A Typical Day...

Do you remember back in January when I posted about my typical day? My my how things have changed:

630am- Wake up to Emi talking to her owls in her crib. Tommy gets Emi out of her crib and changes her while I run downstairs to get her bottle. Tommy and I sit and brag about how long she slept and how awesome she is. She is happiest in the mornings. She smiles and chats the most in the mornings! It's an awesome start to our day.
630 - 8am- Get ready for work. While getting ready I am constantly reciting everything in my head that I need to pack for Emi for the day. Make at least three trips out to the car for everything I'll need for the day. Trip 1 = purse and Emi's bag. Trip 2 = breakfast, briefcase, water, a few things I forgot to put in Emi's bag. Trip 3 = Emi.
830ish - Arrive to work somewhat impressed with myself that I have made it by this time as before I had Emi I would not have made it before 830.
830-5ish - Work. The whole time while I'm working I'm thinking about Emi. I'm missing her. I'm wondering if she is having a good day. I'm resisting the urge to call Sherry, my daycare lady, to find out how Emi is doing. I occasionally walk out of my office to tell my coworkers a story about Emi. They politely pretend like they are interested in the story.
530ish - After picking up Emi, and I make my way home. Tommy has been getting home around 6pm rather than closer to 7pm before she was born.
630pm - 8ish - We play with Emi.  I gush to my husband about how much I love her and how great I think she is. He listens with much excitement and reminds me of things I missed about her greatness. We play on her playmat, lay together on the couch if she is tired, rock in her rock and play, sometimes go for a walk.
 8-9ish - Usually Emi starts getting pretty tired around 8. Once she has her bottle then I'll bring her up to her room and read her a book while we rock in the chair. I turn on her mobile which makes ocean waves sounds. I put her pacifier in her mouth.  She takes it out with her left hand, stickers her right thunb in her mouth, rolls to her side, and falls asleep.
9-11ish - I finish any laundry, work I brought home or do some cleaning that needs to get done. I think about watching one of my recorded shows but then remember I am just not that interested in any longer.
11ish - Go to bed excited to do it all over again tomorrow.

Thankful Thursday

Enough Happiness to Last... Four Weeks!

Before Emi I had spent limited time in Babys R Us. One, I didn't have a child; and two, it was expensive. And it is expensive, unless you have some coupons. And today I had coupons.

1.45 pounds of Similar Organic Formula Regularly $27.99 (Runs approximately $26.59 at Target and is not sold at WalMart). Today only it was marked down to $22. Then I had two Babys R Us coupon for $4 off two packages. And I had 4 coupons for $3 off each package. And then I had another $5 off Similac coupon. And then I had $5 for my Babys R Us points. Which means I got 4 packages for $58 which makes it about half price. Each package lasts me about a week. Both Emi and I will be happy for the next four weeks! Oh, and my husband. He was impressed and happy. Few things make him us happier than a good deal.

Excuse me, I'm an attorney!

"Excuse me! I'm an attorney!" This is a phrase I have never used because I can't figure out how to say it without sounding like a complete dousche bag. Today I wanted to use it. See today I was shopping at Younkers and needed to exchange a pair of shoes that were less than thirty days old that were defective. And when Younkers didn't have my same size the nice salesman suggested I take my young baby and grouchy husband to another Younkers to see if I could exchange them there because the shoes I was returning were worn! Of course they were worn!! I wasn't returning them because I didn't like them I was returning them because they were broken. And $65 shoes should not break after 28 days!

I was pissed. In my head were thoughts of warranties of implied merchantability.   Did that apply in this situation? Is that the correct term? Would this salesman know if this was the correct term? Did he know what that was? Did I know what that was? Bummer, I should have listened better in my first year torts class. Should I tell him I'm an attorney? Do I have my business card on me when he tries to call my bluff? Would he care if I'm an attorney? Do I even care that I'm an attorney? I'm a cardholder and valuable shopper of Younkers, at least according to their credit card statements.

So I grabbed my shoes and walked away.

And that's when my husband started laughing and said to me "Sometimes it is hard to believe you're an attorney."

My Associations

Associations: Relationships between conceptual entities. They are relationships between objects, ideas and feelings.  Memory is structured as an association network which serves the purpose of informing about relationships between different things.

I associate different things in my life with different friends I have had through the course of my life. I question whether some of these friends know whether I associate these things with my friends, and I wonder if these friends know what impact they have had in my life.

Let me tell you about a few.

I grew up somewhat of a tomgirl (ironically I'm now Tom's girl! :-)).  Those who did not know me until after the age of 14 or so might be surprised to know that growing up I hated pink. I hated purple. I hated nail polish. And then I met my friend Laura Peter. She was a girly girl. Big time. She loved the nail polish. She loved the girly colors. And she taught me how to fall in love with them. For the past 15 years there have been very few days where I have gone without nail polish on my toes. In fact, it is something I not even comfortable going out in public without having on my toes. And pink- it is always my color of choice. Had I never met Laura, Emi's room most certainly would not be all pink and purple.

Then there is my friend Kaleigh Lundy. I  met Kaleigh in college. It's hard to believe that before I met Kaleigh I could not tell apart Britany Spears from Jessica Simpson. It was through Kaleigh that I fell in love with Us Weekly Magazine. This led to a 9 year addiction to the magazine that I actually just cancelled the subscription to this past winter (too much teen mom on the cover). Years later my friend, Tara Hofabuer, taught me about the website www.perezhilton.com.  Tara and I clerked through law school together and spent our summers reading all the celebrity gossip. I read Perez back when he had like 100,000 readers. I no longer read perez, but I read www.radaronline.com at least once a day.

And my friend, Andrea Smiens. She is my big word language teacher- specifically, the word rhetorical. And in 8th grade, this was a pretty impressive word to know. Andrea was impressed with my ability to constantly answer rhetorical questions. Particularly in the middle of algebra. Ironically I could answer all the rhetorical questions but not do well on the questions on my math test. And do you think to this day I can use the word Rhetorical without thinking of my friend Andrea? NO!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and my friend, Amanda Teed. Amanda grew up on the northside of Des Moines prior to moving to Ankeny which caused he to confuse herself as a black girl stuck in a white girls' body. Nobody could rap words from JayZ, Nelly, or Snoop the way this girl could. Well, except perhaps her twin sister Cassandra. I remember the first time I realized Amanda's talent. It was summer of 1999. The song heartbreaker was the number one song of that summer. During the middle of Mariah's song JayZ does a little rap. Amanda and Cassandra worked to outdo the other in rapping this part to the rest of the team. And it was from that experience that I made such a commitment to learning lyrics to songs. This talent has not gone unnoticed by other friends of mine as well.

I wonder if any of my friends' have any strong associations with me. I wonder if Emi will pick up any of these talents that her mom has acquired. I think she'd make the best pink wearing, gossip sharing, big word using, rapping friend anybody could have!

Thankful Thursday!

Thankful Thursday a day late, but not a dollar short!

Thankful for this sweet thing:

Emi had her 4 month check up. My little girl is now 15 pounds 1 ounce- which is 54%. Also, she is 27 inches which is 99%! I have no idea where she is getting this height from!

She also had her 4 month vaccinations today. Unfortunately the doctor only had an 830 appointment today so I had to get her vaccinated and then dropped her grumpy butt off at the sitter all day. I guess that's why she gets paid $180 a week! :-) Today- I got my money's worth!

Happy Father's Day!

We had a great first Father's Day last Sunday. We headed up to Clear Lake for the weekend. We love staying up there. Its fun to not have to worry about any work or chores around the house. Also, its fun to take walks around the lake.

Our usual routine when we get to Clear Lake is to cruise around the lake looking at the houses that we know the people who live there. We generally honk and waive at those people. That usually takes about 5 minutes.

Emi doesn't love her life jacket. She usually falls asleep pretty quickly though. I will be glad when she outgrows this jacket and can get a more comfortable jacket.

Tommy liked the new necklace that I picked out for him. He is going to get Emi's birthdate engraved on it. Its a longer necklace so it can fit more birthdays. At this point we are optimistic that we'll have more kids. I think it fits six birthdates total- but we wont get carried away.

I hope you all enjoyed your Father's Day!

Funny Conversations

Anthony to my mom (not me): "Can I have Emi?"
Me: "Hey, she's mine!"
Anthony to my mom: "Can I, Grandma?"

My boss to me while passing me at the office: "What's that smile on your face about?"
Me: "It's hard not to have a shit-eating grin on your face all the time when you have a daughter as cute as mine!"

Caller to my mom: "Why hasn't my daughter gotten her certificate?"
Mom: "Have you paid?"
Caller: "No, my daughter is on free and reduced lunch so she gets her driver ed paid for."
Mom: "Okay, well is she on free lunch or just reduced lunch?"
Caller: "Free AND reduced."
Mom: "No, free OR reduced?"
Caller: "I don't know. I just got out of prison."

Client to my secretary: "Are you from the South? I like your accent."
Tammie (my awesome new secretary who really doesn't have an accent: "No, I'm from Iowa."
Client: "Well, you've got a great accent!"
(Tammie now starts speaking in a southern accent to the client for the next several minutes. Tammie can't get client to shut up).
Tammie (still speaking in her southern accent): "Okay... say goodbye now. Okay. Bye Bye." And hangs up the phone.

10 things!

Wow - 12 days since I have posted a blog. I would apologize to my blog readers, but with an exception to a few of you, I still post more regularly than you!  My computer had a virus. Finally I just lost my entire hard drive. Luckily I have lost my hard drive on so many of my computers in the past that it is not a traumatic thing for me. I am good about saving my pictures on a SD card. And my pictures are the only thing I care about on my personal computer.

Here are ten things we have been up to!

1. Basketball. I hate the NBA. My husband loves it. Its playoff season which means for the last month we have been watching NBA games about every other night. I don't like them, but I cant stop watching them.

2. Reading blogs. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the blogs I read. I feel like even though I haven't talked to a few of my friends in a month I know everything I need to know. Also, I get to keep up with people who I know who are living some very interesting lives. All I have to say is Sarah, you are handling your return to South America much better than me!

3. Growing! Emi was supposed to have her 4 month appointment a few weeks ago but my doctor had jury duty. When I tried to reschedule her appointment I was told he was booked until August. What?! Don't worry I complained for about 10 seconds and suddenly there was an opening for Friday. I'm anxious to see where she falls on the height/weight chart.

4. Work is so busy right now. Also, lots of staff taking vacations which means extra work for me and no time to blog at work! Bummer!

5. House hunting. Don't worry we still are not serious about buying a house. I think. We just like to look. Sometimes I think if we buy a different house it would be okay if we didn't have a pool. But then I relax in my backyard and wonder how I could ever live without it. I'm not sure I could ever go to a public pool again! (Haters keep hating!)

6. Time at Clear Lake. See my upcoming post about Father's Day! So fun!

7.  Reading. I finished Andy Cohen's book. It was just average. I am looking for some new reads. People have suggested Hungar games, but I am not usually into trendy books. Fifty Shades of Grey has also been recommended to me but people also say the main character reminds them of my boss. And that makes me want to barf. Projectile style.

8. Playing. Emi is starting to prefer other just as much as she prefers me. And its heartbreaking. When I pick her up from the sitter and the sitter and I are chatting, Emi always stares at her rather than me! I'm being snubbed! At least that means she likes her sitter, right? It's also a good way to make sure to give her lots of attention when we get home. Well played, Emi! You are my daughter!

9. Lunching. I've made an effort to get together with some of my friends and previous co-workers over the past few weeks. So fun to catch up!

10. Living a normal life. I couldn't think of one last thing to put on this list so I asked Tommy for advice. I say "What have we been up to lately?" Tommy says in a very non-interesting voice "Nothing." So there you have it!

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Thankful Thursday

What another awesome Thursday! (ok- I hate sounding like when of those overly enthusiastic people who you just want to punch in the face- but seriously today was amazeballs!)

My sitter is out of town so that means Emi came to work with me. I don't get much done when she is there, but its fun to be with her all the time. We went and had lunch with Kimber and Balin.

Emi got her first experience in a swing.

 We don't own a swing. Mostly I am uncomfortable with how much space it would take up in my house. Emi probably thought I took her to an amusement park rather than Balin's house. She loved swinging, and she even got a great snooze in.

Here I am holding Balin and Emi. Balin is half korean and Emi is a quarter japanese. They were just missing their little buddy Kase (for those of you keeping track- Kase is white).

Admittedly, a few weeks ago I was going to be totally ready to have another baby soon. And then I saw my girlfriend, and I remembered how much work those babies are to not only get out of you but then in the first two months. So I'm pretty content with my little bottle holding sleeping 12 hours at night Emi. For now.

I brought Emi to my mom's this afternoon so that I could see a few clients. I feel guilty about charging people $180 an hour while I also have my kid with me.

Emi and Sam shared Sam's playmat.

Boy did they have a good time together! My mom said they played together near each other, they ate at the same time, cried at the same time, and didn't sleep a bit! What cuties!

I'll say it over and over- I'm so grateful for all the babies that are Emi's age. I love that she'll have so many good friends who come from great families!

Happy Thursday!

Just Another Day...

I often have to remind myself to put the smart phone down, leave the office, pick up Emi early from daycare, and enjoy the awesome life I have.

Also, we do have a swimming suit for her. I didn't dream that she would actually let me put her in her pretty float I bought her. So I didn't bother taking the time to put her in the suit. Yah, I'm an awesome mom.

Emi Update

Look who is 4 months!

Not only is my baby starting to look like a little girl but she is also starting to act like one. Emi thinks I am so funny. I love to hear her laugh. She sounds so grown up when she laughs. It seems so hard to believe she is 4 months already!

Emi still sucks here thumb. All.the.time.  In fact, her motor skills are so developed that she grabs the pacifier with her left hand and holds on to it for a bit while she sucks her right thumb. After she is done with her thumb, she will put the pacifier back in. Its super cute. She may be college material afterall.

She is very good at holding her bottle now too which has made me feel like a better mom. I had some major guilt when I was using her toys to prop her bottle. No guilt now!

Emi is also getting super entertained by her toys. I really do not have a lot of toys for her, but a friend has allowed me to borrow a few so Emi doesn't get so sick of the ones that she's got!

Emi can roll over. She just prefers not to. I can tell that she is getting a lot stronger now that she has been at Sherry's. I'm not sure whether its because Sherry has her on her tummy or its because four little boys are trying to play with her all day. I've seen them around her. They are rough boys. I told Sherry that Emi has two boy cousins so she better get used to it!

We tried to put Emi in the pool on Sunday. She wasn't having it. She much prefers to lay in the shade and nap. Because all she does really is nap.

I'm excited to see what the next month brings!