How Fun!

88 words

So... all this time sitting in front of the computer is good for something huh? Where's the money that comes with this prestigious award?

Evolution of the human mind

Being a mom is pretty cool most days. Arianna is becoming much more independent and equally frustrated with her lack of independence (what do you mean I can't pull all the knives out of the butcher block, Mama?!). I'm so amazed by everything she is learning and doing.

Arianna's second birthday is a little less than a month away. She is roughly 21 months adjusted today but I've been trying to drop the 'adjusted age' for a little while now (its just too confusing to keep track of!). She's learned so much!

• She knows her ABCs
• She colors well with regular crayons
• She's eating very well now
• She has several phrases and multi-syllable words
• She's learning her shapes (loves triangles, oddly)
• She'll sit through books for children age 36+ months
• She'll go back to her room and flip through books by herself
• She knows quite a bit of sign language and uses it regularly! (table, chair, swing, cup and some others I can't remember right now - I'm amazed!)
• She says thank you regularly now (although often inappropriately)
  
• She says sorry when she knows she's done something wrong (at least I hope its because she knows she was bad!)

I'm truly amazed at everything my pint sized peanut can do! Even with a grade II brain bleed (which we didn't learn about until after she came home!) she is amazing me in so many ways. She has her own cute personality and is very charming. Yesterday I went shopping with my mom and Arianna was going through the racks saying "oh, thats cute!" to everything she touched. She'd run through the store giggling up a storm - and everyone commented on how darling she was.

I know, I don't need anyone to tell me that - every day I tell myself how lucky I am to be her mom.

My name is Jen and I have a problem...

I have a problem. I think first and foremost my problem is that I chose scrapbooking to obsess over and pour my creative thinking into. It used to be needlepoint (and I still do that, only sparingly which is why Arianna's very elaborate birth announcement piece is STILL less than 50% done), and it didn't 'move fast enough' for me so I took up scrapbooking.

A sub component of scrapbooking is photography - you need pictures to scrapbook and I'm obsessive about my photography.

I'm trying, very hard, to pick pictures for my scrapbooking retreat. I'm not touching Arianna's NICU photos as I need more time to emotionally deal with them - so I'm dealing with roughly 1 year and 7 months of photos that I need to pick through.

I took over 4,000 photos people... and 90% of this was BEFORE getting the good camera.

I think I'll need two months just to weed through photos never mind planning layouts... I'm exhausted just THINKING about it!

My new goal

8 weeks from now I have a special weekend (assuming my doctors give me the ok to go) planned.

My friend Becca and I are going on a scrapbooking retreat at a resort near the ski areas in New Hampshire. It's been planned for many months now and I just paid for my hotel room/crop fee. I'll be spending my weekend scrapbooking and I'm so excited! I hear the dining room is 4 stars!

I haven't really done too much scrapbooking lately as morning sickness has had me over a barrel (literally) and I haven't had the stamina to stay up late and plan layouts. So I have roughly 2 months to plan 100 to 200 layouts. I don't have the luggage to carry all my scrap supplies with me (couldn't anyway, I rival many stores with my stock!) so I have to plan everything well in advance.

I'm a planner - amazes Becca when we crop - I can finish entire albums in the matter of one night as long as I have a plan. So my goal is to finish ALL of Arianna's first and second year casual pictures...

Wish me luck - I'll need it!

Picture Post

I don't remember giving her permission to become a 'big girl' *sob*

This is just precious - Arianna's favorite thing in the world, books!

My little snow bunny

What is it...

...about a temper tantrum that turns your view of your perfect child into one of 'oh my god, get me out of here!'

I think we've hit the 'terrible twos' about a month early. Everything is an excuse for Arianna to erupt into tears... not just tears but sobs with hyperventilating. It's quite pathetic actually. Yesterday I wouldn't let her into the pantry to play with my spice bottles - she's recently learned how to open them and dump them on the cats (my poor fur babies put up with so much). Being blocked out of the pantry was cause for an eruption and she slapped me in the face!! That ended with her in her crib (she didn't nap well, maybe she was tired). About 30 minutes later she was very quiet and I hear "mama! mama! wowry! mama! mama!".

That's enough to melt your heart I tell ya! How is it after 30 minutes she realized she did something wrong and had to say sorry? It's so darn cute you can't stay mad!

Our time out routine includes saying sorry afterwards - guess its rubbing off. I like her new independence and am glad she's going to daycare full time soon - its a good time for her to get more interaction.

Week 2...

Today marks week 2 that Arianna has gone to home daycare. She goes on Monday's, for the time being.

Her first day went very well. I really like the daycare because its super kid friendly (mom is an ex-teacher and mom to a little boy same age as Ari) and has kid sized tables, chairs, sinks etc. Arianna enjoyed eating and drinking with the two other kids and Karah (the teacher) told me that she kept getting up to go wash her hands! I have no clue where that came from! She actually ended up eating more than day than the two other little boys that were there! On top of that she left her first day with her very first piece of 'art work'- a turtle she colored (aka scribbled on). I was really touched by it. Karah also had the kids help her make peach cobbler (which was their afternoon snack too) and she said Arianna LOVED cooking! Again, no clue where this came from as we have a serious 'cooking phobia' in our house. I'm glad we found Karah and are very comfortable with Arianna going full time in a few weeks - just wish it wasn't so far away so that she wouldn't have to get up at 6:30 AM...

Saturday was Karah's little boys birthday and we went to it. Karah found some corn starch packing peanuts and she FILLED one of the rooms with the packing peanuts for the kids to play in. Arianna literally just stood there - it was kinda sad actually. I was right next to her and I would dump some of the peanuts on her head and she giggled but didn't really play with it. She did love the balloons though and Karah gave her a special one with a spoon tied to it (Arianna has a strange love affair with spoons) and she was happy. As the party went on we watched her open up but she never really started playing. She's the youngest one there so we're not concerned about her interaction but at least it didn't scare her!

We had her annual EI Evaluation last Thursday - it went ok. It was very late in the day (4:30 - 6:30 PM) and she was hungry so she wasn't as cooperative as she could have been. I won't know how she did until sometime this week. I don't imagine she'll continue to qualify for services though. We meet with her nutritionist in a few weeks and I'm guessing she'll be released then - she's eating WONDERFULLY!

My husband is hoping to hear about two potential job offers today. One of them would suck but will probably pay more than we're expecting - but we have to way the 'is it worth it' factor. The job is in downtown Boston (Congress St.) so it would be a 3 hour commute every day and the hours are 9 - 6 PM meaning that he would be leaving the house at 6:30 AM and returning after 7:30 - when Arianna goes to bed. I really hope he doesn't take that one. The other is closer to home and the one we're clinging to right now - hoping it pays. I really hate this job searching stuff... way too much stress!

Smack us while we're down why don't ya!

You can't NOT take a job offer if it's the only one you've got. That would be stupid.

But, so far, the only offer my husband has had for work has been for $20,000 less than what his level of experience and the area we live in dictates (and even that number is still very conservative). Yes, you read that right. The offer came on the same day he interviewed for a very small software company around the corner, practically, from our house. The owner promises bonus' and an increase in salary by September but we know that the only thing 'guaranteed' in a new job is the starting salary and the starting salary is a joke for someone with nearly 10 years of great experience.

I feel very ungrateful that I'm so upset about the turn in events here. I should just be happy that he doesn't have to file for unemployment.

We told our nanny, Sarah, of the possibility of Shawn being out of work in a few weeks - more out of courtesy than anything. We really didn't feel that we would have to say goodbye to her as Shawn was getting SO many interviews.

Last night he accepted this new position, to start 2/18, and shortly thereafter Sarah called to tell us that she got her dream job and would be leaving us in two weeks. She's a nursing student, graduating with her AS degree in May. She wants to be an OB/Gyn nurse and found an office that will allow her to work part time AND offer tuition reimbursement for her to continue for her RN. She's stupid to not take it. I'm sad... crushed actually. Arianna LOVES Sarah. We LOVE Sarah. She was going to be my life line this summer when I'm sure to be on bedrest.

Shawn is still interviewing and the owner of the company where he accepted the offer would be foolish to not realize that he will still be looking. The salary is low and she wouldn't budge despite two attempts to negotiate.

Maybe my mood will increase if I can start feeling like a normal person again... but that's AT LEAST a month away. At least I haven't vomitted in a few days. The sad part of morning sickness as opposed to 'regular' sickness is that vomitting doesn't make you feel better... at all.