It's Going Around....

Such a fitting title for so many reasons.

Guess what?! I wasn't being a hypochondriac! No really, I had Fifth's Disease. Never heard of it? Well neither had my mom so I've been getting lots of advice from her not to mention it to people cause "it sounds just awful". So supportive, don't you think? We got a notice home from BigSpeak's school about a day before vacation started. Happy Holidays! At that time, LittleSpeak had come down with it and I'd (self-)diagnosed that this is what her and I had, had already. Thank you Dr. Google. It's pretty miserable in general, but in adults you get some added fun; joint pain for up to a month! Not to be left out, BigSpeak showed up w/the rash on December 23. So both girls and I have been run down during most of this month. (That picture w/Santa, probably at the height of our contagiousness, don't say we never gave you anything Santa!) We ended up bowing out of our Christmas Eve dinner and staying home to put the girls to bed early and eat leftovers. The house of Speak knows how to party, let me tell you.

The family illness coupled w/the busyness of the season along w/trying to get my family/house ready for my surgery equals "not much posting," you may have noticed. On the other hand, I may need to join a self-help group for my Facebook addiction. I don't actually spend as much time as it might seem on it. I leave it open all day & periodically check it/update my status while I'm in the kitchen doing other things, like cooking breakfast, etc... My extended family thinks I sit waiting for people to update their status though, so I felt the need to clarify. I feel better now, thanks. ;-)

In spite of all of this, we did manage to get in quite a bit of traditional holiday fare; caroling w/BS's girl scout troop, seeing the Nutcracker ballet, holiday parties, driving around to check out over-the-top Christmas lights, etc... but it's been hectic to say the least.

I have so many good stories from this month, I'm hopeful that during my convalesce I'll be coherent enough to share them. Go read Mike and Mir, their stories today are typical of the type I have to share with you. LittleSpeak has been up to her usual tricks and is both trying and adorable at the same time. It's amazing to me how much I can love that little bundle of energy and be just enraged by her at the same time. She is definitely the daughter my mother wished on me as a teenager: "I hope you have a daughter exactly like you!" BigSpeak has had some of her own trying moments this month as we try to work out her homework vs. play/T.V. schedule. Being a big kid is not easy. That's not to say that this month hasn't been fun, cause it has. The girls have been so much fun; they were both really into Christmas this year & that's been a treat. Sometimes I just can't get enough of them you know.

I have my surgery (microdiscectomy) on 12/30. Happy New Year! I'm supposed to have a 6 week recovery; 2 weeks of which will pretty much be flat on my back (in bed). My doctor has told me I can't really screw it up during recovery, but I certainly can prolong the recovery time. I'm not sure if the end of six week is when I can start to act like a normal person again (i.e.--walk BS the 2 blocks to school again) or if I should be back up normal by then (able to walk for 30+ minutes if I wanted to). I'm under the impression it's more the first choice, but I'll have to check on that. Hopefully, I'll be posting much more very soon, since I'm going to find myself quite stationary w/only my laptop to play with. This is most likely my last post of the year, so

Happy New Year!!!

Talk to you Next year! (Hee, yes I'm like 9 or something.)

While I was sick....

We did manage this during one of the hours I was feeling slightly ok last week:

It's come to this....one post a week

I've got a few free, coherent moments here while DaddySpeak is bathing the girls, so lets see what I can get done.

I've spent the majority of the first week of being 40 in bed (it's not starting out well). I came down w/a flu I guess. No fever and my stomach was fine, but I had chills and aches like I never knew was possible. I'd have them for 24 hours and then feel better for 24 and be back at it again. There was also a 36 hour period which included a particularly bad migraine, just to mix it up a little. My mom was suggesting the my Fibro was back in full swing, which could be the case, but I'm refusing to accept that, and sticking w/the flu story. This afternoon I'm feel so much better that I'm believing my version.

In the interim;
LittleSpeak's school has "drop-in" which isn't cheap, but when you need it, like I did this week, it is the most rock'n invention evah! All praise the daycare Gods now please.

One thing about being sick, you stop worrying about all the things you need to get done and just focus on making it to the next hour. I had a fun morning w/LittleSpeak when I laid on a mattress on her floor (she'd fallen out of bed the night before) while she played "mommy" w/her babydoll. She rocked her, and changed diapers, and told me to be quiet because the baby was sleeping. It was pretty relaxing & very fun to just "be" with her for a change.

I "forgot" to pick up BigSpeak from school one day this week. Actually, it was the day of the migraine & I'd called neighbors for her to walk to school with in the AM. They offered to walk her home after, but I told them I'd call cause I felt like I might be getting better. (HA!) So I set an alarm & crashed on the couch. When the alarm woke me I was worse, so I thought, "I'd better call to have M walk BS home." Next thing I knew the phone was ringing w/the room mom calling me. I was in the middle of a dream in which I was calling M to walk BS home, so I was super confused. M was there and the room mom was like "no problem", but by the time M got to my house I realized what was going on and was so embarressed! I'm pretty sure my "death warmed over" appreance and the fact that I couldn't look in the direction of the door "bright light! bright light!" made her realize I was, in fact, in need of medical attention.

FORTY, it's the new 30

Yup, today's the day. I'm officially in my mid-life. I think I'm advanced, since I've seemed to be in crisis for years now. ;-)

I'm not really freaked out by it, but it does seem weird. I don't feel 40. Mostly, I feel tired, but that's not due to my age so much. (It might have something to do with the fact that I'm up past 1 AM blogging. You think?)

I do remember being a teenager and thinking, OMG! Forty is OLD! Cause it was, you know. But these baby boomers, with their refusing to grow old gracefully are just redefining what's "appropriate" at what age and it's different now. I was 19 when my mom turned 40. Hah! I have a 5 & 2 YO. She was "finishing up" and I'm just getting started. In a lot of ways I relate much more with that 21YO my mom was than her 40YO self. In a lot of ways, I can't relate to her at all, but that's another post.

So, what am I doing on the first day of my midlife??? Yeah, I'm sitting at home waiting for the washer repair guy to show up. Yeah, I'm living it up! No slowing down for me.

Ok, we are going out on Saturday night (folks are keeping the girls overnight) . I'm sure there will be some pix to follow.

Get Down with the Sickness

Yeah, so this is how my life works; two steps backward, one step forward. But hey, it was only one step back overall, right?

The in laws left on Monday morning.
BigSpeak barfed her guts out Sunday about 1 AM.
Oh, and my washing machine has been broken since Friday before last (every time they come to visit we have an appliance casualty, but that's fodder for another post,) it'll be fixed until next Friday. Yes, that's two weeks without one.

So Sunday night (Monday morning) at 1 AM I was bathing a crying child, stripping a bed & remaking it, scrubbing sheets, night clothes, pillows, etc...in a sink, spot scrubing rugs and then cleaning the bathroom. My idea of a good time, don't you think?

That's the two steps back part.

On the bright side (I guess you could call it that), the second time she got sick she was in the bathroom & she did make it into the toilet. And, while the washer is broken, my MIL insisted on doing 10 loads of laundry at the laundermat before she left. Also, we have home warrentry coverage on the washer. Instead of costing $400-500 it's costing $55.

That would be that one step forward.

Big Girl Bed

There are no more babies in my house.
Only children who sleep in regular beds.

Sigh.

I'm going to go smell our neighbor's newborn now; so my ovaries can ache along with my heart.

Am I Overthinking this?

So yeah, it's been rough this last week or so. In-laws are visiting now, so I'm getting some help, but generally I'm wondering if I should've just had the surgery and missed a few things, but been done with it. I knew I'd do this though, and I have a date set, so I just need to suck it up and take lots of pictures, right?

LittleSpeak has gone 4 nights in a row of staying bed. Wahoo!!! I give her a gummy in the morning if she stays in bed all night & it seems to be working. It was also working for her seatbelt until today. Bah! I knew the gummy would be short-lived as a motivator, but I'd hoped she'd be mature enough to at least deal w/her seatbelt when it did. Silly me. I've seen the kiddie shrink 2x now and one thing I brought up is that I think LittleSpeak may have some sensory issues. I'll explain why in a minute, but upon looking for a tool to help keep the seatbelt on her I'm reading more and more stuff that really sounds like her AND falls into the realm of sensory issues. Her shrink agreed w/me that it does sound like that might be the part of the problem but suggested to me that if I had her tested she's not really sure what I'd do with that information. Upon some of the reading I just did I'm wondering how good this kiddie shrink really is, it's pretty apparent there are quite a few tools for the things that LittleSpeak seems to have issues with, which, one would think, she ought to know.

Here's the the clues I've gotten about possible sensory issues with her; she doesn't want to be restricted in any way, shape or form; includes clothing, sock & shoes, seatbelts, etc... This escalating to that point that she won't wear certain kinds of clothing now and the seatbelt in the car is a constant battle (she can get it off). She has been complaining a lot lately about things beeing too loud, even when they arent'. She also wants a blanket or 3 on her to sleep. I understand wanting that sense of weight I'm the same way to a degree, but I'm beginning to feel that she needs that sense of weight on her in order to settle down. The waking up in the middle of the night could be because she didn't have the weight on her and it was freaking her her out. I believe I'm going to make the phone calls tomorrow to have her tested. If she's not great! If she is, I don't want to make her suffer, especially not when I know there are tools to help her deal with it.

Of course, there's a part of me that's concerned that I'm totally being a helicoper mom and overthinking some pretty normal toddler stuff. If you know anything about sensory issues leave me your email, I'd love to talk/write to you.

Another Reason for my nomination to Mother of the Year

Does the relief I feel when I’m away from my child make me a bad mom?

Perhaps relief isn’t really a strong enough word to describe it. Little Speak She’s LOVES it. I have to remind her to kiss me goodbye when I drop her off. And when I pick her up I get a look that says, “oh, you’re still around?”

On Tuesdays, I work in BigSpeak’s (BS) class so I only have about an hour sans kids, but Thursday? Glorious, beautiful Thursday? That’s my new favorite day of the week. I get 3, count them, 3 glorious child-free hours on Thursday. And at the end of those 3 hours, I get 3 hours of just BS. In some respects, that practically child-free. My stress level has dropped exponentially this week. I actually made it to dinner 3 nights this week (I usually pass out in pain, waiting for the pain pills to take effect w/in 10 mins of Daddy Speak (DS) getting home.) Having time away from LS is making me a better mom. I can’t say she isn’t still driving me insane, but actually getting a true break from her is making a world of difference.

Things with her, have gotten so bad that our pediatrician actually referred us to a “behaviorist:” read: kiddie shrink. Ironically, I believe, (on my own,) I discovered my child’s kryptonite: Gummies. Today she peed in the potty for one, (that was the ground shaking you felt) and I’ve gotten through 3 days w/out having to pull the car over because she’d taken off her seatbelt (yes, she’s in a 5-point harness, but this kid is wicked smart, has incredible motor skills and determined is too mild a word to describe her.) Whenever she starts to pull the seatbelt off, which is often these days, (she hates restraint on any level,) I pull the car over and put it back on. If we have the time, I just sit until she sees fit to put it back on herself. But this week, I promised a gummy if she kept the belt on for a whole ride to the grocery store and it worked. So as long as it works, I’ll bribe her. All hail the Halloween Gods! I’ll pay for the dental work if it means it’ll help me keep my kid safe enough to be alive to have the dental work done.

I realize as I'm writing this that there’s a lot going on w/LS and it’s a large part of the reason the pain in my back has been so bad. It’s been so bad that I haven’t been up to writing about it. Now that I’m getting a few hours to rest, I’m seeing the forest for the trees and you‘ll be getting to hear more about it. I won’t be winning any awards for mom of the year, but when you hear some of this stuff, you’ll be amazed that I haven’t paid the gypsies to take her. I guess I'm hopeful that I can teach her to use her powers for good instead of evil. So far, I seem to be losing that battle.

The really scary part: she’s only TWO. I can NOT imagine what the teenage years are going to be like.

Life

I know it's been awhile. My back has been bad. I'm scheduled for surgery on Dec. 30th. I know, Happy New Year. We know how to celebrate 'round here. I had an exam with the neurosurgeon week before last and it really screwed things up. I was doing better before that, but in January I should be "over it". Right? I'm hopeful.

LittleSpeak is still on a roll. She's good as long as she's getting your full attention and you're doing something she really wants to be doing; playing outside, at Pump It Up, gymnastics, etc... If not, well all bets are off. The last two nights she has finally slept the full nights; we've been through 2 months of her trying to get us to let her sleep in our bed. Two-three times a night she'll wake up screaming for us. She was coming into our room so we put a gate in her doorway. Each of these episodes consists of us putting her back to bed 6-8 times. It makes for long nights. It's been weird, both my girls have always been such good sleepers and now, out of the blue, she pulls this. Knock on wood, I think we're done with this episode.

All things considered, I have finally decided to put her into preschool. I signed her up for two full days a week. Once I have my surgery I'll need to have someone to watch her during the two weeks following, so I figured it made sense to set her expectation now. I've taken her over there 2x this week and let her play with the kids and she's had fun, so hopefully she won't give me too hard a time about it. DaddySpeak will be home the week of the surgery and my folks will pitch in to help watch the girls, but it's a six week recovery, so I need some other soloutions too. Having her in school will give all of us a break. I'm also hopeful that being in school will also maybe get her to chill out a bit too.

There have been a lot of things going on, holidays and all, but one of the bigest things is that I'll start to feel better, but then I do something and end up laid up for a couple days. So we did make it to the pumpkin patch, and BigSpeak's school's Halloween Festival, things like that, but after each of those things I've ended up a mess for a couple days. So that's the reason for my absence. I have lots of things to blog about and hopefully I'll be starting to feel better so that I can tell you about them.

Yes. We. Can. Yes. We. Did. And, Yes. We. Will.

I know it's old, but it encompasses a lot of my emotions right now.

The Change I Believe In

I'm so very excited right now. DaddySpeak and I are watching the election coverage, along w/so very many other people we know. I know this because I'm on Facebook, and so are many of my friends. The social colective in this milenium. I would never have thought I'd actually plan to watch this on purpose. Usually on election night I would turn the tv off, or watch a movie, because who really wants to watch election coverage? Tonight, I do.

For the first time, in a very, very long time, I am proud to call myself an American. Tonight my country came through on it's promises. It proved to my generation that all those times our parents told us that we could be "anything we want" they spoke the truth. I can't begin to imagine how it feels to be an African American right now. We are witnesing history tonight and I am so very proud of my country.

Happy Halloween!!!

Yes, I'm still alive. I'll hopefully have a few minutes to update you later this weekend.

I Scoff at Your Safety Devices!

Yes, now be sure to say that title w/a crappy Russian accent and flick your hand in the process. That would be my LittleSpeak saying that there. Last week, I suddenly hear BigSpeak calling me, "Mom! LittleSpeak is getting on the counters!" I walk into the kitchen telling LittleSpeak to get down and find:

LittleSpeak with two cupboards open and she is using the "safety locks" (I'm using the term loosely obviously) as footholds to reach things on the counter. Not only can she now open them, she's finding new uses for them. Sorry no photo, I'll try to remember next time. Yes I'm sure there will be a next time with her.

Nothing is too high, too locked away or too guarded from this child. I am begining to believe she just may be all the bad karma I've aquired in my past lives getting even.

Ok, I know that's not nice, but DUDE! I can't catch a break with her. She's smart & has no intention of using her powers for good.

Not much new; still drugged & dragging

The title of this post says it all.

I'm actually trying to get some info on a nanny. I'm thinking that I might be able to avoid surgery if I could truly get a month off from picking up LittleSpeak & heavy (or maybe all) housework. We'll see, it's probably cost prohibitive, but hey a girl can dream, right?

I haven't been in such good shape w/my back, so I'm getting the bare minnium accomplished & then collapsing. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next week; DaddySpeak will be away at a confernece. Yikes. I'm trying not to think about it.

LittleSpeak is still in rare form and doing her best to help extend my injury. I'm at a loss with her, time-outs don't bother her, there just isn't a form of punishment that has any impact with her. Yesterday she used the baby locks as a step to get on top of the kitchen counter. She looks at our safety devices and says "I scoff at you!" Seriously, I was putting shoes next to the stairs, so it's not like I wasn't right there when this happened. She's fast. Really fast. Luckily, we have a latch at the very top of our front door, or well, you get the idea.

Oh, lets not forget the transmission that is going out in our van. Yeah! One more thing I need to deal with. Wo hoo! And the cherry on my sundae: I'm getting a cold. That's what I need.

I really need a break. Yes?

Life, it is plotting against me.

Hi Internet,

I'm here, I haven't forgotten you I'm just having a really rough time of it these days. The outcome from meeting w/the surgeon is that I'm basically going to end up having surgery it's just a matter of when; you know, when I can't stand the pain any longer. The recommendation is for a microdiscectomy which, in light of what it could be, is probably the best I could've hoped for. This doctor does want you to stay overnight in the hospital (to make sure there's no unforeseen complications) but most do the surgery as an outpatient procedure, so that should tell you something right there. The worst part (at least it seems like it from here) is the recovery; where I'm down on my back for several weeks (like 6). No nothing for a full week, no driving for over 2 weeks, no house cleaning/picking up kids, etc....for the next 6 or so. I would need some help to say the least. On top of this, my mom has a torn miniscus, so she needs to have surgery and won't be able to help me until she's resolved that issue. In the meantime, I'm still trying not to take my pain pills unless absolutely necessary, and when there's another adult present, but these last couple weeks have shown the other adult option is negociable; the pain has gotten pretty bad at times. I need to get a second opinion and then assuming it's going to be this surgery figure out how and when we can pull this off. I don't know how the heck I'm going to be able to just turn it all off for that length of time. I'm freaking out about it when I think about it for too long so moving on....

To add to the fun LittleSpeak has been sick this last week (BigSpeak the week before, now she just has the rotten cold part). LS has been getting up no later than 5 AM for over week now. She comes in our room at that time w/a fever, so I give her tylenol & put her in bed with us to go back to sleep; only not much sleep is happening for me after that point. Her fever then goes again until is shows up at 5 AM again the next day. Weird. Yesterday was the first morning when she did not have a fever, but she's apparently decided she likes this wake up time and getting into bed to "play" w/mama. Mama is not enjoying this so we are "crying it out" (CIO) if earlier than 5 AM (has happened), DaddySpeak has to get up to do the CIO as my back is already shot from all the lifting of her I'm doing during the day. I'm hopeful, but not that optimistic, that she will go back to sleeping later than this, I need life to cut me a break somewhere!

I did go visit my primary care physican to discuss my weight loss, BP, etc....I can tell she just thinks I'm not eatting as much as I think I am, but is running some blood tests to see if anything pops up. BTW, my BP that day was 86/60, so the lowness of it doesn't seem to be a fluke.

I'm trying to maintain a "normal" life in the midst of this; BigSpeak is going to start Daisy Scouts next week, I'm working in her classroom, walking her to and from school everyday, gymnastics on Tuesdays for BS and Wednesdays for LS. There are a lot of days when I walk BS to school and then come crash on the couch w/my feet up and either get LS to let me read to her or play pretend with her until it's time to walk to pick up BS. It's very, very frustrating to say the least. Hopefully, I will start to get more rest this week and then can get back to my regularly scheduled posting, hahahahahahaha.

Lost in Space

That's kind of how I feel these days. The beginning of last week my back pain got so back that I was getting chills from it, and then later, having trouble forming coherent sentences, I wish I was joking. I broke down & took pain pills that day. I decided the pills couldn't make me any loopier then I already apparently was. I had my appointment w/the neurosurgeon and since it's almost 2 AM I'm going to keep it quick and say; he recommend surgery. That's a big surprise, coming from a surgeon and all. I'll give you more on that later.

BigSpeak was also sick during part of this week; the joys of going to school. LittleSpeak woke us at 5 AM with the fever. Fun! And I have started with the sore throat tonight. I also spent most of my day exhausted & sleeping on the couch.

this is why I've been MIA this week. Hopefully, more tomorrow; when I'm sick and lying around.

Avast Me Harties!

I'm sure I totally misspelled that, but it's Pirate Speak, I'm not sure pirate were really known for their spelling abilities.
Anywho, Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day! My favorite holiday; drink rum, sing, talk funny, wear cool hats. What more could you want in a holiday?

Now go out there and annoy the crap out of everyone.

Super Nanny meet LittleSpeak

This weekend LittleSpeak started a new phase. I think it's her "monkey" phase. Although I may rename it her "get sold to the gypsies" phase.

If you've ever watched the show Super Nanny you've seen the families' who have the kids who won't sleep in their own beds. Usually these kids have been sleeping in mom & dad's bed. Let it be known here, the Speak kids do not sleep in our bed. It's happened probably once with each child. In each case, child was sick or had a bad dream, so we let them crawl in with us. In both cases no one really slept all that well, lots of tossing and turning, etc... And in both cases, I can't tell you when those happened they were so long ago; less than 2 years, but not by much. So knowing that, what started this weekend with LittleSpeak surprised us to say the least.

Friday night she decided she wasn't going to bed. I laid her down and she started crying. I said good night & closed the door, usually she rolls over and goes to sleep. This night she promptly climbed over the railing of her crib and came out crying, looking for me. After the 3rd time, I lowered her crib rail since it being higher obviously wasn't deterring her from climbing out. A few more rounds of this and I called DaddySpeak to come help. (I'm not really supposed to be lifting her a lot with my back and all.) Super Nanny indicates that you don't want to engage them, you just turn them around, put them back in bed and leave. Engaging, including just talking, is giving them the attention they seek. After 80 rounds (yes, I counted) and an hour an a half we got her to finally stay in bed. Good thing they go to bed at 7:30, eh?

Saturday, nap time, round two. DaddySpeak ran interference since my back was not doing well at all at this point. She was taking longer between attempts so he was in the next room on the computer. BigSpeak was playing in the backyard & wanted to show me her latest trick on the monkey bars. I guess LittleSpeak could hear us, cause the next thing I know I see her little, tear-soaked face at the window. This means she climbed out of her crib, up the changing table and was standing on the changing table in order to see out the window. Since DaddySpeak couldn't hear me yelling for him, I sent BigSpeak up to tell DaddySpeak to get in her room while I kept her talking. I think it goes without saying that the changing table is now out of her room. That was her 30th attempt. Chalk that round up to her as we decided the nap was off at that point.

Luckily Saturday night she was so tired she passed out as soon as she hit the mattress. Yeah!

We've decided she's given up her naps for now; when she needs them she goes down really easily for us, but when she doesn't the effort and time is futile. How am I supposed to get my naps in now???

Sunday night, round three! She started the same as Friday night's episode, only this time she started to tell me she wanted to "sleep in mama's bed". I have no idea what made her think that was an option. DaddySpeak came up to help out and this time it only lasted nine attempts. But she wasn't through with us. Sneaky girl that she is, she showed up in our room at 3 AM and started all over. Not sure if that was a continuation of round 3 or a new round 4. (And really, too tired to care.) After returning her to bed the 3 time, I woke DaddySpeak to take watch. He got to do another 3 attempts (I think) and then she was done.

Tonight she went right down. Of course, the night is young...

I'm exhausted, but I stayed up to write about it for you Internet, don't say I don't love you! ;-)

Creative Me

This has been a hard week. My back is only getting worse; I had a dr. appt today & an MRI now on Monday. BigSpeak got sick yesterday afternoon (fever and throwing up, just fever now) and still is, and LittleSpeak is busy being LittleSpeak in the middle of it all. I haven't written about my back this week because it's rehashing the same old thing, but today I hit a new low. I called DaddySpeak at work & asked him to please come home. With one child I can more or less pull it off, but with two; one sick and the other wanting lots of attention, I just couldn't pull it off. I needed to lie down for at least 10 mins ever half hour (that's how I've made it through the week so far) & it just wasn't happening. DS was a trooper and took a taxi from South City to his car in the South Bay (he takes a van pool). Luckily his company allows for this type of thing once a quarter and will cover what I'm sure was a very expensive ride. I popped a couple pain pills and parked myself on the couch w/lots of support pillows, and promptly passed out. I'm just so exhausted from the pain. I'll let you know more on this when I do, my current dr believes that they will be recommending surgery, but I'm holding out hope. I just don't feel like I'm at that point yet. I'm not sure what that point will be, but it will be before I permanently have a dropped foot. And the point I'm at now is unacceptable. I can't care for my kids!

In spite of the above, I am doing something "just for me" this week, and loving it. I haven't really been cropping the last several months. I guess it was just feeling a little stale, so I signed up for a class at Jessica Sprague.com . I'm loving it. The class I signed up for is a writing class, it was the next one offered and I was feeling desperate. My degree is in communications, which is more than half writing, although you probably can't tell from the way I usually write here. I didn't realize how much I missed writing. I wouldn't say anything in the class has been "new" for me. Most of the techniques were ones I've done in school or at work at some point. But having someone assign me a topic and homework is really helping to get me inspired. We are given a new writing "technique" one day and the next we use our journal entries to help create a new page. In addition, we're getting new templates, papers, etc...to help in designing our pages which is always fun. I can't believe how much inspiration I'm getting from doing this. I'm so excited I'm signing up for the next class (an intermediate photoshop class) next month. I'm excited to be excited about something for me for a change.

The page we did yesterday was about ourselves, something most scrapbookers are notoriously poor about doing. The shoemakers kids have no shoes kind of thing.... It's the first page I've ever done about myself & I really enjoyed doing it. I'm really happy with the result, so I decided to share it here. (Pix is from BigSpeak's first day of school & the photo is offset because she's right next to me, but I also think it brought in a cool artistic effect...at least I'm going to keep telling myself that.)
Tell me you love it, even if you think it's lame. I'm really proud of it.

Potty Watch 2008: It's a Double!

BabySpeak surprised all of us tonight. Not only did she use the potty, but she POOPED!

Yes, the MommySpeak blog has hit a new low, we're talking about poop. Wohoo!

Tonight I went to put her on my lap so we could read before bed. She arched her back & told me "poop, mommy". I checked her diaper & told her she didn't have one. I picked her up again & she gave me the answer. I checked once more (just to be sure) and decided she was about to go. I ran her into the bathroom & put her on the potty. And. She. Went!

We did the potty dance. She got a couple M&Ms (even though she had already brushed her teeth and was about to go to bed). We called both sets of grandparents and I let her tell them herself. We went into her sissy's room so we could tell her and get more hugs and dancing. Tomorrow, after we drop Big Speak off at school we will be heading to the toy store so she can pick out a toy. I believe it will a baby who goes pee.

How appropriate.