Little Smearey Fingerprints Decorate My Monitor and other ramblings

If you are looking for a nice, concise post that makes a whole lot of sense let me advise you to move on. This ain't it.

I feel like poo today. I'm not really sure why. I woke up at 3am with a rumbling tummy (never good) and have not felt right since. I dragged myself to work at 7:30am but only stayed till 10:30, feeling tired, achy, sicki-poo icky. I just got up from a two hour nap and ate exactly 5 triscuits with cheese, and they are not feeling so much like they will be staying long. Boo, me.

However. Wow! What a weekend! I don't you about you folks, but we had us some hot, humid SUMMER around here! We are continuing to have summer, actually...all week, they say! Bah. I'll believe it when I've sweat five of these pounds off my tushie. But Saturday! and Sunday! were pool weather, and that's exactly what we did. Giuliana was not too much a fan of the pool on Saturday, preferring just to get her toes wet while I sang like a maniac (more on my mania in a minute) trying to get her to giggle and just go with it. I gave up and she ran around the yard happily playing in the little water table. Eh. Ok, whatever. Sunday I sort of did the evil Mommy thing and forced her off her little warm raft and into the water. She screamed. I sang. It didn't work. So I put her on her father's shoulders and lo! Like magic, she was giggling. Daddy bounced up and down, splashing her farther and farther in, and she shrieked and yelped in shear delight! She went in up to her neck! When John got tired I took her (more screaming at me, what up, G?) and again forced her against her little will into a little boat floatie thing. Which she promptly decided was the coolest thing ever. This girl just does not trust me, I swear. I tell her "you'll like it, I promise." She yells at me. I kinda make her try it. She loves it. We repeat this dance several times a week. Ah, motherhood.

We also had an impromptu bbq with these lovely friends, and the equally lovely but internet shy L.D. There was marinated chicken, watermelon, drinks in the back yard, short skirts and tank tops! This is what I've been waiting three long months for! August, you rock!

But people! Are you still with me? (Snap, snap!! Wake up, I've gotten to some news!) Another happening took place over the weekend. The bottles. They are gone. It was actually quite painless. I had been planning on transitioning G over our upcoming vacation. My plan was just to not take any bottles with us. I figured we would be off our routine anyway, she's been drinking milk from her sippy cups happily for a long time now, she could just deal with it and then when we got home, ta da! no more bottles. I was advised by more than one experienced mother that though this sounded like a perfectly reasonable plan that it would actually result in turning our vacation into one of the seven circles of hell and would damage G's little psyche in many bad ways and make her hate the beach forevermore. Not exactly what I was hoping for. So, instead I have been giving G milk in a sippy cup at naptime and bedtime for about a week. And guess what? She doesn't care. Hmmm. I was expecting wailing and gnashing of little dirty teeth (see above, the part about how my daughter doesn't trust me much.) But other than a few weak protests for her "ba-ba" the first night...nothing. My mother, who watches G all day and puts her down for a nap every one of those days (I stress that, because, I, Giuliana's mother, am successful in getting her down for a nap about one of every 15 days) was doubtful when I instructed her to switch to a sippy cup. She was actually a little scornful, asking if I planned on bringing G back from vacation potty trained too. Haha, mother. Funny. But even she was amazed at the lack of drama produced by our little progeny. So there, mother. Thhhhhpppp! So, vacation, it will be bottle free after all! I washed all the bottles and am in the process of packing them away along with all the breast pumping equipment (don't ask why this hasn't been packed for a year and a half, ok...don't ask) until they are needed sometime in the future by some other not-real-yet baby. Bittersweet? Yes. But I bought some really cute new sippies that I can't wait to show G. So, we'll keep moving forward.

And about vacation (you didn't think I was done rambling yet, did you...I still have to tell you about my mania. Oh, I didn't forget.) Things will be a little skimpy here for the next couple of weeks as we are headed to the beach! Hooray! We weren't able to go last year because we spent our summer vacationing in the hospital. Let me just state for the record that the beach? It's a better vacation. Trust me. I know the hospital sounds all glamorous and exciting, but after day 14, it gets a little old. So, this year, we are going with John's family to the beach! I am one of those insanely maniacal people (no, this is not redundant, trust me) who are compulsed to clean their house before going away. I mean really clean. My mom will be staying here while we're gone to watch the dog...I'm sure that has nothing to do with my OCD. However, John has to come home a few days early because he doesn't have as much vacation time saved as I do (he spent it on three months of disability...) so I had promised myself that, seeing as the house would be a bachelor pad for three days, I would not go crazy cleaning it. Oh. Right. Sensible me, you just don't get it, do you? I have a list prepared of the "few" things I felt needed to get done. Laundry. Change sheets. Clean bathtub. Vacuum. Clean out my car. Check, check, check, and check. However, I also reorganized my hall closet, scrubbed the side of the house, washed the outdoor toys and cleaned my kitchen. Yesterday. Before the pool. All of that, if I'm being honest, and really, why the hell not, was procrastination. It's the cleaning the tub, you see. I hate it. So, yeah, I hosed off and scrubbed my siding instead. What? Don't look at me like that. I really hate it. But I did clean the tub yesterday, too. I just like to get shit done while I procrastinate. But I still have a few things on that list. And all good lists must be completed. I know there are people out there who are nodding in agreement. I know it. You can't just leave the list half done. No way. That would be insane.

And, as a bonus for making it this far, I thought I would share a cute G observation with you. G is enamored with Sesame Street these days. She loves "Ehmo." Can't get enough. We watch it constantly. There are hourly cries of "Suhddy Day! Suhddy Day" around here. (That's "Sunny Days, " the opening lines, for those of you not schooled in toddler-speak.) So anyway. John was watching it with her Saturday morning when suddenly G pointed excitedly at the screen and yelled "Dada! Dada!" This is what she was talking about:

Hmmm. I don't know, G, I just don't see it.

Caio for now, peeps!