Funny Things

So life goes on in our house as I try to be less stressed and more "Zen"! Ha! I appreciate every one's support and words of encouragement! It really did make me feel better and help to put things in perspective. Things in the sleeping category have been better the last few days, so I'm hopeful that they continue to rise!

I thought that since my last few posts were full of angst, I should include some funny things that have been going on here lately!

I'll start with myself...I was driving to the doctor's office on Wednesday and from my peripheral I noticed a car that kept creeping in and out of my vision. I finally looked over and there is a guy who's mouthing 'hellos' and 'hi's' at me and then gave a short little wave. My first thought, literally, was "Oooh, I need to shower more often!" and then I thought, " Oh poor guy, he doesn't know the half of it!" Although my husband makes me feel beautiful and special all the time, I must say a little ogling felt pretty good, even if it was from a creepy highway driver!

Since Sophia is much funnier than I, she gets most of the recognition here...Enjoy some of the stories from the last few weeks.

* She now must spit out water and toothpaste when she brushes her teeth. It's very funny and is more messy than functional.

*She still loves to read, but in true Sophia form, she directs how I must do it. If I try and put the book on the table, she instructs me to do it with "two hands, Mommy."

*She is getting more talkative on the phone, but is still much more so on her play phone. She calls everyone and goes on and on about all kinds of things. She often says things like "Hi. How are you? I great!"

*She is very into pretend play with her dolls. This kid loves dolls, much more than I ever did! She loves to give them baths, put them on the potty, take them all around, etc. She also says the funniest things to them like, "No jumping on stairs, Belinda." and "I have to go change Calli's poopies now." She feeds them, pats them and even tells them "Mommy got you" It is really precious to watch, and very eye opening for sure! ;)

* She is very into coloring and drawing and likes to write her name. She of course just scribbles and what-not but she tries to say the letters of her name as she does it. She gets most of them.

* Every morning when Charlie leaves he of course showers us with goodbye hugs and kisses. The other day, just after he left, I went to change her diaper and as she was laying there she looked at me and said, "I want to kiss more lips." Then she puckered up.

* Someone recently asked Sophia if she wanted a baby brother or a baby sister. Sophia replied with, "I want fruit snacks."

* I often tell Sophia that I love her very much. Recently I said, "I love you Sophia." She looked at me and said, "much." Uh, yes.

* My belly button usually pops out later in the evening after a full day of being on my feet and eating. The first time Sophia saw it she was very upset and declared my belly button broken. Now she often checks to see what state it's in and if it's "broken" she tries to push it back in.

* Another morning on the changing table, where apparently great revelations are made, Sophia looked at me and said, "I'm the princess." I said "You're the princess?" "Mmmm, hmmm" Glad we have that covered. No question who's in charge around here!

* Charlie took Sophia to the pool recently and she jumped in from the side all by herself! She did not hold on to his hands, just squatted and jumped! Aaaaaah! She was so proud of herself and this game kept her entertained for a long time!

* Whenever I tell Sophia that we're going to church, she immediately puts her finger to her lips and says, "Shhhhhhhh." I only wish she took her own advice, but at least she knows the drill!

* We pulled into my brother's driveway yesterday and very excitedly Sophia exclaimed, "Hannah's house!" Hannah is the dog.

I Am Not a Patient Person

When I used to tell people that I was a teacher, so many would respond with such things like, "oh you must have the patience of a saint!" Blech! That is untrue. In fact, I am not patient, I am mostly very impatient, I just have a very rigid set of rules that I expect followed and when they don't get followed I'm patient enough to follow through and do what I have to do. That's pretty much how I run my life. That being said, I'm going to take a few moments to vent because I am truly and literally on the verge of a nervous breakdown.


As I mentioned a few posts ago, Sophia is in a non-sleeping stage. I'm not really sure what kind of stage this is, ie: teething, exploring, testing limits, not feeling well, etc. I tend to think it's more of the testing variety, but I can't be sure. For a solid week now she has been refusing to take naps and/or go to bed at night. During the very first week of her big bed she did this a little bit and we simply placed her back in bed and all was well. So, when I tried that tactic again last week...well, let's just say I stopped counting when we hit back-to-bed 45 times in an hour. This tactic, although tiring and stressful, sort of worked for a few days. Then it just became a game, so I figured I ought to mix up my strategy. But, no matter what I try one night it doesn't seem to work the next. By the time she goes to bed at night, I am really and truly ready for her to be in bed. It is my one real break of the day and I need it. When she resists the bed my stress-level instantly triples and I become a crazy person. It takes all my strength to keep it together to deal with her and once she finally is asleep I become a complete nightmare (so sorry, Babe!). I burst into tears, don't want to to talk to anyone, become even grouchier and just want to lie in bed. I know that some of this is hormonal, but some of it is that I am completely terrified that this will never go away and we're going to go all the way to Baby Day with a non-sleeping Sophia. I fear that she'll never be able to spend the night away from home again...speaking of which, props to Anne who kept her one night over the weekend and didn't complain about her entire night of lack of sleep! But, even though I had a few hours of peace I paid for it three-fold the next day. With the baby due so soon (7.5 weeks for those who are counting! Gulp!) my anxiety is already aroused and I just don't know what to do. I walk through my days tired from the night before and fearful of the night to come.



Charlie is trying his best to be supportive and do what he can, but Sophia wants nothing to do with him at bed time, as long as I'm here. It's all me all the time and I am not sure I can deal with that. Is that wrong? Do I sound like a totally bitchy mother who doesn't even want to be around her child, because sometimes that's how I feel?! On the other side I sometimes blame myself for having such a clingy child, doesn't that sound crazy!? I even think I sound whacked when I say things like "maybe I spend too much time with her"...is that possible for a mother to do?! But when she gets so hell-bent on spending every waking, and apparently non-waking moment with me I enter Tori Meltdown Stage!



I am not sure what the days and weeks ahead will bring us in this area, but I hope and pray that things ease up and she reverts back to my calm, lovely child who looks forward to going to bed. Any advice or stories of similar issues with your child will be welcomed, because as I said, I am teetering on the edge here!

He's Nesting

I have to give a shout-out to my husband who has been in super nesting mode today! Yay! He's been on the go since he woke up this morning and things are really coming together. He finished putting together the two bookshelves we got for Sophia and moved them into her room. He finished moving the baby's furniture into the nursery, did all kinds of work on our kitchen table, finished it and put it back in the kitchen, emptied the dishwasher, put away party accoutrement from last night and even swept and mopped the kitchen and hallway! Whew! I'm glad that I was able to support him so well during all his tasks today! ;) I really appreciate him and all his work today has really started to whittle away at our 'Baby-To-Do-List'.

We've been having some sleep issues with Sophia this week, which I am frankly too tired to go into, but I have been a bit on the brink of sanity this week because of it. Anyhow, the past two nights have been better, but not perfect by any means. Anne volunteered to take Sophia overnight tonight, which makes me nervous because she's been so "off" but after being encouraged by multiple sources to take her up on her offer and finally get a full nights sleep for myself I'm looking forward to it. Charlie and I are going to run some errands and then maybe even sneak in a movie before I take full advantage of our baby free night. And I'm going to try my best not to worry about Sophia and enjoy my time!

She and Charlie Brown blew bubbles

I couldn't resist this picture--it is absolutely too precious!!!
We put Luca and Sophia in the bath together last night because they were both pretty filthy after a morning pool date and an evening playing outside with bubbles, dirt, and popsicles.

Big News...Stop the Presses!

Sophia tinkled on the potty today! Hooray! It was really quite amazing actually. She has been infatuated with the potty for a while now, and has chosen to sit on it quite a number of times, which we encourage, but never has anything actually transpired! We were at Mom's when she said she had to go. Mom put her and on and low-and-behold...tinkle! We celebrated quite a bit and she got the widest, most sweetest smile on her face, she was so proud.

I'm not really sure what this means for the future. I'm not pressing the potty issue, although I can't say it wouldn't be nice. But, we have so many changes going on here lately (and soon to come) that if she wants to go we're going to encourage her, but I don't think I'm to the stage of potty pressure just yet! Plus, I've heard of a lot of kids that regress if they're trained before 2, although I know it's a little different with girls, and I've also heard of regression issues coming about when a new baby is born...so, like I said, we're going to go with the flow (haha!) and see what happens from here, but maybe she liked that taste of success! I'll keep you posted!

Sophia's New Desk

So one day I happened upon this old fashioned school desk that someone was prepared to just throw away. It was in pretty bad condition, had lots of scrapes, old stickers, and just looked plain awful. I really wish I had thought to take some before pictures because Charlie did a fantastic job of refinishing it. After some sanding and a few coats of varnish...voila...good as new! Sophia loves it and it gives us a place to stash her growing supply of art supplies. We put it right next to our desk and it's been a big hit all morning!

Yesterday we went to the Midwest Kids Fest with Julie, Massimo and Luca. Sophia was ready to take us there herself. This was really the best picture of the day. It was a bit of a nightmare really. There are mostly vendors that moms are really interested in, but kids? Not so much. They did have some bounce houses and a very small petting zoo, but in the end, I'm not sure it was worth it, but at least it passed the morning away while Charlie had to go into work and of course, we got to hang with our friends!

Time For a Spud Update

Well, it seems I haven't posted much about the soon-to-be-newest Hirner...but there really isn't much to post. I guess that's good, right!? Tomorrow marks the official 30 weeks mark! I just returned home from the doctor, I am now going every two weeks, and all is well. The baby's heart rate sounds great, my blood sugar was 84, which is apparently good, and I'm growing at the right rate...all good news! I am so lucky that Sue's schedule is such that it allows me to drop Sophia off during my appointments (and she's close to the Dr.'s office, another bonus). They have some quality time together and I don't have to worry about her little curious hands finding all the no-no's behind every nook and cranny in the office. Sue was even kind enough to keep Sophia for a little extra time tonight so that Charlie and I can have a dinner out with just each other...I can't wait!



Spud is still constantly on the move. His/her most active time is from about 8pm to ???. When I get in bed and lay on my side it actually feels as if this child is standing on the bed and trying to punch through the other side of my belly. Every time I have Charlie feel it he gets this incredulous look on his face and says something like 'Wow that's crazy'! Yes it is and I'm getting more and more anxious to get it out of there! I think we're both so amazed because Sophia absolutely did not move like this. This was about the time she got herself stuck in the breech position as well, and although I'm glad that hasn't happened, I'm seeing the down side of this option as well! ;)



On a more sour note, however, it seems that the terrible rash known as PUPP (some fancy name for pregnancy induced rash) has returned. Although my doctor isn't 100% sure that's what it is, he said it's most likely. This was about the time when I pregnant with Sophia that the ugly thing reared it's head the first time. I had two separate forms of it then, which had to be diagnosed by a dermatologist because my OB hadn't quite seen in such an aggressive form before. Awesome. My doctor did say however, that if I can't keep it under control this time with OTC cortisone, he'll be happy to prescribe me some steroids, that's good news except for the fact that I'll only have to run to the bathroom more times during the day! Ha!



This week has been dedicated to finishing up some odds and ends and getting to a place where I can focus on the baby's nursery. Sophia's room is almost done, I think all that's left is a bookshelf and wall decor. The baby's room however needs a little more attention. The crib is put together and the rocker is in there, but that's as far as it goes. I need to get all the furniture in and in place, figure out how to set up the awful black hole of a closet, get the pictures hung, clothes unpacked and put away, and the crib dressed. As the time draws nearer I am both more excited and more anxious. It was nice to be with Kathleen last week because we shared some of the same ridiculous psychoses and were able to both worry together and comfort each other. I know it will all be okay when the baby does arrive, but it still feels like so much has to get done before then and time is running out!

National Ice Cream Day

Sophia went with the uncharacteristic choice of vanilla

Delicious anyway!

Ahhh, but here she is poaching from Grandma's chocolate cone

happy camper

full of ice cream and smiles!

We couldn't let National Ice Cream Day pass without a trip to Ben and Jerry's! In fact, July is National Ice Cream Month...I think I must have subconsciously known that!