You might have noticed, I didn’t really get back up to speed after all. I don’t want to make a big deal whining about a situation I knowingly and willingly put myself in, but I will just say that pregnancy is hard on me, physically and emotionally, and one side effect of that is my blog not getting the care and feeding that it deserves and is used to.

I even got my first ever blog award, and I haven’t had the energy to post it. Please don’t think this means I am any less grateful. I seriously clapped and did a little chair dance when I saw it.

I will be back when I can. Until then… *mwah*

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I’m sure my devotees have noticed that I haven’t been keeping up with my regular posts lately. I could list some excuses, but instead, I’m just going to give a wrap-up of what’s been going on in my life while not posting.

First, sometime around the end of January, I peed on a stick and got two lines.

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(pretty announcement made with Mom-To-Be by Kristin Aagard and Peta Boardman)

I’m kinda guessing on the due date, but I think it’s close enough. If girl stuff makes you uncomfortable, skip to the next paragraph. I’m still nursing Bean, and my last menstrual period was in November 2007, so that cute little wheel they use at the doctor’s office to tell you your due date, which is usually inaccurate anyway, doesn’t know what to do with itself in my case. So I’m basically going off of when I felt pregnant and when I got a positive test. I’m sticking with this due date unless and until an ultrasound can give me something more accurate. Yesterday, I had my first appointment regarding my status as incubator, and learned nothing new. Long story short, they didn’t end up with so much as a urine test, but at least I gave them fresh copies of whatever forms they need to be happy.

I have a dating scan Friday morning. As long as it’s a healthy Bug, I don’t care about the date. But doctors do, so there you go.

In the middle of February, we all got sick. Everyone threw up at least once. We had to cancel our plans to go to not one, but TWO parties. Including one where I was going to dress Bean up in a costume. *pout* It was going to be so cute.

On Sunday, Thomas and his twin sister turned 30. In Denmark, round birthdays are a big deal. When you’re 29 or 31, eh, whatever. But 30? Biiiiig party! Invite everyone you know! And come on, TWINS! This is HUGE, right?! Yeah, not so much. It was just the immediate fam. I’m married to a (very hot, awesome, wonderful) lump on a log. But that’s ok, because I’m in the first trimester of pregnancy anyway. Partying just isn’t the same. But I did eat and keep down several boller, some hot chocolate, and some lagkage. So that’s worth celebrating in itself. In dedication of my man making it three decades, I present you with one of my recent scrapbooking creations.

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(dedication made with My Backyard by Red Genius Enterprises and Mix It Up template by A+ Designs)

By the way, I turn 32 on 7th March. Just sayin’.

During all this, I’ve also been running a download-a-day for my “real job” as a digital scrapbook kit designer. That’s a lot more work than it should be, because a lot of people don’t read instructions and/or think they are special and deserve more time to get each download than everyone else gets. It’s stressing me out.

And, I also volunteer to make a newsletter for a non-profit organization, and next month’s newsletter just isn’t going as smoothly as usual. I don’t want to complain too much about it or call people out, but I’m just… ugh. It’s usually much easier, but everything is going wrong this time.

Today, I’m feeling pretty good, though, and I’m trying to get back on track. I’ve cleaned a bit and everything. There’s laundry going. So far so good. Maybe I’ll even be up for a WW tomorrow. Until then….

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I didn’t know there was a singalong at the end of playgroup, so when everyone looked like they were packing up, I got Bean in her snowsuit.

Then I realized no one was leaving yet. So here’s Bean in her snowsuit, and everyone else still in their Fastelavn costumes.

Oops.

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MoneyMonday.pngIMG_5609.jpgDaddy’s always on his laptop. Mommy’s always on her laptop. Bean wants to be a part of it too. I didn’t really expect it to work, but it was on sale and if nothing else, when she’s 3 and up, like the package suggests, she could use it to learn her numbers or something.

She loves it. Don’t get me wrong; she still wants to use mine, too, but it actually does work to distract her with her own laptop. Hers is more colorful, louder, and plays her favorite kind of music: the danceable kind.

She fails spectacularly at all the games on it, but that’s not why we bought it anyway. We just wanted something that looked like a laptop so she could have one too, and something that was safe for a child, since our old Dell laptop can apparently hurt little fingers that pry the keys off.

We got exactly what we wanted, and so did Bean.

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Frankly Foreign FridayI’ve heard this kind of thing before, a lot. Someone explain it.

“I’m a week late every month!”

What does that mean? Seriously. If it happens every month, then that’s just… how it is. It can’t be late. It’s normal. Perhaps you mean to say “my cycle is a week longer than I want it to be” or “my cycle is a week longer than it was at some other point in my life.” But to say you’re late by the same amount of time every single time your period comes is kinda like saying “I’m 5′3, but when I get measured with an accurate yardstick, it always says 5′2.” Well then, honey, you’re 5′2.

Unless I’m missing something. What else could it mean?

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WardrobeWednesday.pngIMG_6143.jpgBean can unzip zippers and unsnap snaps like a pro, and lately it seems that she enjoys doing those things so much, that she’ll relieve her pyjamas of their duties at the expense of being cold, just to get some practice in.

It turns out that two-piece, zipper-free, snap-free pyjamas for 17-month-old girls are not very popular, because I can’t find any. I did have a set of pink jams with little white poodles on them, but they’re size 3T. With nothing else to try, I put them on her.

And they fit.

What?!

I can only assume they shrunk. I got them used from another mom, so maybe they used to be 3T and now they aren’t, but the tag doesn’t self-update… right? Right? My little girl can’t possibly be a size 3T! She’s like 20 pounds!

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MoneyMonday.pngLegos. I love them. My daughter loves them. My husband loves them.

At first, we built towers and watched Bean tear them down. Now, she’s starting to put Legos together on her own. No towers yet, but small formations for her to carry around and show off to me are wonderful too.

The packaging wanted me to wait until 18 months to get Legos for bean. She’s been playing with them for months and I have nothing but good things to say about it. I look forward to more and more exciting Lego sculptures.

Bring it, Builder Bean. Bring it.

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Frankly Foreign Friday

I know I said I was over Christmas, but now that Christmas is actually long over, I’m ready to think about it again.

Let’s talk Santa.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that you have at least one child old enough to have conversations with, you celebrate Christmas, you’re living in a culture where Santa-belief is normal in children, and you don’t feel the need to explicitly tell your child that Santa isn’t real. I realize that not all my readers fall into those categories, but it’s not the first time I’ve asked you to pretend, right? So we’re pretending.

These are all things that I can understand, and my point is not to debate them. What I want to know, is if you’ll go that step further to actively and explicitly lie about the existence of Santa, and if so, why? Why is there this whole battery of tools designed with no other purpose but to convince children that Santa is real? And I don’t mean vague junk like the “Yes, Virginia” letter. I mean things like NORAD Santa and paying money for fake pictures of Santa in your living room. I get going along with it when your kid declares there’s a Santa. But I don’t get spending an hour putting “reindeer prints” on the roof so you can point to them the next morning and say, “Look! Reindeers really were here!”

So, I just want to know, what’s the point? Anyone?

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I’m a day late again, but I’m posting. So yay!

I don’t know if men have this problem, but every woman who’s ever shopped for clothes in any place where the clothes were already made and not tailored for your body knows that it’s an extremely rare thing for a pair of trousers to fit and look good in all dimensions. Typically you have to decide between the ones with the right length, the ones that fit at the waist, or the ones that fit at the hips, or maybe between the one that highlights your pot belly and the one that highlights your flat rear.

I never realized that this problem started at birth.

Dagmar has two trouser options: highwaters, or showing-off-the-diaper-label. This is one reason I use BabyLegs whenever possible. They always fit since the waist measurement is irrelevant, and the leg length can be anything from newborn to however long the whole BabyLeg is. We even have some of the extra long BabyLegs, so I think she’ll be covered for a while.

The downside to BabyLegs is that BabyLegs + onesie leave exposed skin, and in a Scandinavian winter, that just doesn’t work. So even with BabyLegs, I still have to put trousers on her. Trousers that don’t fit, and never will.

Maybe it’s time I go shopping for tights and skirts?

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MoneyMonday.png

I don’t mean labels like words you use for people. I mean literal LABELS like these manufactured by Avery.

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I’m getting back into FLYing. So far so good. It feels great and the flat is looking great. I spent two 15-minute sessions in the foyer, and was inspired to add labels to the drawers in our hanging organizer.

I put pictures on them because that’s fun.

It remains to be seen if they’ll get wet or hit a lot and thus become useless. But at least until Thomas comes home from work, they are making me happy, and considering how cheap they are, really that’s good enough. Any extra time is a bonus.

And yes, I know it’s Tuesday. I’m not quite FLYing all the way yet, but hey, I didn’t post at all last week, so one day late isn’t so bad.

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