But I do feel like I am getting closer to becoming one. Maybe it is because my almost 9 month old baby is pretty much crawling, at the very least dragging herself around all over the place, and will put any little speck she sees into her mouth. Maybe it is because I really do like when things are clean and uncluttered....not that 3 people living in a 2 bedroom condo really ever equals uncluttered.
Despite being the daughter of a total neat freak (my mom.....she literally cleans up before the cleaning lady comes each week), I didn't totally inherit the neat freak gene (if that is such a thing). We always had to have our rooms straightened up before the cleaning lady would come when I was younger....something I thought was a waste of time. I mean, what were we paying her for anyway?? I did not marry a neat freak. To be as nice as possible, I would say his cleaning style is.....laid back. He'll help me clean all day long. But let's just say the suggestion to do so (often in the form of strong suggestion) usually comes from me.
I am terrible (ALWAYS have been) about keeping my clothes all neat and straightened up and put away. Case in point....once in college I just slept on the floor of my dorm room because there was such a huge pile of clothes on my bed. We now have a chair in our room that seems to collect my discarded clothes...nothing dirty, of course.....just the rejects that I don't decide to wear or the clean clothes that don't quite make it into the closet. I also seem to change purses a lot and leave the previous one on the dresser or the floor or whatever (you know, for when I change back to it!). I can see four from where I am sitting on my bed as I type this. Ok, so neat maybe isn't the word I am looking for. Clutter might be something that wins against me in my quest to clean my home.
But CLEAN is something that I try very hard to be. The most disgusting thing to me is a dirty bathroom, followed by a dirty kitchen. And now that Sophia is scooting all around, a dirty floor has also made the list. The clutter (aka the rest of the house) will just have to wait.
Let's start in the bathroom. I cannot stand when the shower curtain liner in our shower starts to get that little bit of mildew on the bottom...I don't know if I feel like the mildew can jump onto me or something but when I see it start to collect near the bottom of the liner it is time to replace it. I know you can supposedly bleach them or put them in the washer or something but I can't handle that, it has to be a brand new one. The worst is when you stay at a hotel and you can tell the shower curtain hasn't been changed in years!! Our bathroom is the size of a closet (literally you could sit on the toilet with your feet in the tub and your hands in the sink...I am not exaggerating at all) so I tend to just use clorox wipes to clean the floor and baseboards....it's a task I hate, but for such a small room it gets messy kinda quickly. I guess with two adults showering at least once, sometimes twice a day, plus bathing our baby in that tub, I can sort of see how that could happen. I love when it smells all chemically and clean. Probably not something I should inhale too deeply, haha.
Next, the kitchen. Oh, how I hate to clean the kitchen. There are just so many places to disinfect. The stupid sink and how easily it is stained by whatever gets dumped down it (it is white porcelain....my next house will hopefully not have this) and stove, ugh, the stove. It is one of those flat models and you have to use something special to clean it so it doesn't get all scratched and even water on the eyes of it leaves a black impossible-to-get-off mark. But, the kitchen is where we keep all of our food (duh) and all the bottles for the baby and her little spoons and bowls and letting it get dirty and out of hand is just not an option.
And now the floor. First it has to be swept and then mopped. And yet Sophia can still find the little crumb that was left behind. Ironically, it is probably a crumb of something she tossed of her highchair, but it could be anything. She likes to go for the dust bunnies in the corner so that has to be attended to more often than we used to, that is for sure. Why she can't just sit on her play mat and play with her actual toys, I have no idea. Little tiny specks and various other things tracked around the house must be so much more interesting than the toys we spent money on for her to play with (and to put in her mouth, which is where everything goes these days).
If you can't tell what I was doing all day, I'll sum it up for you....CLEANING! To clarify, I did clean before Sophia came along. It just seemed easier then, not so stressful, like if I missed a spot or didn't scrub so hard it wasn't the end of the world. And I didn't have to clean in the company of a baby who doesn't always like to take a good long nap. I would LOVE to have a cleaning lady come to my house....but then I would probably be too embarrassed by the clutter and would have to clean for a week before she came......well, it looks like I just might've inherited a little part of that neat freak gene after all!!!!!
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Park Play Date
Today Sophia and I had a great play date with my friend Jennifer and her niece Alexa. We met at Alexander Park in Snellville (Lawrenceville?? Not sure where one ends and the other begins...anyway, it's a new-ish park over near my parents' house). It had been several months since we had gotten the girls together....we couldn't even remember exactly when it was....but at that time neither girl was doing much more than sleeping in her stroller or eating (Alexa is almost exactly two months younger than Sophia). We were excited to see how they interacted together this time around.
First we took a nice walk around the park on the walking trails they have. Then we spread out my giant beach blanket and set up under a tree in the shade to get the girls our of their strollers and to feed them and let them play. And to chit chat and catch up on things ourselves and of course for a little photo op!
The girls were pretty quiet at first but I brought out some of Sophia's toys that I had in her bag and they were so cute together. Well, except for the embarrassing little temper tantrum my darling girl had. Sure, she hasn't been around many other babies at all up to this point. Mostly just cousin Cooper (who is not a baby anymore) and he sure doesn't care about her toys at all. Well, Alexa was playing with some toy and apparently Sophia wanted to take it from her....I said no, no and tried to hand her another toy....and all of the sudden my sweet girl arched her back and laid out on the blanket and clenched her fists and had a straight up tantrum. Great. She can't share...already. I thought that was something that happened a little later, maybe more as a toddler or something? In her (very slight) defense, no one else has ever really played with her toys and we have never taken any of them away from her for any reason....I guess she didn't understand. But apparently now Michael and I are going to have to snatch a toy from her now and then to try and teach her the meaning of sharing.
Anyway, that didn't last long and then they were both happy and having a good time...but Alexa decided she was going to go after something of Sophia's herself....Sophia's hair bow!! We had them sitting next to each other and they weren't doing much other than just occasionally poking each other (not in the eye, although there were some close ones, haha) and adorable Lexi just reached up and grabbed the bow right out of Sophia's hair (not that it is held in there by much)! Sophia's reaction was so funny....she kept looking at me like, mommy, she's taking my bow and you never let me take it out myself even though I try over and over! Which is so true...I have to put her hair bow in countless times after she remembers it is up there and yanks it right out....now I've got two babies to go up against in my quest to keep a bow in my daughter's hair!! It was such a cute moment between the two girls though and I'm glad we were able to catch it on camera.
The day was really fun and I am looking forward to making our park walks and picnics a regular thing with the girls. Here are some of the pictures I took while we were having our picnic.
Sweet girl!
Lexi and Sophia...best buds!
I'll take that hair bow, thank you!
Happy baby!
First we took a nice walk around the park on the walking trails they have. Then we spread out my giant beach blanket and set up under a tree in the shade to get the girls our of their strollers and to feed them and let them play. And to chit chat and catch up on things ourselves and of course for a little photo op!
The girls were pretty quiet at first but I brought out some of Sophia's toys that I had in her bag and they were so cute together. Well, except for the embarrassing little temper tantrum my darling girl had. Sure, she hasn't been around many other babies at all up to this point. Mostly just cousin Cooper (who is not a baby anymore) and he sure doesn't care about her toys at all. Well, Alexa was playing with some toy and apparently Sophia wanted to take it from her....I said no, no and tried to hand her another toy....and all of the sudden my sweet girl arched her back and laid out on the blanket and clenched her fists and had a straight up tantrum. Great. She can't share...already. I thought that was something that happened a little later, maybe more as a toddler or something? In her (very slight) defense, no one else has ever really played with her toys and we have never taken any of them away from her for any reason....I guess she didn't understand. But apparently now Michael and I are going to have to snatch a toy from her now and then to try and teach her the meaning of sharing.
Anyway, that didn't last long and then they were both happy and having a good time...but Alexa decided she was going to go after something of Sophia's herself....Sophia's hair bow!! We had them sitting next to each other and they weren't doing much other than just occasionally poking each other (not in the eye, although there were some close ones, haha) and adorable Lexi just reached up and grabbed the bow right out of Sophia's hair (not that it is held in there by much)! Sophia's reaction was so funny....she kept looking at me like, mommy, she's taking my bow and you never let me take it out myself even though I try over and over! Which is so true...I have to put her hair bow in countless times after she remembers it is up there and yanks it right out....now I've got two babies to go up against in my quest to keep a bow in my daughter's hair!! It was such a cute moment between the two girls though and I'm glad we were able to catch it on camera.
The day was really fun and I am looking forward to making our park walks and picnics a regular thing with the girls. Here are some of the pictures I took while we were having our picnic.
Sweet girl!
Lexi and Sophia...best buds!
I'll take that hair bow, thank you!
Happy baby!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Hilton Head Beach Trip
Michael and I decided a couple of months ago that we wanted to take a trip...originally it was going to be with his family, but when they weren't able to go we decided to just go ahead with our plans and go with just the three of us. When we planned the trip, we didn't realize that is fell on Mother's Day Weekend...but that turned out to make it even that much better. We had taken a trip to Hilton Head together shortly after we started dating and thought that would be a fun family of three destination. Michael found a great deal on 4 nights in a one bedroom condo on the beach and we were all set. Packing for a baby (plus two adults, one of which can barely pick out her clothes for the day, let alone 4) is a little bit of a challenge. I did a pretty good job of dividing up the food she would need for each day and putting it in baggies marked with a sharpie detailing what was inside (breakfast, dinner, what day, etc). I stuffed her suitcase full of sunsuits and jammies and bathing suits and dresses and warm clothes (in case it got cold). Then I made a pile of all the million things that also had to travel with us that goes along with a baby (pack and play, bath seat, toys, monitor...which we didn't even use....lotions and other toiletries, diapers, wipes, burp cloths, bibs, blankets...you get the idea). As an afterthought I threw all the summery type clothes I can fit into in another (large) suitcase and then we were ready to go.
We got up really early on Friday, about 5am, packed the car, showered, transferred Sophia to her car seat and hit the road around 6:30am. We were planning on meeting my parents in Savannah for the day, since my Dad had some meetings there, and then continuing on to Hilton Head late Friday afternoon. Sophia was GREAT on the drive. As we were leaving, she woke up so I gave her a small bottle and she went right back to sleep....and literally slept until we were about 20 minutes from Savannah. The weather in Savannah was not at all what I was used to...it was cold and a bit rainy...but turned into a nice day. We had a great time visiting with my parents and lot of other credit union people who were excited to see Sophia. It was a nice stop off point and a great start to our trip.
Here is Sophia with a view of River Street in the background...you can see my favorite church (Cathedral of St. John the Baptist) in the picture...that church is SO pretty! I think Sophia was waving at my Mom or something when we took this, haha.
We had a short drive to Hilton Head and to our rental condo. After my poor husband made a dozen trips up with all of our crap, we finally were settled in. It was early evening by that point, so we just went to Publix to get everything we wanted for the fridge and for lunches and dinners and called it an early night. I was super excited to get out to the beach the next morning, our first official day of our beach vacation!
We had a ton of stuff to schlep to the beach, thankfully it wasn't too far of a walk, just out this boardwalk and over the dunes. We hadn't been out too long, had pretty much just set everything up, and this nice couple walking by saw me taking pictures of Sophia and Michael and offered to take a picture of the three of us, so here it is!
It was really a perfect day. The temperature wasn't too hot and it wasn't too windy. We set up a little sun tent for Sophia and a giant beach blanket for us....Soph liked our beach blanket, haha. Here's a cute pic of her.
She LOVED the sand. Michael put a little in her pail and she would put her hand in and grab a handful, look at it, squeeze it in her hand...and then drop it on her leg and the beach blanket. It was cute, although I usually like to keep a nice, sand-free beach blanket. It was her first time experiencing the sand though, so I just let her have her fun!
She took a great nap in her tent after the excitement of playing in the sand. Then Mommy and Daddy got to relax and read their magazines! :-)
On our second day, Mother's day, Michael snuck out of the condo and went to get me breakfast and flowers to start my day. Then we got ready for another beautiful beach day. It was much hotter out and a lot windier. Sophia fell asleep as I was carrying her down to the beach (it made the walk feel much longer...she sure felt a lot heavier in my arms). So we just set everything up and plopped her in the tent. I think she slept for at least an hour! Meanwhile, Michael and I saw some dolphins in the ocean and tried to get some good pics of them....which we kind of didn't...but anyway, it was really cool just seeing them.
Michael tried to get Sophia used to the ocean water, but she HATED it. Most of the pics we have are of us hanging her there and her feet up....this one she seems to have at least one foot in....but I am sure she was crying the whole time, haha. Maybe on our next beach trip she will warm up to the ocean a bit more. In her defense, it was pretty cold. I never went in farther than my ankles.
We got up really early on Friday, about 5am, packed the car, showered, transferred Sophia to her car seat and hit the road around 6:30am. We were planning on meeting my parents in Savannah for the day, since my Dad had some meetings there, and then continuing on to Hilton Head late Friday afternoon. Sophia was GREAT on the drive. As we were leaving, she woke up so I gave her a small bottle and she went right back to sleep....and literally slept until we were about 20 minutes from Savannah. The weather in Savannah was not at all what I was used to...it was cold and a bit rainy...but turned into a nice day. We had a great time visiting with my parents and lot of other credit union people who were excited to see Sophia. It was a nice stop off point and a great start to our trip.
Here is Sophia with a view of River Street in the background...you can see my favorite church (Cathedral of St. John the Baptist) in the picture...that church is SO pretty! I think Sophia was waving at my Mom or something when we took this, haha.
We had a short drive to Hilton Head and to our rental condo. After my poor husband made a dozen trips up with all of our crap, we finally were settled in. It was early evening by that point, so we just went to Publix to get everything we wanted for the fridge and for lunches and dinners and called it an early night. I was super excited to get out to the beach the next morning, our first official day of our beach vacation!
We had a ton of stuff to schlep to the beach, thankfully it wasn't too far of a walk, just out this boardwalk and over the dunes. We hadn't been out too long, had pretty much just set everything up, and this nice couple walking by saw me taking pictures of Sophia and Michael and offered to take a picture of the three of us, so here it is!
It was really a perfect day. The temperature wasn't too hot and it wasn't too windy. We set up a little sun tent for Sophia and a giant beach blanket for us....Soph liked our beach blanket, haha. Here's a cute pic of her.
She LOVED the sand. Michael put a little in her pail and she would put her hand in and grab a handful, look at it, squeeze it in her hand...and then drop it on her leg and the beach blanket. It was cute, although I usually like to keep a nice, sand-free beach blanket. It was her first time experiencing the sand though, so I just let her have her fun!
She took a great nap in her tent after the excitement of playing in the sand. Then Mommy and Daddy got to relax and read their magazines! :-)
On our second day, Mother's day, Michael snuck out of the condo and went to get me breakfast and flowers to start my day. Then we got ready for another beautiful beach day. It was much hotter out and a lot windier. Sophia fell asleep as I was carrying her down to the beach (it made the walk feel much longer...she sure felt a lot heavier in my arms). So we just set everything up and plopped her in the tent. I think she slept for at least an hour! Meanwhile, Michael and I saw some dolphins in the ocean and tried to get some good pics of them....which we kind of didn't...but anyway, it was really cool just seeing them.
Michael tried to get Sophia used to the ocean water, but she HATED it. Most of the pics we have are of us hanging her there and her feet up....this one she seems to have at least one foot in....but I am sure she was crying the whole time, haha. Maybe on our next beach trip she will warm up to the ocean a bit more. In her defense, it was pretty cold. I never went in farther than my ankles.
Another really cold body of water was the pool. But.....Sophia actually really loved the pool! I made Michael take her in first (cause it was really stinkin cold) and he tried to put her in the pool float we got her...and she hated that. Michael said her feet were going like a mile a minute under the float. He took her out and kinda held her close and after that she seemed ok with it...even splashed her spoon/shovel thing and kicked her feet (more normally though). Finally I got in...not because the water warmed up, but because I wanted to hold my baby girl in the pool too! I twirled her around and bounced her up and down and she seemed to like it all...and then she started to fall asleep!!
Day three was VERY windy and warm. We saw a LOT of dolphins and Michael ended up getting some really good pictures of them. We mostly kept Sophia in the tent, I was pretty nervous about her getting a wind burn. She had a good time in there though, played with some of her toys, napped, and ate her lunch.
The pool exhausted her, she didn't even move when I wrapped her in her towel and left her on the chair, haha. And then I was carrying her back in, asleep and heavy as crap! Sooo cute though! :-) It was definitely a wonderful, perfect first Mother's Day for me.
Our last family picture on the beach...I was pretty sad that it was our last day....but it really had been the perfect trip and at least we spent as much time as we could on the beach so that made me happy. I could easily live on the beach. Hmmm...maybe when Michael retires...haha.
For dinner on our last night, we went to a really cool restaurant that my Dad suggested to us....they had Ohio State memorabilia all over the whole place! And not to mention they had great food. After we got back and were packing up our stuff....I happened to put my finger in Sophia's mouth and what did I find....her first tooth!!!
For dinner on our last night, we went to a really cool restaurant that my Dad suggested to us....they had Ohio State memorabilia all over the whole place! And not to mention they had great food. After we got back and were packing up our stuff....I happened to put my finger in Sophia's mouth and what did I find....her first tooth!!!
Here is a family pic from the balcony of our condo....a really nice place that we can hopefully go back to very soon!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Something I Can't Keep Up With
Other than this blog, that is.
What I am speaking of is laundry. Oh, how I hate it and how it piles right back up the second I complete the loathsome task.
I didn't used to hate it so much. Before Sophia was born, I didn't seem to do as much laundry. Sure, I had 3-4 loads to do at a time...but this was like every two weeks or so. Now I swear I do 3-4 loads before the week is half over. I'm not blaming Sophia totally. It seems like my clothes have to be washed much more often as well....but that kind of is because she spits up or drools all over or smears her runny nose into them (teething sucks, but that is an entirely different blog). Hmm. So that does kind of seem like her fault. But she doesn't seem to do it on purpose or realize what she is doing. Like all the sudden when my husband can't seem to wear a shirt without spilling on it. Surely that is controllable, right? And I guess his clothes get some of the Sophia stuff on them too. Basically it just feels like before her we could wear clothing more than just once (not underwear, gross) and now we can wear something for just a few hours and it is not worthy of a second wearing.
Here is a good example of how I just can't get ahead of this task. Last week I tackled two of our loads and two of Sophia's loads and thought, hey, it's only Wednesday and I have the laundry done for the week. And then I put Sophia in her exersaucer for half an hour and when I lifted her out of it....poop all up her back. And trying to change her diaper and clothes resulted in some poop on the changing table cover. And after that, we were playing on the floor and she leaned over my leg...and totally spit up all over my jeans. In her defense, she totally missed her own clothing. This all happened within an hour and boom, I have more laundry to do. Not to mention a few bibs and burp cloths to add to the pile. And these kinds of things happen every single day. I'm not a neat freak by any means, but I don't think it is asking too much to have clean clothes (or to not be spit up on for an entire 24 hours)! I used to love when pretty much every item of clothing that Michael and I had was all clean at once, neatly put away. I literally cannot remember the last time that has happened.
It's not like I ever expected that having a baby would mean less or equal laundry to before having a baby. But I guess I just can't believe that a once harmless and secondary task has turned into such a monster. Early in my pregnancy I bought a cute little bag to hold the dirty baby clothes....that thing is pretty much worthless, it overflows within a day or two. And now, where I was once indifferent to the chore of laundry, I have now come to really despise it. There is no getting ahead of it, no break from it, no chance of ever seeing all of our clothes clean at the same time again. Those days are sure long gone. I can't imagine what it would be like adding another child to the mix! If we ever hire a cleaning lady, well, she can skip all those chores such as dusting, sweeping, etc and stick solely to our laundry. She'd probably quit within a week. Surely anyone with kids has this same issue and can feel my pain. There should be help groups formed for mothers with laundry anxiety.
I guess I will wrap up this particular rant...there is nothing I can do about it since the laundry will not wash itself (good invention for the entrepreneurs out there)...and it is piling up as I type this!!
What I am speaking of is laundry. Oh, how I hate it and how it piles right back up the second I complete the loathsome task.
I didn't used to hate it so much. Before Sophia was born, I didn't seem to do as much laundry. Sure, I had 3-4 loads to do at a time...but this was like every two weeks or so. Now I swear I do 3-4 loads before the week is half over. I'm not blaming Sophia totally. It seems like my clothes have to be washed much more often as well....but that kind of is because she spits up or drools all over or smears her runny nose into them (teething sucks, but that is an entirely different blog). Hmm. So that does kind of seem like her fault. But she doesn't seem to do it on purpose or realize what she is doing. Like all the sudden when my husband can't seem to wear a shirt without spilling on it. Surely that is controllable, right? And I guess his clothes get some of the Sophia stuff on them too. Basically it just feels like before her we could wear clothing more than just once (not underwear, gross) and now we can wear something for just a few hours and it is not worthy of a second wearing.
Here is a good example of how I just can't get ahead of this task. Last week I tackled two of our loads and two of Sophia's loads and thought, hey, it's only Wednesday and I have the laundry done for the week. And then I put Sophia in her exersaucer for half an hour and when I lifted her out of it....poop all up her back. And trying to change her diaper and clothes resulted in some poop on the changing table cover. And after that, we were playing on the floor and she leaned over my leg...and totally spit up all over my jeans. In her defense, she totally missed her own clothing. This all happened within an hour and boom, I have more laundry to do. Not to mention a few bibs and burp cloths to add to the pile. And these kinds of things happen every single day. I'm not a neat freak by any means, but I don't think it is asking too much to have clean clothes (or to not be spit up on for an entire 24 hours)! I used to love when pretty much every item of clothing that Michael and I had was all clean at once, neatly put away. I literally cannot remember the last time that has happened.
It's not like I ever expected that having a baby would mean less or equal laundry to before having a baby. But I guess I just can't believe that a once harmless and secondary task has turned into such a monster. Early in my pregnancy I bought a cute little bag to hold the dirty baby clothes....that thing is pretty much worthless, it overflows within a day or two. And now, where I was once indifferent to the chore of laundry, I have now come to really despise it. There is no getting ahead of it, no break from it, no chance of ever seeing all of our clothes clean at the same time again. Those days are sure long gone. I can't imagine what it would be like adding another child to the mix! If we ever hire a cleaning lady, well, she can skip all those chores such as dusting, sweeping, etc and stick solely to our laundry. She'd probably quit within a week. Surely anyone with kids has this same issue and can feel my pain. There should be help groups formed for mothers with laundry anxiety.
I guess I will wrap up this particular rant...there is nothing I can do about it since the laundry will not wash itself (good invention for the entrepreneurs out there)...and it is piling up as I type this!!
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