I've been working on the railroad

Well, what do you know, it's a twofor day.
Ok, so I haven't actually been working on the railroad. I quit that job years ago. But last Christmas we got a keyboard, and it is one of those that has all of these songs programmed into it. One of the songs is I've been working on the Railroad. That happens to be Nate's favorite song. So over the past months, he has been learning more and more of the song. Just recently he started singing the Dina won't you blow your horn part. However, he is pretty sure that it is actually "dinosaur blow" I mean, really it makes sense. He doesn't know any Dinas, but he sure knows about dinosaurs. So I guess that answers the age old question- yes, there were railroads in prehistoric times.
I know, it's a bunch of nonsense, but you get what you pay for.

The first day of the rest of my life

Well, here it is the first day of the rest of my life. Jesse went back to work today, which means that I am officially a mother of 2 children. (Ok, I guess really it was official when I actually gave birth, but you know.)
So far it has not been so bad. Aside from the fact that Graham picked last night to be the first night that he really didn't sleep at night. In addition to that, Nate woke up with a cold yesterday, which is getting a little worse today. But other than that, things are ok. Graham slept for maybe two hours after Nate got up (thankfully, Nate didn't wake up until 8:30) But as soon as I had decided to take a shower, Graham started to cry, and Nate wasn't interested in watching his movie, so he managed to shut himself in his room, and he couldn't get out (good to know for the move to the toddler bed.) So I got out of the shower to both of my children crying hysterically. Other than that, there was one time when I was changing G's diaper and he was crying, and N couldn't get to Lizzie, so he is downstairs screaming for me.
We did pass the first hurdle of me feeding G and Nate made it through that without needing anything, so that was good.
Anyway, N just went down for a nap, and G is sleeping as well, so I think I'll try to take a nap too. Zoe is bringing lasagna for dinner tonight, and that makes me happy. Have I mentioned lately that I have great friends?
So all in all I'm thinking I may be able to do this whole 2 kids thing. We'll see. I mean, I don't have much of a choice though, do I? So that's it. It's not going to cure any diseases, but you get what you pay for.

A Few Random Things

Ok, so the first thing is some positive press on my neighbor. Whereas yesterday I found another beer bottle in the front yard to match the one I found a few weeks ago in the back yard, I did have a positive experience today. Today my neighbor brought over a piece of mail that was accidentally delivered to his house. It happened to be my husband's pay stub, you know, with account numbers and all sorts of other sensitive info on it. So I was glad that he returned that. So maybe they are good.

In other news, I have the secret to all happiness as a mother. When Nate was born I received a cd called Baby go to sleep Heartbeat music Therapy. It says really big on the cover, STOPS CRYING GUARANTEED! The lady who gave it to me wanted me to try it out to see if it worked. I guess that I was the one who was having a baby when she got it. Anyway, I tried it on Nate and it worked wonders. It did stop him from crying, and it put him to sleep for a long time. He now is 2 and he listens to "the moon song" to go to sleep. (Sesame Street- I Don't Want to Live on the Moon.)
So Graham is a pretty content baby as I have mentioned. He really doesn't cry much, and when he does cry I can usually stop it, or at least know what it's about (He's mad because he's not latching etc...) This afternoon for the first time in his short life he was crying and crying and I could not do anything to stop it. I figured he was tired, so I tried to give the Binky, and that was not met with success. I tried to nurse, and he would for like 30 seconds and then start screaming again. So I thought, now is the time to pull out the big guns. I came downstairs and put the magic cd on, and before the intro to the first song was through, he stopped crying hysterically, and he was sleeping. Like, seriously, if I could be their spokesperson, I would.
So you can go to babygotosleep.com and find out all about this miraculous cd. I have given it to many people, and it has been met with varying success. I think the key is to use it while they are still tiny, and then you can have success with it while they are older as well. Even if it doesn't put your baby to sleep, it will probably at least calm them.
There you have it. The secret to my sleeping babies. Nate slept through the night at 2 months, and I'm hoping for similar success with this one. Well, speaking of sleeping Nates. It is time to go wake mine up from his nap. So there you have it, wonderful advice for all new moms. This time, you get more than you pay for.

bf2 rocks

So my husband just started this blog. He originally was going to call it "finding my needles" and in our sleep deprived state we had a really good laugh about that one. Well, instead he is blogging about his favorite video game, Battlefield 2. He just started it yesterday, and is all interested in it right now, but admits that he will probably forget about it when he goes back to work. Anyway, he wanted me to read it, and so I read it, and his latest post is all, oh, my wife hates me, oh my wife doesn't understand video games, oh my wife is so irrational, I wish my wife would get off my case. Ok, so maybe I'm being a little melodramatic, but it's my blog, so I can be. (Of course, that is his blog, so he has the same right.) Anyway, so yeah, it's a whole blog about how much he loves this video game, how it has brought him to love History, and World War II. He also talks about his favorite mini-series, Band of Brothers, and how everyone needs to watch the 57 part series, and read the book. It was at this moment that I realized my husband is an uber-nerd.
And in my defense, it's not that I hate video games. I have no problem with him playing video games, but when it takes priority over helping out around the house, helping with taking care of your child, especially when your wife has been taking care of him all day. Also, when it take priority over your relationship with your wife, well, that is when I have a problem with the video game. He got to the point where he literally played that video game 40 hours a week. And he doesn't understand why I didn't like the game.
Lately he has not been playing that often. He only has played it a handful of times in the last year, and that is fine with me. I want him to be happy, and to pursue his interests. He needs down time just like me, but maybe he needs to have some up time as well.
Anyway, the baby calls. So there you have it. He's my wonderful husband, but sometimes you get what you pay for.

ps. I don't want this entry to come off as my complaining about my husband. I love him dearly, despite his flaws. I'm just defending myself against his slanderous remarks in his blog.

Shut in

Well, I'm pretty much a shut in these days. So I have nothing really to talk about. We went to the doctor for the one week check up, and sure enough, our baby is still doing well. He had to be pricked for his PKU, and that didn't go so well. The first nurse came in and pricked him and got half of the blood she needed, and then he stopped bleeding. I guess the Vitamin K shot they gave him at birth was extra strong. (Side note, I just spelled extra "exrta" and it seriously took me a full minute to figure out how I had spelled it wrong. I need a nap.) So she brings in another nurse, and she tries and they decide that he is dried up there. So they have to start it all over again. The other nurse sticks him in the other heel and fills up the circles perfectly in like 30 seconds. We should have started with the other nurse. My poor baby though, He was so very sad. But miraculously Jesse took him to the car and by the time I had checked out, he was sleeping peacefully. What a good baby I have. So that is it. Our one experience of the day. I know, it's pretty boring, but you get what you pay for.

The newest member of my team

Well, it finally happened. I guess I always knew that it would eventually, but for a while there, I was also pretty sure that it would never happen. I finally had my baby. Graham was born last week, at a hefty 8 lbs 12 oz. If this were not a public site, I would post photos, but well, it is. So if you know me, you can email me and ask for the web address to find photos on.
So I was supposed to be induced, and I was told to call at 6am to see if I could come in. So I call at 6. They say call back at 7:30. So I call at 7:30 and they say call at 9. So I call at 9 and they say, don't call us, we'll call you. So it gets to be like 11:30 and I'm wondering if I can eat lunch, so I call and they actually said I could eat and come on in. So that made me happy. So I get there, and as I am waiting for all of the tubes to be hooked up, and the doctor I'm having contractions. So the nurse sees this, and talks to the doctor, and they just start me on pitocin right away. So I figured that was a good sign. The anesthesiologist was not available, so the nurse asked if I wanted a narcotic in the mean time. For future notice: if a nurse asks if you want a narcotic, the answer is always yes. It was quite an experience. I don't know that I would want to just experience that anytime, so I don't think I'll become a druggie, but it sure took my mind off of the labor pains.
So That was at like 3pm, and then at 5:30 or 6 I finally got my epidural. It was totally different from when I had Nate. I had the epidural for a bit longer, and well, I felt nothing. I couldn't even move my legs on my own. This time I didn't feel the pain of the contractions, but I did feel the pressure of the baby descending, and I felt my legs, they were annoyingly tingly, but I delt with it. Anyway. At like 8:30 after an hour of agony wanting to push but not being allowed to, I finally had Graham after pushing for only 11 minutes. Not too bad in my book. This being induced thing keeps on getting better and better.
So now I have a baby. I'm feeling pretty good these days. Today we made our first venture out into the world to Wal Mart and the Grocery store. I am still feeling the effects. It was maybe a bit too much.
So Graham is like the best baby in the world. He is still a sleepy little fellow, even at night. He wakes up for a few hours a few times each day, and is pretty content to either sit in his bouncy seat or sit on someones lap. He rarely spits up, and in general doesn't cry too much. He is even getting used to having his diaper changed. Nate is doing well with him, but daddy is still home from work, so it will be a different story when it is just mommy.
So there you have it, a rare look into my real life, you know, the one that is not just meaningless babel. It's pretty great right now, so I guess now I'm getting more than I paid for. (Of course, the doctor's bills have not come yet...)

Self Check Out

So, in addition to Stork Parking, I like that the grocery store that I go to has self check out. I am a fan of self check out. Not everyone is. I happen to like that I don't have to have any human interaction. I am also a fan of atms as opposed to Tellers. I am rather anti-social when it comes to strangers. What can I say, the Safety Kids taught my not to talk to strangers.
So we were at the grocery store tonight, and we picked a self check out line. There were 2 people in front of us. The lady who was waiting only had a few items in her cart, and the other lady was almost done. We figured this would be an ok line. Well, the first lady was starting to have trouble, and then when she finally got all of her produce scanned in, she had to scan a billion coupons in. Then she was upset when she couldn't scan anything past the first coupon. So she starts trying to get the attention of the attendant, but she couldn't. I could see that the coupon had not gone all the way into the container, so it had not registered yet. So I kind of piped up and told her that she needed to push the coupon in farther. Well, that worked, and then she was able to get the rest scanned in without a problem. So we finally got her taken care of. Her final bill? Almost $200. I just feel like if you have that much stuff, maybe self check out is not your best bet. Maybe that's just me.
So now onto the next lady. Now, maybe it's just me, but if you have to wait for like, half an hour in line to get to your turn, maybe you could be productive with your time. For instance, if you have 7 billion cards on your keyring, maybe you could take the time while you are waiting to find the one you need, instead of waiting until you get to your turn, and it's time to scan, and then you have to find it. Well, she was super duper slow, and then she could not get the salad bar to scan in. That wasn't her fault though. It really was difficult to figure out if you hadn't done it before. Then she goes to pay, and she starts talking about how she doesn't want debit, she wants credit, and she doesn't want to enter a pin number, and on and on. Of course, if you actually read the instructions, you read how to do credit, and not debit. So I say something again. Well, she finally finishes, and let's just say that we were completely done scanning all of our stuff before she had moved out of the end of the bagging area, I'm trying to hold all of our stuff back, and it's just not working.
And one or both of them was complaining about how there should be someone working the check out line. I'm of course thinking, there are several other check out lines that are manned, and if you wanted to have someone to hold your hand through check out, you should have gone through one of them.
I guess this is another one of those, If I were queen of the world, I'd not only have express lanes, but I'd also have self check out lanes only for experienced check-outers. If you are going to try out the self check lane, you should have maybe only a few items. And maybe not be a dufus. So there you have it. I may be a jerk, but you get what you pay for.