Southern Women's Show

As I probably mentioned previously, we live only a couple of miles away from the NC State Fairgrounds. It is actually a great thing because there's so much happening there every weekend. There's always a large flea market, both indoors and outdoors. And of course there are plenty of special events as well. The most exciting is probably the NC State Fair itself, but that's not until October. But they have smaller events too - all sorts of boat shows, car shows, medival times shows, etc. Just a couple of weekends ago we went to one such fair. This weekend I went to the Southern Women's Show while Chris and Mark strolled around the flea market.

Of course, I tried to look my most Southern by wearing a sun dress and pretty sandals and not looking too thin. And of course, I failed miserably, except in the looking not too thin part. Noone mistook me for a native. Oh well... I guess I better work on my accent. The show actually wasn't all that. Apparently, Southern women are predominantly interested in beauty treatments, make-up, bags, and cooking with highly processed mixes. Most of the freebies were in the categories of food samples, useless promo items, and registering for give-aways. Of course I registered for some of these. Now I'm waiting to be informed that I won one or all of these - $1,500 gift certificate towards a plastic surgery of my choice, a free LASIK surgery, or a free iPod. Oh, and I scored a free pair of Haines panties by filling out some silly survey!

In the mean time, Chris and Mark made rounds of the surrounding area (a flea market). Mark was busy attracting "oohings" and "aahings" from old ladies. And Chris was busy munching on roasted pecans. And then we all went home.

News? What News?

Things are as usual here, in Raleigh. We stay busy with work and the house and the baby. And Mark stays busy just growing up, which takes a lot of energy and determination on his part. I'm trying to create some sort of a daily schedule, which takes a lot of determination on my part. Mark still sleeps with us. Occasionally, we try to put him in his crib for the night, but the most he stays there is an hour or so. It's probably better that he sleeps with us for now anyway. This way, we all get enough sleep and Mark gets his night-time feeding.

What does he do so far (other than eat, sleep, and poop)? Actually, quite a lot. He loves any kind of bright moving things (a mobile, a ceiling fan) and follows them really well. He also likes laying on his TinyLove playmat and watching the toys. Occassionally he swats them with his hands, mostly by accident. Sometimes he also grabs them and pulls. He doesn't like pacifiers. Instead, Mark has figured out how to put bring his fist to his mouth and suck on it. It's a big deal for such a little baby. And of course he makes lot of different faces, interesting noises (aghh and coo and such), etc. He holds his head very well and recently learned to dig his heels down and raise and arch his lower back and butt. This comes in handy at bath time - we don't need to flip him over any more.

The big news around is that Mark had a first date. And yes, it was with a little girl, named Olivia. Actually, the playdate was arranged by myself and Olivia's mom, Melanie. We met on-line through TriangleMommies.com. Melanie lives only minutes away. Turns out, Olivia is only 3 days younger than Mark. It's great because they have the same interests during the walks - sleeping. That allows Melanie and myself a much-needed chatting time. The first playdate was a huge success and we decided to make it a weekly thing.

This weekend is my BIG SPRING CLEANING. So far Chris and I only managed to finish our bedroom and Mark's room. But we pretty much cleaned everything from ceiling to floor, including cleaning the windows and washing the curtains. Tomorrow we'll be working on finishing the kitchen (I'm keeping my fingers crossed). If it happens, I'll finally post kitchen pictures.

2 Months

Hooray! Mark is 2 months old! I wanted to post this on Monday (9 April), but decided to wait until after his check-up. So he's really 2 months and 1 day old now :)

We found out today that he's 11lbs 4oz (about 5 kg) and 22 inches (55 cm). I was looking through some of his old pictures and couldn't believe how tiny he was - all his clothes were too big for him. And now he actually outgrew several of his outfits.

He got his gift a bit early. It was a TinyLove SuperDelux playmat. He seems to enjoy it, although his mobile is still a clear favorite. Mark also holds his head very well (even though it accounts for almost 1/3 of his body weight - a big noggin'). When we hold him upright, he doesn't even care for us to support his head. And when we lay him on his stomach, he can hold it at about 45-degree angle for several seconds. He's as cranky as ever, but he also smiles when in a good mood. A couple of days ago we gave him a binky (pacifier) and it seemed to work - the crying stopped. However, he's not too fond of it. We don't mind it too much - fewer bad habits to break later on. We're still struggling with making him sleep in his crib at night.

Today he'll be sleeping with us though because he also got a series of shots today. One shot was actually given orally in form of drops. But the other three were for real and they probably hurt too. But Mark was a real trooper - he only cried a little bit on his last shot and then calmed down right away. Of course, he's crankier than normal tonight so we don't want to make him feel any more uncomfortable.

Oh, in other news, last Sunday we went to the Raneissance Fair at the Fairgrounds. It was Easter Sunday, so there weren't that many people. Still, it was a busy place. We spent 4 hours there walking around. So first we stopped by the Queen's court and watched her knight little boys and girls (beats shacking Easter Bunny's paw!). Then we watched a magician, a team of acrobats, a dulcimer player. Slowly we made it to the other side of the fair just in time to see some sword fighting. Chris really got into this one. It took some effort to lead him away and to a tent with different crafts and period costumes for sale. Of course, there was tons of different food there. At first I wanted a funnel cake, but they just didn't look right (couldn't compare with the ones sold in Daytona). So we settled for fish and chips. By the way, not a single vendor was selling turkey legs - a big mistake! At the end of the day we watched the most important show of them all - the jousting match. And that was really cool!

TGIF

Yes, it's Friday, finally!!! The week went by very quickly and wasn't as exhausting as the previous one. And yet we're all tired and looking forward to this weekend. A lot of small stuff happened this week:

Home improvements are moving along nicely. The shelves are up, although need a coat of poly to protect the paint. The fridge is connected to the water line; so we can stop buying all that bottled water now.

I continue my get-back-in-shape program (see my other blog). Today marks the end of 2nd week of consistent effort on my part to get back in shape. Yes, it takes 6 weeks to form a habit or so they say. Nevertheless, I'm treating myself to a dinner out at a local burger joint, The Five Guys.

Chris is splitting time between work, college (he is doing awesome, getting straight As), home improvement (see above) and helping me with Mark. Here they are working out together, doing push-ups.

And speaking of Mark... He's really grown and is about 10lbs. We'll find out his exact weight on Tuesday at his 2-month check-up. Occassionally he sleeps in his crib for several hours at night. Then he wakes up for a diaper change and a feeding and we bring him to bed with us. Since he sleeps a lot in his crib now, we put up an anti-cat net over it. So the mobile had to be moved. It is now over the changing table and Mark absolutely loves it. His favorite animal apparently is the giraffe. Mark's 2-month birthday gift arrived a bit early. It's a TinyLove SuperDelux playmat. It's totally cool and entertaining even for very young babies. Plus when done playing Mark just falls asleep on it.

April Fool's Day

Mazltov! Our kitchen is now ready and all are invited to check it out!

Did you fall for it? If yes, see the title of this post and check today's date. Nope, the kitchen is still being worked on. But the hour draws near when I can finally sigh with relief and post the before and after pictures on my blog.

But most of the work is done. The countertop is in and all the things that were wrong with it were fixed. The electrical work is done and so is plumbing. We might even put the refrigerator in its permanent place tonight. Most of the space is functional and we even cook. Today Chris is working on getting the shelves up. We ordered some from Lowe's, but they weren't the right kind. Oh well, we just went with a cheaper DIY version and I think it'll look even better in the end.

I'm totally excited about the dining area. The table and chairs are very sturdy and comfortable. They are large, but fit into the space very well. And once we put a bench under the window, it'll be absolutely awesome.

So the things that we have to finish got a bit shorter:

- paint the shelves and put them up

- assemble the bench and paint it

- hang the curtains

- put the last 3 switch plates up

- move the refrigerator and

- clean up!

But for now I'm posting a picture of the exterior of our house. It looks especially beautiful now with the crab-apples a-blooming. And they smell nice too!