Satisfaction

I am a happy girl - I finally got to have my cherry dip. The temperature dropped into the low 60's while we were sitting there enjoying our ice cream - so we ate pretty fast, cuze the sun was going down, and it was a little chilly. Life is good. Sometimes it's just good to sit back and appreciate the little things that this world has to offer....things like frozen custard, presents in the mail, or a hummingbird flitting around my petunias under the kitchen window.


On the car ride home from Ermas last night, Emily told us that she wanted to go to a desert. Of course, this opened up an opportunity to ask her questions in jest on what she knew about a desert. "Oh you mean, one with a pool?" we said. "No, Mommy, deserts don't have pools, just lots of sand."

"But it rains a lot there, right?" "No, Daddy, it's very dry there."

This line of questioning went on for quite a while. But my personal favorite was: "But you can eat all the sand, right?" "No, you can't eat the sand, it's OUTSIDE sand."

"OUTSIDE sand? Can you eat inside sand?" I asked her.

"Yes, only after you wash it, but I don't like it."

Okay - good tip.

Oh, back to the hummingbird. My Mom and I saw a hummingbird around my minature petunias a couple days ago, then he, or she, re-appeared the next day. We saw it again this morning, and quickly called Emily to see it - but this time there were two!! Suffice it to say, Emily could care less, she kept playing with the blinds so that we couldn't see it, so we sent her away. I tried to take a picture, but when I went outside, they were gone. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

One more thing - beware of manhole covers. According to Emily, monsters live under them, and like to eat sandals. They don't starve during the winter - they eat the underground. Hopefully, it's inside dirt!!

Have a great Labor Day weekend. My dad and Natalie are coming to visit tomorrow, BBQ at the Marcikic's on Sunday, and who knows what we'll be into on Monday. And of course, BIG day on Tuesday - first day of school for Emily. Only one more year till she's my little Kindergartener. Can't believe it.

Well, that's more like it

My name is Princess Fusspot
I fuss, I fuss, I fuss a lot
I fuss over here and I fuss over there
Cuze I am Princess Fusspot
-words and music by Allison Gottlieb


Well at least one of my girls is smiling.

My Mom thinks that I am crazy - she thinks all newborns are fussy, but I swear, I have known many babies who are content to just sit in your lap, and only cry when they want to eat, or have a severely messy diaper - this is true right? Eric says that it's definitely not fair considering that Emily was a fussy baby, and I had such a crappy pregnancy this time - I, for some reason, deserve one of those contented babies. I am not complaining - I know that in time, Paige will be better - it's become my mantra. For those of you keeping score - she did sleep a little better last night.

On another more positive note, I am so excited because we are going to go to Erma's for dessert tonight. What is Erma's you say? Only the best frozen custard around. Eww, frozen custard......if that's what you are saying, you are obviously not from the midwest, where frozen custard lives. It's just like ice cream, only about 8,000,000 times better. I am getting a cherry dip - I know, I am 34 going on 5. But laugh if you must, it's so yummy. We were going to go last night, but we had severe thunderstorms around, and Erma's is a stand with seating on picnic tables outside, so we didn't think it was a good idea to go.

Eric and I were talking about the things we miss the most from Florida - aside from the obvious, friends and family - and we both agreed, we miss the FOOD. Pizza is just not the same around here, there's no cheesecake factory, and there's no La Bamba, which means means no yummy carne asada. Geez, you think it's dinner time???

Sheer Exhaustion

Well, it's 10:10pm right now, and I am wondering what the night holds for us here. The last few nights have been a little CRAZY to say the least. Early Tuesday morning, I awoke to the cries of Paige at around 5am, prepared a bottle for her and began feeding her. My husband, who should have been sleeping in our bed, decided that it's been awhile since he's seen a lunar eclipse, so why not?? Well, all the Gottliebs gathered in Emily's room (she had the best view) to witness a little science lesson. So what, we missed a little sleep, but it was nice having our little family have a little moment at 5am. What's the BIG deal right?

Fast forward to last night - Paige ate at 7:30pm, and slept in her crib until 12:30am. Sounds great right? NOT. She proceeded not to go to sleep until 4:15am, and awoke again at 7:30am this morning. The no sleep thing has officially caught up to me - I should be in bed right now.

Saw a woman in Babies R Us today who was freaking out about the whole plastic bottle thing - they have found that some chemical leaches off of most plastic bottles, and have advised people to discontinue using them - and to use either glass bottles (yeah right) or the Platex drop in thingies. When are they going to stop doing studies just to cause people more stress and anxiety? I swear, more people probably get cancer from stress about the things that can possibly cause cancer. Yes, I know, breastfeeding doesn't pose any health risks...but I am NOT going there.

How can a face like this cry so loud and so long?

Oh, one more thing....Eric was trying for over an hour last night to get Paige calmed down, and he said his arm was aching this morning.....so he weighed Paige...10 pounds!!!! Is that possible? That would explain why the newborn diapers are a little tight. I guess I should cherish these sleepless nights - before I know it, they'll be behind me, and so will Paige's baby days. I still get a little freaked when I look at Emily, and see how grown up she is. You should see her size five jeans we bought for school this year!!

Recovering

And so it begins.....I haven't posted in here in a few days, and I was feeling a little guilty, but now I am over it. I had last night all planned out. Eric was going to leave for the train club at around 6:45, Emily in the tub at 7, in bed at 8, and me down in the basement doing photo editing, blog entries, and maybe a little scrapbooking after....well that didn't happen. I got either major indigestion, or heartburn, or something else which I cannot figure out. All that matters is that I had a searing pain in my chest which felt like someone had stabbed me with a javelin. Eric, being the smart-ass that he is, wanted to know, "Why a javelin? Why not a bow and arrow." Can't he just see that I was in pain and offer a little sympathy? Well, he did stick around for an extra hour, while I writhed in pain, and then just as quick as it started, it was gone. Got Emily into bed, and thought I am free and clear for the rest of the night......not so fast. Paige started one of her amazing tantrums, and my pain came back (maybe it's related), so that was fun. She calmed down, and so did my pain, and the Tigers beat the Yankees 16-0. What a night!!

In other news, we had a terrific visit with the McCarver girls. Emily and Katie had a great time at the splash zone at MetroBeach. We also went and played at one of our local parks - Four Corners. Fortunately for us, we were not close to the really bad tornadoes that came though Friday evening. It did foil our BBQ plans, as Eric had to finish grilling the burgers inside.

Paige was in her swing yesterday, and I have noticed that her "newborn" look is completely gone. It's sad really - but good that she is healthy and growing more and more every day. I am going to Archivers (scrapbook store) later today to get the footprint kit, so that we can cast her footprint just like we did for Emily. We did it for Emily at five weeks, and since Paige is five weeks today, it's her turn.

Six more days of summer vacation.............

Got work to do...

I am taking a break from frantically running around my house cleaning up. Why is it that no one but me puts things away?


Anyway, we did not get to go to the park yesterday, but we (Eric, Emily, Paige and myself) did go for a walk last night. Everyone kept saying how hot and muggy it was yesterday, but the evening was just right with a cool breeze. The only bad part was that all the bugs were out for their evening stroll as well, so that was lovely. I found one in Paige's diaper after we returned home last night - just a little gnat, nothing serious, and she wasn't "bugged" by it.



During the walk I happen to notice something about the area in which we live - just about everyone takes a lot of pride in their maintenance of their properties. Lawns here are meticulously maintained. Shrubs and flower beds are as well. Everyone here either has hanging flower baskets, or beds full of a variety of plants and flowers. We are no exception - we have two hanging baskets of miniature petunias, and two planters under our kitchen window with regular petunias. My Mom and Aunt also planted two BIG flower pots full of a variety of flowers - a surprise for me when we took a road trip a few months back (you can sort of see one behind Emily in the above picture). Living in Florida, when you basically only have 2 seasons (hot and REALLY hot), you don't get to see nearly as much color as your do here with spring, summer and fall. It sort of makes up for a bleak winter. Sort of.


Tracy and Katie are on their way here as I write this, and I will get to see them for the first time in a year in a couple of hours.....very excited about that.



Have a great weekend everyone!!

A Paige a Day

So, in an effort to reduce the number of emails I send every time I have a cute picture of my kids, I have created this blog so that I can ramble on about how great they are and have the pictures to prove it - haha.

I promise that I will try my best to have an entry at least every other day, but reality will probably set in, and this will probably become a place where I will have pictures of their YEAR birthdays.

Anyway, it's another rainy day here in Michigan - but our lawn is actually a beautiful shade of green, not the lovely shades of brown it was just a few weeks back. Emily is wishing for some sunshine later this afternoon so that we may actually go to the park for the first time in forever.

Paige had a GREAT night last night - fed at 11pm, 3:30am, and then again at 7:30am. She is a very sleepy girl today, so I am hoping that doesn't translate into a very awake baby tonight...i'll let you know.

We had one of those crazy outings yesterday - went to Chili's for dinner - I had a craving for their chicken tenders with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. Paige started fussing as soon as we got in the car to leave (I should have taken it as a sign), the hostess was very non-committal about where she wanted to seat us, "Umm, can you wait until they clear this table, no, I have you sit here, no, how about this booth...." Just seat us already lady, I have a screaming baby who needs to eat NOW!!! Then, we had a waiter trainee, who was so disgustingly sweaty, that we were afraid that it would drip into our food. Okay, so we place our order, and I am feeding Paige, (who by the way spit up all over my jeans just seconds before) and Miss Emily now says, "I have to go potty". Picture it, we are crammed into a booth, I have my hands full with Paige, and my Mom and Eric are sitting opposite us....so Emily crawls under the table - much to my Mom's disgust....she's washing her hands after she goes anyway....what's the big deal. Our food arrives, and they bring me, chicken fried steak.....WRONG. So they take it away, and make me wait, I am not exaggerating, 15 minutes for my correct meal. Of course when they finally bring it, it's scalding hot, Eric, my Mom, and Emily are finished, so I quickly eat one chicken tender and am eating the corn that I know won't reheat well, when Emily starts with, "My tummy hurts." and making coughing sounds like she's going to throw up....DO I NEED THIS??? So I rush her to the bathroom, where she proceeds to NOT throw up. And now, my appetite is gone. I put my mostly uneaten dinner in the TO GO box, and we leave. I am thankful for three things: they didn't charge me, Emily didn't puke on me, and Paige pretty much slept though the whole thing. Are we going back there anytime soon - that would be no. The thing about it was, I really wanted that dinner - had been craving it for some time....oh well, at least I get to eat it for lunch today!