Single Mom

This isn't going to be as much of a blog as it is a venting session, but Kurt's been gone and I need to complain. Taking care of a 7-year old is harder than you'd think! Especially when the 7-year old is sneaky and practicing to be a teenager (I sound like my Mom). Micaela and I have our routine down and we manage to do pretty well getting the basics taken care of while Kurt is away - breakfast, feed the dogs, go to school/work, come home, eat dinner, do homework, do chores, shower, tv, bed. Often we run out of time and don't get to watch tv or we just skip the chores, but it works. The tiring part comes in right at the dinner and homework part. I really hope Jonathan likes to eat, because Micaela doesn't (except McDonalds, fruit rollups, and chips). Kurt's philosophy is to send her to bed hungry, but the flaw is that she's okay with that, and she'll get even skinnier than she already is. If I sit there with her and hound her to eat all her dinner, she'll eat it, but it's exhausting for me. You might think that it has something to do with my cooking, but no, it's her just being difficult. Today I packed in her lunch a PB sandwich, apple slices, goldfish, doritos and a drink (all things she likes). Guess what she ate... the doritos. That's it, that's all she ate. Maybe I just need to be more mean and threatening. The next tricky part comes when it is homework time. It must be inherited, she knows all the ways to get around doing her homework. This week her assignment is to read for 15 minutes a night and she is good about wasting those minutes. Last night I finally got fed up and I made her sit on my bed and she wasn't allowed to blow her nose, get a drink, tell me her predictions, go to the bathroom, or anything else besides read for 15 minutes straight. It was torture for her. On a good note, her reading and writing skills are very much improved. So, all this time that Mari thinks I have now that Kurt is gone is really spent giving extra time to Micaela ensuring that she is doing the right things. It's exhausting some days, but she's a really good kid despite the sneakiness which I do believe is inherited, so I don't mind being tired enough to go to bed at 8pm. Okay, she should be done with dinner now, so I'm off to finish up the rest of our to-do list... wish me luck!

Baby Stuff

So today I decided that it would be a good day to pull out all the tubs that Kurt's sister had sent down full of baby clothes and supplies (thanks Kristen!) and to sort through them. Micaela had a sleepover on Friday and played all day Saturday, so I didn't feel bad enlisting her help in getting everything oganized. As we were going through the stuff (and there were a lot of really cute, nice clothes), I handed Micaela a cloth with animals on it and said "here, put this with the other blankets" to which she responded, "mom, that's not a blanket, it's a burp cloth". Awesome, my 7-year old knows more about baby supplies than I do. It will be quite a learning curve for me. I'm just hoping Grandma Sharon also taught her how to change diapers :)

6 months down, 3 to go

A few people told me that I looked huge in those last pictures, so I felt the need to clarify and took a new picture.

Being pregnant has really been uneventful so far. I really don't feel any different than I always have. I think I may eat a little more (something the scale is confirming) but my favorite snack is still cereal, big surprise. I can no longer wear regular pants so I rotate between the three maternity pants that I have and sweats when I am at home. The newest thing is that I can actually feel the baby moving around now and he moves a lot. I have an ultrasound appointment in the beginning of March where they will look at all the organs and tell me if everything looks normal. Other than that, nothing really big going on, sorry to disappoint.

In other news, Kurt and I took advantage of the President's Day sales and got a good deal on a new bedroom suite. It's something we've wanted for a while but really didn't have the money to spend. Haynes had good prices and good financing options, so next weekend we will actually own dressers and will be able to move our plastic drawers from Target out to the garage. We're very excited. Now, if only I was just as excited to buy stuff for the baby we'd be in good shape... at least his mattress will only cost a 10th of what we paid for ours :)

And finally, here's Micaela in her Valentine's Outfit:

Trip to PA

We are crazy. I used to think that driving 3 hours to Reno, NV to go shopping was a little crazy, but driving to PA for a weekend in the middle of winter is even crazier. Kurt had drill this past weekend and was planning on leaving Friday and staying up all this week to fly... pretty typical. Then we found out about Joe "Godfather 22" Luciano's retirement ceremony on Saturday night. It was a formal event and Kurt wanted me to go with him. I hadn't dressed up in a long time and thought it would be fun, so we went. We didn't plan too well and ended up packing an hour before we left on Friday and had to turn around for things we forgot twice. We made it up to Fort Indiantown Gap (or the Gap) around midnight and went right to bed. Kurt had to be at drill at 7:30 the next morning, so I dropped him off and headed out to meet Kurt's parents who very kindly volunteered to watch Micaela for the night. I had a great breakfast with them in Miflintown followed by a slow drive back to Harrisburg since it was snowing pretty good and the roads were slushy. I spent the day at a mall in Harrisburg where I went to Motherhood Maternity and bought a few new tops (that make me look much bigger than I am, but are cute none-the-less) and a new pair of shoes since the sandals I brought weren't condusive to walking through snow. It was at the mall that I got pulled over not once, but twice, for having expired state inspection stickers (what bad luck!). My next stop was Jiffy Lube where I got that taken care of. Kurt was able to get off work a little early that day so we had plenty of time to eat lunch and get ready for the retirement ceremony. The event was at the National Civil War Museum which was pretty cool, but in a shady part of town. It was the nicest retirement I had ever been to, but Joe had been in the military for over 28 years and from everything I heard, he certainly deserved it. The night ended late and we finally got to bed around midnight and had to get up at 6:00am so that Kurt could get to drill on time. I dropped Kurt off and went back to get some sleep before driving back out to pick up Micaela around noon. We spent the rest of the day looking for a McDonald's indoor playland (since it was about 15 degrees outside), but we never found one. Kurt got off work around 4:30pm and we drove back to Williamsburg, getting in around 10:30. Needless to say, I'm a little tired today. It was a nice weekend but I'm looking forward to next weekend where I have three days off and I'm going to do absolutely nothing.

Kurt and "the Godfather" in one of his typical uniforms (apparently he is a history buff and has all sorts of old uniforms)

This is a helmet they gave Joe as a retirement gift that Kurt designed (pretty cool, huh?)

And finally, here are two picture of us that I made Kurt stand still for at the end of the evening (and I'm not really as big as I look, it's the shirt!)

We're having a....!

This is a picture of a little boy. Mari says it's indecent, but if the doctor didn't tell me, I wouldn't know what I was looking at.

His name will be Jonathan Spencer Weaver, after Kurt's grandfathers.