Disney Haitus

This time tomorrow the whole family will be enjoying Walt Disney World!!!! We are very very excited but we won't have internet. Disney offers wi-fi but you have to pay extra for it which seems a little odd considering most run down motels at least have free wi-fi. Whatever, the parks should be more than enough to occupy our time. I'm hoping to get a few pics of Violet that match some of the pictures of me from when I went to Disney. I'll update you guys on it as soon as I get back :)

A Day (and a half) with Violet

Yesterday we went over to my cousins house to visit with some of my family. My aunt and uncle from South Carolina were visiting and had brought a ridiculous amount of food. My aunt cooks like there's always going to be at least 30 people for dinner and makes at least four or five different dishes. In short, she's amazing. So there we were, having a good time and talking about my other uncle's cats. He lives on a farm and let some stray cats move in to keep the snakes away but now he's thinking he has too many cats. He also apparently found a snake in his bedroom the other day. The way he tells it, he just took a shoe and calmly knocked the snake out and took it outside. He is definitely a country man. Violet kept climbing up on a big chair during all of this so my dad found her a little tiny chair that she could sit on. She would get on and off and all over. Then, as she was simply moving the chair back some, the whole thing tipped over. Violet face planted on the hardwood floor and I think the chair might have hit her as well. Poor thing, her lip swelled up to three times its normal size and there was a lot of blood. She calmed down after a little bit and was happy to suck on an ice cube. Every once in a while for the rest of the day she'd look at me and go "my lips hurt" but she was real good about that ice.

Today the swelling has gone down a bunch and she should be ok by the time we leave for Disney. She freaked out when her daddy had to leave for work though. She thinks he's the fun parent because I'm the one that usually has to give her a time-out. Speaking of freaking out, she just ran up to me and told me she couldn't find her eyes. Earlier she was playing with her letter magnets and then ran up to the living room toy box and went "hey guys can you help me with my letters?" cutest thing ever.

Thoughts of an Insomniac Part Deux

I have a really hard time sleeping, as I've mentioned before. Along with my inability to sleep I also have a bit of an anxiety problem. My anxiety is usually like background noise and I don't really notice it but lately I've come to realize that the more stress I'm under the worse my anxiety gets which makes it so I can't sleep. It's really a vicious cycle since the worse I sleep the more stressed I am the next day.

Another thing I've recently noticed is that when my anxiety levels are high and I'm stressed I get really paranoid. I start worrying about all the things that could happen to Violet and what would happen if there were an intruder or a fire and it really starts to freak me out. Some nights I have to physically go get her and have her sleep in our bed just so my mind will calm down a smidge. This always annoys Violet's daddy. Violet is not a calm sleeper and she'll kick you and roll over and slap you in the face with her arm. She'll also sleep for like 2 hours and then wake up and want to play with you or push daddy out of the bed. I think she feels like he's too big to be in bed with us or something like that. She may just want his pillows all to herself.

I really wish I could hook up a machine that can show you what people are thinking visually. Professor Von Drake made one in some Disney movie I watched. My mind races so much it just makes me wonder what's going through Violet's head and what she thinks about things. She's pretty good at verbalizing what she's thinking but it may not be the whole story or she may not know how to say something she's thinking. It'd be really helpful to have for babies so you can give them exactly what they want even down to the type of food they want. Actually I could use that now to figure out what Violet wants for lunch since she won't tell me! Oh well.... One can dream...

Gabbafest 2010

Last Saturday the family took a trip to see Yo Gabba Gabba Live. We packed diapers and some juice and hit the road. The trip was only supposed to take an hour and a half at the most. Our first snafu occurred in choosing which car we would take. I finally convinced Violet's daddy that we should take my car (it's bigger and has more leg room) however, the conditions of this were that I had to drive. I like driving and I'm not a terrible driver but I'm directionally challenged and even the GPS can confuse me (which happened twice on our trip). Things were fine, even though I got a little turned around at one point, until we were about 30 min away. It was then that Violet's daddy realized that he had forgotten the tickets. I love him but he turns into a real jackass when he's freaking out and that stresses me out which is never a good thing when I'm the one driving. The tickets can just be printed out on a normal printer so he frantically called his mom seeing if he had left a copy of the tickets there or if she could print them and fax them to us (we were going to stop at a Best Buy or Staples). She didn't have a copy but we ended up not needing her to fax since we just printed it at the Best Buy. I was also told to go the wrong way by my GPS to get to the Best Buy which only served to freak Violet's daddy out more. While we were stopped I decided to change Violet's diaper. Lo and behold she had had a bad case of diarrhea. The tights she was wearing had to be isolated because they'd been leaked on. Back on the road and poopy free we finally reached the venue. They had tons of gear to buy and food for adults and children. We got daddy a Biz's Beat of the Day T-shirt and Violet a tour T-shirt. We also got a cute tote which will come in handy on our trip to Disney later this month. Our seats were front row center. We sprung for the deluxe ticket package and it was definitely worth it. The show started with DJ Lance Rock coming out and a release of streamers and confetti, lots and lots of streamers and confetti. Oh I forgot to mention that Violet sort of made a friend. They were cute together the first couple of times they hugged and high fived. Things quickly got weird when the other little girl wouldn't stop hugging Violet and Violet got really tired of it. She was also tired in general since she hadn't slept and was a little bit sick. The special musical guest was Leslie Hall you can find the song she sung Here. She wore that outfit and the background dancers wore the tiger heads with leotards (high cut leotards). The rest of the show was just like the TV version, the dancey dance guest was Do It (he was alright), Biz came out and did some beats with the kids, they released a bunch of balloons, had a bubble blower (Violet, our stuff, and I were all covered in soap), at one point DJ Lance Rock pointed and Violet and gave her a high five :). More Streamers and confetti were released and for us only the first half of the party was over.

Our deluxe tickets came with a special backstage party. This is what made forking over that extra cash totally worth it. They had food from Revolutionary Foods which Violet loves. They make these little Jammy Sammies that she could probably live off of if we let her. We got to take a professional picture with the Gabba friends. Leslie Hall came and did some more dancing with the kids, Biz came back out and played with everyone, and best of all, DJ Lance Rock read a story to the kids and even posed for some pics even though the organizers didn't seem to want him to. Violet loved DJ Lance the best. The large characters kind of freaked her out which is similar to what happened when her daddy took her to see Sesame Street Live. All in all it was an amazing show and everyone loved it :)... Violet had a blast even though she ended up having that terrible diarrhea three times total that day. The last one was the worst and she ended up having to drive half of the way home in nothing but a diaper and her sweatshirt and her daddy and I praying she didn't poop again because we were out of carry along diapers and clothes for her.

Crocodile Tears

Violet has finally reached the age of the fake crying. When I don't give into one of her many demands she'll open her mouth, frown, and do this weird low moaning thing. I think she thinks it's how it sounds when she's crying? Luckily, she only does it for a second before she decides she actually wants something else or simply forgets and goes off to play. Neither her dad nor I enjoy whining so I'm glad she doesn't do it constantly or very long.

Violet also really enjoys doing things for herself. We've had to take her laundry basket out of her room because she'd try and redress herself with the clothes in it. It's very cute but some of her clothes have juice, pee pee, or other such stains on them. Right now she's eating a Mashup from Revolutionary Foods (really love them, they make great snack things for toddlers and older kids) and she keeps wanting me to put the top back on it so she can take it back off. I love how incredibly smart she is and how quickly she figures things out. Violet can already turn the TV on using either the remote or the TV and she can work both our ipad and iphones.

and now a Violet version of a popular Children's song

Row Row Row

Gently the Stream

Merrily Merrily

Rocking Chair

RAWR

Transatlanic Porn Star

So today's title has nothing to do with the actual post. On the way home from the grocery store there was a Death Cab for Cutie song on which made me think of another one of their songs which made me think of today's title.


I don't know if I've mentioned this before but my daughter eats like she's a truck driver. There are times when she's not really hungry or she's tired and cranky but for the most part she's ALWAYS hungry. While at the store I went to get her a Hungry Man meal and her dad goes "does she really need that much?" All it took was a look and he realized what he had said and recanted his question. You're probably thinking my daughter is a chunkster now. Violet weighs 23.2 lbs on a good day. She eats and eats but has a really really hard time gaining weight. Most kids her age are around 30 lbs (at least) by now and she's the size of most one year olds. We haven't really figured out why she has such a hard time gaining yet. Her daddy and I have no problem gaining weight though I am a small person in general. The biggest thing about Violet (other than her personality) is her head. While her height and weight stay in the less than 3 percentile, her head is usually in the 25th or larger percentile. It's normal for children to have larger heads but it's kind of funny to see just how much bigger her head is than the rest of her according to the numbers.

Staying on the topic of food, I really don't enjoy cooking on a regular basis. I like making meals for special occasions ( I make dinner for my dad on his birthday and Father's Day) but not on like a day to day basis. It's hard to do in our house anyway since Violet's dad and I don't like many of the same things and we have really plain tastes and I like for Violet to eat really healthy so if I did cook I'd end up making three different dinners each night. I make two things at least once a week, Spaghetti and Tachos. (Tachos are really taco meat, fritos, and cheese in more of a salad type dish but my boyfriend started calling them Tachos so it stuck) I'm the only one that eats either of those things. Violet's food can usually be popped in the microwave or the oven for a few minutes so I don't consider that cooking and her dad usually makes himself a frozen pizza... The pizzas really annoy me. One day Violet was pretend eating him and I asked her what he tasted like and she said "Dr. Pepper, Pizza, and Hamburgers." I think you have a problem when your two year old can sum up the gist of everything you eat.

Let's Get Physical

I've been pretty terrible about exercising for at least a year and a half now. Before I was pregnant I danced pretty much every day and I ate decently. When I got pregnant I started to eat better although there were days when all I wanted was some rice with soy sauce or a giant plate of mashed potatoes with gravy. I also walked to school some and around the neighboorhood (although I did try to get out of that as much as possible). After Violet was born I went back to dance but I only did one night a week and my diet went downhill quickly. I haven't gone back to dance since classes ended and I've learned that it's much easier to sustain my weight than lose weight. Last night/this morning, however, I got off my slightly larger ass and finally put on that pilates DVD I bought like 4 months ago but never even opened. I LOVE pilates because it's a workout I can actually feel working while I'm doing it and it doesn't blow out my knees like running does. My reasons for working out may mostly center around the fact that my mom still freaks out when I'm not sucking in because I have a nice ring of belly bulge.... It's not often (in public) that you find me not sucking in like my life depends on it since I don't want to look like I'm pregnant again and it makes my boobs look extra perky. Seriously, If you want to look like you have extra upper body muscle or extra cleavage just suck in your stomach. I've also been told that it helps tone your mid section since it's working some of your core muscles. Eventually I may also get my diet back under control but I feel like I may lose focus on my exercise if I do that... I'm not super woman (because if I was I would have more problems with my daughter shooting laser beams out of her eyes and picking up the family car than trying to lose weight) also if I was super woman I could probably eat whatever I want and still be a size zero.

Jeremiah was a Stretch Mark

Well, I was going to treat everyone to some videos of my daughter... However, her dad vetoed that plan. If you would like to lodge a formal complaint you can flood his comments on his blog at www.grapebeans.blogspot.com . Maybe a passive aggressive protest will help him change his mind :)

As I was doing my usual after bath post mortem in the mirror, I realized what I needed to talk about today. In all my years of sex ed and health education I was never told all the unpleasent things that occur from being pregnant. No one ever told me that there was a strong possibility that I'd end up with stretch marks all the way around my belly. I wasn't informed that my days of wearing a bikini would be over before I was even able to legally vote. Young girls who are more educated about all aspects of pregnancy would probably be more likely to either not have sex or at least be more careful. Teachers tended to focus on the horrifyingly gross side effects of STDs and STIs which is all well and good and it does encourage condom usage but not birth control usage. Condoms are very effective when used properly but a vast number of people (young and old) don't know the proper way to use a condom (surprisingly). Condoms aren't 100% effective even when used completely right and can break as well. I think more girls need to be informed about all the birth control options and use both birth control and condoms if they decide to actually have sex. When I was in middle school and high school there was no way I was ever going to broach the subject about birth control with my mother because she'd automatically assume I was having sex and I really wasn't. (at least not until well into high school) Hell, my mom and I never even talked about sex. When I was in either fifth or sixth grade she gave me 2 books on puberty and that was it. One of those books covered sex but I can't remember if it even talked about birth control and it surely was not a substitute for actually talking to an informed human being. A lot girls in America have a similar situation with their moms. We love them, it's just really hard to talk to them about some things with out it seeming like we're actually doing them instead of just wanting to be educated. Not to harp on stretch marks, but if my books or anyone had told me about them I probably would have been even more vigilant. I already have scars on my back and one on my knee that I'll most likely have for the rest of my life. Now I have a Freddy Krueger stomach to match and a scar from Violet being born. We hear stories and see on TV where they talk about how you'll poop yourself during labor but what I never notice anyone talking about is how during the crowning, you'll likely get tearing and some doctors even preform an episiotomy which is where they make a surgical incision on the lower vaginal area. After birth they stitch you up. I think that'd do a pretty good job of scaring most teenage girls away from having sex until they're ready to have a baby. We should show Ricki Lake's birthing video or the video of the women giving birth in the Black Sea. Any birthing video would do though. I would show mine around, but too many people would probably find it hilarious since I say "I just need to poop" at least ten times and you can't see anything since we only had enough people to hold my legs and feed me ice and not enough for someone to hold the camera. Remember to flood www.grapebeans.blogspot.com with comments so you can watch gems like that. :)

Urinary Discourse

A lot of women seem to have a problem with leaking urine now and then. Whether it's from coughing, sneezing, laughing too hard, or just moving the wrong way. It usually occurs from having kids or just plain getting old. I know it happened to me a few times while I was in my third trimester and I can only think it would get worse the more kids you're carrying at once. However, I think I prefer to leak a little rather than feel like I have to pee 24/7 but not actually have to go. I have a UTI right now and it is positively awful. The doctor gave me some meds today so hopefully that will take care of it but so far I've been on the toilet more than off of it the past few days.

Update: I fell asleep partway through this post and I can't really remember what my point was but my medicine seems to be helping. So now for something completely different.

We're trying to teach Violet her alphabet and how to spell her name. She's doing pretty well so far thanks to a niffty little device my mom got her. It's a toy that you put on the fridge (magnetized) and it comes with letter magnets. When Violet puts a letter on the toy and pushes, it sings the name of the letter and all the sounds it makes. "Every letter makes a sound V says vuh. Every letter makes a sound V says vuh." Violet is completely obsessed with it and we hear it at least 20 times a day but it seems to be working well. We also like to write her name a lot so she's up to knowing the first 4 letters of her name. The letter E seems to confuse her a bit though. Not to get all sappy, but everyday Violet just amazes me more and more. She's almost too smart but I wouldn't have her any other way. She is very much her own person and I can tell she's going to be a lot like I was. Very independant and not really caring what other people think.

Dream Phone Tag

Violet and I just got up and are watching Special Agent Oso on Disney which really doesn't have anything to do with the rest of this post. I'm pretty tired still so you'll have to just stick with it if this thing gets derailed. So anyway, last night I had a pretty odd dream about one of my old next door neighbors. I grew up with a bunch of guys so I guess it shouldn't really shock me that I'd have an interesting dream about one of them. It's not like it hasn't happened before. Last night, in the dream, I was back at my parents' house when I decided to go see my across the street neighbor, Thomas. It seemed like a much longer trip over there than in real life and I ran into one of my old dance teachers who was headed over there to ask his mom something. When we got there the house was suddenly riverfront (the road had turned into a river) and there were all these other houses built around it. Thomas and Charles (my actual next door neighbor) come out and we go around to the back porch. Thomas then starts taking off my pants for some reason but then his mom comes out so my pants rebutton themselves and we go to play in the yard that's suddenly sprung up in place of the river. My house is also just behind the yard as well and we have a new fence that has a code and I manage to set off.... multiple times. Now that I really think about it, I think the alarm on the fence was from John's phone going off. He resets his alarm at least 3 times and it really pisses me off. He does it every damn day. I don't understand why he doesn't just set it for later to begin with. I know I kind of glazed over the whole Thomas starting to take off my pants thing but I was wearing jeans and only the top button and part of the zipper were undone so there wasn't even any underwear revealed. When I was little I always thought that it was more than likely that I would marry a neighbor. I knew that if I had to marry one, it might as well be Thomas. He's one of like my all time favortite people. I'm kind of mad at him right now, however. Thomas has decided to not pick up my phone calls or call back when I call him. I only think about it when I'm back in town and I actually have free time which only occurs once every few months. Next time, I'm just going to fucking go over there. So this post has been kind of random and weird, much like my life.

Canadian Leftovers

Well, I can't sleep and I'm thinking it had something to do with the leftover Kanki (I spelled it wrong last post, whoops) whispering to me to eat it from the fridge. It's longing calls finally became too much to bear so I'm stuffing my face with it right now. I finally figured out how to see who's been viewing my blog and while I would like to say that I'm just tech savvy, in all truth and honesty it was purely by accident. On that note, I would like to give a shout out to the one person from Canada who has at least clicked on my blog! Pretty sure I know who you are but if you're actually a complete stranger then that's totally cool too. I have to respect, well respect's not really the right word... Appreciate (better) someone who lives so damn far north. I do not enjoy going over the Mason-Dixon line... hell, I hate going further north than the state line in any season except summer. The further north, the smaller the window of acceptable weather. I lived in Montana when I was pregnant during winter, spring, and summer. Never. Again. It snowed while I was there. I know what you're thinking, "but you were there during winter, of course it snowed, wouldn't it be weird if it didn't snow? What is your IQ? Do I need to find someone to help you?" Yes, it was pretty much complete snow until like April when there was only the occasional flurry. Then it snowed in fucking June. Montana is very beautiful and the people are great but I could never live long term in a state where it sometimes snows in the damn summer. God only knows what could happen in the summer in Canada. So again, thank you to my Canadian looker, may you not get frost bite next July.

Reboot

So, it's obviously been a while since I last posted. Granted, I don't think anyone's really given a shit since only like 2 people read this. Today is my birthday :) and I am officially not a teenager anymore. I'd be excited about that regardless of whether I was a mom or not but it'll be nice to no longer be a "teen mom." It's been a pretty relaxed day today. I got up early and watched some TV (No Ordinary Family, Raising Hope, Running Wilde) and then Violet and John got up. We're doing a lot of things this month and we ordered my Nancy Drew game last night ( :) ) so I wasn't expecting anything but a verbal Happy Birthday. I was pleasently surprised when John came in with Violet holding a really sweet Winnie the Pooh card!!! Then John went to work and Violet and I played and we both took a long nap. In a few min I should probably get ready for dinner. My parents are taking us out to Khanki (best fucking place ever) it's kind of a yearly tradition that is usually accompanied by a chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins but I didn't ask for the cake this year. I am also getting a water filter from them as well. I know, my life is SUPER exciting.... (that's sarcasm if you weren't aware) We need one but with Yo Gabba Gabba Live and Disney, we just can't afford it this month... More on that later though because I really need to get ready before John shits himself :D