You've got a what in your freezer?!

When I was in high school I had a very good friend named Matt. In fact, he was my best friend when I was a junior and senior in high school. But when we first met we were dating.

One night we were having a date night at his house. We were watching a movie. I got hungry and he told me that there was probably something to eat in the freezer. As I looked around the freezer for a pizza I saw something that I couldn't identify in a zip lock bag.

Me: What's in the zip lock bag?
Matt: Oh, that's my sister's placenta.

At 16 I had no idea what a placenta was. Matt had to explain it to me, which he did very well (his mom is a childbirth educator). Once I understood what it was I was completely freaked out. I couldn't comprehend why anyone could possibly have a placenta in their freezer. He told me that his mom was waiting until they moved into the house they were going to stay in forever and then she planned to bury it under a tree. Completely freaked me out. Every time I went over to his house and saw the kitchen all I could think of was "Oh, my God! There's a placenta in the freezer!"

This morning I open my own freezer to see if we have any soy patties and I moved Paige's placenta out of the way to see if the box is behind it. It seemed perfectly natural.

What I difference 15 years can make. At 16 I never thought I'd have kids or be married. Matt died about 3 years ago. We hadn't spoken since 1997. Our relationship didn't end well.

I haven't thought about that night in a long time. I miss you Matt. I wish you were still here even if our lives never crossed again.

Yard Sale!

Last week while we were in Dallas for Skip's art reception we spent the night with our good friend Angie. He home is awesome! Forgetting the fact that she worked as an interior designer before her little boy arrived, her house is a warm, beautiful place. Staying there inspired me to decorate our house and ask myself why I haven't done much to date. When we got home I realized it's because we have too much stuff, so I'm having a yard sale on Friday. I'm posting it here to keep myself honest. I've never done a yard sale before so I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into. My mind is busy trying to figure out the best way to display 3 trash bags of baby clothes and how to get all the nicknacks up off the ground so that people will be more likely to pick them up. No clue.

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.