Nothing fits. That is all.
~RCH~
6 years ago
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Monday, August 06, 2007
PSA
To the two well-intentioned people at church:
I think you were trying to express compassion for my situation as a very pregnant woman with two energetic children (children who are forced to attend three hours of church each week when, on any other day, they would be eating lunch and napping). I do appreciate your concern for me.
Still.
While I can think of a few things more offensive than telling a mother, "I feel so sorry for you!" because of her children, that one certainly makes it near the top of the list.
Don't feel sorry for me. They may be hungry, tired, overstimulated and simultaneously bored, and therefore prone to some misbehavior, but I'm glad I have them.
Next time, even if that's honestly the best way to describe your feelings about my family, keep your pity to yourself.
~RCH~
I think you were trying to express compassion for my situation as a very pregnant woman with two energetic children (children who are forced to attend three hours of church each week when, on any other day, they would be eating lunch and napping). I do appreciate your concern for me.
Still.
While I can think of a few things more offensive than telling a mother, "I feel so sorry for you!" because of her children, that one certainly makes it near the top of the list.
Don't feel sorry for me. They may be hungry, tired, overstimulated and simultaneously bored, and therefore prone to some misbehavior, but I'm glad I have them.
Next time, even if that's honestly the best way to describe your feelings about my family, keep your pity to yourself.
~RCH~
Sunday, August 05, 2007
T minus 10 to lift-off
Is that what they say? DH would know, but he's sleeping in after a rough night on call so I won't bother him to ask. In any case, here are my girls in their "astronaut helmets" in a leftover shot from the new hair photo session (this one's for you, Mom!):
Ten ... nine ... eight ... seven ... six ... five ... four ... three ... two ... one....
BLASTOFF!
~RCH~
Ten ... nine ... eight ... seven ... six ... five ... four ... three ... two ... one....
BLASTOFF!
~RCH~
Friday, August 03, 2007
Nursery help
As you may remember, I'm on my third baby and putting together my first real nursery. Yay!
Last Monday my super nice sister drove up with her baby so that they could entertain my girls while I painted the room two shades of yellow (Mustard Something on the bottom and Something Pineapple on the top). I thought about prepping the room the night before, but I figured the girls would just tear down the tape, so why bother? Maybe I should have bothered. Despite having the girls out of my hair, and even with said kind sister's help while the girls napped, it took us most of the day to tape off the trim; I finished the day with only the bottom half of one wall painted (and it was the shortest wall, lol).
But who should appear next, a mere half hour after the first sister had left? My other very nice sister, her husband, and their little boy! For all I knew, they had come up to visit us for the 24th of July holiday -- not because we had anything exciting going on, but simply because it's nice to get a change of scenery once in a while. Plus, I'm just super fun to visit, lol. (So fun that we made BIL stay up until past midnight helping DH dismantle a swamp cooler and jerry rig a window a/c unit that was too big for the actual window. Whooo! Good times.)
We all went to bed at around 1:00 in the morning. I got up bright and early the next day to take the girls to their swimming lessons and planned to start on the rest of the painting when we got home, hoping our visitors would play with the girls while I worked. As it turned out, there was no need: My sister and BIL had painted the entire rest of the room -- including the ceiling! -- while we were gone! Those sneaky kids work quickly and well. What a wonderful surprise. :-)
The room looks BEAUTIFUL (so much nicer than the old baby poop green color!). I keep standing in the doorway for long periods of time simply to ogle the lovely new paint, lol. I'm so grateful for all the help I received from my two fabulous sisters and their families! It's so pretty. I couldn't have done it without them.
Now that the painting is finished, I suppose it's time to figure out the rest of the decor. Here's a look around the 11'x9.5' room:
I've identified three main challenges so far: (1) The twin bed, which I would like to keep in there to make middle of the night nursing sessions easier (so I won't bother DH, an insanely light sleeper, by bringing the baby to our bed); (2) the only heating vent, which is on the floor beneath the window (covered by the changing table in the room's current configuration -- don't know how well that will work come winter); and (3) the closet that eats up nearly the entire left wall.
The size of the room and the placement of the vent and closet make for limited furniture arrangement options, unfortunately. I've decided I don't want to put the crib in front of the window, although there's more room beneath it to accommodate air flow from the vent, because I don't want Ponybelle to pull on the (as yet unchosen) curtains or strangle herself in the blinds cord. I guess I could put the twin bed there instead, and move the crib to the bed's current spot with the changing table between them on the right side wall. I don't know. Maybe I ought to just disassemble the twin and put it in the storage room for now. I can nurse on the couch at night. :-P It would certainly help the room look and feel less cramped.
The other question I have concerns shelving: Right now there are no horizontal surfaces in the room on which I can put stuff, either knick-knacky decorative things or practical items I'll want ready at hand like diaper rash cream. I first thought wall shelves would be a reasonable solution ... but would that look wrong, since the room is already cut in half horizontally by color and the, um, wood trim thing? (That may be a stupid question, but I'm a total novice at this so humor me.) Our local fancy-dancy furniture store has open (as opposed to encased with glass) shadow box-type frames that could double as shelving without looking overly horizontal. Kind of like this one, from Target:
Do you think those would work? At least for curios, I guess; Boudreaux's Butt Paste might look sort of funny framed in a fancy box. :-P
I may be in over my head here, so this is the point at which I invite all you decorating divas to contribute your ideas. My design plan, sparse as it is, began with the crib sheets from KidsLine's Tiger Lily bedding set, though while I'm considering buying the crib skirt (if I can find it as a stand-alone) as well, I'm not going to vomit that set all over the room with the matching bumper and valance and curtains and hamper and mobile and lamp shade and bla bla bla. But I do like those colors, the pinks and yellows, and of course the white trim that's already in the room (baseboards, window, closet and door). I need a place to put stuff. I may or may not need a place to nurse at night.
Where would you go from here?
~RCH~
Last Monday my super nice sister drove up with her baby so that they could entertain my girls while I painted the room two shades of yellow (Mustard Something on the bottom and Something Pineapple on the top). I thought about prepping the room the night before, but I figured the girls would just tear down the tape, so why bother? Maybe I should have bothered. Despite having the girls out of my hair, and even with said kind sister's help while the girls napped, it took us most of the day to tape off the trim; I finished the day with only the bottom half of one wall painted (and it was the shortest wall, lol).
But who should appear next, a mere half hour after the first sister had left? My other very nice sister, her husband, and their little boy! For all I knew, they had come up to visit us for the 24th of July holiday -- not because we had anything exciting going on, but simply because it's nice to get a change of scenery once in a while. Plus, I'm just super fun to visit, lol. (So fun that we made BIL stay up until past midnight helping DH dismantle a swamp cooler and jerry rig a window a/c unit that was too big for the actual window. Whooo! Good times.)
We all went to bed at around 1:00 in the morning. I got up bright and early the next day to take the girls to their swimming lessons and planned to start on the rest of the painting when we got home, hoping our visitors would play with the girls while I worked. As it turned out, there was no need: My sister and BIL had painted the entire rest of the room -- including the ceiling! -- while we were gone! Those sneaky kids work quickly and well. What a wonderful surprise. :-)
The room looks BEAUTIFUL (so much nicer than the old baby poop green color!). I keep standing in the doorway for long periods of time simply to ogle the lovely new paint, lol. I'm so grateful for all the help I received from my two fabulous sisters and their families! It's so pretty. I couldn't have done it without them.
Now that the painting is finished, I suppose it's time to figure out the rest of the decor. Here's a look around the 11'x9.5' room:
I've identified three main challenges so far: (1) The twin bed, which I would like to keep in there to make middle of the night nursing sessions easier (so I won't bother DH, an insanely light sleeper, by bringing the baby to our bed); (2) the only heating vent, which is on the floor beneath the window (covered by the changing table in the room's current configuration -- don't know how well that will work come winter); and (3) the closet that eats up nearly the entire left wall.
The size of the room and the placement of the vent and closet make for limited furniture arrangement options, unfortunately. I've decided I don't want to put the crib in front of the window, although there's more room beneath it to accommodate air flow from the vent, because I don't want Ponybelle to pull on the (as yet unchosen) curtains or strangle herself in the blinds cord. I guess I could put the twin bed there instead, and move the crib to the bed's current spot with the changing table between them on the right side wall. I don't know. Maybe I ought to just disassemble the twin and put it in the storage room for now. I can nurse on the couch at night. :-P It would certainly help the room look and feel less cramped.
The other question I have concerns shelving: Right now there are no horizontal surfaces in the room on which I can put stuff, either knick-knacky decorative things or practical items I'll want ready at hand like diaper rash cream. I first thought wall shelves would be a reasonable solution ... but would that look wrong, since the room is already cut in half horizontally by color and the, um, wood trim thing? (That may be a stupid question, but I'm a total novice at this so humor me.) Our local fancy-dancy furniture store has open (as opposed to encased with glass) shadow box-type frames that could double as shelving without looking overly horizontal. Kind of like this one, from Target:
Do you think those would work? At least for curios, I guess; Boudreaux's Butt Paste might look sort of funny framed in a fancy box. :-P
I may be in over my head here, so this is the point at which I invite all you decorating divas to contribute your ideas. My design plan, sparse as it is, began with the crib sheets from KidsLine's Tiger Lily bedding set, though while I'm considering buying the crib skirt (if I can find it as a stand-alone) as well, I'm not going to vomit that set all over the room with the matching bumper and valance and curtains and hamper and mobile and lamp shade and bla bla bla. But I do like those colors, the pinks and yellows, and of course the white trim that's already in the room (baseboards, window, closet and door). I need a place to put stuff. I may or may not need a place to nurse at night.
Where would you go from here?
~RCH~
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Dos's big day
Today is Dos's third birthday. Our big party will consist of pizza for dinner, and cake and presents afterward. Nothing too extravagant.
I sang Happy Birthday to her when she woke up this morning, and congratulated her on turning three. She looked at me with wide eyes and a big fat smile and, when I finished singing, exclaimed, "I knew I could do it! I knew I could change my number!"
I love that kid. :-)
~RCH~
I sang Happy Birthday to her when she woke up this morning, and congratulated her on turning three. She looked at me with wide eyes and a big fat smile and, when I finished singing, exclaimed, "I knew I could do it! I knew I could change my number!"
I love that kid. :-)
~RCH~
Sunday, July 22, 2007
New hair
The girls got their hair cut a few days ago (second time for Uno; first time for Dos). Dos only needed a trim, now that her mullet was long enough to make it all one length without chopping too much. Uno wanted short hair ("but not short like Daddy, because he doesn't have any hair!" -- cue fits of giggles) so we gave her a chin-length bob (which, coincidentally, is about how long Dos's new hair is, too).
Aren't they sweet? :-)
~RCH~
The scare of my life
About 40 miles north and east of where we live is a dinky little resort town (pop. 521, I read on the sign today) whose claim to fame is natural hot springs and an Olympic size pool. My parents have had a timeshare condo there since I was a kid, so one week every summer the whole family gathers up there to play. Now that we're all grown up with families and schedules of our own, people just drop in and out, but today was the family July Birthdays party so nearly everyone was there at the same time (DH couldn't come because he was on call).
First, we ate; next we had cake and ice cream and let the honorees (including Dos) open their presents; after that, everyone got ready to go swimming at the big ol' pool, which is directly behind the condo. That takes a while with ~30-some-odd people: There are bathing suits to put on, towels to be gathered, sunscreen to be slathered, swimming toys collected and kids to be counted....
Except that when we counted mine, Uno was missing.
I had been getting myself dressed, and then changing Dos into a swimming diaper and her bathing suit. Uno wasn't with us, but I figured she was in one of the other rooms getting herself ready (she's so independent these days). Everyone else must have assumed she was with me. As it turned out, she wasn't anywhere.
A couple people ran over to the clubhouse. One went to check the playground. A sister and some nieces ran over to the river, which runs directly beside the condo, where a kid might be fascinated by all the people tubing / rafting.
I ran up to the pool and asked the admissions lady if she had seen a four-year-old girl, short blonde hair, in a blue swimming suit and blue floaties, come in. She shrugged. "It's been a busy day; I've seen lots of kids." Thanks, lady.
By that time, I was feeling very panicky; Uno has slipped away from me before (she's TOO independent and curious) but she's never gotten so far out of my sight that I couldn't find her pretty quickly. This time, though, I had no idea how long she'd been gone. I had no idea where she'd go, with so many tantalizing possibilities. She's soooo social, I know she would go with anyone who asked her to: An old man in the grocery store good naturedly teased her a while back that she was so precocious, he wanted to take her home with him. "Okay," she said, moving to hold his hand. And then to me, "Mom, you go home with Dos and I'm going to go to his house." (Aaaaiiieee!) So of course I had visions of pedophiles (who, I'm sure, love to hang out at busy swimming pools like this one) luring her away without even the need to promise her candy....
Since the swimming pool lady was no help, I decided to take a quick peek through the fence (I didn't have any cash on me at the time to pay to get in) near the shallow end. Uno doesn't know how to swim and she's terrified of going any farther than the steps, so I knew that if she were there she ought to be relatively easy to spot. Except of course that it's one of the pool's busiest days of the year -- the Saturday of a holiday weekend (for Utahns, anyway, which most of the patrons are; it's their Founder's Day holiday). The place was PACKED (and the pool is HUGE). I looked and looked and I didn't see her. I was crying by that time, horrible scenarios running through my mind....
...And then suddenly, she popped her head out of the water. She was playing on the steps with her face mask on, practicing putting her head in the water. I yelled to her, but of course she didn't hear me over all the commotion from all the other people. I yelled her name again. Again, nothing. A man sitting on a towel on the inside of the fence asked me which kid was mine, and I pointed to Uno; he went and got her for me.
I sobbed as I dragged her butt back to the condo, trying to spit out the words of a decent talking-to: Never, EVER go somewhere without a grownup that you know. Everybody has been out looking for you, and I was so, so scared that something bad happened! You could have fallen in the water and not known how to get out. A bad guy could have taken you and I'd have never seen you again. ("But Mom, a bad guy did come and I kicked his booty with my super strength power!" Ugh, kid. Be serious for a moment!)
Sheesh.
Anyway. All's well that ends well. I dragged her back to the condo, we counted the kids again to make sure we had EVERYBODY, and then we all went to the pool together. Uno and Dos both practiced their swimming on the steps of the shallow end -- with me watching them extra closely -- in preparation for the swimming lessons they start next week. Uno even got brave enough to venture off the steps in the last 20 minutes we were there, when she finally realized that the water wasn't deep enough to even reach her chest, lol.
I'm so relieved that nothing happened. It still makes me cry to think of all the things that could have easily happened, to think that I could have lost her for good. Holy cow. I've never ever been so scared. We had a fun day after that ordeal, but boy howdy am I glad this day is over; I hope to never have another one like it.
~RCH~
First, we ate; next we had cake and ice cream and let the honorees (including Dos) open their presents; after that, everyone got ready to go swimming at the big ol' pool, which is directly behind the condo. That takes a while with ~30-some-odd people: There are bathing suits to put on, towels to be gathered, sunscreen to be slathered, swimming toys collected and kids to be counted....
Except that when we counted mine, Uno was missing.
I had been getting myself dressed, and then changing Dos into a swimming diaper and her bathing suit. Uno wasn't with us, but I figured she was in one of the other rooms getting herself ready (she's so independent these days). Everyone else must have assumed she was with me. As it turned out, she wasn't anywhere.
A couple people ran over to the clubhouse. One went to check the playground. A sister and some nieces ran over to the river, which runs directly beside the condo, where a kid might be fascinated by all the people tubing / rafting.
I ran up to the pool and asked the admissions lady if she had seen a four-year-old girl, short blonde hair, in a blue swimming suit and blue floaties, come in. She shrugged. "It's been a busy day; I've seen lots of kids." Thanks, lady.
By that time, I was feeling very panicky; Uno has slipped away from me before (she's TOO independent and curious) but she's never gotten so far out of my sight that I couldn't find her pretty quickly. This time, though, I had no idea how long she'd been gone. I had no idea where she'd go, with so many tantalizing possibilities. She's soooo social, I know she would go with anyone who asked her to: An old man in the grocery store good naturedly teased her a while back that she was so precocious, he wanted to take her home with him. "Okay," she said, moving to hold his hand. And then to me, "Mom, you go home with Dos and I'm going to go to his house." (Aaaaiiieee!) So of course I had visions of pedophiles (who, I'm sure, love to hang out at busy swimming pools like this one) luring her away without even the need to promise her candy....
Since the swimming pool lady was no help, I decided to take a quick peek through the fence (I didn't have any cash on me at the time to pay to get in) near the shallow end. Uno doesn't know how to swim and she's terrified of going any farther than the steps, so I knew that if she were there she ought to be relatively easy to spot. Except of course that it's one of the pool's busiest days of the year -- the Saturday of a holiday weekend (for Utahns, anyway, which most of the patrons are; it's their Founder's Day holiday). The place was PACKED (and the pool is HUGE). I looked and looked and I didn't see her. I was crying by that time, horrible scenarios running through my mind....
...And then suddenly, she popped her head out of the water. She was playing on the steps with her face mask on, practicing putting her head in the water. I yelled to her, but of course she didn't hear me over all the commotion from all the other people. I yelled her name again. Again, nothing. A man sitting on a towel on the inside of the fence asked me which kid was mine, and I pointed to Uno; he went and got her for me.
I sobbed as I dragged her butt back to the condo, trying to spit out the words of a decent talking-to: Never, EVER go somewhere without a grownup that you know. Everybody has been out looking for you, and I was so, so scared that something bad happened! You could have fallen in the water and not known how to get out. A bad guy could have taken you and I'd have never seen you again. ("But Mom, a bad guy did come and I kicked his booty with my super strength power!" Ugh, kid. Be serious for a moment!)
Sheesh.
Anyway. All's well that ends well. I dragged her back to the condo, we counted the kids again to make sure we had EVERYBODY, and then we all went to the pool together. Uno and Dos both practiced their swimming on the steps of the shallow end -- with me watching them extra closely -- in preparation for the swimming lessons they start next week. Uno even got brave enough to venture off the steps in the last 20 minutes we were there, when she finally realized that the water wasn't deep enough to even reach her chest, lol.
I'm so relieved that nothing happened. It still makes me cry to think of all the things that could have easily happened, to think that I could have lost her for good. Holy cow. I've never ever been so scared. We had a fun day after that ordeal, but boy howdy am I glad this day is over; I hope to never have another one like it.
~RCH~
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