The Value of a Dollar

A couple of weeks ago, while out shopping, Maggie got upset because we wouldn't buy her a "short girl toy." I don't remember exactly what she wanted, but we decided to start giving her an "allowance" for helping out around the house: a quarter for putting her clothes away or helping empty the dishwasher or watering the garden. She also gets a dime at church (and is supposed to give 1 in 10 back, but she's never in church during offering). Yesterday, we needed to get out of the house and needed to get a few things at Target anyway and Maggie decided she wanted to buy a toy. So, we got out her coin purse and added up her total: $2.60. Do you know how many toys are out there for under $3.00? Not many choices! And of course, there are so many other "awesome" "totally cool" toys out there that cost a lot more than $2.60.

We searched through the dollar section, but there wasn't anything that Maggie wanted. We went back to the toy section and went through aisle by aisle. Even Barbie clothes are $5!! We found some Matchbox cars which are under a dollar each, but Maggie didn't want a car. She found a horse "cage" that she decided she really really wanted: but it was $13. Finally, we went to the outdoor toys aisle and she found some wind-up toys for $1.99. She decided to get a wind-up duck to play with in the bathtub and pool.

We took it up to the check out and carefully counted out her quarters and dimes. She proudly showed her duck to Dad. She wound him up all the way home. We got in the house and suddenly the pouty lip came out. "But I really wanted the horse cage." We told her she didn't have enough money to buy the horse cage and she would have to save up to buy the horse cage. We talked about other ways for her to earn some money around the house, like changing poopy diapers. She thought that sounded like a good idea. And after seeing how much even little Barbie clothes cost, I'm thinking we need to increase her "allowance"!

Let the Count Down Begin!

On Tuesday I hit full term with the pregnancy. Maggie was born at 37 weeks, so I am now officially more pregnant than ever. I have told the baby several times that he/she is free to arrive any time after June 1. However, I am also well aware that with babies you have to be careful what you wish for. Typically babies in my family come sometime after the due date. I was a week after and my sister was 3 weeks after. My sister's kids both came after the due date. Maggie caught us all by surprise -- though I think that had more to do with my job stress raising my blood pressure and as I was pregnant, it just couldn't go down on its own. This time around, we are better prepared. The crib is up. The car seat is in my car. We have several plans of attack for Maggie when the time comes. Which, of course, probably means the baby will take his/her sweet time and arrive around June 22.

My office threw us a baby shower last week. It was a lot of fun! Great food, 1 fun game and generous generous coworkers! We will be able to get well stocked in diapers, bottles and of course, a few fun, cute things for the baby (and Maggie too).

The baby is still up high, pushing that little baby butt into my ribs. But I think he/she is a bit long as he/she likes to stretch and seems to get my ribs and bladder or cervix at the same time. I feel pretty good other than a strained back and the pulled groin muscle that likes to rear it's ugly head from time to time. I sometimes feel like I'm limping around the office like Quasimoto. But I'm happy to be STILL limping around and not on bed rest. So far this has been a great pregnancy and I hope the delivery and first years go as smoothly!

A Garden

Around this time last year, we had a fence put in with our neighbors. We had talked about getting a fence since the day we bought the house, but hadn’t yet moved forward. Our neighbors decided to put one in (our theory now is to keep us out, but good fences make good neighbors, so we really don’t care) and we split the cost of one side. Getting a fence meant that we would be able to get another dog, put in the doggie door and give Otis some more freedom. In getting everything ready, we actually got the the neighbors rocks that were on our property moved. Thus leaving a 40 ft x 4 ft plot just perfect for a garden!

Last summer, after the fence went in, Rocky got some wood to mark off the garden and that’s about as far as we got. It was late in the season and as Montana has a very short growing season, we wouldn’t have gotten anything out of it anyway.

This year when Rocky’s folks came out at Easter, Mike filled up our bed with dirt and brought us a tiller and wheelbarrow. Rocky divided up the bed into 4 ft sections. We hit the garden center last weekend and got some plants and some seeds. Maggie had a lot of fun helping and did a good job. We planted tomatoes, 3 different peppers, onions, broccoli, cucumbers, carrots, squash, pumpkins, watermelon and quite a few different flowers.

Now, here we are 10-12 days later and we actually have seeds SPROUTING! The cucumber and lettuce seeds are really coming up strong. We’ve gotten some good rain and the garden gets a lot of strong sun. In a few weeks (or maybe sooner) we’ll have to thin out the growth a bit, but I think we’re going to have a great crop this fall. And hopefully Maggie will enjoy all parts of gardening.

Preschool Graduation

Today, Maggie graduated from preschool. She will go for another year, not because she didn't 'graduate,' but because of her late birthday she won't be able to go to kindergarten until next year. It was really cute to see them all dressed in their graduation gowns.

Maggie-isms

Chatting with Maggie on the way to school today reminded me I haven't posted any Maggie-isms in a while. Here are some new ones:

• This morning we were chatting about how big girls don't have potty accidents, only babies. Then Maggie told me "Don't worry, Mom, I will teach you how to change the baby's diaper."
• Last night, Maggie asked for popcorn. She "helped" Rocky make it, and found some chopsticks in the drawer. She decided to eat her popcorn with the "China sticks." She was actually pretty good at using them! Later, she told us "You better take me to a China restaurant so I can eat China food with China sticks!"
• A couple of weeks ago, when I picked up Maggie at daycare, she and her friend Carmen were completing a puzzle on the floor. She wanted to finish it so she could tell me the story of the puzzle. It was a "puzzle floor" of the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
• A couple of nights ago, we were enjoying the deck, watching the sun set. Maggie asked if the puppies wanted to sleep outside, but Rocky told her they would probably bark too much. And Maggie said "yeah, and den I will have to say 'neighbors, that's just my dog Wiconi. She was barking, but it's okay'."
• Maggie told one of her daycare teachers "My baby will be named Baby Mike if it's a boy or Jessie if it's a girl. But it's definitely going to be a boy!"

9 months pregnant

I am officially 9 months (36 weeks) pregnant today. Which is weird, because I'm not technically full term yet -- that comes at 37 weeks. The whole weeks vs. months thing in pregnancy is very very confusing. I finally figured it out though: a full term pregnancy is FINISHING 9 months, not just getting to 9 months. And now I get the fun of telling people that I'm 9 months pregnant and watching their faces. I'm still hoping/praying my body doesn't freak out like it did last time and we make it to June. As a working mom, to get the maximum benefit from my leave, I'd really prefer it to start in June, and the later in June the better. My office is going to allow me to work from home for the non-medical portion of my leave, which is just wonderful! We have some projects just waiting for me. Most of my recruitment work has already been transitioned to a co-worker. I have some new hires I am finishing up with (which reminds me I need to make some calls to get drug screens scheduled). But I do feel a lot more confident that if I did need to leave unexpectedly early, what's leftover would not fall through the cracks.

Baby Dailey let me sleep last night, which, of course, worried me a bit this morning. Perhaps the Tylenol PM worked really well and I just didn't wake for the 3 a.m. party as I usually do. Or perhaps shim was just being nice. Once I got to work though, shim has been nice and active and alleviating all my fears -- just as I was about to call the nurse too. Good timing little one :)

We had a nice weekend, got the garden planted and let Maggie's butterflies go. So I have some photos to take and a video to edit for Maggie's latest entomologist project. It's supposed to rain this weekend, so that should be a nice little project to get posted. All the baby stuff is done and ready to go.

Mother’s Day

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day.  The cards I need to send out are going out late, for no good reason other than I was late ordering the cards.  I have done a photo card for the past several years.  My own Mother’s Day request was maternity photos.  When you are married to a talented photographer, you really need to take advantage of it!  So, today, we had our photo shoot and I am SO happy with how the photos turned out.  I am almost 35 weeks pregnant in these photos (34 weeks, 5 days).

We framed these first 3.  Not sure where to hang them yet, maybe over the baby’s crib in our room.This one below is my favorite.

Snow in May

A few pictures from the snow we woke up to May 6.  It was really pretty and fortunately was gone by around noon.  Maggie was disappointed we were able to do make snow angels.  It’s been some crazy weather here: high gusty winds and then this weird system that has brought on and off rain/snow/sleet.  I do love living in Montana and this is one of the reasons!!

 

Preschool Habitat Project

Well, it's that time of year again. Preschool habitat time! Last year, Maggie made a bird habitat. This year, she decided she wanted to make a jaguar habitat. So, we saved some toilet paper rolls to make trees, found an old box and then went shopping for more supplies. We found some green ribbons to make the tops of the trees, but were unable to find a toy jaguar. Sometimes your choices are limited when you are just shopping at Target :) We did find some white tigers and other animals we THINK live in the jungle (I certainly hope white tigers live in a jungle. At least these 2 will). I think Maggie was a little tired (she got to spend the night at cousin Christy's house and had a BLAST and probably went to bed late and got up early to play)and frustrated because she told me "Mom, I just don't think I need to make a habitat." I told her it is for school and she has to. To which she replied "Mom, I don't think I need to make a JAGUAR habitat. I can make a white TIGER habitat!"

Pictures can be found on Facebook and here is a video of her creating her "project".

Ah Spring!

Two weeks ago, we had a beautiful spring weekend. Sunny skies, warm temps and a chance to hang outside. Rocky did a lot of yard work, but Maggie, Otis, Wiconi & I hung out in the backyard. As this weekend has been a little crappy, I decided this would be a good time to post pictures from last weekend.