Wednesday Fun

Okay, so maybe not that much fun. I haven't been doing a whole lot all week. Rod has been off work and the joy that comes from that is that I have been able to have a nap whenever I wanted every day. That is soooo nice! I just say i am tired, I go to sleep, and I wake up whenever I want. It rocks. It kinda makes me wish he was off work all the time, but then we'd be homeless.

Let's do a rundown of the week so far:

Saturday-The meat truck at work didn't come in the morning so we had empty shelves with people asking stupid questions like, "Are you sure there's none in the back?" Lady, if the shelf is this empty do you honestly think we have anything in the back? The truck did finally come at 4 pm and I had to downstack the meat pallets by myself.

Sunday-The chicken case started smoking and then sparking right before I had to get off work. Thrills.

Monday- Went to the inlaws to have lunch. Put Aria in pigtails. Aria chased around the dogs, played on the beanbag and was all around cute like Aria's should be.

Tuesday- Grocery shopping day. Also went to JC Penney's where mom bought Aria some cute outfits. I spent $35 on groceries total.

Wednesday- A whole lotta nothing.

I'm on my laptop and so I don't have a lot of pics saved here. I do have some old ones, taken around May or April of last year. Here's one of those cute pics of Aria getting kisses from her grandma. She's so big now that she hardly resembles a little baby girl and is certainly getting to be a toddler.

Today I went shopping. Thursday

Today I took Aria to walmart to try to find Rod some more birthday presents. Everything I was looking for him was gone. There was, like, nothing worth getting. I am really not all surprised because I know how our walmart works. It was still disappointing, though.


Aria, however, was bored and looked tired when she was in the cart, but the moment I took her ou of the cart she perked up! She walked around and was babbling to everyone. I followed her around awhile. She had a good time just running around the store for a bit. Then we were standing with the people greeters and Aria bent her forehead down to get a kiss from Joyce. I told Joyce that is how she says she wants a kiss. So Joyce gave her a little kiss. Aria was being such a sweetie to people.


Grandpa came down and wanted his hair cut. I trimmed up what is left of his hair and then he stayed and chatted awhile. Aria was afraid of him at first, but I lured her over to him using a book. Pretty soon she was sitting in grandpa's lap like so.




She was getting tired so she just sat on grandpa's lap while he rocked her. Then he'd tickle her belly, she'd giggle and then put his hand back on her belly so he'd tickle her some more. That girl loves to be tickled.

I put Aria in pigtails today! I have been waiting FOREVER for her hair to be long enough for pigtails. She got a tangle in her hair and I figured if her hair is long enough to tangle then it is long enough for ponytails! I got those tiny little rubber bands at the store then. She was not happy that her mama was messing with her head. She did not even like it when I was just combing the hair upwards. I won the battle, though, and the result is cute pigtails! Rod even thought they were the cutest ever and when he saw them he had to laugh.
I finally broke the plateau! I got on the scale and weighed 169.5. I could just not get under 170, but I finally did! Whoo hoo! Going to the Y is actually doing me some good.

Monday-Valentine's Day Edition

There are a few things I really enjoy about working on Valentine's Day. One of those things is watching the seasonal aisle as the procrastinator's frantically search for a present for their significant other when all of the good stuff is gone. There's just something amusing and satisfying watching some guy sweat at an empty flower case or grumble because all of the clearance jewelry is gone. "Where's all your Valentine's Day stuff!" The people who didn't wait until the last minute bought it all.

Then there are the people who wait until the last minute thinking that we are going to put it all on sale the day of Valentine's Day. Now, from a business standpoint, that's ridiculous. Why mark it down to half price when you know there's going to be plenty of procrastinators that need to buy something the day of and have to get it at full price or else they'll be in big trouble when they get home.


The third thing I like about working Valentine's Day is that after 5pm the store is just full of single people shopping. They have nothing better to do on the day that screams of love. You look around, one person per cart, no one saying anything to each other. No Valentine's Day stuff in their cart. They also shop very very slow because, as mentioned, they have nothing better to do. You can also tell single guys more than you can single women because of what they have in their carts: frozen pizzas, beer, cans of soup, a DVD or game, bag of cookies. You see that and you know this guy is home alone not doing much.


Well, it's President's Day now which means nothing to me except that the banks are closed if I need them for anything. That and I won't get any mail. I don't really care to get mail most of the time cuz all I get is junk mail and the Post. If I am expecting a package or netflix, then that's exciting!

Here is Aria putting on one of my oven mitts. She loves oven mitts. She likes to put one on each hand and run around the house with them. I put one on and I ask her if she is going to help me cook. She takes them out of the drawer and then puts them back in repeatedly. Oven mitts are the best.

Thursday means teeth drilling day

I had my dentist appointment again. He filed down some teeth that were bugging me and replaced my fillings with silver ones since my fillings weren't sealing. Then I got more teeth fixed. I should be done now and the doc said that if I have any more problems with my teeth hurting to just call and they'd give them a good polish.

I also asked about my front teeth and the doc is going to give me and estimate on braces. Wearing braces when I am thirty, I suppose there are worst things-like walking around with the teeth I have now. I am so over the kind of vanity that people have about braces.

Aria was such a good girl yesterday while I went with mom to her eye appointment. She got her eyes dilated so I drove her home because we all know how much it hurts when your eyes are dilated. Luckily she doesn't need a prescription change. We then went to Pamida which will probably be for the last time. The place is closing finally. It was nearly empty when we went in and they were taking down shelves. We got a windshield wiper blade and some snacks. The last purchase at Pamida. We also let baby girl run around. She had a good time just running around all over.

At the eye appointment the waiting room was filled with old people. There had to be a half dozen old people there. There was no one in the waiting room except me and Aria that was under 60. Just white hair and wrinkles as far as the eye could see. One good thing about old people is that they love babies! They kept saying stuff like, "She knows I'm a grandma" when Aria would walk up to them. There were megablocks there and that kept Aria interested so I didn't have to chase her all over the place.

Monday Walks

Today Aria and I went outside. Now, she hasn't been outside much in her short, little life. Therefore the yard was brand new territory for her. Especially since now it wasn't covered in that cold, white stuff and is now covered in wet, cold stuff and it is brown.

She had a good time walking up and down the yard. That's what she did for a good fifteen minutes or so-just take the same path up and down the yard. She didn't want to touch anything or pick up anything. She didn't want to climb anything; just walk up and down the yard. It was very funny.

We did start a walk down the alley in which I had to keep her from going into other people's yards. She stomped some snow and all was well until she fell and scraped her little hand on the gravel. It was bleeding some and she was crying so we went home. I washed her wound and put a bandaid on it which was immediately pulled off. No big deal, she was nearly done bleeding anyway. The rest of the bandaid box ended up on the floor.

So I can't wait until warmer weather so that I can let Aria walk around freely more. I really wish I had a privacy fence, then I could get all sorts of playskool climbing stuff for her to play in. That stuff is expensive, I know, so I will have to look at yard sales and stuff for that.

I also can't wait for yardsale season again. I will go on Friday mornings instead of Saturday. It will rock. It may be something mom and I can do. I may also actually learn the streets where I live. How sad is it that I have lived in this town for 10 years and I have no clue where half of the stuff is.

Here's my stinker outside. Shewas walking along well and didn't fall that much. I was pretty happy about that.

I love how curly her hair is just after a bath.

Other things of note:

I am totally addicted to Bingo Luau in Pogo games. I have been playing for hours every day. This is crazy because I was the kid who hated bingo in school. I mean it. I used to hate participating in those games in elementary so much that when I actually did get a bingo I wouldn't say anything. That's right, I did nothing. I was too shy to speak out and too shy to even call out bingo and win a candy bar. Same with the game Heads Up 7up. I would purposefully put my finger down myself just so that I wouldn't get picked. I did all sorts of things to avoid participating in anything.

Friday Fun Day!

Today I had a good day with my little girl. It didn't start off great. We had bathtime, which is always fun, and we had tasty oatmeal and cereal, which is always good too. However, it was our 15 month appointment and that meant shots.

Aria did not like having to hold still while she got a physical. She also did not like getting her measles shot. The only thing she did like was playing with another 15 month old boy in the waiting room. She saw that boy, walked right up to him, got in his face and went, "AAAHH!" She's so friendly. The little boy was shy, but that did not deter Aria!

Well, Aria is 29 inches and weighs 25 lbs. That puts her in her normal range. She's consistent with her own growth pattern. The doc did tell us to give her more water and less juice. Other than that he was happy with what we were doing for her. He was happy with her food and everything else.

The only concern that I have is that Aria is still not talking. She doesn't consistently say anything. In fact, she isn't even really saying what she has proven to say in the past. By this time she should be saying more words than Dada and Mama, and so we are going to get her a hearing test to see if maybe she can't hear very well. We know she can hear somewhat, but maybe she isn't getting certain sounds or something. Maybe to her all we are saying is babbling noises. I don't know why we never thought of it that way before. Grandpa can't hear unless you yell at him and Dad was deaf in one ear. Evidentally Rod's dad didn't hear well either. She is right on target with everything except the speaking. She just continues to babble incoherently.

We also got the autism checklist and after reading down it, Aria certainly is not autistic!

Well, after getting home, Aria and I played a lot. She's been crying for attention lately so I spent the day playing with her and it was fun. I let her bang on my laptop while I took pics. I also chased her around the house and tickled her and tossed her around like a silly girl. We played with her toys while I had a movie on netflix going. We shared soup for dinner and watched Wiggles. We played a game where I honk everytime she squeezes my nose and I'd point and say, "Nose" and she'd put her nose on my finger.

The absolute cutest thing she did today was she was sitting on my lap while we were watching Wiggles and I had my hand down on her little leg. She grabbed my hand and put it on her knee and then she put her hand on top of mine. It was so sweet. She also gave me kisses today!

She also went to bed really easy today. I think it was because we had sufficient downtime and so she wasn't all hyper and overtired for bed. Also, her nap ended at 3:30 today and so I put her to bed a little early.

Gratutitous Aria pics from today!

I know, it's fuzzy, but I love her expression in this one. Oh, and while at the docs we discovered that tooth number 11 has broken thru!

This is my current favorite pic of her because you not only get to see her bright eyes and smile, but also how long her hair is getting. It also is curly when it is wet, which is adorable. She doesn't get that from me. My hair is stick straight.

Have I mentioned that Aria isn't a fan of stuffed animals? She likes this duck that quacks when you push it, and that's about all. I think she's a duck fan cuz she likes to point at ducks in books and she likes her rubber ducks in her bath as well as the quacking duck. Anyway, every time I put this bear in the chair she would immediately throw it off. Here she is pre-bearthrowing.

Other things of note:

*It is very irritating to have to drink uncold things and only chew with one side of my mouth until next week when I have my dentist appointment.

*The dentist appointments seem to go on forever.

*I can't wait for warmer weather because Aria really needs to do some running around like a little fool outside.

*Rod has a week off in February and one in March because the plant is shutting down. That means lazy family weeks where lots of movies will be watched.

Today I....had my teeth hurt!

Today I got three cavities filled. That is all okay. The only problem is that when I was eating dinner, I bit down on broccoli and damn did it hurt! It was like one of my fillings either came out or was chipped or something. Well, right now I can only eat on one side of my mouth. It doesn't hurt to brush them or anything else, and they don't look bad. However, something happened because now I can't chew on that side without that shot of pain and I was fine up until dinner. Here is the messed up thing: My actual cavities didn't hurt like this did!

But, I am going to get two more cavities filled next Thursday, so I can wait until then. Yes, I have horrendously bad teeth. I've always had horrendously bad teeth. Sometimes I feel like I should just get dentures now and be done with it.

My poor baby girl is having teeth problems too. Now, when they say that the molars are the worst, I believe them! She just cries and cries and doesn't want anything hard in her mouth. Tylenol isn't helping all that much. She also has a diaper rash from taking a nap with a poop diaper. Therefore she's all kinds of itchy and not happy. Poor little thing. She was crying for about a half hour when it was time to go to bed so I let her have more juice and I rechanged her diaper and put desitin on her. She seemed happy after that so maybe now she will be able to sleep.

Rod may be getting the week of his birthday off work and so we will have a lazy week. It will consist of watching lots of movies. I also plan to get a few naps out of Rod as well.

Wednesday- She Pooped on Me!

Yes, yes, Aria pooped on me. Now, not in the way that you were thinking. I didn't actually get any poop upon me. No, this is much more funny. Aria was by the coffee table and I was sitting on the floor. We were playing and watching Wiggles. Suddenly, Aria walks over to me and sits on my bent leg. She then commences to clenching her fists, and her face getting all red. That is when I realized...she was pooping! She came all the way over to me so that she could sit on my leg and then make herself poop. When she was done she got back up again and went away.

Rod thought that was hilarious. I thought it was something that he would probably do as a kid and that it was definitely his genes shining through there. I guess that mommies are great.... to poop on!!!

Rod and I went to the Y today for the first time. Well, it was my first time, not his. We also took Aria into the daycare center. Now, I was all kinds of emotional taking her into the daycare. I had a hard time leaving, I started tearing up. Now, this was pathetic because we were only going to be gone an hour! I am going to be the mom who cries on her daughter's first day of school, I know it.

We went on the treadmill. I watched The Wiggles. Yes, I watched the Wiggles while walking on the treadmill. There was nothing else on except some court thing and the Today Show. Rod watched some thing on the History Channel, but I didn't want to fall asleep on a moving treadmill. Anyway, I burned about 80 calories today, which means I can eat a whole Jello pudding cup! Yippee!

When we went back to get Aria she was the only baby there because it was close to closing time. She cried when she saw us. Now, babies are supposed to cry when their parents leave, not when they see them. She was following this one girl around-she must have decided she liked her. The daycare ladies said that she cried a little bit, but mostly was playing. That's good. She will get to play with some other kids a few times a week and Rod and I can be on the treadmills. I will have to write Aria's name on her sippies for her for daycare.

We tried the gluten free pancakes today for Rod. He said that they tasted a lot like french toast and that they were pretty good. His pancakes were actually easier to cook and flip over than the other ones. His pancakes were all pretty. Mine and Ari's looked pretty sad.

Is that a sports bra Aria has around her neck? Why yes, yes it is. This is her new favorite thing to do. She finds one of my bras in the laundry basket and then puts it over her neck and runs around the house in it. I tell her that she doesn't have to worry about wearing one of those for years, but she doesn't listen. She puts her dad's underwear on her head too.

Wednesday is gluten free!

I was correct in assuming I would find gluten free objects at Hy-Vee. However, they are twice as expensive as the wheat stuff. They are also much more complicated. In order to have flour that acts like wheat flour one would have to buy four packages of different $5 wheats like Tapioca, Potato, Brown Rice, and then mix them all together in a certain fashion. that would make that bit of flour cost $25. I wont' even mention the gum you need to get in order to make the baking stuff stick together.

I bought one flour because I thought I would start off light. I also bought some Brown Rice spaghetti, which also cost me around $5. Our grocery bill is going to be bigger than ever before! I bought pancake mix that was gluten free for Rod. He is going to be the only one eating it too cuz it is too expensive to share!

But, in doing so I won major brownie points as a wife for Rod was telling his friends at work how I went to the trouble to look for gluten free stuff for him so he could eat tastiness. I will have to have a breadmaker to make my own breads too. I know I could roll it out myself, but we all know I am too lazy for that kind of thing.

I just hand Aria a bowl of something and a spoon and she pretty much feeds herself now. She's not the neatest, but she gets the majority of food into her mouth. She still wants everything that is on my plate though.

Here is a video of my 4 month old nephew, Gannon, trying to walk to Aria. Vickie is holding him up, but he is taking steps towards Aria. The little stinker can't even roll over both ways, but he wants to walk. He can't even crawl, but he wants to walk.

Other things of note:

*Strawberry grain bars are not as good as the blueberry ones.

*The weather is tricking me. It looks sunny and nice, but it is really frickin' cold!

*I can get How Clean is your House on netflix. Wee! That may inspire me to clean, like, once.

Monday's Written on Tuesday

Yesterday I went to the dentist and got my chipped tooth fixed. It probably looks better now than it has in years. It is so weird to put my tongue on my tooth and not feel a cavity or a hole there. I also don't have to be paranoid about eating anything. I have to go back on Thursday and get some cavities filled.

Speaking of teeth, the tooth that has been giving Aria pains has now finally burst to the surface. Her tenth tooth has now made it! It is making her cranky and she's been wanting to eat all the time. Aria never wants teething toys. She only wants to eat. She also sleeps a lot when she is teething. It seems, though, like once the teeth break thru then they are constantly teething. My daughter has been teething since she was 5 months old pretty much nonstop. Sometimes it isn't as bad as other times.

I'm getting stuck in that funk where all the things that I normally like to do just bores me and I don't want to do anything but sleep. Every once in awhile I get like that where I am all, "I don't want to watch a movie....or read....or visit my boards....or do anything but sleep." I just have to push on and force myself to do the things I normally like so that I can get out of the funk.

It's grocery shopping day and I have money. That means I can get all sorts of food without worrying about the price. This is a good thing because I need to restock. I am also going to visit Hy Vee's health section because I need to look for gluten free stuff for Rod.

Catch up Day Sunday

So Today I went to work and I swore that it felt like a holiday. The ground beef was just flying off the shelf. I spent a half hour doing nothing but putting ground beef on the shelves then I did some pork and the ground beef was all gone again! I ended up going to lunch late and busting my butt to fill things. I was so glad when it was time to go home.

Well, last week I didn't write a blog because I was at my sister's house. Here are some pics from that.

Here is Aria with her 4 month old cousin, Gannon. Look how big Gannon is next to his 14 month cousin! That always impresses me. They wear the same size diapers.

You will drink this bottle now!

This is one of my most favorite pics because Aria looks like it is very serious that he drink that bottle! We thought it was pretty cute that Aria picked up the bottle and was wanting to feed him. She'd put the bottle in his mouth, then take it out, then put it in, and take it out.

This is a very cute pic of Aria with my sister. It was so sweet because Ari hugged my sis while we were down there. She is hugging and kissing more, which is adorable. I love that she is such a sweetie.

While in Kansas Vik and I got impromptu haircuts at Mastercuts. We also visited the town that is just a giant trailer park, and the many thrift stores that we love. I got my trenchcoat at goodwill! I was really thrilled about that because last winter my trenchcoat's sleeve ripped and the liner ripped, and the pockets ripped. I was very upset. Now I have a new trench.

I would say that some of the most fun I had on vacation was sitting on the couch with a laptop in my lap watching TV and laughing at silly things with Vik. Good times.

I have ordered a couple gluten-free cookbooks for Rod's wheat sensitivity. He ate pizza today and now is spending most of the night in the bathroom.

A couple extra things:
*I realized today how awesome my life is that I have never had any guys in my life who have ever given a crap about the superbowl.

*It is time to get a new mattress.