There are times when Accalia will request something to eat and then stare blankly at me when I ask her what she would like. I'm not sure if she thinks I'm capable of reading her mind and knowing what she wants or if she just wants me to decide for her. I've discovered a way to get her to willingly answer me, though, when she seems without a response. Cory just laughed and groaned when I told him, but it really does work.

Accalia: Mommy, I'm hungry!
Me: What would you like to eat?
Accalia stares blankly or sometimes gives me a puzzled look.
Me: (going into an awful Spice Girls imitation). Tell me what you want, what you really, really want! You want a ...., you want a .....
Accalia: (jumping up and all excited) I want a popsicle (or banana or string cheese or noodles).

So it's made that little part of our day much more fun.

The most popular book from our trip to the library last week has been Ballerina! by Peter Sis. Accalia absolutely loves it. Each page shows a little girl dressed in a different costume and performing a different pose. So each time we read it, Accalia follows along and dances around the living room. She's basically memorized this book.

Yesterday I went to the dollar store with Cole while Accalia and Cory hung out at home, and I bought Accalia a ballerina figurine. They have a few others there, so I'll probably eventually get them all. Accalia is just fascinated and in love with the world of ballet right now.

Last night was a fairly wretched night of sleep. I wasn't able to fall asleep until 1 a.m. Cole wasn't really awake but would settle to sleep unless he was being rocked in the sling. Then we were up for good at 7 a.m. Not the worst night ever, but I had been looking forward to sleep so much! We're all in good moods despite that :) Cole's napping right now, and after he's awake we have to mail a package.

Cory's on call this weekend, so he has to drive up to Sioux Falls both days for rounds. It's a beautiful day today - sunny and in the 70s. Pretty windy, though. We have new neighbors moving in. I think they have two children elementary school age. I talked with the mom briefly yesterday when we were all outside. She seems nice enough.

Last night was a relatively good night of sleep. Cole has been so incredibly restless, though, in the early mornings. Friday morning he started in around 3:30 a.m., and I think I managed to get an hour of solid sleep before I was up for the day thanks to a whining dog. Cole's such a great sleeper otherwise that I know he's just trying to take in all of these changes and wants to be out in the world as much as he can rather than sleep. But I know I'm rather sleep deprived because I'm getting very possessive of my sleep and of any possible alone time I can get. Last night definitely helped, though.

Cory and Accalia were planting seeds for our garden today. It's probably a little late to be just starting them inside, but we'll find out what happens. Accalia picked out some flower seeds (can't remember what they are right now) to plant near the back of the house. In the garden, we're planting radishes, peas, spinach, peppers and watermelon. Let's hope something grows! Accalia now has her own sized spade and trowel and is very excited to help out. At least I'll have company in the backyard while I'm weeding. It'll be a challenge to keep Cole from eating the dirt - got his first sample today. Yummy.

A while back I took part in a panty exchange (think recipe exchange except underwear) that my friend Shannon invited me to do. I sent it to a few of you, too, so some of you know what I'm talking about. Today I got a pair of panties! Imagine my surprise when I check the mail and there's a package from Victoria's Secret. These definitely aren't panties I'll be wearing every day, though. Now I feel bad since I just picked up a pair at Wal-Mart for the person I needed to send panties to. Ah well!

Both Accalia and Cole just fell asleep. This hasn't happened in a long time. Maybe it's the rainy weather we're having that's making everyone so drowsy. I'm just glad to have some quiet for a while. Both kids have been rather challenging lately. Our visit to Mankato last weekend wasn't completely relaxing because both Accalia and Cole were out of sorts. I think there are major changes going on with both.

Accalia's mind is just working constantly and processing so many things. She's making all sorts of connections, especially identifying the different forms letters and numbers can take. Yesterday it was raining slightly when we ran into a building and Accalia started singing "Rain, rain go away!" When we came out the rain was gone and Accalia was so pleased with herself. So today she's been singing a lot in hopes of the rain disappearing, but it hasn't happened yet.

On our way to Mankato last Thursday, we discovered that Cole's third tooth (this time on top) was popping through. No wonder he's been cranky! And I haven't gotten a good look yet, but I think he may have another tooth on the bottom coming through. And now he's pulling himself up onto everything and has even started walking around things a little. So it's completely understandable why he's so out of sorts. He shouldn't be doing all of this at not even eight months, though! LOL!

Judy Jones Found Guilty

This is such devastating news - not just for Judy and her family but for all women in South Dakota and the surrounding states who want an alternative to hospital births. It's so maddening to listen to all of the inaccuracies spouted off by the media, and I'm so saddened to think how far this has set the homebirth movement back. I'm very, very scared to think of what choices I'll face when and if I'm pregnant again. If there's no one available to assist in a homebirth, what do I do? I just can't stomach the thought of going to a hospital after experiencing the birth I did with Cole - at home and unassisted. At this point, I don't feel brave enough to plan an unassisted birth from the start, but it sounds much more appealing to me than trying to fight off the medical establishment while I birth my baby.

What can I do? How can I help? I feel so small and so useless against the powers that be.

I just don't think sometimes. I was talking with my cousin Rachel on the phone this morning with the kids right next to me playing. She was telling me about the bike they were getting their oldest, and I said, "Oh, we're going to get Accalia a bike for her birthday." So, Accalia is standing right there and hears me, of course. She says, "You're getting me a bike for my birthday? Thank you Mommy!" LOL! Maybe she'll forget about it in the time remaining before her birthday :)

We're leaving tomorrow and won't be back until Monday. Going to Mankato to stay with my parents with a one night stay with Cory's parents.

Yesterday Accalia was playing with the kitchen set we picked up for 10 cents at a garage sale and her pretend food. She asked me to join in, so we went back and forth asking each other what we wanted to eat and then cooking it. Then Accalia crawled into the oven part, asked me to close the doors and turn on the oven to cook her. LOL! I told her to tell me when she was done, and when she was she would ask me to eat her.

I've had trouble the last couple days getting really motivated to do a lot of physical stuff because it's been so muggy. Definitely doesn't feel like April in South Dakota. This weather has given me a chance to learn that Cole is a very sweaty child. He's also crawling around like crazy and all over everything. Accalia was lying in her bean bag and Cole just climbed right over her. And then Accalia and I were sitting on the stairs reading and Cole climbed up the first step.

Accalia and I had an opportunity to talk about homeless people today. We were out front drawing with sidewalk chalk and then Accalia ran in the back to her swing set. The swing set is just a few feet from our shed/garage, which is right by the alley. I happened to glance by the back of the alley and saw a pair of feet sticking out. I was too chicken to go back there and actually see the rest of the body because I really didn't want to discover a dead person there. I could tell that it was one of the homeless people that regularly walks through our alley and around the neighborhood, so I also figured he might just be sleeping or resting. At any rate, I called the police just to come and check it out, and an officer did come and had the man and the woman he was with move along. I'm assuming the man was drunk because he could barely walk, and I've seen him walking perfectly well before. There was also a woman with him. I kind of felt bad about calling the police and disrupting them because they're perfectly harmless from what I've seen. But at the same time I don't want people hanging out on our property if they're not invited, you know?

Anyway, Accalia and I just talked a little about who homeless people are and why I called the police and what we can do to help. Accalia was most interested in going outside to see them and talking about our big house, but we decided that may not be the best thing at the moment.

We made it home yesterday. Overall the trip was pretty good. Cory enjoyed most of his conference, although he felt some parts of it were rather pointless. I have to say that spending two days in a motel room with two small children isn't something I want to do any time soon, but we all survived.

On Wednesday, we picked Cory up from work in Sioux Falls and drove to Mitchell to spend the night at our friend Sara's house in order to break up the drive a little. Accalia thought that was pretty fun to actually spend the night instead of just coming for a visit. Cole slept for about two hours after we took off Thursday morning, and we stopped at Kadoka for lunch after he woke up. Side note: Kadoka is where Cory and I spent our second night of wedded bliss on our way out to Spearfish Canyon. After lunch, we drove on to Wall Drug and stopped there so Accalia could run around. We picked up our requisite free bumper sticker (to put on Accalia's car) and then headed on to Rapid City. Before Cory started his conference, we had time for a dip in the pool. They had a really tiny kiddy pool separate from the big pool, so that was really nice. Cole loved it, and he actually scraped up the bottoms of his toes from jumping up and down so much in the pool. After Cory was finished listening to the keynote speaker, we headed out for supper at Outback (Cory's choice) then came back to the hotel where the kids crashed for the night.

The next day the kids and I visited Dinosaur Park. Accalia loved running up and down the hillside and seeing all of the huge concrete dinosaurs. I think the park was built back in 1939 (late 1930s for sure) by the Works Project Administration. After that, we made a trip to Toys R Us (one of two) so Accalia could become the proud owner of a tutu. She's gone through two since her ballet fascination began, so hopefully this one will last a while. We also stopped at Borders, and I saw a book there that caught my eye: Fresh Milk: The Secret Life of Breasts. I think that's another one to add to my wish list.

Over the course of the rest of the day, we managed to hang out at the hotel, take in a meal or two and once again relax. After supper at Applebee's, Cole fell asleep and Cory took Accalia to the pool, so I had a few minutes of peace in the hotel room and finished up the Jeffrey Deaver novel I'd been reading.

On Saturday, I took the kids to a park before we left Rapid City. The ride home went much better than expected. Cole slept nearly three hours until Chamberlain. An hour past that we were in Mitchell again where we stopped for supper. We headed home after that, with one brief stop to nurse a cranky boy. Cory's parents had stayed at our house while we were gone in order to dog sit Lucy. How nice was that!?! And Cory's mom cleaned our house. LOL! It's hard not to feel like a complete failure as a housekeeper coming home to a house that clean. It was definitely appreciated, though.

Today we haven't been doing much. Made a trip to the grocery and dollar stores and just hung out around home. Cory took both kids (my first time completely along since Cole was born!) to the library, but that only lasted about a half hour because Accalia was so out of sorts. I did manage to answer my online help forms for LLL during that time, so that was nice. Both kids have just falled asleep in the past half hour, so they were both going until past 10. Way beyond what they should have been! They were both so overtired, but I think they were both so happy to be home and have their stuff again.

This will be a short week at home. We're leaving Thursday for Mankato and won't be back until Monday. My mom is rather anxious to see the grandkids. It's been more than a month, and she hasn't seen Cole crawl yet and hasn't checked out his two teeth.

We're leaving tomorrow and won't be back until Saturday - heading out west to Rapid City so Cory can attend a counseling conference. As usual, I will keeping Accalia entertained during the day. Sometimes that's not the funnest thing when you're in the confines of a hotel room, but we don't plan to be there too much. Accalia's so excited about swimming in the pool. Hopefully Cole will like it, too, or else our pool time will be severely limited to when Cory is around. I'm planning on taking the kids to Dinosaur Park, which is basically just a small stop on a hillside with half a dozen or so huge concrete replicas of dinosaurs. Accalia and I went there when she was about 1 1/2 and it freaked her out a bit. This time I have a feeling she'll be more excited.

The most exciting thing that has happen this week is that I was offered the position of Coordinator of Leader Accreditation for the Minnesota and Dakotas area of La Leche League. That's moving on up from the Associate Coordinator position. I'm excited about it because it means more contact with the area council and department heads. I think it will definitely be challenging at times to balance these responsibilities with the kids and the house. "Don't worry, Mama" is what Accalia would say. She says that a lot. I wonder where she picked that up. I don't say that very often. I'll have to pay really close attention to make sure I really don't!

I'll write more when we return!

It's snowing right now. Has been since around 5 or 6. Big, fluffy, wet flakes. We're supposed to get 4-8 inches by tomorrow. I think Cory's going to be staying home from work. Woo hoo! I think I can handle that.

Before the snow, it was windy and cold, cold, cold. Cole was upstairs napping and Cory was cleaning our humidifiers and Accalia wanted to go outside for a bit. So the two of us went outside and drew with sidewalk chalk. Then we chugged up and down the sidewalk like the train from "The Little Engine That Could."

Tonight Accalia conked out early but Cole just wouldn't fall asleep. By the time he realized he was tired, he was way overtired and just screamed and screamed until he fell fast asleep. I don't especially enjoy those times. Now everyone is up in bed and I'm doing a few things before I head there myself.

My cousin Rachel mentioned in an email about all the different magazines she'd like to subscribe to and how hard it is to choose. Not to mention the cost of all of those subscriptions! Right now I'm subscribing to two magazines: Mothering and Pandora's Box.

I guess I also receive NEW BEGINNINGS and LEAVEN through being a member and Leader of La Leche League International.

Some of the magazines I would like to subscribe to (in no particular order) include:
Compleat Mother
Brain, Child
Home Education Magazine
Hip Mama

Okay, those are just a few of the magazines I'd like delivered to my mailbox. I have no idea when I'd find the time to read them, of course, since I'm so far behind on the ones I already subscribe to! It's a nice thought, though, to imagine those days curled up in an overstuffed chair, sipping a cup of tea and doing nothing else for hours on end except reading.

Well, I can't say that yesterday stayed peaceful for long. That morning we discovered that the downstairs toilet was blocked. It still is today but not quite as bad. We have no idea what happened. Accalia has never put toys or other objects in the toilet, and she said she didn't do anything now. Her answer when we asked if she put anything in the toilet? "Poop!" I went out and bought an auger to try my hand at unblocking it, but that didn't do the trick. Cory thinks he'll probably have to take the toilet off this weekend if it doesn't clear up before then. What a pain!

We had to run to Wal-Mart yesterday for a couple things, and there was this mom behind me in line with two girls similar to Accalia and Cole's ages. She immediately commented on the position I had Cole in in the sling (chest to chest) and said she couldn't figure out how to do that. Someone else in Yankton with a sling? Very cool! So I waited for her and showed her how to do it. Glad to be of service to those wanting to do a bit of baby wearing :)

Today we have to run to the post office, and then I think we'll go to the library and see what DVDs they have to rent.

I'm up a little past six this morning with both kids still sleeping peacefully. I wasn't planning on being up this early, but Lucy came wandering in to the bedroom after Cory left whining to go out. I have to remember to tell Cory to keep the bedroom door shut. Lucy has some serious spring fever, I think. It is a gorgeous spring day, though. We slept with windows open last night.

Now I think I'll catch up on my regular blogs, drink some oj and start off the day on a peaceful, happy note.