(Finally) took down the calendar from 2008 yesterday and hung up a recent "spring" project from Emily. I regret not finishing and ordering a family (kid) photo calendar this year.

The days are brighter, warmer and even the chilly mornings have lost their cold winter bite.

Thinking about renewing friendships, writing thank you's long past due, and what the hell am I going to make for Emily's lunch tomorrow??

Listening to the baby screech, squawk, and gabble.

Guess I'm trying to capture a week's worth of fleeting thoughts before they vanish. One more post before I really stop to go clean while the baby naps. Emily has always been rather fond of collecting rocks. There are usually a few rocks sitting in her cubby at preschool, in my coat pocket, on the floor in the den, and in her purse. However, this week I was actually startled to find her purse practically filled .... with rocks. Oddly or interestingly enough, there were basically two sizes, small and medium. I guess those are the sizes in season. And she sorted these rocks on the floor of the upstairs bathroom one night this week. A pile of smalls and a line of the mediums, and her "baby wolf" stuffed animal was helping to "Save the roocks" (think Wonderpets theme song). Now, I'm sure there are worse things she could play with, and as long as pieces of glass or other crap from outside doesn't find it's way into her collection I suppose I'm okay with the rocks. I think she likens finding rocks to collecting sea shells at the beach. Maybe I just need to find a special container for them, the rocks are a little out of hand. In fact, the mister told me this morning that after he dropped Emily off with his folks that he ate the last of the cereal from her cup including ... a rock.

Finally, the pics you've all been waiting for...first veggie shots!

She has more fun being in the high chair seeing what everyone's doing at the table. Here's her sweet potato face.

I'm not sure how much actually got (or stayed) in her mouth. This weekend is first fruit weekend, I think we'll try bananas.

I've only reset my password at least three times and it's not like I can't remember passwords; I remember passwords to dozens of systems at work. At least I should be good for now thanks to "remember me" functionality.

Getting off to a slow start at chez dragonfly today, if you don't count that I was up with the little one from roughly 3 am to 6 am or so....night two of even less sleep than normal. I think I'd like to attribute it to her six month shots, but maybe it was our stuffy noses or coincdidence. It seems to me that when you're craving sleep the most is precisely when you just can't get it.

And I didn't hear anything from Emily this morning, when her dad got her up early to take her to her grandparents' house. She's going on an adventure today - taking the train into the big city and going to the aquarium. I wonder if she'll remember it from our visit when she was 2-ish. Probably not. I remember we "found Nemo and Dory" just as we were leaving the aquarium last time, and it made the day. As the kids get older and we have more and more memories, I wonder how many of these early ones I'll forget.

Speaking of which, miss Emily's done or said a few things to crack me up lately. Sometimes, if she prances around saying that she has to go to the bathroom I tell her, "Well, go." Meaning, don't wait for me, just go if you need to. And so last weekend we were getting ready for bedtime and I needed to go downstairs to bring up some laundry and I just wanted to run down and get it without Emily coming downstairs again. So I kept saying that I needed to get the laundry and I'd be right back, and finally Emily said, "Well go."

I think I might post more often if I could remember my freaking password!

Sweet potatoes all the way, but I'm too tired to transfer and upload the pics of her little orange mugshot. The poor little thing did a nice face plant on the gymini a short while ago; she wasn't surrounded by pillows and toppled head first onto the mat. Ouch. If I lay her down, she rolls over. If she sitting, she eventually falls over...more forwards lately than backwards. She's a good sitter but still flops over.

Gazing across the dining room table and wondering when the little table Christmas tree will be put away. Yes, that's right, Christmas tree. Wanting nothing more than to curl up in bed and sleep, but my better judgement was no where around today to stop me from washing the comforter. And it probably won't be dry for hours since the spin cycle wasn't doing a great job with it. Will I ever learn not to cram stuff in Sunday nights??

I'm so not ready for work this week.

Let's think about summer vacation instead. What to do, what to do ....

Tired. So Very.

And why is it that when I have to get up early all week and wake the kids up, on Saturday morning after a sleepless night, I get nothing but 20 minutes before icy feet land on me, followed by a loud sneeze and, "Mommy?? I have boogers."

"Go ask Daddy for a tissue," I growled. It seems that both girls have a little head cold this weekend.

Yesterday I had some car maintenance and repairs done, which was a relief to cross off the list, but it was more than double the time and money I was planning to spend. So it goes, but if I had known I'd be stuck at the dealership for the day I probably would have made better plans instead of shifting my gaze between daytime TV and the window.

As usual, not much to post. Off to reference the ol' baby books for all that first feeding stuff. Debating whether to move forward with first veggies as planned or wait until this cold passes.

And just like that, the first feeding is behind us. I'm not sure how much food made it into her mouth, but she got a taste of something new. She was very interested in the high chair and loved seeing everything (and everyone) in the kitchen. I don't think it'll take her long to get the hang of this food thing.

Thank goodness it's Saturday and I opted not to schedule work for today. Work was ridiculously busy this week and there's no slow down in sight. Hoping to take a breather this weekend and recover by Monday. At home, have to catch up on the usual...the girls have been so good. I'd like to drag out the high chair and see if little Miss Maddie is interested in rice cereal. If I actually get her in the highchair, there will be a picture posted.

The little one is almost a "sitter" but she's still likely to slump over or take a nose dive so she's surrounded by pillows and cushions to soften the blow. She was all dressed up for Saturday's visit with family, shoes too! This past weekend was too short, but I got a box of rice cereal ready so maybe this weekend we'll resurrect the old high chair for her first bit of grub.

Month three of the 2009 rat race...and what's with the Monday snow two weeks in a row?? It wasn't enough to bail on the commute but it made for a long, slow drive into work. I have to say, though, the heavy white snow was quite beautiful tonight. Winding down the road to home, I swear I could have been in Vermont somewhere.... anyway, I haven't checked in because I'm generally cranky, can't remember my password and get tired of resetting it, and should probably be doing any number of things that don't involve sitting in front of the computer.

Before the snow today, we enjoyed a warm, sunny weekend and it truly felt spring-like. It even felt like I was leaving work early since it was still light outside.

Work is, well, exactly that... it's work. My head spins between the details to process for every little question and tasks to manage for each project to the never-ending backlog waiting at home. But we are lucky, this stuff is just everyday slush. I'm hoping the warmer days ahead will give me a little boost of energy to socialize again. Until then, thank your stars that you haven't crossed paths with my grouchy old shadow.

I really suck at this blogging thing, so here's the random rundown: Saturday I mailed off our tax info (big to-do crossed off the list) and will now wait to hear what the damage is....maybe the new dependent will give us a break this year. I made meatballs which turned out great in the end, as I was trying to turn them in the beginning, I wasn't sure I'd end up with anything more than meat sauce a la frustration. The meatballs were sticking to the pan in spite of the generous smattering of oil I had in there, but they held up. Emily didn't even try one...not even when I tried to pass them off as "hamburger balls." Today, I spent a very productive hour cleaning the den, including moving the couch out to vacuum everything and steam mopped dried juice and spilled snacks off the rest of the floor. It's obvious that we really need to restrict eating to the kitchen. Eeew. An otherwise quiet day here, listening to the laundry rumble and tumble and waiting for this snow storm to fall. Wondering if it'll be a work remotely day or a long, sloppy commute in the morning. The little one is so close to being a "sitter" but she still takes a nose dive here and there. Thinking of making fruit juice jello with Emily and maybe more meatballs tonight and still leave time for baths, and more laundy, of course.