cicuska

two years!

i have the most wonderful husband who i love so so much. he makes all of my dreams come true! :) i love you my sweet <3 happy two year anniversary.

flickr.

my husband is so good looking

we took a trip to baltimore this weekend to see our friends mike and rachel get married! on the way there, we stopped in winchester at my brother-in-law's organic farm, briars farmstead. i always forget to take my freaking camera, so i don't have a shot of me HOLDING A BABY TURKEY!!! (so cuuuuute) but i did get this one of greg looking so handsome at the wedding... 

 

i love him.

i need to join one of those 365 groups on flickr to train myself to take pictures more often. maybe i will. and maybe it will inspire me to blog more often, too, so my mom doesn't yell at me :)

my favorite part of the day

my two favorite snugglers in our cozy bed <3

diaper changing milk machines

i can see how some women can lose their sense of self after having children... all the sudden you become a diaper changing milk machine. i happen to be a very happy and proud diaper changing milk machine! some days are easier than others, but here are some ways that i have managed to stay sane and hold on to "me" during these first few weeks with a newborn:

1. take a shower, put on my makeup, and blow dry my hair every day.

when i was really young, i had a babysitter teach me all kinds of little life lessons that for some reason really influenced me... i still think of her and follow her little bits of advice, like 20 years later. one thing she taught me was to always try to look pretty for your husband when he gets home from work! and one day a week, at least, get really dolled up for him. i take this really seriously. who wants to come home from a long day at work to a haggard wife and crying baby? not only does this help our marriage, it helps me out personally. "putting my face on" every day keeps me feeling positive and ready to tackle the day. so, every day, i get the baby to sleep, and take a nice hot shower. this is my "special time." sometimes she sleeps through until i'm finished, sometimes not. if she wakes up, i just let her cry a little while i finish, because i know she will survive the next 10 minutes without me. :)

2. keep things tidy.

in my life before vada, i always made sure to do a few things every day to help keep things tidy and flowing smoothly in the house. i still do these things every day because they make me feel good: make the bed, sort the mail, and always keep the kitchen clean. making the bed is crucial now; the time i spend sleeping in it is so limited and precious, i want it to be as wonderful as possible by the time i make it there. sorting the mail cuts down on clutter times a million, and helps keep the bills paid on time. i try to wash the dishes as soon as we are finished with them. they are easier to clean that way, less disgusting, and i am much happier to do them if they aren't piled up to the ceiling. this took a lot of training because i hated doing dishes before. now i've tricked myself into believing it's fun. i also try to stay on top of the laundry as much as possible. i do a load at least every three days. just like the dishes, the smaller the loads are, the more likely i am to finish the job. (except i love doing laundry... don't know why :) )

3. go outside as much as possible

when it's not too hot, i sit outside on the front porch with vada, just to enjoy the scenery and fresh air. i water the flowers every day that it doesn't rain. greg and i go on a walk through the neighborhood almost every evening with vada. it's such a nice way to wind down the day, enjoy each other's company, and get a little exercise. and i think vada likes it too :)

4. do nice things for greg

making greg happy makes me really happy. with a newborn to feed and change (constantly) there are a limited number of hours in which to get things done. (i'm supposed to be "sleeping while she sleeps" but i hate naps, ugh.) i still try to take a second to do something nice for him every day. send him a nice email, a picture of vada, give him a call, rub his back at night, make him some iced tea and refill his glass... just something small to let him know that i love him and appreciate him.

5. try to stay in touch with the outside world as much as possible

this has been really hard because i wasn't allowed to drive for the first two weeks, and vada isn't supposed to be taken out in public places for two more... makes you feel a little stir-crazy some days. luckily, one of my best friends has a 7 week old baby, so we have each other to lean on and hang out with. just spending a few hours on the couch together watching tv and talking breaks up the day, and makes staying at home with a newborn a little less lonely (yes, it gets lonely sometimes.) our crying babies don't annoy each other, and we don't worry about nursing them in front of each other. my iphone is also a life saver. there is an app for google reader so i can stay on top of all the blogs i follow. (which is really awesome at like 3 or 4 am... keeps me awake!) i can look stuff up on the internet, check facebook, use twitter, check my email, text message... all with one hand while i'm nursing the baby. this will be easier in the coming weeks, once i'm allowed to tote her around with me wherever i go. little adventures!

so, that's what i do. pretty basic day-to-day stuff, but it's funny how easily these "basic" things can be lost or forgotten when baby comes. 

any other advice from moms out there? 

i love this little snoozer <3

[ image by me <3 ]

best husband ever

on top of being so supportive, loving and helpful with the new baby, he totally surprised me yesterday with my belated "push" present... a 24 inch imac! i've wanted this for so long and was SO EXCITED yesterday when he brought one home from work! i am spoiled. 

now we need to get our studio/office together and it will be creative inspiration and motivation central!! 

[ image from applestore.com <3 ]

preparing for the baby : budgeting and planning

i am in charge of paying our bills, which is something i really enjoy. sometimes i think i have more fun getting all the bills paid on time than i do going on a shopping spree. whatever! i used to be a big spender, but then i took a position as an unpaid intern while i got my cosmetology license, things were tight, and now i can't seem to shop without buyers remorse... i consider this a good thing. 

greg and i haven't really been feeling the effects of the crappy economy, but we have a baby on the way and i will be out of work for at least a little while... hopefully a long while! so it's time for me to get down to business, get organized, and make this work. last night i took 2 big steps in "home management" thanks to some inspiration from simplemom. (check it out, one of my fav blogs)

1. i created a really simple yet awesome budget via pearbudget.com. i always keep a mental budget, but it feels really good to take it more seriously. and even better, it's going to be really interesting to be able to see exactly where our money REALLY goes... and it makes it more difficult to spend on stupid stuff that you know you shouldn't be buying (like starbucks way too often...) definitely check out pearbudget! you can try it for free for 30 days, and then if you want to keep using it (you will) it's only $3 / month.

2. i planned our dinner menu for the next two weeks. one of our biggest weaknesses is going out to eat way too much, so this is really going to help. simplemom uses google calendar, but i prefer to use my ical since it's where i keep all my other calendar info. so i plan out what i want to cook for dinner each night, and in the "notes" section of each night's meal, i put the ingredients needed for any unfamiliar dishes. i use this to make my weekly grocery list.

 

also, if the recipe is online, i put a link to it in the "url" section. to make this easier, i created a delicious bookmark account. it's really handy for bookmarking your favorite online recipes, because you can add tags to each page you bookmark. for example, if you know you want to make something with chicken on wednesday night, you can click on the "chicken" tag and see all of the recipes you've tagged with that word. wayyyy easy.

so this afternoon after work, i took used my ical planned menu for this week, wrote down the ingredients i needed to pick up from the grocery store, and was very pleased when i was EXACTLY on target for our "groceries" budget. hooray!! i love planning <3

sometimes...

when greg starts to really piss me off, instead of totally bitching, i go out of my way to do something nice for him. that way i feel better, and then he feels better too!

for example, i haven't seen him in like 2 weeks because he's been so busy with work. (he goes to work before i wake up and comes home after i'm asleep... stuff like that.) i don't usually bug him about that (he owns his own business, whatever, it happens) until it goes on for FAR too long. 2 weeks is too long, but i still don't bug him about it. (even though i'm pregnant and emotional and it's christmas!!!) i call him to say i'm leaving work and to see what he is up to. he doesn't answer, then calls me back and exclaims "WHAT. IM COMING HOME LATER. BYE" all grouchy and hangs up. this causes my evil pregnancy rage to kick in!!! while i'm driving to the shop to stab him to death, i decide not to. instead, i go to the grandin theatre and get a large bag of his fav popcorn so he can eat it when he finally comes home just in time for the office :) i'm no longer evil and he's a happy boy!

the end. <3

after all these years...

i was just organizing and cleaning out all the junk on my computer and i found this picture of greg:

i love him!