snow that have accumulated. Maybe less, I don't know, I haven't exactly been out. But him and Fonz are playing, so that makes me happy.


In the next 24 hours or so, you can go on www.our365.com, and I believe you can search by our last name to see her birth picture. And you can leave comments. Those are fun. Feel free. (it was supposed to have been available by now, but somewhere along the way, our signed permission slip didn't make it to the company, so they didn't put her up on the website, even though we signed the permission slip!) For now, here is her picture...it's the best one we have showing off her hair. (I still can't believe I have a red-headed daughter!!)

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Just a quickie

Quick update...no kid yet!! Lots of painful "practice contractions", which I am sure are getting me nowhere, except on the road to insanity.

I am now off to do some (hopefully) last minute errands.

Thanks everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers!!

Monday, January 5, 2009

A Late Update

There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe in the phrase “Why wait until tomorrow to do what you can do today?”, and those who think that statement is crap. I mean, sure, it sort of makes sense. But why do today what you can put off until tomorrow…so you can do something more fun today???

To say that I am a procrastinator would be an understatement. I am shocked that I made it through college, because I never understood the point of doing homework in a timely manner, or studying for exams too much ahead of time (because I probably would forget everything anyway) (and I actually got a decent GPA in college too!!)

To say that Workaholic is a procrastinator would be the understatement of the century. He worked so much in college, he had to take a class twice because he never got around to doing the necessary work to pass the first time. (in his defense, he was .25% short of passing…the professor wasn’t much for leniency) (and it wasn’t even that he had to work, he just liked to. He said that it made him manage his time more efficiently-ha!!) I remember more than one all-nighter at the end of a semester finishing up a project that most students took 4 months to do, he would complete in 1 night. And now he is finishing up a side job right now that the woman asked him to do a year and a half ago.

The reason for the rush to finish the side job is because I am due tomorrow. As in, less than 2 hours. And I can promise you, tomorrow will come and go, and there will be no baby. I went to the doctor today, after being up all night with “contractions”, positive that I had to be effaced and dilated and would be in the hospital as I type now. And you know what he said?? With a smirk on his face??? That there was nothing going on down there. NOTHING. (I don’t think that he was being mean…turns out he had to have the exact same conversation 2 appointments in a row) This is how I felt after the doctor took his hands out from between my legs and broke the news...

So throughout my pregnancy, I’ve said that I would be late, and that if I didn’t have the baby by the 6th I wanted to be in the hospital on the 7th. Now, after talking to my doctor, he wants me to wait until Monday-ish. I go back on Thursday to get re-checked (and yes…that is exactly what it sounds like…aka, I get violated) and to take a non-stress test, to make sure the baby is OK. I’m still having these “practice contractions”, which sucks because they hurt!!

After getting over the initial shock that the discomfort (aka pain) that I had been enduring for the past 12 hours was for nothing, I decided that it was OK. Because we’re such procrastinators, there are several things to do around the house that probably should get done before the baby makes its appearance. Not fun things, (although one of them may just be cleaning out my DVR of all the Dirty Sexy Money’s I’ve recorded since the season started). And Workaholic still has lots of work to do…so he’ll never finish, but he’ll feel better the more he gets done.

So in short, my back still hurts, I still have cramps, the kitchen is still not organized, the memory card in the camera is still full, and there are still 9 Dirty Sexy Monday episodes to be watched. And I still haven’t moved my crap from the bathroom on the main floor of our house to the upstairs bathroom of our house. Which means that if you are looking in our windows after I shower, you can see me run naked through my house. So that the kid is going to be late making it's appearance really shouldn't surprise us. What’s the rush? Why do it today when you can do it tomorrow?? (or, you know, next week?)

Friday, January 2, 2009

Waiting...

Here I am, making lasagna for dinner, (and also to freeze), and waiting for the hamburger mix to finish cooking. And earlier today...I waited in traffic. (for no other reason than there were a lot of cars and too many stoplights) And you know what else I am waiting on?? This kid to get here. I took a couple of weeks vacation before my due date, which I am totally glad that I did, but now I just kind of hang out...and wait.

I did go see Four Christmases today, and yes, I went alone. Which was OK, because the internet lied to me and I was 5 minutes late walking in. It's pretty funny...wish I hadn't seen any of the previews. (why is it that they show the best part of the movie in the previews? So when it happens in the movie, you aren't all like...OMG!! That was soooo funny!!! You're like...yeah, saw that 100 times in the commercials for the movie)

I also went to Meijer...for the last time. Not only are the prices higher than Target, but there are thousands of people in the checkout line and the parking lots...and I had to wait in the aforementioned traffic just to get there. Sorry Meijer family...I just can't do it anymore.

Anyway, so if all of you are wondering...I am good, kid isn't here yet, and Workaholic is cold. (apparently he doesn't like me to keep the house at 66 degrees...wuss)