Rain

Ugh! I hate the rain and nasty weather we have been having. It's miserable and it makes me cranky. I hate being cold and the weather right now feels raw. It poured the kind of driving rain today that comes in sideways and soaks your entire body if you have to run from the store to your car. Shannon came up to visit yesterday and spent the night. This afternoon we were faced with the pouring rain as we left the mall with the baby. We were soaked by the time we got into the car since we also had to get the baby and the stroller in the car. I don't think Riley got wet at all though.
Riley has been kind of cranky for the past two days. I figure that she's just bigged by the weather too since she otherwise seems fine. I meant to take a picture of Riley and Shannon when Shannon was up but forgot, so you're left with these. Yesterday Riley kept making a mess of herself in various ways and we needed to change parts of her outfit until she was wearing this clashing pink mess. I though it was funny that she was wearing so many different shades of pink and wasn't even close to matching. You can't tell in the picture, but the inside of the hood is pink too.

Riley and Cesky

Lately, Riley has become very interested in our dog Cesky. Cesky has never quite known what to make of the baby but has been protective of her since we brought her home. He has to know where she is at all times. When Jenni and Jumpin' James came to visit Riley for the first time I couldn't come to the door to greet them since I was feeding Riley and Cesky wouldn't let them pass him to come into the living room. He stood between us and them until he was convinced it was ok. When we went to the in-laws once and I shut myself up in a room to feed Riley right when we got there, Cesky was looking all over the house for us (once he got over greeting the dog-in-law Jack). So, now that she's starting to watch him when he's near and coo at him, he doesn't know what to make of it. He rarely looks at her or acknowledges her existence other than acknowledging that she exists and wanting to know where she is.

My new garden received a lame little wire fence all around it today. It seems that Cesky thinks I dug the garden as a new digging spot for him and likes to roll in the manure smelling garden soil. We had lots of holes, dirt all out of the boarders and a dirty dog this morning. Hence, the fence. Hopefully he will get used to the garden, it will stop smelling, and I will be able to get rid of the fence soon. After all, I can't have him digging up my tubers once they go in the ground!

Digging & Wildlife on the Pond

Well, since I'm officially on vacation now for the next week, I planned on spending the entire day digging my new garden. Since I have 44 varieties of dahlias, I need a place to plant them all where they have the space to grow to their fullest potential. My new garden is maybe 10 feet long and about two feet wide and runs along the side of the driveway. I expected it to take me all day and that I would have to take a break and go back out or even finish it tomorrow, but I finished the whole project in about 2 1/2 hours. all previously dug gardens at our house have been real processes. Last year Chris and Bruce had to pull out an old tree stump from the middle of my plot and all of the other gardens Bruce and I have dug have yielded interesting finds. We have found lots of glass, "60" confetti, wires, bud cans, and even found a pair of oarlocks. There has also always been lots of sand beneath the topsoil that required digging out the soil and replacing it with garden soil. Today I found one tiny piece of glass and not much else. There was no soil that needed to be removed either. I was very happy that it only took a few hours although the downside is that I was actually back inside to watch the NFL draft. My whole reason for doing the garden today was so I wouldn't have to see it!

Chris is a birdwatcher and took this picture the other day of an evening grossbeak. I was at work and didn't get to see it in real life and it hasn't been back since he took the picture. Last weekend we had an osprey circling above the pond looking for food. We saw it dive bomb the pond two times, but then saw that it was after a loon. We think it was confused and thought the loon was a fish. It was pretty cool though to see it bomb down from 100 feet in the air into the water.

Riley is pretty much the same. She still sleeps through the night almost every night. She loves watching Chris toss a toy up into the air and catch it by her head. She's also figured out how to bring things up to her mouth and love to suck on all of her toys. We're working on the rolling from tummy to back but it's hard because she likes to spit up whenever she's on her tummy (and then she puts her face in it). She's happy to spend more time outside but dressing her is tricky due to the unpredictable New England weather. Yesterday it was in the high 70s where I work, but lower where we live. Chris took her out to meet a friend at the mall, but she was overdressed because it was a few degrees cooler at our house and the day was warmer than the weather people said it would be anyway. Oh well, we'll figure it out.

Bathtime and Dahlia Craziness

Riley is not a lover of baths. If she doesn't cry while in the tub, she screams bloody murder while being dried off and dressed. Lately Chris has been taking her in the shower with him and washing her there and then passing her off to me. She has a mixed reaction to the shower. sometimes she likes the stream, sometimes she doesn't. Well, tonight was bath night and Chris is at the Red Sox game with Peter, so a bath it was. I think I jinxed something because I was on the phone with Jenni and telling her about Riley's aversion to baths. Then, wouldn't ya know it, no bath drama tonight. I showed Riley the rubber duckie and the made it spash around in the water for her and, go figure, she started laughing. Apparently that duckie was the funniest thing she'd seen in a long time because she kept laughing at it. Maybe it was the good bath vibes coming up from Massachusetts where Jumpin' James was having his bath too. The picture isn't from tonights bath but from another time when Daddy decided to play with Riley's hair.

For my birthday I asked my in-laws for a label maker. I wanted to make labels for the little white plastic things to stick in the ground next to my dahlias so I would know what variety was growing where. Last week I started making labels for all of my varieties and tonight I stuck them all to the white plastic sticks. It turns out I have 44 different types of dahlias and now I have a little stick for each one. I'm not sure where I'm going to put 44 tubers - and I actually have more because I have doubles of some - but I did it last year so I must have the space. Actually I think I planted 30 something last year. It was such fun making all of my little tags though and I even alphabetized them tonight when I should have been doing work for school. It's hard to find motivation for school when there are only two days left until April vacation.

I also broke one of my own school rules today and took one of my classes outside. I don't want to lie to the kids by saying "maybe someday" when they ask about going out during good weather, so I usually say, "I'd not going to lie to you. We are never going outside." I have a small class of seniors at the end of the day and they were asking last week about going outside. I told them we could go out today if it was nice since we would be finishing up the play Hamlet and it would be Shakespeare's birthday. It turned out to be a beautiful day at around 85 degrees. So we went out, acted out Hamlet, and ate Italian Ice to celebrate the Bard's birthday. It was also one of my students' 18th birthday, so we celebrated that too. They were fairly well behaved and it was nice to be out in the sun.

Coupon Craze

So we've been doing a lot of coupon shopping and stocking up on things as they go on sale lately. A few years ago when Bird's Eye peas and pearl onions were on sale I bought 14 boxes and stuffed my freezer. Every one thought I was nuts. Well, when Chris started eating Clif Bars everyday we decided to see if we could buy coupons for them on ebay since it's about $1.40 per bar at the grocery store. It's no surprise that you can buy all sorts of coupons on ebay and Chris bought lots of Clif Bar coupons. Then Clif Bars went on sale at Shaw's last week, Buy one get one free. Chris used the coupons, bought maybe 100 bars and spent only around 35 cents per bar. He also bought coupons for Campbell's soup at hand and we bought coupons for diapers. Tonight we are watching an auction for coupons for our laundry detergent. The thing is that often the coupons expire in only a month or so. It doesn't take up a lot of space to store 100 Clif Bars. But 40 boxes of diapers? 20 bottles of laundry detergent? I'm not sure we have the space for that. For sure we'll be giving some of the pampers coupons away, and our detergent is triple concentrated so the bottles are small anyway, but still. We don't have $800 to spend on diapers so we can use up our coupons anyway. It is fun though just like any auction and the coupons only cost a few bucks anyway so it's not a big deal if you can't use them all anyway. You just have to use/save more than you spent on them. Another thing we've recently stocked up on - tuna. It was on sale last week too, so every time Chris went to buy Clif Bars he bought 6 cans of tuna - we probably have 20 cans at least. It's a good thing they're good until 2010!

4 days till vacation!

Another beautiful weekend up here. After talking to Lynn for awhile on Friday night and having cake with the ladies from work, we went up to Laconia for lunch on Saturday. It was a great day and Riley was well behaved for the most part. Mom and I did run out to TJ Maxx leaving her with the boys and she cried pretty much the whole time though. We had yummy Roast Beef and a Friendly's Ice Cream cake. On Sunday we ran errands and spent some time outside.

Riley has found her voice which is quite funny. She loves to "talk" to us and see how much noise she can make. She also loves moving and kicking her legs a lot although she isn't actually going anywhere yet.

30 years

Well, it's been another quick week. Fortunately, the weeks back at work seem to go by quickly for me (even though it seems like a million years since last weekend). I've also been lucky so far that I haven't had too much work to do at night so I can keep to my plan to not do any work until after Riley is in bed. That might have to be amended once I start getting in papers and other assignments, but so far so good.

It has been nice here this week with the past two days being in the 70s. Chris takes Riley and Cesky for walks every day and reports that she sleeps most of the trip. He has also gotten quite good at getting her to giggle. She was a real chatterbox today and very excited all afternoon. She wore herself out those from the events of the day (two walks and a trip to Conval) and was ready for bed early. Tomorrow will be a busy day too, as we're heading up to Laconia for the day.

Since the weather was nice this week, I was able to work on my gardens a little. I raked out the leaves and loosened up the soil a bit. I hope to dig a new garden during vacation the week after next and plant my dahlias shortly thereafter. Along with the nice weather though comes the pollen and I'm suffering from allergies and am not really sure what's safe to take for them.

Oh, yeah, and I turned 30 today.

All Tuckered Out

Yesterday we went to Windham for a nice lunch with Grandma and Grandpa Heider. Riley was very well behaved but did have a diaper incident that rivaled the BJ's one. Grandpa was totally grossed out.






























Here is a video of Riley's dance moves.

Beautiful Day

So, all week the weather people have been saying what a total washout the weekend was going to be. Well, they don't know what they're talking about because today was absolutely beautiful. We were so happy. I can't blame them for the forecast. When they see a system of water on the way, they would make a call like that. But anyway, it was 70 and sunny instead of cold and rainy. A nice surprise! After we went to the store we took a short walk with the dog and Riley. We hope that tomorrow is nice too and can take another walk.

Chris already is teaching Riley all of the important dance moves: the lawnmower, the sprinkler, the shopping cart, the cabbage patch. I tried teaching her the Marcarena. She loves it.

White

I've discovered the past few days that mommies shouldn't wear white. This is a "duh," I'm sure. I recently replaced my white zip up hoodie that I bought back in 2001 when I was still at the Gap. Well, I don't know if it is cosmic payback from the newly dethroned sweatshirt or what, but in the time since my new sweatshirt arrived, I've been bled on, spat up on and smeared a little with poo. So far only the blood has stained. I take it as a reminder to be more careful cutting Riley's nails. Or maybe it should be a reminder to her not to be so squirmy. The clippers pinched a little too close the other day. She didn't seem too upset about it.

Riley is loving being home with Daddy. She still shows that she's happy to see me by demanding to eat right away. Yesterday it was in the high 60s here, so Chris took Riley in the stroller for a walk to the town line. (About 1 mile total.) Apparently she slept. The dog went too. We've started putting her in the jumperoo borrowed from buddy Ryan. She doesn't do any of the jumping yet since she's too short to reach the floor, but she is mildly interested in the lights. We sit right in front of her when she's in it so she's interested in us too. The seat is a little long for her and she's fine right when she gets in, but after she moves her arms around a bit she starts to sink down and be swallowed. She's also working hard at trying to flip from her tummy to her back. She just can't seem to coordinate her arms and legs to do it yet, and she's gets so angry that she continues squawking about it for awhile after we flip her back over to her back.

I'm so glad that it's the weekend so I can catch up on my sleep. I haven't been this tired in awhile. (Even with a young baby!) I'm getting into the routine back at school, but still counting the days until summer. (44 class days I think - 10 until April break.) We have a quiet weekend of going to the grocery store and hanging out at home planned. Chris promises that he's going to try and take pictures when he's home with Riley. I don't take many because since I only get to spend a few hours with her a day now, I don't want to shove the camera in her face all the time.

Back to School

Phew! It's been a busy couple of days. Yesterday was my first day back at work and Chris's first day home with Riley. I was worried that she wouldn't want to take a bottle since she hasn't loved it before, but she has been fine with them, probably because I'm not around. She has been fine for Chris overall. The only sign that she misses me is that she wants to nurse immediately upon my getting home and nurse a lot before she goes to bed.

Being back at work is fine for me at my end as well. My classes seem to be ok so far, but my sub had no classroom management so it seems they were a little wild while I was gone. Yesterday they were good, and today they were ok, so we'll see how they end up being. At least if she totally screwed them up for me it is only one quarter before the school year ends and I'm done with them. My classroom is also being renovated so I'm back to teaching from a cart. We had a snow day the day my sub was going to pack up my room so instead the workers basically threw everything into boxes and put it in various locations around the building. I've had to spend the last two days looking for my stuff and getting what I need. She also lost the one thing I told her not to. My annotated freshman anthology that I've been working on for 4 years. I did manage to find it today, but not after losing some sleep over the thought of having to redo all of that work.

Sunday Chris and I took Riley up to Laconia for the first time so she could see her Nana and Grampy. She hadn't seen them since she was about three weeks old. We had a nice visit with practically no crying and even a few smiles. She also enjoyed playing with Grampy.

Baby Pictures

I was looking through pictures of me as a baby that came from my Nana's house to decide if Riley looks like I did. There are some similarities in the nose and mouth I think but definitely not the hair. At 5 months old, I had a major baby comb over. Riley's hair still isn't that long so right now it's more like a baby buzz cut and is almost strawberry blond in color. Chris had blond blond hair as a baby so we'll see. I also found a picture of Peter at about 3 months old and he really looks like a baby version of his adult self (without the beard or whatever crazy mustache he's got going on this week). People tell me that Riley looks a lot like me, but I don't see it. Of course, many people also say I look a lot like my mother and I don't see that either. Perhaps I'm just incapable of seeing myself in others.




I don't think Riley is as amused as I am about my picture taking. This is her right now as I type, sleeping in her chair with the Red Sox on in the background. (They're currently winning by the way.) I love the pants she's wearing. In general, I think only babies can get away with wearing bold prints on their legs. If I had pants like that I would look ridiculous.

Patches of sun keep bursting through today and some melting is going on. I noticed that I can see the top of my obliesk in the front garden now and the top of the rock that is the center of my other main garden. The peony garden is almost completely uncovered and the small garden I started by the shed is uncovered too. I'm hopeful that I'll have time to work on these this spring as I couldn't last year. I was too tired in the spring being newly pregnant and too big in the fall. Last fall it was all I could do to point to where I wanted Chris to dig for the dahlia tubers and throw some bulbs in the ground. It will be interesting to see where the bulbs come up since we really did throw them into the holes the tubers came out of.

I think I may give my long term sub a couple of my tubers as a thank you when I go back to work on Monday. She looked after them in my fridge and even threw out some mushy ones for me so the rest wouldn't be affected. I don't think that was in her job description. I have multiples of a couple different types anyway.

3 Months Old

Weather

Yesterday with the warmer weather, I bundled up Riley and we went for a little short walk around the yard. I couldn't find the directions for the Baby Bjorn and for facing her out instead of in, so we only ended being out for about five minutes. Later once Chris came home we all went for a walk with the dog and put Riley in her stroller instead. The warm weather the weathermen had been promising for a week never reall came though. They said 60. It was maybe high 40s. Now today it's a nasty wintery mix. Oh well.

Please forgive me when I don't have time to post a picture. As I head back to work next week, I probably won't be able to post as often either. And thanks for caring what I have to say and reading this journal to my daughter.

Diaper Rant

I'm sooo tired of these poop problems. I should rename this blog "The Diaper Diaries" or something. We had an incident last night and this morning in the Huggies. There has only been one time in recent memory when she has "gone" and she hasn't required a complete change of clothes and that was the other day right after we got home with the Huggies. So Pampers don't work and Huggies don't work. I can't get the Luvs around her little belly so they seem securely fastened because they aren't elasticy and they are so thin I feel like I'm wrapping her in newspaper. (Which I might as well be doing at this point.) I don't know what to do. I can keep buying different diapers, but diapers are expensive and it's a waste when you realize after day 1 that they aren't going to work. We reserve the "don't work for poop" diapers for overnight and times when we know she's probably not going to go, but already we have a ton of those and she's going to outgrow the size before we use them up.

Melting

Well, we finally have a good melting day. It's not sunny here, but my car says that it is 51 outside. I had the idea that maybe I would dress Riley up, put her in the Baby Bjorn and take a walk with her and the dog down to the landing. I'm here typing so obviously that didn't work. After feeding her, I put her down on the floor to get her dressed in her outside clothes, went into the bedroom for a minute and when I came back she was passed out on the floor. Hmmm...so, I put her in the crib, drew the shades and now am downstairs doing this. I can hear her stirring a bit so maybe if she wakes up we will go outside.

I did pot up 6 tubers this morning. I only did ones that were unknown varieties or ones that I have multiple viable tubers of. So this way, if they don't come up the way they should, I'll still have a back-up tuber to throw in the ground, or I won't know what I'm missing as in the case of the unknown tuber. I also used small regular plastic pots left over from last year with newspaper liners instead of peat pots even though I have peat pots saved from last year too. And, I used cheapo potting soil instead of Miracle Grow. So, we'll see what happens.