Quick 5

On with the show.

1.  I have really enjoyed spending the girls' Christmas money this year.  Maybe it's because I'm buying things that not only they'll enjoy, but I'll enjoy it too.  I hope that's not too selfish.  Alaina picked out this stuffed lamb from Kohls:

She loves that thing.  She carries it with her most of the day.  We also got Tangled, because it's our current favorite (Alaina's and mine.)  With both of those things I let Alaina pay.  I gave her the cash and she handed it over.  Then she thanked the cashier for taking her Christmas money.  I also bought the Music Machine CD set.  That's the one that I'm hoping the girls will enjoy as much as I do.  I loved that growing up, and haven't found the equivalent for yet.  We need new kid tunes in the car, so I can't wait to bust that out for them.

2.  I love sleeping pictures.  I have so many of Alaina, and not enough of Joya.  That's partly a second child thing, and partly due to the fact that Joya is usually awake and playing when I go in to get her.  But I finally snagged one on Wednesday:

3.  Joya isn't walking yet, but she's broken through her bottom molars.  Last week she would wake up in the night and spend a good hour just moaning.  It's so annoying, especially when I could tell she didn't have a fever or anything.  A few days later she was hollering about something and I noticed two pearly whites in the back of her mouth.  That definitely explains the waking up.  So she can grind her food, but can't toddle across the room yet.  We're hoping it's soon.

4.  One of my favorite things about being a mother is watching the girls discover and enjoy things that I did as a kid.  I introduced Joya to PBJs last week, and she loves them.  And yesterday I gave Alaina a grilled cheese sandwich with grape jelly on top, and she wolfed that thing down.  Usually Alaina spends a good amount of meal time chatting, but when she really likes something she won't say a word.  I was surprised to look over and see she had eaten the whole thing, without any "eat your lunch" prodding.

5.  Is anyone else just itching to do their taxes?  I am.  I'm waiting on two more things, and then I'll be good to go.  I'm armed and ready with Turbo Tax.  It's actually one of my favorite chores.  That might change someday, but so far it's always been to our great advantage to get them done.  I should have what I need by next week, and I'm excited.  Now you know.

A big happy 3-0 to my sister-in-law, Mindy!  Find yourself a chariot and hit the town!

Quick 5

I love that every other week or so we get a 60 degree day so I can open the windows and let all the wintry, germy air out.

1.  A week or so ago I ordered a temporal artery thermometer.  You know, the kind that sweep across the forehead.  I've already taken Joya's temperature about 20 times more than I ever did for Alaina, and I'm just anticipating that it might be a good investment.  It was a good deal, so I did it.  It came on Monday, and as I was playing around with it, I took my temp for fun.  Turned out I had a fever of 102.  Guess that's why I felt so terrible on Monday.

2.  For posterity: Alaina has a great new joke.  It goes like this:
Alaina: How do ducks fly?
Me: I don't know.
Alaina: They just wing it!
It really does make me laugh every time.

3.  Tomorrow Joya will be 15 months and 1 week old.  That is exactly how old Alaina was when she started walking.  Joya is getting close, but I'm not sure that tomorrow is the day.  She likes to stand and all, but walking doesn't seem that important to her.  I'm ready for her to start walking; the girl needs to start carrying her own weight around here.  She's getting heavy.

4.  Today I am going to look at some houses with our realtor.  We are this close to being able to put an offer on a house, and it's time to start looking around.  However, our realtor told me that inventory is super low right now, and that Denver has one of the lowest inventories in the country.  Not exactly encouraging to me.  I suppose I'm going to have to learn when to hold out for something I know will be better, and when to suck it up and pick something because those are simply my choices.

5.  I don't have much else to say.  The rest of my brain power this week has been sucked up by my latest controversial book review and all the responses it's garnered, both on my blog and on the review I posted on Amazon.  I've been called "disingenuous," "unfair," "biased," and accused of having no compassion or empathy.  It's been fun.

Quick 5

I seem to have lost my ability to come up with an opening statement.

1.  Everything that has been building up culminated this week.  Namely my job and MOPS.  Sunday was my first solo day in charge of the nursery.  No kids were harmed or lost, so it was a pretty good day.  I also got a full glimpse of what the rest of the week will look like in terms of my job.  Also, MOPS started on Monday.  It went great.  There were seven moms (including me) and two mentor moms, for a total of nine women.  A nice, manageable number.  In the midst of all this, I've been practically chanting to the girls "This is our life now."  Mostly because they are now at the church quite often.  Joya seems the most vocally opposed.  She just gets cranky when she misses her morning nap (even though she sometimes doesn't take one anyway.)  She's always very ready to go home, sometimes an hour or two before I am.  But this is our life now.  She'll get used to it.

2.  Joya is learning the art of manipulation.  Sometimes if I'm fussing at her, she'll give me this face:

I haven't quite mastered the art of not laughing at it.  But I will.  It'll be a sad day for her when The Face doesn't work anymore.

3.  Alaina has been giving us this thumb's up sign lately:

She says that Grampa Kimble taught it to her.  I've never seen him make that face in my life.  She stands by her story.

4.  The other day I changed the screen saver on our computer to the bubbles one.  You know...bubbles come bouncing across the screen.  Well, Grampa Kimble has the same one on his computer, so Alaina thinks that whenever it shows up on our computer that it's a gift from Grampa.  That kid is so observant.  I didn't even know she was around his computer enough to notice that kind of thing.

5.  I've been crafting up a storm.  Which is strange, since my schedule is suddenly full.  But it turns out all I need is about 45 minutes or so.  So I've made a couple of these.  And one of this.  And while in KC I made a couple of these.  I think my funnest purchase of 2011 was my sewing machine.

Go Broncos!

Quick 5

2012!!

1.  The trip home from Kansas City was...eventful.  In the wee hours of the morning, Alaina asked for the barf bag I brought.  I gave it to her and she spit in it.  No big deal.  We stopped for breakfast.  We all ate.  An hour later, Lee heard Alaina coughing.  He asked if she was okay, and I said, "Of course!"  Then I looked back to see Mt. Vesuvius erupting.  I hurried to get her the barf bag again, but only managed to get in on the tail end of the action.  Thankfully we were just driving by a rest stop sign, so we made it there.  Only to find that there were no paper towels in the rest stop.  A lovely traveler gave us a few old towels and an almost-empty package of baby wipes to help.  We cleaned up best we could, then got back in the car.  Alaina seemed okay.  Chipper.  We stopped for lunch at Subway rather than McDonald's, thinking that Subway's fresher food would be easier on her stomach than greasy nuggets.  She drank her juice and ate apples.  An hour later, she was reaching for the barf bag again.  She got most of it in this time.  We were no where near a rest stop, so we cleaned her up on the side of I-70.  She needed the bag one more time, as we were coming into Denver, but she didn't have anything left in her stomach by that point.  She looked pathetic.  Then we got home.  An hour after we got home, she started asking for snacks.  Then bouncing around the house.  Then we ate dinner, and she was begging for food.  I gave her a banana.  Then told her she had to wait an hour.  She asked constantly when the hour would be over.  I gave her a bowl of dry Cheerios before bed.  Then she went to bed and slept like a rock the whole night.  We think we've determined that she was car sick, not sick sick.  It could make our future drives to KC a bit tricky.

2.  We came home with WAY more stuff than we went to KC with.  We knew it was Christmas and all, but it's amazing that we were able to bring it all home.  We even managed to come back with extra pounds on our bodies.  I blame all the desserts.  And the glorious milkshakes that my father-in-law makes.  Mmmm.

3.  I've tried to hit the ground running with my new job and with MOPS stuff.  I feel like I've been uber-busy but don't have much to show for it.  I'll be so glad to get the first MOPS meeting done; then maybe it will all settle into a routine.  And I'm hoping that I'll remember that I need to be at church at 7:45 on Sunday morning. 

4.  It is so fun to watch Joya's little personality grow.  I notice it mostly when she's in trouble.  When I'm getting after her about something, she pooches out her lip and looks away.  She refuses to look me in the eye.  I have a hard time not laughing about it. 

5.  Alaina has been mourning the fact that Christmas is over, and so I made the mistake of telling her that she will be four years old next Christmas.  Now she tells every person she sees that she will be four and then it will be Christmas.  So they ask if her birthday is before Christmas, and I have to try and explain.  I think she thinks Christmas will be in June this year, right after her birthday. 

I haven't even had time to sit down and make goals for 2012.  I suppose that's my first goal: make goals.  It'll happen.  Just not this week.  Maybe not even next week.