Boo At The Zoo

Yesterday we took Leilani to the zoo for some trick-or-treating. They do it every year... hand out candy, have 100's of carved pumpkins all over the place, and have other activities for the little ones. So we took her dressed as Yoda, and got a lot of reactions from people. Everyone thought she was so cute and even picked up on the fact that she is just the right size to be Yoda. It was a lot of fun. Just as we were about to leave the zoo, we encountered an adult in a Darth Vader costume. I thought it was going to be a epic fight to the death, but it was way past Leilani's nap time, so she put the eternal battle of good and evil on hold.

Later we saw Darth Vader getting into his Chevy in the parking lot. I had no idea he drove American. And what happened to his Imperial TIE fighter?

Anyway, I woke up this morning with the worst back ache I've ever had. I think it's due to picking up and putting down Leilani about 1000 times yesterday. Not to mention all the walking and carrying stuff. It's times like this I'm glad we have one of our computers hooked up to our living room TV. I can get on the internet and watch regular TV without moving from the couch. So I've been laying on the couch with a heating pad since I got up this morning. Which has actually been nice because I've shamelessly used it as an excuse to watch all 2 hours of the Restore Sanity Rally without being bothered. *Small victory!*

I have pictures of Leilani and her Halloween haul to come...

Suck It, Winter!

The average day for the first trace of snow in Milwaukee is October 28th. Today is October 29th.

It's projected to be in the low 50's for the next ten days.

This feels like a small victory for Winter-haters everywhere.

Gymboree Today

As I've mentioned before, Gymboree classes are age specific. However, teachers will sometimes let older or younger siblings come to class too and play by themselves on the other side of the gym, as long as they don't get in the way or interrupt the class. Well today there was a woman there with a toddler boy (who's in Leilani's class) and a newborn baby boy. As usual, at the beginning of class we all sat in a circle and sang the "welcome song." During this time, the kids normally get up and run all over the circle and can get pretty wild.

So maybe that woman shouldn't have had her newborn baby laying on the floor next to her, while she held her toddler on her lap.

As you can guess, there was an accident. Unfortunately, it just HAD to involve Leilani. This is what happened: Leilani, being the rambunctious 15 month old that she is, got up from my lap and took off at full speed toward her favorite slide on one side of the room. Before anyone could react, she tripped over the newborn and landed flat on top of him. I literally screamed, "Oh my God!" The baby started wailing and I ran over and retrieved Leilani and apologized. I was MORTIFIED and I felt terrible for the newborn. I was so embarrassed that I avoided the woman for the rest of the class.

Later, the more I thought about it, I realized that I'm not the one who should be embarrassed. The woman should be. She should have NEVER laid her newborn baby on the floor of a gym during a class that has a dozen toddlers running wild. Sure I felt bad for the newborn, but I'm pissed at the mom. And I shouldn't have to feel embarrassed. She's the one that exhibited reckless parenting. Not me. Leilani (and all the other toddlers) go to Gymboree to take part in physical play. It's NO PLACE FOR A NEWBORN!!! And if you do bring a baby that small, DON'T SET IT DOWN ON THE FLOOR!!! Common sense, people! 

Car Seats, Wind, and Cancer

I am so very happy that we got Leilani a new car seat today!

We've been lugging her around in the original carrier that we got before she was born. The old seat had a height limit of 30 inches and a weight limit of 22 pounds. Leilani has her 15 month appointment a week from today and I'm sure we'll find out that she's taller and heavier than that. I'm guessing 33 inches and 23 pounds. So you could say we've been pushing the old car seat's limits a bit.

So as an early Christmas gift, Grandma Sue bought her a brand new "Big Girl" seat. I'm totally stoked.

Also, the Midwest is being POUNDED by a geographically huge windstorm. It's so large that it actually started yesterday and won't pass until early Friday. It's blowing roofs off houses and knocking down trees. So far, the worst damage we've encountered has been some rogue shingles blowing off the roof.

Finally, I found out yesterday that my brother Donovan has been diagnosed with skin cancer. They found a malignant melanoma on his arm. From what my mom said, the doctor indicated that they caught it early enough to be able to remove it successfully and without the need for Chemo. The doctor also said that Donovan has a 90-95% chance that it hasn't and won't spread. I'm so glad my mom pushed him to go to the doctor in the first place. I spoke to Donovan yesterday and he's sounded very upbeat. Because of that, I'm upbeat too.

Who Does That?!?

I really dislike writing negative things here but I really have to release my frustration after what happened yesterday.

Apparently, my ex-sister-in-law who is now dating Mike's brother (classy, I know) called my parents yesterday morning claiming she had a dream that two people she knows (but she didn't know who) were pregnant. So she asked my parents if I was. My parents said no. But really, they wouldn't know for certain so they promptly called me to ask me if I was pregnant.

This all sounds really innocent on the surface, but with ex-sister-in-law, there's always an ulterior motive.

This is what I'm guessing happened:

I had the good fortune to lose all the baby weight within 6 weeks of giving birth to Leilani. However, since I stopped breastfeeding, which was right around the 12 week post-natal mark, I have slowly gained a bunch of weight back. In fact, I weigh about as much as I did when I was 8 months pregnant. This is something I am very upset about. Anyway, I think someone here in Wisconsin thinks I look pregnant. This is what I call 'being an asshat.' So whomever it is (and I have some suspects) thought the best means of finding out would be to employ my ex-sister-in-law to ask my parents. I think this because the person or people I suspect that this all stems from never ask anyone anything directly, they always snoop around to get answers. And since my ex-sister-in-law is known for having these 'psychic' dreams, she came up with an excuse to ask them by saying she had a dream that someone was pregnant. Seem far-fetched? Keep in mind that she divorced my brother to be with Mike's brother. She isn't exactly an honest person.

What really bothers me when I think about this whole situation is that if I were actually pregnant, I think I should have the right to announce it to my parents, and anyone else, on my own terms and when I choose. Imagine for a second that I was actually pregnant. I wouldn't want to have to tell my parents because they asked me. I'd want to do it in a fun and meaningful way. Not because they got a call from someone like my ex-sister-in-law.

Pumpkin Picking at Barthel Farm

October

Leilani's been fickle about going on walks lately. She used to love them but now all she wants to do is run behind the house to the backyard so she can play in the yard. But we still try to get her to go for a walk everyday because we know it's going to get really cold really soon, and we want to take advantage of the warm weather while we still can. (Last year it started snowing at the end of October!)

October is a big month for us. Our anniversary is next week. My birthday is at the beginning of November, but we usually celebrate it this month, and we usually go on vacation somewhere for it. And the Admirals' hockey season starts in October, and we have season tickets. So it gets kinda hectic. Add to that the fact that we're both in school now and things get crazy. Just thinking about it makes me anxious!

We have Leilani scheduled to be baby-sat by our good friend Derek next week so we can go out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary. This will be the first time Leilani has been baby-sat by anyone other than her Grandma. I'm actually excited about it. I think it's good for Leilani to be around other people. 

I also just got Leilani's Halloween costume last week. Here's a hint: She'll be a character who is less than 3 feet tall, is 900 years old, and is a Jedi Master. 

Feeling Appreciated

I do a lot of stuff around here. I do the laundry, dishes, vacuuming, dusting, toilet scrubbing, you name it and I'm the one that does it. I am also the one that gets up early almost every morning to take care of Leilani when she gets up. Mike does it about once a week on average. So you can understand why I get frustrated and upset sometimes when I do all of this and don't get a thank you or any other acknowledgment. Or any help.
Today when I woke up to take care of Leilani like I usually do, I logged onto Facebook before going into her room.  I saw that Mike was commenting back and forth with an old ex-girlfriend of his. (This isn't a big deal, I know her and there's absolutely nothing to worry about) But what did surprise me was that in their back-and-forth, he mentioned that "Lacey does 90% of the work."
The fact that he realizes that and even admitted it to someone strangely made me happy. I guess all I really needed was to know that he was aware of how much I do around here for us. Now, I don't really feel upset when he's sitting on the couch playing video games while I'm doing the laundry or when I get up to take care of Leilani and he sleeps in til 10am. I should be upset, in principle, but I'm not. I'm happy to do all this stuff as long as he recognizes that I'm doing it.

Speak

Please start talking Leilani. Can't I get just one word out of you? Momma? Dadda? Ball? Anything? C'mon! Ugh. I know you're smart. You can figure stuff out really fast. You learn everything so quickly. You can out climb/walk/run all the kids in your class. And they're all 18 months old! Grrr. I know that once you figure out what one single word means, you'll start repeating everything you hear. C'mon...