I'm Still Here

Dear blogger friends, I am sorry I have fallen off the wagon. In the interest of hosting Mother's Day cook-outs and going to the dentist and physical therapy and keeping up on laundry and switching Adelay from the nursery to her new bedroom, I have been one sorry slacker with the posting and commenting lately. I offer my apologies, and I am trying to catch up on everyone's posts.
I have many things to mention, so today's post is going to be completely unthemed, just a list, in the order that they pop into my head, of all the things I've been wanting to tell you guys lately.

1. I made a traditional English trifle for Mother's Day, complete with sweet, ripe strawberries, sherry-soaked pound cake, and REAL whipped cream which I WHIPPED MYSELF. And it was fantastic, it truly was. I have decided that though I am not such a successful baker, perhaps the secret for me is no-bake desserts. From now on I will stick to recipes with ingredients which need only to be whipped and layered and soaked in dessert liqueurs!

2. My friend Renee got me Season 10 of Friends as a surprise, for-no-reason present, and it may be my most favorite gift ever. First there was the unexpectedness, which always heightens the pleasure and the niceness of a gift, in my opinion, and then there was the perfectness of it, because I was really getting sick of the seasons I had. All friends and romantic partners of bored pregnant women, take note! TV series make excellent gifts. Because while we enjoy chocolate, we are prone to heartburn, and while flowers are lovely, they die. We cannot drink your wine, we cannot even drink your coffee, and our attention span is that of a toddler right now, so books longer than a magazine article are pretty much out, too. But episode after episode of a twenty-two minute long sitcom? This is the gift that keeps on giving.

3. If you happen to buy a so-so brownie mix, and it comes out tasting a little too floury, a little too dull, and not rich enough at all... Well. Drizzling copious amounts of chocolate and caramel sauce over the top of it while it is still warm and allowing it to soak all the way through the cake is a not too shabby way to jazz that pan of brownies right up!

4. Saturday night, Jim painted Addy's playroom, soon to be her bedroom/playroom, a brighter shade of yellow. Before which, I spackled the thirty or so nail holes and toy dents which were ruining the otherwise acceptable coat of paint currently on the walls. I LOVE seeing a fresh coat of paint. And I really love that I didn't have to DO any of the actual taping or painting or cleaning up. This was an excellent Mother's Day gift. And now I feel like we're really doing the big stuff to prepare for the new baby. One room down, one to go!

5. Addy's new toddler bed (take two!) arrived Monday evening, and it was actually the RIGHT bed in the RIGHT color. Whew. So tonight we're setting it up, and, with any luck, Addy will be out of the crib. I am a little sad but mostly excited, because I really do think she's ready and will be okay with it.

6. I have now gained eighteen pounds. I am about twelve pounds from where I was when Addy was BORN. Which means I can only gain four pounds a month from now on, if I am to gain the same amount this time. Which is basically to say, I am SO going to be gaining more weight this time. And this is fine. Really, it is. It will be good and healthy if this baby is bigger than Addy was, for one thing. Not, like, five pounds bigger. But maybe one or two. What I have a problem with, however, is that my THIGHS appear to be pregnant.

7. There are large black ants taking over our house. I really don't have a lot to say about this, because it's not funny, it's been almost two months, and I am about to scream. And yet I can't set out traps because the last time I did, Adelay tried to eat them. So all I can do is obsessively smash ants all day long, and obsessively clean up crumbs and food bits to try not to attract the ants. But still they come. It's like being at a picnic all day long, minus the watermelon and the fun.

8. Yesterday at Wal-Mart, I saw just the classiest thing ever! In line in front of me was a young dad with his little baby boy, laughing and playing. I smiled benevolently and thought, "Aw." And then I glanced at the conveyor belt, upon which lay his single purchase: a giant box of Trojans. Which, while hard to ignore, lying there in all its glory, was not an inherently negative thing. His son looked to be about three months old and the guy wasn't wearing a wedding band, so safe sex was probably a good idea for him. But then a minute later, I saw him drive by the front of the store as I was walking out, in his rusted out truck, with the carseat, forward facing, in the front seat! Despite my previous attempt to judge not lest I myself be judged, I gave in and judged him quite sternly to be a white trash loser out to go break a condom, and probably not with his son's mother, either. And then I laughed all the way to my car. Only at Wal-Mart...

9. I am so stinking tired of our dentist. And tired of not having dental coverage on our health plan. Since switching to our current office (because, ironically, the old one was getting too expensive!) they have raised their fees twice. In one year. It now costs me ninety-three bucks to get a cleaning. When paying out of pocket, this is insane. I know for a fact there are other offices in the area which charge about half of that. So, annoyed but resigned, I am now beginning yet again to search for a new dentist.

10. Yesterday was Jim's and my third anniversary. It was simple, but nice. We went out to eat and exchanged cards. But it was really fun. We haven't done anything just the two of us, no friends or family or baby, in a long time. It turns out we can still do the old conversation thing pretty darn well. And hey, three years- we've outlasted most celebrity couples already!