Step One

I finally went to the dentist this morning. I hadn't gone in years and then a couple years ago, I had one single visit to a new dentist that was so horrible I couldn't bear to go back to get any of her suggested work done. It took me this long, but I finally found a new one and went this morning. Whew. Don't get me wrong, I have about fifty bazillion cavities (okay, that might be an exaggeration, but I'm scheduled for two one-hour filling appointments, if that gives you an idea), and the words "possible root canal" and "possible crown" came up, but I didn't want to cry afterwards. For years, I've been mortified that I've taken such bad care when my parents went out of their way to ensure I made it to adulthood with few dental problems. With TTC coming up at the end of the year, I want to make sure that all of the things that affect fertility that I can control are taken care of. Dental care: step number one. Next, exercising, eating better, and cutting out caffeine and wine. My teeth are aching but I feel a little lighter because I'm getting sh*t taken care of.

In other news, we're combining our visit to dear friends with a side trip to meet up with one of our fave donor sib families! So excited!

Things are looking up!

When I got home from work, I checked the mailbox as usual. I finally received the check I'd been expecting from a class action settlement I was part of- even better, it was twice the amount I was expecting! There was much whooping and hollering in our house tonight. This means our plane tickets for the Disn.ey meet up with the other donor families is paid for. AND we can pay for plane tickets to see our dearest friends- we haven't been able to spend more than a few hours with them in a year! To top the night, we received word that a good friend had her baby boy tonight.

Things are looking up in the Zeebah Zazie house.

I'll leave you with this.... We took the bus to the big grocery store Saturday. The bus was really crowded, but a nice man gave up his seat near the window. Ellie was in front in my Er.go. Several times, she reached over to pat the man on his shoulder. She wasn't feeling his jacket, she was patting him, one-two-three. We always ask the girls to "give us pats" and I guess it's carried over. Sweet girl.

Get "Clowned"

If you're TTC, apparently you should get clowned shortly after you do-the-do (whatever your version is). Or skip the creepy clown and just see a funny movie.

Totally jazzed!

Okay, I'll admit I have had two cups of coffee already this morning, so though my fingers are typing along at their regular speed, my brain is running twice that. Over at Love+Love, they're getting ready to TTC- Jessie mentions needing to give up coffee and oh my gawd, I have to give up coffee! And my occasional Diet C.oke! And my wine! If we're planning to start right around when the girls' birthday in September, how much time do I need to give myself? Obviously, it's just healthier to cut down on all of those things in general, but they are my crutches and I don't want to give them up until I need to. We're going to Orlando at the beginning of May for a trip to Disney with the donor sibling families and donor family... when we return, I'll taper down over the rest of the month. The same approach worked for kicking cigarettes nearly three years ago- and that time, my quitting coincided with the beginning of TTC the girls.

Your Blog Here.

For YEARS, I used Bl.og.lines as both my RSS reader and my list of links on my blogs. BL was bought by another company, and when they switched over, not only did the interface suck but I lost most of my links, including yours, most likely. I'm picking up the pieces with another neat reader called Bloglovin', but if you're reading this and I should follow you, leave a comment!

The answer is...

Our answer is jeans. For the moment, we are able to keep the girls off the couch by putting them in jeans instead of their usual cotton stretchy pants. I don't know if it's that their jeans are slightly too big or what, but it seems to do the trick.

Ruby loves shoes. The sight of one makes her say "shoe!" She also says "shoe" if she sees a sock. Right part of the body, so points for that.

Ellie has been doing a funny thing where she'll run leaning forward, arms behind her while making a weird, smiley duck/kissy face. We don't know where she got it, but she does it just to get a laugh.

I always want to make each post stick to one topic, which leads to a lot of half-written, never published posts. Things I'd like to talk about: the increase in familial obligations when you find other donor sibling families and donor's family, what obligation (if any) do we have to introduce the girls to their Jewish heritage (we were both raised Christian, but donor was Jewish. Many of our friends and some family are, and we've always been interested in Judaism anyway) and to what extent should we do it, looking toward my trying to conceive baby #3 at the end of the year and whether that makes us bat-sh*t crazy, our prospective move. Comments, questions for me if there's anyone out there reading?

Oh my.

My girls know what they want and they know how to get it. Or at least, they think they know how to get it. Geez. Their current obsession is getting on the couch. Non-controversial action, right, climbing up onto the couch? But no, it's the standing on the couch, climbing on the couch arms, teetering precariously at the edge of the couch that we don't like. If our floor weren't so hard (parquet over concrete) perhaps, or they were more coordinated, or they weren't so small that it's a loooong way to the floor- sure, why not? However, I don't want to take someone to the emergency room for a broken collarbone, so we have been trying to keep them off the couch. I say trying because when your back is turned WHAM! How did she get back on the couch so fast?

Take them off the couch and you get back-arching and crying and vibrating with frustration (Ellie mostly). If they're in the right mood, that turns into a really not-fun round-robin of Take Mama's Glasses Off Her Face, followed by Stand on the Toy Piano, and then Pull the Plastic Fence Down. Seriously, in the right mood, they'll do one after the other after the other. In the bedroom, it's Open the Dresser Drawers, Pull the Curtains, Touch the Hot Radiator, and Play with the Humidifier. Keep them from one thing and then they immediately do all the other things they're not supposed to do.

We don't want to yell. Our Ladies of the One-Track Mind are only momentarily slowed if you remove them from the situation (not much room in our apartment to remove them anyway). We're at a loss. They'll grow out of the toddler phase just in time for baby #3, I'm sure.