Monday

We had our 3rd swimming lesson this week. The Pickle is doing so well. D was unable to go with us so Aunt J went. The Pickle wanted to be with her but made her promise not to drop him.

D picked up a basketball game to referee much to my frustration. I thought that swimming with the kids was his priority and that we were working around games that he had already scheduled. Someone called and asked if he would pick up a game for him and D said that he would.

Our friends have welcomed their new baby girl. She was born on Friday. I have yet to see her. Unfortunately she is at the children's hospital due to being born with a genetic disorder. They are in our thoughts and every day she gets a little stronger.

We have moved the pickle to a big kid bed and put the chickadee in the crib. They are sharing a room as of now. Mostly because we can't get the crib out the door! The Pickle loves his new bed and several times a day asks if I want to go see it. He is all about those truck sheets. Marketing is everything sometimes.

Freecycle... how I love you!

I've been a member of freecycle for a long time. I had occasionally replied to an offer, but it never panned out. I had not used it to get rid of anything before. About 2 years ago D and I decided to get rid of our jewel cases for our CD's and put them in a binder to save shelf space. I had a hard time getting rid of the boxes and I wasn't sure I was going to like the binder system. Well, after 2 years of not ever needing a jewel case I told D to get rid of them. His intention was to take them to the recycle center. I'm not even sure that they are recyclable.

Another 6 months past and they were still in the basement. I decided to give freecycle a try and posted that I had about 75-100 cases. Within minuted I had 3 takers. By the end of the day I had 13 people who wanted them. I was amazed! I am a convert, looking around my house, what else can I give away? We donate regularly to volunteers of America, but for some reason this gets me more excited to get things out of my house. Like I know for sure that someone wants it, like I'm not just giving junk to the good will, that they can't get rid of.

I have opened up some shelf space in the basement and feel a little lighter for the moment. Also while going through a storage tub I found a sheet which I thought I threw out. I had been thinking about it wishing I still had it because it will be a perfect cape for the Pickle to play Wonder Pets.

Wonder Pets are a big thing at our house lately. The Pickle is Ming Ming, the duck who gets into trouble and is a bit ornery, the Chickadee is Tuck the turtle and I am Linny the guinea pig and leader. D is the visiting rabbit Ollie.

We are working on potty training a bit and the Pickle is not interested very much, but Ming Ming is willing to tell Linny when he has to go. Unfortunately this meant we went through 3 pairs of pants yesterday. I'm not sure if I should give it a go a few more days or back off and go back to diapers.

We got some pull ups but I feel like they are a step back from the cloth diapers that he usually wears. The pull ups keep him even more dry than the cloth diaper. I was sort of hoping that it would just magically happen, but it doesn't look like we are going that way.

Night vs Day

This weekend D and I had the opportunity to see a demonstration on exactly how different our two children are from each other. Saturday we all went to the first swimming lesson. The lesson is for under 3 year olds so both kids are in the same class. D took the Pickle and I had the Chickadee.

We spent the first 25 min or so of the class going over how it was run, which is pretty much we sing song in the pool while trying to get the kids to be comfortable in the water. The Pickle spent this whole time crying and didn't have any interest in singing wheels on the bus or the hokie pokie. He definitely didn't want to play Humpty Dumpty at the edge of the pool and scooch into the pool. The Chickadee on the other hand just looked around with a little bewildered look on her face as if to say, "Hmmm I don't know what's going on but these people have always been nice to me."

Near the end of the class the instructor dolled out floats and bath toys. The chickadee was wrestled into a baby life preserver (wet baby, wet life jacket... not so easy!) D and I switched kids and before the end of the lesson the Chickadee was dreaming of old home week and had fallen asleep in the pool. The Pickle had begun to relax a bit after I promised that I would not drop him. By the end of the lesson he was crying over leaving a whale tub toy behind. Which was an improvement over crying about being in the pool.

That's a great real world example of my kids personalities. The Chickadee goes with the flow with the Pickle is not so sure about new experiences.

Wednesday

It's nice to be setteling back in to a routine now that the holidays are over and the new year has begun. I'm back on my normal schedule at work. Last week I worked 3 days in a row and it about killed me.

We are still looking for a sitter for Friday mornings for 2 hrs. Push comes to shove, I'll try and flex my work schedule, but I think that a neighbor might watch the kids for us. I need to give her a call tonight to be sure. Also, we can always fall back on our sister in law. I just hate to have her come out for such a short time, and through morning traffic.

I have pulled out the blanket that I started to crochet a couple of years ago. It was a lot bigger than I remember. I now have the biggest ball of yarn ever and it is impossible to keep the pickle away from it. He is all about pretending to be a cat lately and cats like to play with yarn. I have started crocheteing it into a new blanket but might have bit off more than I can chew. The yarn is very nubby and probably won't show the pattern so well, so I probably should have chosen something less complicated. I'm going to give it a few rows and see how it goes.

I signed the kids up for swimming lessons for the next 3 months. D and I will each take a kid. It should be a nice time, but I'm not excited to be in a swim suit! I have my baby weight back down, but things are in different places than they were pre-baby and what used to be firm I'm starting to think will never be firm again.

The Chickadee has mastered sitting on her own. She can't get into the position but can hold it when placed in it. I started to go back through the pickels nanny diaries and realized how much more his sitters were focused on activites and things for him than Heidi is exposed to. I will need to work on that on the days that I am home. She can sit in the high chair so I'll see what she thinks of cold spagetti and other things to mash about.

Friday

The tree is down, the living room looks so much bigger for the moment. The Pickle is asking where his tree went and saying "Halloween is over." Which I think he mis-heard D say "The holiday is over".

I am starting on my plan to use up my goods this weekend. I have a 1/2 crochete blanket that started as a scarf and then was too big so went to a blanket stuffed in with my yarn. My goal is to pull it all out and then try and turn it into a proper afghan. Which might be a belated wedding present for a good friend.

I have been thinking about a toy that I had when I was a kid, that might be fun to make. It was a soft toy made to look like a tree log, that had some chipmunks or something that lived in it. It is one of my ideas, going along with the soft doll house that I posted two years ago... could that be! Two years... wow. I also have a thought about soft animals made out of sections with heads and bottoms that snap on, that way you could mix and match them up. I'm a little stuck with how to make the bottoms different... well I guess a horse is a different bottom than a cow. It is something that I need to sit down with my sketch pad and draw a few ideas of.

So many ideas.... so little time...

January 2, 2008

Well, well, well.... a brand new year has arrived. Why do I feel like I'm dragging a ton of baggage from last year into this new year?

2007 is over and it didn't end on a great note. But, I'm trying to turn to the new year and be open for all the new possibilities. In this new year I am hoping to bring more calmness and structure and organization into my home. I am going to try and focus on the task at hand, and not shoot off in a million directions at once, I am going to try and be methodical about my processes. Sounds so unromantic! I guess a more romantic thought would be to live in the moment and enjoy the current process going on instead of constantly thinking of the next 3 things I could be starting on. But... I will be keeping a list for those three things.

I am hoping to be a present mother this year... or to continue being a present mother. To look for the lesson and teaching moment for my children in daily events. To relax my expectations and allow them room to explore. To pass on to my kids that life is fun and it is ok to make mistakes and that the joy is in the trying not the results.

On a more mundane view, I'm going to try and be a better house keeper and to de-stashify my basement. If I can use up my current supplies, I can move on to new ideas in my mind that I feel I can't start due to the amount of stash in my basement. My goal is to convert it to pieces that I can sell on Etsy and roll that into a new digital camera. One small step at a time.