An open letter.

To the checkout lady at the grocery store:

It was nice meeting you today. We didn't exchange alot of words, but I assure you, you made an impact on me.

I noticed that you had two eyes. That's convenient. Mostly, those can be used to see things. Take my daughter for instance. She is cute. You told me so. But then you confused me. You began acting like you could not see her anymore.

Please, checkout lady, allow me to provide some back story. The shopping cart we were using had provided us with inadequate straps to hold my daughter down. Even at their longest, they could not reach around her. This is surprising, because Alex is one of the smallest almost-one-year-old's I've come across. I'm not lying. Today she wore a jumpsuit that was made for 3-6 months old. Don't worry, checkout lady. This was not your fault.

But that being said, did you not see me struggling to keep my daughter seated while we were waiting to pay? Of course you did. You had two eyes, we've already established that. And they worked, we've established that as well. But perhaps she landed right in your blind spot as she attempted again and again to launch herself out of the cart. Again, checkout lady, this was not your fault.

But...that being said... It IS your fault that you decided that it would be a great time to read each and every label on every thing of baby food before you placed it in the bag. And not only that, you thought it necessary to comment on how delicious each combination sounded, and how much my daughter must like bananas, and how you aren't sure of that mixed berry combination, and wow, apples and prunes together? The things they think of these days.

Again, child trying to launch herself out of the seat. Mother already paid and clearly getting frustrated with child who is trying to launch herself out of the seat.

There are times for small-talk. When a child is doing everything she can to do a swan dive on to the floor despite her mother's attempts to convince her otherwise.... that.... that is not the time.

Thank you.

-The woman who left tufts of hair that had been yanked out at their roots on your cash register.

Well, this could either be a really good thing, or a verrrry bad thing...

I've known from the moment that I purchased this new laptop that it came with a built-in web cam. To be honest, though, I forgot about it until about 15 minutes ago. It's after 10, I should be in bed, I am bugging the heck out of my husband because I am laughing myself silly. Webcams and I are a dangerous duo. I had this problem in highschool. And now, with all of these effects.... I apologize now if I bombard this website with pictures in the upcoming posts. I will try to get Paul and Alex in some of them, I swear. Just give it time to wear off. This phase will pass.

I figured I would get a normal one in there, because of the new hair. Well... 'normal'.



I very nearly wet myself I was laughing so hard while taking this. I had tears streaming down my face, and Paul could not for the life of his understand why this was so funny to me. I really don't understand either... But I just run with it.



And this is what I feel like on most days.

And this is what I feel like my head is doing on most other days.

And I am not sure where I was going with this one.

I apologize again. I will try to get this all out of my system as quickly as possible.

Mommy feels GOOOOOOD.

Today, I got my hair cut.

Today, I bought myself my first pair of maternity jeans, with the big belly thing and all (and subsequently kicked myself several times for not giving in and getting a pair last pregnancy, because I HAVE NEVER WORN A MORE COMFORTABLE PAIR OF PANTS IN THE ENTIRETY OF MY EXISTENCE.)

And I feel so good. I have pants that, if they had a button, I would be able to button them. No more belly belt thing. No more giant rolls. Just comfort. My hair looks like... hair. And not a mop. Or something that perhaps died and got stuck there.

Perhaps I will take a picture later and post it, just to share the goodness. Cause I feel GREAT.

Games Moms Love.

This is new. Like, as of today, new. I have been trying to get Alex to put things in a bucket, instead of constantly dump them out, and up until this point, it's been a huge failure. But, today, out of nowhere, she started doing this.

I am not sure if I can phrase this correctly so you understand what a huge deal this is. But really. I am so proud of her. Right after I took this video, she crawled over to the living room and proceeded to put all of her little magnet letters into a different pail. She picked up after herself. And the title of the post- I love this game because a) no pick-up after, and b) she did this for about an hour. Amazing.

I was nearly in tears, both because I am so happy and proud, but also because it dawned on me that in a few weeks, we will be celebrating her FIRST BIRTHDAY. As in, a whole year old. Has it already been twelve months since I saw her little face for the first time? I can't believe it. Yet, at the same time, I feel like she's been the center of my life for much longer than that.

I'll save the rest of my weepy my-girl-is-getting-too-big post for after the actual birthday.

Speaking of which, what the heck do you do for a first birthday party?? I have no idea, and I am kind of starting to freak out. Do we just sit and stare and laugh at Alex for a few hours? Because I am not sure that I want to invest in ponies and bouncy castles and magicians and clowns (scratch that- never going to hire a clown). Well, make that, I am NOT going to invest in those things. Not yet. When she can walk without looking like she is intoxicated, then we'll talk. But really, I don't think there will be alot of other kids there. I really just don't know. Any help would be appreciated!

Well, I am going to go shut my brain off and read for a while. I have other pictures that I was going to post, but they are all the same. Alex with various types of food in her hair. She is learning how to use a spoon, and the result has been mashed potatoes flung impressive distances and pasta being dumped on the floor for Violet. But she does know that the spoon end goes in her mouth. It's just getting there with food still on it that's the problem. I still don't know what I am going to do with a second child. Although having a child that just sits there and sleeps and eats food that is readily available at the snap of a hat (er... bra strap) will be a nice break. But he won't sleep through the night. Crap. Give and take I suppose.

Can't help but brag... just a little.

If I ever have to choose a place to live for the rest of my life, it definitely would NOT be St. Louis. But, today, it's not so bad. 71 degrees and sunny. It's been absolutely gorgeous for the past few days, and it's given me such a breath of fresh air (quite literally) that here I am, actually looking forward to and enjoying posting. Imagine that. I am on my back porch right now, tanktop, shorts, sunglasses. Alex is babbling away in her crib, and I can hear her because her window is open. (It's naptime - I promise I don't leave her in there for no good reason.) We've been outside for most of the day. Lately we've been eating lunch outside, and today we brought our books and our snacks outside and hung out, with Violet pacing around us, waiting for the inevitable crumbs to be chucked over the side of the high-chair. Technically, she's not allowed to be anywhere near us when we eat, but, dang, it's so nice out I let her stalk Alex throughout her whole snack.

Alex had her first (off-brand) Nutri-grain bar. It was a hit. It's so nice that she can semi-feed herself, though that means that most of it ends up in her lap or her sleeves or the ground and not so much the mouth. It's a work in progress.

While she stuffed herself, I kicked back with a magazine and a free coffee. Thank you Sunday paper and the bountiful coupons you hold within. (Ya, I'm a total coupon-cutter now. It's sick. They have their own expanding binder and everything. If only I could have been so organized in college...)

You know, there are things that I am afraid Alex will find and stuff into her mouth (which has been the trend lately). Bits of plastic, dog food, so on and so forth. One thing, however, that I am not afraid of at all are live bugs. Why? Well, because whatever Alex grabs, she squeezes the life out of before she puts it into her mouth. I swear, it's disgusting. Have you ever tried to clean mutilated sloppy joes out of a little hand before? It's impossible. So, if she ever gets a hold of a bug (which she almost has before, when a nasty little spider ran clear across her highchair table in the middle of breakfast. I may have freaked out, just a little), the thing won't be alive by the time it reaches her mouth. What's a little extra protein?

Another new development is the sippy-cup. It took a full two months for her to realize what it actually was. But now, she is a pro. Kind of. I did notice today that her new game is to suck in a mouth-full, then open her mouth and let it all drain out. Awesome. I didn't think it was that big of a deal until I saw that her high-chair was leaking. She has soaked through her outfit and her chair. It was straight into the bath after snack today.

As for a general update, things are well in the Rinas household. The pregnancy is finally beginning to be at least a little enjoyable, which I am thankful for. The nice weather has definitely played a part in that. It's so nice to be able to get out of the house and just walk around the block (because that's about all I can handle as of right now). The little guy is moving all the time now, which is fun. Paul can actually feel it, and on occasion, you can see my belly shifting from left to right as he flips over. My bladder is slowly shrinking, which means I am making multiple runs to the bathroom at night. I try not to complain though. I could hold it, but having just gotten over a raging bladder infection that felt more like the flu than anything else, I will gladly do whatever I can to keep things down there moving. Paul is in school now. He's taking two classes at the local community college. On his way to getting his degree. I am proud of him for getting that done. He's got a few years to go (I think technically he is a sophomore right now). Not going to lie, sometimes I feel myself getting slightly jealous as he trudges off to class. Not jealous about the homework though. He can have fun with that all he wants.

Well, it appears that today is a 'no second nap' day, so I am going to go rescue the child. Bummer.

Patience. It's what's for dinner.

Well, bloggo's, I have just enough energy left to shoot you all a little note. I am sorry for the lack of posts recently. I've been tired and getting fatter, and those are the lame excuses I will use. Also, my laptop was on it's last legs, and it was really annoying to have to type a word and wait 30 seconds for it to appear before moving on to the next one. Makes for an aggravating hour or two, I assure you. Well. I am still tired. And I am still fat(ter). But, my computer issue has been solved. Very sad for them, but very awesome for us, Circuit City is going out of business. And because of that, they are slashing prices left and right. Putting Walmart to shame, I'm telling you. (Anybody in the market for a flat-scree? I suggest going there and checking some out...) Anyway, we were able to score a few good deals on laptops... so here we are, man and wife, typing on two very new and very pretty personal computers. (We were in the market for two- he is leaving me for four months come January, plus he is in DC on occasion, and now we will be able to chat via webcam and so on and so forth.) Neither are top of the line, but both work and connect to the internet. That works for us.



Anyway, to reward you for my awesome deal, I decided I would dreg up my remaining stores of energy and post some pics/video for you. The pics are old, the video is a bit more recent. I have been really slacking on the picture front lately. But it's hard to capture the moment when the moment ends as soon as the camera gets pulled out. Perhaps I should let her chew and drool all over it on occasion so it's no big deal when she sees it. Or not.



So here are a few from Christmas. Upon organizing these photos, I realized that I do not have one picture of the three of us in our Christmas garb. Shame. So, family members, if you have any, let me know.



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Well, the link isn't working to add photos right now, so I will move on to the video. Check back later for some photos (if I can get it working...).



The video is of the new Alex. I was watching older videos of her, just laughing at myself for thinking it was hard to keep an eye on her when all she could do was sit in one place, or at most scoot along the floor at a whopping .0000001 mph. I will be sure to relish in the stationary phase of el-boy-o, that's for sure. (Sorry for the lopsidedness... Forgot that I couldn't adjust that.)