Their fate awaits them...

let his/her friends be warned:

And were off to a wonderful weekend with friends and alllll of our immediate family (minus one Roman)...Talk to you next week!

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nada

to share but that doesn't stop me:

1. I ate an entire jar of peanut butter yesterday. Time to go find the maternity jeans again.

2. The mouse has not taken the trap bait. My house stilts are working out nicely in the mean time.

3. My family will begin descending on the ta tonight. Julia has conveniently and permanently stained (by way of diaper failures) all of her nice clothes just in time for their arrival.

4. Although I have lived here for over a year, I have successfully gotten lost on foot in my neighborhood twice in the past two days. This has resulted in me walking about ten miles with Julia glaring in my general direction almost the entire time.

5. I have been procrastinating cleaning the bathroom for a million hours now. If you have any question about any recent happenings almost anywhere on the internet--I probably have the answer.

6. That is all. Adios.

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brb

Julia and I are currently in a very serious and lengthy battle with the mouse/mice/small rat. We won't quit until we reign victorious.

Also, I would like to know which two traitors unfollowed Camp Patton? very uncool.

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when the well runneth dry...

photos will have to suffice. Nothing ground breaking, earth shattering or jaw dropping going on around here. We do have a new very unwelcome pet mouse (if not..mice..or baby rat) residing in our abode. Ever since I spied the (curse word) critter I have been surviving by jumping from couch to table to chair to kitchen counter to bed to sink to piano bench to you get the idea ...sometimes while I'm nursing Julia..sometimes not.

This is Julia's all encompassing: I'm either happy, indignant, mad, filling my diaper, sad, tired or hungry face.

And here we find Julia doing her favorite activity: crossing her feet. Do not cross her and uncross them as she will cross them right back and probably let you know that you have angered her.

I am only including this for vanity's sake. Clearly, I had just had my hair done and my teeth whitened. Please note Julia sticking her tongue out at her food source, keeper and guardian. Ungrateful little girl.

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clap, clap, clap, clap

for Emily and Cristina...Running Warriors! They completed the Niagra Falls Marathon yesterday.

finishing the Pittsburgh Half Marathon together

On a happy day. Guess which one is my sister.

obvious.

obviouser.

I'm so jealous and very proud. Jealoud? Prealous?

Congrats pretty ladies. I hope you are successfully avoiding stairs of any sort today.

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the Friday skinny

1. I'm sorry for neglecting to post yesterday. I thought you lovely readers could use a breather from all of the Julia prattle. I hope you enjoyed the brief reprieve. De nada.

2. Simon and I are currently trying to coordinate his residency interviews and my iodine treatment for December. It has been a leedle bit of a headache but Julia has volunteered to take care of herself when necessary and to drive Simon to and from the airport if needed. She is such a generous little dear.

3. This is the third day of Grace and Julia flying solo without Simon. I would say this sums up Julia's general attitude about these precious moments very nicely:


4. I got my hair cut the other day and overheard some interesting conversations in the salon. One stylist in particular gave me a little forehead crinkle as she told her client that her doctor had prescribed that she go tanning for her Seasonal Affective Disorder (the acronym for this is too perfect). For those of you that do not reside in Wichita...we have been enjoying really warm and sunny days for the past several weeks...so perhaps she is negatively affected by real UV rays? She had clearly been a dutiful patient as her skin was a beautiful and glowing shade of leathery orange.

5. Julia is pouting and has let me know she is jealous of the time I have dedicated to this post and so I must be off. Happy Weekend.

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daughter: 1 mother: 0

Simon went back to school today and left me and Julia on our own for the first time ever. Julia also celebrated her one month birthday by not sleeping--at all. I think she decided that naps were for all the other babies in the world. I had big plans to gather her little mullet into her first ponytail and to paint her toenails. Unfortunately, Julia made it clear that she would rather squawk, flail about and ensure that I did nothing other than attend to her every want and need. Itfkyfdrdh (whoops...Julia was trying to help and tell her side of the story there..sorry)

Here she is...looking oh so innocent with her too fast for the cell phone camera triceratops arms as I made attempt number two to leave the house with princess J:(this might also be the first time she was strapped into her car seat properly)

Perhaps she missed Simon's stellar swaddling skills:

aka straight jacket

On an entirely unrelated note--Simon and I would like to know what a G6 is? (from one of the hottest hits heard on the radio these days)

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best friends and womb mates

Here is Julia (the immodest one) and her best friend, Genevieve (I am a little envious of her name). They share the middle name of Grace and recently got together to hang out in their similarly styled nighties. They were born three weeks apart and already enjoy all of the same hobbies: sleeping, crying (this is more of a Julia hobby..I have yet to hear Genevieve cry), diaper filling and eating.

Little old ladies:



In this last photo Genevieve is successfully soothing Julia's crying ways by giving her a gentle touch with her mittened hand. I hope her sweetness rubs off on Julia.

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the better parent

would have to be Simon:




because while he is busy actively engaging Julia in mind stimulating activities like this I merely feed her, scrutinize her left eye (I think it might be lazy), bathe her every six days and rejoice over the fact that she has decided to happily accept a pacifier at two am.

As we were climbing into bed last night Simon did confess that he had a hankering for a gummy prenatal vitamin. Perhaps that is his secret to success in the parenting department.

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Happy

28th Anniversary to Julia's maternal grandparents!!


She celebrated the blessed occasion by wearing just her diaper and reclining contently in her mother's lap:


*this is also the third anniversary of Simon sending me the fateful facebook message that started it all. For a more complete version of the story click THISRIGHTHERE.

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high maintenance

I'm not sure what Julia and I were (I'm sure oh so politely) requesting of Simon on this particular occasion when Simon recently said:

"geeeez...between you and Julia this house is just a big NEED factory!!"

whoopsy daisies.

We will certainly miss Mr. Need Fixer when he returns to school next week.

At any rate, Miss Needy Jr. hopes you have a wonderful Friday afternoon.

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family affair

My brother Paul sent me a message last night reporting on the events at my parent's house in New Mexico. If you can make out the details of the photo...Sarah (fifth grade) is busy typing up Peter's (seventh grade) science report. Apparently, Peter was too busy playing computer games (in the foreground) to be bothered with his schoolwork. Later on, I talked to my mom (college graduate) who was having to edit the science report that Sarah had typed up for Peter. The report was over the question that I'm sure everyone is dying to know the answer to: "which soda has the most fizz?"

results to follow whenst reported to me at a later date.

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as fast as you can

Somefunthing that Autumn brings other than changing leaves and pumpkin spice is marathons. Races seemed to take advantage of the fancy 10-10-10 date this year and made me wish I was in some sort of shape to take part in the running festivities. My sister Emily is running a marathon at the end of the month near Niagra Falls...I wish we could go cheer her on. If I ever decide to run another marathon I will definitely consider this little diamond in Utah:



Because the ENTIRE THING IS DOWNHILL:



Genius.

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happy go lucky

We try to remain as serious and miserable looking as possible around here.

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goals for the week

Not even a little bit lofty:

1. Go to Mass before noon at our parish next Sunday and not sit in the cry room. I'm pretty positive that Julia has an aversion to all Sunday morning activities as she has been successful in ensuring that we drive out of our way to attend Mass .... in the afternoon ... for the past two weeks.

2. Check out an addicting book from the library to keep me company during the 19+ daily meals Julia seems to be needing at the moment. I'm desperate for suggestions so pretty please....suggest!!!

3. Invent a baby mind reader.

4. Clone a more pleasant during the hours of midnight and six am version of myself.

5. Write Simon the longest thank you note in the history of thank you notes.

6. Remember this little line from the homily yesterday: the best reaction to life is gratitude.

7. Go running for the second time post-baby. This time bring a fire extinguisher for my lungs and try to run just a little tiny bit more than a mile..just try.

and.....happy, happy birthday to my best friend Jessica! Live it up little lady.

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and...

we're off to Beloit, Kansas to visit some lovely friends for the day. Julia will not be riding in a shopping cart like she is pictured here but we are hoping she sleeps for the duration of the two hour car ride. If not...we may have a seven hour car ride of drive...stop...feed...soothe...feed....drive...stop....feed....yougetthepicture. I'm pretty positive we are getting babydumber by the day.

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Little J wants to play

The night before last was a nightmare and was proceeded by a daymare with Julia. She wanted to be eating 23 hours of the day and only paused to play possum for about 11 minute intervals before she was back to her needy self. I contemplated putting her in her bouncy seat and her bouncy seat in the corner for a well-deserved time out but then remembered that she is only 2.5 weeks old and is still learning the ropes of humandom.

During one of her possum playing stunts Simon and I decided to try and squeeze in a crazy game of Scrabble. Once Julia heard the jingle jangle of the wooden tiles she, of course, had to come and join in the fun. When we were finished playing Julia and I retired to her room to make use of our new glider/ottoman combo while Simon tried out the voice command feature on the computer...for the chess game.

Julia and I had a nice little chuckle as we heard this from the living room:

(very, very well e-n-u-n-c-i-a-t-e-d with his voice volume all the way up)

"move pawn to c4...MOVE pawn to c4..MOVE PAWN to c4..MOVE PAWN TO c4...MOVE PAWN TO C4"

and then

"Tell me a joke" (and the computer told him a knock-knock joke...)

and then

"Quit this application"

and then

"move KNIGHT to C3.." over and over and over again.

To my delight...this lulled Julia right to sleep.

Also...

Simon generously took a shift with the angriest little lady on the block today and tried to introduce her to the exciting world of Youtube. She was unimpressed with Brahms Lullaby but was very taken with this song...

She is her mother's daughter.

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Tigers love pepper, they hate cinnamon

[title 100% unrelated to post]

Because Julia has decided that I am not allowed to do anything other than hold, feed and coddle her allllll day and alllll night I will leave you with some very unoriginal material...courtesy of my brother Peter.

He recently gave his facebook page a little face lift.

New photo:


and new about me:
i like gymnastics i go to hopei have 6 sibling and im cathlic!!!!!!

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Simon Says

Much to my delight I recently rediscovered a pair of brown flats that are perfect for the cooler temperatures we are experiencing here in the ta lately. Simon did not share my sentiment for the situation:

(under his breath) "I CAN'T believe you found those shoes"

Almost every single time he changes Julia's diaper...he has this to say about the contents found:

"Pumpkin spice latte!!!!"

As we were watching My Best Friend's Wedding last night:

"This movie is a lot darker than I remember and it should be called My Ex-Boyfriend's wedding"

As I was nursing Julia:

"Are you ever KIND of tempted to try and feed yourself?"

no.

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stats

from yesterday at Camp Patton were pretty bleak yesterday:

percent of time spent in clothes I slept in the night before: 100

Number of push ups attempted and accomplished: 0

Hours slept: 18ish

Times I ventured outside the confines of the casa: 0

One would think a little two week old wouldn't wreak THIS much havoc on one's day to day living but yesterday I surrendered to the fatigue and (probably more realistically) laziness. Today will be different...onward and upward.


Doesn't it look like she is going gray?

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cheater

I know this is a total cop out but I'm going to have to do a quick takes edition for Monday. I have no legitimate excuse other than I'm really, really tired and really cold. Unfortunately the nine month heat stroke was simply a symptom of pregnancy and I am right back to my frigid self.

1. Despite wearing a pink hat and a very feminine pink blanket to Mass the past two Sundays, both priests asked if Julia was a boy or a girl. One even went so far as to ask for "HIS" name. I just might have to make her floral headbands a permanent Sunday fixture.

2. The Baby Wise wizard is currently having a nice little laugh at me. Julia is doing a decent job of sleeping at night but has taken to needing some snack fixes during the day. This is especially frustrating as we are heading out the door to do something semi-fun/important.

3. We found ourselves in the cry room at church yesterday. I am seriously praying that we never have to repeat that experience again. It wasn't so much a cry room as more of a "my children over the age of five can misbehave and disrupt all they want because we are in the cry room" room...not my favorite Sunday.

4. I turned my computer on to find "steampunk" in the google search box. I'll have to ask Simon and Julia what prompted this interesting search last night...

5. Much to my dismay, we were forced to turn the heat on in our house. I have enjoyed the cooler temperatures but am dreading winter. My absolute least least least favorite season that seems to last six months.

6. I think today will be the day that I start THIS
.

7. My Dad came through last night. Simon grilled some delicious steak, we took a nice little walk (walks usually end in an empty stroller and a spoiled little lady being carried alll the way home....this was no different) and then briefly visited the other grandparents a few blocks away.

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due date

Today is Julia's actual due date ...... but here she sits (reclines...sleeps....) at a whopping twelve days old:


Thank you for coming early and not sending me into an even crazier preg spiral. (Your father thanks you too)
We will be celebrating by taking her to her first middle school football game, on an exciting quest for some additional bathroom storage and to our parish Octoberfest for her first brew!

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quakes: gratitude edition

things I am extra grateful for these days (in no particular order):

1. elastic waist pants, shorts and skirts

2. a mostly very happy baby

3. a healthy baby

4. perfect weather

5. coffee

6. more coffee

7. Simon

8. Simon again

9. our families

10. our stroller

11. Julia's mid-sleep monster grins

12. your forgiveness for such a lackluster post

Happyfreakinweekinnnd.

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