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.