I Love Me Some Target:)

So I avoid going into Target because spending $100 there is sooooo easy. In my previous (pre-Skylar) life I used to go to Target weekly and find all kinds of great things I had to have. So to avoid temptation, I go for "fun" (not to grab something I need) maybe once every month or two. Did I mention it's only 1.6 miles away? Not that I would ever actually clock it of course.

Anyway, I went yesterday and it seemed like everything was 75% off, so I found some great deals! I got a pair of really cute shoes on clearance for $5. A two-pack of pj's for Skylar for $3, as well as a bunch of pants and shirts for her all half-price. A black dress for myself for $7. Oh, and I even found a pair of Mocs on clearance for Marcus. They were the last pair, just happened to be in his size, and were 80% off so I had to get them for someone, and who loves cheap mocs more than Marcus? He usually gets the wal-mart kind, so this is a step up for him.

I also made an incredible discovery that most of you probably won't appreciate except for maybe Amy Hilton who shares my passion for vinegar-y things. I have been on a quest for baked salt and vinegar chips for quite some time. I'm not a big fan of potato chips, and really could take them or leave them with the exception of the afore mentioned flavor. It all started in middle school when my best friend Emily Harmon who was very cool and british first introduced me to vinegar "crisps". When I was pregnant I wanted them all the time, but since they were so bad for me I was looking everywhere for baked ones....to no avail. (I even checked on amazon.) Then yesterday, there they were. The heaven's parted, I heard a choir of angels sing, and a beam of light illuminated the display. Mixed in with the regular fatty chips were the baked salt and vinegar ones. I was thrilled until I tasted them.....a little disapointing. That's okay though, because at least they exist and I will perservere until I find a brand that is mind-blowing.

Now that I sound like a total freak, I hope you all have a wonderful day. Oh yeah, and you'll have to come try them Amy and give me your expert opinion;)

Hanging with the Klines

Many of you know my friend Mary-Anne and are familiar with her story. Her husband Jeremiah just came back from Iraq today, so she finally got to go to a welcome home ceremony of her own! Ethan is 5 months old now and Mary-Anne and Ethan came over last week to hang out and kill some time while they waited to find out when Jeremiah's plane was going to leave Iraq. The estimated arrival time just kept changing, and that can drive a person crazy! Finally the family is reunited and Ethan can get to know his daddy!
Skylar and Ethan are 19 weeks apart, but Ethan is already up on all fours like Skylar!!

We've come a long way in 4 1/2 years!!!

Public displays of ignorance

Don't you hate when you are out somewhere and there is a woman screaming at her children? It has always bothered me, but it especially bothers me now that I have Skylar. I was at the commissary today and I could hear this woman in another aisle yelling at her two little boys. She sounded completely rediculous (actually I think she needed medication), and it was obvious why her kids were misbehaving. Everytime her kids screamed she would scream back at them even louder. I felt so sorry for those little boys. I had to listen to her the entire time I was in there, and it was REALLY bothering me. I know these military wives are more stressed than the average mom with their husbands being deployed, but seriously, if they could hear themselves I really think (hope!) they would be mortified. I promised Skylar I would never scream at her like that. I really hope we can raise her in a peaceful, respectful home and that even on my most stressful days I don't take it out on her. It's easy to say when she's just a baby and still cute and sweet---but that's my goal!

Skylar still won't crawl, getting up on all fours is about as good as it gets before she gives up and starts rolling. I'm fine with that because it means I don't have to chase her around yet. (The thought did cross my mind that she might be unmotivated and therefore living in our basement when she's 30.) What she lacks in physical prowess she compensates for in mental aptitude. She now says mama, dada, and "more" when she's eating. I kept doing the sign for more (she did it once so we know she is capable) when she just out of the blue said "mmmmmore". If Nicole hadn't been sitting there I would have thought I'd imagined it. She just kind of looked at us like "duh, I don't need signs, I can just say it". Since then she's said it several more times!

Help!

So I'm still figuring out how blogger works----totally different from xanga. How do you get pictures formatted the way you want them??? They always end up at the top even if I want them in the middle or at the bottom. It doesn't matter where I put the cursor before I add them, they go where they want to. I don't know what I'm doing wrong......
Advice please from my tech-savvy blogger friends!!!!

Mishaps and Mayhem

Nicole got Skylar a little african dress in Ghana. Skylar was very busy, so it wasn't easy to get a good shot, but you get the idea....

Friday was a dangerous day in the Rue household:) Micah has a 4 day weekend so he got up early on friday morning to read in the living room. He decided to light some candles for ambience as it was still dark out. (He's turning into an old man getting up before dawn on his days off!!!) One of them was on the coffee table, on top of some papers. Later that morning I was sitting on the couch with Skylar in my lap and she grabbed a paper, pulling the candle off the table. There was a few inches of hot wax in the jar since it had been burning for several hours by that point. Thankfully the wax missed her, that could have been awful. It ended up all over the carpet and couch though. Hot, orange, pumpkin spice wax.....everywhere.

If this should ever happen to you, DO NOT panic and start blotting the carpet and then scrubbing it with a brush and carpet cleaner like I did. All it did was spread the wax and grind it into the carpet. Apparently you are supposed to (calmly) let it cool then pick off what you can and iron up the rest of it with paper towels or a brown paper bag. After that any residual stain can "easily" be removed with carpet cleaner. Would have been good to know......looks like we won't be getting our deposit back! I was able to get most of it up after the fact by doing this, but there is still a nice big stain.

Later that day Micah watched Skylar while I went to the gym and she decided to flip herself off the changing table! He was standing right there and grabbing a wipe! She was fine, but slightly traumatized and a little banged up. This was her first fall, and Micah broke it by putting his arms under her. It too could have been much worse.

That evening Skylar was grabbing Jack's bone and when he took it back from her she cracked up. This was a fun game so they kept at it for awhile. She would take it, then he would get it from her and wait for her to take it, etc. Until Jack's nails accidentally scratched her.....more crying.....sigh.

Fortunately, we went to bed without further incidence and saturday was an accident free day.

The time has come.....

Okay, so the time probably came several months ago, I've just been avoiding it.

It's a new year as you know. So along with everyone else and their mama's cousin, I finally joined a gym. I could have taken Skylar to hourly care on post starting at 6 weeks old, but then I would have had to pay $35 a week to work out 1 1/2 hours a day monday thru friday. Obviously a gym membership with childcare included is a much better deal. So my next plan was to wait until Skylar was 6 months old so I could take her to the childcare at 24 fitness. Then I found out my sister was coming, so I figured I would just have Nic watch her while I went on post and save the money instead. The only problem is, I can't base my gym schedule on Nicole or Micah's availability.....it just allows way too many opportunities to get out of it.

The "Aha" moment came last week when Micah casually walked by and did the ol' butt slap. Except that I noticed how my butt jiggled for a full minute afterwards. (Okay, so slight exaggeration...but only slight!) There are a few post-baby body changes that I am willing to accept, mostly because I have no choice. A jelly-bowl tush is not one of them.

I have a love/hate relationship with working out. Once I get into my routine everything is great! However, the "routine" part of it is a precarious thing. A few unavoidable glitches in my schedule, and there goes my routine....permanently. So after shopping around, I settled on the YMCA downtown. Micah gets a free membership being military and it's only $35 a month for me, with childcare and somewhere between 25 and 30 classes included. PERFECT. Now I have no excuses!

So yesterday was day one. Micah and I decided to go to the deep water aerobics class. I didn't think he'd do it with me, but since he'd already worked out that morning, I guess he figured he had nothing to lose. It was just bonus calories burned for him. Micah loves doing two-a-days, I can only think of few things that sound worse to me.

So we get to water aerobics, strap our little floaties around our waists (color coded for various levels of bouyancy--I chose the least bouyant, thankyouverymuch) and jump into the deep end with all the grannies and one random middle-aged man (and here I was worried about putting on a bathing suit....) It starts off fine, she has us jogging in a big circle, cross country skiing in a big circle, switching directions, etc for about 20 minutes. It's definately a cardio work-out and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. THEN we started all of these underwater leg excercises and things got more difficult. Nothing however, prepared me for the dumbells. Innocent looking styrofoam circles capable of making a grown person cry like a schoolgirl. (Also color-coded for various levels of resistence--I chose the easiest one this time). About 40 minutes into the class I am checking the clock every 15 seconds willing it to go faster. It occurs to me that maybe Skylar needs me, I should go check on her. No. I'm going to stay.
By 50 minutes into the class I am ready to sink to my watery grave. Except I can't die, I have a floatie holding me up. We did ab work in the water, my most hated thing ever. Micah claimed it did nothing, I definately felt it. Finally, mercifully, it ended and then I felt great!!! Overall I would say it was an awesome full-body work-out with no sweating or impact. Difficult, but not impossible....except for a few of those dumbell excercises, but that's because I have no upper-body strength. I can't wait to try the Nia class--some sort of weird dancing combo thing. I'll let you know how it goes.

This morning's adventure involved the dog's water bowl....I totally didn't see that one coming. At least she didn't stick her face in it and try to drink like she does in the bath!

New Year, New Blog

So I decided to get on the blogger bandwagon. I had lost my momentum with xanga. When I get "behind" on my updating it feels like there is too much to ever catch up again. Obviously, this is self-imposed, it isn't supposed to be a stressful thing. I never posted pictures of the holidays or the amazing photo shoot our very talented friend Edi Pettegrew did for us, one of which is my profile pic. So I'm just going to wipe the slate clean and take all the pressure off of myself.

Skylar is now 9 months old, which is so hard to believe! She wants so badly to walk, but is still learning to stand, and has no interest in crawling. Her favorite thing is to drink out of a glass like we do. Sometimes she takes such a big sip that she almost drowns herself, but she smiles and thinks its great! She has been saying "dada" for awhile now, and until recently I didn't think she really knew who dada was. A couple of days ago Micah was asleep and Skylar and I were hanging out. She rolled over to Micah who had his back to her and she put her hand on his back and said "da". He didn't respond so she did it again. He still didn't wake up so she reached up and grabbed his ear and said "da". She kept grabbing at his head and repeating her word until she woke him up and he rolled over to see her at which point she was supremely satisfied with herself.