Finally

I did it, I really did it.  It took about 2 weeks, and I had to sneak some time during my planning time at school here and there, but  I did it.  I am so happy and so invigorated!

I actually read an entire book.

Bathtime

  

I can't wait to be on break from school (in about a month)

and have time to play around with this picture and edit it.

I think it could turn out really neat!

The girls definitely have the same face shape.  Clara's hair 

is pushed back, she definitely has more than this picture 

shows, but not as much as Greta did at her age.  I should do a 

blog showing pictures at the same age....

Her Future is Bright

I often enjoy dreaming what Greta will be when she grows up. She certainly has teacher qualities, as she enjoys teaching people things and, of course, telling people what to do. She has good analytical skills, a killer memory, and seems to have knack with numbers thus far, so those are good things for a career in...I don't know something good. I suppose American Idol is in there, she seems to have a decent voice judging by the Raffi and Barney songs she sings along too, and her dancing is superb so I could put her on a number of reality shows for that too. It wasn't until the other day that made me realize "oh, okay. Weather forecaster. That's great!" I was sitting on the floor with Clara playing, Chris was on the computer and Greta was around I'm not sure what she was doing, when I hear her give her commentary on the weather in a very sing-songy, Greta kind of way:

"It's pretty damn cold, it's pretty damn cold, it's pretty damn cold, it's pretty damn cold."

I'm so proud.

I am eagerly awaiting a phone call about our referral to the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor since we are officially on ear infection number 6, and evidently it is a doozy. Fortunately some numbing medicine that you put in the ear seemed to help as I had a lovely and complete night's sleep last night.

Storm Dance

Flash BOOM!
silence
flicker, flicker ruuuummmmmmbllllle

Swish swish swish swish --
wide eyes peeking

snuggle snuggle snuggle

Flash Boom rumble rumble
stir, hunker down, snuggle

rain rain rain rain
wind whooooosh
rainrainrainrainrainrain


tick tock tick tock...times 60

rumble

rumble

rumble

step step step step

gently

kiss

back to sleep

Daddy missed the whole movement,
if there's an encore, I'll
be sure to let him know.

I'm playing around with new backgrounds....Leave your opinion and be patient. :)

Work in Progress

When you relinquish the desire to control your future, you can have more happiness.

Nicole Kidman, in the Scotsman

I'm still working on this one.

Make a Smilebox photobook

Today is History

Today is history. For a second night in a row, I was not needed outisde the warmth of my bed between the hours of 9pm and 6am. Two nights in a row. That hasn't happened for almost a year and half. Incredible isn't it? The first night it happened, I thought I was going to be needed, the calling was there, but yet I waited. I waited about 10 minutes, when I started to tense thinking, well, we still made it until 3:30, that's not so bad I poised myself to climb out of the tangle of sheets,and all was quiet. So I wove my way back under the covers, snuggled down deep, closed my eyes... BUT I WAS SO EXCITED THAT IT TOOK ME ABOUT ANOTHER HALF HOUR TO GET BACK TO SLEEP!

Last night I was asleep by 9 -- it's going to take a long time for me to catch up on all of that sleep -- and, while I was up at 5:45, I had to wake Clara up at 6:45 to get ready for school. She fell asleep on my shoulder last night at 6:45 (we're still fighting some kind of illness...I just don't know what yet.), which means she slept 12 hours!

Breathe with me -- AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Stamp prices

Quick! Go buy your forever stamps now. I mean right now. Run! Hurry before they are sold out.

In May stamp prices are going up 2 cents. Remember when you could mail a letter for 20cents? (And some of you remember much much less... stamp prices I mean, I'm not making fun of your memories.)

I'm all for no mail service on Saturdays to cut out some of these prices. We really need to do online bill pay.

The Good, the Bad and the...

Absolutely Disgusting.

Warning -- whiny email. If you don't want to hear it, dont' read it.

I'll start with the last one. I took Clara to the doctor Monday because she was feeling miserable and had a small fever Sunday. Pulling at her ears and writhing in the night, I could only assume meant another ear infection. Actually, she was fine and her ears looked great the doctor said. (After giving me a "lesson" on how green boogers don't mean anything bad and are a common misconception engraved into our brains from a study in the '80's which was later disproved in the late 80's as indicating infection...blah blah blah. Thanks doc. it's still not normal.) Yesterday when I took her out of the car after getting home from daycare -- and then continuing the rest of the evening -- everything about Clara was green. Green goo coming from her eyes, her nose, crusted in her hair. It was disgusting. The doctor said it didn't mean anything, and that it was just clogging her tear ducts...so I didn't worry. But it was gross. She looked miserable this morning, but didn't seem to feel bad so off she went to daycare.

The Bad
More Clara.
SO, now that Clara's ears are clear I figured this would be a good time to start working on that sleeping through the night thing. The doctor said he wasn't surprised she had that problem, because she's had ear infections for so long she missed that time around 4 months when babies usually start sleeping through the night because she always felt bad. So, we discussed how to do this.
On Monday, I didn't feed Clara right before bed so that she fell asleep that way, I fed her and then put her into her bed (fairly) awake. I thought she would fuss and cry, but she didn't. She saved it all for the middle of the night. She was up by 9:30, and was just crying and fussing and fidgeting for 2 hours (very unlike her might I add.) Then she was up from 1 - 2:00, and again from 4:15 - 5:00. I tried to let her just cry, but it went on for far too long, and after 45 minutes went in to get her each time. I'll tell you people, last night was not any better. It was better when I was up 4 times feeding her because at least then she was only up for about 10 minutes. 40 minutes total at night versus 40 minutes three times a night is HUGE!

The Annoying
Okay, I told you this was a whiny post, so I added this one. Clara has also decided that -- at home only it seems -- she is not going to eat baby food anymore. Why? I don't know. She stares and grabs for our food like it's gourmet every night -- it's not any night for that matter. You'd think this wouldn't be a bad thing, but she can't eat what we eat every night. AND, we eat a lot of raw veggies, because we don't like the cooked ones, so now I have to cook seperate veggies for her and wah wah wah wah. This while dealing with Greta's eating habits -- when she chooses to actually put something in her mouth and swallow it. I know I was a picky eater, and I know my sister was worse -- I seem to remember it was impossible to get through a dinner without her gagging - but I also know it didn't start THIS young!

Alright, let's wind things up on a good note.
A couple of cute stories. We had so much fun playing outside yesterday afternoon. Greta had a ball pulling Clara up and down the street in the wagon, and Clara had a lot of fun giggling the whole time too.
Every since playing with some play money at a b-day party (pictures in a future post) Greta has wanted some. We looked this weekend, but couldn't find any. I was telling a lady at work about this, and she called me that evening saying she found some when she was at Rite-Aid and bought it for Greta. So I told Greta this and she said "Oh wow. Mommy, make sure you say thank you tomorrow. That was so nice!" Greta didn't forget and yesterday as soon as I saw her asked about the money (and then about 10 times in the 3 minute ride from her school to home.) When I gave it to her she said "Mommy did you tell your friend thank you? This was very nice of her." "Yes Greta I did" "Well Mommy, did she say you're welcome?" "Yes Greta, she did." "Well Mommy, (this is how most conversations go) did you say you're welcome you're welcome? Because you want to be nice to your friends." At least she's picking up on the morals we are trying to teach....

Greta has some little sayings that she adds into conversations at the funniest times. Her newest thing is to say "you never know!" It is so funny to hear, just at a random time "You never know Mommy!" She also slides in a "that's for sure".
And this morning, just when I was dreading going to work, more tired than I've been in a long time, cranky, etc. a zippy little song comes on the radio and Greta and I danced in our seats the whole way to her school. This is a time when I really wish the ride was longer, because we were having so much fun.

And then I realized I forgot to get Clara more diapers for daycare so I had to run to the grocery store to get some more and just squeak into work on time.

Ho hum. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

 

Yes, we love taking our own picture holding the camera.  

See picture from last year below.

Great weekend, beautiful weather.  I can officially say that yesterday was hot.  We went for a walk, and I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and thankful for the breeze that was blowing.    The high on the thermometer at our house was 75.  Today it is supposed to be in the mid-60's and then up and down in 60's and 70's all week.  Looks like back to normal with the low to mid 50's next week.  I can't wait to get some work done in the backyard.  Now that we have some grass back there, it will be a better -- ableit small-- place for at least Greta to romp around.  Of course, now that we have grass back there, George has decided it's a great place to poop.  Never mind 3/4 of our backyard is tall pinetrees and virtually dog-only domain, he has to pick the part that we have to clean up.  I think he does that on purpose.  Either way, I can't wait to spend some quality time outside.  Hopefully Greta will be able to reach the pedals on her Big Wheel this year, since she couldn't all Fall, and then between that and her Plasma Car, playhouse and sand table she is ready to have friends over!  I can't wait.

By the way, have I mentioned that the Noll girls will not be allowed to receive ANY toys this year?  At all?? Unless someone is going to buy us a new house we are maxed out!  We already feel like we are living in the middle of a Toys R Us/Barnes and Noble kids section.  I do want to get Greta some gardening stuff, because I think she would have fun planting and helping with flowers and plants.  Plus, I know Target has the cutest little gardening things for her age.  (I know what I said, but they're NOT toys!)

ZZZZZZzzzzz

Sleepy once, sleepy twice,

Sleepy Clara is so nice.

Sleepy here,

Sleepy there,

Sleepy Clara everywhere.

Hot Mama!

Going through some hand me downs and having fun dressing up.  Notice the stellar combination of purple Nikes along with the orange sequin accents....Hopefully she has more style than her mother.  The poses are all Greta.  Excuse the color on the pics.  I am playing around with my new camera and don't have all of the settings down yet.

Post about Nothing

Did you have a great Setsuban? I know I did. We are celebrating Bird Feeding month at home, although it should be more like squirrel feeding month. I have some 'recipes' of some bird mixtures that I'm going to have Greta and I do maybe this weekend. It's also Sweet Potato month or, as they seem to be more commonly called up north, yams. Either way, the only one that eats them in our house is Clara when I blend one up for her. Sweet Potatoes are really big down here. Did you know they were the staple food during both the Revolutionary and Civil War? They even became a substitute for coffe when they were dried, parched, ground and brewed. I don't like coffee or sweet potatoes, but I can't imagine that sweet potato coffee would be any good.

I know so many of us are having a chilly winter, we woke up to a snowy covering this morning, about an inch. The roads did have a little icy glaze to them and suprisingly our school was not on any kind of delay. Of course people have been complainig about that all day about how ridiculous that is. But oh well. Anyways, did you know...that on Feb. 3rd 1949 the coldest recorded temperature was, well, recorded in Snag Canada in the Yukon Territory? No, you didn't? I didn't either. (I'm really getting some use oout of this teacher's calendar book someone gave me a few years back, so humor me with me not-so-useless fact entries here.) it was 81 below 0. YIKES! That'll make some icicles under your nose really fast.

Ear Infection

Clara....doctor....3rd antibiotic shot....

Doc. noticed improvement and thinks this one will "do it", now we just have to hope it doesn't return.  I just want her to feel better...eat again...maybe sleep better...oh good, I hear her now.  I was worried she wouldn't get up around the time I wanted to go to sleep.  

I'm being sarcastic.

Happy Groundhog's Day.  Goodnight. 

Saturday

  

We had a lovely visit and Greta had a great first playdate  Sometimes I don't even know my own child.  We dropped her off so Chris and I could both take Clara to the dr.  I was assuming there would be tears, clinging hugs, etc.  NOTHING.  She was thrilled to be there, and when a thoroughly enjoyable day for us all!  (Except Clara who had to have another antibiotic shot....  Back to the dr. on Monday for another recheck.)