Super weekend all around. It was warmer than it has been, so we've been able to get outside and get some fresh air. Nino has been having some dreams, so he wakes at 4 am saying "I don't like that". Poor bean.

He also tried nursing this morning. I know that there's not much there. He tried for about a second on righty and said "momma, I all done with that one". I think he just wants to keep his options open.

He has a new patriots sweatsuit. He's going to wear it as much as possible for the next several days.

We finally have Nino to the point where we can lay him down in his crib and he sleeps through. Two long years later. He hasn't been in our bed in two weeks, and it's working great for us, and is great for the weaning process.

So dh got home right at bedtime last night and hadn't seen Nino at all so he decided he needed to come in our bed. Never.Again. I slept poorly with my boobs being grabbed for 4 hours, all of us being prodded and kicked, when I stuck boy in his crib (I asked T to do it earlier, rrg) and we all got some much needed rest. It was 2:30 am, I'm finally settling boy in, and cursing my husband.

Anyhoo, at least this morning when I told T that was no longer an option, he totally understood. Tonight will be better.

I had a very vivid weird dream last night, where I took a pregnancy test, and instead of 1 or 2 lines, there were 3 or 4. But it was unclear, even then, if I was pregnant.

Last week I brought 2 plants into work. John told me that the cactus was dead. No hope.

Well phhhbbbbbtttt to him. It's coming back. I rule. The other one, I had more hope for and it's looking great. Not great actually, but better.

At some point, my son started sleeping in his crib all night. I'm so excited, but it marks a sad stage. He's a little boy now. I'm starting to transition him to a toddler bed, so he now sleeps with the crib side down. My big boy. He slept until 9:30 Sunday morning. That was delicious.

The patriots are going to the super bowl again. It's exciting, and I'm sending Nino's little Pats sweatsuit to cousin Sophia for her use on the big day.

I also had my first weigh in today. Down 3.6 lb. I'm so excited. It's inspirational. I hope I can keep it up. My goal is 10 lb by B's wedding.

Yesterday, I was with a friend in the lingerie department of Filenes, and G was in his stroller, and said "buy those boobies, momma!!" Loud enough for all to hear. I lost it.

Or this morning, I told him this was a new shirt from B (my friend who gave it to him yesterday, he unwrapped it), he said "more presents please momma".

And last night he looked at me from his backseat and was holding his cup up and said "I gonna throw this" and then he did. I lost it.

He also now goes a day here and there without nursing. He hasn't even asked since 6 am yesterday. I'm glad he's doing it on his own, but still. :(

He's also a bloody genius. This weekend he opened his madeline book to the "smiled at the good" page and said "frown at bad".

And I signed up for WW online today. I did it not that long ago, but I'm really ready. I need to be. I weighed in yesterday and wanted to cry.

I'm so happy that this is a long weekend. It's hard to come back full-on after vacation with the boy.

We've really been connecting lately. So I haven't gone to the gym as much or gotten as much laundry done. Poo. My son tells me he loves me all the time and laughs more than I'd ever imagined.

We're having great sleep success lately. He tells me when he's tired, we read a book or something, and he naps or sleeps. In his bed. I bought the toddler bed conversion kit, but I'm not going to do that until he's got a good pattern. I don't need him walking over to me at 3 am. I'm just so lucky that I got to enjoy 2 years of him in the bed, most of the time, without any long-term effects.

Relatively nice weekend here. Dull and nice. Friday playgroup mom announced her pregnancy. Insanely jealous, yet very happy for her. I know that I don't *really* want it to happen for a few months, but you know . .

Not to mention today I found out it's not happening this month.

We got a bunch of snow. Nino loved it. He loves to be outside, help daddy clean up, all that. He gets mad when it gets in his eyes. He was on daddy's back in the backpack (aka "pack-pack") and yelled at it. Picture it please, hand up in "stop" position, saying "no snow no. Momma, snow booooothering me". He's a godforsaken riot.

But we were all feeling a bit punky. Stomach bug of some sort. Not fun. It put a bit of a kink in our weekend. Yesterday we were all slugs. It was kind of nice. Wish I could do the same again today.

I'm having a pity party. Please join me. 2004 was going to be the year I finished my exams. I had 2 remaining. One whole year and I didn't even take one until December. And failed it, it seems. 2004 was going to be the year I lost the weight. Here it is 2005 and I'm still a sow.

The upshot to this is that 2005 *will* be the year. I can take prep courses and both exams before my 30th birthday. That's my new goal. And I just want to lose some weight before I get pregnant again, but the amount isn't as important.

I'm allowing myself this pity party and that's that. I had lots of chocolate yesterday, and ate fast food for the first time in months. But I didn't even let myself order the big "value" meal. I must be getting old.

Back at work after 10 days off. It's been a long day.

Well, that's done. It went amazingly well. Even easier to take out than to put in. Easier than a pap, but pretty similar. A tiny bit of cramping, even still, but that's what happens when something goes through your cervix, right?

She was so happy for me. I love the midwives at my practice. She gave me some prenatal samples, and an rx, and we talked boobies (they had a great poster).

Here we go again!

We had Nino's birthday party (s) this weekend. It began with playgroup. He was non too keen on sharing, which prompted some of the other moms to say "welcome to 2". ;o)



Then Saturday night we had a family party, casual but not small. It was so easy since I catered by Costco. Deli platters and all. No one minds one bit.

Here he is the next day, after I assembled that crazy crane thing. He was too excited to even put pants on. The one box said "over 100 pieces" like somehow that's a good thing. It's not. That crane thing in the middle took forever.


Here is G kissing his sweet girl cousin, who came to visit and left this morning. I miss them already. He loves her, except when she wants to sit in his chair, wear his clothes, or be held by his momma.

Good weekend all around here. Yesterday had friends over for Christmas tree cutting and donuts. We have a beautiful tree, but the smell is the best part. It smells wonderful. Like Christmas and oranges.

And I think I'm going to do Catering by Costco for his party this weekend. Frozen pizzas or a deli tray or something. No one will notice the difference anyway and it'll be so much easier. Evenings this week will be cupcake construction central.

So this morning, when I was asking Nino what he wanted for breakfast, he said "more donuts?" Yikes. He had a whole-wheat waffle.

Beyond thrilled. I was wrapping Nino's gifts and realized that he doesn't have *that* pile that Santa always brings. But he has so many toys and doesn't need anything more. I just felt like there's some magic in the heap of toys.

So I was bringing his 18-24s up to the attic (sniff, sniff) and found this huge garbage bag from SIL that had a fire truck, some blocks, and this big barn in it. I'm totally wrapping them up for him. Now he's got that heap and I'm not out $100 for toys he may or may not use.

And, last night he fell in love with some blocks at a friend's house. Real wonderful old wooden blocks. He's getting some of those.

I'm beyond excited. Rachel and I are having a business (haha) coffee date tomorrow. I can't wait to see her and her sweet girl again. And we'll just get to hang out and talk. I love my Fridays off.

I'm a sewing fiend lately. Last night I started a doll who I am in love with. He is adorable. I love the boy dolls with their little dreadlocky hair. I've got two more orders to do, and sent a cute child order off this morning. I'm feeling very productive.

I'm also a hormonal hothead lately. Today I walked into the toy store to get some stuff and the lady told me I couldn't come in with a drink. I'm freakin 29 years old, I've done it before, there's no sign. I wanted to turn around and walk out, but she said "you can leave it on the counter". Like I'm a chocolate covered 4 year old. I spent my $.95 and left. I planned to spend more but no. It's a small little business downtown, I want to support them, but they'll have tons of pedestrian traffic. Rrrg.

I think that your body tells you when you're ready to have a child. There's more biology involved than I think. A month or so I started having relatively normal cycles again, and I started *really* wanting a baby. And I feel like Nino is ready, probably readier than either mom or dad. It's always a big leap, you're never really ready to make the decision, but you go for it. We did last time and it's a million times better than we'd ever dreamed.

I'm also bummed that people think that blogs are a place to leave crap in the comments. A handful of my friends have to go through and prune out bad comments or spam comments. What purpose does it serve? I don't know of a single person who is going to change their thoughts, or buy something, based on a blog comment. All I know is it makes people mad.

We saw Santa today.



I also took my eighth exam. I think it went well. I have no clue. It was a six hour exam, and I was done in half the time, but I also skipped the mouse tutorial. Really, if you can't use a mouse, do you have any hope of passing a computerized design exam? 4-5 weeks until I find out. I don't feel like I forgot anything or had any major gaffs.

Wow. I just made an appointment. January 24th, fertility will return. Very nervous, very excited. I hope I can relax about the whole thing. I want there to be some time until we really "try", March-ish.

Nino knows who Santa Claus is. I had no idea. He's not even 2. Yesterday we got a photo of Sophia with Santa, and when I asked who it was, he said "santikloss". I had to point out the baby in the sea of red velvet. He also knows that it's Mick Mouse on his diapers, elmo, cookie monster, bob builder, and worst of all, barney. I try to have him talk about the "dog" or "tiger", but somehow the "bear" became "poobear". Not the worst, and he's such a smart kid. It just bums me out that all orange fish are Nemo. It wasn't like this when we were growing up. Or I'm going to pretend it wasn't.

Here is the beauty:

This Friday we're going to one of hubby's clients' holiday parties. It sucks. 6:30-10:30 pm, on a godforsaken *boat*. So you have to stay the whole FOUR hours. And it's freakin December, so we'll all be huddled inside with our hot toddies, so we won't get to enjoy the boat part. It'll be like being at the Marriot ballroom, but that we can't leave early. Now we have to find childcare from 5-11. And try to get into Boston for 6:30. It all sucks. I think I'm going to schedule things such that we're "accidentally late" and miss the boat. I will know exactly 3 people there, one of whom I share my bed with. I just hope they have good wine.

I'm also trying to sort out Nino's birthday. I wanted it to be low-key, just family, but I wanted to have it at home so that his sitter could come. SIL wanted to do it, but she's an hour away, so sitter wouldn't come. And my family wouldn't feel as welcome. And then it's notsomuch my thing. Not that it's a big deal but I wanted it to be simple. Ugh.

I feel ten thousand times better about my projects. Slings will hit the mail tomorrow, christmas cards are near complete, I did some studying, finished one scarf, decided not to even get to the calendars for a bit, did some ironing, and the house smells fine again. Additionally, I'm really pleased with a new style of sling I made and can't wait to hear how Tru likes it. The only thing is that the cats are bothering my allergies.