Baby!

I have the cutest and sweetest nephew there ever has been.

I got to wheel him around Target on Saturday and his mom didn't tell me I was doing it wrong ONCE. This is big for her.

He was SO SLEEPY. When we left them in the middle of the mall, I squatted down next to the stroller and he smiled at me and gave me several fives. Sigh.

He's six months old and currently wearing twelve-month-old clothing. I hope I hope I hope he fits an eighteen-month-old sweater when it's actually chilly outside. I hope. Children don't grow exponentially, right? He's not going to get bigger faster the bigger he gets? I need some sort of scientific equation (and, ahem, someone to explain it to me) for reassurance.

Duck!

I sent off my request to Rachel for pictures of us today with little Owen, hopefully I will have one or two to share when she gets back to me. If my brother were here, I would hit up his camera, but he is not. I am home alone.

Something has been bothering me lately. Lack of people to talk to.

Oh, good news - I think the 18 month old size (the size I'm knitting) will fit Owen really well as next fall rolls around. Unless he starts growing bigger the bigger he gets. Would that be exponentially? Unless that happens, I think we're safe. (Although I'm going to try not to wait until his birthday to finish it. I can do this before September, folks.)

That picture up there? That's the last installment of the first bunch of pictures. I've got more sitting on my desk, waiting to be photographed (or, you know, scanned... should I ever figure out how to work that blasted machine), so I'll be sharing more. Although I'm not sure anyone else finds them interesting. Do you? Find them interesting? Not that it matters much, because I'm going to keep posting them.

Somehow on Friday, I ended up scratching the corner of my mouth.  How?  I never remember the ways I get hurt.  Such a terrible memory.

Plans

Today I will be slow-cooking pork for BBQ sandwiches tonight. It was good last time, and the time before. It should be good tonight as well.

I really hope that my brother isn't planning on asking me for a ride back to Milwaukee tomorrow. That would really be awful. Mostly because I will want to say no more than anything else in the world. And am usually unable to do so. Actually, that reminds me. On Thursday night I had a dream that Robby asked me to drive him back to Milwaukee and I flipped out with all of the rage that I normally feel on the inside when he asks me to drive him home showing on the outside. I was so enraged that I'm surprised I didn't wake anyone up.

Today (while the pork is porking slow-cooking), Robby and I are driving to our sister's house so he can meet the baby. I suspect I'll mostly be playing with her boyfriend's older son, Anthony, because (somehow? In the past year?) I've gotten pretty awesome at hanging out with kids. Babies I'm still pretty unsure what to do with. I mean, beyond the first cursory, "Oooooh, look at his cutey facey-wacey! /funny face" stage. There is more to it that that, isn't there?

I have never changed a diaper.

This is the Quiet

I've finished the back of the sweater, and am on to the left front. That part should zoom by. And then it's the sleeves. And then the buttons (which I already bought and then showed to Steve one day and now cannot find for anything - argh). The buttons I'm going to use are very cute, they are wooden and have a tiny checkerboard pattern on them. Subtle and adorable.

I know that Rachel likes the color, because in one of the pictures she sent recently, Owen was wearing a shirt of that color. Phew.

On Friday I'll be working my first PNO. It's an event my company holds once a month in Appleton where the parents of kids with autism (who are in the program) come to a dinner we host. The therapists play with the kids and supervise while the parents get some time off to hang out with other people who are in the same boat. It's pretty cool, and I'm glad my schedule works out for it this month.

Oh, and after they screwed me out of 1/3 of my hours, I'd be nuts not to pick up the few I can get with fun stuff like this.

Nephew Meeting Day

That's the official title for today. From henceforth, all second Saturdays of the eleventh month shall be known as Nephew Meeting Day.

Can you tell I'm excited? I'm bringing my camera, so I can share him with you guys. I'm so excited. I'm so excited.

So when I took the dog out this morning, as every morning, I didn't even put shoes on my feet, just wrangled him out there and gave him his food and stumbled back into the house. Except this time, I'd somehow managed to lock the door on my way out. Don't ask me how it happened, it just did.

I tried the front door too, but that one was locked as well. (Bruce, you taught me well. Remind me to thank you. Ahem.) So I was faced with some options. There's the stuck-up lawyer across the street (no thank you), the strangers with the loud mentally disabled guy I went to school with kiddy-corner (um, I'd rather not), and the hot neighbor*. I of course chose the hot neighbor.

(My neighbor is alarmingly hot. Lisa (of Lisa and Todd) and I have been watching her all summer long. One time we were driving to the house having a great conversation and we passed her and there was silence, because we were both checking her out. She is pretty, but most of all she's got a fantastic booty and she's always walking down our road for excercise while reading her book. Oh, and on top of it all, she's from a foreign country and has a very interesting accent. We've been speculating on her and discussing her for months now.)

I knocked on the door, not really expecting anyone to answer (did I mention this was at 8:30?), but she came right to the door. Not in sweat pants, like I was, but in actual jeans-and-sweater clothes she was going to wear for the day. She tells me that yes, of course I can use her phone, so I call my mom. (She's got the spare key, and will be with me in a few minutes.) As I hang up the phone, HN offers me a cappuccino. Yeah, I know. I accept, and she offers me toast. I try to say no, but she's just too hospitable. I can't resist.

After a few minutes, I introduce myself, "Oh, by the way, I'm Sarah." She laughs, "Oh, I know that." I look confused, we haven't actually met before, I'm sure I'd remember. She says, "I used to work with your friend at Walmart... Todd."

Lisa is going to die.

Sauce II

I'm sitting here in my cold, cold house wondering what I should do in the space of time between now and being up north tonight.

Of course, I could always make some more effing sauce.

Guess what? I'm an aunt! He was born on Thursday, 10lbs 3oz. He and Mom are both doing fine.

Bottoms-R-Us

Last week, my mom mentioned how hard it is for my sister to be pregnant, how she's probably the only pregnant lady that's ever existed to be this pregnant, and how funny all of that is.  And it is, because we all knew (more or less) that this would be how it would be, because she's that way.  Everything is more when it happens to my sister.  I think part of it stems back to her adoption, and her early childhood.  But it's still funny.  Get my drift?

I was talking with Lee Ann about it on the day I got the kitten, and mentioned how Rach was complaining to my mom about her "bottom" hurting, and how it hurt worse than she'd ever have imagined, as if she were the first pregnant lady to have that particular problem.  Lee Ann informed me that it was actually common, and she wasn't surprised that she'd been talking about it, because it's sort of, well, all-encompassing, and it takes over your mind when it happens.  I was a little alarmed, and felt bad for making fun of my sister for talking about it, because apparently it would be slightly more alarming if she wasn't bringing it up to everyone.  Then I told her that Rach was due at the end of August.  

"Oh!" said Lee Ann.  "Usually that doesn't happen until much later."

There you go.  The most pregnant of all the women that ever were.

Auntie Sunny

Sometime at the end of the summer, I'll finally become an aunt. To Owen. Yeah, that's right.

When I heard the name for the first time (last week), I breathed a sigh of relief. At least it's not a name I'd choose for my own kid. You don't know how cranky I'd have been if she'd chosen one of my names. (Shayla? No, but my version of it.)

Vacation was effing great. I'm so tanned that I don't really resemble myself anymore. I catch my own eye in the mirror and scare myself. I shouldn't have hair this dark if I'm going to tan this quickly. It ain't right.

I got to spend many hours of fun and frolic with my mom's cousins' kids and Hannah and Phil. They're so awesome at this age. I'll always remember how, when we were out swimming in the lake full of waves, Phil would inadvertantly get a mouthful of waves. I would pick him up, clap his back, and tell him to let me kwow when he'd caught his breath. After the first episode, I'd barely get him out of the water before he'd sputter, "Cot mine breff!" Later, he told me, "That swimming was my best."

Speaking of nieces and nephews, Hannah got her ears pierced today, for her birthday. She was the bravest girl, when they pulled the triggers, I could tell she wanted to cry, but she didn't. She was a brave girl. I've got some pictures, maybe I'll share one tomorrow.

ALONG WITH MY KITTEN PICTURES! Yeah, that's right. I'm gettin' a kitten. Tomorrow.