Snippets

- Well, I've read a number of books recently. I'd really recommend Elizabeth Berg's The Last Time I Saw You. The premise is essentially a group of classmates preparing for their 40th high school reunion. Each has a different reason that they want to attend the reunion (to have a last chance with that high school crush, to show everyone how much cooler they are now, to make amends for bad behavior), and I enjoyed all the different perspectives. It was also just funny. I laughed out loud at this section:

"Hilly's fiance is a doctor. A proctologist, specializing in the wonderful world of buttholes and rectums, but still. Dorothy is working up to asking the question that--come on!--must occur to everyone to ask him: What exactly made you chose this line of work? When Dorothy tried to ask her daughter about it, all Hilly did was get mad. It is true Dorothy could have used a more sensitive approach--what she'd asked Hilly was "Why in the wide, wide world would you ever want to look up people's heinies all day?" Still, Dorothy doesn't see why Hilly had to take such offense. Her daughter had said something like perhaps Dorothy should consider the fact that preventing and treating cancer is a pretty noble goal. But that still didn't answer the question, did it?" (p 6).

- I'm still sort of plugging away on Couch to 5k. Sort of. I'm getting a little bored with running on the treadmill, and it's just been too cold to run outside with Lizzy, now that I have a jogging stroller (my dad found one for $15 on Craigslist, yay!). A friend lent us Insanity Cardio Abs, and Justin and I have done that for the last few nights. It's kind of fun to do something else besides running, but still know that I'm increasing my cardio capacity. It is HARD! I need to get our hands on the whole set of videos. I do want to finish the program, I just don't want to finish and then never run ever again, so I need to get to the point where I'm doing it for the enjoyment of it, not just to finish the program.

-I know that I need to write Lizzy's 13 month letter, but honestly, the last couple of weeks have been REALLY difficult behaviorally with her, and I don't want to write anything that I'll regret later. Seriously, I can't tell you how many times I've been holding Lizzy and she's gotten mad at me about something and tried to gouge out my eyes. I'm not exaggerating. The last time this happened, she had tried to grab my glasses (which were on top of my head), I told her "No thank you, not for babies", and she promptly tried to scratch my eyeball. I set her down, and a 25 minute tantrum ensued. I eventually put her in her crib because she kept throwing herself backwards against our hardwood floors. 25 minute tantrums because she wants my coffee, or doesn't want whatever I've served for dinner are also common. So is her hitting me, trying to kick the cat, trying to bite me, coming up behind me and pinching my legs/scratching me. Or just SCREAMING for no discernible reason. Seriously. I can't tell you how many times I've thought what happened to my sweet child?! Reading a few articles on Baby Center calmed me down a bit. I had to laugh at the title of the 13 month article, which was "A stranger among you?". The article mentioned many of the behavioral issues we've been dealing with, so I guess at least I know she's developmentally on track, ha!

-Seriously though, it's kind of exhausting. Especially since I'm still getting up with her at least once a night due to hysterical screaming. I was thisclose to getting Justin a card for Valentine's Day that said, "Forget chocolates or candy, the best way to show your love to me would be letting me have an extra hour of sleep. C'mon, SHOW ME YOUR LOVE."  I cracked up in the store  And then, and entire shelf of cards and dolls came crashing down on my head. The two 30ish men browsing in the Valentine section just laughed at me and walked away leaving me all by myself to pick things up. Thank you so much, jerks.

-In other news, I'm also on a knitting kick. I've made several baby blankets for friends, and I have several more to make as well. I would also REALLY like to knit myself a blanket with the big size 50 needles. One of the recent baby blankets I made was 4 strands knitted together using the size 50 needles, and it is SO thick and warm and chunky. Too bad it would probably cost more than $50 to knit a big blanket!