Jumping Daisy

>I think that if you looked really closely, you would see steam coming out of my ears. I had some pretty big goals for today, and as I look around my house I am realizing how impossible it will be to accomplish what I was hoping for.
Two months remain before we add another person to our household and I don’t have a clue where to put this person or any of the gazillion things that will no doubt come along with him/her.
Today I thought I would get my room cleaned and organized and my great room back in order after the holidays, and I am finding myself feeling totally overwhelmed. If you aren’t familiar with my house, we have a great room and two bedrooms on the main level and family room and 3rd bedroom on the lower level.
Baby number two really has no place, he/she will be sleeping in our room, and the gear will be going into Leila’s room. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. There is no room left in the inn. My great room is really a toy room. There are toys everywhere. Leila’s room…again, toys everywhere. Her closet and dress are stuffed with books/toys/clothes. No room for baby.
I am having a bad day, there isn’t any doubt about that as I try to lug my fat pregnant self around and make sense of this cluttered mess, I am feeling totally out of control of my world. I can’t even begin to think about labor, delivery, the fact my breech baby won’t turn, or trying to recover and take care of a difficult toddler. I think the walls are closing in, maybe that is why it looks like the toys are taking over.

>Leila and our first real Christmas tree coming home from the lot!

Since Cory and I didn’t really know what we were doing setting up the stand and getting the tree all set up, so Leila took the lead.

I think she did a good job, it turned out great!

These are from Leila’s concert, the one of her class is really dark and hard to see, but there wasn’t much to see anyway. Leila covered her face with her hands…when that didn’t make the crowd disappear, she pulled her dress up over her face. The teacher wouldn’t have that though and pulled her dress back down. So she resorted to crying. We really didn’t know what to expect, but as I told Cory, she is my daughter so I can’t be too surprised by this… My dad later reinforced my comment by telling Cory that Leila comes from a long line of hiders.

Mommy and Leila in front of our Christmas tree. This was after Leila’s daycare program.

Grandma Lori and Leila decorated cookies together on Grandma day. Leila is a big fan of frosting.

Leila and I made presents for her daycare teachers. Leila’s job was to fill the pillows with the rice/beans/lavender mixture. While she was loading up her spoon Cory took a picture and told her to look at Daddy. You can see she had a hard time multitasking 🙂

>This was the thought that crossed my mind this morning while I was sitting in my car eating powdered donettes while Cory scraped the ice off of my windows.

>A challenge for all of you fellow bloggers. Pick 10 pictures that tell the story of YOUR 2008. No words, just pictures! This is harder than you may think…

>So yesterday instead of heading into the office I attend a seminar at the University. So much about the experience reminded me of my college days, and really made me feel old. The day started off with a reminder of my least favorite thing about being a student…having to walk to classes in the freezing cold. The seminar was held in the Business building, where Cory and I both spent a lot of time during our stay at the University. Cory majored in Business, Management Information Systems, and I have a business minor.
Walking around that building brought back so many memories, some good, some not so good. It was a strange experience, but I did really like the break in routine and gawking at the many students because of what they find to be appropriate to wear outside of their apartments. 🙂
The Seminar was called Managing Projects and Priorities. One of those things that I do to help me reach the requirements to get my Project Management certification. It was a good course, though there was a little tangent about values that I found to be kind of depressing. The speaker told us that you need to evaluate what your values are. What are the most important things to you. Once you know your values, you need to make sure that everyday you are doing work that matches your values, and once you get there, you have a legitimate claim of possessing inner peace. Huh. If I have to spend my days doing work that is motivated by my values, I am never going to find inner peace, though I am not sure anyone ever truly does.
Which brings me to my after seminar activities. So, the seminar was over at 3:30, and Leila is used to getting picked up at 4:45 so I figured this was a perfect opportunity for me to check out a store downtown that I had been meaning to visit. I will just refer to the store as, “the dream crusher.” A couple of ladies decided to open this store in Iowa City. The store sells designer fabrics, patterns and yarn. They have a studio space where people can rent time on a sewing machine and classes are offered. They also have a small cafe where you can buy drinks and baked goods. The reason I have given the store such an endearing nickname is that for a several years I have had a dream to open a store that sells designer fabrics, has a small cafe, studio space and offers classes. I don’t really care about yarn so I guess they have me there. Oh, and it wasn’t that impressive, not nearly enough fabric selection, and I would have a place for kids to hang out and also allow for local seamstresses to sell their products too. Oh well.

So I was thinking that I should post some pictures of my baby belly, but so far pictures haven’t happened, trust me when I say it is looking pretty obvious these days. Sooner or later I will get to that. As well as pictures of our families very first real Christmas tree…one of these days.

>Not long after Leila was born, a friend of mine from my mommy message board asked me to participate in a podcast interview. I thought it sounded like fun and now Bonnie’s podcast series, as well as her blog are live and available! Bonnie is a journalist in the Houston Texas area and another great momma who have I have enjoyed sharing the experience of parenting little girls with.

If you are pregnant, thinking about becoming pregnant or the mom of a small child you may learn something from Bonnie, so check her out here:

http://www.peainthepodcast.com/blog/

And as a special bonus, if you listen to the pod cast’s you will get to hear my interview!

>Leila: Daddy, did you make this macaroni and cheese for me?
Daddy: Yes I did
Leila: Mommy, did you make anything on my plate for me?
Mommy: Not this time, Daddy made everything on your plate.
Leila: Oh, Thanks Daddy, you are the best!
Daddy: You are welcome Leila, YOU are the best.
Leila: I’m not the best, I’m the sweetest. You’re the best Daddy!

>I am writing this blog post a week removed from the day of incident. As I sit here now on the couch I am under a blanket I am sharing with Leila while I blog and she watches Sponge Bob. Right now, it seems kind of stupid to rehash in my mind a day when I felt a lot less impressed with my daughter, but then I think…I made this blog to share the good, the bad and the ugly, so get ready for some ugly.

Every Tuesday Cory works in Cedar Rapids and Leila and I are on our own for drop off/ pick up at daycare. Last Tuesday when I walked into Leila’s classroom she greeted me with the usual giant hug and beautiful smile…the highlight of my day. From there it went down hill.
Mommy: Come on Leila, lets put your coat on and go home.
Leila: No
Mommy: Leila, Daddy and Zoey are at home waiting for us, we can’t go until you put your coat on.
Leila: No!
Mommy: Do you want to go to see Baby Sawyer tonight?
Leila: Yes!
Mommy: Ok then, put your coat on.
Leila: No

Next came me leading Leila out to the main hallway at Love-A-Lot and trying to force her coat onto her arms. She threw herself on the floor and cried and kicked and screamed. I picked her up and managed to force her arms into her coat. As I held her in my arms I had never been so angry at her. Now, I know that some people spank their kids, and if that works for you, fine. We are not spankers, though at that moment I have never wanted to spank her so badly in my life. I got her into her car seat, where she stiffened up her back and refused to let me buckle her in. I slammed the door shut, got in the front seat and called Cory. I didn’t expect him to do anything about it, but I really wanted to bitch about the situation, and Leila wasn’t exactly good company at the time. By the time I got off the phone Cory had diffused me a little bit and as it turns out, Leila had calmed down as well. She said, “Mommy, I am ready to go now, buckle me.” I got out and buckled her in, and as I pulled away from school I started to cry, and I cried all the way home. I hate hate hated the way I felt toward my own child. Thinking about it now still makes me really sad, especially as I see her sweet, calm little face sitting next to me. As we were driving home and I am crying Leila says to me, “Why are you sad mommy? I will give you a hug.” That only made it worse.

The terrible twos are exactly that. Couple that with a mad case of pregnancy hormones, and the fact that Leila seems to inherited my temper and things are rough going at the Coobs’ House. You should all feel very bad for Cory.

>We didn’t take any pictures Halloween night, but here is Leila testing out her “black scary kitty” costume. She was very frightening, just ask Cassie.
Halloween afternoon we drove to Champaign, IL to visit Cory’s brother and family. We got there in time for Uncle Evan to give Leila a lesson in trick or treating, and then we took her out around their neighborhood.
She froze up as soon as we would get to the door at nearly every house we went to. As we approached she would say, “I am going to say trick or treat!” and then the door would open and she was like a deer in headlights. Better luck next year, and she still managed to get plenty of treats!
She was so funny though, when we saw people dressed up in scary costumes she would say, “That’s not scary, that is just a fox.” During our whole trick or treating adventure she kept repeating it. “That was a nice fox we saw, he wasn’t scary.” The nice fox she was referringn to was a pretty mean and nasty looking wolf, but she worked very hard to convince herself that he wasn’t scary 🙂

The next day we went to a tailgate and then to the Iowa vs. Illinois football game. Leila enjoyed the tailgate. As you can see from the pictures she tried to take a little rest and she also stuffed her face with grapes. She was terrible during the game. She and I watched it from the concourse because she refused to sit in the bleachers.

>
I woke up to Leila standing by my bedside. I said to her, “Leila, Barack Obama won, he is the new president!” She gave me a high-five. We rolled into work, and even though it hadn’t rained there was a rainbow in the sky. No, I am serious, ask Cory. Today I am so proud of America, proud of Iowa and just down right giddy. God Bless America.