http://www.blogger.com/html?blogID=1755139666841541603 about a dream: August 2010

Saturday, August 28, 2010

busy AND sick

a perfect storm for not blogging. it started with nick, then went to nina, maggie, and finally me (and there i was thinking that for the first time EVER i might not get it. silly me!). it's not too bad, just a head cold with lots of congestion, hopefully i'll get over it as quickly as nick and maggie, but since nina seems to have inherited my immune system, it'll probably take me as long as it took her (about 3 days. i'd be on day 2 now).

well, since i don't feel that awful, i'll quickly jot down some of the highlights of this week.

the first is that we bought a new car. we'd been researching for a while, and nina caught wind of the new/used discussion. one day she informed us: "i don't want a car that anyone has ever used before. i want a new car. one from inside the building." what!! how did she know about the cars inside the dealerships? TV i guess... amazing what they notice. first we thought we'd just lie to her (parents of the year), but then when we realized that the used cars all had like, 30,000+ miles on them for about $3,000 - 4,000 less, we decided that a new car would fit the bill after all. so nina was pleased. on the way home with the new car, she wanted us to confirm that no one had ever used the car before us. "they hadn't," we told her. well, she wanted to know then how did the car get to the dealership. picky picky! we told her that yes, probably someone had driven it onto a truck from the factory, and then onto the lot at the dealership, but that it still counts as new and not used. she was satisfied. then i told her that our old hyundai had been used when we bought it, and she was horrified. so, good riddance old used car i guess! i missed it at first, but now i'm happy with the new car. oh it's a nissan rogue, AWD, 4 cl, venom red. perfect for us! even seems to get good mileage, but i'll give a report when we fill it up for the first time.

also on the way home nina was talking about being a flower girl. i had told her that i've never been a flower girl, and she asked nick if he was ever 'the boy that carries the rings.' he said no. she said, 'well when i get married, you can be the ring bearer and mom, you can be the flower girl. and if i get remarried, you can do it again!'
remarried? we asked. 'yeah,' she said, 'sometimes that happens.'
haha!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

another reason i'm not posting much this past week

is that i've started sleep training maggie. since the nightweaning thing hasn't panned out thus far, i've decided to go hardcore: no more just explaining to her majesty that mommy doesn't want to naney at night, she actually has to fall asleep without them, like it or not. because all of the "sleep experts" say that the way the child falls asleep at night is the way they'll expect to go back to sleep when they wake up at night, i've decided that she isn't going to fall asleep nursing any more. i started this plan on wednesday night, and it actually went pretty well that first time. she likes her bed, nina is in the room, i sat down in a chair next to her bed, and she laid there and talked to herself, me, and nina for about 45 minutes before starting to cry, but shortly thereafter falling asleep cuddled in my arms, but not nursing. i was happy enough with that. i don't mind if she sleeps cuddled with me (in fact, i prefer it), i just don't want her nursing at night. really, margarete, is that too much to ask?

the next night was not so successful. an hour of in and out of bed (i gave up on the sitting next to her, she gets too much energy from that, so i sat on the futon there at the top of the stairs, and just led her back to bed, no/minimal interaction (the supernanny technique) whenever she got out of the room). for the longest time she was happy as a clam, and she ALMOST feel asleep! she forced herself to get up again and again though. anyway, after over an hour of that, she finally lost it and started crying. i have my crying limits, and it's about 15 minutes, so i ended up nursing her. failure.

the next night was better again. some minimal crying, and eventually she fell asleep in her bed, no nursing, me sitting in the chair next to her.

the night after that she fell asleep in the car, so that doesn't really count.

but tonight! the girls is not giving up this fight!! it was another hour and a half (at least, i try to avoid looking at the clock). she pooped TWICE, peed once, got out of bed countless times, held several conversations with herself and a sleeping nina, finally came out to be with me on the futon, laid on the floor and cried because i wouldn't nurse her, then asked me to sing the wonder pets theme song, go to sleep, amazing grace, and finally fell asleep as i sang, twice, at her request, the star spangled banner.

it had better get easier soon!!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

yup, it's truly august when the updates grind to a halt

well, so it goes. i'll try to fill in as much as i can tonight. i'll start with sunday, august 15: nina's birthday party. we kept it small because we did a pool party at grandma and grandpa's, and we didn't want too many kids running around. it's just not safe with too many little ones in a pool, even with all the grown-ups. so, it was super fun. the kids did swimming, water balloons, and just playing around. we got nina a princess cake from hannaford, i knew i'd be way too busy to bake anything so i just ordered it a week or so in advance so i would be committed and not deciding that i should bake after all. and the girls loved it, it had belle, sleeping beauty, and cinderella on it, with a light-up base to go under the featured princess of our choice. fancy! great-grandma and aunt maria were also there, so it was a multi-generational, grand time.

on monday we were pooped though! it took us until about tuesday or wednesday to really recover. what a weekend!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

august!

last summer my postings slipped in july and august too. i was trying to do better this summer, but i guess it's just the way it is. busy busy, but it's a good thing.

so, the wedding: it was fabulous! maggie, nina, and the other girl ellie were so adorable in their dresses! they really turned out well. you've probably all seen a picture, so i'm not going to put one up, takes too much time. and they did a perfect job being flower girls. they practiced a lot at the rehearsal on friday (maggie demanded it, and when nina didn't want to walk down the aisle again, she yelled "nina let's PRACTICE!"). maggie did wander a bit off to one side on her trip down the aisle, i had to gently guide her back into place. and then, she ran our of petals half way down the chairs part of the walk (there was quite a walk from where they started to the chairs), so she looked at the petals that were on the grass, looked for a moment like she was thinking of picking some up to use, then just set her basket down and marched the rest of the way down the aisle. it was too cute!

the rest of the wedding was a great time. the food was fantastic, really really fantastic, and maggie and nina were happy enough watching movies in the mcconnells house with the sitters that nick and i actually got to dance until after 11. can you believe it?

oops more later, i hear maggie stirring

Friday, August 13, 2010

so much to catch up on!

where to begin... erik, isabelle, and chester came in late last night (technically, early this morning), and the girls and their little dog/cousin had a fantastic day together. while i went to the lunch laura had for the women of the wedding, nick, erik, and isabelle took chester and the girls to squirrel island for a day at the beach. how fun! i saw 150 photos of the trip, and it looked wonderful. what a great beach they have at squirrel island, really nice fine white sand. sorry i had to miss the trip!

then we had the rehearsal. fingers crossed, but the girls seem to know exactly what to do. hopefully maggie will be in the right mood tomorrow too!

and of course, tomorrow nina turns 5! i just don't believe it. she's been counting down the days to her birthday for ... mmm... i remember when we were at 86 days, so i guess she's been counting down for about 3 months. and for the last 2 weeks, every morning she's announced how many days till her birthday. one day she'd say "14 days til my birthday!" and the next day she'd ask "do you think it's still 14 days to my birthday?" to which we must respond, "yes, i do think it's 14 days until your birthday," and she'd say "no, it's 13 days until my birthday!" sometimes she'd just lie on the floor, moaning, asking if tomorrow could be her birthday. poor kid, it's so hard to wait!

in garden news (goodbye erik, thanks for reading this far!), we harvested most of our potatoes yesterday and today! we had enough to feed all 8 of us at dinner too! i'm SO happy. they weren't very big, ranging in size from a small marble to about the size of a medium red potato. but they were very, very tasty. i'm definitely going to plant a bunch of potatoes next year. whoopee! sweet success.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

sisterly love!

i wrote just the other day about how sweet and patient nina is with her little sister. well earlier today, they were laughing and playing on the couch, and nina hugged maggie and said "having a little sister is even better than i thought it was going to be!!"

aww!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

things were better on the margarete front today

no monstrosity to speak of. she didn't nap, so she got upset when grandpa extricated her from a chair she was trying to topple onto herself (apparently she learned NOTHING when she pulled a chair onto herself earlier in the week! fortunately that one hit the wall and not her, maybe that's why she didn't learn anything...)

she was cute though. i left nick, nina, and maggie at the playground so that i could go grocery shopping, and when i returned, maggie ran to me and said "you didn't leave me! you came back! i missed you when you were gone!" aww, it melts a mother's heart!

i don't think i've shared any nina stories lately. poor nina, always the sweet big sister, and she's not getting her fair share of blog attention.

one cute thing about nina is that she always shares her strangest thoughts (well, i think they're her strangest, but i suppose that's just a guess) before she falls asleep. the other day, she was asking nick about whether bugs could land on her eye. nick said she'd reflexively blink, so no, not really. she said, 'well what if i held my eye open like this (and showed how she could hold her eye open), then could it land on my eye?' and nick was stumped. then the other day while i was trying to watch the bachelorette, she was grilling me on what different animals use for self-defense. then she asked what we humans use for self-defense, and i said our brains. and she thought about it for a second and said, "yeah, we do!"

Thursday, August 5, 2010

margarete has been a little MONSTER!

is it the terrible 2s? is something wrong? perhaps she's getting her second set of molars and it hurts. whatever the cause, margarete has been in rare form for the past several days.

it probably has something to do with the fact that i'm trying to night wean her. with nina, i just explained one time, at 18 months old, that when mommy goes to sleep, the nanas do too, so we could only nurse during the daytime. and done!! that simple. when i tried that with margarete, at 14 months old, she said "no bye-bye nanas!!" (bye-bye was night-night for a while there). i tried again at about 18 months, and still she had none of it. anyway so now i'm really sticking to it, and nighttime has been a disaster. she tosses and turns, doesn't get into a deep sleep, and has out and out screaming tantrums. i think she woke up mom yesterday it was that bad.

so i can see how the bad sleep makes her grumpy during the day, but today she was just totally irrational. we were at the school to meet nina's kindergarten teacher, and we all had a drink from the fountain. maggie got one tiny drip on her dress and she freaked out. "take it off! take it off!! waaaaaaahhhhhh!!" so fine, i took it off. we were on our way to the car anyway. then i turned around to get nina, and when i turned back around, maggie was totally naked!!

i'm flexible with these things, but not that flexible. so i told her to put her undies back on and she freaked out. "NOOO!!!! i want to naney naked!!! NOOOO!" and i had to wrestle undies back on to a screaming, writhing, naked 2 year old.

THEN IT HAPPENED AGAIN!!! we were at the Y, and i made the horrid mistake of having her drink from another fountain. it was the exact same scene, only there were actually people around at the Y (just some women at the front desk, and they thought it was pretty funny when maggie streaked by). still. i deserve a medal for today. margarete when you're bigger and reading this, please realize how much your mommy loves you to put up with all of your antics!!!!

tah-dah!!

here it is, her birthday present snow white dress! boy am i proud of it, it turned out just like i'd hoped! this is the front:

the back:
and this is what i started with!

i'll do photos of maggie's dress when that's done, hopefully in another few nights. after all of this i am certainly going to take a sewing break.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

short post tonight because i'm busy sewing

nina wanted a snow white dress for her birthday. i looked some up online, but they weren't perfect. first off, none had the sleeves right. they're supposed to be blue with red inset. some were just red, some were blue with red ribbons down them. please!!! and not one that i saw had a basque waist.

so you see, i had no choice but to take matters into my own hands! i almost made my job easier by starting with a yellow skirt i found at the thrift store. almost because i decided the skirt was way too full at the top (it was, it's like a size 16 or something, there was just too much skirt). so i cut it up and had enough skirt left over to make another skirt... then i realized how unfair it would be to make nina a snow white dress but not maggie. so that's how i ended up making 2 snow white dresses.

i made one rather large misstep in choosing a blue silk blouse from the thrift store to reconstruct into a snow white top. silk blouse fabric is impossibly difficult to sew. in fact, i swore i'd never again sew with it after the purple power suit turned dress fiasco (which didn't actually end up looking all that terrible, even though nina's friend charlie is the only kid who will wear it. i can't get either of my girls to wear it). well i guess i was rendered temporarily insane (temporarily! ha!) but the perfect, shiny blue, because there i went again. and it was so difficult to work with, but i did manage to remake it into a snow white top. and have enough left over to make maggie's top too.

but then i made nick SWEAR to make me find something else to use for maggie's top. and he did, he vowed to guard and protect my silk (that's a bachelorette joke). so now i'm making maggie's snow white top from a pair of mom's old pants. the dresses won't match perfectly, but i think i'm the only one that'll care.

so, that's that, back to the dresses! i will post pictures soon. after i figure out how to make that standing collar stand!!

Monday, August 2, 2010

maggie is so big!

she was nursing and nursing and nursing today (she didn't sleep well last night because ...drumroll... she wanted to nurse all night and i wouldn't let her! at least i stuck to my guns, and she finally fell asleep on her own. but don't feel bad mom, she wasn't sad, she was just mad at me. i can tell because she kicks when she's mad.) anyway, she was nursing and nursing and i finally got her to stop, and i held her up and said "papa, is this girl too big to nurse or what?!" and maggie said "what!"

hahaha! the little monster!!