Tuesday, December 30, 2003

How often are you supposed to sweep and mop your kitchen floor?

Never mind that, how often do you actually do it? I know, it depends on your traffic, size of family, if you have a crawling baby around. But how often do you sweep and mop?

Every day? There's no way I'm going to sweep every day (sorry, Marcia!). Every week at least? Umm, I don't sweep every week.

I sweep when the chunks get annoying or when we have company coming. I just swept because the in-laws are coming to visit tomorrow for New Year's.

It's a good thing they're coming, because it's making us clean. I'll come forward and admit, the last time I swept my floor was right after we made Christmas cookies, around December 5 or 6 or so. I had to sweep then because there were little nonpariel (sp?) things rolling around the floor.

The problem, besides the fact that I dislike cleaning and would rather spend my spare minutes reading a book or magazine or newspaper or just about anything, is that my floor is huge. Our vinyl starts in our broad entryway, extends past the basement door and around the hallway to the half bathroom, runs through the dinette and under the breakfast bar, through the kitchen and into the mudroom to the back door.

It's probably 3/4 of the space on our main level, so at least 500-600 square feet. Maybe that doesn't sound like much, but when you sweep as infrequently as I do, it takes a long time to get that much space clean.

Don't even tell me to do it more often and it'll take less time. Haven't you been paying attention? I'm not a cleaning person!

Sigh.

I'm going to go upstairs and dust now, since both girls are sleeping.

Allie likes to dust. Thank goodness she got that gene from her paternal grandmother. When Greg and I get old, we can go by Allie's house for holidays and everything will be spic and span and spell of lemon polish. Let's see, she's almost 4. I figure I only have about 19 more years of sweeping left.

Sunday, December 28, 2003

Merry belated Christmas to everyone!

Greg and I and the girls went shopping, well actually we went exchanging gifts shopping, yesterday. We had to go to five stores and we got an early start so it would be less painful. There were almost no lines and everything went very smoothly. We got some cool stuff to replace the cool stuff that didn't fit or were duplicates.

Claudette, I got white backless slippers to replace my slippers, because all they had in the boot kind were red ones. Pam, Greg got three new shirts/sweaters at Old Navy and they made him very happy. And among other changes, we exchanged Allie's Leappad book for one that features pre-math, so she's very happy.

What's pre-math, anyway? Whatever it is, she's very good at it. Such a smart girl! Allie was even smart enough to open her Christmas gifts from Mom-and-Dad Santa and say that each one was "so cool!" Way to guarantee she'll continue to get gifts!

I'm going to get busy cleaning my incredibly dirty house now. The in-laws are coming in three days and it's going to take us that long to get it presentable.

Sunday, December 21, 2003

Happy Birthday, Mom! Today is my mom's birthday and she's, well, I'd better not tell you how old she is. Your birthday cards are in the mail, Mom, if you didn't already get them, and you're getting your present on Tuesday when we arrive for Christmas.

I've been feeling old myself lately. It's mostly my eyes. I notice that I want to turn a light on to read stuff that I would have been perfectly well able to read without additional light in the past. And small print is getting harder to read too. I'd like to put it down to new contact lenses or something, but I think it's age.

And I think I have a permanent line where my face creases on the right side when I smile. Better a smile line/wrinkle than a frown line, but . . .

People still tell me that I don't look my age, but I don't believe them much anymore. I've always been a non-tanner, so I still think that'll help my skin stay younger-looking, but nothing lasts forever. And 40 used to seem so old, after all it's 20 years beyond age 20, but now it doesn't seem that old at all.

My middle sister is turning 40 next spring, and I'll be turning 40 in the summer of the next year. Maybe I'll get lucky and get mono again, like I did when I turned 30. I was so sick I didn't care what age I was. Then again, maybe not so lucky. That sucked. Poor Greg made me a birthday cake and I tried to swallow a bite of it, unsuccessfully.

Maybe I'll just continue to get old and live with it, thanking god that I'm alive.

Am I depressed today? I didn't think so, but now I am! I need to get out of this house!

Saturday, December 20, 2003

Greg and I are both sick with colds. This sucks. We both started feeling symptoms last night, and it'll be a miracle if we don't give it to Julia.

I took yesterday afternoon off and I finished my shopping. Then Greg, Allie, and I wrapped all of our gifts for family members last night. There are things under the tree now, (nothing for the girls or Greg, of course) and Allie was worried. "Mommy, Santa won't have any place to put my presents." I reassured her that Santa will make room.

Greg took her to see Santa this morning. I asked her what she told him she wanted for Christmas, expecting to hear Bratz dolls (I don't like Bratz dolls and she's too young for them, so please don't get her any if Allie is on your Christmas list). She's been saying Bratz dolls as the one thing she wants this year.

Well, she told Santa she wants an umbrella. I have no idea why. That's the first I've heard of that. Maybe she was nervous?

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Christmas is approaching fast and I feel nowhere near ready. Some gifts are purchased, but none are wrapped. Christmas cards aren't happening again this year. We made cookies, which was a blast, but the tree took several days to finish. Greg did our miniscule effort on outdoor lighting (we're the shame of the neighborhood--some take that stuff very seriously around here).

Gee, I only have to finish shopping, wrap everything, clean the house, do laundry, pack everything, buy a savings bond--oh, never mind. It's a Christmas tradition to complain about being behind on your preparations, isn't it?

What I can talk about is my daughter, Allie, yet again. She's been (as her daddy says) a "little fartbucket" lately. She was a pretty stinky girl this weekend, and her daddy asked her, "Allie, what on earth have you been eating?" With a smirk on her face, she drawled, "Bea-ans."

After we finished laughing, I asked her who told her about beans. She said, "Grandma." Thanks for that one, Mom!

Saturday, December 13, 2003

Greg has taken the girls Christmas shopping today, so I've been alone in the house for almost two hours now. I went through the bags of presents Greg and I bought last week and found the new stockings we bought for the "4" of us. We had three nice stockings before, but now we have four.

Last year, we found out I was pregnant on December 3, and we talked about having a new baby in the house by this Christmas. Julia likes to look at the Christmas tree lights. Allie likes to lay under the tree. So does Pig, the cat. Maybe we should have a tree in the house year round.

When we found out we were pregnant with Allie, we called everyone and told them immediately. With Julia, I wanted to tell my family in person. So we waited until we saw them, which I think was on December 26 or 27 last year.

My mom's birthday had been December 21, so I told her she had to open her belated birthday present. It was a gift bag with the ultrasound photos of Julia-to-be in it. She reached in and pulled the roll of photos out, but what I didn't anticipate was that Allie would "help" by taking the photos and heading off into the room. I told her to give them back to Grandma, she did, and Mom unrolled the paper to stare at it without comprehension.

I told her, "Those are photos of your next grandchild, Mom." The room erupted as my sisters screamed and grabbed Greg, Allie, and me in hugs. It was a lot of fun, and a very happy day. And now, the result is here and wiggling. And trying to roll over, and talking all the time, and smiling, and giggling.

Time passes so quickly!

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Doncha just hate it when you take a couple of days of vacation and then not only have to spend a bunch of crazy time getting things somewhat wrapped up before you leave, but then you spend a bunch of crazy time (including, in my case, working through lunches when you get back) to get kind of even close to being caught up from being gone?

I'm going to stop typing now--Julia is feeling better from her cold, but I laid her on the futon while I started typing this and she just pushed her feet hard and fell onto the floor. Luckily it's probably a smaller distance than if she'd fallen off the couch, but I should know better as a not-for-the-first-time Mom. Greg scooped her up and took her upstairs, so I'm going to reassure myself she's OK. Even though I know she is.

Sunday, December 07, 2003

Poor Julia. She's sick for the first time.

On Friday, she went for her four month checkup. She weighs 13 lbs, 4 oz. now, which still doesn't seem like much to me compared to Allie's current weight. She's in the 50th percentile for weight and the 70th percentile for height, so she's still tall! Julia's head circumference is in the 75th percentile, which doesn't surprise me since she has all that superior intellect to house. Yeah, right.

She got three shots, and even though fever can be a side effect of vaccinations, Ask a Nurse says that the cold she came down with yesterday is probably not related.

She's miserable. Her eyes are red and her nose is red (despite lotioned tissues). She cries a lot, so she's got tears going on, her nose is running, and she's drooling the normal amount of baby drool. It's definitely a face only a parent could love.

I hate a baby's first illness. As far as they know, they're never going to feel well again. I'm hoping she'll seem better tomorrow, especially since she's too little to get any decongestant. The nurse said a four-month-old's little liver can't handle it. So we're relying on a tilted mattress and a humidifier in her room, poor thing.

On a happier note, the rest of the family had a wonderful afternoon yesterday making Christmas cookies. It took 3 1/2 hours from making batter to finishing decorating. See the pictures on our website. Flour everywhere! And not just on the three year old!