MommyCoddle

See that stuff on the right–stress coat? It came with Emma’s new fishtank. But doesn’t that sound like something that would be good for us? A few drops in your water and everything just feels good again.

Really though, I’m not stressed. I just feel a little disorganized at the moment. My desk being the perfect example–to my right: a small pile of Mary’s folded laundry, my almost empty nalgene bottle (drinking lots of water!), and plastic kitchen food. To my left: this new game of Emma’s, a flashlight, bowl of pretzel nuggets, desitin and a catalog that came in the mail today. The only clear surface is my laptop’s keyboard.

I usually feel this way on the days when I make the trek to the "high risk pregnancy" doctor in Baltimore. Have I told you that my blood clot is gone? yay! But, I’m still on the shots. Boo!

Today it was a follow-up ultrasound because they found that the baby’s umbilical cord has one artery instead of two. Can we have anymore "issues with this pregnancy??!! The high risk doctor’s reaction is to take me down the trail of "worst case scenarios", whereas my regular OB blows it off with a wave of her hand as "very common". So today’s appointment was to be sure the baby is growing properly. And yes, little babe is in the 90th percentile–getting me out of more high risk doctor visits for a few weeks. Phew!

On a completely different train of thought: have I told you of my new little typepad epiphany? Well, I am very bored with the limited colors that you’re offered when you design your weblog. And I look at other people’s blog and think that their colors are different (and better) from the ones I use. So, I upgraded to a "pro" account for all of ten minutes, to determine if you got more color choices with the top level account. You don’t.
So, then I thought: I wonder if I can put any little code in the box that comes up when I choose my colors. For example, if you choose a green border, the little box shows a mix of six or so letters and numbers that I suppose in HTML code means, "green". So, I did a google search of HTML color codes and found this website.  Here, there’s a whole range of colors with little codes beside each of them. If you choose your colors, write down those codes and then type that code into the box on typepad’s design pages, you’ll get THAT color! does that make any sense?? If not, I’ll have to write it up step by step or something. But it works people! Now, instead of just a mere ten colors to choose from there’s at least four times that many!! You can finally find your perfect shade of green or blue or brown…. Try it. And if this makes no sense, tell me. I’ll try to get more detailed.
So there’s your blogging design tidbit for today. Actually, it’s the first tidbit I’ve ever given, but anyway…. (added today: Sooo…after reading your comments, it looks like I am the LAST one to figure this one out! Oh well, it still makes me happy! 🙂

And lastly–if you’re wondering if you’ve missed getting an email about your miniswap partner…you haven’t. My plan is to swap names tonight while I’m flipping pancakes. Yes, breakfast for dinner. It’s that kind of day. So, be watching. But no, you’ve missed nothing.

Part of my New Year plans included adding some more things to the "school" time that Emma and I spend together. The one on the top of my list was working on the calendar.

She’s probably like most children in that the anticipation of an exciting, upcoming event drives her crazy. I especially noticed this around Christmas when I severely dropped the ball with an advent calendar. As soon as the tree was up, to her Christmas was right around the corner. The idea of waiting two more weeks was both hard to understand and simply, hard to do.
So, with that in mind, I decided our New Year was going to begin with a new calendar for Emma. It’s definitely time to learn those days of the week, the months and get a general concept of calendar time.

I bought this board in the office supply section at Target (and painted it). Both sides are magnetic–but it is also dry erase and cork board, so there’s lots of flexibility. Then I made up all these calendar bits: days of the week, numbers, months, even little weather clip art.

For my purposes, I printed everything on magnetic sheets so that they are easy to use over and over, but I’m sure card stock would be great too. Maybe you could even get them laminated. (And what I wouldn’t have done for a paper cutter. After all that work, it was killing me to not have nice straight corners.)
So, designing this project took me way too many hours. Adding to that, I did it all with Microsoft Word. (I’m now in the market for an old version of Corel or Adobe Illustrator for Mac. Anyone have any tips or want to sell one? I NEED a publishing program.)
But as I was working on it, I thought, I’m definitely going to share this with all of you. It’s too much work to not pass on. So, I’m working on getting these files on here for all of you. I wanted to put them out as pdf files, but I don’t have the ability to save them that way, so for now, they’ll just be word files. But at least, you’ll be able to modify them if need be.
I’m hoping this works. Let me know if there are lots of problems, and I’ll see what can be done to fix things.

Download calendar_days_of_week.doc

Download calendar_number_magnets.doc

Download calendar_magnets2_and_misc.doc

Download calendar_months_1.doc

Download calendar_months_2.doc

Enjoy. And let me know if you use them–I’d love more ideas!

**Thanks to Jennifer at MamaUrchin!! We have pdf’s, everyone. They are downloadable over in my sidebar. Thank you Jennifer!!!!***

Remember this? "Buy Goldfish."

It all came together this weekend in time for Emma’s fifth birthday today.

Nightly fish checks are required before bed. These four fish were carefully chosen from a tank swarming with feeder fish. I finally had to step in and catch them myself because I couldn’t bear to watch the poor clerk swirl the net through the masses trying to pick out the "fish with the white belly. no, not that one. there! that one! right there!" I managed to catch THAT fish and three others managed to get tangled in the net along with him.
"I think they must be best friends. They were all swimming around together."–my way of convincing them to stop the fish chase right there. Thankfully, they were four unique-looking fish that fit the bill. Today we went back to replace the one that didn’t make it. ("that one was mary’s, mommy) and add some live plants.

I love the presents Emma is getting this year–they are so her. A pair of binoculars and bird field guide from her grandmother, roller skates from her NeeNee, and a pair of "sleepers with feet" and a helmet for her horseback riding lessons from me and Dan.  I’m really not sure why she requested the sleepers. She likes to rub one foot on the other foot’s heel while she sleeps. Honestly, I think she just likes the idea of sleepers and likes running around in them before bed. But when it’s time to really get between the sheets, they inevitably seem to be replaced by something more heel-rubbing friendly.

I told her this morning that this was it. This was her last birthday. Five was all the older she could get. I’m not allowing six or seven, let alone eleven or twelve. I can barely admit that she’s five and I shop for her in the girl’s department, that she knows more words to gillian welch songs than I do or can set the dinner table beautifully with no help from me .
"But mom," she said in response to my declaration about the cessation of getting older, "it just happens."
That’s right Emma, babe. I guess it does. Happy Birthday one more time.