Baby Arlo, Mallory

Mama, come cuddle me

Just as I sat down to the computer tonight to do some (apparently) long overdue blogging, I was thinking I would go with the boring “Weekend Review” title that I seem to use after somewhat uneventful weekends. But then Rick called me to the side door to show me something, and Mallory – who should be asleep but was at least quiet in her room – heard us and came to her door and said four little words that shattered my usual “shut up and go to sleep go night-night” resolve.

“Mama, come cuddle me.”

I mean SERIOUSLY. How do I defend against that? How can I ignore such sweetness? Well – I can’t and didn’t. I gave her a one minute cuddle and as I was putting her back in her bed, she asked for daddy to come cuddle her. Rick was on his way out the door for his hockey game and if I had dared delay him with anything I needed, I would have gotten “I’ll be late for hockey” thrown at me as he was shutting the door behind him. So Mallory truly has him wrapped around her finger because I think he just gave her a good three-minute cuddle.

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Okay onto the boring weekend review. Friday night was swim class and the director of community education was there to observe the class. The pimply-faced “instructor” did better this time but I can’t help but wonder if it was because his boss was there or because there were only three students in the class. Either way, the class didn’t suck as much as it usually does, and most importantly Mallory & her dad had a lot of fun.

Saturday was supposed to be a Me day – daycare had a free morning so parents could shop or wrap presents or whatever. I was planning to scrap. I didn’t so much care what RB did with his morning but when I found out he was planning to go car shopping (to hopefully [finally] replace his Jeep), I figured I should tag along. Luckily my sister was able to take Mallory home with her kids after the daycare gig – so after striking out at three dealerships across southeast Michigan we picked Mallory up at like 5pm. Of course the weather here was super craptastic on Saturday – a perfect day to scrapbook – and I got zero done. Argh.

In addition, we aren’t any closer to narrowing down what kind of car to get than we were before our day of car shopping, even if we found someone to give us enough money for RB’s trade-in.

The only good things from Saturday is that Michigan beat Dook in hoops, and my sister made her super awesome chocolate chip cookies so we swiped some when we picked Mallory up. And it was nice to get the “she was an angel” report from my sis.

Saturday night we attempted to watch Rudolph or The Grinch with Mallory. Here we are on the couch:

Sunday was a long day – Rick was trying to finish up the painting of our new wall and Mallory refused to nap, which meant that I didn’t get a nap and I didn’t get to scrap. A double whammy of a bad day. But we went to Rick’s hockey game and got to go to Friday’s after so the day wasn’t a total loss. And check out what I got for dessert. OMG.

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Three scoops of vanilla ice cream topped with Chips Ahoy cookie crumbles, hot fudge & caramel sauce and whipped cream. This might beat the Lou Malnati’s chocolate chip pizza dessert that used to be my favorite. And the best thing is that I don’t have to drive to Chicago to get this dessert!!

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I don’t have anything else really new to report. Arlo is continuing to kick me like crazy – actually felt a kick that seriously hurt the other day. I am definitely feeling more aches & pains with this pregnancy than I did when I pregnant with Mallory. I’m guessing it’s a combination of lack of exercise, lack of resting and being older but man am I struggling.

Rick has been great in trying to help pick up more slack around the house (we still need to work on his mind-reading skills…) and Mallory has really been warming up to him now that he is around more. She’s always been excited to see him and stuff like that but I am usually the only one she wants to help her put her shoes or coat on, the only one who can carry her to the car, the only one to read her a bedtime story, etc. Yesterday she wanted me to carry her up the stairs and after I told her no, she said “daddy carry me” and ran to find him. Again, I think Rick was in the middle of something but when she asked him to carry her upstairs, he couldn’t refuse. This was a big deal for me because SHE initiated it on her HER terms. A couple of weeks ago she would have rather walked up the stairs herself if the alternative was Rick carrying her. Score one for dad. :-)

Sleep update – after Rick gave her the three-minute cuddle, she cried at her door for a few minutes but then I heard the door slam and will now go check on her. I will take the camera and report back the findings.

Findings:

I would classify tonight as an easy bedtime. Go us.

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Okay – I’m going to bed. Our cable box isn’t working so I have to leave work early tomorrow to come meet the cable guy so I am going to attempt to go into work an hour early.