Look Mommy, A Giant!

Some quotes from Zoe:

To me as we were standing in line at Wheatsville and pointing directly at the 6'6" 300+ lb man standing next to us "Look Mommy, a giant!" She repeated herself until I responded that yes, he was a very tall man. I wish I had had a camera to capture the look on her face when she realized that giants actually exist.

To her butt as she was leaning forward on the potty trying to poop "Work with me poopy!" To hear one of my parenting phrases used in such a way makes this even funnier to me.

To Daddy as they were coloring with markers "Draw some more crazy stuff."

To Sophie (our new kitten) as we were telling her goodnight "Make some good poopies and some good naps and we'll see you happy in the morning."

Zoe has recently grasped that things and people can have more than one name. She must have been working on this through her mind for awhile. For weeks the first thing she would say to me when she woke up was "What's your name?" I would tell her that my name is Mommy. After a week or so she followed it with "What's your other name?" I would say Nikki and that would be the end of the conversation. I have to admit that I did get freaked out a couple of times when I went to her in the middle of the night (Because she was calling for me) and I walk into her room, she sits up in bed and says "What is your name?" Those couple of times it felt like a "who are you?" type of question even though I don't think it was. So now Zoe's got it. She'll ask me my name, I'll tell her Nikki and she'll respond "I call you Mommy". She uses it in other areas as well. We were reading a book and they use the word sofa. Zoe says "I call it a couch".
Fish "I call it a fishy"
Alicia "I call her Doo-licia" (Don't ask me why)

Family Life

Right now is one of those rare moments when I have time to write. Zoe is napping and Skip took Paige out shopping.

These past couple of months have been a blur. Paige is finally starting to sleep more at night. Last night slept from 11pm to 4am! Then she didn't wake up until 6:30am. Ahh... it was so nice. But something about getting sleep after a long stretch of being sleep deprived makes me feel more tired. How does that work? Maybe my body remembers what it feels like to sleep for more than an hour at a time and it wants revenge.

I've felt very groggy today which contributed to me hitting a car in the parking lot when I picked Zoe up from preschool. Doh! Thankfully, the damage was very minor. Our car took some paint off the other car and there's a 2" scratch on our bumper. The lady was very nice. I gave her my information and told her to contact me when she decided what she wanted to do. I'm hoping that she won't file a claim.

Yeah... this week was Zoe's first week of preschool. She did a super amazing job. I'm blown away with how well she did. When I came to pick her up today she didn't want to leave. She painted another picture and played with Playdoh before she decided it was time to go home. She's going to school 9am-1pm Wed, Thurs, and Fri. Wednesday was her first day. Her teacher Meredith said that she was fine most of the day and only asked for me a couple of times, but when I came to pick her up she had an emotional meltdown. I think it was just so much to take in. Thursday was pretty much the same. She was fine all morning and when I came to pick her up she was crying because her friend hurt her feelings by yelling at her. She's asked me a couple of times to play with her at preschool instead of leaving. I think she's loving her time there. It's just a big adjustment from spending all day with me.

Paige isn't crying as much. We're down to a couple of hours of crying a day. What a relief. The colicky baby is turning into a smiley baby. I have to say that if there is one word that describes Paige it's alert. It kind of freaks me out sometimes. She studies me and everything around her with great intensity. I can't imagine what must be going on in her 2 month old brain.

I'm feeling very blessed to have two amazing girls.

Skip is going to Dallas on Sunday to deliver artwork for a solo show at Northlake Collage. It's going to be the first time that I'm alone with the girls all day without a car. It's also the first bedtime without Skip. We still don't have a good bedtime strategy. Both the girls keep each other awake even when they're in two separate rooms with closed doors and sound machines going. I feed a tired Paige, who isn't asleep because Zoe is running around making noise, and hand her off to Skip. Then I lay down with Zoe, who has a hard time falling asleep because she can hear Paige screaming in the other room. If I wait until Paige is asleep to put Zoe to bed then Zoe is overtired and it takes forever. I can only hope that at some point they will stop keeping each other awake. I'd like for them to share a room as soon as Paige is old enough. I'm not sure how this is going to work on Sunday. I keep telling myself that everyone has to fall asleep eventually, right?

Zoe is going to be up any minute now so I should hit post before life gets crazy again.

Sleep... I miss you!

I got 2 hours of sleep last night. I can honestly say that I understand why sleep deprivation is a form of torture. How I'm still functioning is beyond me. It must be part of the mommy superpowers. Here's what went down.

9:30pm - Both girls are asleep. Before going to bed I listen to my vm and return a couple of calls, check my email, finish us some stuff for my job, do a load of laundry, clean up the dinner plates and talk to Skip for 5 minutes.

11pm- I'm in bed ready to sleep, but it takes me awhile to unwind as usual. It takes a bit longer tonight because Skip and I are going back and forth about what precautions we should take to avoid the swine flu.

around midnight - I had just fallen asleep when Paige woke up wanting some mommy milk.

1am - back to bed, but having trouble falling asleep again... probably fell asleep around 1:45am

1:55am - Paige is crying and wakes up Zoe.

3am - Paige is feed, comfortable and not crying. Zoe is still awake and asking for me. I lay down with her, but she's wide awake.

4am - Zoe finally goes back to sleep. Paige is up again and ready for more mommy milk.

5am - Paige is asleep. I crash into bed and get an hour of sleep!

6am - Paige is crying. I wake up feeling refreshed from the hour of sleep - how sad is that.

6:30am - Paige has fallen back asleep. I go back to bed and get another hour of sleep.

7:30am - Paige is up. She's not hungry, she's got a clean diaper, but still very unhappy.

8:30am - Zoe wakes up (Paige is still awake) and my day begins on 2 hours of sleep.

This can't happen twice, right? I'm going to have a snack and try to get some sleep. Goodnight.

Catching Up

It's been way too long since my last post. Here's a picture from last week. I'm 37 weeks pregnant and very happy that this little one will be full term when she joins us on the outside.

I'm getting to the point in the pregnancy where I have very little energy and everything seems to take a huge amount of effort, especially things like getting up from lying down or getting up off the floor.

As you can see I'm posting this at 2am. My insomnia is back, but I think I can blame the pregnancy. At least that's what I'm telling myself. My mind isn't on hyper overdrive and my body is relaxed for the most part, I'm just not able to fall asleep.

It doesn't help that I had a dream on Friday night that my water broke. Nothing like waking up in the middle of the night and not sure if you're in labor or not.

I'm looking forward to her birth. If all goes well, she'll be born at home. It's going to be a completely different birth than Zoe's birth at the hospital. I'm hoping that this time the birth will be more peaceful and empowering.

A couple of people have been asking if we need anything. Here's a link to our wishlist. We have most of the big stuff, but could really use diapers and wipes. Also, if anyone has a badass ring sling or other infant carrier that they could recommend, that would be great. I'm thinking I'll need to try some on after she's born.

I've completed a couple of knitting projects that I need to post.

Bring on the tiny needles

I've been having some pregnancy-related pains in my hips and shoulders lately that were getting to the point that it hurt to do everything, so last Friday I went in for some acupuncture. It was awesome! I went to AOMA student clinic, which just a couple of minutes from our house where you can get an hour session for only $30. I've had acupuncture done about 4 years ago for insomnia and allergies, but never for muscular pain.

Afterward the pain in my shoulders was completely gone, the pain in my hips was barely noticeable and I had more energy than I've had in a long time. I felt great. When I got home I must have overdone it playing with Zoe and baking and cooking and cleaning and everything else. By the end of the night my ankles were swollen from standing and I crashed around 10pm.

It's Saturday night and my shoulders are still feeling great. My hips are OK, but I'll probably need to go back in. They said I should come in once a week. If only I could go every day.

Copy Cat

I came across some photos of a mural I painted about 10 years ago in Deep Ellum (in downtown Dallas). I did I piece called Copy Cat. You can see the photos here and here.

Since these pictures were taken the tunnel was torn down to make room for a train station. For those of you not familiar with Dallas, this was a landmark that was near and dear to everyone who hung out in Deep Ellum.

There are some other photos of my piece as well as Skip's in the Flickr Good Latimer Tunnel Murals pool.

I Do Love My Plants

Don't ask me how I came across this article (or might have to admit that I googled "i love plants" in a state of semiconsciousness this evening). It's a gardener blogging about his beef with the movie "The Happening". I'm not really into these types of movies so I don't care that he gave the plot away. What I do care about is the part about plants sending distress signals to other plants who then in response change their chemical make up to defend themselves (see Mean and Green).

Anyone else as surprised about this as I am?