Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Punkin and I are leaving to go to Chicago on Friday!

A few years ago when I got pregnant with Punkin, I joined this online community called B.abyZon.e, which is like a virtual neighborhood for women who all have similar interests - getting pregnant, being pregnant, or parenting.  I joined the September 2008 Due Date Club, which is exactly what it sounds like - an online club for women who were all pregnant and due in/near September 2008.  We started out the board with an awful lot of moms, but unfortunately we lost a lot of them early on due to miscarriages.  The moms that made it through the first trimester generally stayed up with the board all the way through their pregnancies, but then after the babies were born, moms started getting busy with their kiddos and we lost a lot more of our ladies, especially when everyone started moving over to Facebook.  I was really sad to see the board slow down, but it was still nice to be able to communicate with everyone on FB.

Some of the moms that I found myself identifying with more than others were LaNeisha and her son Nico (born the same day as Punkin!), Suzette and her daughter Skye, Jasmine and her son Silas, Julie and her daughter Autumn, Genia and her son Bryson, Monica and her daughter Elodie, Amanda and her daughter Jordyn, Kelly and her daughter Riley, Mary and her son Sammy, and Julie and her daughter Tenley.  These are the women who initially stayed on the board and moved to FB, so it was easy to keep up with them.  I met Genia and Bryson several months ago when they were in town on vacation.  Punkin and I went to Olive Garden with them and we had a great time!  It was really nice to be able to put a physical person with all the typing we did every day.

Over the past several months, I've gotten a lot closer to Jasmine.  She used to be the host of the board, but stepped down after her son was born because she just didn't have the time anymore.  Julie and I both stepped up to be hosts, but after a big fight (that I admittedly was a big part of) Julie got frustrated with the lack of respect and the lack of participation on the board (I don't blame her one bit!) and stepped down, leaving me as the host.  (We won't get into what happened with Janelle, who was supposed to be the other host on the board).  It was hard for me to keep up by myself, so Jasmine stepped back up to help me out.  Once she became the co-host again we started talking more off the board and got to know each other well.  We talked about all the stuff we would do if we ever got together but it was always more of a joke than anything, especially after looking at airfare for Cedar Rapids, which is the closest airport to her, and finding out that tickets were over $400 roundtrip.  Per person. EFF THAT.

  Well, early in the summer I got frustrated that I wasn't going to be doing anything except house and dog sitting for my parents, so I decided to make it a point to figure out how to get to Iowa to see Jasmine and spend some time there.  Plane tickets to CR were still a million bucks each, so I talked to Jasmine and she said she would be willing to drive to Chicago to pick me up if I could fly into O'Hare or Midway.  So I did some research and found plane tickets for less than $200 flying into Midway, so I went ahead and booked one.  Unfortunately the cheapest flight I could get flying out there takes off at 7 in the morning and the cheapest one coming back gets in at 11:00 at night, so Punkin's schedule is going to be a mess.  That's okay, though.  I'm willing to mess with her sleep for two days to be able to take a real vacation!

So we fly out Friday morning.  Thursday night we're staying at Nana and Pap-Pap's house because they're taking us to the airport.  Punkin is sitting on my lap since I didn't want to have to buy her a ticket so I'm worried about that, but hopefully since it's such an early flight and it's on a Friday morning, there will be at least one empty seat on the plane (hopefully next to me!) that I can set her down in.  I just checked the Southwest website and there are still tickets available for both flights, so keep your fingers crossed!  If not, she'll have to make due on my lap.  I borrowed one of Michelle's portable DVD players so hopefully that will keep her entertained on the flight.

After we get in to Chicago, Jasmine is going to pick us up at the airport and then we're going directly to the hotel.  Punkin will have been on a 3 hour flight and Silas will have been on a 4 hour car ride, so both kiddos will need to stretch their legs.  Monica and Elodie, who live in Minnesota, will be meeting us at the hotel and then we're going to the Lincoln Park Zoo!  After that we're going to have REAL Chicago pizza for dinner (and some other moms might join us for that!) and then Saturday morning we're going to do Navy Pier and FAO Schwartz.  I am SOOOO excited just thinking about it!

I'm going to try to keep the blog updated while I'm gone so those of you who want to keep up with our adventures can!

Birthday dinner... sorta

Brenden took me to Kobe last night for my birthday dinner.  My birthday was Tuesday, but I spent Tuesday evening with my parents, so he took me out last night instead.  Throughout the day my stomach had been feeling a little off, but I tried to ignore it.  Brenden came to my apartment and we took Julianne to my parents' house, then went to Kobe.  We didn't have to wait too long (which I was worried about because the parking lot was packed) and they sat us at a table with an older couple and their young daughter and a deaf couple with another gentleman (not sure of his relationship to them).  I was proud of myself because I was able to not stare as they were using ASL!  Normally I'm pretty bad about staring.

Anyway, we had our soup and salad and I was fine, then came the veggies and I was okay, then came the noodles and I was... sorta okay... and then came the meat and I was... not so okay... and then came the rice and I was really not good.  I brought most of my food home because I just couldn't eat it.  I drove back to Mom and Dad's to get Punkin and they met Brenden and we sat and chatted a bit, but I wasn't feeling good and of course that irritated Dad and he told me to go home, so after a while we did.  I had Brenden drive home and as soon as I walked in the door I collapsed on the couch.  I don't remember a lot about the rest of the evening, I just know that Brenden got Julianne ready for bed and rocked her to sleep, then emptied the bucket every time I got sick and helped me to the bathroom to get in the shower.  He went out to get me ginger ale and Gatorade, he gave me a wet cloth for my head, and he stayed with me till I fell asleep.  He had to leave to go home because he had to work today, but I'll tell you, if a guy cleaning up after you when you have the stomach flu doesn't make him a keeper, I don't know what does.  :-)

I was feeling better when I woke up this morning, but not great.  So I asked J if he could take the Punkin and he said he had to work all day.  That's one of the things that sucks about being a single mom... sometimes you just CAN'T take care of your kiddo and there's not much you can do about it.  I don't know anyone else in town that could take her for the day, so I asked Mom to watch her.  She came and got her and she and Dad took her to McDonald's for pancakes.  I tried to get up and do some cleaning, but that didn't turn out to be such a great idea.  So I'm trying to take it easy even though every fiber of my body is telling me to take advantage of the time without Punkin to get stuff done.  I suppose I'll have time to do that later, but I just hate how I have all this "free" time and I can't take advantage of it.

Closed doors, opened windows!

Pete and I aren't dating anymore.  I'm not sure I'd say it was mutual, but it was definitely what I wanted.  We had ended up mostly in the "friend" zone... there was no affection or anything other than a quick goodbye kiss when he would leave.  Plus, he was so judgmental and close-minded about so many things that I cared about (he always had something to say about babies being born out of wedlock, or how he didn't believe in gay rights or global warming, etc) I really couldn't take it anymore.  And he was STILL, after 7 months of dating, talking about his ex.  It got to the point when I would actually get disappointed when he said he had a day off because I knew that meant he wanted to come over.  So when he started working at Disney and was never able to be over anymore, I didn't push him to come visit us.

Anyway... I posted an ad on an on-line dating site (because quite frankly, that's the only way I can meet people these days!) and I got about a hundred responses.  Most of the guys hadn't bothered to read my ad about what I was looking for (over 25, employed, educated, etc) and I'd say I had to delete about 60 of them.  I responded to the other 40 and got about 20 back from that, then gradually wound my down to 2 guys.  The first one, Shawn, seemed nice at first but then he got way too pushy - talking about how he'd want to adopt Julianne and how he'll come over and spend the night, etc. I kept telling him I didn't want those things and to back off, but he kept coming full force, so I had to tell him I wasn't interested because he wasn't respecting my boundries.

The second guy, Brenden, seemed quiet at first... not a lot typed in his emails and we mostly texted before we met.  We met at Olive Garden for our first date and I had to bring Juli because my sitter cancelled on me at the last minute and Brenden said he'd love it if I brought her along.  He and Julianne got along so well - the whole time we were out I felt like he and Julianne were the ones on the date and I was just along for the ride, lol.  We had dinner, then went to a lake near the restaurant and walked around the path on the lake but we eventually went home because it was just way too hot and humid and it was Juli's bedtime.

Once we got back to my apartment I got Julianne to bed, then he and I sat on the couch and wound up sitting there talking till two in the morning.  It was so nice!  I really enjoyed myself.  I've been to his place for dinner and this week I'm house-sitting for my parents so he came over here and I made dinner while he and Julianne played.  I'm actually going over to his place tonight because Juli will be at her dad's.  The other night we were laying on the couch together, snuggling (he's a big-time snuggler!  YAY!) and he told me he wanted me to be his girl.  I practically melted... he's so sweet!

Mother's Day Out

J took the Punkin today for his weekly visit.  He picked her up at the sitter's house this morning around 11 and when I talked to him around 4, they were out on his boat.  I panicked for a moment till he reassured me that she was wearing a life vest and was sitting nicely on the seat in the boat, not about to hop overboard in search of her "sishie" friends.  To be honest, I'm not sure she knows that sishies live under the water that she was sitting on.  But that's okay, she has plenty of time to learn.

As much as I love the idea of her dad teaching her to love the water and being outdoors, it kinda bums me out that I'm not the one doing that.  I don't own a motorcycle, I don't own a boat, I don't even own a life vest I could use to take her OUT on a boat if I had one.  I really want to take her canoeing, but I think she's too young to understand that she has to SIT STILL at all times or the damn thing will tip over.  I'd like to take her hiking but her love of exploring and running away from Mommy would leave me running through poison ivy, trying to catch her and wrestle her back into a stroller.  Eventually I will do that outdoorsy stuff with her, but I wish I was the one able to do it now.  I know even in 2 parent families there's always going to be one parent who does all the "fun" stuff and one person who has to be the boss, but it totally sucks.  She's going to associate his house with playing with other kids and going out and doing fun stuff and my house with being at the sitter's all day, then naps and baths and mommy not being able to play because she's cleaning.  I need to work on making sure we do lots of fun stuff together, just the two of us.

So since Punkin is with her dad, I decided to go do something I haven't done since before she was born: I got a pedicure.  It was soooooooooooooo lovely!  Someone pampering my feet and painting my nails... ahhhhhhh.  I feel like I'm supposed to feel sad and lonely when Punkin is with J.  Like I'm not supposed to enjoying anything I'm doing while she's not here.  On some level I do, but today, for the first time, I really and truly enjoyed my "Konnie" time.  It was great to be able to relax and have someone take care of me for a just a little while!

Even if I did have to pay for it. :-)

Help me Jesus! Help me Jewish God!

Today was one of those days where all I wanted Julianne to do was take a nap. A long drawn-out nap that would allow her to wake up refreshed and pleasant and happy. Instead she slept for about a half hour, and only because she was so tired I put her in the crib at my parents' house and let her fuss herself to sleep. She woke up miserable and crying (as she always does after a too-short nap) and Nana had to take her outside to calm her down for a bit. I understand that she's a toddler, but MY GOD, does she have to get into EVERYTHING? I'm very glad that she's not a TV watcher, but today it would have been wonderful if she could sit still for just a half hour of Dora the Explorer or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She gets into every newspaper, every cabinet, every drawer... she climbs on top of every chair, every table, every piece of furniture in the whole damn house. I really enjoyed having Spring Break to spend with her, but it is EXHAUSTING spending every moment with her since there's no one else to watch her. I was supposed to go out last night but Mom told me after she already said she'd watch Julianne that she had plans and couldn't watch her. So I wound up staying home with her. Being home with her isn't a bad thing at all, but I think every mother out there can relate to the feeling of needing to get out for an hour of conversation that doesn't include the words "Mama" "Potty" "Good Girl" or "Night Night." I could have always asked Sammie to watch her, but Sammie lives so far away it would be ridiculous to drive all the way over there to drop her off, drive home to get ready, then go out, then drive back to pick her up and drive home.

In other news, I asked J if he was taking Julianne on Monday like normal and his response was "No, it's S's (his girlfriend) birthday." Wow. Must be nice to not have to worry about finding a baby-sitter and just be able to make plans whenever. I really want to just call him one day and say, "Hey, you have to take Juli for the next three days, I have an emergency, have fun, bye," and then just leave him to panic about what he's supposed to do.

But that's not nice.