Milestone

She lost her first tooth. It's all downhill from here, you know. Next thing I know, she'll be 18 years old and wearing a "F*ck 'em Bucky" shirt at a Badger football game. *sigh*

What I've Been Up To Lately

So yeah, postings here on the blog have been scant. Turns out that having two kids is waaaaaaaay more work than having one...who knew?!? In case you were losing sleep from wondering about what it is that I do with my days, here you go. You can rest now.

-Searching for a job and going on LOTS of interviews. One of the terms of unemployment insurance is that I contact at least two prospective employers per week, and I have been living up to my end of the bargain and then some. Nothing overly promising at this point, but I am optimistic that the right thing for my family and for me will materialize. I am fortunate that I can take my time and be selective. Also, I am happy to report one positive that has come out of all of this interviewing: I discovered that I still fit in to my pre-pregnancy professional work wear. I may even need to buy some smaller dress pants!! Huzzah!

-Giving up the meat. My part-time vegan diet didn't work out well for me because, being the Wisconsin girl that I am, I found it impossible to shun dairy products for two-thirds of the day. I need my chai tea with real cow's milk every morning (face it, soy milk sucks) and I need to have cheese on my salad for lunch. BUT, I have discovered that meat is not a necessity to me. In fact, I rarely ate red meat anyway and I have never liked fish. I haven't had a bite of meat for a week now and I can honestly say that I don't miss it one bit. I've been experimenting with some new vegetarian dishes and one that I made--eggplant parmigiana--even got rave reviews at supper last night from the Queen Picky Eater herself, Gracie.

-Sleeping!! I refuse to say more because history has proven the blog effect to be VERY REAL INDEED, so I will simply say that I am well-rested for the first time in almost seven months.

-Enjoying my days with Harrison. Now that Gracie is in school, I have the opportunity for lots and lots of one-on-one time with the boy. Yes, I miss Grace and when 2:15pm comes I can't wait to pick her up from school, but at the same time, it's really nice to have some time during which I can focus all my attention on Harrison.

-Making baby food. We've been getting lots and lots of baby-friendly veggies from our CSA so I started whipping up some batches of homemade baby food for Harrison. It totally helps that he loves to eat so much--it's nice that my efforts are appreciated.

-Loving life. Need I say more?

Grace's First Day of K5 in Pictures

How excited was Grace for her first day back at school today? SO excited...in fact, it was infectious. I didn't even cry. And as much as I fretted and worried about it, we got the kids dressed, fed, and out the door on time, and there were no tears and no hassles. Whew. Here are some pics from this morning:
And I'm throwing in another picture from this past weekend's trip to the zoo, just because it cracks me up.