Rookie Blogger Goof

Just FYI...the dates on the next three posts are all out of whack. Apparently the posts go up according to the date you start writing, not when you finish! Oh, well. My critics are pretty nice =).

My Third Job

Pumping. To any and all women who have hooked themselves up to this I-don't-know-if-I-should-praise-or-curse-the-Medela-God-breastpump, you deserve a hundred thousand gold stars in my book. I've been at it for 4 months now, 5-8 times a day (I went down to 5 after the pediatrician looked at me like I had lost my mind when I was waking up in the middle of the night every 3 hours even when Camille was sleeping 6-8 hours). So, the day begins at 4:45 AM and ends at approximately 10:00 PM, and every 4-5 hours, I sit and win pigs. You what, you ask? If you've ever heard a breastpump in action, you'll never forget its distinctive "uh-wooga, uh-wooga." Well, one early morning during the early weeks after Camille was born (obviously, when else would I hook myself up to this machine?), I must have been so sleep deprived that I swear I heard the machine say, "Win-A-Pig, Win-A-Pig." So ever since that night/morning, I've been winning pigs. Now, there have been other phrases that I've "heard" such as "We need help" (I'll say!), "Wake Up!" "Heave Ho!" and "Win a goat!" but win-a-pig just stuck. Now the caveat to all this is that I feel lucky the technology exists to be able to provide breastmilk to our daughter and that I'm in a position to pump at work and pump at all! So of course it's not all bad. But...increasing the amount of formula Camille gets is looking mighty attractive!

Hail to the pump parts!

Bottlepalooza!


The beautiful result...


The happy customer who makes it all worth it...

Happy Floorth of July!

Eric is a man of many talents, many of which I learn about unexpectedly! On July 3rd, we both had the day off (yey! for great jobs that provide days off before holidays!) and we had run into a particularly bad carpet day. I had spilled coffee (I could dedicate an entire post to my praise for the coffee bean but will stay on target for now) in my rush to get outside one day and the dogs had been given treats that were akin to nacho cheese Doritos -- and they didn't use a napkin! So, needless to say, we had to do something. (I'm a brave woman for posting this on a blog for millions...ok, maybe a few dozen to see! I promise the house is cleaner than this picture might suggest but I would love a maid!)

ICK!


So...Eric declares, "I'm going to Lowes to do something about this carpet." Great! I'm thinking he'll come back with a steam cleaner or some fancy spray. Nope. 3 hours later, I call him, "is everything ok?" He replies, I'm on my way home with a car full of laminate flooring! All righty then! When Eric puts his mind to something, it gets done -- and it was! It looks great, honey!

Construction begins...

And continues...


with help from the littlest helper...


who stops to remind us that it is a holiday, after all.


And the finished product...

Is it that obvious...

...that I've gone back to work full time? I wish it weren't so but blogging definitely takes a back seat! We've had a busy household lately complete with construction on all different levels -- the home improvement kind and the brain kind. Camille has changed so much and learns to do new things every day. It's fascinating to see how within each stage, there is a hint of the next stage to come. She's learned to roll over but once a little boredom sets in, she starts to push with her legs as if she wants to crawl! We'll encourage her to hold off on that as we have done nothing about baby proofing! Camille has also beem eying up what we eat and drink so we may be experimenting with solids soon. Maybe we'll embark on that adventure when we see cousin Ellen! Can't wait for our trip to Kansas, which is coming up soon. We're taking any and all suggestions for happy plane travels because it's sure to be anything but plain! Here are several pictures from the last few weeks, and posts that are just a tad bit late.