First off, if you are as bummed as I am about the Tastespotting blog, have no fear, Food Gawker is here. I almost cried when I saw Tastespotting had shut down, I was literally about to send Tim the link because I had fallen in love with the website. A little Googling found me a suitable replacement for my mid-day food window shopping. I swear, I get so hungry just LOOKING, but it is so satisfying. So, go and be satisfied as well.

I can't believe how much it has cooled off today. I think it barely got into the 70's at all. It was a nice break from the oppressive heat. I managed to get the lawn mowed and raked, all in the same day, which is rare. I usually mow and then am too tired to rake it all up, but it was so cool out that mowing wasn't the usual exhaustion that it is. Anyway.

I took Haley to Walmart to spend her gift cards that she got and she was beside herself with happiness at picking out just what she wanted. She has also thanked me over and over for buying her an Ipod Shuffle for her birthday. She loves it. I am glad it was such a big hit. I hope she takes good care of it! I am sure that she will. She is such a big help with her brother, I am so glad that I can rely on her to keep an eye on him while he is playing and in a good mood so that I can manage to get things done. I am so paranoid about something happening that I am super careful about what sort of situations I leave her in charge of, only when he is in a safe area and contained either in his play yard or high chair, but she is very good about keeping him happy and entertained. She is such a big help.

We got Haley all signed up for the summer reading program and she is already halfway to finishing all the books, she is such a fast reader! She really loves it. She is so excited because this year she is old enough to participate in a lot of workshops and activities they have planned at the library. She already signed up for an art workshop about bugs, and there is a cooking class in July that she is excited about, and there is also another workshop next week on bees put on by the local university.

It was way too cold to swim today, that sucks! It also was very grey and cloudy at times as well. I don't think it will be warm enough to swim tomorrow either, but we will see. We are getting our money's worth out of this pool pass!

Man, I feel so boring. All I do all day long is baby, work, house, kids, baby, work, sleep. I know it's just how it is when you have a little kid, and that's how it will be for the next few years, but I do kinda miss being creative, and feeling creative. I think that is what bothers me the most, I don't even FEEL creative anymore. I miss writing poetry and having meaningful things to say. I miss painting and having that urge inside me to make something. The photography definitely helps, it is something that I can manage to squeeze in sometimes, but it's not quite the same.

On the other hand, I love having a baby right now. He is so expressive and curious and so eager to try and try and try. He wants to explore everything. Tim followed him around the house while I cooked dinner this evening and Savino was just so excited to go from room to room and slap the floor with his hands and touch the walls and turn around and go in different directions. Babyhood is such a brief period in their lives, it goes by so quickly, I want to soak every bit of it up right now!

We were sitting in the library in a rocking chair (Savino and I, he was in the sling on my lap) while Haley colored, and the baby was just looking around and looking around at all the kids who were in the children's area and then without any prompting or anything, he gave a loud screech and laughed and leaned in and gave me a huge kiss right on the lips, all sloppy and wet and slobbery. It was so. sweet. He makes me melt when he just surprises me with a kiss or puts his head down on my shoulder or leans his body into mine and rubs his head against my chest. He is growing up so fast and I am trying so hard to cherish every second, I constantly have to remind myself to be in the moment, not to be always thinking about the future or what I "should" be doing. The more we live in the moment, the better the memories will be for the kids, and that is what is important. I am so much more focused on making sure that what we do is memorable, I want them to be able to look back on their childhood and remember the picnics and the fun and that we seized the moment all the time.

I really can't believe that Haley is 9 years old. I mean, I know, I know, kids grow up but still... how did the time go by so quickly? I've grown so much as a parent, from wondering how in the world I could do it, and not knowing enough, to realizing that you just have to decide what is important and let the rest go. I think it helped that I was so involved in Laila and Chyron and Jaden's lives too, and how fast they grew up from babies to little people. I just don't want to miss even a single moment of these kids childhoods because I was worried about something else.

I think overall, I've mellowed out a little since I had Savino, just in general. I am still way too paranoid and overprotective of Savino, and I still imagine all the bad things that could happen which makes me a little more anxious than I would like to be, but I think in general, going from two to one has meant for me that I have let go of some of the things I had a really tight grip on. Maybe I am just too tired to care!

In any case, I am feeling really good about where things are, so I better knock on some wood. I just want to maintain where we are at right now, that is all I care about. We have it really good right now, I want to keep it good.

I am trying to squeeze in an entry before my son starts flipping out again. He has had exactly 0 naps today, just a brief nod off while he was nursing before dinner. We have been on the run all day, and he was up early and had an extremely extremely restless night. So he is running on Empty. He screamed through dinner over and over "Na na na na" and only paused in the screaming to eat most of a banana (maybe that is what he meant?) and half a peice of bread, and screamed through most of what he ate of his oatmeal, carrots and sweet potatoes and chicken. *sighs* He refused all bottles all day and just wanted to nurse and he nursed FOUR TIMES last night, starting at 12:40, then at 2, then at 3:40 and then at 5am. I was exhausted. I AM exhausted. I am just so used to being tired that I don't really feel it anymore.

Yesterday Savino started pulling himself up to a standing position all by himself! Eep! He is getting too big too fast! He also started repeating "Bye bye!" when you prompt him to say it, but only when he wants to. It is beyond cute! Haley insisted that Savino said "No" in the Gap today when we were at the mall, but I didn't hear it. He is just achieving milestones left and right. He is 9 months old! Where did the time go?


Haley's swimming lesson went well again. I didn't hang out and watch this time, she just took off and then I went to Eleni and Jay's to sit for half an hour.

Eleni finally ventured out with the baby for the first time. We went to the mall and walked around and shopped and it was really nice. I got Savino a new rash guard for the pool, a long sleeved one that is pretty much too big. It will probably fit better next year. I got Haley a really cute outfit from Old Navy, a skort and a t-shirt that matched with 3/4 length sleeves. She looked very cute in it. It's going to be one of her vacation outfits.

I had to break down and tell Haley all about our plans for vacation, we have been keeping it a surprise, so that she will really try to work harder at her swimming lessons. She needs to learn how to swim well to fully enjoy herself at the water park when we go. She was so incredibly excited to hear all the plans. She is beside herself with anticipation. Thank goodness there is only a month until we go, I only have to hear about it for four weeks.

We tried to go to the pool this afternoon but the rain and thunder started up as soon as we got there. Haley got in about ten or fifteen minutes of swimming before we called it quits and left. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Despite slathering baby sunscreen on him, Savino is starting to tan up a little bit. He has skin like Tim and Haley, it must be the Italian/Greek in him, they all tan instantly and it takes a bit for them to burn. Haley always gets very tan during the summer, and their hair starts to lighten up and get blonde. Of course, Savino's hair is already pretty blonde, so it is getting almost silvery.

I think I have almost picked all the strawberries out of our patch for this first crop. There are a few more that haven't ripened yet, and the chipmunks or birds have discovered the strawberries and I lost probably fifteen or twenty to them before I went out and picked this evening, but overall I picked out quite a bit before they got to them! I am really pleased with the yeild this year. We even got some that could be considered "Goliath"-ish, they were pretty big. Everything I've read says the yeild goes down year after year, but I haven't experienced that yet. I just hope that the second crop is half as good as the first. We have enjoyed eating our fresh strawberries. They taste so good! There is a lot more flavor in them than the ones you buy in the store.

I bought Tim's father his Father's Day present today, an Ohio State hammer. Don't ask me. Tim wanted to get it for him for Christmas and they sold out of them before we could buy one. I saw one for sale in the mall today and bought it. At least I don't have to worry about that anymore. Father's Day shopping done. At least for Tim's father. I need to get Tim a card and figure out some sort of cute craft to give him from the kids. Haley made this totally adorable book that she printed out from some website and it has this really cute poem in it and places for her to color pictures and she did a really good job on it. She made it all by herself without any help from me! I almost started crying looking at it. She is so grown up! I am sure I can find some cute Father's Day craft for us to do for him.

I almost bought Tim a new wedding ring today, but managed to restrain myself. I HAVE to buy Haley's birthday presents before I buy anything for Tim. Our local Zales has a kick ass sale going on for pre-owned jewelry and Tim has tried this wedding band on before, and it even fits. I just hope no one buys it before I can. They also have a really nice men's titanium and diamond bracelet that I think he would like too. I managed to walk away without buying it, but it was a close thing.

OK, time to get the boy in the bath and then bed. Hopefully he sleeps well tonight!

Savino is thisclose to crawling! Eep! I have been saying "If only he would just start crawling!" worried that maybe he was delayed in what is supposed to be a big milestone for his age. Now I am all TOOSOON about it! Well, it is exciting to watch him try and get it. He has just figured out that he can move his arms forward and then he gets up on his toes and hops himself forward onto his knees. It is quite a process to watch!

Tim is on call tonight and has already been back to the hospital TWICE. It is small consolation that at least he is being paid well for each call but still! He got called out right as we got home from the grocery store and from picking him up, so I got to make dinner all by myself which is always fun. Usually one of us cooks while the other tries to feed the baby because otherwise I end up feeding the boy instead of eating dinner. Tonight dinner had to wait while I tried to convince Savino that he could eat his food without screaming. At least Haley was cool with it. She is such a big help with her brother, she does such a good job entertaining him and keeping him happy when I need a minute to do something. She hung out with him this afternoon so I could take a quick shower which improved my day immensely.

I spent a good fifteen minutes on the phone with our mortgage company today and ended up not being able to accomplish ANYTHING. I was so frustrated. We got a lovely form letter letting us know that they believe our homeowner's insurance was cancelled or not renewed, which is completely 100% incorrect. We've had our insurance company fax them proof of our current policy which was paid in full by the company that we refinanced our mortgage through before they were bought out by CitiMortgage which is our current mortgage holder. All of our insurance and taxes are paid in escrow, so its not even something that is in our hands, it's all dealt with by the mortgage companies. Our insurance company has faxed them proof not once but TWICE and yet Citimortgage was still saying that the policy was expired. So I got on the phone and navigated the automated system until I FINALLY got a human being. The guy on the other end was polite and I was polite to him, and finally he said "Well, I have the fax and everything is correct on the fax but it's not correct in the system..." So I said and is that going to be fixed? Because if it isn't then Citimortgage is going to purchase a $1200 insurance policy and charge us for it, which is bull frankly. So we got to this point where I got the guy to admit that they DID have proof of the current policy with all the correct information and then he drops the bomb on me, Citimortgage doesn't have MY name on the loan account, so I cannot make any changes to our account information. Um, yeah. So then the guy puts me on hold and gets a customer service rep on the line as well and he gives me this song and dance about how they will have to send me a form to fill out with Tim and send it back in so that I can be authorized to make changes to account information.

Cue me ready to scream.

My name is on the insurance policy, my name is on the actual title to the house, and I signed about a bajillion forms when we refinanced and I KNOW that my information is on the loan account because while the loan is in Tim's name, I had to provide all my information as co-owner of the home. Oh, they'll let me make the payments on the loan, but I can't verify our insurance information so they don't charge us $1200 for their mistake. I wanted to KILL. I just said FINE, Tim will call you and verify this. I wanted to let loose all my frustrations but what would that have accomplished? There is literally nothing I can do to fix the situation until I have authorization to make changes. And let me tell you it KILLS me that they have the correct information about our insurance policy, that their information in their main system is WRONG because someone clearly did not enter correct information, but it will linger until Tim can call them all because of their stupid policy which doesn't even make sense when I am just trying to VERIFY WHAT THEY ALREADY KNOW. Arg! I HATE STUPID POINTLESS BUREAUCRACY!

It just aggravates and frustrates me that Citimortgage bought out our mortgage company, didn't transfer our loan information correctly, makes us jump through ridiculous hoops, and still won't fix what is THEIR mistake. And we're paying THEM!

Ok, I am done now. Tim will take care of it either tomorrow or Monday when he is off.

The weather got crazy cold, our furnace was running day and night for the last two days, and then today it got back into the 80's. I die. Please DECIDE what the weather is going to be, OK? This doesn't help the kids allergies/colds/whatever.

Haley has like 3 weeks of school left! We are in the countdown! I am so excited for school to be done so we can get to the good parts of summer! We are going to have so much fun this summer with me being able to actually DO things not being ridiculously pregnant! We are ready for the pools to open, ready to get to the park and play, and enjoy it.

This week has crawled by but thankfully it is finally almost over. Tim has a three day weekend, which is nice. We are going to try and get some things taken care of around the house. Fun times!