long long ramble about the weekend
Jun. 1st, 2008 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
same_skyM and I have apparently decided to rejoin Life After Baby. I know plenty of people rejoin much sooner than one year, and are out doing plenty of inconvenient fun things, but we have been lazy and sluggish. Well, that's not entirely true. M also works two jobs, and works in a neighboring town, and we're out of town every third weekend, so we don't have oodles of free time to spare, but we have had our share of laziness, too. We bought this house two and a half years ago--doesn't seem that long, does it?--and the yard was a disaster. I mean, really, a disaster. We have a LOT of trees. Big, beautiful, old trees. I don't think you can possibly understand what having big, beautiful, old trees does to your properties unless you have had a yard full of them. We love the trees but they are a lot of work. Limbs fall down with every storm, roots come up from the ground, birds congregate and leave delightful berry-tinged surprises on your white car. The first year, we didn't do a whole lot of work because we had other projects going on inside (like those three months we spent "working" on tearing the wallpaper in the bedroom down while we slept in the dining room. Good times!) We also didn't really know what was going to be coming up, or what was a weed and what was going to be a real plant, so we conveniently decided to work on the outside the next year. But then Ducky came along! I was excused from all manual labor for reasons of pregnancy and M was relocated to the nursery-building projects. (You know what's funny? I still haven't posted pictures of E's room. I meant to, before she was born, and I never got around to it. Hehe.) Then we had a newborn, and summer yard work was all about keeping the lawn mowed relatively often and whatever else HAD to be done. I don't think we mulched until about August, and that only because M's parents were coming over. All of this to say... this year, we are feeling very motivated to finally get these things done that we've been talking about for two years, AND we're actually doing it. We have this tendency to make big plans and then not follow through.
Anyway, we worked on a lot of stuff on Monday this week, and today was another long, busy day involving much yard work. I can't even tell you everything we did because we are working on a super-secret project! It's not really super-secret but I will write more about it when I can do it justice, and post pictures, which will be sometime this week... if all goes to plan. It's a lot of fun because M and I work really well togethe, and I have really missed that. We are still trying to juggle working together with taking care of the little one. It's very difficult. When all else fails, I have been putting her in a mei tai and just ambling around the yard with him, which makes it easier for him to go outside (he doesn't like to leave us when he gets so little time with us per day) and it makes it less stressful for me (by the time he gets home, I am tired of watching her play). Or, we drag the playpen outside in the yard, which she likes because she loves it outside. Also, she goes to bed somewhere around eight now, and the days are longer so he can theoretically get some stuff done outside then if he wants. (The yard is really his domain. I do some light assisting at BEST most of the time. Mainly I just look pretty and occasionally bring him a bottle of water, and praise him exuberantly. It's best that way.)
You know how the gas prices are reaching four dollars a gallon? Most people are doing things like driving less, or changing their vehicles in for fuel-efficient ones, or at least talking about how they need to mortgage their kidneys or something in order to fill up. Not us! HA! We LAUGH in the face of fuel economy! For example, this morning? We drove to town in TWO CARS. Muahaha! And then! We came home, and later, I went back to the store (that we drove right by, in the parking lot, earlier!) again! I am not afraid of you, you gas-guzzling lifestyle! Oi. The errand this morning needed the trunk space of the car that does not have a car seat, and potentially needed the trunk space of the other car as well (it did not, but it might have, had we found everything we needed. We're looking for one more rhododendron bush--found it, but will not pay forty bucks for one--to balance out the other two we have, and a lilac bush because that is the deal I struck with M--he can chop ours down (it's dying a slow, ugly death) if he will plant me another one where the tree he chopped down was at. Maybe we're a little late, since both of those things are already blooming. Maybe people don't typically want to buy things after they bloom? Dunno.) It felt a little ridiculous, though.
Because I am clearly insane, and drunk with the power of getting things done, I came home from my second shopping trip of the day and decided to wash the car. I strapped Evelyn to my back and went to work. It was a great idea, and it worked... sorta. It is difficult to do a lot of squatting and bending, and there was more of that involved than I really had considered. My white car, though, was nasty dirty and I just couldn't stand it any longer. Also, I am trying to consider babywearing as an additional way to burn calories, so it works out. It would have been fine on a moderately dirty vehicle, one that didn't require real scrubbing. I do have a picture of this but I have found that pictures of her on my back = soft-core pr0n. Well-endowed nursing moms and light bondage. ;)
Also, in the midst of all this work, we blew up her little inflatable pool and let her play in it. She *loved* it. Despite adding a lot of hot tap water to the water from the hose, it was still pretty chilly. She finally decided she had had enough of the cold and wanted out. Then she cried. I don't think she had really thought it through, that getting out meant no more fun. We have really wonderful pictures of this, but we are just not cool with posting pictures of my naked baby online. Just take my word for it, they are really cute.
Oh, and since I am on the topic of my kid, I would also like to say that she was fantastic this weekend. We went to a wedding yesterday, and she didn't make a peep even though the wedding was scheduled for naptime. We took her to visit friends, and it was really, really warm, and she didn't fuss. She sat with us on the couch without even really trying to get down. She missed her nap and she was STILL in a good mood. Today, she has let us drag her around while working, and she took a nice long nap, and was so good in the car that I kind of forgot that she was even back there. I think she is trying to make it up to us for last Monday, when she was really terrible. :) I just cannot believe how good she was. We couldn't really have asked for more, unless she had wanted to fix us lunch after sleeping in until noon, of course. :)
Anyway, we worked on a lot of stuff on Monday this week, and today was another long, busy day involving much yard work. I can't even tell you everything we did because we are working on a super-secret project! It's not really super-secret but I will write more about it when I can do it justice, and post pictures, which will be sometime this week... if all goes to plan. It's a lot of fun because M and I work really well togethe, and I have really missed that. We are still trying to juggle working together with taking care of the little one. It's very difficult. When all else fails, I have been putting her in a mei tai and just ambling around the yard with him, which makes it easier for him to go outside (he doesn't like to leave us when he gets so little time with us per day) and it makes it less stressful for me (by the time he gets home, I am tired of watching her play). Or, we drag the playpen outside in the yard, which she likes because she loves it outside. Also, she goes to bed somewhere around eight now, and the days are longer so he can theoretically get some stuff done outside then if he wants. (The yard is really his domain. I do some light assisting at BEST most of the time. Mainly I just look pretty and occasionally bring him a bottle of water, and praise him exuberantly. It's best that way.)
You know how the gas prices are reaching four dollars a gallon? Most people are doing things like driving less, or changing their vehicles in for fuel-efficient ones, or at least talking about how they need to mortgage their kidneys or something in order to fill up. Not us! HA! We LAUGH in the face of fuel economy! For example, this morning? We drove to town in TWO CARS. Muahaha! And then! We came home, and later, I went back to the store (that we drove right by, in the parking lot, earlier!) again! I am not afraid of you, you gas-guzzling lifestyle! Oi. The errand this morning needed the trunk space of the car that does not have a car seat, and potentially needed the trunk space of the other car as well (it did not, but it might have, had we found everything we needed. We're looking for one more rhododendron bush--found it, but will not pay forty bucks for one--to balance out the other two we have, and a lilac bush because that is the deal I struck with M--he can chop ours down (it's dying a slow, ugly death) if he will plant me another one where the tree he chopped down was at. Maybe we're a little late, since both of those things are already blooming. Maybe people don't typically want to buy things after they bloom? Dunno.) It felt a little ridiculous, though.
Because I am clearly insane, and drunk with the power of getting things done, I came home from my second shopping trip of the day and decided to wash the car. I strapped Evelyn to my back and went to work. It was a great idea, and it worked... sorta. It is difficult to do a lot of squatting and bending, and there was more of that involved than I really had considered. My white car, though, was nasty dirty and I just couldn't stand it any longer. Also, I am trying to consider babywearing as an additional way to burn calories, so it works out. It would have been fine on a moderately dirty vehicle, one that didn't require real scrubbing. I do have a picture of this but I have found that pictures of her on my back = soft-core pr0n. Well-endowed nursing moms and light bondage. ;)
Also, in the midst of all this work, we blew up her little inflatable pool and let her play in it. She *loved* it. Despite adding a lot of hot tap water to the water from the hose, it was still pretty chilly. She finally decided she had had enough of the cold and wanted out. Then she cried. I don't think she had really thought it through, that getting out meant no more fun. We have really wonderful pictures of this, but we are just not cool with posting pictures of my naked baby online. Just take my word for it, they are really cute.
Oh, and since I am on the topic of my kid, I would also like to say that she was fantastic this weekend. We went to a wedding yesterday, and she didn't make a peep even though the wedding was scheduled for naptime. We took her to visit friends, and it was really, really warm, and she didn't fuss. She sat with us on the couch without even really trying to get down. She missed her nap and she was STILL in a good mood. Today, she has let us drag her around while working, and she took a nice long nap, and was so good in the car that I kind of forgot that she was even back there. I think she is trying to make it up to us for last Monday, when she was really terrible. :) I just cannot believe how good she was. We couldn't really have asked for more, unless she had wanted to fix us lunch after sleeping in until noon, of course. :)
