A lovely weekend

We had such a nice weekend. Well, actually it was just a nice Sunday but it was SO nice that it makes up for a rather lackluster Saturday.


***Just deleted like, 8 paragraphs of absolute drivel. Trust me, you're welcome.***


Ok, so, where the hell was I? Oh yes, a good weekend.

In no particular order...
-bought my Ergo - yes, I do plan to be a hippy baby-wearer type parent. (cloth diapers too, baby!)
-purchased the Ergo with proceeds from a giant baby/maternity consignment sale from which I earned $135
-had an awesome time with Morgan and Conor, and yes, even Tucker, at the park.



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-Enjoyed a BBQ with great friends and great weather. And cupcakes!

Its raining again today but at least the weekend was perfect.

Oh! Got my CBEST test results back yesterday and I passed. Woo hoo! Grad school here I come!

Backyard

We spent some time playing in the backyard the other day. Well, Conor played with Nana and I played with my new camera. A girl has GOT to have her priorities straight!

The sun was behind Conor in a lot of these shots so they turned out really dark. I did my best to lighten them but the color ended up looking kind of washed out and faded.

I love this one.

Down the slide!

kisses. cute.

I'm king of the world! Or at least king of this plastic play structure.

Did I ever show you these?

I was going through our pictures today (we have over 4000 most of which are total crap) and came across these. Cute, cute, cute.

He wants to be just like Daddy

What's in a name?

*That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet*

When I was pregnant with Conor we had his name picked out even before we knew he was a "he". In coming to our decision Morgan and I actually got into some pretty big arguments because we each had pretty strong ideas on what our (future, possibly hypothetical) son would be named and neither of us liked the other's name. I liked the lovely Matthew Charles and Morgan liked (God help me) Owen something or other. Seriously, GAG. (Haha, Babe, aren't I FUNNY?)

When we decided on Conor Patrick is was honestly like the heavens parted and a grand light shone upon our heads while a chorus of angels sang a celestial song. OK, perhaps a bit of hyperbole there but his name just clicked and there was no questioning it.

So, when we found out we were having a girl we began thinking of girl names and kept waiting for the heavens to part again. We developed a short list (Allison, Leah, Maelle and Finley) and I began to doodle her name everywhere. I"m pretty sure that was in December and as the months ticked by and all the other soon-to-be-moms began revealing their baby names I began to get a little panicky. But the heavens just wouldn't part. We liked all the names and some we felt were unbearably cute and perfect but nothing SANG to us. I really wanted to have some singing.

I never did get my singing but eventually I kept running the name over in my head enough times that it BECAME her name.

Ladies and gentlemen, the next time you see my belly, you will know it is the current residence of one Miss Finley Clare Walsh.

I love this name for so many reasons the first of which is the way we came up with it. So, we're sitting around one night watching Law and Order (because that's how we roll, yo) and one of the characters is this guy named Finn. (Incidentally a really bad Irish mobster.) And we both agreed that it was really cute name but it seemed like a nickname not a full name. So I got to thinking about full names from which we could use Finn as a nickname (this was when I was certain I was having a boy)...Finnegan, eh...Finneaus, bleck...Finley, oh that's cute, but that's a girl name and we're having a boy so...

So, a few weeks later and surprise (to no one but me) we're having a girl! So now Finley becomes a reality. Or at least a very real contender on the short list of girl names.

Ok, so the second thing I love about her name is the family tie that she unintentionally has. Turns out that Lyn's father's mother's maiden name was Finlay (possibly even Finley but I think it was Finlay) so even though we weren't shooting for a family first name, we got one by completely random default. I think that is just really cool. Also, her middle name, Clare. My great-grandmother's name (my mother's father's mother) was Clara. And while I couldn't quite stomach Clara I love, love, love Clare. Also, there is County Clare in Ireland and Morgan and I love tying in our Irish heritage.

Finally, on a quick look through babycenter.com's list of the most popular baby names, Finley ranks at number 608. We almost changed it to Olivia Clare (we would have called her Liv, how cute is that?) but then I discovered that Olivia was the #4 most popular name in 2009 and we were going for a little bit more distinctive (I know, I should have picked 'Taneha'!) and so she became Finley.

Ahhhhhh, it feels so good to have it out in the open. I have a daughter and her name is Finley.

The Name Game

Have no fear, our darling daughter now has a name!

But I'm not going to tell you just yet. First, a story.

When I was 12 my best friend was Erin Walker (actually she still is, but whatever) and we had always been teased (actually we still are, but whatever) about our same names. We've been called all sorts of really cool things like Erin Squared, or Big Erin and Little Erin, or Erin Times Two. You know, all really, really clever monikers for friends who happen to have the same names. I can't imagine how people came up with those. Seriously.

So, one day I'm in Drama Club (oh yes, I was in Drama Club) and we were giving our names to the really cool 9th grader who I happened to think was super, super cool and she goes "I know your name is Erin (SQEE!) but how do you spell it? Is it E-R-Y-N-N?" And I had to hang my head in shame because my name was NOT spelled in that super cool way that Kimi St. Romaine thought (yes, that was her name, talk about cool spellings!)(now that I think about it, her little sister's name is Erin so she really should have known how to spell it for crying out loud). The very next day, I began writing Erynn S. at the top of all my school work.

Friends and family teased me and assured me it wouldn't last. HA!, I thought. I'll show them. And it stuck. For the next 15 or so years. At the time I changed it back, I had actually been spelling my name with a Y and 2 N's for longer than I hadn't been. Take THAT friends and family! Yes indeed, I did show them.

Where am I going with all this? Oh yes, the name. So, I decided to change it back to Erin for a couple of reasons. First, spelling a name with a Y and 2 N's just to be different is silly. Especially if your name is not normally spelled that way. i fully support non-traditional spellings (unless your name requires an asterisk, question mark or other seriously bizarre ornamentation) but only if it is a part of your God-given name. Not some lame-o attempt at identity differentiation from when you were 12.

Additionally, I was pregnant and considering that Morgan and I had actually fought over Conor's name I was like, I'll be dammed if he goes and changes the spelling of his name after all the thought and arguments we've put into this. And so, I became Erin and I really confused all my (Facebook) friends who only knew me at Erynn. I also took some well deserved ribbing from my family. Whatevs. I can handle it. They put up with my silly spelling on birthday cakes for years.

Seriously, I keep writing and I can't get this to wrap back to where I want it. I'm annoying myself. I'm going to stop and finish this up tomorrow.

Pictures

Prepare to be riveted.













Thanks to everyone who contributed to my birthday/early graduation gift. I love it and could not be more thrilled!

Morgan can hardly keep it together for presents. Birthdays, Christmas, any event where presents are well, present, he can hardly keep it together. But its not presents for himself that get him all excited, no its giving presents to others. (Actually, he gets adorably uncomfortable when on the receiving end.) I can't tell you the last time I actually waited until the actual day, be it Christmas or my birthday, that I have had to wait for my present. At Christmas this past year I made him wait until at least Christmas Eve but I could get him to wait no longer.

My birthday turned out to be no different. He came home from buying the present and insisted I open it IMMEDIATELY. Truthfully, I do like to wait until the actual day (or at least the actual week!) but its also very hard to turn down presents. Especially when Morgan is making up such convincing reasons as, "well, when I walk by you'll see it".

I made him wrap it at least.

Yes, he did do this all by himself.

And the card is really, really nice. Even though it is only the bottom of a Winco shopping bag.

A camera! A nice, new D-SLR! Whoo hoo. I am crazy excited and fear that I might become one of those people who carry their giant cameras everywhere they go. Whatevs, I LOVE it.

C is awake now or I would post some pics I took this weekend. Stay tuned. Yes, you will be riveted. Promise!

All's Well That Ends Well

The ultrasound went really well today. I had to wait for about an hour due to some sort of ultrasound emergency and at first I was a little irritated (and I really had to pee) but then I decided to enjoy the hour I got to spend reading a magazine without dishes or laundry or homework looming over my head. And you know what? It was really nice.

Ok, so after the last ultrasound I was told that I may have a marginal cord insertion which, again, means that the umbilical cord doesn't insert into the placenta exactly where they think it should. After a closer look it was determined that the insertion is about .04 cm off of where it should be. That's about half the length of a grain of rice. In other words, no big deal. My little cutie (oh man, wait til you see those cheeks!) is weighing in at 2 pounds 15 ounces and is just about as perfect as can be. And that came straight from the ultrasound tech and you know she doesn't say that to every mom who comes in. Right? Right.

Look at that cute little smooshed nose.And this almost identical but ever so slightly different shot of her kissable cheeks.

And Morgan passed his physical agility test! WHOO HOO! He's so rad I can't even stand it. The next step is the Chief's Selection interview which is coming up on May 13th. We began filling out the background forms last night and I'm glad we started so early. We have to list every job he's had and every place he's lived since he was 17 years old. He's had 16 jobs in the last 13 years and lived in more than 10 different places. We also discussed proper responses for this pattern when it inevitably comes up at the interview. :)

All told, a really good day in the Walsh household. Hope your day is going just as well!

Really cool idea

I would love to have a greenhouse. Nothing big, just a little room to grow some plants either during the winter and early spring or to jump start my seeds. My mom said that she was in SE the other day and saw that people had taken some old window panes, leaned them against their house and created an instant, cheap greenhouse! I think its brilliant and I can't wait to try it out.

You can get really cheap old windows at The Rebuilding Center (I LOVE that place!). Also, if you've never been there, go check it out. So many fun projects you can do around the house and everything is reclaimed and super inexpensive. Frugality and recycling. Two of my favorite things.

Morgan is off to take his Physical Agility Test for the Portland fire department today and I'm off to have a follow up ultrasound to check on Baby Girl's umbilical cord placement. Wish us all luck!

Empty

How's that for a bleak title? I feel like one of those hipsters with the tight pants and funky hair and shoes that I wore in 1987.

No, I am not emotionally empty rather my stomach is empty. Or at least it feels that way all. the. time. The last two nights I have woken up with hunger pains. Fortunately my love of sleep trumps my love of a full belly and I forced myself back to sleep. However, I wake up ravenous and I eat too much breakfast. But then I'm hungry again 2 hours later so I had a Fiber One pop-tart (quite delicious, actually) and then a hour later I'm hungry AGAIN! So I ate lunch and it was the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. Except it was a pepperoni pizza Lean Pocket which is not that delicious. And then I ate a mini cheese cake. This is not good.

I don't remember being this hungry when I was pregnant with Conor. Oh well, better go eat that second Lean Pocket. Don't want it to get all lonely in the freezer without its little buddy.

I am totally this kid.

Easter

It occurred to me yesterday that rather than writing a post about how I didn't have time to write a post, I could have, you know, written down one of those posts floating around in my head. Duh.

Hey! Dere's an egg right dere!

Whoa! M-a-M's!

Love Morgan's face here Hey Daddy, dere's another biiiig truck right here!More eggs.Cute little baseball Easter egg basketThe last egg

Easter was such a great day this year. It was the first year we actually bought candy and did an easter egg hunt and Conor loved it! It would have been so much fun to do it outside but it was pretty wet that day so we hid them all over the house during his nap. Too cute.

on Saturday before Easter Conor and I went to the Easter Egg Hunt at my dad's church and Conor collected tons of loot there too. (We now have waaay too much candy in our house.) Conor was pretty fascinated with all the kids there (like, a million - at least that's what it seemed like) and the bouncy house. He wouldn't actually get into it but he loved standing just outside and watching all the kids bounce around.

This is the face of one seriously tired, overwhelmed little boy. But man! What a cutie.

Blogging

I feel like I am constantly composing blog posts in my head. Anytime anything remotely interesting happens, or sometimes even the lack of interesting things, causes me to start writing posts in my head. I'm currently (head) working on four posts, Easter, how my CBEST went, how this baby is different from Conor even in utero (and also pressing on my lady bits in a rather uncomfortable way), and a written account of what Conor's constant chatter sounds like. But until I get them out of my head and onto "paper", they won't do anyone any good.

I'm swamped with homework and reading right now. This final term of school is truly a bear and I'm hanging on by a thread. It doesn't help that twice when I have sat down to do some reading I have found myself being woken up as Morgan comes home from work. Lord have mercy, I didn't even know I had fallen asleep!

Including the two hours a week I spend in class, I figure I'm logging about 20 to 25 hours of reading and writing each week. This is VASTLY more time than I have ever spent on homework during any other term and I'm only taking 2 classes!

All this to say, please bear with me. I hope I'll get a better handle on homework over the next few weeks and be able to return to more frequent blogging. In the meantime, know I'm at least thinking of the posts I should be writing.

Children, listen to your parents

In order to get into grad school and to become certified to teach in Oregon I have to take a number of tests, the CBEST, the ORELA, and the Praxis II. The first two measure basic knowledge such as reading, writing and basic mathematical skills. I usually fare pretty well in reading and writing but since I seem to altogether lack basic mathematical skills I decided to buy test prep book and take a little refresher course before my CBEST on Saturday. (Yes, I am spending 6.5 hours cramming before taking the test. What? Its a valid study strategy!)

So, I spent about an hour and a half going through the book and refreshing my memory on how to do such simple mathematical tasks as add, subtract and divide fractions. Bleck. I have ALWAYS hated fractions. Quite literally since the fourth grade when they were first introduced all the way through the remedial college math classes I had to take. Ugh. Fractions.

*Did I mention there are no calculators allowed on this test? Keep this in mind.*

So, after my refresher course I decided to take one of the two tests included in the back of the book. The good news is that I passed with 82% and the test only requires that you get 60% of the questions right. YAY! The bad news is that, with regard to basic math, habits that I developed in elementary school are still with me.

After I scored my test I decided to go back through the questions that I had answered incorrectly and see what went wrong. I re-worked all the problems and then took notes on what I did incorrectly the first time through.

These are my notes:
-read question carefully
-add carefully
-add carefully
-check work
-work problem backwards
-go with gut instinct
-add/subtract carefully
-add carefully
-read question carefully
-just don't get it
-add/subtract carefully
-just don't get it

Ummm, anyone notice a pattern here? With the exception of the two questions I just plain old don't get, I would have gotten all the questions right if I had just taken the time to add or subtract more carefully. I made stupid mistakes such as 12-3 = 7 and 7 x 7 = 14, or 54 - 19 = 36. It also appears I need to slow down and read the questions very CAREFULLY. Yikes. How many times did I screw up because it told me to select the answer from lowest to highest and I selected the answer that reflected highest to lowest.

So, note to self for Saturday morning's test: SLOW DOWN, READ CAREFULLY, DON'T BE AN ADDITION/SUBTRACTION IDIOT.

Meanwhile, my poor dad is shaking his fist saying "I've been telling you this for years!!!!!!"
Sorry Dad. Turns out I should have been listening.

Still no name for Baby Girl. As I enter the final 12 weeks of this here pregnancy I'm beginning to get a little concerned. What's YOUR favorite girl name? Wait, don't give it to me if you don't want me to steal it.

Because Hard Wood Floors is a mouthful

The other day.

ME: Conor, who is in Mommy's tummy?

CONOR: Baby Sister.

ME: And what is Baby Sister's name?

CONOR: (without hesitation) Carpet.

There you have it. Our daughter, Carpet Linoleum Walsh.