Christmas was great this year. Our time in Virginia was fun and relaxing. Jessica did great on the trip and her schedule didn’t miss too many beats - so adjusting to being home has been OK - although we haven’t had much time to actually adjust.
She was allowed to have the binki more than in her crib while we were on vacation - so hopefully that habit won’t be too hard to break all over again.
I’ll post photos and stories later …
In less than 12 hours we leave for Virginia to visit some friends over the holiday. For the past two days I’ve been busy with getting my house ready and packing myself and Jessica up for a week that it’s needless to say I was more stressed out about this vacation and the preperation than I was excited about it.
Until now.
I cannot wait to get on that plane and leave all my responsibilities behind for a whole week. No menu to plan, no floors to mop daily, no bathroom to clean, no laundry. Wait - NO LAUNDRY!!!!! Mwahahahahaha.
I get to read dirty magazines (celeb rags) and crochet and cook and bake and shop and sight see and take photos and do whatever the hee-hoo I want for SEVEN DAYS.
And the best part is I get my husband all to myself for the entire time. No work (although he is taking the beloved ibook along), hardly any cell phone use and best of all - continuous, around the clock help with Jessica. If I had a constipation problem like my favorite blogher dooce I would probably even poop, I’m that excited.
Jessica has been playing in almost every room this morning and I’m just getting some busy work done along with following her and playing with her, too.
Just now I was sitting at the kitchen table looking up some recipes and Jessica saunters down the hall to our bedroom - which she’s allowed to play in, there are just a few things she can’t touch. It got really quiet so I went to check on her and she’s grabbing at some photos she’s not allowed to touch. I tell her no and wait for her to retract her hand.
Not only does she retract her hand, she comes to the door - acting like she’s going to come out of the room and play somewhere else, but instead - she does a faky and turns to shut the door, ON ME! As she’s doing this, she’s eyeing the no-touch photos and then looking back at me through a sliver of open door. As if to say “Ha, if you can’t see me, then of course I’m allowed to touch whatever I want. Na na nana boo boo.”
The past few days I’ve been like a madwoman getting my house clean. I have even conquered the small home improvement projects on our to do list. Like sealing and re-painting a wall in the living room, painting the cabinets in the basement bathroom, putting up curtains … you know the little things that don’t matter alot when you have an 11 month old following you all over.
Well for some reason I had a bug in my shorts and I just got it all done when she was napping or sleeping. I even found a new dining room table and a bench/low table for our bedroom at Bible for Mexico yesterday. The beautiful thing about it is - I bought them on the cheap, very cheap - and they’re antiques.
The dining room table is gorgeous - all oak. Round table on a pedestal leg with 2 leaves. It has intricate designs throughout and there is even some really cool metal shaped around the feet. I’ll take photos when we get our camera back (update on camera: brought it back to Best Buy - one of the other Geek Squad members helped us and they said it would be covered by the warranty - so almost 2 months later we’re finally getting our camera fixed, should have it back after the 1st of the new year).
There are 2 larger home improvement projects that need to get done yet. Our bathroom will be completely gutted save for the tub and sink - and our mudroom/side entry will get new windows and doors, flooring and a partition wall 3/4 the height of the existing walls. All of this is quoted and ready to go however we can’t afford it right now, so it’ll be a few months yet.
But getting all these little things done makes me want to be done with all of it. Ah, the virtue of patience.
Something I hope dearly my daughter will get the hang of. She’s a strong little sucker and changing a diaper or getting her dressed is like wrestling Uncle George on Thanksgiving. You know the one; he sits in “the chair” and watches the game while his potbelly steadily increases from the mere smell of food in the kitchen. Yes, I’m comparing my child to the likes of a feisty overweight older man. She’s that strong … willed.
And I have absolutely no idea where she gets it.