We're baaaaack!

Sorry it's been so long. We went to NY for the long weekend to visit my parents and grandparents, and I've just been too busy to catch up on here! I'm sure you don't want the entire weekend play-by-play, so I'll write today's "ketchup" in bullet style:

• We left Thursday around 3. I didn't put Rissa down for a nap, hoping she'd just take a long one in the car. Well, she didn't fall asleep until almost 5, and then only slept for 20 minutes! She woke up VERY grumpy (wonder why!) so we broke out our latest "secret weapon" - Dan's video iPod, The Backyardigans, and this! It was an instant hit (no surprise) and immediately changed her mood to ecstatic! She watched for a little while, and then we it put away and she was happy and talkative until she fell asleep around 9. We were pleasantly surprised with how well she did in the car, since we haven't travelled anywhere since the big Christmas disaster. She did so well entertaining herself with her cup (pretending it was a baby, kissing it, etc. - lol) and a few toys, and when she was tired of them, she was entertaining to us! We just had a good time talking about the funniest things: supposedly she was wearing Timmy's socks, and Timmy (friend of Dan's, well, I guess my friend too, lol) was wearing her socks - where does she get this stuff??? About 2 miles down the road when we left at 3, she started saying "All doh (all done) Frissa's car, nuh-uh!!! Muuuum, where are yooooouuuuuuu?" I was very worried that we were in for a miserable trip, but obviously she reconsidered spending a little more time in "Frissa's car"!
• Friday was a relaxing day, and we spent some time outside with my mom, aka Gramma = "Mum."
• Saturday we got up and went to a drop-in shower for a family adopting their first baby. She was adorable, and Marissa ended up wandering around with a bunch of little (and big) girls, all holding hands. It was so adorable! One of the girls was also named Marissa - she was in the Kindergarten class that I spent a week with waaaaaay back in my freshman year at college. She was by far the cutest girl in that class, and I just fell in love with her. You know, the favorite you're never supposed to have? Haha, anyways, she goes to my old church now too, and is still beautiful. She was the inspiration for naming our daughter Marissa, and she thought that was very cool. She hung around Marissa a lot, and I can tell if we lived there, she'd be an awesome babysitter in a few years!
• My dad mowed the lawn Saturday afternoon, and took Marissa out on the tractor for a little while. She thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was so cute to watch her laugh and giggle as they sped around the yard. Expect pictures!
• Sunday we went to church with my family, and then headed to a local park for an afternoon picnic. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, and we had a blast. I finally got some sun, so I'm not totally pale anymore. And Marissa totally wore herself out! We knew it was risky, but we decided to skip her nap, since it would be right in the middle of things and there wasn't a good place for her to nap at the park. She never even noticed! She ran around like a maniac the entire afternoon and didn't bother to eat much at all. Lol. Wherever we were, she had to run in the opposite direction as fast as she could! She finally crashed on the 8 minute drive home, and slept for an hour in her Gramma's lap!
• Over the weekend, she learned zillions of new words and phrases. But there are two that just crack me up. Dan randomly asked her to say "Mississippi" and she repeated it perfectly, only a bit twisted: Missippissi (Miss-i-pee-see). We also got to look at many caterpillars at my parents' house. After telling her they were caterpillars, she very carefully repeated "catter-boo-foo" and continued to say it exactly that same way every time!
• Monday we left around 11:30am. Again, this was risky for us, but based on the drive there, we thought Marissa would be fine. And we were right! She took a nice normal almost-2-hour nap in the middle of it, but the rest of the time she just played and talked with us. She watched a little of The Backyardigans, but overall, the drive was very successful. Surprise, surprise, our little girl is growing up!
• Tuesday I worked my second real day at the massage clinic. Blah...More on this later.
• Today a bunch of guys came from the company we built our house through, and did touch-up on all the drywall issues we had at the 10-month check-up. Which means...

IT'S TIME TO PAINT!!!!!

We went to Lowes tonight and bought some paint samples, and the plan is to go back and get the full amount once I decide, and PAINT SATURDAY! I'm soooooooooooooo excited to get rid of these BORING off-white walls! I'm starting in the living room/dining room/kitchen. It's one ginormous room, with no place to change paint colors. So I hope it won't be too overwhelming. But since BEFORE we moved in, I've been picturing it a beautiful light/bright green color. Dan is tolerating it, but I can tell he doesn't care one bit! Lol. After painting, a nice new couch is all we will need to complete our downstairs (at least for now)! There's obviously a bunch of other stuff I want to do/buy, but I won't mind waiting once the painting is done and a couch is in! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!! Definitely look for pictures of this on Sunday!

• HAHA, I almost forgot the best story from our weekend away:
  Sunday morning, everyone was waking up and getting ready at different times. Soon after I woke up, I found Marissa playing upstairs with someone, and decided to take her downstairs to get her dressed. Well, my parents live in kind of a split level. You walk in to the main floor, but there is about 3/4 of a stairway that goes up to the bedrooms, and 3/4 of a stairway that goes down to the family room (there's also a basement 3/4 of a stairway below that). Also, all the floors are hardwood floors, including the stairs. So anyways, we were all the way upstairs by the bedrooms. I took Marissa by the hand, and slowly started to lead her down the stairs. Instead of keeping her safe...instead of her slipping on her socks like we all were terrified of all weekend...I SLIPPED ON THE TOP STEP and bounced my way all the way to the bottom! Thankfully, Marissa somehow let go of my hand, and simply sat on the very top step and watched her mommy bounce all the way down the stairs! By the time I reached the bottom, everyone had come running (well, except for Dan who somehow slept through the entire thing!). Also, by the time I reached the bottom, I was laughing hysterically! Poor Marissa didn't know what to think! My mom picked her up right away, and then she wanted to come to me. But she didn't actually cry, which was surprising. So yeah, I'm pretty sore and have some awesome bruises. But the funniest part about the whole thing, is that for the next few days - in fact even today still - she said over and over "Mama fell over? Fall down stairs? Mama hurt? More fall stairs?" LOL. Poor girl, traumatized for life!
  

• And lastly, a quick story from (nanny) work:
  They have a circle to run around (you know, kitchen, dining room, living room), and Marissa and H. will run around forEVER! And after every loop, Marissa says "more running?" and they just run and run and run, and giggle the whole time! Marissa somehow convinced her Grandpa to run the loop at my parents' house, but that didn't last nearly as long! I'm so glad this nanny job is such a good fit for us. I don't always have the most patience, and I don't always enjoy it. But Marissa loves every second of it, and I'm even starting to have fun!

Ketchup

Easter Weekend
My parents and brother Jeff arrived from NY Thursday night, and my grandparents from PA arrived Friday for dinner. We pretty much just sat around, talked, played with Marissa, and ate awesome food. But on Saturday the men went to some museum and the rest of us went to get Marissa's FIRST HAIR CUT! We went to one of those kid's places so Marissa got to sit in a car and watch The Wiggles while the lady took 2 seconds to snip Marissa's mullet off. Lol. It looked kinda weird at first, but after a bath it curled under, and looks pretty cute. We had so much fun with all the family here. Marissa loved everybody and had a blast. It's kinda funny, because she must have been so confused by all the grandparents and their names! She calls my mom "Mum!"(I called her "Mom" too often in front of her), my dad is "Pah-pah" but so were my grandparents, and she says "Pah-pah" the same way for Dan's dad too! As soon as they all left though, she was asking for every single one of them! This is how it went:

Rissa: "Mum? Pah-pah? Jep?"
Me: "They went to NY" or "They went to PA"
Rissa: "Me, Nyork"
Me: "You want to go to NY?"
Rissa: "Yeah!"
Me: "Me too"
Rissa: "Shoes?"

She really thought we'd be going! Poor girl. I wish we all lived closer. It was sad for everyone to leave, but my parents will be back for Marissa's birthday in a month, and hopefully Dan's parents will be able to come too. Oh, that reminds me, I need to go buy her the little bike from Walmart before they run out!

New Job
Monday was the first day of my new job. We got there a little before 9, and got home a little before 2. I wonder if she'll pay extra when she's late? Anyways, it wasn't too bad. The baby girl, M, is 7 months old and the boy, H, is 5 months older than Marissa. Marissa and H played well together most of the time. They pushed a dump truck back and forth forever. Both enjoyed throwing balls all over the place. But M was a tough baby today. She seemed pretty easy going when we visited last week, but today she just was not happy. It doesn't help that the mother doesn't have any sort of routine for her, she just said feed her when she's hungry and put her in her bed when she's tired. Hopefully once she gets to know me better, she won't be as grumpy. H was a little aggressive with Marissa, which I was expecting and prepared for. It made her scared of him for a few minutes each time he did something, but she got over it quickly. I think it will be good for Marissa to be a little rougher and tougher, but I won't let him hurt her. Marissa loved baby M. Every time she started crying, Rissa would run over to her and try to hug her. It was so cute, even though it made M cry even harder. Lol. The morning went by very slowly, but also quickly too somehow. The hardest part was lunch, because that was when M was the most grumpy, and I was scrounging around their kitchen for something Marissa might eat. H is a good eater, so hopefully that will rub off on Marissa a little bit! It was kinda annoying because they don't have very many clocks in their house, and every clock I saw had a different (wrong) time on it! So I had to carry around my phone in my pocket all morning so I had some idea of what time it was. All in all, though, it wasn't awful. And I suspect it might get better after a few days. I'm starting off by being very strict with H so he knows his limits! I have no desire to watch a boy that I've grown to hate because he won't listen to me! I think this job will be ok, as long as H learns I'm the boss, and as long as M starts liking me.

We got home from work at 2, and I rushed Marissa into her crib. She slept for over 2 hours, while I recovered from our crazy morning. Their house was pretty chilly, so I got to curl up on my couch with my blanket and read some blogs

When Rach got home Monday night, Dan and I went to Brio (Italian restaurant) while Rach watched Rissa. I didn't really want to go, because I felt bad about not giving Marissa my full attention all day at work, but Dan and I enjoyed the time alone, and Marissa had fun with Rach. I'm nervous that Marissa will start to act up or be upset since we've never worked every day before, and it will be more difficult for me to give her the same attention she's used to. Hopefully I can make up for it when we're home.

The first three days of working have gone better than I expected. By Tuesday the baby was happy and fine with me, and Marissa and H get along so well. Marissa loves the baby too. It is wearing her out though - today she slept for 3 hours! Totally unheard of for her!

I guess that's all. If you're on Xanga, I posted zillions of pictures. If you're on Xanga and I don't have you on my list, just let me know. If I know you well enough, I'll add you so you can see pictures!