Last night, after days of wishing I could have some more iced coffee, I gave in and made some so I would have it this morning. I couldn't wait that long so I had one glass last night. That was a huge mistake. I was bouncing off the walls. I finally went to bed around 3:00. At 4:00, I was still laying there, wide awake, so I figured I might as well get up and do something useful. I sewed for awhile, then did some laundry. Noah woke up around 6:00. I figured I was up for the day then, so I had some more coffee and sat at the computer while Noah slept on my lap until Steve and Emma got up. At this point I have been up for about 40 hours straight. What am I, like 80 years old, that I can't handle a single glass of half decaf coffee? I am really starting to drag now.

Today was Emma's weaning party, and I think it was a success. She had a great time. I was planning on letting her nurse for the last time at the park, but she was sad and crying when we left so we moved the deadline to the end of today. I was sure I'd be elated, but I'm feeling more and more sad the closer we get to the end of the day. Doing it this way is just so final, and that's what's making it hard for me. I got her this plant (during a 1:00 a.m. trip to Price Chopper last night) to symbolize her growing up and gave it to her at the party today. And now I am off to nurse my baby to sleep for the very last time.

Tomorrow is a big day for us. It is the last day, ever, that Emma is going to nurse. Part of me is a little sad, but most of me is SO ready for this. I feel like the teensiest bit of a failure because I was all gung ho about child-led weaning, and now I'm not even doing it. I've been agonizing over the best way to do this for awhile. We're having a Weaning Party for her tomorrow to celebrate this milestone. We're meeting her little friends at a park and bringing treats for everyone. We've been talking about it a lot, and she really seems to understand what is going to happen. Tonight at dinner we were discussing it, and she said, "Nursing always makes me so happy and makes my body feel good and healthy." I hope she ends up with fond memories of nursing, and not hurt feelings from being weaned before she was ready.

As far as the treat for tomorrow, I'm having a slight problem with that. We made muffins, and I must have put too many trays in the oven at once or something, because I just took them out and they are completely burnt. So much so that our smoke alarm started going off when I opened the oven. Swell. It's already 11:30. What am I going to do now?

Last night both kids were asleep by 9:30 (!) so I finally had some time for sewing. I love these little Zutano overalls, and I was looking online to try to get some more for Noah.



















While I was looking, I realized that these would be super easy to sew. I traced the one Noah already has, made a pattern, found some knit fabric in my stash, and voila! (I didn't sew the shirt.)



















Here he is modeling his new duds. The picture isn't great, but do you have any idea how hard it is to get a good picture of an outfit on someone who is so scrunchy? I think I may try to add some sort of applique to make them more interesting. Now I need to make a trip to Joann's to get some cute fabric so I can make some more!

Oh, and that thing about how Noah liked to nap in his swing, giving me lots of time to get things done? He has apparently given that up.

And also that running thing? It's going great, despite my kids' efforts to sabotage any hope of actually doing it. Friday morning Steve was home from work, so I tried to sneak out the door before anyone was awake. Emma came running after me, crying because she wanted to come with me. I loaded her in the jogger, and she spent the entire time whining about wanting to go back home. Then yesterday morning, I attempted to leave even earlier, and still she woke up in time to come running down the driveway after me. I reminded her that she didn't like it last time and told her that if I brought her along she had to promise not to whine. She said, "I swear I promise!" To her credit, she didn't whine until the last ten minutes. After I reminded her about her promise, she spent the rest of the time sighing very long, loud, and dramatic sighs. Nevertheless, tomorrow I will be starting Week Three of the program. Yeah!

Woo-hoo! My fellow knitter and Couch-2-5k runner, Earthchick, has tagged me and I haven't done a meme in awhile, so here goes:

Seven Random Things About Me

1. I HATE onions. With a serious passion. So much so that I can hardly stand to just look at them sitting on a plate without wanting to gag.

2. By the time I was thirteen years old, I had moved fifteen times.

3. I adore Ewan McGregor, and when I listen to his songs from Moulin Rouge, I have to stop whatever else I am doing because they are so amazing that I can't listen to them and function at the same time. Whenever I make a wish - like when I throw a penny into a fountain - I always wish that Ewan McGregor would come out with an album of show tunes.

4. As a kid, I learned how to play the cello, the trumpet, and the piano. I can still plink out a few songs on the piano, but would be completely lost if someone handed me a cello or a trumpet and asked me to play.

5. I can't stand taking a shower with the bathroom door closed. It gets way too hot and clammy in the bathroom. The only time I ever close the door is when I'm at someone else's house or when we have family visiting, because then I really don't have a choice.

6. I ran track and cross country in high school, and played soft ball for five years in elementary school. I'm certain that each of those five years of soft ball, I was the worst kid on the team.

7. In college, I sort of had a hard time deciding on a major. By the time I (finally) graduated, I had majored in psychology, elementary education, graphic arts, and marketing. My degree is in marketing, but if I ever have to go out and get a job, anything in the marketing field would probably be my last choice.

Now I'm supposed to tag seven people, so... Abbie, Nicki, Deanna, Julie, Katie, Jaime, and Steph. I want to hear seven random things about you.

And, because I can't seem to stop taking pictures of these two, more pictures.

Yesterday I brought two big bags of clothes to Children's Orchard, hoping to be able to sell them. I'd never sold any clothes there before, and I was sort of disappointed. I only brought nice, brand name stuff, and I was thinking they'd take most of it. As soon as I got there, however, the lady warned me that they aren't taking much stuff because their inventory is so high. Rats. She hardly took anything. I did end up getting $40 from the stuff she wanted, but now I still have two bags of clothes sitting here. There was a dress in there that we bought from that same place about three weeks ago. Emma picked it out, but when we got home the elastic in the sleeves bothered her so after about five minutes she took it off. I washed it and brought it back, and they didn't want it anymore!

Emma's binkie has been a big source of consternation around here. She is only supposed to have it in bed and in the car, but it never really works out that way because she asks for it when she's sad or hurt or something and I usually give in, or else she'll find one somewhere and try to hide from me while it's in her mouth. So many times I just wanted to throw all the dumb binkies in the trash, but didn't, because before too long we're going to transition her to her own bed and doing that without a binkie would lead to way more crying and whining than I'm willing to endure. Luckily, last week I heard a great tip and now the whole binkie issue is much better. I tied her binkie to a stuffed animal. I told her she can have it whenever she wants, so she was really happy, but it's too much of a pain for her to carry around the bunny as well so she hardly ever has it in! It's great!

I am still sticking with the running plan, and it's going great. Last night I only took Noah along because Emma was playing in the yard with Steve. He started to cry half way through, so I had to take him out of the stroller (which, by the way, I absolutely LOVE!) and just walk home. I was so bummed that I couldn't finish. Isn't that ridiculous? Who in their right mind actually wants to keep running?

When Emma was a baby, she would absolutely not sleep by herself. I think I held her for every single nap for at least her first 18 months. Noah, I am discovering, will happily nap in his swing for long periods of time. I love holding a sleeping baby, but it is nice to be free to do other things sometimes. For example, a couple days ago I was really itching to knit something and I actually completely this lovely, lonely single mitered square. I have several other squares that I knitted over a year ago, waiting to be an eventual blanket, so maybe now I can make some more progress on it.

While Noah is great about naps, he is not so accommodating in the car. Lately, he cries everywhere we go. It's stressful and it makes it hard to go anywhere. I hope it's just a phase - a short phase.

Let's see, what else...oh, yes. Friday was supposed to be Steve's last day of work, then Friday night he said he had to go in Monday, and now that he's there, he thinks he might have to work (and work late) all week. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

No time to write, so I'll just post a couple pictures of (in my esteemed opinion) the cutest kids ever.

I hate McDonalds and I never go there. Never, that is, until they started advertising their irresistible looking new iced coffee everywhere. Once I tried one I couldn't stop and I started buying one of those pretty much every time I drove by a McDonalds. I wanted to see if I could make it at home instead, so I searched and found out that all you have to do is add a can of sweetened condensed milk to six-eight cups of coffee, and toss in some ice cubes (preferably made out of coffee). I have been loving this and have, for the last week or so, been making a pitcher of it every night before I go to bed so it's all ready for me in the morning. I brewed it with half decaf and half half-decaf so the whole pitcher was roughly 75% decaf, and I thought I was doing well. I never looked at the label on the condensed milk, mostly because I figured it wasn't that healthy and I didn't want to know how bad it really was. Today, I looked. Yikes. I have been ingesting 1300 calories and 30 grams of fat every day just from this iced coffee! No more iced coffee for me. I am so sad.

Here are a couple pictures of Emma at the children's farmstead today.

We had a great weekend, although we didn't do anything especially out of the ordinary. What was out of the ordinary was that Steve didn't work at all the entire weekend! Yesterday we decided to take a mini-road trip to Warrensburg to visit our old college campus. It was fun driving around town and reminiscing. Emma had fun as well, except for the part where she smashed her fingers while playing air hockey with Steve in the student union.

In the past two weeks or so, Emma has learned how to say her s + consonant sounds. One night she was outside with Steve while he grilled, and they both came in excitedly to tell me that Emma had said "smoke". Not "poke". And then suddenly, she could say them all. Now there is nothing she can't say perfectly except for an "l" sound occasionally. I am sad that she will never again tell me that Noah is piling at her, or that she wants to go fwimming at the pool, or that she wants to fwitch pots (switch spots), or tell me that she is brave with takes (snakes). She seems so much less like a little kid now. I am still not used to it and it sounds strange to me when I hear her say ssssmell or something else that she used to not be able to say. At least she still calls napkins "nakumes" and sandwiches "canwiches".

This Kelsey Smith story has been on my mind a lot since it all went down. The girl was abducted in the middle of a crowded parking lot in broad daylight, and her body was found just a couple miles from our house. I feel so terrible for her family, and also really creeped out. On Thursday we were meeting some friends at the park by our house, and when we got there I could see there was no one at the park yet. The park is kind of down in a hole away from the street, and surrounded by woods, and I was too nervous to go there with the kids by myself even though we have been there about a million times before when no one else was there. We just walked around on the street until we saw our friends, then we all walked down to the park together. Then tonight when I was doing my run/walk with the kids in the jogger, I said hi to some guy on the street and he kept talking so I stopped because I didn't want to just ignore him. He kept talking, asking how old the kids were and stuff, and he was probably just being nice but I was getting really paranoid and I wanted to get away from him. Silly, probably, but I am all worried now about the creeps out there who are just waiting for a chance to do horrible things to women or children. Shudder.

Someone told me about this Couch-2-5K running plan (thanks, Melinda!) and it sounded like just what I need. And, since this bad boy (minus the two cute kiddos) was delivered on Thursday I was all set.

There is even a great podcast that is mostly music, but also a voice that tells you when it's time to run or walk. With the help of the podcast and the cool new stroller, I actually really enjoyed my first workout yesterday. Of course, it's pretty easy at this point because I only had to run 60 seconds at a time.

Emma and I (well, mostly me) cleaned up her room a few days ago. I was so sick of her not cleaning up after herself (without lots of prodding) that I just let her room go for awhile and tried not to let it drive me crazy every time I walked by. It finally did start to drive me crazy, so yesterday we got it all picked up and organized. Now every night before she goes to bed, she and I are going in there and spending a few minutes picking everything up. I'm really going to make an effort to stick to this plan, because I can't stand to look at this disastrous mess anymore.

I am so tired these days. Every night I stupidly stay up way too late because once everyone is asleep, I am so happy to have time to myself. I'm usually holding a sleeping baby, but at least I get to sit at the computer or read without interruptions. Then, Noah always wakes up early in the morning and I have to get up with him or he will start to make too much noise and wake Emma. I change his diaper and nurse him, then put him in the swing where he promptly falls asleep. That would be a good time for me to go back to bed, but by that point I'm always thinking that I could get such-and-such done if I just stayed up. For example, last night I stayed up until 3:00, then had to get up this morning at 7:00. Blah. But, since I've been up, I've managed to fold a load of diapers, do the dishes, scrub the kitchen, and now update my blog. However, now Emma is awake so my time to do anything efficiently is officially over.

So I finally decided on a stroller. I had decided on the Joovy Caboose Ultralight, but before I could order it, I suddenly got the urge to start running again. Never mind that I haven't run a single mile in about seven years. So, instead I ordered the InStep Safari Swivel Double Stroller, and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival so the running can begin.

Emma does not want to take naps or go to bed lately. Every day when I can see that she's getting tired, I tell her it's time for a nap, and she always tells me she's not tired. I then tell her that she doesn't have to take a nap, but we do have to lay down and relax for awhile. She, of course, always falls asleep. Today was no different, except that after I told her we at least had to relax for awhile, she looked at me skeptically and said, "You're just trying to trick me! Every day I only want to relax but I forget and I fall asleep!"

Tonight Steve was working at the table and Emma started pushing the buttons on his keyboard. He asked her to stop and she kept doing it. He swatted her hand away, exclaiming, "What did I say?!" Angrily, she retorted, "Something very rude!"