All I have to say today is…

http://www.learn-to-belly-dance.com/

Hmmmmmm you can learn to belly dance online?????

OK I’m going to check it out. I’ll let you know…..

playdough chef

Today I am making two different kinds of playdough.

OK- I’m not really doing it, my 7 yr old is. I will let you know how they turn out, though.

The Best Playdough Recipe Ever
and
Baking Soda and Cornstarch Play dough

I’m hoping the second one is the velvety pure white dough recipe I used…… Oh Wow like 10 years ago, you know you’re an old mom when you look back 10 years and you were a mom then, too.

I am human. Hear me cchhhh

M1 has a little dog-walking and dog-sitting business. Today we are visited by Oliver, one of our favorite yorkies. he likes to sleep in my room when he visits. if a door closes, he decides he’d rather be on the other side of it. Tonight he decided to scratch at a door and I did the Cesar Milan magic “cchhhh” noise and he stopped. Damn.

On another note, I have never been overweight, so I really don’t have much reason to be so overwhelmed by this Valerie Bertinelli Weight Watcher’s commercial where it’s a few days before New Yrs and for the first time ever, she isn’t going to have to lose weight as a resolution. It makes me cry every time. I am so happy for her. I hope she keeps it off. Not that she isn’t beautiful anyways, I’ve always thought she was one of the prettiest people in the world, remember the show where she was the daughter.. what show was that?

On another-nother note, baby is great. She’s gained over a pound. Still fitting Newborn clothes, moved up to size 1 diapers. Sleeps a lot, even at night! I love her, she rocks.

She smells so pretty

I am getting nothing done around the house because I just want to smell her and look at her and talk to her. She’s been spending more time awake, and when she stares at me, she is so sweet. She has big smiles for her older sister (the youngest one) and that makes her feel so special. She will stare at me forever while I talk to her. No one else pays that much attention to me!

So- the positive thought for today is that even though I’ll never get to do this again, my house will be cleaner when I am no longer a baby-producer.

Yesterday, DH told his friend we might have one more. I protested. I’m really NOT in the mood for a change of plans.

so many things to do and no energy

I know the best thing to do is to just jump in and finish something, energy or no energy.

I’m SUPPOSED to be taking it easy. I promised myself I’d take it easy after this birth, so I wouldn’t get sick. I feel like I am sick, though. Sick of sitting still. Sick of feeling lazy. The end of my pregnancy was pretty lazy, too. I was so big and uncomfortable that I did a lot of sitting around. I couldn’t breathe well, so I’d get out of breath. I didn’t have much of a range of motion, so I wasn’t able to even bend down. The kids have gotten VERY good at helping with the dishes and the laundry. And I’ve gotten very good at ignoring their complaints about it. Honestly, as if anyone ever WANTS to do dishes. I was too lazy even to go outside or anywhere. Leaving the house with five kids takes an extraordinary amount of energy anyway. Now there’s SIX. The baby is so small and portable, though. I don’t have to check and make sure she’s wearing panties or has her hair and teeth brushed. All I have to do with her is make sure her belly is full. Which it is, she eats constantly. Yet another reason to be lazy. I’m not a 20something mom anymore, gone are the days when I’d nurse a baby and load the dishwasher at the same time. These days, it’s all about sitting my fat butt on the couch to nurse the baby and make sure I sit in the middle because in no time there’ll be 2 or 3 kids climbing up with stories to be read. Ahhhhh, At least the important things are getting done.

Here’s what’s not getting done:
Trimming Roses- Yes, I know it’s the end of December so it’s way too late to trim Roses, but still. It never got done. I’ve been thinking about it since mid October.

Mopping the kitchen floor. And it’s a good thing because every day I look at it and there’s a new spill.

Repainting my hall. About a year ago my Dad visited and at that time G2 was experimenting with the idea of becoming a graffiti artist or vandal. There was crayon, marker, pencil marks everywhere. I repainted the bottom 2 feet of the walls in the hall and accidentally used the wrong color. It’s just the teeniest bit of difference in shade, but still- I can tell. AND it drives me nuts. No one else can tell. So no one else will realize it’s fixed. So I better put this at the bottom of the list.

Cleaning out back closet to be a pantry. Moving outside toys (currently in that closet by the back door) to the downstairs entryway and moving pantry items currently in the basement to the new pantry upstairs.

Refinish the dining room table to match my floors. Yeah right, this will never get done.

Make a quilt from all the stupid Tshirts the kids have. Cheer camp, A thousand Girl Scout camps & Cookie sales, Fundraisers, Reading contests, field trips, and cartoon characters. We seem to accumulate a lot of Tshirts that we NEVER wear. They used to become pajama shirts, but honestly, how many pajama shirts does one family need? I’ve never made a quilt before. How hard can it be?

Scrub the shower curtain. OK I do this every month or so but I noticed that there’s a spot that looks like it’s been missed more than once, so whenever I do this again it needs to be THOROUGH.

Fix the damned vacuum. This will actually get done today because I can’t stand it anymore. It’s been about a week since some child sucked up a sock or something and the hose is clogged- I need a coat hanger to make a hook to remove the blockage. We have hardwood floors but we also have a dog and I find the best way to get the dog hair from the cracks is to suck it up. And the stairs are carpet, those are looking extra furry, they need to be vacuumed, too.

Public Displays of Perfection

This is a new phrase I made up to reflect what my kids do. At home, they’ll yell at each other “MOVE IT” or “GET OUT OF MY WAY” but in public, it’s an impressive “Excuse me” “OH I’m sorry” “Thank You.”

I wonder what it is about being at home that makes them rude?

It’s OK, though. Public displays of perfection are a very good thing. Otherwise people would think I was a bad mom. Isn’t that how that works?

we’re like real people now.

My body feels healed from the strain of pregnancy & birth. Our nursing relationship is fully established; I can wear a bra now and we can go out in public without an irrational fear of having to feed her. Latching on is painless. We’re just like real people now.

This is my first taste of having 6 kids and not feeling trapped. This is freedom. Life is sweet.

Baby Love

These are her sweet little toes, curled up asleep.
This is her wearing the hat I crocheted (Is that the past tense of crochet?) I made this for M2 when she was a baby.

And here she is, protesting the end of her first bath. She’s 4 days old here, I highly recommend goldenseal to help it heal faster. All my other kids didn’t lose their stumps until they were like 2 weeks old.

In case you wondered

In case you wondered, my evil twin (everyone has one) tells me there’s already a blog called

“Things better left unsaid”
and
“Things I can’t say out loud”
and
Better left unsaid”
and
ALMOST everything else I could think of along those lines.

Taking Care of Business

Having some business issues these days. Mothering a newborn is precious time, I do resent a little, the time I just can’t spend staring at her while she sleeps. I have decided that is an important thing for a mother to do. I could stare at her for hours. She is loving the Maya Wrap Ring Sling. I wear her in there while I am doing housework. When we’re out in public I tend to use the Moby Wrap because I feel it’s warmer, and keeps her face protected from germs better. She’s so very very snuggly. She hates having a dirty diaper, and she used to hate being changed, too but lately, as soon as her dirty diaper is off, she’s a happy camper. She’s not too keen on cold wipes, but I don’t use those very often.

Hmmm- my positive thought on last babies……. I will be able to pay more attention to business when I have less children to tend to.