Finally! I feel like we have been sick forever. Both Marc and I had some plague that would just not let go. It sucked a good two weeks out of my life and rendered me useless. Anyway, things are better now, work is not too terribly busy and my boss is being strangely chipper and not too crazy as of late. I am thinking of starting a separate garden blog, but if I barely have time to keep this updated, how am I supposed to maintain two? I am always making work for myself and then beating myself up when I can't finish everything. Gotta stop doing that.

I gave up the home phone this week, grudgingly. It just didn't make sense. It ends up being $50 each month, and almost no one uses it. What forced the issue is that the home phone is broken, so even when people called, I couldn't answer it and Marc vowed not to put another cent into it by buying a new phone. So, as of July 6th, my beloved phone number of over ten years will vanish. I don't know why I am so attached to the stupid thing. I guess I don't fully trust cell phones. But, on the other hand, it's $600 a year that I won't be wasting, so that's a good thing.

Marc and I both have the vacation itch. Bad. It seems like it's halfway through summer and all I have done is work. I don't care if I ever see DC again in my life. I'm glad to have work, don't get me wrong, I just feel like the summer is slipping away without me.

Marc's band played at Hon Fest last weekend. It was very hot, but the show was good. I don't think Olive quite got it, but that's OK. She got an ice cream cone out of the deal. (See pic)

Lame, I know

I know, I know, I am so lame. I can't belive I haven't updated this in two months. Pathetic.

A lot has happened since I wrote last. Olive had her 2nd Birthday, which was great. Her actual party was May 23rd, not the 21st. Mom and Dad came down, as well as Mom and Dad Raley. I wanted to give her a bath before the party, but she slept late and I didn't have time. So all of her Birthday pictures show her with greasy hair from where she dumped a bowl of buttered noodles over her head at lunch that day. Oh well, probably no one will remember that but me. She had a good time, I think she was a little overwhelmed by the end of it all though.

The other night Marc was at band practice and I was here with Olive. I went to take out the recycling, and I was only gone about two minutes. When I came back in, Olive had dumped out the entire box of Cheerios on her table and was sitting there with a big grin on her face. It was hilarious.

Random toddler utterances

This morning when Marc got Olive up, she said "Up a Daisy!"

Yesterday, we filled a dish with birdseed on the deck and she yelled, "Biiiiiiiirds!!!!" Like she was calling the cat.

Very funny.

First Official "TIME OUT"

So, Olive got her first official time out at daycare today, according to Kristen. Apparently she grabbed a toy from Zoe and then clocked her with it. Charming. Kristin said she went and sat in the time out chair for a minute and totally got it; She knows what the time out chair means. We are trying to establish this at home too; I'm not sure where the time out chair will be, but I'll have to figure something out, soon. She's definitely gotten fiesty. Bathtime is much more of a challenge than it used to be. I can usually bribe her with bubbles, but that doesn't always work. We're still trying to wean off the TV thing, but it's really tough. Although, now that the weather is better, (well, relatively anyway) we have been trying to go for walks or go to the playground before dinner to wear her out a bit. She's been doing this thing where she doesn't want to sit in the stroller, she just wants to push it herself for half a block and then have a tantrum. But at least we're outside. It's gray and rainy today. Again. Blah.

So, we were supposed to go out Saturday night with friends. Kristin was going to watch Olive overnight at her house. I was supposed to bring her by around 7:00 or so. Kristin called me on Saturday morning and asked if it was Ok if they went out to dinner. I said sure. Then she asked if I could bring Olive over earlier, because they wanted to spend more time playing with her. I ended up taking her over there at 4:45. It made me laugh though because this woman spends 40+ hours a week with my kid, and she wants me to bring her over EARLY on Saturday so they can hang out together? Wow. That's pretty cool. (Pats self on back).

We are trying to wean off the TV dependency lately. Really, it's just because now if you try to tell her no, she has a complete breakdown, where as earlier, she'd cry, but you could distract her with something else. Now, we have a full on Elmo-Crackhead to contend with when we say no.

I am really really tired of the cold. It's just making me angry now. It's just not fair. It was 27 degrees last night...at this rate, It will never be warm enough for my tomato seedlings. Argh.

Marc took some great pictures on Sunday at the playground, I will post some soon (famous last words)

I went to daycare yesterday and Olive looked at me and said, "Shamrock!!"
They had been making shamrocks out of green paper for St. Patrick's Day. Kristin is always doing some kind of crafty art project with the kids. They totally love it. I also got her to say "Obama!" last night, which made me laugh.

Marc went out last night and Olive and I had a really good time. She was tired, but didn't give me too hard a time. I've discovered the magic trick of bubblebath; takes all the arguing right out of bathtime. She says, "Funny!" and giggles at stuff now. This morning she thought her strawberry banana yogurt was the most hilarious thing ever. I wish she had clued me in on the joke.

I finally got around to updating some pictures, at long last. it took me a little while of screwing around with I Photo, but I figured it out eventually. I am getting better with the Mac; it's so simplified that sometimes I can't find stuff. I have been trying to learn ITunes... I know it's supposed to be so simple a gerbil could figure it out, but I've been going through the tutorials so I don't have to ask Marc anything. We can work together on almost anything, except computers. It's just a screaming fight waiting to happen, so I try to figure stuff out on my own whenever possible.

Anyway, the one picture of Olive on the stairs cracks me up because she looks so much like Marc I can't stand it. I have a picture of Marc at about age 4 from Ocean City and he has the exact same look on his face.

Oh I hope Spring arrives soon....

So, we had the first go-limp-slide-to-the-floor-kicking-and-screaming incident last night. Marc and I just watched and tried to ignore it, although, I must say it was a little hard not to laugh. So much drama from such a little body. She's doing better today; I think yesterday she was just WAY overtired and was falling apart. Today, she was much nicer to me. She didn't say, "No! Mommy go way!" and shove me whenever I walked by. That was pleasant. I mean, come on. I know I'm not supposed to take it seriously, but you can only take so much of that before you feel a little hurt by it, rational or not.

I was having this self flagellating moment yesterday where I was remembering how scared I was after she was born; I was afraid to hold her because she was so fragile and small, and I was afraid she'd wake up or be upset. Marc was the natural parent from day one; all he wanted to do was hold her all the time. I felt like there was something wrong with me, something missing. I started to wonder if things would be different if I hadn't been so scared around her.

Then I also came to the realization that beating myself up for things in the past is a huge waste of time and emotional energy. I am not going to feel bad about being scared. Yeah, looking back I'd do things differently, but I can't go back. I am just working on trying to be a good parent NOW. So, today when we went to daycare and she pulled out two chairs at the kitchen table, climbed in to one and then patted the other one with her hand and said, "Mommy sit!" I felt like I was on top of the world.

The bad days are when you question yourself, the good days are when you sit back and let yourself enjoy the moment.

(Ugh. That is soooo right out of a Lifetime movie. But you know what I mean.)