No excuses for not blogging, but before you people have some sort of uprising - it’s pollen season here and everything is coated in yellow (including my lungs and eyes), I’m still the poster child for why you shouldn’t get pregnant, and I have an extremely active daughter. Okay? Okay.

After an unsuccessful journey to WalMart for a rocking horse for Lily (I just wanted a basic, plastic, inexpensive one), we sucked it up and went to Toys R Us this morning. Never in my life have I seen a surlier staff of people. I think at Christmas I swore I’d never go back, but I conveniently forgot my oath. You would think that working in a toy store would be “fun”, but apparently it is some version of hell on earth according to their staff. They are a grouchy bunch, those people. Maybe it’s working under the shadow of a 20 foot tall giraffe named Geoffrey - who knows. We eventually found the rocking horses that were under $50 (and no I’m not kidding), with no thanks to the aforementioned staff. The choice was between “My Electric Mustang Pony” or “Rocking Dog”. Mike said, “No more damn toys with noise. We’re getting the quiet one.” In other words, the blue plastic thing that looked vaguely canine. Lily didn’t care, she just wanted to rip open the box.

Outside Toys R Us, they have plenty of display models of slides, climbers, and sandboxes set up. It’s cruel enticement. Lily was all over the slides both coming in and trying to exit - and I’ve never seen plastic molded forms marked up to well over $300 a piece. I think we’ll just keep going to the park and using the plastic slide we have here at home. She had a minor temper tantrum but we were able to pry her deathgrip off the slide and get her into the car seat.

The rocking horse was a big hit - she rocked her brains out and imitated Evel Kenieval - she’s a daredevil in training - by standing on the seat and motioning for Mike to rock her while she balances. She also did a mini-rodeo move where she rocks and holds up one hand in the air, all the while trying to pull up her shirt so the world can see her belly. I hope these are not the first signs of insanity in our child.

Also, who said that temper tantrums began in the terrible twos? Liars!!! We love her sweet and alternately feisty temperament, but I saw the future on Friday - and it was scary! We took her to lunch with us and she was AFU, as Mike calls it (All Fired Up). She began by quietly drawing on her placement (nice baby!) and playing with her crayons. After eating a little bit of her lunch, she decided that was enough, and pulled the placement out as fast as you can imagine, and started waving it around like a baton. Unfortunately, the majority of her food was still ON the placemat when she pulled it out, and when we looked down, there was a 5 mile half circle radius of Lily-food decorating the floor of the restaurant. I believe this particular temper tantrum was courtesy of me, refusing to let her drink my iced tea. The temper tantrums usually begin with her flailing her arms around as hard as she can, then slapping or hitting in anyone’s general direction - including the dog. Today Delilah was beaned in the nose by a small race car she stole from Matt’s house. For no apparent reason.

Then, there are moments of pure sweetness, which make you forget the devilish moments prior. I still find myself wondering how in the heck I am going to handle two of them. I saw some women at the mall last week with twin girls around 2 and a newborn - she had the twins on tethers - and I was thinking, good lord, that’s going to be me, chaining my children to me so they don’t run out in traffic or something.

I’ve been so sick and run down I’ve taken NO pictures later and NO video. Horrible! We are going to try to be better. I promise.

I had breakfast with Lily this morning - and the grandparents - before heading into work. She ate a ton of hash browns, usually stuffing them into her mouth until her cheeks bulged out like some maniacal chipmunk. Whatever is on grandpa’s plate is what she wants. I swear she’d eat a brussel sprout if it was on his plate. Maybe I should try that.

We think she’s going through a growing spurt, or she just has her mother’s appetite - she is as monster veggie eater and yesterday would have eaten the drywall if we’d offered it to her. Go figure. Let’s just say that changing diapers yesterday was less than pleasant after all the food she’d eaten.

I go to the doctor tomorrow for my “end of the first trimester” check up - and hope that everything is fine. I’ve managed not to gain any weight but being sick all the time helps. Here’s to the end of barf-o-rama 2004.

Lily . . . she’s such a nut. Her favorite thing in stores now is to push the cart - doesn’t matter if it’s Lowe’s or Kroger - she just wants to push everything around the store. So tonight, we ate at Ukrops (a local Richmond grocery store) and after she was done eating, she was itching to get down and walk around. I let her roam the produce section until I realized she had comandeered an elderly woman’s cart and was already half way across the store when I caught up to her. I grabbed the cart and started pushing it backwards (while Lily shrieked her disapproval) and I think the woman was convinced I was trying to steal her bananas or something. She looked at me like I was a pyscho. I decided it was time to pick up Lily and move her to a less tempting part of the store . . . one of these days she’s going to REALLY steal someone’s cart. I just hope Mike is with her and not me.

It’s been a long time since I blogged. Most of you already know that Mike was victorious again. Yes, I am pregnant - again. In answer to the slew of questions we both received: no we did not plan it. Yes we were surprised. No we haven’t picked names. Yes Mike and I still can’t agree on any male names. So hope for another girl. Plus I have lots of cool clothes for girls.

Anyway, I was feeling great for the very beginning, and almost thought I had dodged the silver (or should I say, green) bullet - I wasn’t nauseous and was only tired. Starting Friday, that ended, and the puking began. I am hopeful it won’t be like it was last time, but I have to admit, I was pretty depressed this weekend when I started feeling horrible. If none of you have experience it, just imagine having the stomach flu for 2 months. It’s fabulous. Lily of course doesn’t understand “Mommy needs to rest, honey”, so I chase her around all day and watch the clock for when Mike gets home.

Today we took her to the park.  Lily finally figured out what sand is for. Up until this point, she thought it might be tasty or something to kick.

Mom bought her some toys for the sandbox/beach and after she figured out that they could be used to push sand around, she decided to play with them. However, I have to admit - the most fun she had today was running up and down a grassy hill without falling. She must have walked close to a quarter of a mile. She should sleep well tonight.