Time to Relax

Once again, I'm reminded as to how wonderful it is to have the Sabbath. This week has been pretty busy so I'm very thankful to have an evening and a day tomorrow where I don't have to worry about work responsibilities, cleaning, or whatever. On Monday and Tuesday nights this week, I was up until almost 12:30 am working on schedules for work. Wednesday night wasn't quite so late and then last night Shannon came over so we could work on her taxes and budget. Tonight, I can just sit!

I won't go into details on everything that's been going on the last week but I will highlight a few things of note. Calleigh wore a new dress last Sabbath that she got from Gigi for Christmas. Duncan was kind enough to put it on her and we thought she looked great. About half way through the sermon, Calleigh was standing there looking at me and I noticed something poking up in the front. I looked and sure enough, there was the tag - - Duncan had put the dress on backwards! The dress has a bow which he thought went in the back but apparently it goes in the front. I couldn't blame him for that one as I could have easily done the same thing. Anyway, he whisked her out right then and there to change it around and that was about the only time she had to leave the church service other than the last two minutes. So we're making progress with her church decorum! This is a picture of her with the dress on the correct way.

On Saturday night, Shannon, aka Gimpy, came over and accompanied us to Ikea. I say Gimpy because someone stepped on her foot at Friday night vespers and broke the third meta-something on her right foot. Tough break, you could say. Of course, it's especially tough having a broken foot when you're an ER nurse and on your feet pretty much all the time. At Ikea, we pushed Shannon around in the wheelchair and Calleigh sat on her lap - - for a short amount of time (the rest of the time she insisted the she needed to "walk around" which is one of her favorite phrases). Alas, it was a wasted trip since in the end, the bookshelf (a duplicate of the one we got before) was out of stock.

Sunday was Duncan's 31st birthday. In the morning he went golfing with Ron, David, and Ronald while Calleigh and I did a little more birthday shopping and tried adjusting to the hour time change. As I've said before, it's only an hour but it can be a killer when you're on a schedule. Thankfully, Calleigh seemed to have adjusted to it pretty well - - maybe because she stayed up fairly late on both Saturday and Sunday nights and was thus willing to go down for a nap at 1:15 even though it would have been 12:15 the old time. In the late afternoon, we headed over to Ron & Elaine's for a cookout. The cousins came over along with Terry, Toni, and Megan's parents who are in town. And Tiffany was there too as it was also her birthday! The food was great and we had a real good time socializing. I made the chocolate birthday cake and used the Brownie Delight whipped cream for the frosting and it proved to very popular.
A lot of time was spent on trying to keep Calleigh away from the pool. All she wanted to do was stand right on the edge and throw balls into the water. We finally had to create a "line" made out of noodles (the water kind) and tell her not to go beyond that point. I almost forgot! Calleigh did not cry or anything when we brought out the cake and sang. And she was quite happy to eat some of the cake too and asked for more. Hopefully the fear is completely behind her.

When we got back from the cookout, I gave Duncan his presents. The big one was a Kelty backpack that I had gotten off Craig's list about a month ago. I've been hiding it in the closet and every now and then, Calleigh would say something about the backpack and I was worried the beans would be spilled but we pulled off the surprise. Calleigh was THRILLED to go for a ride in it and you couldn't wipe the smile off her face as Duncan took her all over the house. They've gone outside for walks a few times since then and she very much enjoys it. And Duncan seems to like it too!

The days this week have been spent with a lot of our usual activities. We went to story time on Monday and Tuesday and I'm marveling at how much Calleigh has changed over the months when it comes to story time. Where before she was very quiet and would just sit on my lap, she's all over the place now and very into it. The lady, Joann, who does the story time has a bear that she brings out of the story room when it's time to start. All of us sit out in the kids area waiting for it to start. This last time, when Calleigh saw her come out with the bear, she jumped up from her coloring and ran over to Joann (who was clear across the room), screaming with delight the whole way. All the other parents couldn't help but smile at her excitement. Then through the story program, she'll burst out with "bubbles?" about every 2 minutes because she wants to know if it's time for the bubbles yet. When the songs are played, she jumps up and runs to the front of the room to sing and do the motions right in the front of the teacher. It's funny because whenever I talk at home about going to story time, she'll always ask me "Jump, jump?" and "Pokey?" and "Bubbles?" I guess just to make sure that all over her favorite things will be taking place as usual.

On Wednesday we went to the playground with Kristine and Jonathan. We hadn't gone in a while because Jonathan had been sick (he was even in the hospital overnight with Bronchitis) and they've been packing to move. But fortunately we were able to meet up this week with "Jothanan" as Calleigh calls him.

This morning we went to a few yard sales (where again, Calleigh says she wants to "walk around" - - meaning, "No Mommy, I don't want to go in my stroller.") She actually likes going to yard sales because we often find places that have toys and she gets to play with them. Of course, we usually never buy any of it and fortunately I'm able to drag her away with no outbursts (most of the time). However, I usually never get to leave when I want to. Another one of her favorite phrases is "for a minute." If we're sitting on the curb and I tell her it's time to go she'll say "sit on the curb for a minute?" Or when we were at a consignment store the other day and she was playing with Thomas the Train and I told her we had to leave, she said "No, Mommy sit down for a minute." I'm not sure exactly where she got this whole minute thing from but no doubt it was me!

This evening we went over the cousins for waffle night. The "we" in this instance was only Calleigh and me. Duncan decided to stay home since (1) he doesn't particularly like waffles for supper and (2) he wanted to put together the bookshelf that he picked up at Ikea this afternoon. He also got Calleigh a little table and two chairs that has proved to be pretty popular so far. He had it set up for her when she got up from her nap this afternoon. I thought it was time to get one since she's always having to sit on the floor when she wants to color or more often, use a pen to draw (which is a big problem because she inevitably writes on her clothes). Part of the problem with getting the table was where to put it. So we ended up having to rearrange quite a few things in our living/dining room and the bottom line was that it didn't all fit. I'm hoping Duncan will be even more popular at work now since he's taking the iJoy chair to his office! It just didn't fit here any more and we really didn't use it much anyway.

Calleigh has been progressing nicely with her use of pronouns. Everything used to be "Calleigh this, Calleigh wants that." Now she she uses a pronoun about half the time. And she's talking in some nice complete sentences too. While we were eating our waffles, she told us quite firmly "I want some milk." She's also saying her own blessing now. I would always tell her to close her eyes for the blessing and then I would say it for her. A few days ago, we told her to say her blessing herself and she rattled it off perfectly. It goes "Dear Jesus, thank you for the food. Amen." Short and sweet. The funny thing is, since then, she's apparently decided to take a short cut either because she's lazy or because she's famished. So now she'll just say "Dear Jesus. Amen." I have to remind her about the food and then she'll say the thank you for the food part. Ha!

Things are still going along pretty smoothly with the pregnancy although this afternoon, I felt pregnant again as weird as it sounds. Most of the time I feel perfectly normal but for some reason, when I was leaving the cousins house, I did feel pregnant. Calleigh is starting to get heavy and I was carrying a bunch of bags (since Duncan didn't come) and it made me pretty tired. And when I bent over a few times tonight to pick things up off the floor, it seemed a little harder to stand back up. All par for the course, to be sure. But I can't complain especially since the sleeping thing is still going very well. I wish I recorded things better during my first pregnancy. At some point last time, I could no longer sleep on my back because Calleigh just got too heavy and it got so uncomfortable. This forced me to sleep on my side which is also very uncomfortable for me as I am a back sleeper through and through. I haven't gotten to that yet this time but I'm sure it's coming. And yes, I know I'm not supposed to sleep on my back since I'm pregnant but I still do it.

Oh, one other thing I've forgotten to mention is that my mother is coming down! She had postponed her trip due to Mimi's incident but since Mimi is doing so well and going home soon, my mom will be able to come afterall. She's coming Wednesday, April 1 and will be here until Monday, April 6. It works out quite nicely because Ron, Elaine, Shannon, Toni, and Duncan will be gone during that time or at least for some of it. She's booked us a condo down at Sanibel Island for Saturday and Sunday nights so I'm quite excited.

Well, I think that's a wrap as they say. Hopefully I'll be better with my postings next week. Have a Happy Sabbath!