Now we wait

We got home yesterday. I didn’t really want to come home at all. I forgot how much I loved the desert.

Which is sort of weird considering I’m midwestern through and through. But when we lived there, the desert just grew on me. We got a chance to go to our old stomping grounds and see lots of folks we have missed.

And of course, to see the miracle doctor. Both of our embryos survived the thawing process (yay!) and were transferred. This next part, the waiting, is the hardest. I’m still on some serious medication that makes me feel like crap (including a daily shot, which is no fun at all) but it feels good to hope a little bit.

Now I just have to readjust to life here. The humidity hit me like a brick wall when we got off the plane. WordPress changed the dashboard and it’s irritating the crap out of me. I have to tell the pregnancy center where I teach the classes that I really meant it, and no, really, I am not teaching any more. I have to get ready to move. Whine whine whine. The escape to the desert was nice, but now it’s back to the grindstone. The good news is that I’ll be busy to help distract myself. Here’s one more picture, this one actually of the place where we lived. It’s considered “high desert” a little different than the saguaros above. How can you not fall in love with this place?

“Gramma’s House”

We went away this past weekend for a little overnight vacation. Charleston is one of my favorite Southern cities, second only to Savannah. We hadn’t been there in 5 years, so it was good to be back. We visited the aquarium (and guess what, our local zoo is reciprocal, so remember that membership dh got? It got us half off!)

Since it was Easter weekend, we even managed to catch an Easter egg hunt for the dutchkid, which was loads of fun, even if we did almost get trampled! I tell you, parents are vicious when it comes to getting Easter eggs for their kids! (we only got 5)

When we rolled up at the hotel, the dutchkid announced that it was “Gramma’s house”. I didn’t really think much of it, given the fact that both of her “Grammas” live in different states and we don’t see either very often. But when we got into the room she got very upset when dh switched on the TV. “No daddy, Gramma’s TV”. Ditto for me trying to lay down on the bed. “Get UP! Gramma’s bed!” I was waiting for the meltdown when we couldn’t produce a Gramma in the flesh, but thankfully that never came up.

As we drove away the next day, she said cheerfully, “Bye, Gramma’s house!”. Evidently Gramma now lives at the Residence Inn.

Fun at the zoo

Yesterday started out cloudy but ended up a nice day, so we went to the zoo. This is a pretty nice one, although fairly small. I sometimes have trouble with zoos, because I feel bad for the large animals so obviously out of their element and on display. What happened last year at the San Francisco Zoo just cemented that for me. However, I think increasing awareness about the plight of endangered animals is a good thing, and seeing just how beautiful many of the animals are is amazing. So I’ll get off my soapbox and get to the important stuff, the pictures!

I loved the elephant enclosure, it was big and you could still see them well.

they had a really neat area where you could walk through and feed the lorakeets

Mama Koala and her baby, so very cute.

The zoo had lots of fun interactive things. You can feed the giraffes, but that was closed for the day. They also had a farm animal area, where a goat literally ate the zoo map out of my dh’s hand. I wish I would’ve gotten a shot of that! But he was behind the camera for the day (if you couldn’t tell from the stellar photo quality). After that the dutchkid didn’t want anything to do with the farm animals. She would have ridden the carousel again and again. It was fun, and since somehow my dh got suckered into buying a family membership (the man can’t pass up something he thinks is a deal) I think we’ll be going back again before we move.

eta: Hello to the person in Portland who keeps on searching and hitting this entry. I’m not in the habit of calling out my readers, but is there a reason why you are so fascinated by giraffes and carousels?

Self Portrait Project

After thinking about it since last night, I’ve decided to do the self-portrait project I mentioned in my New Year’s Resolutions. To give credit where it is due, the idea came from a friend on a message board who found the 365 days group on Flickr.  I realized, too, that I had done something similar without realizing it during dh’s deployment.  I took a daily picture of the dutchkid to email to him during that year (I just didn’t think to put myself in it, too!).  I am modifying it a little bit, though. I will take a photo of myself every day for the month of January and then will probably go to one photo a week.

I think it will be good for my self-esteem, to be behind and in front of the camera at the same time. Some self exploration is a good way to kick off 2008.

I am still on the fence about accessibility of said photos. For now, I put a Flickr widget over there on the sidebar.

Look at this!!

My dh and I have been married for nearly 10 years. I’ve known him for quite a bit longer than that. I tend to think I know him pretty well. Until he pulls something like this out of his hat.

I’ve been drooling over this:

It’s called a learning tower (picture is from Magic Cabin). The dutchkid loves to play at the sink and color at the counter, but I’m always worried she’s going to tip over the chair or fall off. It retails for anywhere between $150 and $200. We were looking at the catalog, and he says to me, “I think I could make that.” I wouldn’t necessarily call my dh a handyman, he has done minor repairs on previous homes we’ve had, and has made a bookshelf before, but I was pretty skeptical. He is, however, frugal to the core, a true Dutchman!

He came up with this (!)

The dutchkid loves it, not only to stand on but also to play in as a house. It is a big piece of furniture, but I think it will be worth it as far as entertainment goes, especially since it only cost us a fraction of the price. My dh rocks!

Random photos of the Christmas carnage

Just a few pictures of Christmas morning. It was so much fun to have her actually understand the concept of opening the gifts, although she seemed to enjoy the ripping off of the paper more than realizing there were toys in there to be played with. I thought we had managed to keep the gifts to a minimum, except somehow now it seems like we really do have toys up to our eyeballs!

choo choo!

the dogs enjoying their present

the overstimulated toddler look

Little fingers

I bought one of these when I was pregnant with the dutchkid:

I thought the backrubber might come in handy in case I had back labor (which I didn’t) but it still felt nice. It’s been gathering dust in the toybox because the dutchkid adopted it as one of her household object type toys. Lately she found it back again and I showed her what it was meant for.

Backrubs for everyone! One of the unforseen perks of having kids! Her daddy’s already scheming on how to teach her to give backscratches, but backrubs are my thing. That’s my girl!

Gory fun on a rainy day

So I’m reading this book, Young at Art and in the spirit of giving my child some new art “experiences” I decided to buy some washable non-toxic poster paint at the giant Wal-mart yesterday. Washable, well, that’s a matter of opinion. She has a definite pink hue today.

When I showed the picture to dh he did a double take, “She looks like she’s bleeding!” Oops. My choices of color were red, yellow or white. The book said to choose a high contrast color!

Disclaimer: No toddlers were harmed writing of this post.

Happy Veterans Day

Boo!

I love Halloween. I was mildly disappointed that my dh wanted to go to our church’s “Fall Festival” last night because then I missed prime trick or treat time. Must be the heathen in me. I love seeing all the kids in their costumes. They trick or treat late around here, though, we got home at around 8pm and the neighborhood was still teeming with kids. We still gave out candy to a few stragglers until 9.

Of course I had to put some pictures on here of the dutchkid in her costume:

The ballerina loves to slide. I don’t think the costume was as cute as last year’s but I made the tutu myself, not too shabby!