Contemplations of a Closet Curmudgeon

Massive, stupid things at work yesterday. I was left off of an email chain (because why would you need to include the person who wrangles your paperwork on an email chain about paperwork, right?), and so didn't know that shift supervision was supposed to be turning in two copies of their logs. When I had called the audit team about supervision turning in two copies when they started showing up, the person I talked to said they only needed one, so I threw out what I thought was the extra. WELL. No, they needed both, and the audit team was supposed to get all our paperwork yesterday morning to begin going over it (it's a standing monthly thing), but instead I had to reprint the copies (about 56 logs in total!), run around to get a half-dozen signatures from different people, organize it all into its books, and run it over to the audit team. It was well after lunch by the time all that was done, and I was exhausted. So, yeah, the day was stupid. 

When I got home, M told me that the baby had been sleeping a ton all day long. She slept in until nearly 11, then she napped from 1:30-3:00! We were sure she'd be up late into the night, but no, at about 6:30 she started giving me the sign for "sleep". I made sure she ate dinner, gave her some milk, then around 7:00 she grabbed her pacifier and blanket and very adamantly shoved her head into my lap, so I bundled her up and put her to bed. I checked her temp to make sure she wasn't coming down with something, and she was fine, and she wasn't in bad spirits at all, so I guess it's a growth spurt or maybe just a sleepy day? Who knows.

Tacos for dinner, and watched the season finale of The Gilded Age. If they continue to sort of loosely follow the Vanderbilt family history for the Russell storyline, it means that we could see them divorce next season. They have been sort of setting it up with Mrs. Russell welcoming divorced women back into society and trying to remove some of the stigma around them, so I could see them going forward with it.

Half my FB feed has been people at Pennsic, and the other half has been people at the Las Vegas Star Trek convention, and it seems like everyone I know was at either one or the other. My feed hasn't had this much event activity on it in a long time! And with stuff still trickling in from Costume College last weekend, my feed is just stuffed full of costume stuff. Can't deny that I'm feeling quite a bit of FOMO. Even had dreams last night about trying to get ready for a Victorian tea event, and running around my imaginary costume closet (which in the dream was also half Mardi Gras shop?) trying to find a gown for my sister. ~sigh~ Of course, all the gorgeous ballroom scenes in The Gilded Age finale episode didn't help! Very bummed that I won't be able to make it to an event until next Spring.

Weekend was busy, busy. I did not, in fact, accomplish my goal of packing up the sewing corner, but eh. It's fine. 

Saturday is a bit of a blur. I wanted pancakes, so I made a big pancake brunch with eggs and bacon. I had a dizzy spell sometime in the afternoon, so I went to lie down, and M told me not to worry about making dinner, we would all just fend for ourselves. Fine by me!

Sunday was mostly a chore day. I spent far too long working on dishes, and kept on doing that right until it was time to make dinner. At that point, it was time for M to pick up our bulk grocery order, so instead of me cooking, he picked up the groceries and brought them home, then while I was parceling things out and putting them away, he went to Portillos and bought us dinner. We ate, baby went to bed, then we sat on the couch and chatted a bit before I headed to bed. 

Tried to get myself up a little earlier today, so I set the alarm 15 minutes early, knowing I'd snooze it a couple of times. Tiger thwarted that, though, because as soon as he heard my alarm go off, he began absolutely howling in the hallway, so I had to get up to get him to quiet down. It did give me enough time to get a few things done, though, namely butchering an 8lb pork loin, which had been sitting in the freezer being all awkward and huge, into more manageable 2lb roasts, getting the baby's breakfast plate together, and ironing a clean dress for work. It wasn't everything that I'd hoped to do, but it was more than usual, so it's a win overall.

Only big plan for this week is M's final round interview on Thursday, so I'll be taking a half day.

Lots of back and forth driving yesterday. Came home to watch the baby over lunch while M had a meeting. She was super cooperative, just wanted a bit of snack and then was right to bed for her nap, didn't fuss or fight at all. That actually meant that I got back out a bit early and was able to get fuel and still make it back to work on time. Nice!

Stopped by World Market on the way home to pick up the hamper I'd ordered. Got all the way home before I realized that they hadn't included the liner it was supposed to have, so once M finished his work and we had dinner, I headed back out and picked it up. 

Once I was home, M went straight to bed, so it was just us girls and cats for the rest of the night. Kate went down fairly easily at her bedtime, and I melted into the couch for a while before finally turning in myself. Just a quiet evening at home. 

Big cleaning plans for the weekend. I'm planning to pack away most of my sewing corner and put it in storage, since it's become very clear that I just don't have the time to touch any projects right now. I'll keep my sewing desk and machine at the house, and a few small essentials like hand-sewing needles and such, but all the trim, fabric, and other things that I like to have on hand but don't use often will go into boxes, and the bookcase with my sewing books will go into the bedroom. That'll clear up a corner of the living room for Kate's stuff, and hopefully keep things a bit more contained. 

Cassock plans are dead, blah. Someday, I will sew A Thing again, but it doesn't look like that day will be happening anytime this year.

I may or may not iron clothes this weekend. I really need to, but we hates it, precious.

M finally heard back from Possible New Job to set up the final interview, hooray! It's next Thursday in the afternoon, so fingers crossed! He also had a call with a recruiter from a NY bank that has a position that's basically what he's doing now, just for more pay, so he's going to send over his resume. 

We also heard back from ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) about Kate's possible speech therapy. We have an initial assessment set up for the 19th, where they'll come for a visit and see how she uses language in her own environment, and whether she's far enough behind that she qualifies for therapy. Even if she doesn't, at least we'll get some resources on how to develop her language skills a bit better. 

Quiet evening at home. Leftover chicken tikka for dinner, and the baby plopped herself right down over my bowl and began slurping down my rice. It's probably one of her favorite dishes, judging from how she inhales it every time. She has added "mmm, good!" to her vocabulary, which she's used at dinner nearly every night this week. 

M went to bed super early, even before the baby was down, so once she was asleep I had a quiet house to myself. I was dead tired, but I was determined to enjoy my alone time for a while, and stayed up watching some TV and eating sweets. 

Trying a new baked ziti recipe tonight. Besides cooking the meat and onions, it's basically a throw-things-in-a-dish recipe, so we'll see how it goes.

Friday was not a good day. It was one minor thing after another - nearly getting hit two different times as I crossed the street at work, fighting all afternoon with insurance over a claim, the baby being an absolute menace, stepping barefoot on a cockroach, the baby throwing yogurt all over me, vegetables for dinner ended up being moldy, the baby screaming her head off in protest of going to bed, just on and on and on, and I ended up having a complete emotional breakdown after the baby was finally asleep. Cried on the couch for a good 30 minutes, then once I was finally able to calm down, went to the store for some fresh vegetables. 

Dinner ended up being made super, super late, around midnight, and I sat on the couch for a while after that to try and relax, so I wasn't in bed until 1:30.

Saturday was a much better day. I did wake up with an emotion hangover and undereye bags like you wouldn't believe, but it all cleared up eventually. The baby slept late, which meant that I got to sleep in a bit, too, and my late night didn't end up hurting me. 

Baby was in good spirits all day, and was perfectly content to play independently, so I took the opportunity to do as little as possible and just enjoy a quiet day. She put herself down for a nap around noon-ish, and was asleep for three hours! So nice! I made myself a salad, and ate some fruit and yogurt...and a cheese sandwich, a whole pint of ice cream, and chocolates, and yeah, I feel like I ate my way through half the kitchen. I haven't had any sort of appetite spike or anything during this pregnancy, but this weekend I just hoovered up any food I could find. Yeesh. 

Sunday wasn't as chill, mainly because the baby was being very baby. I made a big lunch of roast ham, bacon green beans, and roasted sweet potatoes. I had intended to make mac 'n cheese, but discovered that the milk and the cream were both curdled. -_- I swear, our fridge must be losing its cool, because it feels like things are spoiling much faster these days. 

Crazy eating continued and I had three helpings of everything once it was done cooking. Yeesh. Still didn't feel quite full, so I guess baby #2 was hungry this weekend. Between the three of us, we completely polished off a 4-lb ham, which meant there was none left to make chowder for our next dinner, which had been the plan, but which is fine because the carrots ended up being rotten, too! Stupid fridge.

The baby refused to nap all day long, and was cranky and clingy and getting into a lot of mischief. By the end of the day I was completely exhausted from chasing her around the house, and no real chores had been done. Thankfully, this did mean that she went down for the night fairly easily. I had time enough to take a shower and relax on the couch for a while before slithering into bed at around midnight.

Woke up briefly to some big thunder at around 2. We had a very strong storm that lasted a good while, and in the morning the temp was actually 70 degrees! Absolutely unheard of for August, but so, so welcome.

Somehow managed to sleep through my alarm this morning, but woke up with juuuuust enough time to get dressed, throw together a rather pathetic breakfast plate for the baby, and get myself out the door. 

OB checkup this afternoon, so leaving work a bit early. Nosy Lt is off on Mondays, so there's no one to gripe about it, neener neener. 

Maybe there's something about having things to focus on during our busy weeks that actually calms my anxiety a bit, but this week, with nothing going on, has actually seen my anxiety up. -_- Not a fan of that. 

Baby was a menace all evening, just a whirlwind of destruction. She tore up papers, and toys, and threw her food around the house, chased the cats, slapped everyone, and was just a terrorist in general. Many time outs were given. Thankfully, she went to bed without a fight, and I actually got to enjoy my evening a bit. Caught up on the latest episode of The Gilded Age, which was a good episode with a BLAM surprise ending. Showered, then snuck into bed.

Was startled awake by a recurring anxiety dream I've been having lately (the baby crawling around on our bed and then suddenly launching herself over the side and doing herself an injury - it always wakes me up because my actual real non-dream body lurches forward trying to catch dream-baby.) This woke up Carolina, who was snuggled against me, so she wanted out of the room for a snack, and letting her out woke up the baby. M had just finished showering, so we transferred the baby to her actual crib, where she fussed a bit before settling back down.

Then M, still being Mostly Awake, laid in bed with me and chatted for an hour. More stuff about work and jobs and savings and housing, and so forth, and it gave me more weird dreams after I finally got back to sleep, and I woke up in a sour mood. 

Need to be home to watch the baby during one of M's meetings today, so a slightly later lunch time than usual. 

In other news, called up Kate's pediatrician to get advice about her speech development. She's still babbling and not really using words yet, and she's about to hit 22 months and should have at least 30-50 regular words at this point. They referred us to Early Childhood Intervention, and they said they're processing our request and we should hear from them within the next couple of weeks.

BCBS is being fucky about covering the amniocentesis. I've already had to fight with them about lab work they didn't cover, then they decided not to fully cover the procedure itself, and now they're saying there's more lab work that's out of network, even though it's exactly the same provider that they've fully covered in the past. -_- Claim has been appealed. Need more Luigis.