From this week: Sleeping in, running errands, and flowers

Last Saturday I started my blog by mentioning that it had been a pretty rough day. I am happy to report that the next day, Sunday, was much better. The baby woke us up early again but after I was done nursing her, Nate offered to take her and play with her for awhile so that I could get more sleep. Ahh, sweet sleep! I sneaked in another 30 minutes before baby's (joyful) cries from down the hall again woke me up. When I hauled my tired sack of bones into the baby's bedroom, I found Nate dressing her up to go for a walk!

"Go back to sleep. We're going for a little walk -- the house will be nice and quiet."

It was about 7am at this point, so there was no chance I was getting back to sleep. But their adventure gave me the chance to take a shower, dress, and eat in blissful solitude. By the time they got home I felt like Super Mom, ready to tackle the day and enjoy every minute. It's amazing what a little bit of extra sleep and a low-stress morning will do for one's attitude.

It was a bit of a long week, as baby is again teething and seems to be going through ALL of the symptoms this time. She was feverish early in the week, poor darling. Thankfully the fevers have passed (for now). No signs of the culprits poking through her gums yet, though. I'm guessing we will see the top two teeth come in next, since the bottom have already arrived.

Tuesday was a thrice-special day this week. It was Valentine's Day, the baby's 8-month "birthday" and my mom's last day of babysitting for awhile (she's going on vacation until the end of March). I am amazed that my daughter is already 8 months old. It seems like a big number -- 8 months. I feel like we're about to hit some major landmarks, like saying real words and crawling. How exciting!

For Valentine's day, Nate usually buys me flowers. A large, beautiful arrangement. And while I LOVE getting flowers, I feel pretty sad when they start dying, and I don't like to clean up dead flower bouquets (nor can I bear to get rid of them while they are still even a little bit pretty). So this year I told my dear, sweet husband that he is welcome to buy me some plantable annuals or even bulbs for Valentine's Day....

And he took my advice. After we plant my new bulbs, I can spend the summer enjoying a violet-colored clementis, three purple dahlias, and half a dozen bushes of red lillies. They will be lovely! I am very excited -- I love bulbs.

Today was a fairly nice day. Nate was gone on a snow trip with the youth group for most of the day, so it was just us girls. We did a quick grocery trip and then spent some time with my sister. It was wonderful to see my sister. I really love to spend time with her, as she is very easy to talk with and always lets me unabashedly unload any of my frustrations. Unfortunately, she is VERY busy right now with nursing school, so she doesn't have a lot of free time. I'm especially sad that my daughter doesn't get to spend more time with her aunt, as my sister is amazing with babies and they seem to really enjoy each other. It warms my heart to watch them play.... I'm a tad impatient for my sister to have children.

After a brief nap back home, we ran a couple of errands. Then I was pretty tired (it's been a long week!) so we went home again for some quiet playtime. Baby took another short nap and I rested my eyes, too.

Nate came home shortly thereafter, which was really good timing. I was starting to feel burned out. (It's such a relief to have an extra set of hands around the house.) We decided to enjoy the temperate afternoon by doing a little yard work as a family; Nate used the baby backpack to carry around our daughter and weed the flower beds while I trimmed some bushes. It only took about an hour to get the front yard looking significantly tidier. There's still a lot of work to complete, but we're making progress. Every little bit helps!

After finishing up the yardwork we headed out to Costco. The shopping list was only three items long, but I really needed to get out of the house. When we got to the store I made the mistake of checking out the kid's clothing section.... they just got a bunch of new Carter's spring- and summer-time outfits in stock, in sizes ranging from 3 months to 24 months. I have had a hard time finding 12- and 18-month-size clothing, and I "needed" to get a couple of little things for the baby. So I used my allowance to buy her a couple of outfits -- one because it was too cute to resist, and another because it included a zip-up jacket and baby needs jackets/sweaters in the next size up.

I mentioned earlier in this post that my mom is on vacation through the end of March. She and my dad left on their trip just today, in fact. It's their annual "snow bird" adventure down to drier, sunnier climates. My mother will come back with a beautiful tan, a brighter spirit, and a couple of random gifts. (Seriously, random is the appropriate adjective: Last year we got olive oil; the year before we got pistachios and vanilla; my dad once got Nate some allergy medicine from Mexico. I'm not complaining -- we enjoy the random presents. Quite a bit.) My dad will come back with a slight sunburn on his bald head (teehee, love you dad) and also in better spirits. They really enjoy their trip, but I always miss them when they're gone, and this year it is especially hard to see them go. I'm hoping for a speedy return... I miss them already.

The one fun part of their absence is that I get to look at houses on their behalf while they are out of town. I love to go see houses, so I anticipate having a lot of fun. I've already contacted their realtor about a handful of properties. (One of today's errands was doing a drive-by on a couple of properties. I saw promising prospects.) I plan to take videos of the really good houses. The videos will be posted on YouTube so my mom can check them out... Hmm. I maybe I will link to them in a blog post so that you can all enjoy them, too.

Well it's after 9pm, so I need to get off the computer. (Where does the time go?!) I'm looking forward to another wonderful week. Until next time...