MIA

I have been MIA the last couple of days, and I plan to be even more MIA over the next week and a half.

Yes, you guessed it, our trip is finally here. Woo-hoo! I probably won't post an entry again before we leave. And it's doubtful I'll post when I'm away, but if I'm feeling inspired I might do it.

The buds are forming on the bushes and trees in Boulder, and the tulips and daffodils are starting to come out of the ground. Nothing is blooming yet, mind you, but I can sense that we are close to some nice weather. I think by the time we return from our trip we might be in SPRING.

I received some icky news yesterday in that the CU elementary education program is completely and totally changing and everyone in the existing program needs to complete courses ASAP before the courses are no longer available. Someone put together a schedule for me that is completely unrealistic, and doesn't even factor in that I need to take off the fall to have a baby. I walked into the advisor's office and told her as such and she gave me this look like I had just swung her cat around the room by it's tail. I have the terrible feeling that I am going to have to drop out of my current program and apply to the new program, which is stressful in itself because I'm not sure the courses I've taken will be accepted in the new program (thus making this semester a total waste). To add to the stress, they are basically making it impossible to do this program part time in the future, as you enter your program with the same 20 students and take all the same classes in the same sequence. But these are all full time students. Ugh. Sometimes I really detest bureaucratic systems where they make these decisions without thinking about the little people they hurt. I have a meeting with the advisor on the Monday after I return, and we will see what comes of that meeting. Based on her initial reaction, it doesn't look good.

I hope everyone has a great Easter and I will update lots upon my return.

A boy in the family!

Yeah! My brother and his wife Janet found out today that they are having a boy! I'm so happy for them, as they have had an equally hard time as we have getting prego with number 2, and it seems like everything is working out perfect for them at this point.

I couldn't be more thrilled for them because I know they really wanted a boy (at least I know my brother really wanted one) and I guess it was in the master plan that they would get one, it was just going to take a bit longer to get there.

This news absolutely made my Monday. We will have something great to celebrate this weekend when we are all together.

The World's Shortest St. Patty's Day Parade

Kevin and I participated in the World's Shortest St. Patty's Day Parade yesterday. Our group was the finale of the parade, fondly referred to as the "Paddy-O Furniture Drill Team".

The Daily Camera managed to capture a bunch of video of our troupe, and I've posted it below. My husband is the scary one dressed as a girl with bright red hair and a bare midriff, complete with hairy belly. Classic.

Daily Zen

For some reason I liked this quote, brought to me by my daily Zen calendar I keep on my work desk (this is today's entry, Wednesday March 12).

"When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways -- either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength."
-- Dalai Lama

One week, 2 days

One week and two days until our vacation. Yippee! If only I didn't have one zillion things to do before we leave. The list of places to visit, things to buy, schoolwork to complete and appointments to make is incredibly long. Why does this always happen before you go away for a vacation?

I have nothing all too important to talk about, so I will just give you a few ramblings and musings.

1. Kevin had laryngitis for 5 straight days, which was a huge bummer and our house seemed incredibly too quiet for that stretch.
2. Kevin seems to genuinely enjoy his new job. And he is home at a reasonable hour every day, which makes ME love his job probably even more than he does.
3. Kevin and I will both be participating in the Lawn Chair Drill Team this Sunday in the World's Shortest St. Patty's Day Parade. For those of you not familiar with this practice, it's a bunch of crazy adults dressed in green who move through the parade doing crazy routines and chants that use a lawn chair as a prop. Picture you high school drill team but then put in semi-coordinated adults chanting about Irish whiskey and clanging around aluminum chairs in unison.
4. My job has been incredibly busy these days, which is unfortunate and comes at a very inopportune time.
5. I am considering flying to the bay area in April without Delaney to see family and friends, since it will be my last opportunity to do so before baby #2 arrives.
6. In a very strange twist, I am extremely excited to start wearing maternity clothes because maybe I will actually start being comfortable in my clothes during the day.
7. My next ultrasound is Thursday March 20 and I'm a little nervous because it's the one where they do all the genetic testing. I'm thinking positive thoughts, but nervous nonetheless.
8. Every day at 5pm or 5:30 the most uncontrollable wave of fatigue comes over me and it's all I can do to stay awake. Usually I cajole Delaney into laying on the couch with me and reading.
9. I have done nothing to plan for Delaney's 2-year birthday fiesta. I am thinking neighborhood barbeque with 4-5 other families. The good news is that she probably won't notice that I didn't put too much effort into it.

Delaney might be as trainable as our dog

Delaney has now gone pee-pee in the potty twice in one week. Yeah! I don't think it's the start of a permanent trend, but at least we are heading in the right direction. One piece of good news is that Delaney seems very motivated by food, which maybe means she'll be like our dog Lucy, and learn things very quickly in order to get payout. I am thinking I should get out the clicker noise maker we used with Lucy and see if it works when we're in Target and Delaney desperately wants to bring home EVERY toy she sees. Hm.

Cookies and M&M's are the treats offered as reward for going potty, and when you say the words pee-pee, poo-poo, or potty usually Delaney will inquisitively say "cookie?" So I think she's made that connection, whether or not she will actually do the deed now on the potty, remains to be seen.

We have set a goal to get her daytime potty trained by the time baby #2 arrives. So we have roughly 6 months. When we first said that it seemed like a long way away, but now that seems like a really short period of time.

A lot of parents I have talked to said that you can't force deadlines on your kids and often they will dictate the pace with which they potty train. Which I believe there is some truth to, but there also has to be a component of education, incentives and consistency that plays a factor in how it happens.

Time will tell, and we will see how successful we are in the next few months as we ratchet up our efforts to get her sitting on the potty.

Dear Kevin

Dearest husband.

I am writing a thank you letter for... well... just being you. I knew when we first met that I had met one of the most amazing people in my life. I knew you'd be a great father, a supportive husband, and a life partner I would be proud to have by my side. Somehow, though, it seems I underestimated just how great you would be.

Four months after we were married my company came to me with a proposal to do a short working stint in Switzerland. They kept telling me to think about it and talk it over with you (which I agreed), but I didn't really hesitate to say yes because I knew you would be supportive, which of course you were. You dealt with the long-distance phone calls and detailed descriptions of my travel trips to Zurich, Florence, Budapest and Milan.

Part of what makes me think we are such a great team is because we keep each other in check. When I decide I want something, I move quickly to seek immediate gratification. But you let things simmer, mull it over, and make sure it's something you really want. I will use Delaney's big girl bed as an example. 6 months ago I decided we needed to start thinking about her big girl bed and flipped intently through magazines and looked online for the right bed. I was ready to purchase. You insisted it was way too soon and we should cool our jets (and wisely pay off the grand or two we had accumulated on credit cards with a few other big purchases in our life). I insisted that we were EVENTUALLY going to need the bed so why not buy it now? But something you said made sense, and I have yet to purchase that big girl bed I thought was so urgent 6 months ago. Delaney hasn't made any motion to move out of her crib, we are completely debt-free, and it makes way more sense to buy it now. You provide balance to my hot-headed need for things to be perfect, right, comfortable and fun. Your patience with me is commendable.

We have been through our share of crap as a couple... lots and lots of physical separation, 3 lost babies, a colicky infant and lack of money. But through each one of these things your strength, determination and resilience is inspiring. Every time we go through something bad, it seems like you step up even more than before. At some point during the craziest time of Delaney's fussy stage, I found myself rocking back and forth with her, saying to myself over and over that I really had found the right man to marry. And, ok, maybe I was somewhat loony during that time, but I know for sure that I would NOT have survived that period with as much sanity as I did if you were not so supportive.

Last Saturday we spent nearly the entire day as a family, save for your bike ride during Delaney's nap. Delaney was thrilled to be with both of us all day and we both were enjoying it too. It felt SO right that it seemed like this was exactly what we were supposed to be doing in life. When I watch you two together it feels like being Delaney's father is what YOU were supposed to do all of your life. Your relationship is so natural, free, silly, and loving. I love how you cheerfully greet her at the end of the day and get genuinely excited when I tell you that you'll be spending time with Delaney because of my ___(fill in the blank with girls night, book club, class, etc). You genuinely like being a father and it shows.

And yes, I get sad and angry that you have to leave us on a regular basis to go to faraway places like China and Bangladesh. And I've thought many times that I wish you had a job that was more regular and would keep you home more. But the truth is that I love that your job brings you happiness and I wouldn't trade our situation for anything. Because how could you be happy with us if you had a job that you detested? Just one of the many things that I like and admire about you is the intensity and commitment with which you tackle what you do for a living (triathlon, business school, the outdoor industry). Your meteoric rise in your industry over the last 4 years is a testament to your strength.

Those are the big things, and the little things I love and appreciate are almost too plentiful to mention, although I will list a few. I love that you have learned to cook (albeit originally out of necessity because I refused to cook during a lot of my first pregnancy) and you have cheerfully taken on at least half of the family cooking. I love that you let me get that extra 10-25 minutes of sleep in the morning (most days) and very often handle the first part of Delaney's morning. I love that you let me pick the movies we go see (most of the time). I love that you're a snazzy dresser and that you're in awesome shape. I love that you occasionally help me garden when I fall behind. I love that you bring in the milk on Mondays. I love that after hearing me complain a few times that "someone" needed to help me more with the pets, you started taking Lucy to the park almost every day (and also started feeding both Lucy and Ellie). I love that you love your family. I love that you happily put pig tails in Delaney's hair on the mornings when you get her dressed.

My parents have said many times that they feel like they can move on to another life peacefully because they know their children have found happiness and spouses to take care of us. It's a morbid thought but as a mother now I could see how freeing that would make you feel, after spending your entire life being the sole caretaker and guide for your children. In a strange way I feel the same peace. I just know we are going to have a great life. We have so much happiness ahead of us, and I'm thrilled to be on this life journey with you.

Love,
Court

Obsessed

I admit that I'm slightly obsessed with Heather Armstrong's blog. I discovered it this past January and nary a day goes by (during the week) when I don't hop over there to check out what is going on in their household.

I love the newsletters she writes to her daughter every month. They are poetic, and hilarious, and a great way to look back at what was going on in their lives at that time. I think I need to start doing the same for us.

If you don't read her blog, you should at least check it out. Her most recent newsletter is up there right now, here's a link to it.
http://www.dooce.com/2008/03/04/newsletter-month-forty-nine

Feedjit widget

My friend Kathy wrote about this cool new widget on her blog, and I was intrigued enough to add it to my blog.

I have made my blog public and have not thought much about making it private (until recently), and I always wondered if I was benefitting at all from allowing complete strangers to read my entries. Or were there strangers reading it at all? I know there are some regular readers (thank you Kathy, Meg, Gina, Rachel, Bob/Jo, Janet, Anne and a few others) but I only knew that because I would get comments or emails related to things going on in my world that I only posted about online.

Having the Feedjit widget allows me to see the general location of my blog viewers although the disclaimer is that it's not always 100% accurate. So if you live in Vallejo it might actually show that your location is Fairfield (it's probably listing where your cable/internet operator is based), or if you lived in Boulder it might show you as far away as Superior.

I was pleased to find that my blog has been read internationally as far away as Yemen and Edmonton, Alberta. I wonder what that viewer in Yemen found interesting, if anything at all.

Anyway, I think it's cool that I can see what's getting traction. I see what sites people come from (some of the time) and also see what they click on when they get here. And don't worry, I'm not obsessing about the Feedjit stats or trying to invade YOUR privacy, but I think it helps me see what people find interesting and what they'd like to see more. Hopefully it will make my blog better.

One glorious day

This past Saturday in Boulder was the most glorious weather day we have had in at least 3 months. Temperatures were in the low 70's, the sun was shining bright, and the breeze was moderate. As you know I've been complaining about the weather, and yearning for one of these days, for some time. And it didn't disappoint. It was the perfect day, and for more reasons than just the weather. Bear with me as I relive our entire Saturday.

We woke up early and decided to go to the Original Pancake House, a favorite of Kevin's and mine since our early days of dating. Delaney was a fabulous diner and was a pleasure to sit with (for nearly an hour) as she devoured her blueberry pancakes.

Part of the reason we chose that breakfast establishment was because Delaney was scheduled to get her first haircut at 9am in the same shopping complex. After breakfast we mosied over to the haircut place which Delaney took an immediate liking to due to the bright colors and huge animals you could sit on. I will try to post pictures of the event in a different post. She was adorable sitting on her little pink elephant and having the hairstylist treat her like a pretty princess. There was little to no fussing and she seemed perfectly content to sit there and let someone calmly cut her hair for 20 minutes. Other moms tell me this is a typicaly first-time experience and the resistance usually increases during every subsequent visit. But I enjoyed every minute of her first haircut, even knowing this was the case. The stylist put in some adorable "piggy tails" and fluffed up her natural wavy curls with some mousse. Kevin and I were all smiles.

Then we proceeded to go home and prepare for a family hike. Our house is very close proximity to some good hiking trails and it makes me so happy every time we can just roll out our front door and access open space so quickly. Delaney did great in the jogger and at a certain point during the hike up the trail she got out and helped us push the stroller. People were so plentiful they almost seemed like a swarm of ants on the trail. Dogs were romping everywhere, people were in shorts and t-shirts, and it felt amazing.

We came home and had lunch al fresco on our new backyard patio, which consisted mostly of cheese, crackers and fruit (which is typical for Delaney, but strange that we all decided to eat such ad hoc fare). I put Delaney down for her nap, Kevin jetted off on a bike ride with his friend Chris, and I smugly laid in my patio lounger and soaked in some amazing warmth and sun. I cranked through two Cooking Light magazines and a Real Simple. But mostly I just laid there and looked at the birds swooping through the air, the woodpeckers devouring our neighborhood telephone poles, and listened to flies and other insects come out of hibernation. I heard neighbors coming and going from their houses and kids riding their scooters and bikes around the block.

We regrouped as soon as Delaney woke up and decided to ride our bikes and the Burley down to Pearl Street for an early happy hour. One of our favorite happy hour establishments (Bacaro) sadly did not have their rooftop open for business, but they had a good front patio and we managed to squeeze into the last table available. Pearl Street was like a carnival it was so busy. It was strange because it almost felt like we lived in a remote, rural area where people migrate in from far away towns for some special faire or event. We ran into several people we knew and the ones we didn't run into we knew were out and about on the town as well. We ate like kings and queens for a total of $26 (risotto for Delaney, calamari and shrimp croquettes for an appetizer and two pizzas for dinner). For the quality of food and price I really don't think you can beat the Bacaro happy hour. The fact that neither of us were drinking only moderately detracted from the experience.

After filling our bellies we walked our bikes over to the Irish pub in town where we knew a young girl who would be doing an Irish dance performance. We knew other people who also came to watch and it was a nice social cap on a very fun outdoor day. Delaney was mesmerized by the dancing, stomping, curly hair bouncing in the air, and bright costumes. She was so enamored that it was hard to keep her from running on stage to try and join in with them.

Just about the only bad part of the day was getting a very reluctant toddler back into the Burley at the end of the evening. But the sun was going down and it was time to call it a night.

After coming home and getting Delaney tucked away, we decided to call it a night early and I ended up drifting off to sleep around 8:30. I haven't been sleeping very well and I was happy to fall asleep so quickly and soundly for the whole night.

When I awoke at 6am on Sunday I felt refreshed from my sleep, but extremly dismayed to see that snow was falling quickly and by 7am noticed we had about 3 inches of snow. Colorado is mean like that... it teases you with this wonderful weather and then slaps you upside the head the very next day.

But I'm still remembering the glory of Saturday. Hopefully it can get me through the week.