go go go

Yesterday I spent all day cleaning the apartment for the arrival of the in-laws. It looked like a tornado went through here with all of us being sick. I mean, who cleans when they are sick? Ok, so I did yesterday, but I think it did me a lot of good, because I feel almost fine today.

Today I'm packing because we are driving to my parents' place tonight! Yay! Away from the sickies, I hope. Last night I couldn't sleep, and then around 1 a.m. after I'd been thoroughly ravaged and was starting to drift off, LB started coughing. I went to her bed and laid down with her, ready to sit her up if she started gagging. And gag she did. So I carried her out to the kitchen. Puke all you want on the linoleum! But of course, she didn't. She wanted down. Demanded "DOWN!" and ran back to her room, climbed into her bed, and face planted.

Poor kid.

She started coughing again, so I picked her up again and brought her out to the couch, where I sat down and held her in my lap, so she flaked in a sitting position at least. I waited till a while went by and she hadn't coughed, then laid her down in our bed. She said "NO!" and fell asleep again.

That was around 2 a.m. Then at 7 a.m. both of our cell phone alarms went off signaling it's time for Tom to get up for work. Of course, that woke Lily up and she would not go back to sleep.

Guh.

So I got up and actually got them out to the park for an hour and a half. When we got back, Lily went to her room, crawled into bed, tucked the blanket up around herself and fell asleep.

:(

I hope the heat and dryness of the interior fry all the bugs we seem to be living amidst.

Oooh and my parents live by a lake, and it's supposed to be HOT, so beach time here I come!! Don't count on seeing any pics of me in a bathing suit tho. Ha.

I'm excited to see my bro and hope the weekend will contain lots of footbagging and badminton and swimming and photography. :)

there will always be happy times, of that i'm sure

LB and I combined weigh 175 lbs.

(LB saw me put this photo up, pointed and said "mommy! mommy! mommy!")

Tonight I had to search for how to make rice. I knew there was a 2-1 ratio in there somewhere but couldn't remember which way it went.

The rear brakes on my car, and the rotors, were completely annihilated during the holidays. Luckily it's front-wheel drive or I don't think we would have gotten away with driving it like that for so long. Tomek is at his parents' place (they are out of town) replacing the brakes and rotors tonight. LB and I could have gone with him, but I figured it would be easier to keep her happy here. So we stayed. I miss him. It's an evening primrose oil evening.


None of the things I was dreading happening over the holidays happened. It's always that way isn't it? Waste all that energy dreading something that doesn't happen, which leaves you completely unprepared and without energy to deal with what does happen.

But as the holidays fade behind us (for which I'm so thankful), I'm letting all that fade behind me as well. I still hurt, I got dragged down and then beat myself up. But a little love goes a long way with me. Show a little tenderness when I'm not expecting it and I'll tear up.
Tomek got rid of the Christmas tree last night, cutting it up into little bits in our living room and then taking it to his parents' place so they can burn it in their fireplace. I'm so glad to have some space out here again. I brought the bulk of LB's toys out here and I think she much prefers playing out here than in her room. Me, too. It's easier to do things and keep an eye on her this way.

Anyone feel like sharing their method for dealing with receipts? How they are organized, where they are kept, etc.?

LB doesn't seem to want to have much to do with me when Tomek is home these days. It's all about Daddy. Which is nice to see, but I can't help feel a teensy weensy bit left out. Guess I'll never be satisfied.

Tomek found a bunch of "artwork" I did in a college graphic design class 6-7 years ago. They were inbetween packing paper lining the bottom of a box that had Christmas decor in it.

There's always going to be love, just wait and see.

warm

This morning LB and I took a frigid walk to the local bakery to pick up all the bread we'd need for the holidays--2 loaves of sourdough, a loaf of french bread and 4 croissants (only 3 tries to spell that one right. yee haw.). It was a wonderful feeling to pull those loaves off the shelves while they were still warm. Yum.

Things are shaping up for the holidays finally. I think. Tomek has yet to start his Christmas shopping, although I'm hoping he does that tonight after not working late. He only really needs to shop for me. We took care of the rest of his family already. So it shouldn't be too bad. And I think my list of what to get done before Christmas Eve pretty much covers everything.

Tomorrow I'm going to be at the grocery store the minute it opens, I'm going to blitz through it like a maniac and hope I get to the checkout lines before they are 5 miles long.

Right now I'm enjoying the feeling of running my fingers across LB's warm, soft belly, and the grins and giggles it's producing.

No more Christmas spirit

I just can't do it. The more I tidy and clean and try to put things away the more the mess just explodes out of every corner. I don't know where all this paper comes from, all the random shit that is just strewn everywhere.

We don't have a Christmas tree yet, we don't have decorations up. I made plans for us to go to a Santa Claus parade and it was lame. I set things up for us to make and colour paper snowflakes and it just put us to sleep.

I just now got back from Michaels (art store). I went with a mission to pick up some extra supplies to make another mosaic garden tile (just some more powdered cement and glass bits), leather strips, some beads and some rings to make bookmarks, and some red, white and green Hama beads. Couldn't find the right rings or leather strips for the bookmarks, got completely overwhelmed by all the beads, couldn't find the Hama beads and got pissed off because the mosaic set we bought for $30 a week ago is now $20. The extra powdered cement is $10 and teeny single-coloured bags of stained glass are around $7. I would have spent WAY more than $20 to pick up what I wanted to, so I just bought a different shaped mosaic set. Then I wanted to buy some glass pebbles because this set I was buying didn't have them and the other one did. $5 for a bag of 25 little rocks. Luckily I went down a different aisle closer to the front of the store where they had LARGE bags of these SAME stones for $3. What. The. Hell.

I hate being a consumer. I hate having to buy stuff. I hate how I know I'm getting ripped off everytime I go into a store, and if it seems like it's a good deal, then it's probably because what I'm buying was made in a 3rd-world sweat shop.

So I'll be going back to Michaels at some point and I didn't go to another 2 stores I wanted to go to because it was just me and LB and frankly it's getting exhausting heaving her in and out of the car, and I know I'm not supposed to do it. But today is Tomek's morning to sleep in (yes, he's still sleeping... but since he averages 4-5 hours of sleep per night during the week, I think he's got every right to sleep till 1 p.m. if he wants).

I want to buy a Christmas tree today. Me and my fixation with having a real tree. It means we have to empty all of Tomek's work stuff out of my full trunk and back into his car before we go. Total hassle.

I just feel like taking every bit of clutter within eyesight and throwing it all in a big garbage bag and heaving it off the balcony.

Oh and a c-section is imminent I found out on Thursday. So that's freaking the hell out of me. But I don't have a chance to actually let my feelings out because I'm supposed to be filled with Christmas CHEER.

Bah humbug.

Yay I made it!

I survived NaBloPoMo. Admittedly, it is probably not as difficult as NaNoWriMo, but still, some days it was a challenge to come up with something to write at all. But I did. So hooray for me.

And I made some good headway on Christmas shopping today, and yesterday, too.

For my dad: a flat-screen monitor for his computer (he has a behemoth old box that sits beside his desk currently. Not good for the eyes or the neck or the shoulders or the back...), the book In the Hot Zone, and the book 10 Secrets that Revenue Canada Doesn't Want You to Know.

(If you haven't heard of Kevin Sites and his web site In the Hot Zone, I strongly recommend you check it out. He started out as an independent journalist and remains one--he traveled to 20 war zones in 1 year and the stories, videos and photos he shares are so much more than the canned crap that the news stations are constantly pumping out.)

My SIL is done, too--she learned British English in Russia, and has told me she feels like she's having to learn English all over again to understand people here. So I got her this book. It should help, although admittedly I haven't heard of a bunch of the things in there.

I had no idea what to get the grandparents from LB, so I browsed Michaels, the big art and crafts store here looking for something crafty we could do and say it was from her. I found some do-it-yourself-mosaic tiles and picked up this one because it comes with letter stamps and I'm all about the quotes. I figure we'll do one and then buy some more cement and glass pieces and marbles and then just reuse the mold and letter stamps in the set, rather than having 2 of each, and spending $30, twice. They have smaller ones too, and different items you can mosaicize, and I can totally see myself getting into this. :) From the gift angle, my mom and Tomek's parents are all really into gardening, and my parents are both landscape designers, so having a tile they can put in their garden works perfectly.

Let's see, LB is almost 16 months old, so of course I bought her something that isn't recommended for anyone under 3 years old. I got her a doodle pro (formerly known as magna doodle). I found one that came with a travel-sized doodle pro for when we are in the car, so she can draw while we drive. We also got her three books: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and 2 Dr. Suess books, all three with those cardboardy pages that are perfect for her at this age, although I sometimes see her getting frustrated that the books don't stay open as well as her Spot book does. We also got her a huge plush puppy because, well, it was $10, adorable and she seems to favour dogs over all other animals at this point. Well, she loves watching the crows at the park, too.

For my mom I got a new set of headphones for her iPod that has a pause button remote built onto the wire because she often listens to books on tape while working in the kitchen and anytime someone comes to talk to her (which is always when she's listening to a good story, or when she shuts the door on the bathroom to have a bath) she has to fish around in her pocket, find the pause button, then we can talk. I figure this will be much less of a hassle for her. I also want to get her a Willow Tree figurine, as she kind of collects them. She and I both really like the style, simplicity and expression of them. Aaannnd... I have to get her some stocking stuffer type stuff, too. I'd seen some bookmarks on Etsy that were made of leather thongs (strips) and beads. I was thinking I'd make her a couple 'cos I'm feeling creative like that.

One of my brothers wants a photojournalism book, so I'm hunting that down. And the other... is an emo/punk funny with sullen mood swings, a GREAT snowboarder... and a recent yoga enthusiast. He sent my mom a list, but I've yet to pick what to get him.

I want to get my brothers both something funky or fun as well as something I know they'd like and use.

As for my BIL, he's getting a Best Buy gift card.

Not writing about what I'm getting Tomek, for obvious reasons. :)

Now it's 7 minutes till midnight, so I better post this now. Don't want to be late on my very last NaBloPoMo post. Plus I have to get up at 6:45 to get myself to the blood lab to do my gestational diabetes test where I drink that super sugary drink on an empty stomach then sit and let it surge through my system for an hour before getting blood drawn. LOVELY.

G'night.

Yum

Great candy bought in Poland. I think the image is bordering on x-rated though... in my dirty mind at least.

Home sweet home

There really is nothing sweeter than walking in to my own home after 24 hours of travel which included 3 flights (1 hour, 8 hours, 5 hours), 7 hours of layover, and unexpectedly leaving my husband behind in Germany and traveling nearly 1/2 way around the world on my own with LB.

But I made it.

LB is stunned from jet lag, I'm feeling pretty good. We pick up Tomek from the airport in 2 hours. That's all I can think about.

Nowy post from Poland

I saw the birthday wishes but can't understand the buttons so I don't know which to click to post the comments. But I did see them and thanks so much! :) It's been a blur of ups and downs so far. Right now we are visiting more family and I'm being antisocial by stealing computer time. But I miss you all. I'm going to have a month of catching up to do on each blog when I get home. :)

The most important 2 things to know if you ever go to Poland:

1. The roads and "highways" suck. It can and will take 12 hours to drive 300 km.

2. Dryer machines (for laundry) DO NOT EXIST here.

Something always backfires

I have been doing most of the planning, organization, reservation crap for this "holiday" of ours because I know how overwhelmingly busy and stressful Tom's work is right now. He's been working a side-job after his regular workday which means he wasn't getting home till 10 or so at night. To save him more stress I've tried to keep all the trip stuff off his shoulders. But now that we are leaving in 4 days, he's freaking out because he has no idea what's going on with the trip.

I can't win.

The next holiday we take is definitely going to be JUST THE THREE OF US and we are going to go to some Mexican resort where we can just lay on the beach and actually relax. I can already feel that this holiday is going to be like the last one: crazy and stressful. At least we have our own car to drive around this time, and we won't be with family 100% of the time, so hopefully we will have time to go at our own pace and relax.

To make myself feel better, here's a list of the shit I have taken care of for this "holiday":

-plane tickets from Toronto to Poland
-car reservation while in Toronto (made 7 fake reservations with 7 different car rental places to find the cheapest one, then booked it)
-accommodation with family while in Toronto
-hotel reservation while in Toronto since my Oma is injured and we can't stay with her after all (again, fake reservations and lots of calling around to find prices). Found a hotel for $69 a night near the Toronto Int'l airport WITH a full kitchenette, perfect for prepping food for LB and ourselves since we don't want to be eating out all the time.
-Got LB her Canadian passport
-Got the post office to hold our mail while we are away
-Got my hair cut
-Asked around and figured out how to best take/get money over there
-called local taxi company to confirm that if we needed to take a cab we could install LB's car seat in their vehicle
-called LTU (airline we are flying with to Poland) numerous times to reserve seats ahead of time, find out our baggage allowance, and LB's allowance since she doesn't have her own seat.
-called WestJet (airline we are flying with to Toronto) numerous times to find out about baggage allowance, meals, LB's baggage allowance, going through security with food, formula, water, etc.
-matched up the baggage allowances from the 2 airlines to figure out how much we can take that will be allowed by both (one lets LB have a 50 lb bag the other only lets her have a stroller and car seat).
-helped Tom's mom with the Avis car reservation in Poland to see how Tom and I can pick up a car there even though it's in his mom's name. We might end up spending a day in Berlin...
-researched and got tour ideas for if/when we are spending a day in Berlin because we fly in in the morning and his parents fly in in the evening.
-Figured out what formula we can take with us on the plane (generally I make it at home, but can't do that while we are traveling) and what food LB will be likely to eat in Poland.
-Made a list of fun things to buy for LB to keep her entertained on the flights (have yet to buy any of it).
-Got LB cute white sandals to go with all her dresses, got me and Tom new running shoes (LONG overdue) for all the walking we'll be doing.
-Handled getting Tom a new complete suit because his old one doesn't fit
-Got a little harness for LB so she can run around like crazy in the airports and we'll be able to keep a hold on her (it is impossible to hold a one-year-old's sweaty little hand when they don't want it to be held)
-found and bought memory books to create a "birth to one year" album for all three sets of LB's great-grandparents
-sorted, picked out and got printed photos for albums
-bought a first aid kit for while we are traveling
-got a hair straightener for me (yay for boosted self-confidence and no frizzy hair!)
-made detailed (and probably still incomplete) lists of what we need to pack
-made a tentative itinerary for while we are in Toronto
-found out about permission to travel letter that we have to get notarized because LB will be going through customs with me while tom is in the EU line.

gatorade 'n' pizza pockets

So. A year ago right now I was in the throes of contractions, and 16 hours away from giving birth.

I seem to have stopped blogging and stopped taking photos. When did that all happen? I think it was when I got some news that might be news but might not be news and I've been trying to wrestle with whether it's good news or bad news. I don't want to talk to anyone about it yet. I'm trying to come to grips with all the what-ifs.

We are leaving for Toronto-then-Poland in 2 1/2 weeks. I'm dreading it. I had no idea how complicated it would be to travel with a child. Everyone says "Oh, you can take them everywhere." Bullshit. I mean, you can take them everywhere, but the amount of stuff that has to be planned out in advance and the amount of stuff that has to be taken along is mind-boggling. We didn't have enough money to buy 3 plane tickets so LB doesn't have her own seat on the 2 5-hour flights to and from Toronto and the 2 9-hour flights to and from Poland. She's 25 lbs now, and very active as every nearly 1-year-old (tomorrow!) should be. We are flying on 2 different airlines but of course neither will provide a meal for her (she's under 2 and doesn't have a seat anyway) even though she eats mostly everything we eat. Actually she out and out refuses to eat baby food now. And each airline has different baggage restrictions. One will let her have luggage, the other won't. But I've (after a ton of phoning around) figured out how much baggage plus stroller plus car seat we can bring. Yes, we are toting her car seat for use in the rental cars in Toronto and Poland, not for use on the planes. Even if we had gotten her a seat, we couldn't use our car seat on the flight to Poland because it's a German airline and they only allow German car seats. Of course. Then there's the whole food and formula deal. I make her formula myself, but of course I won't be doing that on the trip since we'll be moving around so much and each batch has to simmer for 6 hours. She doesn't seem to want to drink other formulas and I can't blame her, so then I considered milk, but then I remembered all the reasons I don't drink milk and scratched that idea pretty quick. So back to a commercial formula. She drinks less of this because the kind that she will drink she doesn't want to drink much of. But maybe that's good. Maybe this trip will slowly wean her off formula and get her more into eating solid foods. Her appetite is almost non-existent these days. It kind of scares me, even though she's as bouncy as ever.

And Tomek doesn't have the same passport as we do--we have Cdn he has Polish. I tried to apply for his through the mail but sent one wrong bit of ID because I couldn't send the other because he needed it to go down to Oregon with me. And now his work schedule is so crazy at his regular job, PLUS he's working a side job till 8 each night, so I don't even want to add anything more onto his plate, and certainly not standing in line for 4 hours to hand in a passport application. It's not really a big deal that we have different passports, it's just that when we went to Spain 2 years ago it was the same thing, and when we landed in the UK we were in different line-ups and they gave me a major hassle because I had no proof of where I was staying (with Tom's family, but they were in the other line) and no proof of money, etc. This time I'll have travelers cheques with us, but how am I supposed to split the cheque between the two of us? I guess since he's got an EU passport they'll be more lenient with him, so he'll need less proof. But still, standing in a customs line-up with LB and without Tomek is not something I'm looking forward to.

And we still haven't totally hashed out where we are going while we are there. I know we want it to be as low-key as possible, and I think that is going to be my main duty--making sure Tom's family and the trip doesn't stress him out and making sure that LB is having a good time and is not smothered and carted off by over-exhuberent relatives. Add to that I have this paranoid feeling that I may have been entered against my will into a who's the best daughter-in law competition and the dread I feel about this trip is pretty much complete. Mind you, I do have a kick-ass trump card: LB. She's the first great-granddaughter on Tom's mom's side, and Tom's dad is really excited to show LB off to all of his family and we may have that news that still might not be news.

And on that note LB is awake and crying whenever I turn away from her. Did I mention she's teething?

dread

I just called the airline that we are flying with from Toronto to Germany with (we leave in 1 month 2 days!), because I'm starting to really regret my decision to not give LB her own seat. She is squirmy, she walks, how is she going to sit in either of our laps for NINE hours? I called to find out what our seat assignments were because I'd requested either bulkhead seats (front row in coach) or seats with an empty seat between in the hopes that it wouldn't be filled. We got neither. We have seats side by side, but at least they are both an aisle and a window seat, so there will be no one sitting right beside us. I don't know that I totally believe that they only have two seats on the end of the row, but maybe. I then asked if the flight was full, and it isn't. Then the guy dashed my hopes to smithereens by saying that they only accept German car seats on the flight. WTF. AND a seat for an infant costs the same amount as a seat for an adult (ie over $1000). Stupid POS airline. That's what I get for trying to fly with a cheap airline. If we'd flown with Air Canada or something they probably would have discount rates for infant seats AND we would have been able to use our car seat. Instead, we have to bring our car seat along all the way to Poland just to use it in the rental car. I'm not looking forward to this trip at ALL. I can't even begin to fathom everything I need to have and be prepared for to make the flights & everything else as easy on LB as possible.

Anyone have any tips?

Yeah, that sounds like something I'd do

So I bought a blank card with some nice Impressionistic (I think) art on the front. I bought this card to write a nice thank you note to the president of the company I used to work for. I just thought up a really nice short note to write on it:

I am sure by now you are back from your trip and A***** has let you know I won't be returning to work at S*****.

It was my intent to tell you in person, and also to thank you for employing me these past couple of years. I enjoyed the challenges that came with the work I was given, as well as the friendships I made.

I wish you and your company all the best in your future endeavours.

Sincerely,
Me

So I carefully penned this note out in the card in nice cursive without making any mistakes. I signed my name and closed the card to take another look at the art work on the front. And the stupid card is vertical. Of COURSE I wrote the note in it horizontally.

Sigh.

So now the card is going to be super-late because I have to buy another one. And I don't feel like going out right now to do that. We are driving to K-town this weekend to spend the weekend with my parents and celebrate Tom's 30th birthday (pop over and wish him a happy b-day, if you'd like). My main gift to him is over there, so he won't get it till tomorrow. He's going to love it. :)

Oh, and the night-shift stocker position I applied for a week ago... I got it. I start Tuesday. I have an 8 hour shift (training + work) 8 p.m. till 4 a.m. Fun times.

Hehe.

Hey, what's your job? Me? I'm a stalker.

Best commercial ever

Turn it up!

Getting it all together

I came back from our trip to my parents' place with a mission. I finally feel that I can accomplish things, that I can knock items off our ever-growing list of things that need to be done, yesterday.

Tomorrow I am finally going to tell my work that I won't be returning. I called a girl who recently did the same, although she'd been in there to visit a lot before she told them. And she told the president in person. She advised me to do the same. So I called this morning to talk to him and arrange a meeting tomorrow but he's in France till the day before I'm due back. So that means I talked to the HR guy tomorrow instead. That should be ok. I had been waffling so much about going back to work that I won't be lying when I say that I'm sorry to tell them so late into my mat. leave but up until a little bit ago I was planning on returning to work on July 3rd.

I made an appointment to get my car fixed up because the list kept growing of things that needed to be checked out on it. So my car goes in Thursday morning.

And I bought a travel guide of Poland and a huge detailed map of Poland and I've started hashing out our trip. In detail. With hotel reservations I hope. That way we have our time blocked out of when we are going where and when we will be in Tom's hometown with his family.
LB is being an absolute PEACH. She's been sitting happily playing with her toys while I've been making those phone calls and writing this blog.

I feel good. I think this could turn out to be a great day, even if it is cloudy and rainy outside.

trip to grad part 1

My middle brother D graduated from high school this past weekend. Tomek, LB and I made the 8 hour drive down on Friday night and back home on Sunday night to be a part of the festivities. We left home at 10:30 p.m. on Friday, had no hassle at the border for the first time in a LONG time (I am NOT going to miss travelling to the states. My next trip down shouldn't be until November.) LB slept like a champ the entire drive, although she would wake up a bit whenever we pulled over to take turns driving or to have a nap. We stopped for one nap mid-Washington and she snuggled right up with us in the front seats of my car and snoozed away with Tomek. At about 5 a.m. Saturday morning, we finally got off the Interstate, and arrived at our hotel around 6 a.m.Mr Bean x2

Feeling a little... stunned.

Driving to our hotel as the sun prepares to come up (that's the moon there).

Spruce Goose!

LB was a saint and slept till 10 a.m. so Tomek and I got 4 precious hours of sleep. We missed the awards ceremony but that wasn't any real big deal. Both of my bros got a couple of awards. D got a Tenacity award, which was well deserved. We got up to the school around 1 p.m., grabbed some snacks and then waited for the barbecue and more food.

Did I mention, LB feeds herself her bottle now?

It's so beautiful and green on the school grounds

Yes! We are vertical!

I had horrible allergies though, so we ended up driving the 1/2 hour back to our hotel so I could sleep and Tomek got me some medication. Then we drove back up for the barbecue...

Barbecue time--Tomek enjoys a veggie burger

Lily feeds Grampa some cheerios.

Ugh. The grass is picky.

After the bbq we drove again back to our hotel only to turn around a few hours later to attend my bro's senior Prom.

trip to grad part 2

The grad with his niece It was dark and loud at Prom and I took some pics but... meh. The senior class got toasted by the junior class and my bro S was one of the toasters. The senior class also had a dance which was cool, but the song was crap. This is why I'm hot, this is why I'm hot. Why oh why is rap so popular?

Sunday morning, getting ready to go to Commencement...

SO much concentration her cheeks almost touch

View from the playground

I think she's getting used to the grass....

The Commencement speaker, alone as the grads march up the centre aisle.

My bro, D.

Commencement was long. There were 26 grads and each gave a speech. Short, but it added up. LB got loud during the speaker's address, so we spent most of Commencement on the lawn beside the open-walled tent that it was in. The PA system was great, so we could still hear and see everything. I stayed in the tent to hear D, but then headed outside for the remainder.

LB busily emptying my purse

I love watching how her fingers work

They moved their tassles from right to left and are now officially graduates.

I have lots of pics but... kinda hesitant about splashing my family all over this blog. They'll show up on LB's blog eventually though. :)

At yet another barbecue, thrown for the grads, D feeds LB some melon:

And signs his senior page for a friend

We began our drive back home at 7:30 p.m.... here's blurry Portland:

Looooooooong drive... and cramped in the backseat

Arrived at home around 3:30 a.m., but LB woke up and was NOT interested in sleeping. She also had some crazy car seat-head.
She fell asleep eventually around 4:45. Tomek got up at 6 for work and I got up at 9 with LB. We are both still trying to catch up on sleep, although I have much more time to do so than him.

the long weekend awaits

I forgot that at the beginning of this week I said it would be fine if Montoyo came over for a visit. It's been a freakin' long week. Tomek worked late Tuesday-Thursday nights so he wasn't home till 10 p.m. or later and I can't remember anything about Monday so I don't know if he worked late that day, too. But he's not working late today, and I called him at 10:30 because LB was already driving me bats, to make sure that he was still going to be home by 5 p.m. That's when he reminded me that Montoyo is coming over... or rather he said "It's still alright if he comes over...?" or something. Of course it's cool, I like Montoyo--he was the best man at our wedding and he's an all around good guy even if I am still a bit wary around pot enthusiasts.

BUT.

The apartment is a sty. So that meant I had to time LB's and my journey to the park to just before her naptime so she'd crash out as soon as we got home as she did yesterday. I love this. Ever since stopping breastfeeding she has settled into, dare I say it?, a routine. Loose routine, but I'll take it. Up between 8 and 9 a.m., down for a nap by 1 p.m. and in bed at 11:30 p.m. at the latest. And her nap is usually around 2 hours. So it was that 2 hours that I pegged for a frantic cleaning frenzy. And LB did not disappoint. Upon returning from the park where she made good use of two of my fingers and walked and walked and then swung and swung and met a kid her age, Chase-man, I plunked her down in the bean bag chair while I opened some windows because it was HOT in here. And what did LB do in the bean bag chair?

This:

So I did dishes, wiped the counters, emptied the dishwasher, refilled it, vacuumed, dusted, cleared off the dining room table, gave the bathroom a (figurative) lick and a promise... and LB sleeps on.

I'm tired.

I was looking forward to tonight as a night to actually see Tomek during daylight hours... and I guess I will get to see him, but it's not the same. You know? But tonight should be cool, Montoyo will, I hope, bring his photos of his trip to Thailand, and we might show him our pics from Spain.

Then to celebrate this long weekend, I am hoping that on Saturday we can get some things done around the apartment:

-clean off the balcony
-wash the windows
-install childproof things on all the cabinets

And then relax relax on Sunday and Monday, with a few picnics and maybe a walk somewhere thrown in.

On Tuesday I'm off to K-town to visit my mom for a few days. She's finally back from LA but will be going down again in July for 4 more months so I have to get these visits in while I can. I hate that she's missing out on so much of LB's first year. :( I try to send her daily pics.

Which reminds me, there are new videos up on LB's blog. Click on over and enjoy.