The 80's Called – They Want Their Hair Back

We have three types of hair styles around here these days.  We have the normal straight baby hair that hangs in her face.  We have the double piggie tails on top of her head (my favourite), and we have the Flock of Seagulls hair style, which is what happens when we take the piggie tails out.

Seriously, how can you look at this and NOT love it?  I can’t find a way.

Kitten is actually pretty good with letting me put her hair up.  Usually I turn on the TV, sit her in between my legs (she’s too tall when she’s on my lap), and do her hair as fast as I can.  It’s easiest when it’s wet, but managable to do dry as well.  My best tools are the fine-toothed comb that came with the rest of the “baby grooming” set, and the itty bitty ouchless elastics.*  I know she looks pretty old here, but this is pretty much what she looks like all the time.  Old.  Like a toddler, and not a baby at all.  It makes me a little sad, but I am enjoying this stage as much as possible.

I got to hold a 2 week old baby today, and honestly?  My overies didn’t hurt at all.  I really enjoyed the smallness of her, the smell of her, but I really really wasn’t sad that it wasn’t my baby.  I guess that means that we’re not ready for another baby.  And I’m totally ok with that.

In other news, I’ve started to care for my friend’s son for a few hours a week.  It seems to be going pretty well, although it drives me nuts all the testing he puts me through (he’s almost 2).  I find it rather frustrating that he feels the need to go and do everything that Kitten just got into trouble for.  Oh well, hopefully this behaviour will decrease as he gets more comfortable here.  It does remind me that I don’t want to do this full time (taking care of other people’s kids), which is good to know.  It’s good for Kitten too, as she loves having him around.  And I don’t mind the little extra bit of change it leaves in my wallet either! 

And in really, really different news, I’ve changed my blog layout.  Tell me what you think.  I know there are a few bugs still in it, but I am trying to work those out, but if you find any, please let me know (I already get a “fatal error” when I leave a comment, but it always records the comment anyway.  Anyone else getting the same problem?  Different problems?). 

*So my itty bitty have to stretch them to put them on the end of your pinky finger ouchless elastics (the plastic ones) are crunchy.  Has anyone else had this problem?  They stretch out, but they’re hard to begin with.

The End

At the end of a blog tour, I never know quite what to say, or what to blog about next.  So here’s an “updater” kind of post.

• We put the shelves up in Kitten’s room tonight.  It was a major struggle, so if you’re thinking of putting up the Ikea Lack shelves, just be aware that if you are doing it with your spouse, some minor disagreements might arise.  Chances are, you’ll be ok, though.  I’m very excited to have them up, as it means getting the baby monitor and the CD player off the floor.  Yay!  Now we just have to order the rest of the stuff for our nursery and we can call in done. 
• Kitten hates the sound of the electric screwdriver.  It’s really not all that noisy, but I suppose that it was a foreign sound, and possibly somewhat scary.  She was a little tired and grumpy at the time, which may have had something to do with it as well.
• We are going to the waterpark tomorrow with our friends from church.  It’s her last week on maternity leave (she’s going back early), and it’s kind of our last week day together.  Well, that’s not entirely true – she will be working shift work, so some of the time she’ll be home during the day, but I think she’ll want to spend that time with her husband, which is fine with me!  I’m sad that she’s going back, but I’m excited for her, as she’s looking forward to it.  I couldn’t imagine going back to work in 3 months.  That would make me so sad. 
• Kitten really wiggles around on the floor now.  I think one of my major purchases for February will be a baby gate.  I was hoping to put it off a little longer, but I imagine that in the next couple of weeks she’ll be army-crawling across the floor to get what she wants! 
• I’ve actually made time to read this week, and I’m almost done For a Few Demons More by Kim Harrison (I keep writing Rachel Caine.  Apparently I have her on my mind… which means that I’m hoping that her next book comes out soon!  Gale Force isn’t coming out until late summer, it appears… boo!).  So far it’s a pretty solid read, but much darker than it has been before – you’re right, Hanna.  I still like it, though!  I’m glad that I picked it up.
• After I’m done the Kim Harrison book, I’ll be reading The Shadow and Night by Chris Walley for our CSFF Blog tour (for those of you who don’t know, it stands for Christian Science-Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour  – we all read a specific book then talk about it for three days).  Sadly, I’m not looking forward to it because the cover is ugly, and it’s a pretty big book.  I’ll get through it, though! 
• For my flylady.net stuff today, I cleaned my bathtub and tiles, the shampoo bottles in my shower (they had that soap scum build up on them, grody!), washed the fabric shower curtain, and replaced the old yucky plastic one.  So I’ve been pretty productive, if you ask me.
• My sister is thisclose to having her baby.  I hope the little sweetie comes soon, I remember all too keenly what it was like waiting out that last few weeks.

That’s all that I’ve got. 

Cleaning with Kait, Episode 2

I stayed in bed until noon today.  Actually – not true.  I was up before 8 to eat a bowl of Lucky Charms, then I went back to bed and slept until noon.  THEN, I read blogs and stuff until I my neighbour called to see if I wanted to go for a walk.  Which I did.  But I promised myself that I would get one thing done today, for sure.  I would wash the kitchen floor.

I have a beautiful kitchen floor.  It’s dark chocolate brown hardwood, and it’s great because you can hardly see any of the dirty marks on it.  Thus, I haven’t washed it in quite some time.  Because it doesn’t glare at me, you know?  But, I knew that it needed to be done (I’m not telling how long it’s really been – I’m embarrassed enough about that in my own head, don’t need it in yours as well!).  Rob wasn’t home to vacuum for me this morning, so I figured that I would use the dust mop, then wash it.  The only issue, is that the cat’s hair doesn’t stick all that well to the dust mop.  Boo.  Anyway, I dusted the floor, then switched mop head thingers, and used a hardwood spray on it.  Sadly, the spray mop head didn’t look all that dirty after.  I was mightily disappointed.  But the dust mop head?  Ew.  See for yourselves:

 

Now let me tell you something:  Rob loves to vacuum this house.  Or at least he pretends to, and does it usually around once a week.  So, you have to understand that this cat hair/crap build up is only about a week old… not that it makes it any better, mind, but there you go. 

Anyway, I also washed the cat dishes, the boot tray at the backdoor (in our kitchen), and the little place mats under the cat dishes. 

After that, I went for a long walk with my neighbour, which was quite nice, as we have a good wind going on today to keep us cool.  Then, I managed to mow the lawn (again), and get a load of laundry done.  I am seriously just that good, today.  Tomorrow, I plan on doing as little as possible.  Maybe cleaning up the nursery, as it has managed to get itself into quite a mess again.  And, I will put the finishing touches on my bag to go to the hospital (picked up a couple of magazines, charge up the gameboys, etc.) and make sure that there is room for Rob to bring the cradle up to our bedroom soon.  Oh, and install the car seat.  Just want to be prepared.

Anyway, my back is killing me, so I am going to lay down and watch TV.  Have a lovely evening, and I’ll let you know all about my latest prenatal appointment tomorrow!

Pictures from my work Baby Shower

Welcome to Maternity Leave, Enjoy Your Sleep!

Hey, guess what time it is?  7 o’clock in the morning!  Guess what I’m doing?  Blogging!  Yeah, go me… Or not.  I’m awake and in a fair amount of pain (oy! My back again!).  Granted, I would have had to get up in half an hour anyway, to make it out to my Chiropractor appointment, but still!   This isn’t fair!  I should be able to sleep as much as possible.  Bah.

I’ve been having some interesting things going on lately.  I’ve moved from the peeing every half hour to every 15 minutes, and feeling like I have to go absolutely every time I stand up (joy!).  I’ve also had lower belly pain on occasion, which is kind of weird to me.  I keep thinking that maybe the baby has dropped, but we’ll have to wait and see if the doctor says anything.  I can’t really tell.  The other night, I had major pain while she was moving around, and I was worried that she was flipping into a breach position, but most of her movement is still up in my ribs, so I assume that her feet are still kicking the crap out of me. 

I felt a little emotional about leaving my job yesterday, and had a few tears all by myself.  I’m going to miss the people that I knew there.  I will get a chance to talk to them again, I am sure… but the change in routine is going to be a bit harder than I thought (I think).  I’m definitely welcoming the change and all… but yeah.  Maybe leaving work makes this baby (and impending birth) seem that much more real or something.  I couldn’t really pinpoint my feelings about leaving work last night, and it looks like I’m not doing much better this morning.  So, I will sum up and say that I’m feeling a little bittersweet about ending my job.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got this morning (man, it feels like Friday!), so I’m going to go jump in the shower and get ready to go to my appointment.  

Last Day of Work

I can’t believe that it’s my last day of work. It’s just all so surreal, in some ways. I mean, today feels exactly like yesterday did – no major change. I don’t “feel” like I won’t be coming back here. I don’t “feel” like I’m shutting down this chapter in my life, but I know that I am. I guess those feelings will come a little later.

I do have a fair amount to do today, but I’m sure that I’ll get it all done. I want to clean up my desk really well, so that the next person who comes through doesn’t have to sit in my yuck. Plus, I did miss “official clean up day”, so I didn’t get all the dusting and stuff done that everyone else did.

In some ways, leaving work is really sad. I mean, I like my job well enough, even though it’s pretty boring. It’s been there for me – I’ve had financial security in otherwise tumultuous times, I’ve had good friends and mentors supplied through this job, I’ve had a vast amount of job security in a changing economy… so all in all? My job freaking rocks.

So, in honour of my last day of work, here are two lists for you.

The Things I Will Miss

1. My friends & co-workers
2. The really good coffee from the Cafeteria
3. The food from the Caf (even though I didn’t eat there often)
4. Seeing my mom every day
5. My wall of Invisible kitties
6. New stationary supplies (that I didn’t have to pay for)
7. Extra long coffee breaks
8. Hearing about my co-worker’s kids

The Things I Won’t Miss

1. Our “chatty Kathy” security guard
2. The very dirty waterfall in the atrium that no one cleans
3. Pointless meetings
4. Being “chained” to my desk
5. How far away the bathrooms are from my desk
6. Filing. How I hate hate hate filing
7. My morning commute

Anyway, it is time to celebrate my soon-to-be non-working status! Rob and I want to go out tonight (but not to a movie because it will be too busy). What should we do?

Ps. My fake wedding ring? officially too small. BUT! My Princess Di ring that I won during a Mary Kay event? The perfect size. Yay!