Stress

Normally I like to think of myself as a very relaxed person. I am not prone to getting all worked up over little things. This weekend however led to a very frazzled Emily.

First I got a haircut. To some people this might not be a big deal because it is after all ONLY HAIR and it GROWS BACK. But I love my hair, even when it doesn't look so great I love it and I like to kind of hide behind it and resist any changes to it. Once in 9th grade I got a very short cut that made me loathe to leave the house for over a week and that was my last really short cut. Until now.

And I didn't want or ask for it to be this short. Below see a picture of me right after leaving the salon and below that the picture of what I'm OK with doing to it until the shortest layer (which falls right above my ears and mushrooms out in a ring around my head) gets a little longer.

See how happy I am with my new cut?

The second problem really does make all my angst over JUST HAIR that will GROW BACK seem pretty silly.

On Sunday Adelaide bit Eli. On the face. He's OK, there's barely a mark now, but I don't feel safe keeping her around him as she's been very growly and has snapped at him before. In my opinion she's just at the end of her fragile, anxious little rope. With all of the abuse she endured before she came to us our chaotic house is just too much for her. So I'm very sad and trying to re home her. Addie's ideal home would be with a single woman. And I'm specifying NO young children. I'd never be able to live with myself if she went to a new home a hurt someone else's kid.
Poor Lady Adelaide of Bloomfield just needs a good quiet home so she can have a happy life.

In more cheerful news I am doing an excellent job of staying hydrated which I've been told is good for me in a myriad of ways. Eli is adorable (aside from his usual meltdowns) and has really started to love playing with other kids. He's not just playing near them he's actually interacting with them which is an exciting and interesting developmental milestone.

And it's my birthday week! I'll be 27! I'm going to be delighted at my age instead of thinking of it and the subsequent birthdays as an inevitable slide into middle age. At 27 I'm just where I thought I'd be, married (for over a week now! go me! it'll be easy now since the first week's the toughest) and the mother of the cutest kid in town.

Run Down

I haven't blogged in what for me is a very long time. It's not that I haven't had anything to say it's just that I've been busy and over tired and cranky. Those are not the best conditions in which to be writing. My main preoccupation as of late are the upcoming nuptials. Jason and I are set to get married on Friday. As in three days from now. It's just a courthouse ceremony which you'd think would be pretty simple but I'm running into snags and annoyances at every turn.

Yesterday we went to get our license, which went incredibly smoothly--I swear the lady didn't even glance at our I.D.'s--and made me feel optimistic, then I asked the woman about scheduling an appointment for Friday. Ms. Laura Ashley dress from 1981 told me that no one downtown performs marriage ceremonies and that my local magistrate would have to do it. And I was all "OK...that seems strange...but OK". Went to the local magistrates office, the very nice girl told me that they're closed on Friday, cue moment of internal panic. "Why don't you just go downtown?" she asks. Why indeed? Apparently the other lady lied to me! I can't seem to fathom her logic behind it but whatever. So I call the number I'm given at the local office the lady there says they don't make appointments and that I should call the day of. Today I decided to call and investigate into that a bit further. Apparently not all judges perform weddings and they won't know til the morning of if the judge who'll be there on Friday will be able to do the ceremony. This was fifteen minutes ago. I'm genuinely panicking now. I decided maybe blogging would calm me down.

As far as other wedding details go things are running OK (we'll just pretend for a moment that the actual legal ceremony is of little consequence) I have my twenty dollar dress and five dollar shoes from Target, Jason got new pants and shoes, Jen is going to take photos around Pittsburgh before the actual ceremony. My mom is supposed to pay for the dinner after for about a dozen people and my sister in-law booked us a hotel room to honeymoon in while she keeps the young sir overnight. All very good and exciting. And Jason seems excited himself and is being perfectly agreeable to all suggestions. If I could just lock down an appointment with an officiant I'd be able to relax.

I'm putting up pictures from Dencey's b-day party two weeks ago. The last pictures taken on my camera I might add, I've been lax in that as well.
Eli wore my new favorite shirt of his from Baby Gap. He looked charming.
He had a very very good time in the bouncy castle.

Dencey celebrated one year on the planet by eating cupcake with daddy.
Eli thought this watermelon most closely resembled a ball.
Both kids thought the drink coolers were fabulous toys.
Then Eli began organizing.
See? He likes the cans out of the cooler better.

We went to my work picnic on Friday and took Dencey with us. I had the best of intentions of getting a lot of very cute pictures of my two favorite very cute kids. Then we got there. And it was miserably humidly hot and Eli lost his shit. I've never seen him act up like that, he was miserable and wanted everyone to know it. So my camera stayed in my bag and we left very early. Of course he was fine the second he got back into the car, I think he just loathes the heat like his mama does.

Saturday Eli turned a year and a half and I feel a little shitty that I didn't take at least one pic. He was sweet on Saturday and might even have smiled for the camera. The proliferation's of pictures on Friday should more than make up for it. It's hard to believe that he's 18 months already; definitely not a bit of an infant anymore.

Right now Eli seems to have a little bit of a bug so that's been worrying and adding to my tiredness as he hasn't been sleeping well at night. I'm just not used to get up every couple of hours anymore. We tried putting him in bed with us but no one was happy about that; he likes his own space and honestly we like ours too. I've got my fingers crossed that I go home to a baby completely on the mend today.

Sunday night we went to see the new Batman movie and it was amazing! By far my favorite Batman ever and the best of the three movies I've been to see this past month (I was on a streak-Mamma Mia, the new X-Files, and The Dark Knight). We were supposed to get our wedding bands that night too but the place we thought would have them didn't so that's still on our agenda as well.

I think that catches up the world of me. Hopefully I'll be blogging from home next week as Jason's wife. Anyone want to get ordained online real quick and perform the ceremony?

How Time Flies

Unbelievably enough I'm going to be 26 next Wednesday, twenty-freaking-six. Wasn't I just 16? My life plan (humor me now, I came up with it when I was 12) said that by 26 I should have

A: Graduated from college
B: Gotten married
C: Published my first book
D: Had my first baby

Well, one out of four's not bad right? And I might as well be married to Jason, we certainly act like husband and wife. Especially when we get to bickering and nagging each other. My life isn't anything like I imagined it would be. Except for the adorable baby part, and even that is different in real life. I mean there's no way of preparing for how hard motherhood is. I also was pretty sure I'd own my own home by the time the first baby rolled around and at this point it's not seeming like that will ever happen. Right now I don't even like the apartment I'm in. Oh, 26, you snuck up on me.

Eli got his 2ND tooth this week, I noticed it peeking through the skin while we were at the ballgame on Monday night. Which explains his atrocious sleeping habits lately, I was beginning to think he was reverting back to infancy. Last night though he fell asleep at 8 pm, woke at 3:30 to nurse, and went back to sleep til 7:30. Viva la sleeping through the night!

This is the face Eli makes when he is talking, he babbles and yells and waves his arms. It's pretty hilarious because he's so emphatic about it.

That thing he's holding is a mesh feeder with a piece of banana inside, he did not like it, did not want it in his mouth.

His finger is in his mouth because he had another tooth coming in! Two teeth!

Here's the family at PNC Park on Monday evening. We went to the doubleheader for my little brother's birthday. Well he's not so little anymore, it was his 22ND birthday. In my head he's still 13 and I'm still surprised to see him driving a car. It was not only Eli's first baseball game it was Jason's too. The thing he was the most impressed in were the grilled foot longs with everything. He ate two of them and fries and shrimp. Piggy.