Little Reminder

This is just a reminder for those of you who are back over here because your bloglines feed said there was a new post. I've moved to another site, so please go ahead and change your rss feed as I won't be posting here anymore. Thanks!

totalmomhaircut.com

I'm outta here!

I've moved - come on over and see...please? Please come over...please just click once more and come over...pretty pretty?

Totalmomhaircut.com

Oh, right...

A few holiday pictures are in order...several weeks after the fact.

We have some traditional Christmas cookie making...



I decided Sam should be Rudolph.
I guess he was going through a weird growly phase. I swear I've never even seen him make the face he has on in that last one. And he seems to be making a similar face in a few of the others. The odd thing is it is a happy face for him. It's kind of a smile...that looks evil.

We don't seem to have any gift unwrapping photos because we did some video of it instead. So the growly will have to do for his pictures this Christmas.

They came in swarms.

We've been attacked by Little People! They've come in by bus, by plane, and by train and have totally taken over our living room with their house and garage. Yes, it was a Little People Christmas for Sam, among other things, many other things. This kid has so many freakin' toys...

The Little People now have their own Big World set out in our living room. (I had to throw in a joke about that stupid show - how could I not? Seriously though, why is that show ok?) If only I wasn't so anal. See, I like for toys to be put away with other similar toys at the end of the day. So when it comes to the dozens of Little People, I want the (female!) pilot and passengers on the plane to go in the plane, the kids and bus driver to be in the wheel chair accessible bus, the little stereotypical family and their cat in their picket fence house, the mustached mechanics and their odd moppy dog to hang out in their garage. But more often than not I have to let these little details go and leave that mechanic in the bed with the mom holding the bottle...

And just a tip: You know you've got real estate on the brain when you look at the Little People house and seriously think, "Oh, well they're doing fine with just one bathroom all the way up on the second floor so maybe we could manage it too..."

All I want for Christmas is...

A BIG NAP. Can I just take a 6 six hour nap? Man, SO tired. My exhaustion is so far the only sign that I am pregnant...well, I guess that's not exactly true. Is it possible that I already look pregnant? Because seriously, my tummy already looks swollen. And it has that sort of sensitive full feeling so that I don't want anything to touch it, including my pants. I know you show earlier with your second but this seems mighty impossible. Maybe I'm carrying a food baby...

Anyway, I've been trying to nap whenever Sam does so that I can FUNCTION, hence my blogging absence. Nap time used to be post and comment time so I'm going to have to come up with some sort of alternate plan for that. That plan may have to go into effect after the holidays though seeing as everything is crazy with getting ready to travel and stuff. I hope you all out there are doing well and if I'm not back before then - Merry Christmas. I hope you all have a great one. Looking forward to seeing pics and video of the kiddies going crazy.

And just let me take a moment to say that I've missed you in my absence. I look forward to being more regular in my reading and writing in the new year because the relationships we have are very important to me. As I've said before, internet friendships are surprisingly real. I speak of you to my husband on a first name basis as I do any of my in person friends, and I think it's great. Starting a blog was one of the best things I have done as a mom, and it is because I have found all of you and your support, your humor, your stories, your comments and emails, they all keep me going. So thank you all for opening your minds to a relationship in which we've never actually met, because our friendship is real be it face to face or not.

Merry Chrismas and Happy New Year.

You Guessed It

Yes, it's true. But who knew that crying during Sesame Street and eating an entire crab dip was such normal behavior? I am pregnant though. It's very, very early, as evidenced by the fact that I am still able to eat crab dip and the very idea of it does not sicken me. On the contrary, when thinking about what I wanted for lunch that day it was clear immediately that that was absolutely the only thing that I wanted and I needed it NOW. When pregnant with Sam I had constant nausea for most of the first trimester. I'm assuming it's just too early for that right now, and I can't remember when it started with Sam. But I'm going on the assumption that it will probably return soon so I'm trying to fill up on everything that I know will disgust me starting any day now and for the next 8 or so months. Among those things I include seafood and chicken. Chicken totally creeped me out when pregnant with Sam. Absolutely no chicken could be anywhere near me for fear I'd see those fleshy strings or, even worse, smell it. The smell was the downfall with the fish too. But I digress...

Sam is going to be a big brother. Some of you may be a little confused since it was not so long ago that I wrote this. And I have to say that even while writing it I was thinking my feelings seemed pretty normal. I was getting a little scared because I knew we were about to do this for real and it wasn't going to just be talk anymore. I think no matter how old Sam is I will always have concerns about him when it comes to having another child. How could I not? It's been just us and that will change. I've often heard of mothers wondering if they can love another child as much as their first and the resounding answer seems to be 'yes.' Things change, but for the better.

Hubby and I talked a lot after that post about my feelings on that matter and his. And so we entered an official state of "not, not trying" to have baby. You know, we weren't specifically not trying...or were specifically not...yeah, you get it. And this past month we just happened to not, not try at a fairly crucial time, although honestly we did not expect anything so quickly; that seemed impossible. Not long after that I had many tantrums over the course of several days that led Hubby to wonder what the hell was wrong with me, and not long after that I wondered what the hell was wrong with me, myself. Then I bought the Early Response, took the test, went out and bought another, and then another just to be sure, and you know the rest of the story.

August. Yeah, you heard me. August. That's when I'm due. I'm going to be that huge pregnant woman sweating and with swollen feet trying to pull off cute baby doll dresses that look more like mumus. I have always given sympathy to any woman I have seen pregnant in the summer and expressed how I could never do it. I probably thought to myself how I'd never let myself have to do it. Hmpf. So much for that. I actually have a friend here that is taking a break from trying to get pregnant to avoid a summer due date. Crazy? Mmmmm, I'm not so sure. And, you know, I thought it was really important to have an August/butt end of summer due date specifically so that I could be increasing in size as the temp rose for maximum uncomfortability. And laboring in 100 degrees certainly does sound nice...

I'm going to kick myself for saying this later but I do wish I felt pregnant in some way. Knowing how I felt physically that first time along with the surprise of how quickly this occurred makes it feel very surreal. I have to keep reminding myself that we are going to have another baby almost because I'm not totally convinced. Like I said though, I'm sure I'll be way more convinced than I want to be very soon.

Sam's going to be a big brother...maybe to a little sister...or a little brother is good too...

And since you all seem to be drooling over crab dip let me go ahead and share that little tidbit with you. It's super easy, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to make it in my feverishly starving state. It's something I remember my mom would make sometimes when people were coming over. I always remember it being served with Triscuits, so that's what I did.


Crazy Pregnant Lady's Craving Crab Dip
You need:
1 package cream cheese
1 can crab
1 can baby shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 bottle cocktail sauce
Worcestershire Sauce, optional (wow, I had no idea that was spelled that way)
Crackers

If you are using Worcestershire, mix the pack of cream cheese with a few teaspoons of the sauce. Spread the mixture in a layer on a large plate. If you skip the sauce just spread the cream cheese on a plate. That's what I did in my mad panic and I didn't really notice a difference in the taste when it was done.

Drain the two cans of seafood and mix together with about 1 bottle of cocktail sauce, depending on how big of a bottle it is. Spread this mixture over the cream cheese. Oh yeah, I think you can also top it with a little lemon juice if you want...I forgot about that...that would have been really good...damn...

Grab box of triscuits or other cracker thing. Submerge in dippy goodness. Stuff face. This recipe is particularly good when the only reason you have the ingredients on hand is because you intend to make the dip for a playgroup you are hosting and instead decide it should be all yours.

Enjoy!

I know, I know

I've been a totally bad blogger lately. I'm bad about posting, bad about commenting. I haven't written a seriously thoughtful post in...I dunno, have any been thoughtful? There was a day when I was all reflective and stuff, and that day seems to have passed. I do have some post ideas in mind for some time soon - a response to the article in Mothering about toy guns and violence, more thoughts on mom cliques and middle school behavior among the best of us, but I'm just not feelin' it today...maybe tomorrow. We've just got a lot going on over here. We might be making an offer on a house on Saturday, which is really exciting and scary. The house search has been time and energy consuming. Hubby's got a case in court right now and has been coming home so late sometimes that he doesn't even get to see Sam for the whole day, which is sad for him and killer for me. Sam and I hosted out first play group today which made me a crazy, cleaning, baking freak for the past 4 days. And there's more too. Want a hint?

The other day for lunch I made myself an entire crab dip thing - the one with a layer of cream cheese and then a layer of cocktail sauce mixed with crab and shrimp; it takes up an entire large plate. I ate over half of it with crackers in one sitting and was hungry again a few hours later.

******edited to add another hint:

Oh yeah, I cried during Sesame Street yesterday when Ernie sang the song about how he'd like to visit the moon.