The "F" Word

File this under: "I Have Nothing Else Exciting to Write About."

William's favorite book as of late is Come Rhyme With Me! He calls it his animal book.

The concept is pretty simple. The book goes through the letters of the alphabet. Each page has an animal that starts with that letter and a corresponding rhyme about that animal.

We read this book every day before nap and sometimes it gets combined with the three or so books we read to him before bed in the evening.

As you might imagine, with this much repetition William has the entire book memorized. Which is fun because then I can pretend my boy is a genius and can already read an entire book at the tender age of two years and two months. Ha! The games we play.

I'll say, "A is for..."

And he finishes with, "Alligator snoozing in the sun. If you dare to tickle him you'd better start to run."

And so on and so forth...

...until we get to the letter F.

F is for Fox.

But every single time I get to this page and read, "F is for..."

William responds with, "...skunk!"

I have no idea why this is. It's the only letter he can't get right. After the seventeenth time I started to find his mistake quite comical so I would laugh. And then he would laugh. And now it's just a game.

I'm pretty sure he knows that F is for Fox by now. But I can't be entirely sure.

Anyway. That's all I have for today.

On Finding a Suitable Restaurant for a Girls' Night

Me: On their website they had a drink menu with lots of fufu drinks. That's how I knew it was a good choice.

Morning Yoga

This morning I missed the 10:30 yoga class I had planned on attending.

For three straight days I've been hurrying William through his breakfast routine so that we can run out of the house to get to various meetings and appointments. Every day he's fought me. Either he doesn't want to eat or he doesn't want to get dressed or maybe he just doesn't want to be rushed. Whatever it is, it's been frustrating.

But then I took a look from his perspective. On usual mornings our breakfast routine is done at a leisurely pace. Sometimes we stay in our pajamas until lunchtime. We catch glimpses of Meredith and Matt, Regis and Kelly, Ellen and maybe even an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I sip my coffee and check out the latest happenings on the World Wide Web while he drives his dump trucks in and out of the kitchen. It's a nice thing we've got going.

But on the days when we need to be in the car before 10:00, he is not a happy camper. The thing is though, once we get to where we're going he's always fine. It's just the process of getting him into the car that I find quite maddening especially with below zero temperatures and a burgeoning belly.

And then there was yesterday when I really pushed it. I had a coffee appointment downtown with a friend I've been doing some part time work for. After that we met daddy at his work for lunch. When that was all said and done it was getting close to naptime. But I wanted to squeeze in just one more thing.

A carwash.

Simple enough, right?

Apparently not so in Woodbury, Minnesota.

For weeks the carwash line has been ten cars deep. Brian bought a ticket for the wash but for a week it's gone unused because the line has just been too long. Well, yesterday I realized it was bearable. Only seven cars in line.

[On a side note, do that many people really have an hour to spare to sit in a carwash line? Woodburians need to get a life!]

[Side note number two: If anyone out there wants to open another carwash in Woodbury I'd totally partner with you. It's a sure bet to a gold mine.]

So there I was with a tired two-year-old waiting for a stupid carwash for 45 minutes so that the massive amounts of salt that painted my normally black car white, didn't eat away to the insides.

And so that, my dear readers, is how we ended up having yoga class in our very own living room this morning instead of the fancy dancy gym up the way. I came to realize it wasn't worth fighting with my toddler for the fourth straight day to get out of the house to make my yoga class. I didn't want to put him through it and I thought he deserved a morning break. What a nice mom I am.

Much happier in his pajamas and Cookie Monster slippers.

These days, I think his downward-facing dog pose is better than mine.

The Land of a 1,000 Whys

In the car.

Me: We have to go get a carwash.

William: Why?

Me: Because the car's dirty.

William: Why mommy?

Me: Because there's lots of snow outside and that makes the car dirty.

William: Why snow mommy?

Me: Because it's winter.

William: Why winter mommy?

Me: [Getting exhausted] 'Cause.

William: Oh. 'Cause?

Me: Yep.

William: Oh. Why 'cause mommy?

A Superior Vacation

Finally, pictures.

We're here!

Our cozy room...

...with a view!

And a perfect bathroom accessory for a pregnant mama.

There were a lot of cards played.

And a lot of books read.

And every Scrabble tile was played.

Except for one.

We ventured into the wondrous outdoors.

And Lake Superior rewarded us with breathtaking views.

Baby Bang

During naptime today I took a break and watched a recorded episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The baby started bumpin' and kickin' so I grabbed my camera to see if I could catch any of it. What I captured in the first six seconds is pretty cool if I do say so myself. The rest of the video is pretty boring but I kept the camera running in case it jumped again.

Small Successes

It's 10:30 a.m. and I've already:

1. completed two loads of laundry. OK, so they're not folded yet. So what?

2. cleaned out William's humidifier. Yuck! Note to self: Do that more often.

3. read all my regular blogs and posted this on my own blog.

Bonus item: I'm getting ready to go to the gym. No, I promise. I really am.

To see more small successes from other mothers around the country click here.

Batteries: Charged

This morning I woke up a little more sure that I can make it through the rest of this winter and pregnancy with a smile on my face. Living in Minnesota during January, February and March is tough. The cold and the snow just go on and on and on. Combine that with a stir-crazy two-year-old and one big baby belly and I find myself with white knuckles at the end of most weekdays.

But this weekend I found out it's not really the cold weather at all. It's about taking time for myself and my marriage and the husband who is so incredibly generous with his fatherly and husbandly responsibilities that I sometimes swipe his needs under the rug and instead rant on and on about how long my own day has been.

We moms don't need much. Just the simplicity of getting in and out of the car without having to strap someone else in a carseat. Or the comfort of reading a good book in front of the fireplace right in the middle of the day without anyone pulling you down to their level to ask you one million and one questions about what you're doing and why you're doing it. Or the thrill of playing a 3-hour game of Scrabble without once worrying that at any moment someone might come out of nowhere and scatter those tiles into every corner of the room.

And then, when you've been away for just enough time, you'll realize that you really do miss that carseat in the back of the car. And that curious voice of endless questions isn't so bad. In fact, it's pretty precious. And Scrabble's got nothing on a wrestling/snuggling match in the middle of my own living room.

More on our trip later. It was wonderful! (Thank, God for Grandmas.) But for now I'm just enjoying being back in the comfort of my own home with my favorite two-year-old.

Last Chance Get Away

I'm off, this morning, with my lovely hubby for a 4-day adventure. Last chance before the baby comes out of this huge belly. A huge thanks to my mom who will be watching over our pride and joy while we're away. You better be good, little boy!

This Cold, Cold, Long Day

Waiting for daddy to come home to the warm bunny hole so we can start snuggling.

Trying to remember what warm weather felt like with a little summer treat: berries and cream.

A Mixed Bag

Nope I'm not gonna do it. I'm not going to write complain about the temperature outside.

Not about how it was so cold this morning when William and I left the house that I mistook the actual temperature, which was 16 degrees BELOW zero, for the windchill.

And then when I realized that was the real temperature I was too afraid to even check the windchill because, c'mon, once it gets that cold does it really matter?

Instead I'll talk about how the topic of guns and weapons came up at ECFE during parent time. And that I was pleasantly surprised by the laissez faire attitude with a group that tends to be a little too by-the-textbook for my liking.

I don't promote guns or weapons as toys to William but I am constantly surprised at how, as a boy, he comes up with these things on his own. Like how he fashioned the letter "L" in a set of bath foam alphabet letters into a squirt gun. Very resourceful, young boy. I must say.

And if that doesn't catch your interest maybe you'll find it comical that I couldn't fall asleep last night because I had the Handy Manny theme song in my head.

But that's not really that funny. What's funny is that William has never even watched Handy Manny. Not even once. But somewhere in the recording of Piglet's Big Movie there happens to be a promo for Handy Manny. And out of the hour long recording my head chose to memorize the Handy Manny theme song. Brilliant.

Maybe if neither of those stories have grabbed you to keep reading my blog then at least you can send some understanding comments my way as my two-year-old leaps full force into the terrible twos especially during mass time.

This past Sunday he thought it was appropriate to yell out during the procession of the gifts, "Daddy, I don't like this music. EVER!"

Awesome. We'll put a comment in the comment box for you, William.

And if none of that catches your fancy then you should consider joining in on my 2nd annual American Idol contest. No need to be a viewer of the show to play. In fact I learned about this game from my place of work prior to William being born. That year I watched only a few episodes. I got second place. Ever since I've started watching the show I can't seem to even get above fifth place once it's all over. So actually, not watching the show seems to be some sort of an advantage.

Could Your Family Do It?

Have you been watching Oprah's series on Living your Best Life this week? I have to say, I'm not a fan of January 1st being the magical date to start doing something (or quitting something) you should be doing all along. Exercising, eating right, saving money. These are all things we fail at periodically and setting yourself up for an all or nothing plan for 2009 just gives those Oprah producers the green light to air these type of resolution shows all over again at the beginning of 2010.

Instead, I think I'm like most people. Moreover I strive to live my best life everyday. But sometimes life gets in the way. We go on vacation or we have a new baby or Brian changes jobs. All these things can throw a hitch in our giddy-up. Sometimes it's nothing at all. Sometimes we just get lazy. But that's no reason to quit until next year.

All that being said I must admit that I have watched every minute of Oprah's series. For the most part it's been just a bunch of good reminders. Yesterday financial expert Suze Orman was on. The majority of the show was all about getting out of credit card debt. This part was irrelevant to me because I'm happy to say we Nashes have no credit card debt.

Apparently we're in the minority though because Suze reported that Oprah's audience of 300 people had a total accumulated credit card debt of $2.5 million. Gasp! And we wonder why we're in the economic mess we're in.

As for me personally, I guess our debt-free state (speaking only on credit cards) is just an extension of my slight OCD tendencies. There's no way I could sleep at night with that lingering over my head. Much in the same way I couldn't sleep at night if I knew that the kitchen counters weren't wiped clean of all the dinner crumbs. I know. I'm weird like that.

But toward the end the show Suze did offer me some useful food for thought. Suze advised that after all credit card debt has been paid off we should start focusing on a savings stash for at least eight months worth of living expenses. Eight months being the magical number because that's the average time, in this economy, it is taking to find a new job should one find themselves suddenly without a job.

Once again, we're doing pretty well in this area but where is gets a little tricky is that we've combined our emergency stash with our "saving for a new house" stash and our "need to buy a new car" stash. So like most of you out there, we could use some creative ideas to find extra money to save. Here were Suze's three ideas to give a try:

1. For one day don't spend any money.

I didn't think this one sounded too tough. There are a lot of Saturdays or Sundays that we spend just sitting around. Sure we treat ourselves to a Caribou or the doughnut shop but those could easily get cut out.

2. For one week don't use a credit card.

At first I thought this one would also be super easy until I started to wonder if using a check card counted. Jenny and Brian heart their check cards. It's much easier than carrying around a wad of cash and helps me monitor where our money is going when I balance the checkbook twice a month. But the check card can be our downfall too. It's much easier to swipe a card to buy a $4 latte than it is to watch those dollar bills leave your wallet.

So if Suze is recommending going one week with cash only, hat's off because this would be quite tricky. But given a little effort, I'm confident we could do it.

3. For one month don't eat out at any restaurants.

Now this is the real kick-in-the-behind, isn't it? Again, I'm confident we could do it but I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say it wouldn't come without it's sacrifices. No Caribou, no Chipotle, no pizzas, no subs. For a whole month!

I really enjoy cooking and while saving money might be a nice side effect of this love, that's not why I do or don't cook. Typically the nights I don't cook are because of lack of time or energy. So making this pledge would require a whole lot more of both on a regular basis.

Brian and I agreed that because we don't feel we abuse our eating-out privilege we didn't think this was completely necessary. (Or is that the excuse everyone is using?) That said we thought it provided a good idea for a Lenten sacrifice. We shall see though seeing as how Lent this year coincides with the end of my pregnancy.

What do you think? Could your family manage all three?

More Conversations with a Certain Two-Year-Old

...because they're just too priceless not to post. We'll title this one, "When learning colors and fruits collide."

William: More peach please mommy.

Me: It's not a peach, buddy. It's an orange.

William: Oh. More orange peach please mommy.

I Don't Wanna Grow Up

Growing Up: Take 1

William: What doing mommy?

Me: I'm going potty on the big girl potty. Does William want to go on the big boy potty like mommy?

William: Noooo. [Answering in the same tone of voice one would use to enthusiastically say YES!]

Growing Up: Take 2

Me: In a few weeks we're going to get a BIG boy bed especially for you! Won't that be fun to sleep in a big boy bed?!

William: [Again, very enthusiastically] Nope!

Me: Well pretty soon the baby is going to come out of mommy's belly and the baby has to sleep in the crib. Cribs are only for babies. So we're going to get a BIG boy bed for William because you're a big boy, right?

William: Noooo.

Oh well. We'll try again later. Or maybe he'll have a different opinion once the bed actually arrives. As for the potty training. I'm throwing up my arms. I have no energy for that right now.

Nock Lars

Yesterday I tore down all the Christmas stuff. Today I'm scrubbing the kitchen and bathrooms. Tomorrow's all about laundry. So in the meantime you'll have to enjoy this little gem of a photo. William's birthday and Christmas are only a month apart. That means our house is full of bright, shiny new toys. Yet his favorite thing today is a new pair of "nock lars" I created for him when I ran out of paper towels this morning. Figures.

Busy Tearing Down