Motivated I am not

I have the laundry ALMOST done. I picked up the living room. I cooked a meal and cleaned up after it.

I'm spent.

I had big plans for today. This house was getting whipped into shape. I'm talking closets cleaned and ceiling fans dusted.

Didn't happen. I blame it on the nap I took this morning and a serious lack of caffeine.

My options are to either hit the ground running tomorrow morning or put it off since I work tomorrow night.

But for now, I'm going to bed...

What do you think?

How's the new look?

Is it good enough to go public? Are you out there? echo echo echo

Not so brief synopsis

Last Thursday Avery and I boarded a plane and headed off to sunny Phoenix, Arizona!

The trip there was miserable. Punch me in the face miserable. Avery had an ear infection and I was deathly ill with the plague (tonsillitis - after a vacation trip to urgent care, yes I still have my tonsils shut it). She wouldn't sleep and was incredibly restless on the 4 hour flight. Case in point: psycho baby Avery on her first plane ride.

Ugh. The mere thought of that trip makes me tired all over again.

Things drastically improved once we both got some antibiotics in us and we loved the rest of our trip. We stopped on the way to Tucson and did a tiny bit of hiking.

We spent a lot of time in the car out running all over Arizona and the babies were so good for all of it. On Tuesday we left the kids with Megans parents and headed to:

VEGAS BABY! The 6 hour car trip was fun with friends and we even stopped at the Hoover Dam.

We spent one night in Vegas and drove back to Phoenix. I missed Avery like crazy and couldn't wait to get back to her. That was officially the longest I had ever been away from her. We had a great time in Vegas and it was nice to have some adult time. Thursday we boarded the plane to come back home. Luckily this one went much smoother. She slept, she ate, she played. Her ears seemed to bother her more on this trip but it was a success.

Happy baby, happy mom. ::exhale::

We sat next to this fluffy older black woman on the plane. She told me Avery kept staring at her because she thought she was her grandma. I just smiled an laughed. I wasn't about to tell that poor lady my life story. She was reading the Bible, I couldn't do it to her. She was probably staring at you because you had iPod earbuds in and she wanted to grab them but sure we'll go with your answer. When the plane landed I wrapped Avery up on my back. Much like this:

& proceeded to collect our things. The lady said "That's how the Africans do it. I didn't know you knew how to do that." I'm hip in many circles ya'll.

I digress...

Back to the real world and the mountain of laundry I'm trying to hide from. Worked last night (I bring you this post on 5 hours of sleep, that's dedication) and tonight.

And now I'm going to go peek out the windows. I think the neighbors are moving...

We've been on vacation ya'll

and I will update tomorrow. Cross my heart & hope to die...WITH pics!

We had a blast.

Just because you're a doctor doesn't mean you are smarter than everyone

Avery had her 1 year well baby visit on Saturday. (Yep she's almost 13 months)

Apparently you can't get a diaper rash while teething. Dr. Sears says otherwise. It MUST be because I'm applying too many creams to her bottom. Nevermind the fact that I cloth diaper and don't even use creams unless she has a rash and is then switched to disposables for the cream until it clears up. It's also highly related to the baby wipes. Again, I use washclothes and water with the cloth diapers. But what do I know.

13 months is far to early to be ready to potty train or even entertain the idea. Children need to show three signs to be ready. 1. Be interested when I go to the bathroom (check) 2. Do something specific like put their hands together or hide in the corner when they are pooping (check-hides) and 3. Demand to be changed immediately following poop (check). Hmm. Seems like she qualifies based on your infinite knowledge guidelines. Because you can TRAIN a child to do anything but then you might as well have a dog. (True story. He said that.) I'm not going to push her but I will be buying her a potty chair to see what happens. Take that Dr. Smarty-pants.

I got major side-eye and told "I thought you'd know better being a nurse at Childrens" when I declined the H1N1 vaccine and the regular flu vaccine. Research shows that the only way to stop an epidemic is to vaccinate the children. While I agree I'm also not comfortable giving my child a vaccine that is brand new. I've read the research about the H1N1 vaccine and I've weighed the risks. Avery is not around the general population very often. In church she stays with me and doesn't go to the nursery, she doesn't go to daycare, when we go to the store I either wear her or wipe down the cart with bleach wipes, and is too young to be in activities.

On to the good news. Avery was 23lbs 11oz which is still the 75th percentile for her age. Babies should triple their birth weight by 1 year. She was 7lbs even at birth, she's good. I can't remember her exact height, I have it written down, but it was greater than the 95th percentile for her age. I knew it. I knew she was going to be a giant. No wonder we skipped right over the 12 month pants and are now in 18-24 months. She says around 15 words (he didn't believe me) and can walk like a pro (I had to show him).

Turns out I was correct in that she is a genius and a hoss.

It's a work in progress

I'm attempting the blog overhaul...ok. The header isn't right and it won't let me change the background color at the moment. I can't think of a new name for the bloggity blog.

SUGGESTIONS WELCOME! I know you're lurking out there snickering to yourself. Help a sista out with a name.

Right now I'm irritated and going to take a nap.

In the spirit of resolutions I give thee: Another post.

Yay for resolutions!

Aye yi yi.

Lets see. Since NYE I've worked worked worked. Perhaps I've done more than that but I can hardly remember in my semi comatose state exhaustion. I'm trying to get all my hours in before I head to Arizona on Thursday.

My sister headed back to Hawaii on NYE and I miss her already. I hope we get to see her again before she deploys. I hope her bags didn't get lost on the way home.

My grandparents came for a visit. It was nice seeing them and they just gobbled Avery and my nephew Nathan up. I haven't seen Grandma since she was in the ICU after falling. A healthy visit sure was a nice change.

I was able to get out and relax for awhile last night. Thanks to my parents for babysitting on their "night off". I had a great time but alas...back to the real world. Working the next two nights. It's really not that hard because I do enjoy my job. I would appreciate a few more days off in a row but the exchange is that I get to see my best friend and her family in a few days.

Today was the first time in church that I haven't had to sit in the lobby with Avery for nearly the entire sermon. What a lovely change. We only had to step out for a bit right at the end. There was a guest preacher that spoke at the end from Pakistan. His message was moving. He is in this country currently because there is a price of 100,000 rupee for his head. Simply for telling people about Jesus Christ dying for us. What a blessing that I can live in a country and go to church without being worried about persecution.

In other exciting news: I painted my bathroom floor dark brown. Yep, you read that right. I was standing there last night getting ready to go out and saw the bottle of dark brown nail polish. I thought I would just paint my toes real quick before heading out. But why would one do that? Instead I dropped threw it on the floor and smeared it around a little. Lovely. Thank goodness I haven't redone the bathroom yet.

I'm feeling uninspired at the moment in regards to this post. It's lacking...my bad. As you can see I'm learning a bit to help improve my blog emerge from the dark ages. Why hello there 2010 how lovely to meet you.