Posts from — December 2011

Hope this weekend (and beyond) is full of people you dig and feelings of grooviness.

Peace on earth.

Other places:

It was inevitably going to happen: I talked about my pregnancy nose on the internet. I need a support group.

Also, it’s time to name this kid. I’m ready.

Here:

Christmas preparationpalooza! I’ve been shopping and baking (what?) and schlepping packages to the post office and generally being in too much of a tizzy to actually enjoy myself, which I’ve decided will stop TODAY. Plus, Noah had two cavities filled (Extra large helping of Mom Guilt: Order up!) this morning, which he is we are recovering from on the couch with cartoons and smoothies. Later on the docket is the new Chipmunk movie and a trip to the bookstore. I would pretty much give him anything after watching his brave-faced entry into the bowels of the dentist office without me. Much Words With Friends was played in an attempt to distract myself from his ordeal. (He was a champ, btw. Still, teeth-brushing vigilance just went up a few dozen notches in this household.)

(P.S. I got an iPhone. Can you tell? INSTAGRAAAAAAAAAM!)

Speaking of Instagram, Rosie and I had a girl’s night on Monday, which mostly involved eating and a way overdone, should-have-stopped-pouring-a-long-time-ago-and-also-not-turned-on-the-jets-because-Whoa-Nelly bubble bath. So I snapped this shot:

… and then immediately felt an acute sense of Trusty Ol’ Regular Camera abandonment. I don’t want my phone to replace my other camera (though I do think it lends a great sense of artistic … ness … artistry? to ordinary pictures, which I really dig, and definitely think it has its place) for all the shots I take around here. We’ve had too long a love affair for that. So I’m going to be more purposeful about pulling out Old Faithful as much as I can and try to reserve the phone for on-the-go purposes, etc. And so! Bathtime with Rosie, who decided she was a snowman, and created friends from the suds so that she might boss them around with great authority:

Took a shovel and 30 minutes to clean up, but it was worth it, I think.

I don’t take nearly as many pictures these days as I used to.

I think I need to remedy that, post haste

Before these rascals become so hard to capture

That all I can get are blurry shots of dirt-stained knees and streaks of shiny red shoes

As they flash by my lens on their way to the next big thing.

We’ve had a string of sub-par living room floor coverings in the past. Rug duds, if you will. We started with some plain off-white cheap piece of scrap rug that we got at Home Depot or some other such place where we heard poor church mice types like us could get a good deal. Then we upgraded some time later to a rug that in theory was great, except that I realized about a week after we got it that the raised ropey parts that created the cool looking square pattern on the surface meant I had to pull the hose from the body of the vacuum and clean it square by square on my hands and knees. That one got the boot pretty fast.

Then we arrived at the FLOR rug, which at first was great, and then not as great, and then became the bane of my existence as I crawled around lint-rolling it (you have to know if I was doing that, it was because that was the ONLY WAY to get it even remotely clean) and repositioning every single square with increasingly unsticky FLOR tabs on a weekly basis. Sure, it was great that we could make it look however we wanted, but after a while I would have gladly traded the ability to change the pattern for a rug that just freaking stayed together for one day and didn’t cause one of us to trip on a rogue square as we passed through to the kitchen.

Said rug, in its most recent configuration. Note the visible gap in front of the coffee table that causes me to say swear words regularly.

So yesterday, after weeks of discussions that started “We should really get a new rug,” or “You know, we have that gift card, maybe we should think about a rug for the living room,” or “Dude, this rug looks like crap,” we decided to GET ‘ER DONE and go get ourselves a new rug.

We went to our local IKEA (after deciding via an ol’ web searcharoo what rug we thought would work best for us), slapped one of these in our cart and beelined home where we could then (gleefully) begin disassembling one all caps floor covering for another.

Sayonara, dirt-covered, pieced-together sucka.

One of the reasons we chose the rug we did was because it is supah soft and cushy. And come May, a nice plush surface will come in pretty handy around here, methinks. (Even moreso come fall of next year, when the littlest Yestertimer starts the gradual ascent to upright status.) I love a house with hardwood floors, but alas, it is not the best place for setting one’s babe down for a spell so you can lay next to her and gaze at her for hours run to the bathroom. Nor is it great for crawly knees or sessions with an unsure sitter upper. (Which just happens to be one of my all-time favorite periods of babydom.)

Swept, prepped and ready for ruggin’

One sure sign that we are indeed now grown ups is that we bought a no-slip rug pad to go underneath. Yes, I know you should probably always do that. No, none of our other rugs (even current ones in other rooms) have one.

We even vacuumed it, right out of the package. Look at us, so big like real people!

I have to say, this is a room-changer for me. I feel like this space is even more pulled together than it’s ever been. (The Christmas tree doesn’t hurt, of course.) I love this rug a lot. Like more than my black maternity leggings, and that, my friends, says VOLUMES about my affections.

Ooh la la! C’est magnifique! And more foreign phrases I don’t know!

And while I had thought about how great the rug would be for a wee one soon to live in this house, I hadn’t thought as much about how the current children-tele (see what I did there?) would like it. Turns out, they like it right much.

Rugrats

So, that’s a lot to say about getting a rug, I guess. But every time we do something that makes me feel like our home is cozier and more reflective of our life together here, it makes me happy. I watch Noah and Rosie dance to the Nutcracker all afternoon, turn cartwheels, and roll around in front of the Christmas tree on the rug; I look at them sprawled on the floor and think of the third that will join them there soon; I take off my shoes to sink my toes in as I stride to the couch to type up this post; and I know that there’s just a lot to be grateful for in this space. And the rug reminds me of that.

… Also, I’m pregnant, and maybe nesting and also emotional a little bit. Still! I have serious rug love, you guys. For real. You should come over, kick your shoes off and stick around for a while.

P.S. Bonus points to anyone who knows where the inspiration for my title came from. (Except not you, Jose.) (You either, Sarah.)(Insider knowledge holders, both of you.)

Yesterday, just about all the things went wrong. It was raining, I got a “behavior update” from Rosie’s teacher (it was not stellar), I left work early to get a flu shot only to find out they didn’t have the right kind of flu shots for pregnant ladies, we were out of groceries, my pants didn’t fit (par for the course these days, but still) etc. etc. It all has me feeling a little bah humbug, which I do not like, not one little bit. I want to keep a good Rah! Rah! We can do this! attitude going as the holiday break approaches, but I have to say, I’m feeling a little more Rah? We can … do this? as the days wear on. However, right now I think if I can just hold fast to we can do this and veer the pessimobile away from we can’t do this, I’ll make it through. Even if it’s by the skin of my teeth.

That being said, here is something I wrote somewhere else today. It involves this picture:

Look at that young’n! And look at Noah! (heh.)

Also, once again it’s a new, fresh bunch of words! That I made up special! No more reruns. Because RAH! WE CAN DO THIS!

Rah?