Got Milk?

Today I went to the chiropractor for the first time. I've been hesitant to do this before due to the price of it and because I wasn't sure if I should go to a chiropractor, a podiatrist, or a massage therapist. Finally, the pain in my back got so bad that I just decided to start at the chiropractor. No, I didn't really do any research or anything to back my decision, I just looked up the chiropractor in the phone book and thought I'd take my chances.

Well, it was a very interesting experience. Here, in note form are some of the highlights...

~The doc said I was "too messed up for my age."

~He also explained that my pelvis is twisted, and that would explain why I had a difficult delivery with Cherry, and why both babies found it hard to "drop".

~Said I would need orthopedics, but should do some chiropractic work first, because back work can change foot shape, and orthopedics can shift my back, so I should wait until part way through my back work to get my feet worked on.

~He fondled my butt. I have not had a man other than my husband fondle my ass in a LOT of years. It wasn't nearly as exciting as I wish it could have been.

~I almost fainted after he cracked my back. It felt like I was drunk. And it hurt like a son of a gun. And still hurts now. But apparently it has to get worse before it gets better, or something.

~The doc giggled when I explained what was wrong and I used jargon such as "My muscles on the right side are compensating for the slipped disk." He asked me what I did for a living, and I answered "Uhh. I'm a mom." to which he laughed and said he was impressed with my knowledge of the jargon.

~And, completely unrelated to chiropractics, the doc seems to think that I have a milk allergy! He saw my "rash" on the back of my arms and the circles under my eyes, and using those as indicators, he asked a bunch of other questions, and my answers all lead to the conclusion that I must have a milk allergy. And Cherry might too.

~So, now Armondo has gone crazy looking up dairy free recipes for us. What a sweet heart!

~And I've been so close to tears all day. I love milk. So much. No more Alfredo sauce. No more whip cream. No more milk on my cereal.

~BUT! If I AM allergic to milk, and stopping my consumption fixes all of my problems, I should lose weight, my bowels should get better, my arm rash should go away, my eczema should get cleared up, the circles under my eyes should lighten and I should have more energy. Sounds like a miracle cure.

I'll let you know!

Christmas in November.

Remembrance Day is now over, so bring on the Christmas!

Usually we wait until Dec first to decorate, but this year we're doing it early. The Americans usually wait until after their Thanksgiving, and we decided to wait until after our November holiday.

The reason why we're doing it earlier than usual is because we have no idea when Armondo is going to ship out again, and heaven forbid I decorate AFTER Dec 1st! (We keep the decorations in the spider infested crawl space and there's no way I'm going down there by myself to drag them all out, which is why Armondo's presence is required.)

I LOVE Christmas, and I'm stoked we're starting early. We put up the tree today, but have yet to decorate it. I'm sure we'll work on that tomorrow.

Some may say it's too early, but why? Since the time change, it's been getting so dark here so early, and dare I say that the weather has been a little drab? Why not lighten and brighten things up a little by adding some holiday sparkle? And now that we're living in the days of fake trees, there's no reason to wait until late Dec anymore!

Who's with me?

Anyone?

Girl Crush

I can't help it. They're just too cute.

My newest crush is Chelsea Handler, aka Chelsea Lately.

Why do I heart her?

~She's super hot.
~She's hilarious. (Watch her show weeknights on E!)
~She pokes fun at herself all the time. I love self deprecating humour.



My other new crush, Hayden Panettiere.

Why do I heart her?
~She's cute as a button.
~She is one of the hottest young female stars in Hollywood, yet she stays out of trouble, and never talks about other stars when the pap is baiting her.
~She makes sweats and sport bras look super hot.

I've Got a Secret!

Cherry was pulling a hunger strike last week at dinner time. This of course, is a completely normal toddler thing, but like all parents of two year olds before us, we were just as frustrated!

But we found the solution, and I pass it on to you!

In order to get your (my) toddler to eat, you must get her to HELP you cook the dinner!!

Now, if Cherry "helps" to make dinner, she's guaranteed to eat a whole plate worth! Even if it just means she puts the noodles in the pot, or washes the potatoes, as long as she thinks she helped make dinner, she'll eat a whole bunch of it!

And that, my friends is our new secret!

Oh What Comes Out of a Babe's Mouth.

Bathing Cherry...

I'm washing her face, and she starts fussing and wriggling away from me.

I say: "Oh stop it! It's not like you're going to die!"

Cherry says: "I dying mom! I dying!"

Princesses and PJ's

Oh, I love having girls!

Armondo is gone this evening, so the girls and I watched princess movies together in our new, big, comfy bed. Then, I put Peach to bed at regular time, and Cherry and I got to cuddle together and eat popcorn while watching the Little Mermaid.

If my kids were boys, I guess we could have done the same thing, but what would we watch? And would I get to wear a tiara?

I know boys have their good points, but being a mom to girls is awesome!

Wouldn't this entice YOU to use the potty?

Cherry is smart. No, she's not "gifted" or totally amazing or anything. She can talk circles around any other two year old I know.

But she refuses to use the potty.

Not even when we went out and bought this stuff:



If *I* got a cool sticker and got to wear fancy panties, I'd probably start using the potty more often! (and there we go, a post in before midnight.)


*Edited to add.. Wow. I wrote this post LATE last night when I was dead tired and had a splitting headache, and not only is it not complete, but it's not even entirely truthful!

~It's not that she's refusing to use the potty, she'll sit on it, but she won't actually GO in the potty.
~She loves her panties, and really wants the stickers. It seems like a good motivator, but she still can't seem to actually figure out how to pee or poop on demand.
~Most of the time she won't even tell us when she needs her diaper changed, and will often tell us "no,it's just fine" when we ask if she wants it changed.
~I don't really care, except for the fact that I'm "supposed" to be training her. Diapers seem so much easier at this point.

It's not my fault this post is lame, it's the lack of sleep!

Armondo is home right now. And as you all know, he's totally great. He takes his home life seriously and is 100% family man when he's home. He cooks more often than I do, I can count on him to help with the housework, and he'll get up to deal with the kids just as much as I do, if not more often in the night.

But it's getting a little insane around here.

The kids have caught on that they have TWO parents to wake up in the middle of the night now. They have twice the chance of getting attention. And they're using it to their advantage.

The last week has been horrible around here. And no sleep=grumpy mama. It's weird though, I'm "lucky" that Armondo is here to get up with the kids in the middle of the night, and he'll also let me sleep in in the morning, yet, it's BECAUSE he's here that the kids aren't sleeping as well. Not to mention the time change messing us all up as well!

But maybe things will be better tonight. Why? 'Cause we got our new bed today! Whoo hoo! I'm hoping that the short bursts of sleep that I DO get will be better 'cause I'll be laying on my new, pillowy soft luxury mattress! They say that when you have a good mattress, you sleep better and that the hours of sleep you do get are more restful, therefore you won't need as many hours, but this bed is so comfortable, I'm not sure I'll want to ever get out of it!

I guess we'll see tomorrow. Now that I have a laptop, and there's a TV in the room, there really isn't much reason for me to leave the bed anyway, as long as Armondo is entertaining the kids!

Rock On!

Recently, Armondo brought Cherry some beautiful rocks from the shores of the Queen Charlotte Islands. (Slightly south of the Alaskan Pacific shore.) And Cherry LOVES them. She "plays" with them every day, transferring them from her "treasure chest" (small wooden box Armondo provided her with to store them) to her purses, to her SOCKS, or any other creative place she can think of.

And yes, she STILL sleeps with her rocks.

One day, after her she awoke from her nap, I was tidying up the mess of toys she made, when I saw this:




It seems as though her rocks are as important as "Mom" and "baby" here, and take part in doing laundry (bottom left) and use the bathroom (top right).

You Can't Trust a Two Year Old.

No matter how intelligent she might seem.

No matter how articulate she is.

No matter how sweetly she says she'll "never, ever, ever do dat again!"

DON'T TRUST THE TWO YEAR OLD.

It doesn't matter if you made a deal with her.

It doesn't matter if you tried to avoid the situation by placing things atop a five foot high shelving unit.

It doesn't matter that after the last time it happened, you went out and bought a different type of creme with a harder lid to open.

YOU STILL CANNOT TRUST THE TWO YEAR OLD.

Because, in the end, it's you, the toys, and the wipes who will lose out.

And the two year old will just laugh.

Poor Cabbage Patch girl. All she wanted was to have a nice cuddle during nap time!

"Ack! My eyes! I can't see!!! Never mind my eyes; my mouth! yeck!" Poor, poor purple fairy Barbie will never be the same.

And as for the rest of the toys? Let's just say it's going to be a long night getting them all clean. (and the wipes are hiding under that blanket. That DOWN COMFORTER that I so nicely "lent" to my precious daughter to nap with today, and which is now covered in diaper creme as well.)

CeCe is Sewing... who woulda thunk it?

My Dad gave me some (very) late birthday money a couple of months ago and I went out and bought a sewing machine.

I LOVE IT.

Sew far, I've sewn the bodies of three sock monkeys, and half of a Barbie sleeping bag. In fact, that's what I'm working on right now. For some reason, I promised Cherry that I would make her some Barbie blankets if she agreed to stop using WIPES for blankets. And I told her they'd be done for her in the morning.

I am stupid.

Back to work! I'll post photos of my simple sewing projects once they're finished!

We Goin' to Seep Land?

For the past couple of years, Armondo and I have been discussing buying a new bed. When we first moved in together, we didn't really think we needed a new bed. I brought a nice, newish double into the relationship, and he brought a gross old single futon into the relationship, so my bed seemed much nicer than what he was used to, and pretty adequate for what we needed.

As time went by, we started discussing how much better a Queen size bed would be, but we've been thinking of moving (including putting our house on the market awhile ago) for a couple of years now, and we've been thinking of holding off buying a new bed until we were in our bigger dream house. Part of the reason for waiting is that we didn't want to get rid of our current bed, and there's no room to store it at our current house.

Long story shorter, TODAY WE BOUGHT A NEW BED! We don't actually get it delivered until Tuesday, but wow! it's so exciting!

We went on Wednesday to look at beds, with the kids in tow, all of us dressed as cow folk, and Cherry had the best time jumping on the beds and leaping from bed to bed. We told her we were at "Sleep Country" and since then she had been asking to go back to "Seep Land". She was just beside herself when we arrived again today at Seep Land, and had a blast playing with the moving beds, as well as hiding under the covers of the made bed.

When the time came to leave, Cherry called out "Tank you! See you soon! See you tomorrow!"

Then, tonight, while we were cuddling at bed time, she told me she was going to dream about Seepy land. Seems appropriate!

Hallowe'en

Howdy, Y'all. We had a great time yesterday being cow folk. We went to play group in the morning and did the trick or treating in the mall in the evening. It was actually pretty mellow, as Cherry isn't nearly as crazy as last year, and made sure she was holding hands with us the whole time she collected her candy. Peach just hung out in her stroller and watched all the crazy kids run around. (But I made sure we got a few treats for "her" when I saw there was good ones being handed out. I'm so bad.)

Cherry ran around playgroup all day holding ponies. How appropriate!

Peach pretty much just hung out and looked cute all morning at playgroup.

Armondo specially trimmed his facial hair for the occasion. What a trooper! You can't ever accuse this family of not being fun!

It's November, YAY!

So, it's time for "Write a post every day of November, no matter how boring month."

I figure this will be a great kick in the butt for me to start blogging regularly again! Whoop! I know you're excited!





Click Here



Click Here


And Somehow over the past few months, I've lost all my fancy clicky knowledge I once had, so you're going to have to click on the "click here"s instead of on the actual little buttons. I totally suck!

I Really Shouldn't Be Upset About This,

This evening, I went to the grocery store with my two daughters. When we go out, we (they) always get a lot of attention. And tonight wasn't any different.

As soon as we walked through the door, the greeter started telling my girls how beautiful they were. This old grandfatherly type of guy went on to ask Cherry about her Hallowe'en costume and sort of kept the girls engaged while I waited to use the bank machine. (It wasn't creepy in the slightest, just so that's clear.)

And then, throughout the store, other customers would say "hi" and tell them they were cute and or beautiful, etc.

Then, this one man came up to the kids and started talking to Peach. He was asking her how she was, and telling me how beautiful my baby was, and how "good" my baby was. During all this time, Cherry was saying "Hi! I'm (insert real name here)!" and was trying to get his attention too. He was completely ignoring Cherry. She's sort of use to this, because Peach is the BABY, so she gets a little more attention, but in general, the person doing the gawking will turn to pay attention to Cherry after a few seconds. Well, not in this case. The man didn't turn towards my sweet pigtailed little girl who was dying for attention as well.

I found it weird that he wouldn't turn to talk to Cherry, and I wondered "why?" but the whole event probably lasted a little more than 30 seconds. It was when when the man said "Gee, doesn't talk much..." looking towards Peach, and after I said "Yeah, she's the quiet one!" that I finally clued in to what was happening.

"Oh! She! It's a girl! I thought she was a boy!" The East Indian man said as he suddenly quit his lollygagging, and walked away.

"She's wearing mostly PINK!" I exclaimed as he walked away.

And then I almost teared up.

In a split second, I felt sad for Cherry 'cause she didn't get the attention, sad for Peach because she was adored one second, then became a whole lot less important as soon as her sex was discovered, and then, I felt sad for over half of the population of India.

I adore my girls. In fact, I'm glad I had girls instead of boys. (Not that I have anything against boys.... except for the pee thing.) And I cannot even imagine living in a world where raising a daughter is "like watering a neighbour's garden".*

We're lucky where we live. Women on this continent may still have a ways to go until we will be earning the same wages for the same work done as men, and may struggle with other inequalities, but at least we're not second class citizens. And I really shouldn't have been bothered by that man's reaction, but I just couldn't help it.

My girls could have been born in any country, to any set of parents, but they were born here and to me, and I adore them. They are important. They are NOT any less important than any boy. And I intend to let them know that as they grow up!


*This is a paraphrase and translation of an Indian saying.

Whew...

Oh, I'm so glad the conflict is over! My SIL and I talked it over, and everything is cool.

Turns out that *I* was more the crazy one than her. (Not that that surprises me or anything.)

Turns out she was more mad that the blog was a secret, and there was the THOUGHT that I could be writing something bad about her rather than her actually reading anything that upset her.

And on MY end, I was getting really upset because she wasn't answering any of the messages I was sending her online, and I was thinking worse case scenario that she totally hated me and that the kids would lose their relationships and the whole nine yards. Turns out that her computer AT HOME was automatically signing her into the messaging program, and she wasn't getting the messages on her laptop she's using at her mother's house.

Armondo was right when he said I was making this into a bigger deal than it really was.

And I'm so glad he was!

Ciao for now. I have dishes to do.

Does this describe my blog?

According to her facebook status, my sister in law....


"is thinking of creating her own clandestine blog that is severely biased and defamatory."

My SIL has stopped talking to me. You know, the one whom I just spent the better part of a month hanging out with during my vacation. The one who has two kids the same age as mine. The one whom I drove with for two days through the majority of my province, Etc. Etc.

I don't want to get into it too much until this resolves itself, but I seriously cannot believe how crazy people can be. Armondo is going to call his mother and sister tonight to see if he can straighten things out. It, IS, of course, his fault. The funny thing is I had SUCH a great time on that trip, and I wanted to tell you all about it, but this current situation has really clouded the whole experience! Sucky.

Like I need another reason to sleep!

This is too good not to blog about....

I'm having an affair.

With the man of my dreams.

Literally!

Ok, it's not just one man, but he (they) is (are) in my dreams.

I honestly enjoy being married, and I love my life (these days :P) and I wouldn't jeopardise my family for anything, but I sort of miss that "new" feeling you get when you meet a new person and fall in love. You know? The first time you hold hands, the first time you kiss, the first time you tell the other person you love them, and the feeling you get when you wait to see if they're going to return the sentiment.....

Well, it's been happening in my dreams and it's been awesome.

I have very vivid dreams. I smell, I hear, I taste, I feel. The emotions are real. I will feel happy, sad, angry, scared, hot and cold all in the same dream.

I other words, my dreams are real to me.

Some may say that dreams aren't real, (and logically, of course they aren't) but if you (I) can experience all of the same emotions and sensations in dreams, then who's to say that it's not "real"?

In other words, while I might be feeling a little "comfortable" in this marriage, I'm getting all the "excitement" I need in my dreams.

Of course, this is probably something Armondo might not find amusing, and he might even get slightly offending by this series of dreams I've been having, but I see it as a really good thing.

I cannot control what I dream, but I can control how I act in my waking hours, but as long as I'm living an exciting "night" life, I don't even have the slightest desire to try to fulfill those needs in my waking life!

"Ok, ok, get on with it already! Tell us those sexy dreams!"

Haha, ok..

So, I've had a few, but in the early hours of this morning I was having a nice one, and it CONTINUED when I had a nap this afternoon! How awesome is that?

Anyway. This nice, dark, handsome, young! guy who was sort of a mixture of Dr. Mohinder Suresh and Sayid was totally into me. He was shy at first, and didn't even want to give me his number, but before the end of the dream, I was meeting his mother. We went through all the motions of meeting each other, getting to know each other, and falling in love. But we didn't even have sex... hmmm.. sorry, I guess it wasn't that sexy of a dream... BUT TO ME IT WAS!!! ha ha. In the second installment of the dream, things weren't all that great, because somehow Armondo was on to me, and I was trying to hide it from him.. but he was also having an affair with an ex-coworker of ours. Anyway....

It was fun while it lasted, but I hope to meet my handsome Indian* hottie again tonight, or at least one more time in my night life. But then again, we've already gone through all those fun and awkward firsts, so maybe it's time for a new man ;)

And Armondo... I still love you more. You're more amazing than my night hotties, but a girl needs a little variety once in awhile, you know? Especially on these long, lonely, fall nights while you're away!


*The actor that plays Sayid is from Indian descent, and not from the Middle East like his character.

The reason.

Armondo let it "slip" that I wrote a blog under the name of "CeCe" and now some of my inlaws googled it and have this address, so that's why I have changed the accessibility. I don't know what to do now. I want to cry. I love this blog (though the lack of posting might not really reflect that) and I don't want to change my name and address, etc. I thought the name I chose for my husband was pretty clever, but google it together with "Cherry"and "Peach", and my blog is the first to pop up. So, if I start a new blog, I'll need to change my name and "Armondo" at the very least.

So, for now, it'll just be limited access. Grrr.

Hiding my blog

If you use bloglines to read this blog, you'll be able to see this message. I've changed the access to my blog. If you want to be able to read it, send me an email celenaszoo at hotmail dot com and I will either approve you or not.